Montana Rose (12 page)

Red wanted to blush, too. When he’d said they could talk about anything, he hadn’t expected this. He wanted to yell at her that he didn’t want to hear about her and Griff, but he stayed calm because he’d be taking back all he’d said about them talking about anything. “And what did you say?”

“I said I wasn’t sure exactly but it was the one in the winter.”

“The one in the...” Red choked his startled question.

Cassie looked at him uncertainly and he struggled valiantly to keep a straight face.

She looked back at his chest. “Yes, and very often the one in the winter was toward the end, so early to mid-March. Then, when I said that, for some reason they all three started laughing like crazy and they wouldn’t tell me why. I guess it’s because I don’t know anything and that struck them funny, but they didn’t want to hurt my feelings by saying so. Then Muriel said the baby would come in mid-December. That’s six weeks. And she told me how to know the laboring had started and that you’re to send word to the neighbors and one of the Jessup hands would come for her. Is that all right?”

Red heaved a sigh of relief at the suggestion. He’d been terrified that he’d have to deliver the baby on his own. He’d seen a lot of baby animals born and even aided a few cattle that were having trouble, but he’d been having nightmares about being alone and letting Cassie and the baby die because of some stupid mistake. “Yes, that’s a good idea. The Jessups will be perfect. They’re good friends of mine.”

Cassie revealed details about having babies that Red found extremely embarrassing. He realized she’d taken his order to talk about everything to heart. For a while he wondered if he’d started something he was going to regret because he didn’t want to know some of this stuff, but he’d made the rule. He couldn’t quite believe Cassie was telling him all of these amazingly indelicate things.

Then with dawning delight, it occurred to him that Cassie had obeyed him. The more he thought about it, the more he remembered dozens of times when she’d quietly obeyed him in the last week. He’d just been lying here thinking that she didn’t obey worth a hoot, but that wasn’t true.

She wasn’t disobedient. She was incompetent.

Her attempts to help around the ranch were well-meant efforts to obey his pronouncement the first day that he’d like her to milk and garden and gather eggs. He hugged her a little closer and controlled a shudder at the graphic things she was saying to him. He wondered if women talked like this all the time or had Muriel taken his gruff edict that Cassie didn’t know anything about having a baby seriously and swallowed her own embarrassment.

He did his best to ignore what Cassie was saying and decided the next week was going to be different. He wasn’t going to resist her attempts to help anymore. He was going to teach her, just like Muriel had done.

Cassie took a break from her gory tales of blood and screaming women, tales that didn’t seem to be upsetting her at all, and Red said, “We have to get up and go to church now.”

“Yes, Red.” She rolled away from him, got up, and began collecting her clothes.

Red’s heart expanded at how instantly she’d submitted to him. It made him feel like a king. He wasn’t sure it was Christian to feel like a king, so he tried not to enjoy it too much.

Cassie was surprised when Red went to the back door of Bates General Store and went in without bothering to knock.

He went through the hallway that passed the living quarters without making his presence known to anyone and started moving things around in the store, clearing a space for people to gather around the stove.

Cassie started to help, but Red said, “Not the pickle barrel, Cass. I’ll get that. It’s too heavy for you and it spills easy. If you want to help, pull the lighter barrels to one side, the crackers, and those crates of apples.”

Cassie did as he directed but wished she was more sure of what all needed to be moved. Red never was one to give very good orders, leaving it to her to figure it out alone. She much preferred being told specifically what to do.

She took everything light, which was a goodly share of the stacks of supplies in the store, and he took everything heavy. After just a few minutes, Red called a halt, saying there was room enough for everyone to gather.

Muriel came in about then and stopped short. “I would have lent a hand, Red. I was poky this morning.”

“Nah, we were fast. Cass did most of it.” Red smiled over at her and her heated cheeks told her she was blushing.

Muriel went to the front door, picking her way carefully through the jumbled merchandise. She unlocked the door. “Cassie’s a worker, all right. She saved the day yesterday. I declare I would still be here filling orders if she hadn’t taken a hand.”

Cassie thought her head would explode from the effort to contain her pride. “
Cassie’s a worker.”
She’d never heard it said about her before.

Libby came in just in time to hear the last of Muriel’s comment. Her husband was just behind her and several more people were with them. “You should have seen her bring my supplies, Red. She carried a fifty-pound bag of flour in her arms like a baby and asked as sweet as you please where she should set it and that she’d be back with the rest. Every man in the place stood up from his chair as if they had springs in their backsides and just followed her back to Muriel ’n Seth’s.”

Libby’s husband, Ralph Jeffreys, laughed, and Cassie looked at Red again, uncertain if she robbed him of his honest pay.

Ralph said, “I was there when she came back, carrying, what was it, Cassie, a can of peaches or a...”

“It was eggs,” a man just entering the store said. “We weren’t about to let this pretty li’l lady, with a baby on the way to boot, carry five hundred pounds of groceries for you. I’m right ashamed of you for asking her to, Libby Jeffreys.”

