“Correction, von Heusen. I am not dead.”
Even in the dusky light that sifted down from the moon and the stars, Tess could see the startled look that flashed briefly across yon Heusen’s features.
He was a lean man, tall, spare. His features were almost cadaverous, his cheekbones sucked in, his chin very long and pointed. His eyes were coal black, and they seemed to burn from his skull. He sat atop his horse well, though. Jon had his repeating rifle aimed right at his heart, and von Heusen still sat casually, his hands draped over the pommel.
Around him were four of his men. He had about twenty hired guns on his place. Only four of them were with him.
Tess didn’t like it. He usually paid his visits with an escort of at least eight to ten.
It made her wonder where the rest of his men might be. Von Heusen found his voice at last.
“Why, Miss. Smart.
I am delighted to see you alive and well.”
” Like hell you are, von Heusen.
“That’s uncalled for, ma’am.”
“Be damned, you carpetbagging riffraff, but it is.”
“Someone ought to wash your mouth out with a little soap, lady. I just came by” — “You just came by to rob Joe of everything he ever had, now that you’ve murdered him!”
“You watch your accusation there, Miss. Stuart.”
“It’s the truth. You know it, and I know it. And somehow, I’m going to prove it!”
Von Heusen was smiling.
“I don’t think so, little lady. No, I don’t think so. You want to know what I do think?” He leaned toward her. It was just a fraction of an inch and he was still far away, but the gesture made her tremble inside.
“I think that this ranch was meant to be mine, Miss. Stuart. Now I’ve offered you good money for it. Real good money.
And you still don’t want to sell. Miss. Stuart, I want you out of town.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“I wouldn’t be so adamant, little lady. You may find that you leave in one way or another.”
“You threatening her, von Heusen?” Jori asked. “She seems to think that I’m guilty of something,” von Heusen said.
“The whole damned town can tell you that I was in the saloon playing cards the day the Indians attacked the Stuart train. The whole damned town can tell you that. But still, if the lady is so worried and so certain, well then, maybe she ought to plan on riding out of town. What do you think?”
“I think that you should give reasonable thought to the idea of riding out of town yourself, yon Heusen,” Jon warned quietly.
Von Heusen started to laugh.
“On the word of a half- breed Indian?”
He started to Urge his mount closer to the porch. Jori fired a shot that must have sizzled a hairbreadth from the man’s cheek. Von Heusen went as pale as the clouds. boss”— one of Von Heusen lifted a hand.
“Calm down now, boys. Just because Miss. Stuart’s resorting to violence is no reason that we should. We’ll be riding off now. But you remember what I said, Miss. Stuart. I’d hate to see you leaving town other than all dressed up right pretty and in a comfortable stagecoach!” He smiled at her.
“It is good to see you alive and well. Such a pretty, pretty woman. And all that blond hair. Blond hair alone is worth a pretty penny in certain places, did you know that?”
He stared at Tess. As he did so, she suddenly realized that she could smell smoke.
Suddenly she knew where the rest of yon Heusen’s men were. The smoke was coming from the direction of the card age house. The printing press was in the wagon still, and the wagon was next to the buckboard and the chaise in the carriage house.
And so far, it had been a dry summer. If the carriage house went up in flames, the blaze could quickly spread to the house, to the barn, even to the stables. Von Heusen was smiling.
“You bastard!” she hissed at him. Jon hadn’t moved; he didn’t dare.
If he moved the rifle a hair yon Heusen just might decide to take advantage and shoot them all down. They stood there, locked in the moment, yon Heusen staring at Tess with a smile, Tess staring at him, hating him so fiercely that she should have been able to have willed him dead. It was lost now.
All lost. The house, Joe’s house. The press.
It didn’t even seem to bother yon Heusen that he would slaughter all the horses.
Then suddenly, in the midst of yon Heusen’s triumph and her own despair, a commotion sounded from the direction of the carriage house. There was still smoke issuing from it—no sign of fire yet.
