“It’s a nice thought, Cassie, but if d take a miracle to see it happen.”
Cassie was fresh out of miracles, but she did have a tarnished Angel living under her roof. As she closed the door behind her friend, she wondered—
“Don’t even think about it.”
Cassie started at that deep voice and swung around. She located Angel sitting at the bottom of the stairs. His hat was on and tipped low. He was wearing his yellow slicker, too, and the black bandana tied at the side of his neck. He’d obviously been on his way out, or in. How much had he heard?
She crooked a brow at him, playing dumb. “Don’t even think about what?”
The look that came back at her said he didn’t appreciate her innocent act. “Meddling. I catch you at it again in these parts, I’m liable to do what your papa should’ve done years ago and whip your bottom. And don’t go getting all huffy, or I’m liable to anyway. I swear, you don’t know when to quit while you’re ahead.”
“What makes you think I’m ahead?”
“We’ll both be out of here in a few days, this ranch is still standing, you’re still in one piece, and I’ve had to kill only one man. In my book, that’s way ahead. So you wait to start meddling again until you get home, where your mama can take care of the trouble you cause. Hell and I bet she’s used to it.”
Cassie marched toward him, her fingers itching to slap him, but all she did was stop near his feet to glare down at him. “I didn’t ask you here, if you’ll recall. Fact is, I remember asking you to leave. And since my neighbors have been quiet, I don’t see why you’re sticking around any longer. They’re obviously allowing me to wait until my papa gets home.”
“Your point?”
“I’d say you’ve done what you came to do, and you ought to be thinking about leaving— preferably today.”
“So who asked you?”
He growled that as he stood up, which forced her to back up if she wanted to keep eye contact. She didn’t at the moment, since there was no mistaking that she’d pushed him beyond his mild annoyance. And he wasn’t finished.
“I’m staying, Cassie, not until your father gets here, but until I see you packed and out of this county. That can’t happen soon enough for me, but until it does—no more meddling. You got that?”
She was surprised that she could do more than nod. “Yes, quite perfectly. I should have known better than to expect you to sympathize with my position or to feel one ounce of compassion for those two young people who happen to love each other. You’d have to have a heart…”
She left it at that, marching off to disappear down the hall. He stared after her, amused at her gumption. Her courage kept popping up when he least expected it. Damned if he didn’t like that about her.
“Oh, I’ve got one, honey,” he said softly. “Fortunately, it’s wrapped in rawhide too tough for you to crack.”
Chapter 20
Cassie had put off making another trip to town with Angel for as long as she could, but the fact was, her papa wasn’t one for surprises, so he should have let her know by now exactly when he’d be arriving. A telegram would have been delivered, but a letter would sit in town until she got around to picking it up. That meant going to town, and Angel still wouldn’t let her go alone.
With Christmas just short of a week away, she also had some shopping to do. That was a cheerless thought. It was a holiday she’d always looked forward to. This year was going to be an exception, because if there’d been no further delays and her papa returned in the next few days, she couldn’t take the chance of extending her visit even for the holidays. It’d be the first Christmas that she didn’t spend with at least one of her parents. She’d be spending it alone on a train or a stagecoach heading north.
That wasn’t what she was thinking about, however, that afternoon on the way to Caully. After she and Angel had had those last unpleasant words following Jenny’s visit three days ago, it had struck her, forcefully, that he’d be out of her life soon, very soon, and she’d probably never see him again. They might hail from the same area of Wyoming, but look at all the years he’d been in and out of Cheyenne and she’d never crossed paths with him. She had no reason to think if d be any different when she returned home.
And even if she did happen to see him someday in Cheyenne, Angel would probably cross to the other side of the street to avoid her. And why not? It wasn’t exactly as if they’d become friends during his time here. Just the opposite. He couldn’t wait to leave, and she — she’d felt like crying these past three days.
