"I'm not your man, Harwood. I'll be leaving Texas."
"Is that right? I thought you'd be sticking around."
"I'm getting out of here as fast as I can." Gabe smiled slightly. "Thank you for what you did for me out there. I'd be dead if it weren't for you. I find myself in your debt."
"Think nothing of it. All in the line of duty." Harwood rose from the chair and walked to the door. "I kind of thought you'd be staying around here for a certain young lady."
"I can't see why you'd think that."
"Well, I tried to get you to join us. If you change your mind, the Rangers could always use you." He turned with his hand on the doorknob. "By the way, Mr. Murdock has been tearing the town up looking for you. Unless I miss my guess, he'll be coming up those stairs anytime. He's a very persistent man."
"Good-bye, Harwood."
When the door closed, Gabe lay back and stared at the ceiling. What was Casey doing at that very moment?
He had not meant to see her when he'd delivered the pup for Jenny. But when he touched her, his resolve went right out the window, just as it always did. He couldn't be anywhere near her and not want to touch her.
Gabe closed his eyes, remembering the feel of her soft skin. His body tightened, and he swore under his breath.
He had to let her go.
Since he'd been camping out on the Spanish Spur, he hadn't slept in a bed for a long time. He shifted his weight, trying to find a comfortable position. He was weary, and he just wanted to sleep and forget about the last two weeks.
Tomorrow he would sell his horse and saddle at the livery stable and take the noon stage for Arizona.
At first Gabe thought he was dreaming the loud noise that pounded in his ears, sounding like gunshots. The old nightmare had returned. In his dream he was trying to get to Nora and prevent her from shooting herself. But the banging noise wouldn't go away.
He sat up, staring into the dark, his body covered with sweat. The banging persisted, and he realized someone was knocking on the door. He grabbed the towel that hung on the wrought-iron headboard and dabbed the sweat from his face.
Rolling off the bed, he wrenched the door open to find Bart Murdock standing in the hallway.
"I was afraid you'd already left town when you didn't answer my knock right away."
Gabe planted himself in the doorway, not issu ing an invitation for the attorney to enter. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
Murdock brushed past Gabe, clutching a brown leather satchel to his chest. "I don't care what time it is. It's critical that I speak with you."
"If you came here thinking you could convince me to go to court to try to gain title to my father's estate, you're talking to the wrong man. I don't give a damn about Casa Mesa or any of Cyrus's other holdings."
The attorney settled in a chair and dabbed his face with a snow-white handkerchief before opening his satchel and thumbing through it.
"What I have to tell you won't take very long. When I'm finished, then you can have your say."
Gabe pushed his tumbled hair out of his face, glad that Murdock had woken him from the nightmare. But he didn't want to talk about Cyrus. Not tonight, not ever.
"I see I'm not going to get any sleep until you've said all you came to say." He swept his hand toward the attorney. "Go ahead, tell me what's on your mind."
"The document I have here," he said, studying a single sheet of paper, "was drawn up at your father's request when he came to see me just the day before his death. Cyrus had me take down his words exactly as he said them. Then he insisted that the document be filed at once. Looking back to that day, I think he knew something was going to happen to him."
"I buried Cyrus today; I don't want to hear anything he had to say that concerns me."
"Gabriel," the attorney said in an imposing tone of voice. "Sit down and shut up until I've had my say; then you can have yours."
Gabriel grinned and sat back on the bed. "Go ahead."
"Now," Murdock began, studying the document. "It's not very lengthy as wills go." He cleared his throat. "These are Cyrus Slaughter's words: `I, Cyrus Slaughter, being of sound mind and body, do hereby bequeath all my lands, holdings, titles, money, and all thereupon to my only son, Gabriel Slaughter, and his heirs. There will be no bequest to any other living person.'"
Gabe stared at Murdock as if he'd lost his mind. A dark hand - seemed to settle on his shoulder, weighing him down. "Cyrus wouldn't leave me a damned thing."
