fooling? She wouldn’t be waiting for him. She’d married him for a house to live in and the promise of tickets to California. He’d better get any thought of the possibility of more out of his mind. She seemed to be playing her part, acting as though they were true husband and wife, but that was all he could expect. If he let himself hope that they’d become lovers, mates, or even friends, he was only setting himself up for a fall. Men like him didn’t have time for foolish things like love.
Besides, something in the way Jamie only glanced around gave him the impression she thought they wouldn’t be staying long. For all he knew they’d be packed and on the road by the time he got back.
Kora had told him she didn’t want a husband. She only wanted a place to stay. That was all he cared about also, the house, he reminded himself. And as of tonight, it was all his… the ranch, the house, everything he’d ever wanted. The dream of a little boy twenty years ago, with nothing to claim as his own, had come true.
‘‘Want to head back?’’ Cheyenne broke through Winter’s thoughts. ‘‘The weather’s turning bad. No cattle drive will be moving tonight.’’
Winter slowed so he wouldn’t have to yell. ‘‘No. If I was going to cross another man’s land, I’d want a night just like this when everyone would be around their fires or in bed. The wind would muffle any sound of a herd. If they’re near enough to cross, they’ll cross tonight.’’
‘‘My guess is everyone will be in bed but us,’’ Cheyenne mumbled. ‘‘Even that sister-in-law of yours is probably back in the hay by now.’’
After what he’d seen in the barn just before they left, Winter agreed. She didn’t seem the type to wait long. ‘‘Put the word out that the man who gets her pregnant marries her. That should keep all but the serious bridegrooms away.’’
‘‘Anyone who gets her with child will probably run for the territories,’’ Cheyenne said pessimistically.
‘‘Got any other ideas of how I could get her married off fast? She’s more irritating than a rattler in a well. My new brother-in-law is invisible, and she’s the town crier and a bossy hooker rolled into one.’’
Cheyenne touched his Colt. ‘‘I could shoot her. Or we could toss her in a sack and throw her in the river like the runt of the litter she is. She’d be so far downstream within a few hours that we’d never hear about who found the body.’’
Winter laughed, not completely sure the man was kidding. ‘‘No. I don’t want to upset Kora.’’ He took a long look at the cowhand who rode at his side. ‘‘I don’t suppose you’d consider marrying her?’’
Cheyenne shoved his hat back and let the rain hit his face as he stared directly at Winter. ‘‘I’d rather shoot myself.’’
‘‘She’s not that bad-looking.’’ Winter’s hope was fading. Cheyenne had been with him when he’d pulled Jamie out of the hay and off the young cowhand. He’d heard her swearing and threats. ‘‘She’d settle down after a while. She might clean up fine, and judging from the bite she took out of my hand, she’s got all her teeth.’’
‘‘When we were dragging her back to the house, she kicked me’’-Cheyenne paused-‘‘in a place no one should kick a man. Any woman who will do that when you first meet her… there’s no telling what she will do once she knows you better.’’
‘‘Well, help me find the woman a husband. Preferably one who’s on the move and planning to settle down at least a few states away.’’
‘‘No’’-Cheyenne shook his head-‘‘I don’t have that many enemies. Just let me know if you reconsider shooting her.’’
The rain worsened, ending one of the longest conversations Winter could ever remember having with the man.
Kora pulled the dusty curtain aside and stared out into the rain for the tenth time in less than an hour. The ranch was like a small town made up of a huge bunkhouse, a barn, and several other smaller buildings. The center ground was starting to look like one big mud puddle.
‘‘He ain’t coming back in this storm,’’ Jamie complained as she set the table. ‘‘You might as well stop cooking. If that cowboy you married last night is dumb enough to try to ride home in this rain, he deserves to be struck by lightning.’’
Jamie laughed to herself. ‘‘Knowing that crazy witchin’ luck you have, he probably won’t live any longer than the last husband. You could make a habit of changing from wedding dress to mourning clothes if he’s no heartier than Andrew Adams.’’
