Texas Pride: Night Riders (9 page)

Carla hadn’t gotten used to the idea that someone else owned part of her ranch. How could she accept that strangers had the right to use part of it any way they wanted? “He can’t do that.”

“Laveau has done it,” Ivan said.

“I don’t mean just Mr. diViere,” Carla said. “I mean all of them. This is my ranch. No one can just come in and do what they want.”

Even in the gathering darkness, Ivan’s frown was easy to see. “That’s what happened in Poland.”

“But this is America. I intend to be at Lukey’s office the minute he opens in the morning. I want you to go with me. Danny can show them around.” Ivan showed surprised at her request. “It concerns you as much as me.”

“
More
since I’m the reason they’re here.”

“If those papers are real, they could have come anytime they want.”

“Maybe, but I think I should ride with them tomorrow. I may learn more than we have tonight.”

Carla didn’t understand why she was unhappy that Ivan wouldn’t be with her. He was her foe, but with the appearance of these men, she found herself thinking of him as an ally. “Do you think they’re going to do what they say?”

“They must, or we will have reason to tell them to leave.”

“But if they have authority from the governor?”

“I will write my friends. Maybe they will know something we do not.”

“But if they’re really here to stop rustlers from Mexico, we ought to give them all the help we can. The bandits only want cows or horses, but they kill anybody who tries to stop them.”

“If they do what they say, I will help them.”

Now that Carla had gotten over the shock of someone else demanding some part of her ranch, she was feeling hopeful about the situation. “Riley seems honest. I don’t like Bricker, but I guess only rough men would be willing to go after the bandits.”

Carla looked over her shoulder at the men following about fifty yards behind. Bricker was talking—he seemed angry about something—but Riley wasn’t answering him. She hoped Riley could control his men. Bricker was the kind of hothead who could cause trouble in a little town like Overlin.

She was surprised when they reached the lane leading to her ranch house to find Ivan’s campsite empty.

“Where is everything?” she asked.

“How can I know? I have been with you all evening. Maybe it is a good thing. Your husband would not sleep outside.”

“I know, but—”

Riley and his men were getting too close for Carla to say more. “I’ll meet you at the house,” she said to Ivan before driving on.

Ivan showed the men to where he’d slept the night before. It didn’t take long for the six men to set up camp. Seeing there was nothing else he could do, Ivan bade them good night and headed for the house. Danny came running up before he could bring his horse to a stop.

“Carla told me about those men,” he said. “It’s a good thing I moved your stuff to the bunkhouse.” He broke out laughing. “I wish I could have seen Carla’s face when Riley called you her husband.” He slapped his thigh. “I bet she almost had a fit.”

Ivan dismounted. “Your sister could be an actress. No one could guess we were not married.”

“I’ve already decided she’s going to be an old maid. She’s been courted by lots of men, and she’s never seemed interested in marrying any of them. I think she likes this ranch better than she likes men.” His face fell. “That’s why she’s so mad at me for losing half of it.”

“Why did you move my stuff to the bunkhouse? You know Carla does not want me here.”

“She told me she’d agreed to discuss everything about the ranch with you. She can’t do that with you always down by the creek.” He shuffled his feet and looked down at the ground. “Besides, it’s not neighborly to make you camp out. If anybody should be banished to the creek, it’s me.”

“Carla would never do that. She loves you.”

Danny’s head came up with a snap, his eyes filled with laughter. “You should have seen her when I told her. I’ve still got bruises where she hit me. You can probably find scratches on the furniture and marks on the wall. For a while, nothing was safe.”

“It was the shock.”

“She looks like Ma, but she’s got Pa’s temper. I’m built like Pa, but I got Ma’s temperament. Carla should have been the boy, not me.”

Ivan thought that would have been a tragedy, but he didn’t say so.

“Do you think those men are on the level? I hope so,” Danny said before Ivan could respond. “Our ranch has never been hit, but bandits have been a nuisance for years. They don’t come this way much because the land is so dry the cows are really spread out, but they raided Kesney’s place a month back. They didn’t get anything, though, because he’d been warned.”

