Come the Spring

“Come on then,” he said. “The wagon was moved to the stable. You can get another hat out of your boxes there.”

  He took hold of her arm and tried to go out the front door. She pulled away.

  “It would be rude to leave without saying good-bye to Jessica and Rebecca.”

  “They’ve already left. Jessica went with Cole yesterday to take Caleb to a friend’s house, and Rebecca left with Marshal Cooper. You’ll see them again in Red Arrow,” he explained as he picked up her valise, grabbed hold of her arm, and headed out the doorway again.

  “Are we going to run to the stables?”

  He immediately slowed down. Once they were outside, his full attention was directed on the street.

  “Do you think we’ll be able to catch up with Jessica or Rebecca?”

  “No.”

  “It would have been nice to sit with them on the train.”

  “Even if we took the same train, I wouldn’t let you sit with them.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ll explain later,” he hedged.

  She pulled her arm away from him. “Daniel, it’s rude to look away when you’re speaking to someone.”

  He smiled over the censure in her voice. She sounded like a teacher explaining simple manners to a little boy. “Grace, I’m trying to make sure no one takes a shot at you, but if you would rather I looked at you…”

  “No, no, I would rather you watch the street. Do you think there’s someone waiting to shoot me?”

  “Besides me?”

  “That isn’t funny.”

  They arrived at the stable a moment later. The wagon was in the back, and Grace went through the crates until she had found three more hats to take with her. She stuffed two inside her valise and kept the third one with her. Daniel made her stand away from the door while he went to ready his horse.

  The owner, a short, squat man with a thick neck and a round belly, came forward to introduce himself. He had a sincere smile and smelled of horses. “My name’s Harry, and I’d shake your hand, Miss, but it’s real dirty. Can I be of assistance?”

  She smiled at the eager young man. “Yes, you may be of assistance,” she replied.

  “The lady needs a sound horse,” Daniel called out. He was saddling his own horse, a beautiful gray stallion with a surprisingly calm disposition, but he was also keeping a watchful eye on Grace.

  She looked completely out of place. “Pink fluff,” he whispered. The woman belonged in a fancy parlor, dressed the way she was in that ridiculously feminine hat and those impractical leather slippers. Harry sure did like her though. The man had a rapturous look on his face and kept trying to edge closer to her. Probably because she smelled so good, Daniel thought, but he didn’t care what Harry’s reason was. He wanted him to back away.

  “How about getting the lady a horse, Harry?” Daniel called out, his tone just as sharp as he intended.

  “Your husband sounds a might possessive,” Harry whispered before turning to Daniel. “I’ll fix your woman up with the best I got.”

  A few minutes later, Harry came strutting forward leading a swaybacked gelding that Grace suspected had lost all of his teeth. The poor thing was obviously on his last legs.

  She took one look at the sorry beast and politely declined. “No, thank you.”

  Harry rubbed his jowls while he considered which of the other horses to show her. “I only just inherited this stable from my brother, and I’m not familiar with his stock,” he said. “But I recall one pretty little mare. You’re gonna like her just fine,” he promised as he turned and hurried away. “I guess you could say I was saving the best for last.”

  Grace politely but firmly declined the pretty little mare too.

  “What’s the matter with this one?” Harry wanted to know.

  “She simply won’t do,” Grace replied. “She should be put out to pasture. With such spindly legs she wouldn’t have enough stamina for a trip down the street. May I have a look at the other horses?”

  Harry got his back up “No, you may not. You stay right here, and I’ll fetch the best I got and bring him out to you.”

  Grace didn’t think it was a good idea to remind Harry that he had already brought out the “best” of the lot. She patiently waited, and when he showed her yet another swaybacked horse, she shook her head.

  Harry threw his hands up in defeat. “Go ahead and look, ma’am. I’ll let you have whatever you think you want.”

  It only took her a couple of minutes to find a sound horse. She was a fiesty mare Harry had hidden in one of the rear stalls.

  Harry immediately tried to talk her out of her choice. “I’ll grant you, she’s sound, but she’s mean,” he explained. “You don’t want the lady riding her,” he told Daniel.

  “Grace?”

  “Yes, Daniel?”

  “Can you handle her?”

  “Yes, I can.”

  “Well, now, she will get you where you want to go,” Harry agreed. “But…”

  Grace reached up with her gloved hand and patted the animal. “Oh, she’s lovely. She’ll do just fine. What’s her name?”

  “Damnation.”

  Grace’s eyes widened. “Harry, if you don’t wish to sell her to me, simply say so. Cursing isn’t necessary.”

  “I wasn’t cursing. That’s her name,” he insisted. “The owner that sold her to me told me her name after the bargain was struck. I’m telling you plain and simple. Her name’s Damnation.”

  “That won’t do,” Grace announced. “I’ll call her Daisy.”

  Harry rolled his eyes. “I don’t think you understand, ma’am. You can call her anything you want, but she’ll only answer to Damnation. Do you still want to take her?”

  “Yes, please. Daniel, isn’t she lovely?”

