Free Wanted! Belle Starr! by J.T. Edson Page B

blonde greeted, hurrying towards the receiver. “I saw you
coming from the bank and I just couldn’t wait any longer. So I came
down to meet you. Were you successful with—with—?”
    “ With my negotiation?”
Icke suggested.
    “ With your negotiation,”
Darlene-Mae accepted.
    “ Completely successful,”
the receiver replied, truthfully as far as it went. That, however,
was the end to his veracity. “Don’t worry, Darl—Miss Abernathy.
Everything is settled and, providing your family are willing to
make good the money, your half-brother has nothing to
fear.”
    “ Well thank heavens for
that!” the blonde declared, coming forward to take Icke by the left
arm. “Or, rather, thank you, David!”
    “ It was nothing,” the
receiver claimed, once again with truth.
    “ But it means so much to
dear Dennis!” Darlene-Mae gasped, squeezing at the arm she was
holding. “Why I could just give you a great big hug and
kiss!”
    “ Here?” Icke asked,
glancing around the reception lobby.
    “ Oh heavens to Betsy, what
you must think of me!” the beautiful blonde gasped, looking around
her with such innocent alarm it seemed butter would have a hard
time melting in her mouth. Nevertheless, retaining her grip on his
arm, she continued, “Come, let’s go upstairs first.”
    “ First?” the receiver
queried.
    “ I promised that I would
have a bottle of brandy waiting in my room so we could toast your
success with Banker Cockburn,” Darlene-Mae explained. “Or had you
forgotten about it?”
    “ No, of course I hadn’t
forgotten,” Icke stated, but dropped his gaze to the case in his
right hand. “But I meant—”
    “ Don’t you want to come
with me?” the blonde demanded, a touch of petulance coming into her
voice.
    “ I most certainly do want
to come—!” the receiver confirmed, but was not allowed to say
anything more.
    “ Then let’s go and do it
straight away!” Darlene-Mae ordered rather than merely requested,
her manner that of a person long accustomed to having every whim
fulfilled immediately and who was likely to go into a fit of sulks,
if nothing worse, should she not get her own way.
    “ Whatever you say, my
dear,” Icke assented, being unwilling to forfeit the opportunity he
was confident he had created, and struggling to control his
resentment. Then he told himself that, as the money would not be
out of his sight until it could be put into the safe, he need not
feel concerned over it. “Come on then. Let’s go up to your room and
drink to my success and your half-brother’s salvation.”
    On the way to the second floor, possessing a
suspicious and untrusting nature, the receiver started to worry
over the insistence of the blonde in going to her room. The feeling
was intensified when she asked about the dispatch case. However, on
being told it contained documents concerning the business he had
carried out with Banker Cockburn as a prelude to rescuing her
half-brother, her attitude implied she was not really interested
and had merely been making conversation.
    Allowing Icke to precede her into her room,
Darlene Mae closed and locked the door. Before he could register
any concern over the actions, she turned and smiled with a mixture
of demure provocation which drove the suspicion from his head.
Removing and draping his cloak over a chair, he forgot his earlier
misgivings and contemplated only the benefits he anticipated would
soon be coming his way.
    “ Have a seat, David,” the
blonde offered.
    “ Will here be all right?”
the receiver hinted, crossing to sit on the bed with the case by
his side.
    “ Wherever you wish,”
Darlene-Mae assented, going to the dressing-table. “I had the
brandy brought up while you were away, being so sure you would be
successful. I trust what they brought is a satisfactory vintage. Is
that what it is called?”
    “ One doesn’t usually refer
to the vintage of a brandy,” Icke corrected, looking at the bottle
for which the blonde was reaching.