Colorado Bride (46 page)

“I promise I will always hire professionals to investigate the robberies after this. I volunteered this time because I’m certain there’s someone inside the company selling information. There is no other way Jason Staples could be privy to our shipping dates. It’s almost more important that I catch the informant than the thief.”

“Then offer a reward.”

“I can’t offer a reward bigger than the gold shipment, or bigger than all the future shipments Staples may hope to steal. No, I have to see if I can get close enough to their camp to overhear them. Maybe they will mention the man’s name. If not, I’ll just have to hope I can force one of the gang to divulge it after I capture them.”

“You can’t capture a whole gang by yourself. That’s incredible.”

“I’m not going to try. I expect them to attack the stage somewhere between here and the next station, and I’ve brought some men from Denver whom I will position along the road. As the stage passes, they have instructions to follow behind, close enough to be able to help, but far enough back not to be seen.”

“Then you’re not going to be out there alone?”

“Where I’ll be depends on what I learn tonight”

“Tonight!” Carrie exclaimed. “Why can’t you sell the stage company? You could become a rancher, a mine owner, anything.”

“It wouldn’t matter. It’s the same all over the West, no matter what you do. This is a new country, and there are men out here like myself who want to build something out of this land. There are also men who are determined to take anything they can.”

“Then we can move back East,” Carrie said. “I will not endure a life where you and my children will be hemmed aabout by thieves and killers.”

“Your children will be safe. It’s just your husband who will have to contend with thieves and killers.”

“That’s all the more reason to move back East, at least until all this wildness is over and the men are all in jail.”

“By then the opportunity will have passed.”

“I told you I didn’t have to be rich.”

“I know, but this isn’t about riches, and you know it. It’s about making something, about building part of this wonderful land of ours, and you know I can’t go back.”

“Why not? It’s stupid to throw yourself in the way of bullets for an ideal.”

“Isn’t that what Robert and your brothers did?”

“And look what it got them. So many fine men killed and everything ruined.”

“They died for the wrong ideal, but everyone respects them for having the courage to stand up and fight for what they believed. What we have here is good and right, and I can no more turn my back and run and still be respected than you can turn around and go back to Virginia. I may be killed, but even the outlaw who shoots me will respect me. If I turn and run, even the lowest scum will think himself worth more than I am, and the honest citizens won’t care who shoots me. I can’t go.”

“Yes you can,” Carrie pleaded. “I don’t care what anybody else thinks. I’d rather have you alive than some dead hero.”

“I don’t care what anybody else thinks either, but I care what I think, and I care even more what you would think.”

“Me!” she almost squeaked. “I want you to go back East.”

“Do you really? Do you think a woman who came out here alone, not knowing what she would face, but willing to face Baca Riggins even after she had seen him, do you think this same woman would respect and love a man who would run away when some thief tried to take what was bis?”

“I wouldn’t care as long as you were safe.”

“Do you think she could love a man who wouldn’t protect his property? How could she know he would protect her, her children, and their right to a full and happy life? I don’t think she could. She might try if she loved the man a great deal, but deep inside there would be disappointment and scorn. And the man would know it.”

Lucas was right, and Carrie knew it. He didn’t have to do the job himself. He could have hired someone to do it, but having taken it on, he could not now refuse to follow it through to the end. It’s what she would have done herself, and she knew it was what Lucas would do, what he
had
to do.

She suddenly held him tight. “I’m afraid,” she said. “It’s one thing to face men of honor, but it’s not the same with thieves.”

“It’s easier. Men of honor are willing to die for what they believe. Thieves only want what they can take without danger to themselves”

“You promise to be careful? I don’t think I could live without you.”

“I promise to be very careful. “I’m rather fond of you myself. It wouldn’t take much persuading to keep me lying here forever.” He ran a hand down Carrie’s side and she felt her whole body shiver involuntarily.

“If I thought it would keep you here, I would wrap myself around you and never let go.”

“You could try it and see,” Lucas prompted.

“You’ll not get me with that trick,” Carrie said, preparing to get out of bed. “I know you’re going after those men no matter what I say, so you’d only be trying to take advantage of me again. I’ve got a stage coming in soon, and I can’t leave all the cooking to Katie.”

“You can’t leave just yet. We never decided when we were going to get married.”

“You never asked me.”

“Well, when do you want to get married?”

“This very second, but I will settle for the day after tomorrow. Then this dreadful business of the gold thieves will be over, and I can marry you with a mind free of worry.”

“I’ll have the stage driver send the preacher from Fort Malone. Or do you want to go into town to be married? You could always wait until we reached Denver.”

“No, I want to arrive in Denver as your wife. I imagine there’ll be some mighty disappointed women there, and it might save everyone a lot of trouble if it’s all said and done when we arrive.”

“You afraid I’ll back out?”

“Never of that,” Carrie said, bending over the bed to give him a gentle kiss. “I just want to get about the business of being your wife, and it’ll be a lot less trouble this way.”

“Forever the busy little bee,” Lucas groaned. “I wonder if Denver has any idea of the terrible force I’m about to turn loose on them.”

“You stop making fun of me, Lucas Barrow, or I’ll turn my attention to your stage company, and I promise it won’t be the same when I get through.”

“You can have Denver. You can have all of Colorado,” Lucas said in mock terror. “Just leave my poor company alone.”

Carrie abandoned her dressing to teach Lucas a lesson, and she found him a more than willing student.

Chapter 24

Carrie’s back was to the door when Jake hurried in with none of his usual nonchalance. That man you were supposed to marry is coming up the road,” he said to Katie. “I saw him from the hayloft.”

