Promise Me Texas (A Whispering Mountain Novel) (10 page)

Andrew McLaughlin broke the silence as he turned the wagon down a quiet street. “I got a little place here. If you all would like to stop by, we could wash up and plan what to do first. I haven’t been home in a month, so the place will be a mess, but I’ve got water for baths and you’re welcome.”

“You live here?”

Beth McLaughlin seemed the most surprised, which shocked Madie. Wouldn’t a wife know where her husband lived?

Andrew winked at his bride. “Sometimes, when I’m not traveling, I like to have a base. It’s not much, but you all can stay until you move on or get settled here in town. When I moved here last summer it was the devil’s own brand of hot. I thought I’d stay the seasons through before traveling on.”

Madie frowned. He seemed to include his wife in the “You all can stay until you move on” speech. She’d noticed the rings on their fingers and she’d heard the sheriff call Beth Andrew’s wife, but Madie was starting to wonder. If the lady wasn’t his wife, why was she here?

Colby made up his mind about the invitation first. “I’d like to bunk at your place if there is room. I’ll need to telegraph my father in the morning. I’ve been gone longer than I planned. I wired most of the money from the drive to the bank last week, so he’ll be wondering where I am by now.”

“I’ve got room.”

No one else voiced a plan as he pulled up to a building that had four front doors, all ten feet apart. “My town house,” Andrew said, as the others looked like they’d never seen anything like it in their lives.

He climbed down and unlocked the second front door. “It’s four houses stuck together. I’ve got a first floor with a big kitchen and my study, a second floor with two bedrooms, and an attic that I’ve never bothered to climb the stairs to see. You’re welcome to look around and decide where you’d be most comfortable. I usually sleep on the couch in my study.”

Madie climbed out next. She’d never seen houses built stuck together. “You live here all alone? You don’t have to share with nobody?”

“That’s right.” He motioned her over the threshold. “It was all I could find that seemed near the center of town, yet on a quiet street.” He glanced at Beth and added, “Of course, now I’ll live here with my wife.”

Beth followed Madie in and shouted back at her husband. “You don’t have a parlor, dear, or sitting room?”

Madie glared at them both. Either they were acting or they’d spent no time talking before they said
I do
. Maybe Beth was one of those mail-order brides. She’d seen a few of them come through Dallas. One waited all day for her new husband in the café. When he finally came, he didn’t even say he was sorry for making her wait, he just took her bag and said, “Let’s go home.”

No, Madie guessed, Beth wasn’t a mail-order bride. They liked each other too much for that.

When Madie heard Beth asking questions about where he ate and where company sat when they came to visit, she couldn’t wait to hear the husband’s answer.

“I’ve never needed more chairs or even a table. I rented the place for a year and I’ve never had company. In truth, I’m gone more than I’m in Fort Worth. I thought this town, being in the middle of Texas, might be the place to set up a headquarters and have a business address for my mail. I didn’t realize how wide and deep this state was. I ride out a different direction every few weeks, but it’s going to take me a while to see it all.”

“How do you stand living here so close to other people?” Colby asked as he slowly climbed out of the wagon, then collected his share of the supplies to carry inside. The boys followed his lead and did the same.

“The brick wall between me and the other families helps.” Andrew finally looked nervous. He obviously wasn’t used to defending his choices. “Why don’t you settle in and I’ll go find something for dinner.” He reached in the wagon and handed the boys another armful of blankets, then set the box of supplies on the doorstep. “I’ll stable the horses and be back in an hour.”

He was gone before anyone could say a word.

Madie stared at the place, hoping Micah didn’t expect her to live in one of these funny houses. She took a deep breath and wondered if her man Micah would have a house for her at all.

CHAPTER 10

B
ETH WALKED THROUGH
A
NDREW’S HOUSE AND REALIZED
she didn’t know the man at all. Books and papers were piled around his study. From the looks of it he lived, slept, and worked in this one room with its bay window that faced the street. The only curtain in the entire house looked like a sheet he’d strung with wire over the study window, and it was pulled back to let the sun in.

The kitchen had one pan and a coffeepot that had never been cleaned. No food, not even a can of peaches, stocked the shelves. A hip tub sat by the stove with clean towels folded inside it. The man didn’t eat, but obviously he bathed. The smell of boiled coffee seemed baked into the very walls. He had water and gaslights, but nothing but the bare essentials. Back home they stocked enough food for the winter to feed a dozen. Here, a mouse would starve.

Upstairs she found the same. A bed. A few blankets. Two suit jackets on hooks and one drawer where trousers and shirts were folded neatly. The only real sign that someone lived in the room was an open book on the nightstand.
The Gilded Age
by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. The cover was so dusty, Twain’s book obviously hadn’t held Andrew’s attention.

The other bedroom was empty. She thought it strange that a man who used only one, maybe two rooms would have such a big house. He would have been more comfortable in a hotel or boardinghouse with a bedroom and a sitting area. It was like he wanted a home but didn’t know how to make one.

