When Love Comes (17 page)

The sheriff was making it hard for Carruthers to refuse.

“I know you’ve got a tough job,” Carruthers said. “I don’t want the citizens of Cactus Bend to blame me for keeping you from your work if something terrible was to happen back in town.”

“I got two deputies who can handle anything I can,” the sheriff said.

“I’m sure they can, but nobody respects them the same way they do you.”

The sheriff turned his head a little to the side and stared at Carruthers for a moment. “You wouldn’t be trying to keep
me
off your range, would you?”

Carruthers’s temper slipped out of control. The muscles in his face contorted, his skin grew dark, and his eyes flashed what looked like uncontrollable rage. “I don’t want anybody on my range,” he exploded, “especially those two.” He stabbed a finger at Broc, then at Dan. “Get them out of here now.”

The sheriff waited a moment. Broc presumed he was as curious about the change in Carruthers as he was. The man’s color faded, his muscles relaxed, and the fire in his eyes dimmed until only a tiny spark remained.

“Broc is the Lazy T foreman,” the sheriff said. “It’s his job to take responsibility for any cows we find. Since no one other than your crew knows anything about your range, Dan has volunteered to make sure we don’t get lost. You’ve got a lot of land out there.”

“I’ve ordered my men to ride with them every step of the way,” Carruthers said. “They put a rope on even one of my cows, and I’m hanging them for rustling.”

“If you don’t have anything else to say, I need to—”

Carruthers cut the sheriff off in midsentence. “I’m warning you,” he said to Broc and Dan. “Step one foot wrong, and you’re dead men.”

“As I was about to say,” the sheriff continued, “I think it would be a good idea if everyone gave up their guns.”

Broc had noticed all of Carruthers’s cowhands were armed today.

“My men are not giving up their guns on my own land.” Carruthers glared at Dan.

“They won’t need them with me here.”

“What about when you leave?”

“I’ll be here all day. Have one of your men collect their guns.”

That was welcome news to Broc.

“You can’t force me to ride without a gun on my own land,” Carruthers shouted.

“I’m asking,” the sheriff said.

“And I’m refusing for me and my men.”

But his men had already started giving up their weapons and didn’t look eager to take them back. Broc thought Carruthers looked angry enough to shoot the whole bunch. He’d be glad when this roundup was over.

“You have an incredible voice,” Broc said to Priscilla. “I was so flabbergasted I could hardly play.”

Priscilla looked so thrilled, Broc was afraid she might start crying with happiness.

“I’ve seen you in church, but I’ve never heard you sing,” Amanda said.

“Papa doesn’t like me to sing where anybody can hear me.”

Broc was so tired, he had half hoped Priscilla wouldn’t show up. Their day of rounding up strays had been one of the most difficult and tension filled of his life. With Dan’s help, they’d located most of the missing cattle quickly. There were so many, the sheriff had enlisted some of Carruthers’s men to drive them back to Lazy T range. That was just one of the things that had caused Carruthers to fall into a rage.

Carruthers had stayed with them the entire day, badgering the sheriff, haranguing his men, and threatening Broc and Dan. Amanda was the only one spared his verbal abuse, but some of the looks Carruthers directed toward her were nearly as hate filled as those he reserved for Broc and Dan. It got so bad, the sheriff had to position himself between Carruthers and the Lazy T riders. Dan had insisted that they ride to every part of the range where he’d seen Lazy T cows.
It appeared that all of those cows had simply strayed from one range to another as longhorns usually did, but for some reason seeing them rounded up and headed back to their home range infuriated Carruthers more than the hundred or so that Gary had moved.

“I never touched that bull,” he’d shouted when Amanda demanded an explanation of why cows bearing Carruthers’s brand had calves by her stud bull. “I can’t help it if he gets out and breeds with my cows.”

Amanda had been left without a leg to stand on because the bull
had
gotten out several times. Broc figured Gary was responsible for that, too.

Carruthers’s parting shot had been a demand that he and his men be allowed to search the Lazy T. That meant tomorrow would probably be just as tense and tiring as today. Fortunately, the sheriff had said he’d ride with them again. That news had plunged Carruthers into another fit of rage. It was a testament to how desperate Priscilla was to sing that she’d come into town.

“Do you really think my voice is good enough for the professional stage?”

“Your voice is good enough for just about anything you want to do,” Broc said, “but you need a lot of training. You sing like you don’t know what to do with your voice.”

“Will you help me?” Priscilla asked.

