Colorado Bride (12 page)

It was hard to believe that the arrival of just one woman, especially one he had never heard of before, was forcing him to rethink just about every major decision in his life. He didn’t have the time or the energy for that right now, and it made him mad at himself
and
mad at Carrie that he couldn’t control his thoughts and feelings the way he always had before. He didn’t want to get tied up with a woman right now, but certainly not a married one who made up her own mind as to what she would and wouldn’t do without, even consulting him. How was a man to know she wouldn’t go off on some harebrained scheme the minute he turned his back? How could he know she was safe when she refused to admit there were limits to what she could do? How could he be the master of his own home when she refused to accept his word for anything?

Lucas worked his way through these arguments and a lot more besides, he even tried giving himself a dressing-down like his uncle would have done, but when he had used up all his energy for argument and exhausted his list of objections, he was left with one unalterable fact: he could not get Carrie Simpson out of his mind. Robert Simpson was going to have to prove himself worthy of her, or he would personally bury his carcass at the bottom of a mine shaft.

Right away Lucas knew he wouldn’t do anything like that, but the very fact that he had thought of it scared him half to death. He had to get out of here now, even if it was only for a short time. He would tell her at lunch.

Twelve o’clock came and Carrie had an additional reason to be angry with Lucas—he was late for lunch. She didn’t know whether he intended to eat with them or not, he hadn’t been thoughtful enough to say, so she had decided she wouldn’t set a place for him until he came. She absolutely refused to give him any excuse to think she was looking forward to his company. After the way he had treated her, he was lucky she bothered to feed him at all.

“You can be setting Mr. Barrow’s place now, ma’am” Katie said, barely concealing a secret smile. “I see him coming through the trees.”

“I might have known he’d wait until I was just about to sit down,” Carrie grumbled, but Katie noted that Carrie had his place laid before he reached the door.

Carrie stepped out on the porch to meet him. “There’s a bucket of water and a bar of soap around the side of the station.” Lucas paused, grinned, and washed up without demur. It was the first time he could remember since he left Denver when it had mattered whether his hands were washed, and it was sort of nice in a way. He was even more impressed when he stepped inside the station. The curtains had been ironed and rehung since that morning and the windows cleaned to allow the bright Colorado sunshine to stream in and make the newly scrubbed table and floor gleam brightly.

“You ladies have just about transformed this place,” Lucas said, waiting until Carrie and Katie had seated themselves to take his place at the table. “Poor Baca wouldn’t even recognize the place.”

“I hope that’s not the only difference you see around here,” Carrie said.

“No. The food’s a lot better. And the scenery has improved too.”

“I was not referring to my presence, or Katie’s,” Carrie retorted, irritated.

“Neither was I,” Lucas replied, his expression deadpan. “You’ve cleaned the windows, and I can see the mountains from here.” Carrie’s eyes looked daggers at Lucas while Katie tactfully lowered her head.

Carrie had made up her mind to tell both Lucas and Katie that Robert had died and that she was a widow, but Lucas’s taunting exasperated her so much she decided to wait until after lunch. He was the most vexing man she had ever met, and she wasn’t going to allow him to gloat over her for one minute more than was absolutely necessary. She knew she should never have claimed a husband and that it wasn’t going to look very good when she told them she was a widow—she was afraid telling a second lie was going to cause even more trouble before everyone knew all the truth—but she didn’t dare tell them the whole truth yet. Being a married woman, even if she had been married for only a short time, conferred a special status on her, and admitting she had never been married at all was going to strip her of that protection.

She watched Lucas during the meal, but he seemed to be ignoring her, talking to Katie and drawing her out about her family and her home in Ireland. It was all very interesting and Carrie was very fond of Katie, in fact she was quickly coming to like the girl more than any woman she had known, but there was no reason for Lucas to ignore her.
She
had a past, too, and a home he knew nothing about. It might not be as far away and as different as Ireland, but then she guessed he would feel more comfortable in Katie’s cottage than in her father’s house in Virginia.

Is your husband coming in on the afternoon stage?” Lucas asked. Carrie hadn’t been listening, and Lucas had to repeat his question.

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t know.”

“Which is it?” Lucas asked. “You gave me three separate answers.”

“I don’t know,” Carrie answered. “How could I when I don’t know if the shipment he was waiting for has arrived?” This was a perfect time to tell them, but Lucas’s question had put her on the defensive and now she was digging herself in deeper and deeper.

“What’s he waiting for that’s so important?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say.” Lucas gave her a skeptical look.

“He let you come out here all by yourself, but didn’t think you should know what he was waiting for?”

“Robert doesn’t
hide
things from me. I suppose he thought it wasn’t important. Maybe he just never got around to it. There were so many things to do at the last minute.”

“How long would it take him to say he was waiting for a new set of harnesses, or a stage wheel, or a barrel of whiskey?”

“I don’t know why he didn’t tell me. He just didn’t.” Carrie was feeling pressured, and she could guess that Lucas could tell something was wrong. His ironic look had slowly changed to one of curiosity. His gaze held her own for so long Carrie was forced to look away. “He’ll be here soon,” she finished lamely.

“I hope so. You need someone here twenty-four hours a day, not just when a stage comes in.”

“I can manage,” Carrie insisted.

“For a little while, maybe, but sooner or later you’re going to run into trouble when I’m not here to help you. And you’ve only met the best of the drivers so far. There are a couple of tough cases in that lot.” Carrie started to speak, but Lucas forestalled her, the barest trace of a smile in his eyes. “I know what you’re about to say. I guess as far as you can see, you have a right to think you can handle this job, but you don’t know what you’re getting into, you don’t know anything about living in the West, and you have no idea what it’s like to be here in the winter when snow can drift up to the eaves of the station. I admire your spunk. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any woman who had more pluck and brains than you, but you’re out of place here without a man. When your chestnuts really get into the hot part of the fire, you’ll need someone to pull them out for you.”

