Promises Keep (The Promise Series) (13 page)

“What I have to suffer is inhuman.” Doc broke into Cougar’s explanation as he stomped into the room. Red-faced, his grizzled hair sticking up every which way, he crossed the short distance separating him from his wife in three indignant strides. This close, Mara could see the little beads of sweat dotting his upper lip and feel the tension in his body.

“That’s the absolute last time, woman,” he growled, shaking his finger in her face. “I will no longer tolerate having my joints bounced asunder just because of your foolish fears.”

“Of course, Horace,” Dorothy responded sweetly. “But…”

“No buts,” Doc countered. “You learn to ride today.”

“If you make me ride a horse, darlin’,” Dorothy slowly pointed out, stepping so close to her husband, her skirts swayed against his legs. “I’d get all sore.”

Doc pulled up straight. “A touch of liniment would take care of that.”

“Liniment?” Dorothy managed a delicate shudder while her fingers toyed with the buttons on Doc’s plain white shirt. “You surely wouldn’t want me to put that awful, burning stuff on my…limbs, would you?”

Doc was not so easily swayed. “Plenty of folk use the stuff.”

Dorothy smoothed his hair. The hint of daylight between their bodies winked out as she leaned her chest into his. “Even if you rubbed it on yourself, I’m sure I wouldn’t be good for anything for a week.” Her fingers slipped between the buttons of his lapel. “Why, I’d probably be so uncomfortable, I’d have to make up a bed in the parlor, just so you could get some rest.”

“All right.” Doc cleared his throat, caught Dorothy’s hand in his and stepped back. “Maybe you don’t have to start today.”

Mara noted he didn’t let go of Dorothy’s hand, she also noted Dorothy didn’t seem in any hurry for him to do so. Instead, she smiled. Her eyes crinkled at the corners as she kissed his cheek, “Thank you.”

“Don’t get too excited,” Doc warned. He put his hands on his hips, but Mara could tell the fight had gone out of him. “There’s always tomorrow.”

Stepping up against his chest, Dorothy cupped his face in her hands and delivered a lingering kiss to his mouth. “You’re so good to me,” she whispered against his lips. Mara watched, fascinated despite herself. She’d never seen two people so obviously in love. When Dorothy stepped back, Doc leaned forward, prolonging the kiss.

The room suddenly seemed too small. Cougar too close. She took a slow breath and concentrated on counting the tiny flowers in one of the quilt blocks. The floorboards creaked and she saw Dorothy’s skirts swish out the door.

“Give me a half hour and I’ll have breakfast on the table,” Dorothy called over her shoulder.

Doc stared after his wife. His hands clutched his worn black hat against his chest. A soft smile curved his formerly angry mouth.

“It’s easy to see why Dorothy was considered the belle of Charleston,” Cougar drawled.

“Yes.” Doc straightened his hat and slapped it against his thigh. “And one of these days, she’s not going to be able to distract me so easily with that sweet-talking trick of hers.”

“Just give it another twenty years, Doc,” Cougar said grabbing his clothes off the chair. “You’ll eventually work up to immunity.”

“Not so sure I want to, son.” Doc seemed to notice Cougar’s attire for the first time. His hands landed back on his hips. A jerk of his chin indicated his son’s state of undress. “Any particular reason you’ve taken to wearing the bed linens?”

From where she sat, Mara had an excellent view of Cougar’s back. The muscles over his shoulder blades tensed, causing the scar on the left one to bunch. Fascinating.

“Yeah,” Cougar drawled.

“And while we’re on the subject,” Doc continued with easygoing relentlessness. “What exactly are you doing in such a state in the bedroom of a young lady under my protection?”

Mara wanted to hear the answer to that question herself.

“It’s not what you think,” Cougar hedged.

“Uh-huh.”

“For God’s sake, Doc. I’m a grown man.”

“Who is, at present, under my roof in extremely questionable circumstances.”

“We’re getting married,” Cougar bit off quickly.

“Oh no, we’re not!” Mara countered just as quickly. She struggled to get into a sitting position. If it was the last thing she did, someone was going to listen to her.

