Colorado Bride (15 page)

“I’ll be were along about midnight,” Jake said finally.

“I don’t stay up that late. I think nine o’clock would be a good compromise.” Bemis started to protest, but a look at Carrie’s stern expression changed his mind. He was a reasonable man, and he could see no future in arguing with this woman. She could outshoot and outtalk him, and she had the nerve to do just about anything she put her mind to. That was a bad combination in a man but it was lethal in a woman, and Jake Bemis knew when to tuck his tail between his legs and back away.

“So you’re the lady who gave Baca Riggins his walking papers?” the sheriff commented as they walked back toward the center of town.

“Actually Duncan Bickett fired him, but I was the one who presented him with the letter. I should also add that Mr. Barrow’s help made it unnecessary for me to employ my pistol.”

“And Bickett actually gave you a contract to run that station?” the sheriff asked, unbelieving. “I never heard of a woman station manager, and especially not in that neck of the woods.”

“Actually he gave the contract to my husband,” Carrie said, furious that she had to perpetuate this piece of fiction, “but he died before we reached Colorado, and I took it up in his name.”

“Where did you learn to shoot like that? It’s not usual for ladies to handle a shooting iron better than a man.”

“I had a father, two brothers, and several uncles, all of whom could shoot a squirrel out of a tree at a hundred yards. Target practice was part of virtually every day of my life. They were actually rather pleased when I turned out to be better with a pistol than any of them.”

“Better, did you say?”

“Only with a pistol,” Carrie said with an air of guileless innocence that almost made Lucas choke with laughter. “My father said it would be unladylike for me to use a shotgun, and I never had much use for a rifle, not being allowed to go hunting, so a pistol was about all I ever tried. But I always did wonder how I would have done with a rifle.”

“I’d give a month’s salary to see Duncan’s face when he learns what a mess he’s got himself into,” the sheriff said with a sudden grin.

“Sheriff, I don’t regard my presence at the station as a
mess,
as you put it, and I’d appreciate it if you would not go about saying it is. You’re welcome to come out any time you please and see for yourself how I’m doing.” The sheriff looked taken aback that Carrie would call him down quite so publicly. Carrie accepted his mumbled apologies, but he went away so determined not to miss Duncan’s reaction to the news that he decided to tell him himself.

“Well, I must say you’ve done a good job of setting the town on its ear,” Lucas said after they had cleared the edge of town. “Within a matter of hours there won’t be a person inside three hundred miles that doesn’t know about you, that is if they haven’t heard already.”

“How? Who’d be interested?”

“There aren’t many people in this country, and news travels as fast as a horse can run. Running off Baca Riggins was news. Shooting the end off Jake’s cigar was sensational. From now on, they’ll want to hear about everything you do.”

“And they say women gossip,” Carrie remarked.

“I suppose you’re determined to stick it out,” Lucas said after a long pause. “You won’t need to depend on me, now that you’ve got Jake, that is.”

“I never needed to depend on you,” Carrie said—she shouldn’t have said that, but he deserved it for following her—"but I am grateful for your help. It would have been much more difficult without you.”

Lucas’s feelings were somewhat mollified, and he stared ahead of him for a time. “I was telling you the truth when I said I couldn’t stay around all the time. There are several things I must do that I’ve been putting off.”

“I know, and you mustn’t think I don’t appreciate your changing your plans, no matter how often we disagree. But now that I have Mr. Bemis, you can go about your business without worrying about me.”

“So I can,” Lucas said, but Carrie was glad to see he didn’t seem to take much pleasure in that knowledge.

They rode for a while in silence, Lucas staring into space before him, Carrie studying the landscape. It was so different from Virginia it was hard to imagine she was in the same country. Ridges ran off in all directions, and valleys opened up before her without warning, some choked with thick growths of aspen and others lush with grass that was waist high, but all around her the gigantic mountains dominated the horizon, thrusting everything else into insignificance, lb one who had grown up on a tidal plain as flat as the Kansas prairie, just the sight of the towering peaks, capped with snow and gleaming with blinding brilliance in the sun, filled her with excitement. Everything was so new and unspoiled, so vibrantly alive and full of energy, she couldn’t help feeling she was truly starting her life over.

“You’ve never told me anything about yourself, Mr. Barrow,” Carrie said.

“Out here a man takes what he’s told and doesn’t ask for anything else.”

“Not even his name, or where he came from?”

“A lot of people came west to get away from something. Besides, there’s nothing in a name except a bunch of letters.”

“How odd,” Carrie commented. In the East, your name and where you come from mean everything.”

“And how many people found they couldn’t live up to their past, or wanted to be something different?”

“Quite a few, I suppose. I guess you could say I’m one of them.”

“Sometimes it was a simple mistake. Other times, well, it could be a lot of different things, but there are many reasons why a man might want to start over without having to bear the burden of the past, especially if it’s not his own.”

“So I shouldn’t ask Jake for his references?”

“Out here, nothing counts in a man except the color of his courage and the value of his word.”

Carrie doubted it was quite that cut and dried, but she wasn’t going to argue with Lucas on his own ground. They continued to wile away the time talking about the countryside and what the new settlers would mean to the state. They both knew they were avoiding questions that would have to be faced sooner or later, but for the time being it was pleasant to enjoy the view and the easy conversation.

Lucas helped Carrie get her supplies inside the station, but he disappeared after that, and it wasn’t until he came in for supper that Carrie saw him again. Almost the second they finished, the evening stage arrived and Lucas went off to harness up the team while Carrie welcomed her guests and helped Katie serve the meal.

“It’s been a long day,” Carrie said when they at last finished up with the dishes. “I wish I could go to bed right now, but I’ve got to wait up for the new man.”

“Why don’t ye go on to bed? I can wait for him,” Katie offered.

