Promises Kept (27 page)

“Let’s not leave it at that!” he said louder than he intended. “I want to know what’s wrong with cowboys.” She didn’t make any sense to him. The men on his ranch were honest and hardworking, men to be trusted, no matter what. She’d just insulted almost every man he knew, including his own father.

“I’ve seen enough cowboys in my life that I know I don’t want one for a husband,” she told him honestly.

He shook his head and wondered if she was trying to make him angry. “If that don’t beat all. Every good man I know is a cowboy. Are you telling me you would rather have a man like that skunk Wallace?”

“I’m not telling you anything. As I said, it is none of your business what happens between Mr. Wallace and me.”

“Maybe not, but I’m making it my business.” He rose from his chair, took her by the shoulders, and gently pulled her from her chair.

“What are you doing?”

He glared at her. “I asked you if he kissed you.”

Even though he seemed angry, she wasn’t afraid of him, and that was a revelation. “This is not your concern.”

Colt almost smiled. He gave her credit for standing up to him. He didn’t know many men who would have her nerve.

“Has he?” he asked again, this time lowering his voice because he didn’t want to frighten her.

She tried to pull away from him, but he was having none of it. “He normally gives me a peck on the cheek, but today he didn’t.”

“I take that as a yes.” She looked into his eyes, but she couldn’t deny his statement. Holding her firmly by the shoulders, he lowered his head. When his mouth covered hers she didn’t push him away. Considering that a good sign, he pulled her into his embrace and deepened his kiss. It was a long, thorough kiss, and by the time he pulled his lips from hers she was clinging to him.

He held her at arm’s length. Her eyes were glazed and her lips were red and puffy from his kiss. He liked the looks of that. “Did he kiss you like that?”

No one had ever kissed her like that. She was so astonished she couldn’t even think of what to say, so she just shook her head from side to side.

“Well, that’s how this cowboy kisses.” He released her arms. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

She shook her head again.

“Okay, then.” He walked toward the door, then stopped and turned back to her. “Tate and I go to church every Sunday. We’ll be at your house in the morning, so all of you be ready.”

Victoria found her voice. “I don’t go to church.”

That surprised him. He walked back to her. “Why not?”

“I just don’t.”

“Why not?”

The man was impossible. “I’m sure Mrs. Wellington would be delighted to go with you, and she can take the boys.”

“Why don’t you go?”

She looked at him, thinking he was the most stubborn man in the world. He wouldn’t leave without a response, so she said, “I don’t believe that God listens to my prayers. And I don’t understand why people go to church and pretend to be believers, and then continue to do things they know are wrong.”

If what Gage Hardy said was true, she had lived a tough life for someone so young. He could understand why she’d lost her faith. “Why don’t you believe God listens to your prayers?”

She turned away from his dark, penetrating stare and looked off in the distance. “I used to pray, and prayed for . . . something, but nothing ever changed. So I stopped believing.”

He couldn’t see her face, but he heard the pain in her voice. “What did you pray for?”

“Nothing you would understand.”

“What if I told you I was at that point in my life once? Try me.” His voice was gentle, persuasive.

“One thing I prayed for was a home for the boys,” she replied, thinking that was one thing she would share with him.

He took her arm and gently turned her around to face him. She wouldn’t look up, so he put his finger under her chin, urging her to look at him. He saw the tears in her eyes, and he knew there was a lot more, but she’d trusted him with enough for now. “And you have a home for you and the boys. Sometimes it takes a long time for a prayer to be answered. I know. I stopped praying when I was young. One day I figured out I hadn’t lost my faith; it was just dormant for a while. I’ve been praying for one thing for years, and it hasn’t happened yet, but I’m confident it will.”

She wanted to ask what he prayed for, but he asked another question.

“Now what kinds of things do church-going people do that they know are wrong?”

She said the first thing on her mind. “Men like you who go to church and then visit those women in saloons. The preachers say it is a sin to be with a woman and not be married.” As soon as the words left her mouth she wished she could take them back. It was none of her business what he did in that saloon. She didn’t want to care.

