A Texan's Honor (38 page)

She wondered if Bret would want to eliminate the antelope. They weren't pretty—their convex faces and blunt noses made them look almost comical—but she liked the little animals.

She realized she could hear the hooves of the horse behind her. Though she was relieved that Bret wanted to make sure she reached Ida's safely, she was angry that he hadn't respected her need to be away from him for a few days.

Damn! Being in love was hell.

After hanging back for a time, it was clear that Bret meant to catch up with her. Emily held her horse at a steady pace, practicing the things she'd say. When his horse reached the flank of her horse, she slowed her mount and turned, words ready to tumble off her lips. When she realized she was looking at Lonnie instead of Bret, the words died stillborn.

“Are you surprised to see me?” Lonnie asked.

“What are you doing here? Where have you been?” She was so surprised she didn't even think about the rustling.

“Waiting for a chance to talk to you.”

“What about?”

“To ask you to marry me.”

With all that had happened during the last few days, Emily had forgotten that Lonnie was in love with her. Her father was dead, Bret didn't love her, and now the man who'd tried to steal her cattle wanted to marry her. She couldn't take much more. “Don't be ridiculous,” she snapped before she realized how hurtful that sounded. “I don't love you,” she said in a milder tone. “And if I had, my love certainly
would have ended when you betrayed me and tried to steal my cows.”

“I didn't betray you or try to steal from you.”

“Hawk and Zeke have two men locked up in the barn who swear you hired them to brand my calves.”

“I did that because I love you. When we get married I'll explain everything.”

“I'm not going to marry you. I'm on my way to stay with Ida for a few days. If you're smart, you'll leave Texas as fast as you can.”

“I can't leave you. I love you. Everything will be fine once we're married.”

Emily was in no mood to explain that things had gone too far ever to be fine again. “If Bret or his brothers find you, you'll hang.”

“I'm sorry we have to do it this way.”

Lonnie had always been extremely deferential to Emily, so she was utterly unprepared for him to grab her, pull her arms behind her back, and tie her wrists with rawhide. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Taking you to find a preacher to marry us.”

Grasping her horse's bridle, he turned off the trail and headed cross-country.

“I thought you said Emily needed time alone,” Hawk said as he watched Bret saddle his horse.

“I'm not going to stop her,” Bret said. “I'm not even going to talk to her, but I can't let her ride all the way to Charlie and Ida's ranch by herself. It's a full day's trip. If anything were to happen to her, she could die before anyone found out.”

“I insist that you let me go, too,” Joseph said.

“Shut up, little man,” Zeke said. “I'm tired of listening to you.”

Joseph was the shortest of the four men, but at
close to six feet, he was used to being referred to as tall and imposing.

“You can't keep me from riding out whenever I want,” Joseph said, his volume rising along with his temper.

“I can't think with him interrupting all the time,” Hawk said to Zeke. “Why don't you take him outside until I'm done talking to Bret.”

In a movement that was so fast Bret could hardly follow it, Zeke had both of Joseph's arms behind his back at an angle that would make it extremely painful if he struggled.

“I don't know why you insist on making things hard for yourself,” Zeke said as he propelled Joseph out of the barn. “We're just looking out for you. If you tried to follow Emily by yourself, you might get lost.”

“Are you sure you don't want to do more than just follow her?” Hawk asked Bret.

“Of course I want to do more,” Bret exploded. “I want to convince her I love her more than anyone on earth, that I don't want to go a day without seeing her, holding her, making love to her.”

“That doesn't sound all that hard to do. I've got a notion it's what she'd like for you to do.”

“She would, but she doesn't understand why I have to go back to Boston.”

“Hell, Bret, nobody understands why you went there in the first place.”

“I realize the Abbotts are never going to be my family. That's what I wanted to tell Emily. I was going to ask her to wait while I went to Boston to finish some business. Then I'm coming back to Texas.” Bret grinned in spite of himself. “If Jake will let me, I'll take up that land he offered me before I left.” Bret's smile faded. “I don't know about that now. Emily doesn't trust me anymore.”

