by Linda Howard
It was Roper, leading his horse across the yard. She was too distressed to realize he could easily have avoided her and instead had deliberately put himself in front of her. She backed up, not looking at him. “I beg your pardon,” she said tonelessly.
Roper glanced to where Angelina still lounged against the wall, smirking her triumph, and guessed what had happened. The shock was plain on Victoria’s white face.
He felt an unaccustomed impulse to comfort. “Don’t pay any attention to Angelina,” he said. “She’s a vicious little bitch.” He wanted to put his arm around her, feel the softness of her against him again. God, she had smelled so clean and sweet. A fire smoldered low in his belly, swelling his groin.
If anything, Victoria went even whiter, but she lifted her head with a proud motion and stepped away from him. “Thank you, Mr. Roper,” she said steadily. “I’m quite all right.”
He watched her walk away again, then went over to Angelina. She straightened, her red lips assuming a seductive smile. It was wasted on Roper, Angelina had been trying to get him into bed with her since he’d come to the ranch, but he wasn’t interested. Angelina couldn’t believe any man could be unresponsive to her beauty, and Roper had resisted her longer than any man she’d ever wanted. But it was not, she thought, because he didn’t want her. He was jealous of all the others who enjoyed her favors, she was certain. He was just being difficult. She didn’t mind; it made him more attractive in her eyes, and she was certain that sooner or later he’d come to her. His difficultness would make his surrender that much sweeter.
She thrust her breasts out for him, but he didn’t even glance down. His cold eyes never left hers. “What did you say to her?”
“The fancy lady?” Angelina shrugged and pouted. “Nothing. I don’t like women. I like men.” She tried another smile on him.
Neither his expression nor his tone changed as he repeated, “What did you say to her?”
Many men before her had felt afraid when Roper spoke like that. Angelina felt a chill and straightened with a jerk. “I told her that the Major came to me the night after her wedding,” she replied sullenly, then insisted, “It was the truth! You know that.”
He did know it. Everyone on the ranch knew it and had snickered about it, joking that the Major’s high-nosed lady must have near frozen him to death, and Angelina had had to thaw him out. Roper had been glad that McLain hadn’t found any pleasure in his wife’s bed, glad that she hadn’t clung to him in ecstasy. He was sure Victoria hadn’t been spared her husband’s attentions, but he’d been relieved to think that, though the Major would occasionally bed Victoria out of duty, Angelina would still bear the brunt of McLain’s perversions.
But what had it done to Victoria to discover that her husband had deserted her for a whore’s bed one day after their wedding, and that everyone on the ranch knew it? She was a proud woman, and while she couldn’t care about McLain, his actions must have wounded her all the same. No woman would like being the butt of raunchy jokes and sniggers, but for a woman like Victoria …
To Angelina he said, “McLain’s mighty proud of his wife.”
She spat on the ground. “If he cared about her, he wouldn’t have come to me.” She started to say that McLain hadn’t been able to do it to his wife, but caution stilled her tongue. No man liked for it to be known that he’d failed so intimately; McLain would likely have her killed if she told.
“She’s his wife, like Rubio’s his stallion. What do you think he’d do if you let his stallion go, or if his wife left because of you?”
Angelina blinked her great dark eyes, for the first time realizing that her gloating triumph hadn’t been very smart. She wasn’t intelligent, but she was cunning in her self-interest. She remembered how the Major had bragged for months about the real Southern lady coming to marry him, and shivered, thinking of how brutal the Major could be at times, when it seemed as if he enjoyed sex more if he could hurt her in some way. She knew he liked to hurt her, and she didn’t want to provide him with any excuses to do so.
Her lips trembled, and she moved closer to Roper. “Will she tell him?”
He was unmoved by her distress, for he’d noticed that she took advantage of her nearness to rub her breasts against his arm. “She might,” he said to make her worry about it, and mounted his horse before she could rub anything else against him.
