Maybe she was just nervous after the wire-cutting incident, but she couldn’t shake the feeling someone was watching her. Since Black Cloud was the favorite for the race, it wasn’t unreasonable to think one of the competitors would send someone to spy on her. For some owners, there was more at stake than money. There was the pride of winning, of being able to brag that you owned the fastest horse in Texas, and if there was anything Texans had plenty of, it was pride.
She wondered how Edward was coming along with Crusader and if anyone in San Antonio realized they ought to be watching him, too. She had only run against him one morning, and though Black Cloud had won easily, Crusader was carrying about eighty extra pounds and Edward hadn’t put him into a hard gallop.
A movement in the trees up the hillside caught her eye. It was hard to tell at this distance, but it looked like something large and white was deep in the trees. The hair rose on the back of her neck as she stared at the spot, trying to decide who or what might be up there. Some rocks looked white when the sun was on them at just the right angle, but she was convinced this wasn’t a rock. Still, she couldn’t see any movement.
She was probably worrying for nothing. She was on Maxwell family land. And everyone in the area was well aware that her brother Luke had been one of the most feared gunfighters in the West before he married two years ago. It would be foolish to imagine he’d lost his skill or his bad temper in that short period of time.
She ought to be thinking about Suzette. Her sister-in-law seemed to be losing strength each day. Ward said there was nothing wrong he could fix; just to watch her carefully and let him know if anything unexpected happened. Eden didn’t know what that meant any more than Josie, Hawk, or Zeke. None of them had ever been around a pregnant woman before. Eden wished her mother had been the one to stay, but everyone agreed Eden was the best choice. Except Eden herself. Nobody had asked her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a movement among the trees. This time she was certain someone on a pinto was up in those trees. She tried to remember if Hawk and Zeke had any pinto riding stock, but she’d never paid any attention to their regular horses. She was tempted to put Black Cloud into a canter, even a slow gallop to get home sooner, but she told herself to calm down. It could have been Finn or Brady going back to the ranch. She had never had occasion to do more than exchange a short greeting with either of them, so there was no reason to expect they would come down out of the trees to ride with her. And if it was someone checking on Black Cloud’s workout, they wouldn’t want to be seen, nor would they pose any danger.
She was still a mile from the house when a horseman suddenly emerged from the trees. She was so startled, she tensed in preparation for a quick escape.
“I was hoping to catch you before you finished working Black Cloud,” Edward said. “I like to keep track of my competition.”
It took Eden a moment to calm her racing pulse. Edward was riding one of the ranch’s horses—a roan, not a pinto. There was a mystery rider in the trees.
“Then you’ll have to stop disappearing after breakfast.”
“I’ve been riding fence all morning.” Edward brought his mount alongside Eden. “I’m on my way to report to Hawk before heading over to help Bret. Someone cut his fences, too. Zeke says we’ll be riding fence for the whole family until we catch whoever is doing this.”
“Did you see anyone in those trees?” Eden pointed to where she’d last seen the mystery rider.
“No. Why?”
“There was someone on a pinto up there just before you showed up. I thought it might be Brady or Finn.”
“Brady’s riding a dun today. I didn’t see Finn mount up. Did you get a look at the rider?”
“No. I just caught a glimpse of the horse in the trees. I expect it’s someone spying on Black Cloud. I told you some people buy horses just for this race. Maybe they’re trying to figure out how good the horse has to be.”
“Do you think he’ll do anything to you or your horse?”
“This is about winning a race, not eliminating the competition.”
“Sometimes that’s the easiest way to win a race. Certainly easier than trying to buy a faster horse.”
Eden had always felt invulnerable on Maxwell family land, but these cut fences had proved their defenses were not impenetrable. Somebody was finding a way in and back out again.
“I’ll take a look,” Edward said.
Eden waited on the trail while Edward rode up into the trees. She watched as he rode along what appeared to be a rough trail following the ridge. A moment later he vanished.
“Someone’s been up there more than once,” he said as he rejoined her. “Maybe as many as three or four times. I’ll ask Brady and Finn if they ever use that trail, but it would hardly make sense since this one is better.”
It looked as if someone had been spying on her from the beginning. She wasn’t sure everyone in her family even knew she was helping Suzette and Josie. How would strangers know? She’d never realized until now that being surrounded by family didn’t guarantee complete protection. It wasn’t a pleasant realization.
“Did you find any signs of trouble?” she asked Edward.
“Not a thing. No signs of other riders, either.”
“Do you think it’s some kid cutting fences just for fun? There’s not a lot for young people to do out here.”
“I couldn’t say. You know Texas better than I do.”
“I have a way to help you learn the lay of the land that’s more fun than riding fence all day.”
“I don’t trust you when you grin like that. Is it going to hurt?”
“Probably. I’m inviting you to a dance. I expect it’ll be my feet that will hurt.”
“You know I can’t dance,” Edward protested. “Why would you invite me?”
“Because you’ll never learn to dance if you don’t try. Besides, you’ve done nothing but work since you got here. It’s time you had a little fun.”