The boys called down and said they’d found the attic warm and bare, but it was floored. They were already hauling their bedrolls upstairs, claiming the attic as their room tonight.

“I’ll sweep up the place. It will look better then,” Madie volunteered. “Get any more dirt in here and we’ll have to put in a spring crop.”

“I noticed wood out back. I’ll chop some for a fire,” Colby offered. “Come sundown it’ll be cold.”

Beth simply walked around thinking. They’d all been in such a hurry to leave Dallas, each with his or her own goals, but now that they were here in Fort Worth, they were in no hurry to part. She wasn’t sure if they were hiding, or healing, or resting between battles. It didn’t seem to matter as long as they were together.

Including herself. She knew she had at least a week before anyone in her family would worry about her. The note she’d left had been vague. Her older sister and her husband often visited Fort Worth, but Beth wasn’t ready to go see if they were here. She wanted this half life for a little longer.

If she did go to stay with them, she’d have to explain what a fool she’d made of herself. They all loved her and protected her. Now they’d smother her and pamper her, and offer to fight her battles for her. For once in her life she didn’t need protecting. She felt safe with Andrew, her almost-husband.

When Andrew found her an hour later in his study, she was sitting on the windowsill looking out at the street. “What’s wrong?” he asked, walking up behind her.

“This make-believe marriage of ours . . .” she started. “I was wondering if we could play it awhile longer.”

“You looking for a place to hide out from the world?”

“Something like that.”

“Then stay, wife, for as long as you want to avoid reality.”

She almost loved him in that moment. Just for a day, or maybe two, she wanted to hide away and pretend. She wanted to be safe from the people trying to hurt her as well as all the ones she loved who were trying to protect her. She wanted time to discover her true self.

Andrew sat down at his desk. “So, dear, what time is supper?”

Smiling at him, she figured maybe he needed the make-believe as much as she did. He didn’t seem to be running away from life, but ignoring it completely.

The night in his funny little house became magic.

She and Madie cooked supper while the boys took baths, then chased each other around.

Andrew disappeared for a while, then returned smiling. He’d bought the boys new clothes with long sleeves and no patches. He’d also bought them thick socks so they could run down the hallway and slide across the freshly cleaned floors.

Colby helped Andrew carry in the wagonload of supplies. Food, plates, and forks went to the kitchen. Towels, sheets, and pillows went upstairs, and a checkers game disappeared to the attic.

“You bought so much,” Beth whispered, knowing the others were watching.

“I set up a credit at the mercantile around the corner. If you need anything, send the boys down to pick it up. The owner said he’d be open until eight.”

Beth nodded and moved to kiss him on the cheek, but he was already heading out to collect another load.

For the next hour Beth sent the boys to the store four times. By the last trip they were too tired to run up and down the stairs.

At dusk they all sat on a blanket on the floor and ate. Beth felt at home amid the chatter and laughter, but she noticed Andrew had grown quiet. Had words ever been spoken in this house of brick and dust?

After the boys went up to bed in the attic and Colby spread his bedroll in the empty bedroom, Madie curtained off the kitchen with a blanket and took her bath.

Andrew walked out of his study with a box and handed it to Beth. “I wanted to buy Madie something but feared she might be offended if I bought her clothes. After all, she thinks she’s a woman and it wouldn’t be proper. So”—he opened the box—“I got her an apron. The mercantile owner’s wife said every young lady looks proper in a nice apron.”

Beth smiled, remembering how the women in Anderson Glen near her ranch often wore aprons to church. “It’s beautiful. That was very thoughtful of you.”

“Just trying to help.”

She took the box and slipped behind the curtain to show the apron to Madie. She squealed so loud Beth was sure the boys in the attic heard her. Tomorrow was Madie’s day to go to her man, and now she had a new apron to wear.

Later, when Beth went to say good night to Andrew, she found him staring out the window into the night. “Are you all right?” she asked.

“I’m fine, just getting used to the noises in the house. I can hear the boys laughing in the attic and Colby teasing Madie as they talk across the hallway from room to room, and you walking around checking windows and doors as if you fear an invasion.”

“No one knows where we are. I’m being foolish worrying, but I can’t shake the feeling that trouble is coming.”

“I know what you mean. When I go look for the boys’ father tomorrow, will you promise me you’ll stay here with them? Don’t leave the house until I get back.”

“Why?”

“If he’s not the right kind of man, I don’t want him knowing they are even in town, and the last thing I want is to take them into Hell’s Half Acre with me. You don’t know what it’s like down there. Gunfights in the streets, whorehouses on every corner, drunks looking for a brawl. There are places like the Acre in every big town, but none quite as open to trouble as here.”

“You spend a lot of time there, do you?”

“It’s one of the reasons I came to Fort Worth. I heard about how wild the town was from a bartender in Kansas. Thought I’d like to see it for myself.” He grinned. “Don’t worry. I’m not one of the regulars, but I do go down there sometimes to hear the stories of the cowboys and drunks. Most of them would break your heart. Wasted lives. But now and then I hear an adventure. A story of heroes.”

