Texas Blue (24 page)

“Once we get to Anderson Glen, I’m stopping to talk to Rose and Bethie while Sumner buys supplies.” Em’s voice was calm, too calm. “I’ll meet you at the station. I’m going after Duncan, even if I have to step over your body to board.”

“I thought we were friends,” he said, fighting down swear words by the dozens. “Now just because I’m thinking of you, you’re threatening to kill me.”

“We
were
friends, maybe we still are, but a few kisses does not give you any power over me. You’re not my father or my husband. Even if you were, I’m not sure I would listen to you on this. Duncan is in trouble and I’m as good with a gun as most and, if he’s hurt, I brought medicine.”

“Fair enough.” He gave in. “Go with us, but when we reach the border, stay on the Texas side in camp. We’ll go over, bring him back, and turn him over to you for care. How does that sound?”

She didn’t answer.

He guessed she saw no need to argue ahead of time, and he doubted she’d listen when they reached the Rio any better than she’d listened when they’d left the ranch. He decided she was the most stubborn woman alive. If she ever did get married, she’d drive her husband to drink within days.

She tried to pull ahead, but he stayed right beside her.

“Don’t do this, Em,” he said, more to himself than her. “Stay here where it’s safe.”

“End of discussion,” she snapped.

Anger boiled over in him. “You’re right, I’m not your husband. I’m through talking. It’s easy to see why no man would want to be married to you. It appears you’re more man than any husband could ever be.”

She shot off at full gallop, and he didn’t try to keep up again. As always, the minute his words were out, he was sorry. He didn’t understand. He’d spent years learning to get along with every type of person from governors to drunks, but he couldn’t seem to get along with her. She was headstrong and proud and toxic. He’d probably get himself killed trying to protect her, and she hated him more often than not.

Sumner caught up to him. He had two extra McMurray horses on a lead line. The man walked with a limp, but his old body seemed molded for a horse. He rode with the ease of one born in the saddle.

They rode in silence for a few minutes, and then Lewt said, “She shouldn’t come along. It’s too dangerous. Can’t you talk some sense into her?”

“She’s a better rider and better shot than most rangers I’ve ridden with. I’ve watched her for years, that one. She’s shy, afraid sometimes, but she’s got spirit. She’ll be fine.”

“So you’re not going to try to talk her into staying here?”

The old man shook his head. “It’s been my experience no one can talk a McMurray into anything. You just got to ride with them or stay out of their way.”

Great
, Lewt thought,
the old man is playing along with the lie that she’s really Emily McMurray
. In two days he’d be crossing the border with two crazy people and a ranger who had a death wish. The odds weren’t good. If he had any brains left, he’d turn around and go back to the ranch himself. Maybe it wasn’t too late to talk the real Emily McMurray into marrying him. Or maybe he could give Rose one more try? She didn’t seem near as crazy about Boyd as Boyd seemed to think she was.

Lewt shook his head. He knew he wouldn’t, couldn’t turn back. For once in his life he had to play full-out against all the odds. Duncan was the best friend he’d ever had, and he wasn’t prepared to lose him without a fight. Even if he hadn’t known Duncan, he couldn’t let Em ride into trouble alone. Much as he hated to admit it, he cared about her.

Heaven knew why. She hated him right now. She was a thousand miles away from what he wanted for a wife, and even if he did want her, she’d made it plain she didn’t want him or any other man.

Lewt decided he fit right in with this group of nuts. He was as crazy as the rest of them. “What do you think our chances are of coming out of this alive?” he asked Sumner.

“Does it matter?” the old man answered.

Lewt laughed. “No.”

E
M WALKED TO THE LITTLE HOUSE HER FAMILY owned in town while the men talked the station manager into letting them ride on a freight train at least as far as Austin. If he let them travel farther south, they could save a day’s ride.

The railroads had a strict policy against riding with the animals, but a few dollars in the right palm usually got a cowboy a straw bed for the night. The main office might set policy, but the men who worked the line knew that times were hard and folks needing to get from one part of Texas to another didn’t always have money. So, for the price of transporting a horse, the cowboy sometimes got to ride free, even on trains with no passenger cars.

She tapped on the door to the “little house” and was glad to find her sisters home. Mrs. Allender had decided to take an afternoon nap, so the women came back to the house while the men elected to have a drink at the saloon.

Em followed her sisters to the kitchen, where Rose poured tea and they talked quietly.

After Em explained what had happened to Duncan, Bethie cried. They’d all hated and loved him as a child, but he was family, and family to the McMurrays came first.

“There’s no sense wishing Papa were here. He’s not. We’ve got to do what we can. I’ll go get him, guessing he must be injured somehow or he would have come out with the others. Rose, you and Beth will have to take turns watching over the ranch as soon as you say good-bye to our guests. Sumner tells me the men know what to do, but have Danny, the kid who’s always hanging around the barn, ride with you on rounds. Sumner says he’s a good shot if trouble comes up.”

Beth nodded. “I’m sure Davis will go with me while he’s here. He rides well and I feel comfortable with him on guard. That will relieve one hired hand to work in the barn. With Sumner gone, they’ll have their hands full.”

Rose stared at her sisters. She hadn’t been out riding with her papa for years. The idea of spending an entire day in the saddle didn’t appeal to her. “I’m not even sure I know who Danny is,” she complained. “Em, don’t you think we should wire Papa and ask him to come back?”

“No,” Em said. “I promised I could handle whatever came up. I’ll handle this. I’ll bring back Duck. Papa’s got his hands full taking Jamie around to the doctors. He doesn’t need to worry about what’s happening at home right now. We’ll have Duck back and recovered before he and Mama get home.”