“If you think going to a dance will be fun for me, you don’t know me very well.”
Edward couldn’t remember when he’d felt more uncomfortable. He should have stayed as far away from this barn dance as possible. The dance wasn’t actually being held in a barn but on some hard ground illuminated by a dozen lanterns suspended from poles that served to mark off the dance area. Crowds of gaily dressed men and women milled about, greeting one another with shouts, embracing each other with an enthusiasm unmatched in Edward’s experience, and generally creating an atmosphere that in England would be found only in all-male company gathered at such sporting events as a boxing match or a game of cricket.
“We’ve got a good crowd,” Eden said, clearly delighted by the milling throng. “It’s going to be a great dance.”
Maybe for a Texan, but for Edward nothing about it was great, normal, or enjoyable. To start with, he wasn’t wearing his own clothes. Eden had assumed, correctly as it happened, that he intended to wear the kind of clothes he would have worn in England. After giving him a look that said she had very little appreciation for his intelligence, she’d raided Hawk and Zeke’s closets for something suitable. Over the protests of all three men, she’d laid out what she said was a suitable outfit for a young man going to his first country dance. Edward felt more like he was dressed for a Wild West show than a social event.
He was wearing a clean white shirt—she’d personally washed and ironed it for him—along with a dark blue silk vest and a silk bandana to match. Zeke had yelped when she’d raided his possessions, but Josie had told him not to be selfish, that there was no reason Edward shouldn’t use them if Zeke wasn’t going to the dance. Her husband had given several reasons why his property rights ought to be respected, but Josie had swept them aside. Eden then raided Hawk’s closet for a pair of wool pants and a new hat that Hawk hadn’t yet had a chance to break in. All that Edward was wearing of his own were his boots and his underwear.
“Is that the music we’re supposed to dance to?” Edward a
sked, pointing with gathering horror at the collection of foreign-looking instruments making very unmusical noises.
“It’s the best band around,” Eden assured him.
The scraping sound coming from the violin and the metallic twang being drawn from what looked like a guitar with a round body seemed to refute Eden’s statement. If this was indeed the best band around, it was clearly going to be harder to become a Texan than he’d expected. Nobody had told him tone deafness was a requirement.
“What is there to drink?” Edward asked.
“Punch for the ladies, beer for the men. You’ll want to have the punch.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“Because you can’t dance when you’re drunk.”
Considering that the dancing was going to be done to the accompaniment of instruments that reminded him more of the squealing of an ungreased wheel or the shrieking of metal against metal, he thought being drunk might be the only way he was going to get through the evening.
The band started playing a song. At least he figured it was supposed to be a song because the discordant sounds were coming together in some sort of pattern. He didn’t recognize the melody the squawking violin was playing, but it repeated itself so many times before the song mercifully ended, he worried he might have the jingle running through his head for several days to come. The one thing that encouraged him to think the evening might not be so terrible was that nobody danced, nobody appeared to listen to the music, nobody even tapped their feet. They kept right on talking, laughing, and lining up for beer and punch until Edward’s spirits began to improve. It didn’t hurt that he was starting to get inquiring glances from some of the women. Eden had assured him that friendly kissing was permissible, even encouraged. If the women staring at him were any indication, ogling attractive members of the opposite sex was equally acceptable.
Rather than let him stand around and watch, Eden dragged him into the crowd and began to introduce him. The moment he opened his mouth to acknowledge an introduction, he got startled looks, amused grins, and a few sassy remarks. He finally just nodded.
“I’ll get us something to drink,” he told Eden.
He didn’t like the looks of the punch. A taste confirmed his suspicion. He poured it out on the ground.
“Make that a beer,” he said, ignoring the disapproving glance of the woman serving the punch but winning a grin from the guy passing out the beer.
“That stuff will addle your stomach,” the guy said. “I don’t know how the women stand it.”
“It’s very good for you,” the woman argued. “We combine fruit juices with a little bit of white wine to make it interesting.”
The guy made a face that caused Edward to smile, remembering some of the terrible punches English women were forced to drink for the sake of propriety.
By the time he found Eden again, the dancing had begun, but he intended to postpone his humiliation for as long as it would take him to drink his beer. One of the young men he’d been introduced to earlier came over to them.
“May I have this dance?” he asked Eden.
Eden cast a questioning glance at Edward.
“Sure,” he said to Eden. “I’ll just drink my beer.”
As he drank, he observed the dance they were doing. It bore little resemblance to anything Edward had ever done or seen done. He took another big swallow of his beer, realized it was gone, and went for another one. By the time he returned, the dance had ended and Eden was looking for him. “Did you enjoy the dance?” he asked.
“It was okay, but I’d rather dance with you.”
“I can’t do what you’re doing.”
“It’s called square dancing. It’s a lot like country dancing in England.”
It didn’t look like it to him.
“All you have to do is listen to what the caller says. If you don’t know how to do the movement, just watch everybody else.”
Apparently Eden had forgotten he’d already been watch ing everybody else and he still couldn’t figure out the movements. “I need to watch some more.”
