Authors: Christina Dodd
Across the room, Thorn watched with all the appreciation of man invited into a woman’s boudoir.
Sue Ellen continued, “And your dress is unbuttoned right to the edge of your chemise.”
A judicious exploration proved Sue Ellen was right.
Thorn lifted his drink in salutation.
Rose glared, but it didn’t matter how angry he made her.
All that mattered was that moment between the breath going in and the breath going out, between fear and flight — that silence wherein only their two souls could speak.
“Do you see the way he watches you?” Sue Ellen edged behind Rose and buttoned buttons as quickly as she could.
“I imagine everyone sees how he watches me,” Rose answered dryly.
“I’m frightened for you, Rose. He wants to give you saddle rash.”
“Yes.”
“You’re certainly taking this calmly!” Taking the ribbon out of her tumble of sausage curls, Sue Ellen looped it around the heavy rope of Rose’s hair and, with the inborn ability of a coquette, she fashioned a new style. “You live alone, and now you’ve got a man who’s taking off your clothes and letting down your hair in public. He’s a hardened criminal. He’s probably raped thousands of women—”
“Oh, Sue Ellen!” With more humor than wisdom, Rose chuckled. “He’s never had to rape anyone. Every widow with an itch in her drawers is intent on raping
him
.”
Sue Ellen tried to hold it in, but she couldn’t. She giggled, her bustle waving behind her like the sting of an excited honeybee. “Some women have no shame, especially when it comes to a man like that.” Flipping open her fan, she eyed him over the top. “Look at the way he fills those jeans. Look at the women gathering around him! And — oh, isn’t that rude?” She fanned herself in vexation. “Jeanette stepped right between us, and I can’t see him anymore.”
Rose couldn’t see him, either, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t care.
“She’s flirting with Thorn, and her a married woman. Isn’t that disgusting?”
“You flirt all the time, Sue Ellen, and you’re married to the wealthiest rancher in West Texas,” Rose observed.
“Sonny doesn’t care. You know that.”
“No, I don’t know that. When he was a little boy, Sonny was always the kind who didn’t want something unless someone else wanted it. Seems like you flirt to rile him.”
Sue Ellen neither denied nor affirmed Rose’s accusation. “Anyway, it’s different flirting with a convict. Why” — she drew an excited breath — “he might be dangerous.”
The growing crowd of women around Thorn parted, giving Rose a glimpse of the smiling, hard and handsome face. “I would guarantee it.”
With exaggerated care, Sue Ellen adjusted her already-low neckline and rhinestone-edged cap sleeves to display even more of her bosom. “In that case, perhaps I should sacrifice myself for my dear friend.”
Rose caught Sue Ellen’s train before she had taken more than one step to join Thorn’s admirers. “Sue Ellen, don’t do this.”
Sue Ellen had tugged the velvet out from between Rose’s fingers when Sonny Pogue bellowed, “Sue Ellen!”
Jumping like an indentured servant at her master’s call, Sue Ellen abandoned her planned flirtation and hustled toward the portly, perspiring man she had married. Rose turned her head away. She couldn’t stand to watch them together — Sue Ellen cloying and sweet, Sonny demanding and tyrannical.
Keeping close against the wall, Rose moved to the door and stepped out on the porch where tin lanterns provided licks of light through their lacy clefts. Unobserved, she thought, but Sonny bellowed again. “Rose, you’re not leaving?” His bulk blocked the light. “You must stay the night.”
Patient with Sue Ellen’s husband as she had never been with plain Sonny Pogue, Rose answered, “I can’t. I must go and tend the horses.”
Sonny dragged Sue Ellen through the opening like an extra appendage. “Don’t you have any ranch hands left?”
“I have Patrick,” Rose said.
“That old Irishman?” Sonny curled his lip in expressive opinion. “You know what I think of the Irish. Thieves and drunkards.”
Irritated at the criticism of her friend, Rose said, “Patrick’s good with horses.”
“You don’t have to snap!” Sonny protested. “Just like a woman to resent a little advice.”
“I didn’t realize it was advice.” Rose took the first step off the verandah. “I thought it was faultfinding.”
“No, no.” Sonny put on his jovial persona. “I wouldn’t criticize you. Why, I’ve known you since we were children. We grew up together, you and me and Thorn. ‘Course, you and me turned out all right, and Thorn was always a bad seed, but you fixed him when you—”
Sonny jumped, and Rose thought Sue Ellen must have pinched him.
Even in the dim light, Rose could see his ruddy face flush redder, and irritation made him react nastily. “Patrick can’t be too good a hand, or you wouldn’t be losing horses.”
