“Samuel has sent his brother several pictures of her over the years. I don’t know where he found anyone with a camera in that godforsaken place, but the girl appears to be rather attractive. Joseph is quite taken with her. I admit I’m not pleased at the prospect of a woman of that kind as my daughter-in-law, but we can’t allow that twenty-five percent to leave the family.”
“I’ll have nothing to do with marrying her to Joseph.”
“Joseph is capable of handling his own affairs,” Silas said. “Your job is to get her here. And don’t get any ideas about marrying her yourself.” Silas never thought anything he said was insulting. As far as he was concerned, only people like himself had feelings.
“I couldn’t marry if I wanted,” Bret said. “I don’t make enough to support a wife, much less a family.”
“Don’t despair,” Silas said without the slightest hint of sympathy. “Once you work off some of the rough edges you got from spending so many years with horses and cows, you might find a wife. Boston is full of wealthy young women who don’t come quite up to the mark and are willing to accept something less in a husband.”
Bret wasn’t willing to accept something less in a wife. “If Joseph is interested in marrying Miss Abercrombie, maybe he should go to Texas.”
“He wouldn’t know how to deal with those people,” Silas said. “Besides, I have no intention of letting him marry that girl until she’s brought up to our standards. No, it will be much better for you to bring her here. That will give you plenty of opportunity to sing Joseph’s praises, let her know how fortunate she is to have attracted the notice of a man of his quality. If you do your job right, by the time she gets here, she’ll be ready to fall into Joseph’s arms and do anything he asks.”
Bret knew he had no choice about going to Texas, yet he wouldn’t be a party to talking any woman into marrying his cousin. “If she’s spent her whole life on a ranch in Texas, she won’t know what to do in a place like this.”
“Joseph will take care of that. All you have to do is get her here.”
“What if I can’t bring her back?”
His uncle’s cold stare bored into Bret. “Then don’t come back yourself.”
“I won’t go to Boston,” Emily Abercrombie said to her father. “I don’t know anybody there. I love the ranch. I don’t want to live anywhere else.”
“You can’t stay here after I’m dead,” Sam said to his daughter. “There’s nobody to look after you.”
“I don’t need anybody to look after me,” Emily replied. “I’ve been looking after you ever since Mama died.”
Her father had told her nothing about his family that would make her want to have anything to do with them. She’d been to Boston once, when she was eight and her mother had been so sick she went to see special doctors. She’d had ample opportunity to get to know more than she wanted to know about the Abercrombie family. The Abbotts were a little better, especially a cute boy named Joseph, but she was used to almost complete freedom to do as she liked. That would be impossible in Boston, regardless of who she lived with. She couldn’t imagine leaving Texas, their ranch, or their house. It was everything she wanted.
“I wouldn’t know what to do in Boston,” Emily said to her father.
“You could get married and raise a passel of children.”
“I don’t want a passel of kids to drive me crazy. Think of what I’ve done to you and multiply that by a half dozen.”
Her father returned her smile, reached across the distance that separated them to lay his hand over hers. “I would have welcomed a dozen like you. So would your mother, but she could only have one. I think we got the best.”
Emily squeezed her father’s hand. “I don’t know about that, but you got one who likes getting her own way.”
Her father laughed. “Your mother hadn’t been dead more than a year before you started changing everything in the house.”
Emily’s parents had met in Virginia when her father was studying at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. They married over the strident objections of both families. When the war broke out, they headed west. Using money he’d made profiteering during the war, Sam had settled in Texas and built a large house, which his wife furnished much like her ancestral home in Virginia.
After her mother’s death, Emily had replaced her mother’s colorful chintz with subdued leather, delicate porcelain with nearly unbreakable earthenware, and fragile carpets with sturdy rope rugs. Emily thought of the house only as a place to eat and sleep when she wasn’t with her horses.
“If I weren’t sick or your mother were still alive, I’d never suggest you move to Boston,” her father said.
