Aware that he could be charming when the need arose, Vincent smiled nicely. “It’s my responsibility to give her the life she deserves. An education and a future.” His hand lifted from his lap and slashed the air with a derogatory gesture.
“What can Mr. Garvey offer her? A cowboy rounded up from a ranch? Or perhaps a farmer with dirt under his fingernails and straw in his hair?” And if he had his way, Mr. Garvey might yet meet his death, and thus neatly solve the whole problem.
The judge nodded, as if deep in thought. “I’ll consider your case very carefully, Mr. Preston. The hearing will be next month. It’s the soonest I can put it on my docket.”
Vincent stifled his impatience, nodding politely. “I understand.” His eyelids flickered as he met the judge’s implacable gaze. “You know I will be more than grateful if you see things in the light of—”
The judge nodded, speaking sharply. “I’ll certainly do what is best in this case.”
Chapter Fourteen
The sheriff rode a pure black gelding and apparently, Lin decided, thought his own getup should match the ebony of his mount. Dressed from head to toe in what surely resembled funeral garb, relieved only by the shining silver star decorating his vest, he stood before her. He peered past her through the screened door as though he sought out the presence of another.
His words verified her thoughts. “There a fella here called Jake Henderson?” he asked, his voice lending a dubious note to the name Nicholas had used in town.
“My husband,” Lin answered. “He’s out in the hay field, loading up the wagon.”
The sheriff grinned suddenly, relieving the dour expression he’d worn. “He wouldn’t by chance also be known as Nicholas Garvey, would he, ma’am?”
Lin hesitated. Cleary had said the sheriff in Benning was a friend. Yet, even a lawman could be bought, and she would put nothing past Vincent Preston.
“Ma’am?” the sheriff waited, a bit of impatience glittering from dark eyes. “I was told by Cleary that you were staying on his place. Then I got a message from the storekeeper that a stranger by the name of Henderson was in town, and I’ll tell you, ma’am—”
His hesitation was prolonged as one long finger rose to nudge his hat back a bit. “—I’m just a bit confused, here,” he finished dryly. “So far as I know, there ain’t any other new folks to these parts.”
“You’re truly a friend of Cleary’s?” Feeling as if she had stepped out onto a thin sheet of ice, Lin proposed the question, then held her breath for the reply.
“You could say that,” the sheriff answered. “We’ve worked together a time or two. My name’s Brace Caulfield.”
“My husband is in the hay field, Mr. Caulfield. Right where he’s been for the past two weeks,” Lin said. “And, yes, his name is Nicholas Garvey. He felt it a good idea not to bandy that fact around town. There are those who might come looking for us should our whereabouts be known.”
“That’s why I’m here,” the sheriff said. “I think there’s someone scouting out your location right now. Got a wire from Cleary this morning, and he said to offer my help, should you need it.”
“Cleary?” Lin held her breath. “Does someone know where we are? Is that what he said?”
“No, ma’am. Not exactly. But he did say that somebody out there was offering a nice reward, just waiting for the right person to come up with Nicholas Garvey.” His grin faded. “And that somebody doesn’t care whether he’s found dead or alive.”
“What can we do?” She heard the desperate edge in her voice and rued the quick panic that washed over her.
“Just lay low, I’d think. In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do to cover up your tracks.” He tilted his hat forward a bit, and his eyes were shadowed once more. “Right now, I’m going to ride out and round up your husband. I think we need to talk.”
The sun was hot against his back and the shirt clung there damply as Nicholas watched the rider approach. The man rode easily in the saddle, a dark figure atop a satanic looking creature, a horse who might conceivably be named for one of the demons of the netherworld.
“Whoa, Devil,” the visitor said, almost beneath his breath, and Nicholas could not hide the smile that curved his lips. He’d certainly pegged that right.
“You Nicholas Garvey?”
