"And marrying me isn't good enough?" Guy asked.
"We've already been through that."
"I'm not giving up. I'll be back."
"I hope you'll always be my friend."
"I want to be more than that."
"Guy . . . " but Daisy didn't finished her sentence. Tyler rode up unexpectedly.
"The rustlers struck again last night," he said. "What do you want to do about it?"
"Follow them, of course, and get my cows back."
"Good. I'll need Rio."
"Rio can stay here. I'm coming with you. They're my cows."
"You can't," Guy exclaimed. "It would be indecent."
"You said you trusted me before," Daisy said, turning to Guy. "Can't you trust me again?"
"It's not me, it's--"
"I only care what my friends think. Nobody else."
Guy wiggled uncomfortably under her gaze. Tyler's was just as intense.
"I've always trusted you. You know that."
"Me, too," Adora added, "but that doesn't mean you ought to be chasing after rustlers. You could get hurt."
"I imagine they'll give up the cattle rather than risk a gun battle," Tyler said. "You can rest assured I have her back safe and sound before nightfall. Now if we're going, we'd better get started."
Neither Adora nor Guy appeared happy with the decision. Tyler went off, to get things ready Daisy supposed.
"Don't worry," she told her friends. "The men compete with each other to make sure nothing happens to me, especially Rio and Tyler."
"I don't trust that man," Guy said.
"I was safe before," Daisy said, beginning to become impatient with Guy. "I'll be safe again."
"But you'll be going after rustlers this time."
"I know. My life has never been so exciting."
"I don't understand you," Guy said. "You were never like this before."
"I don't understand me myself, but then I don't know myself either."
"Be careful, and let us know if there's anything you need," Adora said. "Anything. Your feelings haven't changed, have they?"
Daisy shook her head. "Neither have his."
"There'll always be a place for you with us if you want to come back."
"I know. I can never thank you enough for what you've done for me."
"You don't have to thank us. All you have to do is--"
"It's time to go," Adora said, patting Guy on the leg. "We can come again after Daisy catches her rustlers."
Daisy watched Guy drive away with a lingering feeling of sadness, but without regret. She actually felt relieved. She had made another step forward. Now if she could just manage to control her feelings for Tyler.
* * * * *
"Kill her!" Regis Cochrane shouted at Frank Storach. "She's broken her engagement." Regis had found Frank at his small adobe down one of the twisted alleys off the Plaza.
"You still owe me from the first job," Frank insisted. "I'm not doing nothing 'til I get paid what I'm owed."
Regis Cochrane glared at Frank Storach. Now that Daisy had refused to marry Guy, killing her was the only way to get his hands on her land. Once she was dead, he could produced forged unpaid loans to her father. Nobody would question that.
His rustlers were poised to drive off Greene and Cordova's herds if they didn't sell out soon. The small raids had just been a warning. Daisy's land was the last piece in his puzzle, and he needed it now.
Regis handed Frank the hundred and fifty. "How long will it take you to hire some help?"
"I don't need nobody. I can do this one on my own."
"You'd better get it right. And this time, head for Montana when it's done. I don't want to see you again."
"You sure were damned glad to see me today."
"I didn't count on that girl turning difficult. She's always done what she was told before."
"You never can tell about females," Frank said. "I stay away from them myself."
"I don't care what you do," Regis said. "Just get rid of her and get out of the country. If they catch you, I'll swear I've never seen you."
For a moment Regis was tempted to kill Frank and hire someone else himself. The man was nothing more than an ambitious bungler, but Regis was impatient to get his hands on that land. It would give him a stranglehold on those bastards who'd tried to cut him out because his mother was half Spanish and half Navajo. They were always looking down on him, trying to ignore him. What the hell were they but upstart immigrants! This was his town. He'd been born here. He'd destroy anybody who tried to ignore him.
* * * * *
As Daisy watched Tyler ride just ahead of her, never once losing the trail of the rustled steers, she realized she wanted him to make love to her. That's why she had insisted on coming with him. If she'd just wanted her cattle back, she'd have sent Rio. She knew that. So did Tyler. She wondered what he was thinking. He hadn't stopped talking since they found the trail of the rustled cows.
"No reason for that many cows to be together on the range," he had said, pointing to the hoofprints. "No reason for them to be heading up into the mountains. But it's the horses' hoofprints among them that's the dead giveaway."
He identified all the plants they passed, told her which grew in what season, which had medicinal value, which the cows liked best, about the grasses, range conditions, bits of information that would be indispensable to her in the coming years. She hoped she would be able to remember some of it, but she could hardly think of anything except his nearness, and the kiss he would give her tonight.
He kissed her every morning and every night. He didn't make a big production out of it. He just kissed her and went on with his work. It had thrown her completely off stride at first, but she quickly got herself under control. What had started off as a tug of war had turned into a Mexican standoff. He was going to say anything until she admitted she needed him. She wasn't going to give in until he admitted he loved her.