“I wish I could go to my mother’s family.” That wasn’t possible. Her mother’s family had lost everything during the war: their home was burned, their land devastated. “I don’t see why I have to go anywhere.”
“How are you going to find a husband out here?”
“I’m not sure I want a husband.”
“Of course, you do. I can’t imagine never having been married to your mother.”
“You and Mother were special. I promise if I ever find a man like you, I’ll marry him.”
She didn’t want to make things more difficult for her father, but if he wouldn’t go to Boston to see doctors, she didn’t see why she should go there to find a husband.
“I can’t leave you here by yourself. I know you can manage the ranch, and that Lonnie would do anything in his power to help you, but this is tough country. There are rustlers just waiting for me to die so they can run off my herds. You’ll be a rich woman. I don’t want to think of how many men would be willing to use force to marry you to get your money.”
“I can defend myself. You taught me how to use a gun years ago.”
“It’s not just knowing how to use a gun. Men out here don’t respect a woman’s right to hold property. Hell, they don’t respect anybody’s right. If you can’t keep it by force, you won’t keep it.”
“I can hire extra help if necessary.”
“But could you trust them? You’re a beautiful woman, a temptation even to a man of principle. It would be much better to sell the ranch. With your looks and money, you’d have your pick of eligible bachelors.”
“I’m not interested in eligible bachelors.”
Her father chuckled. “Well, you’re going to meet one. Silas Abbott is sending out one of his nephews with orders to escort you back to Boston.”
“Did you send for him?”
“All I did was tell your Uncle Ezra I was worried about you and wanted you to go back to Boston. I doubt I would have heard from him if my father hadn’t left me a quarter interest in Abbott and Abercrombie.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“I was going to sell the shares, but I changed my mind when Silas Abbott started putting pressure on me to sell to him. I think he’s afraid I’ll use my interest to try to get rid of him.”
“If they want me to go back, why didn’t he send Joseph? At least I liked him.”
“Silas would never trust his precious son to the dangers of a land peopled with wild savages, thieves, and murderers. The man who’s coming is Bret Nolan. Silas turned his back on the boy’s mother when she married a man he didn’t like. He’s probably hoping Nolan will get lost and never find his way back to Boston, but that’s not important. I want you to pay close attention to what he has to say. He knows the Abbotts better than I do.”
“I don’t care what he or anyone else says. I don’t want to go to Boston, so you can tell him not to come.”
“I can’t. He’s on his way to Fort Worth right now.”
Bret didn’t want to admit it, but the tight bands that had constricted his chest for the last six years had started to loosen as soon as he crossed the border into Texas. As the pine forests of East Texas gave way to the grasslands, he felt his lungs expand to take in deeper and deeper breaths of air. Despite the smoke and cinders from the steam engine, the air smelled cleaner, s
weeter. The grass was greener, the sky more blue, the horizon limitless. He’d worked so hard to identify himself with Boston, he’d almost forgotten what Texas was like.
Seeing cows grazing in the billowing grass made him nostalgic for the days when he had chased the ornery beasts, slept under the stars, and cussed when the wind blew grit into the cook pot over the fire. But he’d been his own man back then, trusted by Jake to handle his work without anyone looking over his shoulder.
And when he did head back to the ranch, Isabelle’s smile was ample proof he was home and he was wanted there. He would inevitably scrap with Pete and have to fight off Sean afterwards, Zeke would scowl at him and Hawk would virtually ignore him, but nobody hesitated to make a place for him at the table or move over so he could join the circle around the fire. Luke and Chet would place their bedrolls next to his, and Will would bring him steaming coffee as soon as Matt got it ready. Buck treated him like an annoying younger brother, and Drew constantly told him how to behave. But no matter the strains that fractured the orphans along ever-changing lines, he was as much a part of the family as anyone else.
