Someone Like You (Night Riders) (8 page)

Broc was right about one thing: If he was to make his peace with the past, he had to do it here. And he suspected he couldn’t do it without Maria’s help.

The collapse of the gazebo puzzled him. He was certain it wasn’t an accident, but he couldn’t see why anyone would want to harm Maria. If someone
had
meant to harm her, the gazebo was a poor choice. It was more likely to be blown down by a storm than collapse on a clear, sunny day. The damage could have been a simple act of vandalism, but his gut said otherwise. Something was wrong here, and he meant to find out what it was.

“I told you to forget about Maria. Rafe is the one we have to worry about.”

“I could have gotten them both.”

“But you didn’t get either.” He uttered a string of curses. “We’re running out of time. Get Rafe. I’ll worry about Maria later.”

His early-morning inspection removed any doubt from Rafe’s mind that the gazebo’s collapse was an accident. He couldn’t tell when the footprints he found had been made, but they were recent, possibly as recent as last night. Thinking that someone might have been watching him and Maria caused a frisson of alarm to run along his spine. Since the end of the war, he had stopped looking over his shoulder for unseen danger. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to harm Maria or anyone else at the ranch, but he couldn’t
leave until she was safe. He would have felt that way even if he hadn’t been attracted to her.

It amused Rafe to see Maria’s surprise when she entered the breakfast room to find he was down before her. She was dressed simply in a white blouse with a ruffled collar and a gathered skirt, with her hair pulled back in ringlets that fell to her shoulders, but she looked elegant. Luis followed in her wake, looking bright-eyed but unsure of his welcome.

“Cows get up with the sun,” Rafe told her. “Cowhands have to go by their schedule, not the other way around.” The coffee wasn’t as good as in Texas, but Rosana had laid out a breakfast of gargantuan proportions.

Maria seated herself. Luis took the seat next to her. “Where is Broc?” she asked.

“Luxuriating in my featherbed. I have orders not to wake him.”

“You didn’t have to. The damned cockerels did it for you.” Broc stumbled into the breakfast room and focused a sleepy eye on Maria. “Why do you need so many chickens?”

“Because people like to eat eggs.”

“That’s what Pilar always says. Her place is overrun with them. That’s why I don’t mind sleeping out with the cows. They aren’t so proud of getting up at such a god-awful hour that they have to crow about it.”

Maria’s smiling response was exactly what Broc had no doubt expected. Luis forgot his nervousness long enough to giggle. Normally Rafe would have found Broc’s banter entertaining, but this morning his friend’s chatter didn’t amuse him. His mood deteriorated even further when he realized he was irritated that Broc had made Maria smile, something he’d never done.

Maria served Luis, then herself, from platters of eggs, pork, and fried potatoes. “What do you have in mind for today?”

“I’m taking Luis riding. I’m going to pack into one morning everything he should have learned by now.”

Maria looked hardly less dismayed than the boy. “Do you think that’s wise?”

Rafe didn’t like the way Luis looked to Maria as if he expected her to protect him. “I won’t know until I see how much he can do. Do you ride a lot?” he asked the boy.

Luis didn’t meet Rafe’s gaze. “Not often,” he mumbled into his plate.

“How often is
not often
?”

Maria answered for the boy. “Not at all since last summer. There was no one to take him.”

“Don’t you ride?” he asked Maria.

“I have no need. Whenever I feel the need for exercise, I take a short walk along the road to town.”

“You’ve got some fine riding stock in the stable.” Broc had helped himself from most of the dishes on the table. “But I didn’t see Luis’s pony.”

“He doesn’t have a horse,” Maria explained.

Rafe could understand his father’s withdrawal from the house hold to avoid Dolores, but he had bought a new pony for Rafe every year until he was big enough to ride a regular horse.

“Wouldn’t it be better to wait for the riding lessons until you can purchase a suitable mount?” Maria asked.

“The pony I brought is for Luis. I’m sure one of my old saddles will suit him.”

Luis’s eyes grew wide. “Is it really mine?”

Rafe smiled. “Who did you think it was for?”

“I never had a pony. I won’t know how to take care of it.”

“Someone in the stable will do that,” Maria said.

“A boy should know how to take care of his own horse. Take care of your horse, and it’ll take care of you.”

