Texas Tender

by Leigh Greenwood

  Was he thinking about marrying her? Was that the reason he’d spent so much time thinking about her problems? He suddenly chuckled. “Idalou would probably want to talk about cows. I’d be the romantic who wanted to know if she’d missed me while I was in town.”

  He’d said that partly as a joke, but he knew as soon as he heard himself speak that he was right.

  Carl appeared to be thinking hard. “I keep telling Idalou I’m old enough to take care of myself, but she wants to know everything I do.”

  “For a woman, no man is ever old enough to take care of himself. That’s her job, and she’ll be real put out if you don’t let her do it.”

  “Mara never worried about me.”

  “I expect she did. You just didn’t know it. Now, before we get so far off the track I forget it, I think you ought to take every opportunity you can to nose about Jordan’s place. I think he’s got your bull in some arroyo or thicket where nobody can see him without knowing where to look. I also think he’s got one cowhand who’s supposed to make sure nobody finds that bull until Jordan gets his hands on your ranch.”

  “You really believe that?”

  “Somebody’s behind all of this. And though I don’t think Jordan’s responsible for the worst of it, I’m sure he’s got a hand in it. If you handle this right, Jordan might help guard your herd. It’s as much in his interest as yours to keep rustlers out.”

  “So who’s behind everything else?” Carl asked.

  “Sonnenberg.”

  “How do you explain that? Van and Idalou have been friends for ages. He’s helped us I don’t know how many times.”

  “A perfect cover for trying to destroy you and pin the blame on Jordan.”

  Carl didn’t look convinced.

  “I decided a while back that Van had to learn his contempt for the law from somebody, and who better than his father?” Will said, “I still might not have figured it out if I hadn’t seen Newt and Frank Sonnenberg together when I was riding back from San Angelo yesterday. Newt’s Appaloosa is unmistakable, and much too fine a horse for someone like him.”

  “I always wondered where he got the money to buy it.”

  “I think Frank Sonnenberg has been paying him to drive Jordan’s stock onto your land. With Newt’s reputation, all he has to do is show up and cowhands ride the other way.”

  “Do you think Sonnenberg is behind blowing up the dam?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why? Idalou has sworn she’ll sell the place to Sonnenberg before she’ll let Jordan get his hands on it.”

  “Frank doesn’t have the money to compete with Jordan, but your ranch would give him more land than Jordan. If he can make Idalou believe Jordan is behind everything, she’ll make sure Frank gets the ranch.”

  “And make sure I don’t marry Mara.”

  “He intends for Van to marry Mara. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’d try to discredit Jordan so that he, through Van and Mara, would have control of the whole area.”

  It took Carl a few minutes to mull over what Will had said. “I can believe it of Frank Sonnenberg,” he said finally, “but I don’t think Van would do that.”

  “He’ll do anything his father wants.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Let’s just say he fell in love but his father made him break it off.”

  “Are you talking about Junie Mae?”

  “I’m not naming names.”

  “Everybody knows they were sneaking around meeting each other for a while, but he’s always been after Mara.”

  “You said he’d been interested in your sister.”

  “They’re just friends.”

  Will decided he’d given Carl enough to think about. He needed to get back to town before Idalou started asking too many questions. He was glad she was helping in Ella’s store. He had a feeling the trouble wasn’t over yet, and he wanted her out of the way. As long as she didn’t know where to find Carl, she would be less likely to head off by herself. Will took a swallow of his tepid coffee and threw the rest away. “Think about what I’ve said. In the meantime, get over to Jordan’s place and remind Mara of why she fell in love with you.”

  Carl grinned. “Idalou has no idea how devious you are.” He stood and brushed the dirt off the seat of his pants. “Why do you act dumb?”

  “I don’t act dumb. I’m just not in an all-fired hurry to prove I’m smart. Not sure I could do it, anyway. I’ve done a lot of dumb things in my time.”

  Right now he couldn’t decide whether his plan to buy this bull was the dumbest or smartest thing he’d ever done, but he had a feeling that Idalou would be a major factor in the answer.

  Idalou stared at the box on Will’s desk. Six place settings of flo-blue china nestled in a bed of straw. Her eyes were so filled with tears, the colors swam and blurred before her.

  “I saw them when I was in San Angelo,” Will said, “and I remembered that you said your mother’s set had belonged to your grandmother.”

  “She brought them with her when they moved from Virginia,” Idalou said. “Mama said it was to remind them of what life had been like before the war.”

  Dozens of necessary things had been lost in the flood, but she hadn’t regretted anything as much as the loss of her grandmother’s china. She was surprised that Will had even remembered it. That he would understand its importance to her was incredible. That he would actually buy a set for her was unbelievable.

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Just tell me if you like it,” Will said. “I know it can’t replace the set your grandmother had, but—”

  “It’ll never be quite the same, but it will be just as valuable to me.”

  She hadn’t seen nearly as much of Will since she’d moved into town as she had expected. She had felt obliged to help Ella in the store in exchange for staying in her home. Though Ella was a kind host, she was a demanding boss.

