Kendrick: Outlaw's Bride Part 21

"Come on," he said to his friends, throwing his free arm around Frank's shoulder. "Let's go see the sheriff."

Frank excused himself before they got to the main street of town. "Considering Trahern's my boss, I think maybe I'd better leave you two here. Remember to watch out for Calloway," he said to Ethan in parting.

"Who's Calloway?" Boyd asked once Frank was gone.

"The gunfighter Trahern has hired to put me six feet under."

"Calloway. Sounds familiar." Boyd repeated the name several times to himself, then snapped his fingers as he recollected where he had heard it before. "I remember now. Calloway's a bounty hunter. Goes after outlaws with a price on their heads, men wanted dead or alive. Rumor is, Calloway brings them back dead. All done legal, of course."

"Of course." Ethan frowned as he considered what Boyd had revealed. "I'm not wanted by the law anymore. I wonder what Trahern told Calloway about me when he hired him on. Especially if Calloway likes his killing to be legal."

"You can bet he made it look like the fact you're not a wanted man is just a technicality," Boyd said. "And I'm sure he put the price high enough for Calloway to ignore the small print."

"Still, it might be worth having a talk with Calloway sometime."

Boyd grinned and shook his head. "You never cease to amaze me, Ethan. What makes you think that bounty hunter is going to let you get two words out of your mouth before he shoots you?"

"You've been living on the right side of the law too long, Boyd. There is such a thing as honor among thieves."

Boyd grinned his charming grin. "I'll take your word for it."

They stepped out of an alley onto Main Street a few doors down from the jail. And saw Jefferson Trahern leaving the sheriff's office.

Ethan froze. Here was the man who had murdered his father. Poisoned his mother. Put him in prison for seven long, nightmarish years. Here was the man who wanted his sister orphaned. Who wanted him dead.

"Trahern!" he shouted. "I'm going to kill you!"

The whole of Main Street stood frozen in tableau as Ethan made his threat.

Ethan had reached the middle of the street by the time Boyd caught up to him. Boyd grabbed Ethan around the chest from behind and pinned his arms so he couldn't reach his gun. "Have you lost your wits, Ethan?" he hissed in his friend's ear. "Do you want to end up swinging from a rope for murder?"

"Let me go, Boyd. I'm going to kill him."

Trahern had opened the jailhouse door and called inside to the sheriff. Careless immediately appeared on the boardwalk beside him. It was clear the sheriff didn't want any part of what was happening, but Trahern gave him a shove and he headed toward Ethan.

"Now, Ethan," Careless said, shoving his gunbelt down under his belly where it was more comfortable. "What's all this about?"

"Trahern killed my father. He poisoned my mother. He deserves to die."

"What are you ranting about?" Trahern demanded from where he stood on the boardwalk. "I did no such thing."

"No sense lying," Ethan said. "We found the a.r.s.enic you used to do the job."

"You're insane! stark raving crazy!"

The townsfolk listened with big ears. No one had ever challenged Trahern. Not until now.

"It's your turn to watch your back, Trahern," Ethan shouted across to Trahern. "You won't know when the bullet's coming, or where it'll happen. But if it's the last thing I do, I'm going to kill you."

Trahern didn't dignify Ethan's final threat with a response. He simply called to Careless, "Sheriff, arrest that man."

Careless felt like a worm in a bed of ants. If he wasn't careful, he'd get eaten alive. "h.e.l.l, Mr. Trahern. What'm I goin' to arrest him for? Ain't no law 'gainst talkin' like a jacka.s.s."

"Ethan Hawk just threatened to kill me," Trahern said, exasperated with the lack of response from the sheriff.

"Well, he ain't committed no crime till he does!" Careless snapped back.

The flush shot up Trahern's neck and left his cheeks ruddy with rage. "Do something, Careless, or you'll find yourself looking for a new job."

Careless swore up one side and down the other. He turned to Ethan and said, "Go on home 'fore I arrest you for loiterin'."

When Ethan began to back away, Boyd released him.

"I'm going," Ethan said. "But don't forget what I said. Soon, Trahern. Someday soon."

Ethan untangled the reins of his horse from the post in front of the saloon where he was tied, mounted, and rode out of town, leaving several nervous people behind him.

One man knew what had to be done now and set his plans in motion.

Ever since Patch had kissed Ethan in the barn, he had kept his distance. She wasn't sure what it was that made him stay away. She had the sneaking suspicion that Ethan thought he had to treat the lady she had become with kid gloves, and that his leather ones weren't a good enough subst.i.tute.

