by Jodi Thomas
The men were polite but didn’t seem comfortable talking to the ladies. They preferred to talk to Killian and Duncan. She could almost imagine them telling in days to come about the time they’d spent with a Texas Ranger and a judge.
Rose walked among the wagons and found Epley asleep. Her open palm showed places where the reins had cut into her hand. Rose removed her gloves and tucked them into the girl’s pocket.
When she stood, she saw Hallie watching from a few feet away. “Make sure she uses them,” Rose said.
“I will,” Hallie answered.
“Did she eat?”
“Not much, but I saved a few biscuits for her. I’ll watch over her. She reminds me of a wounded bird too young to fly.”
“Me too, but we’ve got to give her a chance.”
Hallie grinned. “You sound just like your uncle.”
Rose shook her head. Her uncle Travis was a great man who helped make the world a better place. She’d never done anything. “He changes lives.”
“Well,” Hallie whispered, “you changed this one and I figure that is a start.”
When they finished loading up, the young teamster moved back to Hallie and the girl’s wagon, saying he’d drive for them for a while since Hallie cooked breakfast.
Duncan slowly pulled himself onto the bench and took the reins.
“You need to rest,” Rose objected.
“I’ve been resting for days. I need to stretch my muscles.”
When she opened her mouth to correct him, he said simply, “I can handle it, Rose, darling. Stop mothering me.”
“Fine.”
The wagons moved back onto the road. After fifteen minutes Duncan said, “You going to pout all day?”
“No, and I don’t want to be your mother, or your sister, or your cousin. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life worrying about you.”
“Fair enough, Rose, what do you want to be?”
“We’re both twenty-five years old. Don’t you think it’s about time we became just friends.”
“Nope.” Duncan passed her the reins while he looked for a cigar in his coat pocket. “I think we should be, at the very least, best friends, sweetheart.”
“I’d like that, but can a man and a woman be best friends?”
“Why not? Seems to me like we already are. Only problem I see is that at some point one or the other wants more.”
She thought about that. “Oh,” she finally said, “like the woman wants to get married and the man just wants to go to bed.”
Duncan shook his head. “I’m afraid it’s the other way around. Think about it, Rose, that’s the way it is with us. I, under the smoke of drugs, asked you to marry me and every time you get the chance you crawl into bed with me. I’m trying to do the honorable thing here, Rose, but you’re not making it easy.”
She opened her mouth to argue, then realized he was teasing her.
As they moved across open country they talked as they’d never talked before. Most of the time others were around or they seemed to just want the silent companionship they’d had as children, but today both had too much to say.
When they stopped to rest the horses, Duncan went down the list of supplies with Rose, making sure they had enough guns and ammo as well as food. “I don’t want to frighten you, but we’ve got to be prepared. When we stop to rest the horses next time, I want you to take Hallie, Epley, and Victoria a half mile away and practice firing every weapon.”
Rose had never seen him like this. He was as organized in this world of danger as she was in her world back at the ranch. He had a quick mind and an easy way of talking to people. Duncan was a natural leader and, to her surprise, far more understanding of Victoria’s problems and of Epley’s fears than she thought he might be.
When they stopped the second time, he gathered the group and said, “Killian and I will watch the wagons while you practice shooting.”
None of the women looked happy about going, but they all carried weapons and headed up the hill.
Rose did the best she could to show each one how to load and fire both a rifle and a pistol. Hallie already knew. Epley didn’t want to touch the guns, but Victoria took to the new experience with gusto.
By the time they got back Killian and Duncan had made coffee. While everyone drank, Duncan explained, “The teamsters are moving on ahead and they’ll be turning northeast. I think we should go southeast at the fork. We’ll still be heading in the general direction of Whispering Mountain, but that road will be flatter, and the best Killian and I can remember is there’s a train station several hours south of a town the kid told me about. We should reach the settlement long before nightfall. We need to stop and send telegrams.”
As they climbed back on the wagons Rose continued to help him plan. For the first time she truly saw the ranger in Duncan. He wasn’t just a thrill-seeking boy who refused to grow up—he knew his job. He told her a little about the Tanner brothers. When he mentioned that they seemed to have nothing to show for two years of robbing, she suggested that maybe they were stockpiling money for a reason. A big reason.
“They’re too dumb to plan past one change of clothes,” Duncan said as he thought out loud. “But they could be following orders. Maybe they’ve been promised something grand, something so big it would be worth the risk, something so important that it would even be worth killing for.”
“You’re starting to sound like the major and August Myers,” Rose said. “They want to start a new world and rule it like kings.”
“The Tanner brothers wouldn’t go along as foot soldiers,” Duncan said, “but they might go along thinking that at some point they could rob the kings. That would explain why they got so furious at me when I caught them. I interrupted a two-year plan. They were on their way to rob the major.”
