Matt (The Cowboys) (13 page)

“There’s not a gray hair in your head,” Jake said, appearing to search seriously. “Are you sure you aren’t dying it?”

“If there are any gray hairs, you put the first one there.”

“Will gave her at least a dozen,” Matt said.

“I don’t have any gray hair,” Isabelle declared. “And if you don’t want to be boxed on the ears, you’ll stop saying so. Cole’s caught you another horse. Ellen and I are going to start dinner. If you’re not more respectful, you won’t get anything to eat.”

She turned her back on the men, linked her arm with Ellen’s, and started toward the house. Almost immediately her stern look vanished, to be replaced by silent laughter. “What do you think of your husband now?” she asked.

Chapter Seven

Ellen didn’t know what to think of Matt. The man she’d seen today bore little resemblance to the man she thought she married. He smiled, even laughed, and talked to everybody. He asked Sean and Buck about their families. He asked Cole if he could take Noah to see Drew’s horses. And though he didn’t indulge in outward gestures of affection, he obviously adored Jake and Isabelle.

Ellen decided something terrible must have happened to Matt to make him distrustful of everybody outside his family. She doubted he would ever tell her about it. He treated her with thoughtful kindness but didn’t show any inclination to take her into his confidence.

From the moment Will hoisted Noah on his shoulders, he’d become perfect in Noah’s sight. He dogged him like a shadow, asked more questions than one human could answer in a week, and sat next to him at dinner. Tess thought the sun rose and set on Matt. When she wasn’t talking about him, she was talking about Isabelle and the doll she’d given her.

Ellen’s whole life had been swallowed up in Matt’s.

All of which served to make Ellen feel more left out than ever. Jake and Isabelle had gone home after dinner. Sean, Buck, and Cole had departed a few hours later, leaving Will and Matt to finish up with the horses. They hadn’t completed their work until dark. It was only logical that she fix supper. Matt had offered to help, but supper would have been at least an hour later if she’d waited for him. Will’s antics kept everybody in a good mood, even Toby.

“You should have seen old Sawtooth trying to get rid of Matt.” Will was telling them about the first wild horse Matt had ridden. “It drove him crazy he couldn’t snake around and bite a hunk out of him. It just made him more determined to jump on him until he was dead.”

Tess wiggled a little closer to Ellen.

“Did he really try to kill Matt?” Noah asked, completely enthralled and drinking in every word.

“Sure did,” Will said. “Threw Matt twice. Tried to kill him both times, but the boys got ropes on him until Matt could mount up again.”

“I wouldn’t have gotten on him again,” Orin said.

“I would,” Toby said.

“He’d have killed you.”

“He didn’t kill Matt, did he?”

“You can’t ride as good as Matt, either.”

“I’m sure Toby can ride just as well as I could when I was his age,” Matt said, heading off an argument. “I’m just glad we don’t have any horses like Sawtooth in this bunch.”

“I was kinda hoping we would,” Will said. “I was looking forward to seeing Matt fly through the air, his butt facing the sky.”

Everybody except Tess and Ellen laughed, Orin protesting that would never happen to Matt, Noah wondering if he’d land on his head or his bottom.

Matt pushed back his chair and rose. “We ought to go see how the horses are settling in.” Toby and Orin jumped to their feet. “But first we’ve got to clean up.” Both boys stopped in their tracks, their disappointment easy to see. “Ellen and the kids fixed supper,” he said. “It’s only fair that we clean up. You know the rules.”

Neither boy argued. They started immediately to clear the table.

“You stay right where you are,” Will said when Ellen started to get up. “No point in offering to do work somebody else is willing to do for you.”

“Are you offering?” Ellen asked.

“I’m a guest.” Will handed his plate to Orin and directed a dazzling smile at Ellen.

“I would have thought you’d been here enough times to lose your guest status.”

“More than enough,” Matt said.

“I sacrificed my time and endangered my body to help you with those savage animals,” Will said with a wink at Ellen. “It’s only right that I take my ease while you clean up.”

Ellen couldn’t help but smile. She imagined Will’s looks and unabashed manner had gotten him out of a great deal of work in his twenty-six years. “Surely you’d help Matt out of brotherly love.”

“I didn’t ask him to go into debt to buy this huge ranch or saddle himself with two brats. If he had any sense, he’d still be at the Broken Circle letting Isabelle fuss over him. She likes him better than the rest of us, you know. He broods. Women are a soft touch for a brooding man.”

“I’m not a brat,” Toby said. “Matt says he couldn’t run this place without me.”

“If he didn’t have this place, he wouldn’t need you.”

“It’s worth the debt and the brats to get away from you,” Matt said. “He talks like this all the time. Now you understand why no one can stand him for long.”

“He’s just jealous because I know how to talk to pretty women while he stands around tongue-tied.”

“Matt doesn’t waste his time with girls,” Orin said. “He says they’re not worth it.”

Will nearly choked himself laughing.

“Thank you, Orin,” Matt said, “but I’m perfectly capable of putting a noose around my neck all by myself.”

“That’s what you said when Eugenia Applegate came sidling up to you acting like she got something in her eye and you the only one who could get it out,” Orin said, obviously unsure why his remark had caused Will to laugh.

“But he saw the error of his ways when he met the fair Ellen,” Will said, barely recovered from his mirth.

“No he didn’t,” Toby said. “He—”

Matt stuffed a dishcloth into Toby’s mouth. “As soon as we finish cleaning up, you boys go outside and start digging a hole behind the corral. I’m going to need a place to bury my brother after I murder him.”

Will, eyes dancing with enjoyment, jumped up out of his chair and crouched down behind Tess and Noah. “Save me,” he cried. “I’m too young to die.”

“A slow and painful death is long overdue,” Matt said without turning around from the dishes he was washing.

