A Knight In Cowboy Boots (30 page)

“Not all at once, I hope,” Ruth said, finishing the lattice crust of the first pie.

“I think it would neat,” Hannah said.

“You’re not a sow, Hannah. You oughta never have more babies than you have teats to feed them.”

“Marianne’s mother has triplets.”

“Bless her heart, so she does. And if she’s smart, she’ll make sure her medical insurance is all paid up. Even if those babies are only half the trouble you and your brother are, they’re going to have to put her away before they’re grown.”

“Hannah’s a twin?” Maddie asked.

Ruth nodded. “Her and Aaron. Eighteen minutes apart. She came breach. Never thought anything could hurt half as bad as delivering them two.” With her fingertips, she scooped up some flour from the board where she’d rolled out the pie crusts and flicked it at her daughter.

Instinctively, Hannah jerked her head away. Flour droplets fell on her skirt. When she saw them, she tried to brush them off, her mouth pursed in disapproval. Maddie knew then why Hannah reminded her of her sister; she was a girl who naturally gravitated toward feminine things just as Laurel had.

The flour only momentarily distracted Hannah though. Her eyes locked on Jesse again, her doll lay forgotten on the table. “If you lived near us, I could babysit for you while you work. I’m a good babysitter.”

Maddie had to fight to keep her smile from twisting into something else. “I’m sure you are.” Hannah was so much like Laurel it hurt.

The pies were in the oven when Sol and the others caravanned into the ranch yard. Everyone went out to greet them and to hear about the bull Jake had bought with Zach’s approval. In rural tradition, supper was unfashionably early.

Ruth still had her children’s highchair which she had Jeb dig out of the shed. Maddie was seated at the corner of the table where she could attend Jesse in the chair. Zach sat beside her, but it was plain that his normal seat was closer to the middle of the table. Beyond requests to pass the biscuits or the gravy, they said next to nothing to each other. More than once, Maddie caught Ruth pressing her lips together in disapproval.

Sol had obviously warned his father that they needed to have some kind of family conference. After supper, Daisy volunteered to babysit, with Hannah’s help of course, while the older members of the family disbanded to the living room.

“So Zach ain’t told you why Maddie’s here,” Sol said, casting a disgruntled look at his brother. Zach shrugged, obviously unwilling to let Sol put him on the spot, “but her being here affects all of us,” Sol continued. “She was Vince’s girl in Wyoming.”

Maddie tried to ignore the weight of all their eyes on her. Even so, she didn’t miss the questioning flash Zach’s mother shot his way. His expression gave back no emotion.

Sol continued before any of them could express their sympathy. “Zach met her in Galveston when he came off the oil rig, but he didn’t know who she was until today.”

The speculative look Ruth McKnight turned on her son lasted longer. Had Zach told his mother about her? Why the possibility made her heart skip a beat she couldn’t understand. He was never going to forgive her for loving Vince first.

Sol went on to explain what had brought Maddie to Texas and the danger she now faced. No one offered to debate whether they should involve themselves in Maddie’s troubles. Jeb thought maybe they should call the sheriff, but when Maddie pointed out that, since the charges against Derek had been dropped for lack of evidence, the authorities couldn’t hold him on anything. The risk, however, that they’d take Jesse because she’d fled Wyoming without permanent custody scared the hell out of her. In the end, they accepted Sol’s scheme to have Rachel find a way to point the way to Maddie, so they could lay a trap for Derek. “The question,” Sol said, “is what do we do once the son of a bitch gets here?”

Zach’s father, Jeb, took up the lead. “Do you have custody of Jesse, Maddie, or is his daddy gonna come after us with lawyers?”

“I got temporary custody when Derek was charged with murder. As far as I know, it’s never been revoked. I didn’t ask what they might do if I left the state with Jesse. I didn’t want to tip my hand and give them cause to watch me. I don’t think Derek would do that anyway. It would take too long, and he wouldn’t get any satisfaction from it.”

“What will he do?”

Maddie had spared some thought for this on the long, silent drive. “I don’t think he’ll come out here openly, especially once he knows how many McKnights are here.” Maddie paused, hating that she was bringing danger to Zach’s family. “If he gets a shot at one of your younger children, I don’t have any trouble imagining him trying to set up a trade.”

Zach’s father turned toward Ruth. “Mamma Bear, I think you need to take the girls and young ‘uns to see your sister in Louisiana ‘til this is over.”

Zach’s mother nodded.

Jeb’s easy acceptance of her concern gave Maddie a little more confidence that they were taking the danger seriously. “Derek’s no fool. He won’t come out here and face all of you. He’ll try to catch me and Jesse alone or with just one or two of you.”

“If this is gonna come down when and where we choose,” Jeb said, “we gotta give him an opportunity he won’t be able to resist.”

“And if it’s a choice between kill or be killed?” Maddie asked, her heart beating so hard it seemed to knock the breath from her lungs.

“There ain’t no if about it,” Sol said before his father could respond. “That rabid dog ain’t gonna hurt anyone ever again.” All eyes turned toward Sol. His face was hard and as set as if it had been carved out of granite. Vince had been his best friend, Maddie reminded herself.

She looked around to see how the others were taking Sol’s declaration. The men’s eyes all turned hard, the creases in their faces making them look grim and menacing. Maddie had a surreal moment; these dour-faced men looked more dangerous than she would have ever imagined.

