Mail-Order Cousins 3

by Joyce Armor

  He stepped up to her as she thanked the driver. She turned to him.

  “Cal?”

  She smiled and went from pretty to stunning.

  He took off his hat. “Yes, ma’am.”

  He fought the urge to bow. This was San Angelo, not London. Instead, he took one of her not dainty but working hands, which pleased him, into one of his big paws. “Welcome to San Angelo, Lindy. Would you like to go get something to eat? We can talk about our options there.”

  Options? What kind of options? “That would be lovely. I have a trunk and a small carpet bag. Could we bring the bag with us? I’d like to clean up.”

  Fortuitously, the driver tossed down her carpet bag just then. It landed at Lindy’s feet with a thud, and she laughed. It wasn’t one of those tittering little debutante laughs but a deep, infectious, real laugh. “Ask and ye shall receive,” she chortled.

  Cal suddenly felt much better about his impulsive decision. It was just a laugh, but it eased his mind considerably. He arranged to leave her trunk at the depot, picked up her bag and escorted her to Maude’s Place, a café/boarding house a little ways up the street. The open room held about a dozen tables with light muslin tablecloths, an unlit candle centered atop each. Off to the right, a stairway led to the rooms to let. Lindy excused herself to follow the sign to the retiring room and returned 10 minutes later looking refreshed. She had tamed her hair, clumps of which had come loose from its braided knot—he guessed that must have been a bun—in the back. He stood as she approached the table and held her chair for her. She thanked him. The whole scenario was not as awkward as it could have been.

  Lindy hadn’t exactly had a picture of Cal Bronson in her head, just some vague sheriffy-looking portrait. If she had, though, he would have exceeded her vision by leaps and bounds. The man was tall, well over 6 feet, and muscular, exuding male strength and virility. That wasn’t a maidenly thought, was it? His thick, sandy blonde hair was cut short, exposing his strong jaw and making his blue-gray eyes stand out. His nose looked like it might have been broken once or twice, although it didn’t detract from his appearance. In fact, it rather enhanced it, giving him a look of intrigue or danger. He appeared freshly shaven, and she was pleased he didn’t wear a mustache or beard. She detected a faint odor of a woodsy cologne about him. Or was that just his own essence? He wore black trousers, a white shirt and a black leather vest. She didn’t see the badge she had expected.

  They both ordered the roast turkey and cornbread, even though it was still morning, as well as coffee and chatted amiably while they awaited their meals. He wasn’t as gruff in person as he seemed in his letter, and particularly the advertisement. She might not have been confident in love, but growing up in a large family, Lindy O’Hara could carry on a conversation with the best of them. She shared some anecdotes of her train and stage rides as he questioned her. Every time she tried to shift the conversation to talk about him, he very skillfully turned it right back on her.

  “Oh, before I forget.” She reached for her soft, dark green, leather reticule and dug into it, pulling out a wad of bills and some coins. She pushed it over to him. “Your change.”

  He appeared confused.

  “From the traveling money you sent. $51.27.” She smiled.

  “I…” Cal was at a loss for words. “You didn’t have to…”

  She looked affronted, and he stopped.

  “I couldn’t keep your money.”

  She spoke it as if it were a given and he would be crazy to doubt her. He didn’t think there was another woman on the planet who would have spent so little of the money on a lengthy trip or returned the change. It was more than apparent that she would not keep the money, so he didn’t bother trying to change her mind. He knew how to pick his battles.

  “Thank you.” He swept the change into his hand, picked up the bills and put them both in a pants pocket.

  The food arrived a couple moments later and was delicious, the best Lindy had tasted since leaving Elizabethtown almost two weeks earlier. She was pleased that Cal allowed her to enjoy the meal before explaining her “options.” She had a feeling she might not like them.

  Finally, the dishes had been removed except for the coffee cups, which the waitress refilled. They both declined dessert. Lindy didn’t miss the way the girl, who couldn’t have been older than 16 or 17, looked at Cal, as if she wanted to jump into his lap and kiss him silly. He could not have been as oblivious as he seemed, especially if he was a lawman, and Lindy appreciated the way he kept his focus on her. After the waitress finally withdrew, she could see in his eyes that it was time and felt her heart speed up. He took a drink of coffee and set the cup in the saucer. For some reason, she was fascinated by his hand. It was big and tanned and veiny and somehow simply beautiful. She lifted her eyes before he caught her ogling his hand.

  “What are my options?” she said, recognizing that this adventure had already made her bolder. She had traveled, alone, all the way to Texas and was about to make some kind of arrangement with a man she barely knew. It should have scared her to death but didn’t. In fact, she felt somehow invigorated. This must have been how Per felt when she headed off to Oregon.

  Cal sighed. Resting his elbow on the table, he held his chin as if he were going over the options in his mind. Then he sat up and made direct eye contact. “You could board here while we get to know each other better.”

  That sounded good until he went on.

  “The town is not as wild as it used to be, but it’s still not safe for you to go anywhere without a male escort. Fort Concho on the Concho River was built about eight years ago to provide security for the area, but some of the non-coms can be rough when they come in to town to blow off steam. And there’s always transients passing through, some unsavory characters.”

