She owed a gown and an explanation to Starr, but there wasn't a chance of going to her under the circumstances. Starr would certainly understand, but Evie could use the money the other woman had promised for the gowns. Eventually, somebody would come collecting for these rooms, and she didn't have the cash for both.
As the day wore on, Evie kept telling herself to be grateful that she wasn't pregnant. Watching Maria and Jose jumping on the bed and Manuel running up and down the staircase on mysterious errands, she was doubly grateful that she wasn't pregnant. She had always got along well with children, but children needed the firm hand and discipline that only a father could provide. Tyler was never going to be that father.
Jason Harding appeared late in the afternoon, hat in hand. He asked to speak to Evie alone, and when they were out of hearing of the children, he offered her a chair he appropriated from a nearby room.
"You'd better tell me straight out, Mr. Harding. After these last few days, my nerves aren't likely to take much hemming and hawing," she told him bluntly.
"There isn't anything to tell you straight out. We found the place where Mrs. Rodriguez went Friday night, but they say she left early in the evening." Jason's solemn face hovered near, his eyes a kind gray as he watched her.
Evie twisted her fingers in her lap, thinking of the four rambunctious children bouncing around in the rooms overhead. Mrs. Rodriguez would not have willingly left them alone all this time. She knew what Jason was trying to say.
"How do people usually cross the river?" she asked.
"It's usually so low, a horse can cross it."
"And Mrs. Rodriguez had a horse?"
Jason nodded slowly. "It was part of the deal when she sold the livery. Tom had to supply her with a horse whenever she needed it."
"And the horse isn't back, either, is it?" At Jason's shake of the head, Evie sighed. That was that, then. Mrs. Rodriguez had tried to cross the river to get back to her children. Somewhere, far down stream, they would find her body one of these days, if the coyotes and buzzards didn't get there first.
"Do they have any relatives in the area?"
Jason twisted his hat. "Rodriguez wasn't from around here. I don't know his family at all. Angelina grew up here. I don't remember the family name right off; I was just a boy when her folks died. She had a brother, I recollect. He went off to California to find gold. I don't know if she kept in touch. You might ask the kids."
Evie assimilated these facts and stood up. "Thank you, Mr. Harding. Have you checked the school yet? Will it be in any condition for use tomorrow?"
"I'm sending some of my men over to clean it out. It may be a week or so before we ought to put school back in session. There's too many need the children at home right now."
Evie was afraid to ask what that would mean to her pay. The money she had earned at the school in St. Louis had been so insignificant to her that she had never questioned when it came or how. She didn't have the experience to negotiate her way through these channels now that it was her only income.
"All right. If you don't mind, I'll help the children clean out their house tomorrow. I can't keep them here for very long. What will happen to them if we can't find their uncle?"
"Don't worry about it yet, Mrs. Peyton. If nothing else, the two oldest can find work and the youngest can go to good families. Let's take it one step at a time."
Jason Harding had all the tact of a buffalo. Evie held her temper since he was her boss in a manner of speaking, but she gave him a look that made him take a step backward. The fact that she didn't come up to his chin and was half his breadth had no effect on the fury blazing in her eyes. "You'll separate those children over my dead body, Mr. Harding. They need each other now more than ever before. Try thinking what it would be like without your own brother."
Swinging on her heel and stalking off before she could say more, Evie was halfway up the stairs before she realized Harding had called her Mrs. Peyton. Tyler hadn't told him of their marriage.
She didn't know whether that was good or bad. She didn't know how he could disguise the fact since the preacher traveled through here regularly. Ben and Daniel might keep their mouths shut if ordered, but what would that prove? They were still married, legally and in the eyes of the church. Closing their eyes to the truth wouldn't solve anything.
But she had too many other things on her mind to worry about that one right now. Tyler Monteigne could wait for another day.
