Eyes of Silver, Eyes of Gold (33 page)

“Even so. You can’t think it’s worth killing a man over.”

“I wasn’t going to kill him, but that day I was as crazy as the horse. Maybe listening to him for those weeks instead of shutting him up at the beginning was part of it. When I went back and you were both gone it just made me madder.”

“So you came looking for him at my place, half killed him, and when I tried to stop you from finishing him off, you turned on me.”

“I was just getting you out of the way. I wasn’t going to kill him, but I wasn’t finished with him either. Afterwards, I was glad Eph showed up and buffaloed me. You weren’t in any real danger, but I might have gone too far with him, and he sure wasn’t worth hanging over.”

Frank had a blank look on his face, eyes turned inward, remembering. “You expect me to believe you’d have laid off me?”

“No, I guess I don’t expect you to believe it, but that’s the way it was. You wouldn’t have felt too good for a while, but then I guess you didn’t anyway.”

Voice faint and still withdrawn, Frank said, “I wish I could believe that. I wish I did believe it, but I guess I don’t.”

On his feet, halfway to the door, Cord felt an unusual surge of anger and faced his brother again. “Did you ever think, if what you believe about me is true, you ought to do the world a favor and pull your damn gun and blow my brains all over this kitchen? If
half
what you believe is true, you ought to keep me in a cage and sell tickets.”

He was gone then, as quiet as always, but somehow Frank felt as if he’d slammed the door leaving.

With his head buried in his hands, Frank didn’t realize Ephraim was in the kitchen until he spoke. “For a minute there, I thought you’d have him yelling like a real Bennett.”

Frank watched Ephraim help himself to coffee. “How much did you hear?”

“All of it, I think. I came when you were talking about him being gone those five years. It wasn’t that I wanted to eavesdrop, but I figured he might clam up on you if I stuck my nose in. He’s getting positively chatty lately, don’t you think?”

“Do you believe it?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Why? You didn’t feel that way at the time or you wouldn’t have clubbed him off me.”

“I guess it was the fight this spring that changed my mind. Anne just pulled on his arm and he stopped. It took him a while to calm down, but when I thought it over, he didn’t seem much like a crazed killer that day. We all made up our minds years ago over Hatch, and maybe we were wrong. Did you ever think what you would have done to Hatch, or what I would? If we hadn’t had a gun handy, that is?”

Frank ran his fingers through his hair, unable to answer.

“I’ll tell you something else I spent some time thinking over after that day, and that’s some of the things Anne said. If someone grabbed Judith like that, or Martha, we’d have all taken a hand, but because it was him, we stood and watched like it was a circus or something. Why didn’t we help him? So what if we knew he could handle them? So what if you kept him from getting shot - that’s all we did. Why’d we make him fight them alone and then act disgusted because he did some permanent damage? I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, Frank, and maybe he’s wrong, he won’t explain, won’t talk, but we’re wrong too - about a lot of things.”

Martha came into the kitchen then, and after one quick glance at her husband, moved quietly around, starting breakfast. Judith and Beth weren’t long behind, but Frank didn’t care what they overheard.

“You think he’s changed, don’t you, Eph? Think he’s gentled with having the woman?”

Ephraim fiddled with his empty cup, then said, “No, actually, I don’t. I think that because she’s around we’re seeing more of him and more of other sides of him that have always been there. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in the ranch you don’t pay much attention to what’s going on around you, and you aren’t in town all the time like we are, so maybe you don’t hear some things. Did you know that the day of the fight he stopped and talked to Noah on the way home, that ever since he stops by the sheriff’s office on those walks of his, and if Noah is around they sit and jaw a while? Noah even told me he’s stopped by the ranch a couple of times when he was out that way. He’s had dinner with them once or twice. LeClercs have been out there too, and Windon takes his family along when he visits now Anne’s there.”

Frank knew if Ephraim said so, it was true, but he could barely credit his ears. “No - the way Noah talked that day, that’s pretty hard to believe.”

“Noah told me he hasn’t changed his mind about how dangerous our little brother is, just about who he’s dangerous to. And have you noticed any changes in Pete and Luke in the last month or so?”

“Sure. They’re finally showing some signs of sense, growing up as hard and slow as I did, I guess.”

“There’s probably some truth in that, but they’ve also been spending considerable time around Cord. That means instead of heading out of here Sundays for a back room poker game and booze, they’re playing with Windon for pennies and drinking water or coffee. You know Cord’s a prude about liquor. Pete told me he’s decided he’s not playing high stakes poker any more until he can figure out when Cord’s bluffing more than half the time.” Eph grinned suddenly. “That means he’ll never play for more than pennies again in his life.”

This information unsettled Frank so much he couldn’t answer until after he got up, walked the length of the room and back and sat down again. Finally, “I’m not sure I like those two around him that much. I suppose that’s why they’re sneaking at it.”

“They’re not sneaking. They’ve walked out of here bold as brass on his heels most Sundays since that first time they went after Stones’ horse with him. They’ve been visiting the old house too. Pete told me a couple of weeks ago he’s not getting married until he can find somebody as spunky as Anne. I told him he’d better reconsider that one.”

“My God. You know she’s in love with him, or thinks she is.”

“It’s written all over her.”

“He treats her like dirt.”

“You exaggerate, and if she’s happy, why argue with it? She’s not the only woman who ever loved a man who doesn’t love back.”

“She deserves better.”

“It’s not like he stole her from something better, or like there’s something better waiting for her. You’re probably right, she’s a convenience to him, but she’s content, and I can’t bring myself to begrudge him whatever comfort she brings. Did you ever think about how alone he’s been?”

Frank was still just shaking his head when Luke and Pete walked into the kitchen, and his questions about their recent activities ended the conversation between the brothers.