Roper shook his head at himself as he rode off. He was a hard man; he’d seen his father murdered, his mother raped and killed when he’d been only thirteen years old. Roper had killed his first man when he’d been fourteen, when the man had tried to rob the two boys of their pitiful store of food. For twenty years the brothers had worked for their revenge, biding their time, gathering money and making plans. Nothing had been allowed to stand in their way. Nothing had mattered but putting Frank McLain in the ground and reclaiming their heritage. Roper kept his nose out of other people’s business and expected them to keep theirs out of his. That was why it was so out of character for him to interfere, and he’d done it twice in a matter of minutes, all for the same woman. What did he care if Garnet got in the little sister’s bloomers? He’d never have interfered if Victoria hadn’t tried to face Garnet down, but she had, and he hadn’t been able to stand by and let Garnet abuse her. He was the one man on the ranch Garnet wouldn’t stand up to, but now he’d have to watch his back every minute.
All for a woman. He’d had women since he was fifteen, but they were always casual encounters that had never meant more to him than the temporary easing of his sexual needs. He loved women, though he’d never been in love; he loved their softness, the sweet musky scent of their skin, their lighter voices and smaller bodies, the clinging of their hands around his strong neck and the way their legs locked around his hips, their soft cries as he gave them pleasure. He always tried to please his woman, no matter how casual the bedding; it was a reflection of his own strong, sure sexuality that he enjoyed the act more when the pleasure was mutual.
But of all those women, he’d never wanted one the way he wanted Victoria. It was more than physical, though God knew that was strong enough and getting stronger. He wanted to see her smile. He wanted to protect her. He didn’t know what made her different, but she was. She was also forbidden to him. She was a lady, and the wife of his enemy. He had blood on his hands, and would have more: the blood of her husband.
He found that it didn’t matter. He thought of the way she’d lifted her chin with evident pride even though she had just been slapped in the face with her husband’s infidelity. He thought of the way she protected her sister, and of the way she looked him full in the face when so few people did. She was alone and vulnerable, trapped in an unhappy marriage, but she had courage.
Damn it, why didn’t she go back to Augusta where she belonged? Maybe if she was out of his sight, he wouldn’t think about her, and she couldn’t threaten his plans.
Victoria went straight to her room and sat on the chaise, forcing herself to take slow, deep breaths to calm herself. She had never before felt so angry and humiliated. Gradually she realized that she was angry because of the humiliation, not because she had learned that her husband had been unfaithful. She didn’t care that the Major had gone to another woman; in fact, she was grateful, if it would continue to keep him away from her.
But the public nature of his betrayal upset her deeply. He had gone to that—that whore— barely twenty-four hours after their wedding, and everyone on the ranch knew it. She wouldn’t have believed Angelina’s word, but she’d seen the truth in Roper’s usually impassive eyes.
The house staff knew, of course. The ranch was a small world in itself, so insular that everyone knew what everyone else was doing. No wonder Carmita had been so solicitous this past week.
She was Victoria Madelyn Marie Waverly; her mother was a Creighton. She had learned that lineage and tradition counted for little without money behind it, but pride had been bred into her as surely as the aristocratic bones of her face. Her husband had offen
ded her in a way that no woman could forgive, exposing her to public humiliation. She also had to live with the galling knowledge that she had no means of recourse. Her husband did not love her, did not desire her, so she had no power in his life. She could threaten to expose his impotence, but it wasn’t in her nature to publicly humiliate him. So she could only sit and let the realization creep into her that she could do nothing. She would have to continue as if she didn’t know anything about it and therefore force everyone else to ignore it, too, at least in her presence.
But she was still outraged at Angelina’s presence on the ranch. Though now she understood the whispers she’d heard as a girl about men who had kept fancy women on the side, she knew that the mistresses and the wives were always kept well separated. Again, she would have to ignore it, for if she tried to force Angelina to leave, everyone would know that she was aware of her husband’s infidelities and would think she was acting out of jealousy. To be thought jealous of her husband and that whore was unbearable, and so she would let things remain as they were.
