Safe in His Arms

by Colleen Coble

  Heat flooded her cheeks. Emotion, indeed! “I’ve thought this through, and it’s the only proper course of action. Women can make their own way in the world, you know. We don’t have to be dependent on a man for our livelihood.”

  “I didn’t say you did. But waiting tables isn’t where your heart lies. It’s with the ranch. You’ll be miserable inside all day.”

  “I told her the same, but she’s determined,” Emma said.

  “I can see that,” he said, holding Margaret’s gaze.

  She picked up the pot again when the bell tinkled. “I have customers to see to. You can go out the back if you like.”

  “I’d like some food.” He followed her. “And coffee.”

  She was likely to spill it all over him if he sat and watched her. But she would show him she was competent to do anything she set her mind to.

  BY THE TIME Margaret’s first week was over, her feet were sore, and she’d found out how hard waiting tables was. Today was her first day off in a week, and Pa would have to be told what she’d done. The rain drizzled down as she cut calves out of the herd, but she didn’t mind. To her, it was a day as fine as cream gravy. She was in her element.

  The poncho did little to stop the cold rain from trickling down her neck and back as she rode back to the ranch house. The rain stopped about a mile from home. A rainbow emerged from the clouds. It almost looked like the rainbow’s end was at the Triple T. Such fanciful notions. It was probably because she was still so distraught at the thought of leaving it. Dusk was approaching and she wanted to be inside before dark.

  Archie seemed to sense her longing to be home and broke into a trot. She leaned back in the saddle and let him go.

  “Eager to get home?” Daniel asked as his horse fell into step with hers.

  “I want a hot bath.”

  “You need some plaster on that cut too.”

  Did he have to remind her that Archie had thrown her? She barely felt the sting of the cut on her face, but every muscle hurt from her fall into the rocks. She could count the times she’d been thrown on one hand, and it had been humiliating that Daniel had seen this one. She shivered in her saddle, cold clear to the bone. But more than anything, she wanted to get out of Daniel’s company. He made her feel things she didn’t understand. It had been so much simpler before he arrived. He was such an enigma, and she didn’t like puzzles. She liked black to be black and white to be white. Shades of gray were too difficult to comprehend.

  “Your pa is due back today. You gonna tell him about your job tonight or wait until you go in tomorrow?”

  She shot him a warning glance. “I’ll tell him after dinner. Just make sure you don’t say anything.”

  He grinned. “I’ll try to stay out of the fracas.”

  As they neared the house, she noticed men running back and forth to the barn. “Is that the sheriff’s horse?” Not that Daniel would know. He was too new. She glanced at him. “Is he here to arrest you?”

  “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

  She held his gaze. “No. No, I wouldn’t.”

  He looked away and stared at the ranch. “There’s something wrong. Isn’t that the doctor on the porch?”

  Her fingers tightened on the reins. “Yes, you’re right.” She urged her horse into a run and reached the yard, where she slid to the ground and threw the reins around a post. She splashed through mud puddles to the porch. “Where’s Pa?” she asked Calvin.

  The ranch hand’s grizzled face was white. “In his room with the doctor, Miss Margaret.”

  She bolted for the door, not waiting to ask what had happened. Lewis was pacing in the hall outside her father’s room. He blocked her path when she started for the door.

  “Let me pass,” she demanded.

  “Doc said everyone had to stay out here.” He put his hand on her arm. “Calm down, Margaret.”

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “He arrived about noon. Calvin found him in the back field this afternoon at one. He’d been hit on the head.”

  She gasped. “Someone hit him again?”

  “It appears that way.”

  She collapsed onto his chest. “He’s going to be all right, isn’t he? Is he awake?”

  “No, he’s been unconscious since we found him, so I sent for the doctor. He’s been with him only a few minutes.”

  Her throat burned, and she buried her face in his shirt. “Why didn’t you send for me?” She lifted her head and shook him. “You had no right not to come get me!”

  Lewis hugged her. “I thought you’d be here shortly.”