Surprisingly, Cassie had no misgivings this time about riding with Angel. In fact, by taking the carriage today, she was sort of daring him to endure her company and conversation. He must not have been up to the challenge. He rode his horse, and kept it just far enough ahead to rule out talking while on the road. And he didn’t even notice that beneath her fur-trimmed coat she had on the very latest in Chicago finery in lavender-and-white lace. So much for spending half the morning agonizing over her appearance.
There was indeed a letter from her papa waiting for her in town. He didn’t give her an exact day of arrival, but he promised to be home before Christmas.
When she informed Angel of that, he greeted the news with his usual inscrutability, which told her nothing of his feelings. But she could guess. He had to be delighted it was almost over.
At least they had no trouble in Caully this time. Richard was there with a couple of the MacKauley cowboys, but all he did was stare at them a bit on his way out of town. Cassie stayed no longer than she had to, though it was getting on toward evening by the time she rolled the carriage into the barn. Angel followed her in and began unhitching the horse before she’d even alighted from the carriage.
“Emanuel will do that,” she informed him dully, her mood sunk to the dregs.
He didn’t stop what he was doing to reply, “I don’t see the kid about, do you?”
Cassie’s head snapped up at the surly tone he’d used. She was the one in the rotten mood. What did he have to be testy about?
“Considering the hour,” she said stiffly now, “I suppose he’s having his dinner. But I can take care of the carriage horse. You have your own horse to—”
“Don’t push it, Cassie,” he cut in, still without stopping what he was doing. “Go on to the house—”
“Now that’s a right fine idea,” a new voice interjected. “Why don’t we all do that?”
Three guns cocked simultaneously. Cassie stared wide-eyed as Richard MacKauley stepped out of the shadows at the back of the barn. From the sides, Frazer and Morgan came forward. Each of them held his gun pointed at Angel.
A trap? Richard must have raced home to fetch his pa the same as Morgan had that other time. Only this time it wasn’t just to confront Cassie.
“Don’t move, Angel, or your name will take on new meaning,” Richard said as he came up behind him and carefully lifted Angel’s Colt out of his holster.
Angel let him. He didn’t have much choice, Cassie supposed, though she was surprised that he didn’t say or do something before he lost the opportunity. In his line of work he had to be familiar with this type of situation, must have a few tricks or moves that he could have already used to turn the tables on the MacKauleys. Of course, she hadn’t yet seen the fourth gun trained on herself.
Not that she paid much attention to it when she did turn to the man who’d originally spoken. R. J. stood in the wide entrance to the barn, grinning broadly. That grin should have warned her she wouldn’t like hearing what this was about.
She still had to ask, “What are you up to now, Mr. MacKauley?”
“Just here to do you a favor, Miss Stuart, a sort of thank-you for all you’ve done for my family. Couldn’t let you return home without a proper show of… appreciation.”
Cassie looked around her. Frazer had gotten a kick out of his father’s choice of words. Richard wasn’t amused, however, and Morgan didn’t look like he wanted to be there at all. Clayton was co
nspicuously absent. And Angel, he was as inscrutable as ever.
The thought ran through Cassie’s mind that today, of all days, she had decided not to wear her own weapon to town — and for what? Stupid vanity and trying to look her best for someone who hadn’t even noticed. But then, R. J. couldn’t be planning anything of a serious nature. He wouldn’t be standing there grinning if he meant to do any real harm. Would he?
“I’d just as soon you didn’t do me any favors, Mr. MacKauley,” she began cautiously, then suggested, “Why don’t you simply think of me as already gone? I will be in a matter of days.”
“I know it. That’s why I’m here now, to help you out before it’s too late.”
Cassie frowned. “Help me out how?”
“We’re gonna get you hitched up nice and proper, before that young fella of yours just happens to disappear on you again.”
Hitched up? It was too incredible for her to grasp immediately, but when she did, Cassie started to laugh. “You’re joking.”
“No, ma’am.” R. J. shook his head. “Got the preacher waitin‘ in your parlor to say the words. He was happy to oblige when he heard you two’ve been livin’ under the same roof all this time without a proper chaperone.”
