Blue Moon Promise (17 page)

Her cheeks burned, and she ducked her head. “It’s not very womanly.”

He laughed out loud. “I don’t think either one of us knows what we want in a mate. We’re going to have to discover that as we go along. You willing to try?”

Her throat felt tight, and she struggled not to cry. “I’ll try, Mr. Stanton,” she managed.

“Like I just told Jed, Mr. Stanton is my pa. Think you can see your way clear to calling me Nate? Seeing as we’re married and all.”

Her gaze searched his, and she nodded. “I’ll try, Nate.”

“I will too.” His gaze was soft and roamed down to her lips. His grin widened, then his eyes grew sober. “Can I kiss you, Lucy?”

Her heart fluttered like a frightened bird. She’d never been kissed, and she wanted to wait until she felt more than mere liking for a man. But this was her husband. How did she refuse him such a natural request? Before she could answer, his fingers tightened on her shoulders, and he bent his head. His lips grazed her cheek.

Her stomach felt funny, all nervous and jittery. Then he pulled away.

“That’s all for now. When you’re ready for a real kiss, you let me know.” He sauntered to the door with a smug grin as if he knew her knees were almost too weak to hold her.

When the door closed behind him, Lucy sank into a chair. If a kiss on the cheek affected her like this, what would a real kiss do?

THE CHILDREN SLEPT nearby on their cots. Nate watched the shadows from the fireplace dance in the room. The wind had picked up outside and howled around the chimney. He watched Lucy squint over her sewing in the dim light of the lantern. She sure was a pretty little thing, and it felt good to be snug in the house with a family while the storm raged.

“That a quilt?” he asked.

Not looking up from her work, she nodded. “Jed is going to need one.”

“I think there are extras at the ranch.”

“I like to keep busy.”

He glanced at Jed, sleeping soundly. “I need to talk to you about something.”

She looked up, then put down her sewing. “Is something wrong?”

He nodded toward the boy. “Young Jed told me he is afraid someone might have followed you here. Or at least, might show up.”

She clasped her hands together. “Who?”

“He didn’t know, but he told me about the intruder at the apartment. I’m trying to come up with a reason for someone to break into a house where he’d find no money or anything of value. Do you have any ideas?”

She shook her head. “None. The man said, ‘Where is it?’”

“What was the ‘it’ he was looking for?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t had much time to think about it. I had to pack and come out on the train immediately. Quite honestly, I thought he had the wrong house.”

He frowned. “What can you tell me about your parents?”

She looked down at her hands. “You already know our father died three months ago. I never knew my mother. She died when I was tiny. Your father knew her though. He told me more about her than I’d ever heard.”

Her voice held melancholy, and he wondered what his father knew about her mother. That would keep, though. “Jed said your father told him to keep some kind of secret. That someone might show up looking for something.”

She gasped. “Jed’s never said a word about this to me. Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand him?”

“Very sure.” He watched her twist a long strand of hair around her finger and bite her lip. “What did your father do?”

“He owned a pawn shop.”

Ah, maybe a motive. “Anything valuable in the shop?”

She shook her head. “There was a break-in the night his buggy overturned. The thieves took everything of value.”

“Everything? Nothing was left?”

“Nothing.”

“Relatives?”

She looked at him finally. “Actually, I have an uncle in this area. I saw him in the mercantile.”

Something stirred in his gut at her expression. “Maybe I know him. Who is it?”

“Drew Larson. My mother’s brother.”

“Larson!” He studied her downturned face. There was more she wasn’t saying. “I know him,” he said grimly.

“I know. And you don’t like him. It’s written all over your face. Plus, you were quite rude about him in town. Mrs. Walker told me about the feud.”

“He’s a cattle rustler,” he said, not caring if the truth upset her.

“Cattle rustler! He said . . .” She frowned as she broke off whatever she’d been about to say.

“You’ve spoken to him?” He thought back to that moment in the general store. She’d been walking away from Larson. “You lied to me.”

Her chin came up. “I did no such thing! You didn’t ask if I’d been talking to him. You asked if he was bothering me. He wasn’t.”

He fixed a glare on her. “Did you arrange to meet him here? Was this marriage some kind of agreement between the two of you?” More questions raced in his head. All the stirring dreams he’d had about the future came to a halt. He should have known Lucy was too good to be true.

She held his gaze. “It was the first time I’d seen him since I was three. I knew he lived in the county, but that’s all.”

He wasn’t sure whether he believed her or not. “Does he know you’re married to me?”

She nodded. “I told him.”

“Bet that set him back on his heels.”

She looked down at her hands. “He was, um, surprised.”

He kneeled to poke at the fire. “I’m sure he had plenty to say about me.”

“He said you took some land that belonged to him.”

Nate threw the poker to the floor and stood to face her. “That’s a bald-faced lie! His father went bankrupt and the land went on the auction block. Pa paid a fair price for it. Larson was away in the war when it happened, and he’s never gotten over it.”

Her eyes were sorrowful. “Did my grandfather kill himself over it?”

He hadn’t been thinking about the relationship that existed. Old Larson was her grandfather. “Some around here thought so. Any fool knew better than to cross the Red River in flood stage.”

She flinched. “What happened when Uncle Drew got back from the war?”

