Colorado Bride

by Leigh Greenwood

  “And I love you too, you narrow-minded, egotistical medieval overlord, and I just might pull in my horns long enough to let you show me. When I first saw you, I thought you were different, but you’re just like every other man I’ve ever known. Still I love you anyway. I guess I’m going to have to figure out some way to put up with you because I’m finding it harder and harder to think about giving you up.”

  “You mean you’ll—.”

  “I’m not making any promises about anything past tonight. Every time you start ordering me around, I remember that you’re exactly the kind of man I swore I’d never have anything to do with, but every time I see you, I forget all about my vows. I’m much more weak minded than I ever thought, but I’m not so stupid as to ignore the fact that the things we want are exactly opposite of each other.”

  “I don’t think we’re all that far apart, not really. I’m sure you’ll find I’m not so terrible.”

  “I never thought you were terrible,” said Carrie, remembering the wonderful feeling of being in his arms. “You’re just impossible. Please, Lucas, don’t push me toward anything. I love you as I never thought I could love anyone, but I’ve endured life with my father and brothers and I know that love isn’t always enough. It’s easy to fall in love—I did it without even knowing it was happening—but there are so many things that go into making a loving relationship into a successful marriage it scares me. I don’t want to end up being constantly angry with you or at cross-purposes. That would kill everything we have to share before it has a chance to grow into something wonderfully warm and permanent. I want to know I will want to live with you as much thirty years from now as I do today.”

  “You don’t have to worry about thirty years from now,” Lucas said, impatient at her reluctance to listen to his persuasion. “After living with you for thirty years, how could I help but love you even more than I do now?”

  “It won’t be as easy to love me after the children have grown up and you realize you have to look at the same old wrinkled face across the breakfast table for the rest of your life.”

  “I’ll love them because they’re your wrinkles.”

  “That’s an absurdly foolish thing for a grown man to say.”

  “Is it any more absurd to say that I love your red hair and crazy temper because they’re yours? Or that I don’t like your taste in shoes, but that I don’t care because I love the rest of you too much for it to matter?”

  “That’s not the same thing.”

  “Yes it is, or it’s close enough that it doesn’t matter. Why are you always discounting the power of love? Don’t you believe it can overcome our differences?”

  “I guess it can if it’s strong enough.”

  “Are you saying my love for you isn’t strong?”

  “Of course not,” Carrie snapped, feeling cornered, “but marriage is forever. I would rather live out my days alone rather than have to face you across the table each day and see your eyes grow cold when they rest on me, your body draw back when I pass, have you stay away from home rather than spend time with me.”

  “But you know I would never do that.”

  “Lucas my love, you may not intend to do any of those things, but if I can’t bring to the marriage what you want and need, then you will ultimately be unable to help yourself. You will fall out of love just as inevitably as you fell in love, and it will happen whether you want it to or not.”

  “You’ve got to be the most unromantic woman in the world,” Lucas said, trying to banish some of the seriousness of her mood. “Here I am, a fairly good example of the American male, doing his best to sweep you off your feet, swear eternal fidelity, swear to worship you forever, and all you can do is tell me love is a partnership and you’re going to have wrinkles. Don’t you think there’s more to you than skin, hair, and eyes?”

  “I know there is, but I’m scared.”

  “You spent too much time watching your brothers.”

  “I had little else to do all those years while I cooked and cleaned. But we’ve got to stop talking about this now. I don’t want you to be worrying about it while you’re out in those hills. Keep your mind on business and get back here with a whole skin.”

  “That’s not much of an invitation to return.”

  “It’s all you’re going to get.” Suddenly Carrie smiled. “If I make it too interesting, you might get distracted and end up with a bullet in your head. I don’t think I would like that.” There’s no room for anything else in my head or my heart. You’ve filled them both.”

  “Get out of here. If you start thinking as silly as you’re talking, you’ll never make it back with a whole hide.” Lucas managed to get his arms around Carrie and extract several more substantial kisses from her far from unwilling lips. In fact, he was so bemused and contented, he rode away whistling, and Carrie hoped the effect would wear off before he found any outlaws.

  Chapter 18

  Lucas turned into the yard of Found’s cabin. It was on his way, and he decided it might be a good idea to have a look about before he went any father. If the outlaws, or any one of the outlaws, had been using this place recently, they would have left some signs of their presence, and right now Lucas needed to know when they had been in the vicinity almost as much as where they had been.

  The cabin looked deserted and forlorn in the morning sun. Lucas rode in slowly, not expecting to find anyone there but ready in case he did. He dismounted, and tying his horse to a tree, he approached the house carefully, his hand never far from his gun. A quick look about convinced him no one had used the cabin recently, and neither the back room, which had obviously been used as a bedroom, nor the loft, which was probably where Found had slept, had been used in quite some time if the abandoned field mouse nests were any indication. There was no food in the cabin either, but it was impossible to tell if the odds and ends he saw lying about belonged to Found’s father or to some man who had been here since. He made a careful inspection of the ground nearest the cabin, but any tracks that might have been left had been obliterated by wind and rain.

