Tess stared at him. He obviously understood completely what was going
on, but she didn't have the least idea.
"What?"
"Miss. Stuart," Cole Slater told her, drawing out a chair and sitting
back in it, "the railroad is coming through here.
That means that this property is going to go sky-high in value. If you
wanted to sell some land straight, it would be worth a small fortune."
"But there's more," Jon Red Feather told her softly.
"If 9ou do sell just the necessary land, the rest of your property will
still go sky-rocketing in value--you'll be able to send your produce
right out from your own doorstep. Tess, you're sitting on the best land
this side of the Mississippi. And that's why von Heusen has been so
desperate to get rid of you. With this property in his hands, he could
really control a good percentage of western Texas."
Tess smiled slowly, looking at Jamie.
"But--but he can't touch any of it now. He must know that! Half of it is
in your name, and even if we hadn't returned" -- "Ownership would have
come to Cole and me and our families," Malachi supplied for her.
"Well, he must know that."
"He does know that," Jon said. Gabe was sitting beside him, and he
tousled the lad's brown hair to be rewarded with a fascinated smile. Jon
smiled in turn, then gave Tess his attention again.
"I let it be known that Jamie had found you and that he'd be bringing
you home. I also went to see Edward Clancy and had him print up the
arrival of Cole and Malachi--and I stressed the ability of the Slater
brothers with their small arms."
"A couple of von Heusen's men rode out here the other day. But we
uninvited them quickly," ICRISTIN said, heaping mashed potatoes on a
plate to pass to Jori. "Cole or Malachi scared them away?" Tess asked.
"Oh, no, Shannon did," Kfistin said.
"She's an ace."
"I'm a decent shot," Shannon said demurely.
"She can hit a fly's eye at a hundred yards," Malachi said drily.
They all laughed, but' Cole sobered quickly and spoke to Jamie in low,
even tones.
"The point is, this von Heusen knows that scare tactics aren't going to
work with Miss. Stuart anymore. No one can quite fathom what he'll pull
next."
"Well, he'll have more to worry about after tomorrow," Tess said firmly.
"I'm going to go to the paper and I'm going to give Clancy another
front-page story. It's going to be all about David and Jeremiah and Mr.
yon Heusen's orders to see that I never returned."
"There might be a few problems with that," Jon advised her.
"Why?"
" Tess asked.
"Because Clancy and your printer gave in at last. Someone shot a few
windows yesterday, and by last night, Clancy had thrown in the towel. He
wanted you to know that he was sorry."
Tess inhaled and exhaled.
"I can do it myself," she said. "You won't have to do it yourself,"
Kristin corrected her, sitting at last with her own plate.
"Dolly and Jane can keep the children here, and Shannon and I will come
in and help you with the press. If you give us directions, we can surely
follow them. The three of us will go into town first thing in the
morning" -- "NOV' Jamie said emphatically.
"I have to," Tess began, turning, ready to give battle. "Jamie, I've
told you" -- "The three of you aren't going anywhere alone," he
intempted harshly.
"It isn't safe. Dammr to hell, Tess! Don't you understand yet?"
"I understand that the newspaper has always been my maj or weapon."
"But right now it isn't enough. Okay, we'll go. You'll do your damned
article, but we'll go together. Tess, what do I have to say to get
through to you? When yon Heusen attacks again, it's going to be all-out
war."
She wanted to retort. She was furious. He was right, of course, but she
still wanted to yell at him.
Fighting desperately to hold her tongue, she looked at Jon.
"How did you find all this out?"
He shrugged.
"I was still in buckskins when I came back, and I didn't change before I
made a visit into town. Von Heusen had one of his guns follow me. I knew
it, so I doubled back and got hold of him. As it happened, Cole and
Malachi had been riding in to meet me." "And," Malachi said, grinning,
"Jon just happened to be dressed for the occasion."
Tess was still confused. Kristin sighed and explained. "Cole and Malachi
convinced von Heusen's hired goon that Jon was scarcely more than a raw
savage and that he actually delighted in human flesh. Between the three
of them they barely had to touch the fellow before he was spilling
everything he had ever known in his life."
Tess smiled and glanced at Jamie.
He was not smiling. She looked away quickly, pushing a piece of roast
around on her plate. They were a lot alike, the Slater brothers. Cole
was the darkest, with golden eyes--his little boy had those eyes, even
though he had his mother's soft blond hair. Malachi was a golden blond
with blue eyes, and Jamie was sandy-haired with his smoke gray and
silver eyes. But the planes of their faces were similar, strong and hard
and weathered. She realized suddenly that she would trust any of the
brothers with anything she had.
And she didn't really mean to keep fighting Jamie. It just kept coming
out that way.
He stood up suddenly, his chair scraping back.
"That was a fine meal, Kristin, Shannon--Dolly?"