But men suddenly spilled out of it. Four of them, their hands held high above their heads. They nearly tripped as they walked, for someone had apparently ordered them to lower their breeches, and their pants were tight around their ankles.
Three of them wore long johns; the fourth must have been buck naked. Tess only caught a glimpse of his bare legs, as he managed to stay behind the other three.
“Tarnation!” yon Heusen swore.
“You fools! What in bloody hell is going on” — He broke off and never finished his question. From the smoke of the carriage house, another man appeared.
Tess felt her heart catch.
It was Jamie. He had a single gun trained on the men and he followed them out with the casual air yon Heusen had had.
The men kept walking forward. The half-naked one paused, and Jamie nudged him forward.
“Ladies, do excuse me,” Jamie apologized, “but they seemed to be a little more docile and trustworthy in this fashion.”
“I’ll kill you yet!” one of them muttered. “Well, I don’t doubt that you intend to try,” Jamie assured him. Then he stared at the men still mounted upon their horses.
“Which one of you is yon Heusen?”
“I am Richard von Heusen. Who the hell are you?”
“Jamie Slater. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I own part of this spread now. And I’ll thank you kindly to keep yourself and your half-sawed ruffians off my property, is that understood?”
“Your property” — yon Heusen began.
“My property, yes. Now, take your arsonist friends here and move.”
“You must be mistaken. Why would my men set fire to anything here?”
“Who knows why? But that was what they were doing. Ordinarily, of course, I’d want to get to know my new neighbors. But since you and the Stuarts don’t seem to be very good friends, I really don’t think you should stay. I bet dinner is on. Tess, is dinner on?”
“yes!”
“Something good?”
His eyes touched hers across the dusky night. She nodded, fighting for speech.
“Turkey. Dressing. Squash. All sorts of things.”
“And getting cold. I do declare. Gentlemen, good night,” Jamie said firmly.
He prodded the men.
“Move ‘em, now, von Heusen, or they’ll start turning into corpses.”
“We’re nine to one, you fool” — “Nine to two. See my friend there? He could hit the hair in a man’s nose at a thousand yards, and he’s faster than greased lightning. You’re out manned and outnumbered, you just don’t know it yet.” “We’ll see about that,” von Heusen said angrily.
“Get those half-naked idiots up on your horses!” he ordered his mounted men.
He jerked his mount around to face Tess and pointed a long finger at her.
“You’ll pay for this, Miss. Stuart. You’ll pay dearly. I promise you.” He swung around again, and his men followed. They raced off into the darkness, the horses’ hooves pounding on the dry earth.
Silence and stillness fell over the small group on the porch. Jon Red Feather slowly lowered his rifle. He stared at Jamie.
“What the hell took you so long?”
“Well, there were four of them in the carriage house!”
Jamie announced indignantly. He strode up the stairs. Tess was still staring at him blankly when he tweaked her cheek and walked past her.
She managed to turn and follow him. He walked over’t the table and sat, then pulled off a turkey leg and bit into it hungrily. Looking up, he saw Tess staring at him, Dolly and Jane on either side of her, and Jon and Hank on either side of the women. He paused in mid bite
“Do you all mind?”
Tess stood in front of him.
“Where did you go? How did you happen to come back right then?”
He chewed before answering her.
“I left the saloon as soon as I met a few friendly people—and a few not so friendly people. I knew he was coming out here. I didn’t know he intended to burn you out.” He paused, looking past Tess to Jon.
“Seems strange, doesn’t it? The man wants this property, but he doesn’t seem to care if he destroys it.
Makes you think, doesn’t it?”
“Sure does.”
“Makes you think what?” Tess asked irritably. “Tess, think about it.
It needs a little paint, a little shoring up here and there—but this is a darned nice house. Solid, sound, big.
Then you’ve got the outbuildings, the carriages—and the horses. I haven’t seen enough to really make an estimate on the value of the stock, but I imagine that we’re talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars in horseflesh alone.