  Between evenings spent in the homes of the women feeding him supper and his duties as sheriff, Will was out of the office more and more.

  “You don’t think he’s forgotten about me, do you?” Junie Mae had asked one day when she had been unable to find Will.

  “I’m sure he hasn’t,” Idalou had assured her, wondering if Will could have forgotten her, too. Now, looking at the china, she felt like a weasel to have doubted him. “You shouldn’t have bought this,” Idalou said when she looked up at Will. “I can’t possibly pay you for it.”

  “What was Webb like?”

  The question was so completely unexpected, she didn’t know how to answer him. “What do you mean?”

  “Is the way he acted with you the way you expect other men to act?”

  Idalou had never thought of that, but she guessed it was partly true. “You think you’re like Webb?”

  “I don’t know. That’s why I asked.”

  “Everybody said Webb was the best-looking man in the county. He knew he was going to take over his father’s ranch someday, but he was more interested in finding tough horses to ride and having a good time.”

  “So he was a little like me.”

  She hadn’t thought of Webb and Will together before. “Webb saw everything as it affected him. About the only time you’ve thought of yourself was when you asked for all those suppers. I still don’t understand why you want to know what Webb was like.”

  “Any other woman would have known the china was a gift. You thought you had to pay for it, so I figured Webb wasn’t the kind of man to give a person anything without expecting something in return.”

  She hadn’t realized it, but Webb had never given her anything, not even a keepsake. Whatever he’d felt for her, it hadn’t inspired him to want to give her presents. Nor, as far as she knew, to discover what she liked or what was important to her. It was becoming increasingly clear that she and Webb had been connected only by friendship and familiarity. And the scarcity of suitable companions.

  “I’m not very good at accepting things from people. I find
it hard to believe you would do something like this for no reason at all.”

  “I never said it was for no reason.”

  Idalou felt heat rising in her neck and flooding her cheeks, but she looked straight at Will. “What was your reason?”

  “Well, I had a couple,” Will said, not suffering from any apparent discomfort at her question. “I figured you had to be feeling a bit low. As necessary as clothes and pots and pans are, they are easy to replace. These dishes were something special. Isabelle would have fussed at Jake for doing something silly, but she’d have cried and kissed him anyway. I figured you couldn’t be all that different.”

  “Did you expect me to cry and kiss you?”

  Will’s gaze didn’t flicker. “I was willing to take that chance.”

  Just when she decided she knew this man, he did something to confuse her all over again. All the men she knew were pretty direct in letting a woman know they were interested in her. Instead of saying anything directly, Will had done things for her that could be attributed to his job rather than his being interested in her.

  “What was your other reason?” she asked.

  “I was hoping it would convince you that I like you.”

  Idalou swallowed. “Anyone seeing these dishes would think you like me an awful lot.”

  “Maybe I do, but I’ve never had a chance to find out. What with one thing and another, we always seem to be looking at each other from opposite sides of the horse.”

  “It’s not like we haven’t seen each other a lot.”

  “Not the way I want to.”

  Idalou’s relationship with Webb hadn’t prepared her for someone like Will. He didn’t do what she expected. How was she to know what he really meant?

  Or was she just dense? The man had paid off her loan, practically saved her life, found her a place to stay, and had now replaced a cherished set of dishes. She’d always said actions spoke louder than words. If she really believed that, then Will was practically shouting that he was serious when he said he liked her. She admitted that she’d been wrong about him in the beginning, so why was she finding it so difficult to believe he liked her? Or accept that she liked him?

  Was it her niggling doubts about Junie Mae’s baby, or her fear that Will might turn his back on her when it came time for him to leave Dunmore, or just plain jealousy of Junie Mae, that undermined her confidence? He was rich, handsome, and everybody adored him. She was dirt poor, only passably attractive, and nearly everybody considered her a pain in the neck. He was respected and she was ignored. He couldn’t possibly be serious about someone like her. Still, she hoped he was.

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “I’d like to walk with you on an evening and not talk about the ranch or that bull. I’d like to have dinner some night when neither one of us has to worry about being anywhere else.”

  “All your evenings are already taken up.”

  “I’ll free up any evening you want.”

  She couldn’t ask for a more direct statement than that. “Your hostess of the evening would be really upset.”

  His grin was sly. “I could say I won’t go without you.”

  Idalou knew she wasn’t the most popular woman in Dunmore, and horning in on one of Will’s suppers wouldn’t help. “If people think you’re paying attention to me, they’ll have us engaged and practically married in no time.”

  Will’s smile was so warm, so inviting, so genuine, Idalou didn’t understand why she hadn’t agreed to anything he wanted.

  “I’ve survived this long without being married against my will. I think I can make it a while longer.”

  “I don’t know what to do with this china,” she said, aware that her tongue was running away. “I’m not used to being the object of a man’s attentions, certainly not a man like you.”

  “Damn it!”

  The explosion was so sudden, so forceful, she jumped. “I didn’t mean to—”

  “It’s not your fault,” he said, instantly regaining his composure. “I keep hoping that some day I’ll find a woman who can look at me and see a normal man who’s no different from anyone else. Just once I want a woman to look at me and not think about my face.”

