Читать книгу The Texas Ranger's Heiress Wife - Kate Welsh - Страница 11

Chapter Two

Brendan put down the currycomb and gave Harry a pat on his neck. The gelding knocked him backward with a head butt to the chest. “Oh, it’s like that now, is it?” Brendan crooned. “You see herself again for a few days and right away I’m playin’ second fiddle. And who is it that feeds and brushes you till that black hide of yours shines like satin?”

Harry whinnied and lipped Brendan’s cheek. “Ah, but aren’t you the sweet talker.” Then the big black nuzzled his bulging pocket. “I see how the wind blows, you great phony. Just lovin’ me up for a treat.”

“I see you still talk to him more like a friend than just a horse,” Helena said from outside the stall.

Brendan gave Harry a carrot from his pocket, then stepped out into the aisle, saying, “Hear that? It’s ‘just a horse,’ she called you. Remember that and who it is that butters your bread, Harry m’ boy.” Then Brendan said, “He is a friend. And it was you who named him after your da, and spoiled him with apples all the way West. Do ya know the ribbin’ I’ve taken over a horse named for my father-in-law?” Even prepared to look at her loveliness, Brendan felt his heart speed up when their eyes met.

Helena’s smile faded and she sighed. “Were we ever that young and foolish? Where did all the love go?” She shook her head. “No. Never mind. It doesn’t matter anymore. We’re who we are and they were who they were.”

Brendan desperately needed to change the subject before he confessed that he still loved her more than life itself. “Is there something I could be doin’ for you?”

She blinked, clearly surprised by his offer. “Have you seen Jimmy about?” she asked. “Oh. Forget it. I asked him to help Al build a fence around the garden. I have to remember to order some of the wire Rhia Varga uses around her chicken coop. If it keeps her chickens safe from predators, it should do the same for ours, and keep animals out of Shamrock’s vegetable garden.”

She wants to order the wire. Brendan stared at her. He’d quickly come to see that Helena knew what she was doing around the ranch. And had to admit how little credit he’d given her. She knew what it meant to work. And it was damn hard work she’d done and still did.

“I’m sorry for that remark I made about you not knowin’ the meanin’ of work. It’s clear the men respect you and that you often work alongside them.”

“Don’t be sorry. You’d have been right once. The girl who came here didn’t know what hard work meant.” Her eyes glittered in the sunlight—with tears, he feared. “I’m not that naive, sheltered girl any longer. The truth is, you don’t know me and I don’t know you. Maybe we never did.”

He nearly protested that of course he knew her, but she turned away and went to her mare’s stall. Paint Box. The silly name made him smile.

He moved to pat the mare’s blaze at the same time Helena did, and his hand landed atop hers. She gasped and pulled away. Sadness nearly overwhelmed him. Once upon a time she wouldn’t have shied away. And he’d have never left her alone in her bed, either.

No one understood why he and Helena had gone their separate ways after banding together as they made their way to freedom. It had caused a rift in his family he’d yet to fully repair. Worse of all, Brendan was getting to a place where even he didn’t understand what kept them apart. And now it was too late.

He’d thrown away her love in a snit—one he still felt had been justified. But he wasn’t sure if feeling justified had been worth what he’d lost. Putting the thought away, Brendan realized he stood with his hand on the mare, staring straight ahead. And Helena was staring at him. “What was it you wanted Jimmy for?” he asked, to cover his discomfort.

“I wanted him to harness the gig. Elizabeth and Farrah Varga decided to bury Don Alejandro privately. Farrah’s note said they didn’t want to hear a lot of insincere platitudes. I can’t blame them. Some of the men at my father’s funeral were really more like rivals than friends. It made it so much more difficult sorting out who could be trusted and who couldn’t.”

Brendan frowned. He’d never met Helena’s father, who’d already been killed when she’d stumbled upon Brendan’s favorite fishing hole. Putting aside the precious memory of their first meeting, he brought his mind back to what she was saying.

“We decided to give them a tea to see them off. They’re going to visit family.”

That meant a trip into town. “Who are you takin’ with you?”

