Colorado Bride
Page 22
“I didn’t know anybody thought you did, but why do you feel the need to announce it so fiercely? Are you expecting trouble?” It was Lucas, and he was smiling endearingly at Carrie. Her anger melted and color rushed to her face, but she refused to let her disconcerting reaction to him shake her determination to ensure Found’s well-being.
“I was just making it clear to Katie and Jake that they’re to be gentle with this child. They don’t seem to think he can be trusted.”
Lucas walked over to Found and lifted his face by putting his hand under his chin. “I don’t know why not. He looks like a right good specimen of the human race to me. Might even be handsome if he was cleaned up and properly clodied.”
“He most certainly will be, and don’t you call him a specimen again. His name is Willis McCoy.” Found shook his head vigorously.
“It’s not your name?” Carrie asked. “I guess Jake meant that was your father’s.” Found shook his head again. “Then what is your name?” He was still.
“I think he’s trying to tell you he doesn’t like his name,” Lucas said. “Is that it?” Found nodded.
“What do you want us to call you?” Found looked up at Carrie, his big brown eyes open and trusting. “I was only calling you Found until you could tell me your real name.” Found nodded his head vigorously. “You want to be called Found?” she asked, surprise in her voice. Found nodded again.
“Faith, that’s peculiar,” Katie commented. “I wonder why?”
“You never know with a squatter’s kid” Jake said. They’re a shiftless bunch set on stealing anything that’s not tied down.”
“You should be ashamed of yourself, Jake Bemis, lumping everybody into one category just like nice people can’t be poor.”
“He can’t help it, Mrs. Simpson. Scamps and rascals is all he knows anything about,” Katie said scathingly. “He’s after judging others by what he knows himself.”
“I’m not surprised you were run out of Ireland,” Jake said, sitting down at the table so he could see Katie out of the corner of his eye and pulling one of the full plates toward him. “With a tongue like yours, you could stir up a full-scale rebellion all by yourself.” Lucas caught Carrie’s eye over Found’s head and winked. She smiled and blushed in return.
“I took out of Ireland because it was full of drunkards and shiftless no-accounts,” Katie replied promptly, “too many of them blessed with a handsome smile and a tongue ready to wrap itself around any handy lie. If I’d known I was going to meet the same kind of varmint in Colorado, I’d have taken meself off somewhere else.”
“If travel is what you’ve set your heart on,” Jake said, filling his mouth with as much food as he could fit inside at one time, “then you go settle your tongue on Fort Malone. I’ll wager a month’s pay that inside a week they’ll be taking up a collection to send you anywhere you want to go.”
“You two can abuse each other some other time,” Carrie admonished, trying to suppress a smile. “Right now I’m more interested in deciding what to do with Found.”
“I don’t want to do nothing with him,” Jake insisted. “I ain’t got time to teach him how to live indoors like a human, not with me worrying every minute that he might be stealing the bits out of the horses’ mouths.”
“I’ll take him,” Lucas offered. “He looks like a handy boy to have around.” He glanced over at Jake. “Besides, there’s nothing over at my place to steal. You like horses?” he asked Found, and the boy nodded shyly. “Good. I’ve got a dozen to break to harness, and I could use some help.”
“I’m glad that’s setded,” Carrie said, hard-pressed to keep from gazing in a decidedly love-sick manner at Lucas, “but he’s going to have to sleep in the barn with Jake. There’s no room at your cabin or ours. And I don’t want him sleeping at the station by himself, not at first anyway.”
“Where am I going to put him?” Jake asked plaintively. “There ain’t but one bed in the tack room.”
“Let him sleep in the loft if you like, but I don’t want him sleeping by himself until he gets used to being here.”
“I don’t know why. If his parents are dead, instead of gone off and left him, which wouldn’t surprise me at all, squatters being the sorry lot they are, he’s plenty used to being by himself.”
“I’ll have no more argument,” Carrie stated firmly. “He stays with you.”
After that, the conversation turned to other topics even though Jake continued to mumble periodically under his breath, but when the meal was ended, he stood up and spoke roughly to Found. “Get your things and come on with me if you’re coming. I ain’t got time to waste waiting on no orphan boy.”
“I’d like to know just what it is you’re in such a hurry to do, you being so important and all?” Katie asked scornfully.
Jake turned to Katie and deliberately started to scratch the small of his back while he glared at her with an assumed posture of male arrogance. “It’d be a waste of my time to try and explain it to you. God didn’t make women with an understanding of a man’s business, with the exception of Mrs. Simpson here,” he added hurriedly. “Now you gather up your belongings, young Found, and let’s be about our business so others can do the same,” he finished up with a meaningful glance at Katie.
“I think you ought to consider new sleeping quarters for Jake,” Lucas intervened hurriedly before Katie could respond to Jake’s barb. “With this many people working here, it might be a good idea for someone to sleep at the station. It’d be best for security.”
“Don’t you be looking at me,” Jake said. “I prefer horses to people.”
“Seems a little unfair to the horses,” Katie observed without pausing in her clearing of the table.
