Dark Stranger sb-4

by Heather Graham

Quantrill sat back again, perplexed. He lifted a hand idly, then let it fall to his lap. "What are you so worried about? You can outdraw Zeke. You can outdraw any ten men I know."

  "I don't perform executions, Quantrill."

  "Ah… and you're not going to be around for the winter, huh? Well, neither are we. We'll be moving south soon enough —"

  "I want a guarantee, Quantrill."

  Quantrill was silent. He lifted his glass, tossed back his head and swallowed the whiskey down in a gulp, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. His eyes remained on Cole. He set the glass down.

  "Marry her."

  "What?" Cole said sharply.

  "You want me to give the girl a guarantee of safety. A girl Zeke saw first. A girl he wants —badly, I'd say. So you give me something. Give me a reason to keep him away from her. Let me be able to tell the men that she's your wife. That's why they have to stay clear. She'll be the wife of a good loyal Confederate. They'll understand that."

  Cole shook his head. "I'm not marrying again, Quantrill. Not ever."

  "Then what is this McCahy girl to you?"

  What indeed, he wondered. "I just don't want her hurt anymore, that's all."

  Quantrill shook his head slowly, and there was a flash of something that might have been compassion in his pale eyes. "There's nothing that I can do, Slater. Nothing. Not unless you can give me something to go on."

  The damnedest thing about it, Cole thought, was that Quantrill seemed to want to help him. He wasn't trying to be difficult and he wasn't looking for a fight. He was just telling it the way it was.

  "We will be gone pretty soon," Quantrill said. "Another month of raids, maybe. Then the winter will come crashing down. I intend to be farther south by then. Kansas winter ain't no time to be foraging and fighting. Maybe she'll be safe. From us, at least. The jayhawkers might come down on the ranch, but Quantrill and company will be seeking some warmth."

  "Another month," Cole muttered.

  Quantrill shrugged.

  The two men sat staring at one another for several moments. Then Quantrill poured more whiskey.

  He couldn't marry her. She couldn't be his wife. He'd had a wife. His wife was dead.

  He picked up the whiskey and drank it down in one swallow. It burned. It tore a path of fire straight down his throat and into his gut.

  "You going east?" Quantrill asked.

  Cole nodded. Maybe he shouldn't have, but Quantrill knew he would have to get to Richmond sooner or later, and probably sooner.

  Cole let out a snarl and slammed his glass down on the table. The piano player stopped playing again. Silence filled the saloon, like something living and breathing. All eyes turned toward Cole and Quantrill.

  Cole stood. "I'm going to marry her," he told Quantrill. Then he looked around at the sea of faces. "I'm going to marry Kristin McCahy, and I don't want her touched. Not her, and not her sister. The McCahy ranch is going to be my ranch, and I'm promising a slow, painful death to any man who thinks about molesting any of my property."

  Quantrill stood slowly and looked around at his men. "Hell, Cole, we're all on the same side here, aren't we, boys?"

  There was silence, and then a murmur of assent. Quantrill lifted the whiskey bottle. "Let's drink! Let's drink to Cole Slater's bride, Miss McCahy! Why, Slater, not a man jack here would think to molest your property, or your woman. She's under our protection. You've got my word on it."

  Quantrill spoke loudly, in a clear voice. He meant what he said. Kristin would be safe.

  Quantrill offered Cole his hand, and Cole took it. They held fast for a moment, their eyes locked. Quantrill smiled. Cole stepped back, looked around the room and turned to leave. He had his back to the room, but he had probably never been safer in his life. Quantrill had guaranteed his safety.

  He walked through the red door, his shoulders squared. Outside, he felt the sun on his face, but the breeze was cool. Fall was fading, and winter was on its way.

  He had just said he would marry her.

  Hell.

  The sun was bright, the air was cool, and the sky was cloudless and blue. He stared at the sun, and he felt cold. He felt a coldness that seeped right into him, that swept right around his heart. It was a bitter cold, so deep that it hurt.

  He found his horse's reins and pushed the huge animal back from the others almost savagely so that he could mount. Then he turned and started at a trot down the street.

  It couldn't be helped. He had said he would do it, and he had to carry it through.

