Heart of a Texan (14 page)

The repeated strain on Nate’s wound made it more difficult to move Carlin this time, but with Roberta’s help they managed to get him inside the doctor’s house. Once he was settled and Nate had explained what had happened, the doctor asked, “How soon can you have the funeral?”

“I’ll need time to get some clothes from the ranch. I can’t have him buried in his long johns.”

“Can you close the wound?” Roberta asked. “He ought to look good enough to be kissed good-bye by his mama.”

“I’ll do what I can,” the doctor said. “What about you? You don’t look so good.”

“I’m okay. I just breathed in a little smoke.”

The doctor eyed Nate. “You seem to have a way of turning up where there’s trouble.”

Roberta appeared troubled by the doctor’s words. “You can’t think Nate had anything to do with the attacks.”

“I’m only saying what others will say. So far he’s the only link between the two attacks.”

“They might think I wanted to get rid of the dam,” Nate said, “but they’d be hard-pressed to explain why I’d want to hurt Roberta. I’m in love with her, and I intend to do everything I can to make her want to marry me.” Nate enjoyed the looks of surprise on both faces. “Nor would I have any reason to murder one of my own men.”

“Does Boone Riggins know of your intentions?” the doctor asked.

“I don’t see any reason to tell Boone. I don’t want to marry him.”

The doctor choked out a laugh. “You don’t mind stirring up trouble, do you?”

“I don’t see why there should be any trouble. Roberta doesn’t love Boone. I hope to convince her to fall in love with me. Now, if we have nothing else to do here, I’ve got to find a place for her to stay.”

Roberta’s heightened color still hadn’t returned to normal. “I can find a place on my own.”

“Where could you stay?” Nate asked.

“With Prudence.”

The doctor cast Nate a look that seemed to ask
what
do
you
plan
to
do
now
? “An excellent choice.”

But not as excellent as the place Nate had in mind. His ranch. “Until we know who’s behind these attacks and why, you need to stay where I can make sure you’re safe.”

Roberta had recovered her equilibrium. “I can’t move to your ranch unless you have room for Prudence as well.”

“She’s right,” the doctor said with a grin. “She will attach herself to Roberta like a barnacle on a rock, and you won’t be able to shake her loose with anything less than a marriage ceremony.”

“I’m ready to do that right now.”

“I’m not,” Roberta declared. “I think we ought to have Carlin’s funeral this afternoon. Now, before this conversation becomes any more ridiculous, I’m going to Prudence’s house.”

“I’ll go with you,” Nate offered.

Boone rode up just as they were leaving the doctor’s house. He did his best to convince Roberta to let him put her up at a hotel, to rent a house for her, to give her his own home, but she held firm to her intention to stay with Prudence.

Prudence answered her door almost as quickly as the doctor. Unlike the doctor, she was fully dressed. Nate wondered if she ever undressed. “Of course you can stay with me,” she said as soon as Roberta told her what had happened. “I don’t understand why no one woke me.”

“Boone’s last customers were the only ones awake to see the fire,” Roberta explained.

“I stayed open later than usual. We had two hot poker games going, and no one wanted to stop.”

Prudence eyed Boone with disapproval. “I suppose sin can be useful on occasion.”

Boone knew Prudence well enough not to waste time challenging that remark.

“Both of you can go away now,” Prudence said to Nate and Boone. “Roberta will be safe as long as she’s with me.”

Nate didn’t want to leave. Now that he was convinced Laveau was involved, he didn’t believe Roberta would be safe anywhere except at his ranch. He just had to convince Roberta.

***

Travis’s rage was beyond description. Curses weren’t enough. Travis wanted blood, and he wanted it now. Travis struck him a vicious blow with the back of his hand bringing blood to his mouth.

“I killed that stupid boy hiding in the corn. All you had to do was set the house on fire.”

“I did,” he protested. “How was I to know Dolan was going to show up? What kind of man rides about in the middle of the night?”

“You should have shot him,” Travis shouted. “There was no one to stop you.”

“I wasn’t hanging around long enough to have someone recognize me. I could be hanged for what I did tonight.”

“I could shoot you right now,” Travis threatened.

He backed away. “You do that, and the boys will turn on you.”

Travis spat. “That’s what I think of your boys. You’ve got to do better, or you’ll have to shoot him in his bed.”

The money was good, but he wasn’t that stupid. A thousand calves weren’t worth that kind of risk.