“Your theory doesn’t hold up, Duncan. Why would the major have all his wealth in Fort Worth? And even if he did have it there, why would he leave without taking it? Hallie searched his room. Nothing was there, and when he walked out of the hotel he wasn’t even carrying a carpetbag. Two years’ worth of loot from train robberies couldn’t be carried in his pockets.”
“You’re right, but it was an interesting theory. I can’t see a man like the major sitting around drinking with the Tanners. Now Myers might. The major had the brains to plan the robberies, Myers traveled enough to tip a gang off on which train to rob, and the Tanners were ruthless enough to pull it off.” He shook his head. “It seems like we got the pieces, we just can’t get them to fit together.”
She smiled at him.
“What?” He frowned.
“We’ve been talking for an hour and haven’t had an argument.”
“Impossible.” He grinned. “Must be a leftover effect from the drugs.”
Chapter 37
The sun was just setting when the three-wagon caravan pulled into a small German settlement. Duncan stayed with the women and the supplies while Killian called on a friend he knew there. Along the main street of the town were small houses the Germans called Sunday houses. They were built by farm families to use when they came in for Sunday services that sometimes lasted all day. Only this time of year many of the homes were empty even on Sunday.
Killian came back with a key to one of the homes. He said his friend loaned it to him because the owners had gone to take their son back east to school. The little square house was sparsely furnished but neat and clean.
Duncan insisted Killian and his new bride take the main bedroom. The women took the one with small beds lining three of the walls and Duncan swore he’d be comfortable on the floor in the living space.
Everyone helped carry in the supplies needed for the night, but Victoria’s luggage was left in the wagon. Though officially married, she could now open everything, but by the time they made beds and cooked a stew she said she was too tired to look for the keys so there was no sense in hauling in luggage.
Right after they ate, Victoria unpacked her nightgown and a hairbrush from
her small traveling bag and said she was going to sleep. To Duncan’s surprise, the princess didn’t complain much, but she ate little and that bothered him. Killian told him that she thought this mess was all her fault, but Duncan knew he’d have to take a share of the blame. Until they knew who followed, no one in the group would feel safe.
Killian paced the floor for a while trying to talk to everyone until finally he disappeared into the bedroom as well.
Hallie, Epley, and Rose said good night a few minutes later and suddenly Duncan was alone.
For a while he watched the fire and thought how nice the silence was. It seemed like he’d been listening to people talk every waking moment for days.
The women had insisted on giving him so many blankets his bed on the floor was way too soft to be comfortable. The pain in his arm and shoulder was only a dull ache now. If he could have had a few drinks of whiskey the pain would be completely gone. Duncan found it hard to believe that when Killian rounded up the box of supplies, he’d forgotten whiskey.
He leaned back and tried to figure out who would be the first of several bad guys to come at them. For tonight, at least, they were safe. The horses had been stabled in a community barn just behind where they were. There had been plenty of room for the wagons to be rolled in as well so everything was out of sight if someone did pass by. The doors were locked. No one knew where they were. For tonight all could sleep in peace.
But come tomorrow they’d be out in the open again. Killian’s friend had told him they could reach the train station in about eight hours, but it usually didn’t stop at the station until after six in the evening, so they’d have an easy day of driving to reach the train in time.
He finally fell asleep. The fire in the fireplace had burned low when he felt Rose slide against his side.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he whispered.
“I couldn’t sleep in there. Hallie snores.”
“What makes you think you can sleep with me, darlin’?”
“I always have. Shut up and go back to sleep.”
He moved closer. “First kiss me good night.”
“No. Stop teasing me.”
“I’m not teasing you. You’re not sleeping with me anymore, Rose, unless you kiss me good night. Half the time I figure you’re so mad at me you might kill me in my sleep. If we’re best friends, kiss me good night.”
“Oh, all right.” She rose to her elbow and kissed him on the cheek. “Now go to sleep.”
“As soon as I kiss you back.” Still half-asleep, he rolled against her and covered her mouth.
Duncan wasn’t sure what he expected. Maybe she’d hit him or yell at him, but what he hadn’t expected was for her to kiss him back. He felt like he’d stepped off into a raging waterfall and all his senses were exploding. She tasted like heaven and felt warm beneath him.
The kiss was great, but he shuddered suddenly as he realized she knew what she was doing. This was no innocent kiss. She’d practiced!
The flood of emotions flowing over him pulled him down until all reason, all thought stopped and the world revolved only for them.
When her tongue slid into his mouth, Duncan pulled back. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” he said, more angry at himself than her.
“Me? I’m trying to go to sleep. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Best friends don’t kiss like that.”
“Well, apparently they do, Duncan, because you just kissed me like that.”
“No, I was just following your lead. You were the one doing the kissing.” Duncan didn’t know whether to be angry or pleased. This was Rose he was still leaning on, and she felt so good beneath him. This was logical, sweet, never-exciting Rose.
