"So where you from, Miss Annabelle?" Nathan asked as he checked the cards he'd been dealt and immediately folded. The hand was totally useless and it made him briefly wonder if Ezra was stacking the deck.
Annabelle smiled as she checked her own hand and promptly threw a few coins into the pot.
"My family are originally from New York, but I don't really consider it home. We travelled a lot. Especially when pa brought the ship."
"Ya got any brothers and sisters?"
"Two brothers. Jake and Daniel. They're both older than me."
"What do they do?"
"Mr Jackson," Ezra intoned lightly, "This is meant to be a jovial card game, not an interrogation."
"Ah, hell, Ez - I'm just interested, that's all," Nathan soothed, "Any woman who'd marry you has gotta be worth talking to. If only to check her head's on straight."
Annabelle and Josiah laughed, Ezra tossing them all a dry look.
They'd moved to the saloon after dinner at Annabelle's request. Ezra, who didn't really like his personal affairs put under public scrutiny, was relieved to see just Josiah and Nathan there. The preacher had asked if they'd join them and Annabelle had accepted before Ezra had the opportunity to back out.
Nathan had clearly been curious about her, asking too many questions for Ezra's liking. Josiah had also obviously taken an interest, but he had restricted his examination to simple observation. He was constantly watching how they reacted to one another, and no number of forceful stares from an uncomfortable Ezra, seemed to deter him.
Ezra guessed that Annabelle had also noticed the scrutiny she was under, but she seemed to be taking it all in her stride.
As Nathan continued his very thorough investigation, Ezra felt a tingle up his spine. It was a familiar feeling. The one he got when someone was sneaking up on him. That feeling - and the quick action of his derringer - had saved his life on more than one occasion. Glancing up curiously, his senses picked out Buck looking at them over the bat wing doors. It seemed as if he was debating whether or not to join them.
Ezra didn't know if there was something hostile in is own gaze, but the stern expression on the other man's face seemed to darken. Then he nodded cordially and walked off.
"Ezra!"
That was Annabelle's sharp voice, turning his attention back to the table. He looked a little lost.
"Are you in or out?" she asked again, a little irritably.
He glanced at his cards, and then threw some money into the pot.
"You all right?" Nathan asked, bemused. It wasn't like Ezra to not concentrate during a poker game. In fact, most times it was hard to actually drag his attention away.
"Fine," he replied lightly. He smiled at Annabelle, "Simply thinking of stories of such deplorable embarrassment that they should be sufficient to buy your silence concerning my darkest secrets."
She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Nathan snorted a laugh, "Hell, Ez. I don't think I'd wanna know you're darkest secrets. Thing like that could scar a man for life. Right, Josiah?"
The preacher had his thoughtful expression on, "The secrets of the soul are all dark, Brother Nathan."
The gaze he had on Ezra made the gambler uncomfortable. Had he seen the small exchange between himself and Buck?
Deciding not to let it concern him, he grinned right the way to his gold tooth, "Well, ladies and gentleman, it seems that Lady Luck - capricious creature that she is - has me in her favour tonight." He laid his straight flush out on the table and the others tossed their cards down in frustration.
He pulled the pot towards him before gathering up the cards. Annabelle promptly snatched them from him.
"I'll deal," she insisted.
He tried to throw her an innocent expression, but he never really had been able to pull that one off.
--
Buck made his way across to the boardwalk outside the jail, irritably kicking up dust as he went. Ezra had been pricklier than a porcupine all day, but he thought he would have cooled down by now. Chris had reasoned that this was the guy's wife they were talking about. But Buck understood that. He had no intention of pursuing her. What annoyed him was Ezra's lack of trust. And that was real rich coming from the wayward gambler.
JD was sitting outside the jail. It's only current occupant was a cowhand who'd got drunk and started a fight the night before. They'd decided that twenty-four hours in a cell would be plenty of time for him to sober up.
As he walked up to join him, Chris and Vin also arrived having just returned from a patrol of the town.
