Emmett (12 page)

She came back into the dining room, white in the face and obviously troubled.

“What's wrong?” Emmett asked, pausing with a bowl of mashed potatoes in his hand and an uplifted spoon over his plate.

“Alistair's missing,” she said unsteadily.

She didn't look at Guy, but everyone else did.

“I didn't let him out,” Guy said. He felt frightened. He hadn't been near the big cat. He liked him, now. The last thing he'd ever want to do was hurt the animal. But everybody, including his father, was giving him looks like daggers. Everybody except Melody, who couldn't seem to look at him at all.

“I didn't!” Guy repeated. “I haven't even seen him today…!”

“You were mad because Melody didn't want you to go hunting with Bill,” Emmett said curtly.

“I didn't let her cat out!” Guy got to his feet. “Dad, I'm not lying! I didn't do it! Why won't you believe me?”

“Because the last time you got mad at Melody, you
turned him out into the streets of Houston,” Emmett said icily. “And he wound up at the city pound, where instead of being put with new arrivals to be offered for adoption, he was accidentally mixed in a bunch scheduled for immediate termination!”

Melody's gasp was audible. Emmett had never told her that. She shivered, and Guy saw it, and felt sick all over again. She looked devastated. He was sorry he'd been so angry about Bill.

He'd complained to one of the cowboys about being deprived of the hunting trip, and the cowboy had told him, tongue-in-cheek, that Bill couldn't get anybody to go with him after he'd accidentally wounded his last hunting partner. He'd added that Bill had damned near accidentally shot Melody herself a couple of weeks back, too. Guy hadn't known that. It had surprised and then pleased him that Melody had argued about letting him go. He wanted to ask her about it over supper and apologize. He'd been about to, when Melody couldn't find Alistair. And right now Guy felt in danger of becoming the entrée instead of a fellow diner.

Emmett put the mashed potatoes down. “Let's go,” he said, tossing his napkin onto the table. “Everybody outside. We're going to find Alistair if it takes all night. Then,” he added with a cold glare at his eldest son, “you and I are going to have a long talk about the future.”

“You can't send me to military school.” Guy choked. “I won't go!”

“You'll go,” Emmett said, and kept walking. Melody barely heard him. She was too frightened for Alistair to notice much of what was being said. Guy had seemed so friendly, until she'd argued over that hunting trip. He was never going to accept her. He hated her. He had to,
in order to put her pet at risk a second time. She was devastated.

So was Guy. He was going to be banished because of something he hadn't even done. He was going to be sent away. Military school. Demerits. Uniforms. No sister and brother to play with. No ranch.

“No,” he said to himself. “No, I won't go!”

The others had gone out the door. Guy rushed to his room and got the few things he couldn't do without, including his allowance. He went back through the house, his heart pounding like mad, into his father's study. There was a small telephone journal, where important numbers were kept. His mother's number was there. He'd always wanted to use it, but he hadn't had the nerve. Now he did. He had absolutely nothing left to lose.

The phone rang and rang, and Guy watched the door nervously, chewing on his lip. He didn't want to be caught. He had to get away, but he needed a place to go. His mother was his only hope. She loved him. He knew she did, even if his father didn't. “Hello?”

“Mom?” His voice wavered. “Mom, it's me. Guy.”

“Guy!” There was excitement in her soft voice. “How are you? Does your father know you're calling me?” she added hesitantly.

“Mom, he's got a new wife,” he began.

“Yes, I know. Randy's sister.” She didn't even sound upset. “Melody is sweet and kind. She'll be good to you. I'm happy that your father has finally found someone he can really love, Guy…”

“But she hates me,” he wailed. “She blames me for stuff I don't do. Look, can I come and live with you? They don't really want me here!”

There was a pause. “Son, you know I'd love nothing
better. I really would love to have you. But, you see… I'm pregnant. And I'm having a hard time. I can't really look after you right now, having to stay in bed so much. But after the baby comes…” she added. “Guy?
Guy?
”

There was nothing but a dial tone on the other end of the line.

Guy stood looking at the replaced receiver. His mother was pregnant. She was going to have a baby. Not his father's baby. Randy's baby. That meant she was certainly never going to come back. She would have another family of her own, Randy's children.

Now, Guy thought numbly, he had no one at all. His father was remarried and would have other children, too. His mother didn't want him. He had nobody in the whole world.

