Harlequin Historical February 2013 - Bundle 2 of 2: The Texas Ranger's DaughterHaunted by the Earl's TouchThe Last De Burgh

by Jenna Kernan

  Laurie pressed both hands to her face. Sweet mercy, she’d fallen in love with Boon.

  Laurie hugged her knees and rocked. Both her lower back and her stomach ached. She stilled as the clues from her body reached her conscious mind.

  “No,” she whispered.

  Laurie threw back the covers, twisting to look at the bedding and the back of her nightdress. Both were stained with her blood.

  Chapter Nineteen

  If you get your monthly you’re clear. If not, well, we got business. Boon’s words echoed in Laurie’s mind. So they no longer had business. Laurie pressed a hand to her mouth, realizing that the last thread connecting them had broken. He was now free. She was free. Free to face the rest of her life without him.

  “No, no, no!” The words were a chant, a prayer, a cry of mourning.

  She pressed the heels of her hands into her eye sockets to keep from weeping.

  She knew she had again escaped the consequences of her folly. But this time hadn’t been folly. Her lovemaking with Boon had felt right, natural, wonderful. And her bleeding served only to add to her misery.

  Laurie rose to wash herself, when Paloma appeared with a breakfast tray.

  She took one look at Laurie and the bloodstained bedding and laid the tray aside, retreating without a word.

  Laurie’s mother arrived shortly afterward with the folded linen pads, still wearing the dress Laurie had seen her wearing last night.

  “So, you are not with child,” said Valencia Sanchez Garcia with a pretty smile upon her face as if the news was wonderful instead of tragic.

  Laurie shook her head.

  Her mother took her in her arms. “Now you can forget him and he may be on his way. And in any case, this means there is no urgency for you to marry. It would be wise to wait at least six months so there will be no speculation.”

  “I do not even have a suitor,” Laurie protested, feeling suddenly as if she were on a runaway horse, careening down a steep incline.

  Her mother continued as if Laurie had not spoken. “We will be moving to Lubbock, to your father’s new assignment.”

  “But what about Calvin?” The reason Laurie had gone to San Antonio in the first place was because her mother had announced her intention to marry Calvin.

  “He has his business in Austin and I have business here with you and your father. It seems fairly obvious that you need my full attention. And in Lubbock, you can have a fresh start. Your father has agreed to help find a suitable match.”

  “But I don’t want a suitable match.” She wanted Boon.

  Her mother drew back and narrowed her eyes upon her daughter. “Laura Garcia Bender, do not tell me that you believe yourself in love with this man. He is a drifter and a criminal. You’ll not be seeing him again.”

  Laurie locked her jaw. She might not be able to hold Boon here, but she would at least say goodbye.

  “Now you rest a bit. I’ll have Paloma bring you some chamomile tea.”

  Her mother moved toward the door.

  “Are you going to see father?” asked Laurie.

  Valencia paused at the door. “Yes, but I will return shortly.”

  Her mother walked across the hallway to find her husband in a discussion with Sam Coats. Both men stood at her appearance and then Coats excused himself, leaving the room.

  As soon as they were alone she reported Laurie’s condition to him.

  “Now you need to send him away,” she said. “Far away, for Laurie has crazy ideas about that one. I know my daughter and she can be as stubborn as you sometimes.”

  Captain Bender rose and reached for his hat. “I’ll see to it.”

  Shortly after leaving Valencia, Captain Bender reached Dr. Langor’s office to discover that Boon had moved to a boardinghouse over on the other side of the tracks.

  * * *

  Boon sensed someone watching him as he was finishing his breakfast in the common dining area. He glanced about and met Captain John Bender’s steady blue eyes. Boon wiped his mouth and followed him out onto the porch of Mrs. Sheffield’s rooming house.

  “Been thinking on you, son.”

  Boon could only imagine that Bender’s thoughts had leaned toward murder.

  Bender did not mince words. “Laurie is bleeding, so she’s not with child, lucky for you.”

  Boon stared in silence, absorbing the news. To his credit, the captain did not look smug. Captain Bender was many things: fierce, protective, smart and a fearless fighter. What he was not was a liar. If he said Laurie was not with child, Boon believed him.

  “You satisfied?” asked the captain.

  Boon drew a heavy breath and then gave a single nod of his head.

  “Then you’re free to go, unless you changed your mind about that reward money.”

  “Nope.”

  Bender cast him a long speculative look. Boon wondered what he was thinking.

  “Too bad I didn’t get to hang Hammer. That’s what all outlaws deserve.” Bender’s voice was congenial, as if they were now old friends. It put Boon further on edge.

  “Outlaws like me?” asked Boon.

  “Son, when we took you, you didn’t even have a gun. You were their prisoner, same as Laurie. That’s why I didn’t hang you. You were an innocent man.”

  “I’m a killer.”

  Bender held his gaze. “We’re all killers, son. Me, Coats, the rest of my Rangers. Some men just need killing. You were fighting for your life and for Laurie’s. I can square with that. You done real good, son.” Bender squeezed his uninjured shoulder. Boon had once lived for such a show of affection and approval. Now it felt hollow and not nearly as important. Laurie had changed him right down to the core and he feared he’d never be able to be that man he’d once longed to become. Was there any way to have them both, the respect of this man and the love of his daughter? No, he decided. He’d burned that bridge good and proper.

