"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.
"Anywhere," he said, then turned his back on her as he looked at some papers on his desk. "Take whatever rooms you want. The house is mostly empty."
"All right," she said softly, then started for the door.
"Mrs. de Longe?"
She paused with her hand on the door.
"I'll be away in Denver for the next week. I usually take my son with me, but since you seem convinced that you can handle him, I'll leave him in your care." "Yes, certainly," she said with as much courage as she could summon. How in the world was she going to control that horrid boy for a whole week? Should she ask where the whips and chains were stored?
"If you should change your mind after the first day or so, I'll leave this draft here. You can cash it at the Legend bank, and you and your son may leave at any time."
"And who will look after your son?"
"He seems to be rather good at taking care of himself," Cole said. "I've never found that he needs anyone."
"Like you, Mr. Jordan?" she said. "Perhaps he is merely echoing your sentiments, that you believe you need no one else on earth."
Turning, Cole gave her that little smirk again. "I see. Now let me guess, Mrs. de Longe. You think you are just the person I need."
Kathryn gave him a very sweet smile. "Mr. Jordan, I hope your horse steps into a hole and you fall and break your neck. Good day, sir." As she firmly shut the door behind him, she heard his laughter.
"Mother, you have gone mad," Jeremy said when he heard what she had done. "You should have taken the money and we could have left this horrible place. Zachary is incorrigible. And the father is as bad. I've heard that--"