Tempting a Texan

by Carolyn Davidson

  It seemed they would have this conversation whether he liked it or not, Nicholas decided. “Find out about her family,” he told Lin. “I’d like to know a little more about her. She seems to be genuine, but I’m afraid I’m looking for trouble in every corner.”

  “I got the feeling she lives alone.” Lin’s brows pulled together as she considered the idea. “She didn’t say so in so many words, but I just have an idea she’s on her own in the world.” Her brow unfurled and she relaxed. “I trust her, Nicholas. And I’m usually pretty good at sorting people out.”

  “Her living alone is odd.” Nicholas said. “A beautiful woman by herself, when the men in this area are hard put to find good wives hereabouts.”

  Lin’s mouth twitched and her eyes lit with warning, signs he’d learned to accept as a prelude to trouble, as if she formed her words carefully for the best possible effect. “A beautiful woman? You noticed that? A bridegroom for a mere two weeks and already you’re casting longing looks at another woman?”

  He growled, low in his throat, and his mouth descended again, this time to nuzzle against the tender skin of her throat. “The only woman who interests me is right here in this bed.” Her indrawn breath was the signal he hoped for and his hand swept to enclose the soft curve of her breast. “I’d like it better if you weren’t wearing this gown,” he muttered darkly.

  “Hmm…I’d say that’s easily solved,” she returned with a look he recognized. Lin had rapidly become a seductress of the very best sort, and he gloried in the joy she found beneath his touch. Now she sat upright, pushing aside his embrace as she lifted the gown over her head and dropped it to the floor. With a wisdom as old as Eve, she turned to him, offering herself.

  “I love you,” she whispered, and the lines of her face softened as she received his kiss and the tenderness of his embrace.

  Churning butter was a revelation. The cream they poured into the upright, wooden container bore little resemblance to the double handful of butter they removed a short while later, and Lin was exultant over the transformation. Faith showed her how to press it into a wooden bowl, causing the excess moisture to gather, using the flat paddle she’d brought with her to form the pale butter into a round that resembled Katie’s own finished product.

  “I feel so proud of myself,” Lin said gaily, holding the plate aloft as she admired her finished product.

  “You should only need to do this twice a week,” Faith told her. “That ought to do you for three or four days. The rest of the milk you can drink or use to cook with, but with the way that cow produces, I’m sure you’ll have lots left over.”

  “Can you use any?” Lin asked quickly. “Or do you have a cow?”

  Faith shook her head. “I’d be glad to buy some from you a couple of times a week. I used to come here to help with things,” she said. “The woman who lived here was sickly for a while and I milked her cow and lent a hand. In turn, they gave me milk and kept a good eye on my comings and goings.”

  “Well, you won’t be buying milk, or anything else from us,” Lin said firmly. “You’ll take what you need, and be welcome to it. I can’t say how much I appreciate what you’ve done for me.” She viewed the bread tins sitting in the warming oven. “I’ll warrant that will be a whole lot better than what I baked the other day.”

  “You have to knead it well,” Faith told her. “You’ve got the knack now.”

  “Will you stay for supper?” Lin asked. “Or would you rather get home before dark?”

  Faith shrugged. “I’ll stay. Riding at night is no problem. There’s nothing in the woods that frightens me.”

  “How far away is your place?” Lin asked reluctantly, fearful of being intrusive.

  “Maybe fifteen minutes from here, if I let the horse take her time.” She smiled knowingly. “I suspect you’d like to know where, wouldn’t you?”

  “You’ll think I’m being nosy.” Lin felt a blush steal across her cheeks as she made the admission. “I really wondered because Nicholas mentioned it. He wanted to know if you were alone in the world. I think he’s concerned about you.”

  “No need for that,” Faith said quietly. “I’m fine on my own. I’ve no one here. No husband. No children. Just me and my cat and a few chickens.” She opened the oven door and poked her hand inside, removing it quickly as if the heat threatened to burn her fingers. “That’s hot enough for the bread now,” she said.

