The Temptress (26 page)

Tynan stepped forward. The area in front of the cabin was filling with men and their horses. “Are you asking for me?”

Del looked Tynan up and down, took in the dirty bandage on his thigh. “I see she's about done you in, too.”

Tynan straightened. “I take full responsibility for everything that's happened. There were several times when I had the opportunity to get her back safely.”

“Hmph!” Del snorted. “You couldn't very well control her when you were in jail. And what's this I hear about you two being engaged?”

Chris held her breath as she looked from her father to Tynan. It looked as if Ty weren't going to say anything, and Chris suddenly realized the seriousness of this moment. If she said they were engaged, her father could send him back to jail. She thought of Ty's back as it'd been in the rain forest. She thought she could control her father, but she wasn't positive. What if she were wrong? If she were, then Ty would be returned to prison.

“We're not engaged,” she said softly. “I just said that to prevent a fight. He's been a perfect gentleman at all times and he did everything he could to protect me. He even saved me from Dysan.”

Chris watched her father as he continued to study Tynan and after a moment, he grunted, but made no other comment.

“I'm hoping that Chris will accept my proposal,” said someone behind her and she turned to see Asher standing there. There was a bandage across his forehead. With a smile of possession, he put his arm around Chris's shoulders. Her father looked at her as he had when she was a child, and she knew he was trying to figure out if she was telling the truth or making up one of her highly imaginative stories. Chris couldn't meet his eyes, so she looked down at her hands clasped in front of her.

Pilar broke the silence. “Let me introduce myself,” she said, moving toward Del, hand outstretched. “I'm Pilar Ellery. We've never met, but I've certainly heard a great deal about you. You wouldn't happen to have some food in those saddle bags, would you? We're all starving.”

Del shook her hand, but he didn't smile at her, and Chris knew that he was upset, deeply upset, if he didn't smile at a pretty woman.

She moved away from Asher's proprietary grasp and slipped her arm through her father's. “I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble. I didn't mean to.”

Del looked at her for a long moment and she saw a sadness in his eyes. Was something troubling him besides her being in danger?

“Miss Mathison, may I introduce myself?”

Before her stood the man who'd ridden beside her father. He was about the same age as her father, a tall, slim man with black hair that was graying at the temples. He had the lean, hard look of a man who was used to physical exercise, but at the same time, he had an elegance that could only have come from generations of selective breeding. Even though he looked at home with a gun slung around his hip, she could easily imagine him on a dance floor or holding a wine glass.

“I am Samuel Dysan,” he said in a deep, rich voice.

“Samuel Dysan?” She looked behind him toward Tynan, then back at the older man. “You're the one Beynard…”

“He is seeking me?” The man looked surprised.

“I heard him saying that he'd searched for years for Samuel Dysan.”

Sam and Del exchanged looks. “Oh yes, I see. And when did he tell you this?”

“I, ah…he didn't really tell me, he, ah…”

Tynan stepped forward. “She hid in the bushes and listened.”

“It was for a good cause!” she snapped at him. “Lionel was—”

“Lionel?” Del said. “You mean you did something for that brat you sent to me? I turned that kid over my knee three times in one day.”

“You
beat
Lionel?” she gasped. “He's just a little boy.”

“I should have taken my hand to you more often, but, no, I had a soft heart and thought that little girls were different. I'll not make a mistake like that again. I mean to raise this boy right, so he has some sense and doesn't go off to big cities and write stories that get him shot at. Do you have any idea how many people have said to me in the last few days, ‘Yeah, she was here, left three dead bodies behind her'?” He looked up at Tynan. “Between the two of you, there're about a hundred fewer people in this world.”

“I don't think that's fair,” Chris said. “Tynan did what he had to do. He—”

“Except when I shot Rory Sayers,” Ty said in all seriousness.

She turned on him. “And what were you supposed to do? Stand there and let him shoot you? You saw the way all those people were egging you on, trying to make you do something exciting. There was nothing else you
could
do. You
had
to protect yourself.”

Suddenly, she stopped as she realized what she'd said. She'd told him she was wrong to have left him alone in jail but she'd thought that out logically. This time there was passion in her belief in him.

Tynan stood there looking at her for a moment, an angelic smile on his face, then he turned toward Del. “Sir, she only gets into trouble because she wants to right all the world's wrongs. I think you've done a damn fine job of raising her. Now, would anybody like to eat?” He held out his arm. “Miss Mathison, may I escort you in to dinner?”

Chris felt a little weak-kneed as she took Ty's arm. She'd never been around a man who didn't cower in the presence of her father. Every other man did just what Asher was doing now: standing back and looking on quietly.