  Daniel was trying not to laugh. When Harry had told them the name of the horse, Grace’s cheeks had turned as pink as her blouse. She thought Damnation was lovely, and he agreed just to get going.

  After accepting the money from Daniel for the horse and saddle, Harry began to have second thoughts.

  “Are you certain your wife can handle such a mean-spirited animal?”

  “He’s sure,” Grace answered before Daniel could speak.

  Harry gave up. “I’ll fetch you a riding crop then. You’re going to need it with this hell-raiser.”

  “No, thank you,” Grace said.

  “I’m telling you, she won’t do what you want unless you lash her. You’re going to need the riding crop.”

  The argument would have escalated if Daniel hadn’t stepped in. Harry, he decided, was in the wrong line of work. The man was afraid to get near the horse. Daniel quickly saddled the mare and led her out to Grace.

  Harry was pleading with Grace now. She wouldn’t accept the crop, even when he told her he’d give it to her for free.

  “It’s time to get going,” Daniel announced. He tied her valise behind the saddle and then lifted her up so that he could adjust the stirrups.

  She felt as light as a handful of feathers. He couldn’t hide his smile when she put her straw hat back on her head. White ribbons trailed down her back. He thought she looked as though she was about to go for a Sunday ride through the park.

  Looks could be deceiving, he knew. She’d surprised him when she’d proven to be so knowledgeable about horses, and the way she sat in the saddle told him she hadn’t exaggerated about her riding experience.

  “Why are you smiling?” she asked.

  “We just might make it to the train,” he replied. “That’s what I was thinking.”

  There was a speck of dirt on his chin. Before she could think better of it, she reached over and gently brushed it away.

  He reacted as though she’d just struck him a hard blow. He jerked back and turned away from her.

  “Let’s go,” he ordered. “Harry, open the back doors for us. We’ll go out that way.”

  “How long will we be in Texas?” Grace asked.

  Daniel was about to swing up into his
saddle when she asked the question. He turned to her. His arm was casually draped over his saddle, his head was tilted ever so slightly to the side, and she thought he looked exactly like one of the wild and rugged gunmen of the West she’d read stories about. The wilderness men, as they were called, were bigger than life and couldn’t be tied down. They roamed the land seeking adventure and danger, and left broken hearts behind them. Was Daniel like that? she wondered. She thought perhaps that he was. He just looked the type who would never, ever settle down.

  “There’s no way of knowing,” Daniel answered, wondering why she was frowning so intently. “Why do you need to know?”

  “I have other commitments,” she said. “They’re personal. Could you please make a calculated guess, Daniel? I really do need to know.”

  “It’s going to take us a week or two to get to Blackwater, depending on the amount of trouble we run into,” he said. “Then you’ll have to stay until the trial’s over and the other men have been caught—”

  “Why?” she interrupted. “That could take months.”

  “I can’t let you go on your way until I’m certain none of the other gang members will come after you.”

  She closed her eyes. “All right then,” she agreed. “You’re telling me I could be in Texas for as little as a few weeks or as long as two months.”

  “Could be longer.” he told her.

  Her reaction surprised him. Tears came into her eyes. “Then it’s settled.”

  “What’s settled?” he asked, confused by the sadness he heard in her voice.

  She was so disheartened she could barely think what to do. “It’s over,” she whispered. “And I’ve lost.”

  “Grace, what are you talking about?”

  “I don’t blame you, Daniel. Really I don’t.”

  “Will you make sense?” he demanded. “Explain why you’re so upset.”

  “My future,” she cried out. “It’s ruined. Even one month’s too long. Don’t you understand? No, of course you don’t, but it doesn’t matter. It’s all my own fault for having such silly dreams. I’ve wasted too much time already, and I’d never be able to become established in the amount of time I have left.” Her sigh was long and weary. “I have to make a stop at the telegraph office before we leave town.”

  “No,” Daniel said.

  “I’m sorry, but I must insist.”

  “Tell me why,” he argued.

  “When a person dreads something, isn’t it best to hurry and get it over with as soon as possible so he’ll stop dreading it?”

  Daniel didn’t have any idea what she was talking about. Harry obviously did though, for he stepped forward to offer his opinion.

  “Do you mean like getting a tooth pulled?” he asked.

  “Yes, it’s exactly like that,” she agreed.

  “She’s telling you she’s got to send a wire now so she’ll stop dreading it,” he told Daniel.

  “I don’t need an interpreter,” Daniel snapped. “You can send the wire from Blackwater. Now let’s get going.”

  She shook her head. “Waiting would only put off the inevitable.”

  After making that statement of fact, she turned the mare and tried to ride out the front doors. Daniel muttered a blasphemy before chasing after her.

  Harry grabbed hold of the mare’s reins and held tight. “Your husband’s getting irritated, ma’am. What have you got to do that’s so almighty important it can’t wait?”

  She burst into tears. “I have to get married.”

  Twenty-Seven

  “I don’t wish to talk about it.”

  “I don’t care if you wish to or not,” Daniel said.

  “You’re going to tell me why you have to get married.”

