Georgina remained silent.
Maybelle snorted.
Vernice sighed deeply, Ash presumed with sentiment.
Dev said, “Keep going, boyo. You’re on the right track.”
Ash took that as encouraging. “And I can’t stand the thought of living forever without you.”
Georgina squinted at him
“Please, Georgina. I know I’m not the world’s best talker. I know I’ve made you mad at me because of what I said yesterday, and I’m really sorry. My—my marriage was hell, Georgina. Phoebe acted as if she wanted me before we were married, and then afterwards, she changed.”
“Did she?” Georgina sounded as if she didn’t believe him.
“Yes.” Ash pondered how best to describe Phoebe. “She . . . she pretended she wanted the same life I did, but she really didn’t.”
“And what, exactly, kind of life is that?”
Shoot, the woman sounded hard. Ash almost winced when he heard the steel in her voice. What the hell, though. He’d started. He might as well finish. What did he care if the entire universe knew the secrets of his heart? He braced himself and sucked up more air.
“She pretended she wanted to live in the territory with me. She pretended she wanted to make a new life for us out here, away from Galveston. She pretended she was willing to live rough for a few years until I could make a better life for us.”
His heart gave a sudden, hard spasm. He’d made a better life, all right, but Phoebe had died before he’d achieved it. And she hadn’t wanted to participate in the building of it either.
“It hurt me, Georgina. It hurt bad. I’m well set up now, but Phoebe didn’t want to stick it out until then. I don’t know what would have happened if she hadn’t died, but I suspect she’d have left me and gone back to Galveston.”
At least Georgina had stopped scowling at him.Ash considered that a step in the right direction and unburdened himself some more. What did he care at this point? “She broke my heart, Georgina, and after she died, I swore that I’d never let another women get under my skin like that again.” He stopped abruptly, a sudden sick sensation having invaded his innards, then forged onward recklessly. “But you got under my skin in spite of my vigilance.”
“Did I?” Her voice didn’t sound hard and cold, any longer.
A speck of optimism began to burn in Ash’s chest. “Yes. Yes! For God’s sake, I can’t even remember the last time I lost control of myself the way I did with you. That never even happened with Phoebe, even though I was a young buck in those days.”
“You’re not so awfully old now,” Georgina said.
This was very encouraging. “I’m thirty-three, Georgina I reckon that’s a good age. It’s an age where I ought to know my own mind. And I swear to you that if I hadn’t been so badly burned by Phoebe, I wouldn’t have had such a hard time coming to grips with you.” So to speak. Ash briefly considered more gentlemanly ways of expressing his last sentiment, but gave it up.
She blinked, and Ash feared for a moment that she might even start shedding tears. By God, he thought, he was getting the hang of this. Using the momentum he’d built up, he went on. “I love you, Georgina. I love you madly. Passionately. If I hadn’t had my heart busted in pieces by Phoebe, I wouldn’t have been so scared to admit it.”
“Oh, Ash.”
Oh, Ash? The words had come out as a little sigh, and Ash’s heart gave a big leap of hope.
“And I’m not putting all the blame on her,” he continued, feeling like a man on the edge of a cliff who was grabbing with all his strength to a rocky ledge and trying to lift himself to solid ground. “If I’d had more sense, I’d have seen she was a dedicated city girl who didn’t want to leave Galveston. And she was too young to know her mind, really, and I should have known that too. Hell, she was only seventeen and had never done a lick of real work in her life.
“But, you see, I loved her. I pretended she was what I wanted because I loved her so damned much. But neither of us were what the other one needed or even wanted, and we didn’t realize that until it was too late for both of us.”
“Oh, Ash,” she said again, this time even breathier than before.
“And you don’t have to worry about money, either, Georgina. I’ve made a lot of money in my uncle’s cotton brokerage business in Galveston. I like my job as sheriff here in Picacho Wells, but if I didn’t have that job—if I wanted to devote all my time to my ranch—we’d still have lots of money.”
“I’m not worried about money, Ash. I have plenty of my own.”
