Shelter from the Storm Page 3

  From his seat on the cot, Cash spoke up. “I can’t bring back your dog, Miss Kincaid, but someday I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

  In the security of the trusted servant’s arms, Laura nodded politely.

  Cassius Wickliffe had no means to talk of repaying anyone, but Laura believed him. Strangely comforted, she held up her hand in farewell as Henry carried her out to the carriage.

  Chapter 3

  Choked by the steel corset required by Sallie’s London smoke-gray riding habit, twelve-year-old Laura Kincaid glared at her image in the oval mirror. Sallie had looked dashing and elegant when she had worn this habit. The scarf on the high top hat had floated gracefully about her shoulders and her blond curls had danced beguilingly from beneath it. In contrast, on Laura the scarf hung limply halfway down her back, the skirt’s long train made her trip, and the hat balanced precariously on the sedate chignon which was the only answer to her obstinately straight hair. She should have stayed with her own old velvet habit instead of accepting Sallie’s offer of hers.

  But she would be thirteen this summer, and it was time she began looking like a lady. Sallie had looked like a lady at nine. Laura despaired of ever obtaining that status. When Sallie had been thirteen, she already had a bosom and a tiny waist and knew how to flaunt them. At sixteen she was drawing beaux as flowers draw bees. Laura glanced down at her flat chest and straight figure and gave up in disgust to wander to the window to watch the scene below.

  Sallie sat gracefully upon her bay mare, laughing and chattering as half a dozen young men on expensive horseflesh milled around her, doting on her every word. Ward Breckinridge was by far the most handsome, in Laura’s opinion, but Johnny Clay had a certain dashing charm, and Todd Payne was known to be rich as Croesus. Even Dr. Broadbent came over to make a gallant bow, but his wife had only just passed away, and he did not linger long.

  If Dr. Broadbent were here, then Cash could not be far behind. At eighteen he had grown well over a foot taller than when the doctor had first taken him in. He was still more lean and wiry than these well-fed country gentlemen, but Laura had seen him lift injured colts in his arms and carry stacks of firewood that Sallie’s beaux would never have dared dream of lifting.

  Even though Dr. Broadbent had undertaken the formidable task of making a gentleman out of him, Cash wasn’t accepted into Sallie’s wealthy, aristocratic circle. He remained an oddly mysterious figure on the outskirts of society, his dark saturnine face often seen at large affairs but never engaged in the idle flirtation that was the main reason for most gatherings.

  Laura picked up her long skirts and petticoats and started for the stairs. She was too young to be a part of the gay party below, but she would ride with the other women and children gathering in the hall and parlor. It was much too early in the season to have a barbecue, but the Breckinridges welcomed any excuse for a party. The announcement of their eldest son’s engagement and the early warm weather were sufficient reason to invite the countryside for a weekend of barbecue, dancing, and visiting.

  Maybe she could slip by Uncle Matthew and go outside to find Cash. He would want to know how the puppy he had brought her last fall was doing. Franz the Second, as she had dubbed him, wasn’t a puppy any longer, but a gentler, friendlier companion couldn’t be found. Cash had trained him to sit and heel and fetch and even to growl warningly if anyone approached suddenly, but although neither of them had spoken of it, the new Franz had not been trained to attack.

  In her absurd hat and too-long skirts, she was scarcely noticed as she wandered across the spring grass in search of Cash. She was a child and beneath the notice of Sallie’s lofty companions. She had never cultivated the interest of the other children laughing and screaming and racing through the abelias and mock oranges. And since Aunt Ann and Uncle Matthew were the only adults responsible for her and they were seldom around, Laura had complete freedom to wander where she wished.

  She found Cash in the stable yard, where she had suspected he would be. His frock coat was flung over a fence rail, and in shirt sleeves and silk waistcoat he stood among the horses examining the hoof of the massive stallion he had trained for Dr. Broadbent. The horse was so strong-willed that the doctor seldom rode him and never harnessed him to the buggy. He had bought a gray gelding for general use. The stallion was simply an elegant showpiece.

  “I’ll have one of the stablehands look at him if he’s picked up a stone,” Laura called as she ungracefully clambered up the fence, trailing her long skirts.

