Forever Angels

by Simmons, Trana Mae

  "Does Stone know this?"

  "About the kids' names being on the deed? Sure, I gave him a copy of it."

  "No. No, I mean about his land not being subject to these taxes."

  "Well, 'course that could change in the future," Jack admitted. "But to answer your question, I don't rightly recall ever talking about that very point with Stone. All he'd've had to do was come and ask me about it, though."

  "Thank you, Jack." Tess jumped to her feet and shook the lawyer's hand. "I have to get out to the ranch."

  "Not before you answer a question for me, I hope," Jack said, refusing to relinquish her hand.

  "Of course, but hurry."

  "I just want to find out if I'm going to have some competition around here for the legal business."

  "Why, Jack, lawyers have to keep things confidential."

  Tess pulled her hand free and headed for the door. "See you Thursday, Mandy," she called.

  As she opened the door, she glanced back and caught the woebegone look on the other attorney's face. She really liked him — she shouldn't leave him hanging, especially after all the help he had been.

  "Jack," she said with her hand on the door. "I don't possibly see how I'd have time to properly practice law with all the other things I have to do."

  Jack hesitantly returned her wink and Tess hurried out the door.

  ***

  Chapter 32

  Tess's excitement abated in direct proportion to the number of miles closer to the ranch she rode. She kept recalling Stone's anger-flecked eyes and snarling voice. He probably wasn't going to be a bit happy when she turned out to be the one who gave him the good news about his taxes. It would be just one more thing she had taken it upon herself to investigate without his knowledge.

  It wouldn't matter that Jack had volunteered the information inadvertently and Tess had immediately picked up on it. The news would be another blow to Stone's own macho concept of himself.

  Kill the messenger.

  Oh, good grief, where had that thought come from? People didn't do that any longer. But that didn't mean the urge to do exactly that didn't crop up in the receivers of the messages.

  Tess pulled Sateen down to a slow walk when she caught sight of the ranch up ahead. In the corral beside the barn, she saw Stone's horse and the gray gelding, along with Jasper's mare.

  Good. With the man Stone had hired to look after the ranch while they were gone still there, surely Stone wouldn't start another battle with her. Would he?

  Her stomach dropped an inch or so when she saw Jasper lead another horse from the barn, then walk to the corral and throw a rope over the wild mare's head. A moment later, Jasper passed her, leading the mare behind him. He tipped his hat and nodded as he rode by.

  Gathering every remnant of courage she could dredge up, Tess rode on into the ranch yard. Lonesome leaped down by himself this time, and ran around the yard to get reacquainted with his domain while Tess dismounted and unsaddled Sateen, promising her a rubdown in a little while as she led her into the corral. After closing the gate, she turned, her eyes searching for Stone.

  Maybe he was in the barn.

  Surely he would have come on out when he heard her ride in, though.

  He must be in the house.

  She glanced at the back porch and could see that the door was closed. On such a warm day, Stone never would have closed the door so the air couldn't circulate.

  Had he gone somewhere? She should've asked Jasper.

  Tess trudged toward the cabin. Just as she lifted her foot for the bottom porch step, the back door opened and she froze.

  Stone walked out onto the porch and stopped above her, slipping his fingers into his back pockets. "You trying to imitate Lonesome when he marks his territory with that pose?"

  Tess set her foot down with a clump and raised her chin as she climbed the steps. "You surprised me. I didn't think anyone was here, since the door was closed in this heat."

  Backing away when Tess reached the porch floor, Stone asked, "You get all your business in town taken care of?"

  O.K. So he was still mad. Tess blew out an exasperated breath. "Can we please talk for a minute without throwing darts at each other?"

  "I'm not fixing to throw anything at you." Stone spread his fingers and looked down at his empty hands. "Oh, I guess you mean word darts. You'll have to excuse my lack of understanding. I'm not as up on the tricks of language as you are."

