Now that she knew he was the honorable man she thought from the first, she wanted nothing more than to be with him for the rest of her life.
She sighed and let her body relax further against the rock. She knew what Buc and her uncle would think. Her uncle wouldn’t abandon her, at least she didn’t think he would, but it would be impossible to return to Mountain Valley. Neither Buc nor the crew would accept their marriage. And Trinity wasn’t one to endure the dislike and distrust from others. He’d already told her that.
But she was getting ahead of herself. She didn’t know If Trinity wanted to get married to her or anybody else. She knew he felt strongly attracted to her. She could tell that by the tension between them, by the way his eyes devoured her, by the heat that burned between them. But she couldn’t be sure he felt anything more man lust.
Victoria’s body sagged against the rock.
Stupid woman. You’d think Jeb would have taught you to use your head rather than your heart. What kind of life can you have with a bounty hunter? And he is a bounty hunter, even If he doesn’t take money. He goes after dangerous men who wouldn’t hesitate to kill him.
What are you going to do? Go along with him to keep him safe? Sit at home with the children praying this won’t be the time they send you a letter saying he’s buried in an unmarked grave far from home?
No, that she couldn’t endure. She had lived with death hanging over her head long enough to know she couldn’t endure it for the rest of her life.
Of course, If he didn’t find Chalk Gillet, she would still be under a sentence of death. She might never have the chance to marry Trinity or anyone else. And she couldn’t help him find Chalk. She knew nothing about the man. She had no idea where he could be. She didn’t even know If he was still alive.
Victoria’s head hurt. She had never wrestled with so many unanswerable questions in her life, and each of them seemed to be inextricably intertwined with an equally unsolvable problem. She readjusted her body to be more comfortable. A little longer and she wouldn’t feel out of place on the trail.
Another change Trinity had brought about.
She pushed her tangled thoughts aside. She’d go back to them later. Right now she was worried about Trinity being out there alone. And there was nothing she could do but spend the long hours waiting.
Victoria woke with a start. The inky-blue of the sky above told her dawn wasn’t far away.
She had fallen asleep sometime during the night. For a panic-filled moment she feared something terrible might have happened while she slept. But a quick glance at the hillside below told her the Indians hadn’t yet begun their attack. The night was silent and still.
Red hadn’t moved. That frightened her. She had helped nurse many men, several of them quite sick, and the biggest problem had always been how to keep them still. Red’s breathing seemed slow, his heartbeat weak. She feared either or both might stop at any minute. At least the stone remained in place. He hadn’t bled any more. She wondered how long before they could start for the doctor. Would he be able to stand the long trip? Would the doctor be able to help him?
Questions! She seemed to be surrounded by them. Why couldn’t some of them have answers?
A splinter of light pierced the sky.
In retrospect it seemed to Victoria that with the first light of dawn, the desert simultaneously exploded into crashing, thundering violence. Rifle fire came from at least a dozen different locations. Coming to her senses, Victoria snatched up her rifle and peppered the rock below. She might not hit anybody, but at least the Indians would know they were being attacked on two fronts. Before her astonished eyes, the Indians rose out of the ground like prairie dogs out of their holes. They raced for their hidden horses. Almost immediately two of them fell.
In less than two minutes the Indians had disappeared. Victoria had the infinite pleasure of listening to the thunder of hoofbeats fade away in the distance. She slumped against a rock. They were safe. Trinity’s scheme had worked.
Trinity reached her only a few minutes later.
“Where did you find so many people to help you?” Victoria asked. “I thought you were going to have to attack them alone”
“I did.”
“But I heard all that gunfire. It came from a dozen different places.”
“It did come from different places, but it wasn’t gunfire.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Firecrackers.”
“Firecrackers?”
“Yes. Special ones I had made to sound exactly like rifle fire.”
“I don’t understand?”
“I’ve used it before when I had to stand off a posse or a gang. Your advantage is very brief, but usually That’s all you need.”
Victoria looked at him with total bewilderment.
“I’ll explain later. Right now we have to get out of here,” he said. “The Indians will come back for their dead and wounded. When that happens I want to be as far away as possible.”
“How are we going to carry Red?” Victoria asked, forgetting her curiosity about Trinity’s firecrackers in the face of her real worry.
“Well have to tie him to his horse.”
“He might bleed to death. We need a wagon.”
“Believe it or not, riding on horseback will be easier on him than a wagon. If his condition gets worse, well improvise a litter. The most important thing is to get out of here before the Indians return.”
Trinity tied Red in his saddle and they left. They didn’t eat. She wasn’t hungry. She didn’t wash or change clothes. She didn’t care.
It only mattered that they were safe.
“He’s going to be a mighty sick young man for a while, but he’ll pull through.”
Doctor Urban Mills had been called away from his lunch to take the bullet out of Red. A ruddy-complexioned, obese, cheerful man, he didn’t seem too concerned.
“I see a lot of bullet wounds,” he had commented, “though not as many as in the War. I’ve gotten a little out of practice since “Then, but this is a good place to keep your hand in. Lots of fools who don’t know what to do with a gun except point it at somebody else.”