He turned and walked out the front door. The rain was starting to come down in sheets. It was cold, and his jacket wasn't waterproof, but he really didn't care. He had nothing left to lose. His home, his secure life, his father, his mother, his family were all nothing but memories. He was unwanted and unloved.

Well, he thought with bitter sorrow, perhaps he could make it alone. He had twenty dollars in his pocket and he didn't mind hard work. There had to be someplace he could go where nobody would care about his age.

He started walking across the field toward the main highway. He didn't look back.

 

“Alistair!” Melody wailed. They'd been searching for half an hour, with no success at all. The big tabby cat hadn't turned up yet.

“You won't stop me this time,” Emmett said angrily as they paused just inside the barn. “Guy won't be hurt
by a little discipline. I'm going to enroll him in the same military school where I went when I was a boy.”

“But he was getting used to me,” Melody said miserably. “I know he was. I shouldn't have said anything about Bill…”

“And let him go off with the man and get killed?” He stared at her. “Melody, part of being a parent is knowing when to say no for a child's own good. You have to expect rebellion and tantrums, and not let yourself be swayed by them. Parenting is a rough job. Loving a child isn't enough. You have to prepare him to live in a hostile world.”

“I guess there's more to it than I realized.” She looked up at him. “Guy is so like you,” she said gently. “I care about him. I don't want him to be hurt.”

“Neither do I, but education isn't a punishment. I think he'll like it. I was homesick at first, but I loved it after the first two weeks. If he doesn't take to it,” he added quietly, “he can come back home.”

She smiled through her sadness. “You're a nice man.”

“I'm a wet man,” he replied. “Let's look for a few more minutes…”

“Emmett!” Amy shouted. “Emmett, he's here, he's here!”

“What?” He went into the barn, following her excited voice.

Emmett and Melody peered over into the corn crib and there, curled up on some hay, was a sleepy, purring Alistair.

“Oh, you monster!” Melody grumbled. She picked him up and cradled him close, murmuring softly to him.

“Found your cat, did you?” Larry, the eldest of the
cowboys, asked with a smile. “Meant to tell you he'd got out, but we had a few head get lost and I had to go help hunt them. He ran out past me when I was talking to Ellie Jenson in the kitchen. Guess my spurs spooked him,” he added ruefully. “No harm done, though, I suppose, was there? I'll be more careful next time, boss.”

He tipped his hat and went to put up the tack he was carrying, water dripping off his hat.

Emmett and Melody exchanged horrified glances.

“Guy!” she whispered.

He drew in a deep breath. “Well, I guess I'll eat crow for a month,” he muttered. “Come on. I might as well get it over with.”

But it wasn't that easy. They went back into the house and the telephone was ringing off the hook. Mrs. Jenson had gone home an hour earlier, and Guy was apparently unwilling to pick up the receiver.

Emmett grabbed it up. “Hello?”

“Emmett! Thank God! It's Adell,” she said.

Hearing her voice threw him off balance. He'd avoided talking to her for two years. Now, it was like hearing any woman's voice.

“Hello, Adell,” he said pleasantly. “What can I do for you?”

“It's Guy,” she said. “I've been trying to get you for a half hour. Guy called, and he sounded pretty desperate. He wanted to come and live with me, but I blurted out about the baby, and he hung up. I'm so worried. I didn't mean to tell him like that, Emmett. I didn't mean it to sound as if I didn't love him or want him…!”

“It's all a misunderstanding,” Emmett said gently. “Now don't worry. He's hiding in his room and we'll get it straightened out. He'll be fine.”

“I knew it would be hard for the kids when you got
married again, but Melody's so sweet,” she said softly. “She's just what the four of you need. The boys will worship her when they get used to her, and so will Amy.”

“They already do,” he said. “I've been pretty bull-headed over this, Adell. I'm sorry.”

“I did it the wrong way,” she confessed. “I ran when I should have stood up and been honest with you. I guess if we'd really loved each other it would have been different. But I didn't know what love was until Randy came along.” She hesitated. “I hope you know what I'm talking about.”

“I do now,” he said, staring quietly at Melody. “Oh, yes, I understand now.”

“Let me know about Guy?”

“Of course. Adell, I'm glad for you and Randy, about the baby.”

“We're ecstatic,” she said. “I can hardly wait. A baby might be just the thing for the kids.”

“You can bring it down to meet them when it's born,” he said.

“Thanks. I will. But what I meant was if you and Melody had one of your own eventually, it would bring them closer to her.”

He stared at Melody and flushed as the glory of fathering her child made his knees weak.

“Emmett?” Adell called.

