The Rancher's Bride (15 page)

Rose nodded in agreement and they turned their horses and urged them into a desperate gallop back along the trail they’d taken only moments earlier.

They had ridden a half mile when Harlan shouted for her attention, then pointed to the left of him. Rose’s stomach nosedived with terror as she saw another wall of fire sweeping straight at them.

“We can’t outrun that! Not in this heat and wind!” Pie was already lathered and heaving with exhaustion. She wasn’t going to kill her horse just to try and save herself. She couldn’t.

“I’d already decided that. Come on! If I remember right, there’s an arroyo somewhere east of here. We’ll ride to the bottom of it and hope the fire jumps over us.”

Rose followed his lead while telling herself not to panic. Fire couldn’t move that fast, could it? But each time she glanced over her shoulder, she could see the flames were gaining ground on the two of them. Fanned by the wind, smoke and burning sparks soon enveloped the whole area. Rose reined Pie abreast of Harlan’s mount and reached for his hand. He squeezed it tightly and yelled over the din of the flames.

“Don’t worry, we’re almost there!”

“But the fire is almost on us!” Even as she spoke pieces of burning sage and piñon whipped around their heads.

“We’ll be all right. Trust me!”

It seemed like ages passed before they finally reached the arroyo and scrambled to the bottom of it. Harlan shoved
Rose into the first crevice he could find, then stripped off his heavy denim shirt and covered the both of them.

Sweat was streaming between their faces and Rose wasn’t sure which was louder, her heart pounding in her ears or the roar of the fire.

“Don’t be scared, my Rosie. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” Harlan said against her ear.

Rose was gripping his shoulder so tightly her fingers ached. “This is crazy. You finally decide you want to be a real husband to me and now we’re both going to be fried!”

In spite of the approaching danger, Harlan’s chest shook with laughter. “I didn’t know you had a sense of humor, Rose. I got a real deal when I talked you into marrying me.

“Sure! I’m going to get you killed!”

Smoke had found their little hole in the bluff. Rose tried not to cough, but after a few moments it was impossible not to. Burying her face in Harlan’s neck, she held her breath for as long as she could and prayed the fire would miss them.

“Just keep holding onto me,” Harlan whispered. “It’ll be over us soon.”

He was right. In only a matter of moments, the roar and the intense heat was gone. Slowly, Harlan uncovered them and helped Rose to her feet. Her legs were so weak, she was forced to hold on to his waist to steady herself.

“If it keeps heading the way it’s going it should stop when it hits the river,” he said.

Shocked by the sight around her, Rose whispered in a stricken voice. “Everything is black!”

“Yes, but at least we’re safe.”

Through bleary eyes, she smiled at his soot- and dirtstreaked face. “And we’re together. That’s all that matters to me, Harlan.”

Pulling her tight against him, he let his kiss tell her just how grateful he was for her and her love.

“Do you think you can ride now?”

Nodding, she let him lead her over to Pie, who seemed none the worse for wear other than black soot marks on his legs and shoulders. Harlan’s mount appeared to be equally sound and Rose found it incredible that the four of them had narrowly escaped being burned.

A half hour later they reached the ranch yard. Emily came racing out to meet them. Tears of relief poured down her face as she flung herself first at her father, then at Rose.

“We were afraid you’d been burned! We were about to ride out on the horses to look for you!”

“We’re fine, honey. Just a little hot and dirty,” Harlan assured her. “Is everyone here okay?”

Emily nodded. “The fire didn’t come this way, thank goodness.”

By now Roy and Chloe had joined them and for the next few moments it was chaos as everyone tried to talk at once.

“You two look awful!” Chloe exclaimed.

Rose glanced at Harlan and then herself. They were both covered with dirt, soot and sweat. But in her eyes Harlan had never looked better. And the way he kept smiling at her, she’d never felt more beautiful.

“Most of the flash fire has burned itself out,” Roy exclaimed, “but the firefighters are dealing with what’s still smoldering north of here.”

“I only hope there weren’t many cattle lost,” Harlan told him. “Do you have any idea where the fire started? Rose and I saw the smoke and went to check on it, but by the time we found the flames, the whole range looked like it was on fire.”

Roy and Chloe exchanged grim glances while Emily practically bounced on her toes.

“Roy caught her!” Emily burst out excitedly. “He
caught Belinda Waller after she set the fires! And he found jugs of gas and matches in the back of her car!”

Rose and Harlan stared at each other then at Roy. “Is this true?” Rose asked. “She set the fires?”

Roy nodded. “We got a tip from a service station where she purchased several jugs of gas. The attendant thought she was acting strangely and needed to be checked out. The description he gave us vaguely matched Belinda’s, so on a hunch I headed out here to the ranch. Unfortunately, she’d already set the fires before Randall and I could head her off.”

