Only Love o-4
Page 23
«I know that better than most women,» Shannon said.
«But you’re still insisting on going back?» Caleb asked.
«Yes. I’ll leave tomorrow.»
«Aren’t you going to wait for Whip to go with you?» Willow asked, surprised.
«What makes you think he’s coming back?» Shannon asked.
«Did he say good-bye to you?» Willow countered.
«No.»
«Then he’ll be back.»
Shannon only shook her head, remembering the anger and anguish in Whip when he rode away.
«Rafael isn’t that unkind, no matter how hard the wanderlust is riding him,» Willow said. «He’ll be back.»
«Will he?» Shannon said. «Some men love gold, some men love the sea, and some love only the horizon they’ve never seen. Whip is hearing that sunrise calling him.»
«All he mentioned to me,» Caleb said, «was getting gold out of a hard rock mine. He was hell-bent on it. He went to Reno for advice.»
«Yondering requires money,» Shannon pointed out. «Whip probably needs some. He refused to take wages from me.»
«Whip has more gold than he knows what to do with,» Willow said. «Ingots of Spanish gold so pure you can mark it with your fingernail.»
Shannon looked startled. «I didn’t know that. Then why is he going to Reno to find out how to dig more gold?»
«If Whip offered you his own gold to buy supplies or a home in a safer place than Echo Basin, would you accept it?» Caleb asked.
«Never,» Shannon said softly. «I’m a widow, not a harlot to be bought by any man with an itch in one pocket and gold in the other.»
Caleb smiled slightly and nodded, unsurprised.
«Why don’t you stick around until Whip comes back?» he asked. «You shouldn’t ride all the way to the basin alone.»
«No, thank you. My dog was injured defending me from the Culpeppers. I should have gone back days ago.»
«Stay,» Willow said quickly. «Whip has…tenderness toward you. He might…»
«Settle down?» Shannon whispered, shaking her head and smiling sadly. «Only love could hold Whip, and Whip loves only the sunrise he hasn’t seen.»
15
Whip rode up to the small home whose finishing touches were still being completed. When he reined in his tired horse, a young woman with hair and eyes the color of pure gold came running out of the kitchen. She leaped lightly off the low porch that ran the length of the house and smiled up at Whip.
«It is you! What a lovely surprise! Reno thought the yondering urge must have come over you again and taken you to the far side of the earth.»
«Not yet, Eve. I’ve got some gold to dig, first.»
«You? Gold?»
The startled look on Eve’s face made Whip smile despite the bleak emotions knotting his gut. The long ride from his sister’s ranch hadn’t eased his temper or his pain one bit.
«I thought you hated gold mining even worse than Caleb does,» Eve said.
«I do,» Whip said as he dismounted.
«Then why —»
Eve’s breath broke when Whip turned toward her and she got a close look at his face.
«What’s wrong?» Eve demanded anxiously. «It’s not Willow, is it? Or the baby? Is —»
«Everything’s fine at the Black ranch,» Whip interrupted.
«Then what has you looking so grim around the mouth?»
«Nothing some gold won’t fix. Where’s Reno?»
«Right behind you,» Reno said.
«Yeah, I thought so,» Whip said, turning around. «Someone has been watching me ever since I forded the river.»
Reno smiled. «Great view we have from our house. Saw you coming from a long way off.»
«Nice of you not to shoot.»
«Once I got that bullwhip in my sights, it was tempting,» Reno agreed, deadpan. «But then I got to thinking you might be bringing some of Willy’s biscuits to share around.»
«All I’m bringing is an empty belly and a favor to ask of you,» Whip said bluntly.
«That explains the look on your face. You always did look about as friendly as a wounded grizzly when you were hungry.»
While Reno spoke, he glanced at Sugarfoot through narrowed green eyes. The horse’s coat showed signs of having sweated and dried several times since the animal was last curried. The way the gelding tugged at the reins, trying to get close to grass, said that the horse was as hungry as its rider. And as tired.
«You and Sugarfoot both look like you’ve been rode hard and put away wet,» Reno said.
