The Lassoed by Marriage Romance Collection

by Bell, Angela; Breidenbach, Angela; Carter, Lisa

  They never got to the stream because having that bull on his heels made him head straight for Debba’s cabin.

  He let go of Debba and detoured to his horse. He puffed out a sigh of relief when the bull followed her. He didn’t think that made him a coward; the bull was really fond of her.

  Because his feisty stallion most likely wasn’t a good fit for the friendly animal kingdom here, he took the black into the tight log barn near the house, stripped the leather off him, gave him a bait of oats, and left him in a stall.

  The barn had several stalls, all empty, and the split log floor was clean enough that if he dropped one of his ma’s sugar cookies on it, he’d pick it up and eat it without a second thought.

  He peeked out the door and saw that the cattle had started grazing and were wandering off. With a sigh of relief he tossed his saddlebags, full of food he hoped to use on Debba, and hurried to the house before he had to shake hands with one of the Belgians.

  He was back!

  She’d almost refused to let him care for his horse she was so afraid he’d vanish as mysteriously as he’d appeared. After years of having no one around, the few minutes he’d spent in the barn left her with loneliness flowing over her like the winter wind.

  Tanner stepped inside, smiled, and swung the door shut. Those golden brown eyes flashed so friendly it was hard to look away. She was building up the fire to make him eggs and the rooted vegetables she always ate. Ma had called them potatoes, but Pa had said they weren’t exactly that.

  He set something on the table with a thump and started pulling things out, spreading them around. The fire needed to heat a bit so, fascinated, she went to his side.

  “What do you have here?”

  “Have one of my ma’s sugar cookies.”

  Debba remembered sugar. Oh, she had honey, she’d found a hive she could rob. But sugar, it lay over the cookie in white drifts. She reached for it so eagerly she should have been embarrassed.

  Tanner got another packet out and a small tin pan. “I’ll make coffee.”

  “Coffee?”

  “It’s a drink. You boil the coffee”—he held up some black crumbs—“in hot water and have a drink to go with the cookies. It warms a man on a cool mountain morning or a bitter cold winter day.”

  “I’ve never had such a thing.” She thought she’d heard of it but not for a long time. Her pa hadn’t kept it in the house. How could he when he rarely went to town? They went without anything he couldn’t raise himself or find in the forest.

  Without asking for help or permission, Tanner made quick work of putting his pan into the fireplace, with the water and what looked like black dirt mixed together.

  She looked at the cookie, practically crying out to her with its prettiness, round and thin and the sugar so appealing.

  “My ma made those.

  “Your ma.” The words did something to her heart. A mother. What a wonderful thing.

  “Ma is the best cook in the world.” Tanner came and guided her into her chair, touching her again. Then he picked up a chair—from where she’d shoved it against the wall about four years ago—and dragged it to the table. He picked up a cookie and said, “I have a pack of them. We can eat one while we wait for the coffee and then have more.”

  He took a bite and then watched her take one. Her eyes went wide and she chewed slowly, like she wanted to live a lifetime in each bite.

  She took her second bite and was chewing when he added, “And then we can talk about how fast you can get packed up and ready to come with me.”

  Chapter 4

  T hat’d gone bad.

  Tanner ducked when she threw her head back. She almost smashed him in the face with the back of her head.

  A muffled scold kept up a steady rumble as he rode his black stallion out of the canyon. He didn’t like gagging her, this was not a kidnapping, after all. It’d be a kidnapping if he wanted to get money for her. Taking her to meet Ma didn’t count as kidnapping. Exactly.

  It struck him that he’d never had call to hog-tie a woman before, and it wasn’t something that suited him. And the gag would come off as soon as they were past shouting distance of her pet longhorn. He wouldn’t put it past her to be able to summon that soft-hearted monster to come to her rescue.

  “I swear I’ll bring you back. But right now I have to go, and I can’t stand the thought of leaving you behind. I don’t know why you have to fight with me this way. Now settle down and I’ll untie your hands and feet and take the gag out.” She tried to head butt him again.

