Tynan, on the other hand, kept calling her Miss Mathison and tipping his hat to her in the most formal way.
“He treat you all right?” Del asked her when she was frowning at Ty’s back because he’d again acted as if he’d never met her before tonight.
“How’d you get him out of jail?”
Del Mathison gave a little snort. “I don’t plan to start telling you all my secrets. I got him out, that’s all you need to know. He tell you he was in jail?”
“I guessed it and he answered my questions. Who do you plan to tell your secrets to? The man you picked out for me to marry?”
“You have been asking a lot of questions. You and Prescott get along?”
“Well enough,” she answered. “He’s asked me to marry him, if that’s what you had planned.”
Del looked at her for a while. “It’s time you settled down and gave me some grandkids.”
“Yes,” she said softly. “That’s just what I want to do.”
They didn’t speak any more as they prepared for bed. Del went to the foreman of the small army of men he’d brought and set up watches all night. Chris, wrapped in a blanket, watched as her father stood in the moonlight and talked to Tynan for a few minutes.
“He seems like a sensible young man,” Samuel said from near her. “Del said he was in prison for murder.”
“Yes, but he didn’t kill the man—at least not the man he was imprisoned for killing, and, yes, he is the most competent of men.”
“You weren’t…frightened of him, of being alone with him?”
Chris turned to give the man a look of disbelief. “I’d trust Ty with my life, with the life of anyone I loved. He’s a good, kind, intelligent man who has never been given a chance in his life. Yet, in spite of that, he’s trustworthy and has the highest of ideals.” She stopped, feeling a bit embarrassed. “No,” she whispered, “I was never afraid of him.”
Samuel Dysan smiled at her in the darkness. “I see. Well, good night, Miss Mathison. I’ll see you in the morning.” He went away from her whistling.
The next day, Del woke the entire camp long before sun-up. Sleepily, Chris looked out of the covers and saw that Tynan was already loading a couple of the pack horses. She threw back the blanket and went to him.
“Good morning,” she said, smiling at him.
He didn’t look at her, but moved to the far side of the horse. She followed him.
“Go get the coffee ready,” he said under his breath. “We’ll need a few gallons of it.”
“Ty…” she began.
He turned on her. “Look, Chris, it’s over. You go back to your world and I go back to mine. You become the little rich girl and I’m the ex-convict. It’s over. Now, go get the coffee ready.”
Quick tears came to her eyes. “It’s not over, Ty. You know how I feel about you.”
He put his hands on her shoulders. They were hidden from the others by the horses. “Chris, I told you it wouldn’t work. I told you that from the beginning. Right now you think you…that you’re in love with me, but you’re not. You love the adventure and the excitement, but you also love the luxury of your father’s house. You wait, you’ll see. Two weeks in your father’s house, after you give a few parties, after you’ve had a few baths and bought a couple of new dresses, you won’t even remember me. If I walked into the parlor, you’d worry that my clothes were going to get the furniture dirty. And you won’t even believe that you once thought you were in love with somebody like me.”
She looked at him for a long minute. “I hope you make yourself believe that. I hope you can sleep at night. I hope you…” Her anger left her. “I hope that someday you realize that you love me just as much as I love you.” She jerked away from him. “I have to make coffee. When you’re man enough to tell yourself the truth, let me know, I’ll be waiting.”
She ran away from him, stumbling over Samuel Dysan, but she didn’t look at him either. She kept her head down and helped the camp cook prepare breakfast for the many cowboys who were preparing to ride.
When they mounted, ready to ride, she saw that all around her the men had their guns ready. She was encircled by her father, Sam, Tynan and three of her father’s hired men. Asher and Pilar were likewise guarded. “Do you think Dysan’s out there?” she asked Samuel beside her.
“I think he’s out there,” he answered grimly. “We have something he thinks belongs to him.”
Her father called for them to ride before she could ask another question.
They rode south for two hours before they encountered Beynard Dysan’s men. He approached them with all the confidence in the world, as if he knew the outcome of what was about to happen.
Del called a halt to the group behind him, and Tynan put his horse directly in front of Chris. He, Del and Sam were in the front of the army facing Dysan’s hundred or so men.
“You were looking for me?” Samuel said and there was such coldness, such hatred in his voice, that Chris shivered.
“Not you,” Dysan answered. “You know what I want. I want what’s rightfully mine.”
“No,” was all Samuel said.
“Then I’ll take it,” Beynard answered. “And I’ll take all of you with me.”
Samuel reined his horse forward, snatching the reins from Del’s hand when Del tried to stop him. Sam rode up to Beynard. Behind her, Chris could hear rifles being cocked, barrels of six-guns being rolled to check that all the chambers were loaded.
While Sam and Beynard talked, Ty moved his horse back to stand by Chris. “If I give you the order, I want you to ride like hell toward those trees,” he said under his breath. “You understand me? No heroics.”
Chris looked up to see her father turned around in his saddle and he was nodding to her that she was to do what Tynan said.
“Pilar?” Ty said over his shoulder. “Be ready to ride.”