“Who warned him?” That struck Ivan as an unusual piece of luck.

“Don’t know that he said. In any case, he hired some extra men. Sent the bandits back across the Rio Grande with their tails between their legs.”

“I need to talk to your sister,” Ivan said. “Since you have decided I should sleep in the bunkhouse, you can put my horse in the corral.”

“Sure.” Danny pointed to Ivan’s bunk. “Your feet will hang off the end. Nobody around here is as tall as you.”

Ivan got the feeling Danny was a little unhappy that Ivan’s size had made his recent growth seem less impressive. “You will be this tall in a few years.”

Danny’s expression remained glum. “That won’t do much good as long as everybody thinks I’m prettier than half the girls in Overlin.”

“When the right girl comes along, she will think you are perfect. I have seen it happen to my friends. It will happen to you. Now I need to talk to your sister.”

Ivan didn’t know what to say to Carla, but he knew somewhere something was wrong. New laws gave the governor nearly absolute power over the state, but Ivan doubted there was anything anybody could do. People had been complaining about the army and the state government for years, and nothing had been done. If Laveau hadn’t been involved, Ivan would have been willing to take Riley at his word. The man seemed genuine, but Ivan had never known Laveau to do anything that didn’t benefit him in a manner that was nearly always to someone’s disadvantage. Laveau was up to something. And Ivan was determined to find out what and put a stop to it. Carla and her brother had suffered enough at Laveau’s hands.

***

Carla took the pan of biscuits from the oven and placed them in a bowl before covering them with a cloth to keep them warm. “I don’t know what you eat for breakfast in Poland,” Carla said to Ivan, “but I hope you like ham and eggs, potatoes with gravy, and hot biscuits.”

“We usually have grits,” Danny told Ivan, “but Carla said you probably never heard of them.”

Ivan stood in the doorway, apparently waiting for Carla to invite him in. “Sometimes during the war, grits and gravy was all we had to eat.”

“Well, don’t stand there looking like a bashful beau,” Danny said. “Carla only looks like she’ll take a chunk out of your hide. She’s really a pretty decent sister.”

“Which is not easy with you for a brother. Come sit down,” she said to Ivan as she placed the biscuits on the table and turned to find the butter. “Eat before everything gets cold.”

“You can sit across from me,” Danny offered. “That way you won’t have to face Carla’s scowls.”

Carla returned with the butter, which she placed in front of Danny. “I’m not scowling, but I will be if you won’t be quiet.”

Danny grinned at Ivan, put his finger to his lips to indicate Ivan was to be quiet, and motioned him to take a seat at the table.

“Much more of your nonsense, Danny Reece, and you’ll be fixing your own breakfast over an open fire. Do sit,” she said to Ivan when he seemed reluctant to come to the table. “I’m sure Mr. Riley and his men will be here soon.”

Carla didn’t like that having Ivan at her table made her nervous. Or maybe it was just that she was jittery. She was irritated that Danny had taken it upon himself to move Ivan’s belongings to the bunkhouse and invite him in for breakfast without asking her first. She drew the line when Danny said it was necessary to continue pretending she and Ivan were married.

The fact that Ivan looked more handsome than usual did nothing to ease her discomfort. She didn’t know if it was sleeping in a bunk instead of on the ground, but he looked fresh and eager. He had a unique ability to be part of Danny’s silliness without losing his innate gravitas. He could be reluctant to come to the table without losing the aura of assurance that seemed to fit him so comfortably. It wasn’t fair that he could do all of this without appearing to be aware of it. She wondered if that came from being born into a family with a five-hundred-year history of wealth and privilege as well as a lineage that included kings. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be surrounded by portraits of her ancestors. She had no idea what her grandparents looked like.

“Are you still too mad at me to answer?”

Gathering her wandering thoughts, Carla turned to Danny. “Sorry. I was thinking. What did you ask?”

“I was saying I’d clear up after breakfast if you wanted to start to town early.”