And von Heusen doesn’t care. He wants the property, but he doesn’t care if he burns it to the ground.”
” He’s a vile son of a bitch, that’s why!” Tess stated.
“Well, yes,” Jamie acknowledged with a wry grin.
“But there’s more to it than that, I think.”
Dolly took a seat at the table again and spooned up a mouthful of squash.
“Vile, certainly! Why, our dinner has gone quite cold!”
“That’s the spirit, Dolly,” Jamie told her.
“Jori, sit. The turkey may be cold, but it’s delicious.”
“That’s it?” Tess demanded heatedly.
“What do you mean, that’s it?”
“Where did you go? What were you doing? You were supposed to be here!”
“Jon was here,” Jamie said evenly.
“But” — Jamie was buttering a roll. Jane and Hank and Jon sat and picked up their forks. Jamie’s butter knife went still and his eyes were slightly narrowed as he stared at her.
“Miss. Stuart, I don’t like the tone of this conversation. I came back in time to save your hide.”
“You wouldn’t have had to rush back if you’d been here—where you should have been! You want to be paid so highly, and you can’t even stick around!” He stood suddenly. His knife clattered against a dish.
“I don’t argue like this in front of others, Miss. Stuart.”
” There is no argument!” she snapped.
“No, there isn’t. I’ll make it simple. Wherever I choose to go is my own business, Miss. Stuart. You are not my keeper. And as to payment, hell, yes.
Tomorrow we’ll go into town and you’ll turn over half interest in this place to me.”
She gasped aloud, stunned.
“Jamie, she doesn’t understand what you’re doing,” Jon said, ignoring the rising tensions and reaching for a roll himself.
“If you just explained” — “Explained! Hell, I feel as if I’m up before the judge and jury!”
“Judge and jury! I really don’t give a damn what you do with your time, but”
“You begged me to come here, Tess.”
“Begged!”
“Begged!”
“Oh!” she cried. Then she wound her fingers tightly together.
“I don’t argue in public either, Lieutenant!” she snapped. She was shaking, she realized. She’d been so damned amazed and grateful to see him, but she’d also been scared, and now she was furious and shaking and she wasn’t even sure what she did want. She turned, having no taste left for dinner.
Angrily she began to stride for the door. “Tess!” He was on his feet, calling to her. He really expected her to stop because he had commanded her to. She didn’t stop, she didn’t turn, she didn’t even pause. She sailed straight for the front door. She would go to the carriage house to make sure the fire von Heusen’s men had started had been stamped out.
“Jamie, give her a minute,” Dolly suggested.
“The hell I will!” Jamie snapped.
Before Tess heard the door slam in her wake, she thought she heard Jamie’s chair hit the floor as he pushed it over.
She started running toward the carriage house, anxious to reach it before he could see her. She was at the side door when she heard the front door to the house slam. She slipped into the eaniage house. She inhaled and exhaled, but couldn’t smell any smoke. All she could smell was the fresh scent of the alfalfa hay that was being stored behind the chaise.
She fumbled in the darkness to light the gas lamp by the door. When the glow filled the carriage house, she went to check the wagon and the printing press. She crawled into the wagon and gave a soft sigh of relief as she saw that the printing press was fine. She sank down on one of the bunks. “Tess!
Where are you!”
Jamie was obviously angry. She clenched her teeth and tried to ignore him.
She stepped from the wagon and went to the buckboard. No flames had lapped against it. The chaise, too, seemed untouched. Walking around, she discovered a half burned bale of hay. It had been dragged into the center of the room and lit. Von Heusen had meant it to be a slow fire. He had really meant to be long gone when the place burned.
She moved away from the hay and from the faint, acrid smell of fire that remained.
“Tess!”
He was still calling her, like a drill sergeant. With a sigh she determined that she would have to open the door, but she hesitated with her hand upon it. Where had he been? He’d been gone for hours. Had he really enjoyed the saloon so much? What part of the saloon?
And why was she torturing herself so thoroughly over him? She couldn’t change the man.
