Amelia

by Diana Palmer

  Quinn was forced not to argue, not to tell the truth. He gritted his teeth with the effort not to confess. They were going to hate him, he knew. But the die was cast.

  He watched Rodriguez pack his saddlebags and say good-bye to his family and friends. That was hard enough, but when Maria began to cry, and Juliano, it was almost more than Quinn could bear. How could he have allowed himself to do this? Fate was working to his advantage, but he would be betraying not only Rodriguez but Maria as well. He looked down into her soft blue eyes and wondered how he would ever be able to live with his own conscience once the deed was done.

  " Vaya con Díos ," she said softly.

  "I'll need to," he replied quietly.

  Rodriguez smiled at her. "Adios, niña."

  "Hasta luego," she corrected. "You will be back very soon. I know it."

  Rodriguez didn't reply. Neither did Quinn as they waved and rode slowly out of the village. He didn't know how to tell her the truth. It was the first time in memory that he'd deliberately avoided a confrontation. But it was also the first time he'd been in love.

  The wedding was an important occasion. Every ranching family for miles came around to view the brief ceremony that took place at the small Methodist church. Afterward there was a parade of buggies and surreys out to Latigo for the reception. Every family brought something to add to the buffet table, and Rosa had made a majestic wedding cake.

  Alan was a little sad as he congratulated his new sister-in-law, but he said or did nothing to spoil her happiness.

  "He'd better be good to you," was all Alan said, and he smiled even then.

  Remembering King's evident concern for her two days ago, when the horse had almost unseated her, made her smile. "He will," she said with certainty. King might not love her, but her welfare certainly mattered to him. Perhaps if she were careful, she might turn that concern into love. It was certainly a possibility.

  King claimed her for the first dance, while the cowboy band played a waltz. She whirled in her pretty satin and lace wedding dress in the living room, cleared of furniture for the occasion. King's eyes were possessive and soft with affection. Amelia flushed a little at the look in them.

  "My own sweet girl," he said quietly, smiling down at her. "I never dreamed that marriage would be such a welcome thing, or that I would find a woman I cared to spend the rest of my life with."

  "You considered spending it with Miss Valverde," she commented.

  "A man considers many women before he finds the right one."

  "She isn't here today."

  His face hardened. "Did you think I would insult you in such a way, by producing one of my old flames to dance at your wedding?"

  "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to make it sound like an insult, but your parents are friends of the Valverdes"

  "A friendship mainly of hopeful gain on their part," he said flatly. "Now that the chance of marriage into my family is passed, I think that we will see much less of them in the future."

  Amelia didn't add that she hoped so, but she did.

  Chapter Nineteen

  » ^ «

  Rodriguez allowed Quinn to precede him into the sheriff's office in El Paso. He surrendered his gun without a protest, which only made Quinn feel worse.

  "So you brought the greaser in," one of the men talking to the deputies said insolently. "Damned Mexican trash !"

  Quinn laid him out in the floor, right in front of the sheriff and his men. "You keep a civil tongue in your head, mister, or I'll pull your tongue out and thread it on my gun barrel!" Quinn said coldly.

  He didn't raise his voice. He didn't have to. The man knew him all too well. He got up, favoring his jaw, and quickly exited the office.

  "I want some guarantees from you about this prisoner," Quinn told the sheriff. "He's not what you think. And until he's given a triala fair trialhe's innocent."

  The sheriff nodded. "I'll see to it that he isn't mistreated, Quinn. You have my word on it."

  "I'll take him back for you." Quinn took the key and escorted Rodriguez down the row of cells to an empty one.

  "These gringos respect you, señor ," the Mexican remarked. "You are one of them, are you not?"

  Quinn didn't look at him. "I'm a Texas Ranger."

  Rodriguez gave him a searching look and slowly nodded. "I thought as much. You did not want to bring me here, yet it is your duty to arrest me. It is because of Maria, you hesitate, yes?"

  "I love her," Quinn said heavily.

