Promises Linger (Promise Series) (43 page)

“Thank you.” What else could he say in the face of this concern that didn’t make sense?

“Supper’s ready. I hope you like chicken fricassee.”

He sat in the chair, but not before checking it unobtrusively to see if the legs were sabotaged. It was as solid as a rock. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

She placed a mouth-watering concoction in front of him. Two seconds later, she served herself. He’d watched her serve both, so that left out poisoning.

He applied himself to his meal like it was his last, ‘cause, sure as shooting, it was. He was halfway through his plate when he realized she was eating, too. Not picking at her food like he expected, seeing as the way they’d parted, but actually eating. And with enjoyment. He was so shocked, he stared.

She noticed. “Is something wrong?”

Not one for beating around the bush, he said, “You’re eating.”

“It’s supper time.”

“You never eat when you’re upset.”

“That’s true.”

“When I left here this afternoon, you were mad enough to have target practice with my heart.”

She took a delicate bite of chicken stew. Washed it down with some milk, and then took a bite of biscuit. He watched her. His gaze lingered on her lips. A predictable response started trickling through his body. Damn! The woman could heat his blood just by eating.

She ran her tongue over her lips, scooping crumbs and butter as she went. The trickle of desire roared into a flood. He dragged his gaze from her lips and found her staring at him. In her eyes, there was humor, knowledge, and something softer he couldn’t name. When she finally deigned to answer him, her response cleared up nothing. “I admit I was mad this morning, but you’re overreacting. I was thinking more along the lines of buckshot in your posterior.”

God help him, he could picture it—her with a shotgun and him with a stinging butt. “Buckshot, huh?”

“I wanted to make a dent in your arrogance.”

“And you figure I keep my arrogance in my hindquarters?”

She shrugged. “It seemed as likely a spot as any.”

“I’m going to miss your sense of humor, darlin’.”

“You’re admitting I have one, finally?”

“I’ve always known you have one. It’s just been a darn shame the care you have of it.”

She answered his smile with a sigh. “I admit I wasn’t the best of wives for a while.”

“You came along just fine,” he answered, as serious as she was.

“I was thinking while you were gone.”

“That when you came up with the buckshot plan?”

She shook her head and motioned for him to eat. “No. That’s when I realized how unreasonable I’ve been.”

“You, darlin’?”

“Don’t go teasing, Asa.”

“I am serious here.”

“No, you’re not. You’re in a strange mood, but I’m hoping you’ll be back to your old self by the time we finish our conversation.”

“Must have been some understanding you came to.”

She shrugged. She didn’t speak, just waited. From the way her eyes were glued to his plate, he figured she was waiting on him to eat. He took a bite. As if on cue, she started talking. “Ever since we married, you’ve been taking care of me.”

He shrugged, hampered to do more by a mouthful of food.

She didn’t seem to mind his lack of response. “After I got over my mad this morning, I started thinking on what kind of man you are.” She patted his hand. “You’re a taking-care-of man. You handle everything by yourself. You always have. It was unreasonable of me to expect that, just because we’re married, you’d automatically understand you no longer have to do things on your own.”

“I don’t?”

“No,” she said gently, as if she thought this was going to hurt. “I blame it on a lack of family life that you don’t know you’re supposed to treat your wife like a partner rather than a child.”

“And your family taught you this?”

She shook her head “No. Millie and Doc did.”

“And I need to follow their example?”

She nodded earnestly. “Yes.”

And she thought he was in a strange mood. She sat there across from him, looking as delicate as a flower in a white lacy-necked blouse tucked into a blue serge skirt, and she didn’t want him to protect her? The woman was clearly out of her mind.

“You spent all morning thinking on this?”

“Yes.” This time, after she patted his hand, she ended the motion by curling her fingers around his. “We can do this, Asa.”

He stared into her earnest face. Her beautiful green eyes framed by their sooty lashes glowed like gems in the lamplight. She was the most beautiful thing in the world, and, for a few precious weeks in his life, she’d shown him heaven, but she was looking for a hero. God, he hated to be the one to break the news to her. “You were right when you said there aren’t any heroes.”

She looked confused.

He pulled his hand from hers before she could do the rejecting. “I promised you I was going to save this ranch, Elizabeth, and I aim to do it.”

“I know you will.”

He pushed his plate away, his dinner half-eaten. “This isn’t one of your books, Elizabeth. You’ll keep the ranch, but it won’t be clean or pretty. There are going to be sacrifices.”

She frowned at his plate, then at him. “I told you, Asa. I’m not a child. I understand responsibility and sacrifice.”

“Even if your pal Aaron is one of those sacrifices?”

She sat back in her chair, guard up. “What are you talking about?”

“In order to save your ranch, I’m going to take Aaron down.”

“What does Aaron have to do with anything?”

“He’s the one who’s been driving the Rocking C into the ground.”

She bristled immediately. “That’s absurd. Aaron is my friend.”

“I know you see it that way, but, as I mentioned before, with friends like him, you don’t need to be hunting up enemies.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Darlin’, the one thing I know is that, if you’re counting Aaron as a friend, you’d best start packing something against snakebite.”

“You don’t know him as well as I do.”

“I know him well enough.”

Her hands balled into fists. Her voice dropped from warm to icy politeness. “I know you’ve always been jealous of our closeness, but you’re going too far.”

Her withdrawal struck him like a slap. He shook his head. “Got to disagree with you there. I’m saving that for tomorrow.”

Fact was, he was saving a lot for tomorrow. Including his goodbyes, because, sure as hell, when he called out Aaron for his back-stabbing, Elizabeth wasn’t going to waste a lot of time sending her husband packing.