  “Fine, Debba. Stay tied up. It’s a long ride to my folks’. A long old day’s ride, and we didn’t get started until after noon. But we’re going the whole way. And my stallion is strong enough to carry double and still set a good pace.”

  It was a good thing she was a little mite of a woman.

  They threaded their way out of the canyon, and his horse picked its way through the jagged rocks, finding the nearly invisible trail like he had before. They finally reached open ground, and Tanner urged his horse into a long-legged gallop. It’d be long after dark when they got home, but he wouldn’t sleep. It was wrong to keep a woman out alone with a man through the night. Even if the night was edging toward morning, he’d go until he got home.

  He had to do that because he was an honorable man…for a kidnapper.

  He rode a long way down the mountain before he took off her gag.

  She yelled for a while. He probably oughta listen to her, but he had a fair idea what she was saying, and he was busy watching a tricky stretch of the trail. By the time he was on safer ground she’d calmed down.

  He said, “We’ve been riding for over an hour. I’m sure as certain that if you jumped off my horse right now and headed home you’d never find your way back. Do you agree?”

  She finally shut up.

  The silence was nice so he figured if she didn’t answer him, he’d just enjoy the quiet.

  Finally, long after he’d given up, she said, “It’s so big.”

  Since they’d come a long way down what had to be one of the biggest mountains in the Rockies, he figured that’s what she meant. “Yep.”

  There wasn’t a lot of fight in her, so he untied her wrists from the pommel and handed her his canteen. She didn’t try to brain him; instead she took a good long drink and passed it back.

  Maybe they were becoming friends. If she kept this up he might just give her another cookie.

  He started telling yarns. About how his ma had married three times to three worthless men, then she’d married a fourth time to his pa.

  He told all about his four big sisters and his four little brothers. Then he told about buying land not that far from her and building a cabin up near hers without knowing she was there and how many cows he had and plans for the future.

  He found himself to be a talkin’ fool, but she either wasn’t speaking to him or she was so interested in the scenery that she was struck dumb, which amounted to…she wasn’t speaking to him. And when he lapsed into silence, his kidnapping crime wore on him, so he kept telling tales.

  When he thought his horse was about all in, he found a bubbling spring and pulled the black to a halt.

  He swung off the stallion and lifted Debba down. She seemed unsteady, so he hung on to her while he tied his horse to a scrub bush.

  He helped her kneel by the spring and drink.

  “Sit here for a while and I’ll fetch you something to eat.” He eased her onto a flat-topped boulder that was about knee high and fished around in his saddlebags for the last of his cookies, figuring to sweeten her up.

  “Debba.” He sat next to her on the huge rock. “I am sorry about dragging you out of that canyon. I hope you know I will never hurt you.”

  Hoping she understood that he was sincere, he studied her as she ate her cookie. She finished it in several quick bites. No denying it, the woman liked sugar.

  When the cookie was gone, crumbs clung to the corner of her lips, and he smiled and reached
up to brush them away. As he touched her, something tugged deep in his gut. His fingers stopped then swept slowly along her bottom lip. Unable to resist, he leaned down and replaced his fingers with his lips.

  A gasp stopped him. He drew back, shocked at what he’d done. Then she reached both hands for him, rested them on his cheeks and pulled him back.

  He shouldn’t kiss her. He knew it. He was innocent of women, but nothing compared to how defenseless she was.

  Pulling back, he looked at those bottomless blue eyes full of loneliness and wonder. All he could feel was a powerful sense of confused longing.

  “We mustn’t do this.” He kissed her again in direct contradiction to his statement. But he ended it and pulled her to her feet.

  “We’ve lingered long enough.”

  The afternoon worked its way into evening. Tanner had to give his horse one more break, but this time he behaved himself, though he didn’t want to, not one speck.

  The break was short, and he pressed on as hard as the black would allow.