  Rodriguez took off his hat and sat down on the bench inside the cell, smiling. "Then she and Juliano will be taken care of. I am glad."

  "You won't be hanged," Quinn said stubbornly. "Don't give up now!"

  "What I said, to Maria, was for the sake of the grandchildren I may have one day." He studied Quinn's hard face. "The charges are true, señor . All of them, except for the butchery. I have killed many gringos, stolen much gold from your banks, taken many head of cattle." He shrugged. "I am an old man. If they hang me, it will only end my suffering. You see, the faces, they have begun to haunt me," he added softly. A faint, bitter smile touched his dry lips. "I do not sleep so good these days. I am tired." He sighed wearily and leaned back against the cold wall. "Whatever they do to me does not matter. Now they will leave my poor people alone, and Maria will be free at last to live her own life and not have to live as a fugitive in mine."

  "Rodriguez," Quinn began.

  He held up his hand. " Muchas gracias for what you have done. But it is finished."

  Quinn left, reluctantly. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the saying was, and that was how he felt.

  He rode out to Latigo just in time for the end of the festivities as his sister married his best friend. He had hated the idea of this wedding, because he was certain that King had been forced into it for honor's sake, not for love of Amelia. But when he saw the two of them together, he began to rethink his objections. If ever a man was falling in love, it was King. He looked at Amelia with a frank adoration that dominated his lean, dark face.

  "Welcome home, stranger!" an elated Amelia said, laughing, running to meet him with a fervent hug. "You made it after all!"

  "Barely," Quinn said. "I've just brought in Rodriguez."

  The minute he said it, he knew it was the wrong thing to voice. King's face changed. All the pleasure went out of it, and his posture became rigid.

  "Where is he?" King asked in a dangerous tone.

  "In the city jail. King, wait!"

  King had whirled on his heel and was walking toward the stables. Quinn caught him by the arm, holding on relentlessly even when King tried to fling him off.

  "Don't do this," Quinn pleaded with him. Beside King, Amelia's face had gone pale and unhappy. "My God, I shouldn't have come, I've spoiled everything for you! I'm sorry!"

  "I'll kill him," King said coldly. "Do you think I can forget what he did to her?"

  Amelia had thought King was falling in love with her. Now she knew the truth. It was all a lie. He'd been putting on an act, because he was trapped into marrying her. It was Alice he'd loved, still loved. The woman might have been cold in his arms, but that hadn't stopped King from loving her. Unrequited love was a fact of life.

  "He'll be tried, fairly," Quinn said harshly. "If you try to go near him, I'll stop you. Don't make me lock you up on your wedding day!"

  King seemed to vibrate. He stared at Quinn with furious eyes. "How can you defend him?" he asked harshly.

  "He isn't what you think!" came the sharp reply. "He's not a monster. He had nothing to do with that butchery. The man who did it was named Manolito. He left Maria, Rodriguez's adopted daughter, in a brothel in Del Rio. I rescued her and took her home. But long before we reached the pueblo, Rodriguez knew that he'd deserted her in Del Rio and killed him for it. Manolito was a butcher; he killed the girl's family and stole her away. Rodriguez rescued her and her little brother and adopted them as his own. He's a good man, King. He didn't do that to Alice. It was Manolito, and h
e's dead!"

  If Quinn had hoped to sway his friend, he was doomed to disappointment. King was too furious to listen. All he could see was Alice's poor body, cut to ribbons, mutilated.

  He broke Quinn's hold and turned on him, as dangerous as his friend had ever seen him. "Get off Latigo land. And don't come back," he told Quinn in a cold, menacing tone.

  He stared at the man with utter contempt and then went stalking off by himself while Amelia stood in the tatters of her dignity. Around them, friends and neighbors tried not to stare and failed miserably. Quinn turned and mounted his horse, deaf to Amelia's entreaties, to the Culhanes' apologies. He felt like a man carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders as he rode back toward town.

