Chapter 12 #2
“We lived a fairly normal life, while my mother was alive,” Sabrina told her. “But then my mother passed away.”
“Poor child!” Marlene drawled sweetly.
Sabrina lowered her lashes for a moment, trying to control her temper and carefully weighing her next words. She didn’t mind telling these women the truth of a bad situation, but she didn’t want to bring her sister’s life into her own confessions.
“Well, it’s quite simple. Dillman had an accident; he blamed Skylar.
She met and married Hawk and left the area, and I looked after Dillman until Skylar was settled and sent for me.
” She stared straight at Marlene. “Dili-man wanted me back—I was the younger of his stepdaughters, and he wanted control of my family’s money.
He also wanted to kill Skylar for the trouble she had caused him—and perhaps because she knew he had murdered my father.
He first tried to hire Crows to kill Skylar, but when that failed, we had a showdown on the plains, and… ” Her voice trailed away for a moment.
Cissy suddenly clapped her hands in delight. “But Hawk and Sloan went after Dillman, wasn’t that it? How romantic! That’s when you met Sloan, of course! He rode to the rescue, like a knight on a white charger—”
“A Sioux on a black gelding called Thomas,” Marlene interjected dryly.
But Cissy hadn’t heard her. She was inventing her own story. “Naturally, Sloan was with Hawk. So he swept you away from the danger.”
“He took one look at you,” Sarah contributed, clasping her hands over her heart, “and he fell deeply, madly in love.”
“Yes, yes!” Cissy agreed. “The dashing loner rode to the rescue, saw the damsel in distress, and fell instantly, irrevocably in love!”
“Does that really sound like our dear Sloan to you?” Marlene queried gently. “What did happen, Mrs. Trelawny?”
Sabrina stared at her. “Well…” she began, then paused and smiled very sweetly.
“Sloan did ride to the rescue. And he was absolutely wonderful, a white knight slaying a dragon, if you will!” she offered to Cissy and Sarah.
“My sister and Hawk had to go to Scotland; I went with them. Sloan decided to come over and help Hawk—”
“Oh, dear girl! He was following you!” Sarah supplied.
Hardly, Sabrina thought, but she wasn’t about to say so with Marlene sitting in front of her.
“Well…” she murmured slowly, lowering her lashes and smiling somewhat secretively. “Well, in Scotland, we decided to marry. It was sudden, but a decision we felt we just had to make.”
“Hmm…but then the adoring bridegroom came home alone, leaving you in Scotland! How intriguing!” Marlene said.
“Well, you do know Sloan,” Sabrina said. “He felt compelled to return to duty because of this Sioux situation, which is naturally very painful for him.”
“He has family and friends among the good reservation Indians,” Marlene said impatiently.
“We’re at war with the hostiles, a situation he must accept.
He’s been in the military a long time, and if he isn’t careful, men will start accusing him of failing to make proper reports on enemy strength and numbers.
And if he keeps siding with those hostiles, sympathizing with their position, he’ll find himself court-martialed! ”
“He would never do anything dishonorable,” Sabrina said angrily, startled by the woman’s attack.
“There’s the pity, my dear. You’re just far too new to all this, you’re from the East, and you don’t understand what is happening—and you’ll endanger your husband’s life if you don’t get a solid grasp on the situation!
” Marlene informed her. “Norah, dear, pour me more sherry. And do go on, Mrs. Trelawny. You married in Scotland because of this instant burst of love, and then your husband returned home…and then he found you—where, dear?”
Sabrina was only slightly aware of a thumping sound on the porch, Marlene had so thoroughly commanded her attention. But before she could answer, Cissy did so for her.
“Well, at her sister’s house, of course, Marlene!”
“Excuse me; I’ll see what’s going on,” Norah said, leaping up and going to the door.
Marlene’s eyes didn’t stray from Sabrina’s. She smiled. “Ah…I see. You came home from Scotland but avoided coming ‘home’ to his army life as long as you could! For shame, Mrs. Trelawny.”
Sabrina felt her forced smile beginning to crack. “I waited for Sloan,” she said softly. “And it didn’t matter where. Home is where my husband is, and nowhere is home without him.”
“How…charming, dear!” Marlene drawled.
“Yes, indeed!” a pleasant tenor suddenly boomed.
Sabrina looked up and saw a young man with spectacles, sandy hair, and a broad smile.
He came forward, pausing to place his fingers in an affectionate, ruffling motion on Sarah’s head, then introducing himself to Sabrina with a firm handshake.