“With me? No one. I go to town alone all the time.”

That wasn’t happening again. “You can’t go alone.”

“You have no authority over me!” Helena declared. “I go where I want, when I want.”

As if he didn’t know that. “Jaysus, woman. Can we not speak a civil word between us? You could run into the raiders. Suppose that happened? Contrary to what you apparently think, they don’t just kill the women they come across on these raids. By time they’re done with them, the poor women are probably beggin’ for death. At least Miss Varga had the sense to stay hidden.”

Helena frowned. “Fine. I’ll take Al with me. The garden is the least important thing going on right now. Jimmy can work alone.”

Brendan thought about the young buck and his belly tightened with what he refused to call jealousy. Unfortunately, he was at a loss what else to call it. He wasn’t staking a claim to her. At least, that was what Brendan told himself. But even as he thought it, his heart protested. “I heard Mallory tell Al to ride out to check for laboring cows after fixing the fence. I’ll go along with you to town.”

She looked as shocked as he felt, and shook her head. “No. You said you were going to work on strengthening our defenses. You should have suggestions for Mallory about them.”

He had a few, but she and the foreman seemed to run a tight outfit. Brendan was here to protect Helena, but didn’t want to admit it to her. “I talked to Mallory about a few changes already. He’s off seeing to them. Right now I’m at loose ends, so I’m riding with you.”

“Fine! I’ll go put on riding clothes, and change back into my dress at the store. Just don’t talk to me. And when we get into town, go away! I’m sure the ladies at the Garter can keep you occupied.”

He summoned up a grin. “They usually do,” he lied. Then cursed his contrary nature when he saw hurt enter her eyes. What was it about Helena that made him do and say things he regretted before he could get his big mouth shut?

While she changed, he readied Harry and her mare for the ride into town. By the time they were halfway there, he was mighty sick of Helena’s stony silence. He managed to honor her demand, though, afraid that if he didn’t she’d sneak out of town for the return trip without him.

It was an hour of torture until they reached the edge of town. After setting a time and place to meet up, he peeled off without another word, hoping against hope she was as miserable as he was.

* * *

The Vargas’ farewell tea had begun to wind down when Helena said goodbye and slipped out the door. She set out for her sister-in-law’s general store to change back out of her dress. Then she’d have to meet Brendan for the ride home.

“Helena, wait!” she heard Patience Reynolds call as she reached the front of the store. “I wanted to talk with you,” her friend said, a happy grin on her pretty face.

In the fall of last year she’d married Helena’s nearest neighbor, Alex Reynolds, owner of the Rocking R. They were expecting their first child and were deliriously happy together.

Helena fought the disgraceful stab of envy she felt. It wasn’t that she begrudged her friends their joy. She didn’t. But it reminded her of all the things Brendan had stolen from her. Envy didn’t mean she couldn’t be pleased for them, though.

Resigned, Helena walked up the steps with Patience at her side. At the top, her friend stopped and turned to her. “Before I forget, Alex and I wondered if you two would like to come to dinner.”

“Two?”

“You and Brendan. We’re both so happy for you. Brendan did so much to help me. Alex has tremendous respect for him.”

Darn Brendan and his lie! But she trusted her friends and wouldn’t lie to them herself. “We aren’t back together in spite of what you must have heard. He’s moved to Shamrock only because he thinks it may help catch the raiders.”

Patience blinked. “But when Alex and I met Brendan he was clearly worried about you. And I know you’ve regretted the state your marriage was in. I didn’t understand then, but when I met him, he was so sweet. And kind.”

Brendan? Sweet and kind? He isn’t sweet and kind to me. Not anymore. I can’t want him back. I’d be a candidate for Bedlam if I did.

“He’s there to catch the Ghost Warriors,” Helena said. “That’s all.”

“Are you saying it’s too late? This could be your chance to show him how good life with you would be. Maybe cook him special dinners. You know, show him how much you love him.”

Helena shook her head. “No. I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll never try to manipulate him or anyone else again. That’s all that would be. If he doesn’t love me enough to accept me as I am, he isn’t for me. I’ve wasted enough of my life.

