But he didn’t want to wait that long. He was here now. So was she. His body ached to touch her, to feel the softness of her skin just once more. He moved next to her bed.
He could see her in the firelight. Her hair looked nearly brown, subdued, the way she looked in sleep. She lay still, quiet, but she had a funny way of tucking her lower lip under her teeth. It made her look like she was having a nightmare.
He felt a pang of guilt. If she were having a bad dream, he was the cause of it. She had been safe and content in her mountain valley, but he couldn’t wish that he’d never gone to Mountain Valley Ranch. No matter what happened to him, he would never forget Victoria, and he would never regret finding her.
He wondered if she was warm enough. While she slept, he had found a lighter blanket, one made of soft cotton, dyed with native dyes, and woven info intricate geometric designs. Ironically, she would probably need the horsehair blanket tonight.
The flickering flames caused tiny shadows to dance across her cheeks. Her thick eyelashes appeared black in the dim light. It felt odd to look at her with closed eyes. It was almost like looking at somebody who wasn’t there. It gave her the look of a demure maiden, a young woman shy of the world, one who had retreated within herself rather than face the danger of her emotions.
Her lip slipped from under her teeth, and her mourn slowly curled up in the hint of a smile.
She still looked demure and shy, but now she looked like a young woman who merely showed a modest, timid face to the world. Inwardly she was smiling to herself, pleased with the power she exerted over men, quite content to continue wreaking havoc in the hearts of her swains.
Trinity could restrain himself no longer. Moving still closer to the bed, he reached out to touch her cheek. He let his fingers savor the downy softness of her skin. His fingertips traced the outline of her jaw, the smoothness of her lips. He liked the warmth of her. It felt soothing.
He also liked the stillness which surrounded her in sleep. It made him feel peaceful, too, something he could never remember experiencing for more than isolated moments in his life. Being next to her could make his blood boil with heat, his muscles ache with tension, his body swell with desire. At the same time he could feel a tranquility that penetrated all the way to the core of his being. Odd, how being around her could strike up such conflicting emotions, which seemed to fit perfectly together.
She seemed too soft and fragile, so delicate he was sure she would break. Yet awake, she could stay in the saddle for three days and fight off Indians as well as he could.
He touched her hair—heavy and thick, yet soft and pliable. He longed to run his fingers through it, wind it around his fingers, cord it, knot it, but he didn’t dare. It would wake her.
He touched every part of her face. Like a blind man memorizing the face of the woman he loved, Trinity absorbed the shape and texture.
Then he kissed her. He shouldn’t have, but he did. It was a gentle kiss, no more than a touch on her lips. So much, and so little. Not enough.
He kissed her again, less gently this time.
She moved.
He drew back, certain that she would awake, but she didn’t. He couldn’t go back to his bed. He had experienced the intoxicating taste of her mouth, and he had to have more.
Trinity’s body was so tense he trembled. His pants cut him uncomfortably, but he made no attempt to adjust himself. Only Victoria could provide the relief he needed. He kissed her eyelids. He had wanted to do that from the first time he watched her fall asleep. It was like kissing her to sleep, knowing she could fall asleep because he was watching, because he was protecting her. It was a wonderful feeling, one that made him feel like bursting his britches with pride.
It was also a disconcerting feeling: Such trust was an awesome responsibility, one he felt he had done little to deserve.
He brushed some errant locks back from her face. He kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose, the side of her neck. Each kiss grew in intensity. She stirred, but Trinity was too thoroughly under the sway of his desire to back away now. When her lips quivered under his, his kiss became more full, more greedy.
Victoria kissed him back. And Trinity lost all restraint. Taking her face in his hands, he covered it with hungry kisses. There was no pretense from either one of them now. No doubt either.
Trinity threw the quilt back and pulled Victoria into his arms. The warmth of her body was like an invitation to bury his face in the curve of her neck. He couldn’t get enough of her. He couldn’t hold her close enough. No woman he’d been with had ever made him feel like this. It was as though he’d done this many times before but was experiencing it for the very first time.
Trinity wanted to say something, but how do you tell a woman you’re taking back to face a hanging you’re mad about her and want to make love to her? He’d be well-served if she treated him like Red Beard.
But she wasn’t. Victoria was holding him just as tightly as he held her. She had thrown her head back so he could kiss her throat. She covered his face with hot kisses. She pressed her body close to his, like she never wanted to let go. Trinity decided their bodies were saying all that was important just now. He would try to sort out the words later.
Trinity’s lips caressed her neck, lingered in the hollow of her shoulder while he pushed away the strap of her camisole. He planted a row of kisses down her arm. A moan of pleasure from Victoria encouraged him to slip the strap down to her elbow. The expanse of exposed breast nearly caused Trinity to lose control.
He ached to slip her gown down to her waist and feast upon her breasts, but he was afraid of moving too fast. Victoria wanted him as much as he wanted her, but he could not forget the obstacles that stood between them.
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to center his attention on her other shoulder. But when he slipped the second strap over her shoulder, the second breast became exposed. That proved too much for his self-control.
