Gambler's Magic Page 10

  More practiced in sneakiness than she, Elijah didn’t even bat an eye or pause to consider. “We sure will.” He spoke in the sunniest voice Joy had ever heard come from his debauched mouth.

  “I see you’ve introduced yourselves.”

  Joy turned to find Mac behind her. “Indeed, we have, Mr. McMurdo. Miss Katie just delivered a lesson on manners to Mr. Perry.”

  “Hey!”

  She gave Elijah a brilliant smile, and he shut his mouth. She knew he’d get her for it later, but she felt a glow of accomplishment that she should have put him in his place and assured his silence at the same time. She seldom won verbal bouts with him this easily, and chalked her present victory up to the influence of little Katie O’Fannin.

  Useful weapons, children.

  Her thought processes snagged instantly on the thought. With sudden, sickening clarity, she understood that she’d been the weapon of choice wielded by her own parents when it suited them.

  How pathetic.

  She decided to think about this understanding later, too, as it was revolutionary and she wasn’t sure it was proper. Perhaps the unkind thought was a weapon of another sort, sent by the devil to tempt her into abandoning her early-childhood training.

  She wished all at once that life wasn’t as complicated as it seemed to be.

  “I’ve got something else here for the two o’ ye, too,” Mac said.

  Joy noticed that he had his hands hidden behind his back. She had a premonition that she wasn’t going to be thrilled with his something else. “You do?” she said cautiously.

  “Don’t worry, Joy m’love,” he said with a twinkle. “It’s a good thing.”

  Katie nodded and announced happily, “Kee-kee.”

  Mac chuckled. “Aye. That’s it, all right.”

  “Kee-kee?” Joy studied Katie’s face, hoping to discern a clue in her expression. She didn’t.

  Kee-kee. Good grief. She refused to allow her smile to go sour. She would maintain her pleasant expression for the sake of the child in her arms, no matter how dreadful this alleged kee-kee turned out to be.

  “May we see your kee-kee, Mr. McMurdo?” she asked, keeping her tone agreeable.

  “Yeah, plop it down here, Mac. I haven’t petted a kitten in a coon’s age.”

  Joy spun around and stared at Elijah, who had the gall to wink at her. “Don’t speak the language, I see, Miss Hardesty. Any of us who’ve been around children know that a kee-kee is a kitten.”

  Good heavens. Joy didn’t answer, but turned to Mac again. Katie seemed unaffected by Joy’s ignorance of the language of children.

  “Aye, that’s it all right, laddie.” With a flourish worthy of a magician, Mac revealed a wicker basket containing an orange-and-white marmalade kitten.

  “Oh!” cried Joy, who had always loathed cats on the principle—taught to her by her mother—that they were sinister and crafty. Today this kitten charmed her almost as much as Katie O’Fannin did.

  “Hey,” said Elijah, his voice cheerier than Joy had ever heard it. “I had a cat just like that when I was a kid.”

  “Not cah,” corrected Katie severely from her perch in Joy’s arms. “Kee-kee.”

  Joy hugged her. “That’s right, darling. You tell that awful old man that this isn’t a nasty old cat, but a darling adorable kitten.”

  Chuckling as if he hadn’t heard anything so witty in a dozen years, Mac carted the basket full of kitten over to Elijah’s bed. He carefully lifted the kitten out and set it on the bed.

  “Go ahead, Miss Hardesty. Be as spiteful as you want. You’re not going to get a rise out of me today.” Elijah lifted his unbandaged arm and tapped a finger on the counterpane to attract the kitten. “I like kittens. And kids.”

  Joy sniffed, feeling almost contrite that he’d pointed out her contrary behavior for what it was.

  “Bring Katie over here, Joy,” Mac suggested. “We’ll see if this wee kitten will get along all right here.”

  Joy decided to put her own shortcomings and Elijah’s gentle reproach aside. She could dwell on them both later, in private, and berate herself appropriately. “Yes, let’s see the kitty, shall we, Katie?”

  “See kee-kee,” said Katie, ever agreeable.

  Joy walked her over to the bed. Then, since there didn’t seem to be anything else to do—Mac had appropriated the room’s one chair—she sat on the bed, as close to the edge and as far away from Elijah Perry as she could get.

