The man stood ready to walk out the door.
“No, what did you call me?” she asked.
Tanner came up behind her and leaned over, his gaze sending a clear warning. Then he kissed her on the cheek, his lips warm and supple. “It’s all right, sweetheart. You’re going to be just fine. We’ll get you to Fort Worth, you’ll see.”
“But—”
Tanner stepped away and opened the door. “Thanks for coming by, Doctor. We’ll see you in a couple of days.”
The old doctor frowned. “Good-bye, then. Send for me if you need me.”
The doctor stepped out of the room, and Tanner firmly shut the door behind him. Beth gazed at Tanner quizzically.
“Did he just call me Mrs. Tanner?” she questioned. She stared at the worried expression on Tanner’s face. “Why?”
“Because the good doctor and everyone in the hotel thinks we’re married.”
Chapter Four
Eugenia sat nervously in the buckboard, glancing up and down the street. The stage was several hours late, and Eugenia feared what the delay meant.
What if the young woman didn’t show? What if she’d changed her mind and decided to stay in Georgia?
Her imagination ran wild as she twisted her hands nervously around the umbrella handle, twirling it fretfully. The umbrella provided little shade from the hot Texas sun, but it occupied her hands and kept her from fidgeting quite so much.
“Eugenia, come inside out of this blistering heat. We’ll have plenty of time to greet Miss Anderson once the stage arrives,” Rose, her daughter-in-law, admonished.
“I promised her that I’d be waiting. That I would be the first person she saw when she arrived.”
Rose glanced up at her, clearly annoyed. “Eugenia, did you promise her that you would be the first person or that Tucker would be the first person she saw?”
Sometimes the girl was way too smart. Yet she had fallen in love with Travis, and Lord knows, Eugenia had been ready to give up on that boy finding any woman to love him.
“Well ... it was me, of course, but I signed Tucker’s name.”
“That’s what I thought. So let’s wait inside,” Rose reproved.
Eugenia started to climb down from the wagon, and Rose held out her hand to help her disembark. “Thank you, dear. You’re right, it would be cooler inside, in the shade.”
“Much,” Rose agreed.
“So where did my sons take off to?” Eugenia questioned.
“They’re sitting inside sipping lemonade.”
Eugenia looked at her in surprise. “Lemonade?” Rose laughed. “I told them I would start reading tea leaves for everyone who entered the cafe if they even considered ordering whiskey or beer.” She smiled. “Travis knew I would, too, so he told Tucker they’d get something stronger later.”
Eugenia patted Rose on the arm and chuckled. “A woman who knows how to handle my son—I love it.” She sighed. “Now if everything will work out for Tucker the way it has for Travis, I’ll be so happy.”
They stepped up onto the wooden sidewalk, underneath an awning, out of the sun. “Eugenia, why are you pushing your sons into marriage? Why can’t you just leave Tucker alone and let him find a woman when he’s ready?”
“Someday you’ll understand, dear, when you’ve waited for years and none of your children seem interested in settling down. You lose a son, and a small part of you dies, and then your husband passes on and leaves you alone. These things make you realize time is running out. And you want more. More time to spend with your grandchildren and family. So you rush your children, and finally you do things you never thought you’d do just to see them settled and happy, with a family of their own.”
Rose glanced at her. “But you can’t keep interfering, Eugenia. You’re going to hurt someone in the process.”
“I sincerely hope not. I’m trying to be careful, but I love my children. I want to see their children.” She sighed. “I’m just thankful Tucker came today.”
The rattling of a coach as it turned the comer interrupted their conversation, and they both tensed.
“Oh, my God, here she comes,” Eugenia exclaimed. Rose turned to the men in the cafe and waved excitedly. The moment was upon them; the newest member of the clan was about to arrive. Travis hurried out the cafe door, urging his younger brother not to tarry. But Tucker hung back, trepidation on his usually smiling face.
Eugenia hurried over to him. “Come on, dear. All you have to do is meet her. That’s all. If you don’t like her, I would never expect you to marry her.”
“Mother, I’m not going to marry her.”
“We’ll see, dear.”
Rose took her husband’s arm, and together the four of them walked toward the stage that had just pulled to a stop, in front of the El Paso Hotel.
The door swung open, and Eugenia held her breath as a woman older than herself stepped out.
“I knew it,” Tucker said. “She’s old.”
She poked her son in the ribs. “That can’t be her.”
“Whew,” Tucker said, winking at Eugenia. “I was frightened for a moment.”
The grandmother glanced around the small crowd of people expectantly and then boldly asked, “Anyone here to meet Miss Elizabeth Anderson?”
Eugenia stepped forward. “We are. My sons and daughter and I.” She glanced into the stagecoach and realized it was empty. “Where is she?”
The older woman’s face became sympathetic. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but we were robbed. Elizabeth was shot in the holdup.”
“Oh, my God, is she all right?” Eugenia asked.
“A nice young banker feller who was riding with us took her back to San Antonio on his horse and promised to get her to a doctor. They have a marvelous doctor in San Antonio.”
“Was she hurt badly?” Eugenia asked.
