Come Spring (50 page)

While the others sat talking and laughing, waiting for Annika to serve them, Buck fidgeted in his chair, then stood up. She was ignoring him, that much was evident, and he didn’t like the chill he felt whenever she turned a cold shoulder to him. He felt the other men’s eyes on him as he crossed the room and stood behind Annika who was piling fried chicken on a platter. He ignored the men and tried to keep his eyes on her instead. It was an easy task he’d set for himself.

“Can I help you?” he asked softly.

“No, thank you.”

“What’s wrong?” he whispered.

“I thought you had left without a word.” Turning away from him, she carried the chicken to the table and handed it to Dickie who began to pile some on his plate. Annika ladled boiled potatoes and carrots out of a Dutch oven.

“I was going to,” he admitted.

“What stopped you?”

“Your brother needed help.”

As soon as his words were out, she turned her ice blue eyes on him. “At least you’re honest,” she snapped.

Again he was treated to the sight of her back as she carried the vegetables to the table. When she returned to the cabinet she said curtly, “You’d better sit down or you’ll miss getting anything to eat.”

“Did you cook all this yourself?”

“I did.” When her pride mingled with defiance, she couldn’t help but lift her chin a little. Just wait until he saw the pie—

With a startled cry, Annika ran to the stove, grabbed the holders from a hook on the wall, and jerked open the oven door. The pie was a darker gold, the crust a bit crisper than she would have liked, but the dessert was more of a success than she had hoped. When she set it on top of the stove and closed the oven door, Dickie called out, “That pie sure looks fine, Miss Annika. Is it apple?”

She couldn’t help but glance at Buck to watch his expression when she said, “Yes. And I made it myself.”

“Looks every bit as good as Mrs. Storm’s,” Tom assured her.

“Thank you.” She beamed at him.

Buck wanted to wipe the grin right off the other man’s face. He paced back to the table. A loud thump on the floor of the room overhead caused all of them to look up. The sound was followed by crying and a call for “Ankah” to come up. Her hands full, Annika turned to Buck. “Could you go up and bring Buttons down?”

Buck could feel the men’s eyes on him as he left the room and was glad to get away from their scrutiny. They’d been watching him all day, probably speculating among themselves as to what was going on between him and the boss’s sister. Kase had kept him by his side all day, encouraged him to “at least stay for dinner.” Now he was trapped in a net of his own weaving. He could hear Buttons crying. He immediately walked down the hall and opened her door. “Hello, Baby. What’s the matter?”

When Buttons saw it was Buck, she dropped her new doll and ran across the room. She squealed when he lifted her high over his head.

“Go home now, all right?” Buttons, wearing a navy dress with a middy collar adorned with red stars, nodded rapidly in answer to her own question.

His smile faded. “Nope. Time to eat. You hungry?”

“Me go home. And Ankah, too.”

“Let’s go eat instead,” he said, knowing how Buttons could be once she got on a subject and wouldn’t let it go. As he shifted her to his hip, he tried to ignore the familiar weight in his arms.

When he stepped into the hallway, he met Kase coming up the back staircase carrying a tray laden with food. Kase Storm paused, nodded at Buck, smiled at Buttons, and disappeared into the master bedroom. Buck headed downstairs.

S
HE
noticed his limp again the minute he walked back into the kitchen and realized his wound must have been far worse than he had let on.

Annika watched with concern as Buck pulled out a chair. He sat down with Buttons on his lap and pulled his plate toward him.

“We saved you some,” Dickie volunteered, shoving the platter of fried chicken toward Buck.

Buck nodded at the same time he wondered why Annika was staring at him so intently. He let Buttons pick out the piece of chicken they would share, heaped his plate with vegetables, broke open biscuits and smothered them in chicken gravy, and then settled down to eat.

She pulled out a chair and sat across from him. “Want me to hold Buttons so you can eat?”

“No!” Buttons yelled.

Annika almost smiled. It wouldn’t be as easy for him to get away from the child as he might have thought. Now, if only she could find time to convince him that they belonged together, that with her beside him he could become anything he wanted.