Chris, a lump of fear in her throat, watched as Tynan moved back into place beside her father. The two men she loved most in the world in front of her, the first ones to be killed if Dysan’s men began firing. She was sure her heart was going to break her ribs as she strained to see Samuel talking to Dysan.
It seemed an eternity before Sam turned back toward Del.
“This fight is between the two of us,” Samuel said. “Winner takes all.”
Del nodded at Sam while Tynan looked on with eyes that were dark.
Chris reined her horse forward. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing for you to concern yourself with,” Del said, his eyes on Samuel’s back.
“The two of them are going to settle it,” Tynan said. “Whoever wins gets the spoils of war.”
“But Samuel is an old man,” Chris said. “He can’t possibly have the reflexes of the younger man. And, besides, he has a right to leave his estate to whoever he wants.”
Del gave her one of his looks that told her he wanted her to shut up. “I am the executor of his estate. If Sam loses, I’ll see that the right person gets his money.”
“But then Dysan will be after you and—”
“Chris,” Tynan said softly. “Come over here and be quiet.”
She ignored her father’s look as she obeyed Tynan and moved her horse next to his. Her hands gripped the pommel until they were white as she watched Samuel and Beynard ride down the trail and into the trees. It seemed forever until they heard the first shot.
Chris gasped and held her breath and waited. And waited.
There was a second shot, then nothing.
She looked at Tynan, saw that the muscles in his jaw were working, then he kicked his horse forward and tore past the hundred gun-bearing men who had been hired by Dysan. He galloped into the trees to where Samuel and Beynard had disappeared.
Chris watched his cloud of dust for a moment, then she too kicked her horse and went after Ty. Behind her, she could hear her father shouting at her, then at his men, but she didn’t stop, just kept following Tynan into the trees.
She reached the clea
ring just as Ty was dismounting.
Samuel and Beynard were lying on the ground, both of them bloody. She jumped off her horse while it was still running, skidding to a halt just as Tynan was lifting Samuel.
The older man smiled up at Tynan. “It’s just a scratch. I can get up.”
Tynan turned to look at Chris. “What the hell are you doing here? Get back to your father.”
“I came to see if you were all right,” she answered angrily. “I thought you might need help.”
“Not from a half pint girl, I don’t. Now, get back to—”
Sam struggled to sit up, using Tynan’s help. He was smiling broadly. “As much as I like hearing the love play between the two of you, I think I’m bleeding to death.”
Chris smiled at Tynan with an I-told-you-so look, while he opened and closed his mouth twice, with nothing coming out.
Just then Del Mathison came riding into the clearing amid rocks and dust and a flurry of anger—all of it directed at his daughter.
“What happened here?” Tynan said in a half yell that was obviously meant to stop Del’s tirade.
Sam struggled to sit up while Chris ran to get bandages from her saddle bags. “We drew and I won. I thought he was dead but I went to him. He was my brother’s child, I knew him since he was a boy. There were times when I thought there was some hope for him, but his mother never allowed him to forget who she thought he was. No matter who he hurt, she was there behind him, telling him he had every right to do whatever he wanted. She hated me.”
“And made him hate you,” Chris said, handing Tynan the bandages. Ty cut the man’s shirt away. The wound was in the fleshy part of his upper arm, not bad, but painful. Chris moved so that Sam could rest against her while Ty bandaged him.
“Yes, he hated me. Said he wanted to show me he could make as much as me.” He paused. “It’s over now.”
“How’d you get shot?” Ty asked.
“I went to him after I’d shot him. He had a derringer up his sleeve. He used his last breath to shoot me with it.”
Chris leaned forward and kissed the man’s forehead. “It’s over now and we can all go home.”
Samuel took Chris’s hand and, while holding it, he looked up at Del. “This is what I wanted,” he said quietly.
Chris started to ask what he meant, but Del interrupted her with orders of what to do to get the place cleared up.
They buried Beynard where he fell, putting up a crude cross to mark the place. The men who’d come with him disappeared into the trees quietly, and, after Samuel had had a few minutes alone at the grave, they began to ride south.
Chris knew she should have been relieved that now they were more or less free, that now it was safe to return home, but the closer they got, the worse she felt. As soon as they reached her father’s house, Tynan would leave her life forever.
Asher came forward and began to talk to her about the scenery and recounted all their experiences since they’d first met. He talked abnormally loudly when he recalled the way he’d first seen her—stark naked, and Chris thought that, for some reason, he wanted her father to hear the story. And he’d only ridden toward the front after all the danger was over. It was difficult for her to give her attention to what he was saying.
On the second day, Tynan called a halt to the group, telling Del that they were near Pilar’s home and he wanted to return her.
“I’ll leave you now that you have your daughter back safely,” Ty said, his side turned toward Chris.
“We’ll wait for you, or we’ll all go to see that the lady is returned safely, and then you can go back with us,” Del said.
“No, sir, my job was to get your daughter back and I’ve done that. I think I’d like to go now.”
Del took a while to answer him.
“Del,” Samuel said, “doesn’t he have a pardon coming?”