***

Roberta was relieved when Prudence left her alone to get what rest she could before dawn, but sleep was impossible. Too many questions roiled through her brain. Why would Laveau diViere want to kill her and her father? She’d never heard of the man before Nate came to Slender Creek. Could Laveau be after revenge because she had nursed Nate back to health? Was it possible that diViere had turned his attention to Roberta because Nate wanted to marry her? But up until less than an hour ago, only she knew that. Which brought her face to face with four questions she could no longer avoid.

What was she going to do about Nate? Was it possible the attraction she felt was love? But then what about Boone? How could she make him see that she would never marry him?

Going back to Virginia would solve everything. She wouldn’t have to work so hard at the farm. She could finally send Boone a message he would be forced to understand. And as for Nate, her heart turned over at the thought of never seeing him again. But surely whatever she felt now was just a passing infatuation. She’d get over him eventually. She had always felt out of place in Slender Creek. The people here didn’t like or trust her as they liked and trusted one another. She would
never
forgive any rancher who had had any part in the death of her father. DiViere might be behind the attacks, but he hadn’t acted alone. She couldn’t live in a community that would tolerate that kind of lawlessness.

Despite her friendships with Prudence and Blossom, she felt set apart, kept at a distance. She had aunts and uncles in Virginia, more than a dozen cousins, and a network of friendships that reached back to childhood. Going back would be like falling into the warm and welcoming arms of people as concerned for her happiness as they were for their own. Life would once more fall into familiar and comfortable patterns. People would believe as she believed, act as she acted, want what she wanted.

She would be home.

But she would be without Nate.

***

“I never heard of anybody named Laveau diViere,” the sheriff said to Nate. “Neither has anyone else in this town. Why would he be behind the attacks on Miss Tryon?”

“He’s really after me. Laveau betrayed men he’d served with for three years knowing they would be slaughtered in their sleep. He stole the life savings of his best friend. He cut the throat of the man standing guard that night. In the intervening years, he’s committed every crime from theft to murder, the last time by leaving a man to burn to death in his own home. Roberta saw a man fitting his description about to enter her house the day after I was wounded.”

“Suppose I accept your theory that this diViere is behind the attack. How do I go about finding him?”

How could Nate expect this sheriff—a good man but a very ordinary one—to track down a man who’d eluded capture for seven years? “Laveau has the money to live anywhere he wants and the brains to succeed in almost any profession, but he’s spent most of his time trying to cause as much trouble as he can for the seven of us who survived the war. I believe he hates me because I’ve spent the last two years trying to bring him before a Texas court that will hold him accountable for what he’s done.”

“You still haven’t said how I’m to find him.”

“He’s a master at remaining out of sight. He won’t hesitate to commit any crime, but he prefers to hire others to do the work for him. You have to start by looking for men in the area who helped him.”

“I don’t believe anybody around here was involved in that attack.”

“Roberta says eight men attacked her farm the night her father died. You have to assume at least some of the same men were involved in the attack on Roberta and Carlin. Could that many strangers be in the area without anybody knowing? Where would they sleep, keep their horses, buy their supplies? Men like that aren’t likely to stay away from whiskey or women for long, but no strangers have shown up at any of the saloons. What other explanation can there be?”

“Okay, suppose this diViere happens to fall into my hands. Forget, for the moment, that’s about as likely as Texas turning into a tropical paradise. What am I going to present to a judge as proof? I gather you don’t think he’s likely to confess.”

Nate didn’t appreciate the sheriff’s sarcasm, but he understood it. “There’s sufficient evidence to bring him to trial for a murder in Overlin, Texas. It’s not important which crime we use to stop him. Just that he’s stopped.”

The sheriff frowned at Nate before shrugging his shoulders and leaning back in his chair. “I’m going to accept your theory. Not because I believe it, but because I can’t see how it could be strangers. I’m damned sure it wasn’t any of the ranchers. Now I need a good description of diViere. If he’s so distinctive you can identify him from Roberta’s account, we ought to be able to find him if he’s anywhere around.”

After giving the sheriff a detailed description of Laveau, Nate was relieved to be outside again and able to release some of the tension created by the sheriff’s attitude. He couldn’t blame the man, but this was one more time when Laveau seemed able to remain just beyond reach. The only bright spot was that, with the end of Reconstruction in sight,, he would no longer be protected by the government.

Nate turned his thoughts to Roberta. He wouldn’t do anything until after Carlin’s funeral, but he was determined to convince her to move to his ranch. He would hire extra hands if necessary, but he wouldn’t feel she was safe as long as she was out of his sight.

