Fool for Love (Montana Romance) (34 page)

Heavy silence fell  in the space left by the question.  Amelia had a few ideas about what Curtis could do now, including leaving and never showing his face again.

Eric continued to glower, eyes fixed on Curtis’s face.  “You coulda telegraphed me in London to talk it over before doing anything.”

“They wanted a quick decision,” Curtis defended himself.  “I figured since I own half the ranch anyhow-”

“However much of the ranch you own,” Eric interrupted him, “it does not include the cattle!”

“Eric!” Curtis balked.  “You know your parents-”

“Left the ranch to both of us.  Yeah, I know that,” Eric finished for him.  “One other thing I know is that it was their ranch and their cattle and you never showed the slightest interest in them.”

“Well, now, that’s not exactly true,” Curtis said.  He was scrambling.

“I’ve made a decision.”  Eric glanced to Amelia.  A sinking feeling filled the pit of Amelia’s stomach.  “I’m gonna make a few changes to the ownership of the ranch.”

“I knew you’d make the right decision.”  Curtis sagged with relief.  “You’re gonna take that job as Cold Springs’s sheriff, aren’t you.  With so many people supporting-”

“I’m not gonna do any such thing,” Eric cut him off.  Through her apprehension Amelia felt a swell of pride.  At last!  “I was born a cowboy and a rancher and I’ll always be a cowboy and a rancher.  This is my home.”

“It’s my home too!” Curtis protested.

“Yep,” Eric agreed.  “And now it’s Amelia’s.  I’m having Amelia added to the deed.”

“What?” Curtis and Amelia cried out in unison.

“You heard me,” Eric said with a frown for Curtis and a wink for Amelia.  “I talked to Christian about it this morning.  I’m gonna have the deed rewritten to give Amelia a fair share of the ranch.”

Amelia started to say, “Eric, are you sure-” before Curtis overrode her with, “You can’t do that!”

“I think you’ll find I can do that, Curtis,” Eric stopped his protest flat.  “And I’m beginning to wonder if it hasn’t come a moment too soon.”  He stepped closer to Amelia.  “Of course, there’s one other thing we have to take care of first,” he told her, lips twitching.  “Another legal matter Christian mentioned.  Something I’ve been pestering you about for, oh, weeks now.”

Amelia was so overwhelmed by the situation and Eric’s murmured suggestion that she could only gape.  “Oh.  Eric, I ….”  She didn’t know how to finish.

Eric’s smile slipped.  “You aren’t going to say no again are you?”

“It’s just that….”

She caught sight of Curtis as he brushed his hands over the front of his coat, eyes narrowing at the two of them.  If she was ever going to pin down what he was up to and put a stop to it, she had to act.  She cleared her throat and stepped toward Curtis, touching his arm. 

“We have so many important decisions to make.  It seems to me that we should step back from the situation and let it rest.”  Eric eyed her and Curtis skeptically.  “So that we can make the best choices, of course.”

Curtis’s stance relaxed by a hair.  He rubbed a hand over his chin, staring at her hand on his arm.  Eric was equally as hesitant.

“I just thought you’d want to get a few
important
things settled, official-like” he said.

“You’re very kind, but….”  She flicked a glance to Curtis, willing Eric to make the connection that his cousin didn’t know they weren’t legally married.

“Oh, I see,” he said, frowning as if he didn’t see at all.  He covered his concern by stepping closer to kiss her.

Amelia’s body tingled from the point where their mouths met to her toes, but for once it wasn’t the siren song of sensuality that made her skin prickle.  As glorious as the situation could be, as close as she felt they were to blocking whatever plot Curtis was hatching, they still didn’t know what that plan was or what Curtis would do next.

“Perhaps I should unpack our things,” she breathed as soon as Eric let her go.

“That sounds like a mighty fine idea.”  He smiled and kissed her again.  “Curtis, help me carry the suitcases up to the bedroom.”