Libby turned in outrage. “I never asked her to carry five hundred...” Libby saw who was talking, gasped out loud, and chuckled. “Sam, you scalawag! I didn’t know you were back from hauling.”

The newcomer came and lifted Libby into a bear hug, laughing. “Howdy, Ma. Just teasin’.”

He tipped his hat to Cassie, who had backed a little away from the growing crowd until she was standing pressed against Red. Red rested his hand on her waist and anchored her to his side.

In the next ten minutes, the general store became crowded with people, friendly and happy to see each other. Red greeted each of them by name and shook hands. He introduced Cassie to them and she said, “Hello,” trying to put names and faces together. She recognized quite a few of them from yesterday in the store, and although she continued to greet them by name once they’d been introduced, she soon gave up any hope of remembering all these men, overwhelmed by the sea of strangers.

She did know Norman York, and she tried to remember Leota Pickett’s husband and the little Pickett children. Children were a rarity in Divide and they were enchanting to her. She was sure she’d never forget their names.

Then as quickly as the people began crowding in, everyone settled into silence, and Red left her side and stood close to the heating stove. He said, “Let’s start with a prayer.”

Cassie found herself startled to have her husband in charge. Of course she’d known he was leading the service. He’d said so often enough. But somehow she hadn’t really thought what that meant. It had just seemed like another of his many jobs. Now a strong surge of pride in her handsome husband swelled in her chest as he took charge of this large group.

She remembered the fire-and-brimstone preaching she’d grown up with in Illinois, and she waited for that kind of intensity to come out of Red. But Red just stayed his sweet, quiet self. He prayed in front of all these people with the same casual, loving manner he’d used before their meals.

Halfway through his prayer—Cassie expected it was only halfway because she’d heard a lot of praying as a child and knew it was a lengthy proceeding—Red said, “Many petitions in prayer are pleasing to the Lord. Would anyone like some concern of his heart lifted up to God?” A deep voice behind her spoke to God about his brother’s broken leg healing straight and strong. Another asked for his ailing mother in St. Louis to be remembered. And so it went. There were many needs in the West and many worries.

She could sense burdens lifting as they all put their worries before God and prayed together. She didn’t speak out loud, but for the first time in a long time, she prayed, too. She prayed for her baby’s health and for Red’s safety and for more of the chickens to come back. Then Red surprised her by resting his hand on her shoulder. He’d moved away from her when he’d started talking, but he had moved closer to her during the prayer. He prayed for Griff, for God to shelter his immortal soul. Then Red thanked God for her.

Cassie couldn’t contain a tiny gasp of pleasure. Red didn’t ask God to make her less clumsy and stupid. He didn’t pray for childlike Cassie Griffin Dawson to quit shaming him and grow up. He thanked God so kindly for making her his wife that she couldn’t help but believe he meant it. And he prayed for the baby and prayed quite fervently for Muriel to get there in plenty of time to help deliver it. That made everyone laugh, which Cassie didn’t understand, but the laughter, laced with the sweet prayer and Red’s kindhearted thanks for her, had lifted her spirits so that she laughed a little herself with the pure pleasure of the day.

Then Red said his, “Amen,” and moved back to where he’d stood in front of everyone and started talking about marriage. He didn’t preach a sermon like any she’d heard before, and the congregation seemed to feel free to interrupt him as often as they liked. One man said marriage was a bad subject since so few of them were married.

Red said, “Leave your cattle to the wolves and go find a wife. It’s worth it.”

Everyone laughed and Cassie was so pleased with Red she was sorely tempted to cry.

He talked about a wife obeying her husband and how all the burden lay with the husband, because he is called to love her more than his own body and to never do anything to harm her soul, so a man must never ask a woman to obey anything that is against her own ideas of right and wrong.

Seth told him to change the subject before Muriel got the bit in her teeth.

Muriel said, “When have I ever obeyed you anyway, old man?”

All in all it was the oddest and most wonderful church service Cassie had ever attended. It didn’t escape Cassie’s notice that Red very quietly kept things from straying from the basic subject of his selected Bible verse.

A spirited debate bounced back and forth between people of goodwill with lots of laughter and a warm display of genuine love between the three married couples: the Bates, the Jeffreys, and the Picketts. It dawned on Cassie after a bit that she hadn’t included the Dawsons in that count of married people.

And as she thought of the questions Red had asked and how they applied to her, she thought,
I’ll be proud to obey you, Red.

The whole room turned to face her and it took her a second to realize she must have spoken her thoughts aloud. She wasn’t sure if she blushed or not. She’d done so much of it lately it was getting harder and harder to humiliate herself. It didn’t matter. They wouldn’t have stared at her any harder if she’d grown a second head.

Red moved from his spot at the front of the group and stood beside her.

Cassie wasn’t sure if her outspoken comment had shamed him or not, and despite everything she’d learned about Red this week, she couldn’t control the surge of fear that he would punish her for talking out loud in public like that.

“Cass, I am a lucky man. I reckon you will obey me, ’cuz you’re such a sweet thing, you’d just naturally do your best to make me happy. But I want you to know I won’t ask you to go against your conscience, and I’ll listen if you disagree with me. And if you are ever upset with me, it’ll be as much my doing as yours, so you can speak right out and never be afraid of me.”