Lucas knew his every word made Carrie angrier, and he couldn’t help smiling, which was the one thing he shouldn’t have done. His air of tolerant amusement infuriated Carrie, and she lost her temper.

“You don’t need to say any more, Mr. Barrow,” Carrie said, trying to keep her voice from rising. “You have made it abundantly plain, several times in fact, that you don’t think that I, or any other woman, can handle this job. You’ve gotten it into your thoroughly stubborn head that this is a
man’s
job, and naturally if it’s a
man’s
job, no female could possibly manage it. Well, for your information, Mr. Barrow, I am
going
to handle it, and I’m going to handle it without any man’s help. I don’t really have any choice,” she added, sounding a little less defiant. “My husband is dead. He won’t be coming this afternoon, or any other afternoon.”

The announcement struck her listeners dumb, but for two completely different reasons.

Katie was out of her seat in an instant, kneeling at Carrie’s side, her arm around her shoulders. “You poor thing. Why didn’t you tell anyone? Faith, you shouldn’t have to bear something like this all alone.”

“I was afraid they wouldn’t let me stay here” Carrie said quite frankly. “With Robert dead, I had no place to go. I
had
to have this job.”

“When did it happen? Was it very long ago?” Katie asked.

“No, he died last month in St. Louis. It was some kind of fever, the doctors didn’t know much about it, but they couldn’t do anything for him. There was an epidemic about, and they had their hands full.”

For a few moments Lucas didn’t say a word; he was almost totally unaware of the women, totally occupied with his own reaction to the news. He was shocked to realize that not only did he have no regrets that a man had died, he was actually
glad
because that meant Carrie was free. It also meant he couldn’t possibly leave her alone. Quick on the heels of that realization came a second that reminded him he
had
to leave her, several times in fact, if he was to find the gold thieves. And now that Carrie had no husband and he didn’t have to leave Green Run to keep from disgracing himself and his name, he had no reason not to continue with his job. Almost immediately he began casting about in his mind for someone he could depend on to handle the job and look after the women. He had to smile to himself when he realized he was going down the list of men he knew, automatically eliminating any who weren’t old or ugly. He might have to force himself, but he was going to consider everyone. If he couldn’t capture Carrie’s heart on his own, he didn’t deserve to win her.

Lucas nearly choked on his own thoughts, if such a thing was possible. All along he had been thinking he was merely interested in a pretty woman, but already his subconscious had decided he was in love with her. He told himself that was preposterous and that he would deal with it later, that right now he had to find someone who could help Carrie at the station.

“You’ve got to hire a stock tender right away,” Lucas said out loud, as though he had just reached that conclusion.

1 don’t need one,” Carrie stated, glaring at him from angry eyes. The brute, he didn’t have the least sympathy for her bereaved state. All he could think about was hiring a blasted stock tender so he could feel free to go off and do whatever disgraceful thing it was he was dying to do. Well, it had to be disgraceful, didn’t it? What man would be in such a fever to do anything entirely respectable?

“You ought to go down to Fort Malone and hire Jake Bemis,” Lucas said. “He’s the best by far. He’s a little hard to get along with sometimes, but you can’t beat him for handling stock.”

“I told you I don’t need anyone,” Carrie insisted. “I can do everything myself?.”

“What will happen when you have to go into Fort Malone to buy supplies? Suppose you have to go as far as Denver to buy harnesses or replacement parts for a stage? Or maybe you’re planning on Katie handling the horses as well as the kitchen.”

“I could if need be,” Katie spoke up loyally.

“No, you couldn’t,” Carrie said, abruptly reversing herself. “You’ve got all you can do with the cooking. If you had the cleaning and the horses to do as well, you’d never survive.”

“Oh dear” Katie said quite suddenly, “what if me Brian was to come asking after me?”

“Maybe you can talk your Brian into helping with the horses,” Lucas suggested, a sly look dancing at the back of his suddenly averted eyes. “I just remembered that Jake is a woman hater. He wouldn’t work for you if you paid him twice the sixty dollars a month he’s worth.”

“What do you mean he wouldn’t work for me?” Carrie demanded. “Doesn’t he think I know my job well enough to tell him what to do?”

“It’s nothing against you in particular,” Lucas assured her. “He just won’t work for a female. You better see if you can hire old Frank Martin. He’s had some trouble with rheumatism, can’t straighten up actually and I hear he has trouble keeping off the whiskey, but you might be able to talk him into taking the job if you ask him nicely’

“Do you have the effrontery to suggest that an old, crippled drunk can do the job better than I can?” Carrie asked, her eyes glinting dangerously.

“Not at all,” Lucas hastened to reassure her, “but now that you don’t have any husband coming to help, and Katie’s Brian possibly showing up any minute to take her away, and me going off to hunt mustangs, and you maybe having to go buy supplies, you have no choice but to hire somebody. It’s a shame Jake won’t take the job. He’s really the best choice, but I guess you can get by with old Frank if you don’t stay gone more than a few hours and you make sure he’s not hiding any whiskey on him.”

“Are you implying that I would have to search that old man
bodily
to prevent his secreting whiskey on his person?” Carrie demanded.

“You would if you didn’t want him drunk on you half the time.”

“I won’t have him.”

“I can’t see that you have any other choice. Jake won’t work for you, and there isn’t anybody else in Fort Malone who knows the job.”

“I’ll hire a cowhand from one of the neighboring ranches.”

There’s only one ranch within a hundred miles, but it won’t do you any good to go looking there. No self-respecting cowhand will take a job that can’t be done from horseback. But don’t worry. It might take you a little while, but you’ll get used to old Frank.”