“I’ve changed my mind. I’m going with you and Ivan.”

Carla didn’t know what she was going to say until the words came out of her mouth, but she knew immediately she’d made the right decision to go with Ivan and Danny on a tour of the ranch.

“I thought you were going to see Lukey,” Danny said.

“I told Lukey I’d include Ivan in all decisions concerning the ranch. I can’t do that if I’m not with you.”

“I’m not making any decisions, just showing Ivan around.”

“I’m talking about Riley and his men.”

“They only want a place to set up a temporary camp.”

“It will be on our land so I want to know about it.”

Danny glanced at Ivan before turning back to his sister. “They asked to camp on Laveau’s part of the ranch.”

“We’ve never divided the ranch. Until then, I consider every part of it as ours.”

“You’ve never ridden over the whole the ranch,” Danny reminded his sister.

“That was a mistake. Maybe that’s the reason everyone wants to talk to you instead of me.”

“You know that’s not it,” Danny said. “It’s because you’re not a man.”

“And you’re a man because you’re old enough to gamble away your part of the ranch?”

Danny hung his head. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

Carla didn’t mean to let her temper run away with her, but the whole situation—from trying to convince everyone she was capable of managing the ranch to coping with the results of Danny’s gambling—had stretched her patience to the breaking point. Having to deal with this unexpected attraction to Ivan was about to push her over the edge. She wanted to go into her room, close the door, and not come out until he was gone. She couldn’t because she wasn’t a coward. In any case, she wanted to know what he was doing, where he was going, even what he was thinking.

“Finding a place for Riley’s camp is a decision for everyone to make,” Ivan said. “If his men will be riding back and forth to the border, it will be best to find a place where they will not upset the cows.”

“I know a couple of good spots,” Danny said, “but it’s a long ride, Sis.”

“I’ll manage.” Carla wasn’t as sure as she sounded. Though she was the nominal head of the ranch, she wasn’t used to full days in the saddle.

“Do you have a good horse?” Ivan asked.

“We have lots of good horses.” Danny sounded irked that Ivan would question the quality of their riding stock.

“I mean do you have a good riding horse for your sister. A bad horse can make a short ride miserable just as a good horse can make a long ride less tiring.”

“Any of them would do,” Danny told him.

“In Poland we give horses the work best suited to them. Our horses are expected to do just one thing but do it very well.”

“Our horses have to do everything,” Danny insisted.

“Do you use the same horses to catch cows that Carla uses for her buggy?”

“No, but—”

“That is what I mean. Now finish eating. We must have time to choose carefully.”

Carla listened as Danny quizzed Ivan on what he looked for in a riding horse. She wasn’t as interested in what he said as she was that Ivan would take the time to choose a horse especially for her. Not even her father had done that. As far as she knew, the only quality men looked for in a woman’s mount was that the horse be so slow they wouldn’t fall off. From what Ivan was explaining to Danny, Ivan would look for a horse with the ability to do everything his own horse could do. The difference would be in the manner, comfort, and temperament.

Ivan acted like what he was doing was nothing out of the ordinary, but that was far from the truth. If a woman dared venture out of the house, Texas men expected her to do everything a man could the same way a man would do it. That such an expectation was impossible was their rationale for feeling women should do little beyond keep house and occasionally teach school or run a shop. It would never occur to most men to look for ways to make it more comfortable for women to do their work. As for working side by side with them, well, that was out of the question.

Ivan drank the last of his coffee and pushed back from the table. “Are you ready?” he asked Danny.

“He can’t go yet,” Carla said. “He has to help me clean up and put away the food. I want you to show me how you choose a horse.”

***

Carla and Danny talked together while resting their horses in the sparse shade of a mesquite that grew alongside the creek. Riley and his men were taking a rest about fifty yards away in the windward side of a towering thicket of catclaw and several types of acacias. Being no fan of thorns, Ivan chose to dismount next to a young cottonwood. In a few years the tree would provide even more shade than the pecan trees that forested some of the creek bottoms on Cade’s ranch.

