“damned solid cowboy” like Josh.
The very fact that Tess entertained such a thought just pointed up the dire need to have the fellow gone. Some builtin weakness in the female constitution must turn a girl’s brain to mush the minute she started keeping company with a halfdecent man. Yes, Josh Ransom-she wouldn’t be forgetting that name again-did qualify as a halfdecent sort of fellow. He had guts. He had a way with horses. He knew cattle almost as well as she did. Okay, just as well as she did. He had all his teeth, didn’t stink more than any other man who worked hard and wore the sweat to prove it, and he knew enough to take off his mucky boots before coming into the house. Someone had brought him up to manners. What’s more, in spite of Tess ?nding him in such a sorry state at the Bird Cage, he hadn’t touched a drop of liquor since coming to the Diamond T.
Quite a catch, all in all, if a girl were ?shing for a husband. Which Tess wasn’t. De?nitely wasn’t. Didn’t need one, didn’t want one, and for sure she would get used to sleeping alone in the blink of an eye. The sooner she sent Josh Ransom on his way, the happier she would be.
Therefore, Tess got very unhappy when lawyer Bartlett refused to cough up her deed.
“Now, then, Tess. Don’t be so impatient,” he advised. “You know your daddy wanted to see you settled like a woman should be settled. That’s why he wrote his will the way he did.”
“I
Bartlett gave Josh a passing glance, as if he were an offering that failed to measure up. “I believe the will’s exact words were ‘settled into marriage.’Your brother, Sean, came by my of?ce earlier this morning and expressed grave doubts as to the nature and commitment of your marriage, Tess.”
“What do you mean nature and commitment?” she cried. Only a lawyer would use words such as those. Her ?sts balled at her sides, nails digging into her palms.
Then Josh took one of those hands, uncurled it, and interweaved their ?ngers, just as a real husband might have done. In a reasonable, mantoman voice, he brought the conversation back to a civilized level. “Mr. Bartlett, I think Sean McCabe’s motive is pretty obvious, and I’m surprised you’re lending him an ear.”
The warmth of that masculine hand supporting hers eased the knot in Tess’s stomach. In fact, she felt amazingly light, as if she could have ?oated toward the pressedtin ceiling of Bartlett’s of?ce.
“The way I understand it,” Josh said calmly, “Tess has ful?lled the terms of her father’s will, and now she wants the deed to the Diamond T in her name and in her safekeeping. That seems both legal and reasonable to me.”
Bartlett looked him up and down, as if just now recognizing he was part of this. “Mr…uh…”
“Ransom.”
“Mr. Ransom. Do you have a sister?”
“Yes sir, I do.”
“Then you should understand that a brother’s instinct is to take care of his sister. I don’t know if Tess told you this, but Sean McCabe proposed shortly after their father’s death that the ranch be sold and the proceeds split between them, because he knew that Tess wasn’t inclined to marry, and half the proceeds from the Diamond T would set her up in modest circumstances where she could live securely without having to waste her life on backbreaking ranch work that is dif?cult even for a man. That is not the proposal of a greedy, unprincipled man, as you seem to imply Sean is.”
The idea of selling the ranch that had been in her family three generations made Tess want to spit, but Josh tightened his hand around hers.
“Mr. Bartlett,” Josh said in that reasonable voice of his, “do you have a legal right to withhold the deed?”
“I believe the wording of the will demands it.”
Tess thought the lawyer’s smile looked like a rattlesnake’s snide grin.
“Don’t worry, Tess.” Bartlett gave her arm a condescending pat. If Josh hadn’t been restraining her, the lawyer might have lost a hand. “What difference does it make whether the deed is in my desk for a bit more? As you say, you’re married. Soon it will be obvious to everyone that your marriage wasn’t an impulsive act meant only to secure the Diamond T.”
Tess couldn’t think of a reply that didn’t involve cussing. Fortunately, Ransom had more presence of mind. He said something stiff about retaining their own lawyer while tugging Tess toward the door. She scarcely heard what he said, distracted as she was picturing her daddy, his lawyer, and her brother all staked out on an anthill.
“I’ll see you at the barn dance tomorrow tonight, won’t I?” Bartlett said as they went out the door.
Tess got out the “Fat” of “Fat chance!” before Josh ?rmly shushed her.
“Maybe,” he replied.
“Dadgummit!” Tess growled once they reached the safety of the street. “That snake! He’s never liked me. Always told my daddy that he’d raised me to be a heathen. He can’t do this!”
Josh put a ?nger to her lips to shut her up. “Tess, you need to get a lawyer to handle this for you.”
“Bartlett’s the only lawyer in town.”
“There are other towns.”
“Lawyers and their fancy words and sneaky ways. If it hadn’t been for a lawyer, my daddy would never have thought of that stupid will. Just give me a few days. I’ll think of something. I will.”
The twitch of muscle at the hinge of Josh’s jaw told Tess he had run out of patience.
“Ransom, honest! Just a few more days.”
His mouth a tight line, he held up two ?ngers. “Two days. Then I’m leaving, Tess. You can make up any story you want to explain why I’m gone, and you can honor your deal or not. Two days, and I’m gone.”
Chapter Four
TESS LOOKED AT herself in Rosie’s fulllength mirror and made a face. “Two days,” she said in a mockery of Josh’s voice. “Two days and I’m gone. You can take that news and stick it up your-”
“Tess!” Rosie scolded. “When you’re dressed like a lady, you should talk like a lady.”
Tess snorted. “These sleeves are cutting off my arms.”
“I can let out the seams,” Rosie offered. “Most ladies don’t have so much muscle in their shoulders and arms.”
“Well, pardon me for working every day to make a living.”
Tess couldn’t believe the woman who looked from the mirror was her. She felt like a little girl playing dressup in her mother’s clothes. Actually, this dress had never belonged to her mother. Her mother had been an aristocrat from Mexico-small, re?ned, and delicate. Whenever Tess looked at her mother’s wedding portrait, she felt like a gorilla. No, this dress was one of Rosie’s best, decked out with ?ounces, lace, and ribbon. It was tight in the waist, loose in the bust, and inches too short.
Tess thought she looked dadgummed silly dressed in bows and ?ounces with her hair not sensibly braided, but tortured into curls that kept falling in her face. But Rosie surveyed her with warm, approving eyes. “I haven’t worn that dress since I was your age and just married. That was before my bones got the padding they have today. It may be out of style, but it makes you look like a princess. I’ll just add a ?ounce to the hem, let out the waist…” She gave Tess’s chest a dubious frown. “Maybe we can stuff a couple of kerchiefs up there. We don’t want you to look like you’re lacking.”
“Dadgummit, Rosie! You aren’t getting anywhere near me with any kerchiefs. Not unless they’re going around my neck or on my head!”
“Don’t be so testy, dear. I know this feels strange to you, but we agreed, you, me, and Miguel, that the best way to make your husband stick around longer is for you to get him a little bit interested. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, sweetie. Women have been doing this since Eve. It’s tradition.”
“Not with me, it isn’t.” Tess extricated herself from the dress and managed to escape with only two pricks from Rosie’s pins.
“Do you want the man to stay or not?”
Tess sighed. “Just long enough to convince Sean and Bartlett.”
