A Little Time in Texas

by Joan Johnston

  This time it was Dallas who asked the questions.

  “What would a woman like you do for a living…back then?”

  Angel shrugged. “Most women I knew took care of their husbands and kids.”

  “But you never married?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “There was a boy I loved, but…” Angel felt the heaviness of heart that arose whenever she thought of Stephen. “He was killed last summer at the Battle of Gettysburg.”

  “Is that the Civil War you’re talking about?” Dallas asked incredulously.

  Angel nodded. “There isn’t much honest work for a single woman during a war. But I managed.”

  “Are you suggesting you did dishonest work?”

  Angel eyed him cautiously. “I might have stolen a steer or two.”

  “You were a cattle rustler?”

  “Most recently.”

  “What did you do before that?” Dallas asked, almost afraid to hear her answer.

  “Picked a few pockets in El Paso, played some poker with marked cards in saloons in Galveston. Mostly I stayed out of the way of the war.” She paused a moment and asked, “Who won?”

  “The North.”

  She clucked her tongue. “It figures. All the signs were there. Did the Union take the South back?”

  “It did. And grew some. There are fifty states now.” But he didn’t want to talk about the Civil War. He had more important things he wanted to know. “Are you planning to go back to the outlaw life?”

  She shrugged. “Not much opportunity for a woman alone to make an honest living.” Her features hardened. “And I’d rather steal than make a living on my back.”

  Dallas stopped in the small circle of shade provided by a mesquite and turned to confront Angel. “Why on earth do you want to go back if the life is so hard? Why not stay here in the future?”

  “Is it any better for a woman in 1992?”

  “A woman can do most anything a man can nowadays.”

  “Are there any woman Texas Rangers?” she asked.

  “No,” Dallas admitted. “But there are plenty of women police officers. Why you can—” Dallas stopped. He couldn’t imagine what career to suggest for a woman who had been a cattle rustler, a pickpocket and a cardsharp. He didn’t even know if Angel could read and write. “I’m sure there’s something you could do,” he muttered.

  “What, exactly, did you have in mind?” Angel asked, her lips curling sardonically. “I don’t understand even the simplest of your machines. What skill do I have that could possibly be translated into an honest profession in your world?”

  “I don’t know…yet.” Dallas pulled off his Stetson, wiped his forehead with his bandanna, then settled his hat back low on his brow. “There’s bound to be something honest you can do.”

  Angel snorted inelegantly. “You don’t sound confident about that.”

  Dallas was worried. Not that he let Angel see what he was thinking. She obviously wasn’t a hardened criminal, but with the road she was traveling, it wouldn’t take but a few wrong turns and she’d end up spending her life in jail. He didn’t know why he thought he could help her go straight. But from everything she said it sounded like she hadn’t had too many breaks in the past. With some honest employment—

  “I hear something,” Angel said.

  Dallas listened. “That droning sound?”

  “Yes. Sounds sort of like bees or—”

  “It’s an airplane,” Dallas said. He looked up and when he spotted it, pointed. “Look there. See that? Where the sun is glinting off silver? That’s an airplane. It looks like we’re not in the past after all, Angel. I’m sorry.”

  “No, you’re not,” Angel said bitterly. “You’re glad. Now you can believe I’m crazy or lying or whatever you want. And there’s nothing I can do to prove differently.”

  Tears glittered in Angel’s eyes.

  “Angel? Are you all right?”

  Her chin came up and her eyes flashed dangerously. She might be temporarily down, but she most certainly was not done in. “Of all the bean-headed—no, I’m not all right,” she retorted. “I’m trapped in the future with a man who doesn’t believe I’m from the past. I haven’t any skills to make my way honestly, and that same man also just happens to be a Texas Ranger. No, I’d say I’m definitely not all right.”

  Dallas knew enough to keep his distance from a spitting wildcat. He offered verbal comfort instead. “Things aren’t as bad as you think, Angel,” he said. “I meant what I said. I’ll help you find a job. You can stay with me until you find something you like, something you can do well.”

  Where had the inclination to make that offer come from? Dallas had lived alone since his father’s death. He’d had only one use for women since his mother had walked out. Angel was clearly off limits for that purpose. She had made it plain her virtue was intact—and would stay that way. So why this sentimental reaction to a woman who was nothing more than a common thief? He had to be a little crazy himself.

  Insane or not, he couldn’t let her go. “Come on, Angel,” he coaxed. “Say yes.”

  She wanted to run away, but there was nowhere she could go. She wiped her stinging eyes on the sleeve of her shirt. So be it. She had fallen on hard times before. She had learned to take the bitter with the better. Any hopes of a “normal” life had been denied when her mother had put her and Belinda in the orphanage. Since then she’d had to struggle tooth and claw simply to survive.

  Angel wished she had been able to make it to San Antonio. She had wanted the satisfaction of being there when…Better not to ponder what couldn’t be changed. If she couldn’t get back, she couldn’t get back.

  Only, Angel had serious qualms about the honest life the Ranger was offering her. She was willing to try it, but if it didn’t work out…She had been taking care of herself a long time. She would manage somehow to take care of herself now, too.