ANNE WAS THE LAST UP
and dressed. Told only that Cord had “gone out,” she went to the barn looking for him, finding him grooming Red. Her cheery, “Good morning,” brought only a grunt.

“I came out here hoping for a good morning kiss. I suppose I’m out of luck.”

“Suppose you’ll pester till you get what you want.”

“Are you angry with me because I didn’t wake up and you had to take me back to bed?”

His hands stopped moving, so she ducked between his arms and faced him. “You’re right. If you want rid of me, the fastest way would be to give me my kiss and send me on my way, even if you are mad.”

“I’m not mad at you. Frank and I had words is all.”

“Ah, so you and Frank argued, and he’s in the house looking as carefree as ever, wrapped around a cup of coffee, and you’re out here by yourself in a temper.”

The flat, tight look began to leave his face. “Mm. He’s in the house wrapped around a cup of coffee, and I’m out here, wrapped around you.” His arms tightened, causing a little shiver of delight as her stomach met his, breasts flattened against his chest. Just before his lips touched hers, she heard him murmur, “Pore ole Frank.”

When his mouth left hers and began nuzzling below her ear and down her throat, she laughed and tried to imitate his baritone drawl, “Yes, pore ole Frank.”

When he faced her again the hard look had totally vanished.

“Now that I’ve gotten what I wanted, I’ll go,” she offered.

“Now that you’ve ruined my mad, how about sticking around and leading this horse out for me. Let’s see if there’s any stiffness or soreness.”

Pleased at having enticed him out of his dark mood, she happily complied.

Anne enjoyed the rest of that Sunday more than any previous time around Cord’s family. Winning the race, buying Red, and her secret time with Cord last night were the only reasons she told herself. She was helping with the dinner dishes when Martha answered the door and her brother burst into the kitchen, obviously incensed over something. Anne decided to ignore him. Maybe he would say something so offensive Cord would pick him up and throw him out.

The volume and tone of Rob’s first words made that likely.

“Is it true?” Rob yelled at Cord. “Is it true what I heard?”

Cord had been leaving the kitchen and stopped in the doorway. “If it’s about me, and if it’s got you that riled, it’s probably true,” he said.

“I heard my sister won
thousands
of dollars on that race, and you spent it to buy that horse for yourself. You could have built a decent house instead of having her live in that hovel of yours. You could have gotten decent furniture, or let her spend it on clothes, or keep it for herself. Didn’t it ever occur to you to let her keep it?”

As Cord folded his arms across his chest, Rob threw Anne a frantic look. She very deliberately turned her back and put the plate she had been drying away. If Rob wanted to continue being so pigheaded, he could just pay the price.

By the time she turned back around, however, she could see that Cord wasn’t going to throw Rob out. He was going to give her brother a different kind of hard time.

“I’ve got to tell you, Rob, it did cross my mind,” Cord said. “There were all those piles of bills on the table, and I thought, I could build a decent house instead of making Annie live in my hovel; I could buy all sorts of fancy furniture for the hovel instead of letting her get splinters in her ass from what’s there. I could let her buy another fifty dresses to help the ones already there bulge through the doors on the hovel. Then I thought, what do I care if that woman’s got splinters in her ass? And I took the money and went and bought me a rich man’s horse.”

Rob stood in the middle of the kitchen, his mouth half open.

Anne decided to chime in after all. “Actually, Rob, our house is the nicest place I’ve ever lived, and if he wanted to build something else, I’d argue. And our furniture might not be fancy, but it’s sturdy and attractive, and I don’t want anything else. I’ve got better things to do nowadays than spend my time polishing antiques. And he’s right, I have more dresses than I’ll ever wear for the rest of my life. I’m the one who wanted to buy the horse. You see, the problem I had was that ever since we’ve been married he’s wanted to send me off as far as I had money to go. When I had twenty dollars, he kept talking about Grenerton. When I had a hundred dollars, he started in about Denver, and there I was with thousands, and he started in about
France
. I figured if I couldn’t get rid of that money fast, he’d start in about China, or Africa or someplace.”

Cord walked back to the table, turned a chair around and straddled it, crossing his arms on the back. “Been giving it some more thought. The best place to send you would be somewhere where they keep women in walled gardens with guards, where women have to wear veils all the time, and where every man gets a hundred wives. You could be some man’s hundred and first wife, Ti-gress.”

“Oh, my, how about if I just promise to be good?”

He looked at her intently for a moment, “Why don’t you just go outside and spit in the wind?”

Uttered without expression, it sounded ugly, and Anne saw the frowns on Bennett faces, but as Cord left the kitchen, she met Rob’s eyes and saw understanding there. Her brother might be stubborn, but he wasn’t stupid, and he knew her better than her husband’s family did. Rob had just realized that Cord had first teased him about the horse and then teased her about the money and any promise she might make to be “good.” She knew Rob’s ideas about her husband and her marriage had just been shaken to the core and wondered if it would ever make any difference.

* * *

Chapter 32

ANNE UNDERSTOOD THAT THE MOST
important work of the year on the ranch was haying in late summer. If every available nook and cranny of the ranch buildings were stuffed with hay going into the winter, there was enough to ensure that the horses had supplemental feed on the poor winter pasture and came through the snows fat and sassy. It guaranteed that the broodmares were strong in early spring for foaling and that they could produce healthy foals and lots of milk to keep them healthy.

She also knew the season only lasted a few weeks, starting when the grasses in the hill meadows on the ranch were ripe enough to cut, and ending when they matured to overripe, tasteless stalks. That meant there would be no church on Sunday, which was more than all right with her. In fact a few weeks without any aggravation from her family or from the Bennetts and without having to control herself around Reverend Yellow-Belly sounded more than all right.