Historical Cowboy Romance Two Book Box Set - Mail Order Brides (25 page)

Violet sighed. “Thank you for what you did in
there.”

Chuck’s eyes snapped back to her face. “What
for? I didn’t do anything.”

“I mean,” Violet explained. “For getting me
out of there. I appreciate the way you stepped between Cornell and
I, and I’m grateful you pulled me off of him when you did. I hate
to think what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.”

“You don’t have to thank me,” Chuck told her.
“If I hadn’t been there, none of this would have happened. Besides,
you’re the one who beat the stuffing out of him. I was lying on my
face on the floor. Who knows what Cornell would have done if
you
hadn’t been there. I should be thanking you.”

Violet giggled. “Do you really think so?”

“I tell you what,” Chuck replied. “Let’s
forget all about it. We’re here to get to know each other better
before we get married on Friday. I thought we agreed we weren’t
going to talk about Cornell anymore, and that’s exactly what we’re
doing. Let’s just pretend like it never happened and go back to
being happy to be together.”

Violet looked up at the stars. “It isn’t fair
to you, but I don’t think I can ever forget it. I wish I could. I
wish I could pretend it never happened, but it did. I don’t know
what to do about it, but I don’t think anything will ever be the
same, especially after I told him to pack his bags. Now all of us
are against Cornell. I was the last person to back him, and now I’m
not. Things could get ugly.”

Chuck took her hand and pulled her closer to
him. “I hate to tell you this, darlin’, but things are already
ugly. He just attacked both of us, and you smashed his head against
the stairs. It doesn’t get any uglier than that.”

“I suppose not.” Violet said, and blinked the
sting of tears out of her eyes.

Chuck pulled on her arm again. “Look at
me.”

Violet surveyed the ground at her feet. “I’m
sorry about all this.”

“Look at me,” he commanded again, and this
time, she peered into his eyes. The moon reflected off the shining
surface of his eyes, and his nostrils flared not so very far from
her face. “Listen to me, Violet.”

Had he called her by her name before? Where
were they, anyway? Were they in the middle of the pasture, with the
Montana frontier stretched out for miles in every direction? Was
she Violet Kilburn? Was she Violet Ahern? Did it really matter
anymore?

“Listen to me,” Chuck continued. “This was
not your fault. You don’t have to apologize for anything. You’ve
done everything anyone could to stop this from happening, and what
you just did to Cornell is the same thing any sane person would
have done. I would have done it myself if he hadn’t got the jump on
me. If you ask me, you’re a flamin’ hero.”

Violet burst out laughing and touched the
corner of her sleeve to her eye. “Do you think so?”

“Absolutely,” Chuck declared. “You saved both
of us, and I’m delighted to find out what sort of a woman I’m going
to marry.”

“Really?” Violet squeezed his hand.

His mouth cracked into a broad grin, and the
moon shone on the surface of his teeth. “Really. Now, honestly, can
we stop talking about Cornell for just a little while? I didn’t
come out here to talk about him and I’ve had about all I can stand
of him for now.”

Violet laughed again. “Okay.”

Chuck pushed himself off the fence. “Where
should we go? Do you know a place we can sit down together?”

“I know a place,” Violet told him.

“I hope it’s not the barn,” Chuck remarked.
“Mick and Iris could be in there, or Jake and Rose, or even Mick
and Iris and Jake and Rose.” He pretended to look around the ranch.
“Where can a person get off alone around here?”

“Don’t worry,” Violet assured him. “Where
we’re going, we will definitely be alone.”

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I’m sure,” she replied.

“How can you be sure?” he asked.

“I’m just sure,” she replied. “Trust me. No
one will be there.”

Chuck shook his head. “All right. I guess I
have no choice but to trust you.”

“No one will be there,” she repeated. “But if
they are, we can just go somewhere else. I can guarantee you, Mick
and Iris and Jake and Rose will be together, wherever they
are.”

“That’s for certain,” Chuck muttered.

They came around the corner of the field, and
the house swung around to the other side of them. Violet led Chuck
a little further and then he looked right and left as if he
couldn’t believe his eyes. “Here?”

