“Is there anything more you want to know?” Edward asked the jockey after they’d finished discussing strategy for the race the next day.
“Nothing you can’t tell me later,” the man said.
“Good. Then meet me here tomorrow at two o’clock. I’ll have him saddled and ready to go.”
Edward knew he had a big smile on his face as he watched the man walk away. He would win the race, get his money, be able to ask Eden to marry him. Now he had to see how many private bets he could place on Crusader. No matter what rumors might be flying around town, Crusader was an unknown quantity. There would be plenty of people willing to bet against his winning, and Edward meant to keep finding them until his money ran out. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t take long.
A nagging voice warned him that good fortune never came without a price, but he’d paid the price, hadn’t he? He’d lost the life he’d had in England and survived a crash course in how to become a Texan. He was going to forge ahead, make a new life for himself with Eden at his side. Fortune was smiling on him at last.
“I’m not going,” Eden repeated. “Why should I want to watch another jockey ride Crusader to victory? I should be on his back, not some retired jockey, no matter how famous he used to be.”
“Much of the credit for anything he does belongs to you,” Edward insisted. “Without you on his back during training, he might never have trusted an unfamiliar jockey.”
“If I were riding him, he wouldn’t need to trust an unfamiliar jockey.”
“That’s enough,” Jake said. “I’ve never known you to be so unreasonable.”
“You think I’m being unreasonable,” Eden said. “I don’t.”
“I was of two minds until this jockey showed up,” Isabelle said. “I hated to see Edward lose his chance, but I couldn’t let you take such a risk when we hadn’t found the third Reison brother.”
“We’ll probably never find him,” Eden said. “For all we know, he isn’t in San Antonio and doesn’t even know who I am.”
“If he’s anything like his father,” Jake said, “he’s here, he knows, and he won’t stop until he’s done what he set out to do.”
“Or we find him first,” Edward said.
Everyone in the family had Buck’s sketchy description of what Aaron Reison looked like as a boy. They would be searching for him as they moved around the city, as would the local law officers, but Eden had little expectation they would find him. She couldn’t believe the man was trying to kill her. There had been so many opportunities before, hundreds of times when she’d been outside with no protection, when she’d been on Crusader, even on the trip into San Antonio. If she’d truly been the main target, Reison could have attacked her before any of the family realized she was in danger. Considering how the attacks had been carried out, it didn’t make any sense that she was the target. If the attacks were all attributable to the Reison brothers. They might never know the answer to that question.
“It won’t matter what he wants to do as long as I stay in the hotel,” Eden said, “so everybody can stop worrying and enjoy watching Edward win the race.”
“Eden, you know I didn’t want—”
She cut Edward off. “I know you’re doing this because of me. I think you’re wrong, but I appreciate that you were willing to give up your chance of winning to protect me.”
“I should think you would,” her father said. “It’s not every man who’d give up something like this race for a woman. Any woman.”
“I’m glad Edward thinks I’m special, but I already knew that,” Eden said with a self-satisfied grin. “Now I’m going to stay in Hawk and Suzette’s room at the back of the hotel so I won’t have to hear any crowd noise from the race. You can send someone to get me when it’s over. Don’t any of you come trying to talk me into changing my mind. I’m going to lock the door.”
It was hard to inject her performance with the right amount of pique when excitement at what she was about to do bubbled inside her. Her parents were going to be very upset—Edward would be furious—but they would forgive her when she won the race and everything turned out just as she planned. Now, all she had to do was get out of the hotel without being seen.
Edward was surprised at how little pleasure he got from saddling Crusader. He should be excited, and he was. He should be happy he had an excellent jockey, and he was. He should be looking forward to a successful future, and he was. Yet he had a bitter taste in his mouth because Eden wasn’t in the saddle. No one would know she’d helped train Crusader, that she was as responsible as anyone for his victory.
“He is a beautiful horse,” the jockey said. “Are you planning to put him to stud after the race?”
“Not immediately. It might be fun to run him a few more times.” If they could find this other Reison brother, Eden would be able to ride him. Maybe not. He wasn’t sure she’d ever forgive him for not letting her ride Crusader today.
He still had a nagging feeling that something about Buck’s description of Aaron Reison was familiar, though he couldn’t figure out how that was possible. Except for Finn and Brady, he didn’t know anyone outside of the Maxwell family. No Maxwell had anything to do with the attacks, and Finn and Brady had been on the lookout for trouble as much as anyone else. Which made it even harder to understand what Finn had been doing in San Antonio talking to the fired jockey.
Did Finn think that jockey might know something about who could be trying to eliminate Crusader from the race? Did he think he was more useful in San Antonio now that Eden and Crusader were here rather than back at the ranch? If so, he should have talked to Jake, explained his concerns and what he thought should be done about them.