A soft tap on her door distracted her, and Celia poked her head in. “I thought we were going to do the mending.” There was no accusation in her voice, only puzzlement.
Victoria forcefully composed herself and patted the chaise. “Come sit with me for a moment.” As difficult as it might prove to be, she knew she had to try to make Celia understand why she must stay away from Garnet, from any man who tried to touch her. Given the realities of the world they now lived in, Victoria knew this was a duty that could not wait.
Celia happily sat down beside her sister. She had something on her mind she wanted to ask her sister. She had complete faith in Victoria. She loved and trusted Emma, too, but it was her sister who had washed and bandaged her skinned knees, who had patiently answered all of her questions, soothed her after bad dreams, and returned her love unstintingly. She twirled a strand of her blond hair and mustered her courage. “Do you think the Major would let me ride Rubio? I so want to!”
Victoria was startled, and worried, because Celia often acted on her desires. “I don’t think he would, darling. Rubio is a stallion, and stallions aren’t used for pleasure riding. They’re too strong-willed and dangerous.”
“Mr. Roper rides him. I’ve seen him.” Awe and envy mingled in Celia’s tones.
Something deep in Victoria tingled at the mention of his name. “I’m sure he just rides Rubio to exercise him. And Mr. Roper is a man, sweetheart. He is much larger and stronger than you are.”
Celia thought a minute, admitting the truth of that. But she wanted to ride Rubio so much that she couldn’t let it go. “I’m a good rider, aren’t I?”
“It’s been a long time since any of us were on a horse.” Another change wrought by war; all of the horses had been taken by the armies. “I suspect we’re all sadly out of shape and practice, and you were just barely off of ponies when we lost the horses.”
Celia looked so forlorn that Victoria hugged her and stroked her bright hair. “Would you like it if I asked the Major for horses we could use for pleasure riding? It would be good for us to get some exercise. Emma and I used to ride for hours.” A faint wistful note crept into her own voice, and Celia immediately forgot her own disappointment as she rushed to give her own sort of comfort to Victoria.
Comfort took the form of a cheerful smile and a rush of enthusiasm. “Could you? I’d like that so much!”
“Then I’ll ask the Major tonight.” Victoria paused, trying to gather her thoughts. She still had to explain Garnet to Celia. She took a deep breath. “Sweetheart, I want to explain something very important to you.”
Celia nodded, her expression becoming serious.
“Mr. Garnet—” She paused again, frowning a little. “Mr. Garnet is an evil man. He would like very much to hurt you. You must be careful. Don’t let him touch you or catch you alone.”
“Hurt me? How?” Celia still didn’t look alarmed, merely interested.
Victoria had been afraid that Celia wouldn’t take the warning at face value, but would want details. Finding the words was more difficult than she’d imagined. “There are—things—that a man can do to a woman that will hurt her.”
Celia nodded. “Hitting hurts,” she said.
“Yes, it does. And he might hit you, to make you do these other things that would hurt you even worse.”
“What things?”
There was no way out of it. She inhaled deeply again. “He would pull up your skirt and touch you on—on your privates.”
Celia jerked upright, her young face indignant. “I’ll be damned!” she said. She’d heard one of the cow-punchers say that, and liked it. All of the best words were forbidden, it seemed, so she said them only in her head, but that one had slipped out in her surprise.
Victoria almost laughed. She knew she should scold, but she was too relieved at Celia’s vehement reaction. “Yes,” she said. “Exactly.”
Celia was still huffy. “I’ll hit him if he even speaks to me again,” she declared.
“You must try your best not to be alone with him. And please be cautious with the other men, too. I don’t trust some of them.” It was an odd feeling, but some of the Major’s employees seemed to be just what they were, cowhands, while others seemed—meaner, and somehow disassociated with ranch work.
“Mr. Roper?”
Again Victoria felt that funny little jolt, and an even funnier feeling spread behind it. “No,” she said slowly. “I think you’d be very safe with Mr. Roper. He even warned Mr. Garnet to leave you alone.”