  He had to marry her.

  It wouldn't be real, though. It wouldn't mean anything at all. It would just be the way it had to be, and that would be that.

  The cold seeped into him again. It encompassed and encircled his heart, and he felt the numbness there again, and then the pain.

  He couldn't do it. He couldn't marry another woman. He couldn't call her his wife.

  He would marry her. But he never would call her his wife.

  Malachi was the more serious of Cole's two brothers, Kristin quickly discovered. Like Cole, he had gone to West Point. He had studied warfare, from the campaigns of Alexander the Great to the American Revolution to Napoleon's grand attempts to take over Europe and Russia. He understood the South's situation in the present struggle for independence, and perhaps that understanding was the cause of gravity. He was on leave for no more than three weeks, so he would have to be returning soon to his unit. Kristin wondered if that meant Cole would return soon. Malachi was courteous to her. He seemed to be the last of the great Southern gentleman, perhaps the last cavalier. Shannon retained her hostility toward him, though. Since Malachi's arrival, she had become a Unionist. She loved to warn both Malachi and Jamie that her brother would come back and make them into nothing more than dust in the wind. Jamie was amused by Shannon. Malachi considered her a dangerous annoyance. Since Kristin had her own problems with Cole, she decided that Shannon was on her own.

  Kristin didn't think Matthew would make it home. The last letter she had received from him had stated that his company had been sent east and that he was fighting with the Army of the Potomac.

  Malachi didn't wear his cavalry butternut and gray while he was with them at the ranch. He fit into Matthew's breeches fine, and since Federal patrols had been known to wander over the border, it seemed best for him to dress in civilian clothing. Two weeks after his arrival, Kristin heard hoofbeats outside and hurried to the porch. To her vast astonishment, Jamie sat whittling on the steps while Malachi held Shannon in a deep engrossing embrace, kissing her as hotly as a newlywed. Stunned, Kristin stared at Jamie. Jamie pointed to two men in Union blue who were riding away.

  "She started to mention that things might not be all they seemed," Jamie drawled. "Malachi didn't take kindly to the notion of spending the rest of the war in a Yankee prison camp."

  There was a sharp crack. Kristin spun around to see that Shannon had just slapped Malachi.

  Her sister's language was colorful, to say the least. She compared Malachi Slater to a milk rat, a rattlesnake and a Texas scorpion. Malachi, her fingerprints staining his face, didn't appreciate her words. Kristin gasped when he dragged her onto his lap and prepared to bruise her derriere.

  Shannon screamed. Jamie shrugged. Kristin decided she had to step in at last. Kristin pleaded with him, but he ignored her at first. She hadn't the strength to come to physical blows with him, so all she could do was appeal to his valor. "Malachi, I'm sure she didn't mean —"

  "She damned well did mean!" Malachi shouted. "And I may fall to a Yankee bullet, but I'll be damned if I'll rot in a hellhole because this little piece of baggage has a vicious heart!"

  His palm cracked just once against Shannon's flesh.

  "Rodent!" Shannon screeched.

  "Please —" Kristin began.

  Malachi shifted Shannon into his arms, ready to lecture her.

  Then Jamie suddenly stood up, dropped his knife and the wood he'd been whittling and reached for his Colt.

&
nbsp; "Horses!" he hissed.

  A sudden silence settled over them. Malachi didn't release Shannon, but she froze, too, neither sniffling in indignation nor screaming out her hatred.

  Kristin glanced at Jamie. She could tell he was afraid that the Union patrol was on its way back. That Malachi's act just hadn't been good enough. That Shannon had exposed them all to danger.

  They all saw the riders. Two of them.

  Kristin saw Jamie's tension ease, and then Malachi, too, seemed to relax. Even his desire for vengeance against Shannon seemed to have ebbed. He suddenly set her down on the wooden

  step, not brutally but absently. Still, Shannon gasped out, startled. Malachi ignored her. Even Kristin ignored her. Kristin still couldn't see the riders clearly, but apparently Malachi and Jamie knew something.

  Then she realized it was Cole's horse. It was Cole, returning.

