Lucky Creek Lady by Shirley Kennedy

Author:Shirley Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-09-20T10:40:13+00:00

Chapter 11

Not in the best of moods, Darcy went straight to his hotel room after he dropped the sisters off. So he wasn’t to bother picking Laurie up again? Fine with him. Maybe he’d been too standoffish, but what was he supposed to do? Among Ned Grimes’s many words of wisdom, one particular piece of advice stuck firmly in his head. No man of honor would steal another man’s woman. It just ain’t done.

The trouble was, sometimes being a man of honor wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Laurie belonged to the bug man back east, and he’d better not forget that. The trouble was, his mind told him one thing, his body another. Each time he thought of that kiss, which was far more often than he cared to admit, a kind of hunger grabbed at his insides. He wanted her in his bed, and in his life, too. He’d remind himself how frivolous she was, how self-centered and artificial, but no, she wasn’t. She had courage. On that god-awful trip to Hangtown she never complained, and her only thought was for her little niece. She was smart, too, had done well in the office, and learned her job quickly. The miners all liked her because they knew she liked them and didn’t consider herself above them in any way.

All of which would do him no good, of course. She’d be leaving for Philadelphia soon as she could, and that was that.

He hadn’t been in his room five minutes when Lucille knocked on his door and invited him to dinner downstairs. “You’ve got to eat, and it may as well be with me.” She raised a meaningful eyebrow. “We’re friends now, Darcy. No hassle.”

They ate in the Bonanza, Gold Spike’s best restaurant. True to her word, she kept the conversation light. Not the slightest reproach as to how he’d been ignoring her. Nothing but easy chitchat until she looked him in the eye and asked, “So how are you doing, Darcy? I mean really.”

Clearly, she asked because she cared, not out of idle curiosity, and he was happy to oblige. She gave him her full attention as he described his new mining venture at the Monarch. And what else had he done? Before he knew it, he’d launched into a detailed recounting of the harrowing trip to Hangtown, the little girl whose life had been saved in the nick of time. He made a point to mention Laurie as little as possible, but when he finished, Lucille softly inquired, “You care about her, don’t you?”

He seldom lied and wasn’t going to start now. “There’s a man back in Philadelphia she’s dying to marry, so it doesn’t matter how I feel.”

“Well, I care how you feel.” Her eyes got all warm and tender. “Any time you want a shoulder to cry on, you know where I am.”

What a fine woman. He was about to tell her so when a sort of rumble coming from the street caused a sudden silence in the dining room.

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