  Enid and Brant had planned to go away for the weekend, to leave the newlyweds alone. As it turned out, a reluctant Alan went by himself. Enid couldn't leave the broken girl to face the house alone, because King had gotten on his horse and ridden away without another word to anyone. Apparently he wasn't speaking to Amelia because of Quinn and what he'd said about Rodriguez.

  "It's the the daughter of Rodriguez," Amelia had sobbed. "It must be. Quinn's in love with her. Did you see his face when he spoke of her? And he had to arrest her father. He'll be hanged, you know he will, even if they don't find him guilty of the murders, they'll hang him for bank robbery and rustling. He's probably sure she'll never forgive him."

  "Poor Quinn," Enid said soothingly. "And poor you. King can be so inflexible sometimes."

  "He still loves her, doesn't he?" Amelia asked, her tragic, tear-wet face looked to Enid for confirmation of what she already knew. "He hasn't stopped loving her at all. He wants vengeance for her death."

  "He was very young," Enid said slowly.

  "It's no use at all, " Amelia replied, wiping her eyes. "He's given me what he meant to, the protection of his name to save mine. Now I can give him something in return. I can leave here and let him go on with his life. Later, perhaps, a divorce can be quietly obtained."

  Enid was horrified. "Amelia, you must not leave!"

  "How can I stay? King wants no part of me! If he had cared, he would never have let the capture of an outlaw destroy our wedding day like this. He did the right and honorable thing, I cannot expect him to pretend love where none exists." She wiped her eyes hurriedly. "I will stay the night. Tomorrow, I will go back to the boardinghouse, where I will stay until I can contact my cousin in Florida."

  Enid didn't know what to say. She felt totally helpless. "Amelia, I am so sorry!"

  "Yes. So am I. But at least I know the truth now. King cannot love me. His heart is buried with this Alice to whom he was engaged."

  "She didn't love him!" Enid argued gently.

  "But King loved her," came the wise reply. "Whether love is shared or not does not matter to one whose heart is stubbornly addicted."

  "You love King," Enid stated.

  Amelia nodded. "I will love him until I die. But it would never be enough for him." She reached out and kissed Enid's cheek. "Thank you for being so kind to me. I wish I could repay you."

  "Amelia, King will be devastated if he finds you gone."

  "No, he will not," she said simply. "I think you will find that he is only relieved. Now I must rest. I have so much to do tomorrow."

  "Oh, brother Quinn! Why did he have to come today, of all days, with such news?" Enid moaned.

  "Perhaps it is better to find the truth out while there is still time to save the situation, don't you think? Sleep well," Amelia said softly. She rose and went down the hall to her room, the one she would have shared with her new husband. She felt as if her heart were dead inside her poor body. All those glorious hopes that had risen in the past few days had been brought low forever.

  King tied his horse in a thicket and stood watching the landscape until it was almost dark. In his mind he could see Alice's tortured body, feel the agony it had given him to know that she was dead and he had been unable to help her in her time of need. It had been worse, because the butcher Rodriguez could not be captured and punished. Now Rodriguez was within reach, and the best friend King had in the world was suddenly his ardent defender.

  He broke a twig to pieces in his work-roughened hands while he fought to come to grips with his situation. If he tried to get to Rodriguez, Quinn would have him jailed. That would be an irony.

  His mind was busy, wrangling with the problem, when something Quinn had said began to register. There had been a man, Manolito, who had been responsible for the murders. Rodriguez had killed him for leaving someone named Maria in a bordello.

  His hands stilled. Maria was Rodriguez's adopted daughter, and Quinn was apparently in love with her. He'd had to arrest Rodriguez, and now Maria would surely hate him.

  King let out a rush of held breath. He'd been so obsessed with the past that he hadn't seen his friend's anguish over the present. There was something else, too, wasn't there? Amelia!

  He turned, striding back to his horse. He'd left Amelia almost at the altar, turned his back on her to go raving off after the murderer of a dead fiancée. Amelia would think he still loved Alice. She would be devastated.

