Colorado Bride (40 page)

“I will,” Lucas responded simply.

“I knew you’d come,” Max Barrow said as his eyelids fluttered open, his normally thunderous voice reduced to a hoarse whisper. “Did you find those gold thieves?” He obviously didn’t remember that Lucas had reached Denver a week ago and had seldom left his side since.

“Not yet,” Lucas replied, “but I will.”

“Don’t waste your time on them. Go find yourself a wife. You’re the last Barrow left.”

“I did find the woman I want to be my wife, but so far she won’t agree to marry me.”

“What do you mean the gal doesn’t want to marry you? Is she crazy or something?” Even as weak as he was, the question contained some of the fire and energy Lucas had always associated with his uncle.

“No. As a matter of fact, she’s the smartest woman I ever saw.”

“She can’t be, not if she’s refusing to marry a man as good-looking and rich as you.” Max tried to raise himself up on his pillow, but he barely had the strength to lift his head.

“Look, boy, when a man reaches the end of his life he doesn’t want to leave nothing behind except buildings or companies. He wants to see children, something permanent he’s created. It took me sixty years to learn that, so don’t you forget it. You marry that little girl of yours and put down some roots.”

Uncle Max didn’t remember the hours they had spent talking quietly either, hours spent saying things they had always been too busy to say before.

“You shouldn’t talk so much, Uncle Max,” Lucas said. “You look tired.”

“What you mean is I look like hell.” He chuckled softly. “Wouldn’t old Frank Adams give every nickel he ever stole from me to be here now. Well, you just hold on, Frank. It won’t be long before I’m wherever you are, and I sure as hell am not going to start agreeing with you just because I’m dead.” He paused a minute until his breathing became easier. “Dying on your back in some hotel is hell, boy, a damned sad end to a good life. Don’t ever let it happen to you. Get yourself run over by a train or shot by some fancy whore. At least old Frank went with his pants on.”

Lucas reached out for the frail, veined hand and his uncle’s fingers tightened in his grasp.

There’s not many things I regret, but I’m sure sorry your daddy didn’t live to see how you turned out. He’d be mighty proud of you.”

“I had a good teacher.”

“Yeah, they threw away the mold when they made old Max. If they’d made one or two more of me, we’d’ve torn this country apart.” Max’s eyelids closed and his soft, shallow breathing was the only sign of life in his tired body.

“No, they don’t make them like you anymore, Uncle Max,” Lucas whispered as he brushed a tear from his eye. “I’m going to miss you.”

Max’s breath was labored and his last words had been a whisper, but after a minute Lucas could tell he was trying to say something more. When he finally spoke, Lucas had to lean his ear close to his lips.

“Don’t bury me in Texas. I want to be buried where I’ll have you and your children to keep me company someday. Don’t leave me with strangers, do you hear.”

“I hear you, Uncle Max,” Lucas answered, having great difficulty talking himself. “I’ll buy a family plot. Is that what you want?”

The old man was too weak to answer, but he mouthed the word “yes.”

For a long time afterward Lucas talked to him, telling about the family he hoped to have, about Carrie and how she was just as stubborn as he was. Occasionally he would feel the fingers move within his grasp or the grip tighten almost imperceptibly and he knew his uncle could still hear him.

“I guess we’ll have to name the first boy after you. It won’t seem right not to have a Max Barrow around.” Lucas paused, longer than he had before, and when he spoke again, his words came out slowly and with great effort.” I’m going to miss you, Uncle Max. I love you.”

Lucas thought he felt a tremor just before his uncle’s fingers fell away and his hand lay limp in Lucas’s grasp. His Uncle Max was dead.

Chapter 21

“I’m sure all the boys are sorry for what they said after you first came here,” Bap was telling Carrie as he bolted down his breakfast. “Even Jerry Blake finds a good word for you now and then, and I thought hell would freeze before he said anything nice about a female excepting that Quaker woman that raised him.”

It’s not important now,” Carrie said, refilling his coffee cup. That’s all over with.”

