“I can go in alone, if you want,” Beth said.
“No.”
He clucked to the roan, urging the horse forward, but Beth could see he was uncomfortable.
“I’m sure no one’s looking for you,” she said, hoping to reassure him. “Anyway, we won’t stay long. Look, there’s the telegraph office.”
They drew up in front of the small wood-frame building. Dismounting, Beth pulled a coin purse from the bottom of her saddlebags. She didn’t have much money, only a couple of dollars she had stolen from her mother’s pin money the night she helped Chase escape from jail.
“Who shall we send the wire to?” she asked. “My mother or yours?”
Chase considered that for a moment. He didn’t want to be in debt to his mother, but to ask Beth’s mother for help was out of the question. “My mother.”
“Okay. Are you coming?”
“I will wait here.”
“All right.” Dusting off her skirts as best she could, Beth stepped up on the boardwalk and entered the building. It took only a few minutes to send the message.
“Are you going to wait for a reply, miss?” the telegrapher asked.
“I’ll be back later.”
“Are you staying at the hotel?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, I’ll just hold it here for you then.”
“Thank you.”
She was on her way out the door when she saw the poster.
$500 REWARD FOR
INFORMATION AS TO THE WHEREABOUTS OF
ELIZABETH JOHNSON
17 years old, 5’ 5” tall
Blonde hair, brown eyes
Please contact Sheriff Fallon
at Twin Rivers
A small pen-and-ink sketch of her face adorned the bottom half of the poster.
Frowning, she hurried outside. Chase was the one wanted by the law, she thought, confused. Why was there a poster for her, but not for him? Did that mean his name had been cleared?
“Was there trouble?” Chase asked.
“Trouble? No, why?”
“You look worried.”
“I saw a wanted poster with my name on it.”
“Your name? But why? What have you done?”
“My parents have put up a reward for information as to my whereabouts. They must be worried to death by now.” She felt a rush of guilt as she realized how little thought she had given to her parents, or what her running away would mean to them. They had always taken good care of her, provided for her, but she’d never thought they really loved her, that she was important to them. Had she been wrong?
“Perhaps we should not stay here,” Chase said. He glanced around, expecting to see people staring at them, but there were only a few people on the street, and they seemed caught up in their own business.
“I think we should wait for a reply to the wire,” Beth said. “Let’s go to the hotel and get something to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’d like a meal that wasn’t cooked over a campfire.”
At his nod, Beth took up the reins to her horse and walked across the street toward the hotel, wondering if they had money enough for a room for the night. A hot bath and a bed with a mattress sounded like paradise.
After tethering their horses to the rail, they went into the hotel dining room. Clad in her travel-stained dress, Beth felt highly conspicuous as she took a place at a table in the back.
Chase sat across from her.
A few minutes later, a waitress handed them each a menu.
“What are you going to have?” Beth asked.
Chase glanced at the menu. Most of the words were foreign to him.
Looking up, Beth saw him scowling at the menu. “I’m going to have fried chicken and mashed potatoes,” she remarked. “If that doesn’t sound good, you can have steak, porkchops or lamb.”
“Steak,” Chase said. He put the menu aside.
Beth smiled at him as she dropped her menu on top of his. “Rare?” she guessed.
“Yes.”
“With all the trimmings?”
“What are trimmings?”
“Potatoes, vegetable, bread and butter, and coffee.”
Chase nodded.
Beth gave the waitress their order, then sat back in her chair and looked around. The dining room was painted pale green. White cloths covered the tables. Paintings of meadows and sunsets hung on the walls.
“Do you want to spend the night here?” Beth asked.
Chase looked around. He’d never been in a hotel before. “Do you think it’s safe?”
“I think so. Wouldn’t you like to take a hot bath, sleep in a bed?”
“I don’t care about the bed,” Chase said with a shrug, “but a hot bath sounds good.”
Beth attacked her dinner with gusto when it arrived.. The chicken was moist and tender, the mashed potatoes smooth and creamy. Ordinarily, she didn’t care for green beans, but she was so hungry, she ate them, too.
There was little conversation as Chase was also concentrating on his dinner. Once, meeting Beth’s eyes, he smiled, amused by the image of the two of them as ordinary people enjoying an ordinary meal.
With a sigh of contentment, Beth sat back. “That was wonderful. How about some desert?”
Chase finished his steak and pushed the plate aside. He’d never had a meal like that in his life. “What kind of desert?”
Beth repeated the question to the waitress when she came to clear away their dishes.
“We have chocolate cake, apple pie, blueberry pie, and custard.”
“Chocolate cake,” Beth said.
“And you, sir?”
Sir! It was all Chase could do to keep from laughing out loud. In all his life, no one had ever called him “sir”! “Apple pie.”
The waitress smiled at Chase. She was a pretty woman, with curly black hair and green eyes. “Coming right up,” she said, batting her eyelashes at him.
Beth made a very unladylike sound as the waitress walked away from the tables, hips swaying provocatively. “I think she likes you.”
Chase grinned at Beth. “Jealous?”
“Should I be?”
The amusement faded from his eyes as he reached across the table and took her hand in his. “No. Never.”