  Finally, the sun fully set and Debba’s head lolled back to rest on his shoulder. He leaned forward to see those pretty blue eyes closed in sleep. At last he was able to hold her as close as he wanted.

  Debba woke up being shaken around, no idea what was going on or where she was. The stars were blazing and the night was cool. A thudding sound brought her more fully awake.

  “Ma, Pa, it’s Tanner.”

  Tanner Harden, that kidnapping skunk bear. The thief of kisses.

  He’d acted so friendly, and then it was over and she felt certain it was something she’d done. She knew nothing about men, and somehow she’d given him a disgust for her.

  It made her fear this dangerous outside world and long for her home until the pain nearly cut her in half.

  She had gotten tired of trying to fight him, especially since she had no luck, but she clenched a fist to take one more good shot at him just as the door swung open. A man stood there holding a lantern.

  “Is she hurt?” The lantern man’s eyes locked with hers. She blinked against the bright light.

  “Nope, just tired. I’ll tell you all about it after I put my horse up.”

  “Get in here. I’ll see to your horse, you look all in.” The man reached.

  Debba thought he was going to grab her. She drew in a breath to scream.

  The arm went past her and dragged Tanner inside. Then the man went out with the lantern and for a second things were dark. Then a light flared and another lantern lit up…this one hanging on the wall.

  “You said she’s not hurt?” A woman spoke. In the dim light, and with her eyes still blurry with sleep, Debba couldn’t see her face.

  “Nope, but I found her alone, Ma, stranded. Her pa died and left her alone in a high valley. It’s a long story.”

  “I wasn’t stranded,” Debba mostly croaked. Her throat was dry and her temper was worn thin. This was his ma. Tanner had talked about her more than anyone else. This is who he wanted her to meet.

  Tanner set her down, and when he let her go she ached at the loss of his touch. Before she could decide what to do with her first moment of freedom in hours, the woman spoke again.

  “You poor thing.” Another lantern lit, this one from behind. Tanner must’ve lit it, and it cast light on the woman’s face and finally Debba saw her.

  “I’m Belle, Tanner’s ma.” The woman came and rested two callused hands on her cheeks. Debba looked into brownish, greenish, golden eyes, a perfect match for Tanner’s, full of kindness and strength.

  With absolutely no idea how to act, she stood there, aching. Another woman. The longing from being near was so overwhelming she was incapable of moving or speaking.

  Then Belle pulled her into her arms and hugged her. The second person to touch her in just one day. These arms were different. The coddling. The strength of them, matched with a mothering concern… Debba felt like she was breaking apart inside. When tears came flooding there was no stopping them.

  She wrapped her arms around Tanner’s ma as tight as she could hold on and wept. Tears came from so deeply inside they might well be tears for her own mama. And tears for Pa who’d stayed to himself completely after Ma died. And tears for all the years she’d been alone. At first she’d been terrified, in fact she’d barely cried because fear was so much stronger of a reaction.

  Tears that had turned to stone from all their years of being stored away.

  And now they broke free from where they’d been waiting, until it was safe. Until now.

  Tanner hated tears about as much as Pa did.

  Not quite, but close.

  He was mighty tempted to go help Pa strip the leather off his stallion—which was a one-man job and probably already done. Not a good enough reason to stay here. And while he was out there he’d warn Pa not to come inside anytime soon.

  He even backed up and fumbled behind him for the doorknob when Ma noticed and about burned him to death with her eyes.

  She was hugging Debba, crooning to her, patting her on the back and reading Tanner’s mind all at the same time.

  Not much got past Ma.

  So Tanner hunted around in his head and decided he could feed himself. It was closer to morning than night, and much as he was near asleep on his feet, it didn’t look like he was going to find a bed anytime soon. Since he was mighty hungry and his folks probably weren’t going to get back to bed and his little brothers would be rising soon—in fact he was surprised they hadn’t gotten up already what with all the ruckus of sobbing—he figured he might as well cook.