  She clutched her cousin’s solid form. “He can’t die, Lewis.”

  “He’s a tough old bird. I’m sure the doctor will fix him right up.”

  Daniel joined them outside the door. “I heard what happened. Was the assailant caught?”

  “We have no idea who did this.”

  Lewis’s tone was aggressive, and Margaret glanced up at him. Did he think Daniel had something to do with it, or was it his knowledge about the foreman’s “other” activities? Daniel had been with her, so he couldn’t have had anything to do with this.

  “I don’t understand why anyone would want to hurt Pa.” She stepped away from her cousin.

  Lewis folded his arms across his chest and stared at Daniel. “You have to wonder if some other crime is going on around here and Uncle Paddy observed it.”

  Margaret gulped. Even if Daniel had nothing to do with this, one of his gang members could have. Pa might have seen the man in the barn and challenged him. It made sense. She hugged herself and leaned against the wall. “What’s taking so long?”

  Before Lewis could answer her, the door opened. His expression grave, the doctor stepped out. He blocked the doorway when she tried to move past him. “I need to talk to you, Margaret.”

  She plucked at his sleeve. “He’s all right, isn’t he?”

  “I’m afraid you’re going to have to be strong.” He nodded at Daniel. “Get some whiskey.”

  Her limbs turned to lead. “Whiskey? I don’t drink. Tell me what’s wrong.”

  The doctor took her arm and moved her down the hall toward her room. “I want you to sit down first.”

  She stumbled as she realized how serious it was. Was Pa paralyzed? In a stupor she let the doctor lead her to her bed, where she sank onto the side. “Tell me.” Lewis was looking more anxious too. The doctor knelt beside her. Daniel entered with a glass of amber liquid, which she refused.

  The doctor glanced at Lewis, then back at her. “I’m afraid we’ve lost him, Margaret.”

  “Lost him?” The words meant nothing to her at first. Pa was in his bedroom. She’d caught a glimpse of him when the doctor opened the door. When Lewis’s face crumpled, she understood the doctor was saying her dad was dead.

  She sprang to her feet. “You’re wrong!”

  The doctor made a grab for her and missed as she ran for the door. She would go to him and her pa would open his eyes. They would see. Daniel blocked her passage. She stared at the compassion in his eyes and faced the truth before crumpling into his embrace.

  SIXTEEN

  Townspeople had thronged the house all day. The women had brought enough food to feed half the county. Daniel stayed as close to Margaret as was seemly. She was frozen in her grief, moving mechanically among the guests as she accepted condolences. She had asked for Carrie when Lucy arrived and hadn’t let the baby out of her arms.

  Nate and Lucy were the last to leave. As Nate gathered the children, Lucy joined Daniel where he stood by the big window in the parlor. “I’m worried about Margaret.”

  “I am too,” he told her.

  “Has she cried?”

  “Just when the doctor told her.” He’d replayed the way she’d clung to him like he was her only solace. He wanted to be that comfort, that protector, but he had no right.

  “You need to protect her, Daniel. What if the murderer goes after her next?”

  “I’ll look after
her, Lucy. I promise.” He walked her to the door, where Margaret stood hugging the children good-bye.

  “I guess you have to take Carrie,” Margaret said. “She’s brought me such comfort today.”

  Lucy put her hand on Margaret’s arm. “I wish I could leave her with you. Do you want me to stay?”

  Margaret’s eyes widened, then she shook her head. “Nate would miss you too much. I’ll be fine.”

  Lucy glanced at Nate, who shrugged. “Stay, Luce. I’ll come fetch you and Carrie tomorrow. Do you need me to bring you anything tonight?”

  “I brought plenty of things for Carrie.” Lucy stood on tiptoe and planted a kiss on the corner of Nate’s mouth.

  He smiled and put his big hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be praying for you both.”

  “Thanks, Nate,” Margaret called after him. Her arms tightened around the baby.

  Daniel walked Nate and the children out to the wagon. “Lucy will bring a lot of comfort to Margaret.”

