He was beginning to sound like a parrot. Seriously annoyed as well as increasingly frightened, Evie glared down at him. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Hale, but I don't feel the least bit safe. There could be rattlesnakes and wild Indians out here. Surely we can't be much farther from the Harding place. Perhaps we could walk the distance?"
"I assure you, we cannot. It would no doubt be dawn before we reached the ranch by walking, and your reputation would be ruined."
"I don't give a darn about my reputation, Mr. Hale it's my life I'm worried about. What do I know about surviving out here?" Irritated, Evie climbed down from the carriage herself. For good measure, she checked the axle, but she couldn't tell a thing in the dark.
"There will be a lantern and water and food in there, Miss Howell. We only need wait until someone discovers us." He held out his hand to lead her into the house.
There wasn't much else she could do. If she knew how to ride, she'd steal the horse. The cabin seemed less frightening than that alternative. Ignoring his out-stretched hand, Evie lifted her skirt from the dust and started toward the house.
It was far superior to the shack that Tyler had taken her to. When Hale located the lantern and lit it, she could see that it had several rooms and real pieces of furniture. The dust had been disturbed, as if someone had been there lately. The furniture was of heavy Spanish origin, and Evie ran her finger wonderingly over the old ebony table. She had seen nothing like it in Texas. Actually, she had seen nothing like it anywhere. The French influence in St. Louis had been stronger than the Spanish.
The massive bed in the first room was of the same heavy quality. The mattress on it didn't look as if it fit, and she couldn't help but look at it warily. A mattress left abandoned for any length of time would become the home for rodents, but this one seemed relatively intact.
"As you can see, the accommodations are crude, but comfortable. You will be perfectly safe here, Miss Howell." Hale held the lantern up so she could examine the evidence of his words.
She didn't like it. She didn't like it at all. The place looked abandoned; the layers of dust were proof of that. But why was the mattress intact? She turned to examine the shelves in the main room that would have served as parlor and kitchen. As Hale had said, there were assorted boxes and bags and cans there, a veritable larder. Why?
"I won't stay, Mr. Hale. I will take my chances with the prairie." Even as she said it, she knew she couldn't. Another coyote was howling somewhere outside, and she was well aware of the snakes and other creatures inhabiting this vast land. She had read enough of Daniel's Westerns to know all the dangers.
"That would be extremely foolish. You are a wealthy young woman, and it would be a sin to throw yourself away on unreasonable fears. You must learn to rely on me. I will take care of you." So saying, Hale set the lantern on the table and took a flame to the tinder in the fireplace. "I'm sure we won't need the heat, but sometimes a nice fire provides company."
Evie didn't like the way he said that. She didn't like anything at all about this situation. Giving the lawyer's back a contemplative look as he bent over the fire, she swung on her heel and headed for the bedroom. She wasn't a fool, but she liked her creatures comfort, and she didn't like Hale. She slammed the bedroom door and snapped a bar closed behind it.
Hale looked up, but his expression was one of smug satisfaction, not disappointment.
* * *
Tyler tied his horse behind the lawyer's office and ran up the back stairs. Knowing the kids were safe was a relief, but he didn't trust that damned lawyer one bit. As before, Hale's door was unlocked. He didn't need a light to know where to look. Picking up the blotter, he grabbed the file, bending it and shoving it into his coat pocket. Then he gathered up the clutter on the top of the desk and took it to the window to see if any of it pertained to Evie.
He could barely discern the handwriting in the dim light. The scribbles looked meaningless, but he shoved them in his pocket anyway. Judging by his previous explorations, Hale kept all his current notes on hand. If he were innocent, he'd have every right to scream bloody murder at this ransacking, but Tyler didn't think Hale was that innocent. Hale would have to keep his mouth shut if any of the documents were incriminating.
He knew the one horse thief who had been up here the day of the shooting was still a patient at the doctor's office. The other man Tyler suspected of being here was over at the saloon drowning his sorrows. Those were the only two men he could associate with the lawyer. He would begin with them.
By the time Tyler spurred his horse out of town, dawn was breaking. A long night of questioning had given him the information he sought, but he didn't like the answers. He hadn't felt this terrified in years. He'd never wanted to feel like this again. But his heart was pounding in a frantic rhythm to accompany his fears, and he pushed his horse at an unmerciful pace.
It was different this time, he told himself. He was a man now and not a scared little boy. There wasn't a war on. He just had to battle a greedy lawyer. But that wasn't the real problem, and Tyler knew it.
The real problem was Evie. The farther he rode, the more that fact ground into his soul. He didn't want to lose Evie. These last two weeks had been like being back in that Yankee prison camp again, a mindless blur of nothingness with no hope on the other side. Tyler thought he'd killed all emotion in that camp, but it certainly wasn't reasoning logic pumping through him now. It was terror and longing for Evie.
He repeated familiar refrains. He refused to be reduced to a lump of quivering pudding for a woman. It wasn't worth it. She had as much as told him that she didn't need him any more. She had sent him away. She had not once come looking for him since he'd left. She'd had those damned papers served on him. And now she was out riding the countryside with that damned lawyer. She wasn't worth the effort.
But the old, tattered refrains no longer reassured. Tyler spurred his horse faster. Pictures of Evie flashed through his mind: Evie smiling and laughing with a room full of crude men as she calmly cheated the cheater; Evie standing on a riverboat with sunlight sparkling off her hair; Evie behind a line of children singing, a light of welcome in her eyes; Evie, naked and rosy and wrapped in his arms in the middle of the day.
The last image defeated him. She had come to him that day. She had given herself to him without reservation, without expectation of anything but to comfort his grief and guilt. He would be a long time finding another woman like that.