  So he headed for the kitchen and stoked the fire, put coffee on, then started heating up skillets for breakfast.

  Ma might not want him to leave the house, but he didn’t have to stand right there watching, did he?

  Debba was bound to quit crying and be hungry, too, in a minute.

  He found his mind straying to that kiss they’d shared. He was about to crack an egg right into the top of the cookstove with no skillet when his pa came in the back door.

  Which reminded him of the crying.

  Pa was a smart man. He’d probably heard the sobbing and come around back.

  They were out of the line of sight of the woman and probably, considering Debba’s caterwauling, out of earshot, too.

  “So, where’d you find the woman, son?” Pa heard the crying, but for some reason he wasn’t running for the hills, and that just wasn’t like him. In fact, he looked amused. Almost like he considered this crying woman someone else’s problem, maybe Tanner’s.

  Tanner explained, and Pa listened and asked questions. He’d helped scout that land Tanner claimed.

  “That mountain grows up on the west side of your property. And I remember the jagged rocks all around the base of it. I can’t believe you found a trail across ’em.”

  “Debba screamed and there was a gunshot. The black followed the sound, and he found the way in. Even while he walked on it I had to use my imagination to see it.” He thought the crying from the front of the house was fading a little. He hoped Ma was pulling Debba out of the doldrums.

  “And a keyhole pass into an inner canyon.” Pa had a spark about him in wild land. The Hardens lived a long way out, and though the town of Divide had grown and the train had come through, theirs was still a solitary life and it suited the whole family.

  Tanner proved that by moving even farther from town. But to think a meadow like that existed…

  “Don’t you wonder what’s left in these mountains to be discovered? Are there more meadows like that, in the heart of a mountain? I wonder if the Indians knew about it. Or if maybe her family stepped on land that no human had ever touched.” Pa made that sound like the finest thing that could happen to a man.

  “And I’ve been in there. Maybe the fourth person to ever see it.” Tanner loved the thought of it. “It’s a beautiful place, Pa, hundreds of acres of lush grass, with a fast-movin’ stream, and she’s got longhorns in there that may be twenty years old.” H
e told about Shadow while they cracked eggs and sliced bacon.

  Pa laughed and looked befuddled at the same time. “I don’t suppose she’s thinking that a hundred head of longhorn oughta be culled. Wonder how she’d act if I told her she needs a cattle drive?”

  “I’ve got a feeling that if she got wind of a cattle drive having the end result of turning a cow into beefsteak, she’d be fully opposed to it.” Tanner poured the eggs into the skillet, hot now on their rectangular cookstove. A luxury Pa had brought home for Ma a few years back. The livin’ was getting mighty easy on the Circle H these days.

  “It don’t matter what Debba thinks; no one’s gonna drive those cows anywhere.” Tanner pictured himself trying to ramrod that big friendly bull out that narrow pass and across that rugged trail, just the first stretch on the long route to Helena.

  “Maybe they’d come along if you lured them with buckets of wheat.” Not unlike Tanner’s plan to lure Debba with sugar cookies. Considering she ended up hog-tied, he might as well stop all his planning right now. He showed no talent for it.

  Murmuring came from the other room. He heard Debba’s voice break and Ma’s soothing response, but he couldn’t make out the words.

  Then he heard Ma say, “He gagged you?” in a voice that wasn’t one lick soothing.

  “I’ve got to see this place,” Pa said, “and see a one-ton longhorn that acts as tame as a house cat.”

  “I half expected her to weave him a necklace of dandelions and then ride him around the meadow.”

  Pa laughed and shook his head.

  Which didn’t distract Tanner from wondering what exactly Ma was going to have to say about his tactics. He decided to hurry with his cooking since he’d long ago noticed that Ma really appreciated help around the house.

  He got real busy breaking eggs.

  Ma came into the kitchen, her arm around her newest chick.

  Tanner said, “Breakfast will be ready in just a few minutes.”