Patch wrinkled her nose in disgust. She had gone to a lot of trouble to become a lady because that was what she thought Ethan wanted her to be. But it seemed there wasn't much use for a lady on a ranch like the Double Diamond. More often than not, the work was backbreaking, grueling. It couldn't be done in a corset. Velvet and satin had no place on the prairie. Cotton and wool absorbed sweat better and could be cleaned easier.

Because being a lady hadn't seemed as important on the ranch, Patch had slipped back into a few old habits. A garn here and a durn it there hadn't seemed so bad. Sometimes the occasion demanded it. Like when she had found that hawk with a wing broken, flapping around in the chicken house, and Ethan had wanted to kill it.

"Durn it, Ethan! This bird wouldn't be caught dead chasing chickens if he could fly!" she had shouted.

"Well, he can't fly! I've got enough things to do on this ranch without running a refuge for chicken-stealing hawks!"

"I can fix its wing!" she had protested. "I know I can."

"Then what? Once you tame an animal like that, it won't want to fly free again."

"Garn! Who said I plan to tame it? I just want to help it get well! Then it's free to go whatever way it wants."

"What if it doesn't want to leave you? Then you'll be stuck with it!" he yelled.

"So I'll be stuck with it!" she shouted back. "I happen to love the poor, dumb animals that cross my path-and I don't feel stuck when they love me back!"

She had thought he was going to explode, he was so mad. He bit out, "Suit yourself!" and marched off in high dudgeon.

She had named the hawk Penny, because his feathers had a coppery sheen like a new Indian head penny. She kept him tied by one foot to a perch in the kitchen, and he had learned to take raw meat from her gloved hand. She had seen him eyeing the kittens and moved their basket to safety in the bedroom she shared with Leah. The racc.o.o.n, Bandit, knew enough to keep himself out of harm's way.

Leah had been fascinated by the hawk, and Patch had let the girl take over his feeding as she had with Dearie. In this particular respect, the love of wild animals, the two of them were in perfect accord. So when Leah found a rabbit caught in one of the rat traps Ethan had set around the barn, she brought it directly to Patch.

Patch took one look at Leah's white face and asked, "What's wrong?"

"His foot is cut nearly in two."

Patch hadn't been able to save the rabbit's left front paw. She had done some quick surgery and stopped the bleeding, and the rabbit seemed to be healing fine.

Ethan laughed when he heard Leah had named her new pet Lucky. "What's lucky about losing a foot? Especially a rabbit's foot."

"Don't you see?" Leah said as she cuddled the small brown rabbit close to her chest. "If I hadn't found him when I did, some coyote or hawk or snake might have come along and eaten him. I rescued him, instead. Wasn't that lucky?"

Ethan had protested that between Patch and Leah his home would soon be overrun by animals. In fact, since that night the menagerie had grown by a horned toad and a jar that contained a leafy stem upon which a caterpillar had spun itself into a chrysalis.

The kitchen door grated open, and Ethan leaned in to say, "Patch? Are you ready to go?"

"I'll be with you in a minute, Ethan."

She had begged Ethan to show her the cave he and Boyd and Frank had used as a secret hideout, and he was finally taking her there today. She had talked Grandpa Corwin into coming to the house to keep Leah and Nell-who was feeling better every day-company while they were gone.

Patch put down her pen and blew on the letter she was writing to her parents, to make sure it was dry before she folded it. She would get Grandpa Corwin to take it to the post office when he went back to town today. She stood and stretched out the kinks from sitting so long at the kitchen table writing.

Ethan was staring at her strangely, so she asked, "Is anything wrong?"

"Those are the pants you're wearing?"

Patch turned in a circle for him. "What do you think?"

He swallowed hard. "You look ... fine. Hurry up. I'll wait for you at the barn."

Patch looked down and tried to figure out what it was Ethan didn't like about the way she was dressed. He was the one who had insisted she wear pants. She had put on the jeans she had bought in town her first day in Oakville. While they were a little snug in the hips, she couldn't see anything wrong with them. She certainly wasn't about to change now.

Once they were on the trail, Patch could barely contain her excitement. "I've been wanting to see this cave ever since Frank first mentioned it."

"Why?"

"I guess because I've pictured the three of you there in my mind, and I wanted to see the real thing."

"Don't get your hopes up. It's not much to look at."

"Are you sure you don't mind taking the time to do this with me?"