He frowned. She wasn’t supposed to say things like that. She was supposed to be happy he’d be able to take care of her financially. Besides, he’d really like to know that she needed him as much as he needed her. Or even almost as much.
“But I’m glad you’re not a fortune hunter,” she added.
A fortune hunter? Good God. “No. I’m rich in my own right.”
She heaved a big sigh.
Ash figured it was now or never. He dropped to his knees and lifted his arms in a gesture that would have done Romeo or one of those other old-time Italian bucks proud. “So please believe me when I tell you I love you. It’s not easy for me to say, Georgina But it’s the truth, and if you’ll agree to marry me, I swear to you and Maybelle and Vernice and God Himself that I’ll never, ever do anything to hurt you.”
“Oh, Ash.”
The window slammed shut. Ash stared at it for a second, his heart reeling. Then he stood up and dusted off his pants. Well shoot what now? If he’d bared his soul and told all of his deepest, darkest secrets for nothing, he’d be mad as hell. The front, door banged open, and he jumped with alarm. Then Georgina burst out of it and flung herself into his arms and completed his humiliation by breaking into tears of joy.
Chapter Nineteen
“Oh, Ash, I love you so much!”
Georgina was laughing and crying and generally in a state the likes of which she’d never experienced before. She was so happy, though. So very, very happy.
“I love you, too, honey.”
“And I need you. Oh, how I need you!”
“Thank God.”
That seemed to Georgina a rather odd statement, but when she peered at him, he obviously meant it. His arms held her like steel bonds, and the look of relief on his face could be plainly seen.
“Will you marry me, Georgina?”
Georgina thought she detected the thickness of tears in his voice and she was touched beyond measure. “Yes. Oh, yes!”
Then he kissed her. And he kissed her. And she kissed him. And he kissed her. And she kissed him
And then Maybelle strode out onto the porch, holding her knitting in her fist. “All right, you two. Break it up. I don’t allow any fornicating on the front porch.”
“Mother!”
“Jay-sus, Maybelle, you’re a spoilsport.”
“Don’t you dare talk to me, Dev!” Maybelle heaved a knitting needle at him
Ash finally let Georgina go, although he held on to her hand as if he didn’t quite dare release her entirely. Georgina didn’t mind a bit.
“I’ll go make a nice pot of tea and fetch some cookies.” Vernice bustled off.
“I’ll go to the cellar and get the dandelion wine,” Maybelle said after she’d picked up her knitting needle. She glared at Dev, who had backed off a yard or two and was wafting rather unsubstantially in the branches of a nearby cottonwood.
“I don’t know if I trust Georgina with wine, Miss Maybelle.” Ash hugged Georgina hard.
Georgina laughed. “I promise not to pour it over your head this time.” She pondered her statement. “Well, that is to say, I won’t pour it over your head unless you say something I don’t like.”
Ash rolled his eyes.
“And if you get really out of hand, I’ll bash you over the head with the decanter after I pour the wine on you. You wouldn’t mind that, would you?” She batted her eyelashes.
Ash kissed her again.
Dev made himself more material and fluttered down to the porch. He ignored Maybelle. “She’s only feelin’ her oats, boyo. Pay her no mind.”
“A lot you know about it,” Maybelle grumbled. She swished into the house.
Dev sighed.
Ash finally stopped kissing Georgina, much to her dismay.
“Don’t forget that you’ve still got unfinished business in the house, Dev,” Ash told the ghost.
“Oh? What business is that” Even though her own happiness all but overwhelmed her, Georgina was pleased to know she could still experience interest in the affairs of others. She nearly died from happiness when Ash put his arm around her waist and walked with her into the house.
“He’s got unfinished business with Miss Maybelle.”
“Oh, that.” She wished Ash hadn’t brought up her grandmother and Mr. O’Rourke’s problems. They tended to put a damper on things.
“Now, Ash, I don’t know about this—”
Georgina interrupted. “I’ve been trying to get Grandmother to hear him out ever since I got here and realized he was haunting the place.”
“He’s going to do it today,” Ash assured her “He promised.”