“What?” Dismayed, Rose stopped her retreat.
“You wouldn’t be losing …” He cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable and sorry he’d spoken. “That is, we heard rumors someone was stealing your horses.”
Rose had thought, hoped, that nobody knew. Now, sober with dismay, she asked, “Where did you hear that rumor?”
“Now, Rose, a man can’t reveal his sources.” Sonny may have been mean-spirited, but he wasn’t stupid. He peered at her. “But I guess it’s true?”
Rose watched him steadily. The years had taught her that Sonny used words as both shield and weapon, and only silence could break him.
As she hoped, he began to sweat, then stammer. “I have my cowboys keep an eye on your place. Kinda because I feel protective, and kinda because I figure it’s going to be mine someday.”
“And why do you think that?” Rose asked.
“Ah, face it, Rose. You haven’t got a chance. It’s a man’s country and cattle country, and here you are trying to raise horses. I told you when you sold me those extra acres I’d be first in line to take the rest, so I figure—”
Of all of Sonny’s irritating idiosyncrasies, this one annoyed Rose more than any of them. “You bought my land for no more than a fair price, Sonny, and I only sold it to you because I couldn’t run cattle on it. I don’t owe you anything.”
“Ah, Rose. You’re so prickly, no wonder you’re an old maid.”
“Sonny!” Sue Ellen sounded sincerely shocked.
Defiant as a rude little boy, Sonny insisted, “It’s true. She’s not that bad looking — a little worn down from working so much, and so skinny she’s only got one stripe on her bedgown, but she’s got brown eyes as pretty as any heifer’s and a smile that makes a man wish for long winter nights. In fact, if she smiled at the men as often as she smiles at her horses, they’d be buzzing around her. And if she’d come to this party in a new dress … “
“Sonny Pogue, if your mama could hear you now!” Sue Ellen scolded.
“Don’t you bring my mama into this.” Sonny sniffed and rubbed his sleeve across his nose.
“She’d be ashamed,” Sue Ellen said.
Sonny sniffed again, and subsided. But not for long. Nothing could subdue Sonny for long — he was too vulgar to sustain a snub. “Say, Rose, that stallion you rode here. That Goliath. He’s a pretty horse, but too big for a lady to ride. I’d take him off your hands for three hundred dollars.”
Behind his back, Sue Ellen laughed silently, then winked at Rose. “That’s real neighborly of you, Sonny. Especially since Bubba Von Hoffman offered five hundred already.”
“What?” Sonny huffed like the steam engine that rolled over the new Texas and New Orleans Railroad. “He’s throwing his money around.”
“He likes what I’ve done with my breeding program,” Rose answered coolly.
“But I’m your … we’re your friends,” Sonny whined.
“When my daddy bought me those stallions twelve years ago, everyone laughed. You laughed hardest, Sonny.” Rose descended the last steps to the ground. “I’m not giving you Goliath.”
“I’ll say five hundred dollars.”
“I’m not selling him. To anybody. Goliath is my horse, as I am his master. We know each others’ minds and hearts, and he’ll allow no one else on his back.” Sonny had mined the bedrock of her resolution, and he seemed to recognize it, for he backed up. Allowing herself a smile, Rose said, “But I’ve got one of his foals I’m beginning to break — as pretty a mare as I’ve ever seen. Sue Ellen would look mighty elegant on her.”
Sonny stopped, and his eyes narrowed. “Mares aren’t worth as much as stallions.”
“Starbright is the first foal off that English chestnut mare you admired last time you were out at my place.”
“Don’t have the money to be throwing around on a horse for Sue Ellen.”
“That’s true.” Rose nodded judiciously.
“That’s funny. Rose told me that Royal Lewis said the same thing,” Sue Ellen said, lying through her teeth.
“Yes, until he saw … “ Rose tried frantically to finish the tale, but telling falsehoods was no talent of hers. Lamely, she finished, “ … you’re not interested in that.”
She strolled toward the stable and heard Sonny’s boots as they struck the stairs behind her. “Wait a minute. Just a minute. What did Royal Lewis do?”
Rose halted, started again, halted, providing enough tension to set the hook, yet not knowing what to do with the fish she’d landed.
But Sue Ellen knew. She moved to the edge of the porch and wrapped her pale, soft hands around the rail. “Why, he bought one of Rose’s mares for his wife to ride. Ana Marie Lewis has been gloating no end, but I told her to nevermind. I told her my husband didn’t have the time or the money for such frivolities. I told her—”
Breathing heavily, he yelled, “Damn it, Sue Ellen! You told her a damn sight too much. Just like a woman.”
