Journey of the Heart (13 page)

He could understand what Beecham saw in Miss Burke, for she was a very attractive young woman. Gabe shifted in his saddle as he remembered yet again how she had felt under his hands. But what in blue blazes did she see in Beecham, a girl who’d been raised in New Mexico? She’d be leaving at the end of the summer, and with Night Sky, if he was ready. Damn, but he would miss the horse.

* * * *

Dances were held in the town hall and by the time the Burkes had pulled up, they could hear the sound of the fiddle and the banjo.

“I hope Ramon is here tonight with his mandolin,” said Elizabeth as she handed her cake box to Michael and climbed down from the wagon. “I am in the mood for a Spanish waltz.”

Ramon was sitting inside and promised Elizabeth several waltzes when she went over to greet him.

Everyone from a thirty-mile radius was there and Cait thought she and Henry would never be free to dance, for once one person had been introduced to him as Miss Burke’s fiancé, the news spread and everyone had to come over and check out the Eastern lawyer who was going to take Miss Cait back to Philadelphia.

Finally the fiddle struck up another tune and they all left to form their squares. “Cait, I would ask you to dance,” said Henry, “but I am afraid I’d trample all over you. I’d better watch for a while before I risk this.”

“The caller gives the directions, Henry,” said Cait, trying to persuade him.

“So I have heard. But let’s sit out the first one or two, shall we?” Cait hoped her disappointment didn’t show. She loved dancing and had looked forward to being swung in Henry’s arms.

“Miss Burke, ma’am?”

It was Gabe Hart, who had been just behind them as they tried to make their way through the welcoming neighbors.

“Yes, Mr. Hart?”

“Why don’t we show Mr. Beecham how this is done, so’s he can join the next set?”

Cait’s face lit up. “You wouldn’t mind, would you, Henry?”

“Of course not, Cait. I’ll watch Mr. Hart and take notes!”

Gabe was dressed in worn but clean dove-colored wool pants and a navy shirt that brought out the blue of his eyes, Cait couldn’t help but notice. She soon found out that he was as good a dancer as a rider as they followed the caller’s instructions. She was so caught up in the joy of dancing that she only became aware of him when she felt his arm around her waist for the promenades. And when he swung her. She had never been swung quite like that before, just about swept off her feet by his strength. She laughed up at him at the same time he looked down at her and all of a sudden it felt like they were standing still while everything swung around them, the dancers, the floor, the walls. Cait shook her head to clear it. She was dizzy from the turning, that was all. Of course that was all, she thought. But then why did she feel such a letdown when Gabe returned her to Henry, bowed and left?

Henry begged to watch just one more before he attempted anything. He was lucky, for after the next square came a waltz. Ramon hadn’t joined the musicians yet, so it was just the fiddle and a guitar playing an old Texas waltz.

“May I have
this
dance, Cait? I can promise not to make a fool of myself with this one.”

Cait felt safe in Henry’s arms. Although it was a turning dance, the circles they made were too big to make her dizzy. And when he pulled her a little closer and she looked up to smile at him, nothing whirled around them. All was in the right place, including herself, there in Henry’s arms.

* * * *

“Thank God, Mackie doesn’t seem to be here, Michael,” said Elizabeth as her husband waltzed her around the floor.

“Don’t be surprised if he makes an entrance later, Elizabeth,” Michael warned her. “Don’t worry, though; he won’t be anything but charming in public.”

They were lucky that Mackie did not arrive until an hour later and he was accompanied only by his wife whom he danced with once and then abandoned in a corner with some of the wives of his acquaintances from town. He asked several women to dance and Elizabeth was fearful he would approach her, but between Michael, Jake, a few neighbors and even a shy Gabe Hart, she was kept partnered. As was Cait, she thought with a relieved smile as she watched her daughter guiding Henry through his first square dance.

Elizabeth hadn’t seen Chavez arrive, but she shivered in Michael’s arms a few minutes later when she saw him, dressed all in black, leaning against the wall in a corner watching them with those cold green eyes of his. Michael saw him a second later as they turned and he clasped his wife tighter. “Don’t ye worry,
a ghra.
He’s only here for show, just to remind us.”