They joined the others—Del had brought about fifty men with him—and ate the first decent meal they'd had in days. Chris kept smiling at her father as he glowered at her as she tried to answer all his questions without telling the truth about the danger she'd been in. She didn't want to upset him more than she had already. She never really lied but then she didn't tell him all of it either.

“You went to Hamilton's knowing that he'd had his cousin killed?”

“I wasn't sure of that. I mean, it was an awful wagon accident. I'm sure the fall could have killed any number of people and all I wanted to do was help a little boy. Besides, I had the two big, strong men you sent to me to help me. What could possibly have gone wrong?” She didn't dare meet the eyes of Tynan or Asher or Pilar.

Del leaned toward her. “What went wrong was Dysan. Do you have any idea what that man's like?”

“Yes, I do,” she said softly. “Papa, do you think you should talk about him like that now?” She gave a pointed look toward Samuel Dysan.

Mr. Dysan put his plate down. “You can't offend me. I know more than anyone what my grandnephew is like. I have had the misfortune of watching him grow up.”

Chris's curiosity came to the surface. “Then why did he say he'd been searching for you for years? Didn't he know where to find you?”

Del began to tell his daughter to mind her own business, but Chris kept her eyes on Samuel. The man was watching Tynan, looking at him with such interest that Chris began to look from one man to the other. Samuel caught himself.

“I have never understood the workings of the boy's mind,” Samuel said. “His mother married my nephew because she thought he was the heir to my holdings, and when she found out he wasn't, she turned her son against me.”

“And who is your heir?”

“Christiana!” Del yelled at her. “I will not stand for your lack of manners.”

“I apologize, Mr. Dysan. It's just the reporter in me. I thought there might be some doubt about who was your heir if the woman thought her husband was going to be.”

Samuel put his hand on Del's arm. “It's all right, I don't mind the questions. I have a son but he disappeared at sea many years ago. Perhaps I'm a fool but I have always had hopes of finding him again. But, even if I never found him, I would never leave a penny to my grandnephew.”

“He seems to have enough money as it is.”

Samuel's face turned hard. “Whatever he has, he has obtained by stealing, cheating, lying, killing.”

“Oh,” Chris said and looked down at her plate.

“Mr. Tynan,” Samuel said, “I have had some experience with wounds. May I take a look at your leg?”

Tynan looked surprised. “If you'll look at Pilar first.”

“Yes, of course,” he said, smiling at Tynan.

“You know…” Chris began, looking from one man to the other.

“And what was that you wrote about Hugh Lanier? You accused that poor man of some of the worst crimes of this century,” Del yelled at her.

Chris gave her attention back to defending herself to her father.

Chris couldn't get away from her father for even a minute all that night. She wanted to talk to Tynan alone, but he seemed to always be busy. And then there was Asher. He obviously wanted to prove to Del that he'd done his duty and Chris was planning to marry him, because he was never two feet from Chris's side. He kept saying things like, “Have another biscuit, Chris, I know how much you love them.” He made it seem as if they were on intimate terms.

Tynan, on the other hand, kept calling her Miss Mathison and tipping his hat to her in the most formal way.

“He treat you all right?” Del asked her when she was frowning at Ty's back because he'd again acted as if he'd never met her before tonight.

“How'd you get him out of jail?”

Del Mathison gave a little snort. “I don't plan to start telling you all my secrets. I got him out, that's all you need to know. He tell you he was in jail?”

“I guessed it and he answered my questions. Who do you plan to tell your secrets to? The man you picked out for me to marry?”

“You have been asking a lot of questions. You and Prescott get along?”

“Well enough,” she answered. “He's asked me to marry him, if that's what you had planned.”

Del looked at her for a while. “It's time you settled down and gave me some grandkids.”

“Yes,” she said softly. “That's just what I want to do.”

They didn't speak any more as they prepared for bed. Del went to the foreman of the small army of men he'd brought and set up watches all night. Chris, wrapped in a blanket, watched as her father stood in the moonlight and talked to Tynan for a few minutes.

“He seems like a sensible young man,” Samuel said from near her. “Del said he was in prison for murder.”

“Yes, but he didn't kill the man—at least not the man he was imprisoned for killing, and, yes, he is the most competent of men.”

“You weren't…frightened of him, of being alone with him?”

Chris turned to give the man a look of disbelief. “I'd trust Ty with my life, with the life of anyone I loved. He's a good, kind, intelligent man who has never been given a chance in his life. Yet, in spite of that, he's trustworthy and has the highest of ideals.” She stopped, feeling a bit embarrassed. “No,” she whispered, “I was never afraid of him.”