  “How can you tell?” Lin asked, reaching for the three bread tins and placing them on the oven rack carefully.

  “If it feels hot enough to burn your flesh as soon as you stick your hand in, it’s ready to bake.” Faith shrugged. “You’ll learn soon enough.”

  Lin washed the bread pan and dried it, then hung it on the pantry wall. “How long have you lived alone?” she asked, pausing in the doorway as Faith settled in a chair before the table.

  “Nearly two years. I came from back East, found a place I could handle on my own and settled in.” The coffee cup she held was lifted to her lips and she looked up at Lin as she sipped the hot brew. “I’m glad to have neighbors again. The woman who lived here before you was kind to me, and her husband didn’t mind my using the empty cabin.”

  “I’m glad,” Lin told her. “I hope we can be friends, too.”

  Faith grinned widely. “Aren’t we already?”

  “Where in the woods?” Nicholas asked as they watched their visitor ride into the night. The moon provided light while Faith crossed the pasture and meadow beyond, and then she disappeared among the trees, fading into the depths like a pale shadow atop her golden horse.

  “She didn’t say,” Lin answered. “I’m not certain she wanted us to know.”

  “She’s somewhat of a mystery, I’d say. I’d sure like to know where she got that mare,” Nicholas said. “That color’s rare, you know. I read about a herd of them owned by one of the Indian chiefs a few years back, but they’re harder than hell to breed. You never know what color you’ll come up with, from what I’ve heard. One fella said a sorrel stud works best.”

  “Her mare’s beautiful,” Lin agreed, and cast him a sidelong glance. “Almost as beautiful as its owner.”

  Nicholas groaned. “I’ll never hear the end of that, will I?”

  Lin turned into his embrace and they laughed softly together. From the kitchen behind them Amanda called out. “Are you comin’ in now? I’m ready for my story, Linnie.” She appeared inside the doorway, garbed in her nightgown, book in hand. “It’s dark out. Will Faith be all right all by herself?”

  “She’s fine,” Lin assured her, backing from Nicholas and offering her hand to the child. “Let’s sit at the table and read tonight. The light is better than using a candle in your bedroom.” She lifted the child in her arms as she sat and held her close, opening the book to the first page.

  Nicholas sat across the table, leaning back in his chair, and Lin was aware of his watchfulness and the attention he shed on both woman and child. The sense of family, of belonging together, was strong as she read from a collection of verses Amanda was familiar with. The child’s whisper accompanied Lin’s reading, and when the next page was turned, Lin halted her reading to look down at the small, relaxed figure in her lap.

  “Why don’t you read this verse?” she asked, pointing to an illustration of a child in a swing.

  “I can’t read what it says,” Amanda said. “You know those words are too hard for me, Linnie.”

  “I’ll bet you know them already. Why don’t I put my finger on every word and you recite the poem. It’s the one that begins—”

  “I know! I know!” Amanda said, lifting her hand to touch Lin’s lips, silencing her effectively. “It starts out, ‘How would you like to go up in the air?’ doesn’t it?”

  “See,” Lin said, chuckling at the child’s quick response. “I knew you could tell what the words are. Let’s try it together.”

  “I can do it,” Amanda said proudly, her index finger already pointing at the words on the page.
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br />   That she sped ahead, her finger lagging several words behind, was not important, Lin decided, even though she captured the tiny digit and helped the girl keep pace. The whole idea was to expose Amanda to the idea of sounds and words belonging together.

  When bedtime had been celebrated with a song and prayers and Amanda was tucked between the covers, Nicholas led Lin from the child’s bedroom and back to the kitchen. “She’s either very bright or you’re a good teacher,” he said as Lin poured two cups of coffee.

  “I’d like to think I have a knack for it,” Lin said, “but I can’t deny that she’s advanced for a child her age.” She settled across the table from him. “She’s already memorized a good number of the poems in that book.”

  “How long have you been reading them to her?” he asked.

  “Since the first day she sat on my lap.” Lin smiled in memory. “I love Robert Louis Stevenson’s work. He knew the mind of a child so well.”