"I can assure you he has left you everything. After I drew up this document, he insisted that we go directly to the courthouse where judge Whitney notarized it, and Dave Hargrove and two other men witnessed it."
Gabe was stunned. He couldn't find his voice for a moment. When he did speak, his tone was grave. "Why would Cyrus do such a thing? I never expected him to leave the..." He stood up. "No. I can't do this. I won't."
"I'm not quite finished, Gabriel. There is a per sonal message from Cyrus. Do you want to hear it?"
"No," he said gravely. Then, "Yes."
"Cyrus wrote this down in his own hand, so bear with me as I try to read it. Or perhaps you'd like to read it yourself?"
Gabe looked at the sheet of paper clutched in Murdock's hand, still reluctant to hear anything his father had to say to him. "No. You read it."
"It says here, `Gabriel, my son, I leave you everything I own, wondering if you will walk away from it or take what by birth belongs to you. Sometimes this much money and power corrupts a man's mind. But I'm betting it won't corrupt you. And I'm hoping you won't walk away from what rightfully belongs to you.'"
Gabe was not even tempted. "I don't want any part of it..
"He didn't even sign it. As your attorney-"
"I don't have an attorney."
"As your attorney, I feel it necessary to advise you that you have just been given responsibility for the welfare and well-being of over a hundred people who work at various positions on Casa Mesa and other holdings that belonged to your father. Many of the folks on the ranch were born there and have lived there all their lives, like Juanita, the cook, her husband, Carlos, and their seven children."
"Enough." Gabe groaned, remembering how the Casa Mesa cowhands had convinced Fletcher to find out if they still had a job.
"You can't walk away from this, son. Your father was worth"-he glanced at another paper-"in the vicinity of seven million dollars. And that doesn't even include the land, cattle, horses, and houses."
"When the stage leaves for Arizona in a few hours, I will be on it."
"Stay and make Casa Mesa a place to be proud of. Make it into the kind of ranch you would one day want to leave to your son. The land isn't tainted. It was only your father's way of thinking and doing business that were corrupt."
Gabe stared at Murdock. His son? That thought rocked him like a heavy fist slamming into him. He wanted nothing more than to see Casey's stomach swollen with his child.
He wanted that more than he wanted his father's money and all his land.
"If I stay-and I'm not saying I will-there will be many changes made at Casa Mesa. I would want the land my father took by force to be returned to the rightful owners, or if they still want to sell, I'd want them to get a fair price for it. You would have to agree to manage that undertaking, or I will walk away."
Murdock grinned, knowing he had won. "I believe I can be of assistance to you in that matter, Gabriel."
When Gabe rode up to Casa Mesa, he hardly noticed that the rainstorm of the night before had moved off, leaving the air crisp and clear. Reluctance twisted inside him as he looked toward the house. He dismounted and waited for Murdock to do the same.
Before he could reach the step leading to the porch, he was approached by some of the hands who worked for the ranch. He noticed that Teague's friends, Richard Bates and Charley Latter, were not among them. He assumed they must have left quickly when they heard he was the new owner of the ranch.
Fletcher stepped forward, once more becoming th
e spokesman for the others. "We're glad you're here, Mr. Slaughter. I guess we're all wondering what you want us to do."
"Fletcher, first of all, I have always been Gabe to you, and I don't expect that to change." He allowed his gaze to move over each face. "Starting tomorrow, I'll want to speak to each of you in private so I can tell you what I expect out of you and find out what your job is. I don't know most of you, so I'll expect you to tell me about yourselves. You will find that I do things differently than my father did. There will be changes. If any of you can't live with that, you need to ride for another brand."
There was nodding and muttering as the men spoke among themselves, but none of them left. And they soon moved away to begin their appointed tasks.
"Fletcher," Gabe called after the man. "I'll need to speak to you later on today. There are some things I need you to do for me concerning the Hamilton family."
