Texas Pride: Night Riders (7 page)

She didn’t understand that. Ivan hadn’t said or done anything to give rise to such a feeling. Why should a few polite gestures have this effect on her? Everything weighed against him, so why did she feel his touch was the first to reach beyond the surface of her skin?

“Would you do something for me, and for you, too?” he asked.

“What?” she asked, trying not to sound as breathless as she felt.

“Go with me to see Lukey Gordon.”

The ranch. Of course. She couldn’t forget for one second what Ivan was really after. “Why would I do that?”

“We need to be clear that my claim to half of your ranch is valid.”

“I’ve already told you Laveau cheated.”

“You said no one knows how he did it.”

“He also used undue influence to get my brother drunk. I intend to ask the judge to cancel the wager.”

“Just because your brother had something to drink?”

“Danny is only seventeen, too young to make a binding wager of such magnitude.”

“You have a right to take your case to a judge. But until then, I want it clear that I have a valid claim.”

Carla had no desire to have Lukey tell her again that Danny had lost his share of the ranch. Nor did she have any desire to be seen walking through town with Ivan. There would be rumors before noon that she found a new romantic interest. “Okay, but I don’t have much time before I have to meet Beth and her father for lunch.”

“This will not take long.”

Nor did it. Ivan had a document which stated clearly that he was to manage the property for Laveau diViere for one year, and that at the end of that year he would receive title to the property as compensation for his custodianship. It contained all the proper signatures and dates.

“This contract is legal and binding,” Lukey told Ivan. “However, a question remains as to whether the card game can be accepted as a legal and binding agreement. You should understand Miss Reece intends to place the case before the circuit judge when he comes to Overlin.”

“That could be weeks, even months,” Ivan pointed out. “Until then, Miss Reece and her brother should divide the ranch in half. If they do not want to do that, then I should be included in decisions affecting the whole ranch.”

Carla didn’t know how it was possible for a man to make such brutal demands and still look like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. What did they teach people in Poland? “Do I have to?” she asked Lukey.

“You don’t
have
to do anything, but if you don’t, Mr. Nikolai may ask the sheriff to force you. And it would look better to the judge if you at least
try
to compromise.”

Carla was about to explode with impotent rage. Rather than say something that she would later regret, she rose to her feet. “I promised to meet Kesney and his daughter for lunch. If I don’t leave now, I’ll be late. I won’t divide the ranch, but I will agree to allow Mr. Nikolai a voice in any decisions Danny and I make. Will that satisfy you?” she asked Ivan.

There was that damned smile again. It either made her want to slap him or kiss him. Just the thought of the latter caused her to think she must be losing her mind.

“It is a good beginning.”

She didn’t want to know what he meant by that, so she said good-bye to Lukey. Before she could leave his office, Ivan asked, “When will you be ready to go back to the ranch?”

She had been hoping she could think of a way to avoid riding back with him, but it looked like she was out of luck. “In about an hour.”

“Where should I meet you?”

“How about meeting here?” Lukey offered.

“Thank you.” At least she would be spared waiting for Ivan on the street.

***

“I was telling Papa about meeting you and that nice man on the way into town,” Beth said as soon as Carla was seated at the table. “Do you know where he went?”

“He had several things to do.”

“Will he be at the dance?”

“Beth hasn’t stopped talking about the dance ever since I mentioned it,” Kesney said. “You’d think she’d never been to one before.”

“I’ve never been to a dance in Texas.” Beth made a face. “The ones back home were so boring.” She brightened. “Papa says here I can dance with anyone who asks me. Back home anyone who wanted to dance with me had to put his name on my dance card. If my chaperone didn’t approve of him, she wouldn’t let him sign the card.”

Carla had never been told who she could and couldn’t dance with. Her parents had given her credit for having enough sense to choose her own partners. Since their deaths, she sometimes fell afoul of the scrutiny of matrons like Myrtle and Sadie, but she didn’t let their censure affect her. As an independent ranch owner, she considered herself on a par with anyone in town, even if they didn’t return her esteem.

“Not every man is a good choice, even for a dance partner, but most of the time there’s no problem as long as you stay on the dance floor.”

“She won’t have any trouble while I’m around,” Kesney said. “Now how about some lunch? I can hear my stomach growling.”

Carla was still too agitated to be hungry. She listened to Beth attempt to talk her father into letting her try some of the hottest dishes on the menu.