Samuel Dysan smiled at her in the darkness. “I see. Well, good night, Miss Mathison. I'll see you in the morning.” He went away from her whistling.

The next day, Del woke the entire camp long before sun-up. Sleepily, Chris looked out of the covers and saw that Tynan was already loading a couple of the pack horses. She threw back the blanket and went to him.

“Good morning,” she said, smiling at him.

He didn't look at her, but moved to the far side of the horse. She followed him.

“Go get the coffee ready,” he said under his breath. “We'll need a few gallons of it.”

“Ty…” she began.

He turned on her. “Look, Chris, it's over. You go back to your world and I go back to mine. You become the little rich girl and I'm the ex-convict. It's over. Now, go get the coffee ready.”

Quick tears came to her eyes. “It's not over, Ty. You know how I feel about you.”

He put his hands on her shoulders. They were hidden from the others by the horses. “Chris, I told you it wouldn't work. I told you that from the beginning. Right now you think you…that you're in love with me, but you're not. You love the adventure and the excitement, but you also love the luxury of your father's house. You wait, you'll see. Two weeks in your father's house, after you give a few parties, after you've had a few baths and bought a couple of new dresses, you won't even remember me. If I walked into the parlor, you'd worry that my clothes were going to get the furniture dirty. And you won't even believe that you once thought you were in love with somebody like me.”

She looked at him for a long minute. “I hope you make yourself believe that. I hope you can sleep at night. I hope you…” Her anger left her. “I hope that someday you realize that you love me just as much as I love you.” She jerked away from him. “I have to make coffee. When you're man enough to tell yourself the truth, let me know, I'll be waiting.”

She ran away from him, stumbling over Samuel Dysan, but she didn't look at him either. She kept her head down and helped the camp cook prepare breakfast for the many cowboys who were preparing to ride.

When they mounted, ready to ride, she saw that all around her the men had their guns ready. She was encircled by her father, Sam, Tynan and three of her father's hired men. Asher and Pilar were likewise guarded. “Do you think Dysan's out there?” she asked Samuel beside her.

“I think he's out there,” he answered grimly. “We have something he thinks belongs to him.”

Her father called for them to ride before she could ask another question.

They rode south for two hours before they encountered Beynard Dysan's men. He approached them with all the confidence in the world, as if he knew the outcome of what was about to happen.

Del called a halt to the group behind him, and Tynan put his horse directly in front of Chris. He, Del and Sam were in the front of the army facing Dysan's hundred or so men.

“You were looking for me?” Samuel said and there was such coldness, such hatred in his voice, that Chris shivered.

“Not you,” Dysan answered. “You know what I want. I want what's rightfully mine.”

“No,” was all Samuel said.

“Then I'll take it,” Beynard answered. “And I'll take all of you with me.”

Samuel reined his horse forward, snatching the reins from Del's hand when Del tried to stop him. Sam rode up to Beynard. Behind her, Chris could hear rifles being cocked, barrels of six-guns being rolled to check that all the chambers were loaded.

While Sam and Beynard talked, Ty moved his horse back to stand by Chris. “If I give you the order, I want you to ride like hell toward those trees,” he said under his breath. “You understand me? No heroics.”

Chris looked up to see her father turned around in his saddle and he was nodding to her that she was to do what Tynan said.

“Pilar?” Ty said over his shoulder. “Be ready to ride.”

Chris, a lump of fear in her throat, watched as Tynan moved back into place beside her father. The two men she loved most in the world in front of her, the first ones to be killed if Dysan's men began firing. She was sure her heart was going to break her ribs as she strained to see Samuel talking to Dysan.

It seemed an eternity before Sam turned back toward Del.

“This fight is between the two of us,” Samuel said. “Winner takes all.”

Del nodded at Sam while Tynan looked on with eyes that were dark.

Chris reined her horse forward. “What's going on?”

“Nothing for you to concern yourself with,” Del said, his eyes on Samuel's back.

“The two of them are going to settle it,” Tynan said. “Whoever wins gets the spoils of war.”

“But Samuel is an old man,” Chris said. “He can't possibly have the reflexes of the younger man. And, besides, he has a right to leave his estate to whoever he wants.”

Del gave her one of his looks that told her he wanted her to shut up. “I am the executor of his estate. If Sam loses, I'll see that the right person gets his money.”

“But then Dysan will be after you and—”

“Chris,” Tynan said softly. “Come over here and be quiet.”