“I’ll do what I can to help you get used to your voice and get it under control. Once your voice is in shape—it’s a lot like being in shape to ride, run, or do anything physically strenuous—you’ll need to find a vocal teacher who can prepare you for the kind of career you want. Do you have something else you want to sing?”

Broc couldn’t understand why Carruthers didn’t realize his daughter had a truly remarkable talent. How could any father hear that voice and not realize his daughter had been
blessed with a remarkable gift? The note she was holding now was like liquid gold. It poured from her with such ease, with such full-bodied resonance, he wanted to stop playing and just listen. Amanda sat with her eyes closed, an expression of wonder on her face, as Priscilla’s voice soared in the little church and—

The sound of doors being flung open caused Priscilla’s voice to break off with a squawk. Broc turned to see Carruthers striding down the center of the church, a look of pure fury on his face.

“How dare you disobey me!” Carruthers shouted. “I’ll flay the hide off you for this.”

Broc had seen Carruthers angry, but he’d never seen the man like this. It took only one glance at her father to turn Priscilla from a smiling, happy young woman into a frightened, cowering child. Amanda reached Priscilla first, positioning herself between Priscilla and her father.

“What are you so upset about?” she asked Carruthers. “Priscilla was only singing for me.”

Carruthers was so furious, even the veins in his neck stood out.

“I don’t care if she was singing for God,” he thundered. “I told her if she sang so much as one note outside the house, I’d burn every piece of music she owned.”

“She has a beautiful voice, quite a remarkable gift.” Amanda held her ground despite Carruthers’s attempts to reach his daughter. “You should be proud of her.”

“Why should I be proud of something that makes her want to parade herself in front of a lot of strangers like a common hussy?”

“With a voice like hers, there would be nothing common about anything she did.”

“I’m not interested in the opinion of a woman who earns a living by displaying herself in front of a lot of drunks.
I intend to make sure my daughter understands I won’t let her do the same. Now get out of my way.”

When Carruthers reached out to push Amanda aside, he came into contact with Broc instead.

“Lay one hand on Amanda, and you’ll be carried out of this church. You’re too upset to think straight right now. Why don’t you take a few minutes to calm down?”

“This is all your fault!” Carruthers raged at Broc. “Priscilla has always been a sweet girl. She would never have gone against me if you hadn’t encouraged her.”

Broc decided not to tell Carruthers the meeting had been Priscilla’s idea. “I just offered to play for her, not encourage her to sing for anybody else. Oscar can’t do her justice.”

“I intend to see she never sings another note,” Carruthers stormed. “Now get out of my way.”

“Not until you calm down.”

Broc was ready for the attack. He blocked the man’s punch and hit him three times in quick succession. Carruthers wasn’t weak or cowardly, but he hit the floor with a thud.

“I’ll kill you for this,” Carruthers threatened through lips that were split and beginning to bleed. “I’ll feed your carcass to the coyotes.”

Broc rubbed his sore knuckles while he tried to figure out what to do next. The sheriff wasn’t going to be happy about what he’d done. The sound of the church door opening caused him to look up. Dan Walch came striding down the aisle toward them. He stopped a few feet away from where Carruthers lay.

“I heard he’d come after Priscilla. I got here as soon as I could.”

“What can you do? He fired you.”

“I don’t care what you do with him. I’m here to make sure Priscilla gets home safely.”

Broc turned to Priscilla, but the words he’d meant to say
were never uttered. The look on her face was clearly that of someone deeply in love. He turned and encountered the same look on Dan’s face. Hell, he thought to himself. Things are complicated enough without this.

“Getting her home safely is the easy part,” Broc said. “It’s keeping her safe that’s the problem.”

“You can’t protect her if you’re not with her,” Amanda said, “and Carruthers isn’t going to allow you anywhere near his house.”

“I’ll shoot the damned bastard if he sets one foot on my range,” Carruthers said through rapidly swelling lips.

“She can stay in a hotel,” Dan suggested.

“Not without someone to stay with her.” Amanda turned to Priscilla. “You’re coming home with me.”

“She’s coming home with me,” Carruthers shouted.

“No, she’s not,” Dan said. “And if you so much as touch her, you’ll answer to me.”

Broc was beginning to feel it would have been easier to just go to jail. How could he have guessed that notifying the Liscombs of an unpaid debt would land him neck-deep in a whole mess of troubles? Now he had a love-struck couple on his hands when he didn’t know what to do about his own situation.

“I’d better see about getting Amanda and Priscilla home. Don’t argue,” Broc said, when Dan started to disagree. He looked down at Carruthers, who was now in a sitting position. “You need to explain this situation to the sheriff. He’s the only one who has a chance to fix this without anybody getting hurt.”

