Heart Of Texas (Historical Romance) (10 page)

Casey was relieved.

They had been living on the Spanish Spur for
three weeks, and so far there had been no real
trouble. In fact, she was beginning to feel encouraged because everything seemed to be going
so well.

The house felt like home to them-especially
now that Sam had built two wide wall shelves so
they could display their mother's china.

It was nice to go to bed at night without having
to move out the next morning with the wagon
train.

She stood in the doorway, her eyes going to the
loft. Kate had given her some goose feathers and
ticking and had helped her make a mattress for
Sam. Gabe had helped her brother put up a dividing wall so Sam could have privacy.

The only furniture in the front room was a
swaybacked settee and a straight-backed chair.

Casey and jenny shared the bedroom, but they
still slept on pallets. Kate was helping her make a
mattress for Jenny and herself.

The days were full, and there was so much to
do there was very little time to be idle. Most days
Sam rode out with Gabe, and he would come
home in the late afternoon excited about what
Gabe had taught him that day.

Gabe was acting differently toward her since the
day she had cut his hair. He was distant and formal when he spoke to her, and it seemed to Casey
that he avoided her whenever he could. She wondered what he could be thinking; he must have
thought she had been too forward when she insisted on cutting his hair, and then she had practically thrown herself in his arms.

He probably thought she acted that way with
every man she met.

She gave her head a small shake and glanced
at the barn, which still needed extensive repairs.
At least the broken boards on the corral had been
replaced, and the three horses that Gabe had
rounded up were now enclosed there.

She watched the wind stir the leaves on the elm
tree near the porch. It was a mild October day
with clear skies and only an occasional breeze
blowing from the south. She had chosen today to
clean the bunkhouse, and she had gathered her
broom and mop as soon as she had seen Gabe
ride away. Luckily, the bunkhouse was in good repair-it was just dusty from not being used for
so long.

Four cots were lined up against the north wall,
and there was a potbellied stove at each end of
the room to keep it warm in the winter. The structure seemed sound enough, and she glanced up
at the ceiling. Since there was no sign of a leak,
she knew that the roof was sound.

She had just finished scrubbing the floor and
was standing to flex her sore muscles when pain
stabbed through her like a knife. By now her
shoulder should be getting better, but it wasn't.
She didn't know how much longer she could go
on this way, because sometimes the pain was unbearable.

She had made up three of the beds, two for the
Indians Gabe had sent for. She had just spread a
clean blanket across Gabe's bed, and she paused
to stare at the pillow where he would lay his head
tonight. She could almost imagine his long, lean
body lying there, his dark hair contrasting with
the whiteness of the pillowcase. She ran her hand
across the wool blanket and closed her eyes, wondering what it would feel like to lie beside him
and have him take her in his arms. Her heart
throbbed, and her breath caught.

When she thought of him, her body always betrayed her. Why these feelings for him, and why
now?

Disgusted with herself for allowing such erotic
flights of fancy, she placed the jar of wildflowers she had brought with her on the window ledge,
then gathered her broom and mop and left. Tomorrow she intended to go to Mariposa Springs
to meet with the attorney, Bartholomew J.Murdock.

Jenny was playing in the front yard, the new
pup bouncing around her, while she patted out
mud pies. Her little face was so muddy, all Casey
could see was the blue of her eyes. She was grateful to Gabe for giving Jenny the dog, because she
played with it all day, and it even slept at the foot
of her pallet at night.

"You have to come in soon, jenny. You'll need
a bath before you can eat."

Her sister's bottom lip slid into a familiar pout.
"I don't like baths. I like to live in the mud-all
the time."

"Nonetheless, I am going to heat water for the
tub, and you will have a bath. Come on into the
kitchen after you have put your toys away."

Moments later Jenny stomped into the kitchen,
displeasure sparkling in her eyes. "You don't love
me, Casey. If you did, you wouldn't always make
me take a bath."

Casey took her hand and then stripped the
muddy clothes off her, dropping them beside the
door. LiftingJenny into the tub, she smiled at her.
"It's because I love you that I want to see that
sweet face of yours. Right now I can't see it for
the mud."

Jenny glanced up at her. "You like my face?"

"I love that face."

She considered for a moment. "I'll take a bath."

It was late afternoon by the time Casey had finished her household chores and was able to feed
and water the horses. She gave a carrot to the
chestnut gelding that always came to the fence to
nudge her hand. She had already decided she
would make him her horse.

When they had lived in the big house in Charlottesville, she had ridden almost daily, and she
had been considered quite an accomplished
horsewoman. But when the Union soldiers had
ridden through town, they had confiscated all the
horses for their troops. Her family had lost so
much because of the war.

But time passed, and they had a new life now.
Absently, she gave the gelding a pat.

She was not concerned when she heard a rider
approaching; she expected it to be Sam or Gabe.
She placed her hand above her eyes to shade
them from the sunlight.

The rider's horse was completely white, definitely a thoroughbred. She couldn't see much of
the man's face from this distance, but he was a
stranger. He must have noticed her standing by
the corral, because he rode in that direction. She
watched him dismount and walk toward her.

He removed his hat with perfunctory politeness. "Ma'am," he said as though he were not sure
she deserved the courtesy.

His hair was dark, speckled with gray, and she
would place him somewhere in his fifties. He was
a tall man with wide shoulders. His face might
have been called handsome except that his eyes
were cold and devoid of feeling-almost like dead
eyes, and she found she could not look into them,
so she turned her head away.

"Good afternoon," Casey answered, waiting for
him to tell her his name and state his business.

