Arizona Embrace (6 page)

“You better,” the old man advised.

“I was just repeating what I’d heard,” Trinity said. “I didn’t even know Miss Victoria until today. She doesn’t look like a murderer to me.”

“She isn’t,” Red said, slowly backing away from Trinity, his gun still leveled at him.

“It is better that you not say what you heard in front of the
vaqueros”
Perez advised. “They take it bad.”

“You mean they’re all as convinced as Red here she’s innocent?”

“How can you have seen her and ask such a damned fool question?” Red demanded. “Could an angel kill anyone, even a drunken sot who didn’t have the sense to know what he’d got?”

“I don’t know as much about the situation as you.”

“Then make sure you learn more before you go shooting off your mouth again,” Red said, stepping back and holstering his gun. “We don’t allow nobody to slight Miss Victoria. There’s people who could vouch for that if they could talk.”

“That’s not likely, them being far away and understanding how we feel about the
senorita”
Perez added. He said nothing more, but Trinity couldn’t mistake the warning directed to Red.

Trinity knew then that at least one man had died in his attempt to take Victoria back to Texas.

“What happened when they went to Texas?” Trinity asked. “Mr. Davidge told me Buc broke Victoria out of jail.”

“We all go” Perez said. “We mean to burn town if we have to.”

“Don’t pull your gun on me for asking,” Trinity said to Red, “but why were all of you ready to take such a risk?”

“You have to know
Senor
Grant and his brother, the
senorita’s
papa,” Perez said. “Some of us come from Texas with
Senor
Grant. Not Red. He is too young. I know
Senorita
Davidge as a girl. She can not kill anybody, not if she loves them.”

“Are you certain she loved her husband?” Trinity asked.

“Are you saying she’d marry a man because of his money?” Red challenged.

Tm just asking,” Trinity said. “A man can’t help being curious.”

“Better to leave questions unasked than be dead,” Red advised. “People around here don’t take kindly to questions about Miss Victoria.
Any
kind of questions.”

Apparently convinced that any threat to Victoria’s safety had passed, and that any question about her reputation had been settled, Red launched into a paean of praise that bespoke of a young man in
the
throes of love with a woman he considered so far above him as to be completely out of his reach.

Perez didn’t look nearly so certain. He didn’t watch Trinity directly, but Trinity realized he was being closely observed.

Trinity soon managed to get Red’s mind off Victoria. Later they swapped yarns. Perez proved to have an inexhaustible supply, but Trinity got the feeling the man’s thoughts were never entirely off their earlier conversation.

He would do well to keep his eyes on the old man.

“I hope you don’t mind going with me today,” Victoria said when Trinity had finished his breakfast next morning. “Uncle Grant says following me about while I work on my survey is the perfect way to get to know the ranch.”

Trinity didn’t get a chance to answer before Buc burst out with an objection.

“I still don’t trust him. How do we know he’s not one of Judge Blazer’s men?”

“It’s been more than five years, Buc,” Grant said. “Surely Blazer has given up by now.”

“Are you afraid Trinity will overpower me?” Victoria asked.

“No, but—”

“Or do you suspect he’ll talk me into something I don’t want to do?”

“Good God, no, but—”

“Then what’s your objection?” Grant asked.

“I don’t like him, and I don’t trust him,” Buc stated bluntly. “He could be a bounty hunter.”

A faint shadow passed across Victoria’s face.

“Nonsense,” Grant said. “Bounty hunters are known.”

“Not all of them. There’s one who uses a different name every time. Nobody knows much about him, but they say he’s hanged more than a dozen men.”

“Where’s he from?” Trinity asked. He couldn’t just stand there and let Buc accuse him of being a bounty hunter.

“Nobody knows that either. Seems he just shows up, gets himself deputized, and disappears. Next time anybody sees him he’s bringing in the man he went after. Then he disappears again. He must know the West better than anybody alive.”

“Then I can prove I’m not that man,” Trinity said. “You can follow my trail all the way back to Texas. I must have asked a dozen people the way to California.”

“If Trinity can’t possibly be this bounty hunter, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Victoria said.

“I’m worried about everybody,” Buc confessed. “I’m never comfortable when you’re out of my sight unless I know you’re here at the ranch, inside, safe from any prying gaze.”

That’s sweet, Buc,” Victoria said, a softness and affection in her voice that caused Trinity’s stomach muscles to knot, “but you can’t keep me indoors for the rest of my life.”

“I don’t see why not,” Buc said. There’s no reason for you to leave the house.”

“Yes, there is,” Victoria contradicted, with a sharpness Trinity hadn’t expected. “I’d go crazy if I didn’t get out of this house once in a while. And as much as I love being with you and Uncle Grant, I’ve got to
do something
or I’ll the on the vine, like pods drying in the summer sun.”

“Nonsense,” said her uncle. “I don’t agree with keeping you locked up, and I’ve told Buc, but I don’t want to hear any more talk about your going crazy or drying up like a pea pod.”

“Wouldn’t you go crazy if you were kept locked up all the time?” Victoria asked, turning to Trinity for support.

“I don’t know,” Trinity confessed. “It’s been more of a worry with me to find a place to lay my head for the night.”

That’s always the way it is with men,” Victoria said, her mouth twisted with disgust. “No matter what a man wants to do, no matter how foolish it might be, he’s perfectly free to do it, and nobody thinks the worse of him for it. But let a woman try to do the same thing and she’s hemmed in from all sides.”

