Texas Rose TH2 (24 page)

Ben was already checking the window and whistling a dubious note, but like Tyler, he grabbed his hat and headed for the door.

Chapter 18

"What are they doing now, Evie?" Daniel leaned toward the window, as if he meant to join her there.

"They've got a ladder, and they're tying it between the roof and some room down on the second floor. They're all going to get themselves killed." Panicking as she saw Tyler's head peering out that second-story window, Evie headed for the door.

"Don't you dare, Evangeline Howell! You heard Tyler. He can't be worrying about you and those kids, too. You're the one who sent him down there. You can't stop them now."

Frustrated, Evie knotted her fingers into fists. "There has to be a better way. Men are such foolhardy idiots." She strode back to the window and glared down.

She had recognized the children by now, if just by their sizes. There was fourteen-year-old Carmen clinging to the toddler in her arms, and Manuel, the eleven-year-old, helping Jose, the youngest boy, hold on to the slippery tiled roof. They had been edging their way toward the livery when Tyler had yelled at them. Evie glanced at the big barn and the loft door. They could never have reached it unless they were skilled acrobats. With a baby in arms, there wasn't a chance.

She gasped as Tyler tested the ladder by crawling out on it. The water pouring down the alley was already swirling past the first-floor windows. If he fell, he could be swept away in a minute. Evie clenched the windowsill and prayed.

The ladder held and Tyler continued across. The children sat stunned and uncomprehending until he was almost there. Then Manuel excitedly slid down the roof to meet him, holding on to his six-year-old brother and pushing him toward Tyler.

Evie gave a cry of relief as the normally rebellious Jose willingly crept up on the ladder with Tyler. Crawling was the only means of progress, and they needed both hands and knees. Tyler wrapped a rope around both their waists before setting out over the water again.

"He's got one across. Ben's untying him and lifting him in the window. The ladder's holding!" Evie reported events to Daniel as they happened. She knew his frustration at having to stay in bed while others acted, but more hands weren't needed. She had seen John from the restaurant lean out the window, and Phil, the hotel owner. There were more hands than could be used.

Manuel crawled across rapidly, but getting the toddler across was a difficult task. Tyler had Carmen strap the child firmly to his back, then waited for the girl to start across before following. Evie held her breath as the ladder sagged beneath their combined weights. Tyler hesitated, making himself available if the girl should miss a step, not daring to go too far out and risk them all. She could see Ben jerking Manuel through the window before the lad could go back out and help. She wanted to go to them, to reassure them, but she couldn't add to Tyler's worries. She remained where she was.

She cried out in relief as Carmen crawled in the window and Tyler followed. She hadn't realized how terrified she had been until she saw how her hands were shaking. She knew what she had to do now, and she threw Daniel a look of defiance. "I'm going to get those children. I don't know what happened to their mother but they know me. I can't leave them down there alone."

* * *

The youngest was screaming, and Carmen was trying to comfort her while Manuel and Jose yelled at each other about somebody's cat when Evie rushed into the room. The men were hauling in the ladder and one of John's boys was still lugging supplies into the room, and they didn't halt immediately at her appearance.

"Manuel, Jose, stop that nonsense immediately," she commanded. "We have to get you upstairs and find you some dry clothes. Carmen, come along. I'm sure I have something you can wear. You'll catch your deaths in those wet things."

The no-nonsense words that Nanny had used for twenty years came out without effort as Evie set the children to order. The men in the room stared at her then, as the boys hushed their fighting, and even the toddler seemed to quiet. Tyler took a step toward her, but Evie merely shook her head.

"I'm taking them upstairs. We'll be fine. You go back to whatever you need to do."

In the gloom of the unlighted chamber, her white muslin stood out as she shepherded the children to the door, skillfully guiding her petticoats past cartons and crates. One of the younger men whistled, and his father cuffed him on the ear.

Evie didn't notice her. Men staring at her were nothing new, but four bedraggled youngsters were. Jose whooped as he left wet tracks up the carpeted stairs, and he occasionally turned around to admire his footprints. The wide-eyed toddler stared over Carmen's shoulder as Manuel and Evie followed them up.

Evie threw open the door to Daniel's room and shuffled the two boys in. "Daniel, direct these two to the proper trunks where they can find something dry. A shirt or your long johns or something ought to do for now."

He stared at her with incredulity, but she shut the door before he could protest. Leading Carmen to the next room, she opened the door. "You're almost as tall as I am. We can deck you out nicely. I'm not certain about the baby, though. What's her name?"

"Maria. Do you have towels? I will dry her off."

The room was a shambles from last night. Evie hoped Carmen knew nothing about what happened behind closed doors, because anyone with any knowledge at all would know how she'd spent the night. The bottom sheet had parted from the mattress and was half off the bed. The sheet Tyler had used was still lying on the floor in a puddle beneath the dressing screen. She had at least folded the blanket and laid it over the chair arm, but she hadn't put away last night's clothing.

Kicking the offending garments out of sight, Evie reached for the used towels beside the washstand. The hotel wasn't up to its usual standards today.

Carmen began stripping Maria and toweling her off while Evie searched for clothes. "Where is your mother?" Evie asked as she rummaged in a trunk. "She'll need to know where you are."

"She went to see a friend who was having a baby last night. She said she would be gone just a little while, but I suppose the river rose faster than she expected." The girl's voice was anxious, but she hid it well to keep from frightening the toddler.