“You can’t have jalapeno chilies until you get used to some that aren’t so hot,” Kesney told his daughter. “I don’t want you drinking so much water you get sick.”

Giving in to Kesney’s insistence that she eat something, Carla ordered chicken salad. Beth opened her mouth to say something—from her expression she intended to protest against such a tame choice—but ended up uttering a sound similar to that of someone choking.

“Are you all right?” her father asked.

“There he is.”

“There who is?” Kesney wanted to know.

“That man with the strange name Carla said was from some foreign country”

Carla turned to see that Ivan had entered the restaurant. She should have guessed that in a town as small as Overlin there was a good chance they’d end up in the same restaurant. She wanted to hide under the table until he found a place to sit, but it was too late. Beth was waving at him, drawing his attention.

“He’s the one who fixed my wagon when the wheel came off,” she told her father. “May I invite him to eat with us?”

Ivan recognized Beth at the same moment she spotted him. Despite her frantic beckoning and broad grin making it clear she wanted him to join them, he smiled and nodded in her direction before resuming his search for an empty table. He didn’t have to be a mind reader to know Carla was cringing at the possibility. Her posture was rigid, and she didn’t look in his direction. He barely settled into his chair at an empty table in a corner when Beth came running up.

“Come eat with us. We have plenty of room at our table.”

“It will be an intrusion.”

“I told my father all about you. He wants to meet you.”

“I can meet him after your meal.”

“He wants to meet you now. He said he didn’t get a chance to thank you properly this morning. He sent me to get you.”

From what Ivan saw, Beth didn’t take time to speak to her father before she bounded out of her chair and came over to where he was sitting, but it was apparent from her father’s expression that he was in agreement with his daughter. Ivan intentionally stayed talking to Lukey for several minutes to give Carla a head start so they wouldn’t run into each other. Giving in to Beth would undo both their plans, but he didn’t see a polite way to get out of it. Bowing to the inevitable, he got up. “I will stay only a minute.”

Beth took him by the hand, apparently fearing he would get away if she didn’t. “I want you to have lunch with us. You and Carla are my best friends here.”

Ivan had a sinking feeling Beth had more than
friendship
in mind, but he was certain her father had no intention of letting his daughter develop an attachment to a penniless foreigner. Kesney stood to greet Ivan with a broad, welcoming smile.

“I didn’t have a chance earlier to thank you properly for rescuing my daughter.” His handshake was firm, his smile relaxed and genuine. “She should have waited for me to bring her to town.” He smiled fondly at his daughter. “The little puss is too strong-minded for her own good.”

“How was I to know your buggy was falling apart?” Beth countered. “Why didn’t you tell me the wheel was about to come off?”

“I didn’t know,” her father replied. “I always ride.”

“If
I
could ride, it wouldn’t matter if both wheels were ready to fall off.”

“I knew this would somehow end up being my fault.” From the look Kesney gave his daughter, Ivan guessed she could do no wrong in his eyes. “Won’t you join us? A lunch is the least I can do to thank you.”

“That is not necessary,” Ivan protested. “I would do the same for any young woman.”

“I’m sure you would,” Kesney said, “but you did it for my daughter, and I would like to express my thanks.”

Ivan cast a quick glance at Carla. She still hadn’t looked at him. “You already have a guest.”

“You don’t mind, do you, Carla?”

“Of course not.” If Kesney hadn’t been so preoccupied with his daughter or had been more perceptive, he might have seen it took all of Carla’s self-control to pretend to be welcoming. But after her smiling acceptance, there was nothing Ivan could do but accept the invitation graciously. The only chair available was between Beth and Carla. Ivan took it reluctantly.

“How did your morning go?” Carla asked. “Did you find everything you need?”

“Let me know if there’s anything you can’t find,” Kesney offered. “I’ll make sure you get it.”

“Thank you, but I have all I need for now.”

“Where are you staying?”

Ivan glanced at Carla. “I have not decided yet, so I have a camp.”

“You mean you’re sleeping outside?” Beth asked.

Ivan laughed. “I slept outside during the war. I do not mind.”

“Where are you camping?” Kesney asked.

“It doesn’t matter where,” Beth declared. “You can’t sleep outside. What if it rains? You have to stay with us until you have a place.”

Ivan guessed from Kesney’s stiffening expression that his thankfulness didn’t extend that far. “I have a nice spot by a creek on Miss Reece’s ranch,” Ivan told Beth. “I have shade, water, and my horse has grass. I do not need anything else.”