Trinity took Victoria’s mouth in a deep, lingering kiss. At the same time he covered her breasts, one with each hand. Victoria gasped from shock, but she didn’t pull away. Trinity’s tongue forced its way between her teeth and plunged deep into her mouth. At the same time, he traced circles around her nipples with his fingertips.
Victoria’s body arched against him, and she broke the kiss. Her breath came fast and shallow. She didn’t pull away. She lay still before Trinity’s assault, waiting.
Deserting Victoria’s lips, Trinity laid a trail of kisses down her neck. As his lips reached the mound of her breast, he felt her body stiffen. He slowed his advance while his fingers continued to create circles of fire around her nipples.
Then ever so gently, he touched the tip of one puckered, swollen nipple with the tip of his tongue. Victoria nearly rose off the bed. When he let his tongue caress its hot surface, she gasped for air. When he took it in his mouth and sucked it, he thought she would faint. Her body became as rigid as a corral fence.
Fearing he had upset her, Trinity pulled away, but Victoria took his head and pressed it tightly against her breast.
Before Trinity surrendered completely to her invitation, a feeling of danger fought its way through the tide of his inflamed senses. Even as he tried to push away this detested intrusion, instincts, honed by years of practice, scaled the walls erected by unleashed desire. The desire to consume her fought with the desire to shield and protect her.
Protection won.
Trinity broke his embrace. Only his understanding of the necessity for swift action enabled him to force his brain to ignore the objections of his enraged body. Their lives were in danger.
He listened intently.
“Wha—” Victoria started to say, but one hissed syllable cut her short.
“Shh! Somebody’s outside,” Trinity whispered.
Chapter Nineteen
In the single second that he recognized danger, Trinity transformed from an enraptured lover to a trained hunters In a series of swift movements, he took a pair of guns
from his saddlebags and handed them to Victoria. “Here. Shoot anybody who tries to get in. And shoot to kill. They will.”
Trinity picked up his rifle then closed the door to the stove, casting the room into total darkness. Only gradually could his eyes make out the barely lighter squares that represented the cabin windows.
“Keep down. I’m going outside,” he whispered.
Victoria fought to understand what was happening around her. She felt her body plummet from the heights of fiery passion to the depths of icy fear, but she lacked Trinity’s experience. Her mind had none of his lucidity or elasticity. The quick descent left her shaking, the blood thundering in her ears, her brain a useless whirl of confused thoughts and sensations.
Red Beard.
Her numbed brain shouted that message over and over again. She told herself it could be anyone out there, but she didn’t believe that. She was certain it was Red Beard and his friends. Maybe he had had time to get others to join him. Maybe mere were too many for Trinity.
Why had he gone outside? Didn’t he know it was much easier for them to kill him? And why had he left her alone? Her hands shook so badly she didn’t know if she could hit anything she aimed at. Besides, she’d never shot at anyone except the Indians. She didn’t know if she could shoot at a man now.
Get out of that bed. Trinity’s risking his life for you. You can’t let him go out there alone. That thought steadied her nerves. She was scared for herself, but she felt different about Trinity. The fact that anybody would follow her to kill him, just because he’d tried to protect her, made her furious. She wasn’t about to let Trinity die while some miserable, lecherous miners lived.
Victoria got off the bed. Oblivious to the feel of her bare feet on the cold floor, she walked to the window. She couldn’t see anything. There was no moon. She moved to the door. Trinity had left it slightly ajar. Opening it a few inches, she looked out. Nothing. Silence.
But she expected that. Red Beard wouldn’t advertise his presence. He’d want to sneak up behind Trinity and shoot him in the back. Or they’d surround him and shoot him down from all sides. There were no mirrors to help him this time, but she would. She’d be his second set of eyes and ears.
Victoria eased the door open. Even in the dark night, she hesitated to step outside. Her white nightgown would make her an easy target. She rifled through Trinity’s gear until she found a black shirt. Dropping her gown to the floor, she slipped the shirt on and stepped out into the night.
The cold snapped at her legs, whistled up the shirt to chill her inflamed body, but she hardly noticed. Trinity was outside, and so were the killers.
She slipped along the wall under the overhang. She noticed movement across the yard and froze. It was a man, but it wasn’t Trinity. It didn’t move like him. The man moved again, and Victoria raised her gun, drew back the hammer, and took careful aim.
“Ben! You goddamned son of a bitch. You scared the hell out of me.”
Trinity’s booming voice, breaking the tense silence like the crack of falling timber, nearly caused her to fire the gun accidentally.
“You ain’t been scared by anything since you popped out of your mother’s belly,” a strange voice replied. “What do you mean moving into my place behind my back? Next thing you’ll be telling me you done drunk up all the coffee.”
“Why didn’t you come to the door instead of sneaking around like some lobo wolf?”
“Because there are too many lobo wolves about to suit me. Seeing tracks of three horses sorta made me careful. Knowed it was you the minute I saw that buckskin. But why do you need so many horses? I thought you were through chasing after gunslinging galoots.”
“I decided to go out one more time.”
“You got him tied up in the cabin?”
“Her.”
“You got a woman in there?”
“Yes.”
“Just the two of you?”
“Sure.”
