Jodi Thomas - WM 1 Page 19

  With the sigh, her mouth opened and he deepened the kiss, tasting her fully as though he’d been starving.

  She didn’t move, didn’t protest as he molded her to him.

  “This is what I’ve missed,” he whispered against her lips, “since the last time I saw you.”

  His mouth moved from hers and trailed down her throat. She cried softly, missing the kiss.

  He raised his head and stared down at her. She could see a fire in his eyes, a hunger and also uncertainty.

  Placing her hands on either side of his face, she pulled his mouth back to hers. After a moment he understood and returned to kissing her.

  She knew what he was doing would never be considered proper, but when he whispered her name, she held him closer.

  His hand grew bolder, passing gently over her breast. Even through the layers of material she could feel the warmth in his touch.

  Shaking with the wave of feelings flooding over her, Rainey cried out softly against his ear.

  He held her tenderly, stroking her until she took his touch without fear. When he moved freely once more over her body, his caress seemed familiar, and she silently welcomed it as if it were something she hadn’t known to miss all her life.

  With his hand capturing her breast, he raised his head enough so that their eyes met. “You like this?”

  “Yes,” she whispered as he tightened his grip slightly and sent fire dancing through her veins.

  “And this.” He kissed her so gently she ached for more.

  “Yes,” she answered as she pressed against him, feeling his palm flatten against her soft flesh.

  His words came low, whispered in her ear as almost a thought passing between them. “Then marry me, Rainey.”

  She pushed out of his arms and bolted several feet down the street before she heard him whisper her name once more.

  The wind seemed suddenly bitter cold after being next to him, but she didn’t turn around. She knew he followed but she wouldn’t, couldn’t face him.

  Here she’d thought how nice the evening was after he finished scaring her half to death and bullying her. They’d had a pleasant meal, he’d doctored her hand as if he truly cared. They’d enjoyed great kisses and a touching that still made her shake with pleasure, then he proved himself insane by asking her to marry him.

  All she thought she wanted was his letters. They were enough. Why did he have to show her more tonight? She liked the kissing, the touching, but that didn’t mean she wanted marriage. She’d crossed half a country to be free, and she would not be giving that freedom up just because he made her heart race. She had more sense than that.

  As she hurried along it crossed her thoughts that maybe Travis only wanted her for a night. Maybe he’d just offered marriage without ever planning to carry through. She didn’t know whether to be insulted or relieved.

  The dream of Travis McMurray was safe, but the reality was frightening. All these months she’d told herself that she would never give up her freedom and be ruled by some man. She’d fight to the death before she’d let her father catch her and force her to marry.

  Then Travis appeared and tried to chain her with kisses.

  She wasn’t falling for it, no matter how much she liked the way he touched her.

  CHAPTER 20

  TRAVIS FOLLOWED RAINEY THROUGH THE STREETS seeing that she got home safely. He made no effort to catch up to her, even if he had been able. Except for a few very memorable parts, the evening had been a disaster. He’d had better days when he’d been outnumbered by outlaws. It appeared he took to stepping out with a woman with about the same skill as he showed when dancing.

  If he hadn’t frightened her to death pulling her into the alley, his proposal of marriage surely did the job. The only explanation he could come up with was that he must have suffered brain damage from being wounded. A minute before, the idea of marrying her had been the furtherest thing from his mind. He was simply enjoying holding her, touching her, teaching her how to kiss. Then suddenly it crossed his thoughts that she’d know how next time. And next time it would be someone else kissing her.

  That was it, he decided. That was the moment all rational thought snapped in two and he asked her to marry him. Him! The man who never wanted to marry. Never wanted a family. Never wanted a wife at home worrying about him.

  He followed her another block. He knew nothing about her that would even hint that she’d be a good wife. She was a thief. Definitely violent, she’d tried to stab him less than two hours ago. Maybe that should have given him a hint as to how the evening would turn out. No doubt about her being a liar: It had taken him three times to get her to settle on a name, and he wasn’t sure she’d given him the right one yet.

  So why had he asked her the one question he thought he’d never ask?

  Travis swore, knowing the answer. This fairy woman brought the only sunshine to his colorless life. When he was with her, or even thinking about her, he felt more alive than he ever had. She felt so right in his arms, like a piece of his heart had always been missing and, somehow, she completed him. And touching her . . . he didn’t even want to think about the way touching her made him feel.

  Suddenly she stopped and looked back to see if he followed, and to his surprise she appeared relieved to see him. He walked to within stabbing distance of her, but kept his guard up knowing she probably had her little fingers curled around her knife.

  “I hate to ask for a crazy man’s help,” she said, moving her fists to her hips. “But I have to get to the back of the boardinghouse, and I don’t think I’m brave enough to walk into that blackness alone. Would you consider accompanying me, Mr. McMurray?”

  “Why don’t you just knock on the front door?”

  “Mrs. Vivian will not open it before seven a.m. It’s one of her house rules. She locks the house up and takes the only key to her room.”

