Cowboys 08 - Luke (37 page)

Valeria jerked her arm away and turned back to Neely. "Can you get up if Albie helps you?"

"Yeah."

"You'd better take him straight to his room," she said to Albie. "If you'll tell me where I can find the doctor, I'll-"

"You're not leaving!" Soderman roared.

He had recovered from his momentary hesitation. "He needs a doctor."

"He can have all the doctors he wants, but you're coming with me."

Valeria drew back from him. It infuriated her that he would assume that just because he wanted her, she had to go with him.

"I don't know you," Valeria said. "But even if I did, I wouldn't go with you for the purpose that you-" she didn't know how to put her meaning into words.

"You came into this saloon."

"I was told America was a free country. I assumed that referred to women as well as men."

"I don't give a damn about freedom. I-"

"I come from a country where I had no freedom at all. It's very important to me."

"You were free to go to any town in the territory," Soderman said, "but you came here. The only women who come here are whores. And a whore is exactly what I want, especially when she's as pretty as you."

"I'm not a-" She couldn't make herself say the word. "I'm not what you think."

"I'm tired of all this talking," Soderman thundered. "You're coming with me."

He grabbed for Valeria, but she darted around a nearby table. She started toward the door, but Soderman blocked her path.

"These men won't let you abduct me," she said. "Ain't nobody in this room going to stop me." Valeria had to run around another table to keep out of his reach. Soderman was huge and powerful, but he was slow. "Are you going to let him do this?" Valeria said to the men who'd been watching in awed silence.

"Ain't nobody going to do nothing."

Neely struggled to his feet. "I got you into this mess, ma'am. I guess it's up to me to get you out."

That got Valeria madder than ever. "Are you men going to sit there and let this boy do what you won't?"

"He ain't doing nothing," Soderman said. With that his fist shot out, catching Neely square in the face. Neely dropped like a rock and lay on the floor, unmoving.

"I've waited as long as I'm going to," Soderman said. He waded through the room pushing men, chairs, and tables aside with the strength of a bull. He cornered Valeria. She fought with all her strength, but she could do nothing.

She prayed Luke would miraculously appear, but she'd given up hope. He'd warned her what could happen, but she'd felt so safe with him she hadn't taken him seriously. She hadn't thought of anything except pushing him past the breaking point.

"When I'm done with her, anyone else who wants can have her," Soderman announced.

He started toward the door. He stopped when a horse came through the doors into the saloon.

"Luke!" Valeria screamed, so relieved to see him she didn't remember that a princess of the royal blood never raises her voice.

A shot rang out, and Soderman lurched to one side. He lost his hold on Valeria, and she ran to Luke. Luke had shot Soderman in the leg. He looked around the room. The fire in his eyes could have set the place ablaze.

"I ought to put a bullet in every one of you for letting that piece of carrion put his hands on her." He pointed his gun at the man closest to the door. "Lift her into the saddle." His gaze turned ferocious. "And you'd better remember she's a lady."

Only then did Valeria realize Luke had brought a second horse. Her mount had stuck its head inside the saloon.

"You've got to help Neely," Valeria said, pointing to the boy still lying unconscious. "He and Albie tried to protect me."

Luke's mount had driven Albie up against the bar. The boy looked ready to join his friend on the floor. "Look out!" someone shouted.

Almost instantly two shots filled the saloon with a deafening roar. A huge knife slipped from Soderman's hand as his body sank to the floor. There was a small hole in his forehead just above the bridge of his nose. The sound of agonizing moans caused Valeria to turn to the bar. The bartender had staggered back against the bar, his hand a bloody mess. A shotgun lay across the bar where he'd dropped it.

"Anybody else who wants to try me is welcome," Luke said, "but be warned, I'll shoot to kill. You two get this boy to a doctor," Luke said pointing to two men at random. They got to their feet, lifted Neely by his feet and arms, and carried him out.

"You his friend?" Luke asked Albie. The petrified boy nodded.

"You want to get out of this cesspool?" He nodded again.

"As soon as he's able to travel, get yourselves down to Bonner. I'll be going through there in about a week. You going to lift her into the saddle, or do I have to put a bullet in you too?" Luke said to the man he'd told to help Valeria.

The man jumped to his feet and gingerly lifted her to the sidesaddle. He was a big man, plenty strong, but he held her so lightly she almost slipped out of his grasp.

"If I ever have to come back to this town, I'll burn it to the ground," Luke said. He turned his horse, took Valeria's mount by the bridle, and rode out of the saloon.

No air had ever smelled so sweet, no cloak of night been so welcome. Valeria took her first full breath in what felt like hours. She hadn't realized until she had to hold onto the reins that her muscles had been so tense they hurt. But though some of the tension began to flow from her body as they rode down the street and out of town, another kind of tension started to build. Guilt. As furious as Luke had been at Soderman, he was going to be more furious at her. She'd risked his life as well as her own because of a silly game.

Why hadn't she just told Luke she liked him?

Because she hadn't thought of it until now. Such a thing was unimaginable in Belgravia, but it was too late. The last thing Luke would want to hear was that she'd risked their lives because she wanted to know if he could stop hating her long enough to fall in love with her.

That sounded silly even to her. Some women might go straight from disgust to love-she had-but she was sure men didn't. If they hated a woman, they hated her forever.

Luke didn't hate her, but she didn't know if his liking was just the kind of lust Neely had outlined to his friend. Valeria blushed as she recalled some of the things Neely had said.

