Boots Under Her Bed

by Jodi Thomas

  The men were sitting down to supper when he walked in. Luke didn’t waste time. He told them every detail while they ate, and by the time the cobbler was served, men were tossing around ideas hoping to lasso a solution. A few left the table saying they didn’t have any idea what to do, but those who stayed gave it a try.

  It was late when he left to ride home. Luke had a half dozen ideas worth considering. All were long shots, but that seemed all that remained.

  For the first time since he’d left the cottage he let Callie completely fill his thoughts. Tonight he’d take the time to tell her how he’d been wrong about saying that she wasn’t his type. She was all he would ever want in a woman. He loved everything about her. The way she laughed and how she talked to all the birds and animals. The way she made love and never hesitated to say the words he so needed to hear.

  When he turned into the trees near the cottage, he was surprised the lantern was not burning on the porch. In fact, all the lights were out.

  Maybe she’d gone to bed without him.

  His heart stopped. Maybe she’d left . . . stepping out of his life as quickly as she’d stepped into it.

  Chapter 11

  CALLIE waited, wrapped in a quilt on the front porch as she watched the sunset blinking among the trees as if playing peekaboo.

  Luke had said he’d be in by dark, so she wanted to see him as he rode up. How could a man come to mean so much to her in just weeks?

  She’d liked him from the first. She admired that he was polite and never judgmental. He was kind and listened to her. They’d become friends and she’d learned to trust him and enjoy his company, but now it was far more. Love didn’t seem a big enough word to tell him how she felt. She wanted to beg him to stay. She wanted to truly be his wife and deep down she knew he wanted the same thing. He wanted her.

  Only, she feared if she let out all her feelings for him, she would finally convince him that she was as crazy as everyone said she was. When she’d said she wanted a real marriage, she was thinking about how it had to look to others. She never dreamed that a real marriage was exactly what he’d give her.

  If she didn’t show him how much he meant to her, he’d be gone and she might never have the chance.

  The back door creaked behind her and Callie smiled. He was coming in through the back to surprise her. He’d probably walk up behind her and swing her into his arms.

  Excitement wouldn’t let her be still, but she cuddled beneath the blanket waiting for his first touch.

  Seconds ticked by. Then her animals began to scurry and she smiled, remembering how he’d startled them the morning the kittens were born and they’d attacked him.

  Don’t slow him down now, she almost shouted, knowing that all he’d have to do was grumble at them and they’d call off the alarm. Even in the darkness, they’d know his voice.

  The prairie hawk let out a shrill cry and flew from the low branch beside the cottage straight into the open doorway.

  Callie stood, alarm climbing up her spine. The animals thought something was wrong. They were circling and growling like a mother protecting her nest.

  Then, from the blackness of the main room, she heard a hiss, a cry, a yell of pain.

  Her animals were attacking Luke. She dropped the quilt and ran into the darkness, wishing she’d thought to light a lamp inside. She hadn’t even lit the fire, thinking they’d do that after they’d said a not-so-proper hello.

  Another low animal growl, then a thump as if something had been kicked against a wall. The high, frightened screams of the birds filled the room as wings batted against cages they fought to escape.

  Callie fumbled with the matches, knowing she had to get light to the room fast before one of the animals hurt Luke, or worse, he fought back and killed one of them.

  On the third strike, the match flamed and a moment later light filled the room.

  Callie’s eyes focused on the bundle of fur in the corner. Checkers, her fox, was lying on his side as if he were a broken toy and not a living thing.

  She made it two steps toward him when a hand grabbed her arm and whirled her around.

  “It’s about time we had a talk,” a hard, familiar voice shouted. “Forget about your pet. We’ve got things to settle.”

  She shook violently, then tried to pull away, but her stepfather’s grip was iron. Like an animal, she wanted to kick and bite and fight, but he’d always been strong and the little reason left in her brain told her if she fought, she couldn’t win.

