A Cattleman's Honor

by Diana Palmer

  The first order of business was to get her well. He was going to take her back to Montana if he had to wrap her in sheets tied at both ends. She might not like it, but she’d have to go. She didn’t have anyplace else to recuperate, and she couldn’t work. At the ranch, the four of them could take turns sitting with her.

  While he was considering possibilities, Vivian came back. “It automatically injects painkillers,” she announced with a smile. “I spoke with the duty nurses at their station. They have computers everywhere with records and charts....” She glanced at her brother with a self-conscious smile. “It fascinates me. I didn’t realize nursing was so challenging, or so complicated.”

  “I haven’t seen a lot of nurses in here,” he remarked darkly.

  She grinned at him. “You will when you leave,” she said, tongue in cheek.

  “Don’t you start,” he muttered.

  She hugged him and sat in the chair on the other side of the bed. “Why don’t you go and get something to eat? I’ll sit with Nat.”

  He shook his head. He had her hand firmly in his and he wasn’t letting go until he knew for certain that she wasn’t trying to give up.

  “Want some coffee?” she persisted.

  “The boys went to bring some back.”

  “Okay. In that case, I think I’ll walk down to the canteen and get a bag of potato chips and a soft drink.”

  “Good idea.”

  She smiled to herself as she went out. He hadn’t spared her a glance. She could read him like a book. He was afraid that if he left, Natalie might not recover. He was going to keep her alive by sheer will, if he had to. Vivian couldn’t blame him for being concerned. Natalie did look so white and thin lying there. Vivian blamed herself for Natalie’s condition. If she hadn’t been so horrible, none of this would have happened. She had yet to make her own apologies. But it was nice to know that Nat would be around to hear them.

  She wandered down the corridor. Back in the room, Mack leaned forward to study Natalie’s sleeping face. “Poor little scrap,” he murmured softly, touching her cheek with a touch light enough not to disturb her. “How did I ever think I could manage without you?”

  At some level, she was aware that he was speaking to her. But she was fighting the pain and the drugs, and her mind was foggy. She felt his touch, first on her cheek and then lightly brushing her mouth. He was whispering in her ear, words that sounded like the softest kind of endearments. At that point, she was sure she was dreaming. Mack never used endearments....

  * * *

  It was late that night before she returned to something approaching consciousness. She looked around the room with surprised amusement. Vivian was asleep in the chair by the radiator. Mack was sprawled, snoring faintly, in the chair beside her bed, with her hand still gripped in his. Beside him, on the floor, Bob and Charles were asleep sharing a blanket on the cold linoleum. She could only imagine the nursing staff’s frustration trying to work around them. And wasn’t there some rule about the number of visitors and how long they could stay? Then she remembered the uproar Mack had caused on his arrival, and she imagined he’d broken every rule they had already.

  “Mack?” she whispered. Her voice barely carried. She tried again. “Mack?”

  He stirred sleepily, and his eye opened at once. He sat up, increasing his firm hold on her hand. “What is it, sweetheart?”

  The endearment was disconcerting. He stood and came closer, bending over her with evident concern. “Tell me,” he asked softly. “What do you want?”

  She searched his face with hungry eyes. It had been weeks since she’d seen him. There was something different....

  “You’ve lost weight,” she whispered.

  His gaze fell to her hand in his. “So have you.”

  She wanted to tell him that she’d been only half alive without him, that it was the lack of him in her life that had aged her. But she couldn’t say that. She’d been hurt and someone had called him. Probably her serious condition had caused Vivian to finally tell him the truth. He’d come out of guilt. Perhaps they all had.

  She pulled her hand out of his and laid it across her chest. “I don’t need anything,” she said, averting her face. “Thank you,” she added politely.

  The effect of that cool, polite reply hit him hard. She was conscious again, and she’d be remembering their last meeting and what he’d said to her. He put his hands deep in his pockets and studied her for a long minute before he went to the chair and sat down. The breath he let out was audible.