  He unexpectedly found a shed behind a large rock outcropping; he was even more surprised to find signs that it had been occupied recently, within the last week if he could judge by the droppings. The graves in the front yard were much older than that. Someone had been here, and it wasn’t Found. A brief inspection of the surrounding canyon walls turned up a small cave which had clearly been occupied off and on over a long period of time. From the old clothes and other discarded items, Lucas gathered the occupant had been Found but that this was no casual playground. It had been used recently, at the same time the horse had been stabled in the shed, Lucas guessed. Whoever he was, Found felt he had reason to stay out of sight. Lucas decided to go over the cabin again, but he found nothing to shed new light on the situation. Clearly, the cabin had not been used as a hideout for the whole gang. No more than one or two men had stayed there, and then only briefly, probably even less than a day.

  Lucas got back in the saddle and headed back up the canyon at a trot. He had spent much more time at the cabin than he had intended, and he would have to hurry if he was to reach the canyon Found had indicated and return that night.

  The hidden canyon was not many miles from the station, but the terrain was extremely difficult and Lucas found he was unable to travel quickly. There were times when he had to retrace his steps, a promising trail leading to a boxed canyon or a trail only a deer could negotiate. The hills were heavily wooded with spruce and aspen, and at times it was difficult to get through or see where he was going. Lucas was unfamiliar with the area, and he lost valuable time picking his way between the ridges and through canyons that stood in his path. Soon it was well into the afternoon, and he realized he might have to spend the night in the hills. It would be dangerous to retrace his route in the dark, but maybe he could find an easier way in, the one the outlaws took into their hideout.

  Lucas would never have been able to identify the canyon when he came to
it without Found’s map. The ground was very rocky and the few hoofprints the outlaws had left behind had almost been eradicated. Lucas unholstered his gun and walked his horse forward very slowly, keeping his eyes and ears open to the slightest sound or movement. But if the footprints were to be believed, no one had been here for a couple of weeks, maybe even longer. The canyon curled in on itself like a giant snail’s shell, and Lucas could soon see why it was such an excellent hideout. Every step he took seemed to bring him to the end of a boxed canyon, but as he approached what looked like a flat wall, it would curve around to the left. It was unlikely that anyone who didn’t know the canyon would even bother to go to the end.

  After winding around for nearly a hundred yards, Lucas came to a large opening in the rock formation that contained the canyon. It formed a tiny valley with enough grass and water to keep a few horses fed for several days. Unless it could be approached from the top of the mesa, this was a perfect hideout, completely hidden and impossible to attack. It was an ideal spot for the outlaws to wait until the stage came through and again after the holdup until the hunt had been called off. Lucas wouldn’t know until he checked it out, but he guessed that one of the trails leaving the canyon would take him close to the route the stage would take after it left Green Run Pass.

  Lucas inspected the canyon closely, but the campfires and the droppings of the horses confirmed his suspicion that no one had been here for several weeks. There was no reason to stay and he headed his horse out of the canyon, but he couldn’t help looking up at the canyon walls. They rose almost vertically for a hundred feet or more to the floor of the mesa above. If it was possible to reach the top, he could observe the outlaws with almost no risk of being seen himself. With a little luck, he might even be able to overhear some of their plans.

  He reached the canyon entrance and continued on to the north beyond the canyon. He inspected each rock face and canyon he passed, but none offered a way to the top. He reviewed the route he had traveled to reach the canyon, and he was certain none of them offered a route to the top either. He continued north for another hour, checking on each likely spot until he came upon some deer tracks leading to what appeared to be another unscalable canyon wall. But this canyon, too, made an unsuspected turn to the right, and Lucas found himself in a part of the canyon where the walls must have been made of softer rock. The rim was much decayed, and he was able to make out the faint footprints leading between the boulders going upward. Lucas followed this for a short while until the trail narrowed and there was barely room for Lucas himself to continue. He left his horse on a wide ledge, and in a few minutes he found himself standing on the grass-covered top of a mesa deeply scarred by the many canyons that had been carved from it. Even on foot, it was a rather short trip to a spot where he could overlook the hideout. He would be able to come here every few days or so to see if the outlaws had returned. He intended to set a trap for them.

  Carrie eyed the neatly dressed man with dislike. She didn’t like having a stranger from the company office in Denver descend upon her station without warning, but she resented even more deeply the fact that he was obviously not prepared to trust her with the reason for his visit, lb top it all off, he had refused to tell her why it was necessary for him to wait on the station porch until Lucas returned. From the way he was acting, you’d think Lucas was his boss instead of the other way around.

  Lucas was the other and more serious cause of her irritability. She had expected him back before supper, but it had gotten dark half an hour ago, and he still hadn’t returned. Carrie had worked hard all day to keep her mind off what Lucas was doing and what could be happening to him, and then this man arrived, determined not to leave until he had seen Lucas. With his presence as a constant reminder, Carrie was painfully aware of Lucas’s absence and the slow passing of the hours.

