Heart of Texas Vol. 3 (13 page)

She granted him that much and waited impatiently for him to make his move. The day she graduated from high school he stopped by the family home with a diamond ring. Afterward they'd argued amiably about who'd proposed to whom; it was a private joke between them.

A few years after they were married, Jerry's mother had died and they'd inherited the chest.

The very chest that sat in the attic of this house, Jake and Nell's place. She'd gone through the contents once. To a historian the chest would have been a treasure trove, filled with bits and pieces of life in the nineteenth-century hill country. But it was more than that. Ruth had recognized almost immediately that some of the things packed in the cedar-lined chest had come from Bitter End.

She'd looked them over, then closed up the box and never investigated it again. Ruth supposed it was because she'd been so young at the time, and that one visit to the town had continued to haunt her. She'd wanted nothing more to do with Bitter End. No link to it. If she couldn't throw out the chest—and she couldn't—then she'd hide it away, obliterating from her mind any memory of that horrible place. Jerry must have agreed, because once he knew the contents, he'd never asked about it again.

The time had come, Ruth believed, to reopen that chest. They had to disclose what was known about the town, discover its secrets, undo whatever damage they could. She was too old now for such a task. But it seemed somehow fated that Travis Grant had arrived when he did.

She would talk to him, show him the chest, whether Nell wanted her to or not.

That decided, Ruth picked up her crochet hook and started back to work. The clock chimed nine; Nell would be returning with Travis soon. She had a good feeling about those two. They were well matched, the way Nell and Jake had been.

Yes, the more she thought about it, the more fated Travis's appearance began to seem.

T
HE FOLLOWING MORNING
,
Nell was in the kitchen preparing the children's breakfast when Ruth came downstairs.

“I take it you found Travis,” her mother-in-law said with a slight smile.

“I found him,” Nell confirmed.

As if to verify her words, the back door opened and Travis stepped inside. He looked fresh from the shower, his hair wet and recently combed. His gaze searched out Nell's and he smiled. “'Morning, everyone.”

“'Morning, Travis,” both Jeremy and Emma said at once, and their faces brightened at the sight of him.

“Where were you last night?” Jeremy asked. “I asked Mom, but she said she wasn't sure.”

“I wasn't sure, either,” Travis replied.

Nell cast him a warning glance. He'd already promised he wouldn't tell the children about Bitter End, but she feared he'd forgotten his word.

“I got…lost,” Travis said, keeping his gaze on her. When she stopped stirring the oatmeal long enough to glare openly at him, he winked.

Nell felt the color rush to her cheeks and prayed her children wouldn't notice, but her prayer didn't reach heaven fast enough to include Ruth. She noticed her mother-in-law grinning as she took her place at the table, obviously pleased.

When the oatmeal was ready, she served it with brown sugar and raisins. The toast was from a loaf of the homemade bread she'd baked the evening before. She'd kneaded away her worries about Travis on the dough, and it was some of the lightest fluffiest bread she'd ever baked.

The grandfather clock in the living room chimed eight, and the children leaped up from the table, grabbed their lunches and dashed out the door.

“You finished with your chores?” Nell shouted after them.

They both assured her they were.

“What are your plans for the day?” Ruth asked, directing the question to both Nell and Travis.

Travis glanced at Nell. She dragged in a deep breath. “I'm driving Travis back to where he left his car. We're taking along a five-gallon can of gas,” she explained.

“You going anyplace else?” her mother-in-law pressed.

“I've asked Nell to help me find Bitter End,” Travis said.

“Will you, Nell?” Ruth searched her face.

“I'm not sure.”

“I think you should,” Ruth said unexpectedly.

For a moment Nell was too shocked to respond. “You want me to find Bitter End?”

“That's what I said.” The older woman nodded. “And once you've located the town and walked through it, come back and tell me. Don't dawdle, either. There's something I have for you—both of you. Something that's been in the attic all these years.”

“Ruth?” Nell asked in hushed tones, bending over her mother-in-law. “What is it?”

“Ruth?” Travis knelt down in front of her.

The older woman smiled and gently touched his cheek. “Find the town,” she said softly. “Just find the town.”

Travis helped Nell clean up the kitchen, then loaded the can of gas in the back of the pickup. She was already in the cab when he climbed inside.

“Thank you,” he said.

The man could unnerve her faster than anyone she'd ever known. “For what?”

“For coming with me.”

In the light of day Nell was annoyed for responding to Travis's kisses the way she had. It was because of her relief at finding him safe; it must be. She simply hadn't been herself—except she'd used that excuse before.

Despite Ruth's encouragement, she intended to tell him she refused to look for the town. She didn't want to know what was there, didn't care to find it.

“Losing your nerve, are you?” Travis asked.

“No,” she denied heatedly, then added, “I'm a rancher, not a…historian.”

“And a—”

“Coward,” she finished for him. Her fingers ached from her death grip on the steering wheel. What it came down to was fear. Everything she'd ever heard about the town rang in her ears—rumors, warnings, advice. And it all seemed to whisper
Keep away.

“What's Ruth talking about?” Travis asked once they were on the road.