“We can’t just leave him,” Victoria said to Trinity. “He’ll need somebody to take care of him until he’s well.”
“You and the missus in a hurry?” Mills asked Trinity.
“You might say that,” Trinity replied before Victoria could speak. “We’ve got to give evidence in a murder trial in Texas. Do you know anybody we can hire to take care of him?”
“You can hire me,” the doctor said, then laughed good-naturedly when he saw he had taken them by surprise. “I’m a lot better than any nurse. Besides, I’d like having the boy around. Had two of my own. Hardheaded, troublesome rascals they were, too, but I miss them now they’re gone. One of them got gold fever. The other decided San Francisco was more fun than the Arizona desert. Can’t say I blame him.”
“How much do I owe you?” Trinity asked.
“Five dollars ought to do it.”
“You sure?”
“I don’t need to charge much. I’m the only doctor within a hundred miles. I get more business than I want. Now you be on your way. I’ll send the boy after you soon as he’s able to ride.”
That taken care of, Trinity turned his mind to weir situation. He asked Victoria If she’d like to spend the night at the Sunbonnet Hotel, the only hotel in the town of Gabel’s Stop. As it boasted the town’s only dining room, they’d eat there as well. Victoria nearly whooped with joy.
The first dung she did was take a bath. As she lay submerged in the water, she could almost feel the layers of dirt fall off, along with the fatigue and tension of the journey. By the time she stepped out of the tub, she felt almost like an ordinary human being again.
Going to dinner would make her feel like a young woman on a date. She’d never really had a date, and she fairly tingled with anticipation. This would be the first time Trinity saw her as anything other than
a prisoner or a travel-worn companion.
What should she wear? She had never had a chance to dress for Trinity. Now that she did, she didn’t have anything to wear. The man was depressingly practical. He must have rifled through her entire wardrobe, but he hadn’t chosen to bring a single dress.
She settled on a cream shirt with a tan skirt and boots. She couldn’t put her hair up. The only pins she’d brought with her were the ones she was wearing the morning he kidnapped her.
She’d lost every one of them on the trail.
She had no jewelry. Who would have worn jewelry on a dawn ride into the mountains? Naturally Trinity didn’t bring any. If you couldn’t shoot it, eat it, or ride it, it was no use—clearly a man’s thinking.
Victoria combed her hair with her fingers. She’d have to go shopping for some essentials before they left town. She couldn’t arrive in Bandera looking like a vagabond. She’d have to buy at least one dress. She hoped they had something in her size. She didn’t know how to sew, and she didn’t imagine Trinity would wait around for her to find a seamstress.
Victoria smiled at herself. It had been years since she’d been so excited about dressing for dinner. Jeb had never cared what she wore even when she had dozens of gowns to choose from. Myra paid more attention to Victoria’s clothes than Jeb did, but then beautiful women always notice another woman’s clothes. Judge Blazer’s wife was the most beautiful woman Victoria had ever seen.
Buc and Uncle Grant never seemed to notice what she wore, either. They tended to take her for granted. She wondered If Trinity would be the same. But Trinity noticed. It was like they were seeing each other for the first time. No murder verdict hanging over her head, no kidnapping, no miserable trip across the desert. Just a man and a woman who liked each other very much having dinner.
Victoria felt oddly self-conscious. Even though a brief glance at the other occupants of the room told her her subdued dress was best, she would have felt much more confident “If she had been able to fix her hair and wear her best gown and her double rope of pearls. She felt very plain.
Trinity’s plain clothes created just the opposite effect. He wore all black: black hat, black shirt, and black pants. Even the buttons and belt buckle were black. He probably didn’t have any idea how his appearance affected Victoria, but there wasn’t a woman in the room who could take her eyes off him.
He looked mysterious. Victoria was not used to men wearing hats indoors, but every other man in the room wore one, too. Trinity had pulled his low over his eyes. His jaw and lips were set. No smile of greeting. His eyes found her; his gaze swept the room, then locked on her once more. Possessive and protective.
He looked powerful. His clothes fit him like a glove. He tolerated no loose folds that snagged or billowed in the breeze. The cloth stretched tightly over his lean, hard, muscled shoulders and arms.
He looked seductive. His pants hugged his powerful thighs in a way which made Victoria’s breath catch in her throat. She swallowed once. The ripple of muscle and tightly encased flesh as he walked toward her caused an uncomfortable feeling to well up in her middle. She swallowed again.
She wouldn’t allow her thoughts to settle on the bulge in his pants. She’d never had this problem with Jeb or Buc. She hadn’t had this peculiar feeling in her belly either.
“Feel better after your bath?” Trinity asked as he reached her side. She noted one difference in the way he looked at her. His eyes always smoldered when she caught him off guard, but now they smoldered despite the fact she was overtly watching him.
“Much better. I never knew I could miss a bath so much. Now if I just had some decent domes.”
Trinity guided her to a table nearly in the center of the room. All the others were taken. He seated her facing the outside door. He sat down facing a huge mirror over the bar.