  Groaning under her breath, Tess walked over and sat down in the rocking chair. Maybe she'd appease him a little if she took the lower point of contact. At least, all the management courses she had ever taken had taught that the taller person always appeared dominant.

  That didn't work, because Stone sat down on the top step and leaned against a support post. Well, at least he hadn't stomped off and ignored her.

  Before she could lose her courage, Tess quickly explained to Stone what she had learned about the taxes. She interspersed her explanation — much to her own disgust — with assurances that Jack had offered the information in the course of their conversation.

  Stone's face remained unreadable. Indeed, he only glanced at her one brief time, mostly keeping his gaze trained out over the ranch yard. Boy, she'd hate to play poker with him!

  Tess finally quit talking and stubbornly refused to utter even one more word until Stone responded to her information. She plopped her feet against the floor as soon as she realized the rocking chair was swinging back and forth in rapid sweeps, in time to her agitated thoughts. When Stone continued to stare off into space — the only sign of movement his clenching and unclenching jaw — she started to rise.

  "That's good," Stone finally said, and she eased back into the chair. "There's plenty of other things I can use that money from the horses for."

  "I...uh...I bought a pump at the store."

  "Sid told me."

  "Oh, I forgot to go over and pay my bill. I'll ride in tomorrow and do that."

  "I'm sure Sid will appreciate that." Stone rose to his feet. "I'm going out to check the cattle, then I've got chores to do. Don't wait supper for me. I'll fix something when I come in."

  Tess gripped the rocking chair arms until her fingers ached as he walked away. As soon as he entered the barn, she surged to her feet and stomped into the house, slamming the door behind her.

  That's good. There's plenty of other things I can use that money from the horses for.

  Well, what the hell had she expected? She'd known he wouldn't be pleased with receiving the news from her. And at least she'd escaped another chastising, male chauvinist lecture about sticking her nose into men's business.

  Tess picked up a tin coffee cup Stone had left on the table and hurled it at the dry sink. It clattered loudly, and the coffee dregs spewed over the wobbly-seamed curtains.

  "Shit!" she spat, then for some reason clamped her hand over her mouth, horrified at the expletive. She could almost hear Granny's admonishing voice. But Granny had been dead fifteen years.

  Her training hadn't died with her grandmother, Tess realized, though she had allowed that portion of Granny's teaching to sort of slide into the back of her mind the last few years. Even the male associates she met seemed to expect at least a curse now and then from the new women they dealt with.

  Tess counted to ten, then walked out of the kitchen. She could spend the afternoon moving her remaining clothing from Flower's room.

  The neat bedroom didn't contain even one of Tess's possessions, and she frowned as she headed into the hallway. At the door to Stone's room, she stopped and her anger began to evaporate when she saw her backpack, which had been tied on the gray gelding, inside the open closet door. Stone had even laid the nightshirt of his that she had been wearing on the bedspread.

  Tess's eyes flew back to the closet. Stone's clothes weren't there! She ran over and peered inside, as though her actions would make the clothing materialize. She saw her other two dresses hanging on the rod, looking lonely in their solitude.

&nb
sp; Tess hurried out of the room and opened the door to Rain's bedroom. It now held two beds, one of them a cot she hadn't seen before. Stone's bedroll — familiar to her from the nights she had already spent on it — lay open on the cot.

  "You bastard!" Tess muttered. "I've heard of women withholding sex from their husbands to get their way, but if you think you're going to pull that on me, you better think again!"

  Tess ran out the back door just as Stone was riding across the ranch yard. She raced down the steps and came to a halt with her hands perched on her hips.

  "You get your ass back here, Stone Chisum!"

  Stone pulled on his reins and the gelding stopped. He sat for a second, then neck-reined the gelding around until he faced Tess.

  "What do you want?" he called.

  Tess lifted her long skirt and paced toward him. "I want to know what the hell's going on inside. Is that why you had the door shut — so Jasper wouldn't walk in and see you moving your clothes out of your new wife's bedroom?"