  Cash lowered the hoof, gave the horse a solid pat, and strode across the paddock to join her. Even the tight trousers and Wellingtons and cravat couldn’t make Cash look like a gentleman. His dark locks had a habit of tumbling where they would and frequently touched his shirt collar in defiance of local custom. He was too lean, too dark, and too harsh to look upon to be mistaken for one of the laughing, charming, polished young gentlemen on the front lawn. But he was the only one of his age who managed to spare the time to speak with a lonely child.

  “That’s quite a fancy get-up, Miss Laura. You going somewheres?” Cash smacked his large hand flat against her top hat, straightening its precarious balance while jamming it tighter on her head.

  Laura stuck her tongue out at him. “Uncle Matt said I could ride with the others to the Breckinridges. We’re almost ready to go. Are you coming?”

  A dark gleam escaped his hooded eyes, and Laura almost detected a trace of smile on his thin lips. “I’m coming. If you’ve got a few extra coins you’re willing to gamble, I know a surefire wager you can place them on this evening.”

  At this hint of a secret she wasn’t supposed to know, Laura grinned in excitement. The men gambled all the time on horse races and cockfights and other sports which ladies weren’t supposed to know about. They always did, of course, but they never took part in them. Cash was actually telling her about what the men would be indulging in tonight. Sallie would die to know about this.

  “Is there going to be a race?” she inquired eagerly.

  “Now, I’m not supposed to tell you these things. You gotta keep quiet. But I have Doc’s permission to race Jupiter over there, and unless an act of God interferes, he’s going to win big. I could turn your coins into a lot of dollars you wouldn’t have to account for to anybody.”

  Cash watched with amusement as Laura’s small face grew solemn at the enormity of his proposition. He could almost see the wheels turning inside that head of hers. She looked no more than a little trained monkey perching there, but he knew better than any that she had more courage than many men he knew. He owed her more than a favor. He owed her the prospect of a whole new life. Even if she was just a child, he fancied she might enjoy being in on his moment of glory.

  Laura considered his proposition. She had two gold dollar coins that Uncle Matt had given her for her birthday last July. She had hoarded them carefully all these months, uncertain what would be the best use to put them to. If she gambled them, she might lose them entirely, but she didn’t think Cash would gamble his own hard-earned wages on anything that wasn’t a certainty.

  “Will you place the wager for me?” she asked anxiously. She would never know how to go about doing it herself.

  “If you’ll trust me with it. Or you can give it to Doc. He’ll be there too.”

  With a sudden defiant grin Laura started down the fence. “I’ll just be a minute. You wait right here, y’hear?”

  Cash almost had to laugh as she raced off toward the house. She had sounded just like her beautiful cousin ordering one of her beaux around.

  His gaze drifted to the group of young people on the lawn. Sallie’s golden hair sparkled with all the glory of the sun, and he felt the black need cracking his insides. All his life he’d been aware of what he’d been denied because of the accident of his birth. Someday he would have it all.

  His gaze turned to the elegant portico and sun-washed brick of the graceful mansion. Someday they would have to recognize the son of a New Orleans q
uadroon, whether they liked it or not.

  ***

  Laura slipped through the shadows of the shrubbery in the late-evening light. The April air had turned cool, and she pulled the shawl tighter around her shoulders. Thank heaven she’d had the sense to pack the pretty brown wool gown Uncle Matt had given her for Christmas. Sallie’s summer batiste had sent her scurrying into the warmth of the Breckinridge parlor hours ago. She could sit and gossip with the ladies if she liked. Laura had better things to do.

  Dew dampened the long grass of the pasture where the men gathered. Beyond the trees there was still sufficient sunlight to see the horses and their owners milling about. Several of the horses would have black jockeys, and these stood to one side from the frock-coated and top-hatted gentlemen. The spectators wandered through the pack of horses, talking knowledgeably of the horses’ antecedents and lines, confirming wagers already made or drumming up new ones.

  Laura found Dr. Broadbent’s stallion standing beneath a tree, idly munching grass, unattended. She frowned at this dereliction of duty. If Cash meant to race this horse, shouldn’t he be tending to him and stirring up interest in wagers?