Carrie looked up and was surprised to see Jake breathing heavily. He had obviously come up from the barn at a run. Behind his customary vacuous expression, Carrie could see an element of anxiety she had not seen in him before. Jake was obviously uneasy about something.

“Do you want us to stay, or do you want to see him by yourself?” Carrie asked, turning to Katie. She seemed to have lost a little color, but otherwise she was her usual calm self.

“Let him say his piece, and then we’ll decide,” she said. “For all we know, he may be coming to tell me he doesn’t want to marry me.”

“I don’t know why he should do that, staying away as long as he has,” Jake said. He was not looking at Katie, but Carrie was sure his words were meant for her.

“It would only be fair if he wanted to break it off for I’ll not have him as me husband, and I mean to tell him so right off.”

An uncomfortable silence followed. Katie was composing her thoughts, Carrie was wondering what Katie meant to do after she refused Brian, and no one knew what Jake was thinking. The women continued about their tasks and Jake poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table. It was clear he wasn’t going to move until required to do so. Carrie wondered why he had rushed to tell Katie that Brian was coming. He still loudly professed to dislike women, though he was careful not to do it in Carrie’s presence, and Katie was still loud in her disapproval of just about everything Jake did. She had hoped Jake would moderate his stand on women, but lately she had begun to fear that Katie’s hopes were doomed to disappointment.

Carrie moved to the window and then out on the porch when she saw Brian ride into the yard. She was struck again by how young and handsome he looked—he looked hardly old enough to be out of his teens—and she wondered if Katie was doing the right thing. He wasn’t as tall as Lucas nor did his face have the same force of character, but then Katie was a much more mild-mannered individual than Carrie. She probably wouldn’t want the kind of cantankerous man Carrie found exciting.

“Morning, Mrs. Simpson,” Brian said as he dismounted. “I hear they’re going to turn this into an overnight stop. I also heard the contract is yours for as long as you want it.”

“That’s Mr. Bickett’s proposal,” Carrie said. “It’ll probably take a while before we learn what the company has decided to do.”

“If Duncan Bickett recommends it, they’ll do it. They think a lot of him in Denver.”

Carrie didn’t know what was the matter with her. She had never met a more polite, well-behaved man, but she found herself feeling like Katie. There was no reason for it, but she just didn’t trust him. “I imagine you came to see Katie,” she said, preceding him through the door. “She’s inside.” She didn’t know if Brian had hoped to see Katie alone, but he displayed no signs of distress when neither she nor Jake showed any signs of leaving.

“I’ve come for your decision, Katie O’Malley,” he said without preamble. “I’ll be getting my money soon, and I want to start looking for a place.”

Katie looked a little white about the mouth and her hands twisted nervously under her apron, but she didn’t hesitate or stumble over her speech. “I’ll be mighty remorseful if you have been putting off looking for your place because of me decision, Brian, but I find I cannot marry you. I’m sorry for it because you are a well-set-up young man, but me mind is made up and there be no changing it.”

Brian looked rather taken aback, but there was little he could say, if indeed he had wanted to say anything, with Carrie and Jake both in the room. “Are you certain?” he asked after a pause. “I can give you more time if you want to get to know me better.”

“She’d have to see you once in a while to do that, now wouldn’t she?” Jake said, and the antagonism in his voice surprised Carrie.

“I know I haven’t been as attentive as I should, but as I told you, “I’ve been traveling for the company, and I haven’t had any time to come out here.”

“It wouldn’t make any difference if you was to come to see me every day,” Katie said, still showing few signs of the perturbation Carrie knew raged inside her. “We won’t suit, and I won’t marry you. Let’s have an end to it.”

“I’ll say no more,” Brian agreed, and Carrie was convinced he was genuinely disappointed over Katie’s rejection.

“You can’t turn right around and go back to Fort Malone now” Carrie said, “not after that long ride. Sit down and have some coffee. We still have some pie if you would like a slice.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Simpson, that would be most welcome, that is, if Katie doesn’t mind.”

“Not a bit of it,” Katie assured him. “You stay as long as you like. It won’t bother me.”

Katie served the pie and coffee, and Brian sat down at the table with Jake, who showed every indication of out staying the young Irishman. Conversation languished, and after trying unsuccessfully for several minutes to fill the gap, Carrie gave up and let the silence reign undisturbed.

“You look like you’re holding a wake” Lucas whispered into Carrie’s ear when he entered the station a short time later. “I never saw such a solemn bunch.”

“Katie has just turned down Mr. Kelly’s offer,” Carrie explained. “Naturally things are a little strained just now.”

“Then maybe you can come outside with me. I’ve got a few things to talk over with you before I leave.” A look of dread flitted across Carrie’s face, but the others in the room were too occupied with their own thoughts to notice it.

“Who was that?” Brian asked idly when the door had closed behind Lucas and Carrie. “Somehow he doesn’t strike me as the cowboy type.”

“He’s not,” Katie said uncommunicatively.

“That’s Lucas. He’s the wrangler” Jake told him. “He just come from Denver because his Uncle Max died there sometime last week.” Brian’s gaze suddenly zeroed in on Jake.

“His last name wouldn’t be Barrow, would it?”

“Yeah. Max Barrow. They just buried him a few days back.”

“Are you sure of that?” Brian asked. His face seemed to retain its outward calm, but Katie was certain she read surprise and fear in his eyes.

“Sure we’re sure,” Jake said cantankerously. “You don’t think a body would be confused about something as simple as that, do you?”

“No, I guess not,” Brian agreed. He seemed to think no more of it, but Katie noticed he ate no more of his pie and took only one swallow of coffee before excusing himself.

“It’s a long ride back to Fort Malone, and I think I should get started,” he said. Neither Katie nor Jake disagreed with him.