However, the thought of touching him, or any man, terrified her.
At least he was kindhearted. For that, she thanked the Good Lord. If only she did not have to marry him. Perhaps if she spoke to Don Cruz of what was in her heart…
But it was childish nonsense to think that her feelings mattered. The decision had been made by her father and by his. It was not as if either she or Don Cruz had a choice.
She would do her duty. She owed her father’s memory that much.
Tomasita straightened her shoulders and put a cheerful smile on her face. The day of reckoning had not yet come. Until it did, who knew what the Good Lord had planned for her? She would enjoy each day as He had intended and leave tomorrow’s worry for tomorrow.
“Come, Cisco,” she said. “Let us go wash up for supper.”
Sloan lay in the early morning shade of a cypress on the banks of the Brazos River and watched a hawk catch the warm air on an updraft and soar higher into the cloudless blue sky.
It had been five days since Cruz had come for her. Five days that she had worried and wondered whether he would actually return for her with his vaqueros.
She had no business lying here doing nothing. As overseer for Three Oaks, she had responsibilities. Nonetheless, she had left old Uncle Billy in charge of the field slaves snatching cotton and come here to think.
She had felt a desperate need to discuss her problem with someone, so she had sent a message to Cricket to see if her youngest sister, who was also her best friend, could come and visit. But Cricket had written back in typical Cricket fashion.
Sloan sighed. She supposed the pattern of her relationship with Cricket had been set too many years ago for her to change it now.
“Howdy there.”
Sloan sprang upright and whirled toward the voice, a Colt Patterson appearing in her hand. “Dear God, Luke! I wish you wouldn’t sneak up on me like that. I almost shot you!”
Luke had a sheepish grin on his face and an apology written in his hazel eyes. He pulled his flat-brimmed hat off. His hand automatically reached up to brush back the sun-streaked hair that fell across his forehead. “Sorry about that. Guess that, being a Ranger, sneaking around just comes natural. I’ll try to give you fair warning next time. So… am I forgiven?”
Sloan gestured toward the ground next to her. “Come on and join me. I could use some company.” That was an understatement.
The lanky young man slipped cross-legged to the ground along with Sloan. The Texas Rangers didn’t have a uniform, and Luke wore an open- throated dark blue linsey-woolsey shirt and fringed buckskin trousers with knee-high moccasins. He looked totally comfortable on the ground. Once they were both seated, an awkward silence fell between them.
Sloan eyeballed the Ranger sideways. She knew Luke for a steady man, but right now his hands were anything but still. He straightened the brim on his hat, smoothed the snug material across his muscular thigh, then played with the fringe on his trousers. Whatever it was he wanted to say wasn’t sitting comfortably on his shoulders.
“Spit it out,” she suggested. “I doubt it’s going to go down any easier even if you keep chewing on it.”
He cleared his throat once before he said, “I decided to take you up on your invitation to visit, but I stopped by to visit Cricket and Creed on my way here. Uh… Cricket… uh… said you were in some sort of trouble.”
Sloan stiffened. How dare Cricket reveal her personal business to Luke! Not that Luke wasn’t the kind of person you confided in. He was. But choosing to confide in Luke was one thing; having the choice taken out of her hands was something else altogether.
“This is none of your business, Luke. Cricket spoke out of turn.”
“I just thought-”
“Don’t think! Forget anything Cricket said, and mind your own business.”
Luke wanted to tell her this was his business. But she would find that out soon enough. “I only wanted to say if there’s anything I can do to help, please ask.”
Sloan tore at the grass in front of her, mercilessly shredding each helpless blade. “I don’t need any help. I can handle my own problems.”
She sounded so much like Cricket, it was eerie, Luke thought. But then, Rip had raised his daughters to take care of themselves. Even soft-spoken Bay had a core of iron down her back, though it had taken several years of living among the Comanches to reveal it.
“All right, Sloan, it’s forgotten.” He pulled out a stem of seed grass and bit down on the end, sucking the sweet juice while he waited for her to calm down. “How’s Rip?” he asked offhandedly.
“Mad as a hornet,” Sloan replied.
“Oh?”
“This situation with Cruz has him upset.”
“What situation is that?”
“Damn it all, Luke! I said I don’t want to talk about this.” Sloan laughed at herself and shook her head. “Yet here I am spilling the beans. What is it about you that pries at closed lips like a coon at a crayfish?”
Luke shrugged and let a lazy smile tilt his lips up at the corners.
Sloan sighed and muttered, “Hell, I ought to go ahead and tell you. You know the parties involved, but you don’t have a stake in the outcome.”
Luke kept his mouth shut and waited for Sloan to make up her mind about what she wanted to do. Patience was something he had learned young, right along with disappointment.
Sloan had kept the secret from everyone for so long, it was hard to speak of it aloud. “Four years ago…” She cleared her throat and began again. “Four years ago I went to Cruz and asked for his help. I wanted him to take Tonio’s child when it was born. As you know, he agreed, and the Guerreros have raised my son. But Cruz demanded something in return, something that’s been a secret between the two of us.”
When Sloan paused, Luke said, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
Sloan met Luke’s sympathetic gaze and suddenly knew why both her sisters had befriended him. She felt an affinity to the young Ranger she simply couldn’t explain. Luke’s encouraging smile made it easier for her to continue. “I guess I need to talk with someone, and you’re here.”
She took a deep breath and said, “Cruz asked that I marry him to legitimize Cisco, so he would bear the Guerrero name.”
Sloan glanced at Luke to see if she had shocked him, but Luke’s expression was more somber than anything else.
“So Cruz took your son… but you never married him?”
“Not exactly.”
“What exactly?”
Sloan found it hard to meet Luke’s inquiring gaze. She fidgeted with her Colt Patterson as she spoke, splitting it into three parts and then putting it back together again.
She continued, “We signed legal papers naming us man and wife. But we didn’t say any vows before a priest. And I made him agree that the marriage wouldn’t be…” Sloan swallowed. “… that he wouldn’t touch me until Tonio’s murder had been avenged.
“You know the rest. I once told Cruz that if he ever wanted out of the marriage, he could have it annulled. But he never did.”
“Why not?”
“How should I know?” Sloan answered irritably. She had never questioned Cruz’s motives. She had never understood his demand that she marry him. But she would have done anything to get him to take her unborn child.
Now, years later, she was seeing the fruit of her folly.
“So what’s the problem with Cruz that has your father upset?” Luke asked.
Sloan took a deep breath and let it out again. “Now that Alejandro is dead, Cruz wants to make the marriage real. He wants me to live with him at Rancho Dolorosa.”
“That sounds fair. But I can see how Rip would be a little upset.” Luke snorted, then laughed aloud.
Sloan frowned. She hadn’t expected Luke to take Cruz’s side in the matter, and she certainly hadn’t expected him to laugh at her situation. “What’s so funny?”
“I’m sorry, Sloan. I didn’t mean to suggest your problem isn’t a real one. But it just occurred to me that your father has made all these grandiose plans for his daughters to carry on at Three Oaks after he’s gone, and one by one you’re all getting married and leaving. What’s he going to do once you’re gone?”
“I haven’t agreed to go with Cruz,” Sloan snapped. “And it’s doubtful I will-for precisely the reason you’ve named. I’ve spent a lifetime learning to