She ignored her father's look as she obeyed Tynan and moved her horse next to his. Her hands gripped the pommel until they were white as she watched Samuel and Beynard ride down the trail and into the trees. It seemed forever until they heard the first shot.

Chris gasped and held her breath and waited. And waited.

There was a second shot, then nothing.

She looked at Tynan, saw that the muscles in his jaw were working, then he kicked his horse forward and tore past the hundred gun-bearing men who had been hired by Dysan. He galloped into the trees to where Samuel and Beynard had disappeared.

Chris watched his cloud of dust for a moment, then she too kicked her horse and went after Ty. Behind her, she could hear her father shouting at her, then at his men, but she didn't stop, just kept following Tynan into the trees.

She reached the clearing just as Ty was dismounting.

Samuel and Beynard were lying on the ground, both of them bloody. She jumped off her horse while it was still running, skidding to a halt just as Tynan was lifting Samuel.

The older man smiled up at Tynan. “It's just a scratch. I can get up.”

Tynan turned to look at Chris. “What the hell are you doing here? Get back to your father.”

“I came to see if you were all right,” she answered angrily. “I thought you might need help.”

“Not from a half pint girl, I don't. Now, get back to—”

Sam struggled to sit up, using Tynan's help. He was smiling broadly. “As much as I like hearing the love play between the two of you, I think I'm bleeding to death.”

Chris smiled at Tynan with an I-told-you-so look, while he opened and closed his mouth twice, with nothing coming out.

Just then Del Mathison came riding into the clearing amid rocks and dust and a flurry of anger—all of it directed at his daughter.

“What happened here?” Tynan said in a half yell that was obviously meant to stop Del's tirade.

Sam struggled to sit up while Chris ran to get bandages from her saddle bags. “We drew and I won. I thought he was dead but I went to him. He was my brother's child, I knew him since he was a boy. There were times when I thought there was some hope for him, but his mother never allowed him to forget who she thought he was. No matter who he hurt, she was there behind him, telling him he had every right to do whatever he wanted. She hated me.”

“And made him hate you,” Chris said, handing Tynan the bandages. Ty cut the man's shirt away. The wound was in the fleshy part of his upper arm, not bad, but painful. Chris moved so that Sam could rest against her while Ty bandaged him.

“Yes, he hated me. Said he wanted to show me he could make as much as me.” He paused. “It's over now.”

“How'd you get shot?” Ty asked.

“I went to him after I'd shot him. He had a derringer up his sleeve. He used his last breath to shoot me with it.”

Chris leaned forward and kissed the man's forehead. “It's over now and we can all go home.”

Samuel took Chris's hand and, while holding it, he looked up at Del. “This is what I wanted,” he said quietly.

Chris started to ask what he meant, but Del interrupted her with orders of what to do to get the place cleared up.

They buried Beynard where he fell, putting up a crude cross to mark the place. The men who'd come with him disappeared into the trees quietly, and, after Samuel had had a few minutes alone at the grave, they began to ride south.

Chris knew she should have been relieved that now they were more or less free, that now it was safe to return home, but the closer they got, the worse she felt. As soon as they reached her father's house, Tynan would leave her life forever.

Asher came forward and began to talk to her about the scenery and recounted all their experiences since they'd first met. He talked abnormally loudly when he recalled the way he'd first seen her—stark naked, and Chris thought that, for some reason, he wanted her father to hear the story. And he'd only ridden toward the front after all the danger was over. It was difficult for her to give her attention to what he was saying.

On the second day, Tynan called a halt to the group, telling Del that they were near Pilar's home and he wanted to return her.

“I'll leave you now that you have your daughter back safely,” Ty said, his side turned toward Chris.

“We'll wait for you, or we'll all go to see that the lady is returned safely, and then you can go back with us,” Del said.

“No, sir, my job was to get your daughter back and I've done that. I think I'd like to go now.”

Del took a while to answer him.

“Del,” Samuel said, “doesn't he have a pardon coming?”

“Yes, of course. It's right here in my pocket.” It took him some minutes before he could get it out to hand it to Tynan.

“Thank you, sir. I hope I did a satisfactory job for you.”

“The money, Del,” Samuel prompted.

Chris sat on her horse rigidly. With each passing moment, she expected Ty to say that he couldn't leave her, that she meant more to him than all the money in the world and that he'd risk jail if it meant he could have her. But he never even looked at her. Del took a long time opening his saddle bag and withdrawing a leather pouch.

“There's ten thousand dollars in there. That's what we agreed on, isn't it?”