The day provided more information than Ivan had anticipated. At first, his attention was directed to the ranch itself. The land was drier than he expected. According to Danny, they had more rain than usual during the winter and spring, but the summer had been dry. The new growth was already showing signs of dying back. The Reece herd benefited from the ever-flowing creek and the more plentiful food along its banks, but the water from the creek didn’t reach most of the thousands of acres it took to support their herd. While there were areas where trees grew in groves or vines formed nearly impenetrable tangles, many acres were treeless with little grass to hold the soil from wind and rain or shade its roots from the baking heat of the sun. The land was so poor it took about ten acres to support one cow. That same openness limited Riley to a few choices for his base camp.

Riley was as personable as he seemed the night before. He was so approachable, Danny peppered him with questions. Riley answered all of them, but it didn’t take Ivan long to realize he wasn’t giving out much information. The other five men were also friendly, even Bricker. Apparently Riley convinced them it was important to build good relationships with the people in the county. Everybody would be on his side if he could protect them from the bandits, but Ivan learned during the war that it never hurt to build extra layers of goodwill. There would be times when the power of authority wasn’t enough to hold people’s loyalty.

The day went so well that Ivan was finding it difficult to harbor suspicions against Riley. Riley didn’t provide much information, but it was the first time the government mounted an organized attempt to deal with the bandits who raided across the Rio Grande River from Mexico. With only a few men to patrol the border, Riley said he expected to be away from camp for long periods of time. Other than buying supplies, he didn’t anticipate having much contact with the townspeople. He said he would do his best to stay out of Ivan’s way.

Still, Ivan couldn’t banish that lingering shred of doubt. Laveau diViere was evil. So was everything he touched, regardless of how straightforward it might appear on the surface. Ivan tried to convince himself that Laveau had nothing to do with Riley, that his commission had come from the state government, but the new governor was already getting a reputation for using his office to fill his pockets and those of his friends, exactly the kind of person who would associate with Laveau. Riley left his companions and walked over to Ivan.

“The land around here is really open,” he said. “Nowhere to hide stolen cows. It makes you wonder how the bandits can take so many herds without anyone knowing.”

“Not many people to watch them do it.” Towns were few, small, and far apart. Ranches were huge, and herds were left on their own except for branding and roundup.

“Not many good places for a concealed camp, either.”

“What about the spot Danny pointed out?” He had shown Riley an area on the far edge of their ranch where a large semicircle of chaparral provided a natural screen.

“It’s not ideal, but it looks like the best spot. I’d expected to have more trees.”

Ivan wondered why the government sent a man who knew so little about South Texas that he expected forests substantial enough to provide cover for a camp of several men, their horses, and equipment.

Carla and Danny walked over to join them. Danny approached with his open smile and unquestioning honesty. Carla was more circumspect, but Ivan believed her reticence was based upon her reluctance to have strangers on her land rather than any distrust of their stated reason for being there.

“Is this place okay,” Danny asked, “or do you want to keep looking?”

“If you want to be close to the border,” Carla said, “you should talk to Kesney Hardin. His ranch runs down to the Rio Grande.”

“Maybe I’ll do that once I figure out what works best,” Riley said. “For now, I’ll stick with my agreement with Mr. diViere. He said we could use his land as long as we want.”

Carla started to speak. Afraid she might tell Riley about his agreement with Laveau, Ivan cut her off by saying, “Everyone hopes you can stop the raids in a few months.”

“So do we,” Riley said.

“As long as you spend money in Overlin, nobody will care how long it takes,” Danny said.

While Danny and Riley were talking, Ivan whispered that he didn’t want her to say anything about his agreement with Laveau. She looked bewildered, even a little annoyed, but she nodded her acceptance.

“If you have no objection,” Riley said to the three of them, “we’ll start setting up camp.”

Carla gave her permission. Danny even offered to help.

“I will come around in a day or two to see if you need anything,” Ivan offered.

“Don’t bother,” Riley said. “We’ll be on patrol by then.” He turned down Danny’s repeated offer to help before going back to his men.

