Pete (The Cowboys) (25 page)

When she found out what he’d done, she’d hate him. If he didn’t find out who’d killed the real Peter Warren, she’d probably believe he’d done it. She’d probably think he killed Belser, too.

She knew perfectly well he’d had plenty of time to commit the crime. Once he admitted he’d lied to her so many times before, it would be impossible for her to believe he hadn’t lied one more time. After all, if he’d kill Peter Warren to inherit his ranch, what difference would it make if he killed Belser? They could only hang him once.

Pete knew it was highly unlikely he could get out of Wyoming with his reputation intact. He’d be doing well if he got out with his hide in one piece. Still, it hurt to know he would leave with Anne knowing he was a liar and an imposter, and thinking he might be a killer as well. He wanted her to understand, to know he’d done it all for her.

Well, almost all of it. He still intended to find his money. Despite the danger, it wasn’t easy to give up the result of five years in the goldfields. He and Sean O’Ryan had started out together. Now Sean had his ranch, a wife, a blond stepdaughter, and three redheaded sons who promised to grow up to look just like him. Lately he’d found himself thinking it might not be so bad to have a couple of brown-haired, black-eyed tots of his own. It was an infallible warning that time was running out. If he didn’t escape soon, he might leave his heart in Wyoming.

He had turned to join Eddie when he noticed a horse and rider top a rise in the distance. The rider was coming from the direction of the ranch. Immediately Pete worried something might have happened to Anne. The rider was much too far away to recognize, but he was too small to be Ray. At almost the same moment he realized the rider was a woman, not a man.

It couldn’t be Anne. She wouldn’t know how to find her way across the trackless plain. Yet he felt certain it wasn’t Dolores, either. There was something about the rider that said it couldn’t be anybody but Anne.

He considered returning to camp to get his horse, then changed his mind. She might think he didn’t want to see her and turn back. He waved both hands in the air, and started toward her. By the time she turned her horse in his direction, he had recognized Anne’s flowing black hair. She must have found Carl’s wife’s saddle. It was so old, it was in danger of falling apart. Riding sidesaddle struck him as out of place in Wyoming. It seemed something women did in cities and other civilized places where husbands weren’t killed and left for the wolves, and cowhands weren’t knifed in the next bedroom.

He started running toward her. He didn’t mean to. He just couldn’t help it. When he reached her, she let go of the reins and threw herself into his arms. She nearly knocked the breath out of him. She did knock him off his feet. They tumbled to the ground, laughing like two young fools.

He pulled her roughly, almost violently, to him. Gathering her into his arms, he held her snugly. It felt good to have her in his arms. She fit. She belonged there.

Their kiss was immediate, natural, necessary. His mouth covered hers hungrily. This was no gentle kiss, tender and searching. It was an assault, a ruthless ravishing of her mouth. Wriggling her body about until she lay atop him, Anne returned his kiss with equal urgency. There was nothing tentative about her now. She was a woman who knew what she wanted from her man, and she meant to take it.

Pete gave in gladly. Tomorrow he would remember he had to keep his distance. Tomorrow he’d come up with a reason why she had to go back to the ranch while he stayed with the roundup.

“What are you doing here?” he asked when he finally broke their embrace.

“You’re not angry, are you?”

“No, but I was worried when I recognized you.”

“I had to come. Mrs. Dean is at the house.”

Pete sat up. He couldn’t think while lying down.

“Mrs. Dean?”

“She said she had to support me in my hour of travail, but she’s really trying to make me doubt you.”

“How?”

“She kept coming up with reasons why you aren’t Peter. She had it all worked out, how you met him on the trail, learned he was to inherit a ranch, killed him, and arrived here to take his place. She said you killed Belser to keep him quiet.”

The heat abruptly faded from Pete’s body, and he felt the chill of danger. That line of reasoning was all too believable. “And you didn’t believe her?”

Anne sat up. “Of course not. I know you’d never kill anybody.”

“But everybody says I’ve changed an awful lot.”

“You still couldn’t kill anyone.” She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. He responded more gently this time. “No man could kiss like that and be a murderer.”

“But you don’t know any murderers. Maybe they can do all sorts of things you don’t expect.”

“That’s true, but no woman could be that mistaken about the man she loves.”

Anne’s reaction to her words took Pete by surprised. She blushed furiously, then averted her gaze. He didn’t understand why she should suddenly be so self-conscious. She’d loved Peter Warren all her life, and everybody knew it.

Unless…

He didn’t let himself pursue that thought. He didn’t want to know the answer. “Tell me how you found your way out here,” he said, anxious to divert both their minds from a thought that clearly made both of them uneasy. “I thought you didn’t know your way past the corrals.”

“You told the sheriff you’d left a map of the ranch in your office. I figured if he could find your camp by studying the map, I could too. It wasn’t easy. Buttes and ridges don’t look at all like they do on the map when you’re riding around them. And most of the creeks were hardly more than a dry crack in the ground.”

Pete laughed. “I think you’re a genius to have found us. Wait until I tell Eddie.”

“It wasn’t anything special.”

“Getting on a horse and coming out here was special. Finding your own way was incredible. You must be the smartest woman in Wyoming. I already know you’re the most beautiful.”

“Do you really mean that?”

Her earnestness touched his heart. “Of course, I do. I’ve told you so many times.”

“But people often say things they don’t mean. I don’t mean that you’d lie—I know you wouldn’t—but lying isn’t the same as exaggerating.”

Pete felt his gut twist into a knot. If she only knew how many times he’d lied. But he wasn’t lying about her looks. “I don’t have to exaggerate even the tiniest bit. You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

“Now I know you’re lying.”