  She was still groggy enough that she went back to sleep at once. Mack didn’t. He sat brooding, watching her, until the first rays of dawn filtered through the venetian blinds. Around him, the boys and Vivian began to stir.

  Vivian got up and looked out the door, noticing the bustle of early-morning duty shifts. “Why don’t you three go get us a nice hotel suite and have a bath. I’ll stay here with Natalie while they get her bathed and fed. By the time you come back, she’ll be ready for visitors.”

  Mack was reluctant. Vivian pulled him out of the chair. “You’re absolutely dead on your feet, and you look fifty,” she said. “You’re not going to be any good to anybody until you get some rest. Have you slept at all?”

  He grimaced. “She woke up in the night,” he said, as if that explained it all. His face was drawn with worry and guilt. “She remembered what I said to her. It was in her eyes.”

  “She’ll remember what I said, too,” Vivian replied. “We’ll get through it. She’s not a person who holds grudges. It will be all right.”

  He hesitated. “She isn’t going to want to go home with us,” he realized. His face began to tauten. “But she will, if I have to put her in a sack! If she wakes up before I come back, you tell her that!”

  The loud tones woke Natalie. She winced as she moved, and her chest hurt, but her eyes lifted to Mack’s hard face, and they began to sparkle. She struggled to sit up. “I’m not going...anywhere with you, Mack Killain,” she told him in as strong a tone as she could manage in her depleted condition. “I wouldn’t walk to the...elevator with you!”

  “Calm down,” Vivian said firmly, easing her down on the pillows. “When you’ve gotten your strength back, I’ll get you a frying pan and you can lay about him with it. In fact, I’ll even bend over and give you a shot at me. But for now,” she added softly, “you have to get well. You can only stay in the hospital until you’re back on your feet. But full recuperation takes longer—and you can’t stay by yourself.”

  Bob and Charles were awake and crowding around the bed with their siblings.

  “Right,” Charles said firmly, looking so much like his older brother that it was uncanny. “We’ll all take care of you.”

  “I’ll hook up my game system and teach you how to play arcade games,” Bob offered.

  “I’ll teach you chess,” Charles seconded.

  “I’ll teach you how to be a real pain in the neck,” Vivian added, tongue in cheek. “I think I wrote the book on it.”

  Natalie wavered as her eyes went to Mack. His gaze was steady on her face, quiet, and he looked almost vulnerable. Maybe it was a trick of the light.

  “You could teach her how to jump to conclusions,” Vivian murmured dryly.

  “I learned that from you,” he shot right back. He turned to Natalie. “I’m not coaxing. You’re coming back with us, one way or the other, and that’s the end of it.”

  Natalie’s eyes started flashing. “You listen here, Mack Killain!”

  “No, you listen,” he interrupted firmly. “I’m going to talk to the surgeon and find out what sort of care you need. I’ll hire a private nurse and get a hospital bed moved in. Whatever it takes.”

  Natalie’s small fist hit the bedcovers in frustration. That hurt her chest, and she grimaced.

  “Temper, temper,” Mack said mockingly. “That won’t get you any
where.”

  “I am not a parcel to be picked up and carried off,” she raged. “I don’t belong to you!”

  He lifted one eyebrow. “In one way or another,” he said very quietly, “you’ve belonged to me since you were seventeen.” He turned to Vivian. “I’ll take the boys to a hotel and come back in a couple of hours. I’ll phone you as soon as we’re settled and you can get in touch with us if you need to.”

  “Okay,” Vivian said with a smile. “Don’t worry,” she added when he hesitated at the door. “I’ll take good care of her.”

  He still hesitated, but after a minute he shot a last, worried look at a furious Natalie and followed the boys into the hall.

  “I won’t go!” Natalie choked out.