“But it
is
important,” Bap said, taking a swallow of the hot coffee and burning his tongue. “Duncan Bickett is coming to inspect this station, and from what I hear he’s planning to take it away from you.”

Carrie nearly dropped the coffee pot. “How do you know? Are you sure?”

“Of course “I’m sure. Do you think I’d go about spreading gossip?” Bap asked, his masculine pride injured.

“No …”

“Haven’t I just been telling you how some of the men were bad-mouthing you. Well, it seems that someone finally got around to telling Duncan your husband was dead and no man was coming out to help you, and that decided him to come right away. He has some man from Denver that’s interested.”

“But he can’t just give the station to someone else without even giving me a chance. I mean, it’s not fair for him to come here with the
intention
of giving it to someone else.”

“That’s why the boys are feeling so bad. We everyone of us tried to tell him he’d be making a mistake, even Jerry, but you know Duncan. Once he’s made up his mind, he don’t change it very often. There’s also been some talk about making this an overnight station.”

“That would mean another building for the guests and extra help to take care of the rooms.”

“Yeah, and Duncan thinks you need a man for that.”

“I’ve never met Duncan Bickett so I don’t know anything about him, but if he thinks he’s going to come in here and run me out before he even bothers to see what “I’ve done, he’s got a big surprise in store for him.”

“What you going to do?”

“When is he planning to get here?”

“Tomorrow on the noon stage.”

“Then he’ll have to eat lunch before he begins to look around,” Carrie said to herself, having already forgotten Bap. “Katie,” she called, turning with sudden resolve. “I want the entire kitchen and dining room scrubbed from top to bottom. I’ll help you as soon as I get Jake and Found started, but this entire place has to look like it’s brand new by noon tomorrow. I’m glad Sam’s finished whitewashing the station. We’d never have had time to get that done before tomorrow.”

“I still can’t believe you got Sam Butler to whitewash anything,” Bap said, amazement and awe showing in his regard for Carrie. “That man’s been known to knock people down for just talking to him disrespectful.”

“Sam’s a fine man when he’s treated fairly,” Carrie said absentmindedly. “Jake and Found will have to clean every piece of harness. I just hope Found has finished replacing the wooden pegs.”

“I’m glad he started staying at that cabin,” Katie said, still thinking about Sam. “Every time I sat his food down in front of him, I would start thinking of what he did to Jake, and it would make me so mad I wanted to take me knife to him.”

“I wish Lucas were here,” Carrie said without even hearing Katie. “He would know what to do.”

“Ain’t nothing going to impress Duncan more than seeing this station operate like it does every day,” Bap volunteered. “You don’t have to do nothing special.”

“You do when you’re a woman,” Carrie responded bitterly. “A man could get away with just giving moderate service—Baca Riggins got away with even less than that—but I have to make sure I don’t overlook even the smallest detail. I’m going to have to leave Katie to take care of you while I go find Jake and Found. I hope they have time to sweep out the barn,” Carrie said as she was going out the door. “And then there’s my cabin. Oh lord, I wish I had known just one day earlier. There’s so much to be done.”

“From the stew she’s in, you’d think she had nowhere to go if she left here,” Bap commented.

“Nowhere she wants to go,” answered Katie.

“With her looks, all she has to do is go to Denver, and she’ll have men asking to marry her before the sun goes down.”

“She’s had offers of marriage aplenty, but that’s not what she wants.” Bap’s eyes widened in question. “Mr. Barrow has been after her for days now,” Katie informed him in a conspiratorial whisper, “but she can’t make up her mind whether she wants him more than she wants this station.”

“Lucas asked her to marry him?” Bap said, nearly shouting the words.

“You don’t have to act so amazed. Mrs. Simpson is a beautiful woman, and a real lady. She’s good enough for a whole lot more than Mr. Barrow will ever be. I know she hasn’t been a widow long, but she was hardly married, so it seems to be no point in wearing weeds for a man who was never your husband.”