“In Wyoming.”

She laughed. “You’ve hardly seen any women here at all.”

“Then you’re easily the most beautiful.”

She laughed and kissed him again. “I wish we didn’t have to go back to the ranch or see the sheriff and Mrs. Dean. I wish we could stay out here forever. It’s so beautiful and peaceful.”

“It won’t be beautiful or peaceful when there’s two feet of snow on the ground, the temperature is thirty below zero, the wind is strong enough to knock you off your feet, and wolves are howling all around.”

She shivered. “How do the cows survive it?”

“I don’t know, but they do. Now before Eddie sends someone up here to see if I’ve been kidnaped, we’d better go down to the camp. You’ll have to start back to the ranch soon if you’re to make it before nightfall.”

“But I want to stay here with you.”

“We’re not set up for women. There’s no privacy, no place for you to sleep.”

“Where do you sleep?”

“On the ground.”

“Then I’ll sleep on the ground, too.”

“There’ll be men all around you.”

“Then I’ll be well protected.”

“They’ll be embarrassed.”

“I won’t look when they get dressed.”

Her eyes twinkled with merriment. He’d never seen her look so happy, so free of worry. He hated to spoil her fun.

“A roundup camp is no place for a woman. Your presence will upset everybody.”

“I won’t go back while Mrs. Dean is at the ranch.” Her chin jutted stubbornly. “All she does is tell me how you’re an imposter and a murderer. I even started dreaming about the things she says. If I have to listen to her for five more days, I might murder her.”

“Five more days!”

“She told her driver not to return for a week. I couldn’t stand it any longer. Please, let me stay. I won’t go anywhere near the men.”

He didn’t have the heart to send her back to face Mrs. Dean without him there to support her. He certainly didn’t intend to let her make the trip across the plain by herself. When he got back, he intended to find out why Ray hadn’t accompanied her.

“We’ll see. Now let’s go shock Eddie.”

Eddie wasn’t the only one surprised at Anne’s presence. Every man within sight stopped to stare.

“Is this what you do?” she asked as she watched the riders keeping the two herds separate.

“What do you mean?” Pete asked.

“Ride around the cows,” she said. “It doesn’t look very hard.”

Eddie looked offended. Pete broke out laughing. “It wouldn’t be if the cows liked being separated into two herds or driven from their favorite part of the range. They’re wild animals used to defending themselves against wolves, bears, and cougars. Any one of them can kill a man or gore a horse.”

“Then why do you do this?”

Pete laughed again. “Because nobody’s figured out how to make them go to market on their own.”

“I’m serious. I didn’t know it was so dangerous.”

“Just about any way a man chooses to make a living out here is dangerous. Which is why you’re never to leave the ranch alone again.”

“I was perfectly safe.”

But he couldn’t be sure of that. She had more to fear than wild animals.

“The men don’t act like I’ve upset them at all,” Anne said.

“That’s because it’s dark. They can’t see you now, and I’ve kept you away from them most of the day.”

They’d finished the evening meal more than an hour ago. The men not on duty had already crawled inside their bedrolls. Their turn on night watch would come soon enough. The only sound from camp was the faint murmur of Eddie’s voice as he talked to the cook. The cows had stopped bawling and milling about and were lying down, chewing their cuds and waiting to be allowed to return to their favorite feeding grounds.

Pete had taken Anne to a curve in Crazy Woman Creek shaded by a grove of cottonwoods, ash, and box elder. They sat in the shadows, invisible to prying eyes. It wasn’t his cowhands that worried him, but the unknown killers. He was certain he was the next target. He feared Anne was a target, too. If he had thought his going would have protected her, he’d have left now, even without his money.

He would have to tell her of the danger, explain his lie and why he’d told it. Soon. But not yet. He asked only for tonight. He’d tell her when they returned to the ranch.

“I never realized it could be so beautiful out here,” Anne said.

They looked out over the treeless hills that formed the drainage basin of the Powder River, the best grazing land in Wyoming. The brilliant moonlight had turned the landscape tawny beige, the cows into honey-colored lumps casting inky shadows. The ceaseless wind rustled the leaves above their heads. Soon the first frosts would strip the branches, turning them into a network of charcoal lines against a blue-gray sky.

“It is beautiful. But like all beautiful things, it can be dangerous, too.”

“I know. Grizzlies, mountain lions, and wolves.”

“That’s why you’re never again to take out across the plain alone.” He put his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. “Promise?”

“I promise. In all normal circumstances,” she added quickly. “Mrs. Dean is worse than grizzlies, lions, and wolves.”

He laughed. “Not that bad, but close.”

She put her arms around his waist and held him tightly. “If you like Wyoming so much, why did you tell Uncle Carl you never wanted to come back?”

They were on dangerous ground. He didn’t know enough about Peter Warren to start discussing his motives.

“Young men say a lot of things they don’t mean when they’re angry. But I don’t want to waste all this moonlight talking about Uncle Carl.”

“You always were so sweet,” Anne said. “Much sweeter than your brother. It made me angry when Gary made fun of you.”

More relatives he knew nothing about. “I don’t want to talk about my brother, either. Let’s make a deal. We won’t talk about relatives or the past.”

“What will we talk about?”

“Us.”

“I think that’s a very good idea. When we get back to the ranch—”

“Not the future, either. Just now. Tonight.” That was all he had.

“What can we talk about?”

“About how beautiful you look in the moonlight. Did you know your eyes shine like black pearls?”

She giggled. “Pearls don’t shine.”

So much for romantic sweet talk. “Then what do pearls do?”

“They have a luster.”

“Your eyes do much better than luster. They shine. What’s black and shines?”

“I don’t know.”