  The gelding shied away a step, but Stone bunched the reins tighter and held it in place. "It's your bedroom now. Flower and Rain will expect you to sleep in it."

  "With you with me!" Tess yelled. "What the heck are we supposed to say to Flower and Rain? Tell them I've got a fever or something?"

  "Tell them whatever you want to. A good lawyer can always twist the facts around to his own benefit."

  "To his client's benefit," Tess gritted. "And a good lawyer doesn't twist the facts — she just brings them out in the right order, so the truth becomes known."

  "Then tell the kids the truth," Stone began.

  "Maybe I will — if you'll tell me what it is first!" Tess swept at a curl that had worked loose from the ribbon holding back her hair, impeding her vision. Fighting the urge to jerk him off that darned horse, she buried her hands in her skirt, her fingers working in an unconscious, convulsive way. Damn it, why didn't he answer her, instead of gazing anywhere except at her face.

  "Tell them we got married too quick," Stone said at last, his words filling Tess with pain. "Tell them we aren't really suited to each other, and we don't want to take a chance on your getting with child at this point. Tell them...."

  Stone reined the gelding away. "Aw, hell. Like I said, tell them whatever you want."

  Tess gulped back sobs as Stone galloped out of the yard. The pain she had felt after Robert's betrayal paled in comparison to the stabs of agony creeping into her heart now. How many times had she read the words 'a broken heart'? How well that described what was happening to her right now. Her heart was breaking into a thousand pieces, each one a jagged, saw-edged lump that tore at her chest.

  Despite the fact that one corner of her mind sneered at her foolishness — telling her that she was reacting like one of those silly heroines in the romance novels she loved — Tess whirled and ran into the cabin. She raced down the hallway and threw herself on Stone's bed, pounding out her pain on the pillow as her sobs echoed in the empty room.

  Suddenly Tess forced herself to be quiet. Now, wasn't the hero supposed to come in next and find her crying, then apologize all over the place for being such an ass?

  Tess sneaked a look over her shoulder, but the doorway was empty. She buried her face again and wailed.

  For the next two days, the only sign Tess saw of Stone was the dirty plate from the supper she left on the stove for him. Try as she would to wait up for him, she never heard him come in. Her late night vigil would leave her too exhausted to catch him in the mornings.

  She rode into Clover Valley the first day, paid her general store account and made arrangements for Sid to hire a man to bring the pump and pipe out to the ranch when the pipe arrived from Oklahoma City. And, in a still simmering fit of rebellion, she bought two dresses for Flower, and a shirt and denims for Rain. Browsing around the store, she found a shelf of lotions and perfumes, adding a couple bottles of each for herself. A bolt of yellow material that would be perfect for window curtains came next. At least making curtains would give her something to fill the time, which looked like it might hang heavy until Stone stopped acting like such an ass.

  She started to toss the pair of men's slippers she picked up back on the shelf, then sniffed in disapproval of her actions and carried them over to the counter. They weren't a peace offering — she only hoped they would remind Stone of that evening in the kitchen, when she had sensed that maybe he'd begun to care a little for her.

  When she ran into Jack Pierce and he invited her for a cup of coffee, Tess learned that she had misinterpreted Jack's expression in his office. If she hadn't left so quickly, the attorney told her, he would have explained that they really needed another law practice in town. Jack's wife was threatening dire harm if he didn't cut back his long hours. In fact, Jack could probably refer enough clients so Tess could have a profitable practice built up in no time.

  After assuring Jack that she would think over his proposition, Tess rode back to the ranch, wondering how she could take a bar exam and get licensed to practice a hundred years before she even went to school. Anyway, it gave her something else to think about besides Stone's asinine idea of withholding lovemaking to bend her to his will.