“Now wait a minute, boyo. I didn’t exactly promise.”
“You did, too.”
Georgina perceived that Ash was becoming annoyed with the ghost and decided to intervene. It would be just like Devlin, the clever devil, to argue with Ash and then pretend offense and vanish. “I think Ash has a wonderful idea, Mr. O’Rourke. Grandmother was touched by Ash’s declaration of love”—she could hardly believe it when Sheriff Ashley Barrett, of all rugged western men, blushed—“and I’ll bet she’d be more apt to listen to you today than most days.”
“She’s touched, all right,” grumbled Ash, who evidently didn’t like having his sentimental moments referred to.
“I don’t know about this,” muttered the ghost.
“You said you would, dammit.”
“Now Ash,” soothed Georgina. “There’s no need to swear at Mr. O’Rourke. He’s only frightened.”
“Folderol! I’m not frightened!”
“Well, then, I believe you ought to go to the cellar right this minute and declare your love for Grandmother before she comes back upstairs.”
“Now, Georgina, I’m not sure this is the best—”
“Wait, Georgina, that’s not fair,” Ash cried.
Georgina turned to stare at him. He sounded incensed, and she didn’t understand. “Whatever is the matter with him going to the cellar, Ash?”
“Dad blast it, he made me stand outside your door and holler at the top of my lungs. It’s not fair that he gets to declare himself in private.”
The ghost’s eyes went wide. “Sure, and the boy’s right, isn’t he? It would be a lot more private in the cellar.” And with that, Dev vanished
“Blast it, this isn’t fair!”
Georgina eyed her lover askance. He really did appear to be upset. She shook her head. “Don’t be ridiculous, Ash. If a declaration in the cellar will get rid of him, I think you’re being petty to haggle.”
He looked unconvinced for several seconds before the good sense of her statement penetrated his brain. About time, too. Georgina devoutly prayed that Ashley Barrett wasn’t a simpleton disguising himself as an intelligent human being, or she’d be most displeased.
“Oh, very well. I reckon you’re right.”
It was strange, she thought, how very dear she found his Texas drawl today. The first time she’d heard it, she’d thought it was too twangy. Now she loved it just as she loved every single thing about him. Even the things that had at first set her off were now precious to her.
She’d originally considered him too tall, but she now found his height comforting. Whereas she’d first thought he should have a mustache, she was now glad he didn’t. She was sure mustaches must tickle during kisses, and she didn’t think she’d like to be distracted during those delicious moments.
And his name. Today she was very glad he wasn’t a Buck or a Kid something-or-other. It would be difficult enough writing her parents and informing them of her impending marriage to a gentleman named Ashley Barrett. If she had to tell them she was marrying a Buck or a Kid, she wasn’t sure how they’d react. If her father went off into an apoplectic fit brought on by the shock of her news, she’d never forgive herself.
But Ashley Barrett was such an unexceptionable name; surely her parents wouldn’t object to it. And they couldn’t object to his occupation, either. After all, sheriff was a responsible and respectable position—and he didn’t even need it! He was already rich, in spite of his job.
“Georgina Barrett,” she whispered. “Doesn’t that sound fine?
“It sounds terrific.”
He put his arms around her and kissed her again. Georgina was thrilled.
They heard a huge crash from the cellar, and released each other. Then the sound of feet tromping up the cellar stairs came to them. Georgina eyed Ash, who eyed her back.
She said, “Oh, dear.”
He said, “Yeah.”
“I don’t want to hear another word out of you!” came Maybelle’s voice, as loud and angry as Georgina had ever heard it. She sounded like a gaggle of crows. Or whatever a bunch of crows was called.
“But, Maybelle, you have to hear me out!”
“Damn you, Devlin O’Rourke, I don’t have to do anything!”
“But it’s true, Maybelle!”
Maybelle appeared at the parlor door, gripping a bottle of dandelion wine by its neck. Recognizing the bottle of wine as an imminently flingable object, Georgina rushed over to her grandmother and took the bottom of the bottle in both hands. Ash hurried over to help her, but he couldn’t get so much as a fingertip on the bottle for all the Murphy and Witherspoon fingers already there.