“Sol, honey,” his mother said. “I don’t think—”

“No, mamma. If we don’t stop it here, Maddie’ll have to look over her shoulder the rest of her life. She won’t be able to relax even a little coz all he’s gotta do is get lucky once.”

Ruth’s lips tightened and her brow furrowed, but she didn’t object again.

“What are we gonna do, Daddy?” Jake asked.

“We could try to lure him with the kinda situation Maddie’s talking about. Show him what he wants with little or no protection, but I don’t cotton much to that idea. If he gets a whiff of a trap, and he might if we’re trying to make her look vulnerable without actually leaving her unprotected, we could lose the advantage of him thinking we ain’t expecting him. If I was him, the next best thing would be to get near Maddie and the baby in a crowd.” He met and held his wife’s eyes. “I say it’s time we held an old fashioned barn dance.”

“We ain’t had one for a long time, Papa Bear,” Zach’s mother said.

Jeb nodded. “We need an occasion then. Something that’ll cause a lotta talk he won’t be able to miss when he gets to town, and just to make sure he knows Maddie and Jesse’ll be around for it, we’ll have it in honor of Zach and Maddie getting promised to each other.”

Maddie and Zach eyed each other dubiously as Zach’s daddy continued examining the idea for flaws. “Nobody’ll think twice about us celebrating that. That’ll draw a lotta folks out here. He’ll think he can hide in the crowd.”

“Nobody’ll believe I’d miss my boy getting promised,” Ruth said.

“You’re right, Mamma Bear. You oughta be here, but leave the young ‘uns with your sister. We’ll need to keep a close eye on Maddie and Jesse … keep him frustrated, being able to see them but not get close to them. We need to get him a little reckless.”

Maddie was aware that, from his place beside his mother, Zach’s gaze kept returning to her, even when she wasn’t taking part in the discussion, but his expression was somewhere between a scowl and a glare. She chose to focus on Jake’s much friendlier countenance. He had picked up a baby doll Hannah had left lying on the floor beside his chair.

Throughout their planning, Jake had been moving the doll’s arms and legs as though he needed something to occupy his hands. He suddenly froze with one of the doll’s arms half-raised. “Where’d you get this doll, Mamma?”

Ruth looked surprised at Jake’s question, but she didn’t hesitate in her answer. “Your Aunt Esther sent it to Hannah.”

“Sure feels real.”

“It’s made of silicone or some such thing. Why?”

Jake held the doll up for Maddie to see. Even from a few feet away, the doll looked like a real baby. “When you fish, you let the fish eat the bait, but all we gotta do is let Jesse’s daddy see Maddie with a baby the right size. We ain’t got no reason to let him get closer than that.”

“Extra protection,” Jeb said. “Can’t hurt.”

It was a brilliant idea, Maddie thought. “What about Jesse? Where would he be?”

“The further from here the better.” Jeb looked at Maddie as though trying to tell how much he could ask of her. “I know this ain’t gonna be easy for you, but I think Ruth oughta take him to her sister’s with the rest of the young ‘uns.”

Maddie wanted to protest but the golf-ball sized lump in her throat wouldn’t let her speak. How could she let Jesse go that far away? It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Zach’s family; they’d do their best to take care of Jesse. But if she let them take him away, she wouldn’t even be able to sleep until he was back in her arms.

She tried swallowing the lump. “You’re right. He’ll be safer where Derek can’t reach him.”

“We’ll need a bigger doll,” Ruth said. “I’ll call Esther in the morning and ask her to get us one that will pass for Jesse. She can overnight it from New York.”

“What if Derek doesn’t take the bait?” Maddie asked, suddenly needing reassurance. “He’s got red hair like Jesse’s; he tends to stand out in a crowd.”

“He’ll find a way to get to you,” Jeb said. “Hell, hair dye’s cheap.”

*

Zach’s mother cornered him after the family disbanded, her hand settling on his shoulder before he could rise from his chair. “What’s going on between the two of you?”

“Nothing, Mamma.” Zach tried not to let his mother feel the tension in his muscles that her question provoked.

Ruth snorted. “If that’s nothing, I’d hate to see what something looks like. What are y’all mad at each other about?”

Zach shook his head. “I’m not mad at her, Mamma. She’s just Vince’s girl.”

Ruth released his shoulder to perch on the edge of Jeb’s Naughahyde footstool. Leaning forward, she clasped her hands in front of her. “Vince is dead, honey,” she said calmly.

As though he needed the reminder.

So he wouldn’t have to look at his mother, Zach picked up the doll Jake had abandoned. “She still loves him.”

“Well, so do you. So do we all. Do you think her heart’s so shriveled there ain’t room for more than one man?”

He met her gaze then. “No. But I don’t wanna be someone she settles for coz I remind her of Vince.”

Her lips pulled tight in her I-raised-an-idiot face. “I didn’t bring you up to sell yourself short like this.” She took the doll from him and clasped his hand in hers. “That girl ain’t mad at you coz you remind her of Vince. If she’s mad at you at all, it’s coz you’re being a horse’s behind.”

Zach pulled his hand from her grasp and stood. “Mamma—”

“Don’t Mamma me, Zachariah. Madeline’s too young to pine away the rest of her life just coz Vince saw her first. Give her a chance. Give yourself one. Even I can see you want to.”

Zach had never just walked away from his mamma before, and if his daddy had been there to see it, he would have ended up on his ass. She couldn’t understand. Not with a husband who adored the ground she walked on and would never dream of confusing her with anybody else.