Promise Me Texas (A Whispering Mountain Novel)

by Jodi Thomas

  While she cried and held his hand, Colby thought about what it would be like to eat fresh biscuits every morning and have a clean shirt now and then. They’d had a woman come by the ranch now and then to do laundry, but his father had yelled so much, she’d finally stopped driving over.

  “He didn’t love me at all,” Madie mumbled as she cried. “Not even from the first. I was just something he used.”

  “It’s over, Madeline; no use in going on about him,” Colby finally said after half an hour.

  Madie shook her head. “It ain’t over. My belly’s swelling.”

  Colby moved his hand to her middle and touched her. What he’d thought was too many biscuits was obviously the rounded swell of a child. “You’re going to have a baby?”

  She nodded and started crying again. “I know the signs. That’s why I had to leave Dallas and find Micah.”

  “You going to tell him about the baby?”

  She shook her head. “If he didn’t want me, he won’t want the baby.”

  “How far along are you?”

  “About halfway. My ma always said she felt a butterfly flutter inside when she was halfway. I felt it the other day and again this morning.”

  Colby leaned back against the wall. Hell, he thought, now he felt like crying. He was always thinking how tough he had it with a pa who made him work every waking hour, and was probably not speaking to him for spending a few extra days getting back from the drive, but compared to her, he was standing on trouble’s shallow end.

  CHAPTER 14

  BETH HAD FALLEN ASLEEP ON ANDREW’S SHOULDER when the knock at the door sounded at dawn. For a moment, she moved closer against the warmth of him, but then she realized her time for dreaming was over. Reality had come to call.

  She’d spent the night in his study. They’d talked for hours, neither one wanting to face the night alone. They’d become friends, the kind of friends she’d probably never be with a man again. She’d teased him and laughed at his funny stories, and he’d touched her with an ease no man ever had. She’d grown comfortable holding his hand and feeling his fingers brush over her hair.

  The second pounding came, harder, faster. Andrew stood, pulling her with him. “Go, light the lamps in the kitchen. I’ll answer the door.” He raked his hand through his brown hair and buttoned his vest, trying to look like he hadn’t slept in his clothes.

  When he looked down at her, he smiled and touched her cheek. “You might want to straighten your hair.” He hesitated, as if not wanting this one moment to end. “I made a mess of it playing with your curls last night.”

  She ran to the kitchen, tossed a few logs on the coals and hoped they’d catch, lit the lamps, and picked up her rifle. There was no time to think about her hair.

  Crossing to the door, Beth saw two men on the porch, both big, dressed in leather for travel, and fully armed. Raising the weapon, she waited. If they stormed past Andrew she’d take the first one over the threshold. This might only be her make-believe home and her make-believe family, but she’d defend it.

  A movement at the top of the stairs drew her gaze. Colby sat with his Colt in hand. For the first time since she’d heard the knock, Beth breathed. She touched her finger to her lips, warning the cowboy to stay silent.

  “I hate to call on you this early,” the thin stranger’s voice bellowed in with the wind, “but the telegraph operator told me you might have a young man by the name of Colby Dixon staying here. He left this address if a telegram came in for him.”

  Andrew didn’t move or open the door wider. “He’s done nothing wrong, Ranger.”

  The tall man shifted. “I’m Slim Bates, a ranger based out of Waco. I need to talk to Dixon if he’s here. And you’re right, to my knowledge he has done nothing wrong, Mr. McLaughlin, right?”

  “Right.” Andrew still didn’t move.

  “I’ve read a few of the articles you’ve written for the Austin paper. Right good at telling things like they are out here. You should come by the ranger office; we’d bend your ear with a few more stories.”

  “Thanks for the offer.” Andrew remained cold and solid in front of his entryway.

  The ranger shifted. “I’m not here to bring trouble to your door, Mr. McLaughlin. I got a telegram from the marshal south of here, and he asked me to pass on a message to the boy.”

  Beth took a step forward and lowered her rifle. “Slim?”

