Cowboy For Hire

by Duncan, Alice

  She hugged herself. Charlie wished she’d let him do that for her. “I just love seeing all the stars and the moon like this, out in the open. As much as I love Pasadena, the stars get tangled up in the orange trees sometimes. The vista’s much vaster out here on the desert.”

  “Orange trees are nice,” Charlie muttered, since he couldn’t think of anything more intelligent to say.

  “Oh, yes, they’re lovely. And the fragrance of orange blossoms must be the most intoxicating one in the world.”

  Charlie wouldn’t know about that, having had little experience with oranges or their blossoms. Amy’s own personal fragrance intoxicated him more than any other ever had. “I’ll bet,” he said, in order to be saying something.

  She looked up at him quickly. “Haven’t you ever smelled orange blossoms?”

  He gave a little shrug. “At my sister’s wedding. I think she had orange blossoms. Um, I think I remember them smelling nice.” He remembered no such thing, but feared Amy would discard him as a worthless piece of nothing if he admitted it.

  “Oh, you must come to my uncle’s health spa in April. There are huge groves of orange trees surrounding it, and the fragrance is heavenly.”

  “Must be.” Charlie cleared his throat. “Um, Amy, I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

  “You have?” Again, she glanced up at him. He couldn’t see the color of her eyes, but he could see the sparkle in them, and his heart gave an enormous twang, not unlike a banjo string being plucked hard.

  “Yup.” Oh, great, his mouth had dried out and his lips were sticking to his teeth. Not exactly romantic. He swallowed and blundered on. “Um, you see, it’s like this….” It’s like what?

  “Yes?” Her voice was as sweet as the putative orange blossoms.

  “Um, well, you know, I ‘m fairly well set up in the world.”

  The pause that ensued after this piece of information seemed to drag on into infinity. Charlie figured he was being fanciful, although it was a mighty long space of silence.

  Evidently, Amy felt it, too, because she said after a moment, “I’m glad for you. It must give you a grand sense of security to know that you’re well set up.”

  “Yeah. It does.” He shuffled and jammed his hands into the pockets of his new dress pants. If Karen Crenshaw saw him, she’d probably have an apoplectic attack. “Look, Amy, I can support a wife and family really fine.”

  She blinked. “You can? How nice.”

  Shoot, was he a lamebrain or what? “What I mean is … well, there’s the ranch in Sedona. It’s not only thriving, but it’s in the prettiest countryside God ever made. I don’t know if oranges would grow there, but it’s beautiful.”

  “Oh.” Amy looked confused. “I’m sure it must be. How nice.”

  “Yeah, it’s nice, all right. And you said you’d like to see it someday.” He spoke in a rush, and realized he sounded as if he were daring her to deny it. What a damned fool he was.

  “Yes,” she said. “I remember. I would like to see it.”

  “Well, then, that’s good.”

  “It is?”

  “Sure. Because I can take you there, and you can see it all you want.”

  “You can? I mean, I can?” Her expression of confusion was giving way to one of irritation.

  Lord, why didn’t somebody just come along and shoot him? It would be easier on him than this. “Blast it, Amy, I’m not saying this right.”

  “No?” She looked as though she agreed with him but was too polite to say so.

  “No. What I’m trying to tell you is that I can support a wife really good. We might not be rich. Not at first, anyway. But I’ve saved my money for years now, and I’m getting a bundle from working in this picture, and when I put everything together, I’ll be able to start a family right and proper.”

  She stared at him. “Er … I’m glad for you,” she said presently.

  “Dagnabbit, what I’m trying to say is that I love you, Amy, and I want to marry you.”

  Her eyelashes fluttered like a butterfly for a second or two, and her mouth fell open. “You … you what?”

  “I love you. I love you more than anything else on earth. More than my family in Arizona. More than the ranch. More than anything.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes.” He licked his lips, swallowed, cleared his throat, and fumbled forward. “And if you can find it in you somewhere to look kindly on me—the good Lord knows I’m not worthy of you—then I thought—mind you, it’s probably a stupid thing to think—but I thought that maybe we could hitch up together and have a pretty nice life.”