“I wish he’d talk to Kesney about setting up camp on his land,” Carla said.

“I don’t,” Danny said. “It’s exciting having them here. They might even let me ride with them sometime.”

“You’ve got enough to do here,” Carla said.

Danny’s expression darkened quickly. “I’ve got nothing here, or have you forgotten how many times you’ve reminded me of that?”

“That’s not what I meant,” his sister said. “This will always be your home.”

“No, it won’t. If you marry Kesney and Ivan sells his half of the ranch, I’ll be nothing more than a cowhand. Hell, that’s all I am now.”

Ivan didn’t try to help Carla convince Danny the ranch would always be his home. When you didn’t own the land, you were just there as long as someone else let you stay. Even when you did own the land, there were no guarantees. The Russians had taken his family’s land in Poland. Cade’s grandfather had taken his neighbor’s land in Texas. Power trumped right, something Ivan would never forget.

Cutting off his sister’s argument with a colorful oath, Danny stalked off, mounted his horse, and rode away. Carla started after him.

“I would leave him alone,” Ivan advised. “I know how he feels. Words will not change anything.”

“But he’s got to know I’d never desert my own brother.”

“I expect he is thinking about when you marry. Your husband may not think of him as part of the family.”

“I wouldn’t marry any man who would do that to my brother.”

“What about when
he
wants to marry? What does he have to offer a wife?”

“I’d give him my half of the ranch,” Carla said.

“Maybe he has too much pride to accept such a sacrifice.”

“How do you know what he’ll think?”

“I never said I know what he thinks or what he will do, but I do know he has a lot of pride. He is like you in that.”

Carla’s reaction showed her surprise. “You think I’m full of pride?”

“I said you have pride, not that it controls your thinking. Pride is a good thing. It is something we all need.”

“Do you think I have too much pride?”

Ivan was surprised Carla would care what he thought. “I do not know you well enough to answer that question.”

Carla gave him a skeptical look. “I think you’re avoiding the question.”

“Why would you care if I am? You do not like me, you do not want me here, and you will be happy when I leave.”

Carla’s gaze flickered before returning to him. “It’s true I don’t want you here, but I don’t dislike you. I don’t want you to leave until I can buy back Danny’s half of the ranch.”

“I thought you were hoping the judge would agree that Laveau cheated. I am sure he did.” Laveau seemed to like doing things the wrong way. Ivan believed he got a perverse kind of pleasure from it.

“Of course I hope the judge will invalidate the wager. Even if Mr. diViere didn’t cheat, he took unfair advantage of Danny by goading him to drink until he was drunk.”

“Then you will get your ranch back and be rid of me at the same time. That will make you happy, no?”

This time when Carla’s gaze flickered, it didn’t return to Ivan. It focused instead on Danny as he disappeared into the distance. “I don’t dislike you. I just dislike what has happened.”

“Then we can work together? I can stay in the bunkhouse, and you will let me eat with you and Danny?”

Carla didn’t look at Ivan. “Danny has already invited you. You don’t need my permission.”

“But I do. The bunkhouse is on your half of the ranch. The house is also.”

Carla’s gaze zeroed in on him. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Would I do something like that?”

Carla’s brow creased. “I don’t know. I misjudged you in the beginning. I really don’t know you at all. Sometimes I think you’re just trying to confuse me by smiling like that.”

Ivan laughed. “I do not try to confuse you.”

“Well, you have.”

“Ask me any question, and I will answer it. But first we should start back to the ranch. It is a long way. And you must have time to make your dress for the dance.”

“That’s what I mean,” Carla said after they had mounted up and set their horses into a slow canter. “You offer to answer any question I ask then try to turn my attention to something else. You know I’ve decided to wear the dress I bought from Sadie Lowell. I’ll save the material for another time.”

“It is very nice material. It will make a very pretty dress.”

“I caught you!” Carla declared, something between laughter and anger in her eyes. “You haven’t seen the material I bought.”

“I saw it when Mr. Thompson showed it to the widow Lowell.”