She had a right to be more than shocked. She'd been shot, seen the man who'd saved her life stabbed to death, and learned her uncle wanted her dead. She should have been the one who'd fainted, not that useless maid. He still didn't approve of royalty, but if this was an example of their courage and fortitude, Luke had greatly underestimated them.
When he reentered the tent, Valeria and Elvira still sat where he'd left them. He dropped his saddlebags next to the bed. "Let me help you up," he said to Valeria.
She looked for a moment like she was still too stunned to move, but she held out her hands. He pulled her to her feet and led her over to the bed.
"The wound looks pretty clean already," he said, "but it's better to be safe." He reached inside his saddlebags to get the bottle of whiskey he kept for such occasions.
"You can't take care of the princess," Elvira protested.
"What do you suggest I do?" Luke asked without slowing his preparations. "Leave her wound to heal itself?"
"She needs a physician."
"We're in the middle of a desert, Elvira," Valeria said.
"I doubt there's a doctor within ten miles."
"More like fifty," Luke said. "And he'd do exactly what I'm about to do. Grit your teeth. This will burn."
He poured a liberal amount of the whiskey directly into the raw wound. Valeria's swift intake of breath and the stiffening of her body told him more about her pain than the fleeting expression that crossed her features. Her body remained rigid for at least ten seconds before it began to relax again. "Good girl," he said. "You do your ancestors proud."
"You despise my ancestors."
"I despise monarchy. I don't necessarily despise the monarchs."
"Isn't that a rather fine distinction?"
"Yes, but it's a valid one. I don't despise you. In fact, I admire your courage."
He didn't look up, but he could tell that caught her by surprise. Him, too. He wasn't used to praising women, even those who deserved it. He opened a tin of ointment and spread a liberal amount over the wound.
"What's that?" Elvira asked.
"An ointment," Luke replied.
"It doesn't look very good."
The salve looked like old grease.
"It'll have to serve until I can get her to a doctor," Luke said.
"You must send for one immediately," Elvira said. "He wouldn't come for a simple flesh wound," Luke said.
"But she's a princess," Elvira said.
"Not in this country," Valeria told her maid. "I'm like everybody else. A doctor would come for you just as quickly as he'd come for me."
That appeared to be a concept beyond Elvira's understanding. Luke was surprised it wasn't beyond Valeria's as well.
"That is true, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yes. Now I have to bandage your arm. Let me know if I get it too tight."
Valeria made no protest, and he soon had the wound safely bandaged.
"Do you have anything to help Valeria sleep?" Luke asked Elvira.
"Yes."
"I don't want to be doped," Valeria said.
"Give her a mild dose," Luke said to Elvira. "I want her asleep before the wound begins to throb." He looked around the tent. It was in shambles. "And straighten up as much as you can. It'll make it easier for her to forget what happened."
"I'll never forget," Valeria said.
Luke was certain she wouldn't. "Get as much sleep as you can."
"Are those men gone?" she asked.
He'd been so preoccupied with Hans's death and Valeria's wound, he'd forgotten about the attack. "Yes, they're gone. I'll post guards to make sure they don't return. You don't have to worry. No one is going to hurt you again."
But it hadn't been the gunmen who'd shot her. It had been Otto, a trusted retainer. Her sense of betrayal must have made her feel doubly insecure. He took her by the hand and pulled her to her feet. Then he drew back the covers on her bed.
"I want you to lie down and get some sleep. You're tired and-"
"Don't treat me like an imbecile!" she snapped. "I'm not tired. I'm frightened and upset and sick to my stomach that I should have been the cause of Hans's death.
You may be used to killing people all the time-you killed two tonight and don't appear to have given it a second thought-but I'm not a paid killer. I can't even treat Otto's death as though it's of no consequence."
Luke knew what he was. He'd accepted it years ago, but Valeria's words felt like poison-tipped arrows piercing the thick protective armor he'd built around himself. He felt himself flinch.
"People have to kill to protect princesses. You ought to be damned glad I'm the one who did the killing. If Hans hadn't begged me to wait until you changed your mind, you'd be dead by now. Remember that before you make snap judgments about people. Get some sleep. Starting tomorrow, everything's going to be different."
He turned and left the tent before he could say anything more. He didn't know if he'd ever been more angry, but it was the hurt that surprised him. He hadn't realized Valeria's good opinion was so important to him. It was obvious a woman like her could never understand a man like him. He was a fool to care, a stupid fool to let it hurt.
"Don't go to sleep," he rapped out to Zeke and Hawk. "I'm going to read everything in Hans's and Otto's letter cases. Then I'll decide what to do about the princess."
"He must really have it bad," Zeke muttered as Luke entered the other tent. "I never heard him call her the princess before."