“I don’t know what it is, Michael,” said Elizabeth in a low voice as they walked over to the refreshment table after their dance was finished. “It isn’t that I am so afraid of him. He is only one man, after all. There is just something about him that brings back the old memories.”

Cait pointed out Mackie and Chavez to Henry. “There he is, Henry, with his Mexican hired gun.”

Mackie looked like a well-to-do businessman to Henry and it was hard for him to believe that this was the bully who had been terrorizing the valley. Chavez, on the other hand, looked the real villain of the piece.

“Except for his clothes, he doesn’t look Mexican, Cait,” Henry said after looking Chavez over.

“Maybe he comes from one of the old Spanish families, which would explain his light hair and eyes,” Cait explained. “He speaks both English and Spanish perfectly, so maybe his mother was an Anglo,” she continued. “Anyway, he is perfectly happy to push any family off their land, Mexican or Anglo.”

Chavez didn’t join any of the square dances. He wandered over to where Ramon was sitting and chatted with him for a few minutes. And when Ramon picked up his mandolin and motioned for the guitar player to follow, Chavez waited until the waltz had begun before making his move.

Cait had been dying of thirst after all the dancing and Henry had gone to get both of them some punch. The refreshment table was on the other side of the room and once the music started and couples were on the floor, Henry had to make his way around the perimeter to get back to Cait. By the time he did, it was too late. Chavez was already there, bowing politely, taking Cait’s hand in his to lead her onto the dance floor.

Cait hadn’t known what to do when Chavez appeared in front of her. He was the last person in the world she wanted to dance with. She wanted to refuse him and as rudely as possible. She wanted to spit on his polished boots. But if she gave in to her anger, what might that mean for them afterward? This was a public dance. She could refuse him politely, she supposed. But as she cast her eyes around for Henry and saw how long it would take for him to reach her, she decided she’d rather be on a crowded dance floor with Chavez than alone in a corner with him. So she gave him a cool ‘yes’ and allowed him to lead her out.

“There is something about a Spanish waltz that touches the heart, isn’t there, Miss Burke?” said Chavez, breaking the silence she had maintained as they danced.

“I am surprised that you would notice that, Señor Chavez,” Cait answered without thinking.

“So you think I am
sin corazon, señorita
?” he said, smiling a smile that did not reach his eyes. “I assure you, I am not.”

Cait controlled herself with great difficulty and said with icy politeness, “I spoke without thinking,
señor
. And I agree with you about the music.” She tried to forget about the man who was holding her and imagine it was Henry’s arm around her waist, Henry’s hand clasped around hers. But oddly enough, it was Gabe Hart who kept intruding. Perhaps she couldn’t imagine Henry responding to the sadness in the music, but sensed that Gabe would resonate to it. But she was in the arms of “
El Lobo
,” who had no feelings at all, she remembered as he spoke again.

“You may think me heartless, Miss Burke, but I assure you, the thought of unnecessary suffering troubles me deeply.”

The words were innocuous, but the tone in which they were uttered made Cait’s blood run cold, and she stumbled, losing her way in the dance.

“Ah, you don’t like it either,
señorita?
I am glad. Perhaps you can convince your father that no one need suffer any accidental harm. I admire your father, you know,
señorita
.”

“Do you, Señor Chavez?” Cait tried to keep her voice from trembling. She would
not
let this man shake her.

“Yes. He is a man who has worked hard for what he has. He has much that he would hate to lose or see come to harm: his land, his horses, his lovely daughter….”

Again his words were seemingly only a statement of fact. Her father
had
worked hard. He would hate to lose what he most loved. Any man would. But the undercurrent to Chavez’s words was so terrifying that Cait stumbled again and tried to pull herself out of Chavez’s arms.

“Oh, no,
señorita
, our waltz isn’t over yet,” he said as he held her tight.

* * * *

Gabe had kept himself away from Caitlin Burke after their first dance. She had felt so right in his arms as he swung her around and their bodies had seemed to fit together perfectly as they’d walked through the ‘promenade call.’ He was a fool to be thinking of her. Even if she wasn’t engaged to be married, she was still his employer’s daughter and he the hired hand.

