“I most certainly will not stay out of this,” she said with so much feeling that the front of her dress fell forward, but she caught it and hoped the men hadn’t noticed. If she ever got out of this, she was going to give Tynan a piece of her mind. Of all the audacious things any man had ever done to her, this was one of the worst. She was tempted to let Mr. Sayers have him.
“Miss Mathison, I have to take offense at this. I have met your father several times and I cannot believe that he’d want his daughter pawed by a man of this sort in an alleyway.”
Tynan took a step forward, and Chris put herself between the two men. “My father hired this man to protect me and he is doing just that. You, Mr. Sayers, are the unwanted person. As it happens, Mr. Tynan has just asked me to marry him and I have, quite happily, accepted. Now, I do believe that a man has a right to kiss his intended without being molested by the local bully.”
Rory Sayers stepped back at that. “Bully? Pardon me, Miss, I had thought you were a lady of higher ideals than to take up with this…this criminal. I can only think that you know nothing about him.”
“I know that he was put into jail for two years without any evidence.” Holding her dress, her back to Tynan, she advanced on Rory. “I know that he’s never known who his parents are and that he’s never had the advantages of money that you have had. And even though he’s not had a formal education, he speaks like a gentleman, reads Voltaire in his spare time, and he constantly puts his life on the line to help other people. Can you say the same thing, Mr. Sayers?”
Rory straightened his back. “You are not the lady I took you for,” he said and after one look at Tynan, turned, Asher on his heels, and went down the street.
“He can’t say those things about you,” Tynan said and started after the men.
Chris planted herself in front of him. “Don’t you dare,” she said through her teeth. “Don’t you dare even think of going after him.” She began backing him into the dark alley. “Especially don’t you think of avenging my ‘honor’. What do you know of a ladies’ honor?”
“Chris, I—”
“Look at this!” she gasped, turning her back to him and showing him the unbuttoned dress. “How dare you try to remove my clothing!”
“Oh,” he said with a slight grin. “I guess it’s just habit. I didn’t even think about it.”
“Habit!” she gasped. “Whenever you kiss a girl you unbutton her dress?”
“Well,” he said slowly, still backing up. “Most girls I kiss want their dresses off. You seemed to like it well enough.”
“Of all the vain—I should have allowed Mr. Sayers to shoot you. You certainly well deserved it
.” She began to fasten her dress, struggling with the many tiny buttons.
“He can’t shoot at all. All he can do is push a pencil around and flap his gums. Here, let me do that. I can button them as fast as I can unbutton them.”
“And I guess you’ve had practice at that often enough,” she said as he turned her around and began to fasten her dress.
“Sometimes you need to get into clothes real fast. There now, all done. I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”
“Not on your life. Frankly, Mr. Tynan, this has gone far enough. You don’t want to go to jail and I’d like to get home to my father. I think that tomorrow we should start south toward my home.”
“We can wait one more day. Look, Chris, you’re not going to make a fool of me in front of this town—and especially not in front of Sayers. You told him we were engaged and I want at least a day of acting like we’re engaged. I’d like to show these people that I can…”
“Can get a ‘good’ girl like me?” she asked softly. She put her hand on his chest. “Tynan, perhaps I’ve misled you. Perhaps it was the rain forest, the feeling of being isolated, something that made me lose my sense of proportion, but now that we’re back to civilization, I think we should stay away from each other. After all, you would have to go back to prison if you touched me.”
He took her upper arm in his hand and bent his face close to hers. “Right now Sayers is in a saloon telling half the people in this town that Nola Dallas is going to marry the murderer. And you’re the one who gave him that idea.”
She smiled at him in such a way that he took a step backward. “Tomorrow is Sunday. How about church in the morning and I’ve been invited to the town picnic later. Shall we appear as an engaged couple? Just for the day, of course, and on Monday we can start the journey home. And then we’ll no longer be engaged. Does that suit you?”
“Church?” he asked and even in the darkness, she could see his face turning pale.
“Church,” she said firmly and slipped her arm through his. “We’d better get out of this alleyway or my reputation will be ruined, engaged or not. I’ll see you the first thing in the morning.” They were almost back at the hotel. “Cheer up, Mr. Tynan, I’ll make sure that you enjoy the day. Goodnight, dear,” she said to him as she smiled at a passerby. “You may kiss my cheek,” she whispered, “and don’t unbutton so much as a cuff, if you don’t mind.”
Still too stunned to speak, Ty bent and kissed her cheek, then looked up to see three women standing in the hotel lobby looking at him with disapproving eyes. On impulse, he grabbed Chris about the waist and kissed her quite thoroughly.
When he released her, Chris had to catch a chair back to keep from falling.
“See you in the morning, sweetheart,” Ty said with a wink, replaced his hat and left the hotel.
Chris tried to regain her composure. “Oh, my, but he does get carried away,” she said, smoothing her dress front. “Goodnight,” she said to the women who were watching her with their mouths hanging open.
Chris whistled all the way up the stairs.