But that wasn’t like Finn. He wasn’t friendly or inclined to share his thoughts with someone else. Edward never knew what he was thinking, was often convinced Finn was laughing at him behind that blank gaze. He hated the way Finn would stare at him sometimes, those eyes flat and pale, boring into him like—
That was it! He rarely noticed eyes, but Finn’s pale blue eyes sometimes gave him the creeps. He’d ignored his uneasiness because he’d decided it was without foundation, but he remembered Buck’s description of the third brother: faded brown hair, pale blue eyes, and a nose that reminded me of a hawk’s beak. He was mean-spirited and liked picking on everybody. Finn’s brown hair had a lot of grey in it and his nose wasn’t nearly as hooked as a hawk’s beak, but he had pale blue eyes and was certainly mean-spirited. It was hard to believe Finn could be the third Reison brother, but Edward needed to tell Jake and his sons. It would be up to them to decide.
“I’m going to put you up in the saddle a little early,” he said to the jockey. “There’s something I have to do right away.”
“Is everything okay?” the jockey asked.
“Everything is okay with the horse,” Edward said. “That’s all you have to worry about. I’ll see you at the end of the race with the fee we’ve agreed on.”
He barely waited for the jockey to settle in the saddle before heading back to the hotel. The race would begin two miles out of town. Since the horses would use the distance to the starting point as a warm-up, Edward would have time to explain everything to Jake before the race. Then he would go back to the square. If Finn really was the other Reison brother, he disliked Edward enough to include Crusader in his revenge. Edward had no intention of losing his horse. If Finn was in the crowd, Edward intended to find him.
“Did you have any trouble getting away from Edward?” Eden asked the jockey.
He didn’t dismount but guided Crusader to the shade of a sprawling live oak that stood a little way off the road they would be racing down minutes later. Crusader danced in a circle, his gaze on the other horses headed for the starting line.
“He was in such a hurry to leave, he practically tossed me into the saddle. Maybe he thought of something while he was talking to me, but he didn’t say.”
That bothered Eden because it didn’t sound like Edward. His future rested
on the outcome of this race. She’d expected him to stay with Crusader as long as possible, relating to the jockey any detail he thought might help him win the race.
“Maybe he wants to make sure he gets a good spot at the finish line.” She didn’t believe that was the reason. He would be sitting with her parents on the roof of the hotel outside their room. He would have a perfect view of the entire square.
“Are you sure you want to ride in this race?” the jockey asked. “I’m retired, but I can still ride. This is an excellent horse. I would enjoy riding him.”
“I’m positive.”
Eden couldn’t explain why she had to be part of Edward’s success. Part of the reason was that she’d been the one to divulge the information that made it impossible for him to remain in England. Winning the race would help give him a new life.
Part of the reason was purely personal. She wanted, needed, to have a hand in securing Edward’s future. She knew he loved her, but she couldn’t dispel a lingering doubt that he still might not ask her to marry him. Edward had a peculiar sense of honor. In his former world, people had been divided into classes based on education, wealth, and most important of all—birth. Since neither of his parents would claim him, he believed he was somehow inferior to her, unworthy of her. Her family’s wealth only made the divide deeper and wider.
She insisted on being an equal partner with her husband. She refused to settle into a woman’s role. She had nothing against taking care of a house and having children, but she wouldn’t be excluded from making decisions that affected the family. She wanted to be consulted when he planned breedings, to help with difficult foalings, to train the horses, to ride them in races. She finally understood that her calling wasn’t to be a schoolteacher, despite her fancy education. She wanted to be a rancher, and she wanted Edward to be a rancher with her.
“Do you know the course?” the jockey asked.
“I rode over it yesterday and again today.”
“Do you have a race strategy?”
“I had that even before I rode Crusader the first time.”
“How will you explain it if you lose the race?”
She laughed. “I won’t.”
The little man didn’t laugh. “This is a serious thing, your riding in the race. There’s a rumor going around that the other jockeys are out to make sure Crusader doesn’t win. They don’t like the idea of being beaten by a foreigner’s horse. Once they know you’re riding, they’ll do anything they can to keep from being beaten by a woman.”
“I can take care of myself.”
He hesitated. “I have a terrible feeling I shouldn’t do this.”
“You agreed! You can’t change your mind now.”
“I probably should, but I won’t go back on my word. Promise you’ll be careful and take no foolish risks. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you.”
“I’ll be fine,” Eden assured him. “I know this horse almost as well as Edward does. Now help me mount up. It’s almost time to start.”
“I know saying Finn could be the third Reison brother sounds far-fetched,” Edward was saying to Jake, “but it would explain how Black Cloud was injured and Eden was shot at without our being able to find any trace of an intruder.”
“It fits with what the other brothers were doing,” Chet said, “working on the inside so they’d have access to and knowledge of the ranches.”
“But this would require a detailed plan put into motion years ago,” Edward said. “Those men had to learn to be cowhands, had to wait until all three could find jobs on Maxwell ranches.”
“Rupert followed us to New Mexico and hired men to steal our herd to cover up his attempt to kill Buck,” Jake said. “I could easily see him doing something like this.”
“Then they really were after Eden and not Crusader,” Edward said.
“That would be my guess, but we won’t know until we find Finn and see what he has to say.”
“We need to warn Eden,” Edward said. “She needs to know to stay away from Finn if she sees him.”
“I’ll get her,” Isabelle said. “I never liked the idea of her missing the race.”