All three of them noticed Buck's uncharacteristically severe expression as he slumped heavily into the chair. It was Vin who spoke up.
"Anything the matter, pard?" he asked, trying to make it sound offhand.
"Just that Ezra's a pig-headed son of a bitch," Buck growled, "But that's his damn problem, not mine."
"Still in a mood, huh?" Chris asked as he sat down next to his friend, Vin taking to leaning against a post.
"He'll get over it," Vin smoothed.
A small smile crossed Buck's face, "Yeah, I know. Just sometimes I'd really like to string him up by his b-".
A loud, exaggerated coughing from JD drowned him out as Mary arrived. Buck looked a little uncomfortable. He hoped she hadn't heard him talking like that.
"Gentlemen," she said as a hurried greeting.
She was wearing an expression that Chris recognised all too well.
"What's wrong?"
--
"A false leg?" Annabelle asked, with a little amazement. Having finally wrestled out of him the story of how he had nearly lost the ring that now sat safely on her finger once again, she found herself having a hard time believing him.
Ezra shook his head with a ruefully smile, "I should have checked under the table."
"Well," she said, grinning slightly, "I can understand why you didn't want to."
He grimaced at such an unsavoury thought, shooting her a dry look. She laughed before continuing.
"I take it he didn't removing his leg simply for the purpose of cheating at cards."
Ezra shook his head, "No. Roulette."
"Dangerous game."
It wasn't all that late, but she was tired. She hadn't really slept all that well since arriving here and it was taking its toll. Announcing that she was going to retire, Ezra had offered to walk her back - as she knew he would. They'd bid farewell to Nathan and Josiah and left the saloon behind.
She found Ezra's friends a rather unusual bunch. Buck and JD she had quickly grown fond of. They were kind, friendly and helpful. Although how a greenhorn like JD had made his way into such a group she wasn't sure. And Buck's flirting was a little more persistent than she personally cared for.
Nathan was a man of strong convictions. While she knew Ezra wasn't the bigot many others his kind were, she found it a little strange that Nathan was so tolerant of him considering their backgrounds. Josiah was an enigma. Interesting and intelligent, but hard to fathom. There was clearly much more going on in that mind of his than he let on.
Chris and Vin she only knew by sight. Mary had told her a little about each of them, but she hadn't felt right prying too much.
From what she had gathered however, it was clear this Ezra wasn't quite the man she had married. A hired gun riding with six men he called friends, protecting a dusty little backwater town? If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed it.
She looked up as they reached the hotel entrance and stopped. Clear night tonight. Starlit and pretty. Almost too perfect. She hated perfect - it was only a matter of time before things went wrong.
Ezra took her glance to mean something else.
"Ah, yes," he said, part jest part serious, "The hotel. Your sanctuary is at hand."
"Ezra," she scolded softly, "You know me. If I'd deplored your company that much I would have rudely left hours ago. I don't do things because I have to. I do them because I want to. I'm selfish like that."
For some reason this immediately made her think of her leaving. She hadn't wanted to do that, of course. It made her smile with embarrassment.
"I'm also a little stupid at times," she added.
She paused for a moment before looking up to him with a regretful face, deciding that she should have said this a long time ago. An apology. She owed him that in the very least. The blame had been hers.
"I'm so sorry, Ezra," she said quietly, "I should never have left in the way that I did. It was completely and utterly idiotic."
Ezra bit his tongue for a moment. No, she shouldn't. Some nights he had lain there awake, flitting between worried to death about her and furious for her daring to put him through such a torment. But mostly he had just felt apologetic himself - sorry for even have considered effectively choosing his mother over her.
"As far I'm concerned," he drawled quietly, "We are just two ridiculously stupid and stubborn creatures, who should never inflict themselves on anyone but each other."
"Is that we you consider me?" she asked, a once forgotten glow suddenly twinkling in her eyes, "Some kind of affliction?"
He smiled, not one his Cheshire Cat grins, but a proper smile, "One which I should not wish to be cured of. The side-effects are far too pleasant as I seem to recall."