  “So all that’s left is for us to settle up,” said Bender.

  Boon braced for another blow but Bender only reached in his pocket, drawing something out which he held in his fist. He extended his hand, uncoiling his fingers. There in his palm lay the only thing Boon had ever really coveted—a shiny Mexican peso cut into a Ranger’s badge. Across the middle the letters had been stamped and then blackened so they could be easily read: Texas Ranger.

  Boon’s heart started pumping like a piston as he looked to the captain for confirmation.

  “It’s yours, son. You earned it.”

  Boon reached. The captain closed his fist, removing the prize. Boon’s arm dropped back to his side as elation ebbed against the incoming wave of suspicion. No one had ever given him something for nothing, so what was the catch?

  “But just one thing,” said the captain. “I won’t be your commander. You’ll be working under Robert Hart down in McAllen. Mostly trouble with bandits and rustlers.”

  McAllen. If it were any farther south he’d be in Mexico. In fact, you could see Mexico from the banks of the Rio Grande.

  “I think you’ll understand when I tell you that you are exactly the sort of man I’d like as one of my men. But not the kind I’d choose for my Laurie. She needs someone steady, someone who’s gonna stay put and not get himself shot chasing rustlers. You’re too damned much like me.”

  Boon agreed with him there. But if the captain was forcing a choice, Boon was sure he wouldn’t like the outcome. He wasn’t keen on being offered the badge as a bribe to keep clear of his daughter. Still he didn’t see that he had any choice in the matter.

  “I understand, sir.”

  Bender’s mustache twitched in what might have passed for a smile and then he slapped the badge down into Boon’s palm, following the exchange with a handshake that kept the warm metal star suspended between them.


  Boon slowly shook his head. He met the captain’s puzzled expression and held his gaze.

  “Coats was right. I ain’t Ranger material.” Boon set the badge on the top of the porch rail, tapping it once in farewell. “And as for Laurie...”

  Bender’s expression turned from cordial to deadly but Boon forged on.

  “As for Laurie, she’s too much of a lady to fall for the likes of me. So I’ll be heading out.”

  The captain’s exhalation seemed to hold a good deal of relief. That surprised Boon. Did her father really think his daughter was a fool? Laurie might have had a fancy for him, but she’d come to her senses with time.

  “Where you headed, son?”

  “Don’t know, exactly. I’m free as the summer wind. Might see which way it blows me. I hear there’s gold in the Black Hills.”

  “Raiding Sioux up there, too.”

  “No one lives forever.”

  Bender’s mustache twitched in what might have been a smile.

  Boon headed for the livery where he’d boarded the ponies he’d stolen from Hammer for the cost of one of their saddles.

  He needed to get clear of San Antonio, this man, this whole damn city. He wondered how far would be far enough to put Laurie behind him.

  Chapter Twenty

  Laurie dressed and then announced that she would see Boon. Her mother ordered her to stay in the hotel, but not even her mother’s ire would sway her. She wanted to see him and this time she would tell him that she loved him. She pushed past her mother and left the hotel.

  Since she did not know where to find Boon, she retraced their steps, deciding that Dr. Langor would likely know where Boon could be found. She had reached the doctor’s office and was just lifting her hand to knock when her father caught up with her.

  “Laurie!”

  She turned and saw the captain, approaching at a fast walk.

  “Laurie, why you out here alone?” Her father glanced at her raised hand, poised to knock on the doctor’s door. Then he stared at her midsection. “Something wrong with you?”

  She blinked, unsure how to answer. There was so very much wrong with her at the moment.

  “Did you see Boon?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  Her father reached for her now, taking firm hold of her elbow and turning them about.

  “Come on,” he ordered.

  If he wanted a fight, she would give it to him. Laurie lifted her chin in defiance. “I am not your hound.”

  “You’re my girl.”

  He hadn’t called her that in years.

  “I used to be. But I am not yours any more than I am a girl.”

  “I don’t know why you had to go and grow up anyways,” he grumbled, rubbing the back of his neck with his opposite hand, which sent his hat tipping forward.

  She almost felt sorry for him. John Bender was competent in many areas, but raising a daughter was clearly not one of them. Did he feel uncertain as to his decisions regarding her?

  “Well, I have grown up, very recently in fact. Father, do you know why I came to be on that train?”

  His eyes grew cautious, but he did not answer.

  “I was trying to find you. I hoped that telling you about mother would bring you home. I truly believed that if I went to you and explained what was happening that you would swoop in, like you used to, and make everything all right.”

  Bender released Laurie and his mustache drooped with his mouth.

  “A week ago, I believed that your divorce had ruined my life. That I couldn’t find a suitor because of it. But the truth is that I cast off every man that got near me. I’d think of Anton Fischer and freeze up inside like the Great Plains in February.”

  Her father’s eyes narrowed and he cast a glance about. For a moment he looked as if he needed rescuing.