He was so preoccupied by his worries he almost missed the appearance of a man who by his clothes, shoes, and fair complexion was clearly a stranger to Slender Creek. Nate was surprised when the man walked toward him, his amiable expression appearing easy and natural.

“I hope you can help me,” he said. “I’m looking for Miss Roberta Tryon.”

Maybe it was instinct. Maybe it was just that he was on edge, but there had been too much trouble surrounding Roberta in the last weeks. Nate’s gun appeared in his hand before he could think. “What do you want with her?”

The man appeared more surprised and confused than frightened. “I don’t want to hurt her.”

This stranger didn’t look like a murderer, but Nate wasn’t willing to take the chance. “You still haven’t told me what you
do
want.”

“My name’s Carl Peterson. We used to be sweet on each other before she came to Texas. I’ve come into a considerable inheritance, and I’ve come to take her back to Virginia so we can get married.”

Nate wanted to take the man by the throat and bury him at the bottom of a ravine. He was tall, slender, handsome, and smiling. He reeked of being a tenderfoot, but it was obvious he was no fool. He was just the kind of man to appeal to a woman uncomfortable with the rough and tumble world of Texas.

“You haven’t seen Roberta in five years. How do you know she wants to marry you?”

Peterson’s smile was friendly and without constraint. “I don’t, but I’m going to do my best to make her feel about me the way she used to.”

“How was that?”

Peterson’s smile tightened just a little. “Friendly enough to encourage me to come all the way from Virginia. If her father hadn’t dragged her out here despite her protests, we might have been married by now. How is the old codger?”

“When did you get into town?”

“This morning. Why?”

“A lot has happened you don’t know.” By the time Nate finished relating the events of the last few weeks, Peterson was clearly concerned.

“I knew I should never have let her leave Virginia, but she was too young when her father moved her down here. Where is she now? I have to see her.”

Nate wanted to send Peterson back to Virginia on the first horse going north, but he was certain it wouldn’t help his relationship with Roberta. Of course, that didn’t mean Nate was going to step back and give Peterson an open field. He intended to haunt his every step. “She’s staying with a friend in town. I’ll take you.”

Peterson pelted Nate with questions, all having to do with Roberta’s well-being. Not once did he mention himself, his recent inheritance, or Virginia. Nate ground his teeth. This was a man he could like, probably trust as well. It was too bad they wanted to marry the same woman.

“It’s a shame she lost her home,” Peterson said. “But I’ll take her back to Virginia as soon as the funeral is over.”

“If you have her best interest at heart, you won’t pressure her to make a decision right away,” Nate said. “She needs time to recover from the shock before she can decide what she wants to do.”

“I’m here so she doesn’t have to do any of that.”

“I don’t know what Roberta was like when she left Virginia, but I think you’ll find her changed.”

Peterson stopped and turned to Nate. “How do you mean?”

“She doesn’t like anyone making decisions for her.”

“But I want to marry her.”

“You’re not the only one.”

Peterson’s gaze narrowed. “I take it you’re referring to yourself.”

“Not exclusively.”

“There are others?” Peterson didn’t seem surprised.

“The town’s most successful businessman.”

Peterson shook his head. “I knew I shouldn’t have let her get away. If you’re an example of the competition, I’m in for a rough time.”

Nate was liking Peterson more and more. “The fight of your life. Now, don’t let Prudence scare you off. She thinks all men ought to be banished to some place hot and uncomfortable.”

“Sounds like an aunt of mine.” Peterson shivered, then grinned. “Scared the wits out of me growing up.”

It didn’t take long to complete the short walk to Prudence’s house. When she opened the door and saw Nate was accompanied by a stranger, she stepped outside and closed the door behind her. The look she gave Peterson was enough to cause a less brave man to cringe.

“Who are you, and what do you want?”

Nate was afraid that if Peterson said he was here to marry Roberta, Prudence wouldn’t let him in, so he answered for him. “He’s a childhood friend from Virginia.” Though why he was making it easier for Peterson was beyond him.

Prudence gave Peterson a second going over before saying, “I’ll see if Roberta wants to talk with you.”

She then went inside and closed the door.

A few moments later, the door burst open, and Roberta came through like she’d been shot from a catapult. She uttered Peterson’s name like a strangled cry, threw her arms around his neck, and burst into tears. Nate started trying to think of suitably remote canyons for burying competing swains. He’d pulled Roberta from a blazing house, and she hadn’t acted like that.