The canopy of stars twinkled against the deep blue of the night sky. The cool air that occasionally wafted up from under the trees by the river felt good against skin heated by Zeke's cook fire. Luke held Valeria's marriage contract in his hands. "This is the key to the whole situation," he was saying to Hawk and Zeke. "Money."
"It's always about money," Zeke said. "What did you expect?"
"According to this, if Valeria dies before her marriage, her entire inheritance reverts to her uncle."
"So what's the problem? Otto's dead and we'll deliver her to this Rudolf in a couple of weeks. Then she'll be off our hands."
"I'm not so sure about that."
Luke had spent a large part of the night in Otto's tent, going over the papers in his and Hans's carrying cases. He'd learned something about the minds of the men who were the hereditary leaders of one small European country. They would do anything to retain their power, including betraying allies, destroying friends, even sacrificing family.
"What's wrong now?" Hawk asked.
"These people care about only one thing, their power as rulers. I found papers in Otto's carrying case that prove Rudolf is planning to raise an army to reclaim his throne."
Duke Rudolf was such a man, and nothing stood between him and restoration to his ancestral throne but the money to raise an army. Valeria's dowry would provide him with that money. The minute the marriage was final he would have no reason to keep a wife who objected to his spending her fortune that way. Living in the remote country of the Mogollon Rim, Rudolf could dispose of Valeria without anyone knowing.
"That doesn't concern us," Hawk said.
"He's planning to use Valeria's dowry."
"So?"
"Suppose she doesn't want him to use her money to raise an army."
"They can fight it out like married couples."
"People like Rudolf don't fight it out with their wives.
They issue orders which they expect to be obeyed." "I still don't-"
"Suppose she decides she doesn't want to marry him." "What are you getting at?" Zeke asked. "If she doesn't do what he wants, there's nothing to stop him from locking her up and taking her money. Or worse."
"You mean killing her."
"Who's to stop him?"
"We're supposed to deliver her to this Rudolf," Zeke said. "What happens after that is none of our concern."
That had been Luke's attitude when he took the job, but everything had changed. He hadn't expected to like the woman he had come to know since then.<
br />
And he hadn't expected Hans to die trying to keep her safe.
He wasn't a sentimental man. Death was part of his world, his work. He accepted that, rarely thought of it afterward. But Hans's death had touched him. That nervous little man had left his home, traveled to a strange country he didn't understand, all the while knowing he faced death. He'd hired Luke to protect Valeria, begged him to stay on the job after Valeria fired him, because he thought Luke was the man most capable of getting her to her future husband safely.
He had died happy knowing he'd saved Valeria.
Before that, he'd passed the torch to Luke. And whether Luke wanted it or not, despite the fact it went against his policy, he couldn't refuse it now. No dying man had ever handed off a commission to him, at least not a man he admired. He couldn't let Hans down.
"I promised Hans I'd keep her safe," Luke said. "That makes it my business."
"That's bullshit," Zeke said.
"What do you think might happen?" Hawk asked.
"I don't know, but I'm going to hang around until I find out."
"So what's different?" Zeke asked. "We take her to this Rudolf, stay for the wedding, then leave."
"Maybe."
"I don't like this maybe," Hawk said.
"You can't marry her," Zeke said. "She's already promised to someone else."
"I don't want to marry her."
"Okay, you're in love with her, but she's still promised to someone else."
"I'm not in love with her."
"Infatuated."
"I'm not-"
"The hell you aren't!" Zeke shouted. "I've never seen you act like this."
"Act like what?"
Luke turned to see Valeria come out of her tent and walk toward them. "What are you doing up?" Luke asked. "I wanted you to sleep."
"No one can sleep with you three arguing. Since it's about me, I thought I ought to know what you've decided."
"He thinks this Rudolf wants your money to raise an army to get back his throne," Zeke said.
"Rudolf gave up any idea of regaining his throne when he came to this country," Valeria said.
"Not according to information I found in Otto's carrying case," Luke said. "I had to look though his things," he said when Valeria looked at him as if he'd done something unpardonable. "I had to know who to notify, who to tell of any unfinished business."
"I agreed to marry him if he didn't get involved in any more wars," Valeria said.
"Your uncle had proof Rudolf is making plans to raise an army and do it with your money."
"Then why would my uncle have agreed for me to marry Rudolf?"
"He didn't plan to let that happen," Luke said, his voice softer. "He planned to keep your money for himself."
He hated to cause Valeria any more pain, but the sooner she accepted her uncle's treachery, the better. "So what do you plan to do?" she asked.
"First, I'm going to tear up the marriage contracts."
Before anyone could register an objection, Luke ripped the contracts in half and threw them on the fire.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Zeke demanded. "Valeria is safe from her uncle at least for a few days.
She's also safe from Rudolf."
"But she has nowhere to go."
"Yes, she does. The ranch is hers."
