The Reluctant Bride (31 page)

“Tardy, you had no right to ask that.”

“He didn’t mind. He even said you could stay longer than two months if you wanted.”

“What else did you ask him?”

“I asked him if he wanted to marry you. He said it didn’t matter what he wanted. You wouldn’t marry him.”

“Richard Benton! If you ever ask Russ a question like that again, I’ll personally tie you up and take you back to your aunt.”

“Was that really bad enough for you to call me
Richard?”

“It was terrible. It was even worse of you to tell me.”

“Why? I thought you’d want to know he liked you.”

Why did God make young people so innocent? They could cause enough trouble to destroy civilizations and not have the faintest idea what they’d done.

“I’m glad he likes me, but don’t ask him any more questions.”

“Why? He wasn’t upset.”

Tardy didn’t think to ask if
she
was upset. Men figured if something was flattering, a woman had to like it.
When will they ever learn to look at things from a woman’s point of view? Never,
she thought to herself and chuckled aloud.
Then they’d be just like women, and we
—
foolish creatures that we are
—
wouldn’t like them anymore.

“What are you laughing at?” Tardy asked.

“A joke on me that I don’t intend to share with you.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’d blab it to Russ first chance you got.”

“Is it about him?”

“Not directly.”

“That’s the kind of answer Aunt Ethel gives when I ask questions.”

“I’m sorry, Tardy, but very few questions in life have simple answers.”

“Is it a simple question to know if you like somebody?”

“No.”

“It is for me. I like you. I like the other men, too, but I like Russ best.”

“He’s a very good man.”

“So why don’t you like him?”

“I do.”

“Then why isn’t it simple to—”

They had been so engrossed in their discussion that they were unprepared when a man rode out from a juniper thicket and blocked their path. He was masked and led a horse wearing a sidesaddle. Once she got over her surprise, Tanzy wasn’t alarmed. There was something familiar about the rider.

“I don’t want to harm anybody,” the man said in a gruff voice clearly meant to disguise his identity. “I just want Miss Gallant to return with me to Boulder Gap.”

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Tardy hollered at him.

Tardy turned his horse off the road, cracked the whip, and headed off at a gallop over terrain so rough Tanzy expected to be thrown from the buggy at any moment. The rider abandoned the saddled horse and rode after the buggy. He gripped the horse’s bridle and forced it to come to a stop even though Tardy was using the whip.

“Don’t abuse the horse,” Tanzy said. “It’s not his fault.”

“He can’t make you go back with him now,” Tardy said. “He doesn’t have a horse.”

“You will get the horse for me and bring it here,” the rider said.

“Make me,” Tardy replied.

The rider pulled a gun. “I would hate to injure you, but I will if I have to. Either you get that horse or I’ll put a bullet in your leg.”

“Get the horse,” Tanzy told Tardy. There’s no point in getting hurt.”

Tardy didn’t want to go, but Tanzy convinced him it was pointless to resist.

“Why are you doing this, Stocker?” Tanzy asked when Tardy was out of earshot.

“I’m not Mr. Pullet,” the man said, “but I’m working for him.”

Tanzy was willing to play along. “Why did he send you to kidnap me?”

“Because you’re too stubborn to know what’s good for you,” Stocker said, his voice less gruff, more like himself.

“What makes you think Stocker knows what’s best for me?”

“He’s a man.”

Ah, the only reason men needed to justify their actions.

That may be, but he has no reason to try to control what I do.”

“He’s only thinking of your welfare.”

“I’m capable of doing that.”

“No woman can understand the dangers that surround her. It’s up to a man to protect her from her own folly.”

If she’d ever had any intention of going with him, that comment would have ended it. Next time she was going to bring a rifle.

“What’s keeping that boy?” Stocker asked.

Tanzy turned around to see Tardy uncinch the saddle and throw it on the ground. Grabbing a handful of mane, he vaulted onto the horse’s back and kicked it into a gallop down the trail.

“Where is he going?” Stocker asked, completely forgetting to disguise his voice.

“I think he’s going after Russ,” Tanzy said, grinning, yet dreading what would happen when the two men met.

“It won’t matter. You’ll be back in Boulder Gap long before Russ can get here.”

He reached down, grasped her horse’s bridle, and turned it toward the trail. She considered jumping from the buggy but decided she preferred to let Stocker take her back to town. Once there, she intended to make his actions public, let it be known she would bring a rifle next time, and say that if he didn’t let her go, she’d have the sheriff arrest him for theft and kidnaping. The picture in her mind of what his face would look like then made her smile. He stopped where Tardy had dropped the saddle and dismounted.

“He’d better not have ruined a perfectly good saddle. It cost—”

Tanzy couldn’t believe Stocker thought she would sit calmly with her hands in her lap while he checked the saddle. She grabbed the reins, cracked the whip, and headed back down the trail as fact as she could. She knew it wouldn’t take Stocker long to catch her. She also knew he’d be tired, dusty, and out of temper. The knowledge made her smile.

“Dammit, Tanzy,” he said when he’d brought the buggy to a stop a second time and turned it around. “You might as well get used to the fact that I’m not letting you go back to Tibbolt’s ranch.”

“I had to try,” Tanzy said innocently.

“It’s a waste of time. You know I’m smarter and stronger than you are.”

She clamped her lips together to keep from telling him exactly what she thought of him.

“I’ll have to send someone back for that saddle,” he said. “It’s too valuable to leave behind.”

“No point in sending anyone back,” a voice called from the same juniper thicket Stocker had used to ambush Tanzy. “You can take it back with you now.”

