In Too Deep (21 page)

“Even if I asked Ethan for the money for her train fare, and even if she took the train, it doesn't come all the way here and she wouldn't dare travel alone. And going back to get her would take weeks. And what about Isaac?”

“You can't go alone, not with two little ones.” Julia seemed full of even worse reasons. “And if Ethan went with you, he'd be gone a long time from the ranch.”

“At least now I can tell her where I am. Rafe wanted us to keep quiet about the wedding, but now that a man attacked the ranch and called me Mrs. Gill, clearly my connection to your father is known. If Ethan says it's all right to mail a letter, I thought maybe, since you're so much closer to Rawhide, you and Rafe could see to getting it mailed.”

Julia bristled. “A woman shouldn't have to ask permission of her husband to write a letter.”

“I'll ask anyway. And Isaac is six by now. Old enough to be learning how to be a man at my father's knee.” Audra's heart hurt to think of it.

“We'll talk with the men and see if they think it's safe now for you to write the letter. Maybe Rafe can think of some way to contact your family. Now that you're remarried, your father can't find a new husband for you.”

“And that may be the very best thing about being married to Ethan.” But as Audra ran up to care for her new husband, she thought of a lot of reasons she liked about being married to Ethan that had nothing to do with her father.

“Hi, honey.” Ethan couldn't believe how much he liked being married. “Rafe says I'm going to be fine.”

Rafe smacked him on his not-burnt arm. “I did not say that.”

“Don't you hit him, Rafe Kincaid.” Audra stormed across the bedroom. A cute little storm. Her fiery expression couldn't have raised a single blister on Rafe's tough hide.

Ethan smiled. “I'm fine.” His shoulder burned as if his shirt were still on fire. He smiled bigger.

“I
said
I think you'll be fine if you don't break those blisters.” Rafe looked at Audra as if he wanted to team up with her to tuck Ethan straight into bed. Maybe they'd give him a bottle of milk with a nipple attached while they were at it. “I think he's safe from an infection if the skin isn't broken. Once there's a break, I'm afraid of what might happen. Which means”—Rafe glared at his brother—“you need to be careful.”

Ethan spared one withering look at Rafe. “I can't sit around worrying about my blisters. I've got a ranch to run.”

Audra leaned so close that Ethan could smell her. A woman was a wonderful thing.

“How far down his back are the burns? I couldn't tell if new blisters were still being raised when I looked earlier.”

“The big ones go down to the bottom of his shoulder blade. There are smaller ones on his arm. And he only has them on the left side.”

Audra rested a soft hand on Ethan's right shoulder while she looked over his left and down his back. She was so close, he could have pulled her into his lap without a bit of trouble.

“Did any of them break?” Audra straightened away from him and glared, yet not a fraction as fierce as Rafe. “While he was out there having a gunfight on a mountainside?” She leaned in and looked right into his eyes. “After you promised me you'd be careful.”

“Now, honey, don't go getting all worked up. I'm fine. No broken blisters. And a few broken blisters wouldn't kill me anyway. I've had my share of blisters in my life, for heaven's sake.”

“Not like these. Ethan Kincaid, if you won't promise me—”

“I'll stay a week.” Rafe interrupted Audra's scolding, which reminded Ethan of how much he loved his brother. “I'll run the ranch while Ethan rests.”

Which reminded Ethan of how his bossy brother drove him half crazy.

“But you're not done building your cabin.”

What Rafe didn't say was that he'd run this section of the Kincaid property to suit himself. Make sure everything was in order after Ethan had had time to mess them up. All Ethan had to do was agree to be coddled and he'd prove everything his hired men believed about him, everything Rafe believed about him, and worse yet, everything he didn't want to believe about himself.

Audra laid a palm on Ethan's cheek, a worried frown on her pretty face. For him. She really cared about him.

Her furrowed brow distracted him from his annoyance at Rafe. As he smiled at her, he realized it wasn't like his usual smile. Because of what was behind it.

Usually there was hurt behind it, or anger, or fear. All things he didn't want to show to the world. Mostly there was a need to not feel anything deeply. But now, behind this smile was—he shuddered—affection. He cared about his wife. He hated the very thought of something happening to her.

He couldn't even smile.

He would
not
fall in love with her.
That would be just pure stupid.
Which didn't stop him from wanting to throw Rafe out and drag Audra into his arms. He thought of that man who'd tried to get to her in the cellar, and he forgot all about covering up the affection he felt for sweet little Audra.

“Rafe, I'm not going to fight with you anymore for now. The day is past anyway.” Ethan suppressed the feeling of worthlessness. For some reason the only thing he could think of was reminding his wife who was in charge of this family.

“You go on out and get something to eat. I need to talk to Audra for a while. Get a few things straight.”