Fletcher nodded his head and squared his hat across his forehead. "Sure, Gabe. You'll find me in the barn when you need me."
Gabe turned back to the attorney, dreading the moment he had to enter that house. "Let's get this over with."
The door swung open, and Juanita smiled in welcome. "Do you remember me, Senor Gabe?"
"Of course I do, Juanita. I never forget a friend."
Her smile widened. "I was so happy to see you return." She looked almost shy. "I would be honored to present my seven children to you, Senor Gabe."
"I would like that very much." He thought there could be nothing better to chase the bad memories of this house away than the sight of children.
Juanita walked to the door and called for them to come in. There was a shuffling of feet as seven young boys rushed in, stumbling over each other into the room. Juanita scolded them with a stern look. One of the boys received a particularly long stare. He blinked his eyes as if trying to think what he had done wrong, then quickly reached up and snatched his hat off his head, looking somewhat sheepish.
"I would like you to meet first our oldest son, Ignacio," she said proudly. "Then there is Rafael, Juan, Manuel, Eduardo, Roberto, and Javier." She nodded at her sons. "Say hello to the patron," she told them, tapping her foot.
Seven voices spoke at once, and Gabe smiled back at them. "You have every right to be proud, Juanita." He looked into seven pairs of dark eyes. "But no daughter?"
Juanita patted her stomach. "I have hopes that this one will be a girl so she can help me with the housework." She shooed all the children toward the door and followed them out.
"That is one of the reasons I honored my father's bequest," Gabe told the attorney.
Murdock was already assessing the room. "You said you wanted all the furnishings removed." He shook his head. "There are some very well known paintings here, and the furniture will be difficult to replace. There are some very fine pieces."
"I want every stick of furniture, every painting, every book and table gone. I want those sofas out of here today and everything in the study as well. I want nothing left to remind me that Cyrus ever lived here."
Murdock nodded. Gabe had his own way of getting rid of the past, and if it meant getting everything out of this house, then that was the way it would be.
"I understand they are building a new orphanage in El Paso. The committee is asking around for donations. I'm sure they could use most of the things here."
Gabe stared down the hallway toward his father's study. "Then give it to them."
"What about your father's private papers?"
"You take charge of them. If there is something in them that I need to know, you can draw it to my attention."
Murdock was already moving through the room, making notations as he went.
The noon meal had been placed on the table, and Jenny was scooping her soup into her mouth with a slurping sound.
"Jenny, remember your manners," Casey reminded her. "Food should never be heard."
"When I crunch hard candy, you can hear it," Jenny reasoned.
"Yes, but that isn't a sound you make; it's the candy."
Sam had noticed that Casey rarely ever laughed anymore, and he knew she was missing Gabe. He missed him, too, and so did jenny.
Jenny slid off her chair and placed her napkin beside her plate. "I'm going to see Miss Kate."
"Tell her we are expecting her for dinner," Casey reminded her.
Sam took a sip of milk as he watched his sister over the rim of the glass. "There is something I haven't told you, Casey, and I feel real bad about it."
"What have you done, Sam?"
"On that second night when you were suffering from your concussion, Gabe came to the house."
"Did he? I don't remember that." She did remember the next morning, when she had said all those horrid things to him.
"That's because you were asleep. Gabe wouldn't go away until he saw for himself that you were all right. I couldn't keep him out."
"I see."
"He stood over you, and I saw something soft when he looked at you. I asked him if he loved you, and he didn't answer, but I saw it in his eyes-I couldn't be wrong about that, Casey."
Casey glanced up. "I do believe he loves me, but not enough to stay so we can make a life together."
"Maybe he'll be back."
She studied her uneaten bowl of soup. "I don't think so, Sam. He told me he was leaving Texas for good."
"Omous and Flint came by this morning. They asked if they could have their jobs back."
Casey blinked her eyes. "What?"
