Bittner, Rosanne (77 page)

A terrible sadness came into his eyes. "So, even if I had won you over, my stone castle would not have made you happy, would it?"

She stiffened, feeling a flush come to her cheeks. "I am not a woman impressed by such things."

"Oh, yes, how well I know." He set the cigar in an ashtray. "You have always talked about a museum in the area, Lettie. Why not use this house as one? Someday people will walk through here and learn about the wealthy English investors who got into the cattle industry in Montana. And there is plenty of room to bring in other historical mementos. Put some of Will and Henny's things in here. Set some old plows outside, whatever you want to do. Use this library to store the records of early settlers that your daughter started in Billings a few years ago. I am sure you will find good use for such a home." He looked at Luke. "As far as the land, it can be sold off in sections to farmers if you don't want to enlarge the Double L. Or maybe you can give it to that white Indian son of yours—Nathan. Maybe he's ready for a place of his own."

Luke shook his head. "Nathan would never want all of this; but it's true I could sell it off in sections. Actually, I'm trying to whittle down the Double L some. This past winter showed me that we've gotten too big to run the ranch economically."

Nial held his eyes. "Is it a deal then?"

Luke rubbed at his chin. "Give me a couple of days to think about it, talk about it with Ty and the rest of the family."

"I don't want anyone else to know why I'm doing this. It's bad enough having to admit to an old enemy my past mistakes. Tell them whatever you want, as long as it's not the truth. Leave me some honor, Luke."

Luke finished his coffee. "You don't deserve the courtesy, but I'll do it—only because I'm sorry about Chloris. I wouldn't want her family to be disgraced. And I'm sorry about you never getting the children you wanted. I mean that. Children mean everything."

"Yes. It's your own children that have held you two together through the worst of times." He looked at Lettie, and pain filled his eyes. "This has never been a happy home, even after I married Chloris. I did love her, but never the way that I loved you, Lettie." He glanced at Luke, saw the rage building in the man's eyes. "Please don't take offense, Luke. I need to say this. Surely you know I am not the only man who ever loved your wife from afar. I don't doubt that many of your own men have dreamed about her."

Lettie felt her face growing hot. "Please, Nial—"

"I am not trying to embarrass you, Lettie. I am just stating simple facts. Part of the reason I am making this deal with Luke is because of you. If anyone deserves to get in on such a good thing, it's the two of you. There are other men I could have turned to, but I can't think of anyone else I can trust to take care of Essex Manor properly, or trust to keep my secret." He looked at Luke. "I have not been the most honorable man, Luke, but when it came to Lettie, I always had trouble thinking straight. A few years ago I saw my one chance to have her, but her love for you was simply too powerful. She could never belong with any man but you, and with Chloris gone, I would rather go home than ever have to see Lettie again. I will never again interfere in your lives, and although you may not believe me, I wish you the best of luck in your run for governor."

Luke rose. "I don't know whether to thank you or hit you," he answered. "I never have known quite how to feel about you, Nial."

Nial also stood up, and Lettie quickly finished her tea and moved to stand beside Luke. "I hope you will take me up on my offer, Luke," Nial said. "It's a hell of a buy, for a hell of a man." He put out his hand again, and Luke took it hesitantly. They squeezed hands firmly.

"I'll be back in a couple of days," Luke told him. "It will take at least a week to get the money. Most of my funds are in banks in Cheyenne and in Denver because of the mines."

Nial nodded. "I am a patient man." He glanced at Let-tie. "Perhaps too patient." He moved from behind the desk, coming around to stand closer to Lettie. "I am sure when Luke comes back, he won't be bringing you with him, so let me take this moment to say God bless you, Lettie Fontaine." He took hold of one of her hands. "You will be in my heart forever, to my dying day."

Lettie was astounded to see his eyes well up with tears. He leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Good-bye, Lettie."

When he had left, Lettie looked up at Luke in complete surprise. "I don't believe any of this," she said softly. "Luke, you'll be the biggest landowner in Montana!"

Luke's blue eyes showed his irritation at Nial daring to take hold of her hand and kiss her. "Let's get out of here," was his only reply.

The butler appeared at the doorway then. "Mr. Bentley said to tell you you are welcome to stay here the night and go back in the morning, if you wish. You will never get back home before nightfall."

"No, thanks," Luke answered, anxious to get out of the house. "We'll stay at the south line shack of the Double L if we can't make it back in time." He put a hand to Lettie's waist. "Let's go," he muttered.

"But, Mr. Fontaine, you've only been here a short time. Perhaps a meal—"

"We'll be fine, Henry, thank you," Lettie told the old man.

He nodded. "I will get your wraps." He left them, and Lettie watched Luke, who still looked amazed at the offer he had just received.

"He only picked me because of you," he told her.

"What is the difference, Luke? It's a wonderful offer."

Henry returned with their things. They both left quickly, climbing into the family carriage. Luke whipped the horse into motion and the carriage clattered over the brick drive that led away from the house.

