Out of Control (24 page)

“I'll make the meal.”

Ethan heaved a sigh of relief. She was going to obey. He sent a short prayer of thanksgiving to heaven.

“But this is not settled, Rafe.”

Ethan had breathed too soon.

“Not even close to being settled.” Julia slashed with a pointy finger almost as well as Rafe did with his voice. “Your brother is a
menace
. If he left me in that cavern, stole my rope, stranded me there and never came back, then he's a danger to me, to Audra, to Maggie, and probably to you and Ethan. He is
not
going to live in
my
house.”

“Rafe, when are we going to go home?” Seth suddenly turned away from Julia and looked around the valley. “This isn't home. I need you to help me find my way home.”

There wasn't going to be a wedding.

Taking care of family was Rafe's first purpose in life. Rafe had been willing to let Ethan run the ranch, though Ethan knew, even if no one else did, that Rafe would be in charge from miles away.

But leave Seth? When Seth was in such need?

No. Rafe wasn't capable of that.

Ethan saw Rafe's chance for happiness slipping away.

If things went as they probably would, Rafe would choose Seth over Julia. Which left the women alone and helpless. Ethan's eyes went to Audra, and he considered that someone needed to care for them.

It might not happen today. Or even this week. But Rafe was going to figure out very soon that Julia and Seth could not live under one roof. Which meant Julia was out. Which left Ethan with a choice to make about Audra.

Ethan did his best to not leap to his feet and run away screaming. The only reason he didn't was because no one had actually turned the care of the leaky-eyed women over to him yet.

But he saved the idea of running and screaming for later, pretty sure he'd need it.

It was all Julia could do not to run away screaming.

Rafe had a couple of marks against him when it came to being a husband.

He didn't love her. That was a huge mark.

He was far too bossy. And she liked being in charge herself—it would take a while to teach him that.

He didn't respect the work she was so passionate about. Which made her seriously question his intelligence. Any reasonable person should be able to see that fossils were important.

He came with a brother who met every situation by grinning like a mule eating saw briars.

Okay, that was more than a couple. But she'd decided she could handle all of that.

But living in the same house as a madman? A furry, stinking madman? It was too much. Worse yet, letting Audra and two babies live with him.

Who knew what the lunatic might do? She began filling the cook pot with water, emptying the canteens and tossing them toward Rafe with a little more force than necessary.

“Take these with you and refill them.” Issuing orders gave her tremendous satisfaction. “And for heaven's sake, fill them before you let your brother in that stream. He's so filthy he'll foul the water.”

“Hey!” Seth scowled. At least from his tone she assumed he scowled. She couldn't really see much through the pelt on his face. Well, good. Why should she be the only one scowling.

But considering he appeared to be furiously mad, it was a wonder the man had the sense to be offended.

“Rafe, take your brother and get him cleaned up. Give him your outer shirt to wear so he's somewhat decent. He needs clean pants, too, but we're fresh out.” The ones he had on were so torn they barely covered enough to be called decent.

“He needs a bar of soap.” Julia pulled out the soap she'd brought along to wash the cook pot and slapped it into Rafe's hands.

Julia turned to Ethan. “Go with your brothers.” There was no real reason to send Ethan other than she was heartily sick of the whole Kincaid family. Including the one she intended to marry. “I'll get a fire started and the stew on.”

Ethan gave her a tiny salute. He'd done that to Rafe before, mocking his big brother for issuing orders. Julia had found his insubordination amusing then. But this was different. Julia was only telling these men everything that had to be done.

And done her way.

And done
now
.

She decided she could learn to loathe this charming, grinning fool who never took anything seriously. Except of course he was serious about staying out of the cavern, the one thing she wished Ethan
wasn't
serious about. The idiot.

“Audra, I've got to gather sticks for a fire, but I won't go far.” She looked at Audra, who had to be overwhelmed with her burdens and certainly stunned with Seth's behavior and scent.

“I'm fine, Julia.”

“You keep an eye on him, Rafe.” Julia looked at Rafe so hard, a wise man would have backed up a step. Of course, Rafe didn't budge. “I know you love your brother. But I'm not even close to loving him, and I sure as certain don't
trust
him. So it's on your head.” She pointed at him and almost jabbed him in the nose. “You make sure he doesn't hurt anyone.”

“Now, don't go acting all fussy, little darlin', just because—”

“We. Will. Discuss. This. Later.” Julia pointed at the stream. “Go.”

She spun away from Rafe and strode toward a slightly larger stand of trees about twenty yards away. She could see considerable dead wood lying on the ground. She gathered an armload of sticks and carried them back.

Julia busied herself breaking off branches with sharp snapping energy. When the men were well out of earshot, she said, “What are we going to do, Audra?”

Tears welled up unexpectedly. Julia had done more crying since she'd met Rafe Kincaid than she'd done in her whole life. Of course, she'd been stranded in a cave and her father had died—not that she'd cried over him, but it had been a trying time.

“Can you put out the blanket so I can lay Maggie down?” Audra asked.

Julia hurried to help, doing her best to keep her brimming eyes turned away from Audra. When she was done, and Maggie was settled into her nap, Audra rose.

“I had no idea you went through something so terrible in that cavern, Julia.” Audra drew Julia into her arms, and for just a few seconds, Julia forgot Audra was the fragile one. They hugged and Julia got her tears under control without letting them fall.

Audra wasn't a hugger. Or maybe that wasn't fair. First they'd been strangers. Then Audra had been fat with a baby. Then they'd both showered their love on Maggie, and before she knew it, Audra started getting fat again. Even now, hugging was pretty awkward.