Tyler wasn't in any humor to wait for another day. He had spent the day shoveling mud out of John's cafe and hauling supplies so there would be food to eat that night. He had struggled with his fury and nearly floored Ben for suggesting they check on Evie and the children at lunch. The battle between his conscience and his anger had taken more strength than the donkey work of cleaning and hauling.
But by the end of the day, his feet automatically turned back to the hotel. He wouldn't think "home." He didn't have a home, didn't want a home, didn't need a home. Coming to Texas had stirred him out of the rut he had fallen into in Natchez. He had always planned to travel. He had taken a few trips up and down the Mississippi, but he had seldom seen more than the card tables of the steamboat cabin. Now he meant to see the country. He'd settle things here and be moving on when he'd seen enough.
Evie would understand. He'd buy her a divorce in Houston. He'd heard it could be done. If no one knew they were married, then no one could complain of the scandal. She'd be as relieved as he, he was certain. It might take a bit of a bribe to make the Reverend Cleveland understand, but Tyler suspected it could be done. The preacher would be out riding circuit shortly anyway. When he came back, Tyler would be gone, a ninety-day wonder. A man of the cloth would be too sympathetic to say anything aloud.
Wiping his dirty face wearily, Tyler knocked at Evie's door. It wasn't home if you had to knock, he reasoned. He could hear them in there. Why didn't they answer? With a scowl, he threw open the door.
The first thing he noticed was the enormous bouquet Evie had created out of the flowers he had given her.
They made a spray of color on the dull wall over the bed where she had placed them on a shelf out of reach of little hands.
The next thing he noticed was the youngest boy scampering back into place behind the baby and in front of the next oldest boy. The girl and Evie stood behind them. Once the wanderer was in place, they beamed and began to sing about "Wayfarin' Strangers."
If that was supposed to mean him, Tyler wasn't impressed. The scent of fresh bread had his gaze wandering to a table beside the window. There hadn't been a table there this morning. A damask tablecloth covered what looked to be a plank braced up by four flat-topped trunks. Candles flickered in a silver candelabra. Bowls of fine china were set out, and he was more than certain that the kettle sitting on the dresser contained soup or stew. He was starved.
And they were still singing. For him. The table had been set for him, too, he realized. Panic began to rise in Tyler's throat. Childish voices rose in tremolo, and Tyler took a step backward. The baby grinned and broke rank, toddling in his direction. Jose reached for her, and the whole ensemble crumbled into chaos. Sweat broke out on his forehead as Tyler saw Evie approaching, a frown of confusion marring her face as she wiped her hands on the towel at her waist.
"I came to tell you I'm heading back for the ranch," Tyler announced loudly—too loudly—over the heads of the children. And before anyone could say otherwise, he backed out the door. "I'll see you next Saturday."
And he was gone.
Chapter 20
"He bolted like a wild stallion with the paddock gate left open," Evie complained the next day. She wasn't entirely certain her audience was sympathetic, but she needed an understanding ear.
Since Daniel had been there when she had discovered the children's musical talent and used it to keep them occupied instead of worrying about their mother, he didn't need to ask why Evie had greeted Tyler with a chorus of children. Ben looked at her as if she were crazed.
<
br /> He scratched his black head and shook it with amazement. "You ain't got a clue, do you? That man's dead-set against having any ties at all, and you give him a room full of them all at once. I'll be lucky to find any trace of him at all after that. Sorry, Miss Evie, but you plumb picked the wrong man when you picked Tyler. He didn't used to be that way, but the war kicked it all out of him."
"I didn't pick the blasted man; he picked me." Indignantly, Evie kicked a chair leg. "He could fall off the face of the earth for all I care. I just wanted to know if he was demented or something."
"Or something might cover it," Ben agreed grimly.
"Fine, then. The children and I are going over to clean their house. Unless one of their relatives shows up soon, I'll be over there for a while. Carmen can't look after them all the time." Evie threw open the door and walked out without the usual rustle of silk. She was wearing the same dress she had worn the day before.
Ben raised his eyebrows at Daniel in unspoken question.