«I left Cal’s ranch just before supper yesterday.»
Reno’s black eyebrows shot up. «You must have ridden most of the night.»
Whip shrugged.
«I’ll help you see to Sugarfoot,» Reno said, «while Eve makes something for you to eat.»
As soon as the two brothers reached the pole corral, Reno turned to Whip.
«All right. Let’s have it,» Reno said bluntly. «What’s wrong?»
«Like I told Eve. Nothing that some gold won’t cure.»
«One of those Spanish bars is buried right under your feet. If I dig it up, will it put the light back in your eyes?»
Whip said something terrible beneath his breath, lifted his hat, raked his fingers through his hair, and yanked his hat back into place.
Without a word or a glance toward his brother, Whip turned to Sugarfoot and uncinched the saddle. With one hand he lifted the heavy saddle and flipped it onto the highest rail of the corral. With his other hand he took the saddle blanket, turned it over, and laid it out to dry on top of the saddle.
Bending swiftly, Whip hobbled the gelding and turned him out to graze. Sugarfoot went forward eagerly, for the margin of the river that ran within a hundred feet of Reno and Eve’s home was lush with grass.
Reno watched Whip with green eyes that missed nothing, especially the ease of his brother’s movements. Seeing Whip’s muscular grace made some of the tension in Reno loosen; he had feared that Whip had some injury or illness he was trying to conceal.
«Cal and Willy and Ethan are all right,» Reno said.
It wasn’t exactly a question, but Whip nodded.
«You’re as fit as a cougar, despite a ride that took the starch out of that tough gelding of yours,» Reno said.
Whip shrugged.
«You haven’t had bad news about any of our brothers?» Reno pressed.
«No.»
Reno waited.
Whip said nothing more.
«Well, that cinches it,» Reno said, smiling slightly. «It must be woman trouble.»
«What the hell are you talking about?» Whip asked, nettled.
«The lines around your mouth and the look in your eyes that says you’d like to kill something, and God help anyone who gives you the excuse.»
Whip flexed hands that kept wanting to become fists. He had come to talk about gold, not about a woman he shouldn’t take and couldn’t leave alone.
«Are you going to talk,» Reno asked mildly, «or would you rather fight first?»
«Hell,» Whip said in disgust. «I came here to ask a favor, not to fight you.»
«Sometimes a fightisa favor.»
Whip made a low sound that could have been a curse or laughter or both combined. Then he looked up, straight up. The sky was as deep and blue as Shannon’s eyes.
«Have you ever wanted two things,» Whip said slowly, «even though having one of them means giving up the other, and you can’t give up either one, because you really want both of them, so you keep turning in tighter and tighter circles like a dog chasing its own tail until finally you don’t know which end is up?»
Reno’s smile was oddly gentle for a man who looked as hard as he did.
«Of course I have,» Reno said softly to his brother. «It’s called being human. Stupid, but human.»
«What did you do?» Whip asked curiously.
«When you finished tearing strips off me, I figured out what was important. Then I marr
ied her.»
Whip’s mouth turned down. «I’d make a piss-poor husband. I’d always be looking over the fence and pacing like a mustang fresh off the range.»
«Still chasing sunrises?»
«I can no more help my yondering streak than you can help being left-handed and hell on wheels with that six-gun of yours,» Whip said flatly.
«Probably, but you never know.»
«What does that mean?»
«When you started yondering,» Reno said slowly, thinking as he spoke, «you were hardly more than a kid. Like me, you left home as much because our older brothers were restless — and Pa had a heavy hand with the belt on our backsides — as for any wanderlust of your own.»
«Was that it?» Whip shrugged. «It’s so long ago now, and I’ve seen so many places and done so many things since then, it’s hard to remember what started me yondering.»
«But you don’t want to give it up.»
«How do you give up your soul?» Whip asked simply, his eyes haunted.
Reno had no answer except the quick, hard embrace he gave his brother.