Of course, to keep away from her he had to know where she was. All evening he had been very aware of her, even when he was flirting with one of the Wilson girls. When Ramon struck up his waltz and Gabe saw Chavez make his move, he abandoned all thoughts of finding himself a partner and stood watching as they danced.

At first, it seemed as if it was harmless enough. Miss Burke had a polite smile on her face and while Gabe didn’t think she was enjoying the dance very much, neither did she seem uncomfortable. Then he saw her stumble as Chavez leaned forward to speak to her. Her smile disappeared and Gabe could tell from the way she stiffened in the Mexican’s arms that she was trying to control her reaction to whatever he was saying.

He saw Henry with a look of helpless dismay on his face, standing on the other side of the dance floor, holding two glasses of punch. Michael was nowhere to be seen. Gabe didn’t think about it, he just made his way over to them and tapped Chavez on the shoulder, saying, “I haven’t had a waltz with Miss Burke all night. I wonder if y’all would mind if I cut in?”

Chavez looked at him with those green eyes that revealed nothing and then down at the trembling woman in his arms. “
Muchas gracias,
Señorita Burke. It was a great pleasure to dance with you,” he said softly and moved off the dance floor.

Gabe put his arm gently around Cait’s waist and taking her hand, wove his fingers through hers without even thinking about it. He could feel her trembling and when she lifted her eyes to his, he could see the mixture of fear and relief. He almost left her there to go after Chavez and beat him senseless for frightening her. He said nothing at first, merely guided her through the waltz, letting the music reach her and relax her.

Cait was shaken to her core. Despite the overt matter-of-factness in his manner, she knew Chavez had been threatening her Da through her. She had never feared anyone before, but Chavez had terrified her. Had he blustered or more obviously bullied, she could have responded. But his subtle innuendoes and the emotionless, cool tone were better weapons than she had encountered before. She had seen Henry standing helplessly by the refreshment table and hadn’t seen her parents at all, so she’d had no hope of rescue. When she had heard Gabe Hart’s soft Texas drawl, she had wanted to fling herself into his arms. Thank God, she hadn’t. She had listened to the music, followed his lead, and let the strains of the guitar and mandolin carry her until her shivering stopped and she could finally look up at her rescuer.

She had found herself gazing into blue eyes that were looking at her with such concern and sympathy that she could have cried right then and there. She lowered her eyes, immediately embarrassed by the intimacy of the moment. It was as if she and Gabe had seen into each other’s souls and for a fleeting second of time she felt closer to him than she felt to anyone on earth. Not even with Henry had she experienced such vulnerability.

“I can’t thank you enough, Mr. Hart,” she whispered so low that Gabe had to lower his head next to hers to hear her. The feeling of his breath on her cheek made her shiver again.

“It looked to me like Chavez was making you mighty uncomfortable, Miss Burke,” Gabe drawled.

“He was awful,” she said, a sudden surge of anger bringing her back to her old self.

“Was he threatening you?”

“Not directly. So very subtly that one could hardly call it a threat. It is not the words he uses, but his tone and those cold eyes of his. He is very good at what he does, Mr. Hart,” she continued with a bitter little laugh. “I can now understand why people have sold out to Mackie.”

Gabe said nothing but she could feel his hand press gently against the small of her back and the warmth from his hand radiated through her. She took a deep breath and said: “I don’t know what do to, Mr. Hart. If I tell my Da, he will want to go after Chavez. But if I don’t tell him….”

“I think it best not to, Miss Burke. For now, it is only words and your father is already on his guard. Now it is you that must be on yours.”

“I think you are right,” said Cait as Ramon struck the last chord of the waltz. “For now anyway.”

The other couples were moving off the dance floor, but Gabe and Cait still stood there. His arm was no longer around her waist but their fingers were still interlaced and it was only when Henry came rushing over that they both seemed to realize it and let go.

“Cait, I am so sorry. I could not get over to you to stop that devil. Did he bother you at all?”

“He only said a few words to me, Henry.” Which was the truth, she thought ruefully. He didn’t need very many. “Truly, it is nothing to be concerned about. And Mr. Hart here came to my rescue.”

“Yes, I saw that,” Henry replied gratefully. “Thank you very much, Hart, for taking care of my fiancée when I couldn’t.”