He reached out, rested his fingers on her upper arm. His touch made her breathe harder.
“Please,” he said. “Stay.”
She wished he would move his hand. She wished he would reach up and stroke her cheek, cup her chin, and bring his mouth down hungrily on hers.
“So I can...help you catch an outlaw?” she forced out.
“That’s right.”
She grasped the answer with desperation. He didn’t really care about her, she told herself. She was just a tool with which he would bring Clay Galloway to justice. Thank the Lord for that! Now she could refuse his request with a clear conscience.
“And so I can get to know you better,” he added, and the look he gave her told Emily that he felt the same sort of heat she did.
Why, oh why had he gone and said that? Now what was she going to tell him?
“All right,” she said. “I still think it’s a loco idea, but we can talk about it, at least.”
A whistle shrilled, and Nick smiled as he said, “I think you’re gonna miss your train.”
* * *
The next day was Saturday, and Nick knew there would be a town social at the schoolhouse. Traditionally, that was where engagements were announced. It was the perfect place, because word of the impending marriage would get back to Galloway in a hurry.
Of course, he couldn’t pull this off without some help, and there was one more person he had to enlist in his cause.
“Nick Braddock!” Aggie said. She threw her arms around him and pounded him on the back much like the preacher had. “It’s wonderful to see you again. It doesn’t seem possible, but you’ve grown even more.”
He smiled down at her and said, “While you haven’t changed a bit, Aggie. You’re still just as beautiful as ever.”
“Oh, go on with you, you big flatterer. Nobody’s ever accused me of bein’ beautiful.”
“I wouldn’t say that. Emily gets her looks from somewhere.”
Nick glanced over at Emily and saw that she was blushing at his words. That made her even prettier as far as he was concerned.
Suddenly he wondered if he had come up with this “loco idea”, as Emily termed it, in order to catch Clay Galloway, or if he just liked the idea of pretending to be engaged to her. He’d get to spend a lot of time with her over the next week or so, and that prospect definitely was appealing.
“What are you doing back in Buffalo Flats?” Aggie asked. She frowned as she went on, “You’re chasing Clay Galloway, aren’t you?”
“Somebody has to bring him to justice.”
Aggie sighed. “I’d say that isn’t your job...” She tapped the badge pinned to his shirt. “But obviously it is. You’re going to have a hell of a time finding him, though.”
“I know that. That’s why I’m going to make him come to me.”
Aggie shook her head and asked, “How are you going to do that?”
“Actually, your niece is going to help me,” Nick said, “and I hope you will, too.”
He sketched in the plan for her: the announcement of his engagement to Emily and their wedding a week later.
“Wait a minute,” Emily protested. “You said we’d have to pretend to be engaged. You didn’t say anything about a wedding.”
“Well, we won’t go through with it, of course,” Nick said. “But we need the urgency of that deadline to draw Galloway in. The whole thing has to be believable, though, and that’s where you come in, Aggie.”
“What do you want me to do?” the older woman asked.
“Everybody in town knows and respects you. If you tell people that Emily and I have been courting for a while, back on her family’s ranch, folks will believe you.”
“Yeah,” Aggie mused as she nodded slowly. “I reckon they would.”
“That way it won’t seem like we’re rushing things so much. It’ll ring true to Galloway when he hears about it.”
“If you announce your engagement one Saturday and get married the next Saturday, people are liable to think that Emily’s in the family way,” Aggie said bluntly.
“Aunt Agatha!” Emily exclaimed. “Really!”
“Well, it’s true,” Aggie said with a shrug.
“Maybe,” Nick said. He looked at Emily and went on, “And I’m sorry about that, I truly am. But when the wedding doesn’t really happen and the truth comes out, everybody will know that you haven’t done anything, uh, improper.”
“I should hope so,” she said.
“Are you gonna have a whole troop of Rangers waiting for Galloway at the church?” Aggie asked.
“No, that many strangers in town would tip off his friends that something might be going on. I’ll have to corral him myself.”
“That’ll be a risk.”
“I’ll let Sheriff Reynolds in on the plan,” Nick said. “And Walt Landry, too. But only at the last minute.”
“You really think this stands a chance of working?”
“If I didn’t, I’d never ask Emily to do something like this. I know she’s risking her reputation. Maybe more than that.”
“All I can say is that you’d better be damned careful of this girl,” Aggie declared. “Give me your word that no harm will come to her.”
Nick looked at Emily and spoke what was in his heart.
“I’d give my life to keep that from happening,” he said. He couldn’t take his eyes away from hers.
“In that case,” Aggie said, “count me in. I always did like gettin’ ready for a wedding!”
Chapter 9
Emily felt the eyes of the town on her as she walked into the schoolhouse on the arm of Nick Braddock. By now many of the people in Buffalo Flats knew her as Aggie’s niece, and some of them remembered Nick, too, since he’d grown up here. She saw smiles and nods of approval. One woman said loud enough for Emily to hear, “My, don’t they make a nice-looking couple!”
It was true. They did.