«Come on,» Reno said after a moment. «Eve will be fretting about what’s wrong with you. It galls me to admit that she has such poor taste, but she cares about you almost as much as she does about me.»
Whip smiled slightly. «I doubt that. But I have a real fondness for her. She has the kind of laughter and sheer courage that I admire in anyone, especially a woman. Eve is solid gold. What she ever saw in you I’ll never know.»
A crack of laughter and a slap on the shoulder was Reno’s answer. Side by side, the two brothers walked toward the house with long strides. When they reached the back door, Whip looked dubiously at his boots, and then at Reno’s.
«Something wrong?» Reno asked.
«There are parts of this world where you would be insulting your host and hostess by wearing your boots across the threshold of their home,» Whip said. «Especially boots like these and a new home like yours.»
«Eve must have been to those same places,» Reno admitted. «She leaves a pair of moccasins next to the door for me to swap for my boots.»
Reno’s smile was wry and amused at the same time. Eve’s pleasure in having a home of her own had been a keen satisfaction to him.
«What about my boots?» Whip asked. «Will she settle for stocking feet?»
«She’ll think of something. She protects this house like a tigress with only one cub.»
«Can you blame her? An orphanage like she was raised in would make a body crave a home of their own.»
Reno and Whip washed up at a small bench Reno had built at the back of the house. The water waiting for them was warm and scented with lilac.
As cheerful as the scent was, Whip couldn’t help remembering the spearmint freshness that he associated with Shannon, and the small ritual of handing him a towel and inspecting his face so carefully for any speck of lather.
Stop thinking about those beautiful blue eyes and that sweet mouth smiling up at you, Whip advised himself grimly. It isn’t fair to either one of us.
Do what you have to do.
Get Reno. Get gold.
Get out.
The thought didn’t have as much appeal as it should have.
«Well, don’t take all day,» Eve said, smiling at the men from the back doorway. «If I wait any longer to give you a hug, the biscuits will burn.»
Grinning, Reno wiped his hands on a clean rag and held out his arms. Eve stepped into them and held on hard.
«Is everything all right?» she whispered very softly against Reno’s ear.
«Nothing for us to worry about, sugar,» Reno answered with equal softness.
He felt as much as heard his wife’s sigh of relief.
«I smell burning biscuits,» Whip said blandly.
Reno released Eve, who turned immediately to Whip and held out her arms.
«They’ll be all right,» she said, «but I’m pining for a hug from my second-favorite man in the whole world.»
Whip bent slightly, gathered Eve in a big hug, and held her close.
Reno watched with an indulgent smile and no jealousy at all. He knew that his wife and brother had forged a special bond between them when both had risked their lives to dig Reno out from deep inside an ancient, dangerous mine.
With a final squeeze, Whip set Eve back on her feet.
«Come in and eat,» Eve said, smiling widely. «I can hear your stomach growling all the way from here. I’ll set your place while you change shoes. If you like, you can hang your bullwhip on one of the jacket pegs. Or you can wear it at the table. Suit yourself, so long as the hat stays here with the boots.»
Reno and Whip exchanged a silent glance of amusement when they saw the pair of large, clean socks laid out beside Reno’s moccasins. But neither man had the heart to tease Eve about her attempt to civilize one small part of the West. In truth, the men welcomed the gentle rituals and generous feminine warmth that made a home from a simple house.
While Whip ate, he told Reno and Eve about what he had been doing since they had seen him months ago. When he got around to talking about Echo Basin and Holler Creek, he passed lightly over the Culpeppers.
Even without explanations or embroidery, Eve understood what had happened in Murphy’s mercantile. She had lived in some rough places before she met Reno. She knew exactly what stripe of male animal the Culpepper bunch was.
What she didn’t know was why Silent John’s widow was at the Black ranch rather than with Whip.
«Why didn’t you bring Mrs. Smith with you?» Eve asked Whip.
«Mrs. Smith?»
Eve saw the blank lack of comprehension in Whip’s eyes and made an exasperated sound.
