The Rancher's Bride

by Stella Bagwell

Surprise dropped Harlan’s jaw while Rose shifted awkwardly in her seat

  “That’s…very sweet of you to offer, Emily, but I wouldn’t dream of pulling you away from your father. I’m sure he has more than enough for you to do around here.”

  “If Daddy has a lot of work around here, he hires a man to help him. Most of the time in the summer, I just sit around the house. Bored.”

  Rose glanced at Harlan. He was staring at his daughter, and if the frown on his face was anything to go by, he wasn’t at all pleased.

  “I’m touched by your offer, Emily. But it wouldn’t be fair to you or your father if you worked with me on the Bar M,” Rose said, then felt perfectly awful as a crestfallen look settled over Emily’s young face. “I mean, I couldn’t pay you anything. And I certainly couldn’t let you work for nothing.”

  Harlan took a piece of the pizza, then motioned for Rose to help herself. “I don’t think my daughter expects to be paid. Do you, Emily?”

  The teenager shook her head emphatically. “No. But if you’d rather not have me around, I understand,” she told Rose.

  But she would be brokenhearted. Even though Emily hadn’t spoken the words, Rose could read them on her face. The last thing she wanted to do was to hurt this impressionable girl’s feelings.

  “Oh, well, it’s not a matter of whether I’d want you around. I’d love your company.”

  Emily’s face lighted up like a candle. “You would? You’re not just saying that?”

  Rose shook her head. “Of course not,” she said, then glanced at Harlan. “You’re not saying anything.”

  He shrugged as he studied his daughter, then looked at Rose. “This is between you and Emily.”

  “Then you wouldn’t mind if she came over to the ranch a few days a week?”

  So far this summer Emily hadn’t shown any interest in finding a job. Of course with the closest town being twenty miles away there wasn’t much point in looking. But Harlan intuitively knew this thing with Rose had nothing to do with a job. His daughter simply wanted to be with her newfound friend. And how could he deny her the female companionship she so badly needed?

  “No. I wouldn’t mind.”

  Before another word could be said, Emily jumped to her feet and raced around to her father’s chair. “Oh Daddy, you’re so wonderful! Thank you! Thank you!”

  She rained kisses on both sides of his face until he laughingly set her back from him.

  “Okay, I get the message. You’re willing to slave for Rose and leave your dear old dad with a sinkful of dirty dishes.”

  “Oh, no! I promise I’ll help here at home, too, Daddy,” she exclaimed as she hurried back to her seat at the table.

  Harlan smiled. It was the first time in a long while he’d seen his daughter excited over anything and it made him very happy.

  “I’m just kidding, Emily.”

  As Rose chewed a bite of pizza, she watched the affectionate exchange between father and daughter. Being from a large family herself, it was hard for Rose to imagine how it must be with just the two of them. To say the least, raising a daughter alone would be daunting. Harlan had done it for six or seven years. She figured most men would have given up long before that and married the first woman they could find to say yes.

  “Do you know anything about babies, Emily?” Rose asked.

  “Babies? You mean baby animals?”

  Rose smiled. “No. I mean baby people.”

  Emily was suddenly intrigued. “Oh. I’ve never been around any babies hardly. Why?”

  “Because we have twin babies on the ranch. I thought you might enjoy looking after them a bit.”

  Emily’s eyes grew wide. “Babies! Are they yours? Are you married?”

  Harlan was looking at her as though she’d just metamorphosed and Rose couldn’t stop the hot blush from pouring into her cheeks. Surely he didn’t think she’d given birth to the babies! One kiss with him wasn’t enough to make her appear that promiscuous!

  “No, I’m not married and the babies aren’t mine. At least not technically speaking. They’re twins and they’re eight months old.”

  “Twin babies! How wonderful!” Emily exclaimed. “I can’t wait to see them!”

  Emily continued to chatter about the babies and her plans to visit the ranch. In a matter of minutes, the pizza and salad were gone and it was time for Rose to head home.