Sue Ellen shrugged her shoulders in a coquettish, well-practiced gesture. “If you can’t hunt with the big dogs, Sonny, stay on the porch. Royal Lewis made a wagon load of money on his cattle this year.”
Belligerent, Sonny insisted, “No more than me!”
“And he can afford to pay four hundred twenty-five dollars for a good horse for his wife. So don’t you go bragging you’re worth so much when you can’t ante up.”
“Four hundred twenty-five dollars.” Obviously, Sonny hadn’t heard a word beyond the price. “Four hundred twenty-five dollars. For a horse. For my wife.”
Sue Ellen had him headed right in the direction she intended, and now she went in for the kill. “For me?”
“What?”
Sonny started to straighten, but she reached out and massaged his beefy shoulders. “You’ll buy Starbright for me?”
“Now, Sue Ellen … “
“Oh, Sonny.” Clasping her hands, Sue Ellen leaned over the rail and gave him a clear view of her snow-white bosom. “That’s even more than the model fifteen Singer sewing machine I wanted you to buy me.”
“A lot more, and what do you need a sewing machine for? My mother never had a sewing machine. She sewed all our clothes by hand. And what’s good enough for my mother is good enough for my wife!”
“I know that, Sonny, and you’re right.” Sue Ellen fluttered her eyelashes. “And your mother rode her own horse, and here you’re paying four hundred fifty dollars for Starbright for me. Your daddy would be so proud!”
His daddy had been famed for his stinginess. But Sonny was a healthy male animal who did his best thinking with his glands, and his glands were working overtime now. “Four hundred twenty-five,” he said weakly.
“Sonny, darling, Starbright is a better horse than that cheap thing Ana Marie Lewis got.” Sue Ellen’s fingers fluttered, captured Sonny’s hand, and brought it to press on one of her breasts. “Won’t you pay four fifty for Starbright?”
Mesmerized by Sue Ellen’s cleavage and the feel of her in his palm, Sonny nodded up and down, up and down. “Never paid as much for a horse before, but I’ll do it for my little sugar.”
“Sonny, you are the sweetest thing.” Sue Ellen brought his hand to her lips and kissed it, then shoved it back at him. “You go inside and tell Royal and Ana Marie Lewis that you bought the best horse in Texas for me, and don’t you let on you know anything about Ana Marie’s horse. It’ll be really funny if they pretend they don’t know a thing.”
Still stunned with lust and his own extravagance, Sonny did as he was told.
Sue Ellen watched him fondly. “If there’s one thing that man loves better than a roll in the hay, it’s bragging about his possessions. And right now, he could strut sitting down.”
“You weren’t the belle of three counties for nothing,” Rose observed, amused by Sue Ellen’s wholesale manipulation of Sonny. “You put that training to use even now.”
“Did you think he got everything his own way?” Sue Ellen observed Rose shrewdly. “You did, didn’t you? I know Sonny’s a bully and a shyster, sometimes, but I keep him on the straight and narrow.” Moving down the steps, Sue Ellen came to Rose and shook Rose by the shoulders. “But he’s no thief, and he’s not a ruthless criminal. Rose, I want you to stay the night.”
“Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t.” Rose placed her hands over Sue Ellen’s and pressed lightly. “Thanks to you, I’ve sold a horse—”
“Two horses, after Sonny talks to Royal Lewis.”
“—and I’ve had a break from the ranch. But it’s true what Sonny said. I don’t want it noised about, but someone is stealing my horses, and I’ve got to catch the bastard.”
“You can’t do that by yourself.”
“I know.” The smile that charmed even Sonny broke across Rose’s face. “I don’t want you to repeat any of this — in fact, I want you to shut Sonny up about the thieving—”
“Done.”
“—but I sent for a Texas Ranger.”
“A Ranger? You sent for a Ranger?” Sue Ellen seemed stunned by Rose’s audacity. “When?”
“A couple of months ago, when the stealing first began. Patrick tries to help, but he’s too old to do more than help train horses and sneak off to Fort Pena to play some cards when he thinks I don’t notice.”
Shivering, Sue Ellen rubbed her arms. “There’s a chill in the air tonight. Must be winter coming on.” She took a restless turn around her well-tended rose bed and came back to stand in front of Rose. “Are they sending somebody?”
“I received word they’d send a Ranger as soon as one was free.”
“That should be soon.” Sue Ellen reassured herself. “There’s not much to do now that the Indians have been subdued. But in the meantime, Thorn’s back.”