Chapter 7 #3
Blake shrugged. “Not so hard as the War of the Rebellion, ma’am, though I wasn’t quite of fighting age back then. Lots of men came up against their old classmates, commanding officers, teachers. That must have been hell!”
“I’m sure it was.”
“Except that…”
“Yes?”
“Well, ma’am, soldiers like glory—and they like medals.
Why, take Custer!” He flushed and lowered his voice.
“Lowest marks ever by a cadet at West Point, demerits enough to fill a dozen books—but he meets old Winfield Scott at the start of the war, ends up with the Second Cavalry, one of the damned few Union heroes at the first battle of Bull Run! Why? The man is a soldier—and he’ll fight. Oh, my, yes, he does love a fight!”
Sabrina felt a strange little chill go up and down her spine, even though the speed of their dancing had made her warm. “So,” she murmured, “war is for glory?”
Blake shrugged again. “Well, military men do need to excel, but actually, this war is going to be for gold—and greed, but begging your pardon, don’t say that I said so!
Major Trelawny would tell you the same. There was no great rush to push the Sioux to sell the Black Hills until gold was discovered.
Truthfully, the Indians often helped the first settlers who headed out west. They were intrigued by them.
And it seemed at first that there was plenty of land—except that, of course, there will never be enough land when cultures clash so thoroughly. ”
The musicians brought their reel to a rousing halt. She and the lieutenant ceased dancing and clapped for the fiddlers with the others. Lieutenant Blake then offered to get her a cup of punch.
“That would be lovely, Lieutenant. I’ll wait by the door; it really is a beautiful night.”
Blake smiled and made his way to the buffet table. Sabrina wandered over to one of the French doorways at the rear of the house. It was open; with so many visitors, the rooms were very warm, and someone else had apparently already felt the need for the cool night air.
She wandered out onto the porch, hugging her knit shawl about her shoulders.
She was surprised to realize that it felt very good to be out here.
It was beautiful country, and in the night, with the Black Hills etched far to her west as dark leviathans against the moonlit sky, it reminded her oddly of Scotland.
She could easily see why a Scotsman like Hawk Douglas’s father had found this land so enchanting.
She leaned against one of the porch columns.
She started when she heard voices but then saw that a couple of women were seated in rockers at the other end of the porch.
They were sipping punch, apparently getting a breath of fresh air as well.
One was a young woman with a headful of carefully arranged blond ringlets and a pretty round face.
The other woman was slightly older and gave the impression of being an old-maid schoolteacher: she had a long horsey face and dark hair and was bone-thin.
She sipped slowly and deliberately from her mug, rocking all the while and talking.
About her! Sabrina quickly discovered.
“Mind you now, Norah,” the horsey-faced one was saying, “it’s not as if I actually know that there was something strange about the wedding, but I have been with my father at his assigned posts out here for a very long time!
And I tell you, Major Trelawny was not a man who set out from here with marriage on his mind!
There had to have been something going on, and I can’t imagine that it was very ladylike on her part! ”
The pretty blonde, Norah, sighed. “It’s just the most intriguing mystery, isn’t it, Louella? She must have something pretty special.”
Louella snorted loudly.
Not at all in a ladylike manner, Sabrina thought resentfully. She shouldn’t be listening to the women. It was rude.
But why not? She figured they were being rude, talking about her.
“You know what I think?”
“No, what?”
“I think she’s really a little opportunist, and that she threw herself at Major Trelawny, and got herself…well, in the family way.”
“Louella, she has a waist as slim as a reed.”
“Maybe she lied to him, made him think that she was in the family way.”
“Oh, Louella, remember, his best friend is married to her sister—”
“All the more reason. She plays foul with Major Trelawny, and what choice does he have? He wouldn’t want to cause friction between himself and Hawk Douglas!
And I have it on very good authority that he certainly hadn’t intended to bring a wife back to the fort.
All of this happened after he went to Scotland. ”
“Really?”
“Definitely. There’s a man named Raleigh who takes care of Sloan Trelawny’s quarters, and Raleigh told me the first he ever heard about a wife was when the major returned from Scotland.
He told Raleigh a woman would be coming, and to assist her, naturally, but not to make any special preparations because she was going to be a cavalry wife and she’d have to learn the cavalry way. No beds of roses.”
“Well,” Norah murmured thoughtfully. She glanced quickly around. “But he did marry! And he said he’d never marry. He said so to Ally Reeve.”
“Ally Reeve!”
“Oh, yes!” Norah said excitedly. It was her turn to impart some deliciously juicy gossip.
“You didn’t know? Why, I thought the entire world had been aware that after Jim died…
well, they were scarcely even decent about it; it was nearly scandalous!
Ally said he was built like an Adonis in every way!
She claimed that she didn’t want to marry again, but I think that she would have married him in a flash if he’d asked, which is why his returning with a wife seems so peculiar to me!