“Now let’s go see why Abby disappeared from the send-off.” It was a worry for Helena.

About a year after Brendan’s sister had arrived in town, she’d become the friend Helena had never had. For Abby, she would walk through fire.

She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Since becoming her friend, Helena had come to understand that Abby would have been a comfort after the accident. But by then it had been too late. By then Helena had managed to regroup, and remembered a lesson she’d learned early in her life—how to hide her pain behind false cheer.

She and Patience walked in, but the store was deserted. Helena glanced at her friend’s worried frown, then rushed into the back room, tucked behind a curtain. There she found Abby lying on a chaise with her eyes closed and a cloth on her forehead.

Eyes nearly identical to Brendan’s opened and widened as Helena hurried forward. Abby was pale as death and looked horribly weak.

Helena sat down on the foot of the chaise. “Abby, sweetie, what is it? You look awful.”

“I love you, too.”

At least her sense of humor was intact. “You know what I mean,” Helena said with a mock frown.

A frail smile tipped Abby’s lips. “I don’t know what anyone can do. I feel like death itself. I never felt this bad with Daniel.”

Helena stared. “A baby?”

Patience let out a little squeal of delight from the doorway and rushed to the other side of the chaise.

Helena did her best to be thrilled for Abby, who’d given up hope of having another child. But inside she felt hollow. Alone.

“Don’t tell my brother. He’s always been my rock, but he hovers, and I don’t want that right now. He’s pigheaded and won’t take no for an answer when he wants to help.”

Helena grimaced. “Rock-headed, you mean.”

“Good sweet Lord, are you two still going at it? I thought he’d moved home.”

“He made it clear he’s only there to catch the raiders. He thinks they may hit Shamrock next. Once he solves the problem of these raids, he’ll be gone again. Of course, he’s let everyone think he’s moved home, he says to protect me—”

“But that’s sent your desertion claim flyin’ out the window,” Abby said. “He really is a blockhead, but...but I know he loves you.”

A surge of anger blasted through Helena. It was so strong she couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. “Has it ever occurred to anyone that I might be done with him?”

“Oh, you can’t mean that,” Abby cried. Then she took in a sharp breath and stared for a long moment. “I’m sorry. It’s easy to forget how much you’ve had to deal with all alone.”

If she only knew the half of it. Helena wiped away tears she hadn’t known were falling. They’d blinded her to the worry and concern in her friends’ faces. “I’m fine. Having so much to do at Shamrock has kept me putting one foot in front of the other, with no time to think. It’s a strain having him there. I don’t need him. Not anymore. When I did, he was off nursing wounded pride. After he left me standing outside the land office that day, I got home, and all his things were just gone. He left me an object of pity to everyone around here when he disappeared.”

Abby’s expression brightened, as if she’d made a monumental discovery. “That’s why you kept to yourself after Brendan left. Not because you were angry at us.”

Helena was so tired of half-truths, but she had no choice; she told another. “He never wrote me, or asked after me when he wrote you. If you hadn’t kept in touch with him, and dropped little pieces of information about his life to me, he could have been dead for all I knew.”

Abby shook her head. “Brendan is an idiot. But, Helena, he did ask after you—when he finally got in touch. I wasn’t to tell you, however.

“You were brave and steadfast in your love for him. Suppose that monster of a guardian of yours had figured out that you and Josh were spying to save Bren? I shudder to think what would have happened. My great, giant, pigheaded idiot of a brother needs a good swift kick in the tail!”

Helena made her excuses after that, changed, then left Abby and Patience to their talk of babies. She retrieved Paint Box from outside the hotel and left Tierra del Verde and Brendan behind. But in the back of her mind, one phrase resounded.

He did ask after you.

* * *

Two or so hours later, Helena slogged through knee-deep mud to help her men pull a frightened newborn Texas longhorn to safety. The incessant lowing of the nervous mama in the background wasn’t helping settle the little one. But there was no hope of quieting the cow, which had probably delivered only the day before.