She interrupted his thoughts. “I know from your notes in the books that you suspect someone of sabotaging the Rocking C.”

And she wanted him to tell her he didn’t suspect Aaron. He ran his hands through his hair. “There’s no sense dancing around the subject. Aaron’s the one behind the Rocking C’s troubles.”

“My father made some mistakes…?” Her hands disappeared from the tabletop. He assumed from the way her spine was razor-back sharp, she was clutching her fingers in her lap. “Number one being taking Aaron on as a partner?” she asked, and then went on before he could answer. “Do you have proof?”

She looked at him. It was clear in her eyes she was hoping against hope that she wasn’t going to lose another dream to reality. He swore long and hard. Why did he have to be the messenger? Why couldn’t her father have had the brains God gave a rock, and seen Aaron for the snake in the grass he was?

“Nothing the law would cozy up to,” he hedged.

“Which means you don’t have proof.”

Christ, he could feel the knots that bound them together unraveling. The small part of him that hoped she’d believe him, despite her lifetime belief in Aaron, started to die. “I’ve got the facts. Whether they’ll hold up in a court of law isn’t the point.”

“It is to me.”

“Yeah. I figured that.”

“What are these facts?”

“First off, Aaron’s set to lose everything without the water rights you grant him.”

“So? He knows those aren’t in danger.”

“He set you up to lose the ranch by furthering that bank note when any prudent advice would be to hold tight while you were solvent.”

“I don’t agree.”

The last drop of hope in him died. “No shock there.” Wanting this over, he pushed on. Words fell over words as he let the explanation spew forth. “Then this fancy pants Brent comes along. Man goes out of his way to hunt you up and, from what Old Sam says, seemed to know exactly what to say to you to make you tumble like an old stack of hay.”

“I was stupid.”

“You were set up.”

“Who says?”

“I do, and so do the men.”

“What do you know?”

“More than you, apparently, because there was no danger of you losing the ranch until you married me.” He shot her an amused glance. “Appears you spiked their guns when you took matters into your own hands. The way Cougar and I figure it, they couldn’t be sure I’d continue to allow the water, so they had to drive it under.”

“They called in the note.” Desperation entered her voice.

“Yeah. They delivered the news when you and I were in town that day. And guess who was walking out of the office right before I walked in?”

“Aaron, but that’s not surprising. It is the only bank in town.”

“It’s mighty strange that, a week before, they were willing to extend the note until spring with my savings against the balance. But, when I brought the money in, all I could manage was one month.”

“That doesn’t mean Aaron had anything to do with it.”

“No, it doesn’t, but it does point a finger that way.”

“But Aaron—”

He didn’t want to hear her defend good old Aaron. He cut her off. “As soon as it looked like I was going to get the cattle rounded up for the railroad deal, I got bushwhacked.”

“That could have been anyone.”

“Except that foreman of Aaron’s was there when I made the deal.”

“It’s still supposition.”

Asa threw his napkin on the table. “Yeah. Just like today, when I went to deliver the cattle a week early, and I find the railroad is wary of taking them. Seems a rumor’s been spread that the reason I want to bring them in early is because they’re sick and I want to unload them before it becomes obvious.”

Her rigid posture collapsed. “Oh, no.”

“Yeah. Oh, no.”

“What are we going to do?”

They weren’t doing anything. “Tomorrow, I’m going into town and settle this.”

She caught his arm as he was trying to pass. “You’re not going to do anything foolish, are you?”

“Depends on what your definition of foolish is.”

“Asa…” All the uncertainty in the world rested in her gaze. He felt her lack of faith like a blow. Not because he expected her to believe in him blindly, but because she’d believed in him at all. He’d been a fool reaching for rainbows. He’d had no business taking her with him.

“I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I should have negotiated a sale for you.”

She looked at him, confused. “That wasn’t part of our deal.”

“It should have been. One look at the books and I should have done the right thing.”

She stood. Her hands on his chest prevented his leaving. “You did what I wanted.”

“Yeah, that’s the hell of it. I used what you wanted to lasso a dream.”

“Asa.”

He stepped back. “You were right to distrust me.”

She stared at him for a brief moment, leaving him feeling like he hung over a cliff with nothing to break his fall. “No. I don’t think so.”

He shrugged, facing the inevitable. “You will tomorrow.”

“Because you’re going to confront Aaron?”

“Yes.” She wouldn’t be safe until the man was out of the picture. By the time she realized it, he’d be gone.

“Asa, I don’t believe Aaron would betray me like you say, but I agree it looks bad.”

“Uh-huh.”

The breath she took was audible. “I want to be there tomorrow.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It’s not safe.”

“Even if you thought Aaron would hurt me, which he won’t, what do you think is going to happen with people all around?”

“I don’t want you there.”

“Tough.”

She caught his arm before he could slip out the door. “I’m going to be there.”

“I’m not arguing with you.”

She didn’t seem put off by the finality in his tone. “You can be a bear, Asa MacIntyre.”

“You’re not the first to tell me that.”

Angling out the door, Asa heard her footsteps behind him as he headed up the stairs. The woman was as tenacious as a badger. He paused outside their bedroom door. Somehow, it seemed wrong to sleep with his wife when he knew she’d be kicking his sorry butt out the door in the morning. Two heel clicks and he knew she was right behind him. Asa could smell her scent—woman, vanilla, and a touch of something he had never figured out—as he wrenched open the door to their room. To hell with the right thing. Asa wanted one last night. He’d be paying the rest of his life anyway, what was one more infraction? She wanted a hero? Give him a feather tick and he could be all the hero she needed. It was outside the bedroom he was having trouble.