“We’re not right for one another.” Her voice shook a little. “You’ve never even seen me in a dress. You need a wife who-”
“Who can be as worthless as Bergette? I never needed that kind of wife. I was a fool to even think I did,” Adam answered. “As for seeing you in a dress, you couldn’t be more beautiful to me. Nick, I don’t care about that. What I care about is how you sleep so close beside me, and how you stand up to me when you think I’m wrong. And how you fight for my brothers as if they were your family.
“I know I’ll never have all of you. A part will always be free, but I can’t let you go.”
“You can’t stop me,” she whispered. “I’ll be out of here in ten minutes. You’ll never find me.”
He could hear her struggling with her ropes.
“In Tennessee, six-year-old children can tie better knots,” she complained.
“Daniel!” Adam shouted in anger, knowing his time was short. He had no doubt that she’d be untied and gone in a matter of minutes.
“I’m not listening,” Daniel answered. “I’m not even sure I’m here. How about you, Wes?”
“I think I left five minutes ago. I’d check if I was listening but Adam told me not to.”
“Are you still ordained?” Adam asked without playing into their joke. “Can you still marry folks, Dan?”
“Yes.” Daniel now sounded interested. “Providing both the parties are willing.”
“Then marry us,” Adam said. “Right here, right now. She’s not leaving me again without knowing she belongs to me as truly as I belong to her.”
“B-but-” Daniel stammered.
“Hold on, Adam!” Wes jumped in. “I want the kid in the family too, but she don’t seem all that willing.”
“I love her,” Adam said. “And she loves me, too. She can run from me, but she can’t deny it any longer. We’re one, we always have been since that first night. There will never be another for me or her. At least this time when she runs, she’ll know how I feel about her.”
“Nick,” Wes whispered. “Do you agree with Adam? Do you love him?”
“I don’t want to.” She sighed. “He’s the most frustrating man that ever walked the earth. Half the time I want to shoot him for what he does, and the other half stab him for what he refuses to do. There’s no understanding the man.”
“That’s not the question. Do you love me?” Adam asked.
“Love’s something for the weak-minded who don’t have anything better to think about.” She kicked in the darkness and Wes groaned. “You’ll fit in here, Wes.”
“Like hell,” he mumbled. “I’m never riding close to love again as long as I live. Stop trying to change the subject, kid. Do you love my brother or not?” Wes repeated.
There was a long silence. “I do,” she finally whispered. “But-”
“Daniel, start at the beginning,” Adam interrupted her. “She’s already said the end.”
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here together in this dusty dugout, while awaiting our brother’s hanging, to join this woman and this man in…”
TWENTY-EIGHT
WOLF SLOWED HIS horse for the tenth time and allowed the boy to catch up with him. Three hours ago he’d arrived in Fort Worth on the stage. Wolf had no trouble finding Doc McLain’s place, but everyone in the house was crazier than bedbugs on a hot skillet.
A nun kept insisting she’d never seen any woman named Nichole and tried to push him off the porch. Once he finally got inside the house, a cute little cook flirted with him as if he’d been freshly washed. When he asked her about Nick, she didn’t lie any better than the nun.
Finally, a pale woman came downstairs. She claimed to be the widow who owned the place, but insisted he was mistaken about Nichole. She told him several times that nothing happened in the house without her knowledge, so his sister had never been under her roof.
Wolf believed her and was about to leave and look for Nick somewhere else when he collided with a tiny ball of lace and curls he remembered as Bergette. He smiled his best smile and offered a handshake. She screamed as if she were under full attack and started throwing things at him.
He was obliged to put his arm around Bergette and lift her off the ground a few feet to settle her down and give her a better look at his face so she’d remember seeing him. But she didn’t take well to settling.
The more she screamed and kicked and threw things, the more everyone else in the house seemed to take pity on him. At first he had the feeling the little princess didn’t like him, but with what happened next, he realized she’d done him a great favor.
The nun and the cook finally got him down to the kitchen and out of Bergette’s way. Before leaving her range of fire, he promised to come by for another visit with the little lady some other day.
Suddenly, the nun and the cook couldn’t say enough about Nick and all that had been happening. Bergette had convinced them that Wolf must truly be Nichole’s brother. The trouble they described didn’t seem like anything Nick couldn’t handle, till the little boy piped up about how Nick was hiding out by sleeping in Adam’s room.
Wolf stood and asked where to rent a horse. He’d heard enough.
Before he knew it, the kid named Nance was riding beside him talking like a magpie. All Wolf wanted to do was plot how to kill Adam, but the boy wouldn’t give him time. He’d sent Nick to Texas so she would be safe. He’d even convinced Tyler there was no need for him to come along to fetch Nick. But when he heard Adam had been sleeping with his sister, he knew he’d be killing a McLain. Wolf liked the family, but a duty was a duty.
As Nance caught up to him again, Wolf couldn’t help but smile. He liked kids. Back before the war, he used to dream of finding a woman and settling down with more children around than they could keep up with. But the closest he’d been to a woman in years was when he held Bergette back at the boardinghouse while she was trying to kill him. Wolf couldn’t hold back a laugh. She felt good, he thought. Real good. Like fire all wrapped in powder and lace. Maybe he’d even think of shaving before he paid her another call.
“Captain Hayward?” Nance asked. “Did you ever have to kill anyone in the war?”
“Not if I could help it,” Wolf answered.
“I bet you just scared them, didn’t you?” Nance held his reins tight. Like most boys his age, he could ride a good trailing horse. As long as he didn’t have to take the lead, he had no trouble riding.
“Hold them reins like this, boy.” Wolf put his fists in front of the saddle horn about six inches apart. “Run the right rein through first your right hand, then the left. Then thread the left rein through your left hand, then the right. That way both hands hold both reins.”
The boy closed his fists in front of him with his reins in place.
“Now, all you have to do is turn one fist down and you turn the horse.” Wolf pulled his right fist thumb up and the horse moved to the command. “But remember, you control a horse more with your legs than with the reins. The bit’s a guide. No sense tearing a horse’s mouth up by jerking on it.”
Nance sat up proud in the saddle, enjoying the lesson. It had been a long time since he’d gone with a man on a real adventure. But the nun said she’d square it with his mother cause the doc would look after him on the way home. Sister said he needed to get out of the house and get some air, like there was none left inside.
Wolf smiled. The boy had forgotten his questions of war.
An hour later, they came upon a place the stable hand had said would be Emery’s Post. Wolf slowed as he noticed several men gathered about a tree. The closer he got, the more his hand itched for the feel of his Colt. But he’d learned, never go in like you’re in a hurry and never offer help until you know which side right stands on.
“Stay well behind me, boy,” he ordered with no room for argument. “And don’t say a word, no matter what you see.”
“Yes, sir,” Nance whispered. “I can do that. I’ve been practicing most of my life.”
“I’m going to play a game, but it’s just an act. Do you understand?” Wolf was close enough to smell trouble, and he wanted to know the boy would follow orders and stay out of harm’s way.
“Yes,” Nance answered, his voice shaking slightly. “No matter what, you can count on me.”
“Good,” Wolf whispered. “Follow me.”