Hot color flooded her cheeks at the insinuation R. J. was making, only to have every speck of it desert her as the greater implication hit her. They were going to force Angel to marry her. But no one could do that to a man like him. He’d be so furious, he would kill every one of them without a qualm the very second he got his gun back.
Damn Frazer. He’d said his pa would get a kick out of this idea, and he’d probably made sure that it occurred to him. She gave him a glare worthy of a lightning bolt. He grinned back at her unrepentantly.
“It came out of your own mouth, Miss Cassie,” Frazer said, rubbing it in. “And gettin‘ married is what engaged couples do, ain’t it?”
Her own lie, and coming back to haunt her in a monstrous way. Frazer knew it was a lie. R. J. probably did, too. They were only using it to get revenge—“just deserts,” as Frazer had called it. But she couldn’t let them go through with it. For their own sakes, she couldn’t.
Cassie was afraid to look at Angel to see how he was taking this new dilemma, but she knew he wouldn’t say anything. That wasn’t his way. Afterward he’d deal with them, and feel justified, since they weren’t exactly lawful in what they were doing.
Still, she couldn’t allow it to go that far. She’d have to lie some more. And if that didn’t work, she’d have to flat out refuse to cooperate.
She turned back to R. J. “I appreciate your concern, Mr. MacKauley, but my mama’s already planning a big wedding for the end of January. Hundreds of guests have been invited. She’d never forgive me if she had to cancel it.”
The old man chuckled. “No need to disappoint your ma. Ain’t no law says you can’t get married twice — leastwise to the same man.”
Cassie gritted her teeth. “Then I’ll wait until my papa gets here so he can give me away.”
“You can have yourself even another wedding when Charley gets here, but we ain’t gonna disappoint the preacher on this one, since he come all this way to do the right thing. I’ll give you away, little girl. If d be an honor.”
At which point Cassie got angry. “The hell it would. I’m not getting married to suit your misplaced sense of revenge, R. J. MacKauley. If you’d just open your eyes, you’d see that Clayton and Jenny want to be together. It’s your orneriness that won’t let them, and the same thing’s brought you here today. So what are you going to do now? Shoot me?”
“Well, now, I can do that,” he said with some careful thought before nodding in the direction behind her. “But I’d probably shoot him instead.”
“Him” was Angel, and the very thought of him being shot turned Cassie’s blood cold. He still hadn’t said anything, and she could no longer avoid looking at him. But that was a mistake that gave her the jolt of fear the MacKauleys hadn’t been able to. Angel was furious, all right, and for some reason, the full blast of it was coming her way. No, not some reason. This was her fault, too, and he was putting the blame right where it belonged.
She swung back around again, frightened enough now to plead with R. J. if she had to. Angel didn’t give her the chance. He came around and yanked her down from the carriage. No one tried to stop him.
“Let’s get this over with, Cassie. One wedding or three won’t make any difference at this point.”
His tone was as smooth as his expression now was, but she wasn’t fooled. She’d seen the fury, and her feet dug in as he started pulling her toward the house. They got there anyway, with the MacKauleys following close behind. And the preacher was indeed waiting.
Her last hope. All she had to do was tell him that she and Angel were being forced to marry…
“Not another word except ‘I do,’ ” Angel hissed in her ear. “You got that?”
Cassie stared at him, uncertain why he was giving in. Possibly because the sooner it was over, the sooner he’d get his gun back, and then all hell was going to break loose. She hoped he’d let the preacher leave first. The MacKauleys she had no sympathy for at the moment. Poor Maria was going to have a fit at all the blood…
“You got that?” Angel repeated.
She nodded. What did she care if she had a bloodbath in her parlor? First she was getting married, and that was accomplished quite painlessly, actually. There was even a small, crazy part of her that regretted that it wasn’t for real. Crazy was right. When she thought about what her mama would do when she heard about this shotgun wedding… of course, she’d have to be alive to tell her, and she wasn’t at all certain she was going to survive the night.
