Colorado Bride (35 page)

After winding around for nearly a hundred yards, Lucas came to a large opening in the rock formation that contained the canyon. It formed a tiny valley with enough grass and water to keep a few horses fed for several days. Unless it could be approached from the top of the mesa, this was a perfect hideout, completely hidden and impossible to attack. It was an ideal spot for the outlaws to wait until the stage came through and again after the holdup until the hunt had been called off. Lucas wouldn’t know until he checked it out, but he guessed that one of the trails leaving the canyon would take him close to the route the stage would take after it left Green Run Pass.

Lucas inspected the canyon closely, but the campfires and the droppings of the horses confirmed his suspicion that no one had been here for several weeks. There was no reason to stay and he headed his horse out of the canyon, but he couldn’t help looking up at the canyon walls. They rose almost vertically for a hundred feet or more to the floor of the mesa above. If it was possible to reach the top, he could observe the outlaws with almost no risk of being seen himself. With a little luck, he might even be able to overhear some of their plans.

He reached the canyon entrance and continued on to the north beyond the canyon. He inspected each rock face and canyon he passed, but none offered a way to the top. He reviewed the route he had traveled to reach the canyon, and he was certain none of them offered a route to the top either. He continued north for another hour, checking on each likely spot until he came upon some deer tracks leading to what appeared to be another unscalable canyon wall. But this canyon, too, made an unsuspected turn to the right, and Lucas found himself in a part of the canyon where the walls must have been made of softer rock. The rim was much decayed, and he was able to make out the faint footprints leading between the boulders going upward. Lucas followed this for a short while until the trail narrowed and there was barely room for Lucas himself to continue. He left his horse on a wide ledge, and in a few minutes he found himself standing on the grass-covered top of a mesa deeply scarred by the many canyons that had been carved from it. Even on foot, it was a rather short trip to a spot where he could overlook the hideout. He would be able to come here every few days or so to see if the outlaws had returned. He intended to set a trap for them.

Carrie eyed the neatly dressed man with dislike. She didn’t like having a stranger from the company office in Denver descend upon her station without warning, but she resented even more deeply the fact that he was obviously not prepared to trust her with the reason for his visit, lb top it all off, he had refused to tell her why it was necessary for him to wait on the station porch until Lucas returned. From the way he was acting, you’d think Lucas was his boss instead of the other way around.

Lucas was the other and more serious cause of her irritability. She had expected him back before supper, but it had gotten dark half an hour ago, and he still hadn’t returned. Carrie had worked hard all day to keep her mind off what Lucas was doing and what could be happening to him, and then this man arrived, determined not to leave until he had seen Lucas. With his presence as a constant reminder, Carrie was painfully aware of Lucas’s absence and the slow passing of the hours.

“Didn’t you tell me you expected Mr. Barrow to return before six o’clock?” the man who had identified himself only as Mr. Anderson asked. He had refused to wait inside the station, and had to leave his self-appointed position on the porch to come inside where Carrie and Katie were finishing up the last of the dishes.

“I said I
thought
he would be back by then,” Carrie responded shortly, “but I didn’t promise anything. Mr. Barrow is not an employee of this station, and I’m not responsible for his whereabouts or the schedule he keeps.”

“But I’ve got to talk to him as soon as possible,” the man insisted. Just as though his insisting would make Lucas appear, thought Carrie to herself.

“Then set yourself back down on that porch,” Katie said, not mincing words. “You won’t be missing him when he comes for his supper, and you won’t be putting yourself in the way of our work getting done either.”

“I would like some coffee, if you don’t mind.”

“There be the pot,” Katie said, indicating the large blue porcelain coffee pot on the stove. “I expect your ma taught you how to pour.”

“You were a little hard on him, weren’t you?” Carrie commented after Mr. Anderson had filled his cup and gone back outside.

“I don’t like clerks who act uppity, and that man’s a clerk if ever I saw one. He just thinks because we be ladies he can act self-important, but he’s hooked the wrong bull this time.”

Carrie smiled absently at Katie’s response, but her mind was consumed with worry over Lucas. She had made him promise not to tackle the outlaws by himself, but he was no more likely to abide by his promises than she was, she admitted ruefully. If he thought he had the least chance of ending this now, she knew he wouldn’t hesitate. She doubted that the fact there were eight of them and only one of him would change his mind. That man was as stubborn as he was irresistible.

She tried not to picture him too vividly in her mind—it clouded her judgment, and she desperately needed to keep her head about her. She knew she was growing more deeply in love with Lucas every day, but she wasn’t one step closer to agreeing to marry him. And she knew that no matter how much discomfort that caused her now, it was nothing to the agony it could cause her in the future. She had been a fool to allow herself to fall in love with a man she wasn’t sure she could marry, but it was too late to tell herself that now.

She also tried not to remember his invitation for that evening, an invitation her body was all too ready to accept. Even now she could feel his hands on her body, feel the warmth of his skin against her breasts, feel the heat of him inside her. It made her almost too weak to stand. She could see his marvelously sculpted torso, the deeply tanned skin smooth and taut over firm flesh, his wonderfully defined muscles moving effortlessly, and she was filled with a longing to be back in his arms. The vivid memory of his hungry kisses was interrupted by the sound of an arrival outside, and Carrie heard Lucas’s deep, rumbling voice as he addressed the man who was waiting for him.

“What are you doing here, Harry? I didn’t think Uncle Max could get along without you,” Carrie heard Lucas call out in happy greeting. She had to remind herself of the pot she still held in her hand, as well as that disagreeable stranger, to keep from rushing outside to meet him.

“It’s your uncle I’ve come to see you about.”