Eden had no trouble finding partners. She had danced with three different men before he’d begun to recognize some of the steps. He’d had three beers and was feeling maybe the dancing wasn’t quite as complicated as he’d first thought.
He got as far as Honor your partner. After that things went downhill in a hurry. He couldn’t even figure out what the announcer was saying in time to do it. Watching the other dancers didn’t help. By the time he’d figured out how to do the step, the announcer had shouted something else and they were off on a different movement.
“That wasn’t bad for the first time,” Eden said as he staggered off to the sidelines. “A couple more dances and you’ll have it.”
A couple more years, maybe, but his feet were doing nothing recognizable as dancing tonight.
“I’ll get you some more punch,” he said and hurried off despite her insistence she didn’t want anything to drink. Maybe she didn’t, but he did.
For the next several dances, he was forced to watch her whirl around the dance floor with a different partner each time. Several women tried to coax Edward into dancing, but he steadfastly refused. He had no desire to endanger his limbs or batter his self-esteem on another square dance, but he didn’t mind if the women stayed and talked to him while he watched Eden and her various partners. It irritated him that he couldn’t be the one she was smiling at and being held by, but the number of women interested in him proved he could attract attention, too. He was talking to a very attractive young woman when the band unexpectedly launched into a slow dance. He looked up to find Eden, but she had already been claimed by a cowboy he’d never seen before.
“This is a nice slow dance,” the young woman said. “Do you think you could handle it?”
Edward had explained he was from England and didn’t know anything about Texas dances.
“All you have to do is shift your weight from one foot to the other like you’re walking very slowly around the room.”
Edward wasn’t sure he could handle even that, but he was getting tired of watching Eden dance with nearly every unattached man in the place—and they all seemed to be unattached. “I’ll give it a try, but I’m warning you to look out for your toes.”
“I’m sure my toes will be quite safe,” the woman said with a giggle.
It went a lot better than he expected, even though he spent more time looking at Eden than concentrating on his feet. Slow dances in Texas really were like walking slowly around the dance floor. He couldn’t figure out why people bothered with that complicated square dance stuff. You couldn’t flirt, you couldn’t talk, and you were separated from your partner more often than not. And when you were with your partner, you had to keep your mind on what the archfiend of a dance caller was going to think of next.
He preferred holding a woman in his arms, having her lean against him and rest her head on his shoulder. “I like this kind of dance,” he said, wishing he was the one holding Eden in his arms instead of that cowboy. The man was too damned handsome for Edward’s comfort. “Why doesn’t that fiddle scraper play more of them?”
The woman laughed. “They will as the evening goes by. Folks have a lot of energy when they first get here, but after a while they just want a nice friendly dance with a pretty girl or a handsome guy.”
Was that why Eden was dancing so close to that cowboy? He was undoubtedly the best-looking man at the dance. Edward was unprepared to see Eden stand on her tiptoes and kiss the guy on the cheek. He was incensed when the cowboy laughed and kissed her back.
Edward tore his gaze from the lighthearted couple. “Can a woman dance with any man she wants to?” he asked his partner.
“Pretty much, unless she’s got a steady.”
“Do you have a steady?”
The woman lowered her gaze. “Not at the moment.”
He paused, looking over at the happy couple. Why couldn’t that be him? He felt a sharp stab o
f jealousy but quickly quelled it. “Are you looking to get friendly with some guy?”
“If the right guy happens along.”
More than anything he wanted to wipe the smug look off that cowboy’s face and show Eden what she was missing. Jealous that Eden had never kissed him like that, he ratcheted up his resolve, tightened his arm around the woman, pulled her to him, and kissed her on the mouth.
Chapter Fourteen
Things happened quickly after that.
The woman emitted a kind of gasp and pushed Edward away. Then a hand gripped his shoulder, spun him around, and he saw a fist coming at his face. Trained in boxing from the time he was eleven, he had no trouble blocking the punch, but before he could ask the guy what was wrong, several hands shoved him off the dance floor so roughly, he nearly lost his footing.
“He must be drunk,” he heard someone say.
“I don’t care. That’s no reason to push himself on Carrie.”
“Who the hell is he?”
“Some English dude trying to pretend he’s a cowboy. We ought to teach him Texas cowboys are real particular about the way people handle their women.”
Edward recovered his balance and turned to find himself facing a group of angry men. He wanted to explain he’d let his jealousy over Eden get the best of him, but he had the feeling they weren’t going to accept that explanation. Besides, he couldn’t admit to jealousy in front of Eden. That would be tantamount to admitting he loved her. He heard a movement behind him and turned.
“Are you crazy?” It was Eden. “Were you trying to start a fight?”
“You kissed that cowboy,” Edward protested, pointing to the handsome man, who appeared to be curious but not angry, “so . . . I guess I just, well . . .” he stammered.
A dead silence came over the people gathered around.
Then someone laughed. A second person laughed, then a third until the whole group was virtually doubled up with laughter.
Texas Loving (The Cowboys) Page 16