“David Anderson, Sarah’s husband,” he said.
“Welcome, Mrs. Trelawny. We’ve had the pleasure of meeting your sister.
You’re just as lovely—in a very different way, of course. ”
“Thank you,” Sabrina said.
“Oh, she’s wonderful!” Sarah cried with enthusiasm, leaping up to stand by her husband’s side. She clasped his hand. “It’s so delightfully romantic. Sabrina has been telling us about how Sloan rode to her rescue, and how they fell madly in love and couldn’t wait to marry!” Sarah explained.
“Did you hear that, Sloan?” David said, grinning. “Would that my wife were so enthusiastic when she spoke of me!”
“Oh, you are terrible!” Sarah charged. “I never say anything but that you were heaven sent, my love!”
Sabrina was barely aware of the exchange between the Andersons because she’d turned toward the door when David Anderson had said her husband’s name.
And Sloan had indeed come.
Dark and handsome—and silent, he stood just ten feet away, a very slight smile curving his lips.
He came to the love seat where she had been sitting, but by that time, surprise and unease had brought her to her feet.
Despite the fact that she was aware Marlene Howard had to be watching her every move, she was flushing.
Sloan reached for her hand, a wicked gleam of amusement still playing in his eyes. “So you’ve told them all how we fell madly, wildly in love?” he queried, drawing her against him and kissing her.
It wasn’t a decadent kiss; it was a perfect kiss for the company present—quick, but just-so-slightly lingering, very tender.
“Actually, I’m not sure exactly how I explained it all,” she murmured in response. He hadn’t even glanced at Marlene yet, and still the woman seemed determined to drag some kind of truth from her, as if she actually knew that Sloan couldn’t possibly be in love with Sabrina.
She felt oddly grateful that Sloan was behaving as a dutiful husband in front of the other wives.
The smile he gave her then, certainly for the benefit of the others, was amused, wickedly charming, and sensual.
His laughter was soft and husky, and she found herself discovering why her sister had always found Sloan so charismatic and such a good friend, and why he was apparently so intriguing to other women.
He had an elusive quality. He had a strength that blended with a quick intelligence, a will of steel, a charm that quickly acknowledged the truth of a situation.
And, of course, physically…he was compelling, and it might even have been the mixture of races in his blood that made him so very… sexually attractive as well.
She wanted to pull away from him because she suddenly felt very afraid of the depth of what she had begun to feel for him.
Sloan turned toward the others in the room.
“I don’t know what she told you, but since I am continually being haunted with your questions as well…
well, then, I suppose we’ll have to tell you what did happen.
Initially, it was quite a strange meeting.
Nearly violent. I quite literally forced the poor girl into my arms.” He grinned at Sabrina again, a look of pure wickedness in his eyes.
Her stomach twisted. Oh, God, was he about to tell them all the truth?
“Do tell your side of it, Sloan!” Marlene drawled.
Sloan sat on the love seat, drawing Sabrina down beside him. She nervously awaited his words.
Their stories certainly could be quite different.
“When she first entered my life…” Sloan began, staring at her, then shrugging.
“Well, you see, she was on a runaway wagon, under attack by Senator Dillman’s supposed Indians, and when I tried to ride to the rescue, I was with Hawk.
So, naturally, between the two of us, it appeared that she was being attacked by more Indians.
I was in uniform…but then, I might have been a Sioux who had slain a cavalryman to steal his uniform.
So I did quite literally have to force her into being rescued.
And then there was more, of course. A happy ending to the horror of the Dillman situation, but when things should have been far more open and honest between Sabrina and myself, she was suddenly off to Scotland with Hawk and Skylar, leaving me with no choice at all but to follow. ”
“Oh, how lovely!” Cissy cried.
“Indeed,” Marlene said dryly.
Sabrina stared down at her skirt.
“Here, here!” cried Tom Custer, who had come in as well. “A great story! Let’s toast the newlyweds, shall we?”
Sloan’s smile deepened; he accepted a glass of whiskey from Tom, and the room rose in a toast. By then, more of the men had come in, and Sabrina found herself in the kitchen with the other women, helping to put food out on the table.
The men were soon in the seats the women had vacated, and, listening to them in bits and pieces, Sabrina suspected again that something had happened in Sloan’s absence that hadn’t pleased him.
She heard him arguing about the winter’s campaign against the Sioux with one of the men.
She believed it was Captain Jenkins, the very shy woman Jean’s husband.