A loud crash and a shaking of the floor beneath her feet startled her into jabbing a hair pin into her finger rather than her bun. She jerked her hand away. Every muscle in her body turned to stone as she sat, waiting, finger in her mouth, hoping against hope for a resumption of the shouting.
The floor shook again and she heaved a sigh. So much for peaceful solutions. She got up and jabbed the last hair pin into her hair. Dropping the pillow on the chair, she headed for the door. Her deal with Asa hadn’t included sacrificing her heirlooms to brawling.
She winced as another crash shook the walls. Damn Aaron! If he took advantage of Asa’s condition, he was going to have to deal with her. She hit the landing just as Aaron and Asa came hurtling through the study door. By leaning over the banister, she was able to save her Momma’s favorite vase from the table positioned below. The table was a total loss, shattering as four hundred pounds of angry male collided with it.
“Stop it!” she hollered around the flowers she’d spent a half hour arranging yesterday.
Her shout was lost amid the thump as both men landed on the floor, Aaron first with Asa on top.
“Don’t think they heard you.”
She looked up to find Cougar standing in the doorway to the study. An unlit cigarette rested between his lips.
“Why aren’t you stopping this?” she demanded.
His response was a shrug and a half smile as Asa landed a decent punch to Aaron’s face. “Doesn’t appear they’re through discussing things.”
She jumped as Aaron flipped Asa up into the railing. If they kept up this level of discussion, she wouldn’t have a house left. “They’re through.”
She tipped the large vase over, smiling as water and roses spilled onto the two men, conveniently landing in their faces and filling their noses and mouths.
As they spluttered and choked, she rested the vase on the railing and looked over at Cougar. “Do you think I have their attention now?”
His half smile turned to a full grin. “It would appear so.” His right eyebrow went up. With a dip of his chin, he redirected her attention. “At least, for the moment.”
She looked down to find the two men wiping blood and water from their faces, eyeing each other as if they were contemplating a rematch. “If you even think of resuming your previous unpleasantness, there will be hell to pay,” she informed them in no uncertain terms.
Asa’s resigned, “Aw, hell!” came on the heels of Aaron’s shocked, “Elizabeth!”
She ignored Asa and focused on Aaron. “Don’t you dare reprimand me for my language when you come into my house and pick a fight with a helpless man.”
“Helpless, my ass!” Asa growled.
Aaron stared at her, then looked at the blood on the hand he’d just pulled from his face. “Have you looked at me? This isn’t soup on my face.”
She refused to be swayed. “No matter how good an accounting Asa managed to give of himself, the fact remains that you knew he was injured and you picked a fight.”
Aaron wiped the blood on his pants, looked at Asa, and glanced over to Cougar who was all but doubled up with mirth. “You can’t believe I started this.”
“I most certainly do,” she snapped. “Asa is too intelligent a man to overlook the disadvantage his injuries present.”
Asa leaned his shoulder against the banister. She noted how gingerly he did it, and worried as he groaned and said, “I tried to keep it peaceable.”
“I’m sure you did.” She glared at Aaron. “I’m well aware of how hotheaded Aaron can be.”
“I didn’t provoke a damned thing and you know it!” Aaron growled at Asa, looking like he wanted to start up all over again.
The expression Asa turned on her was as eloquent as his see-what-I-mean shrug.
“If you didn’t start this fight, Aaron, how did it begin?” She shifted the vase more comfortably on the banister as she waited for his answer.
Aaron wiped his sleeve over his face. “I came over here as soon as I got your note. And, as soon as I stepped over the threshold, your husband,” he sneered the word, “started flinging wild accusations at me. Accusing me of shooting him and sinking the Rocking C.”
“I notice you didn’t deny it,” Asa piped up.
“Who the hell had time?” Aaron protested. “No sooner had you stopped throwing lies when you started throwing punches.”
Elizabeth turned on Asa. “Is that true?”