  Vivian went close to the bed and gently smoothed Natalie’s hair from her forehead. “Yes, you will,” she said gently. “Mack and I have a lot to make up to you. I was so jealous of you that I couldn’t stand it. I thought I’d die if I couldn’t have Whit.” She shook her head sorrowfully. “You know, he even lied to me that he’d been making out with you. You were both downstairs for almost an hour and I didn’t have a clue that Mack had come home in the meantime,” she added ruefully, watching Natalie blush as she recalled what she and Mack had been doing during that time. “Whit said he’d found you more receptive than I’d ever been. It was a major misunderstanding all around, and the lie I told Mack, that I’d seen you and Whit together, didn’t do anything to help matters.” Her worried blue eyes met Natalie’s green ones. “Can you forgive me, do you think?”

  Natalie let out the anger in a slow breath. “Of course,” she said. “We’ve been friends far too long for me to hold a grudge.”

  Vivian bent and kissed her cheek. “I haven’t been much of a friend up until this point,” she said. “But I’m going to do a better job from now on. And the first matter of business is to get you a sponge bath and some breakfast.”

  “Mack believed you,” Natalie said.

  Vivian paused on her way to the door. She came back and put a gentle hand over Natalie’s where it lay on her stomach over the covers. “The night I told Mack that lie, he went into the office and locked the door and drank half a bottle of Scotch whiskey. I had to get the foreman and a locksmith to open it for me. When I finally got in, he’d passed out.”

  Her eyes were troubled. “He never loses control like that. That was when I knew how much I’d hurt him. And after your graduation, when Bob and Charles lit into us about not being there, he went off by himself and wouldn’t even talk to us for days. I know what we did hurt you, Natalie,” she concluded. “But it hurt us just as badly. I’m sorry. Mack was right about Whit all along. He’s going around with another rich girl, but one who likes to gamble herself, and he’s got all the money he wants for the time being. I was an idiot.”

  “You were in love,” Natalie excused her. “It doesn’t exactly make people lucid.”

  “Doesn’t it?” Vivian asked pointedly, and with a curious smile.

  “Don’t ask me,” the other woman replied, averting her face. “I was only seventeen when I had my first and last taste of it.”

  “I know,” Vivian said disconcertingly. She smiled gently. “It was always Mack. And I knew it, and used it to hurt you. I regret that more than anything.”

  “That wasn’t what I meant,” Natalie ground out.

  Vivian didn’t press the issue. She patted her hand gently. “Everything’s going to be all right. Believe that, if you don’t believe another word I say.”

  Natalie shifted to a more comfortable position. “Did all of you come down here together?” she asked.

  “Yes. Your surgeon phoned and told us you were fighting for your life and that somebody had to give permission for him to operate.” She grimaced. “Mack had to fax a permission slip to him as next of kin, so if anyone asks, we’re your cousins.” She held up a hand when Natalie started to speak. “If he hadn’t, you might have died, Nat.”

  “I had that accident card in my purse, the one you made me fill out with Mack’s name and phone number on it,” Natalie recalled. “I guess they found it when I was brought in.”

  Vivian hesitated. “Do you remember what happened?”

  “Yes. I saw two boys fighting on a basketball court. Like an idiot, I went in to stop it.” She smiled wryly. “One of them had a knife, and I was just in time to catch it in my chest. Fortunately it only cost me a little bit of one lung instead of my life.”

  “Next time, call the police,” Vivian said firmly. “That’s their job, and they do it very well.”

  “Next time, if there ever is one, I will.” Natalie caught Vivian’s hand as she moved it. “Thank you for coming all the way here. I never dreamed that any of you would—especially Mack.”

  “When the boys heard, the first thing they said was that you belonged to us,” Vivian told her. “And you do. Whether you like it or not.”

  “I like it very much.” Her lower lip became briefly unsteady. “I’m glad we’re still friends,” she managed shakily.

  “Oh, Nat!” Vivian leaned down to hug her as gently as she could. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! I’ll never, never be so selfish and horrible again, ever!”

  Natalie hugged her with her good arm and sighed as the tears poured out of her, therapeutic and comforting, hot on her pale face.

  Vivian drew back and found tissues for both of them to wipe their wet eyes with, and they laughed while they did it.

