Arizona Embrace (12 page)

“Buc was right. I never should have hired Trinity.”

Later that evening, after a couple hours of fruitless reflection, Victoria came close to agreeing with her uncle. Trinity had had nothing but trouble since he arrived, and she felt responsible for it.

He would never have gotten into the fight if she hadn’t been so determined to explore the nature of his feelings for her. She should have gotten on her horse
by herself
and ridden home.

Instead she let him stand there with his hands on her waist, his body nearly touching hers, his eyes drilling holes into her soul, and his lips brushing her hair and eyelids. But she liked it. She’d never felt that way before, in a kind of heedless wonder, like she was on the verge of discovering something marvelous.

Trinity had been right. There
was
something sexual in her attraction to him. She’d tried to tell herself it was purely intellectual, but his touch had destroyed that illusion. She could still feel his fingertips on her cheek. She could still remember her delight in their brief embrace.

Victoria’s body grew uncomfortably warm. She had tingling feelings in her breasts, in her belly, in her groin. Feelings she had never had before, bone-melting feelings which continued to grow stronger the longer she thought about Trinity’s touch. It was a strange but not uncomfortable feeling, one that made her long to increase its intensity tenfold.

But her worry wasn’t all for Trinity. She didn’t know what to do about herself. Trinity had stirred her up, made her unsatisfied with her life, but he refused to help her change it. Now, after a couple of hours of intense concentration, she still hadn’t come up with any answers. Not any she liked.

She could try to lose herself in someplace like New York or London, but she would need to get control of her inheritance. She couldn’t go on expecting her uncle to support her. Only thing was, she didn’t want to leave the ranch. She loved the feeling of limitless space. Crowds of strangers would smother her.

She couldn’t go back to her mother’s home. Nobody there wanted anything except her money. And of course she couldn’t go back to Bandera. Not until she was proved innocent.

She had to convince Trinity to go to Texas. Buc wouldn’t like it, but that was too bad. He had gotten what he wanted: Trinity was leaving. She deserved a chance to see if she could have what she wanted: freedom.

Trinity crouched in the shadows of the pines, which covered the hill behind the ranch house, and waited for everyone to leave. During the night he’d considered and tossed aside several plans for getting inside the house without anyone knowing. The one he’d chosen depended upon Victoria’s being so angry and upset she wouldn’t stay home.

He didn’t have to wait long to see he had made the right choice. Fifteen minutes after Buc and Grant left the house, Victoria came out through the kitchen door. She nearly ran to the bunkhouse. She emerged a few seconds later, her mouth compressed in anger. Shortly after that she saddled her horse and took to the hills. Trinity had an idea she meant to follow Buc and have some rather sharp words with him.

He smiled at the thought.

Being careful to stay under cover, Trinity scrambled down the ridge. Ramon and Anita were still in the house. He didn’t want anybody but Victoria to know he hadn’t left Mountain Valley.

It took Trinity nearly an hour before he was able to get into the house without anyone seeing him. But he didn’t care. He had all day.

First he went through Victoria’s room, taking a few pieces of clothing from each drawer and chest and putting them into a learner bag he brought with him. After he satisfied himself he had taken enough, he placed a folded note in her hair brush where she couldn’t miss it. He hoped Anita wouldn’t discover it and destroy it.

Then he climbed out of a window and melted into the pines once again.

Victoria didn’t reach home until after her uncle and Buc had returned. Despite a fight with Buc, the tenor of which should have banished any hope he had of marrying her, her mood hadn’t improved. She had hoped Trinity would want to see her before he disappeared forever. She was upset he hadn’t.

She had tried to finish surveying the ridge they had begun together, but every time she needed a second pair of hands, she thought of him. Every time she wanted to share a thought, she missed him. Every time she wanted to ask a question, she felt his absence.

Trinity had excited her more than any man she’d ever met. He had so much energy, vitality, a sense of humor, a confidence, an outlook on life which allowed him to laugh at himself and the things that happened to him.

After five years, during which even trivial occurrences were viewed with life-and-death importance, Victoria had exulted at the change.

It had been like a breath of fresh air, a rekindling of interest in living. For years she had believed her life continually hung in the balance, that any event or stranger could mean a return to Texas and the gallows. Somehow Trinity had made her feel it was possible to prove her innocence if she had the courage to ignore her fears and break the fetters placed on her by others.

Despite all that, she couldn’t rationalize why his leaving caused her to feel such a terrible loss. How did a cowboy she had known for just a few days become more than a passing interest?

She had wanted to thank him for his support, but Buc’s temper and Uncle Grant’s officiousness had driven him away.

She wondered if her uncle paid him. Three days’ wages wasn’t much of a grubstake. It certainly wouldn’t get him to California. Where would he stop next? How long would he stay?

“Where’ve you been?” Buc demanded when Victoria walked into the house. Her uncle threw her a questioning glance but said nothing.

She had had a long day; she was tired, and she was angry. Buc’s assumption that she owed him an accounting for her time made her furious. He was her uncle’s employee, in a sense her employee as well. If any one of them owed the other an explanation, it was Buc.

“Riding.”

“Where? I’ve told you time and time again you can’t go wandering over the countryside alone. Who knows when another stranger will come wandering in?”