  He shook her hard, making her teeth rattle as he bruised his handprint into her arm.

  “Now don’t go all crazy on me, girl. I’m not here to hurt you. I just figured we need to talk. All you got to do is see the facts of what’s right and I’ll be on my way.”

  A ball of fur flew from the rafters straight into his neck.

  Thornville yelled, knocking the squirrel away but not before he’d ripped away an inch of flesh.

  “Damn,” Thornville yelled. “I’ll kill every one of your wild pets, Callie. Never thought your mother should have let you have them anyway. She always did spoil you. Never made you do one thing you didn’t want to do. Even if I’d had the time to teach you, she wouldn’t have let you learn the ranch.”

  Callie tried again to break the lock he had on her arm, but it seemed hopeless. If she pulled any harder, her bone might snap.

  He held his throat with one hand while he shook her again. “I’m going to shake some sense into you, girl, whether you like it or not. You can’t just go ruining a man’s life and think you can get away with it. And now you’ll drive this ranch into the ground, making all my work worthless as well.”

  She had no idea where to start with him. Screaming that she’d hated him from the day he married her mother seemed a little too far back, so she picked his last crime. “You threatened to have me committed.” The words came out higher than she’d intended, making her sound mad even to herself.

  He tugged hard and sat her down in one of the chairs at the dinner table. “I was just doing my duty as your father. You’re crazy as they come, girl, you always have been.”

  Callie closed her eyes. It was no wonder she talked to animals and danced with birds. He’d been telling her she was crazy for so many years she almost believed it.

  “I needed to get on with my life and it wasn’t like I was planning to take you out behind the barn and shoot you like you was a rabid dog. I checked into it. That asylum in Austin is the finest in the country. You’d like it there. They even said you could take a cat if you wanted to.”

  “You just wanted me gone off my own land.”

  “I worked it for years. I figure it’s more mine than yours, girl.”

  Callie knew if she could stay calm, she might be able to talk to him long enough for Luke to make it home. Thornville might be strong, but he would be no match for Luke in a fight.

  “I can smell that you’ve been drinking. Why don’t you come back when you’re sober and we can talk?”

  “I haven’t been sober since you ran me off my land. The sheriff, who’s been my friend for years, threatened to shoot me if I wasn’t gone within a day.” Thornville let go of her arm and dug his fingers into her shoulder. “He don’t know how crazy you are, or how determined I am. I’m not a bad man. I never hurt you, not once, but a person can only be pushed so far.”

  “You locked me up.” He seemed to have forgotten that.

  “It was for your own good. I couldn’t be chasing after you every time I turned around. I had a ranch to run.” He swore. “I still do. If I don’t take over here, that husband you found is going to run the place into the ground before he has time to get you pregnant. The few hands loyal to me tell me that he’s doing more wrong every day than right.”

  He leaned down behind her chair and looped one of her wrists with a leather strap. Before she could fight he’d caught the other wrist and pulled it into the tight knot of thin leather cutting into her flesh. “Now you just sit still, girl. This will
all be over in a while.”

  When she inhaled to scream, he closed his bloody hand around her throat. Lack of air made her still and she thought he might kill her right then, but when he felt her go limp, he released her throat.

  “I ain’t going to hurt you. I promised your mother I’d never lay a hand on you and I’m a man of my word.” He wiped the blood from his hand over the collar of her white gown. “What’s going to happen here tonight will remove all doubt about whether or not you need to go to that asylum.”

  Callie would have sworn that her panic could climb no higher, but it did. “What are you planning?”

  He scrubbed his face as if trying to sober up. “I ain’t got it all worked out, girl, but I’m thinking on it. The way I see it, I got two major problems. One, you, but you’ve been a thorn in my side so long I’m about used to you. And, two, that husband of yours. Nobody knows him, so I figure if he dies or disappears nobody’s going to spend much time worrying about where he’s gone.”

  “You’re not going to kill him.” She closed her eyes, realizing something worse than death might happen.