Actually, Ethan had a dozen other things that should have claimed his attention. But at breakfast, when Patch had asked, he hadn't been able to say no. She had looked so beautiful, her eyes radiant, freckles scattered across her freshly washed face, that the thought of spending the morning with her had been too much to resist. He had agreed that, once his ch.o.r.es were done, he would show her the cave.

Ethan didn't regret his decision. But he could see he had underestimated the temptation he would face, alone with her like this, especially with her dressed in those pants.

He didn't want to talk about what was uppermost in both of their minds, so he remained silent. To his surprise, Patch was content to ride beside him, enjoying the peace and quiet.

When he pointed out the cave to her at last, she reined her horse to a stop and shaded her eyes so she could see it better. Their secret hideout was located along the bank of the Nueces, shaded by hackberry and elm. The cave opening was hidden by mesquite bushes and guarded by a patch of cat-claw cactus.

Patch urged her horse into a lope and jumped down from the saddle when she arrived at the cave opening, ready to explore. Ethan quickly followed her, caught up in her unrestrained enthusiasm.

"So this is the infamous secret cave. It's bigger than I expected it to be. I'll bet I could stand up in there." Patch stuck her upper body in the narrow opening and peered down inside. "It seems to go a long way back." She leaned in and shouted, "h.e.l.loooo!" Patch laughed when her voice echoed back to her.

Ethan was too busy looking at Patch's rear end in those d.a.m.ned tight-fitting pants to pay much attention to the cave. Why on earth had he agreed to bring her here? He should never have insisted she wear pants. It had been a distinct shock to see her long legs and shapely hips when what he had expected was the same shabby, formless trousers she had worn as a child. The snug Levi's were a forceful reminder that Patch Kendrick was a grown woman.

What was worse, Ethan knew they were completely alone, and that they were unlikely to be disturbed. The ideas he was having about Patch were enough to get him hung.

"Can we go inside the cave?" she asked.

"If you like."

"Which is better, to go in headfirst or feetfirst?"

"Let me go in first," Ethan said with a rueful grin. He wouldn't be able to stand the sight of Patch wriggling her way inside. "We used to keep a lantern in there and some matches in a tin box. I'll see if I can get you some light so you don't break your neck."

Patch was enchanted with the interior of the cave. Though the morning was sunny and hot, the cave was cool. It was bone dry inside, but the rock walls and floor were polished smooth as though water had once run through it. "How did you ever find this place?"

"I didn't. Boyd found it and shared it with me and Frank." Ethan lit the lantern and set it on a natural stone shelf.

Patch sat on a low, flat-topped rock that made a perfect chair. "You three must have had some wonderful times here."

Ethan forked himself down over a wooden crate that had been left in the cave. Between them lay a darkened circle ringed with stones that had obviously been a fireplace. "We used to meet here and talk and plan and dream."

"About what?"

"Girls, mostly."

"Did you have a special girl back then?"

Ethan shook his head. "Boyd was the ladies' man."

"I can believe it, as charming as he is now."

Ethan picked up a polished stone and smoothed it between his fingers. "We used to plan how we were going to own all the land around here. How we'd have so many cattle that at roundup time our longhorns would stretch as far as the eye could see.

"It's strange how our fortunes have changed. Of the three of us, Boyd had the least back then. Now he's a successful businessman with a ranch of his own. Frank is foreman of the largest spread in these parts. While I ..."

"You have the Double Diamond," Patch said.

Ethan snorted. "What's left of it. Most of the cattle have been rustled, the buildings all need repair, and the house is falling down around us. I'm flat broke, and I can't borrow money from the bank."

"Maybe Boyd would loan you some money."

"Sure he would! If I asked. But I'm not going to. All I've got left is my pride, dammit!"

Ethan threw the stone he was holding with all the force of the frustration he felt. It ricocheted off the stone wall and headed back toward Patch. "Look out!"

Ethan moved at the same time he yelled, grabbing Patch and tumbling her out of harm's way. They ended up on the floor of the cave in a tangled heap of arms and legs.

Patch was lying under Ethan, her single braid coming undone. She smiled up at him. "Seems like we've done this before."

Both of them were reminded vividly of the first day they had met in the Oakville Hotel, when Ethan had admired her, before he had known who she was. Ethan took his weight on his elbows, and his body slipped between her thighs. There was less cloth between them this time, only his jeans and hers.

Patch could feel the shape of him, the contours that made him male to her female. She felt his arousal, saw the quick flare of need in his eyes.