Still, Bret had never been able to forget that his real family in Boston had turned its back on his mother, then on him. For as long as he could remember, he’d been filled with an unrelenting need to prove they’d been wrong. At twenty-one, he’d finally packed his bags and left for Boston. Now, six years later, he was back in Texas and was beginning to wonder if he should ever have left. He’d never have guessed he’d feel like he was coming home after a long absence. He had convinced himself he was happy in Boston. Had he been a fool? He’d been shaken badly when his uncle had said not to come back if he couldn’t bring Emily Abercrombie with him. Surely he didn’t mean he’d turn his back on him, not after he had worked harder than anyone else in the firm. His uncle had to recognize his value to the company.
Frustrated, Bret turned his attention to his surroundings. The train was coming in to Fort Worth. Established as an army fort in 1849, it had turned into a thriving commercial town supplying cattlemen and buffalo hunters. He would be met by one of Sam Abercrombie’s ranch hands. It was a two-day ride to the ranch. Though he’d rarely been on a horse since leaving Texas, he was looking forward to it.
There wasn’t much of interest to look at in Fort Worth, so he tried to wrap his mind around the task ahead—convincing a woman to do something she didn’t want to do. Isabelle would have told him it was easier to brand a steer by himself, but Uncle Silas didn’t care what people wanted. If they didn’t do what he wanted, they had to be convinced. Bret told himself he might be making too much of the situation. It was possible Emily Abercrombie did want to go to Boston but was afraid. Maybe she thought she wasn’t pretty enough, rich enough, smart enough, confident enough to be accepted there. It wouldn’t be easy for someone reared in Texas to make the transition to Boston. He’d been trying for years. Without his grandmother’s support, he probably wouldn’t have made any progress. But he couldn’t forget his uncle’s parting words.
What if I can’t bring her back?
Then don’t come back yourself.
It was useless to plague himself with those words. He was relieved when the train came to a halt. A whole tribe of little boys suddenly materialized, competing with each other to carry luggage, to help ladies down from the coaches and across the street to the boardwalk, to recommend the best hotel and the best restaurants. Bret was startled when his suitcase landed at his feet, barely missing his toes.
“Sorry,” the porter said without pausing as he tossed one piece of luggage after another from the train. A grimy-faced urchin grabbed up Bret’s suitcase.
“Where’re you going, mister? I’ll take you to the best hotel for two bits.”
“I’m being met,” Bret replied.
The boy looked Bret up and down. “Probably a good thing. You don’t look like you’d last the night by yourself.”
Bret had a very good idea of what he looked like to that urchin—just like city slickers had looked to him when he was a kid.
“I’ll manage,” he told the urchin. “Have you seen any cowhands you didn’t know hanging around like they were waiting for someone?”
“Half the people in this town are waiting for someone. Can’t you tell me any more about the fellow?”
Kids. Isabelle would have tanned his backside if he’d talked to her like that. “I’m looking for someone from Sam Abercrombie’s ranch. The brand is an interlocking S and A.”
“I ain’t seen no cowhand with that brand, but I seen a lady ride into town yesterday on a horse wearing that brand.”
“Do you have any idea where she went?”
“No, but I know where she is right now. Give me two bits and I’ll tell you.”
Bret knew he was being hustled, but he just wanted to find the lady. He fished a quarter out of his pocket. “Here. If you don’t know where she is, I’m taking it back.”
“I ain’t no cheat,” the kid said, backing out of reach as he put the quarter safely in his pocket. “She’s standing right over there in front of that dress shop. Where else would you expect a pretty lady to be?”
“You can bring my suitcase,” Bret said. “If you’re right, I’ll give you another quarter.”
“Gee, you’re some big spender.” But the kid grabbed the suitcase and followed Bret. Two other kids rushed up to carry his trunk.
Bret wondered why a woman should be meeting him and what connection she could have to the cowhand who was supposed to be there. Women had a lot of freedom in Texas, but expensively dressed women seldom went out alone, certainly not to meet strange men.
