In Your Arms (Montana Romance) (27 page)

His smile was dampened when Michael shook his head.
“The terms of employment are clear. I think even you would have a hard time arguing that being caught in a compromising position with a man to whom she is not married in the middle of the night constitutes a lapse of moral fortitude.”

“Moral fortitude my ass,” Christian growled.
“That’s my future wife you’re talking about.”

“Your what?” Thomas asked as he joined Christian and Michael.

A prickling sensation shot down Christian’s back. He’d made no secret this whole time of what had been going on between him and Lily the night before, and now he realized that he was saying those things to her brother.

“Lily and I are
a couple,” he told the man, more sheepish than he wanted to be.

“You are engaged to be married?”

The prickling feeling intensified. “I haven’t asked yet.”

“You put my sister in a position that will likely result in her losing her job, but you haven’t made any promises to her?”

For the first time, Christian saw the familiar glint of anger that he loved so much about Lily in her brother’s eyes. The two were definitely blood-relations.

“I haven’t—”

The jail door swung open again.

“
There you are.” Samuel looked far too pleased with himself for Christian’s comfort. “I’ve been looking everywhere. For both of you.”

“Why?” Michael drawled.
He pushed his glasses up his nose and stared at Samuel with a frown to match Christian’s.

“Your little love bird, or whatever you call her, has sun
g her last,” Samuel reported. “The school has kicked her out.”

“She’s suspended,” Christian corrected him.
It was little comfort.

“Once we have a hearing, she’ll be
miles away from our children, just where she should be.”

Christian glared at the man.
Hanging was too good for some people.

“The council might decide otherwise,” he said, unconvinced himself.

Samuel snorted with laughter. “One way or another, her hearing is set for tomorrow at noon.”

“
Who came up with that idea?” Christian dropped his arms, panic pumping through him.

“I did,” Michael answered.
“I figured you’d want to get things over with as soon as possible.”

Christian gaped at him.
There were a lot of things he wanted to get over with as soon as possible, this whole conversation being one.

“So tell your little savage hussy to pack her bags and buy a ticket for the next train,” Samuel said with a laugh, “because after we’re done with her, she won’t be able to show her face in this town again.”

“You are a miserable son-of-a-bitch, Samuel,” Christian growled.

Samuel was unfazed.
He continued to laugh, right up until Thomas took a large step in his direction. With that one gesture, Samuel gasped and his laughter turned into a choking cough. He stumbled back.

“What is that Indian doing out of his cell?” he demanded.

“We can’t hold him,” Wilkins grumbled, showing Samuel the telegram.

“Well, I’ll just see about that!” Samuel said.
Then he read the telegram. His face fell.

“Gentlemen, if you will excuse us,” Michael said.
“It’s time we get our new friend situated at the hotel.”

He nodded to Christian and Thomas, gesturing to the jail door.
The three men gathered what winter things they had and headed out into the flurries.

“If
Samuel Kuhn is ever found dead in the middle of the night, don’t come looking for me,” Christian snarled as they made their way up Main Street toward the hotel.

“You’ll be the first person I look for,” Michael said then rushed on to, “Listen, Christian.
There’s still a chance Lily might keep her job.”

Christian and Thomas both stopped to stare at him.

“You said the terms of her employment were clear,” Thomas said.

“They are
,” Michael agreed with a nod, “but the definition of what exactly went on last night is not clear.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Christian asked.

“I’ve talked to Lewis and Rev. Andrews already. If Lily shows up at her hearing repentant, if the two of you explain that you are engaged and are married as soon as possible, then at least some of the members of the town council would be willing to let her return to the school. But only once the two of you are married.”

“And only if Lily eats humble pie in front of the likes of Samuel Kuhn.”
Christian shook his head. “I know Lily. That’s not going to happen.”

“It will happen if she wants her job,” Michael contradicted him.

