“What’s that?”
“That when you get tired, you tell me.”
Daniella’s shoulders slumped with relief, and she nodded in agreement. Travis turned her face up to his and looked at her sharply. “Promise?”
His face was so close she could feel his breath against her cheek. His eyes were dark, captivating. “I promise,” she whispered.
He studied her a moment longer, then wheeled his horse around and headed west. Blaze trailed along behind the other horses.
Daniella had won this battle, but she wasn’t sure just what that meant. He was taking her home, but to whose home? His, or hers? That was one question she couldn’t bring herself to ask. She’d be finding out soon enough. But she also wondered why he was still holding her.
“Aren’t you going to stop and let me get on my own horse?”
“Are you uncomfortable?”
“A little,” she admitted. A saddle horn was not the softest of seats.
Travis levered himself up and over the cantle, settling on the saddle skirt, leaving Daniella the seat of the saddle. He had one arm in front of her, pressed intimately across her breasts, and one arm supporting her back as he held the reins in both hands. He released one hand and pressed her head down on his shoulder. “Better?” he asked.
“Yes. But you surely don’t intend to carry me all the way home. This can’t be comfortable for you at all. And Buck will get tired with all this extra weight.”
Travis chuckled. “My saddlebags weigh more than you do. Buck’s fine. I’m fine. You just relax.” Why hadn’t he thought of this sooner? Now he could hold her in his arms for days.
“I’ll relax, under one condition.”
“What’s that?” he asked with caution. What had she come up with now?
“That you promise to tell me when your arms get tired.” The soft, tender look in her eyes nearly took his breath away. A slight smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I promise.”
She returned his smile, then snuggled—snuggled!—against his shoulder and went instantly to sleep. Travis vowed he would hold her until his arms fell off before he would willingly let her go.
She slept several hours, and he savored every minute of holding her. But when she woke, she insisted on returning to her own horse. Reluctantly, he let her go.
Daniella breathed a sigh of relief. Waking in his arms had seemed natural, right. Then those hot, scary feelings had swept over her. She was learning from experience that the only way to stop them was to get away from Travis.
For the rest of the trip, she insisted on riding Blaze. She had to keep out of his reach or risk his discovering her feelings. If he knew how he frightened her, there was no telling what he might do.
When they reached the last creek and Travis headed for El Valle rather than the Triple C, Daniella nearly choked on the tears she tried to hide. Had he seen her new fear of his touch, or were there other reasons—like her reputation, her child-bearing state, their disastrous wedding night—reasons that made him decide he didn’t want her at the Triple C?
Daniella stared dully at Butch’s rump—or was it Ben’s?—and was scarcely aware when they reached her house. In the back of her mind she’d been hearing a hammering since they entered the valley, but it had stopped a moment ago.
Tucker’s shout brought her eyes into focus, but she didn’t believe what she saw: the raw skeleton of a new barn! “What the—”
She slid from Blaze’s back and ran to meet Tucker and Simon. She hugged each one and laughed when they blushed. “What’s going on around here? I thought you two were going to stay in town. Where did you manage to get all this lumber?”
“Whoa, girlie.” Tucker caught her head in the crook of his elbow and laughed again. “One question at a time.”
“Hold on there, Tucker,” Travis called as he dismounted and came toward them. He grinned and said, “That’s my wife you’re manhandling.”
Daniella’s startled gaze flew to Travis. Why did he have to go and say that if he had brought her here to leave her?
“Wife, you say! Well I’ll be damned. I don’t believe it.” Tucker hooted and threw his hat in the air while Simon grinned. “Not that I didn’t think you was smart enough to know a good thing when you saw it,” Tucker added to Travis. “But I sure never thought she was smart enough to go along with ya.”
Daniella jabbed an elbow in Tucker’s ribs. Travis laughed and said with a wink, “She didn’t have much choice in the matter.”
Then to Daniella he said, “Gather up what you need to see you through tonight and I’ll send someone after the rest of your things tomorrow.”