"If you thought she wasn't safe before, she's really in danger now," Zeke said. "You're taking away everything this Rudolf has."
"Harming her won't gain him anything," Luke says. "And now she won't have to marry him." "He'll force her."
"I'll be there to see that he doesn't." "We'll all be there," Zeke said.
"No, we won't," Luke said. "You and Hawk are going to take the wagons ahead, along with the message that I destroyed the contracts, that the ranch belongs to Valeria, and that she's not going to marry Rudolf unless she wants to."
"Who asked you to interfere in their affairs?" Zeke demanded.
"Hans made me vow to keep Valeria safe."
"That doesn't include messing about with marriage contracts."
"I think it does. Besides, I don't think Valeria wants to marry him anymore."
"Do you want to marry this duke fella?" Zeke demanded, turning to Valeria. She hesitated, looked from one man to the other.
"Forget the contracts," Luke said. "You can always marry him later once you get to know him. Do you want to marry him now regardless?"
"No." She looked relieved to have finally decided, committed herself.
Zeke turned to Luke. "You got the answer you wanted. Now what are you going to do?"
"I can protect Valeria better if it's just the two of us. We're leaving the train."
Chapter Sixteen
It was inconceivable to Valeria that she would go off alone with a man. She might not be able to find anyone to marry her after that, not even with her money. And what about her safety? If a member of her family could want to kill her for her money, wouldn't a stranger be even more likely to see her as a means of getting rich?
The answers to all those questions were straightforward and unequivocal. It was impossible for her to go into the desert alone with Luke.
Yet that was exactly what she wanted to do.
She could hardly believe she wanted to do anything so absurd, but apparently her feelings had nothing to do with logic or self-preservation. The thought of being alone with Luke caused her heart to race. No man had ever excited her the way he did. Even before he'd grabbed her, kissed her, practically possessed her with his body, he'd fascinated her. She told herself he was rough, rude, incapable of love, but she couldn't stop thinking about him. She insisted she hated him, but she couldn't stop remembering his every touch, his look, the sight of his body sitting erect and powerful in the saddle.
She told herself she was a princess betrothed to a duke, that Luke was possibly a lawless criminal, but she dreamed of Luke rather than of Rudolf. When she had questions, she thought of him. When she was in danger, she thought of him. When she thought of the future, she imagined he would be there. It seemed impossible that her world could exist without him.
"I can't go," she said. "It would be totally inappropriate."
"Is getting killed more appropriate?" Luke asked.
"That's not the question."
"What is?"
"You're supposed to take me, Elvira, and my horses to Rudolf's ranch."
But she didn't want to get to Rudolf's ranch. If anyone would know Rudolf was planning to use her money to raise an army, it would be her uncle. She vehemently opposed starting a war to regain his throne. It would only lead to another war to drive him out.
But it was more than that. The things Luke had told her about America had fired her imagination, opened up a world of possibilities she hadn't known existed. She knew marrying Rudolf would close that door just as firmly as if she had never left Belgravia. She didn't yet know what she could do, but she wanted the freedom to explore the possibilities.
The most exciting idea was that she could marry for love. She wasn't exactly sure what love was all about, but she was certain it had a lot more to do with the excitement generated by being around Luke than the tepid liking she'd had for Rudolf. She also wanted to know more about what a woman could do if she didn't want to marry anyone at all. The possibility that she
could make her own decisions, control the activities that filled her days, was too exciting to be ignored.
"I'll have a better chance of getting you to Rudolf's ranch if I don't have to worry about these wagons," Luke said. "I don't know what kind of deal Otto made with the men who attacked us. They may continue to attack until you're dead. It's obvious they were trying to place the blame on renegade Indians so no one would suspect your uncle."
"Nevertheless-"
"I don't have time to argue," Luke said. "You're coming with me. Don't pack more than you can carry in your saddlebags."
When she didn't move, Luke reached out and took her by the arm.
Hawk intervened. "We talk
," he said.
"No," Luke said. "I want to be out of here before daylight."
"She doesn't want to go," Zeke pointed out. "That doesn't matter."
"I think it does," Zeke retorted.
"Me, too," Hawk said.
Luke looked ready to take them both on. Valeria didn't understand the relationships among these men, especially their combativeness, but she didn't want to be responsible for anybody else being hurt. Han's death still hung over her like a pall.
"Tell me why you think I ought to go with you," she said. "If your brothers agree with your argument, I'll go along."
Luke looked ready to fight anyway.
"You told me women in America had the right to choose their husbands," Valeria said. "If that's so, then surely I have the right to choose whether to go off with you."
"She's got you there," Zeke said.
"I've already given you my reasons," Luke said, his face still tight with anger. He might say Americans were tolerant and understanding, but he expected blind obedience, just like her uncle.
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