“I…I don't know,” Nell said, which was only partially true. The attic was full of forgotten treasures from the Bishop family. Old clothing, furniture, letters and memorabilia. Seeing that Jake's family, like her own, had been among the original pioneers, it was quite possible that something stored in the attic had come from Bitter End. Anything her parents might have had, however, had been taken with them when they retired to Florida.

“Won't you come with me, Nell?” Travis coaxed.

It took a long time, but reluctantly she decided Travis was right. She had to confront whatever was there, not just for her own sake but that of her family. Her friends. The people of Promise. It sounded melodramatic to put it in those terms, but then it was a melodramatic situation. Certainly an extraordinary one.

“All right,” she finally whispered.

“Thank you,” he said again.

Had they been anywhere else, not tearing down the road in her pickup, Nell was convinced Travis would have gathered her in his arms and kissed her. Had they been anywhere else, she would have let him.

That was quite an admission for her, she realized. Despite her reservations and doubts, she was falling in love with this greenhorn. Every unmarried rancher in the area had asked her out at some point since Jake's death, but who did she fall for? A writer. A man who was going to break her heart, one way or another.

Nell let Travis do the driving after a while, and an hour later, with Savannah's map spread out on her lap, Nell suddenly cried, “Here!” She pointed to a grove of trees on the right.

Travis brought the truck to a stop.

“We go on foot from this spot,” Nell said, rereading Savannah's instructions for the tenth time.

“So I was close,” Travis muttered to himself.

They left the truck and started out on foot. Nell could already feel her heart pounding, and not from physical effort, either. It seemed to thunder,
Keep away, keep away,
with every beat.

“Are you okay?” Travis asked her a few minutes later.

“Sure,” she lied. “What's there to fear?”

“We don't know that yet, do we?” he said, his expression serious.

They didn't speak for a while as they made their way through heavy brush and over rocky treacherous ground. When they reached a limestone outcropping, Nell paused to look over the small valley below—and gasped.

She pointed a shaking finger at a charred steeple in the distance. The church was the tallest structure, but she could see others, too.

Travis's gaze followed the direction of her finger. “Bitter End,” he whispered.

Nell studied the cluster of buildings. From her vantage point she could look down at them, could see the whole town laid out. Bitter End was divided by one main street with buildings on either side. The church and cemetery were at one end of the town, a corral at the other. Some of the buildings were constructed of stone, others of wood. It surprised her how well preserved everything seemed to be.

“So far, so good,” Travis said.

Nell wordlessly agreed and breathed in deeply before they scrambled down the hill and into the town. They arrived near the corral. As they progressed, Nell experienced a feeling of heaviness, of being weighed down, that reminded her of how she'd felt those first few months after Jake's death.

She didn't say anything but wondered if Travis felt the same thing.

“What is it?” he asked in a hushed tone.

They were on the main street now, their hands tightly clenched. With each step they advanced into the town, the feeling intensified. The weight pressing on Nell's heart grew stronger and stronger until she slowed her pace.

“I…I don't know.”

“What's that?” Travis pointed to the saloon and the rocking chair that sat in front of it. Something leaned against the building.

“It…looks like Richard's guitar,” she said. “He hid here for weeks before he was found.”

“How could he have stood it?” Travis wondered, his voice low and hoarse.

“I don't know.” Nell didn't understand why they felt compelled to speak so quietly. He squeezed her hand, and by tacit agreement they moved from the street onto the boardwalk. Savannah was right, she thought with a shudder. There was nothing living here—except the ceaseless wind.

She paused and looked inside the mercantile. A half-dozen bloated cans of food were scattered on the shelves. An old cash register stood on the counter, its drawer hanging open.

“Someone was looking for spare change,” Travis remarked.

“Probably Richard.” Evidence of his presence was everywhere.

They located the room in the hotel where he'd been sleeping and carefully skirted past the area where the stairs had collapsed. The wood floors were stained with his blood. Debris and empty bottles appeared here and there; magazine pages and food wrappings were blown against the sides of buildings.

“What are you thinking?” Travis asked as they neared the end of the street.

“That I want the hell out of here.”

He chuckled, but the sound was uncomfortable. “Anything else you want to see?”

“No.” She slid her arm through his and stayed close to his side. The oppressive sensation remained, reminding her even more forcibly of the horrific grief she'd suffered after Jake's death. It had become a part of her, something she lived with day and night. When it finally did ease, it went a little at a time. Slowly she could laugh again, then dream again. She was only now discovering she could love again. She stopped, suddenly struck by an idea.

“Hold me, Travis,” she said urgently. They were near the church.

“Now?” He seemed surprised.

“Please.”

He pulled her into his arms and she spoke into his ear. “I'd like to try an experiment.”

“Okay. What do you need me to do?”

“Nothing,” she said, then thinking better of it, added, “much.”

She felt his smile against her skin.

Easing away from him, she placed her hands on both sides of his face and touched her lips to his. The kiss was deep, involving, as intense as the kisses they'd shared the night before. When she drew back, she studied his face.

“I like this kind of test,” he told her flippantly. “Am I being graded?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Travis, this is serious.”

“I am serious.”

She sighed expressively. “All right, I'll give you a B-plus.”

“Why not an A?”

“Travis, you won't get an A until you answer my question.”

“Fine. What's the question?”

“The feelings. Have they lessened?”