.They said they want to work for us."
Casey stared at her brother long and hard. She had encouraged him to make some of the decisions, and apparently he had. "So you hired them?"
"I was going to ask you, but I was afraid you'd say no."
"I'm glad they are working for us again, Sam."
"Fletcher's back, too."
She shook her head, and her eyes widened. "He is? What I don't understand is why any of them would want to work for us after we dismissed them so unfairly."
"I feel real bad about that, but they don't seem to hold a grudge. I have the strange notion that Gabe asked them to help us out before he left."
She paused with her spoon halfway to her mouth. "Kind of looking out for us even though he's gone?"
"That's the way I see it."
"Finish your soup, Sam. We have to move those bales of hay into the loft this afternoon."
The dust cloud rising from the herd of cattle being driven onto the Spanish Spur struck no fear in Casey's heart. Fletcher had brought word that the new owner of Casa Mesa had discovered three hundred head of Spanish Spur cattle that had been mingled with his own. Today they were being herded home.
Sam had ridden out to meet them, and he came back smiling. "Casey, we now have enough cattle to drive to the railhead! Also, three of Slaughter's hands asked if they could work for us. With them, we have more than enough hands to get the job done."
She felt her heart lighten. They had lived under the dark cloud of fear and indecision for so long, it was difficult to grasp the fact that the bad times might be behind them now.
"Who is the new owner?"
"They didn't say, and I didn't ask. But Fletcher said he sent a message to you, and that I was to get it just right." Sam looked puzzled. "His boss said to tell you he was partial to apple pie, if you were interested."
Casey's hand went to her mouth, and her heart thudded inside her.
Could it be Gabe?
It had to be him! No one else would have sent her such a cryptic message. What did it mean?
"Sam," she said, tears clinging to her lashes. "I am going to make an apple pie, and I want you to take it to the boss of Casa Mesa today."
Later in the day, when Sam delivered the apple pie, he was told that the owner was away. When he asked who now owned the ranch, the housekeeper smilingly told him it was Senor Gabriel Slaughter.
The next day passed; then another day wore away, and still Gabe did not come. Fletcher and the rest of the hands had
rounded up the cattle and were preparing to drive them to the railhead in a few days.
Life at the ranch went on just as before, but Casey was waiting... waiting. It took all her fortitude not to ride over to Casa Mesa and see Gabe for herself. But she must not do that. He must come to her this time.
Doubts plagued her mind. Had she been mistaken and read too much into the message Gabe had sent her?
The third day passed and still there was no word from him, and her doubts multiplied.
Sam had gone to bed early, and Jenny had been sleepy when she had tucked her in right after dinner.
Casey had just dried the last dish when she heard a light tap on the door behind her.
With hope in her heart, she spun around, and he was there!
"Gabe."
He balanced her empty pie pan in his hand. "May I come in?"
She opened the door, and he handed her the pan. "I ate every bite myself."
"I've been waiting for you, Gabe."
"I wasn't sure." He reached for her hand, and she moved toward him. "I hoped you would want to see me."
"I wronged you, Gabe. And I wanted to say again how sorry I am that I didn't trust you."
He pulled her closer. "Is that the only reason you wanted to see me?"
She moved just the smallest bit, bringing her head to his chest. "No. I also wanted to thank you for sending our cattle back to us."
"Is that all?"
She raised her face to him. "I said it before, Gabe. Are you going to make me say it again?"
"I want to hear it again."
In his own way he was making her pay penance for not believing in him, although she doubted he even realized it himself. She was willing to pay his price. "I love you. I never stopped loving you for a moment, not even when I thought you had betrayed me, Gabe."
His hand rubbed up and down her arm as he absorbed the sweetest words he had ever heard.
"I have needed to hold you like this. You must know how much I want you."
She nodded. "Want and need, I do understand those feelings. But I still need something more from you."
Heart Of Texas (Historical Romance) Page 19