R. J. was laughing as he walked the preacher out. Morgan hadn’t come into the parlor to listen to the vows, though Cassie heard his disgruntled voice in the hall before he left with his father. Richard looked no more amused now than he had earlier. In fact, he seemed kind of uneasy now. Smart man. He’d be smarter still if he took Angel’s gun with him, but he was already removing it from his belt as he left the room, obviously to leave it on the hall table. Cassie hoped he would change his mind before he left.
But Frazer, that bizarre miscreant, was still standing there grinning at the newly wedded couple as if they ought to share in his delight. Fortunately, Angel was ignoring him. He’d moved to the window to watch the others ride off. Cassie couldn’t ignore him. The man’s flashing teeth irritated the hell out of her at that point.
So she marched over and literally shoved Frazer out of the room and toward the front door, saying in a furious whisper, “Are you happy now? If Angel doesn’t kill you for this, I think I will.”
“What’s the big deal, Cassie?” he had the gall to reply. “Pa’s satisfied now, and you’ll just get it annulled. So what’s the harm done?”
“The harm is that Angel might not see it that way, you jackass. Now get out of my house.”
It was very satisfying, slamming the door behind Frazer, but a glance at the hall table proved Richard wasn’t as smart as she’d hoped. He’d left Angel’s gun. She picked it up, looking for a place to hide it, but there was nowhere in the hall, so she slipped it inside her coat and felt it lodge against the form-fitting waist. Suddenly she realized that she hadn’t even thought to remove her coat for her wedding.
A laugh bubbled up in her throat. She swallowed it down with a silent groan.
“Cassie?”
Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice coming from the parlor. She wasn’t ready for this. Tomorrow they could discuss the annulment. Tonight, his gun wasn’t the only thing that needed hiding.
Without answering him, she raced up the stairs and locked herself in her room.
Chapter 21
When Cassie didn’t come down for her dinner that night, Emanuel was sent up with a tray. Maria had outdone herself in preparing several of Cassie’s favorite dishes. Well, she’d had the time, since she hadn’t had to clean up any b
lood yet. And the housekeeper had either been listening to or guessed what had happened. But Cassie barely picked at the offerings.
She did a lot of pacing, with Marabelle prowling right alongside her and nearly tripping her a half-dozen times. As usual, the panther sensed her upset and wouldn’t settle down until Cassie did. But Cassie was a bundle of nerves, wondering if Angel had left the house, wondering what he was going to do— and to whom. It was impossible for her to sit down, much less think of going to bed yet.
When the knock came at the door, she was so deep in thought she didn’t think twice about opening it, assuming the person was Emanuel returning for the tray. It wasn’t.
“Didn’t think you’d open up to me,” Angel said.
She wouldn’t have if she’d known it was him. And she would have immediately closed the door again if he hadn’t taken a step forward so she’d end up smashing him if she tried it. She didn’t. She started backing up instead. She seemed to do a lot of that when he was around.
He must want his gun. No, he couldn’t know she had it. He probably wanted hers. She had to talk him out of whatever he was going to do — somehow.
“You must have been hungry.”
She followed his gaze to the empty tray. “Marabelle was,” she replied, not trusting for a minute the mellow tone he was using. “Look, can we talk about this?”
“Sure — after you get rid of the cat.”
Marabelle was sitting on her haunches next to Cassie. The last thing Cassie wanted to do, knowing Angel’s wariness of the panther, was to send her out of the room. But she supposed a peace offering would be more appropriate now, so she led the big cat to the door and shooed her off. Angel had stepped farther into the room to get out of Marabelle’s path.
Cassie closed the door, but stayed near it. Angel had been in her room only once before. She remembered that night and felt flutterings in her belly. And he was staring at her bed. Why was he staring at her bed?
She took a deep breath and began to speak conversationally, hoping to set the tone at a rational level. “You know, you really don’t have to kill anyone over this. I’ll get an annulment. It will be like it never happened.”
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