  Keeping to the shadows of the stately elms along the fencerow, Laura wandered closer to the loudest group of men. She recognized Ward Breckinridge and then began to place others of Sallie’s beaux. They were passing a flask and enjoying themselves more than the occasion warranted. They had probably been tippling all day.

  She cast her glance around again and located Cash leaning against the fence, chewing on a piece of grass. She glared suspiciously at that piece of grass. Cash never chewed on grass like some ignorant farm boy. She jumped when one of the young men discovered him at the same time she did.

  “Hey, Wickliffe, you got any wagers on this run?” Todd Payne nudged one of his companions and grinned as Cash turned in his direction, his dark eyes wary.

  “I wouldn’t wager on any of those nags out there if you paid me.” His reply was enough to boil the blood of any horse-proud Kentuckian even if it weren’t coming from a tenant farmer. Backs stiffened.

  “You’re too cowardly to take a chance, you mean,” a voice called out.

  “Nope. I’d bet on Jupiter if he were running.” Cash dropped his grass stalk and nodded toward the bored stallion.

  Laughter filtered through the crowd. It was well known that Jupiter’s genealogy was uncertain and scarcely of the finest. That was why the doc had been able to afford him. And there wasn’t a soul present who didn’t know that doc couldn’t handle the miserable animal that his lackluster ward had trained. The horse had never been raced, and for good reason.

  “How much you willing to wager?” one wag inquired.

  Laura watched as Cash shrugged. How could he be so calm?

  “He’s too good a horse to risk in that miserable pack. I haven’t got enough to make it worthwhile.”

  Todd Payne hooted. “What kind of odds are you looking for? Even at five to one you’d be getting more than the lazy beast is worth.”

  Five to one! Laura’s eyes glowed as she calculated the winnings her two dollars would make. She would own a fortune. She could buy Franz his own bed and buy herself some of that lovely taffeta that Aunt Ann said she was too young to wear. She would sew it into a gown more gorgeous than anything Sallie owned. She waited for Cash to snap up the bait.

  Cash simply shoved his hands in his pockets and sneered at the horses lining up at the end of the field. “Still ain’t worth it. I’ve only got twenty bucks to my name, and Jupiter’s worth more than ten times that amount. You rich folks just go on about your business.”

  “Ten times! That wretched animal couldn’t even breathe the dust of lvanhoe out there. I’ll bet you two hundred to your twenty that your animal can’t even place.” To Todd Payne, this sum was scarcely a gambling amount. He’d already placed wagers larger than that.

  Insolently Cash looked the wealthy college boy up and down. “How much you give me to win?”

  “Five hundred!” Fury and liquor overcame common sense, but there was no backing out once a wager was made. Excitement rippled through the growing crowd, and more wagers were hurriedly exchanged as Cash pulled off his coat and headed for the horse.

  Laura stood in the shadows and listened with incredulity. Five hundred dollars! That had to be more money than there was in the world. She was good at arithmetic, but it took a few minutes to calculate how much of that her two dollars would earn. Just as the number fifty came to mind, she saw Doc Broadbent meander over and exchange words with several of the older men. He gestured toward Cash and the stallion, and more money was whipped out. My word, but even Doc was taking wagers on the outcome!

  Laura could scarcely keep her excitement to herself as Cash mounted the huge stallion and trotted in the direction of the waiting field. Fifty dollars! She could buy a whole new wardrobe for fifty dollars. She could buy a horse for that much. Two horses. The possibilities seemed endless. Now she understood why men got so excited about gambling. This was why her father had carried her up and down the rivers for endless miles while he played at cards. With that kind of easy money to be had, who wouldn’t?

  Those thoughts swiftly sobered at Laura’s recollections of seedy hotel rooms and sleeping on cotton bales. What was so eagerly won could be even more speedily lost. Should Cash’s arrogance not pay off, the two dollars she had saved for nearly a year would be gone. She would still have a roof over her head and food on the table, and so would Cash, but it would be a painful setback.