“Tell him he has to stay with us, Papa,” Beth begged her father.

“You can’t tell a man what he
has
to do,” Kesney said to his daughter before turning back to Ivan. “I’m sure Carla will let him use her bunkhouse if the weather turns bad.”

“He can’t stay in a bunkhouse,” Beth protested. “He’s not a common cowhand. Carla said he’s a prince or something wherever he comes from.”

“I
am
a common cowhand,” Ivan told Beth. “I left my title behind when I left Poland.”

A waitress came to ask Ivan what he wanted to eat. Despite having been in Texas for five years, he occasionally longed for the food he’d grown up eating. Of all the choices the waitress gave him, Carla’s chicken salad looked closest, so he ordered that.

“Why don’t you tell us what your life was like in Poland?” Kesney asked. “My mother’s family came from Prussia.”

Ivan resisted the temptation to tell him Prussia was one of the countries that destroyed Poland and was responsible for his family losing their estates. Kesney might be interested in what it was like to live in Poland, but Beth had already heard it so he made it quick and unglamourous.

“You don’t miss it?” Kesney asked.

“I miss it very much.”

“Ivan plans to go back to Poland,” Carla said. “His family has regained some of their lost property.”

“When are you leaving?” Beth asked.

“Not for a year.”

Beth’s frown vanished. “Anything can happen in a year. You might find a reason to want to stay. Are you going to the dance?”

“I have not been invited to any dance. Naturally I will not go.”

“You don’t have to be invited,” Beth exclaimed. “Anyone can go.”

Ivan turned to Carla. “This is true?”

“All of our dances are open to anyone who wants to come.”

“You will come, won’t you?” Beth asked. “You can dance with me if you like.”

“I do not know Texas dances,” Ivan said. “They are not like in Poland.”

“I’ll teach you. We have a piano.”

“You can’t play the piano and teach him at the same time,” Beth’s father pointed out.

Beth turned to Carla. “Can you play the piano?”

“Yes, but—”

“Then you can play for us. I know all the most popular dances,” Beth assured Ivan.

“Not so fast,” Kesney said to his daughter. “Ivan may not want to go to the dance. And you can’t just commandeer Carla’s time. She has a ranch to run.”

Beth looked properly contrite and made all the appropriate apologies, but when her smile peeped out, Ivan could tell she was used to getting her way. It was confirmed when her father winked, and she broke into a bright smile.

“Ask Carla properly,” her father said.

Ivan didn’t like having Carla put in the position of having to play the piano, but he intended to go to the dance, not just escort Carla there and back. He wanted a chance to spend more time with her. If, in order to do that, he had to allow Beth to teach him to dance, then he would. He had been an accomplished dancer back in Poland. There was no dance he’d seen while working at Cade’s ranch that he felt he couldn’t learn.

“Can we start tonight?” Beth asked. “We need to begin right away in case Ivan needs more than one lesson.”

Ivan liked that suggestion. He didn’t look forward to an evening of listening to his horse munch grass. He turned to Carla. “Is that good for you?”

It didn’t appear that it was, but she said, “It’s fine. What time?”

“Why don’t you both have supper with us?” Kesney suggested.

Beth clapped her hands in delight. “That would be perfect!”

When their food arrived, Ivan and Kesney began eating, while Beth listed for Carla all the dances she knew. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t know all of them,” Beth said when Carla said for the second time that she didn’t know a certain tune. “I brought all my music.”

“Stop plaguing Carla and eat your lunch,” Kesney told his daughter.

“But I haven’t asked—”

“Not another word until you’ve eaten,” her father said. “Ivan and I are done. You haven’t touched your food, and Carla has barely had a chance to eat for all your chatter.” Beth was clearly unhappy when her father turned to Ivan and asked, “What did you do during the war?”

Ivan grinned. “I studied to be an engineer, so they put me in a cavalry unit.”

Kesney returned his grin. “Ah, you know the army—why assign you to where you can use your talent? Did you at least know how to ride?”

“I learned as a boy.” He would have been a disgrace to his family if he hadn’t been an expert rider by the time he started school. “We mounted night raids against Union supply lines and anything else that might slow them down.”

“How did you end up in Texas?”

“My commanding officer needed help with his ranch. It seemed a good thing to do.”

“So now you’re ready for a ranch of your own?”