Watching Peterson hold Roberta while she cried like her heart was broken taxed every bit of Nate’s self-control. Just when he thought things couldn’t get any worse, Boone Riggins showed up.

“What the hell is going on?” Boone demanded. An instant later, he’d torn Roberta’s arms from around Peterson’s neck and was preparing to deck him. Nate hoped he could score points with Roberta by stepping between the two men. He would have done it anyway, but why waste a chance to make a positive impression on Roberta? He didn’t have all that many.

He deflected Boone’s punch.

“This is Carl Peterson, a childhood friend of Roberta’s from Virginia. Roberta hasn’t seen him in five years. Starting a fight isn’t a good way to welcome him to Slender Creek.”

“I don’t want to welcome him, dammit,” Boone swore, “not when he’s got his arms around Roberta.”

For the first time, Nate found himself in complete agreement with Boone.

“Why don’t we go inside?” Nate suggested. “It would make introductions a lot easier.”

Prudence looked aghast at the sight of three men entering her parlor. She held her tongue, but her stance clearly indicated that any or all would be ejected for the slightest transgression.

When Roberta took a seat on a couch and pulled Peterson down beside her, Nate made sure he got the seat on Roberta’s other side leaving Boone to seethe helplessly. When Roberta asked Peterson about friends and family in Virginia, Boone interrupted with offers to do everything from marry Roberta within the hour to buy a house for her and furnish it from top to bottom. When Peterson asked about the recent attacks, Boone dismissed them saying Roberta could depend on him to make sure nothing like that happened in the future. When Peterson asked about Roberta’s future plans, Boone said she didn’t have to worry about the future. He would take care of that, too. Nate wasn’t sure whether Roberta was on the verge of tears or an intemperate outburst, but he
was
sure Peterson looked ready to plant his fist in Boone’s face.

Nate decided he could help Roberta most by taking Boone away. “Why don’t we leave Roberta and Carl to catch up on old times?” Nate said as he got to his feet. “It’s not much fun listening to talk about people we don’t know.” Boone started to object, but Nate cut him off. “There’s something I need to talk to you about. It’s rather urgent.”

“What’s so damned urgent?” Boone asked when they were outside. “I want to get back in there. That tenderfoot is trying to steal my woman.”

Nate had to stifle an impulse to plant
his
fist in Boone’s face.

“Roberta is not
your
woman
. She’s told you that more than once. Furthermore, you’re not going back inside because nobody wants you there—not Roberta, Carl, Prudence, or me.”

Boone fired up. “You plan to try to stop me?”

“If necessary, but if you have an ounce of sense, you’ll realize Roberta doesn’t want to see either of us right now. You and I represent a Texas that murdered her father, destroyed her farm, and attempted to kill her. If you don’t want her to head straight for Virginia the minute Carlin’s funeral is over, you’ll stay away until she’s had time to get over the worst of the shock.”

Boone started to speak—then stopped to think. He eyed Nate, his expression decidedly unfriendly. “Are you in love with her?”

“Yes.”

“She hates ranchers.”

“She doesn’t hate me.”

Boone’s stance stiffened. “How do you know?”

“We had a lot of time to talk after I was shot. Besides, I pulled her out of the fire.”

Boone’s expression turned black. “If I ever find out who set her house on fire, I’ll kill him. If she’d married me, none of this would have happened.”

“If you want to protect Roberta, you can start by keeping an eye out for anything that doesn’t seem right, for anybody doing something unusual. I’ve told the sheriff I think an old enemy of mine is behind the attacks, but I’m sure he’s using local people for the actual dirty work.”

Anger flared in Boone’s eyes. “You come in my saloon talking like that, and you’ll end up with a broken head. You haven’t stayed home long enough to know that nobody around here would do a thing like that. Anyway, why would your enemy want to hurt Roberta? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It would if you knew Laveau diViere.”

“Well I don’t, and it doesn’t. Now before you go spouting any more outlandish theories, I’m going back into that house. I’m not letting that city slicker get a march on me.”

Nate didn’t have any choice but to knock Boone down. Part of him wished he didn’t have to do it, but another part relished the thought. If it was impossible to bang a little sense
into
Boone’s head, maybe it was possible to knock a little stupidity
out
. Nate waited until Boone turned away before bringing the butt of his pistol down on the back of his skull. He fell with a satisfying thud. Certain he’d been observed by at least three citizens, Nate started preparing his explanation for the sheriff.

