Safe in His Arms

by Colleen Coble

  Ben looked at Margaret. “Your father did leave it somewhat entailed.”

  “Entailed?”

  “If you die without issue, the property goes to Lewis as your next of kin.”

  “That’s as it should be.” Margaret stretched her hand toward Lewis. “Don’t be upset.”

  Lewis took her hand and squeezed it. “I’m fine. Uncle Paddy was very generous. The money will give me a good start. He did the right thing. I was just a little shocked.”

  Margaret sprang to her feet. “Let’s get some coffee at the café and talk about this, Lewis. I don’t want you to go. As far as I’m concerned, you will have an equal say in the running of the ranch. I’ll make sure you’re paid a fair salary.”

  He smiled. “You’re a fair woman, Margaret. But I won’t stay for coffee now. There’s work to be done back at the ranch. I’d best get to it.”

  “Please stay, Lewis. I don’t want to lose you and Pa all in the same week,” she whispered. What if she offered to put his name on the deed too? They could share equally. But even as the words formed on her lips, her cousin turned and left the office.

  Maybe it was just as well. Her father had foreseen the possible ramifications of leaving it to both of them. He would not want the ranch split in two, and that was always possible if they hit a wall of disagreement they couldn’t get past.

  So money would not be a problem for her. No one was going to force her into a loveless marriage.

  SEVENTEEN

  The interior of the barn was like an oven, and bright sunlight streamed through the windows. Flecks of hay stuck to Daniel’s damp face. He wiped it with the back of his hand and tossed another forkful of hay to the horses. He turned when he heard a footfall. Lewis wasn’t smiling as he strode across the barn floor.

  “Lewis, what’s wrong?”

  His fists curled, Lewis stopped a few feet from Daniel. “Your plan is clear now, Cutler.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You had no right to talk Uncle Paddy into changing his will.” Lewis took a step forward and swung his fist.

  Daniel sidestepped the punch and stepped back. “Whoa, slow down. I don’t have any quarrel with you.”

  “Well, I have a quarrel with you!” Lewis roared, then charged at Daniel.

  The pitchfork went flying out of Daniel’s hand, and he landed on his back on the barn floor. Lewis grabbed him by the throat, but Daniel managed to break his grip. “Get off me!” He heaved Lewis to the side and staggered to his feet. “What’s this all about?”

  Lewis scrambled to his feet with his chest heaving. “Your interference stripped me of my inheritance. An inheritance I was counting on. My life is ruined, thanks to you!” He took off his hat and flung it to the ground. His eyes were wild. He started toward Daniel again.

  “Paddy left the ranch to Margaret?” Daniel evaded another swing from Lewis. The man couldn’t hit a door with those fists. “Calm down. I’m sure Margaret isn’t going to throw you out.”

  Lewis stood clenching and unclenching his fists. “This changes everything.”

  Daniel studied his pained expression. “Only a woman would cause that expression. Have you been seeing someone, Lewis? Someone who expected you to inherit?”

  He shook his head. “I—I’m just shocked my uncle would do this.”

  “I don’t think so. Who is she?”

  Lewis’s shoulders slumped, the fight gone from him. “Dorothy Vaughn from Wichita Falls. Her father is an attorney and owns most of the town. He only agreed to the marriage after Uncle Paddy promised me the ranch. I don’t know how to tell them what’s happened. He’ll make her break the engagement—I know it.”

  Daniel digested the news. “So you never intended to live here? You were going to steal the ranch from Margaret.”

  Lewis looked down. “I would have taken care of Margaret. And we were going to live here.”

  Daniel picked up the pitchfork that had gone flying when Lewis tackled him. “For a while, maybe. Miss Vaughn sounds like she’s used to more than a ranch house and hard work.”

  “I would have hired servants.”

  “Did you tell Margaret?” Daniel could imagine how that went over. He’d been right. Lewis would have sold the ranch and left Margaret homeless.

  “No. It doesn’t matter now.”

  Lewis looked desolate, but Daniel thought there was more to the story. “If Miss Vaughn cares for you, this will change nothing. Her father is wealthy. What use would he have for your ranch?”