  The hardened ranger looked around Andrew and grinned. “Well, if it ain’t little Bethie McMurray.”

  All his business was forgotten. The ranger shoved his way around Andrew and lifted Beth off the floor in a full hug. “You sure are a sight to see, little darling. Does Duncan know you’re in town? I heard that ornery cousin of yours might be in this part of Texas.” Slim glanced at Andrew. “He told me you was getting married, but he didn’t mention to who. I never figured you for hitching up with a writer.” He said the last word as if Andrew might be a lower life form she’d captured in the woods.

  Beth giggled and winked at Andrew’s frown.

  Slim set her down and slapped Andrew on the shoulder. “Congratulations for tying a rope around the prettiest girl in the state.” He shrugged when Andrew stared at him. “Of course, I knew when I turned her down ’cause I’m twice her age that she’d find someone else, but I knew it would take her a while, being up in years like she is.” He laughed at his own joke even though no one else bought into it. “It’s a fine mess; all the McMurray girls are married. I guess I’ll have to wait around for the next generation. By then maybe I’ll have slowed down long enough to let one of them catch me.”

  Beth remembered how her papa used to say Bates’s jokes were so bad they ran him out of three states before he settled in Texas. Slim rode with her uncle back in the war, and he’d stopped by the ranch for a meal. Like most of the rangers, he thought he was part of the family at Whispering Mountain.

  “Have you seen Duncan and Rose?” Homesickness hit her all at once. If her cousin and sister were in town, they’d straighten everything out. Much as she hated herself, she suddenly wanted someone else to solve her problem as they always had; she wanted to see them.

  While Slim explained that he hadn’t seen a soul in two weeks, Beth noticed Andrew motion in the other ranger still standing outside. “Might as well join the family reunion,” he said.

  The young ranger looked ill at ease. “I’m probably the only one in the state who doesn’t know the McMurrays. I’m new. Just got my badge last week and the captain told me to ride along with Bates till I learn my way.”

  Andrew shook his hand. “I’m new to the McMurray legends too. I married one of them by accident, not knowing.”

  Beth found her manners. “Oh, Slim, I’d like you to formally meet my—”

  “Husband,” Andrew finished the sentence. “And if you’ll come in for coffee, I’ll go wake Colby.”

  He cut Beth a cold look as he turned toward the stairs. She might trust these two men, but Andrew wasn’t so sure. He was being ridiculous, she thought, but he was also right. Lamont LaCroix was a powerful man. Powerful enough to buy a ranger, maybe? She might trust Slim Bates with her life, but Andrew obviously wasn’t willing to do so.

  “I’ll make some coffee.” She set the gun down by the stairs. “Come on in, gentlemen, and have a cup while you wait.”

  Slim walked past the cluttered study with books and papers stacked everywhere. “Nice sitting room you got there. Reminds me of your papa’s study. I swear if Teagan buys one more book, that room will tilt the ranch house.”

  She remembered Slim had never been long on tact. Like most, he tended to say whatever crossed his brain, whether it was a thought or a rambling.

  She said smoothly, “That’s where he writes.”

  “Oh,” Slim answered, without much interest, and moved into the kitchen. “I’ve never known a writer for real. I don’t read much except the paper now and then, and it’s usually a month old before I get time.”

  Madie tromped down the s
tairs wearing her new apron, but still half asleep.

  Slim and the young ranger stood when she walked in, making her blush. When Beth introduced her, she said Madie was a friend, nothing more. The girl managed a greeting, then slipped into the kitchen to start breakfast.

  Slim barely noticed; he was too busy telling Beth about Duncan’s latest capture of a bank-robbing gang. “The man’s a legend same as his father, Travis. Duncan rode in alone and brought six men out, all tied to their saddles.”

  Beth smiled. Her uncle had adopted Duncan when he’d been found in a raiding party’s camp years ago. He’d been only about four, but he was so wild that she and her sisters used to complain about him hourly. They called him Duck because he followed her uncle everywhere. No one in the family doubted for a minute that he’d study law and become a ranger.