“Excuse me,” he said when he reached her. When she turned, he was almost too stunned to speak. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. “I’m Bret Nolan,” he managed to say. “A cowhand from the Sam Abercrombie ranch was supposed to meet me. This kid said he saw you riding a horse wearing the Abercrombie brand. Can you tell me where to find the man?”
The woman appeared to be nearly as surprised as he was. “No, I can’t.”
“I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
“I didn’t say I couldn’t help you. I’m Emily Abercrombie. I’m not a man, but I’ve come to meet you.”
Chapter Two
Emily hoped she didn’t look as shocked as she felt. It wasn’t his citified clothing that surprised her, she had expected to see a man dressed liked a tenderfoot. She wasn’t even surprised he was tall and good-looking. What she didn’t expect, and what stunned her, was that she felt an immediate attraction to this man. A tenderfoot. A dude. A man who probably didn’t know one end of a horse from another. What could possibly possess her to be attracted to him? Okay, so he was better looking than anybody she knew, but he was still just a man.
“I expected one of your hands,” Bret said. “I never thought your father would let you travel this far unescorted.”
He dropped a notch in her estimation. “I don’t need an escort, but I came with two—our foreman and one of the hands.”
“I wouldn’t have let you come at all.”
His stock was plummeting so rapidly she’d be immune to him in less than thirty minutes. She raised her chin. “It’s a good thing you aren’t my father.”
“Or your husband.”
If he was trying to make her angry at him, he was succeeding. “I came because I wanted to tell you I have no intention of going to Boston.”
“And I’ve been told I won’t have a job if I return without you.”
“Then it looks like you have a problem.”
“I certainly do. And her name is Emily Abercrombie.”
It would be foolish to hate somebody she knew so little about, but she didn’t like what she knew about Bret Nolan.
“Hey, mister,” said one of the dirty urchins who’d followed him, “you gotta pick a hotel. We can’t hold this trunk forever.”
“If you’ll take my advice, you’ll get back on the train,” Emily said to Bret.
&nb
sp; “As much as I’d like to do just that, I can’t,” Bret said. “Have you picked out a hotel for me, or am I on my own?”
“Follow me.” Emily turned and started down Commerce Street. She was tempted to look over her shoulder to see if Mr. Nolan was following, but when she heard the three boys carrying his luggage grumbling that they hoped the hotel wasn’t in the next county, she figured he was. She couldn’t decide if she was disappointed that he hadn’t taken her advice to get back on the train. In general, she’d scorn any man who was spineless, but she didn’t know this man and didn’t care if he had a spine or not. She only wanted to be left alone.
On the other hand, she hated to see anybody so gutless they wouldn’t struggle at least a little bit for what they wanted. Texas wasn’t an easy place to live in, and defending cows from disease, wolves, and rustlers just made it harder. If people weren’t ready to fight for what they wanted, they didn’t survive.
Then there was the puzzling conundrum of her attraction to him. She laid that entirely to the fact that he was tall, handsome, and looked strong enough to handle a longhorn steer by himself. Of course, his looks had to be deceiving. How could any man living in a place like Boston be anything but soft? Still, she hoped he wasn’t as bad as she feared. She didn’t want to be attracted to a weakling.
“Do we have far to walk?” Mr. Nolan asked.
“Are your shoes pinching already?” It was worse than she thought.
“My shoes are fine, but the boys are going to need help with the trunk if it’s much farther.”
She turned to see the boys making a great show of struggling with the trunk. All three had assumed the heavy duty, while Bret had taken the suitcase. The boys’ expressions of agony made Emily smile. “I believe their groans are intended to arouse your sympathy and cause you to reward them with a larger payment.”
“Lady, that’s not fair,” one urchin exclaimed.
“I already guessed that,” Bret said, favoring the boys and Emily with a frown. “I probably know more tricks than they do.”
“You ain’t planning on cheating us, are you?” the urchin asked.
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