“Well…”
“I didn’t ask for prevarication. I asked if it were true.”
“Sorta.” Asa pushed a bit away from the wall, held his ribs and groaned.
Since she knew, if he were really hurt, he wouldn’t utter a sound, she ignored the blatant ploy to distract her attention. “You promised me you’d keep things civilized unless you were provoked,” she reminded him.
“Uh-huh.”
The glance he cast Aaron was full of frustrated anger. Her suspicions leapt to the fore. “Were you provoked?”
He shifted his weight and groaned louder.
“You’re wasting your time,” she informed him at his theatrics. “I’m not going to be distracted.” She tapped the vase gently on the banister. “Were you provoked?”
To her surprise, Aaron leapt to Asa’s rescue, making her instantly suspicious. “Now that I think back on it, I might have said a few things out of line.”
“That is true, ma’am,” Cougar spoke up.
She stared at them. All three wore identical expressions of sincerity. All three were suddenly united in a common goal where, just a few minutes ago, they’d been ready to bring her house down around her. What didn’t they want her to know?
“I don’t believe any of you,” she informed them.
All three had the gall to look shocked.
Something was definitely up, she decided. About the only thing that would cause Asa to do an about face was if he was protecting her. She looked at Aaron. A muscle twitched in his cheek.
She leaned her elbows on the banister and said, “You know, Aaron, the last time I saw that muscle twitching in your cheek and an expression that innocent on your face, you’d just told the teacher I was the one who’d put the frog in her lunch box.”
Aaron paused from wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth. “That was a long time ago, Elly.”
“Just goes to show that some things never change.”
“Miss Panetta liked you. I knew she’d go easy on you.”
“I’m sure, in your mind, that made it all right.”
“You only had to do a little writing. Me, she would have taken out to the shed.”
“And rightly so, since it was the fourth time you’d played that prank.”
“I didn’t like her.”
She sighed. “And you thought, if you could drive her away, we’d find someone you’d like better.”
“Yeah.”
“You always did think you knew best for everyone, but, for your information, Aaron, I liked Miss Panetta and didn’t want her to leave.”
“That’s probably why she stuck around so long.”
Elizabeth smiled. After all these years, he was still frustrated at not having his plan work out. “That and the fact she married up with the blacksmith.”
Cougar’s low laugh filtered into the room. “He wasn’t any more successful at preventing that than he was her teaching.”
Asa looked at Aaron. “Seems you have a habit of sticking your nose where it’s not wanted.”
“People don’t always know what’s good for them.”
“And you do?” Elizabeth asked.
Aaron folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the stair casing. “Did the blacksmith regret marrying the school marm?”
“I’m sure Miss Panetta’s marriage problems stem from things other than what a ten-year-old boy could foresee.”
“That and the blacksmith’s weekend habits,” Cougar offered, earning him a glare from Asa, which prompted a “begging your pardon” in Elizabeth’s
direction.
“None of that changes the fact that I knew the marriage was a mistake,” Aaron pointed out.
With equal confidence, Elizabeth said, “And none of that changes that I know you’ve done something I need to know about.”
Asa looked at Elizabeth, then at Aaron. He seemed to deliberate before, with a wipe of his hand on his pants, he came to a decision. “Tell her.”
Aaron glanced at him like he’d sprouted a second head. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
Elizabeth was about to argue when she noted the set of Asa’s jaw. She settled back on her elbows and amused herself by rocking the vase on the banister.
Asa plucked a flower from where it sat adorning his lap. “I have to disagree with you there.” He looked up at her. “You rescuing these?” She shook her head. He flicked the flower to the front door before turning back to Aaron. “The way I see it, I can either climb into bed with you by keeping your secret or I can cuddle up with Elizabeth.” He looked Aaron over from head to toe before sending another flower winging to the front door. “No offense, but my wife’s got you beat nine ways to heaven when it comes to things I admire.”