Celia gave a decisive nod. “I like Mr. Roper.”
Victoria hugged her sister again, feeling much better now that she knew Celia understood at least part of the danger. It was odd how safe she felt in telling Celia that Roper wouldn’t harm her, would in fact protect her, when she herself didn’t feel that safe with him. Her heart had begun pounding again. She remembered the hot smell of him, the hardness of his body when she had collided with him, the way his hands had held her. She felt weak and strangely warm. She would take her own advice and avoid him as much as possible.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Major was in a good mood that night, and Victoria didn’t betray by either word or manner that she had talked with Angelina. Instead, she listened to him talking expansively over dinner. She nodded and smiled at all the right places.
She waited patiently, and when the right time finally presented itself in a small pause, she said, “I’ve been thinking how much I’d love to start riding again. All of us would. Do you think you could select some nice mounts for us? You have some lovely horses, and I know you would make good choices. Though not, of course, if you need the horses for ranch work.” Her face revealed none of her thoughts as she gave him a small smile, one that managed to be reserved despite its surface warmth. He wasn’t sensitive enough to tell the difference and beamed at her compliment to his equine knowledge.
“Of course, my dear.” He patted her hand. “I should have thought of it myself.” He’d tell Roper to pick out three mounts suitable for ladies. No one on the ranch knew horses better than Roper.
Emma’s quiet face had its own glow at the thought of riding again, and Celia all but bounced in her chair. “When I’ve practiced and I’m really good, may I ride Rubio?” she asked.
He laughed at her foolishness. “You’ll never be strong enough to control Rubio,” he said, boasting of the horse’s strength. “You just stay with the quiet nags, and let the men handle Rubio.”
Just as quickly as that the brightness was gone from her small face, but she didn’t argue. Celia seldom argued about anything. She looked down at her plate and pretended to concentrate on her food.
For once Victoria was glad the Major was so heavy-handed, because she was terrified Celia would take it into her head to try to ride the stallion. She picked up her spoon again and thanked him for the use of the horses, then made a commonplace remark to Emma, who had been trained in the same social graces and immediat
ely picked up the conversation.
McLain looked around him at the three genteel, pretty-mannered women, and swelled with pride.
Victoria knocked on Celia’s door, but no one answered. Worried because her sister hadn’t recovered her spirits all evening, she opened the door and looked in, expecting to find the girl soundly asleep. Her heart sank when she saw the empty bed. Quickly she crossed to Emma’s room, hoping that Celia was visiting with their cousin. Her knock brought only a nightgown-clad Emma to the door.
“No, I haven’t seen her. I thought she was in bed,” Emma said in reply to Victoria’s anxious query. “I’ll get dressed.”
Celia had a lifetime habit, when upset, of finding a hidey-hole and burrowing into it. The refuge had never been in her own bedroom, but always in a smaller, tighter place, as if she needed the security of closeness. In the past Victoria had never been alarmed, but they were no longer in their old home.
Emma reappeared in little more than a minute wearing a plain skirt and shirtwaist, with a shawl knotted around her shoulders and her hair haphazardly pinned. “Do you remember the time the two of you were visiting us, when we found her in the chicken coop?”
Celia had been all of three at the time, and brokenhearted because she had been scolded. At other times she had been found in the storm cellar, a closet, under a bed, or a buggy, burrowed in hay (again, when they were visiting Emma), and once, when she was small, under a washtub. After an hour or two she would emerge sunny-tempered again, so they had ceased to look for her unless she was actually wanted for something.
They swiftly searched the house and found nothing. Victoria even poked her head into the Major’s room; he had gone out after dinner, so she knew he wasn’t in there. Neither was Celia. Carmita and Lola were sitting around the kitchen table and Lola said that she hadn’t seen the señorita since dinner.
“Perhaps she is talking to the … the—” Lola stopped, frowning as she tried to think of the English word she wanted.