Christian growled, rubbing a hand over his face as the cold air froze his nose and eyes. He hated the idea of Lily swallowing her pride, hated it as much as he hated himself for making it necessary. She might just do it to. He was willing to bet that the children of Cold Springs meant more to her than him, more than herself.

At last he sighed, dropping his shoulders.

“Has anyone told Lily yet?”

Michael shook his head.
“That’s all you, my friend.”

“Great.”
He turned to Thomas for support. “I think we should tell her over lunch at the hotel. Maybe some good food and good company would soften the blow.”

Thomas shrugged.
He hugged himself against the cold. “Whatever you think is best.”

“I think it’s best that we get this over with,” he answered.
“All of it. The sooner the better.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“I’ll do it.”

The thought of pretending humility in front of the likes of Samuel Kuhn made Lily’s already wobbly stomach clench, but the tremor of hope that had her hands shaking was too powerful to resist.

“You’ll marry me as well?” Christian asked from his seat beside her at the hotel restaurant. Michael and Seeks For Her glanced up from their plates for the answer.

It was the most disappointing proposal she could have imagined.
No romance, no emotion, just stark practicality to stave off utter humiliation in favor of steep embarrassment. She would have shaken her fist and given him a piece of her mind, she would have raged against the fates that always seemed to cheat her of true happiness if she wasn’t so tired. All she could do was nod.

A ghost of a smile flitted across Christian’s face, only to be replaced by exhausted misery.
“I’m sorry, Lily. This whole mess is my fault. If I hadn’t—” He paused and glanced around the table.

“There’s no use checking yourself.
They all know what you wish you hadn’t done.”

Hurt joined the
misery in his eyes. “I do not for one moment wish I had not gone to bed with you—both times—and I don’t care who knows that.”

She smiled weakly.
That was the Christian she loved: stubborn, passionate, and inappropriate in the extreme. They would murder each other before their first anniversary.

Michael and Seeks For Her had the good sense to pretend they hadn’t heard Christian’s comment.

“None of this is a guarantee,” Michael cautioned. “A majority of the town council would have to agree, and I think it’s safe to say that Christian would not be allowed a vote.”

Christian scowled and for a moment Lily thought he would protest.
Instead he let out a weary breath and took another long draught of beer. It was too early in the day for alcohol, but Lily couldn’t grudge him the one small comfort. She was tempted to try it herself.

“How much groveling are we talking about here?” Seeks For Her asked.
“I may only have just found my sister, but if she is anything like me, like our family, apologizing unjustly will not come easy.”

He sat beside her, his dinner plate wiped clean after he had devoured everything on it.
They hadn’t fed him much for the six days he sat in jail, but somehow her brother still had the table manners of a man used to dining with royalty. He had gratefully accepted the room Delilah had offered him at the hotel, free of charge, and had bathed and changed into a fine, clean suit. Lily hadn’t thought it was possible to feel so much pride for a man she hardly knew.

“I will do it,” she reassured him,
trying to emulate his pride. “I will do anything to earn back the right to teach at Cold Springs’s school.”

Christian reached for her free hand under the table.
He took it and squeezed. He didn’t need words to tell her that he would be with her every step of the way. She hadn’t known anything like the feeling before, and though she trusted him with her heart, her head had too many years of hardship and betrayal to think back on. Still, she squeezed his hand in return.

“Tell me where I need to be and when,” she finished with a sigh.
Her body ached with lack of sleep and defeat and she couldn’t raise her eyes to meet any of the kind, concerned men who surrounded her.

“The meeting will be at the church at noon tomorrow,” Michael told her, compassion in his voice.
“You just have to be there to express your regret. We’ll do the rest for you.”

She nodded, then pushed her chair back and stood.
“If you will excuse me, I need to lie down.”

The three of them stood with her.
Christian slipped an arm around her waist to hug her. There didn’t seem to be any point in hiding their affection in public any longer. They would be husband and wife as soon as someone could be found to perform the ceremony. She should have rejoiced, but she was numb.