“Just tell me now, Ethan.” Audra crossed her arms and began tapping a toe impatiently. “Tell me right in front of Rafe. So when you start arguing with me about not resting, he can help me keep you inside.”

“No. This is definitely not something I want to talk about in front of my brother.” Ethan looked at Rafe. “Get out.”

Rafe's brows arched. A faint smile quirked his lips. “I'll tell Julia to get the meal on.”

“Tell her not to hurry.” Ethan followed Rafe and swung the door shut a little harder than he meant to, then turned to find Audra coming toward him, her eyes flashing with her cute little temper.

“Ethan,” she said, shaking her finger right under his nose. “I am not going to let you
umph
—”

She quieted right down and caught on to his intentions almost immediately. Then she went to kissing him like a house afire. Ethan made the barely conscious discovery that he didn't have many burns on his neck because her arms were wound around him there and it didn't hurt one bit.

Once she was as calm as could be, Ethan pulled away from her just an inch. “I will not have you nagging and fussing at me as if I'm a child.”

She made a movement as if to push away from him, then pulled back with a fretful glance at his injuries. “Did I hurt you?”

“If you're so worried about hurting me, then you just be careful.” He kissed her again and didn't notice one speck of pain when he swept her up into his arms and lowered her to their bed.

Next time he gave her a chance to breathe, her eyes blinked open and she didn't speak. In fact, she dragged his head down so she could kiss him again.

A big improvement over nagging.

Ethan came into the kitchen sorting around in his head for excuses about why they were late for dinner.

His hand rested on Audra's slender waist because it seemed impossible to quit touching her. Before he could start talking, Seth came in the door with Steele right behind him.

A distraction just when Ethan needed it most.

“What do you think?” Steele was talking to Seth.

Ethan heard the serious tone. “Think about what?”

“I can't be sure about those hoofprints.” Seth shoved his hands into his back pockets and scowled. “Whoever shot at us tied rags around their horse's hooves to disguise them.”

“I looked, too.” Steele looked at Rafe, giving his report to the real boss. Ethan did his best not to let that bother him. “They pulled the rags off and tossed them into the weeds on a stretch of ground covered in prints. Didn't even try to hide the rags. There just wasn't enough to pin down who was behind the shooting.”

“And I looked at the footprints of every cowhand on the place. I narrowed it down. But not enough.” Seth moved to a chair as Julia set a steaming bowl of stew on the table.

The thick, meaty smell of it made Ethan's mouth water. He hadn't eaten much today what with the fire and the tracking and Audra treating him like he was a helpless baby every time he quit running away from her . . . which had made him run all the faster.

“Stay and eat supper with us.” Audra waved the foreman to a chair.

“I'm mighty obliged for that, Mrs. Kincaid.” Steele's usual deeply lined face lightened. “It would be a treat to eat a meal cooked and served by the two Kincaid women. I'd be honored if you'd ask me again sometime. But for tonight, I'm going to the bunkhouse to eat with the men. I want to keep my eye on them. I've got men standing watch, men I've known a long time. So we shouldn't have any trouble tonight. Seth and I have talked this through, so he can give you the same report I would.”

Steele tugged on the brim of his hat and left.

There was the scrape of chairs on the wooden floor as Rafe and Ethan gathered enough seats around the table.

Julia and Audra made short work of putting fresh bread, a ball of butter, and a pitcher of milk on the table.

Rafe moved to the head of the table. He pulled the chair out.

Audra said, “That's where Ethan sits, Rafe. Go ahead and take the chair at his right.”

Ethan froze. Rafe's chin came up. Seth stole a piece of meat out of the stew bowl with his bare hands and ignored them.

“It's fine, Rafe.” Ethan was afraid he might be turning red. For some reason he found Audra's simple statement of the truth embarrassing.

“No, she's right. You're the head of this house. Your place is at the head of the table. Sorry. Old habit.” Rafe sounded like he meant it and he slid around the corner and sat before it could be debated anymore.

“Didn't matter much where I sat when I was here alone.” Rafe smiled and scooted his chair in.

“Let's say a word of prayer over this meal.” Rafe folded his hands on the table, the bandaged one a reminder of what they'd been through. “Ethan had a mighty close call last night and we all did today. I think we need to say a proper thank-you.” Then Rafe gave Audra a very phony look of innocence. “I'll say the prayer if it's all right with you, Audra.”

Audra at the foot of the table gave him a saucy grin, and Ethan went from being embarrassed to being proud of his pretty wife, straight down the table from him. Rafe was across from Seth, so the three brothers were together. Julia was beside Rafe. Maggie was sitting boosted up on a chair between Audra and Seth. Julia had Lily in one arm while she dished up food.