  “Mack still has his apologies to make,” Vivian added. “I think he’ll welcome the opportunity. But it’s going to be hard for him, so meet him halfway, would you?”

  Natalie looked worried. “He looks bad.”

  “He should. He’s been driving himself for weeks. I won’t even try to tell you how hard he’s been to live with.”

  “That isn’t anything unusual,” Natalie said with her first glint of humor.

  “This has been much worse than usual. If you don’t believe it, try looking into the hall when he comes back. You’ll see medical people running for the exits in droves.” She chuckled. “We just stood and gaped at him when he walked into the recovery room and started throwing orders around. The army sure lost a great leader when he was mustered out after his tour of duty. He made captain, at that.”

  “Did... Glenna come, too?” she had to ask.

  “He hasn’t seen Glenna since you left town,” Vivian said quietly. “He doesn’t talk about her, either.”

  Natalie didn’t comment. She was sure that Mack was trying to heal a guilt complex, although he had no reason to feel guilty. He’d made a wrong assumption and accused her of something she hadn’t done, but he hadn’t caused her to be stabbed. That had been her own lack of foresight in stepping into a situation she wasn’t trained to handle. It could have happened anywhere.

  For the moment, she nodded and lay back. Vivian left her to find the nurses.

  * * *

  Mack came back with the boys just after lunch. He looked rested. They all did. She supposed they’d taken the opportunity to catch a little sleep in a real bed.

  The boys only stayed for a few minutes, having discovered a mall near the hospital where they could look over the video games. Vivian went to the hospital cafeteria to get herself a salad for lunch. Mack sat in the chair beside the bed and looked at Natalie, who was much more animated than she had been the night before.

  He reached out and caught her fingers in his, sending a wicked tingle of sensation through her, and he smiled at her gently. “You look better. How do you feel?”

  “Like I’ve been buffaloed,” she said. She was shy with him, as she’d never been. Amazing, considering their history. They knew each other so well, almost intimately, but she couldn’t find anything to say to him.

  He seemed to realize that. His fingers curled closer into hers and he leaned forward. “The surgeon says you can leave Fri
day,” he told her. “I can take you back on the Learjet if you’re not showing any bronchial symptoms.”

  “The Learjet?”

  “I chartered one to bring us down here. The pilot and copilot are staying at my hotel until we’re ready to leave.”

  “That must be costing a fortune,” she blurted.

  He smiled cynically. “What do you think I’m worth? In addition to a very successful cattle ranch and interests in several businesses, I own shares in half a dozen stocks that skyrocketed since I bought my first shares.”

  She averted her eyes. “I’ve got an apartment here,” she began.

  “You had an apartment here.”

  She stared at him, confused. “What?”

  “I told your landlady you weren’t coming back,” he said flatly. “I had your stuff packed up, carefully, and shipped to Medicine Ridge. I even had your mail collected and filled out a form for it to be forwarded on to you back home.”

  “You can’t!” she exclaimed. “Mack, I have a job here!”

  “Oh, yes, I spoke to the principal about that,” he continued, maddeningly calm. “They’re sorry to lose you, but considering the length of your recovery, they have to have someone come in to replace you. You can reapply if you want to come back. But you won’t want to.”

  “Of course I’ll want to come back!” she exclaimed, stunned at the changes he’d created, the havoc he’d created in her nice new life. “You can’t do this!”

  “I’ve already done it, Nat,” he replied, standing to loom over her, still holding her hand. “And when you have time to think about it, you’ll realize that it was the only thing I could do,” he added somberly. “Leaving you here alone was never an option, not even if I’d hated you.”

  She dropped her eyes to his big, lean hand holding hers. It was tanned, like his face, from the long hours he spent working on the ranch. “I thought you did hate me, when I left.”

  He laughed with pure self-contempt. “I know you did. Viv was right, I could sure teach you how to jump to conclusions.” His eye narrowed. He put a hand on the pillow beside her head and leaned close. “But there are a lot of other things I’d rather teach you.”