WM02 - Texas Princess (27 page)

Slowly he tugged her chin up and kissed her as gently as he knew how. He wanted her to know what a gift last night had been to his life.

She didn’t move, didn’t respond at al .

“Libby? Are you al right?” His ngers moved along her back. Maybe this wasn’t the time or place to mention what happened between them in relight.

She nodded, then whispered, “I don’t want to bury you, Tobin. I don’t like the thought of your body turning cold in the ground.”

His arms closed around her then, warm and secure. He wanted to promise that she never would, that he’d live on forever, but Tobin didn’t know how to lie to her. A memory ooded his thoughts and he voiced it. “When I was hurt at six, my mother doctored me, but I didn’t seem to be getting better. She sent word to her father. A medicine man showed up about a week later. Most of my fever had passed by then, so I remember what he said. He took one look at me and whispered, ‘You cheated death but it waits for you. Be prepared for its return.’ ”

Libby frowned at him. She grabbed his coat. “Swear to me you won’t die.” Tears bubbled and fel from her beautiful green eyes. “I don’t like the story you told me about dreaming of being covered in blood or this one about cheating death. Tel me another.”

“Libby, I can’t change fate.”

Anger sparked in her eyes, so he added, “But I swear that my last thought wil be of you and the way you looked last night.”

As he leaned to kiss her, she shoved him away. Before he could understand her anger she was out of his arms.

“After I leave, when I think of you, I want to think of you on the ranch, not in this place buried under the ground.” She turned and ran.

Tobin watched her go, trying to understand. Final y, he swung onto his mount and fol owed her, deciding his older brother was right about the fairer sex. Teagen always said women were a world unto themselves and trying to understand them was like trying to breathe underwater. Why couldn’t she just be happy that they were both alive now?

When he made it back to the barn, his brothers both stood waiting for him. For a second he thought Liberty had shared their ght with them al .

“What’s wrong?” he said as he climbed down.

Teagen stepped forward. “The Roak kid is gone.”

“What?” Tobin yel ed, then was thankful his brother didn’t bother to repeat the news.

Once was bad enough.

“We should have left a guard on him,” Travis said. “He’s probably grown up wiggling in and out of places he didn’t belong, but how hard could one kid be to keep an eye on?”

Teagen shook his head. “The Roak almost kil ed me before I caught him. He’l be stealing horses again by nightfal . Now we not only have to keep a guard on Liberty, we have to ride the north pasture waiting for the little thief to swim the river and try again. Hel , knowing him, he probably picked one of our best mares and rode bareback out of here.”

Tobin felt a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. He’d retied the boy last night after taking him to the privy. The ropes had burned his wrists raw, so Tobin had not bound them as tightly as before. He would have sworn the knots would hold, but maybe the Roak managed to get them loose.

“It’s my fault,” he said.

“No,” Teagen corrected. “It’s no one’s fault. We have a few other major problems on our hands right now.” Teagen never al owed anyone to take al the credit or the blame for anything that happened on the ranch. “I’l grab a few provisions and go after him.”

He tugged at the bandage on his head. “I’ve had enough time to heal.”

“I’m the better tracker.” Travis shrugged. “It’s time I got accustomed to a saddle again.

I’m getting soft. I’l say goodbye to Rainey and hit the trail. When we came in last night, I left an old ranger who rode out with us at the bridge with the two Apache guards. I don’t think Liam wanted to see another ranger buried. I’l send him in to take my shift on guard here and I’l nd the kid.”

“No.” Tobin held up his hand. “Teagen, you’re stil recovering and, Travis, you can guard Libby as wel or better then I can. Sage can look over the sorrel mare about to deliver. I’m the one to go.”

He didn’t miss the glance Teagen and Travis exchanged. Their little brother’s volunteering to leave the ranch was a rst.

Travis nodded. “I’l tel Ranger Liam to go to town this morning and pul in a few favors.

It wil take a day or two, but we’l have more rangers here as soon as they can ride in.

We can put them up at the bunkhouse and with Martha’s cooking they’l think they hit high cotton.”

Teagen shook his head. The brothers knew he wanted only family on the ranch, but for once he didn’t argue with Travis. Maybe because Teagen knew Travis would be asking help from rangers, no one else. Up until now rangers had been their only houseguests.