  This seating arrangement was frightfully improper. She knew it; she knew Elijah knew it; and she wasn’t about to let him tease her about it. She ignored him, settled Katie on her lap, then looked at the kitten, who attacked Elijah’s finger and turned a somersault in the effort.

  Joy laughed, a perfect, happy, unrestrained laugh, and kept laughing until she noticed Elijah staring at her. Her laughter choked to a stop. Not only was he staring at her, but there seemed to be a strange phenomenon occurring right here in this room. She’d noticed it before, and it always startled her. The dust motes in air around them sparkled like floating diamond dust chips. It was a disconcerting spectacle, and one Joy had never encountered anywhere but here, in Rio Hondo. She wondered if it had something to do with atmospheric conditions on the high plains. And, in the mean time, Elijah kept staring.

  Since Katie had crawled out of Joy’s lap to move closer to the kitten, Joy stood abruptly. “What are you looking at, Mr. Perry?” Her voice was crisp.

  “You.” His sounded bemused.

  She sniffed. It wasn’t as imperious as one of her usual sniffs because she was flustered by sparkles and kittens and children. And Elijah Perry’s expression. She endeavored to ignore them all.

  “Why did you decide to bring us a kitten, Mr. McMurdo?”

  Elijah patted the bed—using his wounded arm. Joy lifted her left eyebrow.

  “Sit back down again, Miss Hardesty. I won’t bite you.”

  She frowned at him, and then at the bed. Then, since Katie seemed to be getting closer to the bed’s edge and Joy feared she might fall off, she did as Elijah suggested. It was shockingly unseemly of her to sit on a bed with a man in it, but he was wounded, and the chair was occupied, and this was the New Mexico Territory, and her mother couldn’t see her.

  Don’t be a perfect fool, Joy Hardesty, she thought with some heat, Your mother is dead and can’t see anyone any longer. Thank God!

  This, her second revolutionary thought of the day, alarmed her. She reached out to Katie for comfort.

  “Come along, Katie dear. We don’t want you to fall off the bed.”

  The little girl crawled onto Joy’s lap. Joy felt . . . joy. It was a novel experience.

  “I thought we could use us a mouser here in the store, Joy, m’lass. And since Cody and Mellie’s barn cat had just had a litter a bit over a month ago, I brought one of ‘em here.

  Glad to have her thoughts diverted, Joy said, “I haven’t noticed any mice here, Mr. McMurdo.” She only realized how surprising that fact was when she said it aloud. Jerusalem, all stores had mice. “Actually, I didn’t even know you even had mice here in the territory.”

  Mac and Elijah laughed. She shared a scowl with both of them. “Well, I didn’t.”

  “Yes,” Katie confirmed with a firm nod of her small head. “I din.”

  So there, Joy thought, glad to have the baby as an ally. She gave Katie a hug, and the little girl returned it with gusto. Katie seemed accustomed to love and hugs, unlike Joy, and gave them freely. Joy couldn’t remember a single other time in her life when she’d been this happy.

  “Aye, we do have mice in the territory, Joy, m’dear. But this little fellow will keep ‘em out. Both his mama and papa are great mousers, according to Melissa.”

  Melissa. The divorcée. Joy tried to drum up some condemnation for the mother of this beautiful little girl, but was unsuccessful. To distract herself from this, her latest shortcoming, she found herself asking, “How is their new baby getting along?”

  Mac smiled broadly.
“Oh, Arnold is a fine lad. A fine, bouncy baby boy.”

  Katie’s ears perked up at the mention of her new brother’s name. “Arr-o good bay.”

  “Aye, Katie, m’lass. Arnold’s a very good baby. A strong, healthy lad. Got a good pair of lungs in him, too.” Mac laughed heartily.

  Katie joined him. Joy was sure Katie didn’t have any idea what she was laughing about, and she thought how nice it would be to be able to laugh for no reason but the sake of laughter. She’d never done such a thing.

  She felt the need to be able to see Katie’s expressive face more clearly. “Shall we take your sunbonnet off, Katie?”

  “Arrigh.”

  So Joy removed the girl’s sunbonnet. She marveled at how small and cunningly made it was. Melissa O’Fannin, divorcée or not, obviously took pride in her daughter’s appearance. Joy approved. Perhaps Melissa wasn’t so very bad a person. There might have been a good reason for her to obtain a divorce, although Joy couldn’t offhand think of one.

  That woman made her own bed, Joy Hardesty. It was her duty to lie in it, and don’t you ever forget it.

