Buck gripped the bridle of the horse Cord had been working with, and he led the animal to the barn, opening the gate and allowing Rachel past him.
She stumbled to where Cord lay, her hand reaching to spread wide against his chest. “He’s not breathing,” she cried. “Do something! Sam! Shamus!”
Shamus grunted, his hands gripping Cord’s belt, lifting the big man off the ground for a moment He dropped him back to the ground, then lifted him again. “Lost his wind,” he announced, breathing heavily. “Damn, he’s a big one!”
The third try produced results as Cord’s mouth opened wide and an audible gasp brought a grin to Shamus’s face. “Works every time,” he told his audience.
Cord coughed, gasping again and rolling to his side, sucking in great gulps of air. “Damn horse!”
Rachel knelt behind him, her eyes closed tightly. She’d thought, for just a moment there…she’d thought he was dead. An emotion unlike any she’d ever before experienced had flooded her with such devastation, such horror, she’d been struck dumb by the weight of it.
In the space of an instant, he might have been taken from her. In less time than it took to blink, he might have had the breath of life sucked from him forever, and no amount of jerking and tugging by Shamus Quinn would have brought him back.
She rose to her feet and turned from the men who gathered to help Cord to his feet. Her back straight, her eyes unblinking, she trudged toward the house, and a suddenly silent group of cowhands watched her depart.
“I don’t need to be in bed,” Cord grumped as he made his way into the house. “I just need my back tended. Feels like I’ve scraped half the skin off. Somebody get Rachel for me.”
Where she’d gone in such a hurry was cause for concern, he decided. It wasn’t like her to turn from an injury. He’d fully expected her to pet him and even maybe kiss his cheek. Not that he’d have stood for it with all the men looking on, but the gesture would have been appreciated.
Instead he’d had to send two men off with Beau Jackson to put the wheel back on the wagon and bring it home, while Sam and Moses gave him a hand to the house. Now everyone was debating whether or not he should be in bed, and if they didn’t all leave him be and let Rachel take a look at the part of his back that was burning like fire, he was going to pitch a fit and a half.
“Rachel!” he boomed, once he got his feet inside the kitchen. “Come take a look at this, will you?” He edged onto the nearest chair and waved his hand dismissively at the two men who watched him warily.
“Cord?” She stood in the hallway, her face as pale as moonlight.
“Come here, honey. I need you to look at my back. I think I scraped it up pretty bad. Probably needs some salve on it.” Not to mention the thumping in his head and the pain in one shoulder, he thought grimly.
She straightened, her lips compressing. “Yes, of course. Sit up to the table, Cord. I’ll get a basin of water.”
Within moments, she had him scooted next to the table and he bent his head to rest against his crossed arms, relieved that he no longer needed to hold it erect. A groan escaped him and she bent to touch her lips to his temple.
Finally, he was getting the sympathy he deserved.
“What were you doin’ riding with Beau Jackson?” he asked, his voice rough, muffled against his sleeve.
“Of all the…Let me get this shirt off you,” she told him. “Sit up a minute.” Her hands were efficient as she loosened his buttons and stripped the shirt from his body. She dropped it to the floor and kicked it aside, moving behind him to examine his back.
“You had enough scars back here before. There wasn’t any sense in adding to them,” she said sharply. Her hands held a cloth and she spread it over him with care, her touch a contrast to the words she spoke.
“Lorena! Get me the supplies from the linen closet, will you?” she called, raising her voice.
A muffled reply appeared to satisfy her and she leaned to wring out the cloth in fresh water. “This is going to sting,” she said quietly. “But I want to get the dirt out.” Her hands were gentle, but the soap she applied to his scrapes felt like fire. He muttered beneath his breath, his curses falling against the tabletop as she worked.
“I saw you huggin’ Beau Jackson’s middle,” he grumbled.
The woman was ignoring him, he decided, cringing as the cloth wiped carefully at his back.
“Don’t blame me for making you fall off that horse,” she told him after a moment.
