Elaine Barbieri - The Redemption Of Jake Scully

He replied, “Whatever the girls said is beside the point.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“A room just became available in Mary McInnes’s boarding house this morning. It’s a fine place—clean and respectable.”

“The Gold Nugget is clean.”

“But not respectable.”

“It’s respectable enough for me.”

“No, it isn’t.”

Lacey was beginning to smart at his insistence. She countered, “Besides, I don’t have an income yet and I can’t afford to pay the board at Mary McInnes’s.”

“Pay the board…”

“That’s right. I don’t intend to let you support me forever, you know. It won’t cost you as much to keep me at the Gold Nugget until I find a position and can start paying my own way.”

“A position…?”

Lacey’s lips tightened.

“No.”

“No what?”

“No position. And I’m not supporting you. I’m only returning a favor to your grandfather.”

“Grandpa may have helped you, but in time, you went out on your own.”

“In time. It’s not time for you yet.”

“When will it be time then?”

“I’ll let you know.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Lacey continued resolutely, “I’m not going to move into the boarding house right now. The Gold Nugget is fine.”

Scully didn’t agree. Choosing to conclude the discussion for the present, he said, “Are you finished?”

“I’m not moving out of the Gold Nugget.”

“With your breakfast.”

“Oh…yes.”

He stood up. “Let’s go.”

Lacey drew herself to her feet as Scully dropped a few coins on the table and nodded at Sadie. She felt the firm pressure of his hand on her elbow as she smiled a quick goodbye at the hardworking woman and Scully guided her toward the door. She knew she had made him angry, but she refused to let him say harsh things about himself in an effort to protect her.

Lacey raised her chin as they walked toward the restaurant doorway. A familiar passage rang in her mind.

Man looketh at the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh at the heart.

She didn’t need anyone to tell her that Scully’s heart was good. No matter how he looked, she knew the Lord could see that as well as her grandpa obviously had—and she had only to look into Scully’s eyes to see that he wanted only the best for her. As for the outward appearance part…well, maybe it needed work, but she believed the hand of the Lord had played a part in directing her to Scully, she hoped for both their sakes.

Lacey glanced at Scully where he walked beside her. Whether he chose to accept it or not, he had proved to her in so many ways that he was a better man than he considered himself to be. Also, she trusted him. She felt safe with him. Those truths had become more desperately important to her since she had arrived back in Weaver and the vague shadows surrounding her past had begun shifting in her mind.

She was determined not to burden Scully with the lingering fears that haunted her. It was up to her to resolve them. She would, too, but she needed to assume responsibility for her future first.

However, Scully did not agree.

That thought in mind, Lacey stood stock-still as they emerged onto the boardwalk. Scully was still frowning when he looked down at her, and she asked simply, “Are you angry with me, Scully?”

“Angry? No.”

“You look angry.”

His gray eyes searched her face. His gaze softened. “The Gold Nugget isn’t the place for you, Lacey. You know it, and I know it.”

“No, I don’t know that.”

“All right.” He was angry again. “Whatever you say.”

She supposed there would never be a better time.

Dislodging her arm gently from Scully’s grip, Lacey said, “I’m going to stop in at the mercantile store to see if they received any mail for me there. The girls back at the boarding school said they’d write to me the same day I left. They’re very dear. I know they’ll follow through with their promise.”

The anger in Scully’s eyes mellowed. “All right. I’ll be in my office. Come back there as soon as you’re done. I have something to show you.”

Scully did not see Lacey turn back to watch his departure after starting toward the mercantile store. Nor did he see her frown as the thought struck her that perhaps she was being unfair. Scully was a mature, powerfully masculine man. He might not consider himself respectable, but she had seen the way the respectable women in town looked at him. It wasn’t much different from the way the girls at the Gold Nugget looked at him. Maybe she should give him the space he needed.

That thought somehow difficult to accept, Lacey shook her head. Maybe…but not now.

She raised her chin and quickened her step.

Definitely not yet.

Things weren’t getting any easier.

Scully nodded automatically at the heads turning his way as he crossed Weaver’s main street. Taller than most at a height well over six feet, and with broad muscular proportions that belied his supposedly sedentary lifestyle, he was aware that he stood out in a crowd. Dressed as he was in a well-tailored dark suit and fine linen shirt, with a brocaded vest and the dark Stetson he wore pulled low on his forehead, he was also unmistakable as the owner and operator of the Gold Nugget Saloon, the most successful business in town. He had always been proud of his success. He had dressed appropriately and behaved as suited him best, uncaring of fluctuating public opinion.

Scully paused to glance back at Lacey as she walked toward the mercantile store. His jaw tightened at the assessing looks she drew from passing matrons. Those busybodies were already beginning to talk. Given a few more weeks, they would paint Lacey a scarlet woman simply because she lived in a room upstairs from the town’s only saloon—two doors down the hallway from him, the town’s most notorious bachelor.

Illustrating his concerns, Scully watched as a bearded cowboy turned with a sly remark to his friend when Lacey passed them on the street. Scully took an angry step in the man’s direction, then checked himself in time. He’d just make matters worse by defending Lacey’s honor when it needed no defense at all.

Galling him was the reality that Lacey seemed oblivious to the implications that living at the Gold Nugget raised. He was living proof that rumors—sometimes without a speck of truth—spread fast and functioned as gospel. He also knew that once damaged, a woman’s reputation was never fully regained. Charlie had trusted him with both Lacey’s reputation and her future. He owed it to the old man and to Lacey to see that she found a man who was worthy of her—a respectable man who would marry her and give her the good life she deserved.

Scully watched as Lacey neared the store entrance. It occurred to him not for the first time that Lacey dismissed her beauty as playing any part in the person she was, just as she dismissed her own purity of heart with the belief that everyone had the same spark of goodness inside them—including him. He knew that wasn’t true. He had been on the wrong side of that equation for too many years as a youngster not to realize that the spark—if it ever existed in him—had long since been extinguished. He was determined Lacey would never experience that difficult truth firsthand. He was dedicated to that resolve…more than he had ever believed he could be.

Lacey disappeared through the mercantile store entrance, and Scully took a shaken breath. Whoever that respectable man who eventually won Lacey’s hand turned out to be, he’d be lucky, indeed.

Still frowning, Scully pushed his way through the Gold Nugget’s doors. He had started toward his office at the rear when a familiar, throaty voice turned him to the sultry redhead who stepped into his path.