Matt (The Cowboys) (12 page)

Isabelle’s laugh was harsh. “Do you think I thought Jake was the kind of man to catch my fancy?” she asked, looking back at Ellen without slowing her stride one iota. “I thought he was a crude barbarian, and I told him so. It’s no fun swallowing your words, even when you’re crazy in love with the maddening, frustrating man who caused you to say them in the first place.”

“But Matt said you loved Jake.”

“I was raised by a wealthy aunt in Savannah, but the money vanished and I was sent to an orphanage. I got a job with an aristocratic family. My kind of people, I thought, until the husband tried to rape me. I ended up in Texas, trying to help some boys nobody else wanted. I couldn’t think of enough words to express my disgust at everything I saw, including the men. I finally learned to look beneath the lack of manners and harsh attitudes to see inside Jake to the man he really was, not the one who’d built a hard shell to enable him to live in this world. Matt’s like that, only worse. You’ve got to learn to see inside him, or you aren’t fit to be his wife.”

A second slap. Isabelle had more than lived up to Ellen’s expectations, just not in the way she’d anticipated.

“If things had been different—”

“Things will never be different.”

They would be different when she moved to San Antonio and opened her own shop. No one would know she had been accused of trying to seduce a boy, had worked in a saloon, had adopted the fatherless children of a saloon dancer.

“I do like Matt. I’ve been trying to figure out why ever since he asked me to marry him, but it wouldn’t make any difference if I loved him. He’s the one who suggested the business arrangement.”

Isabelle stopped and turned to face Ellen, her face wreathed in smiles. “You do truly like him? I know he’s so handsome he makes women act silly, but I’m not talking about that.”

“Neither am I, but it doesn’t make any difference.”

“Yes it does,” Isabelle said as she took Ellen’s hand and pulled her toward the corrals. “It makes all the difference in the world.”

“Matt doesn’t want to be married,” Ellen said as she rescued her imprisoned hand.

“Of course he does,” Isabelle said. “Every man wants to get married. Matt doesn’t think he’s worthy.”

“Why?”

“He’ll have to tell you that. Now, let me introduce you to some of your new brothers-in-law.”

Ellen knew every man gathered around the corral. You couldn’t live in Bandera and not know the Maxwell clan.

“This is Sean O’Ryan,” Isabelle said as she introduced Ellen to a mountain of a man with flaming red hair. “You two ought to get along like pigs in a blanket. His wife used to own a saloon.”

“Best singer and dancer you ever saw,” Sean said, as Ellen’s hand disappeared into his massive paw. “And the most beautiful. I still don’t know why she married me.”

“Neither does anybody else,” said Buck. “The worst part is, she keeps having sons who look just like him.”

“Don’t discourage the newest member of the family,” Sean said. “She’s still got to swallow Will. Will,” he called, in a voice that matched his body, “come meet your new sister-in-law.”

Ellen could never see Will without catching her breath. He was absolutely gorgeous.

“Will got the looks and Matt got the brains,” Sean said.

“He’s good-natured for all that,” Isabelle said. “It’s impossible to be gloomy for long with Will around.”

“You’ll just want to strangle him in five minutes,” Buck said. “I think Isabelle’s ulterior motive in having him help Matt is to get rid of him for a few days.”

“I love him just as much as the rest of you,” Isabelle insisted.

“I know,” Buck said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “We love you for it. We just don’t understand it.”

Noah burst into the group. “Ellen, you’ve got to come watch Matt. Jake says he’s going to ride the meanest horses first.”

Ellen grabbed Noah before he could run back to the corral fence. “I want you to meet your uncles.”

“I’ve already met them,” Noah said. “Come on.” He pulled at Ellen’s hand.

“Why don’t you take your sister to watch?” Isabelle suggested.

Tess tried to hide in Ellen’s skirts.

Buck knelt down. “You want to come with me? I’ll make sure those horses don’t come anywhere near you.”

“It’s okay,” Ellen said when Tess hung back. “Noah will stay with you. I’ll be over in a minute.”