  “You did?”

  Out of words, Charlie could only nod.

  “You … you really love me?”

  She sounded incredulous, a circumstance Charlie didn’t understand at all. “Lord, yes. You’re the most wonderful female I’ve ever met in my life.”

  “I am?”

  “Yup.”

  “And … and….” She hesitated, as if she weren’t sure she should be speaking of whatever it was she wanted to bring up.

  Charlie, wanting to encourage her in any way possible, as long as she was leaning toward a yes, said, “Ask me anything, Amy. I want you to know everything about me so you can make a decision.”

  She lowered her eyes and gazed at the ground. “I don’t want you to think I’m a terrible, grasping woman, Charlie.”

  “What?” It was his turn to be incredulous. “You’re kidding me, right? I know you better than that, Amy. You’re wonderful. You’re not grasping, and you couldn’t be terrible if you tried.”

  When she raised her head, a crooked smile decorated her beautiful lips. “I’m not so sure about that.”

  “I am.”

  “Well, then, I guess I’ll ask.” She added quickly, “I don’t care about wealth, you understand. It’s only that … well, it’s only that I’m scared of being left like I was as a child, Charlie. All alone and without resources. I swore to myself when I was seven years old that I’d never be alone and helpless like that again.”

  Thinking of his enormous family and all of his brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and everyone else in his orbit, Charlie shook his head positively. “If you marry me, you’ll never have to face anything like that again, Amy. I can promise you that.”

  “Really? I mean, you have sufficient … well, resources … so that if the worst happened, I’d be taken care of?” She turned away with an impatient gesture. “Oh, that sounds so crass! I don’t mean to sound like some kind of gold-digging harpy, Charlie. Honestly, I don’t.”

  Good God, she was crying. Charlie was a man of enormous self-control, and he’d been taught proper behavior by his mother and father and a whole slew of interfering aunts and uncles, but he was a man nevertheless, and he could only take so much. “Here, Amy!” He reached out for her. “Please don’t cry, sweetheart. Golly, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” He pulled her into his arms.

  “I’m so stupid,” she mumbled into his shirtfront. “I didn’t mean to cry.” She gave an enormous sniffle. “You surprised me so much.”

  “Did I?”

  He felt her nod and heard a muffled, “Yes.”

  “I’m surprised you’re surprised. I figured everybody on the set must know how much I love you by this time. I can’t stop staring at you from morning till night, and I’m with you every single second I can manage. Shoot, I figured you might be so used to me by this time that it would only seem natural to keep me around forever. Sort of like a puppy dog or something.” He supposed that was pretty lame, but he was trying to lighten the atmosphere.

  It worked to a degree. She gave a watery giggle. “Oh, Charlie, don’t be silly.”

  “Is it silly?” It seemed like the truth to him.

  He felt her nod again.

  “So,” he asked after a minute of nothing at all but holding her and feeling her and listening to his heart whack against his ribs in the night. “What do you say? Do you need time to thi
nk about it?”

  She took a deep breath and a step away from him. He was loath to let her go, but knew he had to. “No, Charlie, I don’t need any time to think about it.”

  “You don’t?” He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad and licked his lips. “So, um, what do you think? Is it the worst idea you’ve ever entertained in your life?”

  “No, it’s not.”

  Lord, Lord. Charlie didn’t dare get his hopes up for fear the crash would kill him if they fell, but it looked to him as if she were smiling awfully prettily for a girl who was about to administer a death blow. He gazed down at her, holding his breath.

  “I would be the happiest woman on earth if we were to be married, Charlie Fox. Yes, I accept your proposal.”

  “You do?” Charlie hadn’t been prepared for failure, but he also didn’t quite know what to do about success. He was thunderstruck. Knocked cockeyed. Stricken silly. Bereft of speech and coherent thought. All he could do for the next few seconds was stare at her like a complete idiot.

  “I love you, Charlie,” she added softly, in her orange blossom voice. “I love you very much.”