Chapter Twenty

Tanzy nearly laughed aloud at the look of shock on Stocker’s face. She felt less amused when he reached for his gun.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Russ said from concealment.

“Come out, you coward, and face me.”

“Not until you holster your gun. I don’t want to endanger Miss Gallant.”

“If you really meant that, you wouldn’t have dragged her out to your ranch,” Stocker said as he shoved his gun back in its holster.

Russ emerged from the thicket, his rifle cocked and ready. “Even if you succeeded in taking her back to Boulder Gap, my boys would come after you. With their being ex-cons, they surely wouldn’t balk at a little shooting and pillaging. I’m sure your friends would hate that. So you see, I’m doing the fine people of Boulder Gap a favor by not letting you kidnap Miss Gallant.”

“By kidnaping her yourself?”

“Miss Gallant was returning to the ranch of her own free will. Do you wish to go with Stocker?” Russ asked.

“No,” Tanzy said.

“Do you wish to return to the ranch?”

“Yes.”

“Dammit, Tanzy,” Stocker said, pulling off his mask, “you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I appreciate your concern for my welfare, I truly do,” Tanzy said to Stocker, “but I’m going to work for Russ until I’ve paid what I owe him.”

“A gentleman wouldn’t hold you to that debt,” Stocker said.

“You’ve always said I was a liar, a thief, and a rustler. How could I be all that and a gentleman, too?” Russ asked.

Tanzy didn’t know whether Russ had a dry sense of humor or whether he was just trying to irritate Stocker. If it was the latter, he’d succeeded. Stocker was so angry his gun hand twitched.

“Don’t try it,” Russ warned. “I can put a bullet through your trigger finger at this distance.”

“You’ll pay for this,” Stocker fumed. “I’ll hunt you down.”

“You’d better take Stocker’s gun,” Russ said to Tanzy. “He’s such an impulsive man, he might be foolish enough to try to use it even though I’ve got the drop on him.”

Tanzy climbed down from the buggy and approached Stocker. She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach his gun, but she was able to remove it from his holster.

“Put it in the buggy,” Russ said. “I hate to have to ride back into town to return it, but I don’t trust him not to use it on my back.”

“I’m not a coward,” Stocker shouted. “When I kill you, I’ll be facing you.”

“If you want to show Tanzy you’re really concerned for her, you can put that saddle in the buckboard,” Russ said, indicating the sidesaddle still lying where Tardy had dropped it. “I’ll pay you next time I’m in town.”

Stocker had a lot to say, none of it good and much of it threats, before he disappeared down the road to town.

“You want to know how Tardy found me so quickly, don’t you?” Russ asked. He’d tied his horse to the buggy and was driving.

“Yes,” Tanzy said.

“I wasn’t sure you’d be safe, so I decided to meet you.”

“Where is Tardy?”

“I sent him to the ranch to get another mount so he could return Stocker’s horse. I don’t want him charged with horse stealing.”

They rode in silence. She couldn’t help wondering if Russ had changed his mind about wanting to marry her. He had kept his distance since the day they’d picked currants, but he’d been watching her with an intensity she found unnerving. She was always expecting something to happen that never did. She wasn’t sure how to describe it, but she knew something was going on between them.

She had to face the fact that her resistance to the idea of marrying Russ was weakening, but was it weakening because she was falling in love with him? It was hard to say. She’d been attracted to Russ from the moment she first saw him. She’d categorized her feelings as physical attraction, something that was natural and understandable with such a handsome man, but not something on which to build a marriage. Then she realized she liked him as a man, too. He was gentle with her, thoughtful, and courteous. It was only after the fight with Stocker that she realized he didn’t respect women.

Her feelings about that changed drastically when Welt told her about his mother and sister. He had ample reason to distrust women, to suspect their motives, to believe they couldn’t be faithful to their promises when something more interesting came along. The way the women in Boulder Gap acted only served to reinforce his opinion.

When she decided against marrying him, he respected her enough not to pressure her. When she lost her job, he offered her one. He rarely commented on what she did at the ranch, but he never stopped her. But most important, she was the only one to whom he exposed any of his inner self. Surely a man would never do that if he didn’t believe she’d treat his revelations with consideration and respect.

She wondered what he’d do if they ever disagreed on something important. He gave the men a lot of freedom to decide how to handle their share of the work, but he made the big decisions. As the owner, it was his right. Marriage was different.

As for the feud, she was beginning to question her understanding of the situation. He said he was defending his property, that if you weren’t strong enough to hold it, somebody would take it from you. She understood that. He had an abiding hatred for Stocker and responded without hesitation to each conflict, but he had never been the aggressor. Was Stocker the only one feuding? Was she trying to rationalize away her objections because she was falling in love with Russ?

It would be easy to fall in love with him. He was misunderstood and mistreated by all but a few friends. That injustice stirred up her need to see fair play, stimulated her desire to see good find recognition and evil receive punishment. With the exception of Stocker, Russ had responded to his neighbors’ ostracism with a stoically calm acceptance of the situation.

Then there was his relationship with Tardy. Russ devoted valuable hours to teaching the boy skills, to giving him the companionship of an older man who liked him and had respect for his abilities. He’d made a place for Tardy, made him feel appreciated, like he was
wanted.

She hadn’t seen it at first, but Russ had done that for her, too. He’d insisted that she have the protection of his ranch rather than confront a strange town with little money and no one to protect her. Even now he’d neglected his work to make sure she returned safely from town. Would a man do all of this for a woman he didn’t care about?

“Why did you follow me?” she asked.