  “All right,” Angel said. “I’ll go with you. But I’ll stay only until I learn what I need to know to survive on my own.”

  “And get an honest job,” Dallas added.

  Angel lifted a brow. She didn’t contradict him, just turned and headed back toward the cave opening.

  “Look, Angel,” Dallas said, marching along beside her. “This isn’t really negotiable. I’m responsible for you. If you don’t go along with me, I’ll have to arrest you.”

  “For what? I haven’t done anything illegal—in this century.”

  She had him there, all right. “We’ll compromise,” he said. “You cooperate with me and—”

  Angel stopped at the cave entrance and turned to confront him, silvery hair flying in the wind. “I need your help,” she conceded, “so I’ll do what I can to get along with you. So long as you don’t overstep your bounds.”

  “What bounds?” he asked, although he had a pretty good idea what she meant.

  “Just keep your distance, Ranger.”

  “What are you afraid of, Angel? I wouldn’t take anything you didn’t offer.”

  That was the problem, Angel thought. He was the smoothest talking devil she’d ever met. When he touched her—well, firecrackers on the Fourth of July didn’t make much more of an explosion. “It’s a hard world out there, Ranger. I have enough trouble taking care of myself. I wouldn’t want a child of mine to suffer for my foolishness.”

  He could have told her there were modern ways of avoiding such eventualities, but he didn’t. Because she was talking sense. And she was absolutely right. He had to stay away from her and stop thinking about her as an attractive woman. She was just a thief who needed an honest job. And he was the man who was going to find it for her.

  “All right,” he agreed.

  “Shake on it,” she said, holding out her hand.

  Dallas took her hand in his and felt the arc of electricity that charged up his arm. He let her go instantly. He saw the flush in her cheeks and knew he wasn’t the only one who had felt it. Like her he refused to ack
nowledge it.

  “Let’s go, Angel,” he said, heading back into the cave. “I want to make a few phone calls before the day ends.”

  Angel followed him into the cave, turning on the flashlight to keep away the dark. As she stepped into the icy water, she shivered. She told herself it was only the cold. She forced the fear down her throat and held it at bay. She would survive this calamity on her own, as she had all the others. It was only a matter of taking one moment at a time.

  But when Dallas reached back toward her, she took his hand. And held on to it until they reached daylight again.

  4

  Dallas pulled the truck up to the front door of his house but didn’t cut the engine. “You go in and make yourself comfortable,” he said to Angel. “I’ll be back in a little while. I have to go feed my horse.”

  “You have a horse? Where?” Angel looked around for a lean-to and spied the roof of a barn-like building in the distance.

  “It’s over that hill behind the house,” Dallas said, confirming Angel’s guess. “When I’m not around, one of Adam’s cowhands takes care of Red. I prefer to feed and curry him myself when I’m home.”

  “Can I go with you?”

  Dallas shrugged. “I don’t know why you’d want to, but sure.”

  Angel settled back in the seat, and a few minutes later they arrived at the rustic wooden building. The inside of the wooden barn smelled of hay and horse, and Angel took a deep breath as she stepped inside the door. The pungent odors reminded her of the world she had come from.

  “This is Red,” Dallas said, patting the neck of a sorrel horse that had stuck its head over a stall door the moment they entered the barn. The horse nipped at Dallas’s shirt pocket. “Don’t have any carrots for you today, boy,” Dallas said as he stroked the gelding’s jaw.

  “He’s beautiful,” Angel said.

  “He and I have been through a lot together.”

  “Oh?”

  “I use him sometimes when I have to track down outlaws where there aren’t any roads,” Dallas said. “And he’s a good cowhorse.”

  Dallas located a curry comb and brush and began to put a gloss on the animal’s already shiny red coat.

  Angel stood with her arms looped over the stall door and watched. There was something infinitely comforting about watching Dallas perform a task the same way it had been done over a century ago. Apparently some things never changed.

  As she watched, Angel became less aware of what Dallas was doing, and more aware of how he looked doing it. Muscles rippled across his shoulders as he worked. His hands were strong, and the backs of them were dusted with black hair, as were his forearms, revealed by his folded-back shirtsleeves. His chestnut hair darkened and curled at his nape as sweat dampened it. A fine sheen appeared above his lip, and she felt butterflies dance in her belly as he licked it away with his tongue.

  In the past Angel had never spent much time contemplating a man. At least not this way. She didn’t understand what it was about Dallas that drew her to him. Maybe it was that kiss he’d given her when she’d been wearing no more than her chemise and pantalets. She had only been kissed twice before she met Dallas, and never, never like that. A woman without means in 1864 guarded her virtue because it was the only dowry she had to offer her husband. Angel couldn’t afford to let this man from the future sweep her off her feet. Someday she would be going back where she came from, and there a fallen woman wasn’t worth a barrel of shucks.

  “You’ve been awfully quiet,” Dallas said. “Penny for your thoughts?”

  Angel was startled. It was as though he had known she was thinking about him. She said the first thing that came to mind. “We should have spent more time exploring after we saw that flying contraption.”

  Dallas glanced sharply at her. “For what purpose?”