‘‘There’s no such kind of luck,’’ Kora corrected her little sister.
‘‘Well, Mother sure used to believe in it. She said she was hated by a witch of a neighbor before you were born. That’s why you’re left-handed and that’s why trouble follows us like a slow-moving cloud. If we ever light one place too long, it’s bound to catch us.’’
‘‘The only thing that followed my birth was yours, and I don’t want to talk about Mr. Adams!’’ Kora snapped. After staying up most of the night cleaning, she was in no mood to be teased. ‘‘He was already wounded when he rode into town in the bottom of that stage.’’ The sooner Andrew Adams was forgotten the better. ‘‘My luck didn’t have anything to do with him dying.’’
‘‘What if it follows us here?’’ Jamie asked.
‘‘Then we’ll move on as we always do,’’ Kora answered quickly. She couldn’t tell Jamie about the tickets Winter had promised because she’d agreed to look to all the world as if they were truly husband and wife until the six months ended.
Jamie faced her sister. ‘‘You did tell Win about how you married Mr. Adams after he died, didn’t you?’’ Jamie turned to two chairs and nodded as if ghosts sat in them. ‘‘Dear Mr. Dead Adams, do you take my sister to be your lawfully wedded wife? What, no answer? That must mean you do.’’
‘‘Stop!’’ Kora tried to sound stern. ‘‘That’s not how it happened.’’
‘‘But you did tell Win how it was?’’ Jamie turned back to her sister. ‘‘About how Andrew came to marry another, but she tossed his proxy in the trash, and you picked it up and answered Adams’s call only after he’d been shot four times and you knew he’d die before dawn? You did tell Win that you didn’t even think of marrying Adams before you saw them lift him off the stage. Then, he didn’t seem so bad.’’
‘‘No!’’ Kora answered. ‘‘I didn’t think it was important. Why would Winter need to know about my first marriage? What difference could it make? It wasn’t a marriage and I knew it. It was just an open door. The only opening we’d had since we left New Orleans.’’
Kora glanced out the window once more. ‘‘I thought we’d be better off up here in the Panhandle where maybe Dan could get over his cough. I never guessed that most of Mr. Adams’s letters about his farm were fiction. I was just looking for a place the three of us could live. I’d do anything it took to keep us from starving, including marrying a dead man.’’
‘‘Well, this man seems very much alive, though his eyes are hard as coal. There’s no love in him, Kora. He’s not the type you should start with when learning about loving. I’d guess the man has a rock for a heart.’’
‘‘He didn’t seem that cold.’’ Kora found him a little frightening simply because he towered over her by a foot. But she saw strength in Winter, not hardness. ‘‘I’m sure he’d understand about Adams if I told him-which I’m not planning to.’’
Jamie shrugged. ‘‘I don’t guess Win probably cares. It was legal after all. Andrew Adams had already signed the proxy before he even reached town and managed to bleed all over everyone. Once there, he was too near dead to care if he was leaving a wife, and he’d said in his letter he had no other family. I guess you did the poor man a favor by volunteering to mourn.’’ Jamie lowered her voice. ‘‘But new husband Winter is bound to notice you’re a virgin, so you’ll have to tell him something. Widows usually know what a man likes, or at least when to be quiet.’’
Kora reddened. ‘‘How could he guess? I know how to kiss. And I know all about the act of mating. It can’t be that much different from animals.’’ Her mother had said once that it was a wife’s duty not to make a fuss about it if Kora was ever lucky enough to find a man who wanted her.
Jamie giggled. ‘‘You might be surprised, big sister. Men can tell if a woman has never lain with a man.’’
Kora didn’t want to have to ask. It was not a subject people talked about, but she couldn’t help herself. ‘‘How?’’
Jamie laughed again. ‘‘Just trust me, they can.’’
Before Kora could ask more, the door flew open with a pop. Thunder seemed to roll in with the storm of men dressed in rain slickers.
She looked up as her new husband raged into the house like an angry warrior. His dark face was brushed with
