Sweetwater Seduction (39 page)

Chapter 17

Calico fever can be fatal to a man's bachelorhood.

T
HERE MUST HAVE BEEN SEVENTY PEOPLE GATHERED
in the town meetinghouse. It amazed everyone how simple it was for the ranchers and nesters to work out their problems when it came right down to it. Kerrigan was there to keep the conversation going. Felton was there to keep the peace. The wives were there, waiting to open their arms to their willing husbands. Persia Davis and Regina Westbrook were there, anxious to acknowledge the marriage of their firstborn children and to smooth the waters between the fathers-in-law when they learned that their children had become man and wife. And Miss Devlin was there to keep an eye on everything, her engagement ring secreted in her pocket until she and Felton made the announcement that they also had decided to tie the knot, at which point Felton would publicly place the ring on her finger.

All in all, there was a great deal of incentive to resolve matters, which led to at deal of compromise.

The nesters agreed to pull down the fences around certain water holes that would be used by the ranchers, and the ranchers agreed to keep their cattle out of nester fields and away from certain other water holes, which would remain fenced. There was to be no more violence of any kind. All problems in the future were to be resolved by a committee composed of three ranchers, Oak Westbrook, Rusty Falkner, and Cyrus Wyatt, and three nesters, Big Ben Davis, Bevis Ives, and Ollie Carson, and arbitrated by an impartial party.

Someone volunteered Miss Devlin to be the arbiter, and although there was some reluctance to put a woman in such a powerful position, there was no one else who both sides could agree would be as impartial as the schoolteacher. Despite her better judgment, Miss Devlin accepted the post.

Then the benches were moved to the sides of the room and the musicians began to practice a few chords. There was a feeling of such excitement, such merriment, that the room seemed brightened by more than lamplight. The chattering flowed in alternating waves of raucous laughter and clandestine whispers.

Men and women lined up on opposite sides of the room, as they had at the Halloween party. Only tonight there was an air of expectation, of excitation, of temptation, hovering over male and female. Because tonight it had been agreed the teasing and taunting would end. Tonight the long-postponed desire of wives for husbands, and husbands for wives, would come to fruition.

It was the sudden silence that caught Miss Devlin's attention and sent her eyes, along with every other pair in the room, searching for its source. She found it when she spied Hadley and Bliss standing in position for a waltz in the center of the dance floor. Oak Westbrook stood at his son's shoulder. Big Ben Davis stood at his daughter's side. Everyone in the room held their collective breath, wondering if the armistice was to end so soon.

Already feeling the weightiness of her role as arbiter, Miss Devlin stepped forward toward the quartet on the floor. “Is there some problem here?” she asked.

“This is between my son and me, Miss Devlin. No need for you to get involved.”

“I want his son to get his hands off my daughter,” Big Ben said.

Hadley kept his arm around a trembling Bliss, whose big blue eyes never left Hadley's face.

“I'm going to dance with Bliss, Dad,” Hadley said.

“Like hell you—”

“Mr. Westbrook,” Miss Devlin admonished. “Please watch your language. Now, I think Hadley and Bliss have something they want to tell you.”

Miss Devlin had thrown out a challenge, hoping Hadley was man enough to accept it. He didn't disappoint her. Hadley turned so that he and Bliss were squarely between both fathers. He held out Bliss's left hand, which lay across his palm, so both men could see the simple gold ring on her finger.

Miss Devlin saw the surprise in Oak's eyes when he recognized the ring on Bliss's finger, and the stunned moment when it dawned on Big Ben what the ring on his daughter's finger had to mean.

“You're married to him?” Big Ben asked his daughter. “Why you—”

Bliss put a hand on her father's chest. “We love each other, Pa,” she said in a voice so sweet and pure that it couldn't help but move both of the older men. Bliss dropped her chin to her chest and with lowered eyes said, “And I'm going to have his baby.”

There was a tender side to Ben Davis that Miss Devlin had never imagined. The big man gently lifted his daughter's chin and made her look him in the eye. “You were willing?”

Bliss's face flushed as she nodded once. But there was a sexual ardor in her once innocent eyes that, as uncomfortable as it made him feel as a father, convinced Big Ben his daughter had gladly become a woman.

“You treat her right,” Big Ben warned Hadley in a gruff voice. “Or I'll come after you.”

“Thank you, Pa.” Bliss hugged her father once, tight, then turned into Hadley's open arms.

Hadley folded Bliss into his embrace and met Big Ben's probing gaze. “She'll never want for anything as long as I can draw breath, sir.”

Oak cleared his throat and said, “I guess congratulations are in order, son.” He thrust out his hand to his son. “It looks like you've got yourself a lovely wife.”

Hadley took his father's hand and shook it, blinking furiously to stem the tears of happiness and relief that were burning his eyes. “Thank you, Dad. We'll be needing a place to live. Do you suppose—”

“Of course you can stay at the house until you get a place of your own built.”