The before twist the With a back. was hat less, his shirt open at the neck, his hands on his hips, his sandy hair tousled casually over a brow, but his manner anything but casual.
“Why didn’t you answer me?” he demanded. “Because I didn’t want to speak to you.”
“It didn’t occur to you that I might have been worried?”
“I could have been in and out of the carriage house all evening, and you wouldn’t have known. What, I’m supposed to be on a ball and chain if you’re around? But if you’re not, it doesn’t matter?”
She saw his jaw twist and a pulse tick hard against his throat.
“That’s about it, yes. Think you can live with the niles?”
“No!”
“Then I’m leaving.”
“what?”
“You heard me.”
“But—’,” In astonishment she stared at him. She inhaled sharply. She couldn’t let him leave her. She couldn’t!
But she thought he wouldn’t go. He just wanted to see her beg.
“Leave,” she told him. She’d call his bluff, she determined.
He turned and reached for the door. She thought quickly and desperately, then said,
“I thought you liked the property.
And the house, and the horses. And I thought you wanted half of everything.
If you want it, you have to earn it.”
He swung around. A smile curled his lip as he leaned against the door.
“You just can’t say please, can you?”
“It isn’t that! My God, this isn’t fair! You want thousands of dollars worth of property” — “If yon Heusen has his way, there won’t be any property.”
“But you’re unfair!”
“Because I went to the saloon?”
“Because you weren’t here!”
“But I was here. I was here exactly when you needed me.” He walked toward her. She took a step back and tripped over the pile of half burned hay. He kept coming, and she reached out a hand, expecting he would hel
p her up. He didn’t.
He dropped down, half on top of her and half beside her, his arms braced over her chest so that she couldn’t move.
Gray eyes looked into hers. He’d had a shave in town, she thought.
HIS cheeks were clean, and he smelled slightly of a cologne. He smelled good all over, like good clean soap and like a man. He’d had a bath, too, she realized, and her temper soared again. He had stayed at the saloon. He’d had a drink and a bath and maybe a meal and. Maybe a woman.
“Get off of me, Yank!” she said angrily. The smoke left his eyes. He stared at her with a gaze of cold steel. He leaned closer. So close that their faces nearly touched. The heat of his body was all around her, and she forgot everything, afraid, excited, wanting to ere ape him and run. And wanting to know more of him.
“You’re hurting me,” she began.
“No, I’m not,” he corrected her flatly.
“And I’m not moving a hair, because I really want your attention. Now listen. I can go, or I can stay. The choice is yours. But if I stay, we do things my way. I’ll try to explain. I’m not desperate for land, cattle, a house or money. I’ve done all right myself, thanks, despite the war, despite everything. But tomorrow, you’re going to turn over half of this place to me on legal papers.
That way you may have a chance of keeping it. Pay attention. You’re a smart girl, Tess. Von Heusen thought that all he had to do was kill you and your uncle and he could have this place. You have no next of kin. But dadin’, I’ve got plenty. I’ve got brothers, nieces and nephews.
It would take yon Heusen years to find them all if he did manage to kill both of us. That might give him some serious pause. Do you understand?”
Staring at him, Tess simply nodded. He was right, and every word he was saying made such perfect sense. And she wanted to be sensible. She wanted to be dignified, grateful, strong.
She wanted to be able to fight her battles, but she could not fight alone.
If only she didn’t want him as a man, if only she didn’t grow jealous and angry so quickly. And yet. he still had that haunting aroma. His flesh would be slick and clean, and she wanted to know how the warmth would feel beneath her tongue.
The way he lay against her, she felt the thunder of his heart, and her own, and the beats seemed to rise together, and fall away, and rise together again, quick, wild, rampant. She felt his breath against her cheeks, and the iron lock of his thigh upon her own. She wanted to reach out and run her fingers through the sandy tendrils of hair that fell so hauntingly over his forehead, and so often shadowed and shaded his eyes, and hid his innermost thoughts.
Apache Summer Page 13