  “It’s not going to be easy.”

  Wealth and influence she could understand, but she’d never been utterly beautiful, and she had no idea how it affected a person. She wondered if Junie Mae felt the same way as Will, if her beauty had played a significant part in her present difficulty.

  “Could you try?” Will asked. “Even if you only like me a little, can you try to see me as a man and not just a face?”

  Her life had been so chaotic over the past several years, Idalou hadn’t had the chance or the inclination to look at the world from anyone’s perspective but her own, so it wasn’t easy when she tried to see things the way Will saw them. She wasn’t rich, didn’t have the security of a large and loving family behind her, or have people falling over themselves to please her. She didn’t know what it was like to be a man and have people automatically respect you just because you wore pants and your voice was a resonant baritone.

  “You don’t understand, do you?” he said. “You think I’m like a spoiled child who cries because he has so many toys he doesn’t know which to play with first.”

  “I don’t think you’re spoiled. It’s just that I’ve never thought of what it must be like to have people not bother to find out what you’re really like.”

  But that wasn’t true. People didn’t know what she was like or care to find out, because she was a woman. Sometimes that made her so angry she felt like fighting. “Maybe I do,” she said, a feeling of kinship beginning to grow inside her. “In fact, I think I know exactly how you feel.”

  “You do?”

  It seemed incredible that she could give a man like Will something he hadn’t been able to find anywhere else. “The situation isn’t the same, but it’s similar. For you, it’s your looks. For me, it’s being a woman.”

  The smile that transformed his face made his incredibly blue eyes glow from within. She ought to tell him that looking as he did right now would destroy all her efforts to ignore his appearance, but she was so glad she could make him smile that she didn’t say aword.

  “Let’s make a promise to each other,” Will said. “You’ll never let my face influence anything between us, and I won’t let your being female influence me.” He appeared to have been stopped by some inner thought that caused him to burst out laughing. “Hell, I can’t do that. If you weren’t female, I wouldn’t give a damn what you thought about me.”

  “I think we understand—”

  The door to his office burst open and Carl rushed in. “Rustlers!” he said, barely able to get the words out. “They drove off half our cows.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Do you have any idea who did it?” Idalou asked her brother.

  “Yeah. Newt Mandrin. I recognized his horse’s shoe prints.”

  “Are you sure?” Will asked.

  “It was definitely Newt’s horse. If you ask me, he left the prints intentionally. He probably thinks everybody will be too scared to go after him.”

  Will thought Carl was probably right. “Let’s go over to the Swinging Door. I need to gather a posse.”

  Will’s mind started spinning, and he didn’t like the thoughts it was throwing out. Newt was a bully and a gunman, but Will figured he was too lazy to put together a scheme to steal cows, and not smart enough to sell them without being caught. Most important, Will didn’t like the fact that Newt had made certain Carl knew who’d stolen the cows. Rustlers survived by being anonymous.

  Will could come to only one conclusion. Someone else was behind this and was using Newt as a pawn. Probably the same person who was behind the dynamiting of the dam. Will hoped it wasn’t Jordan. He didn’t approve of the man’s ethics, but he didn’t think the rancher would go this far just to get some land.

  “I’m going with you,” Idalou announced as th
ey approached the Swinging Door.

  “You can’t,” Carl said. “You lost all of your riding skirts.”

  “I’ll split a dress down the front and back before I’ll sit around waiting for you to get back, wondering what might have happened to you.”

  “I can take care of myself, Lou,” Carl said. “You’ve got to stop looking over my shoulder.”

  “I’m not looking over your shoulder.”

  “You’re always doing it. The only reason you haven’t been plaguing me every day is because I made Will swear he wouldn’t tell you where I set up camp.”

  Will braced for what he knew was coming next. Idalou turned on him. “You told me he didn’t have a camp, that you had to run him down each day.”

  “Now isn’t the time to hash this out,” Will said. “Once we find the cows, you can have your say.”

  Will expected Idalou to give him a tongue lashing right then, but they’d reached the Swinging Door and Carl marched in without hesitating. Though it was just past noon, the place was bustling.

  “Newt Mandrin and a bunch of rustlers hit my herd last night,” Carl announced in a voice strong enough to cut through the noise of conversation, laughter, and a sad tune from the piano player. “The sheriff and I are putting together a posse to go after them.”

  The room fell silent. Then Jordan McGloughlin stepped forward. “Are you sure it was Newt?”

  “He left his calling card,” Carl said. “There’s not a man here who doesn’t recognize the peculiar shoe his horse wears.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense. Newt’s never taken to rustling,” Jordan said.

  “It doesn’t make sense that someone would blow up our dam when we’ve never cut off the water,” Idalou pointed out, “but it happened.”

  Before the old tension between Idalou and Jordan could escalate, Will said, “None of this matters right now. Double-L cows have been rustled. Who will ride with me?” An ominous quiet greeted his question. “It’s in everybody’s interest to stop rustling before it gets a foothold,” he said, turning to Jordan. “You and Sonnenberg have the most to lose.”