All three women agreed. They silently stood and hugged one another.

“I’ve never remembered a time when there were only two McMurrays on Whispering Mountain,” Beth whispered. “It’s frightening.”

They held hands as they used to do as children, forming a circle. “We’ll get through this.” Em clung tightly to her sisters. “Remember when Rose and I had to go off to finishing school. We used to stand this way and say, ‘Though apart, I’m in your heart.’”

Beth and Rose smiled. “Come back with Duck,” Rose whispered. “We’ll be waiting.”

Em turned and walked out of the house without another word. She knew if she’d said any more, all three of them would have cried, and they were far too old to start sobbing.

At the train station, she saw Sumner loading the horses. He must have stopped by Elmo’s Mercantile and given orders to have supplies delivered, because a kid stood beside him with what looked like enough supplies for a week packed in twill bags that would stand both the trip and the weather.

When Sumner saw Em, he said, “I figure we can pick up whatever I forgot when we leave the train.”

Em nodded, thinking the old guy couldn’t have forgotten much, because both packs looked full.

Without another word, they loaded the horses and packs and climbed on. Lewt was the last one on, and he looked around for a moment at their quarters. He smiled, then jumped back down for a moment before tossing up a broom.

While Wyatt and Sumner tied a line for the horses, Lewt swept out a corner of the car. When the train whistle blew, they tossed their gear in the clean corner and settled in for a long ride.

Em stood and watched the land passing by, as cold and dead with winter as she felt inside. She’d known from the first that what she had with Lewt was no more than a flirtation, but she hadn’t expected it to end so fast. He hadn’t said a word to her for an hour, or even acted like he’d noticed she was standing five feet away from him.

She was the one who had a right to be mad. He’d tried to order her around. If she felt like it, she might laugh at how he’d reacted when she’d told the ranger that she was Emily McMurray. He’d stared at her as if he knew she was lying. It seemed not to occur to him that she might have been lying for the past four days.

To him, she was still a woman hired to work with the horses. He couldn’t see her as a lady. She couldn’t help but wonder if he would have kissed her like he did if he’d thought her a McMurray.

The air coming through the slits in the car walls was bitter cold, but she barely noticed. She had to forget about Lewt and what he thought of her. She had to think about Duck. Part of her had always known he’d get himself in over his head one day. They’d even talked about it once when he’d come home for a few days. As they always did when he came back to Whispering Mountain, just the two of them went riding. That day they’d gone up on the hill where their grandparents were buried along with Sage’s first love and a child Em’s mother had miscarried.

Duncan had climbed off his horse and lain down on the grass beside the headstones. “Promise me, Em,” he’d said, “that when I die you’ll go get my body and lay me to rest here.”

She’d laughed. “If you’d stay home, you’d save me a trip by dying of old age right here on the ranch.”

“Not me. I want to take life at a full run. I’ve had this hunger to do everything there is to do since I can remember, but I want to be put to rest here so I can see Whispering Mountain and know I’m home.”

“Why don’t you go up to the summit and spend a night? Maybe you’ll do like the legend says and dream your future.”

“I don’t want to know. I want to be like a bird, just shot out of the sky in midflight.”

Em had sat down beside him. “Not me. I want to die of old age right here.”

Now, in the rattling train car, she thought about what he’d said. She loved him like a brother, but could remember only a few times when they’d talked, really talked, as adults. In many ways they were opposites, and neither understood the other.

She stared into the night. He was out there somewhere. Hurt. Alone. About to be killed by men who hated him just because he was a ranger. She had to find him or die trying.

“Cold?” Lewt asked from just behind her.

Em didn’t turn around. “No,” she lied.

“Would you look at me if I said I was sorry, Em? I didn’t mean what I said.”

“I don’t want to look at you,” she said, but she couldn’t help but smile. There was something about Lewt that made him a hard man to hate. “And I need to make something very clear to you. Whether a man wants to marry me or not doesn’t matter. I made up my mind a long time ago that I never wanted to marry. Not ever.”

“Want to tell me why?” he whispered.

“No.”

“Do you think, for just this quest we’re on, we could be friends?”

“Fair enough.” She had a feeling the peace between them wouldn’t last long, but she’d try once again. Somehow this strange man had broken down fences and stepped into her life, whether she liked it or not.

“You know, you may not be cold, but I am. I’d like to stand a little closer to you, but I’m worried about having my head blown off. You wouldn’t murder a friend, would you?”

“Probably not,” she said. “If you’ll promise not to try ordering me around. I hate that, Lewt.”

“I won’t even talk.”

“Good,” she whispered as she felt the warmth of him move very close behind her.

He kept to his word. He just stepped beside her, blocking some of the wind as his arm rested lightly at her waist.

She rolled a few inches until she pressed against his chest. Even if Sumner or Wyatt had been watching, she doubted they’d see how close they were to each other. She might not want a man in her life, but Lewt offered a kind of comfort. She liked the solidness of him. The way he smelled and the way he treated her like a woman even when she didn’t want him to. She’d never let a man boss her around or control her, but a friend might be nice.

Lewt’s stance was wide and seemed to steady her as the car swayed back and forth. They both watched the night as if there were answers out there waiting for the right questions to be asked.

After she’d grown warm in his arms, he leaned slightly and brushed her lips with a kiss. There had been no passion in the touch, only comfort, and she accepted it for what it was.

She turned slightly, snuggling her back against his chest as his arms circled her, pulling her close. They stood like that a long time, before he leaned and kissed her neck. “I like just having you close to me,” he whispered, so low she wasn’t sure he knew he’d said the words out loud. “If that’s all that can be between us, Em, that’s enough.”