“Don’t get your feathers in an uproar, missy,” Doc said, stepping around Cougar, placing his hand on Mara’s shoulder and pressing her back against the mattress. “I’ve got a fair idea what’s going on here.”

“Nothing’s going on that shouldn’t,” Cougar muttered, turning to face Doc.

“Uh-huh.” Doc was only half Cougar’s size. The only comparison that came to Mara’s mind was a banty rooster facing down a mountain lion, but it was clear who was in charge by the censure in Doc’s tone, and the deference in Cougar’s posture.

“You trying to tell me, son,” the older man asked, “that you didn’t mean for us to come back and find you in a rather compromising position?”

“Well…”

“A simple yes or no will do.”

“For heaven’s sake, Doc. The woman’s in no condition for tomfoolery!”

“That wasn’t what I asked you.” Doc took his hand off Mara’s shoulder to place it back on his hip. “Did you or did you not arrange for your mother, the Reverend Swanson, and myself to come back and find you and Miss Kincaid in a compromising position?”

Mara shot Doc a horrified look. They’d brought a Reverend back with them?

“The woman won’t listen to reason,” Cougar offered his father by way of explanation.

“So you thought to force the issue.” Doc shook his head. “There are some traits, son, I wish you hadn’t picked up from your mother.”

Cougar threw up his hands. “What would you have me do?”

His quilt slipped, following the sweep of chiseled muscle across his abdomen, sliding down over his hipbones and revealing a lightly furred expanse before his desperate grab preserved his decency. He looked impossibly huge and male as he asked, “Send her back to that hellhole?”

Doc shook his head. “No one wants that.” He eyed Cougar’s covering. “Before you slip totally into decadence, I suggest you retire to another room and get dressed.”

Cougar seemed loath to leave on such a note. “She’s going to marry me, Doc.”

Before Doc could argue the point, a tall blond man stepped into the doorway. As he leaned against the doorjamb he said, “Cougar’s got a point, Doc. Even if we don’t say a word about last night—”

“Nothing happened last night!” Mara pointed out again.

All she got for her vehemence was a patient nod from the man before he continued, “The story of what happened at Cecile’s is all over the territory. Everyone in Cattle Crossing knows she left with Cougar and didn’t come back. It won’t take long for the story to spread to Cheyenne. Without the protection of a man’s name…” He shook his head, his doubt clear. He shrugged. “And even married, I’m not sure.”

“No one will dare touch her once she has the protection of my name,” Cougar stated with complete assurance.

As if Cougar didn’t exist, the blond man tipped his hat at Mara. “I’m Reverend Brad Swanson, Ma’am.”

She was now having formal introductions in the bedroom. The morning was getting even more bizarre, Mara decided as she nodded back. “Mara Kincaid.”

“Soon to be McKinnely,” Cougar inserted.

Mara rolled her eyes. “Your saying it won’t make it happen. I’m not marrying anyone.”

The Reverend sighed. “Well, there goes my second solution.”

Doc looked at the man in surprise. “You planning on casting your hat into the ring, Swanson?”

Mara stared at the Reverend in shock as he shrugged. “From what Dorothy’s told me, Miss Kincaid is a brave, honorable woman. With your permission, I’d like to pay her court to see if we’d suit.”

“She’s not for you.” Cougar stepped into Mara’s line of sight. It was both a protective and a possessive gesture.

The Reverend circumvented him simply by stepping to the left. The smile he tossed Cougar was congenial. “That’s not for you to say.”

Cougar took another step toward the Reverend. His bare feet made no noise as he crossed the floor. “The hell it isn’t.”

The Reverend’s smile broadened to a taunt as he drew up from the door. Mara realized he was roughly Cougar’s age and size as he returned just as congenially, “The hell it is.”

“In case anybody is interested,” Mara interjected dryly from her bed. “You’re arguing over nothing.”

“You heard the woman.” Doc stepped between the two giants and thumped them on the chest with the palms of his hands. “As neither one of you is impressing the heck out of our guest, why don’t you hightail it out of here so I can examine her?”