“Okay, but I’m coming out to the Lazy T afterward.” He turned to Amanda. “I’ll work for you without pay. I just want to make sure Priscilla is safe.”

They continued to discuss a few logistics despite Carruthers’s shouted threats to kill all of them.

“Do you want me to do something with him?” Dan asked Broc when they were ready to go.

“Just make sure he doesn’t follow us.”

“You can be sure of that.” Dan turned to Carruthers. “Get up, you hateful old bastard. You’re defiling this church just by being here.”

“I’ll make you pay for this,” Carruthers said as he struggled to his feet. “I’ll make all of you pay.”

Priscilla’s move to the Lazy T had several unexpected results, not the least of which was Gary’s return home. Priscilla helped Amanda’s mother with the cooking and cleaning while Dan proved himself an invaluable cowhand. Not only did he know as much as Broc about ranching, he was able to coax Andy into taking a genuine interest in his work.

The most unexpected aspect of Gary’s return was that he started working on the ranch again. Amanda decided he could only have forced himself to do something he hated so much because he was desperate for a chance to see and talk to Priscilla as well as keep an eye on Dan.

“Can’t you see she’s in love with Dan, and he’s in love with her?” Amanda had asked her brother less than an hour after he returned home.

“She hardly ever saw me, but she saw him all the time,” Gary had said. “Now she’ll get to see me as much.”

Amanda had given up after that.

Mrs. Liscomb had been very cool about opening her home to Priscilla. Amanda wasn’t sure whether it was that Priscilla was the daughter of the man who was trying to ruin the Liscombs, or that she was the daughter of the woman her mother hoped to supplant as the leader of Cactus Bend society, but her attitude had undergone a dramatic change when Mrs. Carruthers descended on them the next morning. The woman’s weeping over her husband’s cruelties had caused
her mother’s resistance to thaw. It melted completely when Mrs. Carruthers hugged her mother and praised her as an angel of God, a beacon of hope, a bastion of courage. It didn’t hurt that Mrs. Carruthers assured her that Priscilla would be more than happy to do her share of the cooking and cleaning. It became an honor to give the girl temporary asylum when it became clear Mrs. Carruthers now considered Amanda’s mother her best and closest friend.

Priscilla was happy because she could see Dan at meals and could sing whenever she wanted.

And Amanda was happy, too. For the first time in her life, she had a woman her age to talk to about the thoughts paramount in her mind. “What does it feel like to be in love?” she asked Priscilla the first evening she didn’t have to sing in the saloon.

Priscilla giggled. “It makes me happy. When I think about Dan, I tend to giggle like I did just now.”

Thinking about Broc had never made Amanda giggle. In fact, her reaction had been quite different. She wondered if she had the courage to mention it to Priscilla.

“Dan doesn’t care that I’m so tall.” Priscilla giggled again. “He’s so big, I seem small to him.”

Amanda decided they weren’t very different. Priscilla didn’t want to be seen as a giant, and Amanda was tired of feeling like just a pretty face. “Has he asked you to marry him?”

Priscilla blushed. “No. He thinks I’m too good for him. We get so little time together, I haven’t had an opportunity to convince him I don’t care if he isn’t rich. We wouldn’t have had a chance to talk at all if Papa hadn’t assigned him to drive me to town whenever I came without Mama.” She sighed. “He’s such a sweet man. He thinks I’m beautiful.” She laughed. “I’m built too much like my father to ever be beautiful, but I don’t contradict him when he tells me he thinks I’m prettier than you.” She laughed so hard she fell
back on the bed where they’d been sitting side by side. “That’s when I knew he really did love me.”

That made Amanda wonder whether she’d been able to convince Broc she didn’t care about his scars.

“You’re in love with Broc, aren’t you?” Priscilla asked.

“Is it that obvious?”

“It is to me. He’s in love with you, too.”

“How can you tell?” Despite the kisses they’d shared, they’d never spoken of love.

“He looks at you the same way Dan looks at me. His face softens and his eyes grow luminous.” She leaned over and whispered. “I can tell Dan
wants
me.” She giggled. “Isn’t it wonderful to have that effect on a man?”

Amanda wasn’t sure. She’d been wanted by so many men, she’d been hoping desire wouldn’t be part of Broc’s feeling toward her. Now that she thought about it, she wondered if that was unnatural. Surely a woman would hope the man who loved her would want her body as much as he wanted the rest of her. She hadn’t realized until now that she had feared seeing that look in Broc’s eyes. “Do you want to have that effect on a man?” she asked.