  Nate lifted William and Eileen into the wagon. “Those two are tighter than bark on a birch tree. Send someone for me if you need me.”

  Daniel watched them disappear into the sunset, then put his hands in his pockets and let his gaze wander around the yard. Margaret was sure there had been an intruder, but what if it was one of the hands? Maybe Paddy caught someone stealing or rustling. He knew she had told her cousin what she’d overheard about his involvement with the outlaws. Lewis had been skulking around for days, but there was nothing to see.

  Just before Paddy’s death, Charlie had agreed to meet with Daniel, but all the turmoil had delayed the meeting once again. He had no idea what was going on with the rest of the gang, but he didn’t believe any of them were involved in this. But maybe he didn’t want to believe it. It would make him responsible too, and Paddy had been good to him. If his arrival here had caused the man’s death, Daniel didn’t think he could live with himself.

  He saw movement over by the barn and realized a man had slipped around the corner of the building. Though his back was to the house, the shape of the man’s head and shoulders seemed familiar. The man shuffled to the side. Frank. No one else had that massive head and sloping shoulders. What was he doing here? And more important, did he have anything to do with Paddy’s death?

  The man’s appearance here didn’t bode well. Daniel walked along the side of the house toward the outbuildings. The barn door was swinging. A horse neighed when he stepped into the cool dimness of the barn’s interior.

  He thought about calling out, but he wanted to know what Frank was doing here. He crept along the straw-strewn boards to the back of the building, from where the sounds of movement were coming. Frank rooted through a mound of hay.

  “What are you doing?” Daniel demanded.

  Frank yanked out his gun as he whirled to face him. The barrel of the gun jerked, then the man lowered it to his side. “You about got yourself drilled.”

  Daniel clenched his fingers into his palms. “I asked what you were doing here.”

  Frank was in his forties and had been the leader of the gang from the beginning. He and Daniel had been slightly adversarial from the moment they met. Daniel had always assumed it was because the man didn’t want him hanging around Golda. Frank’s method of not getting caught after a robbery was to make sure any eyewitnesses were six feet under. His violent nature was always barely covered with a veneer of congeniality.

  “Looking around.” Frank holstered his revolver.

  “For what?” Daniel didn’t like the man here on the property. Not with Margaret a few yards away.

  “Rumor has it that some valuable bonds from a stagecoach heist ten years ago are somewhere around here.”

  “Here? That makes no sense.” But even as he protested, he remembered the hole he’d found after the first barn burned. It wasn’t far from the new hole Frank had started.

  Frank shrugged. “Some say Paddy’s boy hid it before he went off to the army. It was to be his stake for getting started when he came back.”

  Daniel exhaled. “Are you saying that Stephen O’Brien robbed the stage?”

  “Don’t know that for a fact, but it’s one of the rumors I heard in town.”

  Had Margaret heard the rumors? Maybe that’s why Stephen had headed west. Daniel had wondered why he would leave his aging father to run the ranch with only Margaret’s help. The possibility explained a lot.

  Frank was still staring. “I heard the bonds were worth a hundred thousand.”

  Daniel kept his expression impassive. The large amount of money made it even more likely the rumor was false. “I want you off the property. Someone could see you and it will tip our hand.”

  Frank’s eyes squinted to a slit. “Tell you what. You look around. See what you can find out. Maybe we can work together and track down those bonds. I’m willing to share.”

  “I doubt there are any bonds,” Daniel said.

  “You’re wanting it all for yourself, Cutler. You wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t told you. If I find out you found it and didn’t share it with me, that redhead inside will pay for it.”

  Daniel didn’t like the fact that Frank had even noticed Margaret. “She’s got nothing in this. And neither do I. I don’t intend to look for any bonds. I don’t believe they’re here.”

  “If you don’t find them, I will.”

  If Daniel didn’t at least agree to look for them, Frank would be back. “I’ll see if I can find the bonds, but remember, I’m here for bank information. Wouldn’t you say that’s more important?”

  “You can do both.” Frank sauntered off with a smug expression.