  That doesn’t sound very appealing.

  He continued. “I’m working on a case and may be called away on short notice. I don’t know how often I could get to town. So if you stay here, you’ll most likely literally be staying here, meaning not leaving this building.”

  “The next option?” She didn’t like that one at all if she was going to be confined to the boarding house. Except for the restaurant. The food was quite tasty.

  He swiped one of his attractive hands across his mouth and then sighed. “The ranch is about nine miles west of here. There are no women there. I have eight ranch hands, all of whom I trust. They’re good men. You would be safe there, but your reputation might not be, if you care about that. We could get to know each other better there than here.”

  She rattled that one around in her brain. Did she care about her reputation? Yes and no, which might horrify her parents. If she stayed with him without benefit of marriage, she supposed people in the town might talk. If she then married him, would that absolve her of sin in their eyes or would she forever be “that woman?” But what if she went out there for a couple of weeks or a month and then he decided he didn’t want her? Or that he wanted her but didn’t want to marry her? That wouldn’t do much for her reputation, although she wouldn’t have to stay in San Angelo. Where would she go, though? She was not going back to Elizabethtown, especially in abject failure.

  Although, when she was packing the carpet bag she had traded Per for, since Per wanted a more humble bag, she found $60 tucked into a side pocket and a cryptic note that said: Just in case. Knowing her cousin as she did, she believed she had put a lot of thought into that; Per had left the money for her so she would have options. Sixty dollars wouldn’t get her far, but it would get her away and, combined with the meager funds of her own she had brought, it could buy her at least a month if she needed that. She looked up then and realized Cal was gazing at her, as if he were trying to figure out what was going through her mind. Thank goodness he couldn’t know.

  “Any more choices?”

  His mouth quirked up as if he wanted to smile but couldn’t quite make himself. He picked up his cup and took a long swallow this time before setting it down ag
ain. “We could get up from this table, walk down the street to the preacher’s house and get married before heading to the ranch.”

  He didn’t know what expression he expected when he foisted that one on her. Shock? Anxiety? Surprise? Fear? Amusement? Her countenance betrayed none of those. She appeared thoughtful, as though she were calmly pondering the options, as if her choices were whether to try the oyster pie or the fried chicken. It was somewhat disturbing, yet he had to admire her composure. He waited, but she didn’t say anything. So he waited longer, and still she didn’t speak. Finally, he couldn’t stand it any longer.

  “Do you have any questions?”

  She considered that. “Where’s your badge?”

  Of all the questions she could have asked, that one never would have occurred to him. He looked around, then reached into his inner vest pocket and pulled out a silver badge, holding it out in his palm. She took it from him and studied it.

  “Hold it down,” he said quietly. “No one in this town knows I’m a ranger, and I want to keep it that way.”

  She lowered it in one hand, blocking anyone’s view with her other hand. The badge was heavier than she would have thought and round, with a cut-out star in the middle and Texas Rangers printed on the top and bottom of the circle.

  She examined it again. Well, I’ll be. He really is a Texas Ranger. “It’s simple yet striking.”

  “A jeweler in Austin made it.”

  She looked at it for a long moment and then said something that absolutely stunned him, and he may have been surprised to know it rather shocked her, too. “I would be proud to marry you today.”

  She handed him the badge, picked up her reticule from the edge of the table and rose. He shoved the badge in his inner pocket and jumped up. Pulling out some bills from his trouser pocket, he set them on the table and offered her his arm. He somehow felt like he was in a trance, or like this was happening to someone else. He never behaved hastily, yet he felt nearly overwhelmed by a need to protect this young woman and secure her as his wife. In a few minutes they would be married, a consequence that gave him equal amounts of joy and terror. And then a thought occurred to him. How much, if anything, should he tell her about his involvement with the gang? Would she be in more danger knowing or not knowing?

  * * *

  The ceremony was over almost before Lindy realized she was actually getting married. The minister was all business and rather pompous. His prim wife and gangly teenage daughter acted as witnesses. Cal didn’t mention he was a ranger, of course, and it seemed the minister looked down on him as a lowly cowpoke. She had to fight the urge to set him straight. As they walked back to the stage depot to retrieve her trunk and his wagon, she turned to him.

  “I wish we could have told him you were a Texas Ranger. He would have been more respectful and it would have wiped that smug look off his face.”

  He smiled. “I do a great deal of undercover work, hence the anonymity. The fewer people who know I’m a ranger, the better.”

  “Oh. Well, thank you for trusting me.”

  “You are my wife.”

  “Yes. I am, aren’t I?”

  She surprised him by taking his hand. He was a little uncomfortable walking down the street holding hands like a besotted fool but did not think it was right to disappoint his wife on her wedding day. He just needed to get into undercover mode, this time playing the enamored groom.

  On the lengthy drive to the ranch, Lindy admired the landscape. It wasn’t as green as eastern Pennsylvania, more greenish brown, with low hills and valleys with pine trees and oaks and others she didn’t recognize, as well as various grasses and shrubs. She would describe it as somehow dramatic. They traveled miles without seeing a building or person, although she did see two snakes, several white-tail deer and a wild turkey that Lindy talked her husband out of shooting. The landscape looked like it could go on forever.