“Ellen!” Noah complained.

“You stay with Tess until I come. Otherwise you have to go back to the house.”

Buck eyed Ellen. “You sound remarkably like Isabelle when she tricked Jake into marrying her and adopting all of us.”

“I sure do pity Matt,” Sean said, grinning, “and him thinking you so meek and biddable.”

“He didn’t think any such thing.” Will had reached the group in time to hear Sean’s last remark. “He probably wanted a workhorse to take care of all the wayward boys he plans to take in. Hi, I’m Will Haskins, Matt’s brother. They’ll tell you I’m an idiot, but they’re just jealous because I’m prettier than they are. And I’m not so big I’d give a decent woman a fright,” he said to Sean.

Ellen didn’t know what to think when Will threw a punch at Sean, and Sean immediately caught him in a bear hug.

“Ignore them,” Isabelle said. “Sean has to be a sober, married man most of the time. When he gets away from Pearl, he acts like the boy I foisted off on Jake.”

Sean had Will down on the ground.

“Don’t listen to a word she says,” Will said as he struggled against the powerful muscles of his huge brother. “She’s crazy about us.”

“You wondering what kind of bizarre family you’ve wandered into?”

Ellen turned to find Jake watching the tangle of men on the ground.

“They’ll get it out of their systems in a minute,” he said.

“No they won’t,” Isabelle said, “because their father’s just as bad.”

“I’m not down there with them.”

“But you’d like to be.”

“Come watch your husband before she gives you a bad impression of me,” Jake said to Ellen. Sean and Will stopped wrestling as quickly as they’d begun.

“I’m stronger than you are,” Sean said.

“And I’m prettier,” Will shot back as he dusted himself off.

The two men laughed and headed toward the corral. Ellen decided all Matt’s family was crazy.

“Cole said Matt’s getting ready to ride the meanest horse in the whole bunch,” Noah announced when Ellen reached the corral. “He said he’s got to hold him or he’ll savage Matt. What does
savage
mean?”

“It means they’ll try to kick or bite him,” Isabelle said. “Wild horses don’t like to carry men around on their backs.”

Cole Benton was Drew’s husband. Everybody knew his father was just about the richest man in Memphis. Nobody in his family could understand why he had married a tomboy like Drew Townsend and lived on a horse ranch in the Hill Country.

“Why is Matt riding that horse?” Tess asked. She was sitting on Buck’s shoulder, apparently happy as long as he held on to her with both hands.

“Because there’s not a horse in the world Matt can’t ride,” Sean said. “Even Cole and Drew send for him when they get a real bad one.”

Ellen hadn’t really had a chance to see the horse Matt was about to ride. Now that she did, she wished she’d stayed inside. Someone had tied the horse’s head so close to a post in the fence that the animal couldn’t move. Cole and Matt stood on opposite sides of the horse, trying to keep the blanket and saddle on long enough to cinch the saddle. The horse, white with huge black spots, threw his hindquarters from side to side, trying to kick his tormentors. His eyes were wide and wild-looking.

“Isn’t that horse dangerous?” Ellen asked.

“Very dangerous,” Jake said.

Ellen felt some of the color drain out of her face.

“Don’t worry,” Will said. “Matt won’t get off until the horse knows who’s boss.”

“Or until he’s thrown off,” Ellen said.

“Only one horse ever threw Matt,” Will said.

“Sawtooth,” Buck and Sean said in unison.

Ellen could tell Will was proud of his brother. In her opinion, he was just too bullheaded to know when he was in danger. She wanted to tell Matt that if he had to risk his own neck, to at least make Orin and Toby stay out of the way. A single blow from one of those hooves could kill.

Matt got the saddle cinched up. Ellen felt reluctant pride in his accomplishment but realized that brought him closer to getting on the horse’s back. She knew that moment had arrived when Toby and Orin scrambled through the rails to safety outside the corral.

“He’s going to ride him!” Noah called out in excitement.

“You can’t see from down there,” Will said to Noah. “You want to get up on my shoulders?”