  Instantly she felt hot and then cold. Her heart seemed to flutter in her breast. Then butterfly wings seemed to soar within her, and she was hot and then cold all over again.

  Cole…

  No matter what she wanted to think or believe, she had thought of nothing but him since he had gone away. Waking or sleeping, he had filled her heart and her mind. She had touched the bedding where he had lain and remembered how he had stood, naked, by the window. She had remembered him with the length of her, remembered the feel of his fingers on her flesh, the staggering heat of his body against hers, the tempest of his movement. She had burned with the thoughts and she had railed against herself for them, but they had remained. And in her dreams she had seen him naked and agile and silent and sleek and coming to her again. And he would take her so tenderly into his arms…

  And in her dreams it would be more than the fire. He would smile, and he would smile with an encompassing tenderness that meant everything. He would whisper to her, and the whispers would never be clear, but she would know what they meant.

  He loved her…

  He did not love her.

  He rode closer, a plump, middle-aged man at his side. She barely noticed the other man. Her eyes were for Cole, and his rested upon her.

  And her heart ran cold then, for he was staring at her with a startling dark hatred.

  Her fingers went to her throat, and she backed away slightly, wondering what had happened, why he should look at her so.

  "Cole's back," Jamie said unnecessarily.

  "Cole!"

  It was Shannon who called out his name, Shannon who went running out to him as if he were a long-lost hero. Kristin couldn't move.

  Cole's horse came to a prancing halt, and Shannon stood there, staring up at him in adoration, reaching for him. To his credit, Kristin admitted bitterly, he was good to Shannon. His eyes gentled when they fell upon her, and if there was a certain impatience about him, he hid it from her well. He dismounted from his horse in front of the house. Both Jamie and Malachi stood there watching him in silence, waiting for him to speak. He stepped forward and greeted both of his brothers.

  "Malachi, Jamie."

  He grasped both their hands, and Jamie smiled crookedly while Malachi continued to observe him gravely. Then Cole's eyes came to her again, and she would have backed up again if she hadn't already been flush against the door. His gaze came over her, as cold as the wind of a twister, and perhaps, for just a second, with the same blinding torment. Then the emotion was gone, and all that remained was the staggering chill.

  Her mouth was dry, her throat was dry, and she couldn't speak. She was grateful then for Shannon, who told Cole how glad she was to see him, how grateful she was that he was back.

  Then she was suddenly still, and Kristin realized that the pudgy middle-aged man was still sitting atop his horse, looking at them all. She was the hostess here. She should be asking him in and offering him something cool to his throat from the dust and dirt of his ride. She should be doing something for Cole, too. If she could only move. Cole should be doing something, too, she thought, not leaving the little man just sitting there.

  She forced her eyes away from Cole's to meet those of the man. She even made her lips curl into a semblance of a welcoming smile. "Hello, sir. Won't you come in?"

  Jamie smiled. "Welcome, stranger. Cole, you're forgetting your manners. Who is this man?"

  Cole turned to the man on the horse. "Sorry, Reverend. Please, come down."

  "Much obliged," the man said, dismounting from his horse. Jamie stepped forward to tether the horses. The wind picked up and blew a handful of dirt around.

  "This is the Reverend Samuel Cotter," Cole said. "Reverend, my brothers, Malachi and Jamie. And Miss Kristin McCahy in the doorway there, and Miss Shannon McCahy here by my side."

  The reverend tipped his hat. "A pleasure, ladies. Gentlemen."

  Then they were all just standing there again. The reverend turned his hat awkwardly in his hands. He had a nice face, Kristin thought. Heavy-jowled, with a nice, full smile and bright little eyes. She wished she could be more neighborly, but she was still having difficulty moving.

  "Maybe we should all move into the house," Jamie suggested.

  "Perhaps the reverend would like a sherry," Shannon murmured.

  "The reverend would just love a whiskey!" the little man said, his eyes lighting up.

  Malachi laughed. Cole came forward, his hands on his hips. He stood right in front of Kristin, and his eyes were just like the steel of Malachi's cavalry sword. His hands fell on her shoulders, and she almost screamed.

  "You're blocking the door, Kristin," he said.