Colt was caught off guard by her response. He’d never really thought about it that way. He saw himself as a man who had needs, as did most men. It wasn’t like he was taking advantage of anyone, he wasn’t married . . . the women weren’t married and they needed to make money . . . so who was he hurting? Priding himself on being a fair man, he really didn’t know how to respond to her. The first thing that came to mind was just saying the truth, “I’ve been in the saloon, but I haven’t been with Madd . . . anyone since I met you.” He mentally calculated exactly how long that had been. She might not appreciate the significance of that statement, but in his estimation, it was a long damn time.

Victoria was equally surprised by his admission, particularly since those two women in town hinted they saw him frequently. “You mean you haven’t seen . . .” She hesitated. She knew she should drop the subject, but couldn’t. “Not since I came to Promise?” she asked in disbelief.

“No, I mean since I met you in St. Louis.”
That should give her something to think about
, he thought. It sure gave him something to think about. He dropped her arm and walked back to the door. “I will pick you up in the morning for church.”

After opening the door, he added, “If Wallace kisses you again, he’ll answer to me . . . a cowboy. And don’t let him give any more food to Bandit.” There was more he wanted to say to her, and one heck of a lot more questions, but he’d pushed her far enough today. That kiss should keep her awake tonight, just as he suspected it would him.
So much for staying away from her
.

Once he’d walked inside the house, she came to her senses and wanted to yell at him that he had no right to tell her what to do. Instead, she sat down and thought about his kiss and how much she liked it, and why she was no longer afraid of him. But the real question was, why hadn’t she realized that her prayers had been answered? And what was Colt McBride’s prayer?

Chapter Twenty-Six

Wallace expected to see Victoria’s buckboard in town since she wasn’t home when he’d stopped by earlier. What he didn’t expect was to see her standing in front of the church with Colt McBride, talking to the preacher and a few townspeople. He jumped down from his buggy and pushed his way through the churchgoers.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded.

Colt had one arm around the boys and his other arm rested protectively on Victoria’s back. His black eyes bore into Wallace. “Looks like you’re too late for church.”

Ignoring Colt, Wallace directed his attention to Victoria. “I stopped by your place on my way to town, hoping I might buy you dinner today.”

“I’m sorry, but Mr. McBride is taking us to dinner,” Victoria responded.

Wallace could barely contain his anger. She hadn’t informed him she was seeing McBride. “I’m very disappointed in you, Victoria. I was under the impression we had an understanding.”

Victoria didn’t know what to say to him. She didn’t plan on seeing him again, but she hadn’t had a chance to tell him. “Understanding?” she repeated nervously.

“Yes, my dear. I’ve conveyed my interest to you and you didn’t object to my attentions,” he snapped.

By this time, all conversations around them had stopped and folks started gathering around to hear what all of the commotion was about. The people had already been buzzing when Colt walked into church with Victoria on his arm.

Victoria was trying to form a response when Colt spoke up. “Obviously, the lady has no interest.”

Wallace bristled. “Victoria can speak for herself. You can’t possibly know what passed between us. We’ve been spending a great deal of time together . . . alone. Now, Victoria, if you’ve been leading me on, say so at once.”

Colt didn’t want the boys to hear anything Wallace had to say, and he wasn’t about to stand idly by and allow the man to insinuate there was a romantic link between the two of them. He turned to Tate. “Take the boys to the restaurant. We’ll be there shortly.”

As much as Tate wanted to see Colt punch Wallace in the nose, he didn’t question his instructions. “Yes sir.”

Horrified that Colt felt it necessary to defend her, Victoria knew she had to say something before this situation got out of hand. She wasn’t going to allow Wallace to slander her character in front of everyone and not have her say. “Don’t you dare hint that we have done anything inappropriate! I certainly have not led you on in any way. I’ve considered you a friend.”

Outraged by Wallace’s coarse behavior at church on a Sunday morning in front of all the townspeople, Mrs. Wellington moved to Victoria’s side. “Mr. Wallace, remember where you are! This is a house of God! And lest you forget, most of your time with Victoria was spent in my presence, not alone with her. I demand you apologize immediately!”