“Now, Victoria.”

“Nobody’s hemming you in.”

Grant and Buc spoke at the same time. Victoria ignored them both and turned to Trinity.

“Do you mean to hem me in as well?”

“I expect I’ll just do what I’m told,” Trinity replied.

“Victoria may get a little impatient with her confinement,” Grant said, “but she’d never do anything foolish.”

“I’m not asking anybody to do anything foolish,” Victoria said with a sigh, “but there are times when I wonder if it’s all worth it.”

“How can you say that?” Buc demanded. The thought of you in that filthy jail with the gallows just outside your window…”

“You know she doesn’t mean it” Grant said. “She just gets out of humor once in a while. You go on with Trinity. You can start on the ridge you’ve been wanting to survey. Pack a lunch and stay all day if you like. I want you to work this restlessness out of your system, but no matter how fretful you become, you’ve got to remain on your guard.”

“I know,” Victoria assured him. “Even if I didn’t do it for myself, I’d never risk your happiness, or forfeit the risk you took just getting me here. I love you just as much as you love me.”

“Go along and enjoy yourself,” her uncle said, a slight catch in his voice. “Trinity will take care of you.”

“I’ll check on you,” Buc offered. “Trinity might get lost.”

I
won’t get lost,” Victoria said, affronted. “I’ve been here five years. The shape of this valley is imprinted on my mind.”

“Then why do you need to make so many of those peculiar maps? Nobody’s ever going to look at them.”

“Because I’ve got to have something to do besides cook and clean house,” she replied, ignoring his insult to her work. “If I didn’t get out once in a while, I think I would go crazy enough to kill somebody.”

“Don’t say that,” Grant implored, “not even in jest.”

“It’s no jest” Victoria said.

Trinity quickly discovered that being alone with Victoria all day wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d expected. She might be a murderess, but she was a very beautiful, sensuous, desirable woman. The kind that drove a man like him crazy.

There was nothing provocative about Victoria’s dress. There couldn’t be with her bundled up inside a deerskin jacket against the morning chill. But even though he had to wrestle with the willful packhorse bearing her precious surveying equipment, Trinity seldom took his eyes off her. With her riding directly before him, it would have been virtually impossible to ignore her.

And he didn’t want to.

Riding astride, Victoria sat perfectly straight in the saddle. The gentle curve of her shoulders and her long, slim neck contributed to her delicate appearance. Despite the concealing bulk of her coat, she looked too fragile to handle the packhorse or her equipment.

She never turned around, thus denying him a glimpse of the outline of her breasts, but he had an uninterrupted view of the soft, white skin at the nape of her neck. Only a few moments of allowing himself to imagine how it would feel to kiss her neck, to tease the strands of hair that floated on the cool morning air, and he felt his body swell with desire.

He found it very uncomfortable to ride in a perpetually aroused state and cursed himself for responding like a randy youth. But even when he tried to concentrate on the scenes around him, the sound of her voice, soft and enveloping, like a warm blanket on a cold night, provided him with a constant reminder of her presence.

He must have been away from women too long. He couldn’t think of any other explanation for the spiral of sensations rapidly destroying his ability to concentrate. He was going to have to do better than this, or every Apache between Colorado and Mexico could be on his trail and he’d never notice.

Besides, if the rest of the hands were like Red and Perez, he was going to need all his concentration to get her away without shooting anyone. He had never killed an innocent person. He had no intention of making this the first time.

“It feels wonderful to get away,” Victoria said as they topped a rise. A panoramic view of the mountains lay before them.

Mist blanketed the valley below. Bright rays of morning sun struck countless tiny droplets turning them into a thick, billowing cloud of purest white. The pointed tops of Ponderosa pines pierced the edge of the mist like thousands of stakes holding a blanket tightly in place. A brisk wind rushed down on them from distant, snow-covered peaks.

“A few hours of freedom is worth hauling the equipment out, even if I don’t get any work done.”

Of course it is, as long as the horse and I are doing all the work,
Trinity internally droned.

“Who usually comes with you?” Trinity asked. He couldn’t see Buc or Grant letting her go this far from the ranch without someone with her.

“Anyone who’s free,” Victoria replied. She removed her hat and let her hair fall free.

Trinity couldn’t imagine how he had forgotten her hair. In the soft light of the ranch house, it had seemed as dark as burnished copper. But this morning, in the full glare of sunlight, it looked like something alive. The rich mahogany hues retreated to make way for the flame of titian. Trinity had always preferred blond hair. Queenie had the longest, most luxuriant blond hair he had ever seen. Now he decided titian was just as beautiful.

“With us being so shorthanded, I haven’t been out for a while,” Victoria told him. “You can’t imagine how relieved I was when you showed up.”

“One look and you were certain I’d want to lug all this equipment around the mountains.”

Victoria laughed. He was getting used to the sound … and he liked it.

“Nobody does, not even me, but I knew Uncle would send you with me.”

“Why? I’d have thought he’d send one of the older hands.”

“He wanted to, but I asked for you.”

Trinity took a moment to digest that surprising piece of information. Getting involved with Victoria wasn’t part of his plan, but he’d be a liar to say he wasn’t tempted. He had withstood temptation before, though he couldn’t remember when it had been quite this difficult.