Priscilla sat up, her smile rapturous. “Of course I do. Don’t you feel the same?” Her excitement faded. “You’re so gorgeous, every man wants you. Does that make you feel a little bit hunted?”

“Yes!” Amanda was ecstatic she’d finally found someone who understood how she felt. “I guess that’s why I’m always having dreams of being chased by some wild animal.”

“Do you ever dream of being rescued?”

“Sometimes. Recently.”

“Who rescues you?”

Amanda felt a smile begin to grow. “Broc.”

Priscilla grinned. “That proves you’re not afraid of him.”

Amanda realized that even before the kisses, she had always
felt comfortable with Broc. Even when she doubted him because of the issue with the debt, she felt safe around him. Most important, she wanted to be with him. Part of her reason for insisting that she would begin riding every day was to be with Broc. She liked talking to him. She liked performing with him. Most of all, she liked the moments when they could be together long enough to steal a few kisses. They never talked about the future, but she decided that would have to change. She was in love with Broc, and she didn’t mean to let him walk out of her life.

“Taking part in plays is not demeaning,” Broc said to Mrs. Liscomb. “Members of the British aristocracy stage them in their mansions all the time.” Broc had known Mrs. Liscomb would oppose his plan to stage a skit for the saloon. He was about to abandon the idea when Mrs. Carruthers arrived.

“Let’s see what he has in mind,” Mrs. Carruthers said. “It might not be so bad.”

Mrs. Liscomb didn’t look happy, but she wasn’t willing to oppose Mrs. Carruthers.

“I’m thinking of a simple plot about a good guy rescuing a maiden in distress from the bad guy.”

“I want to be the bad guy,” Eddie declared.

“Who’d be afraid of you?” Gary scoffed.

“I would,” Dan said. “Eddie can be really fierce.”

Eddie threw out his skinny chest with pride. “I can beat up any old villain,” he told Gary.

“No, you can’t.”

“Yes, I can ’cause Broc and Dan will help me.”

“I thought I’d be the villain.” Broc turned his scarred face toward Eddie. “One look at this, and anybody would be scared to tangle with me.”

Eddie looked confused. “I don’t think you look scary.”

“I don’t, either, and I don’t want you to do it.”

Broc turned to Amanda. “Why not?”

“I already told you.”

“What did you tell him?” Eddie asked.

Amanda hesitated. A glance at Priscilla gave her courage. “I told him I thought his wounds were visible proof of his courage. I also said I thought it was extraordinary that he had the inner strength to face the world knowing how so many people would react.”

“I agree,” Priscilla said.

Broc wasn’t sure how he got the next words out, but somehow he found himself saying, “I appreciate that, but it makes sense to use any advantage we have.” He paused, then smiled. “I’m going to play the hero
and
the villain. Hopefully, that will turn this into a comedy.”

Gary protested. “You can’t be two people.”

“It just takes a little imagination, a cleverly made costume, and a little face paint.”

“Can I wear face paint?” Eddie asked.

A slow smile spread over Amanda’s face.

“Do you know what I’m going to do?” Broc asked her.

“I think so.”

“What?”

“One side will be the hero and the other the villain.”

Broc felt a surge of warmth. It was silly to let something so inconsequential make him feel mushy inside, but he couldn’t help it when it came to Amanda.

“I want everybody to have a part,” he said.

“I’m not acting in no play,” Gary declared.

“Nobody wants you to,” Eddie said. “You’re a terrible actor.”

“You’ve never seen me act, because I’ve never done it,” Gary said.

“That’s why you’d be terrible,” Eddie stated, proud of his deduction.

“Naturally I won’t take part,” Mrs. Liscomb said.

Broc had plans for Mrs. Liscomb, but decided to ignore her just now. He turned to Priscilla. “I’d like to start with you.”

“Me!” Priscilla looked both shocked and pleased.

“My idea is that you and Amanda will stroll on the stage together. You’ll be telling her how you long to meet someone special. You can sing the song you sang for me yesterday.”

Priscilla turned to her mother. “Do you think I should?”

Mrs. Carruthers thought for a moment. “I don’t see what would be wrong with that as long as I’m there. You did say you wanted all of us to take part,” she said, turning to Broc.

“I’d like you and Mrs. Liscomb to have a brief conversation about young people falling in love and some of the complications.”

“Should it be amusing?”

“I hope so.”

“I can’t do that,” Mrs. Liscomb objected. “What would people think?”

“They’ll think what we tell them to think, Grace,” Mrs. Carruthers said. “After all, we’re the most influential women in Cactus Bend.”