***

“You can’t know how much I’ve missed you and everybody back home.” Roberta had said that at least three times already, but it didn’t seem enough. Sitting next to Carl, her hands in his, made her feel like she was getting back in touch with the life she thought she’d lost. Just looking into his warm eyes calmed some of the turmoil raging inside her.

“We’ve missed you, too,” Carl said. “You have no idea how important you are to your friends.”

“They’re important to me, too.” But honesty forced Roberta to admit she couldn’t picture more than two or three. She hadn’t realized how much coming to Texas had pushed Virginia into the back of her mind.

“Everybody will be shocked to hear about your father, but they won’t believe someone tried to burn you in your bed. What kind of savages do they have here in Texas?”

Roberta had been declaring herself a lost soul in the midst of strangers for so long it came as a complete surprise that her immediate feeling was one of resentment. “Not everyone is like that. There are good people here just as there are bad people in Virginia.”

“Nobody who would murder your father in front of your eyes then try to burn you in your bed.”

She remembered a man in the town next to where she’d grown up who’d been hanged for shooting his wife with a shotgun. Then there were the knife fights that occurred every Saturday night after people got liquored up. Maybe Texas wasn’t as different from Virginia as she thought.

“That man is a foreigner,” Prudence said.

Roberta had forgotten she was still in the room.

“If you haven’t caught him, how do you know?” Carl asked.

“Nate says he’s French and Spanish. That makes him a foreigner.”

“How can you be sure it’s this man?”

“Nate saw him peering in the bedroom window shortly before I came home. I saw him mounting the steps. He had his hand on his gun.”

“What was Nate doing in your bedroom?”

The sharpness in Carl’s voice was impossible to miss. The change in his expression was harder to define. Elements of surprise, disapproval, and ownership mingled with degrees of pique and confusion. It wasn’t what she expected, and she didn’t like it. Still, he was her friend, and she wanted him to understand. “He was there because I shot him.”

“What?”

Carl’s reaction was so incredulous she nearly laughed. “He came to help during the first attack. I thought he was one of the attackers.”

“I still don’t understand why he was in your bedroom.”

Now she did laugh. Carl was jealous, which was ridiculous. They had been sweet on each other growing up, but that was years ago. “He wasn’t in
my
bedroom. He was in my father’s. The doctor said he was too seriously injured to move. Since I had shot him, it seemed only fair that I should take care of him. My feelings changed after I learned he had come to help.”

“How did they change?”

Definitely jealous. She liked Carl, but she was over her girlish crush.

“I felt guilty for having shot a man, especially an innocent one. I still find it hard to believe I did it. I’d never done more than pick up a gun.”

“I thought everybody in Texas practically slept with their guns.”

“I can’t speak for everybody, but I don’t. Neither did Nate until diViere showed up.”

“Mr. Dolan had one of his cowhands sleep at her place to make sure she was safe.” That was probably the closest to approval Prudence could allow any man except Joe.

“He didn’t do a very good job, did he?”

Roberta didn’t understand why Carl was being so irksome, but she wasn’t about to have Carlin’s work belittled. “He was killed. His funeral is this afternoon.”

Carl had the decency to look abashed. “I’m sorry. Was he a friend?”

“If I had to characterize our relationship, I’d say he was more like a younger brother. Old enough to do a man’s work, but young enough to be tongue-tied around a pretty girl.”

Carl chuckled. “He must have been mute around you.”

That surprised her. Carl had never said she was pretty. As a gawky fourteen-year-old, she probably wasn’t. “Carlin had no trouble talking to me.” She smiled at the memory. “Sometimes, he could hardly stop. Most of the time it was about Nate. All three boys were in awe of him.”

“They took turns staying at the farm at night,” Prudence explained. “Joe was with her during the day.”

“Is every man in Texas trying to take care of you?” Carl asked.

Before Roberta could tell Carl not to be ridiculous, she realized that a surprising number of men had been watching out for her. Though a month ago, she would have said no one in Slender Creek cared if she lived or died. Already that morning several women had come by to see her. Over the past few days a number of ranchers had ridden by the farm and stopped to speak, but she still didn’t trust them. Regardless of who was responsible for the attacks on her and her father, they had provided the pretext by destroying the first dam.

“Now that Carl is here, I won’t have to depend on Joe all the time,” Roberta told Prudence. “I’ve felt guilty about having him spend all day with me then having to work in the saloon at night.”