“Well, come on inside. You can have another cup of coffee while I eat my dinner.” Carrie forced herself to move toward Lucas and greet him as she would any other working acquaintance, but Lucas had other ideas. He strode into the kitchen and swept her up in a hot and eager embrace. The fact that both Kate and Harry stared at them with open mouths didn’t seem to bother him in the least. After a split second’s consideration, Carrie decided it didn’t bother her either.

“I want you to meet Carrie Simpson,” Lucas said when he returned Carrie, breathless and blushing, to her own feet. “I’ve been trying to talk her into becoming my wife, but she’s still holding out.”

“Faith and begor!” exclaimed Katie, who threw the dish in her hands up in the air without the slightest regard for where it would come down or the dangerous fragments to which it was speedily reduced. “You never said a word to me, and all the while I be watching for just such a sign.”

“I haven’t had time to think it over,” Carrie muttered, her mind scrambling wildly for some plausible excuse. “He just asked me.”

“You don’t waste time thinking when a presentable man asks you to become his bride. You take him up afore he has the chance to change his mind.”

“Maybe you should talk to her, Katie,” Lucas said, teasing Carrie. “She won’t listen to me.”

“I won’t listen to either of you until your supper is on the table and Mr. Anderson has a chance to tell you what he’s been waiting half the day to say,” Carrie said, briskly moving to lay the table while Katie started filling a plate from the pots that were being kept warm on the stove. Mr. Anderson had not eaten earlier—he had insisted on waiting until Lucas returned—so Katie filled a second plate for him.

“Katie and I will leave you to your dinner,” Carrie said when both of them had been served. “The coffee is on the stove. Just put the dishes in the sink and make sure the fire’s out. Good night, Mr. Anderson. You can have your choice of the rooms at the back of the station.” Lucas glanced up, his mouth full and his eyes questioning. “I’ll be at the cabin if you need anything,” Carrie added, unable to leave the question in his eyes unanswered.

The two men ate in silence. Only when they had each finished two slices of apple pie did they attempt to share their news with each other.

“I’ve located the Staples gang’s hideout,” Lucas said. They haven’t been there for some time, but I expect they’ll return about the time the shipment’s due. I just wish I knew how they find out when the gold is scheduled to go out.”

“Your uncle is certain someone inside the company is selling information, but that’s not why I’m here. You have to come back to Denver with me.”

“I can’t go until after the shipment, in two weeks.”

“He won’t be alive if you wait
that
long.” Lucas paused in the act of taking a sip from his coffee, his eyes locked with Harry’s.

“He’s dying then?” he asked simply.

“Yes, and he knows it. You’re all he has, and even though I know he would never tell you this, he would rather lose that gold shipment than die without seeing you again. I know he’s been hard on you, but he loves you.”

“Hell, he’s been hard on everybody his whole life,” Lucas said, trying to control the emotion that threatened to choke the words in his throat. “If he hadn’t been tough on me too, I’d have thought he didn’t like me.” They sat in silence for several moments, Lucas remembering the man whose larger-than-life personality had shaped the years of his youth and early maturity.

“How much longer does he have?”

“We ought to leave with the first stage in the morning.”

“I’ll leave at daylight on horseback. I have an extra mount if you want to come with me.”

The older man smiled. There’s nothing about me that lends itself to being astride a horse.”

There are times when I wonder how you ever managed to survive out here, or why you even tried.”

“Your uncle is the only one who could have gotten me out here or pulled me through. Now if you have no objection, I’m going to make use of that bed Mrs. Simpson offered me.” He paused and studied Lucas with added concentration. “Did you mean what you said earlier, about asking her to be your wife?”

“Yes, but she hasn’t agreed yet.”

“A widow, mmmh. Does she know who you are?”

“She’s not a widow, and she doesn’t know who I am,” Anderson’s eyebrows rose in question, and Lucas chuckled. “Her fiancé died before they could be married. She knew the company wouldn’t allow her to take over the station in her own name, so she came out here, told everyone she was married, and that her husband would follow in a few days.”

“Rather enterprising young woman. Quite nice-looking too. I think your uncle would approve.” Lucas gave a shout of laughter.

“They’d fight like dogs for the first five years and end up being crazy about each other.” He suddenly sobered. “At least they would if they could have had the chance.” He stood up abruptly and emptied his coffee cup in the sink. “I’ll see you in the morning. I’ve got things to do before I go to bed.”

But Lucas paused on the porch steps. He had known his uncle was dying, but now he realized he had never faced the reality of his death. Somehow he had always assumed it would be sometime, but never now. He supposed it was because Max Barrow was the only relative he had left in the world. Oh, he supposed there were some kinfolk left in Texas—his mother had brothers and sisters after all—but he didn’t know them and they might as well not exist for all he felt a part of them. Carrie was the only family he had left now.

He started toward the cabin. It was odd that even though she had not yet agreed to marry him, he already thought of her as part of his family. And he was right about Uncle Max. He would not approve of Carrie and her newfangled ideas about female independence. He was a firm believer in the superiority of men, and just as firm a believer that a woman’s one and only place was in the home. Maybe it was because he’d been familiar with so many whores and saloon floozies, but Uncle Max would not compromise on what he saw as the rightful sphere for a proper lady.

When Harry told him his uncle was dying, Lucas thought briefly of taking Carrie to Denver with him, but he had just as quickly cast it aside. Neither of them was likely to sit quietly and keep his opinion to himself, especially his uncle. And once Uncle Max had had his say, Carrie was bound to let him know that
she
thought, and then the fat would be in the fire. It would end with Lucas having to take sides, and that was something he could not do. As sad as it was, the two most important people in his life could never meet.

His step quickened when he saw Carrie waiting for him on the porch.

“Bad news?” she asked apprehensively. She had known from the beginning it would be.

“My uncle is dying. I have to leave for Denver first thing in the morning.”