The Texas Ranger's Secret (12 page)

Gage knew Maddox was either acting as a big brother to Willow or telling him to stay out of his business where she was concerned. Had there been any courting between the pair in the past? He figured the giant would have been more interested in one of the older sisters. Snow, maybe, since Daisy’s affections belonged to Parker.

Gage had known his fair share of fights. He wouldn’t want to anger Maddox, or any of his brothers, for that matter. They had a reputation for putting men in their places, but so did he. Gage respected men who set their boundaries and tolerated no interference. But he wouldn’t back off from a run-in with them or let any of them shake Willow’s confidence in what she meant to do. If she intended to go to the diner, he’d walk her there himself. Whether Maddox approved or not.

Still, he wouldn’t make himself a target to an eager group of aspiring brides. They were looking out for their futures. Something they thought he could offer.

“You ready to head that way?” Gage lent his arm so that she would link hers with his. “We’ll catch as many of the women as we can now and grab the buggy later.”

“Children, come with me, please. Ice cream sounds nice right about now.” She allowed him to escort her out of the building and across the street.

Several people walking along the sidewalks greeted Gage with smiles or friendly nods of acknowledgment as they passed. He didn’t miss how pride seemed to fill Willow.

Hammering resumed behind them while Ollie and Thaddeus ran past, each racing to reach the destination first.

“Wait!” Willow pointed toward the mercantile. “I need to stop in there before we go to the diner. It won’t take but a minute or two.”

“Aww, do we have to go with ya?” Ollie pleaded. “We can get a seat and already be orderin’ if you’re only gonna be a couple’a minutes.”

Both children started backing toward the diner, looking ready to race there at the first sign of approval from their aunt. They reminded Gage of spring colts ready to gallop across open pasture.

Willow glanced at him as if silently asking whether or not he trusted the pair to do what they said they would. He shrugged.

“Your call,” he said.

“You’re a big help.” She frowned.

“Only about things I know. Kids are not in my range of experience,” he admitted.

“And you think they’re in mine?” Her frown deepened.

“Who knows?” He laughed. “Maybe we’ll both learn something about them while they’re in your care.”

He’d agreed to teach her skills, not spend his time making sure two adventuresome eight-year-olds kept their promises.

“Okay,” she finally relented, “but go nowhere else. Don’t order my ice cream, please. I like mine really cold.”

The children raced away.

Gage had seen fear shadow anger too often in his lifetime of chasing outlaws. Willow was nervous about something, wanting to pick a fight, and it didn’t concern letting the children have their way. What was scaring her?

“You want to go with them?” she asked quickly as if her breath kept pace with the children’s footsteps. “I won’t be but a minute.”

Her hand slipped into her pocket and patted around as if she was trying to locate something in its depth. Had she stored her money there? She’d worn no reticule around her wrist as most women did when they came to town to visit businesses and possibly make purchases. Maybe she was just being careful. Whatever her reason for suggesting he leave, Gage wondered if he needed to tread with a little caution here. After all, he still had no clue if she was as innocent as she seemed or had some connection to the horse thief. The likelihood was getting slimmer if his suspicion about Shepard Hutton proved justified.

“I think we ought to give those two time to prove they can be trusted. I’ve got something I want to take care of real quick while you’re in the mercantile, but I’ll be right back. You’ll need some help getting the buggy ready before you head home.”

Relief washed across her face as she moved up the steps and disappeared into the general store, her hand now clutching what Gage thought might be an envelope.

The image of the blue-and-gray mail sack Junior Pickens kept near the mail slots at the end of his counter came to mind as Gage wondered if she had written a return letter to whoever had sent her the one she’d received yesterday.

If so, what was all the mystery? Why wouldn’t she want him to know she was mailing a reply? Was that why she was so nervous? Fearful? Wanting him out of the way? Afraid he’d see the letter and whom it was intended for?

The mailbag would eventually end up with Bear. He could let the blacksmith in on the fact that he worked for the Corps of Rangers and had to have a look at that particular letter. Gage just wanted to make sure it wasn’t addressed to Hodge.

But it felt wrong invading her privacy, and his personal code of honor wouldn’t let him follow that particular trail no matter what.