"I'm your neighbor." His words were spoken
softly, but they still sounded harsh and angry. "I
heard in town that there were squatters on the
Spanish Spur, and I came by to see for myself.
You'll find we don't take kindly to people living
where they don't belong. No one in town seems
to know anything about your bunch, so why don't
you just tell me what you're doing here?"

He went straight to the point, not bothering
with niceties, and she answered him in the same
manner. "Why don't you tell me who you are and
what interest you have in the Spanish Spur? And
then I'll tell you my name, and what I'm doing
here."

His eyes hardened even more. "It's none of
your business who I am, young woman. I'll give
you until tomorrow to pack up and be gone.
You'd better heed me well. If you aren't gone by
sundown you'll regret it. And I'll be back to make
sure you aren't still here.."

Her anger hit a quick zenith. "You are the one
who will leave and not come back. This ranch was
left to my family by our uncle. And neither you nor anyone else is going to make us leave."

He digested that bit of news and nodded. "That
figures-you got a Southern-like accent, and I
knew Bob had kin in Virginia. I wrote to a man
named Hamilton asking to buy the Spanish Spur,
but he wrote back that the place belonged to his
children, and he wasn't selling."

Her spine straightened, and her chin went up.
"That would have been my father." Ordinarily she
would have invited a stranger into the house and
offered him refreshments, but this man deserved
no such courtesy.

She stood her ground as if guarding her domain.

"I'm Cyrus Slaughter." He paused for effect,
then said, "Maybe you've heard of me?"

Although she had already guessed who he was,
she cringed inside at the mention of that name.
She was afraid of him, but she wasn't about to let
him know it. Casey met his angry gaze with a
steadfast one of her own. "I have heard that you
will probably cause my family problems. Are you
here to make trouble for us, Mr. Slaughter?"

"Ma'am, you don't know what trouble is until
you've crossed me. I want you to make sure to
remember that we had this conversation."

She stepped backward, shocked at the venom
in his tone. She was about to answer him when
she saw jenny come out the front door and run
toward her. Casey shook her head and motioned
for her sister to go back, but the child didn't stop until she could grab Casey's hand and glance inquisitively at the newcomer.

Jenny had a sunny disposition and treated no
one like a stranger, but at the moment she was
oddly silent, as if she recognized that this man was
not a friend. She tugged on Casey's hand. "Let's
go into the house."

Lifting jenny in her arms, Casey battled between anger and fear; fear finally won. She just
wanted to get jenny safely away from Cyrus
Slaughter. "If you will excuse me," she said, hearing the tremor in her own voice, "I have work to
do."

He leaned against the corral and stared at her,
long and hard. "Where's your pa or ma? You're
too young to be the mother of that little gal."

"We don't have parents, Mr. Slaughter." She
didn't want to explain that her mother and father
were dead in front of jenny. "Now if you will excuse me."

He moved so quickly that he was in front of her
before she could react. "Who else is here with
you?"

The man's eyes were so frightening that Casey
shivered. She had never seen eyes so devoid of
feeling. Kate was right about this man. He would
brush aside anyone who stood in the way of what
he wanted-and she had the feeling she was in
his way.

"Kate is somewhere about," she said hurriedly,
not wanting him to think they were alone. "And my brother and our hired hand will be riding in
at any moment."

He smiled because he knew he had frightened
her. He was - accustomed to people fearing him,
and that gave him power over them. "I don't
know what you've heard about me, and I don't
care. The only interest I have in you is your signature on a document that will make me the new
owner of the Spanish Spur."

Casey could feel her face flush as anger flamed
inside her. She quickly pushed her fear to the
back of her mind. "We have no plans to sell the
Spanish Spur to you or anyone else. So if you want
to buy land, you might want to look elsewhere."

She watched his fists ball at his sides.

She didn't know what would have happened
next if Kate hadn't come out of her house and
seen Slaughter there. Kate came rushing toward
them with her eyes flashing.

"Cyrus, you leave her alone. She's just getting
settled in, and she don't need you here stirring
up trouble."

He swung around to face the little woman. "Oh,
I'll be stirring up trouble, all right, Kate. You can
bet on that. Before long you'll be looking for a
new home, because I'll be tearing your shack
down." His glance went to the young woman. "I
don't see anyone around here willing to help you
except Kate, and she knows what happens to people who get in my way, don't you, Kate?" He ad justed his hat to an angle that satisfied him and
dipped his head.

"Ladies. Until the next time."

"I'm not scared of you, Cyrus," Kate called after
him as he walked toward his horse. She had
planted her small body protectively in front of
Casey and Jenny. "You may be able to bluff some
people, but not me. Don't ever come back here."

Cyrus made no other comment as he mounted
his horse.

"I'm afraid of him," Casey admitted as she
watched him ride out of sight. "I have never met
anyone like him before. He threatened us with
such hatred, I could almost feel it in my heart. He
is an evil man."

Kate caught Casey's trembling hand in hers.
"He's as bad as they come. I didn't reckon on him
riding in big as you please. He usually has someone else do his calling for him. He must have
been real set on meeting your family."

"If today was the worst it gets, I can manage
him. We had men like him in Virginia-we called
them carpetbaggers. We dealt with them just
fine."

"But you had your pa with you then, didn't
you?"

Her heart sank. "Yes."

"Honey, what you witnessed here today was just
Slaughter's way of leaving his calling card. He'll
be back meaner and stronger than ever; you can be sure of that. And he aims to run you off this
ranch."

"I don't understand why people let him get
away with his meanness."

Kate watched Cyrus disappear over the rise.
"Not everyone will. Gabe won't."