Aaron looked to Cougar for support as he said, “There’s no reason to upset Elizabeth with something dead and buried…”
He didn’t find much help there. “I can’t say I’m in a position to make a statement. Seems as both Elizabeth and Asa feel you ought to ‘fess up.”
“It was the only thing to do at the time.”
Cougar shrugged. “Maybe.”
Aaron turned back to Asa. “What would you have done faced with the same situation?”
Asa stared back. “I can’t rightly say, not being there, but now you’ve got to come clean.”
“Could someone please tell me what is so poorly dead and buried that Aaron’s still wrestling it?” Elizabeth asked with the last of her patience.
All three men stared at her. Of the three, she felt Asa’s gaze the keenest. There was resolution in his gaze that told her he was going to make sure she knew. There was also pain, which told her this was going to hurt. He got to his feet. Aaron followed suit. As she was standing one step below the landing, they were at eye level. Taking a deep breath, she mentally prepared herself. Before she could let it out, Asa said, “It was Aaron here who set Brent on you.”
She couldn’t have heard right. She glared first at Asa, then at Aaron before repeating the procedure. She couldn’t focus on either, but kept bouncing between reassurance and disbelief. She released her breath in an explosive, “What? But you said you wanted me to marry Jed!”
He glanced down and muttered, “That was after Brent turned out to be such a disappointment.”
The only word she could push past her anger was, “Why?”
Aaron reached out a hand to her. “You needed a husband, Elly, and you weren’t interested in the local boys. You wanted someone prettier with more flash.” He shrugged. “I wanted you to be happy, so when Brent passed through, I made him a deal.”
Her breath came in hard gasps. “You bought me a husband?”
“I made him a deal. Cash for passing on my orders and keeping you happy.”
She remembered Brent’s arrogance, heavy fists, and complete disregard for her feelings. No wonder he hadn’t cared. She’d truly been a means to an end. Spots of light danced before her eyes. She couldn’t get enough air into her lungs. Her words came out in jerky bursts of rage. “You spent six months traveling all over the place, picking out just the right stud for your precious breeding program, but, when it came to a husband for your best friend, you grabbed the first male wandering out of the saloon?”
“It wasn’t like that, Elly!”
She launched the vase at his head. He caught it and bent to set it on the floor.
“You couldn’t have ridden into Cheyenne to see if the pickings were better there?” she shouted.
She looked around for something else to throw. Asa obligingly handed her a couple of table legs. They bounced off Aaron’s shoulder and back.
He jerked upright. “Ow! Dammit, Elizabeth! Cut that out!”
“I don’t want to cut it out,” she retorted, looking around for something else to throw.
Cougar tossed Asa a book from the study. Asa passed it to Elizabeth. She heaved it at Aaron’s head. He deflected it with a forearm.
“Will you stop chucking things at me and listen?”
He took a step forward as if to grab her arm. She swatted him with a flower. She would have hit him again if Asa hadn’t gotten between them and slammed his hand into Aaron’s chest, sending him stumbling back a step. “Don’t you touch her.”
A sharp whistle was the only warning she had before Cougar lobbed a humidor her way. She caught it, but she couldn’t throw it. Not with Asa blocking her way with his big shoulders. Shoulders that were clearly squared for a fight.
She glanced at Aaron and saw the same itching need to exchange blows reflected in his face. “Get out of my way, Asa.”
With obliging quickness, he stepped to the left. “How could you do it, Aaron?” she asked, tightening her grip on the humidor. “How could you do that to me?”
“I thought I was giving you what you said you wanted.” He growled, running his hands through his hair. “I asked Patricia what women wanted and— Hell!” He threw up his hands. “Brent seemed heaven-sent. He spoke with fancy words, tossed compliments around like they were candy, and dressed Eastern.”
“You asked Patricia?” she asked in horror. Lord, did the whole territory know her best friend thought her so pathetic, he’d bought her a husband?