Gage let her go about her business and decided he could take the time to check out the Twisted Spur. Maybe Stanton Hodge would be among the influx of visitors in the saloon. Nothing better than a fresh horde of hefty pockets in town to lure a thief out into a crowd.

He hoped Hodge was among the high rollers. If so, he might be able to put his doubt about Willow to rest. Maybe he could finally accept that she was exactly what she appeared—a poor soul who didn’t sit any saddle well and needed to learn how.

That would make him and her alike in ways. Losing things each meant to hold on to. Willow, her self-respect. He, his sight. They both, it seemed, had to learn to look at life in a new way now to find some measure of happiness to keep them going.

* * *

“That one right there, sir. You see it?” Willow pointed to a stack of white lace handkerchiefs separated by thin paper to keep them clean. She had caught a glimpse of a tiny bouquet of bluebonnets embroidered in one corner of a hankie and hoped there would be several like it—at least one to give each lady concerned.

The choice was the perfect gift to make amends with—delicate, bridal looking and with a hint of flowers. “Exactly how many do you have just like it? I need eight.”

The merchant counted and told her. “One more than you want, miss. It’d be a shame to leave just this one.”

He was a good salesman, she’d give him that. He left no possible sale undone. Willow admired the lovely lace and decided to purchase the last one for Daisy. She’d been too focused on escaping Atlanta to think of buying her sister a wedding present. Too bad there were not two extra. She would have offered Snow one, as well.

But then, Snow would probably have considered it some kind of peace offering and that would have taken the pleasure out of giving it.

Lifting the list of ladies’ names from her pocket, Willow handed it to the merchant. “You’re sure they’ll get these tomorrow or the next day?”

The thin man bobbed his head as he pointed to the angled mail slots at the end of his business counter. “I’ll wrap them up and put them in the mail before I close up tonight. Most of the ladies check their slots once or twice a week. Those that don’t, Bear Funderburg takes their mail out to their ranches. He’ll see they get delivered.”

“And my letter? When will it go out? When’s the next stage?” Her attention swept to the mailbag, which looked much like the one that had ridden with her across country. Would the blacksmith have to sort the bag of letters before hers went on its proper way?

Every step of the process seemed a delay in getting it to Atlanta in time.

“If you’d have brought it to me an hour ago, it could have gone out on the stage with the honeymooners.” The merchant’s face broadened with a toothsome smile. “Probably didn’t think to hand it to your sister, didja?”

“Her mind was busy elsewhere, as you can imagine. I didn’t have the heart to bother her with it,” Willow said, hoping to make light of her comment. Handing Daisy the letter would only have stirred her sister’s curiosity and made her wonder why she hadn’t taken up Gage’s offer last night to return a reply for her. She would eventually tell Daisy and Snow about what had happened in Atlanta, but hopefully, it would all be resolved before the newlyweds returned.

She wanted it to become just something they all laughed about someday, not another failure to define her.

A scuffle of boots coming up the steps to the mercantile made Willow swing around to find Gage’s tall form entering the general store. He’d finished quicker than she had. Hastily, she completed her business with Junior Pickens, snatching the list from his hand. “Remember that I said no one is to know those are from me. I appreciate you keeping my confidence and I’m sure we’ll do more business together if you do.” She kept her tone low. “Understood?”

Her eyes slanted in Gage’s direction. “No one.”

“I look forward to doing more business with you, miss.” The merchant handed her the extra hankie. “Would you like to have this wrapped, as well—?”

“That’s unnecessary,” she interrupted, taking Daisy’s hankie and stuffing it and the list inside her pocket. She acknowledged Gage’s presence in the store a little louder. “I’ll spend more time here another day. My friend and I here—” she swung around and motioned to Gage “—have two precocious little children waiting on us over at the diner.”

“Your sister’s?” asked Junior Pickens. “Ollie and Thaddeus?”

“One and the same.” Gage stopped a breath away from the back of Willow’s neck. “Actually, that would be two and the same.” He laughed. “Never had much of a handle on arithmetic. I like words better.”