Travis might be a McMurray, but he was also part of a brotherhood of lawmen. They’d come if he asked.

Ten minutes later Tobin rode off, fol owing the boy’s tracks as they headed straight for the bridge. With the rain the night before, the kid was smart not to try and swim the swol en river, but the muddy ground made tracking easy.

Neither Tobin nor his brothers had bothered to check on the Roak that morning. Each thought the others had opened the stal gate and made sure he was stil tied. If the Roak left before dawn, he had at least a three-hour start on Tobin. Three hours wasn’t much, but if he reached the trees before Tobin caught up with him, it would be hel tracking him. On horseback Tobin would have to move slower than a kid running on foot through the brush.

Tobin pushed hard, but the tracks soon disappeared into the tree line on the other side of the bridge. Somehow the boy had even managed to cross the bridge without either the Apache or the old ranger seeing him. Liam offered to help with the hunt, but Tobin knew it was his responsibility.

The ranger took the rejection with a smile, saying he guessed he’d have to ride onto the ranch and have one of Martha’s meals.

Tobin waved farewel and went back to work. Tracking wasn’t going to be easy from now on. Not only did he have to fol ow the signs through the undergrowth around the trees, he had to watch out for an ambush. If the boy had been smart enough to cross the bridge on the side, never stepping foot on the bridge where the Apache guards would have seen him, he might be smart enough to gure out clobbering Tobin would be less trouble than running. He’d already split one McMurray’s head open. One more wouldn’t worry the kid.

Tobin headed into the brush, hard pressed to gure out which he’d rather be doing, tracking a Roak or home continuing the ght with Libby. Her worry over his dying would be the death of him, he gured. He couldn’t make her a promise he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep, and Libby had spent her life demanding and getting what she wanted. She seemed to think she could demand he keep living and he’d fol ow orders.

He laughed suddenly. God help him, breathing underwater seemed the easier of the two choices when it came to reasoning with Libby.

The air hung heavy in the trees as though the dying leaves held last night’s rain. By the time he’d gone a few hundred yards, Tobin’s hat and shirt were wet. Without the sun’s warmth, he felt the cold and guessed the boy ahead of him would also. Tobin had a coat he could put on, but Roak didn’t.

The kid was good, Tobin would give him credit for that. He left little sign. Most men walking in this thick a grove would break branches and crush leaves, leaving a trail easy to read. But the kid must have been picking his steps, staying to rocks and fal en branches. Wherever he’d learned his skil s, he’d learned them wel .

Tobin knew how to read even the smal est clue. Wet mud pressed at on a fal en tree trunk. Brush combed back into place too careful y. Spots on branches where the dew was gone in the same width as a palm’s grip.

He kept moving, fol owing the boy, knowing he was gaining.

A little after noon, Tobin lost the trail near a shal ow creek. He blamed it on his lack of sleep and the fog that had settled in among the trees, making it easy to miss something. After cal ing himself an idiot, then backtracking half a mile, Tobin started again covering inch by inch.

Three hours later, he picked the kid’s sign back up. Only now the trail was colder, along with the weather. By nightfal , a light rain dribbled on him, making it impossible to see more than a few feet. Tobin chose a big oak tree with enough foliage left to offer some shelter. Disappointed, he curled into his bedrol . There was nothing to do until

rst light and then, he knew, any trail would be almost impossible to fol ow.

Tobin thought he would fal asleep immediately, but Libby l ed his thoughts. The memory of her warmed his blood and unfortunately made other parts of his body ache.

He dreamed he was home, in the study, waiting for the house to sleep so she could join him. While he waited, he thought of how he’d touch her. In his dreams he decided that every time he touched her, their lovemaking would be different so that every mating would be like the rst time.

Once he drifted off, he slept so soundly, it was daybreak before he woke.

For a moment Tobin didn’t know where he was. Though he slept out often on the land, he preferred the open spaces where he could see the stars. Here in the shadows, his senses were stil cloudy.

Slowly, he realized something had awakened him. Not the morning, but something else

—a sound.

Though every nerve in his body urged him to jump up and defend himself, Tobin waited. He lay on his side, facing the tree, and listened.

The sound came again. One word whispered. “Hey.”