  As she told Emily goodbye and climbed into the pickup with Harlan, she wished his daughter was going with them. She didn’t want to be alone with the man for five minutes, much less fifteen or twenty. But she had little choice in the matter.

  “I want you to know how grateful I am to you, Rose,” Harlan said as they drove away from the ranch onto the dark dirt road.

  His unexpected words caused her head to swivel his way. “Grateful? I can’t imagine for what. You loaned Daddy lots of money. You’re more than entitled to our water.”

  Harlan shook his head. “I’m not talking about any of that.”

  Dear heaven, he wasn’t talking about that kiss, was he? She wished he’d forget it. She wished she could wipe it completely from her mind. But how could she, when just sitting here beside him in the dark was making her heart pound?

  “Then what—”

  “I’m talking about Emily. She’s taken to you. And I’m…more than grateful that you didn’t push her away tonight.”

  Rose sagged with relief. She could talk about Emily. She couldn’t talk about what had happened between the two of them down by the barn.

  “Emily is a lovely child. I wouldn’t push her away for any reason.”

  He sighed. “That’s very generous of you. Especially after the rude way she behaved yesterday.” He grunted a sound of amused disbelief. “Last night she refused to ride with us to the Bar M and now she can’t wait to go. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand my daughter.”

  “Maybe it’s females in general that you don’t understand,” she said, then immediately wanted to bite her tongue. What had possessed her to say such a thing to him?

  “I don’t pretend to try,” he said dryly, then cast a curious glance at her. “I know it’s none of my business, but those babies you were talking about earlier. Do they belong to one of your sisters? I remember Tomas mentioning one of his daughters having a son, but I don’t remember anything about twins.”

  “That’s my sister Justine. She and Roy have a five-yearold son. The twins are—”

  She hesitated, then quickly decided there wasn’t any point in keeping the circumstances of the twins a secret from this man. She wasn’t ashamed of the twins. Of her father’s behavior, certainly. But never the twins. She couldn’t love them more.

  She went on, “Back earlier in the summer, Justine found the twins on our front porch.”

  “On your porch,” he repeated in disbelief. “That sounds like something in the movies.”

  Sighing, Rose gazed at the shadowy clumps of sage and choya passing outside the open window. “I know. But it happens to be exactly what happened.”

  Harlan’s mouth tightened to a grim line. “Who would do such a thing to innocent children?”

  She glanced at him. “Sheriff Roy Pardee is my brotherin-law and since he’s been working on the case, he’s pretty much decided it was the mother. She was seen with the twins in Ruidoso on that very same day. It must have been her. But I guess he won’t be absolutely sure of that until he tracks her down.”

  “He hasn’t found the mother yet?”

  Rose shook her head. “So far she’s left a pretty cold trail to follow. But Roy is good at his job and I feel like he’ll find her soon.”

  “Does he know who she is? What about the father?”

  “The father is dead,” she said flatly.

  He slowed the pickup and stared at her. “Dead? How do you know that?”

  She swallowed. “Because Tomas, my father, is also the father of the twins.”

  Harlan couldn’t believe it. Tomas had only become a widower late last year. Was
Rose telling him the old man had been having an affair?

  He stopped the pickup in the middle of the dirt road and killed the motor. “Rose, surely I didn’t hear you right. Tomas, your father, is also the father of the babies left abandoned on your front porch?”

  She sighed wearily. The day had been exhausting and she was still feeling like a genuine fool over that kiss. She was hardly in the mood to discuss her father’s lack of morals, but since she’d already told him part of the story, she couldn’t very well hold back the rest. He’d been a friend to Tomas, he’d lent him money when he needed it. If anyone had the right to know what had happened, she supposed Harlan did.

  “For a while we didn’t know who or where the twins belonged,” she said quietly. “We knew the babies were redheaded like myself and my sisters. And some people even remarked that they resembled us, but we didn’t know anyone with twin babies. We thought it was all just coincidence and that someone had randomly chosen the Bar M as a place to drop the babies.”