“I was the last time I looked in the mirror,” Nicholas answered quietly, his attention drawn to the silver star. Unless he missed his guess, this was the man Cleary had said would be his ally, should the need arise. He measured the man’s apparent height, gauged the width of broad shoulders, and noted the lean body that rode the black horse as if they were one and the same being.
A strong hand reached for his, and Nicholas wiped his palm against his pant leg before he offered it. “I’m Brace Caulfield.”
Nicholas nodded shortly. “Caulfield.” He’d have felt better had he known more about this lawman right from the start. But his departure had been too rushed for details to be given, too hurried for information to be exchanged. He’d been working in the dark for almost a month already. And to finally see something happening, be it good or bad, was a relief, he decided. And then, knowing that this visit was not accidental, that some event had precipitated it, he spoke.
“What’s happened?” he asked, leaning on his pitchfork.
Brace Caulfield glanced over Nicholas’s shoulder at the wagon, already filled with dried hay. “I see you’ve been busy,” he said. “Cleary oughta appreciate you tending to his chores for him.”
“It’s given me something to do, waiting for the hay to dry so I can put it in the barn.”
“Yeah, this business of farming’s a lot of hurry up and wait, I’ve found,” the sheriff said, tugging his hat lower to shade his eyes from the sun.
Nicholas was silent now, aware that the conversation was headed in another direction, willing to wait for the sheriff to define its path. He was not long in doing so.
“Cleary says there’s trouble afoot,” the lawman said bluntly. “There’s a price on your head, Garvey.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” And yet a small current of dismay troubled his mind as he considered what might take place. “There’s a man in New York who wants me out of the way.”
The lawman’s brow rose. “New York, you say? How’d he manage to track you all the way to Texas?”
“I didn’t try to hide my trail,” Nicholas said simply. “I left the city some time ago. Opened a bank in Collins Creek, and I’ve lived there ever since. At least up until a month ago.”
“What’s the big-city man’s problem?”
A man after his own heart, Nicholas decided. Short of words and right to the point. “I’ve got my niece with me. Vincent Preston wants her.”
“He got any rights in the matter?”
“None. The child’s mother was my half sister. She was awarded to me after the death of her parents a while back, and her nurse brought her to me.”
Caulfield slid from his horse and dropped the reins. The animal’s head bent to the ground, nosing at bits of hay. “Where’s the nurse now?” And then his features brightened. “That woman back at the house? Your wife?”
“My wife,” Nicholas said firmly. “She was Amanda’s nurse, and we were married a short while ago.”
“Right handy.”
He might have taken offense, Nicholas thought, but the remark was cheerfully spoken, with no hint of derision attached, and so he smiled his agreement. “You might say so.”
“She know how to handle a gun?”
Nicholas thought of the lesson he’d given behind the barn, recalling Lin’s sassy pride in her shooting ability. “Yes,” he said. “A shotgun, anyway.”
“That’s good enough.” And then the lawman took a different tack. “You got a dog, maybe?”
Nicholas shook his head. “Didn’t think I’d need one. I don’t know where I’d get one anyway.”
“I got a couple. Might be able to spare you one. Just a youngster, pret’near six month
s old now, but he’s yappy. He’ll make a good watchdog. I didn’t have the heart to give him away, but he’s thinkin’ strong thoughts about his litter mate, and I’m not ready to let her have pups. Not for a while yet, and certainly not from a dog so close in blood.”
“I’ll take you up on that,” Nicholas said. “When can I get him?”
“I left him with Faith Hudson on my way over here. I’ll stop by and tell her to deliver him when she gets a chance.”
“Faith?” And wasn’t that a strange thing to do, Nicholas thought.
“She’s a real lady,” the sheriff said quietly. “I kinda look out for her. I figured if you were a straight shooter, I’d leave you the dog. If not—” He shrugged idly and grinned. “Well, if you turned out to be a rascal, I wasn’t about to give you my pup. So Faith did me a favor today, and here I am.”
And that wasn’t something he was about to investigate, Nicholas decided quickly.