Emily wore a green dress that went with her eyes. Nick had shined his boots, put on a clean shirt, and donned a corduroy jacket. He wasn’t wearing his Ranger badge tonight, although he had it in his pocket if he needed it.
He wasn’t wearing a gun, either, and he had grumbled earlier that he felt naked without it, then flushed with embarrassment at his choice of words.
Aggie came in right behind them and headed for a group of her friends. As a former saloon owner, in many towns the so-called respectable women of the community wouldn’t have had anything to do with her, but she was such a fixture in Buffalo Flats that everyone accepted her. They also knew she was one of the most civic-minded citizens and had done a great deal for the town.
Some of Nick’s old friends came up to shake hands with him, slap him on the back, and smile in approval at Emily. She couldn’t help but bask a little in all the attention, especially Nick’s gentle touch on her arm or shoulder and the warm smiles he bestowed on her.
Too bad none of it was real.
The musicians—three fiddle players, two men with guitars, one fellow with a big bass fiddle, and the schoolmarm on the piano—struck up a merry tune, and Nick took Emily in his arms and swept her into the open space that had been cleared for dancing. With the music going on and everyone else concentrating on dancing, they were able to drop their guard for a moment.
“I think it’s going pretty well,” Nick said, quietly enough that they wouldn’t be overheard. “Everybody seems to believe that I’m really your beau.”
“Well, why wouldn’t they?” Emily murmured. “I’m sure Aggie’s spreading the story you gave her to tell, and that’ll just make them believe it even more.”
“Yeah, I hope so.” He smiled down at her. “Shoot, I almost believe it myself. If I’d been around that ranch of your pa’s, I might’ve been tempted to court you for true.”
“Might have been?” she said with a smile of her own.
He grew solemn as he said, “I’ve been pretty busy since I joined the Rangers. And, well, after some things that happened before, I haven�
��t had much interest in chasing after gals.”
“You mean with Galloway and your fiancée,” Emily said.
Nick stiffened. The arm he had around her waist tightened. She realized she had made a mistake by bringing that up.
“You heard about that, did you?”
“Just a little. Aunt Aggie told me.”
A harsh note crept into Nick’s voice as he said, “She doesn’t know the whole story. Nobody around here does.”
“What—”
Nick smiled again, and although the expression might have looked real to others, Emily could tell that it was forced.
“We’ve got a show to put on,” he said, and the sudden coldness in his voice, despite the smile on his rugged face, stabbed into her like a knife.
* * *
Even though Nick seemed to recover from his momentary anger or hurt or whatever it had been, the evening wasn’t as enjoyable as Emily had hoped it would be. Nick danced well. He was surprisingly graceful for a man of his size. If this had been real, Emily would have enjoyed herself immensely.
But whatever it was she had put between them refused to go away.
They did a good enough job of acting that they should have been on the stage, she thought. Eventually the time came when Aggie spoke to the sheriff, who then called for everyone’s attention.
“I reckon you all know Miss Aggie,” Reynolds said when the crowd had quieted down. “She’s got an announcement.”
Aggie’s voice carried to every corner of the schoolhouse as she said, “I’m just as pleased as I can be to announce that my niece Emily and Mr. Nick Braddock here, will be getting married next Saturday night at the Baptist church!”
Cheers and applause rose up and filled the building. Nick stood there with his arm around Emily’s shoulders, grinning as if he couldn’t be more pleased. She tried to do the same.
In the past she had thought about being engaged, had played out her wedding in her head. She’d never had a particular groom in mind, but the idea of a big, ruggedly handsome Ranger certainly wouldn’t have disappointed her.
She’d just never dreamed that a notorious outlaw would be part of the deal, too.
“Kiss her!” somebody shouted exuberantly, and others took up the cry. Nick glanced down at her, and Emily tried to look encouraging. It was part of the masquerade, after all.
He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. She could tell he meant for the kiss to be a quick one, just for show, but he lingered and his arms tightened around her as if of their own accord.
As if his body knew more about what he really wanted than he did.
When he finally broke the kiss, both of them were breathless. He ignored the applauding crowd and asked quietly, “Take a walk with me outside?”
“All right,” Emily said as her heart pounded.
The townspeople parted to let them through. They stepped out into the moonlight that filtered through the cottonwood branches. The school was on the edge of town, next to some open range. They strolled away from the brightly lit building. Nick spoke without looking at her.
“Emily, if you’re going to help me, you deserve to know the whole story. You need to know why I hate Clay Galloway so much. I don’t want to catch him just because it’s my job.”
“I know that,” she said. “He stole your fiancée.”
“He didn’t just steal her. He killed her.”
Emily caught her breath. She knew that Galloway was an outlaw and probably deserved whatever happened to him, but he hadn’t struck her as a murderer.
Nick shook his head and went on, “He didn’t shoot her or anything like that. But he abandoned her when he found out she was...expecting. She left town rather than face the shame of it. I learned later that she went to El Paso and...and hung herself in a cheap hotel room there.”
Emily put a hand to her mouth in horror. “Oh, dear Lord,” she said. “That poor girl.”
“Laura and I could have had a fine life together,” Nick said. “Galloway took that away from us, and it’s because of him that she lost everything. What’s bad is that there are probably other girls like that, here and in other places. Other lives he’s ruined.”
