An Unwilling Husband (9 page)

He pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to relieve the tension building just behind his eyes. What could he say to her? She had a point. He knew how it looked. “Where is your horse?”

“Lenny took him over to that stable by the hotel, I think.”

“Lenny’s here, too?” Aw, hell. If she’d braved coming into town, something big had spooked her. He headed off in the direction of the stable, leaving Maggie to trot after him. “What’s happened? I know Lenny wouldn’t come into town without good reason,” he said when she’d almost caught up to him.

“I need to talk to you about something,” she said low, casting glances at the gawkers. “In private, if you don’t mind.”

He slid her a glare. Someone petite and soft smelling collided with him. Anna, wearing a light blue dress and toting a feminine-looking umbrella. Hell and damnation.

“Oh! Mr. Shaw!” Anna exclaimed.

Arranging his expression into one of politeness, he caught her arms to keep her upright.

Any man could see the woman was pretty, with her blond hair neatly pinned in a bun and eyes the color of a clear spring sky. Her lips were full and pouty, and the color that rose on her cheeks was becoming on her. He could almost see Maggie bristling at the way Anna smiled at him. “Miss Jennings. I’m sorry. I didn’t see you coming,” he said.

Anna laughed, a charming tinkling sound. “That’s fine, Mr. Shaw. I didn’t see you either, though I should have seen a man your size comin’ from a mile away.” She leaned into him and whispered, “I must say, it has been my pleasure runnin’ into you.”

Garrett gave her a half smile. He rarely knew what to do with Anna’s boldness.

Maggie stepped forward. “Hello, Miss Jennings, was it? Maggie Shaw. Pleased to meet you.”

“Shaw?” A slight wrinkle furrowed Anna’s brow.

In hopes of biting back the swear words ready on his tongue, he clamped his mouth shut. In no way did he want to explain the situation then, or ever, if he were completely honest. He’d dreaded this confrontation ever since his blasted agreement to Roy’s final request. Trouble was coming and he had no power to stop it.

He cleared his throat. “Anna, I’d like to introduce you to my
wife
.” Though he’d bitten out the last word like a curse, for the first time that he’d called her his wife, it still counted.

Maggie shivered beside him like she’d taken a chill. Simultaneous dirty looks from he and Anna stilled her quickly enough though, thank God.

“You’re married to her?” Anna didn’t even try to disguise the disgust in her voice or the scowl on her face. “I wonder what my pa is going to have to say about this, Mr. Shaw. You two practically shook hands on our arrangement, and you know he doesn’t take kindly to Indian Givers.”

Was this tiny woman threatening him? He shouldn’t have been surprised. She was a Jennings, after all. Probably born to extortion.

Maggie looked like she wanted to kick his almost-betrothed in the shin. It was time to go, before that redheaded little hellion did something unwise. Again.

Somehow, he’d managed to dodge one bullet by standing directly in front of another. He sighed with tiredness and tipped his hat. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out, Miss Jennings. It was nice to see you again.”

And by nice, he meant grating.

When he grabbed Maggie’s hand again, she yelped, but he led her around the fuming Anna Jennings and toward the direction of the stables.

“It was nice to have met you!” Maggie called back behind her. No doubt she’d said that to piss Anna off more than to be polite. From the ear-maiming shriek that sounded from behind them, she had likely succeeded.

Garrett tossed the stable boy a nickel and brought their horses out. Lenny followed closely with hers. Once mounted, he had to wait for Maggie to hoist her skirts over the buckskin’s back. How dadburned long did it take the woman to settle into a saddle? In the time it took to preen her skirts to adorn her horse’s backside just so, he could’ve ambled back into the saloon and taken a road shot to prepare him for whatever obnoxious conversation she’d foist on him next.

“What? You try riding in these blasted skirts!” she exclaimed.

His patience back in the shot glass at the Brass Buckle, he held his breath for a five count then said, “Lenny, can you take her to the dressmaker? Get a few readymade dresses and have them put it on my account.” He glared at Maggie. “I can’t stand watching you flounce around in that get-up anymore.”

Her chin lifted and she leveled a fiery look at him. “I don’t flounce. And anyway, I don’t need your money. I have a bit of my own. It’s not much but it should cover a few dresses.”

“Suit yourself,” he said. “I’ve got to talk to Burke and try to find Cookie. You ladies go on ahead and I’ll catch up. I’m taking you home.”

* * * *

Sitting outside the dress shop astride his restless mount and watching through the large window, Garret fumed. He’d mistaken how long it took women to shop for dresses, and by a long shot. He’d already talked to Burke and Cookie about heading home, which should have given Maggie plenty of time to be in and out of the dressmaker’s shop. They should have been on the road already. Long ago, damn it.

She saw him waiting, by the furtive looks she darted at the window, and if the way she stuck her prim little chin in the air as she spoke to the dressmaker was any indication, chose to ignore his glares. Thunderous looks, if his reflection in the window had any merit.

Lenny had escaped to her horse shortly after he’d arrived, which likely had more to do with her withering under the portly dressmaker’s cold stare, and less to do with the tedium of dress shopping. Did Maggie think the same? From the way she snapped peevish, one-word sentences at the woman who was trying to extract gossip from her, she must have.

When Maggie finally came out of the dressmaker’s shop with three brown paper wrapped dresses, he was minutes from losing his mind and dragging her from the shop. If she’d thought to teach him patience, she hadn’t succeeded.

“Took you long enough,” he muttered while she untied her horse from the hitching post.

She ignored him and mounted Buck. While he put the wrapped dresses into their saddle bags, she waited, lips pressed in a line.
Now
she had nothing to say?