“Not what you’re thinking. She keeps up on my mending and writes letters for me. That sort of thing.”
“I wasn’t thinking anything derogatory about the lady,” Nicholas said, lying with a perfectly straight face. Although he hadn’t wanted to consider Faith in that light, he couldn’t say he would blame her, should she find the sheriff attractive. A woman alone had to look out for herself in any way she could.
“Need some help with the hay?” Brace asked.
“You know how to handle a pitchfork?” Nicholas asked in return, remembering the blisters he’d tended after long days spent using the scythe, then turning the hay over until it dried in the sun.
“I’ve been known to get blisters on my hands.”
“Well, you’re in good company then. Tie your horse on the back and hop on,” Nicholas offered, climbing to the wagon seat and lifting the reins. “I’ve got to unload this before dinner. Maybe you’d like to join us. My wife’s a good cook.”
“He doesn’t seem like a lawman, does he?” Lin ventured, looking toward the window where the trees outside were being whipped by a strong wind. She rose, walking across the room, and lowered the sash partway. “I think it’s going to rain by morning.”
“Do you know, I can see right through your nightgown when you stand in front of the light that way?” Nicholas asked. His voice held a lazy note, and his position matched it, both hands behind his head as he stretched out on the bed.
“See anything you like?” she asked nicely, turning in a slow circle.
“I’d like it better if I didn’t have to squint. You might take the thing off and make it easy on me.” He flashed her a smile. “If that moon goes behind a cloud I won’t be able to see much of anything.”
“The sky is full of them, over to the west,” she said, turning to approach the bed. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“About Brace? Or seeing something I liked? Or were you wondering if it’s going to rain?”
She pounced on him. “You know what I meant. The lawman. I already know it’s going to rain.” She thought a moment. “He was nice.”
“How nice?”
“Probably as nice as Faith. I wouldn’t call him pretty, of course. But he was most presentable.”
His hands gripped her waist and he rolled with her across the bed, pinning her to the mattress. “He was nice? And presentable? And what is that supposed to mean?”
She attempted a shrug, but his weight held her in place, and so she settled for a grimace. “Nothing, you idiot. I just said he was nice, and not bad looking.”
“And what am I?”
Her brow lifted and her head turned to the side, just a bit, as if she considered his question at length. “Only the most handsome man I’ve ever known,” she whispered quietly, when she’d made him suffer in silence for almost a full minute.
His grin was quick, his satisfaction apparent. “That’s more like it. I like a woman who knows which side her bread’s buttered on.”
“That’s me,” she said smartly, and then she sobered, lifting a hand to touch his cheek with a degree of tenderness that caused his heart to beat more rapidly.
“And I like a man who knows his own worth,” she told him. “Even if I have to repeat it every so often to pound it into your head, Nicholas. I love you more than life itself. I wasn’t playing word games when I told you how handsome you are. You look in the mirror every day, and surely your eyesight is adequate to take note of your striking good looks.”
He squirmed at her descriptive language. “I’m an ordinary man, Lin. Dark hair, blue eyes and decent features. Enough to get me by for over thirty years, anyway.”
“Enough to have half the women in New York City at your feet, had you chosen that route,” she said quietly. “Irene said you weren’t a ladies’ man, though. You lived a circumspect existence, escorting ladies on occasion, but maintaining a bachelor’s home, in a lifestyle above reproach.”
“She said all that?”
Lin nodded. “I told you she had a scrapbook filled with clippings and notes she’d taken on your comings and goings.”
He bent to touch her lips with a kiss that offered no passion, only tender warmth, seconded by his words. “Thank you. I’d like to have seen it, taken note of what she collected.”
“I have it in my trunk, back in Collins Creek,” she offered. “One day we’ll go over it together. I kept it for Amanda, to begin with. Then, when we came here, I brought it in hopes you might want to see it.”
“Are there pictures of Irene?” he asked.
Lin nodded. “A wedding picture, taken when she and Joseph spoke their vows.”