  Lewis shrugged and turned to go. “I shall have to go see her and release her from her promise.”

  “I’m sure Margaret would be happy to welcome your wife to the ranch,” Daniel called after him.

  Lewis stopped in the barn’s doorway and turned. “Dorothy deserves to be the mistress of her own house. Not the wife of a poor relative who has been relegated to a ranch hand.”

  Daniel had endured enough of his whining. “I doubt Margaret would ever make you feel like a poor relation.”

  “It would still be the truth. I wouldn’t subject Dorothy to that. The ten thousand dollars Uncle Paddy left me would be a start, but her father won’t count it as enough to welcome me into the family.”

  Daniel heard the sound of buggy wheels and saw Margaret pull the horse to a stop at the corral. “Talk to Margaret before you make any hasty decisions.”

  Lewis turned as Margaret came toward them. He glanced around as though he might bolt if given the opportunity. She stopped a few feet from them and glanced from him to Lewis.

  “I’m leaving,” Lewis said abruptly.

  “To town?” she asked.

  “No, I’m going back to Wichita Falls. I can’t stay here.”

  “Leaving the ranch?” She reached toward him. “Don’t do that, Lewis. You’re all the family I have left. I need you. I can’t do it alone.”

  Lewis hesitated, then shook his head. “You don’t get it, Margaret. I can’t take orders from a woman.”

  “I wasn’t planning on giving you orders,” she said, her voice soft. “I thought it would be a partnership.”

  “Would you be willing to sign over half the ranch to me?”

  She bit her lip, then hesitated before shaking her head. “I can’t do that.”

  “Because one person needs to be in charge. You,” he said.

  “It makes sense there would be one person with the final say.”

  Daniel curled his fingers into his palms at her pleading expression. She was wasting her time with Lewis. It didn’t appear he was going to tell her the real story either. “Lewis is engaged. He doesn’t think his wife will join him here if he isn’t the owner.”

  “What?” She stared at her cousin. “Is this true?” When he didn’t answer, she took his arm. “I would love to have another woman at the ranch. I’ll make her welcome, I swear. Bring her to me.”

  Lewis shook off her grip. “She won’t come, I tell you. We had plans to build a house, a proper home, not an overgrown cabin. She’s not going to want to share the ranch house with a stranger.”

  “Who is this woman? I shall pay her a visit, explain to her how welcome she is. And there is plenty of money to build her a proper house. You pick out the spot, and I’ll hire someone immediately.”

  Lewis’s face reddened. “Keep your ranch and the hidden bonds! You’re so selfish.”

  “Bonds? What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t play dumb. The bonds Stephen stole from the stage have to be here somewhere.”

  Watching her stricken face, Daniel realized she didn’t know anything about the rumor. “Do you know why Stephen ran off to join the cavalry?” he asked softly.

  “H-He wanted to fight Indians. Are you saying he was a robber? Like . . . ?” She bit her lip and looked down.

  “Yes,” Daniel said. “Rumor has it a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of bonds were buried on the property.”

  Her gaze bored into him, and he read the suspicion there. She thought that
was why he’d come.

  MARGARET YANKED OFF her bonnet and kicked her skirt off her legs. She pulled on her britches and sat in front of the dresser. Her hair was still up, and she pulled out the pins and rubbed her aching head.

  Inez rapped on the door. “Señorita, you are all right?”

  “Come in, Inez.” Margaret’s head ached so much, she found it hard to think. All the problems had come at her too fast to sort through.

  The door opened, and Inez stepped inside before shutting the door behind her. “What has happened? Mr. Lewis, he leave in a great hurry. He take all his things.”

  Margaret stood and stretched. “My father left me the ranch.” Though she was still troubled by the lies about her brother, she felt like she did at the end of calving season—tired and exultant all at once.

  Inez’s usual stoic expression was in place. “He leave everything to you?”

  “Everything except some money he left Lewis. Pa loved me after all. I was never really sure.”