Aaron shuffled his feet, blew out a breath, then pulled his arrogance around him like a shield. His gaze locked somewhere over her left shoulder as he admitted, “I wanted you to smile again.”
“So you bought me a husband you thought would make that happen?”
“Yes.”
The humidor was tugged from her grasp. She looked down as Asa’s finger’s squeezed hers gently. She looked over at Aaron, standing before her. She saw the fear of rejection in his eyes as he stood there, pretending he didn’t have a care in the world. She remembered back to her youth, the times he’d stood by her. The times he’d stood up for her.
I thought I was giving you what you said you wanted.
Most especially, she remembered her whispering to him once that she wanted a prince in wonderful clothes who wouldn’t stink like cows, and who’d take care of everything so she’d never have to worry about anything again. She’d been so young when she’d told him her dreams. So young and ignorant of her own personality, but he’d remembered and taken to heart his promise to give her all that. He’d had to dredge the bottom of society to find the epitome of a fourteen-year-old girl’s dream, but he’d found it and gifted her with Brent. She sighed. Someday, she was going to have to get through to him that she was all grown up now and her taste had definitely changed.
“I can forgive you Brent,” she admitted. “Especially as I didn’t see through him either.” She doubted she’d ever get over the humiliation of that. “But what I can’t forgive is driving the Rocking C into the ground.”
Aaron’s hands clenched into fists, and even the curls on his head seemed to bristle. “I haven’t done a goddamned thing to the Rocking C!”
There was no mistaking the sincerity in his voice or his eyes. God, she was so relieved to be able to believe him. “But Asa said…”
“I was wrong,” Asa admitted heavily.
“Did I hear you right?” she asked
“I never said I couldn’t be wrong.”
“Not in so many words…”
He silenced her with a hard kiss. “You want to get into this right now?”
“Not particularly.” But later, that was a whole other kettle of fish. “But, if Aaron isn’t the one sabotaging the ranch, who is?” she asked.
“That’s what we have to figure out,” Cougar said, pulling the unlit cigarette from between his lips as he stepp
ed away from the doorjamb.
“And fast from the looks of things,” Aaron interjected.
“The look of what things?” Elizabeth asked.
No one paid her any mind.
“Elizabeth mentioned that Jimmy might bear looking at.” Asa mentioned, releasing her hand and putting the humidor away.
“He’s good with a gun,” Cougar offered.
“He doesn’t have a reason,” Aaron countered.
“Revenge is usually reason enough for most things.”
Aaron cocked an eyebrow at Asa. “And you think losing a job would drive him to killing?”
“That and my objections to his treatment of ladies.”
Never slow on the uptake, Aaron cut Elizabeth a sharp glance. “Jimmy was pestering you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe he got the impression that, being for sale, I was up for grabs.”
“Goddammit, Elizabeth!” Aaron shouted, reaching for his nonexistent hat before dropping his clenched fist to his side. “I did not sell you!”
“That’s a matter of opinion,” she said with infinite sweetness.
“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t come to me for help!” Aaron growled.
“Elizabeth has a real aggravating habit of thinking she can solve things herself,” Asa said, giving her hand a warning squeeze when she would have answered for herself.
“She always has,” Aaron agreed. He looked at Elizabeth and then at the tall man beside her. He gingerly dabbed at the cut on his cheekbone with his finger. Some of the frustration ebbed from his face as he said to Asa, “I assume that’s a trait you’ll be working on?”
“I’ve about got it under control,” Asa answered with irritating confidence.
Elizabeth jerked on her hand. “I’m not deaf and dumb, gentlemen.”
Asa didn’t let go, but his “Of course not, darlin’,” was immediate enough to set her teeth on edge. The approving look Aaron gave him finished the job. What was it about men that drove them into an instant fraternity when they had a chance to gang up on a woman? Three minutes ago, Asa and Aaron were looking to kill each other, and, now, they couldn’t be more united than if they were brothers.
Promises Linger (Promise Series) Page 35
