Free Deborah Camp by My Wild Rose

the street and headed for the Basin Street Hotel. She savored the small victory on her way to deliver the linens. Her hunch about Theo had been on target. He’d gone directly to the sheriff to ask if he really was taking her to the dance. Take that, Mr. Dane! she thought with glee. It had been a white lie and now it was the unvarnished truth. She was going to the Spring Cotillion with the sheriff—
    Her steps faltered. What had she done! She couldn’t go to the cotillion! She had no party dress or money to buy fabric for one. No dancing shoes … no jewelry … no cosmetics to enhance her features … not even a bottle of scented water to remind a man of all things sweet and seductive. Shehad disposed of her finery before she’d left Kansas for a quiet life in Arkansas. How stupid to let Theodore Dane get her so flustered that she’d act irrationally. Why, she’d flown off with one thought and one thought only—to make good her rash lie. Well, she’d accomplished that, but now what? How could she go to the cotillion dressed in a work dress and old shoes?
    Regina realized she was standing outside the Basin Hotel, her arms full of linens that smelled of lye soap and sunshine. Going inside, she trod softly across the plush rug to the registration desk.
    “Ah, the linens,” the man behind the desk said.
    “Yes, Mr. Baker. All done up for you and freshly ironed.”
    “You’ll bill me at the end of the week?”
    “Yes, sir. I’ll send Jebidiah around with it on Friday, same as always.”
    “Good. That’s fine.” He took them from her and laid them carefully on a side table. “Got another bundle here for you.” He reached beneath the table and pulled out a ball of white muslin. “There are five sets there.”
    “The hotel is busy this time of year,” she noted.
    “More and more are coming for the mineral baths and the cool mountain air.”
    “Mr. Baker, could you tell me if someone is still staying here?”
    “Who would that be?”
    “Mr. Jack Beck.”
    “Let me check …” The hotel clerk ran a stubby finger down a line of names in the registry book. “Oh, yes. The gent Mr. Dane brought in last night.”
    “That’s right.” Regina swallowed in a reflexive gesture of nerves. Had Theo told Mr. Baker that Jack was her half brother? “He’s still here?”
    “I don’t know. He’s paid up for one night. Hehas until noon to pay for another. I don’t recall if he’s checked out or not. If you’d like me to send a maid upstairs to check and tell him you’re—”
    “No, thank you.” She tucked the bundle of linens under her arm. “Good-bye, Mr. Baker. We do appreciate your business.”
    Regina strolled along the boardwalk and stopped before the window of Miss Tally’s Tailoring and Dress Shop to admire a dance dress fashioned from dark wine satin. Cream lace edged its train, cuffs, and neckline. A bonnet of crimson-and-wine feathers completed the ensemble. Regina recalled the many beautiful dresses she’d owned and wished she’d saved one. But she’d sold them all, glad to be rid of them and to make money for Mrs. Nation and her noble work.
    That didn’t solve her current dilemma, though. She couldn’t trudge back to the sheriff’s and tell him she’d changed her mind again and wouldn’t go to the cotillion. No, she’d have to do better than that. She’d simply scout around for a suitable length of material and sew up a simple dance dress. She could do without jewelry and cosmetics. Perhaps she could borrow a better pair of shoes—ones more delicate and meant for a dance floor instead of a tramp through the woods.
    And where was Jack? Still at the hotel or long gone? She prayed it was the latter. The sooner Jack was out of her life again, the sooner she’d breathe easier.
    On the walk home through the quiet woods the memory of Theodore Dane’s brash behavior wafted through her, warming her blood, coaxing a smile from her. True, it had been a while since she’d been kissed by a man,