Beth felt her insides melt. “Maybe we shouldn’t have ordered desert.”
“What?”
“Suddenly I’m hungry for something else,” she explained, and then blushed furiously.
Chase looked at her askance, and then he grinned. “I am sure we will have time for both.”
* * * * *
The hotel room was not large, nor was it particularly sumptuous, but Beth didn’t care. As soon as Chase closed the door, she was in his embrace, running her hands over his shoulders and down his arms, reveling in the hard, muscular strength of him, in the smoldering heat in his eyes.
She had planned to take a bath first, but Chase’s kisses quickly changed her mind. His mouth was hot and hungry on hers, igniting a fire deep within her that would not be ignored.
Sweeping her into his arms, he carried her to the bed, undressed her between hot, hungry kisses. He groaned as he felt her hands skim over his flesh as she removed his shirt, then reached for his trousers. In less than a minute, their clothes lay in an untidy heap on the floor.
“Beth,” he groaned softly, “I can’t wait.”
“No need,” she whispered breathlessly, and then he was hovering over her, his black hair falling forward, enclosing them in a dark cocoon as his flesh merged with hers in a joyous explosion.
Slowly, slowly, reality returned.
Chase gazed at Beth. Her eyes were slumberous, her smile that of a woman who had been well and truly satisfied.
Much later, after they had both bathed and dressed, they walked back to the telegraph office.
“It’s here,” the telegrapher said when Beth entered the building.
Beth quickly scanned the paper he handed her. Beth, come home, the message said. Parents
worried. Crenshaw confessed.
“Everything’s all right!” Beth exclaimed. “It says Crenshaw confessed to shooting Greenway.” She looked up at Chase, her eyes shining. “We can go home!”
Chase nodded. It was good news, yet he could not help feeling that, once they returned to Twin Rivers, everything would change.
Chapter Eighteen
Dusty smiled as Rebecca handed him a glass of lemonade. In the last six weeks, he had grown fond of the girl. There was a sweetness about her, a genuine warmth, that helped soothe his bruised ego. Beth’s betrayal had cut deeper than he let on. He had been so certain she loved him. So certain.
“Ready for another game?” Rebecca asked.
“What?” He looked up, frowning.
“Another game,” Rebecca repeated. She gestured at the checkerboard spread on the table between them.
“Oh, sure.”
“Is something wrong, Dusty?”
“No. No, I was just…”
He was saved from explaining by the timely arrival of his father, who entered the house waving a sheet of paper. “Dusty, where’s your mother?”
“In the kitchen. Is anything wrong?”
“No.” Ryder nodded at Rebecca. “Tell ya later. Jenny! Hey, Jenny!”
“I wonder what that’s all about?” Rebecca said.
“I don’t know.” But he could guess. Beth had sent a reply.
Distracted by thoughts of Beth and Chase, he lost the game.
“Well,” Rebecca said, “I should be going.”
“You’re welcome to stay for dinner.”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Dusty stood up when she did and walked her out to the front porch.
“Pretty sunset,” Rebecca remarked.
“Yeah. Listen, Rebecca, I’m sorry about before, for being distracted, I mean.”
“That’s all right, Dusty. I know you’re in love with Beth.”
Dusty stared at her, taken aback by her candor. In all the time she’d been coming to see him, she’d never mentioned Beth’s name, not once.
Rebecca smiled sadly. “I don’t think I’ll be coming around anymore, Dusty. Good night.”
“Rebecca, wait…”
“There’s nothing more to say. Good night, Dusty.”
Feeling as though he’d just been sucker punched, Dusty watched Rebecca ride out of the yard, surprised by the overwhelming sense of loss he felt at the thought of not seeing her again.
He blew out a deep breath. Hell, maybe it was for the best.
Returning to the parlor, he found his folks waiting for him.
“Did Rebecca leave?” Jenny asked.
Dusty nodded.
“Didn’t you ask her to stay for supper?”
“I asked her, but she said no.”
“I like that girl,” Ryder said.
“So do I,” Jenny remarked. She smiled at Ryder, then held up the telegram she’d been clutching in her hands. “They’re coming home. Chase and Beth are coming home.”
Later, lying in bed, Dusty pondered the implications of their return. Chase was a free man. Rance Crenshaw had been tried and convicted of killing Ned Greenway. Berland had been implicated in the killing as well. Both had received long prison sentences.
Justice, he mused bitterly. It was never the same for whites and Indians. Chase had been sentenced to hang for the same crimes that had earned Berland and Crenshaw time behind bars.
Beth and Chase were coming home. Beth… When he’d thought she was gone for good, he’d told himself he was glad, that he didn’t love her, that maybe he never had. Now, knowing she was coming back, he admitted that he still loved her. Maybe he always would.
Closing his eyes, he thought about Rebecca. She was everything he had ever wanted in a woman—pretty, generous, kindhearted, good-natured. He liked her well enough, enjoyed her company. He’d even thought he was falling in love with her. Sitting with her in the evening, listening to her talk about her day, telling her about his, had made him think about settling down, having a couple of kids. The kisses they’d shared had been sweet and passionate and made him yearn for more.