Stunned, Daniella stood and stared at him. He wasn’t leaving her here! He actually meant to take her home as his wife. Despite—
In a daze, she walked to the house. But instead of gathering clothes, she sat on the edge of her bed and stared at the wall trying to sort out her emotions.
On the trail she’d talked herself into believing she and Travis could never work out their problems—her problems. Yet her hope had never completely died. Then when he’d led her into the valley and she’d thought he meant to leave her here, she’d felt…relief. Sure it was tinged with disappointment, but the relief was there as well.
Now she knew he meant to go through with it. To take her home and introduce her as his wife. How was she to face all those people at the Triple C? It was one thing to be treated warmly when she was a guest. Now that her roll had changed, Jason and the others, with the possible exception of Matt, would be horrified that Travis had actually gone and married a woman like her. A woman who’d been with Apaches and now carried the proof before her for all to see. A woman who, in a few short months, would present her husband with a couple of half-breed Apache bastards. A woman who experienced the most shameful, frightening feelings when her husband touched her.
Damn it, she wouldn’t put herself through that hell, and she wouldn’t let Travis put her through it either. What right did he have to send her emotions seesawing back and forth while she tried to guess what he really intended to do with her? Why should she leave any of this up to him? It was her life, her children they were dealing with.
She wouldn’t do it. She wouldn’t be his wife and hold herself up to the scorn she knew his family and friends would show her. She wouldn’t subject herself to the terror she’d known when they mated. It would be bad enough to live through the next years on her own. It would be even worse to drag Travis down with her.
Travis stood in the doorway with his hat in his hand. “You’re not packing. Are you feeling all right?” It was a sure sign how troubled she was that she didn’t even hear him enter the house.
“I can’t do it, Travis.”
He sauntered into the room and stood looming over her. “Do what?”
She took a deep breath and stared at his knees. “I can’t go home with you and pretend to be the happy, blushing bride. It won’t work.”
“It will work, and you will go home with me. And I don’t expect you to pretend anything. I just want you to be yourself. Now unless you want me to pack for you, I suggest you hurry.”
She started to argue, then stopped. Despite everything—even despite their wedding night—she still wanted to be his wife, share his life. She wanted what he was offering too badly to keep trying to talk herself and him out of it. She walked to the battered wardrobe and selected two dresses and a nightgown.
“I’ve talked to Tucker and Simon,” Travis said while she packed. “They’d like to stay on here unless you want to sell the place. I told them it was up to you and them.”
Daniella nodded and stuffed her few belongings in her carpetbag. She didn’t want to sell the place. It would help to know she had someplace to go if Travis changed his mind about her. But she couldn’t expect Tucker and Simon to stay on for nothing, and she had no way to pay them.
Then an idea came to her. With a smile of determination, she found the leather pouch containing the deed to El Valle and added the
ir names to hers, making the three of them equal partners.
When she showed the deed to Tucker and Simon, they ganged up on her and refused to accept her offer. When they finally realized she was adamant, that she was dead set on having partners, they insisted that she own a full half, and they’d split the other half between them.
After finally giving in to their demands, Daniella let Travis help her mount, and the two of them rode out. She tried to blank her mind to what would happen when they reached the Triple C. The various unpleasant possibilities were endless.
The next time she allowed herself to relax was hours later, in private.
The rocking chair made a slight creak every time it rocked forward, kept in motion by Daniella’s toes pushing against the floor. The chair hadn’t been in Travis’s room before. Neither had the vanity, mirror and stool on the far wall, the extra wardrobe beside her, nor the dressing screen behind her. They had all been added since Travis had brought her home this evening and announced they were married.
Though she had tried not to think, she’d worried and fretted all the way from El Valle about how Travis would break the news of their marriage. When they’d ridden up to the house Matt had come running outside. Travis had dismounted and grinned. “Come say hello to your stepmother, Matt. Dani and I got married.”
