It took Trinity nearly an hour before he was able to get into the house without anyone seeing him. But he didn’t care. He had all day.
First he went through Victoria’s room, taking a few pieces of clothing from each drawer and chest and putting them into a learner bag he brought with him. After he satisfied himself he had taken enough, he placed a folded note in her hair brush where she couldn’t miss it. He hoped Anita wouldn’t discover it and destroy it.
Then he climbed out of a window and melted into the pines once again.
Victoria didn’t reach home until after her uncle and Buc had returned. Despite a fight with Buc, the tenor of which should have banished any hope he had of marrying her, her mood hadn’t improved. She had hoped Trinity would want to see her before he disappeared forever. She was upset he hadn’t.
She had tried to finish surveying the ridge they had begun together, but every time she needed a second pair of hands, she thought of him. Every time she wanted to share a thought, she missed him. Every time she wanted to ask a question, she felt his absence.
Trinity had excited her more than any man she’d ever met. He had so much energy, vitality, a sense of humor, a confidence, an outlook on life which allowed him to laugh at himself and the things that happened to him.
After five years, during which even trivial occurrences were viewed with life-and-death importance, Victoria had exulted at the change.
It had been like a breath of fresh air, a rekindling of interest in living. For years she had believed her life continually hung in the balance, that any event or stranger could mean a return to Texas and the gallows. Somehow Trinity had made her feel it was possible to prove her innocence if she had the courage to ignore her fears and break the fetters placed on her by others.
Despite all that, she couldn’t rationalize why his leaving caused her to feel such a terrible loss. How did a cowboy she had known for just a few days become more than a passing interest?
She had wanted to thank him for his support, but Buc’s temper and Uncle Grant’s officiousness had driven him away.
She wondered if her uncle paid him. Three days’ wages wasn’t much of a grubstake. It certainly wouldn’t get him to California. Where would he stop next? How long would he stay?
“Where’ve you been?” Buc demanded when Victoria walked into the house. Her uncle threw her a questioning glance but said nothing.
She had had a long day; she was tired, and she was angry. Buc’s assumption that she owed him an accounting for her time made her furious. He was her uncle’s employee, in a sense her employee as well. If any one of them owed the other an explanation, it was Buc.
“Riding.”
“Where? I’ve told you time and time again you can’t go wandering over the countryside alone. Who knows when another stranger will come wandering in?”
The possessive tone in Buc’s voice, combined with the “another stranger will come wandering in” remark, was the last straw. She lost her temper.
“And will you drive him off like you did Trinity? Are you going to drive everybody off for the rest of my life?”
“He wasn’t any good, Victoria, just a wandering cowpoke looking to have a little fun. You only noticed him because he made you laugh.”
“Is there some law which says I can’t have fun?”
“Aw, Victoria, you know what I mean.”
“I’m afraid for the first time I do.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve got me locked up in this valley and you mean to keep me here for the rest of my life.”
“You’ve got to have someone to protect you.”
“Have you decided on the wedding date? How many children will we have? Do I get to name them, or do I just get to have them?”
“Now Victoria—” Grant began.
“Don’t “Now Victoria’ me,” she nearly screamed. “I won’t be kept in prison, and I won’t have my entire life decided for me. You should have left me in Texas. I couldn’t be any more imprisoned there than I am here.”
“Stop it right now, before you say another word,” Grant Davidge ordered, his own temper rising. “Buc risked his life to get you out of that jail. The very least you owe him is gratitude.”
“I am grateful,” Victoria said, “but I don’t owe him the rest of my life.”
“Buc would make you a fine husband.”
“I’m sure you’re right, but Buc never said a word about loving me before Trinity came along. How do I know it’s not simple jealousy?”
“I loved you from the moment I saw you,” Buc protested.
“Then you should have told me instead of my uncle. Did you ask him to walk in the moonlight, sit with him on the porch, or whisper secrets in his ear?”
Buc’s face turned a dull red. “I wouldn’t do that to anybody.”
“That’s right,” said Victoria. “You just assumed I’d been bought and paid for.”
“I thought you were still upset over your husband. What would I look like trying to talk love to a woman grieving over the death of her husband?”
“You’d look like a tortoise. Had there been a jackrabbit anywhere in sight, you’d have lost the race years ago. Only there was no jackrabbit. There wasn’t even a coyote or a sidewinder. Just the tortoise. And after five years you’ve finally reached the finish line. I wonder if you’d have reached it at all if Trinity hadn’t arrived.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” her uncle demanded, his expression a mixture of impatience and confusion.
“This is all Trinity’s fault,” Buc exploded. “You never talked like this before he came.”
“You’re right. I’d forgotten what it was like to live without fear.”
“All he did was put ideas into your head that can get you killed,” Grant said. “You know you can’t leave this valley.”
“Like I know I ought to marry Buc,” Victoria finished for him. “He’s the only man you can trust.”
“I’ve always had complete confidence in Buc,” Grant said.
“I have, too, but that’s not why a woman marries a man.”
“Then what is?”