  Inez picked up the hairbrush and pointed to the stool until Margaret sat back down. “So Mr. Lewis leave because of this?”

  Margaret’s smile faded. “Yes. He was upset. I told him I would take care of him, but he was quite determined to go.”

  Inez said nothing as she brushed Margaret’s hair. Did she think Margaret was wrong not to have shared the ranch equally with Lewis? Margaret was still uncertain of the right path. “Lewis was engaged. He didn’t think his wife would want to come here with the changed circumstances. Pa didn’t want the ranch split or I would have done it.”

  Inez’s brushing slowed, then resumed. “Your papa was not always wise.” A hint of pain flashed over her face, then vanished.

  “You think I should split it up?” Though this was none of Inez’s business, Margaret wanted to hear her thoughts.

  “Is not for me to say, señorita.”

  “What would you do?”

  “I would make sure my family had equal share.”

  Margaret bit her lip. She had no answer other than her father’s wishes. What would Jesus have her do? She knew the answer without opening the leather cover of her Bible. Sharing was the right thing to do. “I’ll send someone to the train station to try to stop him from leaving.”

  She rose and went to the door and called for Vincente, who promised to hurry to town to try to find Lewis.

  Inez went to the dresser and pulled out Margaret’s nightgown. “You want me to heat water for bath, señorita?”

  “Yes, please, but not yet. I want to talk to you first.” Inez would know if the rumor was true. Margaret sat back down on the stool and began to braid her hair. “I heard something about Stephen today.”

  “Mr. Stephen is dead. Words cannot hurt him now.”

  “I want to know the truth.” Margaret watched Inez hang the skirt and blouse in the closet and pick up the discarded shoes. “Did Stephen go off to fight Indians because he was in trouble here?”

  A flicker of dismay passed across Inez’s face. “Who tell you this?”

  “Lewis mentioned looking for bonds in the barn. When he wouldn’t tell me what he meant, Daniel told me that Stephen supposedly robbed a stagecoach and took some bonds worth a lot of money.”

  Inez sighed. “It is true, señorita. Your papa thought the rumor would die off since it happened in Oklahoma. But a man came looking for Mr. Stephen. A bounty hunter, it was. Mr. Paddy, he pay the man to leave.”

  “I can’t believe I’ve never heard this rumor.” Surely word had gotten to Larson. “If it occurred in Oklahoma, how would Lewis have heard about it?”

  “Your papa, he tell him. Lewis ask me about it.”

  “Pa told Lewis but never told me?” Margaret tried to keep the hurt out of her voice.

  “You love your brother very much. Your papa did not want you to know.”

  “You’re sure Pa didn’t just pay the guy off to get rid of him?”

  “Sí.” Inez looked down at the floor.

  Margaret absorbed the information. She’d idolized her older brother, had thought he was a hero. Strong, faithful, law-abiding. A man above all men. “Why would he rob a stagecoach?”

  “My Vincente, he hear big fight between Stephen and your papa. Very bad.” Inez shook her head. “Mr. Paddy ask Stephen why he do such thing when he had only to ask for what was needed.”

  “What did Stephen say?”

  “He say that he hate ranching. He want to do something else with life. Your papa say he must help with ranch. He yell back that he is man. He can do what he wants.”

  “That doesn’t quite sound like an admission. Why didn’t I hear this argument?” She tried to remember the events before Stephen’s departure.

  “You gone when it happen. On trip with your aunt to Austin.”

  Margaret nodded, the memory sharpening. “I was gone for two weeks. When I returned, Stephen announced he’d enlisted and would be leaving. Pa didn’t say much to him. We had a big dinner, and he left the next day.”

  “Sí.”

  “But I don’t understand one thing. If he robbed the stage, why would he hide the bonds? Why would he leave if he had plenty of money? That makes no sense.” She shook her head. “I don’t think he robbed that stage. Knowing Stephen, I suspect he was hurt that Pa would assume he was guilty. I think he waited around for an apology, and when it didn’t come, he left.”