What a stir that had caused. A slight smile curved her lips when she remembered Matt’s reaction. He’d gone wild with joy. “No kidding?” the boy had shrieked.
Travis had laughed back at him. “No kidding.”
“Hey, Grandad!” Jason was just coming out to see what all the fuss was about when Matt yelled. “I’ve got a new mom!”
Travis repeated the announcement for Jason. If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn there was a touch of pride in Travis’s voice at the time.
Jason had surprised her. She’d worried all the way from El Valle about his reaction to his son marrying a woman like her. He knew all about her and her unwanted pregnancy, yet when she’d dismounted, he’d given her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek and said, “Welcome home, daughter.”
Then Travis had performed that ridiculous stunt of swinging her up in his arms and carrying her over the threshold. By then Rosita and the rest of the servants, as well as Carmen and her aunt, had come out front to see what all the commotion was about. Travis stopped right in the middle of the doorway, turned around so everyone could see, and planted a big, wet, noisy kiss on her lips. She remembered the heat of the blush that had stained her cheeks at the time. His boisterous laughter filled the air at her astonished look.
As his lips had neared hers, she’d seen Carmen’s face go pale, then red with fury. Travis hadn’t so much as looked at the woman. The thought occurred to Daniella that perhaps he was using her to rid himself of Carmen, or to make Carmen jealous.
The first was all right with Daniella. She wasn’t sure what to think about Travis’s explanation about his relationship with Carmen, but if Daniella was really going to be his wife, she’d just as soon Carmen wasn’t around.
Would Travis use her like that?
Daniella frowned. Wasn’t she, after all, using him? She’d used him to get out of a tight situation with Cochise, and was using him still to give a name to her children, so wasn’t he entitled to use her in return?
But what if her second guess was closer to the truth—that he was using Daniella to make Carmen jealous?
That was ridiculous. He surely wouldn’t go to the trouble of marrying one woman just to make another jealous. Unless he was planning on getting rid of his new wife somehow. If that were true, however, he wouldn’t have introduced her as his wife in the first place. Heaven knew their marriage probably wasn’t legal anyway.
Then he’d plastered her with that kiss and blocked Carmen from her sight.
Daniella closed her eyes and remembered that kiss again. It had been expected by everyone, she realized. But Travis had made sure he delivered it in such a fashion that there was no way her fears could have been brought to the surface. It was the wettest, noisiest, sloppiest kiss possible. Almost like being licked in the face by a dog. A big dog.
She wished she’d changed clothes at El Valle, instead of meeting her new family in her trail worn britches. At least she’d been able to change into a dress before dinner tonight. It was high-necked and long-sleeved, and concealed not only her protruding stomach, but also the scar on her neck.
Now she sat here, rocking, waiting, in Travis’s bedroom—their bedroom. Waiting for him—her husband. Would he keep his word and not try to force her?
Maybe, she thought. Maybe for a little while. He hadn’t tried anything, not even a kiss, since that one disastrous night in the mountains.
Maybe that was his way of getting her to come home with him. Maybe he’d change his mind now that they were home.
But no, that didn’t make any sense. Whatever else he might be, Travis Colton was an honorable man.
As if thinking his name conjured him up, he entered the bedroom and closed the door behind him. “You’re still up,” he said with mild surprise. “You must be exhausted by now. I thought you’d be asleep.”
“No, I’m fine, really.”
Travis unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and pulled his shirttail from his trousers.
Daniella’s eyes flitted away from the disconcerting sight of him undressing. She cleared her throat. “Has everyone gone to bed?”
“Everyone but you and me.” Travis held out his hand. “Come on. Let’s go to bed.”
Daniella tried to control the shudder of something other than fear that ran down her spine. If she’d been thinking straight, she’d have been in bed by now and could pretend to be asleep. Now she’d have to get up, undress, and purposefully crawl into bed beside him. Damn! Why hadn’t she gone to bed?