  She prayed Dr. Broadbent wasn’t wagering too high. Worse yet, she hoped Uncle Matthew wasn’t here. He would certainly take up the wrong end of those odds. Although Stone Creek was one of the largest farms in the Bluegrass, it wasn’t cash-wealthy enough to cover too many of those kinds of bets.

  She could scarcely bear to watch as the horses took off, but she could not turn away either. She held her breath, gripped the lower rails of the fence, and watched as Cash’s big stallion stayed in easy stride with the pack. From her position behind the fence, the trees interfered with her view of the far end of the field, and without thinking, she scrambled over to get a better look.

  Jupiter was pulling ahead, and she jumped up and down in excitement, clenching her fists and praying as the men screamed and hollered and cursed. She scarcely heard them. Jupiter was ahead! Straining his mighty legs, he pulled farther and farther afield, his rider never laying a whip to him. Laura screamed in victory as he crossed the line well ahead of the thoroughbreds behind him.

  The furious curses this win produced jarred Laura back to her surroundings. Todd Payne’s face was positively livid with drunken anger, and his fists clenched as Cash swung his scarcely heated mount around to trot back. The Breckinridge boys were counting out their money and murmuring fainthearted platitudes about debts of honor, but Laura heard others scoff that Cash was no gentleman and there was more trickery than honor to his victory. Their anger astonished and worried her.

  Before she could run to Cash with a warning, Doc caught her by the shoulder and gently pushed her back toward the fence. “Get out of here, Laura. This is no place for a lady.”

  “But Cash—”

  “I know.” Grimly Jonathan Broadbent lifted Laura to the top rung, his face a study in stern lines and planes when it came even with hers. “Cash can take care of himself. Go on.”

  With one last despairing look over her shoulder at the drunken young men going out to meet the victor, Laura ran back to the house.

  The next morning there were hushed murmurs in the far corners of every room but they instantly quieted at the approach of young ears. The men were scarcely to be seen until noon, when the house party began to break up early.

  Laura peeked surreptitiously at the black eyes and bandaged noses beneath top hats as the young men rode off, but she held her tongue. They didn’t even know she existed. The ones she wanted to see were Doc and Cash.

  But Uncle Matthew ordered his party home before she’d had a chance to fi
nd either one of them. Instead of gallantly riding in a cloud of dust surrounded by beaux as she had when she arrived, Sallie was forced to ride with Laura in the carriage, unaccompanied by any of the gentlemen. Laura knew that meant someone was in disgrace, but she didn’t think it was Sallie. Her cousin chattered all the way home of the heads she had turned, without giving a sign that anything was wrong.

  Since Laura didn’t think Uncle Matt knew of her escapade, she figured it had to be Sallie’s beaux who had behaved badly. She wished she knew what had happened after she left. From the blood and bruises, she assumed there had been a brawl, but that was scarcely unusual. It was rumored Todd and Ward had already drawn pistols in a duel over Sallie. Hot tempers flared frequently in these parts. But that usually wasn’t sufficient to put them in disgrace. She worried about Cash.

  So when Doc Broadbent appeared down the lane later that evening, Laura ran to the front porch to meet him before the rest of the family could usurp him. She would never catch his attention while Uncle Matt and Sallie were around.

  His cheek sported a vivid bruise, and he suddenly looked very young as he spied Laura and tousled her hair. He couldn’t be much more than twenty-eight, but the weight of his responsibilities always made him seem much older. Laura smiled tentatively as he sat on the porch rail and reached in his coat pocket. Nothing could be seriously wrong if Doc was smiling.

  “Cash tells me this packet belongs to you. I’m not going to inquire the wheres and hows of it, but I suggest you not let your good folks hear of it. They might not be quite so understanding.” He removed a small pouch from his pocket and passed it to Laura.

  It weighed heavy and jingled and crackled, and she stared at it in awe. Even Uncle Matt couldn’t have that much money. She met Doc’s gaze. “Where’s Cash?”

  His smile disappeared and he shook his head sadly. “He’s gone, Laura. He bought that ornery animal from me last night and left with his winnings. He was right to go. This isn’t any place for him. He’s better off on his own now.”