After the prayer, for a few minutes there was only the clink of metal forks and spoons against the glass dishes of food and the tin plates.

When everyone was served and eating, Rafe looked at Seth. “Now tell us what you found out.”

Ethan braced himself to get a long drawn-out story about where Seth was hiding nuts for the winter.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony.”

God.

Jasper's jaw tightened and he turned his attention from what the parson was saying. It didn't sit right with him to have so much talk of God in his wedding vows. He'd hoped to find a justice of the peace or a judge or someone besides a preacher. But Trixie had insisted and now here they were. Gathered in the sight of God.

He and God weren't on good terms and hadn't been for a long, long time.

Okay, never. And his preference would be to keep well out of God's sight.

“Do you, Henry Duff, take Beatrice Butts to be your lawfully wedded wife?” The parson was a sawed-off runt of a man. Short, fat, his skin so tan he could have passed for an Indian if it weren't for blue eyes blazing with religion. “Will you love her, comfort her, honor her and keep her—?”

Well, sure he'd do all that. Except he wasn't sure he loved her. And he wasn't sure what the parson meant by
honor
her. In fact, he wasn't all that sure what honor was. He didn't fail to note the shame of that.

But he intended to keep her. As long as she didn't make him tend chickens. And he'd be mighty glad to comfort her just as soon as the parson finished up and let them out of here and they could find a rooming house.

“To have and to hold from this day forward.”

Jasper turned his mind away again. He was marrying a woman named Beatrice Butts. It turned out that was Trixie's real name. Could his life get any stranger? He'd told her they should use fake names to get married. She'd suggested instead using their real names. Which were as good as fake, since no one had ever heard of them before.

Then she'd admitted her name was Beatrice Butts.

He'd have laughed his head off if his name wasn't Henry Duff. Henry Jasper Duff. Jasper had rid himself of that name the minute his father threw him out of the house.

But the parson they'd found in Bryan, Texas, didn't need to know a middle name, and Henry wasn't attention-getting enough to give anyone a hint that a ruthless and infamous criminal was marrying a notorious Houston courtesan.

“For as long as you both shall live.”

Jasper was doing his best not to listen, but he'd heard that. Some dangerous men would be coming after him. Living a long time was going to be a real hard thing to manage. But it didn't matter much as far as the vows went, he reckoned. He stood here, taking vows before God after all, and he had a feeling God didn't believe a single word that came off the lips of Henry Duff. Jasper certainly didn't.

“I do.”

“And do you, Beatrice Butts, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

Trixie might have been flinching from the use of her name, but Jasper decided to pretend she was just showing him some affection when she crushed his hand.

“In sickness and in health.”

Catching that, Jasper acknowledged to himself that he owed Trixie a lot. He'd be in mighty poor health right now if she hadn't killed a man early this morning.

“For richer and for poorer.”

That sent Jasper off into a daydream of catching up to Wendell and changing his poorer to richer. Jasper would head for Colorado City, the closest town to Rawhide that showed up on a map, and hope to find a letter waiting for him from Mitch and Grove.

“As long as you both shall live.”

He'd get Trixie to come along somehow. Then they'd get to Colorado City and he'd tell Trixie he wanted to settle there. He might even mean it. If they could get back what Wendell had stolen and kill any witnesses. Why not? They'd have enough money to live out the rest of their lives in comfort. Didn't matter what town that was in.

The smallest twinge of his very hardened conscience reminded Jasper he was planning cold-blooded murder right smack-dab in the middle of a church. Right square in the sight of God. He braced himself for a lightning bolt. None came, but it wasn't for lack of deserving one.

“I do.” Trixie squeezed his hand again and it drew his eyes around. She was looking at him with love in her eyes.

Jasper did his best to keep the pity out of his expression, because he felt sorry for anyone who was hobbled with the burden of loving him. Mostly the folks that had done that in his life had died.

The vows were done, and Jasper led Trixie down the aisle at a fast walk. Glad to escape the religious fire in the parson's eyes. Jasper's mind turned to the wedding night.

“We need to get back on our horses and keep riding, Jasper,” Trixie whispered. “Bryan is too close to Houston.”

“No one will recognize us dressed like this.” Jasper looked down at the coarse cloth of his shirt and pants. He studied Trixie in blue gingham sprigged with white flowers. He felt another pang of pity. This time for both of them. He purely missed the feel of silk on his body.

“We aren't staying here.” Trixie dragged him to the horses, and Jasper went along. She'd have to stop running sometime, and it was true that there could be people in Bryan who'd know him.

He was getting a little old to be all worked up about the wedding night anyway. Right now, despite the vows and the tradition of a first night together as man and wife, Jasper was more interested in a safe place to bed down and a long night's sleep. And revenge.