“Nothing’s changed, Dani. The bed is for sleeping. Trust me,” he said softly.
Lord help her, she did trust him. And that was the scariest thing of all.
Slowly, reluctantly, she took his hand and allowed him to help her out of the rocker. She went behind the dressing screen and found that someone, probably Juanita, had already laid out her nightgown. While she got ready for bed she heard Travis moving around the room. His boots hit the floor, one at a time, sounding unnaturally loud in the otherwise quiet room. She jumped at each sharp thud.
When she came from behind the screen, Travis was already in bed. The covers stopped at his waist, and his bare chest glared at her, threatening to destroy what little nerve she had left. Before she could change her mind, she slipped into bed, hovering as close to her own side as possible.
But Travis had other ideas. He turned down the wick on the lamp, plunging the room into darkness. When his hand reached across her waist, she squeaked with fright.
“It’s all right. I just want you to come over here and sleep next to me. We wouldn’t want you to fall out of bed in the middle of the night.” He pulled her next to him until her head rested on his shoulder. She lay stiff and unyielding beside him, knowing he must be able to hear her heart pounding in her chest.
“By the way,” he said, his tone light and easy. “Tonight I made some arrangements for us I hope you’ll approve of.”
“Oh?” That was the best she could manage through her tight throat.
“Yeah. There’s a wagon train due in Tucson any day now. Benito’s going to ride out, try to find it, and see if they’ve got a preacher with them. Many wagon trains on the way to California do.”
She frowned in the darkness. “A preacher? What for?”
“Well, don’t get me wrong—as far as I’m concerned, you and I are as married as any two people can be. But some day down the road we may need to have some sort of proof, for the twins’ sake. I’d like to have something in writing. You don’t mind, do you?”
“You mean…you want a preacher to…marry us?”
“If it’s all right with you.”
“You’d do that? Go to all that trouble, just to protect
my babies?”
“Now they’re my babies, too, Dani.” He rubbed his left wrist against her right one, where they each bore a small scar from Dee-O-Det’s sacred knife. “I know I didn’t plant the seed, but if my blood now flows in you, then it flows in them, too. That makes them mine.”
Daniella felt tears sting her eyes. She couldn’t talk past the lump in her throat. He cared! He really seemed to care! What could she possibly have done to deserve such a man as Travis Colton?
Travis and Daniella were married for the second time a week later by a dour little reverend named Smithson who’d stopped in Tucson on his way to California. When Carmen heard the news—that their marriage was now legal—she flew into a rage. She packed her bags and her aunt, and headed for Tucson.
Once there, she headed straight for Crane.
“You fool! You idiot! Can’t you do anything right? You were supposed to get rid of Daniella Blackwood!”
Crane took a half a step back then stopped. “Now hold on there, señorita. I done just like you wanted. She ain’t been in that valley in purt near four weeks. I figure it’s just a matter of time before them two pals of hers leave, too. I run her off, just like I promised.”
“‘I run her off,’“ she mimicked. “Sí, you ran her off, amigo. But you ran her straight into Travis Colton’s arms! He went and married the little puta!”
“Married her?” Crane looked stunned.
“I can’t guarantee you access to that valley as long as she’s alive. Now you’re going to have to kill her.”
Crane frowned and looked doubtful. “What do you mean, kill her? I ain’t no murderer.”
“I mean—” She drew a gloved forefinger across her throat in a sharp, cutting motion. “—kill her!” She glanced down at her hands and started tugging off the tight gloves. “That way Travis will own the valley. He’ll be the bereaved widower. Yes,” she said with a slight smile. “This might work out even better than we’d planned. He’ll be so upset over the little bitch’s death, he’ll need consoling.”
She watched him lick his lips. His gaze followed her fingers as she began unbuttoning first her jacket, then her blouse. “And when he marries me I’ll insist he get rid of that valley, which will be such a painful reminder of his sweet, young wife. He’ll sell it to you.”
Apache-Colton Series Page 28