  Duck grew up spending his summers at Whispering Mountain and pestering his cousins. Beth and her sisters all loved him dearly even though they thought him half wolf. Like her and her sisters, Duncan was a McMurray by heart and not blood. None of the family thought he’d ever marry, but Duncan loved Beth’s sister, Rose. He had loved her since they were children and often said his mind couldn’t settle until he knew where Rose was.

  Even though Duncan was a ranger and Rose a nest builder, somehow they’d managed to fit together. Like all McMurrays, they might leave, but eventually they’d come back to the mountain to settle.

  After she served the coffee, Beth excused herself and ran up the stairs. Colby and Andrew were talking by the window.

  They both looked her way and Andrew said, “I told him he didn’t have to go down unless he wanted to. These rangers seem friendly, but I’m not letting them take him back to Dallas.”

  “I know Slim Bates. If he’d come to arrest you, he wouldn’t be drinking coffee downstairs. He’s not sent from Dallas but from south of here, near where your ranch is. I doubt he knows anything about what happened in Dallas.”

  Colby nodded and strapped on his gun belt. “I’ll be ready this time anyway. No man’s forcing my arm into a bag with a snake again.”

  They followed him down the stairs, but Andrew didn’t look at her. She took his hand and he held on until they reached the rangers, but it wasn’t a caring touch, only one for show.

  Slim introduced himself to Colby and asked if he could speak to the boy alone in the study.

  Colby nodded and the two of them left. Beth tried to talk to the other ranger, but he didn’t seem to answer in more than one word. His longest sentence was, “My name’s Stanford, miss.”

  Andrew paced in the hallway and Madie banged pots in the kitchen. All waited and worried.

  Breakfast was ready by the time Slim returned, but no one sat down to eat.

  Colby kept his head low as he stood at the doorway. “I have to go with the ranger,” he said. “My pa’s been killed. We’re guessing he died two weeks ago, but they didn’t find him for a week.” His voice shook slightly, but Colby needed to finish. “The ranger seems to think the men who beat me up could have been hired by the same man who had my pa killed. He’s buying up the small places around ours. I know my pa, he wouldn’t sell.”

  Everyone started asking questions at once, but Slim didn’t have many answers. All he knew was Colby’s father had written the marshal asking for help about six weeks ago. He claimed threats had been made. When the marshal got to his land, they found Dixon dead. One shot in the head at close range. The house had been torn apart.

  Andrew said what they were all thinking. “The night you were beat up, they were looking for something. When they didn’t find it, they figured it would help their plan if you were dying. But why draw out your death?”

  “I won’t find out unless I go back,” Colby said.

  “But it could be dangerous. These men went to a great deal of trouble to try to get what they wanted.” Beth wished there were a dozen rangers riding back with him. “You don’t know what they’re after, but you do know they want you dead.”

  “You might be safer here,” Andrew suggested. “You know you’re welcome to stay with me.”

  Slim shook his head. “They found him in Dallas, and my guess is they’d find him here. If the devil’s gunning for you, son, you might as well turn and face him.” He looked at Beth. “We’ll be with him, Bethie. We’ll watch over him.”

  The young ranger stood. “I’ll go saddle a horse for you, Mr. Dixon.”

  Colby turned to go upstairs to collect his things. “Nobody ever called me Mr. Dixon. That’s what they called my pa.”

  “You own land now, son. A lot of land from what I hear. I imagine most folks will call you that from now on.” Slim frowned, feeling sorry for the boy who’d had to step into the boots of a man so quickly. “I’ll help you have the deed changed over to your name.”

  Colby looked back. “I don’t even know where it is.”

  “Don’t worry, your pa put it somewhere safe. We’ll check the bank first. I’ve done this before. If your pa’s place was one of the Mexican land grants, it’ll need to be passed on to you all legal-like.”

  Colby moved on up the stairs, obviously not caring about paperwork.

  Beth expected Slim to say his good-byes, but the old ranger sat down at the table and helped himself to another cup of coffee. She and Andrew had no choice but to join him.