But now Beth was coming home.
* * * * *
Beth’s nervousness increased with each mile that carried them closer to home. How was she going to face her parents? What was she going to say? And what about Ryder and Jenny Fallon? What would they think of her? Everyone in town knew Dusty had been courting her. For the first time, she felt a twinge of guilt for what she’d done. She could just imagine the old cats gossiping over the back fence, their heads together. Imagine, they would say, courting one brother and running away with the other one. No doubt Dusty and his parents hated her now. Why had she ever agreed to go back home?
“Chase?” She reined her horse to a halt.
He drew up beside her, a question in his eyes. “You are tired?”
“No. No, I…I was just thinking…”
“Thinking what?”
“Maybe we shouldn’t go home.”
“Not go? Why?”
“My parents…I’m afraid…I mean…”
“Of what are you afraid, Beth?” His voice was quiet, but she heard the hard edge beneath, saw the knowledge in his eyes.
“I’m just afraid my parents won’t let us be together.”
“They cannot keep us apart.”
“But they can!” She leaned toward him and placed her hand on his forearm. “Let’s go somewhere else. I don’t care where.”
“That is the only reason you wish to run away, because you are afraid of your parents?”
“Of course.” She looked away. “What other reason could there be?”
“Perhaps you are ashamed to be seen with me.”
The tone of his voice had not changed. It was still low and quiet, but the arm beneath her fingertips was suddenly taut.
“That’s not true,” she exclaimed.
He didn’t say anything, only continued to stare at her, his dark eyes void of expression.
“It’s just that…” She let out a deep sigh, wishing she’d never said anything at all. “I never thought what people would think about me running away with you. Everyone assumed that Dusty and I…that we’d…it might be embarrassing for him if we go back home.”
“Everyone expected you to marry?”
Beth nodded.
“Do you wish to leave me and marry my brother?”
“No, of course not.”
“I ran away from a crime I did not commit. I will not run away now. You are my woman. I will not hide as though we have done something to be ashamed of.” Brave words, he thought, and yet, deep inside, he knew he would rather face an army of bluecoats than see hatred in the eyes of his brother.
“You’re right,” Beth said. “I’m sorry for being such a coward. Forgive me.”
“There is nothing to forgive.”
“How much longer ’til we get there?”
“An hour, perhaps less.”
Beth nodded. An hour. She straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath. She’d be glad when it was over, she thought, and yet she couldn’t help wishing she could put it off for one more day.
They had decided to go see Chase’s mother first, but fate took the decision out of their hands. They were about to turn down the road that led to the Fallon Ranch when they saw Beth’s parents coming toward them.
Ralph Johnson reined his matched bays to a halt, his face going white when he saw his daughter. “Beth!”
Alighting from the carriage, he took hold of her horse’s reins. “Where the hell have you been, young lady?”
“You will not speak so to my wife,” Chase said, edging his horse nearer to Beth’s.
“Wife!” Ralph Johnson glared at Chase. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Father, please, if you’ll just let me explain.”
“Damn right you’ll explain. Get in the carriage, young lady. I’m taking you home.”
He was grabbing her arm a
s he spoke, yanking her out of the saddle.
Dismounting, Chase took hold of Ralph Johnson’s arm. “You will not treat her that way.”
“She’s my daughter, and I’ll treat her any way I like. Now unhand me!”
“Chase, please.” Beth looked up at him, begging him not to interfere.
“Did he kidnap you?” Ralph Johnson asked. His grip tightened on her arm. “Did he take you against your will?”
“No.” Beth shook her head. “It wasn’t like that.”
“You ran off with this…this redskin, of your own free will!” Ralph Johnson exclaimed. “I don’t believe it.”
“Can’t we discuss this at home?” Beth asked.
“There’s nothing to discuss. Get in the carriage.”
Beth glanced past her father to where her mother sat in a shiny black carriage, a lace-edged handkerchief pressed to her mouth, and knew she would get no help from that direction.
“She is my wife. She stays with me,” Chase said.
“Like hell.” Reaching into his jacket, Ralph Johnson withdrew a snub-nosed pistol. “You get the hell out of here, right now. If I ever see your face again, I’ll put a bullet in you, no questions asked.”
Chase took a step backward. Hands clenched at his sides, he glared at Beth’s father, then looked at Beth.
“Chase, just go, please,” she said. “I don’t want any trouble.”
“No. You are my woman. I will not leave you.”
“She’s my daughter, and she’s underage. I don’t know who married you, but I intend to have it annulled.”
“What does that mean,” Chase asked, “annulled?”
“It means like it never happened.” Ralph looked at his daughter. “Who married you?”
“We…I…”
“Well?”
“No one. We said the words ourselves.”
Ralph Johnson grunted. “Well, that makes it easy. Go on,” he said, giving her a push. “Get in the carriage with your mother.”
Chase took a step forward, and Johnson reared back the hammer.
“Come on,” Johnson said, beckoning him with his free hand. “Make a move. I’d love an excuse to put one in you.”
“Chase, please, just go.”
“It is your wish that I leave you?”
Chase the Wind (Apache Runaway Book 2) Page 17