“I’m not certain, but I don’t mean to marry anyone until I find out.”
Victoria turned on her heel and stalked from the room.
“If I ever see that man again, I’ll kill him,” Buc stormed.
“She’s been restless for some time now,” Grant said. “If he hadn’t come along to stir her up, someone else would have. You can’t keep a woman locked up and not expect an explosion once in a while.”
“What do you think I ought to do about it?”
“Hell, I don’t know. I don’t understand women. That’s why I didn’t get married.”
“I don’t understand them either, but I want to marry Victoria.”
“Then let her alone. Things will be right uncomfortable for a while, but she’ll settle down.”
Victoria wasn’t thinking about marriage when she stomped into her bedroom. Neither did she think vengefully of wringing Buc’s neck and hanging her uncle up by his toes until he admitted she might have a mind of her own. Instead her thoughts were more concerned with a sandy-haired cowboy and his impish smile.
She would miss him … more than she dared admit.
It wasn’t right for her to blame Buc and Uncle Grant for everything. Even if she hadn’t said anything, she had tacitly accepted that someday she would marry Buc.
Now she couldn’t imagine why. Buc had absolutely no understanding of her feelings. Trinity had learned more about her in five minutes than Buc had learned in five years.
She’d never again make the kind of mistake she’d made with Jeb. This time she intended to choose her husband because she liked being with him, because she couldn’t think of living the rest of her life without him, because just being with him was the most exciting thing that could happen to her.
Odd how natural it all sounded, yet until a few days ago none of this had occurred to her. It made h
er feel stupid, and she didn’t like that.
She sat down at her table and picked up her brush. A note fell to the floor.
Chapter Seven
Even before it fluttered to the floor, Victoria knew it had to be from Trinity. Her hands shook so she had difficulty picking it up. She unfolded it quickly.
I wanted a chance to say goodbye. I’ll wait for you at the base of the old pine you used as a marker. I’ll understand if you don’t come.
Trinity
Victoria didn’t understand the tangle of emotions which erupted within her. She shouldn’t be having such a strong reaction to a man she would have trouble recognizing again. Don’t lie to yourself. You could pick him out in a crowd of thousands. Even his profile remained etched in her mind. He was too muscled to be slim. Rather he was lean, the way a man is lean when he uses his body too hard and feeds it too seldom. A man of muscle and bone. He had none of Buc’s size, but Victoria wouldn’t have been surprised to find he was just as strong.
She was attracted to him in ways that confused her, ways that excited her, ways that had caused her to lie awake at least an hour each of the last two nights.
Victoria didn’t know what she expected to get from this farewell, but she was sure if she didn’t meet him she’d regret it for the rest of her life.
With a loud curse, Buc turned his horse and headed back toward the ranch. He didn’t know what had gotten into Victoria, but something was wrong. Grant said it would be a long time before her sweet disposition returned, but when she sat down to dinner last night, she seemed like her old self. Almost. She talked and acted like she used to, but behind the smiles lay something he could sense but not see.
This morning her mood had seemed a little forced. At first he thought she was trying too hard to pretend her outburst had never happened. He wanted to think that. It answered everything in a tidy, satisfactory way. But his intuition, honed to needle-sharpness by jealousy, provided him with another answer.
Victoria acted like a woman about to meet her lover—she was going to meet Trinity.
“How can I do that, even if I wanted to?” Victoria asked when he taxed her with his suspicions. “Uncle Grant sent him away two days ago. He’s probably out of the territory by now.”
Her answer seemed more logical than his suspicions, but he couldn’t get the idea out of his head. She did act like she was up to something. She did want to get them out of the house. Somehow, she intended to meet Trinity.
He would see about that. No flea-bitten cowpoke was going to make time with his girl. He was the one who rescued her out of that Texas jail. She belonged to him.
He would follow Victoria. He wanted another chance to break Trinity’s neck. And this time Grant wouldn’t be there to stop him.
Victoria made herself wait a full hour after Buc and her uncle left before she saddled her horse. She wanted to make certain no one followed her. Besides, she didn’t know if Trinity would be at the tree this early. He might not be so anxious to see her he would get up before dawn.
She felt a little self-conscious, like a young girl sneaking off to meet a boy her parents didn’t like. Not that she’d ever had a chance to sneak off to meet anyone. Jeb had been the only boy she’d ever known, and her father had wanted her to spend as much time with him as possible.
She’d never even seen a boy from the other side of the tracks. She wondered if Trinity qualified. Buc certainly seemed to think he was up to no good.
The less she thought about Buc, the better. If Trinity had done nothing else for her, at least he had jolted her out of accepting the notion of marrying Buc.
But what else could she do? Nothing until she found a way to get control of her inheritance. Maybe she could still talk Trinity into helping her. If not him, then lawyers. Judge Blazer couldn’t keep her money from her. There was no law which said people convicted of murder couldn’t be rich.
Victoria experienced an upsurge of hope. She felt happier than she had in years. Everything seemed possible once again. She only had to figure out how to accomplish what needed to be done.
