"Sure, babe, maybe they did."

Frank was giving Judith a thorough kiss across the room under some greenery the family called mistletoe, and Cord found himself wondering why he couldn't just use the same excuse. Or carry her into an empty room and finish what they'd begun in the barn.

He decided against it, and they started sedately for the dining room, but he couldn't think of one good reason why he couldn't - or why he shouldn't.

CHAPTER 47.

FRANK AND EPHRAIM HAD BOTH been born in February, about a week apart, so the family always had one big celebration. This year the day chosen was the day of the town's Valentine's Day dance. There would be dinner and cake at Ephraim and Martha's, and then the Bennett clan would attend the dance.

More than seven months pregnant, Anne felt shy about the party and dance. Perhaps she was not yet waddling, but she was feeling heavy and less than graceful. Any excuse at all was enough for Cord to refuse to let her take the two-hour buggy ride to town. He was coddling her so mercilessly it was often hard not to laugh at him, but in the end she took the time to alter another of her Chicago dresses. It was a deep blue-gray velvet, and eliminating the bustle provided enough extra material for a fit. The February day was cloudless with no wind and unseasonably warm, providing Cord no reason not to make the trip. Riley would take care of their stock or send someone.

Dinner was congenial. The cake was a scrumptious success. Not until after the feast did the Bennett men struggle into suits and ties, and the women put on their fancy dresses for the dance.

Cord and Anne dressed in the little bedroom Martha had a.s.signed to them again. Her excuse was that after all these years it was fitting that Gil and Martin do the sleeping on the floor from now on, but Judith gave a knowing smile as Martha spoke the words.

a.s.surances as to how nice she looked did not lessen Anne's worries about attending a dance this heavy with child. She could not even finish b.u.t.toning the back of her dress.

Cord made her feel better when he unb.u.t.toned instead of b.u.t.toning three times, but it was his words when they were a little apart from the others on the walk to the town hall that rea.s.sured her completely.

"You know, Ti-gress, it's a good thing the whole town's afraid of me, or the men would riot when they saw you tonight."

"Do you lay awake nights thinking of things to say to make me feel good?"

"Lay awake a lot lately. That baby kicks like a wild man."

It was, of course, a son day. Even if they didn't mention it for a week, he always knew. And he could avoid the baby's kicking merely by pulling away from her in the night but was too pleased with the whole process to do anything of the sort.

By the time they got to the hall Anne was beaming. She could dance only the slow dances, but dance she did. People seemed to be stopping by where Cord relaxed in a chair quite frequently whether she was gone or there. As Martin escorted her back towards Cord, the crowd hid him from view until they were on top of him - and Rob. Anne stopped dead barely aware of the polite words Martin spoke before disappearing.

Her brother rose uncertainly to his feet and started to turn away, then visibly straightened and faced her again. "I don't suppose you'd dance with me if I asked."

"Why don't you ask and find out?"

"May I have the honor of the next dance - the next slow dance?"

"Yes."

Suddenly Cord decided he was thirsty and headed for the punch bowl. She glared at his retreating back. Drat him.

"Can we talk? Until the next slow dance?"

Seating herself, she turned slightly on the chair to face him. "All right, Rob, we'll talk."

"You have to know how sorry I am. How ashamed I am that I ever...."

"I do know that. But it's over, isn't it? How do you feel now?"

"You know I've been seeing him."

"Luke and Pete tell all."

Rob told her then how Cord had simply shown up at the Wells house one Sunday afternoon, how he asked Rob if he would help with a Christmas present for Leona. "I told him I didn't think you'd go along, but he said we'd only do it if you agreed, and he thought you would."

Cord turned up again unexpectedly with Pete and Luke the next Sunday. Rob had been invited to Weinerts' for a formal dinner that night and was home alone at loose ends.

They had indeed played poker. "I kind of liked him anyway, you know. I just couldn't admit it even to myself because - well, you know why. That Sunday...." Rob gazed across the room, seeing something not there but inside himself. "I haven't had so much fun since I was a little kid, Anne. The teasing, the stories. They're so different from us, from our family. It made me start to think."

"Is it because of us you aren't seeing Nancy Lee any more?"

"Yes and no. They never said anything about you when I was around. They acted like I didn't have a sister. Then that same night after we played poker the first time, there I was. They had a lot of guests and some of them started in about you, about him. They didn't say anything as bad as I said myself, nowhere near it. It wasn't that. It was...." He struggled to find words. "I thought Weinerts were everything I wanted. That's the way I wanted to live, to be, and all of a sudden I was looking around and comparing how, how pompous they were with the way the Bennetts were that afternoon. I can't be like the Bennetts, and I know it, but I don't want to be like the Weinerts - or like Father either.

There has to be something in between for me. Maybe not, but at least I'm going to look around a little and see. So I have to admit, it wasn't that what they said made me so angry I flew off the handle or anything. I did what I did because I knew it would end it with Nancy Lee, and I wanted out."