The possessive tone in Buc’s voice, combined with the “another stranger will come wandering in” remark, was the last straw. She lost her temper.

“And will you drive him off like you did Trinity? Are you going to drive everybody off for the rest of my life?”

“He wasn’t any good, Victoria, just a wandering cowpoke looking to have a little fun. You only noticed him because he made you laugh.”

“Is there some law which says I can’t have fun?”

“Aw, Victoria, you know what I mean.”

“I’m afraid for the first time I do.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve got me locked up in this valley and you mean to keep me here for the rest of my life.”

“You’ve got to have someone to protect you.”

“Have you decided on the wedding date? How many children will we have? Do I get to name them, or do I just get to have them?”

“Now Victoria—” Grant began.

“Don’t “Now Victoria’ me,” she nearly screamed. “I won’t be kept in prison, and I won’t have my entire life decided for me. You should have left me in Texas. I couldn’t be any more imprisoned there than I am here.”

“Stop it right now, before you say another word,” Grant Davidge ordered, his own temper rising. “Buc risked his life to get you out of that jail. The very least you owe him is gratitude.”

“I am grateful,” Victoria said, “but I don’t owe him the rest of my life.”

“Buc would make you a fine husband.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but Buc never said a word about loving me before Trinity came along. How do I know it’s not simple jealousy?”

“I loved you from the moment I saw you,” Buc protested.

“Then you should have told me instead of my uncle. Did you ask him to walk in the moonlight, sit with him on the porch, or whisper secrets in his ear?”

Buc’s face turned a dull red. “I wouldn’t do that to anybody.”

“That’s right,” said Victoria. “You just assumed I’d been bought and paid for.”

“I thought you were still upset over your husband. What would I look like trying to talk love to a woman grieving over the death of her husband?”

“You’d look like a tortoise. Had there been a jackrabbit anywhere in sight, you’d have lost the race years ago. Only there was no jackrabbit. There wasn’t even a coyote or a sidewinder. Just the tortoise. And after five years you’ve finally reached the finish line. I wonder if you’d have reached it at all if Trinity hadn’t arrived.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” her uncle demanded, his expression a mixture of impatience and confusion.

“This is all Trinity’s fault,” Buc exploded. “You never talked like this before he came.”

“You’re right. I’d forgotten what it was like to live without fear.”

“All he did was put ideas into your head that can get you killed,” Grant said. “You know you can’t leave this valley.”

“Like I know I ought to marry Buc,” Victoria finished for him. “He’s the only man you can trust.”

“I’ve always had complete confidence in Buc,” Grant said.

“I have, too, but that’s not why a woman marries a man.”

“Then what is?”

“I’m not certain, but I don’t mean to marry anyone until I find out.”

Victoria turned on her heel and stalked from the room.

“If I ever see that man again, I’ll kill him,” Buc stormed.

“She’s been restless for some time now,” Grant said. “If he hadn’t come along to stir her up, someone else would have. You can’t keep a woman locked up and not expect an explosion once in a while.”

“What do you think I ought to do about it?”

“Hell, I don’t know. I don’t understand women. That’s why I didn’t get married.”

“I don’t understand them either, but I want to marry Victoria.”

“Then let her alone. Things will be right uncomfortable for a while, but she’ll settle down.”

Victoria wasn’t thinking about marriage when she stomped into her bedroom. Neither did she think vengefully of wringing Buc’s neck and hanging her uncle up by his toes until he admitted she might have a mind of her own. Instead her thoughts were more concerned with a sandy-haired cowboy and his impish smile.

She would miss him … more than she dared admit.

It wasn’t right for her to blame Buc and Uncle Grant for everything. Even if she hadn’t said anything, she had tacitly accepted that someday she would marry Buc.

Now she couldn’t imagine why. Buc had absolutely no understanding of her feelings. Trinity had learned more about her in five minutes than Buc had learned in five years.

She’d never again make the kind of mistake she’d made with Jeb. This time she intended to choose her husband because she liked being with him, because she couldn’t think of living the rest of her life without him, because just being with him was the most exciting thing that could happen to her.

Odd how natural it all sounded, yet until a few days ago none of this had occurred to her. It made her feel stupid, and she didn’t like that.

She sat down at her table and picked up her brush. A note fell to the floor.

Chapter Seven

Even before it fluttered to the floor, Victoria knew it had to be from Trinity. Her hands shook so she had difficulty picking it up. She unfolded it quickly.

I wanted a chance to say goodbye. I’ll wait for you at the base of the old pine you used as a marker. I’ll understand if you don’t come.

Trinity

 

Victoria didn’t understand the tangle of emotions which erupted within her. She shouldn’t be having such a strong reaction to a man she would have trouble recognizing again.
Don’t lie to yourself. You could pick him out in a crowd of thousands
. Even his profile remained etched in her mind. He was too muscled to be slim. Rather he was lean, the way a man is lean when he uses his body too hard and feeds it too seldom. A man of muscle and bone. He had none of Buc’s size, but Victoria wouldn’t have been surprised to find he was just as strong.

She was attracted to him in ways that confused her, ways that excited her, ways that had caused her to lie awake at least an hour each of the last two nights.

Victoria didn’t know what she expected to get from this farewell, but she was sure if she didn’t meet him she’d regret it for the rest of her life.