She dodged out of his path and headed for the washstand, which was all of two feet away. Ignoring his grumbling, Helen took a handful of water from the china bowl and began to gargle, spitting into a brass bowl on the floor.
Gargle, spit. Gargle, spit. Gargle, spit. “Glug… glug… glug… glug… glug… glug…”
He felt like fingernails were scraping across his eyeballs.
“Do you think we could buy a toothbrush and toothpowder today?” she asked blithely. “Glug… glug… glug… glug…glug… glug…”
Rafe crossed his eyes. His frayed nerves would surely break with one more “glug.”
“Glug…glug…gl — ”
He grabbed her by the forearms and shook her, which was a big mistake. Her unconfined breasts moved under the T-shirt, drawing his eyes like an X-rated magnet.
He dropped his hands and turned away, fighting for composure. When he felt sure he could speak above a croak, he demanded, “Where did you go this morning?”
“Lily’s Fandango Parlor.”
That was the last thing he’d expected. He jerked about and stared at her in astonishment. She was peering into a small, wavy mirror over the washstand, cleaning her teeth with a twig, oblivious to his outrage.
“What did you say?”
She put the twig down and faced him, a secretive, pleased look on her face. She’d pulled her hair back off her face into a ponytail, tied at the nape with a piece of lace from her gown. She would have looked like a little girl if it weren’t for her lush, kiss-swollen lips.
He gulped.
“I went to Lily’s. And you were right, it is a brothel.”
Oh, brother!
“Did you know that those women get fifty dollars for something called ‘Hair of the Dog’?”
He put both hands on his hips and grinned, despite his being upset.
Her eyes followed his hands to his hips, then dropped lower. Her head flew up like a rocket and her face turned beet red.
He was very pleased. So was a certain part of his body.
She made a slight coughing sound, then continued. “You should have seen the outfit one of the girls was wearing — pure Victoria’s Secret. Anyhow, it was really hard to find Lily’s because it didn’t have a sign outside, and I had to go to Big John’s and wake him up to give me directions. He’s the one who gave me the coffee and cinnamon bun. So, you should be really grateful for all the trouble I went to.”
“Grateful? Grateful? Do you have any idea how dangerous it was to leave this room? And why the hell did you go to Lily’s?”
Smiling, she reached into her back pocket, which only accentuated the outline of what had to be the most perfect breasts in all creation. He was afraid he might lose it right there on the spot.
“Well? Aren’t you going to take it? It’s a gift for you.”
“What?” he blinked, feeling like a blundering idiot.
She held her open palm out in front of him, offering him his gold crucifix and chain. His heart stopped, then started beating so fast he thought it might explode. Chug chug chug chug… He was pretty sure tears were welling in his eyes.
As if understanding, Helen pulled his hand forward, opened the tight fist, and placed her “gift” in his hand.
“Oh, God,” he whispered. Then, “Why?”
She shrugged and went to the other side of the room, packing their few extra garments into her backpack. “I could tell how much it meant to you, and you were willing to give it up for us. It was the least I could do.”
He forced the lump back in his throat as he put the chain around his neck. Other than his mother, no one had ever done such an unselfish thing for him. If he’d had trouble getting Helen out of his system in the past, how would he ever forget her now? Even if he survived this time-travel fiasco, he would never be the same. Never.
“Did you take some gold to pay for it?” he asked finally.
She nodded, her back turned to him.
“How much did she charge?” Rafe hoped it wasn’t too much. They were going to need a hell of a lot of gold to outfit themselves for the mining camps.