“I’ll get it,” he said as he set her on her feet. He walked into the hall and picked up the receiver, listened for a minute and took a sharp breath. “What the hell was he doing on it in the first place?” he demanded. “No, honey, don’t, don’t. I’m sorry. God, I’m sorry. Listen, sweetheart, you just sit tight, you hear? I’ll be right there. Everything will be all right. I’m on my way.”
He hung up and dug into his pocket for his car keys. “Bobby’s been thrown from a horse,” he said tersely. “Bess came in last night, and they went riding together this morning. He’s got a concussion and a broken leg, at least. I’ll have to go to the hospital, honey. Bess was pretty upset. She needs me.”
Elissa just sat there, stunned, as he turned away without another word. She watched him rush out the door, on his way to Bess, without a backward glance toward the woman he’d just asked to marry him. She closed her eyes, feeling the tears start. If this was a glimpse of the future, she’d just looked straight into hell.
CHAPTER TEN
MARGARET CAME BACK minutes later to find Elissa cupping her hands around a cup of cold coffee, a look of utter defeat on her face.
“Where’s he gone?” the older woman asked curtly.
“Bobby was thrown from a horse,” Elissa said quickly, looking up. “He’s got a broken leg and a concussion. King’s gone to the hospital.”
Margaret whistled. “I knew it would happen one day.” She shook her head. “Bobby isn’t a rider, for all he keeps trying. Will he be all right?”
“Bess didn’t say, apparently,” she faltered.
The older woman sat down, staring at Elissa. “That young madam has too much time on her hands and not enough husband,” she said bluntly. “I’ve known both them boys for a long time—watched them fuss and fight and grow into men. Bobby’s too eaten up trying to compete with his half brother to be the man he could be. All business, even when he comes to dinner over here. Bess sits there watching him so sadly, and he doesn’t see her at all. I understand why he’s doing it, mind you, but Bess isn’t the kind of woman a man should treat that way. God knows she had a hard enough life, what with her family.”
Margaret was good for half an hour on that subject. By the time she got through the alcoholic father and eternally pregnant mother and the abject poverty Bess had grown up in, Elissa felt sorrier for the blonde than she’d ever dreamed she could. But King had gone running when Bess needed him, and that fact stood out above all the rest. Was he simply sorry for Bess and protective of her, or was it something more?
“You don’t mind that he went to see about Bobby?” Margaret asked suddenly.
“Oh, heavens, no!” Elissa said. “I would have gone, too, if he’d asked me.” She shrugged, biting back tears. “I guess he was thinking that Bess would need some support.”
Margaret’s eyes narrowed. “Bess loves Bobby,” she said quietly. “Sometimes she may flirt with other men, but that’s all it ever is. And Kingston asked you to marry him, didn’t he?”
“Yes, but that was because we—” Elissa looked up wildly and bit her lip. Her face grew suddenly hot as Margaret pursed her lips and lifted an eyebrow. “Because he knows I’m in love with him,” she amended quickly. “He feels guilty.”
“Good. I raised him to have a conscience,” she said curtly. “That’s right, I was with his mama since he was just a boy. What morals he’s got, I put there, no thanks to her. I took over where his dad left off. Poor old fellow, he couldn’t take her everlasting roving eye. He was a good man.”
Elissa studied her silently. “Is his father still alive?”
Margaret smiled gently. “Very much alive. He’s in a nursing home in Phoenix—a good one. We correspond, and I tell him all the news about once a month.”
“Oh, shouldn’t you tell King?” she asked worriedly.
“Honey, Kingston would go crazy. He thinks his father deserted him, and he’s never wanted anything to do with him. I wouldn’t dare confess what I’ve been doing.”
“But his father will die one day,” Elissa argued.
“It’s not my place to say anything,” Margaret replied. She searched Elissa’s pained eyes. “You could, though. He might listen to you.”