“We’ll work that out later,” Carrie said, encouraging Jake and Found to leave before Katie could think of anything else to say. Lucas got up to follow them, but when Katie turned her back, he winked at Carrie and nodded his head in the direction of the door, indicating he wanted to see her outside. Carrie flushed in spite of herself, but a minute after he left, she excused herself and hurried outside. He was waiting for her on the porch.
“I never got a chance to talk to you this morning.”
“I know, but there didn’t really seem to be anything to say.”
Lucas looked at her questioningly.
“I thought I made it very plain how I felt about you,” she said, swallowing with difficulty. “I don’t know much about how men think of their relations with women, and from what I have seen, I don’t think I want to know any more, but when a woman gives herself to a man, she’s given all there is.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk with you about.”
“You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to. I’m not going to start acting possessive …”
“Now look here,” Lucas said sharply, taking Carrie by the shoulders and spinning her around to face him, “I will not be lumped with any other man you’ve known. I neither know nor care what they would do, or what you think of men in general. I act for myself and don’t need to follow anybody’s lead.”
“If all this is leading up to an offer to make an honest woman of me, you can save your breadth,” Carrie said, almost choking on her words. “I didn’t ask anything from you last night, and I don’t intend to start today.”
“Yes, you did ask something of me. You asked for the most valuable and important thing a man can give to a woman.”
“I wanted it, but I didn’t ask for it,” Carrie whispered, not daring to look up. She was so acutely aware of Lucas standing next to her, her arms still held in his powerful grip, his powerful body forming a shield between her and the rest of the world, that she had trouble keeping her mind on her thoughts.
“I want to give you what you never asked for,” Lucas said, emotion making his voice tense. “I want to learn to give you as much as you have given me. I’m not very good at it, I’ve never tried before, but I want to learn. Will you help me?”
“Are you s
ure you want me to?”
“Of course. Why would you doubt it?” Carrie found herself staring at the buttons on his shirt.
“I can love you and you can love me just as we are now, and things may stay the same. But if you start trying to love me and I keep on loving you more each day, then after a while you may find things aren’t what you want them to be. You say you’re a drifter. I don’t think you are. You’re something else, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that you’ve never been tied down and you don’t want to be tied to me. I could stand it if you decided to leave now. It would hurt, but I could stand it. If you stay around studying how to love me more, I think your leaving would drive me crazy.” Lucas started to speak, but she put her fingers to his lips. “I haven’t asked anything of you and I don’t mean to now, but I’m not made of stone. We’re too different. We’ve already been over that. Let’s just take what we have while we can.”
“Do you really want that?”
“Why not?” Carrie asked, not daring to raise her eyes.
“Look at me,” Lucas demanded. Carrie’s eyes remained glued to his vest and he had to force her head up. “Do you think I just want to make love to you until these horses are broken and then disappear?”
“I don’t know what you want from me. You never told me.”
“Yes I did.”
“No you didn’t,” Carrie replied with spirit. “You painted some preposterous picture of connubial bliss which seemed to have you married to a mindless slave, possibly one of those Eastern harem girls who are used to the slave-and-master routine, who would wait patiently at home while you gallivanted about the world, who would take care of your children and see that everything ran perfectly in your absence, and who would be perfectly happy on your return to act like she had no brain at all and couldn’t do a thing without you. Somehow I can’t see myself fitting into that picture.”
“I don’t see myself in it either. Even though you make that compliant harem girl sound mighty attractive, I’ve already set my heart on a pint-sized redhead with blue eyes and a nagging temper who promises to make me miserable for the rest of my life.”
“I’m not promising you anything for the rest of my life.”
“But you said you loved me …”
“I do, and I expect I always will, but I’m still not ready to make a life-long commitment to you.”
“I don’t understand,” Lucas said. “If you love me and I love you …”
“Then we’re two people in love. That’s all it means.”
“But didn’t you expect to marry the man you fell in love with?”
“I did until I was prepared to marry Robert without it,” Carried admitted candidly. “Now I’m not sure, not that you’ve asked me or that I expect you to, but one doesn’t have to follow the other.”
“I thought they did in every woman’s mind.”
“Now who’s lumping everyone into the same boat. I haven’t gotten used to loving you and I haven’t given up on being married, but after our talk the other night, I realize it will take a great deal more than love for us to make a successful marriage.”
“Such as?”
“First there has to be total honesty between us. Second, there must be a commonality of goals, and third, there has to be agreement on how to reach those goals. As far as the first is concerned, I’ve finally been honest with you, but you still haven’t told me anything about yourself?” Lucas had the grace to look uncomfortable. “And we haven’t even discussed the others.”
“Must we complete each step before we go on to the others?” Lucas felt it wasn’t yet time to tell her the whole truth.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure anymore.”
“Does that mean you won’t come up to the cabin again?”
“No, but it does mean you can’t ask any more of me than you’re ready to give of yourself.”
Their attention had been so tightly focused on each other that they hadn’t heard Jake approaching until he was practically at the porch. He was dragging Found by the ear with one hand and holding a small leather bag with the other.