“Sure she does. She's just upset.”

Bret smiled again. “It's obvious you've never been in love.”

“You think I'm too ugly for a woman to love?” Hawk asked.

“You'd probably scare them half to death with that damned feather you insist on wearing. What I'm trying to say is, once you fall in love with someone, you're connected in a way that lets you know what they're feeling, even what they're thinking sometimes. Right now she doesn't trust me, and your making a secret of what her father said didn't help any.”

“Hell, I'll tell her if it'll make a difference.”

“She's got to decide on her own whether she can trust me. After she does, maybe you can tell her what he said.”

“Why are you making things so hard on yourself? Go after her. Talk to her. Make love to her until she can't think of anybody but you.”

“You don't know how much I want to do just that. But sooner or later you have to stop making love and face the real world. I want to know that after she does that, she'll still want me to make love to her.” Bret tightened the cinch on his saddle. “I'm playing for keeps this time.”

“When should we look for you?” Hawk asked. Bertie had packed him some food, and he had his bedroll.

“I don't know. I may need a little time alone myself.”

“You sure won't get it here with your cousin yelling at you and Jinx dogging your heels like a puppy. Why did you adopt him?”

Bret grinned as he swung into the saddle. “I didn't. He adopted me. Keep an eye on him. He reminds me of a cross between Will and Pete when they were his age.”

“God help us! We ought to smother him while we can,” Hawk said, following as Bret walked his horse out of the barn.

“I was going to take him to Jake and Isabelle,” Bret said, “But if Emily still wants me, I think I'll keep him with us.”

“What is it with this family? Matt just took in guaranteed trouble in some kid called Toby, and Drew and Cole keep adding to their gang with more orphans even though Drew is pregnant again.”

“Blame it on Jake and Isabelle. I've got to go. I shouldn't have waited this long.”

“Don't give up on her. Any woman who can get you away from those bastards in Boston is worth all the trouble it takes to keep her.”

“I know, but it's up to her now.”

“You can't make me marry you,” Emily said to Lonnie.

“After spending several days alone with me, you'll have to marry me to preserve your reputation.”

“Maybe no decent man will want me, but I still won't marry you.”

“Why not?” Lonnie asked. “You know I love you.”

Lonnie had brought Emily to his hiding place in a dense grove of trees on the far side of the ranch. The deep ashes inside a circle of stones indicated the site was well used. The open area inside the grove was about twenty-five feet in diameter, but the surrounding trees formed such a dense barrier, Emily doubted Lonnie's campfire could be seen even at night. The limbs overhead—so thick Emily could see only tiny patches of sky—dispersed the smoke, making it nearly impossible for a rider to know he was passing by a campsite.

Emily was sorry Lonnie had fallen in love with her. She wondered if she had done anything to encourage
the attraction, if she could have done anything to help him get over it. She was sure it was just infatuation, or the fact that she was the only single woman of marriageable age within fifty miles.

Lonnie had hidden her horse in a mesquite thicket. She was seated on a blanket on the ground, her hands tied behind her back. She guessed it was close to noon. Lonnie had made coffee and was heating some antelope stew. Two quarters of antelope covered with a sheet to keep the flies off hung from tree branches. A sack of potatoes, a side of bacon, coffee, even cans of tomatoes and peaches indicated the site had been stocked over a period of time and was well used.

“How did you get all this stuff here?” Emily asked. “Bertie knows everything in her larder down to the last coffee bean.”

“This is where the two men I had working for me stayed. They'd just stocked up again before your friends caught them.”

“Why did you try to steal our calves?” Emily asked. “Dad and I trusted you.”

Lonnie looked up from stirring the stew. “I didn't try to steal anything.”

“You were putting your brand on our calves so all you had to do was wait until they were old enough to be sold; then you could claim the brand and the cows and no one would know you were stealing them.”