  Tess distributed her purchases in the various ranch bedrooms before she built a fire in the stove and carried in several pails of water. She took a long bath that evening in the kitchen, hoping every noise she heard would prelude the door opening and Stone walking in. But she was deep asleep when Stone slipped in and hurriedly gulped his dried-out supper, trying to ignore the coziness of the lamp-lit kitchen and the lingering smells of woman and perfume.

  She never knew that he spent the night in the barn, rather than have only the thin barrier of a log wall between him and Tess again that night.

  The curtain material stayed in Tess's closet the next day. She needed a lot more physical action than sewing to work out her frustration. She weeded Flower's garden — denuding dozens of stems in the rows of blossoms and putting a bouquet in each room of the cabin, saving the prettiest one for the kitchen table. She stripped the beds and did the laundry, cursing the lack of pumped in water with every bucket she carried from the well to heat on the stove.

  She returned to the garden and picked everything she found ripe, storing almost all of it in the root cellar until Flower returned to help her can. She fixed a salad, new potatoes and green beans, and fried ham for supper — sat at the table and watched the salad wilt and grease congeal around the crispy ham slices and on top of the bowl of green beans and potatoes.

  A petal dropped from a wild rose bloom onto the table, and she laid her head down and wailed again.

  The next morning, Tess stumbled over to the sink and splashed water from the bucket over her swollen red eyes. After patting her face dry with a hand towel, she turned and stared at the table. The slippers and bolo tie sat there — mocking her attempt at reconciliation with Stone.

  Her lower lip trembled and her face started to crumble again. Just as suddenly, anger built in her chest. The anger grew more quickly than the tears, and she glared at Stone's gifts until she was sure they would go up in flames from the heated sparks she could almost feel shooting from her eyes. Biting back a scream of fury, she stomped over and grabbed everything.

  A few seconds later, Tess emerged from the little building with the half moon on the door, brushing her hands together, her lips tight and her eyes sparkling in indignation. One slipper and the tie were gone, but the other slipped was tucked, toe out, in the wooden cover over one hole. She wanted no shadow of doubt in Stone's mind about where her gifts had gone.

  Her anger carried her back into the cabin and through her packing. Her heart gave a wrench when she tossed the picture she had taken of Stone on the cot in Rain's room just before she headed out the door, but she quickly stifled her pain. A clean break — wasn't that what she'd always heard was best? No reminders — except her memories, of course.

  She left her bank book in the tack room, where Stone would surely see it a
nd realize she hadn't stolen the tack for Sateen. As she was riding out of the yard, she remembered that today was Thursday, and she had promised to be at the Ladies' Guild meeting.

  Too bad. She wasn't about to face the sympathetic looks of Tillie and her friends when they saw her swollen eyes. And there was no sense getting involved in anything else here in this time period. History would handle the problems in its own time.

  She whistled Lonesome to her and headed for the spot on the hill, where she had arrived in 1893.

  "Don't you dare say a word, Michael," Angela warned. "I'm perfectly aware that you've had doubts all along about them making it together. But right now I'm too upset to listen to any of your 'I told you so's'."

  "Angie, honey, I'm just as upset as you are. Dash nab it, can't Stone see what he's losing? He's being a stubborn jackass!"

  "Michael, watch your language."

  Michael shot her a disgusted look. "Well, what the blue blazes would you call him, then?"

  Reluctantly, Angela nodded. "A jackass," she agreed. "Or maybe even something worse, but I wouldn't say it out loud."

  "Same thing," Michael said with a smirk. "I can read what you're thinking."

  "Yes, and I'm getting a little tired of that. If we had time, I'd stop and show you that I can block my thoughts off from you. But it takes a few minutes to do that."

  "I suppose that's one thing you've neglected to teach me so far, huh?"

  "Michael, we don't have time to argue right now. We've got to stay with Tess."

  "Yeah, we've been arguing enough the last few days. I still think you should've let me bring Stone back into the cabin while Tess was taking a bath. One look at her, all rosy and pink...."