There was no better mother in the bovine kingdom than a Texas longhorn. To protect their progeny from a predator, the cows were known to band together in a circle with their horns outward, keeping their calves and heifers safely in the center. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much a cow could do if her curious offspring wandered into a mud pit that was normally a watering hole.

“It’ll be just fine, little one,” Helena murmured as she reached the struggling baby, which went still. Since her voice seemed to soothe the animal and stop its needless struggle, Helena kept up the low, quiet crooning. “I know you’re scared, but we’re here to help.” Big brown eyes stared into hers and stole her heart. This one was a keeper. Heifer or calf, this one would be staying at Shamrock to help build its future. “You’ll be back with your mama in no time,” she went on. “I promise.”

Over her shoulder she called, “Toss me a rope,” and her eyes connected with Brendan’s. She hadn’t even heard him ride up. Were she not in a life-or-death struggle, she’d have laughed at the nonplussed look on his face. She saw the exact moment he realized the full import of the men taking instructions from her. A look of surprise passed over his face and he backed up, bumping into his temperamental gelding. She grinned, then went back to caring for her endangered stock. But her thoughts were split.

“You were to tell me when ya were ready to leave town,” he shouted.

The calf balked at the sharp sound of Brendan’s voice, and its skull connected with Helena’s chin. This was the first time she’d really understood the term “seeing stars.” She shook her head, managing to catch the rope as it left Hodges’s grip and sailed toward her.

Forcing her mind off Brendan’s glowering image, she stuffed the end of the rope through the thick mud and positioned it behind the poor baby’s front legs. After fishing the rope out on the other side, she tied a bowline knot to keep it from tightening or loosening. All that was left was to toss the end back to Hodges.

“Get ready. When I release the suction the mud has on the calf’s front legs, keep a steady pressure on the line till I can free the hindquarters. I’ll let you know when to back your roan up and pull us both free.”

Once she nodded, it took only a moment. When she felt the rope tighten, Helena curled her toes in her boots so they’d come along for the ride. She felt the deep suction pull at her and the calf, then resistance, more resistance, and then, almost like a cork pulled from a bottle, she and the calf were free. It wasn’t a minute later that the mother and baby were reunited, and silence reigned but for the sound of suckling. Hodges dismounted and retrieved his rope.

Wearing a rueful grin, Yates handed Helena her hat. “At least this isn’t covered in mud,” he said. Then the two men stood there, awaiting her instructions.

A glance at Brendan, who remained tight-lipped, his hands on his hips, made the decision for her. “I’m not sure that calf can make it to the barn on his own, and I want them close so we can watch for any problems over the next few days.” She grabbed Paint Box’s reins and mounted. “I’ll take the calf if you’ll hand him to me. No sense in anyone else getting wet and muddy.”

Yates, the bigger of the two hands, moved toward the calf, and laughed when he got close. “You were right, boss. He is a calf. How’d you know? He was halfway up his belly in that mud.”

Helena chuckled. “Only a hardheaded male would ignore his mama and get into a predicament like that.” She rode over to the cow and her baby, on the off chance the mother got riled. But typical of the gentle longhorns Helena ran on her spread, the mama just bawled a little in protest as Yates picked up her babe and stretched the little calf across Helena’s lap.

Hodges glanced uncertainly toward Brendan and said under his breath, “You want us to come along, or keep checking this section for any cows having calving troubles?”

“Keep checking. And don’t worry about him. He’s harmless.” Physically, anyway. Emotionally, the man was poison. At least for her.

Yates took a clean bandanna from his back pocket and handed it up to her. “Don’t look harmless right now. Your chin’s bleeding like a stuck pig, thanks to his big mouth.”

Helena pulled off her muddy gloves and stuffed them in her back pockets, then took the cloth. Only now aware of the wound, she pressed it to her skin and hissed in a sharp breath at the burning pain. “Just keep checking the cows. There are less birthing problems with this breed, but there’s always a chance of a breech. I’ll be fine and so will Joker here.”

Hodges laughed. “Joker. Something tells me we’re going to have another bull roaming across Shamrock.”