“I’ll walk you back to the store,” Seeks For Her said as Christian let her go.
“We have much to talk about.”

Lily nodded and stepped toward him.

“I can come with you,” Christian said.

Michael stopped him with a shake of his head.
“They just found each other. Give them a minute.”

Christian sighed.
“Send for me if you need me.”

“I will.”

Lily walked with her brother out of the restaurant and into the hotel’s lobby. More than a few of the patrons of Delilah’s hotel stared at them as if they were a curiosity, as if they shouldn’t be there. Just as many ignored them and went about their business. There was a chance that the whole horrible last two weeks was blowing over already.

“Cold Springs seems like a decent place to live, all things considered,” Seeks For Her said as they waited for the bellhop to fetch
Lily’s coat at the counter.

“How can you say that?”
She gaped at him. “You were not here for more than a few hours before you were thrown in jail for a crime you didn’t commit.”

He smiled.
“They did not lynch me. I was not harmed while in the jail. And your future husband spoke up for me as though I was a white man.”

“That is a terrible set of standards to be judged by.”

He shrugged. “Do you love him?” The tone of the conversation changed so fast that Lily’s head ached. “Because if you don’t, I’ll take you back to Denver with me on the next train. You can leave all this behind and start over.”

In spite of everything, her heart swelled.
“I do love him,” she said, wiping away the tears that refused to stay hidden. “It’s mad of me to be, but I love him. He’s arrogant and stubborn and we will argue over everything, but I love him.”

“Good.”
He squeezed her hand. “I like him, too.”

“Lily?”

The sound of Jessica Bunsick calling her name from across the lobby turned Lily’s head and sent another thrill of hope through her. She twisted to find Jessica, her beau Matthew at her side, in her winter coat and carrying a suitcase.

“Jessica.”

Lily stepped out of the line for coats and led Seeks For Her across the lobby to meet Jessica and Matthew. As soon as Lily was within arm’s reach, Jessica hugged her for all she was worth. Lily returned the embrace.

“I’ve been so worried about you!” Jessica said.
“When you didn’t come back to the boarding house at all, I thought something terrible must have happened to you.”

“Seeks For Her, this is
…this is my friend, Jessica.” Lily introduced her as she took a breath. “Jessica, this my brother, Seeks For Her. I’m sorry, Dr. Thomas Smith.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you.
” Seeks For Her shook Jessica and Matthew’s hands.

“This is Matthew,” Lily continued the introductions, “Jessica’s friend.”

“Fiancé,” Jessica corrected her. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

Seeks For Her held up his hand to stop Jessica before she could go on.
“I will go up to my room to fetch my coat while you speak with your friends.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea.”

They exchanged a smile and Seeks For Her headed off and up the hotel’s grand staircase.

“Go on,” Lily urged Jessica.

“After you left, Miss Jones figured out that I had helped you get out of the house that night. She sent me packing a few hours after you.”

Jessica told the story with a smile so bright anyone watching would have thought it was a good thing to lose ones home under humiliating circumstances.

“That’s when Matthew proposed.” She turned to Matthew with an affectionate smile that was returned tenfold. “I’m sorry I didn’t hear about what was going on earlier,” she continued. “I was…preoccupied. But the rumors are unavoidable today. Is it true you’ve been let go from the school? That you were caught with Mr. Avery…naked,” she added in a whisper.

“We were not naked,” Lily answered, blushing deep.
“But yes, we were discovered.”

“And that Bo Turner and Jed Archer were the thieves all along?
That they’re in jail now?”

The speed with which she moved on to the robberies caught Lily’s breath in her chest.
Perhaps there was a bigger scandal in the air than her and Christian.

“It is true.
Christian apprehended them, and they’re in jail now.”

“Thank God!”
Jessica raised a gloved hand to her chest. “I’m so glad to hear that mess was settled before we leave.”