“Judging by the reaction of the men in this room, they consider your clothes much more than decent. So do I.”
Victoria struggled to retain her composure. She hadn’t counted on him saying anything quite so personal. She was having enough trouble just keeping her reaction to him under control. She didn’t think she could handle his reaction to her at all.
“At least you’ve seen me looking better.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Of course you have. I wore clean clothes every day until you kidnapped me. I had hair pins, too.”
“I still never saw you look better.”
Victoria felt herself turn pink. With her nearly white complexion, she knew everyone could tell she was blushing. She hated that. They had no right to know she was uncomfortable, or so dazed by this man that his glance had the power to cause her heart to beat double time.
“It’s too late to start flattering me now. We’ve seen each other at our worst. There’s nothing new to learn about each other.”
“I feel like I know nothing about you,” Trinity said. “I might as well have been traveling with a stranger.”
“It’s hunger,” Victoria said, smiling flippantly, looking for a way to release the pressure. The tension between them was too great for such a public place. People could practically read their thoughts on their faces. “It’s caused you to feel lightheaded.”
Trinity smiled. He nearly laughed. She liked it when he did that. He seemed more approachable. At times like this she could believe he had once been young. Usually he looked more unbending than vice, more knowing than evil itself. At those times she questioned whether he could ever feel such a human emotion as love.
Tonight she was sure he could.
“I’m keeping you from your dinner and giving all these men a chance to stare at you,” Trinity said.
The food was delivered hot and plentiful.
“They have only one thing on the menu” he explained. “That way you don’t have to wait.”
Victoria had looked forward to dinner all afternoon. After dozens of meals cooked over a six-inch fire, or eaten cold, or not eaten at all, she practically salivated at the thought of decently prepared food. Now she had no appetite at all. She had to force herself to eat.
“What will we do next?” she asked Trinity, in an effort to get her mind off his physical presence. Maybe “If she weren’t so intensely conscious of his body, she would feel more comfortable. And her appetite would return.
“I thought we might stay here a day or two, long enough to talk to Red. I don’t like leaving him without a word. Besides, it’s settled in to rain. Looks like it’ll rain all night.” Trinity continued to outline his plans for the rest of the journey. Victoria was relieved to find it now included stops at several towns rather than a continuous series of wilderness camps, but she noticed he seemed a little preoccupied. He seemed to be watching the occupants of one table out of the corner of his eye.
Victoria glanced in the direction of his gaze and found herself returning the stare of four men she would have instantly characterized as hard cases. They wore dirty clothes, apparently had no concept of personal hygiene, and leered at her openly. Furthermore, they didn’t think it necessary to make their remarks in a quiet voice. Victoria blushed at the publicly stated wish of a man with a rust-red beard.
She tried to concentrate on Trinity, on what he was saying, but the man’s voice continued to get louder.
“We shouldn’t have stopped,” Trinity said, laying down his fork. “A town like this is no place for a woman. Especially a beautiful woman.”
“He’s just crude,” Victoria said. “I’m sure he doesn’t mean anything.”
“They’re miners. They always mean something.”
Chapter Seventeen
The man in the red beard stood up and started toward their table. The others followed.
“Don’t respond to anything they say,” Trinity said under his breath. “No matter what happens, keep eating like you don’t see them.”
“Stop where you are,” Trinity commanded when the red beard was about six feet away. “That includes the rest of you,” he said when Red Beard’s
companions started to drift to either side. “I can put a bullet through your earlobe” Trinity warned an eyesore of a man who kept moving. “Don’t force me to prove it.”
Trinity held his gun above the table, aimed directly at Red Beard. The message was unmistakable.
“We don’t want no trouble,” Red Beard said. “We just want to talk to the little lady. We ain’t seen nothing like her in some time.”
“We ain’t never seen nothing like her,” his young, blond companion corrected. “I never knew a woman could be that beautiful.”
“My wife and I would prefer not to be interrupted while we eat our dinner” Trinity said. “Now “If you would go back to your own table….”
“She ain’t your wife,” Red Beard contradicted.
“What makes you say that?” Trinity asked.
Victoria didn’t have to look up to know Trinity’s whole demeanor had changed. He was prepared to defend his chapter seventeen woman. It rang in his voice like the clarion call of a wild stallion.
“She ain’t wearing no wedding ring. A woman like that don’t get hitched without a ring.”
“Besides she wouldn’t hook up with a dude like you,” said the eyesore. “She’d go for somebody with money.”
“I saw the way you looked at each other when you came in here,” the blond said, “like you could eat each other up. Ain’t no man looks at his wife like that.”
“She’s your fancy piece,” Red Beard continued. “We don’t mind that. We just want a little of the action.”
The eyesore made the mistake of taking a step toward Victoria. The deafening report of a pistol rocked the room. The man screamed and his hand flew to his ear. It came away covered with blood.
“God Almighty!” he yelled. “You shot half my ear off”
“You moved too fast,” Trinity said nonchalantly. “It threw my aim off a little.”
“You can’t go shooting people’s ears off just like that” the blond said. This is a civilized country.”
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