Curtis arched an eyebrow, every inch of the jovial cousin gone.  He followed Eric silently, scooting past Amelia with a backward glance.  Amelia held her breath and pressed a hand to her stomach.  Her baby was moving, as if it too were anxious about the whole thing.

“I know,” she told it.  “I know.  I don’t like it either.”

When Eric and Curtis strode back to the house, suitcases in their arms, Amelia followed them inside and up the stairs.  She had had a brief tour of the house’s second and third stories in the past week but hadn’t dug deeply into the rooms.  The bedroom she and Eric would share was on the second floor, near the top of the stairs.

“Has Curtis moved into one of the smaller houses yet?” Amelia whispered after Curtis had delivered an armful of suitcases and gone back downstairs for more.

Eric winced and rubbed the back of his neck.  “I dunno.  I guess,” he said.  “I mentioned it to him, but I hated to kick a man out of the house where he’s lived for more than ten years.”  When he caught Amelia’s incredulous expression he added, “Even though he’s a God-forsaken dunderhead.”

Curtis chose that moment to step back into the doorway.

“I thought you’d like to know that Jed and Murphy are asking where they should move the herd,” he said, expression and tone blank.

Eric sighed and wiped his forehead with his sleeve.  “All right.  Tell ‘em I’ll be down to see to it in just a second.”

Curtis nodded and disappeared.

“They’ll end up in the creek out back if I don’t tell them where to go,” Eric added with a smirk.

“There’s a creek out back?” Amelia asked.

“Yeah.”  Eric nodded, putting his hat back on.  “And a bunch of trees, some hills, a couple old caves, lots of stuff.  Me and Curtis used to play back there as boys.  It’s a big ranch.”

“I hope to explore it all someday,” Amelia said.

“Me too.”

He pulled her into his arms to kiss her then whirled away and hopped out into the hall.  Amelia listened to his footfalls head down the stairs.  Her heart beat in double-time as she turned to the task of unpacking their things.

She had lost her mind.  She had overstepped her bounds.  She should not be finding places for respectable, well-made clothes in country wardrobes and bureaus.  If her mother could see her she would either shake her head and tut at the odd life Amelia was trying to steal for herself or congratulate her on a trap well sprung.  Either possibility turned Amelia’s stomach sour.

She turned and gasped to find Curtis lounging in the doorway, leaning against the jam with his arms crossed and a calculating grin on his tight lips.

“Very well done, Cousin Amelia,” Curtis drawled.

Amelia’s pulse shot up.  “I’m sorry?”

Curtis straightened and sauntered into the room.  “You handled that as smooth as fine English silk.”

Amelia’s hands trembled.  “I don’t quite understand what you mean,” she said.  “If you’ll excuse me, I have much to do.”

“Here, let me help you.”  Curtis’s energy shifted as he reached the bed and picked up a handful of Eric’s shirts.  “I know where all this goes.  It is my house too, after all.”  He met her eyes as though she were attempting to pick his pocket.

“Oh.”  The single syllable slipped from Amelia’s lips.  She cleared her throat.  “Thank you.  Thank you very much for your help.”

She smiled and thought of Delilah.  Delilah would tell her that she still needed to be nice, she hadn’t uncovered the whole truth yet.  Delilah would say ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’.

“So how did you get him to do it?” Curtis asked with sly grace as he tucked Eric’s shirts in a drawer.  “How did you convince my sweet fool of a cousin to put your name on the deed to his ranch?”

“I didn’t,” Amelia answered truthfully.  “I didn’t know he had any intention of doing such a thing until you did.”

“Really?”  He didn’t believe her.  He walked back over to the bed where she was sorting Eric’s underclothes.  “You didn’t ask him to go to the courthouse and put your name on the deed?”

“No.”

She met his eyes.  The dark smolder was there, the invitation.  Her skin prickled.  Curtis wanted her.  Any moment now lust would take over and she would throw herself in Curtis’s arms the way she threw herself at every man who wanted her.  She waited, dreading the moment.

There was a subtle shift in the set of Curtis’s shoulders, the tilt of his head and the light in his eyes.  The gears were hard at work behind those eyes.