“Beth had a pretty nasty shoulder wound. But from what I could tell, I don’t think it was life-threatening.” Suddenly, the older woman waved to a waiting family. “There’s my daughter. I must go, but I think Miss Beth will be just fine.”
“I’d better go to Elizabeth. I’ll take the next stage to San Antonio and find her,” Eugenia said, wringing her hands.
“That’s really not necessary. This doctor helped my son-in-law one time, and he’s very good. He’ll take care of her.” The grandmother patted Eugenia on the arm. “She was anxious to get acquainted with you, and right now might not be the best time for her. Let her recuperate before she meets you.”
“But . . .” Eugenia frowned. “All right, but only because you think it’s best.”
“I really do. Now, I better run along and join my family.”
As the grandmother hurried off, Eugenia stood there, stunned. Robbed and shot at gunpoint!
She turned to Travis and Tucker. “The two of you should go to San Antonio and bring her home. She needs us now more than ever.”
“Mother, you heard the woman, let’s give her some time. Besides, the herd is almost ready to go to market,” Travis insisted. “I need to stay here and help our foreman finish getting the herd ready.”
“I have a job to do here,” Tucker exclaimed.
“But your job is upholding the law. Protecting the citizens. You need to go after those men who robbed her stage,” Eugenia persisted.
“Mother, it’s not my territory, and besides, the sheriff in San Antonio will be investigating.” He sighed. “I’m sure Miss Anderson will be contacting us as soon as she’s well. If we don’t hear from her soon, then I’ll take some time off to go down and see if I can locate her.”
Eugenia frowned. “I don’t like it, but what can I do? Someone take me home. This day has simply lost whatever joy it held.”
***
“Why did you tell everyone we were married?” Beth asked Tanner as she sat up in bed, the covers tucked around her. “I’m on my way to meet my fiancé.”
Her fiancé? So that was why she was going to Fort Worth. Tanner swallowed, feeling uncomfo
rtable in the intimate setting of the hotel room with the beautiful woman before him. They had been in this hotel room alone, together, for almost a week, and the close proximity was starting to wear on him.
“People assumed we were married when I carried you into the hotel.” He shrugged his shoulders. “It just happened.”
Her hazel eyes were troubled, and he could see she was worried about something. “Did you consider how it would look if the man I’m to marry tried to find me?” She took a deep breath, and the covers clung precariously to the material of her nightgown, just above her breasts. He couldn’t help but imagine how her breasts would look beneath her nightdress, how they would feel—soft and full to his touch.
“No, I didn’t know you were getting married. After everything happened, I thought maybe it was better this way. No one would think less of you for sleeping in a strange man’s hotel room.”
Plus, it was a good cover for him. No one would think to look for him with a woman in the room.
“But will the man I’m going to marry take that into consideration?”
Tanner was beginning to feel exasperated. “Look, I didn’t do this to hurt you. I just let them think what they wanted. I was trying to protect you.”
“This marriage is very important to me. I can’t return to Georgia,” she said, anxious.
“Your family would take you back, wouldn’t they?” he questioned, curious about her traveling all this distance alone.
She glanced down at her hands and then back up into his eyes. Her hazel eyes brimmed with tears. “There’s no one left in Georgia. Whatever family I had is all dead and gone. Except for my aunts and uncles, and they don’t want me.”
The sadness he saw reflected in her eyes made him feel awkward. Why didn’t her family want her? How could a woman as beautiful as Beth be so alone in the world? He had an overwhelming urge to take her in his arms and soothe her until she smiled again.
“No one would take you in?” he questioned, finding it hard to believe she had no one.
“No! You don’t understand.” She took a deep breath and leaned back against the pillows. “There’s no one left to care about me. No one that would be willing to take in an invalid.”
He shrugged. “People will usually do just about anything for a price.”
She stared at him in wonder. “So why are you doing this? What’s your price?”
“What?” he asked, stunned she’d turned his question on him.
“Why are you taking care of me? You didn’t have to.”
“No, I didn’t have to. But I couldn’t very well leave you behind. And my price, lady, you can’t afford,” he said, disgusted.
“I can’t afford any price. But surely there was some place you could have left me?”
“There was no place. And I wouldn’t have left you even if there was,” he admitted, knowing that after the robbery he had to see to her well-being. He could never have just ridden off and left her to die.
At that bold admission, he suddenly felt very uncomfortable. “You were too sick to leave with strangers.” He stood and walked to the window, presenting her with his back, the conversation clearly at an end. She’d gotten a little too close, and he felt the need to remove himself.
He glanced down at the street and realized that dusk would soon be upon them.
“Are you hungry?”
“Yes, I am,” she said, nodding.
“Well, at least your appetite is returning,” he said.
“Yes,” she acknowledged. “I know you must be ready for me to get well and out of your life permanently.”
He glanced at her puzzled. “Why do you say that?”
“Well, I’m certain I’ve slowed you down.”
He shrugged.
When a man had no good place to go, he certainly wasn’t in a rush to go nowhere. His only pressing business was the Bass gang, and even though catching up with them was urgent, it could wait. He was in no hurry. And though he was loath to admit it, he had enjoyed her company this last week, since she’d regained consciousness. She had been an easy enough patient, and she had an agreeable personality. It had been so long since he’d enjoyed the company of a woman that he had to remind himself she would be leaving soon and not to grow accustomed to her presence.