The shock of it all left Rose sagging weakly against Harlan. Both his arms came around her waist to support her. “But how…why did she want to kill us?” Rose murmured.

Roy shook his head. “I don’t really think the woman was out to kill anyone. I doubt she knew either of you would be anywhere near the fires. But she did admit she wanted to destroy the ranch and everything you girls owned.”

“But why?” she asked in bewilderment. “What did we ever do to the woman?”

“Maybe we’ll know more later when we can question her more extensively. But when we first picked her up she was pretty much out of it. She kept rambling about Tomas’s daughters having everything while she had nothing. From what I can gather, it appears to be a simple case of revenge. If she couldn’t have Tomas and the ranch, then she didn’t want you daughters having it either.”

“You say she was out of it,” Harlan spoke. “Do you mean drunk on something or just crazy?”

“We found several prescription drugs in her handbag, none of which we think were obtained legally. From the looks of her, she’s had a drug problem for some time now.”

Rose shook her head with sick regret. Chloe said,
“What’s even worse, she didn’t even ask about her babies.”

Rose looked at her brother-in-law. She knew he’d been working practically night and day trying to track down Adam and Anna’s mother. If anything, she was relieved for his sake that he’d finally captured the woman. “Did you question her about the twins?”

Roy nodded. “She says she left them with Tomas. He wanted them. She didn’t.”

Stunned, Rose said, “Oh my Lord. Did she not know Daddy was dead?”

“I don’t think so,” Roy answered ruefully. “When we told her, she accused us of lying. At this point, I think she’s too mentally unstable to comprehend much of anything.”

“Does that mean she could get out of jail on an insanity plea?” Chloe asked in outrage.

Knowing his young sister-in-law’s quick temper, Roy held up a calming hand. “Don’t worry, Chloe. Belinda Waller has done too much to be let loose on society again. I assure you she’ll be locked up in some sort of facility, whether it be for the criminally insane or not.”

Later that night after things had settled down enough for the three of them to go home to the Flying H, Rose and Harlan sat on the front porch as lightning danced across the western sky.

Her head pillowed against Harlan’s shoulder, Rose said drowsily, “It would rain now, after half of the Bar M is burned to a crisp.”

“I know, it would be ironic,” Harlan replied. “But it would be wonderful just the same. With a little water on the ground, the grass will sprout back quickly and save us a big feed bill.”

She sighed with contentment. “Well, frankly, I’m glad we’ve had this drought.”

He lifted her head away from him. “Woman, are you crazy? This has been a hell of a summer!”

She smiled at his outrage. “I know. But the drought brought us together. Otherwise, we might have simply gone on being neighbors. Now look at us. We’re married.”

His eyes warm with love, he drew her head back against his shoulder. “Yeah. And in love.”

“I know we lost a few cows in the fire. And I know it’s going to be a long struggle before the ranch gets out of the red again, but I can’t imagine being any happier than I am at this moment” She twisted her head up to give him a smile. “Well, I might be a bit happier once I know that Chloe has the twins safely adopted in her name. She wants those babies so badly. She needs them, in fact.”

Harlan gently rubbed her arm as wind from the coming rain began to cool the porch. “And they need her. She’ll be a good, devoted mother. I think Chloe’s dream will come true once Belinda has come to trial and a judge weighs all the facts.”

“You know, I keep thinking about something Roy told us,” Rose mused aloud. “When he asked Belinda about the babies, she said that Tomas wanted them. She didn’t. I wonder what that meant?”

He sighed. “I don’t know, Rosie. But I can tell you one thing, Tomas might have liked to gamble and drink his bourbon at times, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a good man at heart. I know he loved children and he must have wanted those babies. I understand what he did wasn’t right. But when a man knows he’s losing his wife, the woman he loves, it makes him do crazy things. Look at me. I tried to drive a wall between us. I didn’t want to let you get close just because I was afraid of going through that sort of pain again.”

Without saying a word, she lifted her head and planted a kiss on his cheek. He cupped his hand along the side of
her face. “Rose, you remember those birth-control pills you got from the doctor the other day?”

She nodded. “What about them?”

“I want you to throw them away.”

She twisted around to face him. “Have you had heatstroke? Harlan, those things cost a fortune!”

He threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, my practical Rose. Forget about what the damn things cost! I want us to have a baby.”

“A baby?” She breathed the word as though he’d just taken her to a sacred place. “When did you decide this?”

He grinned as he ran his fingers through her silky red hair. “I think I decided it the moment you said we have to love each other today and be happy for it.”

For an answer Rose flung her arms around his neck and placed a warm, promising kiss on his mouth.

His heart too full to say a word, Harlan lifted his wife in his arms and carried her inside to their bed.

Outside, the rain began to fall.

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eISBN 978-14592-7288-0

THE RANCHER’S BRIDE

Copyright © 1997 by Stella Bagwell

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