She had started to feel very much on edge as each evening approached. She found herself waiting, anticipating, wanting. She could never have felt this way about Guy. She certainly would never have followed him off on a wild chase after rustlers. He wouldn't have offered. He'd have stayed home and sent someone else.
She also found Tyler's presence comforting. Despite his unrealistic dreams, he was the most capable man she'd ever met. He could cook, live alone on top of a mountain, build a cabin a professional carpenter would admire, do the work of a ranch foreman, all without missing a stride. Now he was taking out after rustlers like it was no more than a jaunt to meet friends.
Occasionally the trail narrowed, and she found herself riding behind him. She felt safe when she had to look up into his eyes, not down. She felt secure when he picked her up like she weighed no more than Julia Madigan. She felt very important and valuable when he didn't want to leave her with Guy. She felt desired when he looked at her with those sultry brown eyes.
"We'll soon be off your land," Tyler said. "That might make it more dangerous."
"Why?"
"If the cows are unbranded and on open land, they belong to whoever has possession. Under the law, he has as much right to them as you do."
"But they're my cows."
"You can't prove that."
"What do you plan to do?"
"I won't know until we catch up with them."
Daisy tried to imagine what might happen when they found the rustlers, but it was much more interesting to let her mind dwell on her anticipation of tonight's kiss.
The longer she rode alongside him, the more it occupied her mind. Would it be different now they were alone? She remembered the last night in the cabin and wondered if she was prepared for the consequences of touching off the volcano of desire she knew he kept under tight control.
"We're not going to catch up with them today," Tyler said. "Maybe we ought to go back."
"That means we'll just have to cover the same ground tomorrow."
"We're getting into rough country. It c
ould be dangerous. These men aren't going to want to give up what they've become used to taking at will."
"That's all the more reason to go on," Daisy said. "I won't tolerate any more rustling."
"And how are you going to back that up?"
"With you right now. I'll hire somebody else later."
Tyler laughed. "You've certainly got a side to you I never suspected."
"And you've got several you've kept safely tucked away. But that's beside the point. I'm not going back."
"Good. Let's find them before night. Then I can decide whether it would be better for us to confront them tonight or wait until the morning."
The rustlers might wait until the morning, but Daisy knew she couldn't.
* * * * *
They found the rustlers shortly after dusk. They were holding the cows in a small canyon.
"They're not even guarding them," Daisy pointed out. "Anybody could ride in, let down the poles, and drive them out."
"They probably don't see any need to post a guard."
"What are you going to do?"
"We're going to find a camp about a mile from here. I'm going to fix supper, and we're going to sleep."
"Don't treat me like I'm an idiot," Daisy said impatiently. "I may not know anything about capturing rustlers, but these are my cows and I expect you to let me know exactly what you intend to do."
Tyler had the stubborn look. It was clear he was trying to decide just how much to could withhold.
"You said I could do anything I wanted. You were the one who encouraged me to try to be on my own. You can't hold back now. That would make you worse than Guy."
They started back up the trail looking for a camp site. "How do you figure that?"
"Guy doesn't really believe a woman can take care of herself. He might agree to any number of things to placate me, but he would never encourage me. You did."
"Encouraging you doesn't mean I think you're ready to tackle rustlers."
"I didn't say I wanted to tackle them. Maybe I just want to be certain you won't get hurt."
"Is that important?"
"Of course it is. I don't want any of my employees to get hurt."
"I'm not your employee."
Daisy refused to fall for that. "I may not be paying you, but you're working for me."
"So you don't care anymore about my safety than that of Bob Green's hands."
Now he was getting personal, digging for information. She didn't mean to give in that easily. "Why should I? Do you care especially for my safety?"
"I'm here."
It wasn't much of an admission, but she figured it might be the best she was going to get out of him. "Why are you here?"
Tyler didn't answer. Daisy wondered why it was so hard for him to put his feelings into words. It was hard to imagine what could have happened to make him so insular. She'd been dominated and confined, her self-esteem destroyed, but it had only made her more anxious to find someone to love, to share her life. It seemed to have worked just the other way around with him. One more reason why they weren't good for each other.
"Because I can't be anywhere else."
He fell silent. She guessed she would have to be satisfied with that.
"I liked you better the way you were back in camp."
That got him. He turned in the saddle to face her. "How's that?"
"You talked and smiled and acted like an ordinary human being. People enjoyed being around you. But I've watched you change with every mile we've traveled today. It's like you've been wearing a mask and it has been falling off bit by bit until there's nothing left but the Tyler who was back in the cabin."
"You don't like him?"
She was feeling stronger, more in control. She figured she could answer him honestly. "Not especially. He doesn't give and he doesn't share. When he talks, it's in cryptic utterances that choke off conversation rather than start it, freeze emotion rather than warm it."
She watched his back grow rigid. She wondered if his face was any more expressive.
"There is a different man inside you. The one who took care of me, cared how I felt, empathized with my suffering. I fell in love with that man, but I lost him somewhere."
There, she had said it. It had taken all her courage, but at least she had gotten the words out. And it had to come out between them. Otherwise, their parting would always be incomplete.