Luis didn’t appear to know whether to be pleased he had his own pony or worried he would be expected to take care of it. Rafe decided that even if Maria were the most wonderful woman in the world, Luis needed a male role model. There were some things a woman didn’t know about being a man.

Rafe could tell Maria wasn’t happy with the idea because she ate almost no breakfast. He didn’t know how much Luis normally ate, but it didn’t seem like enough. He didn’t take it as a good sign that the boy could be thrown off his feed so easily. A man ought to have the courage to face challenges, maybe even be excited by them. He blamed his father for ignoring the boy.

“Where would you like to ride?” Broc asked Luis.

“I don’t know.” The boy answered so softly, Rafe could barely hear him from across the table.

“There must be some place you like to visit.”

Luis shook his head.

When he was Luis’s age, Rafe had liked riding out to see the mares with their new foals, but most of his favorite places had been in the foothills east of their ranch. He’d found sunny meadows, one spooky cave, cracks in the rocks where he could hide, and several places that offered spectacular views of the valley below.

“I don’t encourage Luis to wander far from the house.” Maria’s tone was mild, but Rafe sensed disapproval. “We’ve had several reports of cougars in the mountains east of the ranch.”

He remembered the occasional loss of livestock to a bear or one of the big cats, but that had always resulted in a hunt for the offending animal. Those hunts had provided some of the most exciting moments of Rafe’s teenage years. He decided not to mention them to Maria.

“I’m sure Rafe can show you a lot of interesting places,” Broc said to the boy. “I had my own favorites growing up in Tennessee. I remember one particular swimming hole. It was just a deep place in the creek, but it was shaded by a bunch of trees. It was a treat to go swimming there on a hot August afternoon.”

“Luis doesn’t know how to swim,” Maria told Broc.

“Why not?” Rafe asked.

“There’s no one to take him.”

When Rafe had once asked his mother why women didn’t swim, she’d told him that no proper female would expose her body in such a manner. Since he had been seven at the time and girls still looked pretty much like boys, it had taken him a few years before he understood what she meant. “There are dozens of men and boys on the ranch who would have been glad to go with him and teach him all he needed to know.”

“I’m sure there were, and still are, but I haven’t had much opportunity to get to know the younger children on the ranch, certainly not enough to entrust them with Luis’s safety.”

No wonder the boy acted like he was afraid of his own shadow. Rafe supposed he couldn’t blame him. It was unfair that he’d been brought up in a way that would make him uncomfortable in the presence of other men. “I’ll have Miguel ask around. I’m sure he can find several boys mature enough to be responsible for Luis.”

Maria looked as if she wanted to say something but she bit into a pear instead.

“Don’t you have contact with the families on the ranch?”

“My duties in the house don’t leave me much time.”

“How do you know when people are sick?”

“Rosana keeps me informed of anyone needing help.”

“What does Dolores do?”

Maria took another bite of the pear. That proved to be a tactical error because it gave Luis an opportunity to answer for her.

“Mama says anybody who works on the ranch is beneath us, and that I’ll end up being low class if I have anything to do with them. That’s why I can’t play with the other boys.”

If Rafe had had any doubt that Luis might not have understood his mother correctly, Maria’s blush would have banished it.

“No one is low class because he works for a living, just as no one is better who doesn’t have to. Do you think I’m low class because I work for someone else?”

Luis blushed and dropped his gaze. “No.”

Broc folded his napkin and pushed his chair back. “I think we’ve all had enough breakfast. It’s time to teach Luis how to ride.”

Maria turned to Rafe. “You’ll have to teach me, too. I’m going with you.”

I
t took only a glance at the horse being led from the barn for Maria to decide she had let her irritation with Rafe cause her to make a foolish decision. How could she ride an animal so big she couldn’t see over its back? She wasn’t aware she’d turned to Rafe, her expression apparently asking a question, until he spoke.

“The stable boy assures me this is the gentlest horse in the barn.”

Broc surveyed the horse with disfavor. “It looks asleep.”

The horse in question threw its head to one side, knocking its groom off balance. Not the behavior, in Maria’s mind, of a gentle, sleepy horse. Luis’s pony watched her out of huge brown eyes, its body motionless except for twitching muscles and a swishing tail to ward off insects. “Where’s your horse?”

Her question was answered when two horses were led from the barn, one a huge black stallion that pranced rather than walked, grabbing at the lead shank with its teeth.