  He could have cursed himself for his shortsightedness. He reached for the horse's bridle just as the unmistakable sound of a rattlesnake sent him jumping back in the nick of time. The horse was spooked, however, and began to run madly away. King wasn't wearing his sidearm, so he had to walk wide around the damned snake instead of blowing his head off, as he would have liked. Here he was, miles from the ranch, with night approaching, horseless and gunless, feeling like a fool. He began to laugh. It was a poor start to a marriage, he thought ruefully. He hoped Amelia would be more understanding than he had been. He started to walk back to the path that led to Latigo.

  Quinn wanted to ride back to Malasuerte and explain himself to Maria. But he felt obliged to stay in town and look after Rodriguez while he was imprisoned. He felt terrible about his falling out with King and causing Amelia grief on what should have been a happy day. He had never been quite so miserable.

  It was dark when he got to town, and he was too tired to ride to Alpine to the barracks. He got a room in town and went to bed. Perhaps, he told himself, things would look better after a good night's sleep.

  King, meanwhile, had decided that he'd do better to sleep than try to walk on in the dark to the ranch, through snake-invested brush and cactus. He made a small camp fire, built himself a bed out of what vegetation he could find, and with an empty belly, settled down for his wedding night. He wondered if anyone had ever had a more uncomfortable one.

  He would have known if he could have seen Amelia's poor face when she got up before daylight and washed it. Her eyes were swollen from crying, and she was drawn and pale from her ordeal.

  She packed her few things and begged a ride from Brant back into town.

  King's father muttered all the way to El Paso. Enid had wept and tried to get Amelia to stay. But the girl was determined. She'd had quite enough of King's behavior. The fact that he'd stayed out all night had surely underlined his desire to be rid of her. He couldn't have made his feelings more plain if he'd ordered her, along with her brother, off the ranch.

  "Idiot boy," Brant said audibly as they reached the city. "I'll have words with him about this. It's no way to treat a new bride, I'll tell you that!"

  "I'm an unwanted bride, Mr. Culhane," she reminded him gently. "Perhaps it's for the best. He's spared my reputation, you know."

  "It would hardly have been necessary to save it had he not ruined it in the first place. I tell you, Amelia, his behavior is incomprehensible to me. I never thought that a son of mine !"

  "Please," she said, stopping the flow of words with an uplifted hand. "It will all pass, like wind on the desert. He has made his choice, and I have been spared from having to live with a man who cannot love me. Yesterday certainly underlined the fact that he has never gotten over his feelings for Alice."

  Brant couldn't argue with that. "I shall miss you," he
said. "It has been very pleasant having a daughter in residence."

  "I could not have wished for more congenial inlaws," she replied. "I shall write when I am settled, so that King will know where to contact me when" She swallowed and started again, "when he is ready to proceed with a divorce or an annulment."

  An annulment would require a lie from both of them, but only King would know that. Best to let everyone think there had been no real indiscretion. But Amelia was growing more certain by the day that she had conceived during that one intimacy. She was almost certainly pregnant. The child would be born without its father, never knowing him at all. She could hardly bear the thought.

  "I must go," she said unsteadily.

  Brant winced at her expression. He didn't know what to say or do. He helped her down from the carriage at the hotel and carried her valise in for her. Just as they got in the door, Quinn came down the staircase and spotted his sister.

  He strode toward her and, seeing her face, simply pulled her into his arms and held her comfortingly while she cried.

  "I'm sorry, sister," he said miserably. "I've done a lot of damage with Rodriguez's arrest, haven't I? I've lost the woman I loved, cost myself a best friend and you a husband, and all in one day!"

  "Oh, Quinn, don't," she said, now the one to comfort him.

  Brant tried to offer his own condolences, but Quinn waved them away.

  "It's done," he told his best friend's father. "Maybe King can forgive us both one day. For the time being, I'll see Amelia settled here. Then perhaps I can manage at least a boardinghouse for her"

  "No," Amelia said firmly. "I shall go to Cousin Ettie in Florida."

  "But if you stay here, King might relent," Quinn argued.