  “I’ve been afraid of every single man that’s come near me, except Boon, but he won’t have me without your approval because he thinks I’m too much of a lady. Well, we both know that’s not so.”

  Her father tried unsuccessfully to set them in motion. Laurie dug in her heels.

  “Do you recall the day you told me that it was unladylike to ride a horse?”

  He stopped at her side, glaring fiercely.

  Laurie continued. “When you said a lady might carry a derringer in her bag, but not a holster strapped to her hip? We stopped riding together that day.”

  He lowered his head as if ashamed, but that was wrong. Her father had never felt shame, never apologized for anything. And up until today, she had never suspected that he was uncertain about his decision to leave them.

  Her father’s voice held a note of strain when he spoke. “Your mother said that you were a distraction to my men, flying across the territory with your skirts up and your hair trailing behind you. You needed some education.”

  “You taught me.”

  “That was when you were a girl. When you grew up, it was no longer proper.”

  “So you sent us away.”

  “Your mother thought it best. She said she needed to get hold of you before you turned out just like Calamity Jane. That woman could drive an eight-mule team even after she drank a full bottle of grain alcohol. But I can see your mother’s point.”

  Laurie had never known that, but she knew they argued over her upbringing.

  “Hell, I don’t know what’s best for a young lady. That is your mother’s area of expertise. So I gave you up.”

  “So I could put on corsets, put up my hair, start wearing gloves and bonnets? Lavender powder, satin ribbons? Do you know why I did all that?”

  “Because it is the proper thing.”

  Laurie shook her head. “Because you told me that you wanted me to grow into a proper lady. That you expected me to do just as Mother said and put away my rifle and the rubber waders I used for fishing and so I did. Just like that, because you asked it. I did everything you wanted and all to please you. But you never came back. I believed you were checking on me. Wondered who among the town folks was your agent. It took me a long time to realize that no one was.”

  “I was working to provide for you and your mother.”

  “I gave up everything I loved for you.” She tore off her bonnet with such force it toppled her carefully styled hair. A shower of hairpins bounced off the planking like hail. “And I won’t do it again.” She pulled off her gloves and threw them down to the porch boards between them.

  “Laurie! What the Sam Hill are you doing?”

  She’d never seen her father look uncertain before, but she saw it now, that shifting of his eyes, the search for rescue and then the bewilderment when he realized that he’d have to face her alone.

  “I won’t be a proper lady any longer.” She reached back and removed the combs, untying the ribbons, letting her dark hair fall down her back. “I am more like you than I am like Mother. I do not want to sit with embroidery. I want to ride and shoot and live. Why do the men get to have all the adventures while the women have to perch, like birds, in stifling hot parlors in corsets that hold us so tight we cannot draw a full breath?”

  Her father released her and backed away. Laurie advanced.

  “Do you remember the snake skin we found? I kept it. It’s tucked away in a cigar box at home with all the other improper things I’ve hidden.” Laurie lifted her hand and ticked off the list. “My throwing knife, the deck of cards you used to teach me poker, the horse pick, jaw harp and the last pack of Black Jack chewing gum you bought me because ladies must not chew gum.”

  “Laurie, you stop it now. You hear?” Her father’s voice did not hold its usual authority. Instead it held a certain note of panic.

  “No.” She stepped forward. “No more. I have had my fill of bustles and corsets and ridiculous hats that do not
even keep the sun from my face. I have had enough of tiny uncomfortable shoes and reading poetry. I am my father’s daughter and I will not allow you or anyone else to dictate to me.”

  His face turned red as he aimed a finger at her. “You’ll do as we say.”

  Laurie pulled back. “No, sir. You lost that right when you sent me away and made me ashamed of what I was. From now on, I make my own decisions and I will ride astride and shoot and I’ll drink whiskey if I like. I will be a proper lady no more!”

  Her father’s eyes narrowed.

  “Now tell me where he is,” she ordered.

  “He’s leaving. Might be gone already.”

  The fight left Laurie so fast it turned her knees to jelly. Laurie swayed, her mission suddenly becoming imperative. If she didn’t find him, didn’t catch him, she might never see him again.

  Her father grasped her wrist but she wrenched away.

  “Laurie?” Her father’s eyes were wide with concern.

  “Where?” she whispered.

  He didn’t answer.

  “Where!” This time her words were a shout.

  “Sheffield’s boardinghouse. Happy? Now let’s go.”

  Her father made a grab for her but she upended a chair on Dr. Langor’s porch and then threw herself over the railing while he tangled on it, giving her time to run. She lifted her skirts and bolted down the street as fast as her legs would carry her.

  Laurie stopped only for directions to Sheffield’s but upon reaching the house she discovered that Boon had departed after speaking with her father.

  Desperate, she hurried to the livery as directed by Mrs. Sheffield and found Boon headed for the office with one of the three saddles they used slung over his shoulder.

  He spotted her a moment later and paused. He dropped the saddle, raising a cloud of dust.

  “Come to shout good riddance?” He tried to joke but his heart hurt and his throat felt tight.

  He took a good look at her, seeing she was panting, pale, with perspiration beading on her brow. Her hair was flying about her face and she had no gloves. Where was her bonnet?

  “Laurie, what in tarnation?”