“What? Oh. Yes. You can call the kids or write to them if you want,” he said absently. “They can come and visit, too, when it's convenient. Or you and Randy can come down here. Tell him I won't hit him.”

“He knows that. We both felt guilty over what he'd done to you, for a long time. I'm glad it worked out.”

“So am I. I'll have Guy call you back.”

“That would be nice. Tell him I love him, and that I didn't mean he wasn't welcome here.”

“I will.” He hung up, his eyes slow and warm on Melody's face. “Adell thinks I should make you pregnant,” he mused.

She caught her breath. “Well!”

He moved toward her, and paused to frame her face in his big, lean hands. “I think I should, too,” he whispered. “Not right away, not until we're really a family. But I'd like it very much if we had a child together, Melody.” He bent and drew his lips softly over hers.

“So would I.” She clung to him, giving him back the kiss. She smiled warmly. “But for now, we'd better tell Guy that he isn't going to be banished to Siberia.”

“Good point.”

They went to his room and knocked. There was no answer. With a rueful smile, Emmett pushed it open, but Guy wasn't there.

Emmett looked around. Some of Guy's favorite possessions were missing, including that whittling knife that Melody had given him. He looked at her with fear in his eyes.

“He's run away, hasn't he?” she asked with faint panic.

His face was grim. “I'm afraid that's just what he's done,” he replied.

J
acobsville seemed to be a long way from anywhere, Guy thought, huddled miserably in his jacket while rain poured down on his bare head and soaked his sneakers. He was cold and getting colder by the minute. He should have taken time to search for the raincoat he could never find, but he'd been afraid someone would try to stop him.

After a few wet minutes, he managed to flag down a family of Mexicans driving toward Houston. With his meager Spanish, painstakingly taught to him by his bilingual father, he made them understand that he was on his way to his family. They smiled and nodded and gestured him into the crowded car of smiling, welcoming faces. People, he thought, were generally pretty nice. He was pleasantly surprised. Too bad he couldn't say that for his own family. They'd probably find Melody's cat dead and nobody would speak to him for the rest
of his life. It wasn't his fault, but he guessed maybe he deserved it for what he'd done in Houston.

The Mexican family stopped at Victoria to get gas, and Guy had second thoughts about continuing on to Houston. He might as well try to find a place to stay here. Victoria was big enough that he could get lost in it.

He found a vacant lot where a small building stood with its door ajar. It was still raining. He darted into the shack and came face-to-face with a couple of men who looked as if murder might be their favorite Sunday pastime.

 

It took forever just to get the kids into Emmett's Bronco and strapped in. All the while, the rain was getting worse and Melody was chewing on her fingernails. They'd called the local police and a bolo went out over the air to law enforcement vehicles. Emmett had a CB unit and a scanner in the Bronco, and the scanner was turned on so that they'd hear immediately if Guy was spotted.

Emmett was actually able to track the boy down the highway at the end of the ranch road, until the footprints abruptly stopped.

He got back into the vehicle, his hat dripping water. “This is as far as he walked,” he said tersely, turning toward Melody. “Thank God for thick mud and a light drizzling rain. I tracked him to the other side of the road. He's headed that way, toward Victoria.”

He wheeled the vehicle around in the road and set off with grim determination toward the city.

“I hope to God whoever he was riding with needed gas, and that he found some decent person and not a pervert to get into the car with.”

“He's a smart boy,” Melody said gently, touching his arm. “He'll be all right, Emmett. I know he will.” She grimaced. “Oh, it's my fault!”

“No, it's not,” he said tersely. “It takes a little work to turn five people into a family. It doesn't happen overnight, you know.”

“I'm learning that. All the same, Guy's more important to me than Alistair, even if I do love the stupid cat,” she added quietly, staring worriedly through the misty windshield.

It took forever to get into the city. Then Emmett stopped at the nearest gas station before he proceeded to the next few. They were almost at the far end of town before an attendant remembered a bareheaded boy in a leather bomber jacket and jeans and sneakers.

“He was pretty wet,” the man said with a grin. “Came in with a family of Mexicans, but he didn't want to go on to Houston with them. I had to explain. Kid spoke really lousy Spanish,” he murmured sheepishly.

“Did you see which way he went?”

“No. I'm sorry, but we got busy and I didn't notice. Can't have gotten far, though. It's only been ten or fifteen minutes, and he didn't hitch another ride, I'm sure of that.”

“Thanks. Thanks a lot. Okay if I leave the Bronco here while we look for him?”