Eden’s father and brothers still hadn’t decided what to do about Finn when Isabelle returned, visibly upset.
“Eden isn’t in the room. One of the maids said she saw her leaving the hotel by the back way at least half an hour ago.”
Chapter Twenty-five
They began to consider all the possible reasons why Eden might have left the hotel, but Edward was positive there was only one. “She’s going to ride Crusader,” he announced.
“You already have a jockey.”
Edward had always felt there was something too good to be true about a well-known retired jockey seeking him out at the last moment and volunteering to ride Crusader. He had jumped at the chance because it seemed foolish to turn it down, but Eden had lived in Texas all her life. She was bound to know virtually every outstanding horseman in this part of the state. He didn’t know what inducement she’d offered the jockey, but he had no doubt Eden had persuaded the man to volunteer to ride the horse, then let her climb into the saddle at the last minute. And Edward had made it easy by leaving the jockey to make his own way to the starting point.
“She wouldn’t do that,” Jake said. “She knows how dangerous it could be.”
Her brothers didn’t say anything, just looked from Jake to Isabelle.
“That’s exactly what she would do,” Isabelle said. “I should have known she was up to something when she refused to watch the finish of the race.”
“That’s crazy,” Jake said. “She knows there’s a gunman out there.”
“Of course she does,” Isabelle said. “Just like you knew there was a gunman out there when you rescued Buck from being trampled by a stampede. Just like I knew Sawtooth was a killer when I tried to let him out of the corral to keep the boys from running away. Everybody in our family has faced this kind of danger at least once. Why did either of us think she wouldn’t as well?”
“Because I thought she was more sensible,” Jake said.
“No,” his wife corrected. “Because you were too busy worrying about the Reison brothers, and I was too busy worrying about Suzette and her baby to pay attention to our own daughter.”
“I’m the one who should have guessed,” Edward said. “I knew how much she wanted to ride Crusader, how important winning this race was to her. I should have known she gave in too quickly. Your daughter is the most persistent woman I’ve ever met.”
“And?” Isabelle added, a smile slowly erasing her worried frown.
“And the woman I want to be my wife,” Edward added. “Once I know she’s safe, I don’t know whether I’ll want to kiss her or strangle her first.”
“I know exactly how you feel,” Jake said, looking at his wife. “I’ve felt like that many times.”
“Stop making jokes and decide what you’re going to do to protect my daughter and the woman you love.”
“We’re going to put the entire family on alert,” Jake said.
“I’m taking the square out front,” Edward said. “I think Finn wants as big an audience as possible.”
“You really think he’ll attack in front of hundreds of witnesses?”
“I’m not sure he cares what happens to him afterward,” Edward said. “I have a feeling revenge is all that matters to him.”
“You know him better than any of us,” Jake said. “Tell us anything you can to help us identify him.”
“He’s not like his brothers in any way except build.” Edward told them everything he could remember about Finn. “The most distinctive thing about him is his eyes. They’re pale blue, cold as ice, and stare at you without wavering.”
“What kind of gun will he use?” Buck asked.
“My guess is he’ll use a rifle,” Chet said. “It would be nearly impossible to hit a moving target with a pistol from back in a crowd.”
“How can he hide a rifle?
” Isabelle asked.
Edward had been wondering the same thing.
“People use their rifles practically every week, even women, so they’re always bringing them in to be repaired or buying a new one,” Jake said. “People come into San Antonio so often carrying rifles, nobody thinks much about it. If a man showed up wearing pistols, people would assume he was a gunfighter and notify the police.”
“Hawk and I will be in the square with you,” Zeke said to Edward. “Buck, too, but Chet ought to stay up on the roof with Isabelle. If he can spot Finn, he’ll probably have a better chance of getting a shot at him without hitting anybody in the crowd.”
Edward walked over to the ceiling-high window, raised it, and stepped out on the roof. The plaza below looked enormous. How could he find one person in such a milling mass of color? A path through the center of the plaza to the finish line had been kept clear for the horses, but every other square foot was filled with people of every age, talking, laughing, eating, playing. It was a holiday atmosphere down there, yet one person planned to turn it into a tragedy.
And it was up to Edward to find Finn before he could harm Eden.
“What are you doing on Albie Durham’s mount?” one of the jockeys asked Eden when she arrived at the starting point.
“There’s been a change of plans,” she said. “I’ll be riding Crusader.”
“Does his owner know?”
“I’ve been riding him in training for the last two weeks,” she replied, avoiding the question. “Mr. Davenport realizes I know more about how to ride this horse than anyone else.”
“That don’t mean you can ride him in this race,” another jockey said.
“There’s no rule against it,” Eden pointed out.
“That’s because no gal was crazy enough to think of trying it before,” a third argued.
“I’m not crazy, and I’m a good rider. Black Cloud would have won last year if I’d been riding her.”
“Then where is she if she’s so good?”
“She’s recovering from an injury. I thought it best not to push her to be ready for this race.” No one had to know she’d been injured so severely she’d never race again.
Texas Loving (The Cowboys) Page 29