“Yes, of course. It’s right here in my pocket.” It took him some minutes before he could get it out to hand it to Tynan.
“Thank you, sir. I hope I did a satisfactory job for you.”
“The money, Del,” Samuel prompted.
Chris sat on her horse rigidly. With each passing moment, she expected Ty to say that he couldn’t leave her, that she meant more to him than all the money in the world and that he’d risk jail if it meant he could have her. But he never even looked at her. Del took a long time opening his saddle bag and withdrawing a leather pouch.
“There’s ten thousand dollars in there. That’s what we agreed on, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.” Tynan put out his hand to shake Del’s. “If you have anymore need of me, I’ll be around. Mr. Dysan.” He tipped his hat to the older man.
Chris didn’t breathe as he turned toward her—but he didn’t look at her, just nodded in her direction, gave one of his infuriating hat tippings, mumbled, “Good-bye, Miss Mathison,” then turned away, Pilar beside him.
Chris sat there for a moment, barely aware of Pilar waving to her, then she leaned across her horse and grabbed her father’s pistol from his holster and aimed it at the back of Tynan’s head.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Del shouted as he knocked her hand skyward.
The pistol rang out, the bullet flying a foot over Tynan’s head, but he still didn’t turn around.
Del took his pistol from his daughter. “Of all the fool things—”
He stopped because Chris had buried her face in her hands and began to cry. She had been only a job to him, a job to make money and, in the end, he hadn’t cared anything at all about her.
As always, Del was at a loss as to what to do when a female cried, but Sam moved his horse closer to her and pulled her into his arms.
Chris recovered herself quickly, then moved away from Samuel and, with clear eyes, looked back at her father. “Forgive me. I’m ready to go now.” She was very aware of the men around her, all of them embarrassed.
“Look, if you want to stay here…” Del was awkward in trying to comfort her.
“She’s fine now, aren’t you?” Sam said. “I think we ought to go.”
Chris looked at him with gratitude and minutes later they were on their way toward home.
Chapter Twenty-six
Chris put down her book and leaned back against the tree that grew behind the little stone bench. She’d been in her father’s house for three weeks now and she knew that she wasn’t going to leave it again. She wasn’t going back to New York, wasn’t going to write any more stories about what was wrong in the world. Instead, she was going to marry Asher Prescott and live in her father’s house forever.
With a sigh, she closed the book. She’d already told Asher and now all that was left was to tell her father. For some reason, she hated telling him. Of course he’d be utterly delighted that she’d at last done something that he wanted her to do, but still, Chris hesitated.
“Might as well get it over with,” she murmured to herself as she stood. “A lifetime of being Mrs. Prescott and I think this will ‘get it over with,’ ” she muttered.
She straightened her shoulders and started walking back to the house, passing Samuel Dysan on the way. The man had stayed on after the rescue and had become part of the family. Twice, Chris had considered telling him her problems, but each time, something held her back.
She knocked on the door to her father’s study.
“Come in,” he called and, as usual, he sounded angry. Since they’d returned, he always seemed to be angry, sometimes not talking to Chris—as if he were furious with her about something.
He looked up at her. “What is it?” he asked coolly.
“I have something to tell you. Something that will please you, I’m sure.”
He didn’t say anything, just looked at her with one eyebrow raised.
“I have accepted Asher Prescott’s marriage proposal. We’re to be married one week from today.”
She expected a burst of happiness from her father, but his face blackened. Wasn’t she doing what he wanted?
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“You never could do anything to please me, could you?” he began, coming up from his chair behind the desk. “I wanted you to stay home, but you wouldn’t. I wanted you to marry and have babies, but you wouldn’t. I wanted you to marry a man but you won’t even do that, will you?”
Chris stood there blinking for a moment. “I’m going to marry the man you sent to me, the man you wanted me to marry.”
“Like hell you are! I sent Tynan to you. I wanted you to marry him.”
“Tynan?” Chris said as if she’d never heard the name before. “But you said that if he touched me, you’d send him back to prison.”
Del heaved a sigh, went to a bookcase, opened a door, and withdrew a glass and a bottle of whiskey. He poured out a healthy shot and downed it. When he looked back at his daughter, he seemed to have gained control of himself.
“I know that you’ve never done anything I’ve ever wanted you to do, so I thought I’d be able to get you to do what you thought I didn’t want you to do. I sent you two men: one a weakling that could barely sit on a horse and the other one a…a man in every sense of the word. I thought you’d have sense enough to choose the right one. All I did was put a few obstacles in your way to make it more interesting.”
Chris wasn’t Del’s daughter without having inherited some of his temper. “Of all the lowdown, rotten tricks, this is the worst. Do you mean that you created that entire story just to make me more interested in him?”
“It doesn’t matter what I did since it obviously backfired. You chose that…that…don’t you know that he only wants your money?”
Chris took a moment to control her rising temper. “I most certainly do know what he wants from me. But for your information, it was your hand-picked Tynan who turned me down, not the other way around. Your precious man refuses to have anything to do with me.”
“And what did you do to him to make him dislike you?”