  Inez said nothing. She straightened the items on Margaret’s stand, then went toward the door. When Margaret was alone, she pulled the sheet to her chin and resolved to get to the truth.

  EIGHTEEN

  The house was quiet with everyone in bed. Daniel should be there himself, but he sat in the kitchen with the kerosene lamp casting flickers of shadows on the walls. A sense of danger had fallen over him ever since Paddy’s death. Daniel was certain it wasn’t an accident. There had been no accidental fall.

  A piano key plunked and the sound echoed into the kitchen. Someone else was up. Carrying the light, he went down the hall to the parlor. The lamp atop the piano illuminated Vincente’s face. He was about thirty-five with black hair and eyes that seemed to take in everything. He ran the house with his mother, which had seemed an unusual arrangement to Daniel, but it worked for the household.

  He stopped playing when he saw Daniel. “I hope I did not wake you.”

  “I was in the kitchen. Where did you learn to play like that?”

  “Mrs. O’Brien taught me when I was a boy. She was very kind to me.”

  “You came with your mother when she first started working here?”

  The man nodded. “I have lived here for most of my life.”

  So the fellow had been here when Stephen left. “I’m disturbed by Paddy’s death, as I’m sure everyone is. Did he have any enemies?”

  “You believe it was not an accident?”

  “Don’t you? Someone hit him on the head.”

  Vincente’s hands fell away from the piano. “I had not heard that. I had hoped that he fell and hit his head.”

  “I wonder if someone has been searching for the stolen bonds.”

  Vincente smiled. “You speak of the stagecoach robbery.”

  Daniel couldn’t figure the man out. He played the piano, worked quietly beating rugs and cooking in the kitchen, and Daniel had seen him soothing pregnant mares in the barn. Inez had raised a strong and interesting man.

  “What did you hear about the robbery?”

  “Are you here to look for the bonds?” the man countered. “I believe the treasure is a myth.”

  “I only heard about it a few days ago. I’m simply curious if the rumor could have anything to do with Paddy’s death.”

  Vincente placed his fingers on the ivories again and played a few notes. “We have seen drifters now and again who ask about the bonds. I have seen them in some of the caves and along the river. They have found nothing. I do not believe there is anything to find.”

  “Because Stephen took them with him, or because he didn’t have anything to do
with the robbery?”

  The music grew louder. “Stephen was innocent of the accusations.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I am certain. He was not that kind of man.”

  “How do you know?” Daniel didn’t mean to sound surprised, but it slipped out.

  “We were childhood playmates and friends as adults.” Vincente’s hands stilled. “The members of this family have always treated me with respect and friendship. We abandoned the employer-employee relationship long ago. If it was ever there.” He stared at Daniel. “You yourself should have seen that by now. You and the rest of the workers eat at the table with the family.”

  “True enough.” Daniel had not worked at a ranch before, so he’d had no idea if that was usual behavior. Evidently it was not.

  “Paddy was very good to me. Paid for my schooling and allowed his wife to teach me the piano. I will miss him.”

  “About Stephen?”

  Vincente roused from his reverie. “Stephen was not even in Oklahoma when the theft happened.”

  “Where was he?”

  “Enlisting in the cavalry without his father’s knowledge.”

  “Does Margaret know any of this?”

  Vincente shook his head. “Not before today. Margaret questioned my mother before bed.”

  “If there’s no treasure hidden on the property, then why was Paddy killed?”

  “I do not know. If he had any enemies, I am unaware of them.” Vincente rose from the stool. “Did you know Lewis left?”

  “I knew he’d planned to leave.”

  “Margaret asked me to find him, but no one in town had seen him.”

  Daniel frowned, uneasy. “He never made it to town?”

  Vincente shrugged. “I do not know. But he was not at the stagecoach station.”

  MARGARET WIPED DUST from her face and swatted a fly with her hat. It had been a long morning in the saddle, and she was ready for water and some food. She dismounted beside the Red River and tied Archie to a bush, then knelt by the water. She splashed it on her face and wiped her skin with a handkerchief. She stood and pulled out her lunch, a roast beef sandwich.