She managed a grin, well aware she was being a tad too sentimental for a ranch owner. “I do have some extra time invested in this little guy, after all, and another bull will give us a second bloodline running through our herd. After the way we helped him out today, he’ll remember and be as friendly as King and Jack. I’ll see you all later. Let me know when you get back, okay?”

Both men nodded and went to mount up.

Uncomfortably muddy and wet, and now in pain, Helena was determined to avoid Brendan for as long as possible. Without a word or a glance for him, she waved to Yates and Hodges, then wheeled Paint toward home. She kicked the mare into an easy trot, but when she checked to see if the mama cow was keeping up, found she was lagging a bit. So Helena pulled back on the reins and settled Paint into a walk, and the cow closed the distance. Brendan had already mounted and was nearly at her side by then. She turned back around and stared straight ahead.

“You left town without me,” he accused when he drew even with her.

She’d have laughed at the irony of his complaint, but it still hurt too much. “How does it feel?” she muttered instead.

“If ya were tryin’ to teach me some kind of lesson, it was pretty childish to compromise your safety to do it.”

Helena bit back what she really wanted to say. Listening to Patience and Abby make plans for their babies, and discuss how their husbands were so protective of them, had been painful for her. Especially since the person she’d thought would protect her had abandoned her in a strange land at the first sign of trouble in their marriage.

Oh, who was she trying to kid? She’d always been alone, until the precious times she’d had Brendan in her life. But those magical times had ended when he’d turned his back on her.

Her anger at him spiked again and she retaliated in kind. “I told you, I don’t need you here. Besides that, you don’t matter enough for me to go out of my way to teach you a lesson. Particularly one you’ll never learn.”

“You certainly seem to need someone. Look at ya. That stupid calf hurt you.”

She dabbed at the cut with the bandanna Yates had given her. “I don’t need you,” she lied. She did the same work as the smaller men, but she couldn’t say she loved it. She’d rather spend her days riding for pleasure or doing embroidery or tatting, a lace-making skill she was still learning from Julia Hampton.

“I didn’t say it had to be me. Hire another hand. You aren’t suited to this kind of work.”

He couldn’t have said anything to anger her more. Who was he to judge her or her abilities? “For your information, this happened because of you. You scared the calf and he caught me where his horns will be in about a month. It could have been a lot worse if he were older. You might have even killed me then.”

“Don’t put that on me. After you got hurt, you went ahead and put yourself in danger again by helpin’ take that calf away from its mother. Suppose she’d turned on you, gored you?”

Helena let out a hefty sigh. “Longhorns are, for the most part, placid and gentle. Big long horns and all. If she wasn’t good-natured, she’d have gone to market long ago. I’d never let her breed a nasty disposition into my herd. The first thing I learned about longhorns was that if you can’t turn your back on one, it belongs on your table for dinner. Even longhorn bulls aren’t by nature mean.” That seemed to silence Brendan for a half hour or so.

“I’m sorry I scared it,” he said as they approached the home place. “I truly am sorry I got you hurt. I didn’t realize I’d startled it. Here.” He reached out to hand her a clean handkerchief, then he leaned down and opened the pasture gate.

She thanked him and rode ahead, the cow trailing behind her. Once he’d shut the gate after the lowing mama, Helena stepped out of the saddle, then pulled the calf down. She stumbled under his weight but managed to set him on his feet. Seeing him run to his mama and contentedly nurse made her smile. Then Brendan had to go and spoil the moment.

“Don’t put yourself in danger to spite me again. And get that cut looked at. It’s still bleeding.”

She brushed aside his concern. “I’ll be fine. Do you really think worse hasn’t happened to me in three years of ranching? As for why I left town, I had work to do out here and you said you had a stack of posters to get through. I didn’t have time to waste. This place doesn’t run itself. Spiting you was the last thought in my head. I told you, you don’t matter enough to influence my decisions.”

His lips tightened. “Fine. Just remember, town’s off-limits without an escort until we stop these raids.”

“You gave up the right to give me orders. You don’t tell me where and when I can do anything. You’re here at my sufferance, Ranger Kane. Try to remember that, and we might get through this without all these senseless arguments.”