found the place that would give her release. She convulsed around him, and he gave a smothered cry of relief as he pushed deeper and gave up his seed. Gently, he eased her legs around so she could stretch them free once more.
She fell asleep on his shoulder almost at once. Tyler stayed awake awhile longer.
He had seen the initials on her pillowcases. EPH. He didn't even know what the Evie stood for. And Maryellen had nothing to do with the "H." She had been a virgin; he knew that. So she couldn't have been married before, could she? So who in hell was the "H"?
In the morning, he had to have a long talk with his wife. After they got rid of the kids.
Chapter 19
"Thtop it, Hothay," a tiny voice whispered indignantly. A rustle of bedcovers and a giggle followed.
Evie stirred. The whispers continued. "Stop it, both of you" came from a properly horrified Carmen. Evie wiped her eyes.
And realized where she was. Tyler was practically snoring in her ear, and he was jaybird naked beneath the blanket. She was lying across his bare thighs, and her fingers were curled in the hairs on his chest. Opening her eyes cautiously, she got a glimpse of his two-day beard and decided she had finally hit rock bottom. She was lying in the arms of a naked gambler with children tussling in the bed across from them.
At least there wasn't any liquor on the premises. She may have behaved like a drunken wanton, but she hadn't been drunk. Evie wasn't certain that was anything to be proud of. She grimaced as she moved her sticky thighs and tried to pull her nightgown down around her and keep Tyler covered at the same time. It wasn't an easy maneuver, but she managed it.
He was stirring by the time she got her feet to the floor, but she made a hasty dash for the dressing screen. This was not at all as she had pictured married life from her chaste bed in Nanny's house.
As she stripped off her nightgown, Evie gazed in dismay at the stains of red on the fragile lawn and the dried stains on her thighs. She scrubbed in the fresh water she had brought up last night, but the evidence didn't disappear with washing. She was bleeding. She dumped the dirty water in the chamberpot but didn't know how she could hide it from the others. She'd never had to live in such close quarters with so many people.
Hastily supplying herself with a cloth and dressing in yesterday's underclothes since she'd not had the forethought to put fresh ones behind the screen, Evie wrapped up in her robe, pulled a brush through her hair, and exited to see if she could keep the children from waking Tyler entirely.
It was too late. Maria had escaped while Carmen was trying to keep Jose from ransacking open trunks. The toddler had happily climbed up on the mountain of blankets and sheets that was Tyler and perched herself with a finger-sucking grin in his lap. Tyler scowled back at her through bleary eyes and stubbled jaw, but Maria only added a second finger to the first and continued to peruse him with wide-eyed wonder.
Tyler growled as Evie hurried to relieve him of his unwanted burden. Jerking the blanket around him, he rose with uncertain dignity and took advantage of the dressing screen while Carmen politely kept her back turned. If the fourteen-year-old thought it odd to wake and find a man in her teacher's room, she was too polite to mention it.
Evie flung Tyler's still-damp pants and shirt over the screen to him. It wouldn't do any good to go next door to Daniel for dry ones. Tyler would bust the seams. He should have thought of that while out playing hero the day before.
Maria's tiny gown was dry if spectacularly wrinkled, and Evie busied herself pulling that on the toddler while listening to Tyler splashing fresh water into the washbowl. Would he notice? What was he going to say? If she weren't so terrified, she would be hideously embarrassed. Would he think she lied? Of course he would.
Jose made a dash for the door, and Evie caught him by the collar just before he could escape. He wriggled and hollered, "I gotta go! I gotta go!" while she held him.
Tyler stepped out from behind the screen, menacing in his height and in his appearance, and the youngster silenced at once. The rough