"Don't you always have your way, Persia?"
She seemed mildly startled. She gave a little shrug. "How do you tell
which are crooked?"
"I can spot them for you."
"Jack, please. Keep out of it entirely. I ... I can't have Vickers' man
butting in. You can understand that."
"Yes." It stung him to have her call him somebody else's man, though it
wouldn't have bothered him if another person had said it.
She seemed to sense that he was hurt, and she gave him a long,
sympathetic, almost maternal look. She didn't speak, and it pleased him
to feel a communication between them that needed no words. They would
put aside their differences now and speak of other things.
"I'll tell Stella we're ready for dinner," she said.
As she passed his chair, she laid her hand on his shoulder as she had
the night before. Now he laid his over it. She stopped beside him,
and her eyes were gold-flecked as they caught the lamplight, and she
squeezed his fingers and moved away.
Hours later when she had gone to the door with him, he touched her arms
and drew her to him. She came against him willingly, her arms slid
around him, but she turned her head to avoid his kiss. She buried her
face against his shoulder, and he laid his cheek against her hair.
"Persia," he said, "I've known little in life except roughness. You
represent something that I didn't know could exist for me."
She pushed firmly away. "I've been a widow less than three months,
Jack. I've no right to listen to such talk. Not now."
Her face was faintly flushed, her eyes dancing. Her smile carried a
reprimand and a promise that was as old as womankind.
"You leave right now, _Mr._ Tesno," she said.
"I'll see you tomorrow?" he said.
"Yes!" she whispered. "Yes!"
She closed the door the instant he was over the threshold. He stood
there a long moment, sure that she, too, was waiting only inches away.
His fingers touched the doorknob, then fell to his side. He drew the
restless night air deeply into his lungs and walked into the darkness.
Off to the west, lightning shattered the sky, and the town leaped
fleetingly into being. Thunder pulsed distantly, and, swelling, rolled
into the gulch.