“He wanted to buy the land back, but Pa was already running cattle on it. And Drew didn’t have the money anyway. He wanted Pa to sell it on land contract. Pa told him he wasn’t a bank.”

Nate wished he knew what she was thinking. Her blue eyes were faraway and contemplative as though she saw something he didn’t.

She finally sighed. “It’s quite a tangle. I’d hoped the misunderstanding could be easily resolved.”

“There
is
no misunderstanding. Larson knows exactly what happened.”

“He seemed to dislike you personally, not your father. Why is that?”

He’d been right—she was perceptive. “Pa transferred the land to my name last spring. Larson asked me to sell it to him as well.” He shrugged. “I can’t afford to do it either. Pa has worked hard and poured all his money, sweat, and blood into building this ranch. I can’t piecemeal it up and give it away.”

She didn’t say anything for several long minutes. “Did you pray about it?” she asked finally.

Had he? It was too cut-and-dried in his mind so he didn’t think he had. “No.”

She sat back in her chair and picked up the quilt piece. “Don’t you think you should?”

He managed to hide his outrage. “What’s to pray about, Lucy?

My pa bought the land fair and square. We did nothing wrong.”

“No, you did nothing wrong. But that doesn’t mean God wouldn’t ask something sacrificial of you.”

Sacrificial? He didn’t like the sound of that. “I’d better finish chores.” There was no arguing with her. She didn’t understand the economics of ranching yet.

SIXTEEN
 
 

T
he fire crackled in the fireplace and threw out light. Lucy heard every stamp of the horses’ hooves outside, every whistle of the wind through the eaves. It would take awhile to get used to the new sounds. Ranch noises were far different from the clop of horses along Wabash streets. When the rooster crowed outside the window, she finally got up as quietly as possible and grabbed a dress in the dark.

It was her mother’s fancy dress, the one she’d worn for courage to meet Nate. As she started to lay it aside to get one for everyday use, she heard something clunk. The firelight revealed nothing on the floor. What had made that metallic sound? She held the dress up and examined it. The buttons were small and made of pearl. Again she noticed how heavy the dress was. She laid it on the bed and felt the fabric. When her fingers reached the hem, there was something hard under the material. Her sewing kit was under the cot, so she pulled it out and extracted her scissors. The stitches in the hem were uneven, almost as though a child had done them. Once the threads were snipped, she unfolded the hem. A silver coin winked in the firelight.

Lucy picked it up and laid it on the bed, then snipped the rest of the hem. She found a total of twenty coins hidden in the hem of the old dress. Staring at them, she could hardly breathe. It was incomprehensible.

Who had put them there? Surely not her mother. They would have been in this dress for twenty years. She tried to remember if she’d ever seen Catherine rummaging in the trunk, but as far as she knew, the woman had never set foot in the basement. She was terrified of mice.

“Lucy?”

She turned to see her brother rubbing his eyes. His red hair stuck straight up. He was staring at the coins on the bed. The expression on his face caused her stomach to drop. She held out her hand with several coins in them. “Jed? What do you know about these coins?”

He licked his lips. “I—I hid them for Dad. He asked me to put them in a safe place.”

“He
asked
you to hide them? They belonged to him?” Her brother nodded. She pointed to the end of the bed. “Sit down and tell me what this is all about.”

“I’m not supposed to,” he whispered. “He made me promise.” He stepped closer, still staring at the coins.

“I’ve found the coins now, so you have to.” She pointed again, and the springs squeaked under his weight as he sat with obvious reluctance. “Where did these come from?”

He couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away. “A man brought them to the shop the week before Dad died.”

“He pawned them?”

Jed nodded. “For forty dollars. He told Dad it was a fair price.”

It would take her months to earn forty dollars. So while it wasn’t a fortune, the man had received what appeared to be a fair price for twenty coins. “So why hide them?”

Jed leaned forward. “Dad found out they were worth a fortune. Then in the paper, Dad saw that the man had been murdered.” Jed shuddered and hugged himself. “That night someone broke into the shop. Dad was sure he was someone after the coins, but Dad had taken them home with him for safekeeping. The next day he told me to keep them safe. And that I wasn’t to tell anyone that we had them.”

Lucy wanted to shudder herself, but she didn’t want her brother to see her fear. “Did he go to the police?”

Jed shook his head. “I can’t remember, Lucy.”

“You think someone ran you off the road deliberately?” She’d always assumed it was an accident, and Jed had been in no shape to be questioned following the tragedy.

He bit his lip. “I don’t know.”

“I think that’s what that man wanted the other night at our old house. He was after the coins.”

“How do you know that?”

“I saw someone when I took Eileen to the privy. I thought it was one of my friends, so after I took her back inside, I went out again. He grabbed me and asked me where the dollars were. It was the night the guy broke in.”

She remembered the night the intruder came in. He’d growled,
“Where is it?”
Was he after the coins? Lucy picked one up. It warmed quickly in her hand. She held it under the light. “What’s so special about these?”

Jed stared in fascination. “Dad said they were rare.”

“And worth a fortune? How much of a fortune?” Ten thousand? Twenty? The coin shimmered in the light.

“Over a million dollars.” Jed’s voice was hushed.

A million dollars?
Lucy’s response stuck in her throat. It didn’t seem possible there was that much money in the world. She rolled the coin around in her hand. “For the lot?”