"We all contributed," Kristin told him.
"Well, thank you, but I think I need a little air. You got a good
cheroot on you anywhere, Cole?"
"Sure," said his brother, rising as well. He stopped by his wife's chair
and kissed her tenderly at the base of the neck before following Jamie
out.
"Seems like we're splitting up here," Malachi said. "Well, don't stay on
my account!" Shannon told him.
He laughed, shrugged at Jon, and the two of them left. Hank followed
them and the women were left--Jane, who had barely said a word, Dolly,
who was unbelievably quiet, and Shannon and Kristin and Tess.
"All this to make a meal, and then it's just wolfed down, and then
everyone runs" -- "Ma," Gabe suddenly interrupted from the end of the
table.
"I cleaned my plate. Can I go join Pa?"
Kristin threw up her hands, and Tess felt some of the tension leave her
as she laughed.
"Go!" Kristin told her son.
He smiled, excused hun self politely to Tess and ran out of the house.
"We might as well pick up," Shannon said. "Might as well."
Things went quickly with five of them to do the clearing, the scraping,
the washing and the drying. Shannon asked Tess what it had been like
with the Apache, and by the time she finished with her story about Jon
and Jamie appearing at just the fight time, they had finished the
dishes. Jane and Dolly kissed Tess again and went to bed. Shannon and
Kristin and Tess made tea and then sat around the kitchen table, staring
at one another.
"And then this Nalte let you go--just because Jamie asked for you? He
let
you go to Jamie?" Kfistin said.
Tess felt herself flush, wondering how to avoid saying the very thing
the Indian chief had so clearly understood.
"He, uh, he ..."
"Oh, for God's sake, Kristin, they've been sleeping together and this
Nalte man knew it!" Shannon exclaimed.
"Shannon!" gris ting protested.
"Well, all right, I'm terribly sorry, but Ktistin and I both married
Slater men. I know. They're so easy to want to shoot, but at the same
time ..." Her voice trailed away and she was really beautiful as she
grinned.
"Well, they are easy to sleep with. Seductive."
Tess knew she had to be a thousand shades of crimson. Kristin sighed.
"He's very much in love with you. I'm sure We'll see a wedding any day."
"I'm not terribly sure about that."
"He called us here. To protect your interests. He must love you."
"I've turned over half the property to him. It's his own property he's
protecting." "Urn. Did he bargain for anything else?" Kristin asked her.
She didn't know why she was being so honest except that somehow she felt
she had known the two women all her life.
Maybe it was because they had all become involved with Slater men.
"Maybe they just don't marry easily," Shannon suggested.
"Cole had to marry me," gris ting said.
"Oh, the baby?"
"No!" gris ting 'laughed.
"There was a horrible, horrible man after me.
The war was going on and the only way he could count on some protection
from some old acquaintances was to be able to say that I was his wife.
He fell in love with me slowly; it took him a long time." She smiled
sweetly at Shannon.
"And Malachi had to marry Shannon."
"Well, he didn't have to," Shannon protdsted. "The twins?" Tess asked.
"No, a shotgun," Shannon explained ruefully. They both laughed, and
Shannon took a deep breath and tried to explain that Kristin was her
sister, and that Kfistin had been in trouble.
She and Malachi had gone after her, and a kindly old couple had derided
the two of them had to be married. "But they'd been in' love for years.
They wouldn't admit it, of course, because they were too busy gouging
one another's eyes out."
"Oh, it never was that bad!" Shannon protested. "No, it was worse!"
Kristin said. She stood up.
"I think that we need a drop of brandy to go with this, too. Girls?"
Shannon and Tess both agreed. Then Tess yawned and complained that her
buckskins were filthy and that she felt as if half of Texas was covering
her.
The sisters quickly had the hip tub out and filled, and Shannon was
racing upstairs for French bath oil, and before she knew it Kristin was
presenting her with a lilac nightgown that matched her eyes. "I can't
take these things!" Tess protested.
"But you can. It's all in the family," Shannon told her. Tess shook her
head.
"I heard Jamie once. He said that no one would ever make him get
married." Kristin shrugged.
"They can't force him--but he just might choose to do so on his own."
' "Do you want him?" Shannon asked her.
Tess f~it her heart beat hard and she closed her eyes. Yes! Yes, she
wanted Jamie desperately. She had wanted him his eyes had first fallen
upon her, since he had killed since he had told her in a soft voice that
she was Since that day by the stream before the nightmare had begun and
he had touched her and said, "I think I'm falling in love with you ..."
But that had been before they had nearly been destroyea, before he had
lost his beloved cavalry mount to retrieve her.
She was trouble. He had told her that again and again. He had walked out
at dinner because he had been so furious with her that he hadn't been
able to stay at the table. "Do you?"
Shannon persisted.
"Yes," Tess admitted softly.
"I want him. For keeps."