"What if he came back?"
"He would never stay. The other you wouldn't let him."
Tyler stopped his gelding in a grove of pine and spruce that grew along a wash snow melt had turned into a noisy stream. "This looks like a good camp site." He rode into the thicket until the trail was no longer visible.
"Suppose he did come back to stay."
"I could never marry a man like that," Daisy said. "He's not a complete person. He's a fragment, just like the sociable fragment you pulled out back at camp. I suppose you've got other fragments I haven't seen." She dismounted. "Here, give me the reins. I'll take care of the horses while you fix supper."
* * * * *
As Tyler watched Daisy curry the horses and picket them near some grass, he decided that was what was wrong with this whole relationship. It was backwards. She was taking care of the horses, and he was cooking. She was the boss, he the employee. She had control of her feelings, and he didn't. From the moment he had left Willie Mozel at his claim, he'd been operating in uncharted territory.
Why couldn't he concede he didn't know what he was doing? It was about time he admitted his feelings of inadequacy weren't limited to his family. It was tied up with his perception of himself. He had lost control because he was trying to do something he had fought against this whole life.
He was trying to reach out to Daisy, but he was scared to death. When she said she loved him, something inside him leapt for joy. Some barrier came down, one he'd propped up for years, one he thought was impregnable. Yet Daisy with her freckles and curls had cracked it wide open with just three little words.
It didn't seem to matter that she wouldn't marry somebody like him. She loved him. For now that was more than he could handle.
He seemed to have lost his sense of pride, but that didn't mean as much as he expected. He'd held on to his pride all his life, and it hadn't made things any better. He had a feeling if he could just figure out how to open up to Daisy, pride wouldn't be so important.
She said she loved him but wouldn't marry him. Love wasn't enough, and he knew it.
"Tell me what you've got in mind," Daisy said when she came to the fire. "Mmmm, that smells delicious. You've got to teach me how to cook like that before you leave. You've spoiled me for my own cooking."
Tyler was a little startled that she took his leaving for granted. He had never intended to stay more than a few weeks, but he had assumed he'd be dropping by periodically to see how she was doing. Apparently Daisy expected him to disappear for good.
"I thought I'd ride back to their camp sometime after midnight. Maybe I can drive off the cows without waking them up. You can be waiting here. If they follow, I can hold them off while you drive the cattle back to your land."
"Wouldn't that be dangerous alone?"
"I'm not very good with a gun, but I can hold an army at bay with a rifle."
"You think they'll fight?"
"I don't know. They may figure it's easier to go back and rustle more. I can't figure out how you come to have so many unbranded cattle."
"My father wouldn't hire enough hands. He didn't trust anybody but Rio. He was convinced he was close to finding that mine. Maybe he thought they would try to steal it from him." Daisy poured herself a cup of coffee. She took a sip. It burned her tongue. "He wanted to find gold so he could go back and show his family he had become rich on his own. He never understood that mother and I didn't care. How long do you think it'll take us to finish branding?"
They talked of general things while they ate, but Tyler's thoughts still revolved around the fact Daisy loved him but expected not
hing of him. The more he thought about it, the more determined he was to make her change her mind.
He loved her and wanted to marry her. Fool that he was, he couldn't see that's why he'd been following her around.
Tyler's hand paused with the fork half way to his mouth. He had fallen in love with a woman who didn't like his kind of man and wouldn't marry him on a bet. He put the food in his mouth and chewed slowly. What a hell of a mess. Somebody once told him gold was never any trouble until you found it. They should also have told him being in love was no trouble until it happened to you.
But that wasn't his most immediate problem. Daisy was only a few feet away. He didn't know how he was going to get through the night without making love to her.
Chapter Twenty-four
Daisy moved restlessly in her blankets. The ground beneath her was cold and hard, but she was hardly aware of it. Every nerve in her body seemed to be focused on the fact that Tyler lay only a few feet from her. She wanted him to make love to her so badly she almost asked him. But no matter how much her body ached for him, she wouldn't let him touch her unless he admitted he loved her.
Not that he seemed to be straining at the leash. He hadn't been very talkative after dinner, but she was used to that. It was like old times.
She turned over in her bed, but she wasn't any more comfortable. It was going to be a miserable night. She almost hoped the rustlers did fight. At least it would give her something else to think about.
She lay there watching Tyler. She shouldn't have, but she couldn't help it. She felt something pulling her to him. He must have felt it as well, for he turned to face her. Their gazes met across the short distance that separated them. His eyes had always been shuttered as though shielding him against everything outside himself. Tonight they were open, wide and luminous. He had never seemed more accessible, as though he had finally been able to set aside the barriers that separated him from her and everyone else in the world.
But there was something new in his gaze tonight, something at once more warm and more appealing. It was almost as though he were inviting her inside. She knew it couldn't be true, Tyler was incapable of truly letting anyone inside him, but the inclination was there. Maybe even the wish.
Daisy Page 27