  "Oh!" She moved quickly, jumping away from his touch. Her face flushed with color. She looked at the little man. "Forgive me my lack of manners, sir. Please, please, do come in." She paused, looking at Cole's hard, dispassionate features, then back at the reverend. "Um… just what are you doing here, sir?"

  The little man's brows shot up. "Why, I've come to marry you, miss."

  "Marry me?"

  "Why, not myself!" He laughed hard, enjoying his own joke. "I've come to marry you to Mr. Slater here."

  "What!" Kristin gasped. She turned to stare at Cole again. She saw the ice, and the hatred in his eyes, and she thought it must be some horrible joke.

  "Oh, no! I can't marry Mr. Slater." She said it flatly and with grim determination.

  His hands were on her shoulders once again. His eyes bored into hers, ruthless, demanding. His fingers bit into her flesh, brutal and challenging.

  "You will marry me, Kristin. Now. While we have the nice reverend here. It took me four days to find him, and I don't intend to have trouble now."

  She gritted her teeth against the pain of his touch, against the force of his will. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't do that, and she couldn't explain that she couldn't possibly marry him, not when the mere idea made him look at her with such hatred.

  "I will not —"

  "You will!"

  He turned around and shoved her through the door to the house. His touch stayed upon her, the warmth and strength of his body radiated along her spine, and his whisper touched her ear like the wind.

  "Damn it, Kristin, stop it! You will do this!"

  Suddenly tears glistened in her eyes. She'd dreamed about just such an occasion, but it hadn't been like this. He hadn't looked at her this way.

  "Why?" she managed to whisper.

  "We have to."

  "But…" She had to salvage some pride. "I don't love you."

  "I don't love you."

  "Then —"

  "Kristin, you've got your choices."

  "I see. This is another threat. If I don't go through with this, you'll ride away."

  "I have to ride away, Kristin. No matter what. And this is the only safeguard I could find for you."

  "I can't do it —"

  "Then plan on entertaining Zeke Moreau, Kristin. And if you can't think about yourself, think about Shannon."

  "This is a travesty!" His eyes burned with silver emotion for a moment. He was a stranger again as he stood there, tou
ching her yet somehow distant from her.

  "War is a travesty, Kristin. Cheer up. If it ever ends, you can divorce me. I'm sure you'll have plenty of cause. But for the moment. Miss McCahy, get into the parlor, stand sweetly and smile for the nice reverend, please."

  PART 3

  Her Husband

  CHAPTER NINE

  It was not what she had expected her wedding day to be like, and it was certainly not what she had dreamed it would be like.

  Cole and the reverend were still covered with dust from their ride. She wore a simple cotton day dress with a single petticoat, since Cole had sworn impatiently when she had murmured something about changing. Shannon was wearing a shirt and trousers. The only concession to the fact that it was a wedding was the little bouquet she held, hurriedly put together by Delilah from ferns and late-blooming daisies.

  They stood stiffly in the parlor. Cole was brusque, and the reverend tried to be kind. Malachi stood up for Cole, and Shannon acted as bridesmaid. Jamie, Delilah and Samson looked on. The reverend kept clearing his throat. He wanted to say more, wanted to speak about the sanctity of marriage and the commitment made thereby between a man and a woman. Cole kept shifting his weight from foot to foot. Then he snapped at the man, "Get on with it!"

  Hastily the reverend went on.

  Kristin listened to the droning voice and found herself looking around her mother's beautiful parlor and wondering what it had been like for her parents. Not like this. They had loved one another, she knew. She could remember her father's eyes, and the way they had misted over when her mother's name had been spoken. They had built their lives on a dream, and the dream had been a good one.

  But they weren't living in a world of dreams, and Cole didn't love her. He didn't even pretend to love her.

  "Kristin?"

  "What?"

  Startled, she looked up at him. She realized that they were standing side by side, she in simple cotton, he in denim and Missouri dust. His hand was around hers, and his flesh felt dry and hot. He squeezed her hand, and she gasped at the pressure, her eyes widening.

  "Kristin!" His eyes were sizzling silver and dangerous. "The reverend just asked you a question."

  She looked at the reverend. He was flushed and obviously uncomfortable, but he tried to smile again.