The Reluctant Bride (34 page)

“I can’t imagine that my poor face could be that distracting to a strong-minded woman like you.”

“Would you be distracted if the most beautiful woman you’d ever seen suddenly appeared down the trail?”

“Sure, but—”

“Well, women are no different, even though we pretend to be. You show us a handsome man and we get warm all over.”

“I was about to say I’d be distracted because I’d be trying to imagine how she could get past Tim.”

It took Tanzy a moment to realize Russ was kidding her. “I’m trying to be serious,” she said, slightly annoyed.

“And I’m trying to make jokes.”

“I didn’t know you had a sense of humor.”

“I don’t. I promise to be quiet until you finish.”

She didn’t trust him. There was the look in his eye that said he wasn’t telling the truth about something. It wasn’t a bad look, just one that seemed slightly amused, slightly more knowledgeable than she was. That made her feel uncomfortable, like there were questions and answers he knew that she didn’t.

“I have to make sure my liking for you owes nothing to my anger at people for treating you so badly.”

He still looked serious, but without the gravity she was accustomed to seeing.

“I also have to make sure that liking you owes nothing to my fear of the future and my relief at finding a place where I’m happy and safe.”

“I didn’t know about the happy part.” He sounded like that surprised him.

Without warning he’d put her on unsafe ground. “I told you I wanted my husband to respect me, to give my opinions equal consideration with his own, to consider my wishes and happiness as important as his own. I still do, but I’ve discovered I could have all of that without feeling accepted, wanted, valued as a person. I feel that here. It’s like I’ve found the place where I fit.”

“Somehow I feel there’s a qualification coming.”

“I need to make sure I’m not so comfortable I forget the rest.”

“Did anyone ever tell you that you think too much?”

“My father told me no woman was worth being treated the way I wanted to be treated.”

“Was that when you decided to leave home?”

“No. It was only after my father was killed and my uncle tried to force me to marry his son, a man who thought less of women than he did his hunting dogs.”

Russ squeezed her hands. “I’m glad he’s a fool. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here now.”

“Are you really glad I’m here? I’ve been an awful lot of trouble.”

He took her in his arms and kissed her, but she broke away almost immediately.

“You’ll have to find another way to convince me. When you kiss me, I could believe anything.”

“What’s bad about that?”

“You can’t be kissing me all the time.”

“I can try.”

“Be serious.”

“I am.”

“No, you’re not. You might
want
to kiss me all the time, and I might be willing to let you, but there’s a lot more to life than kissing.”

“I consider that bad planning on Mother Nature’s part.”

“We have to make sure we’re compatible under more ordinary circumstances.”

“If we kiss all the time, wouldn’t that become our ordinary circumstances?”

Tanzy got to her feet, only pretending to be annoyed. “If you’re going to talk nonsense, I’m going back to the house.”

“You’ve blessed my poor cabin by calling it a house. See, you’ve made everything I own seem better just by your being here.”

Tanzy’s gaze narrowed. “You know, if you talked like this to the ladies in town, I’m surprised at least half a dozen didn’t try to drag you before the justice of the peace.”

His expression turned serious. “Just one, and she hasn’t forgiven me for escaping.”

“I want to make sure my feelings for you are honest. I want you to feel the same way about your feelings for me.”

“I already do.”

Tanzy felt uncomfortable, as though Russ was crowding her to make a decision she wasn’t ready to make. Her change of heart had been so recent, so unexpected, she hardly knew what she thought. She needed time to order things in her mind, to bring her heart and mind into conjunction. Right now everything was overshadowed by her desire to be in his arms, to have him kiss her again. As nice as that was, she knew it was only part of being in love.

“We’d better go back.”

Russ stood and reclaimed her hands. “I’ll give you all the time you need, but I’ve waited a long time to find someone like you. I’d actually given up on the idea. Now I don’t want to waste any more time.”

“Thank you. Now I’d better become reacquainted with that sidesaddle.”

He brought the horses but stopped when he’d lifted her halfway in the air to the saddle. “It’s only fair to warn you I’m going to use every means at my disposal to convince you to stay.”

“Is holding me suspended in the air one of them?”

“Would it work?”

“Not when the boys show up and there’s no supper ready.”

He lifted her into the saddle and she struggled with her skirts. “You have to promise you won’t make me ride sidesaddle. I’ll never get used to one of these things.”

“I’ll buy the prettiest buggy and the fastest horse to pull it.”

“Bribery will not work.”

“You can’t blame a guy for trying.”

“It’s going to take me a while to get used to this side of your personality.”

“I’m afraid I can be rather impetuous, even foolish. My mother and sister certainly were.”

“I can’t see you being either. Now I’ve got to hurry back or supper will be late.”

“If you’re not careful, I’ll think you like the boys better than you like me.”

“Why settle for one when I can flirt with five?”

“You’re looking mighty pleased about something,” Welt said when he rode in to find Russ at the corral, his foot on the lower rail and an expression of bemused happiness on his face. “Anything I ought to know?”

“Just that I may decide to forgive you for writing those letters to Tanzy.”

“I gather you’ve changed your mind about her.” He dismounted and began to strip the saddle from his horse.

“I never changed my mind about her. It was just about her suitability to be my wife.”

“Are you telling me you wanted to marry this woman and you nearly beat me to death anyway?”

“Something like that.”

“I have a good mind to knock you senseless.”

“You know you can’t do that. You like me too much.”

