Bittner, Rosanne (71 page)

"My pa wouldn't allow any man on this ranch to insult her!"

"He cannot control the other ranchers, or the whole town of Billings. To his face they are cowards, but behind his back they will talk, and they will make sure that Ramona hears." He sniffed and wiped more blood from his lips. "If you hurt Ramona, in any way, I will
kill
you, brother or not!" He turned and walked back to his horse.

"You'd hang," Tyler shouted. "And Luke would do it himself! If I told him what you just said, he'd send you right back to the reservation!"

Nathan turned. "And what would he do if I told him you pulled a gun on your own brother? I do not think he would like that so much either." He mounted his horse and rode off. Tyler watched after him, hating him. Ramona, partially dressed, walked up to him then and put her arms around him.

"We're getting married, Ramona," he told her with determination in his voice. "I don't give a damn what Pa or Nathan or everybody in town or anybody else thinks! I love you, and we're getting married!"

CHAPTER 35

Luke studied his son and Ramona, seeing the love and fire in their eyes. "Nathan is right, you know, about what other people will say, Tyler. You know how people around here feel about the Sioux. They understand why Nathan would marry an Indian woman, but you—"

"I've heard it all, Pa. I just want you and Mother to be happy for me, to give us your blessing, and allow us a Christian wedding. For all we know, Ramona could already be carrying my child."

"Tyler!" Lettie could hardly believe what had happened between Ty and Ramona while they had been gone.

Ty's face reddened with a mixture of embarrassment and anger. "Mother, I am twenty years old. Ramona is eighteen. We're old enough to know what we want."

Luke studied Ramona. No, she was certainly no little girl. She was a ravishing beauty with a beguiling way about her. What red-blooded twenty-year-old wouldn't be attracted to a wild, fetching thing like her? Alice Richards was also beautiful, but Ty didn't have to be around her every day, and she didn't have the sultry ways of Ramona. He sighed, leaning forward in his chair and rubbing at his eyes. This was not a situation he would have wanted to come home to, but there was no getting around it. Tyler had cornered them almost the minute they arrived, and they had all gathered in the parlor. Nathan paced at one end of the room like a nervous cat.

"I'm more upset by the fact that you and Nathan fought than I am about you wanting to marry Ramona," Luke said, his voice sounding weary.

Ty and Nathan looked at each other, each knowing the other could tell Luke the worst of it, which would only upset him even more. They both respected him too much to do that to him.

Lettie's heart ached for Luke. He had been good enough to accept Nathan back, Indian family and all, had always cared about him because he was her son. It hurt to realize what a problem all of it was causing, and she felt partially responsible. Neither of them had given a thought to Tyler becoming attracted to Ramona, and now she wondered how they could have been so foolish. "Luke, if they have already—" She felt her own face flushing. "If they have already... been together... there really is no choice here."

"I know." Luke's hands were still over his face. He thought quietly for a moment, then looked up at Ty and Ramona, who stood together in front of him. "I want you to understand, Ramona, that I don't look at you or Leena as any less important human beings than anyone else. I'm not an Indian-hater. Because of Nathan we've all grown to understand the Indian situation a lot better, and I can't say I can blame your people for fighting to keep what they consider their land. God knows I've done enough fighting and killing for the same reason." He moved his gaze to Tyler. "The only reason I'm not completely in favor of this is because no matter how you feel about Nathan, he
is
right. This won't be easy for you, Ty, so you make damn sure it's what you want. If you love Ramona as much as you say you do, you don't want her to be hurt. And there will be children to consider. They'll be half-breeds, and some people look on that as worse than being Indian. They'll be my grandchildren, so no one will dare insult them in my presense, but I can't be everyplace at once, Ty."

"I'll protect and defend Ramona and my children against any man!"

Luke rose, shaking his head, wondering how many more fistfights his son would get into over his wife. In his youth, Ty simply did not understand what he was getting himself into. He turned and faced all of them. "I don't consider myself any better than the next man, but you
do
understand what this means, don't you?"