«The woman you brought from Echo Basin to the Black ranch,» Eve said, speaking slowly, as though to a backward child. «The woman who was insulted by the Culpeppers. The woman whose modesty you defended with that lethal bullwhip of yours.»
«Oh. You mean Shannon.»
«Lord above, of course I do,» Eve said, laughing. «Is your mind off woolgathering around the world again?»
Surprisingly, red stained Whip’s cheekbones.
«I don’t think of Shannon as Mrs. Smith,» Whip said tersely.
Eve blinked, sweeping long lashes over her eyes, concealing the sudden speculation in them. She very much wanted to look at Reno, to see what he thought of Whip and the woman who might or might not be a widow, the woman Whip obviously didn’t like to think about as married at all.
«I see,» Eve murmured. «WasShannontoo tired after the ride down from Echo Basin to come here?»
«I left her with Willy and Cal. I was hoping Shannon would want to live with them and help Willy.»
«That would be nice,» Eve said. «Willow has been looking to hire a girl for —»
«Not as hired help,» Whip interrupted roughly. «Not really. Sort of like a sister or a maiden aunt.»
Eve cleared her throat rather than point out that a widow was nobody’s maiden aunt. She knew the Moran men too well not to recognize the warning in Whip’s clear, bleak eyes. He was a man caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to move.
Yet he had to move.
Yondering man.
Half of Eve’s heart went out to Whip and his pain. The other half of her heart went out to Shannon, whom she suspected was caught in pain as Eve had once been caught, in love with a man who wasn’t ready to love her. But in the end, Reno had come to love her.
Eve wondered if Shannon would be that lucky.
She looked at the big, blond-haired man whose eyes were clear as autumn ice. Whip could be gentle and loving, but God help anyone who tried to hold him when he would rather roam.
«A family kind of thing, room and board and a little egg money,» Whip explained. «And safety. That most of all.»
A sideways glance at Reno told Eve that her husband was both amused and bemused by his brother. The gentle curve of Reno’s mouth told of his sympathy, as well.
«Is that
what Shannon wants?» Eve asked, curious. «Safety and a little egg money?»
The line of Whip’s mouth flattened even more. Put that way, it sounded like a paltry kind of existence for anyone, much less for a young woman like Shannon.
Silence stretched uncomfortably.
«If Shannon is half the woman you make her out to be,» Eve said finally, her voice careful, «you won’t need to worry about her for long. Some smart man will come down the road and give her a lot more than room and board and a little egg money.»
Whip’s head came up. His eyes were narrowed to splinters of glittering gray.
«He’ll give her his name and his children and build a home for her,» Eve said calmly. «She won’t have to live on the kindness of others. She’ll have her own home to enjoy, her own man to love, and her own children to raise. He will be her safety and she will be his refuge.»
«No.»
Whip didn’t know he had spoken aloud until he heard the echo of his own savage denial at the thought of Shannon bearing another man’s child. Whip’s hands gripped the edge of the table until his skin was white. He shouldn’t feel this way about Shannon and another man.
But he did.
Eve’s dark gold eyebrows raised in silent query at Whip’s vehemence.
«She doesn’t have to marry some man and have his kids to be safe,» Whip said doggedly. «All she needs is…»
His voice died.
«I take it you don’t want to marry her yourself,» Eve said neutrally.
«It’s nothing against Shannon.» Whip’s voice was raw. «If s me.»
«Sugar,» Reno said softly, «it would be no kindness for Whip to marry Shannon. She might as well marry the wind.»
«Does she know that?» Eve asked.
«She knows,» Whip said flatly. «She told me she’d never marry a man who loved a sunrise he had never seen more than he loved her.»
«Smart woman,» Eve said.
«Stubborn woman,» Whip shot back. «She won’t leave the high country and it’s not safe there for a woman alone.»
«Why won’t she leave?»
«Up there, she isn’t beholden to anyone for her salt and bread.»
«Verysmart woman,» Eve said.
«Very damnedstubbornwoman,» Whip snarled. «I can’t leave her at the mercy of those miners and I can’t stay up there with her until she comes to her senses.»