“He deserves to be behind bars,” Emily declared. “And that’s where we’re going to put him.”
“You still want to go through with this?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Now you know it’s not just a matter of the law. It’s personal with me, too. I want revenge on Galloway for all the harm he’s done.”
“He deserves it, doesn’t he?” she asked.
“I sure think he does.”
“I’m Grady Savage’s daughter, Nick. I may not be the cowgirl my little sister is, but I was raised on the frontier, in a harsh place and a harsh time. You’re not talking about revenge. You’re talking about justice.”
Finally, he looked at her, and his hand came up to caress her cheek.
“You’re a woman after my own heart, Emily Savage,” he murmured.
Then he kissed her again, and one thought clamored through Emily’s mind.
There was no audience this time, no reason for this kiss not to be real.
Chapter 10
Nick pulled at the tight collar around his neck and asked himself how things had gotten this far. He was standing in church with the preacher on one side of him and Sheriff Reynolds as best man on the other, wearing an uncomfortable suit as he looked out at what appeared to be most of the population of Buffalo Flats crowded into the pews, while he waited for his bride to come up the aisle and join him.
His bride...who little more than a week ago had been a near total stranger to him.
Where had the week gone?
For one thing, it had passed in a very pleasurable fashion as he spent as much time as he could with Emily, taking the role he was playing seriously. They had acted like he thought an engaged couple should act, sitting in the parlor together at Aggie’s house, taking their meals together, sitting side by side in church on Sunday morning, going for walks...Shoot, one day he had even taken her on a picnic, loading her up in Aggie’s buggy and driving out into the countryside until he found a suitable tree-shaded spot on the banks of a creek.
He’d been wearing his Colt that day and had a Winchester and a shotgun in the buggy as well, hidden under a blanket. If Clay Galloway had been keeping an eye on them, the temptation of having the two of them away from town like this might be too much for him to pass up. Nick was ready for trouble.
Instead, all that had happened was that he and Emily had passed a very pleasant afternoon with each other. In fact, at one point they had found themselves lying on the grassy bank with their arms around each other, and even now Nick’s heart thumped heavily as he recalled how arousing her nearness had been to him. He could have easily gotten carried away, and he sensed that she could have, too.
They had resisted, but they’d both been pretty flustered by the time they returned to town.
Then it had been only one day until the wedding. The fake wedding, Nick had had to remind himself. He almost felt like he was really getting married.
“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” he had asked Emily the night before. “You don’t have to, you know. We can call the whole thing off.”
“We don’t have to do that,” she’d said. “Think about it. What more dramatic moment could Galloway pick to show up than just as we’re getting married? Why, when Mr. Landry asks if anyone has any objections, that would be the perfect time for Galloway to make his entrance.”
Nick knew she was right about that. Clay had always liked being the center of attention. You couldn’t get much more attention than interrupting a wedding.
So here they were, and as the organist began playing the Wedding March, Emily appeared at the back of the church, wearing the beautiful white gown that several of Aggie’s friends had spent the week sewing and carrying a big bouquet of gorgeous wildflowers. Along the length of the aisle, Nick met her eyes.
She smiled and gave him the tiniest of nods. He saw the determination in her gaze. She was ready to carry on.
But he wasn’t. It was time to put a stop to this. He’d explained the whole thing to Walt and he knew the preacher wouldn’t actually go through with the marrying, but Nick didn’t see any point in putting Emily through any more embarrassment. He drew in a deep breath and started to step forward.
Emily had started up the aisle toward him. She frowned, as if telling him to wait. Aggie, who was standing at the front of the church as her matron of honor, cleared her throat and gave Nick a stern look, too.
What in blazes was going on here? Clearly, Emily and Aggie wanted the charade to continue for some reason.
Nick supposed it wouldn’t hurt to wait a couple more minutes and hope that Galloway showed up...
Emily reached the head of the aisle and stepped up beside Nick, both of them turning to face the preacher. Walt had his Bible in his hand but didn’t need to open it to find any words. He had performed hundreds of these ceremonies.
“Dearly beloved,” he began, “we are gathered here in the sight of God and these friends to join together Emily Anne Savage and Nicholas John Braddock in the state of holy matrimony.”
What the hell? Nick thought. Walt was actually starting the wedding!
Nick’s head was spinning. He barely heard the preacher’s words. Not that it really mattered, he told himself, since this was all fake. He and Emily weren’t actually getting married.
Walt said something about a ring. Nick started a little, then reached in his breast pocket. He had a ring. It had belonged to his grandmother, and he had carried it around for several years...ever since Laura Parkhurst had taken it off her finger and given it back to him.
Now Emily had her hand out, waiting for him to take it and slip the ring on her finger.
What else could he do?
“It’s all right,” she whispered as her fingers tightened on his. “We’ll play it out.”
“You’re sure?” he asked under his breath.
“I’m certain.”
Then Nick was repeating vows and saying “I do” and the world revolved even crazier around him and Walt Landry said, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”
Lassoing a Bride Page 16