“Sure, it's okay! Just park it anywhere. I'll look out for it.”

“Much obliged.”

Emmett pulled it out of the way and parked it. He turned to the others. “We're going to spread out and go over this area of town like tar paper. Amy, you go with Melody. Polk, with me. If you find him, sing out.”

“All right, Emmett,” Amy said politely. “We'll find him.”

“God, I hope so,” he said heavily. It was already dark. The streetlights were a blessing, but any city was dangerous at night. They had to find the boy soon, or they might never find him.

They piled out of the Bronco and Emmett paused to look hard at Melody. “Don't go anywhere you don't feel comfortable. I don't like having any of us out on these streets at night. Stay where it's lighted. If you get in trouble, scream. I'll hear you.”

She smiled up at him. “Amy and I both will,” she mused.

“I can scream good, Emmett,” Amy said. “Want to hear me?”

“Not just yet, thanks,” he murmured, tugging a pigtail. “Get going.”

Melody and Amy went down one street, Emmett another. They met a policeman cruising by, and Emmett stopped to talk to him. He explained the situation.

“We got the
bolo
on the radio,” the patrolman, an elderly man, replied. “We're watching for him. He's pretty safe if he's still in this area. Hope you find him.”

“So do I,” Emmett said quietly. “He's got the wrong end of the stick. He thinks we don't care about him because we have to say no sometimes.”

“Prisons are full of kids who never got said no to,” the policeman mused. “Might tell him that.”

“He'll get an earful, after he gets hugged half to death,” Emmett said with a wry smile.

“That's how I raised my four. One's a lawyer now.” With a twinkle in his eyes he added, “Of course, the others are respectable…”

Emmett laughed despite his fears and lifted his hand as the patrol car pulled away into the darkness.

 

Down the street, Melody was huddled in her coat, drawing Amy closer as the rain began to fall again. She looked and looked, and found nothing. Finally, yielding to defeat, she turned and guided Amy back toward the service station.

The shack in the empty lot had caught her eye earlier, but she hadn't paid it much mind because she was sure Guy would be trying to make some distance.

Now, she wasn't so certain.

“Let's take a look in there, just in case,” she told Amy. “Stay close.”

“Okay, Melody.”

They moved quickly toward the shack, and as they approached it, loud voices could be heard. There was a violent thumping noise, and the ramshackle door suddenly moved and Guy came tearing out of it. His face was bleeding and his jacket was half off. A thin, dirty man was holding the half that was off, dragging at it.

“I said, I want the damned jacket!” the surly voice repeated.

“It's Guy!” Amy exclaimed.

“Yes.” Melody's eyes blazed with anger. She was never so happy for her size. “Stay behind me,” she called as she broke into a run.

Guy was fighting the man, but the other one had a stick and was raising it.

“You leave my son alone!” Melody yelled at them.

The men stopped suddenly and gaped at her. So did a shocked, delighted Guy. While they were gaping, she sailed right into the one who had Guy by the sleeve, performed a jump kick accompanied by a cry that would
have made her instructor applaud and landed her foot squarely into the attacker's gut.

Guy barely had time for one astonished look at her threatening stance. Loosened by the man's collapse, Guy turned quickly to place a hard kick in the other man's groin before he could bring down the stick he was holding up and then planted a hard fist right into his cheek. The second man went down with a little cry of pain and landed unconscious.

“Are you all right?” Melody asked Guy, dragging him close to hug him. “Oh, you holy terror, if you
ever
do anything like this again…!” She was barely coherent, crying and mumbling, searching his face for cuts and bruises, brushing back his unruly damp hair. But the whole time she was holding him as his mother once had when he stumbled and fell, when he was hurt or afraid.

Big boys weren't supposed to like this sort of thing, of course, much less tolerate it. And he was going to twist away from her any minute now and make some curt remark. But just for a minute or so, it wouldn't hurt to be hugged and cried over.

“How did you
do
that?” he asked, aghast.

“Oh, that. Well, I have a belt in tae kwon do. Just a brown. I never finished my training.”

“
Just
a brown!” He caught his breath. “That was great! Like watching Chuck Norris or Jean-Claude Van Damme,” he added, naming his two idols. “Listen, could you teach me some of that?”

“You and the other kids, too,” she promised. “Then next time, you'll be prepared.” She grimaced as she studied him. “Listen, Alistair's fine, one of the men accidentally let him out,” she said miserably, drawing back. “I'm so sorry. All of us are sorry for blaming you.
For heaven's sake, you're more important than a cat, even if he was the only friend I had! Your father was frantic, and so were the rest of us!”