  It was too much for Charlie. He couldn’t believe his ears. She loved him. She loved him? He stared at her harder, trying to catch her in a lie. He couldn’t do it.

  By God, she loved him.

  Charlie let out a whoop that could almost have been heard over the band and picked her right up off the ground. As their lips met and the band played “I Love You Truly,” he kissed her the way he’d been wanting to kiss her for day snow.

  And she kissed him back.

  * * *

  For more than a decade, Amy had not expected a whole lot out of life. She’d never, for example, expected a thrilling romantic adventure to befall her, mainly because she didn’t ever want to experience another adventure again for as long as life remained to her. Alaska had been a sufficient adventure for ten lives. The most she’d dared hope for was a tidy and secure life with Vernon Catesby in Pasadena, California. She’d never really expected love to tag along with the rest of the package.

  But Charlie Fox loved her. And she loved him. And he could support her perfectly well. She’d probably never have the luxuries she’d have had with Vernon, but she didn’t care about them anyway. She’d never been so happy.

  “Oh, Charlie, I can’t believe you really love me.”

  “You’re joshing me, Amy. I know you are.”

  Laughing and crying, Amy shook her head. “I’m not. I can’t imagine why you’d love me. I was so scared when we first met, I could hardly get my mouth open, and I acted abominably, and I know you didn’t like me. You can’t deny it.”

  He laughed—a huge, open laugh that went perfectly with the huge, open spaces around them. “Gosh, Amy, I thought you were such a prude. I didn’t realize that … well, that you were protecting yourself.”

  Amy hadn’t considered her prim manners in the light of protection before. But they were. And Charlie had figured it out. What a brilliant, marvelous man he was. “You’re right. Oh, Charlie, you’re so wonderful. I love you so much.”

  “Now, that,” said he, “is what I can’t figure out. Why a beautiful lady like you would ever love a big lug like me.”

  “You’re not a big lug. You’re my own special cowboy.”

  “Ha! I’m not really a cowboy, you know.”

  “You’re not?”

  He hadn’t yet put her down, but Amy didn’t care. In fact, she’d just as soon he hold her forever. At present, he was carrying her to the hotel entrance, where, she guessed he aimed to take her to her door and leave her. She didn’t want to part from him this evening.

  “Nope, I’m a rancher. The cowboys are the hired hands on a ranch. They work for the ranchers.”

  Wasn’t that nice? Although Amy wouldn’t mind being married to a cowboy, as long as he was Charlie and his pay was sufficient to support a family, it sounded much nicer to be the wife of the person who owned the ranch. “That sounds so nice.”

  “What does?” He was nuzzling her ear and almost fell up the steps to the hotel entrance.

  “Being a rancher’s wife. Tell me about the ranch, Charlie.” She sighed into his arms, feeling loved and protected.

  “Well, it’s real pretty in Sedona. There are huge rock formations all over the place, and big canyons, and the sky looks like magic most days.”

  “Magic,” Amy breathed, trying to picture it. Her life had been deficient in magic, for the most part.

  “The canyons and rocks look almost like they’ve been painted, there are so many different colors in lines and streaks and so forth.”

  “Are there Indians around there?”

  She felt him shrug. “Oh, sure, but they’re mostly on the reservations now. They’re not a problem any longer. I’m afraid we’ve wiped most of them out altogether.”

  “Really?” Intrigued because he sounded unhappy about it, she asked, “Is that a bad thing?”

  “Well,” he said after a judicious pause, “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to run over an entire race of people like we ran over the Indians. On the other hand, we wanted to use land they only sort of skimmed over, and it worked out the way it worked out. I suspect the same thing goes on all over the world. A stronger civilization will overpower one that doesn’t have enough power to fight for its right to preserve life the way they live it.”

  Amy had never thought about the Indian situation in the United States along those lines, although what Charlie said made sense to her. She did not, however, aim to spend this particular night fretting about lost civilizations and murderous interlopers. “Is there a big city anywhere near the ranch?”

  “It’s not too far from a couple of fair-sized cities, although there are none the size of, say, Denver. Or New York City. Say, have you ever heard of the Grand Canyon?”