The other men downed their meals in silence, intent on the food as they shoveled it down as if they were starving. She picked at a plate of vegetables, toyed with a chicken wing, and somehow got through the meal without staring at Buck Scott. When the others were finished, Annika cleared the table, served up the pie and coffee, and then waited as one by one the men complimented her as they left the table and went back to their chores. Finally, when she was alone with Buck and Buttons, Annika poured herself a cup of coffee and tried to think of something, anything, she could say to ease the tension between them.

“Go home?” Buttons asked again.

Annika felt her heartstrings tighten. She longed to ask, Yes, can we? but she refused to invite herself.

“Want some more pie?” Buck tried to divert Buttons’s attention. She shook her head no so hard she set her curls bobbing.

“You were limping,” Annika said.

He looked at her. Finally. “When I get tired my leg hurts. All that riding around in circles today didn’t do it much good.” He took a sip of coffee. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think your brother didn’t know what he was doing out there today.”

“He’s new at this.”

“Yeah. Right.”

“I’m glad you stayed to help.”

“This won’t work, Annika. No matter how many buffalo get loose, chickens you fry, or apple pies you bake.”

“You won’t even give it a chance?”

“Not at your expense.”

“Why don’t you let me worry about me?”

He rubbed his hand over his beard and then through his tousled curls. Buttons squirmed on his lap. He set her on her feet. She walked over to Annika and tugged on her apron until Annika lifted her onto her lap.

“We go home?”

“No.” Annika shook her head. “Buck says we have to stay here.”

“No!” Buttons began kicking the edge of the table.

With a helpless glance at Buck, Annika let Buttons climb down again. She ran off toward the parlor.

“Will she be all right?” His gaze followed the child.

“There are some toys and books in there for her. She’ll play alone for a while; she’s good at that.” She fingered the hem of the tablecloth, folding and refolding it, pressing it with her fingernail. “I’m not going back to Boston.”

He shook his head. “You’ll change your mind.”

A half smile curved her lips. She’d never go back, not now. She’d changed too much. She belonged here, if not with him, then near him. His child belonged here. She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“What will you do?”

“What do you care?” she said softly, purposely trying to push him to anger. Anything was better than his silence.

When he slammed his palms against the table, she jumped. Dishes rattled; a water glass fell over, spilling the remains of its contents. “I care, dammit. I care too much or I’d already have left here by now.” He was glaring at her, his eyes blue shards of ice as they bore into hers. “My life was just fine before you came along. I had my cabin, my work, I knew who I was and what I had to do.”

“You seem to have conveniently forgotten that you went looking for a wife and mother for Buttons and now that you’ve found one, you don’t want her,” she snapped back.

“I can’t afford her!”

Furious, Annika stood up and pushed back her chair. She leaned on the table, so close to his face that he was forced to meet her eyes. “I didn’t want to tell you this, because I know how you’ll react, but I have enough money to last me for the rest of my life. What you need to do is swallow your stubborn pride and face the truth. I can support us while you go to school and become a doctor if that’s what you want to do. If not, I’ll give every penny to my brother if that’s what it takes to make you happy.”

He slammed his palms down again and pushed himself to his feet until they were nose to nose. “Do you think
that
solves the problem? You want me to be a kept man?”

“No, I do not.”

“You do, too! You’re dangling medical school in front of me so you can buy me as easily as you do a new dress or hat or pair of shoes.”

She slapped him. Hard.

He grabbed her shoulders, but the table between them prevented him from doing more than shaking her slightly.

“Well, this is a delightful scene.”

They both turned in unison and found Kase standing in the doorway.

Buck let go of Annika.

She faced her brother just as defiantly as she had Buck. “Can’t we have even a
minute
of privacy here?”

“With all the yelling I didn’t think this discussion was secret.”

Buck strode to the back door and paused while he took down his hat and coat.

“I wouldn’t go anyplace if I were you,” Kase warned.

“Am I a prisoner?” Buck dared Kase to stop him.

“No, but there’s a buggy pulling up out front and I think the folks in it probably came to see you.”

Buck frowned.

“Who is it?” Annika demanded irritably. Wouldn’t they ever have more than a few moments alone?

When a loud knock sounded at the front door, Kase started off to answer it. “Better come with me, Scott,” he called out over his shoulder.