Guy felt strange. He sort of smiled and couldn't stop. “I'm all right.” He looked down at the squirming, groaning men. “Uh, it might not be a bad idea if we leave,” he suggested, taking her arm. “You and I were pretty much a match for them, but we've Amy to think about.”

“You're right. I do wish I had a gun,” she muttered, glaring at them.

“Can you shoot one?” Guy asked on the way down the street.

“Sure I can shoot,” she said. “I've won awards.”

“Really?”

“You still can't go hunting with Bill,” she said curtly, glaring at him. “He'd kill you. He's not responsible with a gun. If you go hunting, I'll take you, or your father will. Or we'll all go. But I'm not shooting anything, even if I do go along, and I couldn't skin a squirrel if my life depended on it.”

“We wouldn't go hunting to kill stuff,” Guy said. “We'd go hunting so that we can grumble about how cold it was and how much big game got away. And so that we can sit and talk away from cars and horns and clocks.”

“Oh.”

He shrugged. “It would be all right if you came along, I guess. We could shoot at targets.”

“I can shoot, too,” Amy said. “I have a bow and arrow that Emmett made me.”

“Polk can bring his
atl-atl,
” Guy remarked. “We'd be the most dangerous family in the woods.”

Melody laughed. She felt exhausted now. They came
to the street where the service station sat on the corner, and there were Emmett and Polk coming toward them.

“Guy!” Emmett shouted.

The boy ran to him, and Emmett lifted him off the ground in a bear hug. “My God, you are something! I wish I'd hit you harder when you were a little kid!”

“I guess you should have, all right,” Guy murmured, fighting tears. “I'm sorry, Dad…!”

“
I'm
sorry,” Emmett corrected grimly. He put the boy down. “We're all sorry. If you had any idea how worried we were!” His green eyes began to glitter. “Son, if you ever,
ever
do anything like this to us again, I'll…I'll…!”

“He's trying to think up something bad enough to threaten you with,” Melody translated, grinning at him. “It may take a while.”

“Some men were beating up Guy, Emmett,” Amy said excitedly. “Melody knocked one of them out, and Guy hit the other one. They're lying in the dirt back there.”

“You'd better show me those men,” Emmett said. The remark Amy had made about Melody went right over his head. He was incensed that anyone should hit his child. “Why were they beating on you?” Emmett asked slowly.

“They wanted my jacket,” Guy said, grimacing. “I should have had better sense than to go in there in the first place, but I was wet and miserable and I didn't think. They were tramps, I think—maybe hitchhikers.”

“Let's check this out, just in case,” Emmett said, and he looked pretty dangerous, Guy thought as they walked together toward the shack. But a police car came by before they reached it. Emmett told the officer what had happened, and he was told that there
had been some trouble with transients lately. He went to check, but the men were long gone. Which was just as well.

The fighting Deverells climbed back into their Bronco and went home.

 

A little later, with three exhausted kids tucked up in bed before they managed to rehash the exciting incident, Melody lay curled up in Emmett's hard arms, smiling with pure bliss after the most tender loving she'd ever known.

“This is what I wanted it to be on our wedding night,” he said drowsily. “But I was too desperate for you.” He bent and brushed his mouth lovingly over her soft lips, smiling warmly.

“When we get around to making a baby, I want it to be like it was tonight,” she whispered into his warm throat. “We've never been closer than this.”

“I know.” He cradled her body to his and stretched lazily. “Guy's going to be Alistair's champion from now on, I imagine,” he murmured.

“Friends to the end. Alistair's sleeping with him.”

“He's your champion, too. You should have heard him telling Polk what you did to that tramp on his behalf.” He glanced at her. “Polk told him what you said, about his being more important to you than Alistair. He's been strutting all night.”

“He's a very special boy. But he's much more sensitive than he looks.” She traced his thick eyebrows. “We'll have to remember that. Both of us. And no military school. If he goes, I'm going with him.”

“For protection?”

“Laugh if you like, but I'm a brown belt in tae kwon do.”

“What?”

She shrugged, smiling at his surprise. “Didn't you wonder how I was able to drop a man that size so easily? I didn't have anything else to do on long winter nights, so I enrolled in a Korean karate class. It was very educational.”

“No wonder you didn't balk when I asked you to go with Amy to look for Guy. I worried about doing that. Men are going to feel protective about their women. It's their nature.”