  He walked closer, relieved she didn’t bring up the proposal. Maybe, if he were lucky, she’d just forget he said anything. After all, he’d only whispered it. “I’ll see you safely home, be it the front or the back door.”

  She took his arm with one hand and lifted the hem of her cape with the other. They moved into the alley. Travis’s eyes adjusted enough so that he led her around trash and mud holes. She was right to be worried: Behind the Askew House lay the dark side of Austin. As a Ranger he’d been called many times into the saloons to break up fights and drag away bodies. Rainey probably didn’t know it, but she lived only a few feet away from a boiling pot of trouble.

  When they reached the back steps of the Askew House, she tugged him to the side of the building.

  “I can go in through the laundry window,” she whispered. “Mrs. Vivian’s slave will open it for me.”

  He followed her the few feet to a small window without asking how she knew about the special entrance.

  She tapped twice, and within seconds the window slid open. A young black woman poked her head out and smiled. “Welcome home, Miss Rainey. Me and the widow were about to give up on you. Miss Dottie says she feels like a little wine tonight and would like you to keep her company.”

  Rainey pointed with her head toward Travis. The woman closed her mouth and nodded once.

  If Travis didn’t know better—and he didn’t—he’d think they were up to something they wanted kept a secret.

  Leaning forward, Rainey tried to lift herself into the window. Frustrated, she turned back to Travis. “My friend usually leaves a stepstool here to help me make it in,” she whispered. “It appears I’m too short to climb in without it.”

  “Maybe the window’s too tall.” He thought of asking why she didn’t use the back door, but at this point Rainey’s ways made as much sense as everything else in his life. “Will you accept my help?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Slowly, so he wouldn’t frighten her, he slipped one arm around her shoulders and slid the other beneath her knees. He lifted her into the window feet first, careful not to bump her head on the fra
me.

  Once inside, she leaned out a few inches. “Thank you,” she said and raised her hands to close the window.

  “Rainey—” He moved closer, placing his hand on the open frame. “Would you step out with me some other night?” He thought of adding what he wouldn’t do the next time, but the list was too long to bother with. “I plan to be in town several more days. I’d like it if we could have dinner again.”

  She straightened, all prim and proper now. “I don’t think so, Mr. McMurray, but thank you for asking.” The candlelight from the room beyond the laundry room silhouetted her in pale yellow, making her look like an angel.

  He touched his finger to his hat in a salute. “Mind if I ask again?”

  “Not at all, Mr. McMurray, if you don’t mind if I’m unable to go.”

  She closed the window before he could think of anything else to say. Which was good, he decided, because with his luck he’d only hurt his chances of ever even getting her to speak to him again.

  Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe she had just been there in the point in time when he realized that a woman in his life might not be the worst thing in the world. After spending months with nothing to do, his mind must have had too much time to think.

  He walked out of the alley and circled round to the street lined with saloons. Maybe he should take the time to talk to a few other females and work the memory of Rainey out of his thoughts. What he needed was less thinking and more action.

  An hour later he’d tried three saloons and found nothing but rotten beer and cheap women. Most of the females he saw were too big. One redhead was almost as tall as him and outweighed him by twice. A few were small, but bony, not rounded like Rainey. He didn’t have to touch them to know that they wouldn’t feel right in his arms. One woman only had the bottom set of her teeth and another smelled worse than the alley. All were willing to step close, but Travis couldn’t bring himself to kiss any of them. One beauty in a smoky back room stuck her tongue out and circled her mouth as if she thought that might encourage Travis to join her.

  He walked into the fourth saloon and relaxed when he recognized three of the Rangers he’d traveled with over the years. They were holding cards, but he guessed they were talking more than playing.

  One was several years older than Travis and well seasoned. Everyone called him Dillon, and he pretty much ran the Austin headquarters. Travis had no idea if Dillon was his first or last name. Dillon had ridden out with Stephen F. Austin as a scout when the first settlers came to claim land grants passed out by Mexico. He knew the land and he knew his job.

  The second, Roy Dumont, was younger, about the same age as Travis. He liked living by the gun, and Travis guessed that if he hadn’t been a Ranger, he would have been an outlaw. He had a wife and kids on both sides of the border, so he traveled back and forth, being a Ranger unless the money was better for him to cross the Rio Grande and become an informant.

  The third man, Michael Saddler, was young, still a pup. He wore the star for the excitement and what he thought was the glory. His folks had been killed a few years back in a raid near Parker’s Fort, but unlike some, Mike bore no hatred for Indians.

  Saddler stood when he saw Travis at the bar. “Look, men, we’re seeing a walking ghost and he’s all dressed up like a gentleman.”

  Travis forced himself not to lean on his cane as he moved toward them.

  Out of respect all three stood and greeted him. He felt as if he’d stepped on solid ground for the first time since he’d been shot. He knew these men, understood them, thought like them.

  When he pulled up a chair, Mike dealt him a hand, but no one paid much attention to their cards.

  They asked about the raid on the Germans’ small wagon train. They wanted details, unlike his family who only wanted to know that he was all right. In the next hour he relived everything that he could remember knowing that they’d relay his story exactly to others.