"She must be frantic worrying about you. I guess there isn't anything we can do until the river goes down. Does it do this often around here?"

"No, senora. I have heard people speak of the flood of '55, but I was not born then. It rains sometimes like this in the spring, and the river gets high, but not like this."

"Here, this gown is too small for me. I don't know why I brought it. Go behind the screen and change. I'll look after Maria. We can wrap her in a blanket if nothing else."

Tyler didn't return until after dark. By that time Evie had raided the supplies for dried apples and pickles and cans of beans and the six of them had picnicked merrily. Daniel had taught the boys how to play Hangman until even Jose had learned enough of his letters to hang Daniel on "cat." The baby fell asleep wrapped and pinned in one of Evie's linen chemises, and Carmen had raptly fallen in love with the trunk of books.

She wasn't the only one who was in danger of falling in love. Daniel kept sending Carmen surreptitious glances, but Evie had caught enough of them to guess their meaning. Once Carmen's hair dried, it was a luxurious black that she tied back with a ribbon from Evie's collection. Her face was an oval of creamy perfection, accented by the slash of black eyebrows and lashes too thick to be real. Although little more than a child, she was already developing the shape of a woman. It was easy to see what Daniel was seeing. And her love of books was no strike against her with a bookworm like Daniel.

Evie had intended to make pallets in Daniel's room for the boys and put the girls on the floor in her room when dark came. But by that time the pain in Daniel's face was evident, and Manuel and Jose were bickering and had to be constantly separated. Resignedly, she directed Manuel to move the overstuffed chair in Daniel's room to her room, then sent him back to make a pallet for himself with Daniel. Carmen and the two youngest she installed in her own bed.

Tyler wasn't going to like it, but she hadn't seen more than his hat all day. Apparently a boat had been found somewhere, and the rescue mission had spread to stranded families throughout town. The hotel was filling with people. He couldn't object too mightily to just these children.

After they settled down to sleep, Evie folded her muslin gown and hung up her petticoats and donned her nightgown. She didn't fool herself by wearing chemise and pantalets beneath it. If Tyler was coming, he had enough to object to. She wouldn't give him more.

Removing a spare blanket from her trunks, she curled up in the chair and rested her feet on the seat of her bedroom chair. Tyler would have to find a place on the floor if he returned. For all she knew, he'd gone over to the saloon to fortify himself. She couldn't object. He hadn't wanted to marry her any more than she had wanted to marry him. She wasn't certain what their relationship could be called, but it certainly wasn't husband and wife. She wouldn't pamper him by playing a role they both knew to be false.

* * *

Tyler had to walk across sleeping bodies in the hall by the time he returned to the hotel. He was drenched to the skin and had survived the day on little more than black coffee and the flapjacks he'd had that morning. There was only one thing on his mind at the moment, and that was getting out of these clothes and into bed with Evie.

He had his coat and hat off and was starting on his shirt by the time he reached her room. Ever since he had returned from that federal prison camp to learn he no longer had a home or family, he had turned his back on the life he had known and created a new one. There wasn't any place in that life for a wife and children, but there was always a place for a woman in his bed. As long as he thought of Evie like that, he would do just fine.

The room was dark and silent when he entered, but Tyler hadn't expected anything else. It was late. He dropped his coat and hat on the floor, and stripped off the soaked shirt. He could see the outline of the dressing screen near the window, and he started for that, knowing he would find the washstand and towels there. He stumbled over an unexpected object, and his hand caught on the back of a chair that hadn't been there this morning.

Eyes adjusting to the dark, he glanced down to a pair of blanket-wrapped legs. He followed the blanket upward to thick chestnut hair falling over a white-clad shoulder huddled on a pillow laying over another chair arm. He knew only one woman in this world with hair as thick as that. Evie.

Cursing silently, Tyler sat down and removed his boots, then tiptoed to the bed. He didn't think Evie was the type to give up the comfort of her bed just to get even with him for some imagined wrong. He looked down at three sleeping heads and ran his hand through his hair. He hadn't known she was the mothering type either, but then, there was a hell of a lot he didn't know about Miss Evie Peyton.

He didn't like having those children in here. He didn't want anything to do with children. But he could see where she couldn't put them out for the night. Silently Tyler went behind the screen and stripped off the rest of his clothes. He didn't even have a clean shirt in here. He hadn't planned on an extended stay in town. His beard itched, and he wanted a hot bath. Most of all, he wanted Evie in a warm bed. He didn't know how to correct any of that.

He couldn't wander around naked in front of children, but he sure as hell wasn't going to put those wet clothes back on, either. Remembering Evie's trunk of linens, Tyler pulled on his wet pants and crept back out to look for it. She'd left it open for him, and he helped himself to a flannel sheet. There was something to be said about a woman who came prepared.

Deciding if he couldn't have a warm bed he was going to make do with the willing woman, Tyler left his pants on the floor, tucked the sheet around his hips, and came to stand beside Evie's sleeping figure. She couldn't be that sound asleep in that position. Lifting her gently, he slid into the chair and settled her on his lap.

Evie woke instantly. Tyler smothered her gasp with his fingers. She wriggled around to stare at him. He chuckled as she tried to wriggle away. The chair wasn't big enough for either of them to go anywhere but where they were.