Without another word, he kicked his horse and turned him down Main Street toward the Lazy S.

“Your manners really are atrocious,” Maggie sang after him.

Though he couldn’t resist throwing her a steely glare, he held his tongue. The woman was a burr under his skin, and maybe it would annoy her. No woman had ever been so irritating. “Only fifty years to go,” he groused.

Chapter 6

Maggie held back on the ride home to the Lazy S because Garret made it obvious he didn’t feel like talking to her. He focused instead on Lenny and asked her questions in her language, which she answered minimally.

Unexpected tenderness warmed her for the way he treated the Indian girl. After the stares and rude mutterings from the townspeople, Garret was a stark contrast. She hadn’t seen him treat Cookie or Lenny differently than any of the other people who worked for him on the Lazy S. If anything, he went to Cookie more often than anyone else for tasks he wanted to get done right the first time. How had they become such a pivotal part of daily life at the ranch? For the hundredth time, she wished fervently that she could communicate with her new friend.

Lenny turned in her saddle, glanced at her and nodded her head up to Garret, who led the way on his chestnut stallion. The girl was right; she was wasting precious time, and Garret would have no excuse not to listen to her out in this wilderness.

She kicked Buck and pulled him up beside Garret. He must have caught the movement out of the corner of his eye because he turned a surprised look on her.

“You seem better in the saddle,” he said. “More comfortable. You been riding while we were away?”

It was as close to a compliment as he had ever given her, and she was pleased as punch. But was he teasing, though?

No, his expression appeared genuine. The hard glints of anger had left his eyes. “Lenny and I have been riding around the ranch every day. It truly is beautiful out there.”

Garret nodded, and silence blanketed them again.

Dear Lord, now how to start up a conversation with a man who could barely tolerate her? Small was best, perhaps. “What is your horse’s name?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me.”

Silence, except for the clop of hooves and the squeak of leather.

She’d spoken quietly, so perhaps he hadn’t heard her.

“Rooney.” He sighed and jerked his head toward her horse. “Buck? I heard you call him that.”

“Mmm-hmm. He’s my big boy,” she said, giving Buck a pat on the neck. “Roy gave him to me when I was seven. I don’t know if you remember. We were great friends, Buck and I, before I left.”

Garret’s face darkened. What had she said wrong now?

He nodded at the approaching clouds in the distance and kicked Rooney into a trot. “We need to get to the house before dark. A storm’s coming and we don’t want to get caught out in it.

“I know you don’t like to talk to me, but there is something you should know,” she said over the increased noise of the horses’ pace.

He slowed Rooney again and looked at her with an impatient glower, waiting.

“We didn’t come into town so I could bother you. You seem to think I like being a thorn in your life.” She sat up straighter in the saddle. “But I don’t. And I’m sorry Miss Jennings found out about me in this way, but we came into town because, well…I was scared.”

Garret searched her face. For what, she didn’t know, but for an instant he seemed as if he cared and it gave her the tiniest bit of hope. “What has scared you, Maggie?”

“Miss Jennings’s brother. Wyatt? He paid us a visit, and he was frightening and inappropriate, and, and,” the words tumbled out beneath his harsh gaze, “he said he would come back tomorrow and the next day because you weren’t there. So Lenny and I decided we couldn’t be there alone again when he showed up.”

“Shit. What did he say?”

She told him everything, as close as she remembered it, and after she had finished, Garret rode in silence, and she settled Buck in beside him.

The reins lay easily in his capable hands and with every command for his mount, he caressed them with his palms. How could a man so brash and powerful have such a considerate touch?

“Wyatt won’t be back tomorrow,” he said, the sound of his voice startling her.

She clutched the reins, and Buck skittered to the side and tossed his head.

Garret watched the buckskin’s antics with a thoughtful expression. “Or if he does, he’s an even bigger idiot than I already thought he was.” He made a short clicking sound and spared a glance for the horizon to the east. “This storm’s going to be bad. I can feel it.”

He talked quietly and to himself, so she remained silent until he finished.

“Wyatt is dangerous, and I don’t want you engaging him, you hear?”

She nodded.

“I was in talks to marry Anna. It wasn’t my idea to start with. I don’t care for the girl, but her father approached me. Said this arrangement would help us both out. Her pa owns the biggest cattle ranch around these parts, and it’s no secret he means to expand. He’s been pushing us to sell to him for years. I don’t even know how my pa held out, with as dire as his finances got. Roy too. Jennings has been putting a lot of pressure on him for a while. I know Jennings put an offer on Roy’s homestead the day he found out he passed. The man is ruthless and not one to be baited, you understand?” He narrowed his gaze on her. “Jennings came to me and said if I married his daughter, he’d let up on buying my place and give me a considerable dowry for Anna. Enough to save the ranch. Said she fancied me and he’d give anything to see her happy. Now, I’m not a stupid man. I know this will only be a temporary fix because as soon as I step out of line, Jennings will be on me. He’ll own me because of this marriage. That’s why I’ve been trying to raise the money myself to save the Lazy S. I don’t want his money. Or his daughter, but I’ll do anything in my power to save this place.”

The expression in his eyes held a need for understanding.

“Did you raise enough on the cattle drive?”

“No. I was never going to be able to raise the cash we needed from one drive, but I thought we could get closer. Maybe have some hope of something working out. Prices dropped, though, and waiting a couple of days wasn’t going to see them on the rise. We sold the first day, and thank the good Lord on that one, because they kept dropping. We’re still not anywhere close.”