Tyler frowned. "I'm not sure what you're getting at."

"What I'm getting at is that Pearl has married a fancy man who will never want anything to do with the Double L. Robbie is off studying to be a doctor, so if and when he does come back here, he'll always live in town and will also not have anything to do with the Double L. That leaves you and Katie and Nathan. Nathan is married to an Indian woman,
you
want to marry an Indian woman, and Katie is married to a sheep man. Are you starting to get my point?"

Tyler could not help a little grin. "Someday sheep men and Indians and half-breeds will be running the Double L."

"The very kinds of people I've been chasing off for years."

"Pa, I love the Double L. Any children I have will love it as much as I, and someday maybe one or two of Katie's children will also want to help run this ranch. The important thing is that it's in the hands of family, people who love it, and who love and respect the man who built it. I've learned a lot about how to run the ranch, and I'll teach my children the same. The Double L will be all right. I would never let anything happen to it. You must know that. Besides, times are changing. Sheep men and cattlemen get along well now, and the Indian wars are over."

Luke met his gaze squarely. "What about Alice Richards? Do you intend just to throw her away? She's been a good friend to you for years,
more
than a friend; and I don't doubt she's been waiting for you to settle down and get more serious."

Ramona looked down, burning with jealousy over the pretty white girl she knew was fond of Ty.

"Alice knows there is something going on. I'll talk to her. I don't take her friendship lightly, Pa, but I don't love her the way I love Ramona."

Luke shook his head. "Well, considering what has already been going on between you two, I guess your own decision has already been made." He looked at Nathan. "I don't have any choice but to give them my permission, Nathan. If I send Ramona to the Cheyenne reservation, I'll only alienate my own son, and I won't do that. I just hope letting them marry doesn't mean alienating you."

Nathan approached them, his lower lip still a little blue, the cut scabbed into a red line. It had been a week since his fight with Tyler, and he had not spoken to him since. "I do not blame you for your decision," he told Luke. "You are not the one who has a choice. Tyler is your son, and I would not expect you to go against him. It is
Tyler
who has the choice. I think he has made a bad choice, but it is done now. He must marry her the Christian way to make an honorable woman out of Ramona in the white man's eyes. I just do not want to see her hurt."

"None of us wants that, Nathan," Lettie put in. "But you should know by how much we love you and your family and little Luke and Julie that whoever Tyler marries, we will love and defend her as our own." Her heart warmed at the loving look he gave her, something she had once thought she might never see.

"My mother is a woman of great compassion," Nathan answered. "I do not fear how you will accept Ramona." He turned to look at Tyler. "You have said that I am not Indian. This is true. But I was raised with Ramona, and I love her like a sister, even though we are not of the same blood. You and I
are
of the same blood, but the bad feelings continue. I told you once before that I did not come here to take anything from you. Now I
give
something to you. I give you Ramona." He turned and walked out.

Luke turned to Lettie. "I'd like a few minutes alone with Ty."

Lettie took hold of Ramona's arm. "Come with me, Ramona. We need to talk about your wedding. I'll have Gino make a gown for you. You'll be such a beautiful bride!"

Ramona looked sadly at Tyler before leaving the room with Lettie. Was everyone right? Would it be such a difficult thing being married to a rich white man? She looked around the room of the elegant Fontaine home. What did she know about living like this? Lettie Fontaine was so educated and refined. She was the kind of woman it took to run a place like the Double L. Tyler's parents were good people. They would love her as their own daughter if she married Tyler. Was Nathan right that Tyler would ultimately be much happier married to someone like Alice? She had much to think about, for above all else, she loved Tyler Fontaine more than she loved herself.

"I want no more fighting between you and Nathan," Luke said sternly. He walked over to close the parlor doors, then turned to face Tyler.

"I just don't like his arrogant attitude," Ty answered, "as if he were better than the rest of us."