“So Lucas wants to marry Mrs. Simpson,” Bap said to himself, unaware of Katie’s reply. “Well, I’ll be stripped naked and washed with lye soap.”

“The way you’re carrying on, you’d think Mr. Lucas was an earl or something. What’s so special about him?” Bap opened his mouth to speak but closed it tight instead. Katie looked at him with suddenly narrowed eyes. “You’ve been with this stage a long time, haven’t you?” Bap nodded absently, his eyes still not focusing on Katie. “So there might be a lot of things you’ve had time to find out that the rest of us don’t know?”

“I know a whole hell of a lot you don’t,” Bap said, getting up and heading toward the door, “and it’s going to blow the roof right off this place when it gets out.” He marched out, leaving Katie to stare after him, wondering whether he really did know something or if he was just an old man who was trying to make himself feel important.

Lucas had to look a second time when he rode into the stage yard. The station had been transformed since he left, and it hardly looked like the same place.

The yard in front of the station had been swept clear of debris, and everything made neat and tidy, but the most striking change was the station house itself. It shone white and clean from a fresh coat of whitewash, glaring brilliantly in a landscape of green, brown, and gray. Carrie had even dug up some flowering plants from the garden and surrounding woods and planted them in tubs to give it a touch of color. He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it himself.

Lucas had hardly swung out of the saddle when he heard his name uttered as a near shriek and he turned in time to see Carrie come catapulting through the station door. He guessed he would live the rest of his life and never experience a moment of greater satisfaction than seeing her race headlong toward him with a look of ecstatic delight on her face. It sent a jolt of adrenaline through his body that banished the fatigue of eight hours in the saddle. Throwing his leg over, he leaped out of the saddle and swept her off her feet when she threw herself into his arms.

Carrie clung to Lucas, her arms encircling his neck, her lips pressed hungrily against his in a kiss that blotted out everything around her. She had known she missed him and that things were never quite as wonderful as when he was around, but only now did she realize she also felt incomplete without him. It was as though only part of her had been able to function in his absence. But Carrie knew this instinctively, and no such thing as logical thinking reared its ugly head to ruin the joy of their reunion.

“By God, I missed you,” Lucas murmured when he could catch his breath.

“Me too,” insisted Carrie, holding doggedly to her grip on his neck, her feet dangling several inches above the ground. “I didn’t know how utterly miserable the absence of one wrangler could make me. My sisters-in-law would say I’ve got a bad case.”

“I hope you’ve got a near mortal one. I want you to feel so awful you’ll never want me to leave again.”

“You dreadful man,” Carrie laughed, tightening her hold around his neck. The first time I admit to a weakness, and you immediately take advantage of it.”

“If I only could” Lucas replied, and tightened his hold on her, reluctantly fighting down the excitement that was coursing through his veins before he embarrassed himself in front of the several pairs of eyes he was sure were watching. “I’ve bloodied my head butting it against your stubborn resistance,” he said, kissing her again. “By now I’m too desperate to act like a gentleman. I’m determined to get you any way I can.”

“Well, put me down,” Carrie commanded without loosening her hold on his neck. “I think we’ve made enough of a spectacle of ourselves.” Lucas lowered her to her feet slowly, his lips sinking to meet hers in one more kiss. “I thought you would never come back,” Carrie murmured when she emerged from his embrace. “Don’t you ever leave me that long again.” Then she remembered his uncle and sobered. “Your uncle?”

“He died two days ago. We talked a lot about you, but I’ll tell you about that later when I can get you to myself. Tell me, what is going on around here? I almost thought I was in the wrong place.”

“Oh, I almost forgot, and here you are mussing me up in the middle of the station yard. Thank goodness he didn’t come while you were kissing me.”

“Don’t you mean while
you
were kissing
me?
And who is this
he
you’re talking about?”

Carrie blushed furiously in spite of herself. “Duncan Bickett, and if he had seen us just now, he would never believe I wasn’t brought up to kiss men in public, especially since I’m neither married nor engaged to you.”