Behind him, footsteps announced another presence and Cord jerked, attempting to sit upright
“Cover me!” It was a low command, but no less urgent for it.
“Here, Rachel.” Lorena sounded breathless, and then she caught her breath, an audible gasp. “What happened?”
Rachel placed the cloth over Cord’s injuries. “Not much. Just took a couple layers of skin off. The horse went one way and he went the other. I’ll take care of it.”
He felt exposed, indignant at his naked state. “Damn, Rachel. Get it over with, will you? I don’t want anybody else in here.”
“What’s going on?” Jake’s chair hit the kitchen doorway with a thump. “What’s all the fuss out here? Cord? You all right?” He rolled up to the table, pushing Rachel to one side with the force of his concern, his hand reaching for the covering cloth.
“I’m fine. Leave me be,” Cord grunted, aware that it was too late, that his back was being exposed to everyone in sight. The shame he’d borne in the privacy of his own skin was now the object of attention in this room.
“Get out of here.” It was a harsh demand, and Jake uttered it in a tone of voice that allowed no dissent.
It was to their credit that Rachel and Lorena fled the scene, their whispers fading down the hallway. Cord straightened gingerly, careful to keep his flesh from the back of the chair.
“Seen enough?” he asked dryly.
Jake turned his chair to the side, then around the table, in order to face his brother. “What happened? You didn’t get those scars yesterday.” His face was gaunt with reflected pain and his eyes bored dark holes in Cord’s memory.
“You don’t want to know, Jake. It was a long time ago and it’s too late to be shedding tears for me.” He managed a half grin, his lip quivering with the effort.
Damn, he’d managed to keep his secret for more than four years, and now with the advent of one snippy miss, the whole ranch was probably all agog. Some days just weren’t worth getting up for, he decided glumly.
“How did the other fella look?” Jake asked, leaning back in his chair, fingers widespread on his thighs.
Cord shrugged his shoulders, wincing at the stretching of his skin. “About as good as usual,” he allowed.
“Pa?” Jake uttered the single syllable and then followed it with a string of curses as Cord reluctantly nodded. “Why?” he asked gruffly.
“I didn’t go to war, and you’d already joined up. He said I was a lily-liver and he was gonna whip me to see if my blood ran red or yellow.”
“You let him.” It was a statement.
“I didn’t fight him, Jake. Miserable old coot was my father, like it or not. Maybe there was a little guilt involved, anyway. I was safe and sound, here on the ranch, and you were wearing a uniform.”
“You worked your tail off,” Jake said quickly. “You weren’t hiding out in the bushes.”
Cord nodded. “Yeah, you’re right there. The boys in blue got a lot of free beef from this place.”
Jake eyed him from beneath lowered brows. “Any more secrets I should know?”
Cord considered him for a moment. “Yeah, something you should know, but I’m not keepin’ it a secret.” He pushed away from the table and shoved his hands deep into the front pockets of his denims. “If you ever hurt my wife’s feelings again like you did the other day, I’ll paste you one.”
Jake’s grin was slow. “All right. That’s plain enough.”
“Now go get Rachel. I need a little pampering.”
He was gone, the chair rolling at a good clip down the hall, his strong voice calling for Rachel even before he reached the parlor doors.
“You never did answer me this afternoon.” Cord watched from a chair as Rachel pulled the sheet down on the bed. His sore muscles had turned to aches and pains and his backside felt as if he’d been kicked by a mule.
“You knew why I was on the back of Beau Jackson’s horse,” she said, frowning at him over the width of the mattress. “The wagon wheel fell off and he brought me home.”
“I think you forgot to tell me everything, Rachel. Beau mentioned the fact that you were tossed out of the wagon and landed in a heap in the road.”
She sighed, an exaggerated effort, and turned from her task. “I didn’t get hurt and you know it. Get in bed,” she told him. Snatching a nightgown from her drawer, she went behind the screen in the corner of the room.