Tobin reached for his gun as he rol ed slowly over.

Roak stood three feet away from him, close enough to whisper, but not so close that he couldn’t jump away if Tobin grabbed for him.

To Tobin’s surprise, the kid smiled. “ ’Bout time you woke up. You were snoring like a bear. I had no trouble nding you.”

Tobin slipped his gun from its holster without a sound.

Roak huffed. “Great. You’re going to shoot me. I knew it was a dumb idea to come back to get you. Wel , re one shot and you’l be sorry.” He shrugged. “And so wil I, I’m guessing.”

Tobin didn’t point the barrel at him. His brain must stil be dreaming. Nothing made sense. He waited, his hand stil on the gun.

The boy knelt down a foot closer. “I could hear you fol owing me yesterday. A few times, if we hadn’t been in fog, you would have seen me.”

“So why aren’t you running. You know I came to take you back.”

The kid had the brass to grin. “You came to try. I ain’t going back to no hanging. I plan to miss that party.”

Tobin couldn’t help but smile. Roak had gotten close enough to him while he slept that if the kid had wanted to kil him, he could have. “So.” Tobin sat up. “Why are you here?”

Roak accepted Tobin’s truce. “I came to warn you. Though why the hel I’m doing it beats me.”

Tobin waited wondering if he could trust anything this wild boy said. Tobin had tied his horse in a smal clearing fty feet away. He knew, if the kid hadn’t already spotted the bay, he soon would. Maybe the boy thought he’d renew his career as horse thief by taking the bay. But if so, why wake Tobin to tel him? “What do you want, boy?” Tobin

gured he’d ask directly and test the kid’s lie.

“I don’t want nothin’. I just came to warn you that you’ve got trouble heading toward your ranch, McMurray. Big trouble.”

“What do you care?”

“I don’t give a damn if you and your brothers die and burn in hel .” Roak snorted. “I’d buy a ticket to watch. But your womenfolks...” He took a minute as if searching for the words. “They’re al right. I wouldn’t like knowing they was hurt or kil ed and I could have done something to prevent it.”

“What do you know of the women on the ranch?” Tobin growled. He’d told them to stay away from the prisoner, but no woman he knew ever fol owed a direct order. Giving al them a command was about as useful as trying to get eas to march.

Roak swore, then complained, “Damned if every one of them didn’t try to feed me. If you’d left me tied up for a week I’d have been too fat to sit a horse. Even the old one, mean as they come and the queen of nagging, came out and loosened my ropes

’cause she was afraid they were hurting me.” He lifted his wrist tied with one of the McMurray linen napkins. “Your sister put cream on my wrists and then gave me cookies wrapped in this. I ain’t never had cookies before, but she said I should take them with me.”

Tobin wasn’t surprised. Now he knew how the ropes got so loose. Martha freed the boy and Sage had packed him a snack for his getaway. “Tel me of the trouble you’ve come to warn me about.”

Roak nodded and moved closer. “I seen a man scouting just before dark last night. He was traveling light, no gear, and keeping to the tree line like an Indian would do if he was the advance from the war party. It took me most of the night, but I tracked him back to a camp about ve miles from here. It was too dark to get a good look, but there were ten, maybe more, sleeping around a smal re. They were heavily armed, like they come to ght.” Roak’s dark eyes stared straight at Tobin. “I think they was waiting for orders to head straight for your place.”

Tobin stood.

The boy jumped back, preparing to run.

“Take me to them,” Tobin said. “If you’re right, they’re here for Miss Liberty and my guess is they have orders to kil anyone who steps in their way.”

Roak relaxed a little. “That’s what I gured from the bits of conversation I picked up while I was a guest in your barn.”

Tobin raised an eyebrow, then laughed. “When this is over kid, you’l be our guest again until the marshal takes you off our hands.”

Roak frowned. “How about we strike a deal? If I help you now, you let me go. I’m no more than a bother to you. But if I’m right about these men, they’re a real threat. I heard one say that it should be no problem taking the princess.”

Not a muscle in Tobin moved, but suddenly he knew the boy wasn’t making up a story.

The threat was real. “If you help me, and you’re right, I’l not only set you free, you’l ride away on a McMurray horse.”

“Real y?”