Mountain Laurel Read online

  There was a loud crash from the cabin and a corresponding shout of triumph from the miners.

  Laurel looked at her book. “Fell off the piano for the sixth time,” she read. “Caleb Rice.”

  Caleb grinned as Laurel weighed the gold dust, poured it into a bag, and gave it to him.

  “That was your bet,” Laurel said to Toby. “I told you not to take it.”

  “Who woulda thought they was dumb enough to fall off the piana six times,” he snapped at her.

  “Caleb Rice did,” Laurel answered calmly.

  Jamie got up and left after that, and he vowed that should he ever do what his brother was doing, he would do it in the utmost privacy. He walked to one of the many tents that served the miners as a saloon. Of course, for the last three days the tents had been empty. The men hadn’t stopped drinking, but now they bought their bottles of watered-down whiskey and took them back to the campfire where Laurel and Toby sat taking bets.

  The man Jamie wanted to see was in the saloon tent. After all, Jamie had given orders that the man was to be given as much whiskey as he could drink. With years and years of experience behind him, Sleb could drink a great deal. He was starting on his third bottle.

  “How’re they doing?” Sleb asked as he looked up at Jamie. His words weren’t slurred, but his eyelids were nearly closed.

  “All right,” Jamie answered, taking a seat. “They just fell off the piano for the sixth time.”

  Sleb nodded gravely. “I remember one time backstage in Philadelphia with a pretty little mezzo…” His voice trailed off and he shut his eyes in memory.

  For a moment Jamie thought that perhaps he’d gone to sleep. “Anything more you have to tell me?” he asked softly.

  Sleb opened his bloodshot eyes. “Not a thing. I’ve told you everything I know.” He picked up the whiskey bottle and looked at it. “In fact, I don’t guess my life is going to be worth much after what I’ve told you.” He gave a derisive snort. “But then, I don’t guess it was worth much before I ever met you.” He held up the bottle. “Drink?”

  “No, thank you.” Jamie stood. “I guess I better get back. They might decide to come out of that shack, and I want to be there to talk to my brother when he does. Of course, they’re going to need sleep sometime or other.”

  Sleb gave a dreamy sort of smile. “That time in Philadelphia I went four days without sleep. I was younger then and I thought I was going to be the greatest singer who ever lived.” He reached for the bottle again.

  Jamie bit his tongue to keep from speaking. He’d never yet met a drunk who didn’t think that he was the only one to ever have suffered in his life. Deliver me from the self-pity of drunks, he thought, and left the tent.

  ’Ring idly ran his hand over Maddie’s bare stomach. For three and a half days now his body and its needs had been his only concern. It was as though he’d had no mind at all, like he was an animal and was driven only by lust and longing.

  He grinned.

  “Share that with me?” Maddie asked, trying to ease her back. They had hit the floor rather hard a few times.

  “I was thinking of my father. He’d be proud of me.”

  “You? Ha! What have you done? I am the one who has had to work. I am the one who has had to…” She trailed off. She was too tired to even argue. “Yeah, I guess he would be proud of you. I’m not sure my father would be proud of me, though.” She yawned, then put her hand on his chest. “This has been wonderful but…”

  “But what? You’re not giving up, are you? Why, we’ve just started. There are several more things I’d like to try.” He said this, but he didn’t make a move to pounce on her as he would have a day ago.

  “I wonder if Jamie has found out anything from your little sister,” ’Ring said, looking at the ceiling.

  She smiled. “If you’re thinking of your brother, then I guess the honeymoon is over. And too bad, because I was thinking of a few more tries at that piano.” Even as she said the words, her back began to ache.

  Neither of them commented on the other’s bragging. They just lay there in each other’s arms, now comfortable and familiar with each other’s bare skin, and knowing intimately every inch of the other’s body.

  “You think we should get dressed?” Maddie asked after a while. “Maybe I should see about Laurel. Maybe you should talk to Jamie. Maybe—”

  He rolled over so he could look down at her. “Yes, I think it’s time we left. Are you all right? Not too bruised and battered? Too sore?”

  “There isn’t any part of me that isn’t sore,” she said, looking up at him. “There isn’t any part of me that isn’t bruised, but it’s been a wonderful few days.” Her eyes sparkled. “I think I learned as much in these three days as I did in the first three years with Madame Branchini.” She ran her fingertips down his unshaven cheek. “I got to see your upper lip too.”

  He kissed her softly. “Maddie, I—”

  She didn’t allow him to finish. She didn’t feel there was a need for words. They were two people who had needed each other, needed each other physically and emotionally, and they’d found each other. “I know the way you feel, for I feel the same way. You were right when you said that we had been looking for each other.”

  He looked down at her bare breasts. “I had certainly been looking for you,” he said with a leer.

  She laughed and pushed at him. “Help me dress—if there’s anything left to my poor dress—and let’s go see what’s happened to the others.”

  She was shaky when she stood up, and ’Ring had to steady her. Now that she could think again, she was a little embarrassed as she looked at him, and remembered all the things they had done in the last few days. But they had each felt possessed, and nothing on earth could have stopped them.

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “Don’t look at me like that. This is just the first of many times together. Turn around and let me tie this contraption of yours.”

  Smiling, she faced the wall while he pulled her corset strings tight.

  It was an hour later that Maddie and ’Ring sat with Toby, Laurel, and Jamie around the campfire. When they had left the shack, Maddie had been embarrassed, knowing that all the people in her camp were going to know what she and ’Ring had been doing for the past few days. But when she opened the door, she saw a perfectly normal camp, with Edith bent over the fire, stirring a pot, Toby and Jamie lounging by the fire, and Laurel writing something in a little notebook. Maddie smiled. If Maddie was a singer and her sister Gemma was a painter, maybe Laurel was going to be a writer.

  “Good evening,” Maddie said softly, and they all looked up at her.

  “Oh, hello,” Laurel said, beaming up at her older sister. “Have you two had a nice vacation?”

  Maddie was glad for the growing darkness that hid her red face. “Yes, thank you, and have you been well cared for?”

  “Oh, yes,” Laurel said, eyes wide. “Toby helped me pick wild flowers. I’m pressing them into a book.”

  “And selling them for a thousand dollars each,” Jamie muttered.

  “What’s that?” ’Ring asked.

  Laurel glared at Jamie. “He thinks I should sell my pictures.”

  “Or take over the management of Warbrooke Shipping,” Jamie said under his breath, then, “Ow!” as Laurel leaned over and pinched him.

  Laurel smiled at her sister. “You want some coffee?”

  Maddie took the cup that Toby handed her, then handed a cup to ’Ring, but ’Ring’s attention was fully on his brother.

  “Out with it,” ’Ring said, taking a seat on a log that had been pulled up near the fire. He didn’t notice that the bark was already getting shiny from the many behinds that had used it in the last few days. Maddie took a seat next to him, trying not to grimace with the pain she felt. There were unmentionable parts of her body that were very, very sore. ’Ring felt her stiffen and turned to give her a knowing little smile. She ignored him and looked at Jamie.

  “What makes you think your bro