“So you didn’t put him up to it?”  He inched closer.

Amelia shook her hea
d.  “No, I’m afraid I didn’t.”

She gathered Eric’s things and carried them to the bureau.  Her baby kicked hard against her stomach.  She took a deep breath and settled Eric’s things in the drawer.

When she turned around Curtis was right behind her.  She jumped and gasped.

“You mean to tell me that you have no idea how valuable this ranch is?”  He asked the question in an intimate purr, running the back of his fingers down her arm.  “That you didn’t take one look at it and think ‘now that would be the perfect substitute for the grand country estate Daddy lost?’”

Amelia’s skin crawled and her voice shook as she said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Curtis’s pause went on too long.  He lowered his eyes.  She could feel his gaze rake her, adding her up.  She waited in agony for her body’s pulsing response.

“Well maybe you are telling the truth,” Curtis said, eyes returning to meet hers.  “Or maybe you’re as stupid as he is.  But I doubt it.  You’re far too fine and pretty and
titled
for him.  Or were, at least.”  His eyes dropped to her stomach.

She wanted to run.  Everything within her k
new she had to stay, for Eric.

“How valuable is this ranch?” she baited him.

To her surprise, Curtis stepped back and chuckled, long and low.  “That’s more like it.  Like a true English lady.  Maybe there is some promise here after all,” he said.  “Maybe we can arrange a little something, a little partnership, you might say, that will be mutually beneficial, a pleasure to us both.”

He had stepped away, but his intensity and the suggestion it brought with it was as potent as if he had sli
pped his hand under her skirt.

“Eric is my husband,” she used the lie to defend herself with an uneasy smile.  “That makes you my cousin.  We’re family.  I’m certain we can all find a way to get along together.”

Her words had the wrong effect.  Curtis’s smile spread.

“Sweetheart, as long as you can keep your mouth shut – until I tell you to open it, that is – I’m sure we’ll find the perfect arrangement.”

Amelia reeled.  Nick had used almost those same words in his letter.  The stability and peace that she was so certain Cold Springs had given her shattered around her.  Curtis knew exactly what she was without anyone telling him.

He didn’t give her a chance to reply to his seduction.  He winked and waltzed out of the room, nearly bumping straight into Eric in the hallway.

“Watch it,” Eric snapped, edging past him and into the room.

“Maybe you’re the one who should watch it,” Curtis joked back.

Eric muttered under his breath and stepped into the room as Curtis headed downstairs.  He frowned out into the hall after him then glanced at Amelia with a puzzled expression.

Amelia flew back to the bed and busied herself with the clothes, fighting back tears that would certainly give her away.  She had no idea if she was glad to see Eric or terrified.

“Hey, Amelia, I hate to interrupt whatever you’re doing,” Eric began, slow and awkward, “but would it be too much to ask for you to maybe get some lunch put together?  Turns out none of the guys have eaten anything.  I don’t want a bunch of hungry cow pokes trying to round up the herd all cranky.”

“I….”  She tried to speak but had to clear her throat to banish the lump that had come to it.  “I thought Jaci
nta brought her brother lunch.”

“Well she didn’t.”  Eric frowned and strode to her side, forcing her to straighten and turn into his arms.  “Is something wrong?  What did Curtis want?”

Her heart hammered, trying to leap out of her chest.  How could she explain?  How could she say anything without proving to him that she was every wicked thing she had ever told him she was?  How could she hurt him?

“I think I’m just
a bit overwhelmed,” she said.

“Was Curtis in here pestering you?”  Eric’s suspicion was evident.  “I know when he’s got his nose out of joint, and it’s about as out of joint as it ever gets right now.”

“Yes,” was all she could manage to say.

“I shoulda found a better way to mention the whole deed thing.”

“Perhaps.”  Not that it would have done any good.  Curtis wanted the ranch in its entirety and now he had two people standing in his way.

Eric distracted her from the path her thoughts wanted to go down by kissing her.  She clung to his shirt as if it were a life preserver and kissed him back.