She wondered if Luke wanted to do the same things. The women at court said men reserved anything of that sort for their mistresses. Valeria didn't know exactly what she wanted her husband to do, but she was certain she didn't want him to do anything with a mistress.

But she was no longer the naive and unquestioning Princess Valeria of Belgravia. She was plain Valeria Badenberg, free to fall in love, free to demand fidelity from the man of her choice. And her choice was Luke Attmore.

At the moment, however, he was so angry he wouldn't even speak to her.

"Thank you for offering to give Neely and Albie jobs," she said, finally unable to stand the silence any longer. "It was brave of them to try to defend me against Soderman."

Luke didn't speak, but she could see his shoulders draw together and rise slightly from tension. She would never tell him Neely had wanted to do pretty much what Soderman intended to do. He'd more than made up for it by trying to defend her.

"I hope he wasn't hurt badly. Soderman was very strong."

It surprised her that she didn't feel regret or guilt over Soderman's death. She felt nothing but relief that a man who would rape her, then offer her to every man in that saloon was no longer alive to prey on women. She supposed she was more like her ancestors than she'd thought. She didn't mourn the death of her enemies any more than her ancestors had mourned the deaths of theirs.

"I never did learn if there was a doctor in that town. It's not very large."

The only sound that came back to her was the squeak of Luke's saddle as his mount ascended the ridge leading to their camp. Okay, so she'd done a stupid thing, but she'd never been in love before. She didn't
know
how a woman was supposed to show a man she loved him. She wasn't even certain it was love. Maybe she was just holding onto the strongest, most dependable man she knew in this crazy country. Maybe she was projecting onto Luke the characteristics of the heros in her mind, men who led armies, conquered countries, men who were afraid of no one and nothing.

No, Luke was a natural leader, a man unafraid of anyone and anything. That was part of the reason she had

been attracted to him in the first place. He was an oldworld hero. Yet he was totally modern and had insisted she become modern, too.

"Would it make you feel any better if I said I was sorry, that I did a very foolish thing, that I never meant to risk anybody's life?"

Apparently not.

"I know you told me what would happen if I trusted strange men, but I was thirsty. I thought if I could just get a drink of water-"

"Water!" Luke turned his horse, then drove the animal hard up against Valeria's mount. "You entered that den of snakes for a drink of water?"

"I was thirsty."

He muttered something under his breath. She didn't know what. She didn't even recognize the language.

"That man would have killed you," Luke said. "Or he'd have made you wish you were dead."

"Surely it couldn't have been that bad. He-"

"If you're determined to ruin yourself, you could have at least turned to me."

Chapter Twenty-two

Valeria couldn't believe her ears. Luke hadn't said one nice thing to her. He couldn't even speak to her without looking like he had indigestion. "But you hate me."

He started their horses forward, but he stayed by her side. "I never hated you."

She might have been raised in a make-believe world, but she knew hate and anger when she saw it. "You told me I was useless, a parasite, a-"

"I told you the institution of monarchy was useless. I never meant you were useless."

"Yes, you did. You went out of your way to prove I didn't know anything, couldn't do anything."

He turned to face her. "That's because I couldn't stand to see you so ignorant."

Valeria began to wonder if she had heard Luke correctly. Maybe this was something else they did differently in America. She admitted she had only an imperfect knowledge of what love was like, but that knowledge was instinctive, and instinct told her a man who loved a woman wouldn't treat her like she was a plague on the Western world.

They were descending the west side of the low hill, riding toward the camp she'd left such a short time ago, returning to the isolation she had thought was total. She realized she felt safer
away
from people, safe in isolation that would have frightened her only a few weeks earlier. Coming to Arizona had changed her beyond all recognition.

"Why didn't you tell me how you felt?" she asked.

"Because you don't like me."

She knew that wasn't the reason. "But I do."

He pulled their horses to an abrupt stop. "When did that happen?" He didn't appear excited, happy, pleased. He didn't even seem to care.

"I don't know. I realized it when you took me to Mrs. Brightman's house."

He started the horses forward again. "Why would a woman like you care for a man like me?"

She couldn't answer that question. She didn't understand herself. She just knew she felt safe with Luke, that she admired his physical strength, his knowledge, his leadership. His looks. One glance, and no woman would need to ask why she'd fallen in love with Luke. He was tall, well-muscled, absolutely the best looking man she'd ever seen.

Maybe his temper, his black moods, his obsession with his reputation, should have given her pause, but those were characteristics of men who were leaders, who accomplished what they set out to do. Maybe it came from being a princess, from spending most of her life with one kind of man, but she admired a man who could take command of a situation, could convince others to follow him even when they disagreed with what he was doing, who never failed to do what he said he'd do.

But there was a softer side to Luke. He might not see it, but he'd been protective of her from the first. He'd been hard on her, but he'd also done his best to make sure she learned quickly that life in America was not at all like it was in Belgravia. And no matter how rude and ungrateful she'd been, he'd never deserted her.

She didn't believe he loved her yet. His change of heart had come too suddenly, but she did believe he liked her. He wouldn't allow himself to love anyone. She was certain he saw it as a weakness, possibly a fatal one. She couldn't remember a single general in Belgravia's entire history who was supposed to have felt great love for any woman. It might be very hard for a man like Luke to learn to love, but surely it wasn't impossible.

"Why shouldn't I care for you, even love you?" she asked.