Violet smiled. “Yes.”

“Are you certain?” he asked again.

“Listen,” she told him. “No one will be in
here. They’ll be off together somewhere. They definitely won’t be
here, because they’ll want to be alone. They’ll be too worried
about someone coming. They won’t be here.”

Chuck glanced up at the Fort House. Its
windows stood cold and dark in the moonlight. The house was
deserted. “All right. Let’s go in.”

They tiptoed up the steps to the porch, and
Violet opened the door. The interior yawned black and empty, and
she took the first step into the front room. Chuck followed. Violet
heard his breathing behind her. The house hung still and silent all
around them, blocking out the light of the stars and moon. She took
a few more steps and put out her hand to feel for the table.

When she felt it, she groped her way further
into the house to the shelf next to the wood stove. She let her
fingers walk along it until she found the box of matches that
always stayed by the stove. She took out a match and struck it.
Just next to the matches, a candle stood in a pewter candleholder.
She touched the delicate flame to the wick, and a fragile halo of
light spread through the room.

Violet took the candle back to the table. The
light cast ghostly shadows around Chuck’s eye sockets and
cheekbones. He breathed again in the dark. “It sure is quiet,” he
whispered.

Violet snickered. “You wanted to be alone.
Now we are.” They listened to the heavy silence. A square of white
shone onto the floor through the open door. Other than that, only
the candle lighted the room. Violet took Chuck’s hand. “Come sit
down. I’ll light another candle or two so we can see better. But I
don’t think there’s any chance of Mick or Jake coming back here,
not for a while, anyway.”

She led him into the room and showed him to
the settee by the stairs. Then she shut the door and went back to
the kitchen. She came back with two more candles and set them on
the shelf next to the settee. At last, she settled herself next to
Chuck.

She took his hand again. “So,” she breathed.
“Here we are.”

“Here we are,” he replied.

Another long silence filled the room. They
both breathed heavily, and their breath mingled between their two
faces. Did her own face look as vacuous and hollow as his did? The
surreal light lent a magical mystery to the moment.

Everything she knew or ever learned about the
way men and women acted together when they found themselves alone
vanished from her memory. The house, her family, and all the laws
and conventions of propriety meant nothing now. Nothing separated
her from this man. Nothing prevented her from giving herself to
him, from belonging to him.

A slight pressure reminded her they were
still holding hands. What happened next? “So what do you want to
do, now that we’re alone together?”

He didn’t answer. He shifted her hand to his
other free hand, and placed the other one on her shoulder. Then he
slid his arm around her shoulder and drew her to him. She smelled
the meat on his breath from the supper table. Other smells of him
filled her nostrils with the bloom of the range. The smells of
horse, and leather, and dust hung around him like a perfume. She
knew those smells. She knew the man who carried those smells. He
could be no other.

The candle light shone in his eyes. He leaned
forward, and his lips grazed against hers. The warmth of his mouth
melted the chill of the night from her face and rippled down her
neck. She never tasted any wine as strong as his kiss.

He pulled back to look at her in the
candlelight, and their breath joined in the still air between them.
His lips landed on her mouth again, lingering, feeling the soft
welcome she gave them. Then he pulled back again. “It’s going to be
a long wait until Friday.”

“But worth it,” she pointed out.

“So, so worth it.” Again, his butterfly kiss
breathed its warmth into her lips. Her lips flamed with excitement,
and her heart raced in her chest.

“I didn’t think it would be like this,” she
told him.

“What did you think it would be like?” he
asked.

“We got you men to run the ranch,” she
reminded him. “I didn’t think I would feel this way about you. I
didn’t really think about it at all. But when I did, I didn’t think
I would feel anything much for you. I thought it would be more of a
business arrangement between us.”

His eyes bored into her in the dark. “I guess
I thought the same sort of thing. I didn’t think it would be like
this, either. I thought we would probably keep our distance, at
least right at the start. I didn’t think we’d just fall into place
together, like we were made for each other.”

“I know!” Violet breathed. “I feel like I’m
coming home after being away for a long time, or that I’m finding
out who I am for the first time. I don’t know how to explain
it.”

