As Luke looked first to Abram, then to Perry, he raised one eyebrow in thought. "I remember where I saw those huge brown eyes before." His lopsided smile wrinkled his stubbly cheek. "So you weren't a boy? I'll ask no questions about something that's only in the past." He glanced back to Abram. "Hope you have none for me."
"Just one." Abram's eyes were as hard as coal. "I've heard tell you've killed men in fights that had nothing to do with the war.''
"Only two." Luke straightened and added, "And them two needed killin'."
Abram studied him a moment, then nodded. "I understand. I've met a few men in this life who needed to meet their maker.''
Perry interrupted, not wanting to think of the one man she knew who needed killing. "Abram has been searching for carpenters." She turned to Abram, intentionally steering the conversation to safer shores. "How long will they take to build what we need?"
"Ten days to two weeks," Abram answered.
"Great!" Molly shouted. "If we can get the help hired, we can open by the twenty-third."
Abram nodded as he thought out loud. "Two days before Hunter's wedding." He turned to Perry, sorry he had said anything about Hunter.
She glanced quickly away from the others so no one would see the sadness in her eyes. Everything had been so hectic, she'd had little time to dream of Hunter. Yet he still held her in the shadows of her dreams and the corners of every day's reality.
"Two weeks. Two weeks," she whispered. Somehow she had to find a way to see him one last time before she said good-bye forever. She would wear her black veil and watch him from far away. One more memory to help her mourn a dream that would never be.
Chapter 22
The days of remodeling melded together into endless toil. Perry worked until exhausted each day, yet thoughts of Hunter still robbed her of sleep. Finally, on the eve of the restaurant's opening and three days before Hunter's wedding, restlessness overtook reason. She waited until Luke had locked up and gone for his nightly walk to the tavern for a drink, then she dressed in black and slipped out the back door.
The pleasure of being totally alone was a welcome opportunity to free her mind. She needed to walk and make herself think of all she had and not live in dreams of what might have been. She needed time to think without having to guard her expressions.
Marching along the abandoned streets, she listened to her footsteps tap a lonely rhythm against the side-walk. Her fingers gently caressed the gun that Abram had given her, which rested in her coat pocket. The small pearl-handled weapon offered all the company she needed to face the shadowy figures in the streets. But to her relief the only people about were a few servants returning home after a late night's work and tavern keepers sweeping out their stores before closing.
The same facts kept somersaulting in her mind. Hunter would be married in three days. He'd marry without her ever seeing him again. She'd never tell him who she was or what his cousin, Wade, had done to her. She'd never speak of how much just knowing he existed had changed her life, her dreams. She must live her life without ever feeling his touch again, without ever hearing the funny way her name rolled off his Northern tongue.
Tears bubbled over her eyelashes and ran down icy cheeks. She walked without direction, lost in thought. There was something wild within her that wanted to run to him no matter what the cost. But the cost of his rejection would be too much for her to endure. He loved another. He planned to marry another.
When she dried her eyes enough to look around, she recognized the back gate of Hunter's home. Crumbling on a low bench by the stable door, she studied the house, secure in the knowledge that no one could see her in the darkness. Knowing that Hunter was inside brought her both joy and pain. She closed her eyes and let the icy wind rock her as she pressed against the wood, pretending she was somehow closer to the only man who'd ever touched her with tenderness and love.
The same wind that comforted Perry blew directly into Hunter's face as he rode down an alley a mile away. He swung around the corner and stopped to check his watch in the yellow glow of the streetlight. Ten minutes late, but the note had been vague, saying only "After midnight."
Hunter couldn't believe he'd let himself get into such a predicament. Three days before his wedding and he was waiting outside Jennifer's house like a thief. He slid from his horse and tied the animal to the iron fence that surrounded her property. He'd give whoever left the note fifteen minutes, and that was all. The whole thing was probably a joke, someone's idea of a prank. But the words sounded so desperate. "Wait behind Jennifer's stairs after midnight. Matter of life and death."
Hunter knew sleep would elude him tonight, as it did every night. So, letting curiosity get the better of him, he'd decided to make this midnight ride, even if it were for naught.
Passing through the unlocked gate into a small garden below Jennifer's balcony, Hunter's nerves tightened. He strolled toward a stairway that permitted Jennifer to visit her garden without traveling through the rest of the house. The trees lining the boundary of her garden shadowed his presence as he waited in the cold darkness, wishing he'd ignored the note. But the note took the edge off his restless mind. At least tonight he'd be fighting the cold and not some dream woman who loved him only in his mind. Tonight the wind would cool the passion in his blood that boiled each time he dreamed of his raven-haired angel whose body was soft and yielding.
A carriage slowly approached along the deserted street just beyond the gate. Hunter sank farther into the shadows, waiting, vowing to forget this mystery and return home as soon as the carriage passed.
However, the carriage didn't pass but creaked to a halt at the gate. A young couple, locked together in an embrace, climbed out. They moved through the gate and to the foot of the stairs only a few feet from where Hunter was standing. The couple held each other in a long, passionate kiss and Hunter shifted uneasily. He couldn't see her face, but she must be Jennifer's maid. Who else would be climbing those stairs at such an hour?
With a sigh the young blonde girl pulled away and ran up several steps. When the lamp light touched her face, Hunter's body jerked slightly, as though his nerves had been snapped like a whip. The muscles along his jawline tightened as he fought to remain rooted in place. His knuckles whitened, his leather gloves twisting into fists. The clear view of his fiancee showed in the moonlight.
Jennifer's whisper drifted like smoke through the air. "No further, Richard. I must go up."
The young man braved a few steps. "Oh, please, Jennifer, let me come up for a few hours?''
"No, not tonight. I don't want the maid coming in on us again." Jennifer's soft laughter was like a sword scraping the stone into which Hunter's heart had just hardened.
"But I won't see you for weeks," Richard begged again.
"Of course you will, darling." Jennifer's voice was all sweetness. "As soon as I get back from my honeymoon, I'll send word."
"But, Jennifer, don't you see? Everything will be changed after you're married."
"Nonsense, Richard. The only thing that will change is that I'll have more money to spend on you. Hunter's always going off for days with that silly balloon, anyway."
Her words grated against Hunter's pride. She wouldn't have been in such a joyous mood had she seen the stormy gray eyes that watched her as she told of all the things she planned to buy her lover with Hunter's money. He remained in the shadows, fighting for control as his blood pulsed through his temples with a powerful force.
"Before I go," Richard begged in a whiny voice that contrasted with his good looks, "say you love me once more."
"I love you, I love you, God help me. You're a worthless leech, but no man will ever make me feel the way you do." Passion throbbed in Jennifer's voice as she touched her lover's cheek with a gloved hand.