“You left those kids in the diner on their own?” Junior’s eyes widened so fast it looked as if somebody had poked him in the back.

“What’s wrong with that?” Willow’s head angled toward the direction of the restaurant, then back at the merchant.

Junior studied her. “Nothing. You just might want to make a quick stop over at the bank and set yourself up an account, Miss McMurtry. No telling what those two have ordered. They can outeat an army of starving ants in an empty picnic basket. Better take a bucketful of money with you if you want to leave that fine establishment with your good name and purse intact.”

* * *

Junior’s warning proved all too true. Gage heard Willow groan as she caught sight of her two charges. Ollie and her brother sat at a red-checkered table with bowls of every kind of ice cream imaginable forming a circle in front of each child. A spoonful here and there was missing from the bowls, leaving proof which had been judged the tastiest among the flavors.

Gage would have laughed if he thought he could get away with it. After all, she hadn’t told them how much they could order. Just not to order for her.

He thought it was a good time to keep his trap shut and let her do any talking. Sometimes a teacher had best let the student think up the right way to handle something herself.

Thaddeus had loosened his string tie and it now hung as if it were a tongue lapping up the chocolate mound that peaked just below his chin. His tie jostled with every scoop he shoved into his mouth, sending a brown, frosty smear across his once-clean white shirt.

“They’re here,” Ollie said, looking up as Gage and Willow approached. “Eat faster. She looks mad.”

Thaddeus shoveled faster.

Low murmurs and titters echoed across the dining hall, layering the air with social tension. Gage glared at the men, silently daring any one of them to make an open comment against the children or Willow. None seemed to want to challenge him. Several of the women, on the other hand, held their noses and chins at haughty angles that revealed their disapproval of Ollie and Thad’s behavior and Willow’s lack of control over it.

Ollie’s cheeks appeared pinker than usual, or else Gage was just seeing better at the moment. Then he realized strawberry ice cream had sketched clown’s lips across the tomboy’s face as she’d eaten. She scooted the bowl of strawberry away and started wolfing down a scoop of something that looked as if it might be vanilla topped with blue-or blackberries. He wasn’t sure which. Either one would add to the mess when she dug in.

Willow sank slowly into the chair across the table from Thaddeus, not giving Gage time to hold it out for her. Gage took a seat adjacent hers. “Looks like you got a head start on us,” he said. “Think we’ll join you.”

Thaddeus stopped midspoonful, his mouth still gaping to take the next bite. He waited a moment, his attention focusing on Gage’s face, then on his aunt’s. Finally he asked, “We’re not in trouble?”

“Sure we are,” Ollie answered, her tongue darting out to lick her top lip free of a blueberry. “Aunt Willow just ain’t gonna yell at us here. Prob’ly at home, where Aunt Snow and Myrtie can back her up. I hear ’em all now. ‘What do you mean eating all that ice cream?’” Ollie took another bite and nearly purred with pleasure. “But it was sure worth it. Yummm.”

Thaddeus looked cautiously at his aunt. “Remember, Aunt Willow, I warned ya about us.” He took another bite and licked the spoon. “And there’s always no telling what she’ll make me do once we get here.”

Ollie’s sidekick looked sincerely innocent, as if he had been given no say in the matter. The tomboy might prove herself a force to be reckoned with one day. The wish to stick around and see that happen surprised Gage. He couldn’t remember a solitary soul he’d ever stayed around to watch grow up. Time and trouble had kept him always on the move.

“That’s right. I made him do it,” Ollie fessed up. “Couldn’t help myself. Just said, ‘Ollie, your big brother ain’t had much practice in getting in trouble all by hisself, so you better show him how to do it right.’”

Gage lost his composure. He tried not to. He really did, but he couldn’t help himself. Thaddeus was right. He had warned Willow. Not exactly in those words, but close enough. And Ollie meant to test her aunt’s limits.

Willow would have her hands full in the next few weeks.

Gage started chuckling, that down-deep-in-the-belly amusement that erupts into a blaze of laughter that no problem on earth is big enough, hurtful enough, to extinguish. He snorted, nearly honking like a southbound gander.

The awkwardness he felt at snorting made him laugh even harder...until tears came.