Then Oak turned to Big Ben and said, “Looks like we're going to be related. How about having a drink with me to toast our grandchild?”

“That sounds like a mighty fine idea,” Big Ben said with a toothy grin.

“While we're at it, maybe there's some way I could help you get that house of yours rebuilt. I have some extra lumber and paint and nails sitting around going to waste.”

Big Ben stiffened. “I don't take charity.”

Eden held her breath, alarmed at how quickly things had gone back to being tense.

“Who the hell said anything about charity?” Oak blustered. “It's not charity for family to help family. Besides,wrong with me wanting my grandbaby to have a roof over his head when he goes visiting his Grampa Ben?” he said with an outthrust jaw.

A rueful smile grew on Big Ben's face. “Well, when you put it that way . . . I'd be pleased to have your help. What say we go have that drink.”

The two men left the dance floor patting each other on the back. Miss Devlin heaved a sigh of relief, and then one of envy as she watched Bliss and Hadley begin waltzing gracefully to the music that began playing.

She looked for Felton, needing the reassurance of his company. Bliss and Hadley were not the only couple tonight who were announcing a change in their relationship. Although she had changed her mind a dozen times during the past week about marrying Felton, she was determined, now that she saw Bliss and Hadley's happiness, to go through with it. She would make Felton happy. She would make herself happy. And they would both live happily ever after.

Her search of the room stopped abruptly when she saw Kerrigan. He was standing beside a stunningly beautiful woman with black hair and green eyes. She was wearing a sedate deep green polonaise dress that fit her like a glove through the bodice, revealing a slim, almost boyish, figure to the waist, and womanly hips supporting the layered pouf in back. Kerrigan was leaning down to talk privately with her, their heads close together.

Miss Devlin felt as jealous as a hound bitch with her first litter of pups. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to walk toward the couple, intending to meet this woman who was a stranger to her.

Before she got there, the woman left Kerrigan's side and walked away toward the refreshment table. “Who is she?” Miss Devlin asked Kerrigan, looking in the direction the woman had taken.

Kerrigan felt his heart begin to pound as Eden confronted him. “Who?”

“The woman I just saw you with.”

“Jealous?”

“Of course not!” She didn't want to ask again, but couldn't help herself. “Who is she?”

“A friend. That's all.”

“She's very beautiful.”

“Yes, she is.”

“Where did you meet her?”

“I don't want to talk about another woman, Eden. I want to talk about us.”

“There is no us.”

“But I want there to be.”

His voice was soft and seductive, and she knew she had no business standing here listening to him. “Don't do this, Kerrigan. I'm announcing my engagement to Felton tonight.”

“I want you to tell Felton you've changed your mind.”

“Why?” She searched his face, looking for a reason for him to say these things, afraid to believe what she hoped she was seeing.

“I love you, Eden. I want to marry you myself.”

Miss Devlin swayed, and he caught her before she lost her balance. Kerrigan hurried her into the small chamber that served both as the preacher's study and a place for the town council's executive meetings.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Miss Devlin cried. “You know how I feel. If I married you it would only be a matter of time before I buried you.”

“I'm going to quit hiring out my gun,” he said earnestly. “I'm going to buy a spread—there's land to be had around here—and settle down. I want you to settle down with me, Eden. I want you for my wife.”

It was all too good to be true, like some fairy tale. But in fairy tales there was always a witch, or a goblin or a troll waiting to step in and spoil things. She desperately wanted to believe Kerrigan was telling the truth, but she was afraid to trust him. “What made you suddenly willing to give up your gun and settle down?”

“You. I love you, Eden. I need you in my life.” He said it as if he meant it, and his dark eyes were tender and full of the feelings he spoke of. He smiled ruefully and added, “I realized you and I are fated to spend our lives together as man and wife.”

“Is love enough, Kerrigan? Is even fate enough to make you settle down in one place? How do I know you won't pick up and leave the next time someone comes looking for a hired gun? How do I know—”

“You'll have to trust me when I say I'm not going anywhere. I've found my paradise with you, Eden. Nothing can tempt me to leave it.”

She wanted to believe him. She wanted to be swept up in his arms and kissed until she was silly. She was afraid, but the past week of imagining a life with Felton Reeves had done its job. She wanted this chance for happiness. She wanted it bad enough to try and overcome her fear.

“I believe you mean what you say,” she said soberly.

Kerrigan took Eden's hands in his, looked down into her serious gray eyes, and asked, “Will you marry me, Miss Devlin?”

Eden grasped his hands and answered, “Yes, Mister Kerrigan. I will.”

He started to kiss her, but she put her fingers to his lips to stop him. “I have to find Felton and talk to him. He deserves to hear from me that I've Kerrigan kissed her fingertips, since that was the most she would allow, unable to believe the burgeoning feeling of joy that expanded his chest and made him feel light as air. “I'll let you go. But as soon as you talk to Felton, come and find me. I'll be waiting for you.”