“I know what you mean,” Chuck replied. “All
that silly nonsense about the prince and princess falling in love
at first sight and living happily ever after really is true after
all. I never would have believed it if it hadn’t happened to
me.”

So he felt it, too. “Do you think the others
feel this way?”

Chuck nodded. “From what I’ve seen of the way
they’re acting, I’d say they are. All of us are walking around with
our heads in the clouds. I saw the way Mick and Jake acted on the
train. Believe me, they feel this way, too. I guess you’ve seen it
in your sisters.”

“I have,” Violet confirmed. “Rose was always
in the clouds, but I’ve never seen her act toward anyone the way
she’s acting with Jake. The two of them just sit there and stare
into each other’s eyes for hours. I don’t think they took their
eyes off each other once on the trip back from Butte.”

“I noticed that,” Chuck replied. “And Mick
and Iris both go all shy and smiling when they look at each other.
I’m telling you, I don’t think Mick smiled once from Santa Fe all
the way to Butte. I rode with him pretty much all the way, and
talked to him, so I know. And he sure wasn’t shy.”

She hesitated. “Do you think….”

“What?” he asked.

“You said you talked to Mick on the train,”
she began. “Do you think he might be….dangerous?”

“Mick!” Chuck exclaimed. “No way! What makes
you think that?”

“I don’t know,” Violet faltered. “It’s just
the way he beat that man up at the train station. I guess it’s just
my first impression of him. And then the way he got out his guns
when we first arrived here. It made my blood run cold to watch
him.”

Chuck thought the matter over. “I don’t think
he’s dangerous. He acted pretty normal on the trip up here. He
didn’t beat anyone up or shoot anyone, although he was wearing a
gun belt the whole time. You know how it is.”

“It isn’t that,” Violet replied. “I’ve seen
men wearing guns and carrying rifles around all my life. And I’ve
seen men getting into fights, too. Why, you can’t set foot in the
town of Butte without seeing someone getting mauled in the street.
But Mick is different.”

“Different, how?” Chuck asked. “He seems like
your regular ol’ cowboy to me.”

“I know you’re right,” Violet replied. “He
just seems like kind of a violent brute to me.”

“I’m wearing a gun belt,” Chuck pointed out.
“And so is Jake. He wasn’t wearing it on the train, but he is
now.”

“I know he is.” Violet shivered at the memory
of Jake strapping his guns on.

“What’s wrong now?” Chuck asked.

“Jake,” she told him. “Something about him
makes my blood run cold, too.”

“What? Not Jake, too! Now I know you’re not
thinkin’ straight. Jake’s the sharpest, shrewdest, straightest tack
in the box. You take my word for it. I don’t think I’ve met a man
in my life who’s as clear-headed and straight-dealin’ as Jake
Hamilton. You should be glad your sister’s marrying him. I wish
mine was.”

“Do you think so?” she asked.

“Listen,” he told her. “I talked to Jake a
lot on the train out here, and I think I have a pretty good idea
what sort of man he is. That Mick McAllister, he’s a regular brick.
He’s solid and decent and hard-working. He’s the salt of the earth.
But that Jake Hamilton, he’s another class of man altogether.”

“How do you mean?” she asked.

“He’s fine,” Chuck replied. “I don’t know how
else to explain it, but he’s pure and clear and fine. You know what
he reminds me of? He reminds me of iron that has been smelted and
beaten and refined and poured into a mold to make a clear strong
bell. You can beat it until you’re blue in the face, and it will
just keep ringing the purest, clearest note you can imagine. It
doesn’t bend, or break, or crack, or move when you beat it. It just
keeps ringing. You probably think I’ve lost my mind, talking like
this.”

Violet squeezed his hand. “No. but it’s a lot
to say about a person.”

“It’s true,” Chuck told her. “You’ll
see.”

“I guess I just don’t know him,” Violet
remarked.

“You’ll get to know him,” Chuck replied. “And
then you’ll see that I’m right. You’ll see I’m right about him and
Mick. I’m just glad I’m out here with them. You won’t find two
better men the world over.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Violet told him. “If
you think so, I’m prepared to believe it.”