The Reluctant Bride (16 page)

She pulled herself out of the daze long enough to realize the composition was perfect. There was nothing to correct.

She looked up, turned her gaze on him as he worked with Tardy. The scene before her was so peaceful, so wonderful, she was tempted to forget about the feud or his lack of respect for women. What did any of that matter when there was a chance to have such a man for a husband?

There was clearly a gentle, thoughtful side to Russ. He had taken a risk in turning to Tardy for help. The boy could have enjoyed spreading a bit of sensational gossip, but he was turning into a different person right before their eyes. People still made fun of him, but he had started to feel confident enough to make a joke of it.

It wasn’t just his kindness to Tardy that was changing Tanzy’s opinion of Russ. Though he seemed to be easygoing and soft-spoken when he was with her, there was a tension about him, an alertness that said he never relaxed his vigilance, never let down his guard. It was as though a shadow person stalked the room, ready to respond instantaneously to any threat. It was like living on the edge of a mountain knowing a rock slide that could destroy everything might start at any moment.

Maybe that tension came from having been in prison. It must be awful to have to live that way. She wished there were something she could do to make things better. It was hard to look at a man who was so nearly ideal and not feel she ought to do anything she could to make his life better.

She thought of Tardy’s statement that people would have to treat him better if she were his wife. She was startled by the immediate rush of excitement within her. She would gladly do anything she could to help people see Russ in a better light, but surely she couldn’t consider that a sufficient reason to marry the man.

Still, she couldn’t stop wishing things were different. She wasn’t fool enough to think Russ could be changed overnight by the love of a good woman, but she was certain that if he married a woman who loved him and was good to him, especially if it would make the people of Boulder Gap treat him differently, she would bring out parts of him that had been repressed, and he’d gradually become more fully the man he most deeply and truly was. The man who worked hard to make Tardy feel better about himself was a far cry from the lying, thieving killer people believed Russ to be. Tanzy didn’t believe two people that different could live inside the same man. One had to be false.

Which one was it?

Tardy looked up from his book. “He can read almost as well as I can,” he said to Tanzy.

“I don’t know a lot of words,” Russ said.

“You never forget anything. I wish I could do that. Maybe then Aunt Ethel wouldn’t think I’m an idiot.”

“You’re not an idiot,” Tanzy said. “You’re just lazy.”

Tardy grinned. “It’s easier than being smart. That way people aren’t expecting stuff of you all the time.”

“I’m expecting a lot of you,” Tanzy said. “Get your work ready while I talk to Russ.”

He must be wondering how she was going to react to what he had written, but his expression was blank when he approached her.

“There were no mistakes,” she said. “That’s remarkable.”

“Not as much as you think,” he said, his expression still neutral. “I had Welt go over it. I wasn’t as clever as I thought,” he said when she didn’t respond. “He’s known for years I couldn’t read.”

She knew she probably shouldn’t ask, but she had to know. “Why did you write something so personal for me?”

“I didn’t. I wrote it for myself.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Prison was the worst thing that ever happened to me. It also did me a lot of good. Writing that was a way of separating the two. It helps to be able to know that. It keeps you from being bitter.”

Tanzy decided she didn’t know this man at all. Neither did the people in Boulder Gap. The tragedies of his life had pushed something very fine and wonderful about him into the background. She hoped it wasn’t too late to retrieve it.

But who was she to attempt the task? She wasn’t going to marry him. Any woman who attempted to tear down the walk he’d built against the censure of the town would have to stay to make sure he survived.

“I’d better be going,” Russ said. “The children will be here before long.”

She didn’t want him to go. She didn’t know what to say about what he’d written. It seemed so personal, so beyond her experience, that it would be impertinent to pretend she could understand.

“Will you be here next week?” She wanted to know if he intended to stop coming now that Welt could help him.

“Yes.”

“Will you write something else?”

“We’ll see. Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For not saying anything about what I wrote.”

“If you didn’t want me to say anything about it, why did you show it to me?”

“So you’d know.”

With those words, he seemed to turn into a different person. He was once more the confident, successful, unreachable rancher everybody knew.

He held up the book and waved it at her. “I’m going to finish it this week.” He grinned broadly before turning to Tardy. “Don’t expect people to act different. People are slow to accept change, even when they like it.”

Then he went out the front door, almost defying anyone to see him and ask what he was doing there.

“I always liked Mr. Tibbolt,” Tardy said to Tanzy, “but I never realized he could be so nice.”

“Neither did I.” She wondered what he would have been like if he hadn’t killed Toley Pullet, if he’d never gone to prison, if people had liked him.

Asking such a question was as pointless as wondering what she would have been like if she’d been surrounded by sisters-in-law and dozens of happy, noisy, naughty nieces and nephews instead of burying her family one by one. Or how she would have felt about men if her father had treated her and her mother with love and respect. The accidents of their lives had shaped their personalities, and there was nothing they could do about that.

Or was there?

“What was Russ doing at the schoolhouse this morning?” Betty Hicks asked Tanzy. The woman was waiting outside for Tanzy to come out.

“You can go on home,” Tanzy said to Tardy. “I’m sure Miss Hicks will be glad to make sure I get to the hotel safely.”