From an upstairs window Nial watched them leave. "Good-bye, my Lettie, my love," he whispered. "Good-bye, my beautiful Montana. I could have been so happy here." A tear slipped down his cheek, and he turned away. He could have told Luke and Lettie that he was dying, but Lettie had suffered enough in her lifetime. Why burden her with his own impending death? He had not brought them there to gain their sympathy. He had only wanted to do something for Lettie.

He noticed a picture of Chloris on the stand beside his bed. He walked over and laid it face down. In spite of their ten years together, it was not Chloris for whom he grieved.

It was growing dark by the time Luke and Lettie reached the south line shack. "We'd better hole up here until morning," he suggested. He helped her climb down and she carried her overnight bag and a basket of food into the cabin while Luke unhitched and bedded down the horse in a nearby shed. Because all the dead cattle had attracted wolves, he made sure the horse was closed in tightly for the night. He took his rifle from the buggy and walked to the cabin, going inside and bolting the door. Lettie had built a fire in the potbellied stove and had removed her hat and cape. She opened the picnic basket. "I made sandwiches in case we had to stay the night here."

He set his rifle aside and walked to
stand
behind her, Nial's words awakening all his fierce jealousy and possessiveness. "Quite an interesting day, wasn't it?" he said, moving his arms around her from behind.

"I'm just glad Nial gave you first chance to buy Essex Manor." She leaned her head against his chest. "The house
will
make a wonderful museum, Luke."

He let go of her and began taking some of the combs from her hair. "He didn't do any of that for me, and you know it."

She turned to face him. "It doesn't matter why he did it, Luke. The fact remains that everything has come full
circle.
Everything is right with Tyler now, and I have Nathan back. This summer Pearl will come to visit, and your brother might even come. By next year Robbie will be home. We'll make it through this latest tragedy, and a man who came here with nothing will end up owning a good share of Montana and maybe even be its first governor." She moved her arms around him as he pulled out the last comb, letting her hair fall to her waist. "Oh, Luke, just think how far we have come since we first got here. Remember that first awful winter, how we had to dig a tunnel to the horse shed? Remember when you brought me outside to climb up on the top of the snow to see the sun? Remember how the wind and the wolves nearly drove us insane? Look how far we have come—how far Montana has come."

He wrapped a hand into her hair. "It's women like you who did it, Lettie. Myself and others like me, we couldn't have done it without the women.
Will couldn't
have done it without
Henny,
or
Billy
without Anne. Ty wouldn't have come through without Alice. And look at Katie. She
stood
up for a sheep man when she knew the troubles that could bring her. She started that library, and you want to create a museum. The women brought in the preacher, church, schools, and teachers. You insisted on buying that piano for

Pearl, and look where she is now; and you made me see that Robbie had to fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor."

He brushed his lips over her forehead. "You've been my strength. You helped me get through that nervous collapse after the fires, made me see I had never let go of my feelings for Paul. You gave me six beautiful children. I could only enjoy one of them for six years, but I'll always have the memory. And, of course, we lost Nathan for a long time. I always blamed myself for that—"

"Luke, don't—"

"It's true." He grasped her hair and bent her head back more. "When I see how Nial Bentley looks at you, I remember what a treasure I have. When you're eighty, to me you'll still be the beautiful young girl I brought here twenty-five years ago."

Outside the wind began to rise. It made groaning sounds around the little cabin, much like the sounds that first winter they had spent in the drafty little outlaw shack. Already wolves were beginning their howling in the distant hills.

Lettie looked into her husband's handsome blue eyes, and she saw a young Luke Fontaine, who had defended her against those wolves, who had loved her all those years, had risked his life so many times to hang on to his dream. She loved him for that dream, that bravery, as much as she loved him for just being her Luke, for taking her as his own in spite of her rape, for loving Nathan as if he were his own son.

"I won't tell you anymore that you don't see so well," she teased. "If you want to see me as eighteen, I guess I should let you. I see you the same way, Luke."

He grinned. "Being in this shack reminds me of the early days."

She smiled in return. "What about your supper?"

"The sandwiches can wait," he answered. He picked her up and carried her to the small, homemade bed in one corner of the cabin. "This is at least better than a bed of robes."

More wolves howled, their cries echoing across the vast plains, valleys, and mountains that encompassed the Double L... through Pine Creek, where Will Doolan lay buried, along with several men who had been shot and hanged by vigilantes... around the elegant Fontaine home, where Tyler and Alice lay in each other's arms, where Nathan played in his cabin with his three children, one of them clutching a tattered old stuffed horse. The howling carried over the grave of a small child behind the house, and the graves of two men who had helped build the Double L, one of whom had died for it... the grave of a young Sioux woman named Ramona... and farther up the hill, over the hardly distinguishable graves of the outlaws who had once tried to call this land their own... until Luke Fontaine came along to claim it for himself.