  As she gazed around, she chattered on about her family. She was so colorful in her descriptions, Cal could picture her gawky teenage twin brothers and her industrious but loving parents. Bridget sounded dramatic, with one foot in childhood and one foot in adulthood. Lindy also had a younger sister who loved all animals, particularly horses, and one who was a budding artist. Her eight-year-old brother Cody enjoyed teasing his sisters and playing jokes on everyone.

  Cal’s wife could not help but notice every time she asked him about his family, he gave one-word answers. She was nothing if not direct, so finally she turned to him. The buckboard had just hit a rut, and he’d reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her.

  “Thank you. Why won’t you tell me about your family?”

  He didn’t say anything for a long while. Already she was thinking it was harder to be married than she thought. Then, without looking at her, he spoke.

  “I grew up on a cattle ranch in Colorado. My father died when I was 14. He was caught in a flash flood. My mother passed two years later. She was never the same after he went and just kind of faded away.”

  “I’m sorry. Did you have any brothers or sisters?”

  She noticed his jaw harden.

  “I had a brother, Jace. He was two years younger than me, 14 when our ma died. We stuck it out in Colorado for three years, then sold the property. We started the ranch here in Texas together.”

  “Had a brother?”

  “He was murdered.”

  She gasped, and then it dawned on her. “That’s why you became a lawman.”

  He shook his head. “That’s why I became a bounty hunter. I tracked Rance Keeper down. Took me three years.”

  “Did you kill him?” She could barely breathe waiting for his answer. Would it change her opinion of him if he did? She wasn’t sure.

  “I wanted to. I had planned to. If anyone deserved it, it was Keeper. He had killed seven people after Jace. Seven that I knew of. It was probably more.”

  “What happened?”

  “I caught up with him in New Mexico, heading for the border. I turned him over to a U.S. Marshal. And before I knew it, I was a deputy. Two years after that I became a ranger.”

  She looked at this stalwart man, her husband, so alone. Until now. “I’m so proud of you,” she said.

  Those simple words filled him somehow. It had been so long since anyone other than his employees cared, truly cared about him. Was it possible this woman would change him, make him a better man? Perhaps so, if he could keep her out of danger.

  Chapter 2

  “I do have one other question,” she said when they were about a mile from the ranch.

  He had to make an effort not to sigh. Cal had learned as a lawman and even as a bounty hunter not to share too much personal information. He’d already told her about Jace, which was more than he had ever told anyone. It would take more than a letter and an acquaintance of a few hours to change his mind about blathering on with any more personal details, even if she was his wife. It wouldn’t hurt to hear the question, though, he supposed.

  He looked at her and then back at the road ahead. “What is it?”

  “Why did you seek a mail-order bride? A handsome, successful man like you must have had his choice of women in town.”

  He tried not to feel too flattered by her description. He didn’t know how flighty or honest she was, if at all. “I could ask the same question of you.”

  She smiled. “You first.”

  He had to think about his answer and decided the information wasn’t too intimate. “I don’t go into town much, partially to preserve my dual identity and partly because I am not all that social. I don’t like pretending I’m someone else in my personal life. I thought I could be more honest and would get to know someone better through writing.”

  She snorted at that. “You might have if you had received more than one letter from me before you proposed.”

  He was not about to attempt to enlighten her on the inexplicable connection he felt with her from the beginning, so he just shrugged. “What about you?”

  “Well,
as you know, I lived and worked on a farm, so we don’t have close neighbors or many visitors. Oh, there was Willie, who picked up the dairy products, and Allen, who lived two farms over, but…”

  Cal found himself amused. “What was wrong with Willie?”

  He directed the buckboard down a little incline. When he glanced over at Lindy, he saw she had closed her eyes. Maybe she was picturing Willie. The wagon hit another rut then, and he reached over once more and grabbed her arm to keep her from losing her seat. His knuckles brushed against her breast. The touch obviously flustered her, as she stammered. He couldn’t help wonder if it was a good fluster or a bad fluster. He pulled his hand back now that they were on firmer ground.

  “I…I…um…Thank you. I don’t know exactly. Willie was…well, he was ungainly and always spouting tidbits about cows and milk production. He was boring, I guess. He did try to court me, but I just could not see a lifetime of hearing about udders.”

  He chuckled. “And Allen?”

  She blew out a breath. “Allen. He thinks he is God’s gift to womanhood. He is nice enough looking, in a too-hairy kind of way. He is so puffed up with how wonderful he is, I thought if I stuck him with a pin he would deflate.”

  He grinned. “I’d hate to hear how you’d describe me.”

  “You? You’re perfect,” she almost whispered.

  Damned if his hard heart didn’t flutter before he got ahold of his emotions.

  “Far from it,” he said.

  He decided then he would not tell Lindy anything about what he was involved in now. This was a good woman. He did not want her to fret over anything. There was one thing he could tell her, though.

  “I’ve mentioned that my ranch hands are trustworthy. For the time being, don’t ride off the ranch alone. There’s usually at least one of the boys working in the barn, and if I’m not here, one of them can go with you.”