  “Something else on your mind, Slim?” she asked.

  Slim looked at Andrew. “There’s two men watching your place, McLaughlin. I seen them when I rode over. Not cowhands. Probably railroad workers; their overalls are stained with oil.”

  “I know. I saw them last night.” Andrew lowered his voice as the little boys stumbled down the stairs and took their seats at the table.

  Slim barely noticed the kids. “Got any idea who they are or what they want?”

  “Nope. If they followed us from Dallas, they’re trouble, but I don’t even know how they found us.”

  Slim tried to muffle a few swear words with a cough. “Well, I can tell you that. You folks left a trail wide enough for a blind man to follow. When we left Dallas, half the folks we passed remembered seeing a woman with two hurt men in the wagon.” He turned to Beth. “You must have talked to everyone you passed on the road. That’s not a good idea when you’re running away. The sheriff told me you two were leaving because some fool thought he was married to you, Bethie, and planned to correct this mistake you made.” Slim pointed a thumb at Andrew as if he were a horse bought in the dark.

  “Engaged. I was never married to Lamont LaCroix, and I will never be in the future,” Beth corrected. “He thought I accidentally married the wrong man after the train wreck.”

  Slim lifted his eyebrow. “Did you, Bethie? Marry the wrong man?”

  “No,” she answered honestly, and almost added that she’d only pretended to.

  “And all the kids just jumped in the wagon, I guess,” Slim calmly said as he waved his hand from Madie to the boys.

  “That’s right,” Andrew answered, drawing the ranger’s fire. “Madie wanted to come meet her fellow. The little boys think their father is here in Fort Worth, and Colby figured someone would finish the job of killing him if he didn’t leave. Did he tell you that the man who beat him held him down and slid his arm into a bag with a rattler?”

  “Nope, but that does sound like someone wanted his death to look like an accident.”

  “They almost got away with it,” Beth said. “The doc kept him drugged up. He hadn’t had the chance to tell anyone, and the sheriff said he wasn’t conscious when he brought him to the little hospital.”

  “What about you, Mr. McLaughlin? You running to or from something?” When he didn’t answer, Slim added, “A man who has married a pretty young bride usually wants to be alone with her, not haul a wagonload of folks home with him. Plus, by the look of it, you slept on that couch in your study and not upstairs with your bride. Seems a little on the strange side for a newlywed.”

  Beth knew Slim was guessing, maybe digging for somethin
g. Andrew wasn’t helping by remaining silent as if he were guilty.

  “We were in a train wreck the night we married,” she whispered to the ranger. “My husband was hurt. That’s why he was in the hospital with Colby.” She hesitated the right amount of time to show embarrassment and added, “He isn’t able to continue with the honeymoon.”

  Slim’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry to have pried, sir. You have my deepest sympathy. You both do. I saw the wound healing on your head, but I never thought about you being hurt other places.”

  Beth straightened as if trying her best to be brave. “I can wait for as long as he takes to heal. The doctor says we can’t rush these things.” She glanced down at Andrew’s lap.

  Slim stood, suddenly in a hurry to leave the couple alone with their problem. “I’d better go help the pup with the horses. We’ll be waiting out front when Colby is ready.” He gave Beth a quick hug and was gone. When a ranger couldn’t solve a problem, he rode away.

  Beth turned to Andrew. He couldn’t have looked any madder if smoke were coming out of his ears.

  “I had to say something,” she said defensively. “You were just sitting here.”

  “You told him I’m impotent.”

  “Well, what does it matter if my make-believe husband has make-believe injuries that keep him from making make-believe love?”

  He moved closer. “If I ever make love to you, wife, it won’t be make-believe and you’ll know it. You saw the way Slim looked at me. If word gets out, every man in this town will pity me. I’ll be the butt of whispered jokes. Poor McLaughlin, married to the prettiest girl in Texas and he can’t sleep with her.”

  “I slept with you last night.” She remembered waking against his shoulder.