With her emotions under control, Julia went back to building the fire. “We've been very busy since it happened. There hasn't been time to talk it through.” That wasn't strictly true. Julia just hadn't bothered to go into unpleasant details because she didn't want to add to Audra's worries.

“Seth didn't hurt me. He frightened me. Maybe if I'd just gone up and talked to the man . . .” Julia shook her head. “But I didn't like the way he . . . moved. He didn't come walking up to me. He—he followed me. I heard footsteps. I stopped and the footsteps stopped. I called out. He didn't answer. When I called out louder, he . . . There was something. It was frightening. I think he laughed. Except it echoed. Maybe he didn't laugh. Maybe my voice was echoing back at me. Or maybe it . . . I thought . . . I don't know. I put out my lantern and ran. Then I hit my head. I must have been unconscious, but I have no idea how long. I suppose I was so utterly silent, he couldn't find me in the dark. When I woke up, I was so turned around. I went the way I thought was back toward the cavern opening, but the sun had set by then, so there was no light to guide me. That's when I called out for help.”

“When you screamed for help, you mean?”

Julia nodded.

“Oh, Julia, I'm so sorry you were frightened. I know how you love your hikes. You've never talked much about your explorations. I don't quite understand your fascination with fossils and rocks. I was never much of a student. I'm not very smart.”

Julia turned to Audra. “You are smart. You've let your father and my father tell you how stupid you are, but you love to read. I'm so sorry we don't have any books other than the Bible and—”

“The Bible's enough.”

“I was going to say other than the Bible and my books and scientific journals.” Julia smiled. “I know you love the Bible. But the journals, well, they're not for everyone. But if you could just read more about the fossils, I know you'd love them as much as—”

Audra's hand came up to halt Julia from launching into her favorite topic. “Let's don't start that right now. Fossils hold no interest for me. I'm sorry, but when you start talking about them, it just gives my mind permission to wander and I start worrying about you and the caves, and I just don't think you should be in them. And now this happens. Julia, what if something happened to you?”

“You'd be fine. Now that the Kincaids are helping us, they'd take care of you.”

“Stop!” Audra shouted so loud, the sleeping baby jumped. “I don't worry about
myself
when you put yourself in danger. What kind of selfish person must you think I am? I'm talking about loving you. Yes, I'd feel terrible if I lost my daughter and sister and the best friend I've ever had. But I'm worried about
you
, not myself.”

Audra launched herself into Julia's arms. And Julia remembered anew why she'd never told Audra much about her fossil hunting. Audra tended to worry.

Julia hugged her for a long time. When Audra finally eased up her stranglehold, Julia pulled back and put both hands firmly on Audra's shoulders. Audra was ashen, but her eyes were direct. And strong. Julia realized that Audra was strong inside, where it really counted. And maybe, because Julia had it in mind to take all the physical burdens from Audra's frail shoulders, she'd also taken all the emotional burdens and even the mental burdens. No wonder Audra thought she wasn't smart. Everyone, including Julia, treated her like she was a fragile . . . What had Audra said? A fragile hothouse rose that would break off in a brisk wind. And that was a mistake. A mistake Julia was going to rectify. She needed Audra's help.

“Wait a minute.” Julia let go of Audra and stood straight, her spine stiffened, her spirits lifted. “Rafe's been worried about the cavern being dangerous, but that was mainly because of Seth moving my rope so I couldn't get out.”

Julia turned to the cave opening right behind her. “With Seth found, we won't need to post a guard. I can go in alone. Now that I don't need a rope, I can always get out.” Julia thought of that oddly broken floor. How did one know if stone might crack underfoot? But Julia could take precautions for that somehow. Her heart lightened then as she realized it was safe to go in the cavern again.

As horrible and mad as Seth Kincaid appeared to be, finding him and hopefully bringing him to his senses, or at the very least sending him off to the Kincaid Ranch, cleared the way for her to resume her explorations. Even better, Seth had run along the edges of that pit. If he could do it, she could do it, too. She'd found a back door to that beautiful cavern so she couldn't be stranded down there.

Suddenly she realized that she was having a very good day. She looked to see the men disappear beyond a stand of trees.

Bathing that pig Seth, who Rafe seemed to think was going to be moving into their house—
hah!
—ought to take days. She could at least go back to the hole and see how Seth had gone across. She could take a lantern—

A hand clamped on her wrist. “Don't even think of going in there, Julia.”

Julia realized she'd already started toward the cave.

Audra's grip tightened.

And there was fear in her eyes.

Julia patted her sweet little stepmother on the arm. “You're right. Of course I won't go in there.”

She wanted to go in there something fierce.

“Weren't you supposed to start dinner?” Audra's tone almost sounded like she was giving an order.

That would be different.

Julia found she didn't like taking orders from Audra any more than she did from Rafe. But it didn't matter. The stew needed attention. Something
always
needed her attention. Frustrated, Julia nodded hard, trying to shake the idea of exploring that cavern.

Frustrated by the endless duties that kept her from exploring, she built the kindling into a fire and built her resentment right along with it.

She'd make stew. Stupid boring stew. Feed this crowd while epic discoveries, only steps away, went unexplored.

Bah! Stew.

She pulled some jerky out of the supply bag and started shaving it into the still-cold water as flames grew and crackled and licked at the pot.

The cave seemed to call to her. Taunt her. A look across the valley showed no sign of the men. They were probably going for a swim. Rafe could help his little itsy-bitsy baby brother take a bath. The fire needed stoking.