Daniel shrugged uncomfortably. "You never can tell with Evie. She lives in a world of her own most of the time. I wish I could get out of this bed. She needs someone with her."
"They ain't much interested in breaking mustangs when the branding is going on. I think I'll hang around awhile. Looks to me like the man at the livery could use a little help." Ben ignored the relief in the boy's eyes, put his hat on, and wandered out.
Following Ben's direction, Kyle Harding appeared at the Rodriguez house behind the livery about midday. His eyes widened as he watched a boy with a fresh snakeskin wrapped about his middle climb up on a stack of crates and sweep the uncovered rafters with a long-handled broom. He continued to stare at a young girl using a shovel to heave the mud's debris out the open back door while carrying a dark-haired toddler on her hip. But mostly his gaze followed the schoolteacher he had last seen in satins and lace and who now wore a sadly bedraggled gray gown hitched up between her legs to expose her mud-covered stockings as she scoured an iron stove on her knees.
A younger boy came barreling through the doorway, practically colliding with the back of Kyle's knees, before sliding across the wet floor with a whoop as he dropped a pitiful, yowling cat at the schoolteacher's feet. The woman Kyle knew as Mrs. Peyton looked at the poor creature and immediately began to towel it off with her makeshift apron.
It was only then that she noticed Kyle. She gave him a surprised glance and continued toweling the complaining cat. "Good afternoon, Mr. Harding. Are you looking for someone?"
"You, as a matter of fact. I had to come in for supplies, and Jace told me to look in on you, said you had a handful after the flood. He thought maybe I ought to offer to bring you out to the ranch for a while, until things are cleaned up better here. The branding is keeping us all pretty busy, but there's more than enough room at the house."
Evie wanted to ask if Tyler were there and what he had to say about that, but she merely smiled and returned the indignant cat to its feet. "That's kind of you, Mr. Harding, and you can thank your brother for me, too, but someone needs to look after the children. I'm not much inclined to sitting around while everyone else is working."
"I can see that." He hesitated there in the doorway, seeing the amount of work yet to be done in just this one room. He ventured to say the back rooms were worse. His glance returned to the schoolteacher's smiling face, the wickedly dark eyes and tempting lips, and he knew Jace didn't need him at the branding as much as this woman needed him here. He began rolling up his sleeves. "Let me haul that table back where it belongs for you. It's too big for a woman to handle."
The overturned table thrown against the back wall by the flood was quickly restored to its proper position in front of the fireplace. Under Carmen's direction, Kyle was soon righting furniture in the other rooms and hauling soaked mattresses out to air. Evie watched him with laughter and continued directing the boys to search out unwanted animal life with brooms. Much of the mud on the floors went out the door with their efforts.
Ben wandered over in curiosity later that day and found himself chopping empty crates and broken boards for firewood. The wood dried quickly over a smoldering tinder fire. Before he could escape, he was coerced into nailing a bed back together while smells of Carmen's cooking began to lace the air.
The sheriff stopped by as they were preparing to put dinner on the table, and Evie deliberately sent the two young boys out of the house with a covered tray for Daniel.
When they were gone, she offered Sheriff Powell a cup of coffee. Maria was too young to understand the sheriff's arrival, but Carmen wasn't. She had the fourteen-year-old sit down in one of the kitchen chairs that still had four legs.
"What have you found, Mr. Powell?" Exhausted, Evie was in no humor for male equivocations. The truth might be painful, but it was better than knowing nothing and suspecting everything. She knew that from experience.
The sheriff glanced at Carmen, anxiously following his every word. An infant version of her sat in her lap, watching him solemnly, and his gaze returned to the schoolteacher. For an instant, he saw a similarity in their dark-lashed, exotically shaped eyes, but he shook his head and the image went away. Mrs. Peyton had the peach-and-cream complexion of a Southern lady. The children had the olive complexions of Mexicans. There could be no resemblance.
