Vivid by Beverly Jenkins Page B

physician, after all. A simple discussion of physical functions will not
send me running to the hills."
    Nate eyed her. Despite her claim to the
contrary, she appeared as ruffled as a schoolgirl. He found this facet of the
vivid Dr. Lancaster unexpected and quite interesting. "So no beaus and no
desire for a husband."
    "No."
    Nate didn't believe her at all. Most of
the young women he knew were forever angling for a man. And he was certain a
woman as beautiful as she would have her pick of bachelors. "So you've
never been in love?"
    He'd dredged up another sore point. She
simply shook her head, unwilling to confide her despair of ever finding a man
who'd truly value her enough to share her dreams. "And have you?" she
finally asked.
    "I thought I was at one time, but I
was wrong."
    She sensed by the sadness in his tone that
Nate Grayson had been hurt very badly in the past and wondered when and by
whom. "Do you still believe in love?"
    "Despite my own failure, I do. My
mother died when I was nine, but I distinctly remember my parents loving each
other very much. I'd hoped to share that with someone one day."
    "Do you continue to hold that
hope?"
    "No."
    Nate had never discussed such things with
a woman before and he felt odd and a bit out of his realm.
    "My parents are deeply bound to each
other also," she said. “My father likes to say he had as much business
courting my mother as a goat had going to school."
    Nate met her smile with one of his own.
"What did he mean by that?"
    "He was a runaway working on the San
Francisco docks. My mother was the only daughter of one of the wealthiest men
in California."
    "I see what your father meant.
Society says he wasn't even supposed to look at a woman of her class. How did
they meet?"
    "He was on the docks one evening when
Mama and my grandparents were leaving a ship. He said at the time she was the
most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, slave or free. And he didn't let his
station in life deter him. He wooed her and eventually married her. She gave up
her inheritance to be his wife."
    "Would you give up a fortune to be a
wife?"
    Vivid looked up into his eyes. "A
fortune, possibly. My medicine, no."
    He chuckled. "Lancaster, I hope I'm
around to see you eat Coyote's black currants one day."
    "Coyote's black currants?"
    "It's an old Native tale about a
young maiden who enjoys working so much, she refuses to marry any of the braves
in the village. Coyote makes her fall in love with him by bringing her black
currants. I'll tell you the rest some other time."
    "So in other words, you wish to see
me struck by Cupid's arrow?"
    "Something like that, yes."
    "Oh ye of little faith. Not every
female is rendered mindless just because a man brings her flowers or writes her
sonnets in which moon always rhymes with June. The women of today are looking
toward the next century. There are issues to confront, a race to move forward,
and we are not content to make a man's home our sole reason for being."
    "Traveling life's road alone breeds
loneliness. Believe me, I speak from experience."
    It was not the rejoinder Vivid had
expected. She sensed a depth in him she'd not felt before that moment. He was
far more complex than she'd originally thought him to be, and whether or not
she cared to admit it, she found him intriguing. Vivid shook herself out of her
reverie. How on earth had she gotten on this track in the first place? She
decided to change topics, as the course they had begun could only prove
dangerous. "So I should hear from Vernon soon about his uncle's
animal?"
    "Yes."
    Nate had no name for what had just passed
between them, but something had changed. He was certain she'd felt it, too. He
picked up his hat and started toward the door. "I'll be escorting you to
the ladies' tea tomorrow."
    Vivid was surprised. Why hadn't he
mentioned that early on? She wondered. She also didn't think his escorting her
was a good idea. She and Nate Grayson would undoubtedly end up disagreeing over
something on the