Welt attacked his friend, and the two men enjoyed a brief tussle until Welt ended up on the ground.

“Don’t fool yourself,” Welt said as he got to his feet. “It’s not because I like you too much. It’s because you’re stronger and a better fighter.” Welt removed the saddle blanket from his horse and began to rub him down. “Explain yourself. I thought you decided she wasn’t wife material.”

“I did,” Russ said. He held the horse’s head while Welt curried him. “But I knew the minute I set eyes on her I wanted to marry her anyway.”

“Why didn’t you tell me, you hardheaded cuss?”

“For once I thought it was my business and not yours.”

“So you let me go around feeling miserable, cussing myself for writing her.”

“Yeah. I wanted to teach you not to meddle in other people’s business.”

Welt finished currying the horse and turned him into the corral. “Since it’s turned out right, I can keep interfering in your life,” he said with a self-satisfied grin. “For your own good, of course.”

“Don’t try it again. You were lucky this time.”

“If she wants to marry you, so were you.”

Russ’s expression changed.

“She does want to marry you, doesn’t she?”

“I don’t know. I feel like she does, but she’s got a lot of questions she’s trying to answer.”

“God help us,” Welt moaned. “Another person who thinks too much. If you two don’t stop thinking all the time, you’ll never have time to
do
anything.”

“Tell Tanzy. I’ve done all the thinking I need.”

Russ had finally figured out why he’d been desperate enough to ask Tanzy to teach him to read. He was looking for an excuse to be with her. That he was willing to open so much of himself to her was an indication that his feelings for her were more than momentary attraction. He’d never considered asking a woman to come to his ranch, but when he’d found she was leaving town, it was the only way he could think of to keep her close.

Now he was willing to admit he’d fallen in love with her, had probably been in love with her from the first. He’d been fighting his attraction at the same time he was fighting for ways to keep seeing her. It was almost like two halves of him were playing a game with each other, but there was no need for that any longer. He knew he wanted Tanzy to be his wife. Both parts of him agreed on that.

The last week had been almost like a dream for Tanzy. Russ had spent every other day at the cabin with her. He’d worked outside but always seemed to be around whenever she looked up from a task. When the other men were there, he retreated to his normally taciturn self. But he was gradually letting down the barriers with her and Tardy, gradually showing himself to be a man who could spend as much time enjoying the little pleasures of life as he did worrying about the problems posed by Stocker and the rustlers. He’d even suggested they go on a picnic. It had been an idyllic afternoon, one that convinced her that she was well on her way to falling in love with Russ.

Today he’d gone outside after lunch. She’d decided the inside of the cabin was too dark and the walls needed to be whitewashed. Russ had already agreed to buy whitewash the next time they went to town. She was cleaning every surface of the grease and dust that had collected over the years. It wasn’t an easy task, but it was made lighter by knowing this might soon become her home, the home she intended to make for her husband and her future children.

She’d have to talk to Russ about adding on or building a house. There was no space in the cabin for children. Tanzy’s home in Kentucky hadn’t been big or comfortable, but it had been built with a family in mind, with places of privacy as well as places for everyone to gather. She wanted that for her family.

She hadn’t said anything to him yet. He’d said he had to catch up on the men’s back wages. They had given him unstinting labor and unquestioned loyalty for five years. It was only fair that he reward them first.

Living in cramped quarters seemed a small price to pay for the happiness she foresaw. As much as she wanted the men to find happiness in their own lives, she couldn’t look forward to their leaving the valley. It wouldn’t seem right without them.

And that included Tardy.

She didn’t know what was best for him, but the boy had blossomed since he’d been living at the ranch. His cheerfulness and energy were—

A gunshot shattered her thoughts. Before she had time to wonder what could cause Russ to have fired a rifle so close to the cabin, he rushed inside.

“Stay away from the window,” he said. “Some gunmen have come across the mountains. I think they’re trying to kill me.”

Chapter Twenty-two

“Who are they?” Tanzy asked. It seemed crazy that someone would just start shooting at Russ for no reason.

“I didn’t stop to ask.” Russ had rushed to a rifle rack, taken down one of the rifles, then hurried back to the doorway to fire at the approaching gunmen.

“Why should strangers want to kill you?” Tanzy asked as she picked up two boxes of ammunition and placed them next to Russ.

“Check the window and see if anybody is on the back side of the cabin,” Russ said. “It could be the rustlers are trying to kill me because it’ll make it easier for them to steal the herd.”

Tanzy could see a man approaching the house from the corrals. She got a rifle from the rack, checked to make sure it was loaded, opened the window, took careful aim, and fired.

“What happened?” Russ asked, turning quickly at the sound of the rifle shot.

“I shot at a man trying to reach the house from the corrals. I think I hit him.”

“I didn’t know you could shoot.”

“I spent most of my life living through a feud. We all learned to use a rifle as soon as we were big enough to lift one.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in feuds.”

“I don’t, but I don’t believe in letting people just come in and shoot you either. Now pay attention to your side of the house. I can handle this one. How many are out there?”

“Three on my side. How many on yours?”

“One. They can keep us pinned down.”

“The boys will have heard the gunfire. I expect they’re riding hell-for-leather right now.”

Tanzy fired again. Apparently she’d missed the man the first time. He sprinted from his position at the corrals to a big ponderosa pine that gave him more protection.

“They could be thieves who think living in an isolated valley makes us easy pickings,” Russ said, “but thieves don’t usually go to so much trouble without knowing there’s something here worth the trouble.”