“You will tell my aunt you told me to go if she asks, won’t you?” Tardy asked.

“Sure.”

“See you tomorrow,” he said and hurried away.

“I don’t know why you waste your time on that stupid boy,” Betty said.

“Tardy has a great deal of ability, and one of these days people are going to realize it.”

“You don’t know anything about people out here,” Betty scoffed.

“I don’t think people are very different wherever they happen to be.”

“Which just goes to prove you don’t know what you’re talking about. Now what was Russ doing at the schoolhouse? And you needn’t deny it, because I saw him coming out.”

“I’m not going to deny it. Anybody could have seen him if they happened to be down by the schoolhouse at that time.”

The schoolhouse was set in a grove of trees by the small creek that flowed around Boulder Gap. Anybody wanting to know who was coming and going at the schoolhouse would have to go well out of their way to find out. Apparently Betty had done just that.

“That’s Russ’s business. If you want to know, you’ll have to ask him.”

Betty looked more suspicious than ever. “What did you tell him to make him come here?”

“I doubt anybody can force Russ to do anything he doesn’t want to do.”

“You’re trying to get him to marry you.”

They had cleared the trees and were in view of the town. Tanzy stopped and turned to face Betty. “Everybody knows I decided not to marry Russ. In fairness to him, everybody needs to know he decided he didn’t want to marry me either. The only reason I’m still here is to earn the money to repay him for bringing me from St. Louis.”

“I think you’ve changed your mind,” Betty said.

Tanzy started walking again. “Why should I do that?”

“Once you realized what it was like to be a single woman out here, you decided he was too rich and good-looking to turn down.”

“I doubt you’ll believe this, but it was worse in St. Louis.”

Betty stopped suddenly, put a hand out to stop Tanzy. “I had a feeling that first day you looked familiar. Now I’m sure I’ve seen you. Maybe we worked at the same place once.”

“I’m sure we didn’t,” Tanzy said. “We may have passed each other on the street, but it’s more probable I look like somebody you used to know.”

“Where did you live? Where did you work?”

“Look, you’ve obviously confused me with somebody else. Now I need to go.”

“You won’t get Russ to marry you.”

“Since I don’t want to marry him, that ought to be a relief to both of us.”

“Russ loves me. He’s going to marry me.”

Tanzy knew she should have just kept going, but a demon of jealousy made her stand her ground. “This is really none of my business, but since you’re doing your best to
make
it my business, what makes you think Russ wants to marry you? I understand that he rarely comes to town and that he is never seen in any woman’s company. That doesn’t sound like a lover’s behavior to me.”

“Russ and I have been in love ever since we were kids. It near broke my heart when they sent him to prison. Everybody knows Toley Pullet thought he was a real slick gun hand. He’d already killed one man.”

“Why didn’t he marry you when he got out of prison?”

“He said it was unfair to condemn any woman to the hell he had to live in. He doesn’t come to town often, but when he does, he always comes to the saloon to see me.”

“Why did you go to St. Louis?”

“I thought maybe I’d meet some nice man, get married and have a family, but I didn’t meet anybody who could measure up to him.”

Tanzy hadn’t met anyone who could measure up to Russ either.

“So you came back hoping he’d marry you?”

“He would have if you hadn’t come along.”

“Betty, I don’t know what more I can say to convince you I’m not going to marry Russ and that he doesn’t want to marry me.”

“Then what was he doing at the schoolhouse this morning?”

“Not asking me to marry him, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Tanzy said, beginning to lose patience. “Now I really have to be going.” They had come to a stop before the hotel.

“I know I’ve seen you before,” Betty said. “I never forget a face. I’ll find out what you’re doing and put a stop to it. Russ is going to marry me.”

“Are you still deluding yourself that Russ Tibbolt will ever make you his wife?”

Tanzy turned around to find Ethel Peters had approached them. Betty looked angry as well as slightly intimidated.

“I love Russ and he loves me. He’s just having a hard time getting over being in prison and everybody hating him for killing a man who deserved killing.”

“Nobody deserves killing,” Ethel said severely, “not even one as shameful as Toley Pullet. There were plenty of witnesses to what happened.”

“All paid hands of Stocker Pullet,” Betty said.

“Russ had a history of trouble before the fight with Toley,” Ethel said. “I’m sorry he had to go to prison, but more sorry he came back.”

“Why?” Tanzy asked.

“He’s rustling. How else do you think he got all those cows?” Ethel asked when she saw Tanzy’s surprise. “He used to spend every penny he got on liquor; then he’d get drunk and get in fights. I’m sorry he had to go to prison, but the quiet after he left sure was a relief.”

Tanzy found it difficult to believe the absence of one man, no matter how noisy, could have made a noticeable difference in the nighttime atmosphere of Boulder Gap. Even more of a problem was how to reconcile the man Ethel was describing with the one who wrote that short composition. Russ had changed, something apparently neither Ethel nor Betty could understand.

“I got to go,” Betty said. “Good day,” she said to Ethel before turning to Tanzy and saying, “I’m warning you: Stay away from Russ.”

“She’s like that with any woman she sees talking to Russ,” Ethel said. “Now tell me what my nephew is doing when he should have been protecting you from Betty.”