“I think more of a partnership.”

“Do you have someone in mind?”

“Yes.”

“But you’re not ready to divulge their name?” Kesney added when Ivan said no more.

“Now is not a good time.”

“Negotiations still underway?”

“Yes.”

Kesney laughed. “Clearly a man who likes to keep his cards close to his vest.”

Ivan wasn’t sure what that meant, but there was an edge to Kesney’s laugh. Apparently he expected to be told more.

“I’m through eating,” Beth announced.

“Then we should be on our way,” Kesney said to his daughter. “We have to prepare for company this evening. That’s an unusual event for me.” Ignoring Ivan’s protests that he should pay for his own lunch, he put money on the table to cover all four meals. “I invited you to be my guest. We will see both of you tonight.”

As soon as Kesney and his daughter left the table, Ivan turned to Carla. “I did not mean for this to happen.”

Carla’s shoulders slumped. “It’s time I stop trying to pretend you’re not here to take half our ranch. Everybody already knows about the card game.”

“What will you say?”

“Nothing until they ask.”

“When they do, you can say we are discussing it. That will explain why I camp by your creek.”

Carla pushed back her chair. “For the ladies you’ve charmed with your smile and your determination to fix anything that’s broken, nothing will explain why I haven’t invited you into my home and given you the best bedroom.”

“I would not take it.”

“And I won’t offer it.” Ivan held her chair while she stood. “But I’ll still be blamed.”

“It does seem unfair that you should be blamed for what your brother did.”

Once outside, they paused to allow their eyes time to adjust to the bright sunlight. “And for what
I
didn’t do.”

“What was that?”

“Marry and let my husband take care of everything.”

“Are you in love with anyone?”

“No.”

“Then you were right not to marry.”

“I thought in Poland every girl married young.”

“Yes, but they do not marry for love. They marry for money and position. They look elsewhere for love.”

“Would you do that?”

“I have neither money nor position.”

Carla shaded her eyes from the sun so she could see Ivan better. “I mean marry for money and position and look for love elsewhere.”

Ivan didn’t hesitate to answer. “No.”

“Why not?” They had to move aside to allow people to pass.

“Are you ready to go home?”

“Yes.”

“Then let us go.”

“You haven’t answered my question,” Carla reminded him as they headed toward the livery stable where they had left their horses.

“I have American friends who married for love. I have seen the happiness that has brought them. I want that for myself.”

“But when you go back to Poland, won’t you be expected to marry for money and position?”

“A father with money and position does not want his daughter to marry a man who has neither.”

“But you’re handsome and charming.” Carla suddenly blushed and directed her gaze to where she was about to step. “A-a-and you have a way with older women.”

Ivan chuckled. “You should not blush and stammer when you give a man a compliment. It makes him doubt whether you mean it.”

Carla looked up at him, impatience writ on her countenance. “You know what I say is true. You trade on it.”

“I do not know what you mean by
I
trade
on
it
, but I help people because I can. Everyone has been good to me since I came to this country.”

“Do you call having to fight in the war being treated well?”

“The war left me with friends who gave me a home where I am welcome to stay or go as I wish. If I need help, I would not have to ask.”

Conversation ceased while they crossed the dusty street. Avoiding horses and their droppings didn’t allow for a lapse in concentration. Holding her skirts to keep them out of the dirt, Carla allowed Ivan to take her elbow. Once they reached the opposite boardwalk, Carla stamped her feet to shake off the dust.

“Do you have packages to pick up?” Ivan asked.

“Only the dress I left at Lukey’s office.”

They retrieved the dress and their purchases at the general store and started back to the ranch. They didn’t talk much. There would be plenty of time ahead for that.

***

“Well, what do you think of him?” Danny pounced on his sister the minute she got back from town. He was impressed that Ivan had insisted on unsaddling her horse.

Carla’s temper didn’t improved during the ride home. It wasn’t anything that Ivan did. Or rather, it wasn’t
anything
else
. She realized the damage was done before she got up from the lunch table. Probably even before that. She was attracted to Ivan. She tried to deny it, but after she realized she was jealous she would be playing the piano while Beth danced with Ivan, there was no point. Being thoroughly put out with herself, she was in no mood to endure Danny’s curiosity. “It’s not a question of whether Ivan is nice, charming, or even honest,” Carla snapped, virtually snatching her wrapped dress from her brother’s hands. “It’s what he’s here to do.”