But where did Trinity fit in?
Now that he was leaving, apparently nowhere.
But she couldn’t let him leave just yet. He was her beacon to the future. Would she be able to stand against Buc and her uncle if she stood alone? Trinity was no ordinary man, and her response to him hadn’t been ordinary. She believed they would never be able to forget each other.
As she drew near the ridge where the great pine grew, she had second thoughts. Wasn’t it really a little strange for him to want to say goodbye? Couldn’t he have put all he had to say in the note? Or, he could have left a message with her uncle, or have waited until morning and said goodbye in the natural way?
Victoria let her horse drop out of a trot into a fast walk. What did she expect from Trinity? It made her feel foolish to realize she didn’t know.
She had allowed herself to become so excited over seeing him one more time she hadn’t figured out what she hoped to get out of it. Well, yes, she had, but she’d thought more about what he represented than the man himself. And that mortified her. She’d just complained about Buc and her uncle treating her as only a body and here she was looking at Trinity only as an escape route. An attractive, exciting, exhilarating way out, but a way out nevertheless.
Seeing him meant more than trying to find someone to investigate Jeb’s death. It meant more than thanking him for giving her the courage to fight against her mental and emotional imprisonment. It meant saying goodbye to someone who, in a very short time, had become terribly important to her.
But saying goodbye meant bringing something to an end. It came as a shock to her she didn’t want things to end.
Victoria pulled her horse to a halt.
She would miss his humor, his sensitivity about his age. And of course she’d miss being with him. Despite the disturbing sexual tension that had started to develop between them, he had been a comfortable companion.
Maybe it would be better if she didn’t see him after all. It would only create more memories, which might come to haunt her in the years ahead.
The sound of hoofbeats on the trail below scattered her reflections. It must be Trinity, but she didn’t know what direction he might be coming from. He might have been watching to see that she came alone, to make sure Buc hadn’t planned an ambush. But even as she turned around to wait for him, a shadow of fear skittered through her mind.
Victoria pushed the thought aside. She would soon be as bad as Buc, seeing bounty hunters in every shadow, suspecting every stranger she saw. She had to get over being frightened. She didn’t want to spend her whole life jumping at shadows.
She recognized Buc’s big Appaloosa as soon as it came into view. He had followed her.
Victoria felt anger heat her face until she felt certain her skin flamed as red as her hair. She didn’t know which made her more angry, that Buc distrusted her enough to follow her or that she might not get to see Trinity. Either way, she was furious.
“Where is he?” Buc demanded, as soon as he came within shouting range.
“Who?” Victoria replied. Again, she wondered how she could have ever thought of marrying Buc.
“Trinity,” Buc said, spitting out the name like it tasted bad. “I know you came to meet him.”
“You know nothing of the sort,” Victoria challenged. “You only think I’m going to meet Trinity because you’re so jealous you can’t think of anything else anymore.”
“I knew something was wrong at dinner. Your uncle thought you’d cooled down, but I knew you were up to something. And this morning I figured it out.”
“Then tell me where Trinity’s been hiding for the last two days and how I’m supposed to find him.”
“I don’t know, but I know you’re going to meet him. You can’t do it, Victoria, not when you’re about to become my wife.”
“I like you, Buc, I always have. And I’ll be eternally grateful to you for springing me from that
jail, but I can’t marry you because of gratitude.”
“Why not?”
“Why not!” Victoria repeated, aghast. “Don’t you want a wife who loves you, who will look at you with adoring eyes?”
“I’d be suited if she liked me pretty good. You do like me. You said so yourself.”
“It’s not enough for me. That’s the way I felt about Jeb, and look what happened.”
“But I’m not like Jeb. I don’t drink.”
“That’s not the point. Jeb and I had nothing in common. We didn’t even like the same people.”
“We like the same things.”
“How can you tell? In the five years I’ve been here, I haven’t seen anybody or done anything. We never talk. You never ask me what I would like. I don’t even know what I like. Sometimes I feel like I don’t know myself.”
“Damn Trinity. He had no right to get you all confused.”
“Will you never understand? This has nothing to do with Trinity. I had already changed before he got here. I’ve been in a cocoon, only I didn’t know it. He helped me realize it. Suppose I had married you and discovered I hated everything you loved. I’d have made your life miserable.”
“There’s nothing you could ever do that would make me miserable.”
“Go home, Buc. I want to be alone. There are some things I have to sort out.” Victoria was almost defeated by his blind loyalty.
“You’re going to meet him, aren’t you? Answer me, Victoria.”
I’m not answerable to you for my actions.”
“You can’t meet Trinity. I won’t let you.”
Victoria was speechless. Buc had been telling her what to do ever since she had known him, but he had never attempted to interfere in her personal life.
“Do you love Trinity?” Buc asked before Victoria could respond.
“How could I? I hardly know him.”
She couldn’t have fallen in love with him, could she? No, but she found him extremely attractive. Maybe that was the answer. She had heard of men who were so overcome with physical desire for a woman they lost all common sense. Some even drove themselves to ruin.
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