“Leave?”
Lily blinked, caring more than she thought she should that her friend was leaving.

“We’re going to
Portland, Oregon,” Jessica said. “Matt has family there and they have a job for him. We were supposed to leave this afternoon, but when we went to the station Lewis told us that the train isn’t coming today.”

“Not coming?”

“No. Apparently there’s a blizzard brewing. The train stopped in Butte to wait it out. And so will we.” She smiled at Matthew with all the joy of someone whose life was falling into place in spite of blizzards.

“I’m so happy for you,” she said with genuine feeling.

“Miss Singer! Miss Singer!”

For the second time, Lily turned to see who was calling her name.
Her brow rose in surprise as Jimmy Twitchel and Amos Wright barreled into the hotel lobby.

“Miss Singer, there you are!”
Amos broke into a relieved grin. The two boys ran across the lobby to her, dusted with snow.

“Amos.
Jimmy. It’s one o’clock. You should be in school,” she scolded them even as she was unable to keep the emotion at seeing them, at seeing the respect that still shone in their eyes.

Jimmy shook his head.
“Mrs. Kuhn is rotten,” he said. “As soon as I saw it was her in the classroom and not you, I high-tailed it out of there!”

“Me
, too,” Amos added.

“Boys, you really shouldn’t have.”

They both shook their heads and brushed away her scolding.

“That’s not why we had to find you,” Amos said.

“Yeah,” Jimmy added. “We left school and went to find Red Sun Boy and Martha and the rest since they didn’t show up for school either.”

A twist of fear clutched at Lily’s heart.
“They didn’t?”

“No,” Amos said.
“We borrowed Jimmy’s Pa’s horses and rode out to their place. They’re gone, Miss Singer.”

Her fear boiled into terror.
“What do you mean?” she asked.

Jessica
stepped closer and Lily clutched her hand for support without realizing it.

“They’re gone,” Jimmy repeated.
“But all their stuff is still there. Only it’s been messed up and thrown around, like someone was looking for something.”

“It looks like the robbers went after them!” Amos added.

Lily knew that was impossible. There was nothing that Sturdy Oak and his family had that Bo or Jed would have wanted. But the alternatives were worse. The way some of the men in Cold Springs had glared at the Flathead when they had come to town for the academic games, the muttered curses and insults, were too much to ignore. The group of fathers and uncles that had promised to help with the history play but never showed up took on a whole new meaning. They could have sent a posse out to attack Sturdy Oak’s family while everyone else was distracted in town.

“I have to go find them!” she gasped.
She whipped to face Jessica. “I have to go see for myself.”

“Be careful, Lily,” Jessica said, worry finally clouding her happiness.
“The robbers might have been caught, but there are still some dangerous people out there. And the snow.”

Lily shook her head.
Her mind was made up. She marched to the coat check counter, cutting to the front of the line. Jessica and Matthew, Amos and Jimmy trailed her. The bellhop behind the counter jumped at the group and left the guest he was helping to fetch her things.

“If snow is coming, then I need to get there as quickly as possible.
Jimmy, do you still have your father’s horses?”

“Yes, Miss Singer.”

She took her coat from the bellhop and threw it around her shoulders while the guests in line watched her with varying degrees of indignation and curiosity.

“May I borrow one?” she asked Jimmy.

“Yes, Miss Singer. We got them right out front.”

“We’ll come with you!” Amos declared as she rushed across the lobby to the door.

“No, boys. Mrs. Kuhn or no Mrs. Kuhn, you should be in school.”

“Aw.”
They both hemmed and hawed over being left out, but they stayed where they were in the lobby as Lily ran out into the cold.

The sky was a dark gray and fuzzy with flurries.
The air bit at her exposed skin, freezing all moisture on her face with a touch. She ignored it, skipping down the stairs to where two horses were tied to a hitching post. As she mounted one, she hoped that the boys were sensible enough to know they couldn’t leave the other exposed to the elements.