Georgina tugged. Maybelle yanked. Georgina said, “Let me pour the wine into the decanter, Grandmother.”
Maybelle hollered, “Be damned if I will! I’m going to throw it at Dev!”
“It won’t hurt him, for heaven’s sake, and you’ll ruin a good bottle of wine. Haven’t you learned that by now?”
“Sure, and the girl’s right, Maybelle. You can heave things at me forever, and you won’t hurt me. The only way you can hurt me is by not hearing what I have to say to you today.”
“Not to mention the rest of us,” Ash muttered behind Georgina. She loved him so much. He was so . . . so terse. So honest. So ruggedly western.
“Ash has a good point, Grandmother,” she said. She didn’t dare release her hold on the bottle. She wasn’t sure if dandelion wine would stain carpeting and walls, but she didn’t aim to find out without a fight.
“Hang Ash Barrett’s points! I don’t want anything to do with Dev!”
“The best way to get rid of him is to listen to him, then,” Georgina pointed out reasonably.
“Bilgewater!”
“‘Tisn’t bilgewater! I love you. I’ve always loved you! I wanted to marry you, but I was afraid to say I love you!”
Maybelle squinted up at the ghost. “I don’t believe you.”
“For the love of God, Maybelle, why do you think I stayed with you for twenty-five years if I didn’t love you?”
“Because you were too lazy to look for work?”
Georgina heard Ash snort behind her and wished she had a hand free so she could whap him.
“That’s not true and you know it! I worked like a slave in New York City before we moved out here!”
“Well . . .”
Georgina knew how difficult it was for her grandmother to give up a healthy grudge, and she hoped she could help her. “I didn’t know that, Mr. O’Rourke. What was your occupation in New York?”
“He scooped up horseshit from the stables.”
“You’re mean as a snake, Maybelle Murphy!” Dev was obviously offended by her blunt assessment of his duties in New York. “I was the chief groom in Maybelle’s father’s stables, is what I was. It was
a responsible position, and it required great skill. Not to mention a knack with horses.”
“Dev’s always been a good horseman,” Ash said, sounding as if he honestly appreciated Dev’s horse skills.
“Oh, very well. He was the head groom and he was good with horses. So what?”
“So what? So, your father was too bullheaded to acknowledge that a man who worked for a living was worthy of his daughter, is so what. Damnation, Maybelle, you know that as well as I do. Your father’s prejudices against me were what made you marry that idiot Murphy!”
Maybelle shrugged, although her grip on the bottle loosened sufficiently that Georgina was able to snatch it away from her. She quickly transferred it to Ash, who headed to the kitchen without a word. She loved that about him, too: he was so quick to size tip a situation and act upon it. “So it was your father who prevented you from marrying the man you loved all those years ago?” She said it as if it came as a surprise to her, although Dev had told her as much already.
“I suppose so.” Maybelle didn’t sound as if she liked admitting it.
“But you did love Mr. O’Rourke back then, didn’t you?”
Her grandmother gave her such a glare that if Georgina had still been the woman she’d been in New York City, she might well have fainted from it. However, she’d developed a good deal of western spunk and gumption since her arrival in the territory, and Maybelle’s glare didn’t move her one bit. “It’s no use giving me that baleful look, Grandmother. Just answer my question, if you will.”
“You’re a sassy bit of goods, you know that, Georgina?”
“Yes indeedy. I’m just like my grandmother, in fact.”
Maybelle squinted at her. “Which grandmother?”
“Why, Grandmother Witherspoon, of course.” Georgina squinted back, not giving an inch. She knew her grandmother too well by this time. Give her an inch, and she’d take the whole yardstick and then hit you over the head with it.
“Ha!” Maybelle snorted derisively. “Like hell. Your Grandmother Witherspoon was as frail as a porcelain rose. And about as useful.”
“You’re right, of course. According to Ash, I’m just like you.”
Spirit of Love Page 29