  “So do you,” Nicholas told her. “At least this child. You’re a wonderful mother for her.”

  “I’ve wished more than once that she were my own,” Lin confessed quietly. “I couldn’t love her more if she’d been born from my body.”

  “Well, she is your own now.” Nicholas picked up his cup and looked at her over the rim. “And one day, we’ll give her brothers and sisters.”

  Lin looked up quickly. “Do you want a large family?”

  “As many as we can take care of,” he said firmly. “We can afford it, Lin. And I think we ought to be thinking about it while we’re still young enough to raise them to adulthood and see our grandchildren born.”

  “I haven’t looked that far ahead,” she admitted, and a smile flashed as she met his gaze. “It pleases me that you have.”

  “Let’s go to bed,” he said, tilting his cup to swallow the last drops. “We’ve got a full day tomorrow. Are you planning on washing clothes again? Or shall we take a ride to town in the wagon?”

  “A ride to town?” she asked, excitement rising as she thought of walking through a general store, perhaps finding a piece of oilcloth for the kitchen table.

  Nicholas lifted a brow as he shot her a look of surprise. “You’d think I’d just offered a trip to New York City.”

  “New York City doesn’t interest me,” she told him, watching as he lifted the globe on the lamp over the table and blew out the flame, leaving them in darkness, except for the faint gleam of starlight that shone through the windows.

  “It doesn’t? Well I’m glad to hear that. I don’t have any immediate plans to go there myself.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  New York City

  “They’ve vanished. No one seems to know where they are, and I’ve had a search put into place everywhere within ten miles of Collins Creek.”

  Vincent Preston’s eyes were flat, radiating cold anger in the direction of his visitor. “You told me your men were the best.”

  “The best available,” the gentleman said agreeably. “I warned you the last time that we were dealing with men who could hold their own in any company. Sheriff Cleary is capable of running a town the size of Dallas, maybe even New York. Why the man has chosen to hide out in the two-bit village of Collins Creek is beyond me.”

  “Can he be bought?”

  Vincent’s visitor shook his head, a definite denial of the suggestion. “He’s top-notch, Mr. Preston. A lawman above reproach, and there’ll be no bribery taking place within the boundaries of his jurisdiction. We’re going to have to look further afield for our targets.”

  “Do you have any more ideas to suggest?” Vincent asked, his voice impatient.

  “I’m working on it. I’ve sent wires to several of my associates in towns within a fifty-mile radius of Nicholas Garvey’s home, asking them to check into any new residents of the area. That may get some results. They’ve obviously gone into hiding, but I can’t imagine they’d go any farther than that from the bank. Garvey’s too good at what he does to leave someone else in charge for an indefinite period of time.”

  “How do you know that?” Vincent’s interest swung in a new direction, and he leaned back in his chair. “What else about the man is common knowledge?”

  “You knew he was from here in the city,” the visitor said. “He’s had his finger in a dozen different pies over the past years. Inherited money from his benefactor and invested it well. I have no idea why he chose to live in Collins Creek, Texas. He could be a millionaire in New York if he’d chosen to remain here.”

  “Dig into his background,” Vincent said abruptly. “We may be facing the man in court before we’re done, and I need to have all the ammunition I can find when that time comes. If there are secrets I can use, I want them ferreted out.”

  “I’ll put someone on it right away. And in the meantime, I’ll wire my associates in Texas to keep an eye out for our man.”

  Benning, Texas

  “You’re new in town, ain’t ya?” The storekeeper greeted Nicholas with a friendly gesture, hand outstretched in welcome.

  “Yes, we’ve just moved into the area. I’m Jake Henderson and this is my wife, Amelia.”

  Lin smiled, not at all surprised at Nicholas’s ability to provide new names for them on such short notice. “I need a few things,” she told the man behind the counter. “A length of oilcloth for the kitchen table and—” she consulted her list “—a slab of bacon, some flour and coffee.”