  Yes, Mother.

  She shook her head, trying to dislodge her mother’s voice. It sounded excessively shrill and struck a discordant note in this small back room filled with invalid, sunshine, sinner, kitten, baby, and Joy Hardesty. She didn’t want to think about divorce any longer. Or her mother.

  “Right before you arrived, I was preparing luncheon for Mr. Perry, Mr. McMurdo. Would you and Katie care to take luncheon with us?”

  “Sounds delicious, Joy, m’dear. Want to eat some of Miss Hardesty’s good cooking, Katie, darlin’?”

  Mac chucked Katie under the chin, sending the child into a peal of giggles. Joy’s heart melted. Try as she might, she couldn’t recall anyone ever playing with her like that. She wondered if she’d be so nervous and frightened all the time if she’d been allowed some silliness during her childhood. Instead of games, she’d been taught Bible verses, guilt, and censure. She shook off the unworthy thought.

  “Would you like to help me fix luncheon, Katie?”

  “Fix ‘unch,” Katie chirped.

  Immediately, she scooted off of Joy’s lap and began climbing down from the bed. She was as limber as a monkey, and concentrated on the task she’d set for herself like a mountain climber conquering a difficult peak, and Joy laughed again, unrestrained and happy. She held her arms out, ready to catch Katie should it be necessary. Oh, my, her heart felt light. She’d had no idea children could foster such happy moods. She didn’t recall her own mother ever seeming particularly happy. Of course, her mother had been stuck with Joy, not this adorable little darling of a girl named Katie.

  She shook her head as Katie’s dress bunched up around her bottom. Her chubby legs, encased in frilly drawers, strained to reach the ground, and Joy had a job of it to keep from pinching the dimpled pink flesh revealed. Katie was so adorable. With a sigh, she rose from Mr. Perry’s bed.

  Then, surprising herself as much as she surprised Katie, she swooped down and scooped Katie up off the floor. Behaving in a manner of which she didn’t even know herself capable, she tossed the little girl into the air, caught her, and then carried her, upside down, out of the room. Katie thought these antics hilarious, and laughed uproariously as she batted her petticoats out of her face.

  Elijah Perry stared after Joy and Katie as if he’d never seen such a thing in his life. Which he hadn’t. When he turned to look at Mac, he found the old man grinning like an elf, a knowing expression on his face and a marmalade kitten in his lap.

  “Well, I never.” Elijah knew the words to be inadequate, but he couldn’t find any to express his awe that Joy Hardesty had actually behaved like a normal human female. A pleasant normal human female.

  Mac winked at him. “Aye, laddie. Our Joy’s had a difficult life. She’s learnin’, though. She’s learnin’.”

  Elijah turned his head to observe the retreating woman once more. “I reckon.” He wasn’t sure he believed it.

  # # #

  Joy washed Katie’s hands and set her to counting out carrot sticks onto four plates. “See? You do it like this. One, two, three.” She deliberately picked up a carrot stick as she recited each number.

  Katie emulated her exactly. “One, two, fwee.” She carefully arranged the carrot sticks into neat rows on each plate.

  “You’re doing a very good job, Katie.” Although she didn’t hover, Joy kept glancing away from her own chore, which was slicing cold beef for sandwiches. She couldn’t keep her attention on her job; it kept sliding to the little girl helping her. Katie knelt on a stool, and her little brow wrinkled with the importance of her duty.

  Spreading mustard on the bread she’d just sliced, Joy said, “Do you like carrots, Katie?”

  The little head bobbed up and down. “Like cares.”

  Well, that put a new slant on things. Joy wasn’t partial to cares herself. She laughed, surprising herself. She couldn’t recall when she’d laughed so much. Actually, she didn’t think she ever had.

  “Can you chew them? Do you have enough teeth?”

  To demonstrate her dental assets, Katie turned and bared her teeth at Joy, who laughed again. “I guess you can chew any tough old carrot stick, can’t you, Katie?

  The girl nodded and went back to her task. Joy sighed, and thought how delightful it would be to have a little girl of her own. It must be splendid to watch one’s children grow from infancy, through all the stages of childhood, and into adulthood. Not, Joy told herself, that there weren’t sure to be many heartbreaks and problems along the way. Still . . .

