We even got Mas blessing, little brother, Virgil told him, grinning from ear to ear as they boarded the iron-hulled steamer in New York. She said we caint be outlaws no more, but she dont mind us playin at it like we did when we was boys. He lowered his voice to a mere shout as he leaned down and confided, She told us to look after you, too. Said you aint got good sense when it comes to womenfolk.
Billy rubbed his ringing ear. I guess Mas right on that count. If I did, I wouldnt be about to cross an ocean to win one I was fool enough to let get away in the first place.
Billy almost forgave Drew for hiring his brothers when he saw the beautiful female who would be sharing his cabin for the next week and a half.
Sadie greeted him with a deep-throated Woof, her entire lower half jiggling with excitement as she bounded across the cabin.
Theres my girl! He squatted to ruffle her gray-flecked coat, laughing and groaning as his efforts to dodge her long, sloppy tongue proved to be in vain.
Billy doubted he could expect as enthusiastic a greeting from Esmerelda, especially not after hed led her to believe shed been nothing more to him than a lusty tumble between the sheets. But he would do whatever he had to do to convince her otherwise, even if it took him the rest of his life.
As the voyage got under way, the other passengers tended to give them a wide berth. Billy supposed he couldnt blame them, what with Virgils bellowing, Jaspers shameless flirting with every woman under the age of seventy-five, and Enos spending all night groaning in his bunk and all day hanging over the rail, his sallow complexion bleached to seafoam green. Drew had hired a dozen or so out-of-work cowboys, including Dauber and Seal, to portray settlers in his extravaganza. Their nightly poker games had an alarming tendency to degenerate into shouted bouts of name-calling and drunken fistfights.
Billy might even have been guilty of contributing to the other passengers alarm by spending hours standing at the stern of the ship and firing at nickel slugs Drew tossed high into the air. He made it a point to miss one every now and then, just to put their minds at ease. They still shied away, wives clutching their husbands and mothers clutching their daughters, when Drew tried to press his freshly printed fliers into their shaking hands, urging them to come visit his exhibition while they were in London.
One morning Billy came whistling his way up one of the narrow gangways. Since it was so cold he could see every note hanging in the air on a breath of fog, he didnt think anything peculiar when a figure approached, swaddled in a topcoat and scarf. The man was muffled all the way up to his eyes, which he quickly averted when Billy accidentally bumped into him.
Sorry, partner, Billy drawled, tipping his hat.
Still whistling, he continued up the gangway for a few more steps, then halted, caught off guard by the sudden tingling of his nape. He swung around, but the other passenger had vanished. He shook his head and rubbed away the uneasy prickle, attributing it to fancy. He was probably safer on this boat than hed ever been in Calamity with a price on his head.
Billy emerged into the winter sunshine to find the troupes sole wild Indian already on deck. Crazy Joe was so enamored of the Savage Red Man costume Drew had commissioned for him that he insisted on wearing it day and night, despite the frigid temperatures. He might have looked more menacing in his war paint and loincloth if he hadnt also been sporting a dapper bowler and giving Samuel a haircut.
Sam perched on a wooden barrel. He kept his hand clamped over his good ear and visibly cringed at each decisive snip of the scissors.
Recalling the time his brother had poured sorghum in his hair while he was sleeping, Billy exchanged a wink with Joe, then leaned over and whispered, Id hold still if I were you. Hes more likely to take your scalp than your ear.
Leaving his brother squirming worse than before, Billy started for the bow of the ship. He soon passed a pallid, hollow-eyed Enos, returning from yet another visit to the rail.
Recalling the time Enos had held him down and forced him to eat a June bug, Billy jerked a thumb toward the hold. Theyve got quite a fine spread down there this morning. Eggs and bacon and biscuits and flapjacks and
Shooting him a black look, Enos gripped his stomach and went stumbling back toward the rail.
Billy grinned. Virgil might complain about the boredom and Jasper about the deplorable lack of whores, but he found everything about the journey invigorating;the rhythmic chug of the ships engine, the pitching of the boat when they hit restless seas, the icy spray striking his face when he stood at the bow as he did now.
He had to admit his jubilation might have less to do with the journey than with the woman waiting for him at the end of it. He caught his hat before a blast of icy wind could tear it away. The cold couldnt touch him, not with the thrill of the hunt warming his blood.
This time his prey wasnt some bootlegger or horse thief, but a womans heartsweet and stubborn and dear. The only bounty he desired was to be found in her loving arms. Billy gripped the rail and leaned forward, almost as if he could urge the steamer to chug harder and cut faster through the vast plain of sea that separated them.
Esmerelda stood in front of the cheval glass in her bedroom, admiring the stranger in the mirror. She wore a pink-coral skirt trimmed with three flounces. An overskirt of Brussels lace had been gathered in the back and tied with grosgrain ribbons. A basque corsage secured by a mother-of-pearl brooch bared the creamy slope of her shoulders. A string of pearls twined through her hair, which had been looped and coiled by her ladys maid into a tremendously flattering cascade of curls.
She wore Lisbeths locket around her neck. The delicate chain weighed upon her skin as if it had been forged from iron.
She was finally the beauty shed always secretly yearned to be, but the elegant creature gazing back at her from the cheval glass bore no resemblance to the strong-willed, tart-tongued girl who had crossed half a continent to seek justice for her brother. Nor even a passing likeness to the passionate woman who had given herself freely and without regret to the man she lovedthe man who had invited her to share his life as well as his bed, then betrayed her.
No longer able to stand the sight of her reflection, Esmerelda went to her dressing table and groped for a bottle of eau de cologne. She brought the smooth glass stopper to her throat, closing her eyes as Billy whispered, Did I ever tell you what my favorite kind of pie is?
Just the memory of his smoky drawl was enough to send a shiver of desire through her. Sickened by the cloying floral scent of the perfume, Esmerelda set it aside and reached for the homely brown bottle of peach extract wedged behind a fat beadwork pincushion.
She was putting a defiant dab behind each ear when a knock sounded on the door. She bit back a groan. She was growing incredibly weary of the frantic round of social engagements her grandfather had pressed upon her in the two months since Christmas. Even more grueling than the engagements were the suitable companions hed chosen for her, all simpering young ladies of eligible age from noble families. She supposed she should be thankful they were at least old enough to be let out of the nursery without their nannies. If her grandfather truly had his way, hed probably be pushing her around the walks of Hyde Park in a giant pram.
Shed privately christened her new acquaintances the Belles, since they all seemed to be named Isabelle, Annabel, or in one timid creatures case, simply Belle.
Although they smiled and simpered whenever she was in their company, Esmerelda knew that they regarded her with a mixture of pity and horror, holding her up as an example of the terrible fate that could befall any one of them who failed to make a suitable match before her twentieth birthday.