Colt wanted to laugh. He thought he would be defending Victoria, but Mrs. Wellington, puffed up like a mother hen, was an impressive foe for Wallace.

Seeing his chance with Victoria slipping away, Wallace recognized he needed to back off. “It was not my intent to offend you, Victoria. I will call on you later.”

“No, you won’t.” Colt delivered his words with a menacing tone.

Wallace ignored the remark and walked back to his buggy. He would handle Colt McBride and Victoria. He would see to it that she never again embarrassed him by being seen with another man.

Lucy was headed to the kitchen when she spotted Wallace sitting at the poker table. This was her day off, but she wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity to make some money. She was confident Wallace would pay handsomely for the information Gage Hardy had revealed. Reaching the table, she leaned over and whispered in Wallace’s ear, “I have some information you might be interested to hear.”

After his encounter with Victoria and McBride, he couldn’t concentrate on poker anyway. Lucy piqued his interest, so he threw his cards to the table and followed her to an alcove under the staircase.

“Get me another drink first,” he ordered.

Returning with his whiskey, she started relating the story she’d heard from Gage Hardy.

Wallace sipped his whiskey, considering what she’d told him. That was some story, but he didn’t know if he believed her. If it was true, Victoria had played him for a fool. He’d believed she was a lady, not some tart who worked in an Abilene saloon. He’d lived in Abilene, and he’d frequented the saloon many times. He felt sure he would have remembered seeing someone like Victoria. On the other hand, he’d been involved with Kitten. She was another woman who had made a fool of him. Kitten was his favorite girl at the saloon, and he’d spent a lot of time and money on her. She left Abilene once without telling him, and it was months before he saw her again. When she returned, he was no longer enamored with her. He considered her just another woman not to be trusted.

He recalled how oddly Victoria reacted the night he mentioned he’d lived in Abilene. Lucy said Victoria wasn’t the mother of those boys, and now that he thought about it, she was very young to have boys that age. “I want to know who told you.”

“That doesn’t make any difference.” She was afraid he might have Hoyt Nelson kill Gage.

Grabbing a fistful of her hair, he pulled her face close to his. “Who was it?”

She tried to pull away from him. “You’re hurting me!”

“Would you prefer I choke the information out of you? Who would care? Do you think the sheriff will come to help you?”

She knew he could kill her and the sheriff would do nothing. But she was resourceful, so she asked, “Will you give me some money to get out of this town if I tell you?”

“Where do you want to go?”

“San Francisco. I’ve heard there’s a gentlemen’s club there looking for girls that are young and pretty. I’m thinking I can make a lot of money there.”

“I know the place,” Wallace replied. He had been to that club before and it was a definite step up from the L. B. Ditty’s Saloon. Lucy was pretty enough, and she might do well if she could learn to keep her mouth shut. “I’ll pay your way. Now give me the name.”

“Gage Hardy. He lived in Abilene.”

“When?”

“Four years ago.”

After overhearing the conversation between Wallace and Lucy, Maddie slipped quietly into her room at the top of the stairs. She could hardly believe the woman Colt had been escorting to the hotel that day had worked in a saloon.

Remembering it was Sunday, she walked to the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of Colt. Every Sunday he walked to the restaurant with Tate and T. J. after church. She pulled the curtain aside and peeked out. She didn’t have long to wait before she spotted him coming down the sidewalk, but it wasn’t Tate or T. J. at his side. It was that woman.
Is she the reason he hasn’t been with me since he returned from St. Louis?
To her knowledge Colt had not been with another woman in years. She remembered asking him one time if he courted any of the women in town, and he told her he didn’t want to create problems for himself, he didn’t want to risk being forced into a shotgun wedding.

She loved Colt, and because of that one-sided love she was foolish enough to harbor dreams that one day he would fall in love with her. She had known a few saloon gals who were lucky enough to marry customers, and that had given her hope. A few times she even hinted about a permanent relationship, but Colt always said he wasn’t a marrying man. She’d taken him at his word, even though one time he mentioned having sons. So she’d waited. And grown older. Now all of her dreams were crumbling because of that woman.