  Amy felt her eyes widen. “The Grand Canyon? Yes. One of my uncle’s inmates had some photographs of the Grand Canyon. It looked magnificent. I wish I could see it in person. And in color.”

  “Sedona’s kind of close to the Grand Canyon.”

  “Oh, my.” Amy could hardly take it in. Not only was she going to marry the most wonderful man in the world, but she was going to live in the most beautiful place on earth. “Do you suppose they’ll ever pass a law to protect it, like Theodore Roosevelt is talking about?”

  “I don’t know. I hope so. It would be a shame for people to go there and build buildings all over it.”

  “I should say so.” A sudden fierce longing to see the Grand Canyon assailed her. She’d never felt much interest in travel before. It must be that she felt safe with Charlie. If she went to the Grand Canyon with him, she knew she’d be protected from all harm.

  Somehow, Charlie managed to open the door to the hotel and push it wide with his back, stall carrying Amy. He’s proceeded down the hallway for a few yards when he said, “Shoot, I’m going to have to put you down. I can’t see to read the room numbers on the doors.”

  She laughed. “I’m sure I can walk on my own.”

  “Maybe, but I like carrying you.”

  Wasn’t that just the sweetest thing? Amy’s heart swelled so, it felt as if it might burst from happiness.

  The hall was dark, and when he set her gently on the hall runner, they both had to squint to see the room numbers. “Um, does that look like a six to you?” she asked at one point.

  Charlie leaned over and peered closely at the number on the door. “I’m not sure. Do you have your key?”

  “Yes, but I’ll be the keys are all the same.”

  He chuckled. “You’re probably right. If we open the door and it’s not your room, there might be trouble.”

  “What a dreadful thought.” She smiled, though. She couldn’t help it.

  “Let’s see if there’s a number on any of the other doors.” He inched through the darkness to the next door. “I think this is a four. That’s mine.”

  “Well, then, this must be either a two or a six, don’
t you think? Aren’t all the even numbers on one side of the hall?”

  “Beats me. Here, let me try your key. If somebody’s in there and doesn’t like it, he’ll shoot me first.”

  “I certainly hope not!” Nevertheless, Amy fumbled in her tiny beaded bag until she found her room key. She handed it to Charlie and watched while he turned it in the loc. The door opened, and they both peeked inside with some trepidation. Amy brightened at once. “Oh, look, there’s the bag I brought. This must be my room.” They entered the room, searching for a lamp. Amy fumbled over to the bed and discovered a kerosene lamp on the bedside table. “Do you have a match?”

  “Sure.” He dug a sulfur mach out of his pocket, struck it on the heel of his shoe, and lit the lamp. The light revealed a pleasant, plan room with a large bed. He sighed gustily. “Well, here you are. I reckon I’ll have to leave you now.”

  “Do you have to?” Amy really, really didn’t want him to go away.

  “I reckon so.” He appeared surprised at the question.

  Pausing for only a moment to think about ramifications, Vernon Catesby, and her own sanity, Amy went on recklessly, “But I don’t want you to go, Charlie.”

  She saw his beautiful eyes open wide.

  “You, um, don’t?” He swallowed.

  She shook her head.

  “But … but….”

  “We’re going to be married, aren’t we?”

  He nodded. It looked to her as if he were having trouble speaking.

  “Well, then, I don’t think it’s improper for you to stay with me, at least for a little while?”

  It was absolutely improper, and Amy knew it. So did Charlie.

  He stayed anyway.

  Sixteen

  Charlie hadn’t meant to stay with Amy any longer than it took to get her settled into her room. He knew he should leave her, untouched and intact, here in her hotel room. He was a villain not to go.

  When she walked up to him and put her arms around him and began kissing him with all of the passion he’d always suspected lurked inside her, his resolution faltered. When she whispered, “Please stay with me tonight, Charlie,” he nearly fell over dead. When she ran her fingers through his hair, his hat hit the floor, and when she nipped his earlobe, he was completely lost.