“Rae?” He sauntered across the room, leaning to peek over the three-part barrier.
“Go away!” she said sharply. “I don’t need you inspecting every single thing I do.”
“Tell me, Rachel.” He rocked the screen with one hand. “Tell me about throwing up in the weeds and getting dizzy. Did you hit your head?”
She looked around the corner, gracing him with a glance that was enough to chill his eyeballs, if he hadn’t already figured out how to melt Rachel’s icy glares in jig time.
“No, I didn’t hit my head. I threw up in the weeds and got dizzy. What else do you want to know?” Her head disappeared behind the screen and he fought a laugh that threatened to split his aching head, should he lose it in her direction.
“Beau Jackson suggested you might be hiding secrets, Rachel. I acted like I’d been thinking along those same lines, but it took some fancy footwork to come up with a straight face when he said…” He paused, waiting for her to shove the screen aside and fly at him.
An ominous silence brought made him frown. “Rae? Are you listening? He said he thought you looked like a woman who was havin’ hard thoughts about being a mother.”
He peered over the top of the screen. Only the top of her head met his gaze. She’d parked her bottom on the small chair back there and was looking at her toes, as far as he could tell.
“Rachel?” He called her name in a careful tone, his heart setting up a turmoil in his chest, throbbing against his ribs to beat the band. “Honey?” It was a whisper this time, and still she curled in the chair, unmoving.
“Well, damn!” He fit his big body behind the screen, feeling like a bull ox squeezing into a mole hole. There wasn’t room for the both of them back in that little dressing and undressing spot, what with the slop pail and the commode with its pitcher and basin, not to mention Rachel, all huddled on her chair.
His hand touched the top of her head, his rough skin tangling in the dark silk of her hair, and his heart melted within him. “Sweetheart? I can’t pick you up without knocking this screen to kingdom come, and I can’t squat down in front of you without stickin’ my hind end on the slop pail.” His other hand cupped her cheek and he slid it beneath her chin, tilting her head upward.
His palm was damp, and more tears were overflowing even as she looked up at him.
“Rae…baby, don’t cry! Whatever I said, I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “I’m the one who’s sorry, Cord. I’m so dumb I didn’t even know I was going to have your baby. My mama didn’t tell me how to get that way, and she didn’t tell me how I’d know when I got there.”
Somehow he found there was room after all to kneel before her, his arms reaching to enclose her in his embrace, his heart breaking with her pain.
“You’re not dumb, Rachel. You’re smarter than the whole bunch of us. Matter of fact, you’re just about perfect, as far as I’m concerned.”
Her mouth was pressed against his throat and she kissed him where his pulse beat beneath his ear. “I’m far from perfect, Cord. I’m selfish.”
“Now that’s enough!” With a strength gained from surprise and outrage, he lifted her, clasping her against his chest and belly, her feet dangling. With a mighty shuffling of feet and moving of furniture, he carried her to the bed he’d come to think of as his own small part of heaven.
Careful to keep his weight from her, he covered her with his body, holding her hands beside her head, his gaze searching her face. “What’s all this silly stuff about you being selfish?”
“Mr. Baldridge and Mr. Hampton want me to work for the theater, playing for rehearsals and filling in when their own musicians aren’t there.” She gulped back a sob. “For the first time in my life, I felt like someone wanted me because I was special, and—”
“Not the first time, Rachel.” He bent, his mouth fitting against hers in a soft blending of their lips. “I wanted you because you were beyond being special. You are the only woman I’ve ever met who fit the bill for me. Your talent at the piano can’t hold a candle to the music you’ve brought to this house without touching one single key. You fill every room with your laughter and your humming and singing and bustling about, fixing things up to look pretty.”
He sighed, resting his forehead against hers. “I’m not saying this well, Rae. I appreciate your piano playing. I do. I’m proud of you. That night at the picnic, I wanted to stand up and tell everyone you belonged to me. I’m the happiest man in Kansas, knowing you’re going to be beside me for the rest of my life.”