  Daniel had to wonder why Frank had picked this area of Texas. Maybe he’d come to look for the bonds all along.

  THE ATTORNEY’S OFFICE was paneled in dark wood. The desk was in front of a large window that looked out onto Main Street where passersby strolled past the storefronts. Margaret sat in a comfortable leather chair with Lewis in the chair beside her. She glanced at the newspaper on the table. There was a drawing of a meteor that hit in Iowa on the front page. She shifted and sighed.

  Lewis leaned over and squeezed her hand. “Don’t look so scared, Margaret. Nothing will change. Even if Uncle Paddy didn’t get your settlement arranged, I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”

  She returned the pressure of his fingers. “I know, Lewis. We’ll make a good team.” She swallowed hard. “I just can’t believe he’s gone.”

  “I’m going to find out who did this, I swear. Uncle Paddy was a good man. He didn’t deserve to be put down like a dog in his own field.”

  Her eyes burned. She didn’t like to remember how her father had died. Had he thought of her in his last moments? The house felt empty without his large presence. The rooms echoed without his booming voice. She’d awakened last night, sure that he was standing by her bed. Until she remembered he was dead.

  The door behind them opened, and Ben Mayfield entered the office. He was tall and thin to the point of emaciation, but he always wore a smile that lightened his cavernous face. “Good morning, folks.” Once he was settled in his chair behind the large, polished desk, he opened a folder and adjusted his glasses. “You’re here for the reading of your father’s last will and testament, Miss Margaret. First, let me say I’m sorry for your loss. I thought a lot of Paddy. I shall miss him.”

  “Me too,” Margaret choked out. She rubbed her eyes. “Go ahead. I’m prepared to hear what you have to say. Pa already told me he was leaving the ranch to Lewis.”

  “Indeed. Well then, I believe you’ll be surprised to hear that he changed that bequest the morning of his death. The minute he got off the stage, he came to my office.”

  Lewis leaned forward. “What?”

  Ben exhaled and extracted an envelope from the file. “He left this letter for both of you.” He held it out to Margaret.

  She opened it and pulled out the stiff paper inside. “It’s addressed to both of us.” She held it out to Lewis. “Do y
ou want to read it first?”

  He shook his head. “Read it aloud. It doesn’t matter. I always thought Uncle Paddy’s offer was too good to be true.” His Adam’s apple bobbed.

  In spite of her relief, Margaret felt a pang of sympathy. Poor Lewis had never had much. This was like holding out a piece of bread to a starving child, then snatching it back. Why had her father done it?

  She opened the folded paper and began to read. “’My dear Margaret and Lewis, I’ve pondered the best thing to do with the ranch. At one point I was convinced Lewis should receive it, and Margaret should have a settlement to establish a household elsewhere, but I’ve reconsidered that decision. I hope it’s not too much of a disappointment to you, Lewis. I know you had high expectations.’”

  She stopped and glanced at Lewis, who sat listening with an anguished expression. “I’m sorry too, Lewis. But nothing has changed. It will be you and me together running the ranch. You’ll never want for anything.”

  “Finish the letter.”

  She gave him a long look, then started reading again. “’After talking with Daniel, I realized my actions were unfair to you, Margaret. You would have no guarantee of a home. Daniel pointed out that Lewis could take a wife and choose to sell the ranch to please her. I’ve worked too hard to see that happen. I know Margaret would never sell the ranch under any circumstances, no matter who she married. So I’m settling a generous amount on you, Lewis. I hope you will stay to help Margaret, but if you choose to leave and start a business or buy a house, you will have a substantial amount of money to begin elsewhere. I know I can trust you both to stay close and look out for one another. Paddy.’”

  She was barely able to whisper the final word. He’d loved her after all. What had Daniel told him? She intended to find out at the first opportunity.

  “That’s it, then?” Lewis said in a low voice. “He didn’t leave the ranch to the two of us, even?”

  Ben shook his head. “He left you ten thousand dollars, though, Lewis. Very generous.”

  “It is generous.” Lewis’s voice was wooden.