  Dillon wanted descriptions of the outlaws and mentioned a few names that might fit those killed. When Travis finished his report, Dillon thanked him for eliminating one of the raiding parties that had bothered travelers for almost a year.

  When they all ordered another round of drinks the talk turned to how to prevent small groups of settlers traveling without army guard from being attacked. All four men agreed that even if there were five times the Rangers signed on now, not all the roads could be protected. Every year the fort line pushed a little farther north and west. Every year folks living on the fringes died.

  Finally Travis leaned back and asked each man what they were working on. As he had them, they gave him details.

  Dillon had just finished enlisting Mike’s help in searching out three brothers who had escaped from a prison north of Houston.

  “You know them, McMurray,” Dillon said. “You put two of them in jail a few years back. The Norman boys.”

  “Seth and Eldon?” Travis frowned remembering. “Weren’t they raiding around Jefferson? Killed a whole family of Quakers.”

  Dillon nodded. “That’s them. They had a little brother who went to jail about a year later. Everyone called him Fancy Frank because he always dressed up in black suits and polished boots. I’m the one who put him in for murdering a woman, and he swore to kill me if he ever got out.”

  Travis laughed. “If I rounded up every outlaw who made that promise to me, I could fill a church. I was one of the guards who took Seth and Eldon down to prison. Every morning Seth would start the day with a new way to kill me. Last one I remember was that he planned to cut my heart out.”

  Dillon shook his head. “I get the feeling these boys mean it. If you’re like me, you still watch your back. We posted a reward, but so far no takers.”

  He didn’t know anything about the little brother, but he’d passed Seth and Eldon’s pa at the courthouse once. The old man had a wild, crazy look about him that he must have passed down to his sons. “What about their pa?” Travis asked the other Rangers. “Any chance the boys are heading home?”

  “Maybe.” Dillon shrugged. “Old Man Norman lives south of here on a piece of dirt he doesn’t even try to farm. I checked on him once. The neighbors say he killed his two wives, but if he did, it was years ago. Nowadays he runs just enough cattle to scratch out a living.”

  Travis couldn’t get the Norman boys out of his mind as the conversation changed. They were bad news and he didn’t like the idea that they were once more on the loose. It would only be a matter of time before someone paid.

  He downed half of his beer in one gulp and turned to listen to Roy. Despite the fact the man had two wives, he liked the stout Ranger.

  Roy Dumont said he’d just ridden in from the border and had as many questions as Travis about the Norman brothers. Neither was assigned to the case but both wanted to help, so the talk turned back to the brothers.

  Travis smiled to himself. Rangers were like drunks, looking for adventure instead of the next drink. Funny thing was, the fights that always seemed the grandest were the ones you missed. He drew back into the circle and listened. Dillon had done his background work on this problem. If someone didn’t find the brothers before they reached town, there was no telling the havoc they’d cause.

  Austin was still struggling to remain the capital. If they got a bad reputation now, the folks in Houston would have the state papers moved and Austin would die. The two towns had been fighting over which should be the capital for years.

  “The problem with the Normans escaping is that if they cause trouble here in Austin, no one in the state will feel safe.” Roy spit at a spittoon three feet away, and none of the other men looked to see if he missed.

  “You’re right,” Travis answered, glad to have his mind on work. “I’m not here officially. I’m still recovering, but I’ll keep my ears open.” He looked from Dillon to Mike. “If you need backup, you know where to find me. I’ll be checking in at the office every few days to see if anything new has turned up. Since I know what Eldon and Seth look like, I’ll ke
ep a close eye out for them.” He didn’t mention that he would be sitting for a bar exam.

  “Can you ride?” Dillon asked the question casually. The meaning had far more to do with Travis being ready to hit the trail at any minute than with his ability to sit a horse.

  “No,” Travis answered honestly. “I’m here with my sister and the kid I told you I found with the outlaws. We’re hoping to connect him with any living family, but the chances are not good.”

  Dillon waited for more explanation about his condition. When Travis didn’t say another word about his leg, they all knew the answer. None had missed the cane he carried.

  “I understand. It wouldn’t be fair to pull you back before you’re healed.” Dillon smiled. “In truth, if I need you, it will probably be right here.” He looked around, then leaned in closer to the center of the table. “I heard the Normans kept a list of men they planned to get even with on their cell wall. Most were Rangers, a few judges and informants.” He looked around the table. “With you in Austin, McMurray, that makes over half the list in town. It makes sense they’ll come here.”

  “Any clue when?”

  Dillon shook his head. “I heard a rumor that one of the barmaids here used to be sweet on Seth. Maybe he’ll drop by for a visit.”

  Travis frowned. Dillon wouldn’t have even brought the rumor up unless he believed it.

  Dillon played a card from his hand, and the others did the same so anyone watching would think nothing more than a card game was going on. “Think about it. Old Man Norman may have been keeping an eye on the men on the hit list for his sons. All Rangers pass through here regularly as well as judges and lawyers they may think did them wrong.”

  Travis thought about it, then added, “There were four brothers. I killed one in a shoot-out when I captured Seth and Eldon.”