Cassie remembered her first wedding to Griff, with her wild desire to die along with him and her terror of the Sawyers and the surly mob keeping her ears deaf to what was being said. Now they stood before believers and Cassie looked into Red’s eyes. “I’m lucky, too. Thank you for marrying me. I know you didn’t want to.”

Red smiled. “I didn’t think I should, but that’s a long way from not wanting to. I wanted to marry you something fierce, Cass honey.”

He leaned down, and Cassie thought he was going to kiss her. They hadn’t kissed since their wedding night, and that had been her doing. Although she’d dreamed that he’d kissed her hair several times while she’d slept beside him and the dreams had been nice. Now maybe he was going to do it for real.

Wade Sawyer chose that minute to slam the door open. “I got an order here, Seth. I need it right now!”

Wade’s belligerence broke into the pleasant church service and garnered everybody’s attention.

Muriel slammed her fists on her hips and stepped in front of Wade. “See here, Wade. We’re closed on the Lord’s Day and well you know it.”

Wade swaggered up to Seth, who had stepped to Muriel’s side. He ignored Muriel as if she were nothing more than a buzzing mosquito to be brushed aside as a nuisance. “I’ve ridden all the way into town and you’re here doin’ nothin’. I’m not goin’ back without my order. You’ve done enough Bible thumpin’ for the week.”

Seth said quietly, “We’ve been over this before, Wade. There’s someone in from the Sawyer outfit nearly every day of the week. I know for a fact you were in town yesterday.”

“Don’t tell me you won’t fill my order.” Wade stepped forward, looking hard into Seth’s eyes. “I saw Belle Tanner loading a wagon just last week. If you’ll do it for that woman, you’ll do it for me and like it.”

“Belle had to make a special trip and she almost never comes to town from clear out where she lives. Of course I was willing to help her out. The Sawyer place is right outside of town. Leave the order. We’ll have it ready first thing tomorrow, and when someone from your ranch is in town, he can pick it up.”

Wade’s eyes narrowed, then they shifted past the Bates and found Cassie.

Dread twisted in her gut like it always did when Wade was too near. She saw in his greedy green eyes that awful hunger, that fixated look that was only for her. He hadn’t come in here to get supplies. He’d come in because he’d known she was here.

That sounded like her pride talking, thinking Wade was interested in her. But for whatever reason, it was true. She knew it. Wade’s eyes reminded her that she knew how to shoot a gun—she was quick and accurate, and just maybe, with those mean eyes on her, she could even find the courage to pull the trigger. Of course this was the second time in a week that she’d come face-to-face with Wade and didn’t have her gun handy.

She took a step back and bumped into Red. He put his arm around her waist. Red’s hand was an anchor in a sea of fear. She grabbed his hand with both of hers and held it firmly around her.

“Miz Griffin.” Wade tipped his hat.

“It’s Dawson now,” Red corrected him in a mild tone.

“Oh, yeah. The widow lady remarried. I seem to remember she was so anxious for a man that she stood plumb on the fresh-turned dirt of her dead husband to take her vows.”

Several people in the crowd gasped. Cassie didn’t know if it was because of her and the location of her marriage or Wade’s callous words.

“Wherever she took her vows, Wade, she took ’em.” Red sounded so quiet, but Cassie heard the strength behind his words and hung on to him even harder.

Wade reached one hand into his pocket and several men tensed as his hand moved near the gun that hung low on his hip.

Cassie remembered again that she’d learned to shoot, but now she didn’t even have a gun anymore. It had been lost when her home had been taken for the mortgage.

Wade pulled something from his pocket. “Me and Pa are runnin’ your old place, china doll. The bank took everything you and your worthless husband had left. We found some things left behind. It’s trash but you might want it.” Wade unfolded what he was holding and very deliberately pulled his knife and slashed it in half, then slashed it again. He wadded up the pieces into a tight ball and tossed them at Cassie.

Cassie flinched away, but Red’s hand came up and deftly caught them. Cassie reached for them, but Red whispered, “Later, Cass. Not in front of Wade.”

Wade said, “We’ll use your house for a line shack. It’s a fool’s house. Too big to heat and too far from our ranch for any use. Maybe we can store hay in it.”

Cassie was surprised that his insults toward her house didn’t upset her. The fact that she didn’t care about the house gave her the strength to face Wade straight on and wave her hand carelessly. “If the house is yours, then do with it what you will. It’s nothing to me.”

“Even after the floors rot and the rats move in it’ll be better than the hole you’re livin’ in now with Dawson.”

Cassie gasped indignantly. Odd how the slur against Griff ’s house left her unmoved but his insults to Red’s house were fighting words. She met Wade’s eyes but she couldn’t hold the look. Wade’s eyes burned with something that had always scared her. She still had the china doll inside her, and she said placidly, “Red’s got a wonderful home. We have everything we need.”

Wade’s face contorted into rage. “So then you must have Dawson bowin’ and scrapin’ for you just like you had Griffin.”