  Thornville laughed. “Hell no, girl. I ain’t going to kill him, but if I can just have a few minutes to think about it, I can figure out how you’re going to kill him. It makes sense, you know. Folks won’t even be surprised. Crazy Callie kills the only man in the state willing to marry her.”

  When she tried to scream, she only got out a squeal before he clamped his hand over her mouth. “Now stop that. You may not have to kill him, we’ll just tell folks you did. I’ve got money. I’m thinking if we offered him some, he’d take it and disappear. He don’t belong here. It’s not his home.”

  “He won’t leave,” she mumbled beneath the hand covering her mouth.

  “Then you’ll have to convince him. Tell him you’ve changed your mind. You don’t want to be married. Then you can tell folks he just left.”

  “And you’ll tell them I killed him.” Callie could see the future. She’d played this game with Thornville before. No matter what really happened, he’d spin his web of lies just enough to make folks wonder.

  “You’ll like Austin.” Thornville seemed to be trying to calm her. “I hear tell they have music in the asylum and you can learn to paint. It’s not like being locked in the root cellar. You’ll be happy there.”

  He looked tortured. “It’s my only option. I thought I could just let you live here at the cottage, but no woman is going to marry me with my ex-wife’s crazy daughter still on the property.”

  Callie might have felt sorry for him if she hadn’t hated him so much. All he’d ever thought about was himself. He was a hard man who knew how to do nothing but raise cattle, and she’d taken that away from him.

  The sound of a rider traveling fast drifted through the open door to them.

  Luke was coming home.

  Thornville leaned close to her ear. “Convince him to leave, girl, or the only other choice is he dies and I make sure it looks like you killed him.”

  She nodded and her heart slowly began to break in two.

  Chapter 12

  LUKE hid his disappointment when Callie wasn’t waiting for him on the porch, telling himself that maybe the rain had driven her inside. He could also hear the birds in the cages along the front window and wondered why she hadn’t covered them for the night.

  The worries of the ranch weighed heavy on his mind but all he wanted to do right now was curl up in bed with Callie. They’d talk the future out while he touched her. If he had to sell the ranch, they’d keep the acres around the cottage. He could work as a lawyer and they’d have a good life.

  Only she’d married him so she could stay on her land. Would she still stay with him if that were gone?

  He put his horse up for the night and walked toward the house thinking about loving his wife.

  When he walked in, he saw her sitting by the little table in her white gown and a quilt wrapped around her shoulders.

  “Evening.” He grinned, noticing her bare feet. “You already ready for bed?”

  She looked up at him with huge, frightened eyes. With a slight shift, the quilt slipped from around her throat and he saw blood.

  “What?” He made it one step before the barrel of a gun jabbed into his back.

  “Easy now,” a rough voice said from behind him. “She’s all right. That ain’t her blood you see. It’s mine. One of these damned animals took a bite out of me.”

  Luke turned slowly until he saw Thornville’s face. “What are you doing here?”

  The gun didn’t leave his back. “Why don’t you just have a seat across from your wife? She got something to say to you and she wanted me here to make sure you heard every word.”

  Luke knew the man was lying, but he didn’t want to do anything foolish. If Thornville fired, the bullet could go anywhere and might hit Callie.

  He studied her closely, far more worried about her than himself. She looked frightened, but she didn’t look as if she’d been hurt. “What is it?” he asked as he faced her with only the table between them.

  “I want you to leave. The marriage is over. My stepfather has convinced me that this is the best for all. You leave tonight.”

  Luke couldn’t seem to form words. He felt his insides caving in around his heart.

  Thornville moved behind her, still pointing the gun at Luke. “We’ve talked about it and, if you leave now, I’ve got a thousand dollars to pay you for your time. I’ll even take you east to the next train station. You can be on your way back to wherever you came from a few months ago and you’ll never hear from us again.”