“I wanted the black, but Rafe claimed him by right of ownership.” Broc scowled at the dark bay that followed. “I get the runt.”

The bay was only a couple of inches shorter than the black. He lifted his handler off the ground when he reared.

“At least he has spirit,” Broc added.

Maria didn’t see why men wanted to ride animals capable of lifting them off the ground. What was wrong with walking? Or driving a buggy? She looked to see if Luis was feeling the same way. A brightness in his eyes, a tautness in his body, indicated excitement rather than fear.

Of course, he would be excited. He was a boy, and every boy wanted to grow up to be a man like Rafe. She wanted to caution Luis not to place too much importance on his first ride, but any failure would assume enormous importance to a boy who wanted to be like his brother.

Rafe turned to Luis. “Ready to mount up?”

The boy nodded rather than spoke.

“Broc will hold the pony, and I’ll help you mount. I won’t let go until you tell me, all right?”

Luis’s eyes went wide with apprehension. Maria wondered if Rafe had missed that, or if he noticed and ignored it to spare the boy embarrassment. Probably the latter. She was coming to the conclusion that he didn’t miss much.

Luis put his left foot in the stirrup, and then Rafe lifted him so he could swing his right leg over the pony and slide his boot into the other stirrup.

“Is the saddle okay?” Rafe asked.

Luis nodded.

“Broc is going to hand you the reins, but he won’t let go of the lead shank until you tell him to. Okay?”

Luis took the reins but kept his eyes on Broc.

“Broc will help you get used to your pony while I help Maria mount up.”

Maria’s throat constricted. She hadn’t ridden since she was a girl. She’d never ridden much, and she’d never ridden well.

“I’ll tell you the same thing I told Luis. I’ll settle you in the saddle and not let go until you feel at ease.”

The stable boy held her horse. “I’d rather use a mounting block.” The thought of Rafe’s hands on her body was more than she was ready to contemplate.

“I asked about the one my mother used, but no one could find it.”

Now she remembered. After Luis was born, Dolores had bribed one of the stable hands to break it so she would have an excuse not to resume her rides with Warren.

“I won’t drop you.”

Maria wasn’t worried about that, but rather that the feel of his hands on her body would further erode her resistance to the attraction she felt whenever she was around him. She couldn’t understand how she could possibly be attracted to a man of his character, but there was no use denying it. She couldn’t stop wishing and hoping something would happen to prove he wasn’t as bad as Dolores said. She took a deep breath and prepared to feel nothing when he touched her.

She
did
feel nothing because he didn’t touch her.

“You look ill. Are you sure you ought to ride?”

He’d offered her the perfect excuse to back out without embarrassment. She was afraid, but she wasn’t a coward. “I’m fine. It’s just that I haven’t ridden in a long time. I’m more nervous than I thought I’d be.”

“You don’t have to go with us. Broc and I will make sure nothing happens to Luis.”

“It’s okay. I want to ride.” She didn’t
want
to, but she
had
to. She didn’t trust anyone else to watch over Luis.

Rafe placed her in the saddle so quickly, she didn’t have time to fortify herself against his touch. Despite the thickness of her riding habit, heat flowed from his hands into her body with a swiftness that left her flushed and breathless. It required an effort of will to focus her attention on settling into the saddle, arranging her skirt, and collecting the reins.

“Are you ready?” Rafe’s expression implied no scorn, only a polite question.

“You can let go of the lead shank,” she said to the stable boy. Her horse immediately threw its head from side to side, but it didn’t move. She was able to recapture enough calm to watch Luis bring his pony to a walk under Broc’s supervision.

“If there’s nothing else, let’s go.”

Maria was afraid they would start out at a canter, but they left the stable yard at a walk. No doubt the slow pace was for her and Luis’s benefit. Men who herded wild longhorns every
day probably never walked their horses. Rafe rode on her left, Luis on her right, and Broc on the other side of Luis. The boy’s pinched look had lessened until he appeared cautiously excited. He was on his own pony, riding with men guaranteed to fill a young boy’s heart with admiration, even hero worship. He didn’t even take fright when they broke from a walk into a trot. She was relieved when the horses moved into an easy canter. As long as she could ignore objects going by with increasing speed, she could imagine she was in a rocking chair.