They stared at one another, feeling awkward in the cramped room. He gazed at her tasty mouth and wanted to run his finger along her full bottom lip, feel the texture of her skin, her warm breath on the tip of his finger. His thoughts were disturbing, and he knew it was time to get out of the room for a while and let his overactive imagination contemplate what lay beneath that nightgown, cool down several notches.
Finally, he cleared his throat. “I’ll go down and get us a bite to eat.”
“That would be nice.”
He strode to the door and then glanced back. “You know you don’t have to worry about being in the same room with me, don’t you?”
She glanced at him, her forehead puckered in a frown. “I haven’t worried about being alone with you, if that’s what you mean.”
He couldn’t say that he would never touch her, for he longed to do just that, but she was safe with him.
“Good. I just wanted you to know you’re safe with me.
“Thanks,” she said, and watched him close the door.
He stood outside the door and took a deep breath. Yes, she didn’t have to worry about his forcing himself on her. But being in the same room with Beth and not touching her was starting to become a challenge. For she was the type of woman that reminded him of his previous life. She reminded him of home.
***
Beth took a sip of her soup, wishing she didn’t tire out quite so fast. Though she napped several times a day, she still became exhausted faster than expected.
Tanner sat at the small table eating roast beef and gravy, but he had brought her soup. And while she loved the taste of chicken vegetable, his roast beef smelled absolutely succulent. When was the last time she had tasted good roast beef? Before the war?
She couldn’t remember.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“All right,” she said.
They finished eating, and he cleared away their dishes. She leaned back against the headboard of the bed, several pillows at her back. She felt tired from the simple task of eating, but she knew that with each day she was getting stronger and soon she would feel like moving about. Then she could somehow catch the next stage to Fort Worth.
He picked up a newspaper and began to read, but Beth felt edgy and bored. The walls of the room were beginning to close around her, and she needed a diversion.
“Anything interesting in the paper?” she asked.
He pulled the newspaper down and glanced at her over the top. “Not much. There is a small article about the shooting.”
“What does it say?” Beth asked anxiously.
He lifted the newspaper and read:
While traveling on the Fort Worth stage, Mrs. Tanner was shot during a holdup. The Bass gang is believed to be responsible for robbing the stage and leaving Mrs. Tanner to die. Her husband, who happened to have his horse tied to the back of the stagecoach, carried her into San Antonio, where Doc Benson removed the bullet. Mrs. Tanner will recover according to the doc. Once again this gang has struck an innocent victim.
He looked up from the newspaper. “That’s all they wrote.”
Beth tilted her head and looked at him sideways. “The Bass gang—that’s who robbed the stage?”
He nodded his head.
“If they know who did it, why haven’t they caught them? They could go and arrest them right now, and I could get my money back.”
“That money has already been divided and probably spent. As for bringing them in, they’d have to know where the Bass gang is to do that. The hill country of Texas has plenty of places for an outfit to hide. And this group of outlaws has been working this road clean up to Fort Worth.”
“This wasn’t the first robbery on
that road by that bunch?” she asked indignantly.
“Of course not.”
“Then why hasn’t the law done something to stop them? Why hasn’t the Bass gang been caught?”
Tanner shrugged. “Don’t know.”
Beth glanced at Tanner and noticed the tight expression on his face. “I’m sorry for getting so upset. It’s just that they acted like it was not important in the paper. But that gang robbed me, and I was shot.”
He folded the newspaper and set it aside. “Happens often enough in the West. You’ll soon learn and be glad all they did was rob you.” He paused. “Any chance your fiancé will see the paper?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Hopefully, if he does, he’ll think it was a misprint regarding the name.”
“So when are you getting married?”
She glanced at her hands, her stomach churned into a knot. “We haven’t set the date yet. For that matter, we’ve not even met in person.” She gazed into his sky blue eyes. “I’m a mail-order bride.”
There was a long moment of silence as he stared at her. Then his face wrinkled into a frown, and he looked confused. “Why would a beautiful woman like you become a mail-order bride. I thought that was for homely women.”
She blushed at his compliment. “There was no one left back home. I needed to get away and make a fresh start.”
There was a moment of silence. “So why have you never married?”
Tanner picked up the paper, rolled it into a tube, and then slowly released it. “I’m a rover, constantly on the move, never staying long in one place.”
“You can do that as a banker?” she asked in disbelief. He pulled his paper back up. “I don’t just work with one bank.”
Beth licked her lips nervously. “I would think that would be a lonely life.”
She hated to think of him alone.
“Never thought much about it.”
Tanner confused her. Though hard and rugged, there was a quiet sense of vulnerability about him that intrigued her, that drew her to him. His blue eyes were cold, but occasionally there was a flash of warmth and even laughter. There was nothing soft about him, and his good looks were unique in a tough, masculine sort of way. And there was a growing sense of consciousness of him as a man, one she was attracted to and shouldn’t be.
The Outlaw Takes A Bride (The Burnett Brides) Page 5