“And how about you?” he asked. “Do you have any mementos of your early life? Pictures of your family?” His fingers touched her hair, tangled in the waves, and held her fast for his kiss. It was brief, again brushing her lips as if he could not be long away from the sweetness she offered.
“I need no reminders of my childhood,” she said flatly.
“Your whole childhood was unhappy? Or just after your stepfather appeared?”
She hesitated but for a moment and then spoke quickly. “I’ve mentioned this before, but I probably never will again, Nicholas. When my mother married for the second time after my father died, I got a taste of what hell must surely be like.
“From the time I was but a girl, he expressed an interest in me. My mother denied it. I suppose it was easier for her that way. And perhaps that’s one reason why I felt so strongly about Vincent Preston not getting his hands on Amanda.”
He stiffened above her. “And why is that?”
“He has the same look.”
His words were deceptively quiet, for she felt the tensing of him above her. “And where is your mother’s husband now?”
Her hands touched him, flattening against his chest, as though she would reassure him. “They moved away, and I refused to go along.” And, for just a moment she felt the same hopeless feeling of loss as when her mother had walked away from her so carelessly on that day over ten years before.
“You never married, Lin. Why? Surely there were opportunities?”
“There was no one who interested me. Not until you.”
He kissed her again, and this time the heat of desire touched her with tendrils of warmth that penetrated into that empty place deep within. “I’m glad you waited for me.” Simply said, yet with unmistakable emphasis coating each syllable, his declaration touched her and she was lifted from her melancholy as if it might never have been.
“How could you have been so open with me? So ready to grant me…” His words were hesitant as he recalled her willingness to become his wife, that night when he had laid claim to her. Was it only weeks ago? Could he have learned to love so quickly?
“You never reminded me of my stepfather,” she said. “Not in any way, shape or form. You were always above-board and honest with me, even when you would have led me down the primrose path, Nicholas.”
A shaft of pain speared through him as he recalled the night he’d first offered for her c
ompanionship. “Will you ever forgive me for that?”
Her smile was quick. “Forgive? I was a bit flattered, to tell the truth. You were the most beautiful man I’d ever seen in my life, and for some unknown reason, you wanted me.”
“You were tempted, then?”
“You know very well I was,” she answered, pushing at his chest. “You bewitched me with your kisses and your flashing smile and sparkling eyes.”
“All of that?” His brow lifted, her words sweet in his ears.
She nodded. “All of that.” And then her hands clasped his face, drawing him to her, her mouth forming over his, her tongue beckoning him, leisurely stroking his lips. As he opened readily to her probing, she sighed.
“You don’t put up much of a fight, do you?”
His hands gripped her shoulders, lifting her a bit, her head falling back against the pillow to expose her slender throat to his gaze. He bent to it, tasting the sweet flavor of her skin, only too aware of his arousal that even now was making itself known, nudging impatiently against her belly.
His sigh was deep, as he accepted the pleasure she offered. Moving beneath him, she shifted a bit, lifting one knee, then the other, surrounding him with the warmth and scent of her womanhood. His eyes closed, his words a willing surrender.
“Why should I put up a fight? I’ve already lost the battle, sweetheart.”
The dog gave a first impression of friendly behavior. Arriving on top of the pale horse, draped over Faith Hudson’s lap, he rode with ease, as if it were an everyday event in his short life. White spots on a black coat gave him a dashing appearance, Lin thought as Faith handed him over to Nicholas.
And then he growled, a low sound, deep in his throat, his lip lifting at one corner with a snarl. A quick, single word was uttered in a no-nonsense fashion, solving that problem in short order. Nicholas was not one to step back from man nor beast, and one medium-size mutt of undetermined ancestry appeared to be a very small challenge.
He was lifted by his belly until he looked eye to eye into Nicholas’s penetrating gaze. There he hung, seeming baffled by the swift turn of events, as softly spoken yet firm words assured him of his position in the chain of command. Then he was deposited on the ground and Nicholas squatted in front of him.
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