Her breath faltered just slightly. Why did he have to say things like that? Didn't he realise how unfair it was?
Turning her resistance into a steely resolve, deciding she would not be as easy to persuade as all that, she planted a soft kiss on his cheek.
"Good night," she said firmly, turning to the hotel.
Before she'd moved half a pace, arms which didn't have the strength - nor, if she was honest with herself, the willpower - to resist, wrapped their way around her waist and pulled her flush against him. "O wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?" he asked, his voice low and husky.
She felt her blood rush, her resolve hanging on by a thread. She'd caught him looking at her all night. She'd read the expression in his eyes perfectly. Even so, she wasn't prepared for what it felt like to be in his arms again. What it was liked to love and be loved in return.
"Don't start quoting 'Romeo and Juliet' at me," she insisted, "You know I have a weakness for that play. It's an unfair advantage. A most gentlemanly thing to do."
His smiled broadened, "Did my heart love till now, forswear it sight, for I ne'er saw true beauty till this night," he quoted, leaning closer.
"Ezra," she warned, trying to find somewhere to put her hands that wasn't an invitation, "Stop it."
He seemed to be on a roll now, "Arise fair Sun and kill the envious Moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, That thou maid art far more fair than she."
"I wish I'd never told you now!"
He shot her a teasing grin, "I am no pilot, yet wert thou as far, As that vast shore wash'd with the farthest sea, I should adventure for such a merchandise".
She couldn't help but laugh as he said the lines with an essence of dramatic flair, the actor in him coming out.
"Parting is such sweet sorrow," she returned, playing him at his own game, "That I shall say goodnight till it be morrow."
She managed to momentarily manoeuvre herself from his grasp, but she had forgotten how swift on his feet he was. He rounded her and caught her again before she made it to the door.
"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," he said, playing on the dramatic flair now, purposefully making her laugh.
"Love is a smoke made with the fumes of sighs," she returned, almost stubbornly.
The word 'love' coming from her lips seemed to turn him to seriousness again. He lifted her hand to his lips and left a lingering kiss.
"If I profane with my unworthiest hand," he quoted, "This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this, My two lips brushing Pilgrims ready stand, To smooth the rough touch with a gentle kiss."
She knew this part. It was perhaps her favourite. The lines came to her lips unbidden, "Good Pilgrim you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this, For saints have hands, that Pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy Palmers' kiss."
The grip he had on her waist tightened, "Have not Saints lips, and holy Palmers too?"
"Ay Pilgrim," her voice said in a whisper, "Lips that they must use in prayer."
"Oh, then dear Saint," he said as his hand reached for her face, his thumb running softly over her bottom lip, "Let lips do what hands do, They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."
"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake," she replied, her arms finding their familiar way around his neck.
"Then move not while my prayer's effect I take, Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purg'd."
His gaze flickered down to her lips and back up to her eyes, as if asking for permission. When she didn't move he took this as an affirmation and closed the gap between them.
The first brush of his lips against hers was soft, almost experimental. As if he was afraid that too much too soon may be fatal. It was the softest, sweetest kiss she could ever remember. And when he pulled away after a few lingering moments she found herself almost subconsciously reaching to caress his cheek. She remembered this. How wonderful it had all felt. Her other hand had come to rest on his chest and even through the waistcoat and shirt she could feel his heart thudding like horse hooves.
Well, she thought with a sigh as he leaned in to kiss her again, so much for her resolve. Infuriating man.
She could just feel Ezra's slightly quickened breath on her lips when a cry split the air.
"Ezra!"
JD ran up to them, without realising what he was interrupting until he got too close. They could see his blush even in the unnatural moonlight.
"Aw.....gee, Ezra, I'm sorry, but there's some trouble coming."
Ezra's face was a picture of annoyance, "Well, Mr Dunne, surely there are enough people on hand to cover it. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm otherwise engaged at the moment."
JD shook his head, "It's about you, Miss Annabelle. We gotta get you off the streets."