“This I got to see” Ben said, starting for the cabin. “She must be ugly as a sow. I ain’t never seen you within fifty feet of anything but a whore.”
Victoria scampered into the cabin, frantic to exchange the shirt for her gown. She didn’t have enough time to get properly dressed, so she put the shirt on over her gown, for warmth and decency. She lit the lantern before the men reached the door.
“I may be ugly as a sow” she said as Ben stepped into the cabin, “but I’m not a whore.”
Ben stopped in his tracks, unable to move. His eyes grew as big as hawk eggs, his jaw swung loose on its hinges.
“This is Victoria Davidge,” Trinity said. “She was convicted of killing her husband.”
“Involuntary manslaughter,” Ben mumbled. “The little lady couldn’t help it if he died on his wedding night. His heart was probably too weak to stand the shock.”
His eyes twinkled. Definitely, they twinkled.
“He was shot with a small caliber gun. They’d only been married a week.”
“For a week with her, I’d let you shoot me,” Ben said. “Might as well. I wouldn’t be any good for the rest of my life.”
“I’m taking her back to be executed.”
Victoria could tell Trinity was teasing his friend.
“If you’re going to hang her, couldn’t we just keep her here for a little bit? Somebody put in a lot of work on her. I’d hate to see it go to waste. Why don’t you marry me?” he said to Victoria. “I could overpower him in his sleep, and we could escape to Colorado.”
“Aren’t you afraid I’d kill you?” Victoria asked, struggling to keep a straight face.
“You’re not a killer, ma’am. I don’t know what happened, but you never killed your husband.”
“How can you know that?” Victoria asked, surprised out of any desire to joke.
“Trinity left you in this cabin with two guns and not tied up. I’ve known him for more than a dozen years. He’d never turn his back on anybody he didn’t trust completely.”
“Why don’t you come inside your own house?” Victoria asked. “We didn’t drink up all the coffee, but I’m afraid we did make pretty heavy inroads into your bacon.”
“There wasn’t much left. I only stopped off here to change horses before I went for supplies. Now I’m going outside to take care of my horse. When I get back, I want some hot coffee and some answers. I got a feeling this is going to turn out to be more than just a friendly visit.”
“So what do you want me to do?” Ben asked Trinity. Victoria had fixed more than coffee. While Ben ate his supper, Trinity told him the story from the day he returned to Bandera until now.
“I’m not expecting anything.”
“Oh, yes you are. There are dozens of places you could have gone to on earth, most of them a sight prettier than this place. Come on, tell me. What is it?”
“I want you to help me find Chalk Gillet.”
“What makes you think I can? He may be dead. Five years is a long time for some people.”
“I know, but if he’s anywhere near Texas, you’ve heard of him. I never saw anybody like Ben for remembering everything he ever heard,” Trinity said to Victoria. “He can quote conversations word for word more than ten years later.”
“Suppose we do find this Gillet, how do you propose to get him to go back to Bandera? If he’s stayed away this long, he’s probably got a good reason for staying away a while longer.”
“You let me worry about that. I just want you to help me find him. Can you?”
“I did hear something about him a couple of years back.”
Trinity turned to Victoria, a grin of triumph on his face. “I told you Ben could find him if he were still alive.”
“Now hold on there a minute. I didn’t say I knew where he was. I just said I heard something about him. You’d have to go looking for him. And I don’t think you’d find him, not with your reputation. Not even if you changed your name again.”
“Changed his name!” Victoria hadn’t said a word, but the shock
of learning Trinity wasn’t Trinity after all surprised her out of her silence.
“He goes through at least a couple of names a year,” Ben said. “I never know when people are talking about him or somebody I never heard of before.”
“You could find him for me,” Trinity said. “He wouldn’t hide from you.”
“You want me to go chasing back and forth along the Mexican border for some guy you mean to shanghai back to Bandera? Somebody may be waiting to kill him.”
“Why would you change your name so often?” Victoria asked point-blank.
“Can’t use the same name all the time when you’re catching criminals” Ben explained. “It warns them off.”
“Ill see nobody kills him,” Trinity said, “but I’ve got to talk to him. He’s the only person who can prove Victoria didn’t kill her husband.”
“Except the real killer.”
“If he hasn’t come forward by now, I don’t expect he means to,” Trinity snapped.
“Probably right,” Ben said, looking thoughtful. “I guess I could go. It’ll cost you though. I can’t go traipsing over half of the Rio Grande valley on a hope and a prayer.”
“Ill pay you.”
“I knew you would,” Ben said with a grin. “I just wanted to hear you say it. I never knew anybody so tight with money,” he said to Victoria. “You could have knocked me over with a calfs ear when he bought that ranch. Now I know what he’s been doing with all that gold he dug up.”
“Stop gossiping,” Trinity admonished. “We’ve got to leave tomorrow. When can you get away?”
“I can leave with you. I’m not busy right now.”
“That reminds me” Trinity said, “I didn’t see any cows. You have trouble with rustlers?”
“Might have if I’d kept that herd long, but I got rid of it. Didn’t want to be tied down.”
Trinity opened his mouth to make an astonished reply.
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