  Luke didn’t look at Thornville. “Callie, is this what you want?”

  “Yes. You knew from the beginning. A thousand is only half of what you’d have gotten for the cattle, but then you only stayed half the time.”

  She was talking to him, but her eyes stared at the center of the table. It crossed his mind that she must know that the ranch was in trouble. Maybe she’d gone after her stepfather and made a deal with him. If the ranch was the all-important thing, maybe she saw this as the only way. After all, she’d married a drunken stranger to stay; maybe she’d made a pact with the devil this time to keep the land.

  Every part of him told him she was lying now. She still loved him. Only—he’d been fooled before by a woman and maybe he was simply too dumb to learn.

  He stood slowly. “I’ll go,” he said. “If you’ll say the words.”

  She didn’t move. The room was silent. Thornville might have coached her, but he obviously had no idea what Luke was talking about.

  “Say the words.”

  Finally she raised her gaze. “I’m the woman who loves Luke Morgan.”

  He saw it all in her eyes. The truth of what she said. The knowledge that she’d die if she lost him, just as he’d be dead without her.

  Slowly, he turned to Thornville. “I’m not leaving, but I’ll take your thousand dollars in payment for every cow on this ranch.”

  “What?” Thornville lowered his gun. “You must be as crazy as the girl. The cattle on this place are worth three or four times that.”

  “You built the herd. You take them. I’m sure the widow will take you back. You can graze them on her land and open range until they’re fat. The ranch belongs to Callie, but you’re right, Thornville. The success of this place goes to you. Take the cattle. Leave her land and we’ll forget you were ever here.”

  He moved closer to Callie and noticed her hands behind the chair. He didn’t need to see the binding. “Cut her free.”

  Thornville bent and slashed the leather. A moment later she was up and in Luke’s arms.

  “It’s all right, Sunshine. It’s all over. Howard Thornville will never speak to you again.” Luke met the man’s stare. “If he ever does, I swear I’ll kill him.”

  Thornville looked angry and lost, but even drunk, he wasn’t a fool. “Why are you doing this? The cattle are the wealth of this place. Without them this ranch isn’t worth mu
ch.”

  “I want the hatred between you and my wife to end here and now. When or if you ever mention her again, you’ll call her Mrs. Morgan and there will be no talk of her being crazy. If it wasn’t for her kindness and love, I’d have killed you tonight, but I don’t want another bad memory haunting her. Do you agree the bargain we set is fair? Take the cattle. We’ll survive and you’ll have your start.”

  Thornville nodded.

  “Then leave the money on the table and go. You’ve been paid in cattle for your years of work. Callie is no longer connected to you in any way. She’s my wife.”

  Thornville hesitated as if trying to find the hole in the bargain. “All the cattle?”

  “Every cow on the ranch and every one you come up with that has wandered off in the past few days.”

  “I’ll need the men to round them up.”

  “Hire the ones who want to work for you. I’ll not need them.”

  Thornville left mumbling something that sounded like he always knew crazy was catching.

  Luke stood on the porch, his arm tight around Callie as they listened to him ride away. All the fright and panic bottled up inside her bubbled over into tears and he never once told her to hush. He let her cry.

  When finally she gulped down one last sob, she whispered, “How’d you know I was lying?”

  “Because you couldn’t say the words unless you meant them. I could see it in your eyes. If you’d said them as you told me to leave, your heart would break.”

  He kissed her then and carried her inside. While he built a fire, she doctored her fox, wrapping his rib cage and laughing when he licked her hand.

  Without talking they ate a small meat pie Mamie had brought that morning from the cook. They shared a glass of milk and the last of a loaf of bread, then he carried her to bed.

  Finally, when the house was quiet and the door locked, they talked.

  He told her about how they could live on the thousand dollars and the little money saved while he began his law practice. “I’m not a rancher, Callie, no matter how hard I try, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be a good husband. We’ll keep the land. Who knows, one of our children might inherit the skills.”