Upon a Midnight Clear (Legend, Colorado 2)

"Courage," she said aloud to herself, then knocked on the door. The gruffness of the "Come in" almost made her turn and run, but she took a breath and opened the door.

He was sitting behind his big desk, his head down. "Mr. Jordan," she began, but he interrupted her.

"So you won, did you?" he said, leaning back in his chair and scowling.

"I want you to know that what I did was out of necessity. I would never have resorted to a court of law if I hadn't been in desperate need."

"Desperate need," he said. "Ah yes, I know that feeling." Looking like some great prowling beast, with his brows drawn into a scowl, Cole rose and came around the desk to glare down at Kathryn.

With stiff arms and her hands made into fists, she stood her ground. She was not going to let him see how much she regretted everything that had happened.

"Mrs. de Longe, let me tell you about 'desperate need.' I own this town, and that means that everyone and everything in it is my responsibility. On top of that responsibility, I have the sole care of a hellion of a son. His mother, may she rest in peace, dumped him on my doorstep the night before she ran off with a circus performer."

At that Kathryn raised her eyebrows. A circus performer?

He was advancing on her, but Kathryn refused to retreat. "I need someone who can handle that boy. You don't know what he is like."

"I can see what you have allowed him to become," she said with more courage than she felt.

"Oh?" Cole said, one eyebrow raised. "Should I have kept him tied to me as you have that son of yours? Pardon me, Mrs. de Longe, but I do not want my son raised to be the puny, frightened little creature that your son is. I want my son to grow to be a man."

Kathryn could take anything anyone gave to her, but she couldn't take what he was saying about Jeremy. "How dare you?" she said, moving toward him and standing on tiptoe so she was closer to his level. "My son is more of a man than that ill-mannered, selfish creature you have raised. My son isn't halfway to being hanged for the criminal he is."

"Criminal?" Cole said, his face furious as he was nearly nose to nose with her.

Then suddenly, he seemed to change. As he stepped away, there was a smile on his face, a wicked little smile. "Yes, Mrs. de Longe, Zachary is on his way to becoming a criminal, which is why I needed someone who could handle him. You…" He looked her up and down with contempt. "You can only handle boys who say, Yes ma'am and No ma'am, and know which fork to use."

"I can handle anyone," she said under her breath, still seething at his remarks about Jeremy. "I can teach your son and discipline your son and—" She broke off because he was laughing at her, as though what she'd said was extremely amusing—and ridiculous.

"You?" he said, laughing. "I have a dog that outweighs you, and a prison warden couldn't handle that son of mine."

Truthfully, Kathryn agreed with him, but she couldn't back down now. "I can and I will control your—" She broke off as he picked up a check from off his desk and handed it to her. "What is this?"

"It's a bank draft for two years' salary. When I'm wrong I admit it. It was my son who was the liar, not you. I pay my debts, so there's the money I promised you in the contract"

Kathryn stood there looking at the check in her hand. It was what she wanted, what she'd gone to court to get. So why wasn't she halfway out the door by now? She looked up at him. "Who will you get to teach your son? Will you hire that woman who has worked with the criminally insane?"

"Yes," he said simply.

"Then I don't want this," she said as she put the check back onto his desk. "Your son needs a teacher, and I have been hired to be that teacher, as well as being ordered to by the court."

"That's very noble of you," Cole said. "But also very stupid. My son is not for the likes of someone like you."

"And what am I, Mr. Jordan? Since you seem to know a great deal about me, I'd like to know what it is you do know about me. Other than that you think I'm trying to trap you into marriage, that is."

At that, the corner of Cole's mouth quirked into a bit of a smile. "You're a lady," he said as he sat on the desk, his long legs stretching into the room. "And since you're in this hellhole of a town, my guess is that you're running from something or someone. People in Legend often come here to hide from something. You say you're a widow, but lady widows usually have rich relatives to take care of them. So where are your rich relatives?"

It was Kathryn's turn to smile. "You are not a good judge of character, Mr. Jordan. I am not a 'lady,' as you call it. My mother was a cook for a large estate, and my father worked in the stables until he died when I was five. When the daughter of the house proved too stupid to educate, it was decided that perhaps if she had a companion she might better learn, so I was schooled with her. But even though I was educated in the main house, I was never, ever treated as anything except the cook's daughter. As for Jeremy's father, that is none of your business. Now, would it be possible that someone could show

me where my son and I are to stay?"

"Stay?" Cole asked. "You can't stay here. And you can't possibly take on Zachary. He—"

"Double my salary says that I can and will get that young man under control, and I'll do it within a week. As long as you give me a free hand, that is."

Cole opened his mouth to speak but closed it, then he smiled in a knowing way. "You're on. One week. Double your salary." Putting out his hand, he shook hers, and the look in his eye said that this was one bet he was sure he was going to win.

For a moment Kathryn felt exhilarated that she had won, but at the same time she felt terror running through her as she remembered the way young Zachary had pulled a whiskey bottle from the arms of a woman and downed half of it. "W… where do we stay?" she asked, taking her hand from his because he had not released it. Instead, he was standing there staring at her in a way that was making Kathryn feel decidedly uncomfortable.