He might as well have asked Noah if he wanted the moon. The child danced with excitement. Will stooped down, picked him up, and settled him on his shoulders. Will stood just in time for Noah to see Matt spring into the saddle. Cole pulled the slip knot that held the horse’s head to the post and quickly backed out of the way.

The paint was loose, and he had every intention of getting rid of the man on his back. Ellen couldn’t name all the jumps and twists, but Will was giving Noah a jump-by-jump account.

“That’s a fishtail,” he said. “It’ll snap your back in half if you’re not careful.”

Ellen didn’t think Noah heard a word of Will’s description. He was screaming encouragement at Matt and having far more fun than if he’d been riding the horse himself. Ellen wasn’t having any fun at all. Her heart was in her throat.

“Can you imagine any man wanting to do that?” Isabelle asked.

“You wouldn’t see me doing it,” Sean said.

“You wouldn’t have to,” Will said. “The poor horse would take one look at your huge body and faint.”

Ellen wished the paint had felt that way about Matt. He drove himself into the corral fence trying to crush Matt’s leg against the poles, but Matt raised his leg above the saddle, then lowered it the moment the horse tried to break into a gallop. Stymied, the paint went back to bucking, spinning, and trying to reach back and bite Matt’s leg. Matt didn’t look the least bit nervous. Ellen hoped she was wrong, but she thought she saw a smile on his lips. Only a crazy man could smile about being on the back of a horse that wanted to kill him.

Ellen didn’t see how Matt could stay in the saddle much longer. Flung about like a rag doll, his head snapped back and forth until she wondered why he didn’t get so dizzy he’d let go and fall off.

“The paint’s getting tired,” Will announced. “He won’t last much longer.”

Ellen couldn’t see any slowing in the speed or violence of the efforts the paint made to dislodge Matt.

“Matt will be disappointed,” Cole said. He’d come over to join them. “He was counting on this horse to give him some real fun.”

“Fun!” Ellen exclaimed. “How can you call that fun?”

“Matt likes riding wild horses,” Will said. “He doesn’t get much chance any more. He says even the wild ones are half tame.”

Ellen couldn’t understand why anyone would want to ride a wild horse, but watching Matt hang on with all the serene confidence of an expert did give her a different feeling about him. Whatever his shortcomings as husband material, lack of courage wasn’t one of them. She’d always thought a man had to be a little bit nuts to face another man in a gunfight. She added bronco busting to her list of foolish things men did.

“Matt’s been busting Jake’s horses since he was thirteen,” Will said. “Ain’t nobody better. Jump down,” he said to Noah. “I got to catch the paint. He’s about done for.”

Will crawled through the rails to join Cole. They walked toward the exhausted animal. Matt dismounted, a wide smile on his face.

“He wasn’t as tough as I hoped, but it was fun as long as he could keep it up.”

Cole clapped him on the shoulder. “One of these days we’re going to have to go to Utah. I want to see what you can do with some of those mustangs.”

“I’ve never been to Utah,” Toby said. “Can I go?” He and Orin had piled into the corral behind the men.

“Stop worrying about places you’ve never seen and help Cole catch another horse.”

Toby ran off to help Cole. Orin held the bridle of the exhausted paint, and Will stripped off the saddle. Matt walked toward them.

“You got off easy on that one,” Jake said.

“I know,” Matt said, smiling. “But I’ve got dozens more. I figure I ought to find one or two with more spunk.”

“Are you going to break all those horses by yourself?” Ellen asked.

It was a stupid question. Even a woman knew a Texas cowboy broke his own broncos. He didn’t have the right to call himself a man if he didn’t.

“Just be careful,” Isabelle said. “You’ll be tired. There are a lot more of them than there are of you.”

It was clear to Ellen that Isabelle was proud of Matt’s skill as well as worried about him.

“I’ll be fine,” Matt said, a softness in his voice Ellen had never heard. “You worry too much.”

“No woman could be the mother of this bunch and not get gray hairs.”