“I told you he was a no-good thief. Look what I found wrapped in one of his shirts.” Found made a grab for the leather bag, but Jake held it up out of his reach. It’s a leather pouch of some kind with the initials J.B. on it and it’s full of money. Gold money, I’ll have you know. Now where would a kid like him be getting gold, let alone it’s not his leather pouch.”
“Give it to me,” Carrie said, stretching out her hand, “arid let go of his ear. It must be uncomfortable.”
“But he’ll get away?”
“I doubt he’ll leave without his money,” Carrie said. But when she had opened the pouch, she was less sure of herself. The name “Jonathan Blake” was scratched into the underside of the flap and the pouch was nearly full of gold coins. “Do you know how much is in here?”
“No. I started to count it, but the brat was grabbing at it so I couldn’t keep the figures in my head.”
“Here, let me,” Lucas said. Carrie handed him the pouch and he counted the money swiftly. “There’s about two thousand dollars here. A dangerous amount of money for a boy to be carrying around.”
“Is this your money?” Carrie asked. Found had not taken his eyes off the pouch since he had been dragged up to the porch, and now he looked directly into Carrie’s eyes and nodded his head ever so slightly. “Could you tell me where you got it?” He didn’t move by so much as a hair’s breadth. “Found, I don’t think you stole this money, but it’s most unusual for a child to have such a large sum in his possession. I would like to know where you got it, and I need to know who this Jonathan Blake is. Is this his purse? If so, what is your money doing in his pouch?” Still Found didn’t move.
“You’re wasting your time asking him questions,” Jake said. “It’s plain as a pikestaff he stole it. No kid has that kind of money, especially not a squatter’s kid. I know for a fact his folks could hardly find the money to pay their bill at the store.”
“That’s not the issue here, Jake. All I want is for Found to tell me how he came to possess such a large sum of money.”
“I told you you’re wasting your time. He stole it sure as—
“Be quiet, Jake,” Carrie said, speaking more sharply than anyone had ever heard her speak before. “Please, Found, can you tell me where you got this money?”
“We’re not going to hurt you, son,” Lucas added, trying to see if he could reach the silent youngster. “If it’s your money, no one is going to take it from you.”
“Of all the crazy things—” Jake began, but a cold glance from Lucas cut him short.
“Please, Found, tell us where you got the money.” But the child would not answer Carrie. He just stood there, staring at her out of those big brown eyes like a St. Bernard puppy. “I think I’d better keep it for the time being,” Carrie finally said. “You might lose it, or someone might take it from you. I’ll put it in the cupboard at the station until I get a chance to take it back to the cabin.”
Carrie would have sworn not a muscle moved in the boy’s whole body, but somehow he looked deflated, defeated, and her heart went out to him. The accusing look in those big eyes made her feel like a traitor, and she had to battle a momentary impulse to give him back his money and forget the whole incident, but she knew she couldn’t. If it was his money, it should be kept someplace safe for him. If it wasn’t, well, she’d deal with that when she had to.
“You go on back to the barn with Jake, and we’ll talk about this later.” Jake turned away, his quick, awkward stride indicating his disgust with the way Carrie had handled the whole situation. Found stood looking at Carrie a moment longer, and then he followed after Jake, his slow dragging footsteps telling an entirely different tale.
“Looks like you got more than you bargained for this time,” Lucas said, his tone thoughtful as his eyes followed the boy. “What are you going to do? Do you think he stole the money?”
“No I
don’t.”
“I don’t either, but where could he have come by such a sum? That’s the savings of a lifetime.”
“I don’t know. If he would just talk. Why won’t he say anything?”
“Fear, and a distrust of other human beings, I suppose. I think that boy had been very badly treated by someone. And I’ll lay you a bet it was someone he thought was going to take care of him.”
“The money’s gone,” Carrie almost shouted, forgetting she was alone. She had put the money in one of the cupboards while she went about her work and had gone to get it to take back to the cabin with her. But it was no longer there. Found must have taken it, but how could anyone enter the station, take the money, and leave without her or Katie seeing them? Sure, they hadn’t been in the dining room all the time, but they had never been far away for very long. Quickly she made her way to the barn.
“Jake, do you know where Found is?” she asked. Jake was seated outside under a tree, repairing one of the harnesses.
“Lucas was going to take one of the horses he’s breaking for a ride, and he told me to send Found up to watch the cabin. I ain’t seen him since.”
“Where did you put his clothes?”
“In the tack room. I ain’t had time to do anything more. I figured he could sleep in the loft if he had a mind to.” Carrie turned her steps in the direction of the tack room, but she knew before she got there that Pound’s clothes would be gone.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Jake said in amazement. “He’s run off already. It’s a good thing we took that money from him. I told you he was a thief.”
“He’s not a thief. He told me that money was his, and my taking it away is the very reason he left. I had no good reason not to believe him, and I ought to have let him keep it.”
“Do you mean he stole that money again?”
“He never stole it,” Carrie insisted. “We were the ones who had no right to it, and I’m going to tell him so the minute I find him. You said his folks lived in one of the canyons in the hills behind the station. Tell me how to find it.”