  “How did you find out? About your father, I mean,” he asked gently.

  “I was going through some of the ranch’s canceled checks and discovered several my father had written at a certain time each month. All the checks were for a large amount and the name of the payee had been left blank. And to make things even more suspicious, the endorser never put a name, just a deposit only. But thankfully the number of the account the money was deposited into was stamped on the back. And from that Roy was able to find a name and eventually the birth records of the twins in Las Cruces. Tomas was listed as the father and we have no reason to doubt that. Since the twins have grown over a few more months, they’re beginning to look even more like Murdocks.”

  Harlan couldn’t imagine what a shock it must have been for Rose to find out the twins were actually her siblings. Had the whole thing made her hate her father?

  “Why do you think Tomas was writing those checks? For child support?”

  Rose shrugged. “We don’t know for sure. He obviously didn’t want us knowing about the twins and since the mother never made any sort of contact with us beforehand, we think she was blackmailing our father—to keep quiet about giving birth to his children.”

  Harlan’s head swung slowly back and forth. “This is all—so incredible. Tomas was a fine man. There were times he offered to help me when I didn’t even ask. I can’t imagine him getting off on such a wrong track.” He looked at Rose and tried to imagine what she’d been coping with these past months. A lesser woman would have already crumbled under the weight, he realized. “I suppose this was why your father came to me for money. The whole thing must have broken him.”

  Rose leaned her head against the back of the seat. She looked so tired and defeated that Harlan wished he hadn’t asked her anything about the babies. Obviously, just talking about it had drained her.

  “I shouldn’t have asked you,” he said after a moment “It was none of my business.”

  Rose turned her large gray eyes on him and as he looked into their depths, he could see the pain and worry and exhaustion she was feeling. Harlan suddenly wanted to take her into his arms and rest her head against his shoulder. He wanted to stroke her hair and tell her everything would eventually be all right. But it wasn’t his place to comfort her and more than likely she’d be the first one to tell him so.

  “I don’t feel that way, Harlan. You loaned Daddy money. You’re entitled to know what he wanted it for. Besides, I knew if Emily came to the ranch and met the babies, she’d want to know something about them. What shall I tell her?”

  Rose’s question caused his brows to lift. “What do you mean?”

  “Emily is thirteen. She might not understand about an older married man having an affair.” She stopped and covered her face with both hands. “What am I saying? I’m twenty-eight and I don’t even understand it myself.”

  She was twenty-eight. Harlan was surprised. She looked much younger. And as far as he knew, she’d never been married. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure why. Rose was a lovely, alluring woman. Even under her dusty work clothes and boots he could see that. Did she simply not like men because her father had turned out to be an adulterer? No, he didn’t think so. That wouldn’t account for all these years she lived a single life. Besides, she’d kissed him and he hadn’t tasted a bit of dislike on her lips.

  “Whatever Emily asks about the twins, tell her the truth. She’s old enough to know that the world isn’t always a nice place. And I’ve tried to teach her that, if they’re not careful, people of any age can make bad mistakes.”

  Rose dropped her hands to her lap, looked at him, and tried her best to smile. “I think—you’re a good father, Harlan.”

  It was the last thing he was expecting her to say. The compliment both surprised and pleased him. “Thank you, Rose. I try.”

  He started the engine and headed on to the Bar M. For the rest of the drive, Rose closed her eyes and tried to put Harlan out of her thoughts. But that was about as successful as her turning night into day. She owed the man money. That troubled her. But not nearly as much as the unfamiliar feelings stirring inside her. She was letting herself get closer to Harlan. She was even beginning to like him. And that terrified her.

  A few minutes later they arrived at the ranch and Rose directed Harlan to circle around to the back of the house. As soon as he parked at the gate entering the courtyard, Rose reached for the doorhandle.

  “Thank you for the lift, Harlan,” she said, her eyes fixed safely on her lap. “And don’t worry yourself about getting Pie back tomorrow. Just drop him by whenever you have the chance. I’ll pay you for whatever feed you give him.”