He pulled a thick folder from beside his desk. “These are a few of the stories I’ve heard. One of these days I’ll get around to cleaning them up and sending them back east. Who knows, maybe a newspaper might publish them.”

“You’re a writer,” Beth said. “A real writer. I thought you were writing in your journal for a hobby, but you’re the real thing.”

He shrugged. “I tried a dozen other jobs, but none fit. Being a writer was kind of a last resort. It doesn’t make much money, but it gives me a reason to travel wherever I feel like going, and most months I make enough to pay the bills.”

He laughed suddenly. “Staring at your face, I can’t tell if I’ve gone up in your esteem or down.”

“I’ll have to think about it.” She lifted her chin.

“Well, while you’re thinking, how about kissing me good night? I wouldn’t mind if you’re willing.”

She was almost to the door when she answered, “After I get the children to bed, dear.”

Beth ran from his study. The man was a chameleon. Every time she talked to him it was like talking to another person. As a train robber he’d been dangerous but intriguing. In the hospital she’d felt sorry for him and wanted to help him. On the trail he’d been half lost and little help, but he’d kissed her like no other man had ever kissed her. Now she’d found out he was a writer. Didn’t they lie for a living? She probably shouldn’t believe a word this make-believe husband said.

The last thing she planned to do was go back downstairs and kiss him good night. Beth went upstairs and checked on Colby, sleeping in the empty bedroom with his bedroll next to the window so he could see the stars. Then she crossed the hallway and climbed into bed with Madie. Everyone had agreed that the two women should have the only bed.

Beth had slept with her sisters most of her life. Even when they’d finally gotten their own rooms, they’d often crawled into bed together and talked the night away. Beth knew the rules of bed sharing. Stay on your own side, don’t pull covers. If you get up in the night, don’t touch your feet to the others when you return. If anyone in the bed snores, it is perfectly acceptable to poke them until they roll over.

Madie knew none of the rules. Within an hour she’d pinwheeled around until she was cocooned in the blankets. Beth shivered for a while and then decided to go downstairs for the blanket they’d used as the dining table. It wasn’t free from crumbs, but it was better than nothing.

On bare feet she tiptoed down the stairs and fumbled around in the dark looking for the blanket.

“Robbing the place, are you?” a voice from the blackness said in a stage whisper. “If you need some help, I’ve had experience as a robber. I could give you a few pointers.”

Beth hiccupped. “Stop frightening me, Andrew. I knew you were there. I came down for an extra blanket.”

“This one?”

Her eyes had adjusted enough to see his outline holding something up. She walked slowly toward him, expecting a trap, but he simply circled the blanket around her shoulders and stepped back.

“Thank you,” she said politely.

“You’re welcome,” he shot back.

“And thank you for all you’ve done today. Offering your house. Probably spending your month’s salary on pillows and dishes you’ll never need after we leave. You’ve given this band a safe harbor for the night, and none of us can ever thank you enough.”

“You’re welcome,” he shot back again.

Beth stepped on the first step of the stairs and addressed what they both were not talking about. “I’m not going to kiss you good night, Andrew.” She knew she was probably hurting his feelings, but he wasn’t the right man for her. Maybe no man was, but she didn’t want to lead him on. They could play like they were man and wife, but at some point they’d have to step back into the real world. When she did, she wanted no regrets.

His words came cold in the darkness. “I wasn’t planning on asking you to kiss me again.”

“You weren’t?”

“No.”

She heard his footsteps leaving the hallway and heading for his study. He’d walked away. A man had actually walked away from her.

Beth stomped her way up the stairs and tried to sleep. Slowly, like a cold breeze, the knowledge that tonight might be her last chance to kiss him seeped into her thoughts. If the boys found their father and Madie went with her man, Colby would probably leave too. She couldn’t stay alone with a strange man, so she’d have to check into the Grand or see if her sister was in town. Any one of her sister’s friends would take her in, but she hated to drop in on someone. But she’d never survive the scandal if everyone in this house left and she stayed alone with Andrew.

He was no one important to her life, she reminded herself. He’d been an accidental meeting. They’d both needed each other, that was all. He wasn’t the kind of man she wanted, and she’d never be the kind of person he needed. But as the night aged, she mourned what might have been their last kiss.

At dawn Beth dressed and went down to start the fire in the stove. She saw no sign of Andrew in his study, but when she pulled the curtain across the kitchen opening she almost screamed in surprise.

Andrew was standing buttoning his trousers. His hair was wet and a towel hung around his neck.

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry, husband. I didn’t know you bathed at dawn.”

Puffy, red skin showed along his neck between the stitches. She’d almost forgotten about the wound he’d suffered during the train wreck. Now it scarred a very nice body.

“There are many things you don’t know about me, wife.” He grinned back, playing her game. “Any chance you’ve got another strip of that silk to wrap my neck? My collar will rub against skin still raw when I’m fully dressed.”

She went back upstairs and found a strip of what had once been her wedding dress. When she returned he’d pulled his undershirt on, but it hung open at his throat. Very carefully she wrapped his neck, enjoying the smell of his freshly washed skin.