“Oh, I think you said that very well,” she murmured.
“I didn’t know you had it in you to make a speech like that, Cord McPherson.”
“Well, you’d better remember it well, because I don’t know if you’ll ever hear all that at one time again. And don’t ever say you’re stupid, you hear me? I won’t have it,” he told her sternly. “And if you want to play for those people down at the theater, you go right ahead. We ate cold dinners before you got here, and if we have to, we’ll make do.”
“I’m going to have a baby,” she whispered. Her eyes lit with satisfaction, her mouth widening in a smile. “I’ve been thinking about it ever since before supper. Nothing so wonderful has ever happened to me before.” Tears slid from her eyes and she sniffed loudly. “I think I’m going to need a hankie, Cord.”
His long arm snaked to the bedside table and he snatched at one she’d left there. “Here, sweetheart. Blow.”
She did, then brightened, as if she’d made a monumental decision. “I told Mr. Baldridge I’d like to work at the opera house, and I was so excited about it, Cord. And then when Beau Jackson suggested I might be in the family way, it all just flew out the window. I felt like Christmas morning had come and I was the one with all the presents.”
His laugh spurred her on, his eyes crinkling as he listened to the words pour from her lips.
“I’ve decided something important. I don’t think I want to be gallivanting off to town, Cord. Maybe it was enough that they wanted me, that they offered.” Her hands pushed against his chest and he lifted himself from her.
“I think we ought to find out if Jake will do it,” she continued. “There’s going to be need for someone to oversee the whole thing before long, and…”
“I wouldn’t count on it, Rae. He’d have to be up in front of people, and I can’t see him doing that.”
“He’d have a wonderful time, telling everybody what to do. They’d have to build a ramp of some sort, so he wouldn’t have to worry about the steps, but Lorena could push him…”
“Don’t be arranging it already, honey,” Cord warned her. “We just managed to get him being useful around here. Should have done that years ago, instead of lettin’ him sit in that library like he did.”
“Maybe he wasn’t ready.”
“Well, I was more than ready. I was about fed up with his carrying on. I just felt too damn guilty to do anything about it
.”
She pulled him back, urging him closer, her fingers careful where they touched. “I’m afraid I’ll hurt your back. It looked pretty sore, all scraped up.”
“It’s just scratches, Rae. They always burn like hell, but I’ve been dumped by an ornery horse before, probably will be again.”
Her breath caught in her throat, an audible sound. “I thought you were dead, Cord. For just a few seconds, I thought you’d stopped breathing forever.”
He framed her face with his hands. “I’m sorry you were scared. It looks bad when somebody gets the breath knocked out of ‘em.”
“I wasn’t scared, Cord. I was beyond that. I was sure my life was over, in that minute, that quickly. And I hadn’t even known, but for just a few minutes, that I was going to have your baby. I’ve never felt so much pain, just for those few seconds.”
“Well, we both know now…about the baby. I’ve been thinking about it all day long, ever since Beau Jackson told me how you—”
“I don’t think we need to talk about that again, Cord,” she said, her fingers covering his lips.
“You haven’t done that woman thing for quite a while, Rae, now that I think about it. How far along do you figure you are?”
“A couple of months, I guess,” she answered. Her eyes sparkled as if a delightful thought had crossed her mind. “I might have a girl.”
He thought a moment. He already had two boys. Henry and Jay were as much his own as any two young’uns could be. “A girl will be all right with me.”
She drew him down, her arms circling his neck. “Will you talk to Jake?”
“Tomorrow,” he said.
“Does your head still hurt?” Her fingers rubbed at the back of his neck.
“I believe if you were to kiss it, it would feel a whole lot better.”
“Your head?” She moved her fingers. “Back here?”
“Well…you could start with my mouth.”
“Your mouth. You want me to kiss your mouth,” she repeated, eyeing him askance.
“Seems like a fine place to start,” he said agreeably.
The Wedding Promise Page 25