The Reverend nodded to Mara. “Miss Kincaid. I hope to have the pleasure of your company at breakfast.”

Mara could feel the beginnings of a headache starting. And her stomach was churning again. She pinched the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb and pressed her hand against her abdomen “At the moment, I’m not entertaining breakfast invitations.”

And she wouldn’t ever be, as long as he had anything to say about it, Cougar decided. “Find your own woman, Reverend.”

“What makes you think I haven’t already done so?” Reverend Swanson asked, cocking his eyebrow at Cougar in a manner that made Cougar set his teeth against a growl. Brad caught Mara’s hand in his.

“You can call me Brad.”

Cougar saw the tug Mara gave her hand. He saw Brad’s fingers tighten imperceptibly. Saw the slow smile spread across his face as he added in a voice as smooth as cream, “And maybe put me on your dance card at next month’s social?”

The man was openly flirting. With his woman. Something wild and savage rose in Cougar, like when he was a kid and he’d managed to scavenge something decent to eat after days of nothing but hunger pangs. It increased when he saw Mara’s chin come up and heard the slight hitch in her breath. Swanson’s flirting was scaring her.

Cougar knocked Swanson’s arm aside. “Get your hands off her.”

“I was only…”

Cougar stepped back and to the side until he was between Swanson and Mara. “You’ve said all you’re going to.”

“The hell you say!” Brad growled.

“Nice talk for a Reverend,” Cougar mocked, shielding Mara with his body, tamping down his unreasoning anger.

“Big talk for a gunslinger,” Swanson retaliated.

“Lawman,” Cougar corrected.

“Seems to me there’s a mighty fine line between the two.”

“Not for me.”

“That’s enough out of both of you.” Doc countered in his harsh growl. He shook his head. “Like two tomcats on the prowl.” He pushed Cougar aside. “If Miss Kincaid had any sense, she wouldn’t entertain the thought of either of you.”

“I’m not.”

Cougar kept Mara in his side vision while he kept Brad in front of him. “You are,” he tossed over his shoulder.

She carefully folded her arms across her chest. “Not.”

Doc’s elbow in his gut shut Cougar up. He settled for hitching up his quilt and glaring at Brad who bared his teeth at him.

“Let’s take a look at that cut, eh Mara?” Doc said, as he tilted her head forward. Her long hair fell over her shoulder and spilled onto the white sheets, as Doc pressed her chin to her chest. “And you pay no mind to those two yahoos,” he glanced up from inspecting Mara’s stitches. “They’re going out to see if Dorothy needs any help before breakfast.”

The look in Doc’s eyes brooked no refusal. Swanson left the room, but Cougar wasn’t going anywhere. “How’s it look?”

“Didn’t I tell you to leave?” Doc asked.

“Yeah.” The pants draped over Cougar’s arm swung out as he indicated the cut Doc had stitched. “How’s it look?”

“No sign of infection.” Doc sat on the edge of the bed and held his finger in front of Mara’s face. “Follow my finger now without moving your head.”

Cougar had to duck down to see over Doc’s shoulder how her eyes were tracking.

He stopped when he realized both Doc and Mara were staring at him.

“You’re blocking my light,” Doc snapped.

“Sorry.”

“That line would be more believable if you looked it,” Doc rasped. “Why don’t you get out of here and find a way to make yourself useful?”

Mara shot Cougar a smile so sweet, his back teeth ached as she suggested, “Like digging out the privy?”

Cougar shot her an equally sweet smile. “We have a water closet. No digging necessary.”

“Too bad.”

“Not really,” Cougar argued. “This way, we’ve got plenty of time to talk.”

“We don’t have anything to talk about.”

“See. Right there is one of the things needing discussing.”

Doc stood and Cougar had an unhampered view of Mara’s expression. About the only thing she looked ready to discuss was his castration.

Doc cleared his throat. Cougar glanced down. Doc looked pointedly at the clothes in Cougar’s hand. “I’d suggest you put those on, son, before you plead your case. Women tend to pay more heed to a man when he at least pretends to be civilized.”