Buck cursed beneath his breath, shoved his hat and coat back onto the rack, and stomped after him.

Annika pressed her hands to her burning cheeks and sighed.

Then she followed the men to the front hall.

B
UCK
stood behind Kase Storm as he opened the front door.

“Hello, Leonard,” Kase called out. “What brings you over this way?”

Buck knew what had brought Storm’s neighbor to his doorstep. Seated in the buggy beside the well-dressed rancher who swung down off the high seat was Mary MacGuire, the old woman he paid to care for Patsy and beside her sat Patsy herself. Although he hadn’t seen his sister for nearly three years now, there was no mistaking her. Thick blond hair that fell to her hips in waves was partially covered by a poke bonnet that tied beneath her chin. Patsy was thinner than he remembered, her long arms and legs concealed by the sleeves and skirt of her dress, but her swanlike neck and hollow cheekbones bespoke that thinness. She was dressed in faded calico, a dress he didn’t recognize, and a wool capelet.

Buck felt Annika’s presence when she moved to stand beside him and almost forgot himself as he started to slip his arm about her waist. He caught himself before he did, thankful that she did not seem to notice.

Annika paid him no mind, for she was curiously watching the occupants of the carriage as they alighted one by one. “Who are they?” she asked her brother.

“That’s Leonard Wilson,” Kase explained. “His ranch borders mine. I’ve never met the women.”

“I have,” Buck said.

Annika turned to Buck and noticed his blanched coloring and the intent way he was watching the emaciated blond woman with the regal air following the other two up the stairs. She immediately knew without asking that it was his sister—there was only one woman in the world who could look so much like both Buck and Buttons.

“That’s Patsy, isn’t it?” she whispered.

He merely nodded, never taking his eyes off his sister.

Hearing the commotion in the hallway, Buttons ran in from the parlor and tugged on Buck’s pant leg. When he didn’t respond immediately, she turned to Annika, who quickly lifted her up.

Kase and Wilson exchanged pleasantries. Mary MacGuire was introduced to Kase and then Annika, who studied the older woman for a long silent moment. She had never seen such a character before. The woman’s face was burned as dark as a berry by the sun and as lined as dry ground in late summer. Her hair was so thin that it was nothing more than gray wisps sticking straight out around her head. She clenched a thin cigarillo tightly between her teeth and squinted through the smoke. Even more amazing, Mary MacGuire was wearing a pair of trousers and a man’s leather vest and overcoat.

Buck had hired Mary to care for Patsy, but as Annika compared the two, she thought Mary looked far crazier than her charge. But then, appearances had proved to be all too deceiving of late. Patsy stood without looking at any of them as she studied the ceiling of the veranda. Neatly gowned and wearing a poke bonnet and short wool cape, she paid none of the others any mind until finally it was time to introduce Patsy Scott. Mary MacGuire placed her hand on Patsy’s elbow. Patsy scowled down at Mary and shrugged free, then resumed her regal stance, this time staring Buck right in the eye. “‘Pray you stand farther from me,’” Patsy ordered him.

Annika watched the exchange. Patsy’s odd tone sent chills down her spine. Buck held his breath and placed himself between Annika and Patsy. From what he could tell, Patsy wasn’t any more sane than the last time he’d seen her; she still thought she was the Egyptian queen, was still quoting from Shakespeare’s
Antony and Cleopatra.

Ever the host, Kase calmly said, “Shall we all go in?”

The strange party made its way into the front hall. Annika remained firmly planted beside Buck with Buttons held tightly in her arms. Kase looked from Buck to Annika to Patsy. He cleared his throat and suggested Mary and Leonard accompany him to the kitchen for a cup of coffee. “What do you think, Mrs. MacGuire?” he asked the older woman.

Mary gave Patsy a look of warning. “Behave yourself now, your highness, you hear?”

Patsy ignored her as she stared at a point over Annika’s shoulder.

Uncertain what his sister would do, or what she was capable of, Buck braced himself for a scene. “Maybe you should take Buttons to the kitchen,” he said aside to Annika.

“Buttons is her child, Buck. She should have the chance to see her,” Annika whispered back. Then she spoke directly to Patsy. “Shall we all go in the parlor?”