"I wouldn't want something like my stubbornness to come between us."

"No," Kate said gently. "It's not stubbornness. I love the way you love me, and I don't ever want you to change. Just sometimes, you have to let me help you, too."

"Don't you know that you're what gets me through every day?"

Jessie asked incredulously. "Before you came along, I was starting to wonder what my life was really all about. Working, living, always doing, but at the end of the day, there was still something missing."

She eased down into the bed with a sigh of contentment. "Now there isn't."

Kate turned on her side and drew Jessie against her back, settling the arm that Jessie clasped around her middle between her breasts.

She understood now the difference between existing and living. This connection they shared, unique beyond all others, was the essence of her life. As she lay waiting for sleep to come, satisfied in body and heart, she thought of Mae and Vance and what she might do to help them find the safety of one another's arms.


************

Vance brought the buggy to a halt behind the Golden Nugget but made no move to get down. Instead, she turned on the seat and put her arm around Mae's waist, drawing her close. It was well after dark, and in the shadows, no one would take them for anything other than a man and a woman stealing a few moments of passion. She kissed Mae, a slow lingering exploration that deepened and grew more desperate until Mae circled her shoulders and pulled Vance down nearly on top of her.

"Mae," Vance warned, reluctantly pulling away when awareness finally penetrated the desire clouding her senses. "I've precious little control where you're concerned as it is. You must help me maintain command of myself."

Mae laughed, stroking Vance's face with shaking fingers. "And all this time I've been trying to do just the opposite."

"Ever since the night we lay together," Vance said, straightening up but keeping her hold on Mae, "I can't think of much else."

"I thought I was long past hoping for anything but a few minutes of kindness in bed," Mae murmured, sliding her hand inside Vance's coat to rest on her stomach. "But lying next to you has made me want a lot more than that."

Vince groaned softly and kissed Mae's neck. Mae's skin was cool beneath her fevered lips, and her belly tightened under Mae's softly caressing fingers. "I never knew what to hope for. Now I do, and...sometimes when I'm out riding, and I'm so tired I fear I won't make it to the next place on my list, I think of you. Then I forget about everything except how much I want you, and it carries me through."

"Oh," Mae gasped. "Come upstairs with me now."

"I can't. I expect there'll be messages for me at the office. This stomach ailment that's going around has half the town in bed," Vance said in frustration. "I still have calls left over from today. I don't think I'll be done before morning."

"I want you to come to me no matter the time," Mae insisted.

"I suspect the sun will be up by then." Vance laughed. "And I will be no more presentable than a barnyard rooster at that point. I think I had better wait for the laundry to open so that I can collect my clean clothes."

Mae fondled the buttons on Vance's shirt. "You need new clothes, not clean ones. It's time to get you out of these borrowed clothes and into your own."

"I decided after a few months in the army that my days of standing on a seamstress's platform were over," Vance said carefully. "Dresses never did suit me, even before I needed to spend my day in the saddle or a buggy."

"Oh, you can't think that's what I was suggesting?" Mae brushed her fingers through Vance's short, thick, unruly hair. "Oh no. I'm taking you to the tailor tomorrow to be fitted for proper trousers and shirts."

"I...do you think he will?" Vance asked uncertainly.

"Of course he will. As long as you intend to pay him."

"I thought I would just get something from the general store when I had time."

"They don't have much in the way of ready-made clothes, and what they do have would never fit you properly." Mae kissed Vance lightly. "No, I'll enjoy dressing you."

A shiver of wholly unexpected anticipation raced down Vance's spine and she groaned softly, eliciting further laughter from Mae. "You please me in ways I never imagined."

"I must go in," Mae said regretfully. "It's getting late, and I'll be missed." She kissed Vance again, both hands clasped behind Vance's neck. Breathlessly, she brushed her mouth over Vance's ear. "And if I stay here, I will need your hand on me very soon."

"Please, have you no mercy?"

"Where you're concerned?" Mae stepped down onto the running board. "None at all."

Laughing, Vance jumped down to assist her, not because Mae needed her arm, but because it pleased her to offer it. She was astounded and grateful that Mae understood that. She walked Mae to the stairs, suddenly loath to let her go. She knew what awaited Mae inside, and the image of fresh bruises on Mae's face caused a cold sweat to break out on her forehead.

"If he comes around again and I'm not here--"

"Vance, I'll not have you worry--"

"If he touches you again, kill him." Vance shivered as the thunder of cannon and hundreds of marching men closed in around her. "Don't wait. Fire first."

Mae studied Vance in the hazy yellow light that flickered from the windows above them, watching long-ago ghosts dance over her stark, haunted face. She took her hand, pulled her against the building, out of sight of the street, and framed her face with both hands. "Vance. Don't go back."

"It's all right," Vance said hoarsely, fighting back the mists of memory. "I'm here." She put her hand on Mae's waist and rested her forehead against Mae's. "I have nothing to go back to and everything to stay for."

"I'll be careful. Promise me that you will be, too." Mae pressed her fingers to Vance's mouth, then stepped away and started up the stairs. When she was out of touching range, she turned. "I love you, so you be sure to be here in the morning."

Vance pressed her hand to her heart. "You have my word."


CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The sun was just coming up as Vance rode back into town. She was pleased to see that the laundry was already open, and she stopped to collect her clothes. Despite Mae's admonition that she come directly to her rooms, Vance wanted to wash off the sweat and lingering hints of sickness before going to her. The cold-water wash refreshed her, and just before seven, dressed in her best clean clothes, she tapped lightly on Mae's door. Far from feeling tired, she felt alive with expectation. When the door opened and Mae smiled up at her, the thrill of possibility shot through her. It had been so long since she had looked upon a day with anticipation.

"Thank you," Vance murmured.

Mae's eyes widened in surprise. "Whatever for?" She took Vance's hand and drew her inside, closing the door behind them.

"For reminding me what pleasure feels like." Before Mae could reply, Vance slid a finger beneath her chin, tilted Mae's head up, and kissed her. "You always look beautiful, but in the morning, you're exquisite."

"I'm not wearing even a touch of powder on my face, my robe was once lovely but is no longer new, and I haven't had a chance to put up my hair." Mae caressed Vance's cheek. "But when you look at me the way you do, I feel--"

"Cherished, I hope," Vance broke in. She turned her head and kissed Mae's palm. "Because you are."

"I don't believe I'm ready for this conversation before breakfast."

Vance laughed. "Then I shall take you to breakfast and we can resume thereafter."

"We're paying a visit to George Smith after breakfast, so anything else you might have planned will have to wait."

"I had nothing planned, only hoped for."

"Hush now," Mae said softly. She still didn't quite know how to take the attention that Vance lavished on her. She'd never been the object of anyone's true affection. Even her mother, who had cared for her as well as possible, often gave the impression that it was more duty than love that motivated her. Mae didn't blame her for that. Widowed young and with no money to tempt another husband nor skills to provide for herself and a child, she had gone into service and managed to provide a home for them both. Nevertheless, the drudgery and disappointment of her life had hardened her heart without her even knowing it. "I must get dressed, and while I do, you're to sit here on the settee."

Vance lifted her brow. "I'm not to be trusted, then?"

Mae smiled. "You might be, but I most certainly am not. I dreamed of you last night and woke up wanting you."

With a sound close to a growl, Vance caught her swiftly around the waist. She pulled her near and kissed her, harder this time, without apology for her demands. "The tailor can wait."

"He can," Mae said breathlessly. "But I fear if we don't go now, we won't go at all." She nipped at Vance's lower lip. "And you do need new clothes."

"Mae," Vance said with a warning glint in her eyes. "I'll not be patient much longer."

"I don't want you to be. Just for a few more hours."

v Two hours were beginning to feel like a life sentence. The only thing that made the process bearable was watching the way Mae's eyes moved over her body when George Smith wasn't looking. Vance stood in the center of the small, cluttered room in her undershirt, drawers, and boots while the impeccably dressed, fastidious tailor measured and fussed and remeasured. He'd blinked once in surprise when Mae had explained why they'd come, then given a small bow and gestured with an open arm toward the curtained-off back room.

"Three shirts, two trousers, and a coat for everyday and business both," Mae repeated. "Cotton for the shirts and wool for the coat and trousers. None of that linsey-woolsey that stretches out of shape after one wearing."

Smith looked affronted. "I assure you, I use only the finest materials that come all the way from St. Louis."

"Well, don't plan on charging us for the entire train."

Vance grinned and said nothing. She had to admit, it was rather enjoyable having clothes made for her that would actually fit and in which she would be comfortable. She also discovered that having Mae direct the tailor as to precisely how she wanted the clothes to look was unexpectedly arousing. When Mae circled her, a contemplative expression on her face, and touched her here and there to demonstrate where she wanted the shirt to fall or the trousers to start, Vance had to stifle a moan. Even though Mae gave no indication that she was aware of Vance's growing discomfort, it seemed that as the morning wore on, Mae found more and more excuses to touch her.

"There," Smith proclaimed as if he had just completed a work of art. "That should be everything we need. I'll have these for you, Dr.

Phelps, within a week."

"Thank you," Vance said with as much dignity as she could muster while dressed only in her underwear. She gratefully took the pants that Mae held out to her, removed her boots, and pulled them on. The shirt she slid over the remnant of her left arm and across her shoulders with ease of habit. When Mae stepped close to do up the buttons, Vance caught a flicker of heat in her lovely eyes. Knowing that Mae warmed to her that way only increased Vance's desire.

Once dressed and outside, Vance cupped Mae's elbow and led her quickly down the street.

"Have you forgotten an appointment?" Mae asked, reaching up to settle her hat more firmly upon her now neatly pinned tresses.

"Something like that," Vance muttered, intent on reaching the Golden Nugget as quickly as possible. Caleb would not expect her until evening at the earliest, knowing that she had been out all night working.

Of course he would assume she was sleeping, although that was the furthest thing from her mind.

"You're going to look very handsome in those clothes," Mae said somewhat breathlessly as she concentrated on not catching the heels of her shoes in the hard-packed ruts of the street. She held her hem above the dust with one gloved hand.

"If you like them, that's all that matters to me," Vance said with one swift glance in Mae's direction. "You seemed to enjoy the fitting enough."

Mae smiled pleasantly. "I find that I like having you half-dressed and helpless."

"Mae, so help me," Vance warned, "I'll not temper my urges much longer."