  She decided to ignore him. She leaned back against the padded seat inside their private compartment and looked out the window at the passing scenery. The train was traveling at a neck-breaking speed, and because they were in the last car, the compartment violently swayed every time the train slowed to go around a curve. The motion was making her nauseous, and judging from the tightness around Daniel’s mouth and his gray countenance, she thought the motion was making him sick too.

  “Are you feeling all right?”

  “I’m fine,” he snapped.

  “You needn’t be surly with me, Daniel.”

  They sat across from one another in the tiny room. There was supposed to be seating for four adults, but he swallowed up all the space on his side. His long legs were sprawled out in front of him, making it impossible for her to leave without making him move first. She wasn’t going anywhere, however. The door was bolted from the inside so that no one could intrude.

  “This probably isn’t at all proper,” she remarked.

  “What isn’t proper?”

  “Traveling together. It would be frowned on in England for an unattached man and woman to share a compartment together without a chaperone.”

  “I’m a lawman,” he reminded her. “That changes things.”

  “You’re still a man.”

  “Last time I looked I was,” he told her with a grin.

  She looked out the window again, but not before he saw her smile. “Are you ready to tell me why you have to get married?”

  “No, I’m not ready to tell you.”

  “Are you in trouble, Grace?”

  She didn’t look at him when she answered. “Yes, I suppose I am.”

  His mind leapt from one possibility to another, but she wasn’t the type of woman who would let a man touch her before marriage. She was innocent and sweet and definitely untouched.

  “You aren’t pregnant.”

  “Good heavens, no,” she stammered out. “How could you think that I…”

  “You said you had to get married, and you said you were in trouble. I simply put the two together, but then I changed my mind. It’s a long trip to Texas, Grace, and eventually you will tell me what I want to know. You might as well do it now.”

  “Daniel, I had no idea that men could be such nags. Very well, you win. I made a promise to my parents that I would marry Lord Nigel Edmonds if things didn’t work out here. They haven’t,” she added.

  “I still don’t understand. What didn’t work out?”

  She frowned in vexation. “My parents are titled and therefore highly positioned in society. They’re also quite poor, and it’s been very difficult for them to keep up appearances. They’ve borrowed against their land, and they haven’t been able to make the interest payments to their banker. They’ve been terribly humiliated.”

  “Has anyone suggested to your father that maybe he ought to think about getting a job?”

  “Oh, no, that wouldn’t do. He’s titled,” she repeated.

  “Being titled won’t put food on the table.”

  “No, it won’t,” she agreed.

  “If he can’t or won’t work, then he’s going to have to sell his land and whatever else he has of value.”

  “That’s why I’m getting married.”

  “I still don’t understand.”

  “I’m all my father has left, Daniel…”

  He leaned forward. “Are you telling me he’s selling you?”

  “No, no, of course not. He simply arranged a suitable marriage for me.”

  “And will this marriage solve his financial problems?”

  “Yes, it will.”

  “Then he’s selling you.”

  “No, he isn’t,” she snapped. “Arranged marriages that benefit both families have been going on for centuries. My father isn’t doing anything wrong. In fact, he’s been extremely patient with me. I asked him for a year’s grace, and it was my hope … my dream really, foolish though it was … that I could make a go of it here. I wanted to purchase land with my inheritance from an uncle—”

  “And make enough to support your parents in the style they’re accustomed to?”

  “No, you’ve jumped to the wrong conclusion. My parents are quite elderly. They were in their forties
when I was born,” she explained. “But they aren’t set in their ways. If the ranch could support them, they could leave England and come to me. Isn’t that adventurous of them? You’d like my parents, Daniel. They’re very practical, and you’d have that in common.”

  “You’re not old enough to be shouldering such responsibilities.”

  “Age doesn’t have anything to do with it. The day I was born my future was determined.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I was born a lady.”

  “I know you’re a lady,” he replied, smiling.

  “No, you don’t understand. I was born Lady Grace Winthrop. The title carries certain responsibilities, and I would shame my parents if I didn’t honor their wishes.”

  Daniel was intrigued by the vast cultural differences between the two of them. What was important in England didn’t matter at all in the United States.

  “Titles don’t mean anything here.”

  “I know,” she said. “What is important here? Money?”

  “To some,” he allowed.

  “What’s important to you?”

  “Honor.”

  “But that’s exactly what I was trying to say. My honor is at stake. I must do the right thing.”

  “A man’s word is more important in the United States than his position in society.”

  “Being responsible is extremely important to me,” she countered. “I have specific duties.”

  “Like getting yourself hitched to a man with money and power?”

  “If it will help my family, then yes.”

  “You don’t like it much, do you, Grace?”

  She refused to answer him.

  “No, you don’t like it much at all,” he said. “You wouldn’t have asked for a stay of execution if you agreed with your parents. Do you love the man they’ve chosen for you?”

  “I’m sure I’ll learn to love him. He seems a decent sort.”

  “Seems decent?”

  She blushed. “I don’t know him well. In fact, I’ve only met him once. I was introduced to him at a charity ball, and I’ll admit he didn’t make much of an impression on me. I shouldn’t be talking like this, should I?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with being honest,” he told her. “You must have made quite an impression on him.”