"Maybe he thinks the same way about you," Luke answered. "Maybe he thinks you consider
yourself
better." He walked to a stand at the side of the room to pour himself a small glass of wine. "You've been pretty damn hard on him, Ty, and for no good reason. Family is a pretty important gift. I want you always to remember that."

"I know that, Pa. You know how much I love you and Mother and everybody."

"Everybody but Nathan."

Tyler sighed deeply. "Pa, I don't worry about being treated fairly. I know you better than that. It's just that he's always been some sort of mystical being in Mother's eyes, like there's something more special about him. And he didn't come back here out of any love for you or Mother. He came back so he and his family would have a place to live, nothing more. All those years he never gave a damn about you and Mother or the rest of us."

"He wasn't
raised
to give a damn. He had to learn it at an older age. He had to come here and see for himself. I don't blame him for any of it, Ty. He was just a little four-year-old boy when he was stolen away. You have no idea how that would have affected you if
you
were the one stolen." He sipped some of the wine. "As far as Nathan not really being Indian, of course he isn't. But he feels like one on the inside, and you have to respect that, just as he has to respect who you are and your importance here on the Double L. You have to understand how he feels about Ramona. He has seen the other side, Ty. You haven't. He's been a part of two worlds. He knows how hard this will be for Ramona. You think that just because she'll be a Fontaine, she'll be protected, but it doesn't always work that way. I don't want to see you
or
Ramona hurt."

Luke set down the wine and paced, while Tyler stood silently, waiting for the man to finish. "We both know she's just as beautiful and good and worthy as any other woman," Luke finally continued, "but how we feel doesn't change the prejudice that's out there waiting to lash out. Some terrible things have happened, Ty, on both sides.
Don't forget
the Little Big Horn. Maybe you were too young to remember or care that much about it, but people our age haven't forgotten. It doesn't matter anymore whose fault it was or how right the Sioux and Cheyenne might have been. All that matters is what people remember, and they remember what happened to James Woodward and his family. I would never dream of keeping you from the woman you love. I would only lose you. I just want you to be sure about this, and if you truly love Ramona, are you really doing what is best for her happiness?"

Ty met his eyes, looking ready to cry. "Pa, I'd die without her."

Luke put a hand on his shoulder. "All right. Then marry her. But I want no more hard feelings between you and Nathan. Sit down, Ty. I want to tell you about something that happened to me in St. Louis, between me and my own brother."

"You saw your brother? How about our grandpa? It's hard to believe they've always been too busy to come here."

"I haven't told you the whole truth of it, Ty." Luke walked to the fireplace and Tyler sat down, listening intently as Luke spilled out his story, surprising Ty with the intense emotion he displayed in the telling. He hadn't even had a chance yet to unwrap the pictures of his mother and father that he had brought home with him. "Now maybe you understand better why I could never turn Nathan out, Ty," he finished. "I know how it feels to think you aren't loved or wanted. When I married your mother, I vowed to love Nathan the same as the rest of my children and never let him feel like an outcast. His being stolen away by Indians didn't change any of that."

Tyler watched the man lovingly, hardly able to believe how Luke had been treated by his own father. "I'm sorry, Pa, about what happened to you. I guess I understand a lot of things better."

"The point is, John readily offered me my share of the business, without question, even though I can't prove I'm a Fontaine. I don't need any of it, and I told him so, but I appreciate the fact that he offered. In the same way, Nathan has a right to a part of this ranch, whether you like it or not. He doesn't want it any more than I want to take anything from my own brother now. What matters is that my brother understood, just as I expect you to understand it's the same situation for Nathan. He needs our love and acceptance, Ty, even though he pretends it doesn't matter to him, and I need you to help me in this, not work against me. Nathan has given you Ramona, and to this day he has never asked for one thing but a place to live. He has become a damn good ranch hand, and you know how good he is with horses. He has given a hundred percent on his part, and he and your mother have grown closer. That means the world to Lettie. I want us to be a close family, Ty. We always have been until these hard feelings between you and Nathan. I want it to end."