"Then forget the arguments. Even forget the fact that you'll probably
never get along. I have," Shannon said cheerily.
"Forget von Heusen, forget everything, and cherish what time you have
together in peace."
"And get in the tub with the rose oil," Kristin suggested drily.
"There's just nothing like a very sweet smell."
"And a see-through lilac gown to match your eyes! Aren't they beautiful
eyes, Kristin?" "And she's not jealous often," Kristin said, laughing.
Feeling loved and protected, Tess stepped into the water and felt the
steam surround her. It was good to be home.
"I'm more worried now that I know just what this man is after," Jamie
said.
He was sitting on the rocker on the porch. Jori was perched on the
railing with Cole, and Malachi was seated across from him on the swing.
It creaked slowly in the night air.
Jamie exhaled. He looked at his brothers.
"Thanks for coming. I'm just wishing right now that I hadn't had you
bring Kristin and Shannon."
"Jamie, you've known the McCahy girls a long time," Cole said drily.
"And you should know at this point that they wouldn't have it any other
way."
"I just don't know what this man might plan. I do know that he keeps
twenty to thirty hired guns on his property at all times."
"We've met up with bad odds~ before Malachi reminded him.
you, your wives or your children killed on my account."
Gabe came out then. He glanced at his father and it was obvious he had
heard some of what had been said. He went straight up to his Uncle Jamie
and took his trail-toughened face into his hands.
"There's right and wrong, Uncle Jamie, and you know that. And my pa and
my ma, they say you have to fight what's wrong, because if you just give
in, it'll bury you in the end.
I don't mind fighting. Not if it's the right thing to do."
Jamie lifted his nephew and hugged him tightly. Cole smiled.
"I rest my case."
"Malachi, those twins of yours aren't quite three years old. You think
they feel the same way?"
"Jamie, we're here, and that's it," Malachi said flatly. "Now, what
about Tess?"
"What about her?" Jamie scowled.
"She's the hardest creature to tangle with I have ever encountered,
Yanks and Indians and rattlers included." "Think you're going to marry
her?" Malachi asked pleasantly.
"If he doesn't do so soon," Jon Red Feather supplied, "I
"Damn you, Jon" -- I'll have to, to keep the poor woman honest." ,~
Jamie ou know the lot of you, you may be but I'm " She's beautiful, very
bright and has the will of a wildcat. Besides that, she's worth a damned
fortune. He's already absconded with half her property," Malachi said."
Wait a damned minute!" Jamie protested.
"The least you could do is marry her," Cole said. Jamie threw up his
hands.
"Thank you, one and all, for coming. And now I'll thank you, one and
all, to mind your own damned bus' mess Good night."
He set Gabe on the rocker and headed into the house. He was halfway up
&nbs
p; the stairs before he realized he didn't know if he had a room in the
house. His brothers and Kristin and Shannon and even the kids seemed
very happily moved in.
But where the hell he was supposed to be, he didn't know. He headed for
Tess's room, wondering what her reaction was going to be. If she
threatened to scream and bring the house down he thought he'd throttle
her.
He tapped on her door, then pushed it open.
"Tess?" "Jamie?" She said his name softly, sweetly. Her voice touched
the air like the fragrance of roses that seemed to be all around the
room, light as stardust. Her whisper was sultry, as if he had awakened
her.
He strode across the room then paused, seeing how the moon entered
through the window and glowed upon bet.
Her hair was shining with greater splendor than any sunset, and it was
spread out behind her as if each strand were a glorious ray of the sun.
She was dressed in violet, a shade that matched her eyes in the darkness
of the night. A shade that was barely concealing, a shade that managed
to enhance every beautiful line and curve of her body.
"Tess, where the hell" -- He paused, clearing his throat, wondering why
the hell he was getting so damned angry.
"Tess, where am I supposed to--oh, the hell with it!" he growled.
He didn't see her smile as he dropped forcefully upon her, sweeping her
into his arms. He didn't really see anything 271 except the color of her
hair, entwining and tangling around him. He breathed in the clean, sweet
scent of her, and he could barely contain his longings. The Apache had
kept them apart for the last two long nights. He hadn't realized how
badly he could need her after such a short time, how much he could crave
her. She was like a sweet a man thought he tasted once, and yet wanted
more and more once he knew the exotic taste. He kissed her fiercely, and
he kissed her long, and he felt the frantic rise of her breasts against
his hand as she lost her breath. Only when she trembled and gasped did
he raise his head and stare at her.
"I'm staying here. We're doing it my way, remember?"
She returned his stare. Her arms wound around him, and she pressed her
lips to his, then she shoved him slightly away from her and started to
open his shirt buttons. Slowly, achingly slowly, she opened them one by
one, pressing her lips against his flesh. And when his shirt was east
aside she tenderly nipped and kissed his shoulders while she tugged at