  “Maybe if we’d walked farther in the direction of the other cave opening, we would have found something. I don’t know what exactly…”

  “A time portal?” Dallas suggested.

  “Is that what you call it?” Angel shrugged. She tried to keep the gesture nonchalant, but she felt anything but calm and collected. Her whole life had been turned upside down in the past twenty-four hours. She wanted things back to normal. “I think we should go back again.”

  There was a long pause during which the only sound was the scrape of the curry comb on Red’s flank, followed by the swish of the brush. At last Dallas said, “I don’t agree. The sooner you accept the fact you’re stuck here, Angel, the sooner you can start learning the things you need to know to survive on your own.”

  Angel contemplated arguing with Dallas, but decided it would be futile. His mind was made up. She was pretty sure he didn’t half believe her story. As far as he was concerned, they had already examined the one route to the past he had suggested might be available. Now he seemed intent on helping her adjust to life in the future.

  Angel wasn’t ready to give up so easily. She needed to be in San Antonio by the end of the week—or it would be too late. She had promised herself this trip. Not that whether she was there or not would make any real difference. What was going to happen would happen with or without her. But she wanted to be there. It was the least she owed Belinda.

  Dallas had given her no choice. She would have to go back to the cave on her own and give things a better, more thorough look. And she was going to have to steal Red to do it.

  She hesitated over taking Dallas’s horse—stealing horses was a hanging offense in 1864—but she didn’t think she had a viable alternative. Dallas’s lack of cooperation meant she was going to have to sneak away at night in order to return to the cave. She could never get there on foot before he caught up to her. On the other hand, if she took Red and left him ground-tied outside the cave, it would be more like borrowing than stealing.

  “I’d planned to take Red for a short ride before I fed him,” Dallas said, interrupting her thoughts. “I guess that’ll have to wait now.”

  “Why?”

  “I’d rather not leave you here alone for any length of time,” Dallas said.

  “Do you think Red would mind carrying double?”

  Dallas grinned. “I don’t think he’d mind at all.”

  Angel watched carefully to see where Dallas kept the saddle and bridle stored, and whether Red had any bad habits like biting or kicking that she ought to know about. To her relief the big sorrel horse turned out to be spirited, but good-natured.

  Once Dallas was in the saddle, he took his foot out of the stirrup and held out his hand to give Angel a lift up. At first she put her hands on either side of his waist to hold on. As he urged Red to a gallop, it made more sense to slip her arms around Dallas. Unfortunately that brought her breasts flush against his back. She was uncomfortably aware of his warmth, and a strange, tightening sensation that ran from the tips of her breasts down to her belly.

  At first she tried to ignore the feelings. When they persisted, she gave up and enjoyed them. She might as well make the most of the few moments they had together. She leaned her cheek against Dallas’s back and tightened her grasp across his washboard belly.

  Dallas was equally conscious of their close proximity and was cursing himself for having agreed to this folly. He loved having Angel’s arms around him, in fact, had been counting on it. The problem was he wanted more.

  In the past whenever Dallas had wanted a woman, he had chosen one who knew the score. They would enjoy some mutually agreeable physical satisfaction and then part ways. He specifically chose women he could walk away from, women who were as unwilling to commit themselves as he was. He stayed away from women whose hearts were vulnerable, women who were not on an equal footing with him.

  By his own standards Angel did not qualify as the sort of woman with whom he could have an affair. She was confused. She was vulnerable. And she was apparently inexperienced. Those were three strikes against her. Only he was having a little trouble putting her out of the game.

  “Where does that road go?
” Angel asked, pointing toward a blacktopped surface.

  “There’s a little town about three miles south. It’s got a bar, a food store and a gas station—just enough amenities to service the fishermen and weekenders who come tubing on the Frio River.”

  “What’s tubing?”

  “Folks take the rubber tube from inside a tractor tire and fill it up with air, then use it to sit in while they float down the river,” Dallas explained.

  “Why would they want to do that?”

  “Because it’s fun,” Dallas said. “In the summer the water’s cool and as crystal clear as—as it must have been in 1864. We’ll go sometime and you’ll see.”

  Angel didn’t answer him, because she planned to be long gone before she ever had a chance to experience something so frivolous. Didn’t people in this century have to work?

  “Would you like to stop in for a Coke?”

  “What’s a—”

  “A drink of something cold,” Dallas interrupted. “As if you didn’t know,” he added.

  Angel could tell he was upset with her. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t know what he was talking about.

  “Look, Angel,” Dallas said. “Don’t you think you’ve carried this farce about far enough? What are you hoping to gain by pretending to be from the past? It just doesn’t make any sense!”

  Dallas felt Angel stiffen behind him, then withdraw until only the tips of her fingers clung to his ribs. “Aw, hell! Why am I bothering? I ought to take you into San Antonio right now and—”

  “No! Please don’t.” Angel didn’t like the thought of asking for anything, but she couldn’t take the chance that Dallas would spirit her any farther from the cave than she already was. “I don’t expect you to believe me,” she said in a quiet voice. “It’s a little hard for me to accept myself. If you could just be patient with me, I’ll do my best not to be a burden to you.” In fact, I’ll be gone before midnight tonight.