  “Ah done!” Katie threw her hands out, peered over her shoulder, and gave Joy a smile she wished she could take down on paper with a pen and ink.

  She set her knife down, wiped her hands on her apron, and swept the little girl off her stool. “You did a wonderful job, Katie! A beautiful job!” She hugged Katie, who hugged her back.

  Setting Katie down on the kitchen floor, Joy said, “I’m so glad you came to visit us today, Katie. Did you have a nice ride on Mr. McMurdo’s horsie?” Her brows dipped. She’d never said the word horsie in her entire life until this moment. Not even when she was Katie’s age. Her mother didn’t approve of baby talk.

  Still smiling, Katie nodded and announced, “We fie.”

  “You fie?” Now whatever did that mean? Perhaps she should consult with Mr. Perry, who seemed adept at childish talk. She grinned at the thought.

  Katie nodded harder. “We fie,” she repeated, and flapped her arms.

  “Oh! You flew here, did you?”

  “We fie.” Katie smiled, pleased that Joy had finally understood.

  “Mr. McMurdo must have a very fast horsie.”

  “Horsie fie.”

  “How nice for you. It must be nice to have a ride on such a fast horsie.”

  With her arms held out to her sides like wings, Katie toddled around the kitchen like a bird soaring through the air. Joy discovered herself laughing again, and resumed building sandwiches. She was taking forever preparing luncheon. The men were liable to start complaining soon.

  “Need any help?”

  Joy turned and found Mac watching her from the door of the kitchen. Katie had run over to him and was now climbing up his leg. With a jolt, Joy realized that, however much of a sinner Mr. McMurdo was according to Joy’s mother’s rules, he was a very nice man. She tried to remind herself that the devil was undoubtedly clouding her view of the matter and preventing her from recognizing that his niceness was a cover for evil, but the reminder didn’t seem to want to stick and kept sliding out of her brain.

  “Thank you, Mr. McMurdo. Perhaps you can carry another chair or two into Mr. Perry’s room, so we can take our luncheon in there. I’m sure he’ll be happy for the company.”

  Had she really said that? Joy frowned, but didn’t have the leisure to dwell on it, because Mac said, “I’ll be glad to do that, lass.” He winked at her. “I see our Mr. Perry hasn’t died
from your nursin’. Reckon that school in Boston you went to did a good job.”

  She knew her smile quavered. She still resented him for running out on her, even though it hadn’t turned out to be the disaster she’d feared. “Yes. Yes, the school in Boston was very good.”

  Mac put Katie down, hooked two chairs, and carried them out of the kitchen. “I expect you’re very good too, lass. Don’t deny yourself the credit. It’s you who put their teachin’ to the test.”

  He left, Katie bouncing along behind him. Joy’s mouth hung open in shock. She searched and searched and searched, but her memory couldn’t come up with such a nice compliment ever having been directed at her. Her mind formed several incomplete disclaimers, but she was too stunned to voice any of them.

  Jerusalem, what a kind thing for him to have said to her. Even if he was wrong, of course.

  A voice—not her mother’s, but one that seemed deeper, gentler, and more soothing—whispered, He’s right, Joy. You’ve done a splendid job.

  The voice sounded in her ears so clearly that Joy jumped and shot a startled glance around the kitchen. She was alone.

  “Jerusalem. Now you’ve started hearing things, Joy Hardesty. Next you’ll start believing in little Katie’s flying horsie.”

  She forced a chuckle. Then she shook herself, picked up the plates, put them on a tray with glasses of cool water, and carted everything into Elijah Perry’s room. He gave her a sly wink, and she rolled her eyes in half-humorous disapproval. Rolling her eyes was something else she’d never done in her life before she came to Rio Hondo.

  # # #

  The horse plodded Mac and Katie out of town, away from his wagon yard, Joy Hardesty, Elijah Perry, and the marmalade kitten. When Mac had left them, Joy and Elijah had been arguing about an appropriate name for the wee thing. Joy had favored Apricot. Elijah had propounded Killer. Mac had a feeling the dispute would go on for a while.

  His grin broadened. Aye, things were goin’ fine. Better than he’d expected, even.

  “Did ye have a nice visit with Miss Hardesty and Mr. Perry, Katie, darlin’?”

  The little girl nodded, and knuckled her eyes. Mac laughed softly. “Aye, child, we’ve had a full day, haven’t we? But we’ll be back home in the wink of an eye.”