He was feeling duped. He no longer believed she was only out horseback riding. She had left him for good.
“But where could she have gone?” he said, scratching his brow.
His jaw tight, he hurried to Jade, who was preparing food for their evening meal.
He took her by an arm and swung her around to face him. “You know all about it, don’t you?” he said, wheezing hard as he waited for her reply.
“All about what, sir?” Jade asked, feeling weak. She was afraid that he was about to try to force answers from her, but no matter what he did, she wouldn’t betray Jessie.
Jessie was the lucky one. She had escaped this madman. Now if only Jessie could find a way to include Jade and Lee-Lee in her plan!
“You knew about her plan to leave, didn’t you?” Reginald said, his hand squeezing Jade’s fleshy arm.
“Nay sir, I did not,” Jade said, her voice small because the fear inside her was so great.
“Are you saying that you had no idea she was planning to leave me?” Reginald shouted, releasing her arm.
“Nay I did not,” Jade said, flinching when he raised his hand as though he was going to hit her. She breathed a sigh of relief when he dropped it back down to his side.
“Oh, well, she’s not worth bothering over anyway,” Reginald said. He turned and glared out the kitchen window toward the corral where his prized horses grazed on thick grass.
“Are you saying she’s gone . . . forever?” Jade dared to ask, trying to pretend innocence.
“More than likely,” Reginald said, shrugging as he walked away from Jade and left the kitchen.
He went to Jessie’s room and opened the chifferobe, where the clothes he had recently purchased for her were hanging.
Angrily he yanked one from a wooden hanger and pitched it to the floor. He continued doing so until everything he had bought was piled in the center of the room.
He went to the corridor and shouted Jade’s name.
She hurried to him, her eyes fearful as she gazed at him. “Yes, sir?” she said. “You called me?”
“Take all these clothes and burn them,” Reginald shouted, gesturing toward the lovely creations. “I don’t want anything in my house to remind me of her. Do you hear?”
“But . . . what if she returns?” Jade asked, playing her role to the hilt.
“If she does, I’ll buy her some more,” Reginald said, shrugging. “Go. Take them. Get them out of my sight, and yourself as well. You sicken me, Jade. Sicken me!”
Jade cowered beneath his glare, then gathered the clothes into her arms and ran from the room.
When she reached the kitchen stove, she began shoving one dress at a time into the flames, then stood back while tears rolled down her cheeks. How she felt Jessie’s absence now! She feared she might never see her again. If only she could believe that Jessie would remember her and Lee-Lee, living with Reginald a few more days would be worth it.
But if Jessie didn’t come back to help her, Jade had her own ideas as to how she would escape and rescue her daughter. Jessie’s success had given her the nerve to try.
She heard Reginald stamping down the corridor toward his room, then flinched when he slammed his door. Afterward, the house was silent.
Reginald sank down in his rocking chair before the fireplace in his bedroom and began slowly rocking back and forth as he tried to figure out what he would tell his friends about Jessie
’s sudden strange disappearance. Although he had decided to forget her, and was even hoping the coyotes would remove all traces of her from this land, he had others to think about.
He had been stupid to allow Jessie to interfere in his life, yet she could have added so much to his parties. She was so pretty and all. But soon she wouldn’t be pretty. She’d be fat with child.
The one thing that now concerned him about her disappearance was how he could explain her absence to those he so badly wanted to impress. It was crucial that he keep people’s attention away from what he did besides attending church and giving parties.
If any of the decent townsfolk heard about his cribs, he would be ignored or treated like trash for the rest of his life. And he couldn’t bear that thought. He enjoyed the kind of attention the upstanding citizens of Tombstone gave him.
“What can I tell them?” Reginald asked himself, wheezing.