  “Didn’t you tell me you expected Mr. Barrow to return before six o’clock?” the man who had identified himself only as Mr. Anderson asked. He had refused to wait inside the station, and had to leave his self-appointed position on the porch to come inside where Carrie and Katie were finishing up the last of the dishes.

  “I said I thought he would be back by then,” Carrie responded shortly, “but I didn’t promise anything. Mr. Barrow is not an employee of this station, and I’m not responsible for his whereabouts or the schedule he keeps.”

  “But I’ve got to talk to him as soon as possible,” the man insisted. Just as though his insisting would make Lucas appear, thought Carrie to herself.

  “Then set yourself back down on that porch,” Katie said, not mincing words. “You won’t be missing him when he comes for his supper, and you won’t be putting yourself in the way of our work getting done either.”

  “I would like some coffee, if you don’t mind.”

  “There be the pot,” Katie said, indicating the large blue porcelain coffee pot on the stove. “I expect your ma taught you how to pour.”

  “You were a little hard on him, weren’t you?” Carrie commented after Mr. Anderson had filled his cup and gone back outside.

  “I don’t like clerks who act uppity, and that man’s a clerk if ever I saw one. He just thinks because we be ladies he can act self-important, but he’s hooked the wrong bull this time.”

  Carrie smiled absently at Katie’s response, but her mind was consumed with worry over Lucas. She had made him promise not to tackle the outlaws by himself, but he was no more likely to abide by his promises than she was, she admitted ruefully. If he thought he had the least chance of ending this now, she knew he wouldn’t hesitate. She doubted that the fact there were eight of them and only one of him would change his mind. That man was as stubborn as he was irresistible.

  She tried not to picture him too vividly in her mind—it clouded her judgment, and she desperately needed to keep her head about her. She knew she was growing more deeply in love with Lucas every day, but she wasn’t one step closer to agreeing to marry him. And she knew that no matter how much discomfort that caused her now, it was nothing to the agony it could cause her in the future. She had been a fool to allow herself to fall in love with a man she wasn’t sure she could marry, but it was too late to tell herself that now.

  She also tried not to remember his invitation for that evening, an invitation her body was all too ready to accept. Even now she could feel his hands on her body, feel the warmth of his skin against her breasts, feel the heat of him inside her. It made her almost too weak to stand. She could see his marvelously sculpted torso, the deeply tanned skin smooth and taut over firm flesh, his wonderfully defined muscles moving effortlessly, and she was filled with a longing to be back in his arms. The vivid memory of his hungry kisses was interrupted by the sound of an arrival outside, and Carrie heard Lucas’s deep, rumbling voice as he addressed the man who was waiting for him.

  “What are you doing here, Harry? I didn’t think Uncle Max could get along without you,” Carrie heard Lucas call out in happy greeting. She had to remind herself of the pot she still held in her hand, as well as that disagreeable stranger, to keep from rushing outside to meet him.

  “It’s your uncle I’ve come to see you about.”

  “Well, come on inside. You can have another cup of coffee while I eat my dinner.” Carrie forced herself to move toward Lucas and greet him as she would any other working acquaintance, but Lucas had other ideas. He strode into the kitchen and swept her up in a hot and eager embrace. The fact that both Kate and Harry stared at them with open mouths didn’t seem to bother him in the least. After a split second’s consideration, Carrie decided it didn’t bother her either.

  “I want you to meet Carrie Simpson,” Lucas said when he returned Carrie, breathless and blushing, to her own feet. “I’ve been trying to talk her into becoming my wife, but she’s still holding out.”

  “Faith and begor!” exclaimed Katie, who threw the dish in her hands up in the air without the slightest regard for where it would come down or the dangerous fragments to which it was speedily
reduced. “You never said a word to me, and all the while I be watching for just such a sign.”

  “I haven’t had time to think it over,” Carrie muttered, her mind scrambling wildly for some plausible excuse. “He just asked me.”

  “You don’t waste time thinking when a presentable man asks you to become his bride. You take him up afore he has the chance to change his mind.”

  “Maybe you should talk to her, Katie,” Lucas said, teasing Carrie. “She won’t listen to me.”

  “I won’t listen to either of you until your supper is on the table and Mr. Anderson has a chance to tell you what he’s been waiting half the day to say,” Carrie said, briskly moving to lay the table while Katie started filling a plate from the pots that were being kept warm on the stove. Mr. Anderson had not eaten earlier—he had insisted on waiting until Lucas returned—so Katie filled a second plate for him.

  “Katie and I will leave you to your dinner,” Carrie said when both of them had been served. “The coffee is on the stove. Just put the dishes in the sink and make sure the fire’s out. Good night, Mr. Anderson. You can have your choice of the rooms at the back of the station.” Lucas glanced up, his mouth full and his eyes questioning. “I’ll be at the cabin if you need anything,” Carrie added, unable to leave the question in his eyes unanswered.

  The two men ate in silence. Only when they had each finished two slices of apple pie did they attempt to share their news with each other.

  “I’ve located the Staples gang’s hideout,” Lucas said. They haven’t been there for some time, but I expect they’ll return about the time the shipment’s due. I just wish I knew how they find out when the gold is scheduled to go out.”