“You’ll take my part, won’t you, beautiful lady?”

“I think Tess is a little young,” Ellen said.

“I’m talking about you.”

“I’m not beautiful.”

“Not the fairest of flowers could dull your beauty, nor the brightest of suns. You’re—”

“She’s probably sickened by your drivel,” Matt said.

“Not sickened,” Ellen assured Will, “but finding it difficult to take seriously.”

“Don’t tell me no man has sung the praises of your beauty,” Will said, disbelieving.

“Surely the men who frequented your place of business were lavish in their praises.”

“The men who frequented the saloon were often too drunk to know what they were saying.”

“Intoxicated by your beauty,” Will said. He acted as though Toby’s hoot of derision caused him great pain. “I would be satisfied with a single smile.”

“Then why haven’t you been in the saloon to get one?”

He looked hurt. “I can’t tell. It’s too embarrassing.”

“I can’t imagine anything embarrassing you.”

“Watch it, Will,” Matt said. “I think she’s got you figured out.”

“It’s a weakness,” Will said mournfully. “I can’t drink, not even beer. One drink and I’m an idiot.”

“A short journey,” Toby muttered.

“Out,” Matt said to the boys. “We’re done.” Matt grabbed his brother by the shoulder. “You’re coming with us. I’m sure Ellen’s had about all she can take.”

“Your brother’s charming,” Ellen said, then felt herself blush. “A woman likes compliments.”

“Isabelle likes them, too,” Matt said, “but even she can stand only so much of Will’s palaver.”

“Defend me,” Will pleaded. “Tell him ladies prefer sweet talk to tongue-tied silence.”

“They certainly do,” Ellen said.

“You’re still coming with me,” Matt said. “I’ve got a temperamental mare about to foal. She gets savage when labor starts. Let’s see if a little of your sweet talk works on her.”

Ellen had to laugh as Matt pushed his protesting brother through the door ahead of him. “I’ll make him sleep in the barn if you want,” Matt said.

“It’s okay. I’m sure having to share the loft with Toby will calm him.”

“Toby’s a good kid. You’ve just got to give him a chance.”

The door closed behind Matt and on Ellen’s smiling good humor. She hadn’t meant it as a criticism of Toby though she guessed Matt couldn’t take it any other way.

“Why can’t I go?” Noah asked. “I’ve never seen a horse have a baby.”

“I don’t think she’s having it tonight,” Ellen said. “Anyway, it’s time to go to bed. We got up very early this morning.”

“I’m not tired,” Toby said.

“Well, I am, and I can’t go to bed until you do. Now run along and get dressed.”

“It’s not fair,” Noah said as he left the kitchen. “When I get big, I’m never going to bed.”

“I’ll be in in a minute,” Ellen said to Tess. “I just have to make sure everything’s finished.”

She said that before she remembered Matt kept house better than she did. She couldn’t understand why that should upset her. She didn’t want to spend all her time keeping house. She intended to use it making hats.

She smiled, remembering some of Will’s silliness. He was charming, but she couldn’t help thinking of him as a boy. Still, she wished Matt had some of his brother’s buoyant personality, his charm, his ability to enjoy life. She sympathized with Isabelle’s desire to find Matt a wife who could teach him to smile, but she didn’t want the job. She might have considered it if things had been different. He was so handsome it made her head spin, and he surely did not lack courage. She admired the way he had taken in two unwanted boys and made them feel like they belonged, but a woman didn’t marry a man because he was great with kids and willing to do his half of the household chores. She married him because he made her feel like the most desirable, most beautiful, most wonderful woman in the world.

As far as she could see, Matt barely knew she was alive. She was shocked to discover that she cared. She tried to deny it, but it was too late.

She cared.

“You sure this is just a marriage of convenience?” Will asked his brother.

“What did you think it was?”

“Exactly that. I’ve never seen you do anything a woman could interpret as admiration.”

“Then why did you ask?”

“Isabelle has got it into her head Ellen’s the one to save you from yourself. I told her she was wrong, but you know Isabelle. She never gives up hope.”

Matt heard the disgust in his brother’s voice. Will couldn’t understand why Matt still clammed up around women. “I know what Isabelle thinks, but we made a business arrangement. Considering the fact that we hardly knew each other, I couldn’t have asked her to consider it on any other basis.”

“Okay, but there’s no reason it has to stay that way. She likes kids, and you like kids.”

“And that’s about all we have in common.”

“You’re a great cook.”

Matt swore. “That’s not a recommendation for a husband, at least not in Texas.”

“I think she likes you. She watches you all the time.”

“That’s fear. She wants to keep an eye on me to make sure I don’t do anything strange.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Her employer tried to rape her, her customers couldn’t keep their hands off her, and now she’s stuck by herself on a ranch with a man she doesn’t know.”

“Surely she doesn’t think you’d try to rape her.”

“She doesn’t trust any man.”

“Hell, if she doesn’t know she can trust you, she doesn’t have any sense at all.”

“Once your faith has been destroyed, it’s hard to rebuild it.”

Will stopped and faced his brother. “Will you ever get over what he did to you?”

“I don’t know.”

“You thought Ellen might be able to help?”

“We got married because of the children,” Matt said. “If I hoped for anything else, it was just a dream.”

“You’ve got to admit she’s a pretty woman.”

“Prettier than I thought. I’d never seen her without makeup before.”

“A woman’s got to wear war paint if she expects to make enough money in a saloon to support two kids.”

Matt wondered if Ellen missed all the male attention she had gotten at the saloon. He’d found himself jealous of the way she laughed at Will’s foolishness, the way she enjoyed his company.

“She loves those kids,” Will said.

“Yeah. She was willing to marry me and live with Toby to keep them. There’s nothing fake about that.”