  “Well, you’re in luck. Fella just outside of town brought in a couple slabs of bacon yesterday. We can fix you up in no time,” the man said, turning to scan the shelf behind him. “Twenty-five pounds of flour enough?”

  “Yes, and three pounds of coffee,” Lin said. “I’ll look at the oilcloth while you weigh it out for me.” She strolled to a rack, where a dozen patterns of the useful fabric hung in rolls and pulled out one, then another, to examine the flowered surfaces.

  “I believe I like this one,” she told the man, unrolling a six-foot length and examining it.

  “About two yards?” he asked, lifting it to the counter and measuring as he spoke. At her nod of agreement, he took a long-bladed pair of scissors and cut the length to measure, folded it and placed it next to the packages he’d made ready. “Will that do it?”

  “Some penny candy for our daughter,” Nicholas said. “An assortment. Twenty-five cents worth should do it.”

  “Where is she?” the storekeeper asked, looking around the large room.

  “On the wagon, out front,” Lin replied. She turned to Nicholas. “I’ll go on out. You can bring the purchases.”

  “You folks must be about settled by now?” the man said casually as Lin opened the door to leave.

  “Just about,” she heard Nicholas say as she pulled the door shut behind herself.

  She stood by the wagon, nodding at passersby and listening to Amanda’s chatter with half an ear. The little girl sat on a pile of hay, holding her kitten, absorbed in the wagons and horsemen who rode by, her eyes taking in the sights as if she’d been isolated for months instead of a mere week or so.

  “It’s fun going to town, Linnie,” she said brightly. “My kitty likes it, too.”

  “Just make sure you hang on tight to her,” Lin warned. “I’m not about to go chasing after a kitten if she runs off. We probably should have left her at home.”

  “She needed to go for a ride,” Amanda said. “Just like me.” She glanced toward the door where Nicholas had just made his appearance, the shopkeeper behind him, bearing the side of bacon. “Do you think Uncle Nicholas got me some candy?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Lin told her, her gaze intent on Nicholas’s face.

  The cloth-wrapped bacon was placed in the rear of the wagon and, with a wave and a look that took in every detail of the wagon and Nicholas’s family, the storekeeper went back into the store.

  “Everything all right?” Lin asked in an undertone.

  Nicholas grinned, as if he had not a care in the world, but his words were cautious
. “Let’s get on our way. I don’t feel safe here.”

  The wagon was untied and Lin lifted to the seat in moments. Nicholas turned it around and headed for home.

  Lin felt a pang of disappointment at his words. It seemed they would be marooned for a longer time than she’d expected, and the isolation she already felt would be magnified. “Do you think—”

  Nicholas shook his head in warning, glancing back at Amanda. “We’ll talk about it later, sweetheart. I just don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  Yet, the child didn’t appear to share his apprehension. Her soft whispers to her kitten and the song she whispered beneath her breath gave assurance to Lin that Amanda was pleasantly occupied, no matter the fears of her uncle. Lin settled beside Nicholas, unwilling to distract from his constant surveillance of the surrounding countryside, only resting her hand against his thigh, seeking to give him assurance.

  With a sigh, Amanda shifted on the wagon bed, and alerted by the rustle of her movements, Lin glanced over her shoulder to find the kitten curled up against Amanda’s tummy, the child’s eyes closed in slumber.

  “She’s asleep,” Lin said, looking ahead to where the northward road could be seen off to their right. “We’re almost at the place where the woods begins, aren’t we?”

  “Yeah,” Nicholas agreed. “Just to the northeast from here is where I suspect your new friend lives.”

  “In the middle of the woods?”

  “Cleary said there was a small clearing on the east side of his property where a fella had built a one-room place, and then moved on. It’s a part of the property, but no one else ever claimed it. I’ll lay odds that that’s where Faith Hudson is living.”

  “I’m surprised Cleary didn’t know about her. You’d think the last owners of his place would have told him she was there, especially if she’s living on his land.”

  “They may have and he just didn’t mention it. I doubt anyone cares if she squats in the shack or not. She’s not hurting anything or taking advantage of anyone.”