Hidden Fires

Last night he had wanted her with a passion that surpassed anything he had ever experienced before, and the culmination had been earthmoving. Memories of the hours they had spent in his bed still stirred him.

He didn’t need that, either. He didn’t want her to be special. To feel the way he was coming to feel toward her would be dangerous with any woman, but with her, it was insanity. She had come to Texas for Ben Lockett, not his son. And she had only married him for the twenty thousand dollars; no doubt she’d leave as soon as she got the money. His face became an ugly sneer and he threw off her hands, sending her reeling backward.

“Who the hell are you to tell me anything about it? Have you lived here all your life? Have you ever been down to see the way those people live? It’s a cesspool, Lauren. The dregs of society. Whores and gamblers and thieves. You don’t know what you’re talking about when you plead with me to save it.”

“I’m sure that element of society is there. But there are innocent people who will suffer needlessly.” To emphasize her words, she gripped his upper arms again.

“Don’t presume to interfere in my life,” he hissed and impatiently flung off her hands. His gesture carried more impetus with it than he had intended and he watched in bitter remorse when his hand flew up and caught her in the lip, cutting the tender flesh on her teeth and drawing blood.

They were held suspended in surprise, stunned by what had happened.

Jared was the first to rouse himself. He reached into his breast pocket and withdrew a handkerchief, extending it toward her. “I’m sorry, Lauren. Here—” He reached to blot up the thread of blood.

“Don’t touch me!” She jerked away from him and slapped his hand away. The handkerchief fluttered to the floor. “I don’t want anything from you. You’re just like the rest of them. Leave me alone.”

Animosity lay between them like a great gulf. Her gray eyes, stormy and hostile, met his hard and unyielding gaze. “So be it,” he said after a long silence. “You won’t be bothered with my touching you ever again.”

She fled the room and rushed for the stairs. She was halfway up when Jared halted her. “I’m going to Austin tomorrow. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

She looked down at him. In spite of her disillusionment, she loved him. During their argument, his hair had become mussed and hung over his forehead, shadowing his eyes, making their expression indiscernible. His booted foot was resting on the bottom step, his arm draped over the bannister. His dishevelment only added to his handsomeness. Her heart cried, “Jared, I love you!”

But she said nothing. Not even goodbye.

* * *

“I’m leaving for Keypoint tomorrow and I’m taking Elena with me.” Lauren faced Olivia across the wide expanse of Ben’s desk. She had made a decision and was now daring Olivia to protest her action. “I think Gloria will need all the help she can get with her new baby coming. Elena and Carlos need to live together, like the family they are. I shall ask Rudy to give them one of the cabins on the ranch.”

“The foreman doesn’t make decisions for Keypoint, Lauren.” Olivia was seething. How dare she mention that bastard and his brood to her? Lauren was deliberately provoking her as she had done for the past several days.

The morning Jared left, Lauren had

launched her campaign. Before Olivia was privy to her intentions, Lauren had organized a church committee strictly for the purpose of aiding and abetting the community of Pueblo.

Lauren’s head wasn’t in the clouds. She realized that if the citizenry of Coronado had really been concerned about their Mexican counterparts, they would have done something long before now. She used her new last name to its full extent. Sweetly she asked for help as Jared Lockett’s wife on a project they had conceived. Her victims were powerless to refuse.

She had coaxed a reluctant Pepe to drive her through the streets of the town and she had been appalled at what she saw. In the bright sunlight, all of Pueblo’s ugliness and deprivation were displayed like open wounds. Lauren had been shocked at the lack of sanitation, the poverty, the sickness, the squalor.

Under Lauren’s direction, the church ladies commissioned other social groups to start charitable projects of their own. Old clothing was collected and distributed. Lumber—albeit used—was donated for construction projects. And Lauren wrote to the university in Austin, asking them if medical students would consider establishing clinics for the treatment of the sick and to teach basic lessons on hygiene.

When Olivia heard about Lauren’s efforts from a guileless bank customer, she barely made it home before her temper erupted with the impetus of a volcano.

She began the interview in the office with, “You will desist from your ridiculous project immediately.”

Lauren didn’t pretend to misunderstand. She had come into the office well armed for combat. “I will not sit here and discuss anything with you until the drapes behind the desk are drawn.” Whether Olivia was shocked by Lauren’s bravery or too stunned by anger to object, she sat silently while Lauren calmly went to the windows and drew the drapes. When she returned to the chair opposite the desk she said, “Now, Olivia, I believe you have an opinion on my activities in Pueblo.”

“Your interference in that community is sheer lunacy!” Olivia fairly screamed. “Whatever ‘committees’ you have organized will die a sudden death, starting now. Am I understood?”

“You are, but no, none of the projects I’ve started will be stopped.”

“I’ll see to it that they are,” she threatened with a tone of voice that would have intimidated many a brawny man.

Lauren didn’t even blink. “I don’t think you will,” she stated calmly. “What would everyone think if my ‘noble’ efforts were halted by my own mother-in-law?”

“No one would know,” Olivia said with a trace of amusement. Was the girl simple?

“Yes they would. I’d tell them.”

“Oh, I see. It’s your intention to disgrace me?”