And so as he galloped his horse across the miles, Tyler allowed the knowledge of Evie to slowly sink into his bones and become part of him. Wherever he went, whatever he did next, Evie would be with him. It was a terrifying thought, but he was man enough to handle it now.
* * *
Unfolding from the uncomfortable chair in the cabin's front room, Hale stretched his aching back and looked out on a rosy dawn. He had just spent his first night with a woman. It wasn't as he had hoped it would be, but he had learned to be practical a long time ago. He could have bought a night of Starr's time anytime he wanted, but he liked to keep his money for better uses.
Perhaps he hadn't actually slept in the same bed with Evangeline Howell, but the effect would be the same for all intents and purposes. In a few hours, he would have the right to sleep with her every night of his life. He would appreciate some gratitude from her for saving her not only from that degenerate gambler but from the stain this night would leave on her reputation. However, he never got his hopes up, particularly where women were concerned. Perhaps Tom was right, and he should have forced her, but he just wasn't that kind of man.
He had expected Tom and his boys to be here by now with the preacher. Glancing at the horizon where no sign of rescue approached, Hale crept to the bedroom door. He hadn't heard a sound from there all night: no crying or bewailing her fate, just silence. He knocked.
"Miss Howell, are you all right?"
"Is Tyler here yet?" she called in dulcet tones.
The thought made Hale cringe. "He's in jail, Miss Howell. I have it under good authority that a warrant will be signed against him for murder. Gunslingers like Pecos Martin always have a trail of warrants after them."
Her laughter chimed clearly through the heavy oak door. "Tell me when Tyler gets here, Mr. Hale."
She didn't even have to add a warning. He heard it in her laughter, in the assurance of her words. This wasn't at all what he had planned. She was supposed to be weeping and near hysterics and agreeable to anything. They certainly didn't make women like they used to. His mother had been the last truly good woman he'd known.
Perhaps he needed to change his tactics. Tom should have been here by now. Something must have gone wrong. He would have to take matters into his own hands, as usual.
Hale wasn't very good at the shotgun tactics that Tom would have used. He didn't think he could force the preacher to marry them, and it certainly didn't look like the lady meant to cooperate without some incentive. Somehow, he would have to provide that incentive.
"Now that it's light out, will you feel safe while I fetch help? My horse doesn't have a saddle, so it may take me awhile."
"Take all the time you like, Mr. Hale," she practically sang. "Leave me some fresh water, will you? I'd like to freshen up some while you're away."
That made Hale feel a little better. Maybe she was beginning to understand her predicament. She was an unmarried woman, a schoolteacher, and she had spent the night unchaperoned with a man. Harding would have to fire her. And the good moral ladies of town would demand that he do the right thing by her, or she would be consigned to the level of women like Starr.
"Miss Howell," he called tentatively. "I'll bring the preacher back. Everything will be all right."
"You do that, Mr. Hale. You just go and take care of everything."
Somehow, that didn't sound as encouraging as he would have liked, but she'd barred the door, so there wasn't any way of patting her hand and offering reassurance. Frowning, he straightened his tie and went to fetch the water as directed. When she still didn't emerge, Hale saddled his horse and rode out to fetch the preacher himself.
* * *
Tyler had second and third thoughts about Evie and her place in his life when he reached the cabin he'd forced the damned thieves to tell him about. He smelled smoke from the chimney and saw the abandoned carriage out front. Light flickered in the front window, and he had the picture of a cozy little love nest with Evie cuddled up in the arms of her fancy lawyer. Tyler's fingers itched on the handle of his gun as he circled the house.
The place was built like a fortress. There was only one entrance and high, narrow slits for windows. He wished for some of the explosives Ben and Daniel had set off. He'd blow some ventilation into the place.
Pulling his gun, Tyler tested the door. Warped by decades of exposure to the elements, the old oak protested loudly at the pressure. Tyler cursed and stepped back into the shadows. He preferred surprise for his entrance.
No one came running to investigate the noise. Were they so engrossed in what they were doing that they couldn't be bothered? Livid, Tyler returned to the side of the house and the largest of the windows. They were designed primarily as air vents and contained no glass. Digging his boots into the deteriorating clay filler to find a foothold on the timbers beneath, Tyler pulled himself up until he could see in. He could see only the outline of a bed and a glimmer of light from the room beyond.
If he was walking in on some unsuspecting family, he was asking to get his head blown off. But the image of Evie in Hale's arms kept him from rational thought. Carefully, Tyler crawled through the opening. The scratch and thump of crumbling patches of clay falling to the ground gave the only warning of his approach.
He lowered himself to the wooden floor inside and kept to the shadows along the wall while he listened for any evidence that he had been heard. From the other room came the sounds of soft humming.
Humming. If it was Evie in there, she didn't sound in the least frightened. After what she had put him through, Tyler meant to correct that. But he didn't mean to terrify some innocent stranger. Keeping his gun raised, he crept across the darkened bedroom to the doorway.
The sight in the other room nearly paralyzed him.
Hair piled in a tumble of chestnut curls on top of her head, Evie stood naked in a small tub of water, soaping herself with a cloth while firelight danced a pattern of shadows and light across her glistening skin.
Tyler felt all his fears fall into a lump in his stomach while the rest of him began to tingle with a desire that would soon become a raging inferno if he didn't act quickly. He didn't know what in hell she thought she was doing, but he sure enough was going to find out. Holstering his pistol, he stepped into the parlor.
"Mind if I join you?"
Evie swirled around, her hair tumbling loose to her shoulders as she attempted to cover herself with her hands. Blinded by the firelight, her eyes took a moment to recover before they could see into the shadows. But Evie didn't really need to see to know who stood there, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the door frame.
"Tyler!" She grabbed the towel on the chair, wrapped it around her, and stepped from the tub. Forgetting that he was supposed to be in jail, she asked eagerly, "Have you come to take me home?"