"We found the remains of a horse we think belongs to the livery. Tom thinks it's the one Mrs. Rodriguez took out that night. It doesn't look good. There were Indians camping in that area right before the flood. We're looking for them now, but we think they were reservation Indians and had no place being there. They won't be easy to find."
Carmen shivered and a tear glittered in her eye, but when Maria patted her face with chubby hands, she straightened and began feeding the child small pieces of the tortilla growing cold on the table. Evie's heart nearly broke at the sight.
"Thank you, Sheriff. Carmen has an address for her uncle. We'll send a telegram in the morning. I'm going to take the children back to the hotel tonight, but I think once the house is returned to order, I'll have to move in with them. I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know of anyone who can help me move my trunks. I can't pay much..."
Kyle intruded. "I'll make certain there's someone here to help. What about your brother, ma'am? I understand he's laid up."
Evie glanced around the small house uncertainly. It had three rooms instead of the two they were living in at the hotel, but it wasn't her house. She made a helpless gesture. "We'll have to see. I need to talk to Daniel and the doctor. He's still in a lot of pain, and I don't want to hurt him by moving him too soon."
One by one the men departed, calling promises and reassurances, until Evie was left alone with Carmen and the baby. The boys evidently intended to entertain Daniel through supper. The two women exchanged glances.
"I can go to work, but what will happen to the children?" Carmen whispered as she helped Maria sip from a glass of milk.
If they didn't discuss her mother's death, they could discuss the facts of their current existence without grief. Grief would come later, in the dark of night, when there were only memories to fill their heads. Right now, they had to find some way to survive. Evie understood that, and she wove her fingers together and tried to think.
"The school term will be over in a few months. I want you all to finish it out. I have a little money for food, and if I can move Daniel out of the hotel, there should be enough for everyone. By the time school is out, your uncle may have sent word. We won't worry about looking for jobs until then. We'll just need someone to mind Maria while you attend class."
She would have to sell every evening gown in her collection to have enough money to pay for food for all of them, but it wasn't much of a sacrifice. She didn't need the gowns anymore. These children were more important. Evie knew what it meant to be an orphan.
They were a silent troupe that night when they returned to the hotel. With the children in bed, Evie and Daniel discussed alternatives. Neither of them mentioned Tyler. He hadn'
t been the one to come to help. He hadn't even been the one to ask if they needed any. Evie went to bed that night in her chair without glancing at the flowers that were already beginning to fade, all except the paper roses.
By the end of the week her hands were raw from scrubbing, her knees were sore from spending so many hours on them, but the Rodriguez house was clean and livable. With additions from Evie's trunks and donations from some of the townspeople, there were beds and linens enough for everyone, and fancy china in the cupboards for eating. A surreptitious trip to the rooms over the saloon had procured a healthy purse for food and Starr's admonitions about men and their company.
Evie was carefully tying the purse of coins to her inside pocket when Starr caught her arm and forced her to look up at her.
"What did you decide to do about that baby?" she demanded without any preface.
Too exhausted even to be embarrassed, Evie faced her without flinching. "There wasn't any. It was a mistake."
Starr looked relieved. "Well, then, you'd better do something so that mistake doesn't happen again. Tyler ain't the kind of man to stay away once he stakes his claim. You'd better let me teach you a few things before you wind up in the family way for certain."
The mention of Tyler's name sent Evie's stomach plummeting to her feet. She stared at the beautiful saloon girl, unable to get past her knowledge of Tyler to listen to what else was being said. "Why do you think Tyler's the one?" she asked in what she hoped wasn't a desperate whisper.
Starr grinned. "When a man as handsome as that comes into town with money in his pocket and doesn't find his way to my bed, I know he's got something good going on the side. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who. The two of you came here together, didn't you?"
Tyler hadn't been with Starr. Evie stared at her with wonder and relief and didn't bother to answer. She hoped no one else had put two and two together as quickly as Starr had, but then, Starr was the only one to know her predicament.
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