I mean, I think that he did care about Ally, even though she knew about his Cheyenne woman. ”
“Indeed,” Louella said regally. “I had heard that there was an Indian…wife, mistress—whatever one would call her! Heathen, of course, but the soldiers say that she’s a Delilah, wickedly tempting. Voluptuous.” She straightened her own slim body disapprovingly.
“I’d have married him, happily,” Norah said with a little sigh.
“Your father never would have approved, Norah Leighton. Why, you had family among the first colonists in Massachusetts, and he is…half-heathen!”
“Umm, half-heathen. Delectably…savage, I do imagine!” Norah replied with a little shiver.
“Norah! As I said, your father—”
Norah laughed delightedly. “Oh, my father would have approved. He admires Major Trelawny.” She paused, then said, “I had heard that once, very long ago, he had been about to marry—” She broke off.
“Who?” Louella demanded indignantly.
“A woman. A White woman. A cavalryman’s daughter.”
“Who?” Louella pleaded.
Norah shook her head. “I can’t say; you just wouldn’t believe it.
She’s such a hussy, yet she is society and old money all the way!
” Norah laughed delightedly. “Anyway, you can guess, if you like. She married a man with very old English roots in America as well, and he’s gone bald as an eagle and round as a house!
I imagine she’s quite sorry, the way things happened, now. ”
Louella sniffed, loudly and self-righteously. “There are bloodlines to be considered! Right and wrong, and proper behavior.”
Norah smiled. “I’d have married him.”
“I’d never do so.”
“Oh, Louella, you poor thing, you are just drying up! You’d have married him in a second flat, and you know it!”
“I would not. How can you say such totally improper things—”
“Speaking of proper behavior, have you seen her tonight?” Norah asked.
“His wife. It’s disgusting, the way the men flock around her.
Oh, that’s it! Pure lust—I mean, she’s a real Jezebel, don’t you think?
And she flirts with the vigor of a true harlot.
Oh! Did you know, she and the major had met here, when there was all that scandal about the Connor girls’ stepfather, and Senator Dillman was killed.
And I had heard that they couldn’t abide one another! ”
“Maybe it isn’t a real marriage.”
“Not a real marriage? Then what?”
“Who knows? I still think that she wickedly seduced him, cried foul to her sister, and forced him into it!” Louella announced, flushed. “Or worse: she pretended she was in the family way!”
Leaning against the pillar, Sabrina longed to step forward and slap them both.
She might well have done so.
Except that Lieutenant Blake chose that moment to reach the French doors and paused there, calling her name. “Mrs. Trelawny? Mrs. Trelawny, are you here?”
The two women in the rockers went dead still, turning a dozen different shades of red. Louella leaped up; Norah did the same.
“You’re looking for—Mrs. Trelawny?” Louella asked. “Was she coming out here?”
Sabrina slipped around the column in a manner that suggested she might have just come up the stairway—or might have been there all along.
“Ladies,” she said pleasantly, inclining her head and wondering if her eyes were blazing, she was so angry.
“Lieutenant Blake, thank you so much for the punch!” She drained her glass quickly, setting it upon the railing, and spun around to face the two women.
“Louella, I assure you, I didn’t seduce Major Trelawny—he seduced me.
And Norah, my husband’s past love life is hardly your concern, now, is it?
Lieutenant, I think I hear the fiddlers warming up again. Shall we, if you don’t mind?”
Somewhat stunned, Lieutenant Blake nevertheless rallied quickly.
“Indeed, Mrs. Trelawny, of course!” They slipped back in and instantly began moving to the music.
Still smarting from the vicious conversation she’d overheard, Sabrina moved with him enthusiastically to the music, smiling, chatting, laughing.
The lieutenant was a talented dancer, and she felt as if she sailed gracefully around the room.
Damn the harpies! she thought. Good God, she should just ignore them!
“Of course, I’m not quite sure what happened or what was said,” Lieutenant Blake told her, “but you do have to take Louella Lane with a grain of salt. She was to marry a young soldier who was killed the last year of the war. She’s never gotten over it, and…”
“And?”
He shrugged sheepishly. “Well, she’s never found another man. And, of course, she and Norah Leighton are both jealous.”
“Why?”
“Well, I did tell you before. You’re the most beautiful woman here.”
He was very kind. Sabrina smiled, feeling a very real warmth and affection for Lieutenant Blake.
“Thank you; thank you very much,” she said, looking up into his eyes.
He smiled back down at her.
She spun in his arms.
The music ended; the dancing stopped. The dancers applauded.
Sabrina noticed that a number of people had gathered near the front door to greet a new arrival to the party.
She didn’t need to wonder where Sloan was any longer; he was there in the doorway, in full dress uniform, except for the hat. He looked very tall, imposing. He held a cup of Skylar’s punch casually in his hands as both men and women clustered around him, anxiously asking questions.
A fierce, jagged chill struck like lightning down to the base of Sabrina’s spine.
He nodded, smiled, and talked to the people near him.
But he was watching her.
And she had to wonder then, just how long had he been there?
And how long had he been watching her?