“Don’t be absurd. You’ve been working hard all day, and I know you’re about to drop. He’s my responsibility, and besides, you don’t know what he looks like. I’ll just sit here on the porch for a while. It’s such a pleasant evening.”

“There’s some water on for coffee, but don’t you go staying up too late,” Katie admonished Carrie as she went off toward the cabin.

The night breeze was a little chilly and Carrie wrapped a shawl around her arms and shoulders before settling into one of the chairs on the station porch. The moon was full and the stars shone brightly. They seemed so close Carrie felt she could reach out and touch them. The night was full of sounds that were strange to her ear, but Carrie found them a comfort rather than otherwise. The air was crystal clear and she could see the barn and corral almost as well as in daylight. The stage trail seemed to glisten in the moonlight that bathed everything with a silver sheen. It was a beautiful sight and Carrie didn’t think she’d ever seen anything half as exciting at home. There everyone was certain to be indoors after dark. An elk suddenly appeared out of the woods, sniffed the wind, and then began to graze on the grass next to the trail. Abruptly, he looked up and then disappeared into the night. Carrie looked in the direction of his gaze and saw Lucas approaching the porch.

Carrie didn’t know until she saw him that she’d been wanting all along to see him.

“Good evening, Carrie ma’am,” Lucas said, pausing with one foot resting on the bottom step, his forearms resting on the step rail. “It’s a right pretty night.”

“Have you come to make sure the wild animals don’t get me?”

“I don’t know as you have to worry about the ones that walk on four legs. It’s the ones that prefer two that’ll give you the most trouble.”

“So I’ve noticed,” Carrie responded, wondering if he included himself in that group, “but you still don’t have to keep me company. You’ve already used up most of your day following me into town and back, and I would hate to waste any more of your time.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Well, I do,” she replied, wondering why his devil-may-care attitude never failed to set her teeth on edge. “I would rather you go back to the barn, or your cabin, or wherever it is you spend the night.”

“Mostly here and there, no place special.”

“You don’t take orders very well, do you, Mr. Barrow? It’s a good thing you didn’t take that stock job. I’d have had to fire you before the week was out.” Lucas grinned broadly.

“I always did like giving orders better than taking them.”

“I wish you would drop that idiotic accent,” Carrie snapped. “You may not intend to tell me anything about yourself, but I know for certain you’re no drifter, you’re not uneducated, and I seriously doubt you’re a wrangler either.”

“Well now, Carrie ma’am, it seems you turned out not to be a married woman. I wonder what else you will turn out not to be?” Carrie was thankful the moonlight didn’t illuminate the telltale flush in her cheeks.

“Whatever it is, it’s no concern of yours. As you told me earlier, out here it’s only honor, courage, and honesty that count.”

“But that’s just for men, Carrie ma’am. We still like to know where our womenfolk come from.”

“Well, you can keep on
liking
to know. I’ve told you all I’m going to tell you. Now please go away and leave me alone.” Carrie wondered for the umpteenth time how Lucas’s smile could make her say things she didn’t mean.

“I had me a mind to sit a spell in this moonlight. I’m awful fond of moonlight.”

“I suppose that short of shooting you, there’s nothing I can do to stop you, but I won’t put up with being ma’amed to death, and I won’t listen to your cowboy drawl. Use it, if you must, for whatever it is you’re doing here, but I’ll go inside if you don’t drop it now.”

“Are you always this contrary, ma’am?” Lucas asked, settling into the chair next to Carrie. “I wouldn’t be surprised if your father and brothers were relieved to get rid of you.”

“My name is Carrie,”
Carrie enunciated with great clarity, “and if you wish to have me reply to any further remarks, you will use it.”

“Okay, Carrie it is,” Lucas said, dropping the remaining shreds of his drifter act. “But you’ve got to call me Lucas. My uncle is Mr. Barrow, and I don’t think he’s ready to share his name with me just yet.”

“So you have an uncle. I had begun to wonder if you might not have come into this world full-grown, clothed, shod, and ready to come to my aid whether I wanted you to or not.” Lucas laughed softly at the mockery of her words.

“I had a mother and a father just like everybody else, but they died when I was a little boy. My uncle raised me.”

“A mere mortal, huh? What happened?” Carrie asked, her compassion immediately aroused in spite of her sarcasm. Lucas waited a long time to reply, and Carrie began to feel uncomfortable. “You don’t have to tell me,” she said. “You already said people weren’t supposed to ask questions.”

“It’s not that,” Lucas replied. “It’s just a hard memory. My grandfather had a ranch in Texas. My uncle Max left years before I was born, but my father stayed and married his childhood sweetheart. Then somehow a range war got started with the Robertson family, and my uncle came home to find our dams busted, our cattle run off, my father and grandfather dead, and my mother dying of a broken heart.” Carrie felt a great rush of sympathy, and she was startled and confused when Lucas suddenly started to laugh.

“Those Robertsons didn’t know what a fight was until they got Uncle Max mad. Before he was through, they were all dead and their land and cattle were ours. He sold both places, and the herds, and took me back with him. We haven’t stopped traveling yet.”

“Haven’t you ever wanted to go back?” Carrie asked, bewildered that a man could laugh about death.

“What for? There’s nothing there for me but bitter memories. Best to forget them. You see, I really am a drifter, not quite the kind you thought, but a drifter nevertheless.”

“I see. You just drifted in here, and any day now you’re going to drift right back out again.” The sound of her words was hard and abrasive, like shards of glacial ice, and she shrank from their meaning.

“Something like that.” He turned and faced her. “I never knew you were going to be here.”

“Would it have made a difference?” There was such a long pause, Carrie was afraid he wasn’t going to answer.

“I would still have had to go.”

“I see.”

“No you don’t.”

“I see enough.”