He told them he couldn't understand why they felt that way about his brother-in-law.

He admired Cord and hoped he and Nancy Lee could spend as much time with his sister and her husband as possible.

"You should have seen the looks on their faces. Mr. Weinert puffed up like a toad and said I had to promise never to even introduce Nancy Lee to that man. I said I couldn't do that, and that was the end of it." Rob looked away across the dance floor. "Does that make you angry? I used him to get out of any commitment to her."

"No, I never liked the thought of you married to her. It didn't seem fair to wish you on somebody nice, but I wanted somebody better for you anyway."

Rob met her eyes again. "Maybe by the time I get around to it again you'll think I deserve somebody nice. The way Luke and Pete a.n.a.lyze every girl in town, I ought to be able to figure something out."

They waited, smiling slightly, for a few minutes until a slow dance began and walked out to the floor. After the dance ended, they were almost back to where Cord was again waiting when Rob stopped to give her a hug, then started and pulled away as if he'd been burned. "What on earth was that?"

"That's your nephew. He's getting quite rambunctious lately."

He was looking at her stomach as if it had just sprouted wings. Anne could feel an embarra.s.sed flush starting.

"I didn't know they did that." He forced his curious gaze back to her face. "Anne, I'm glad...."

She gave him a quick kiss, "I believe you. Now go look for your nice girl." As she sat down beside Cord, she said, "If you're smart, you won't act smug."

"Now, Annie, would I act smug?"

They watched the dancers stomp through a reel and a polka, and she heard his voice, very soft and deep. "What do you think would happen if you and I just walked out there and danced?"

There was no use trying to convince him of less than the truth. "Well, a few people would leave. Walk right out of the hall. More would get off the dance floor and stand and stare." She looked squarely at him then. "And everybody who matters would keep on dancing or watch and smile."

There was no answer, and she decided he had changed his mind. When the first notes in a slow tempo came off Miss Maggie's piano, she heard his voice again. "Dance with me, Annie?"

The lump in her throat almost but not quite kept her from answering. "I'd like that, love."

Hand in hand they walked among the dancers. If their very presence didn't scandalize, the way he pulled her close against him would. Not for the first time she pictured their child being born with a clear imprint of his father's belt buckle somewhere on his small person. All night she had felt big and almost clumsy, but now the magic began again.

From the summer until now, she had forgotten what it was like. She was light as air, graceful as a cloud floating across a summer sky. The power of him lifted her. Better music than Miss Maggie's was in him, and it echoed in her heart.

Talking to friends near the punch bowl, Frank felt Ephraim's hand on his shoulder, turning him. "Look." They watched in silence. Several indignant couples hustled out of the hall. More left the dance floor with offended looks, but even as they left others took their places.

Noah Reynolds ignored Leona's widow's weeds, and she made no protest. When a fast look around showed Luke no girl he could count on, he hurried his sister Beth to the floor. The LeClercs, the Mileses, and surprise of surprises, the Stones, who had never before danced at a Mason social but occasionally deigned to drop by for a few minutes to grace an affair with their presence. In no time at all there were as many couples dancing as there had been. Frank felt Judith's hand on his arm. "Should we?"

"No. I think when this is over you and Martha are going to get to say you told us so, and I'm going to stand here and watch and enjoy every minute of it. I think this might be something I've waited years to see." Frank glanced sideways at his wife. "When are you going to tell me what happened last summer?"

Judith gave her serene smile. "Tonight, I think."

The two tall blond men stood side by side, their wives' arms tucked in theirs. Ephraim said, "He dances like he does everything else. He makes everybody else out there look clumsy."

"Luke tells me lately half the girls he sees are curious about him."

Ephraim laughed. "Too late. Even if they could get past the tigress, I don't imagine anything else would interest him much."

Whirling in Cord's arms, Anne was aware of nothing but the floating sensation and the eyes of gold so close to her own and so somber.

"You know, Annie, a long time ago an old man told me beauty doesn't mean much in a woman. It disappears with age. But he said some women have something better. They have a special glow that lasts all their life and just gets richer. You're like that. You really shine."

She could feel her eyes growing moist.

"Don't cry."

"I'm not."

Her hand slipped from his shoulder to his face without conscious thought. He rubbed his cheek lightly against her fingers and kissed her palm. The scandal would last a hundred years, she thought, and willed her hand back to his shoulder. The smile started then, a real smile, teeth flashing oh so white in his bronze face. Her heart soared, and in truth, that night Anne Wells Bennett was not the only one who saw beauty in her fierce, dark man.

About the Author.

Ellen O'Connell lives in Douglas County, Colorado. She raised, trained, and showed National Champion Morgan horses for over twenty years as Serendipity Morgans. She still keeps a Morgan mare, Serendipity B Wichin, although she now concentrates on rally, carting, and drafting compet.i.tion with her dogs. Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold is her second novel. Her website is www.oconnellauthor.com.

Also by Ellen O'Connell.

Rottweiler Rescue, a mystery for dog lovers.

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