Lonnie's gaze became more intense. “I wasn't stealing. I registered the brand in your name.”

At first Emily didn't believe him. It didn't make any sense to take that kind of risk. But when Lonnie's gaze didn't waver, when his expression remained open and lacking in any trace of guilt or anger, she started to wonder.

“You'll have to offer a better explanation than that if you expect me to believe you.”

“All you have to do is ask that man staying at the ranch.”

The bottom fell out of Emily's stomach. For a moment she thought she was going to be physically sick. How could Bret have done such a thing?
Why
would he have done it? Every plan, hope, and dream came tumbling down around her like the skeleton of a building after a single, devastating lightning strike.

“What are you talking about?” she asked when she was finally able to get the words past the constriction in her throat.

“He wrote me from Boston. He said you were dead set against going there after your father died and wanted to know what would make you change your mind. I didn't know what he had in mind, but I said losing the ranch would probably do it. That's when he hired me to rustle your herd.”

“He paid you money to steal from me? We trusted you, Lonnie. We liked you. How could you do that?”

“I didn't steal from you. I just made it look that way. He didn't really want you to go to Boston. He just wanted control of your father's piece of his company. I knew you didn't love me, but I figured if you thought you were losing the ranch, you would turn to me to save it for you. It would be only natural for us to get married after I stopped the rustling. He'd have what he wanted—I didn't think it would be hard to convince you to turn that part of your inheritance over to him—and I'd have what I wanted. You and the ranch.”

It all made sense. She'd wondered why Bret had agreed to the compromise so readily when his uncle had told him not to return without her. From the beginning, he'd wanted just one thing—control of her shares in Abbott & Abercrombie—and both she and her father had been willing to hand it over. Bret probably wouldn't be at the ranch when she returned.

Dozens of questions hurtled through her mind, each more terrible than the one before it. Bret had organized an incredibly elaborate plot and had carried through every part of it with aplomb. Everybody believed him. Everybody liked him. And she'd fallen in love with him. What was she going to do now?

Feeling overwhelmed, she broke down and started crying.

Bret forced himself to keep his horse at a fast canter by constantly reminding himself he didn't want to catch up with Emily, just make certain she reached Ida's safely. Only he
did
want to catch up to her. He wanted to hold her, to kiss her, to make love to her until she couldn't think of anything except being with him for the rest of their lives. Until she could forget she'd ever thought he could betray her.

He tried to keep from dwelling on those thoughts. He knew she was upset by the will, both by its contents and the fact that her father had changed it without talking to her. He knew that having so many people she barely knew invade her life was bound to cause confusion, especially with the rustling and her father's death. Yet none of the things he told himself could ease the hurt, the pain of knowing she didn't trust him.

He tried to force himself to concentrate on following her trail, but that didn't take one-tenth of his concentration. The hoofprints of her horse were clear—and so were those of another horse. He wondered why one of the cowhands would be using this trail, but since the hoofprints were practically on top of each other, it was clear that the two riders hadn't been riding together. Bret could also tell from the prints that the horses were traveling at a slow canter. Emily should come into sight well before mid-morning.

He hadn't decided what to do once he knew she'd arrived at Ida's. He needed to return to Boston as quickly as possible, but he couldn't leave without seeing Emily once more. He also needed to see Jake and Isabelle, but he didn't want to do that until he had left Boston for good. He didn't want to go back to the ranch today. He had nothing to say to Joseph and didn't want to hear what Zeke and Hawk would say to him. Maybe he'd camp out along the trail and wait for Emily to return.

He'd noticed that the footprints of the second horse had changed paths, but he didn't attach any importance to the change until he noticed that both horses had stopped. When the trail of both horses turned sharply to the right and headed cross-country, Bret became concerned. Why would Emily leave the trail, even if she was riding with one of her hands? She'd been late starting. She wouldn't reach Ida's until dusk as it was.