“Go to sleep,” was all he could say as he turned away. He wasn’t about to tell her that after maybe a hundred samplings of girls’ kisses, he’d never had a reaction like the one he’d just had. If she’d gone any further, he might have self-combusted.
He was wide awake as she cuddled against his back. As always, she pulled the covers, wiggled for a while like a windmill spinning down, and finally went to sleep. Apparently the kiss hadn’t rocked her world as much as it had his. For all he knew she kissed every guy who came along that way. No, he corrected. If she did there would be men hanging out on the porch at Whispering Mountain.
Duncan wasn’t around women much, but he considered himself a man of the world. He’d fallen in love a few times, at least with the idea of love. He had spent some interesting evenings with the ladies.
But never, never, had anyone kissed him like Rose just did. Hell, he felt like a virgin who’d just been touched.
He spent the next hour wondering where Rose, who never went anywhere or did much of anything, would have learned to kiss like that. It didn’t seem to be something that a young lady would learn at finishing school, but she’d sure learned it somewhere.
Maybe he should go back and have a little talk with every man he’d sent to meet her. He should strangle whoever it was who taught her to do that kind of thing with her tongue.
Duncan swore. He could still taste her on his mouth. He’d probably starve before morning for another taste but there was little doubt in his mind that she’d shoot him if he rolled over and woke her for another sample.
He lay awake thinking that he’d have to kiss her again just to make sure it wasn’t the lingering drugs in his blood that had made him have the reaction. Slowly, he rolled over and studied her in the firelight. Sleeping a few inches away was the same practical Rose he’d known for twenty years. She’d bossed him around until he’d been half-grown and she’d worried about him every day since he’d signed on with the rangers. If she was his best friend, why’d she have to kiss him like that? Now friend wasn’t the first word that came to mind when he looked at her.
She took care of the family. She went to church every Sunday. She visited anyone in town who was sick and always baked for any fund-raiser. She didn’t have one bad habit. And, he now added to his mental list, she kissed with a passion that made a man forget to breathe.
Chapter 38
Killian lay in bed a few inches away from Victoria and waited. He knew neither of them could sleep, but he didn’t know what to say and he guessed she didn’t either. Finally, he whispered, “Are you sorry we married?”
“Are you?” she answered.
“No.”
“Me neither. I am sorry I got you into such a mess.”
“I’m not. If all this hadn’t happened I probably wouldn’t have gotten around to kissing you for years and you wouldn’t have asked me to marry you.”
She laughed. “Don’t tell our grandchildren that I asked you. They’ll think I was a very forward woman.”
Killian wanted to say they wouldn’t have to worry about that problem unless one of them got brave enough to move over six inches. He didn’t know if he could do it. She’d said she knew what went on between a husband and a wife, but he doubted she had any idea about the details. Somehow scaring her to death on their wedding night didn’t seem like a good plan.
He didn’t know much more about it, in truth. A few times, more out of curiosity than anything else, he’d visited a lady of the evening. Not a saloon girl who turned several men an hour in business but a nice place where the women were all dressed like ladies when they answered the door.
He’d paid a half month’s pay to go in such a place in Houston while he was studying to be a lawyer. A woman ten years older than him had taken him into a parlor and talked to him real nice while she brushed her hand along his leg. Then, after he’d finished off a few drinks, she’d taken him upstairs and, without turning up a lamp, told him to remove his clothes. When he’d done what she’d asked, he turned and found her in bed waiting.
What happened next had been so fast he wasn’t sure he could remember it all. She’d pretty much done all the work and he’d cooperated. When he finished, she said, “That was nice,” like he’d just kissed her cheek.
Killian thought of that time in Houston. It had been nice, he still thought, but it hadn’t been what he wanted. He’d wanted more, much more than he could get from a woman that he paid by the hour.
Victoria had given him that in a way. Not physical but mental. She’d made him laugh and think and dream. He knew she was spoiled, but there was a tenderness about her. She made him think that he was worth something. She made him want to try harder and learn more.
“Are you asleep?” She broke into his thoughts.
“No.” He smiled, thinking how strange it was to lie so close to her in the dark.
“You want to play a game?”
“Sure.”
“Okay, close your eyes.”
“Victoria, it’s pitch black in here.”
“Close your eyes.”
“All right. They’re closed.”
“Hold your hand up.”
He lifted his hand off the covers, having no idea what she was doing, but he knew she loved games. Once, when they’d walked in the cemetery, she’d tried out every name on headstones to see how each fit with Victoria. They’d made a game of trying to find the best one.
He jerked slightly when he felt her hand touch his.
“What do you feel, Killian?”
“Your hand.” He closed his hand around her slender fingers. “It’s a very nice hand.”
She replaced her hand with her hair. “And now?”