  His door opened and she glanced over to see him climbing out to the ground. Bemused, she watched him skirt the front of the cab, then open her door.

  “You won’t pay me anything for horse feed,” he said, then raised his arm toward her. “Put your hand on my arm.”

  She frowned. “What?”

  “Put your hand right here,” he ordered while tapping his forearm. “I’m going to walk you to the door.”

  “That isn’t necessary. I’m fine now.”

  “Maybe so. But this way I’ll know you made it to the house without collapsing.”

  Rose had never collapsed in her life and she certainly didn’t want Harlan thinking she was weak. For some foolish reason, she wanted him to see her as a strong, confident woman. Yet he seemed to want her to lean on him and that idea went straight to Rose’s heart.

  Reaching out, she curled her fingers over his thick forearm. At once, she was struck by the warmth of his skin, the tickle of body hair, the hardness of his muscles.

  Her heart lurched, then went into a mad gallop as she slid from the seat to stand beside him.

  “I guess I am a little tired,” she told him. But she didn’t feel it. When she was close to him, touching him, her whole body buzzed with excitement. It didn’t make sense.

  Except for a faint night-light burning in the kitchen, the back courtyard was dark as the two of them slowly made their way toward the house. As they walked, Harlan was acutely aware of Rose’s small hand on his arm. It had been years since a woman had touched him or needed him in a physical way. To have Rose leaning on him swelled his chest with inexplicable emotions.

  The night had grown late and nothing was stirring except a soft breeze whispering in the pines. Rose was very aware of the quietness as the two of them stepped onto the porch.

  “Here you are,” he said.

  “Yes. Well…good night, Harlan.”

  His hand closed over hers, preventing Rose from stepping away from him. Her eyes lifted to the shadowy lines of his face and her heart slowed to a heavy thud, thud.

  “Rose, I—” he paused and his fingers pressed her hand even tighter against his arm. “I just wanted to say that…when you first told me about your financial problems, I was skeptical. I knew your father needed money last year, but I didn’t think it was…well, I thought you and your sister
s might be the sort who liked to live—” he broke off awkwardly.

  “Above our means,” she finished dryly.

  A sheepish expression on his face, he said, “Something like that. And I feel bad about it now.”

  She looked down at the toes of their dusty boots. His were wide and rounded, hers narrow and pointed. They were very nearly touching. So were their thighs and hips and the whole idea made it hard for Rose to breathe.

  “You shouldn’t apologize for that, Harlan. You don’t know me or my sisters, or how we live.”

  No, he hadn’t known much about the Murdock daughters, but he was quickly learning about this one, he thought. And the more he learned, the more he was drawn to her.

  “But I knew your father,” he persisted. “At least, I thought I knew him. It’s hard to believe he would have left his family in such financial trouble.”

  Rose looked up at him and was surprised to find something like sadness on his face. When Harlan had called Tomas his friend, he must have truly meant it, Rose thought. “Daddy was only fifty-three. I don’t think he planned on dying and leaving things the way he did. I believe he thought he’d eventually make the money back and none of us would ever be aware of his problems.”

  “He must have been living under a hell of a load,” Harlan said thoughtfully.

  “I’m sure it’s what killed him. The stress of it all. Of course his cigarettes and fondness for Kentucky bourbon didn’t help matters.”

  Tomas Murdock had liked to play the horses. Harlan had been aware of that. But apparently the older man’s playing hadn’t stopped at just horses. Now Rose and her sisters were paying for his sins. It wasn’t fair, or right. But what could Harlan do about it?

  “I’m sorry, Rose. Really sorry.”

  She closed her eyes and as Harlan studied her pale face, it was all he could do not to crush her against his chest and bury his face in her hair. The urge didn’t make sense to Harlan. After the death of his wife, he’d vowed never to marry or even allow himself to love again. So why was this woman making him feel things he didn’t want to feel?

  “I didn’t tell you all this to gain your sympathy,” she murmured.