"You fools! What in b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l is going on" -- He broke off and never finished his question. From the smoke of the carriage house, another man appeared.
Tess felt her heart catch.
It was Jamie. He had a single gun trained on the men and he followed them out with the casual air yon Heusen had had.
The men kept walking forward. The half-naked one paused, and Jamie nudged him forward.
"Ladies, do excuse me," Jamie apologized, "but they seemed to be a little more docile and trustworthy in this fashion."
"I"ll kill you yet!" one of them muttered. "Well, I don"t doubt that you intend to try," Jamie a.s.sured him. Then he stared at the men still mounted upon their horses.
"Which one of you is yon Heusen?"
"I am Richard von Heusen. Who the h.e.l.l are you?"
"Jamie Slater. But that doesn"t matter. What does matter is that I own part of this spread now. And I"ll thank you kindly to keep yourself and your half-sawed ruffians off my property, is that understood?"
"Your property" -- yon Heusen began.
"My property, yes. Now, take your arsonist friends here and move."
"You must be mistaken. Why would my men set fire to anything here?"
"Who knows why? But that was what they were doing. Ordinarily, of course, I"d want to get to know my new neighbors. But since you and the Stuarts don"t seem to be very good friends, I really don"t think you should stay. I bet dinner is on. Tess, is dinner on?"
"yes!"
"Something good?"
His eyes touched hers across the dusky night. She nodded, fighting for speech.
"Turkey. Dressing. Squash. All sorts of things."
"And getting cold. I do declare. Gentlemen, good night," Jamie said firmly.
He prodded the men.
"Move "em, now, von Heusen, or they"ll start turning into corpses."
"We"re nine to one, you fool" -- "Nine to two. See my friend there? He could hit the hair in a man"s nose at a thousand yards, and he"s faster than greased lightning. You"re out manned and outnumbered, you just don"t know it yet." "We"ll see about that," von Heusen said angrily.
"Get those half-naked idiots up on your horses!" he ordered his mounted men.
He jerked his mount around to face Tess and pointed a long finger at her.
"You"ll pay for this, Miss. Stuart. You"ll pay dearly. I promise you."
He swung around again, and his men followed. They raced off into the darkness, the horses" hooves pounding on the dry earth.
Silence and stillness fell over the small group on the porch. Jon Red Feather slowly lowered his rifle. He stared at Jamie.
"What the h.e.l.l took you so long?"
"Well, there were four of them in the carriage house!"
Jamie announced indignantly. He strode up the stairs. Tess was still staring at him blankly when he tweaked her cheek and walked past her.
She managed to turn and follow him. He walked over"t the table and sat, then pulled off a turkey leg and bit into it hungrily. Looking up, he saw Tess staring at him, Dolly and Jane on either side of her, and Jon and Hank on either side of the women. He paused in mid bite "Do you all mind?"
Tess stood in front of him.
"Where did you go? How did you happen to come back right then?"
He chewed before answering her.
"I left the saloon as soon as I met a few friendly people--and a few not so friendly people. I knew he was coming out here. I didn"t know he intended to burn you out." He paused, looking past Tess to Jon.
"Seems strange, doesn"t it? The man wants this property, but he doesn"t seem to care if he destroys it.
Makes you think, doesn"t it?"
"Sure does."
"Makes you think what?" Tess asked irritably. "Tess, think about it.
It needs a little paint, a little shoring up here and there--but this is a darned nice house. Solid, sound, big.
Then you"ve got the outbuildings, the carriages--and the horses. I haven"t seen enough to really make an estimate on the value of the stock, but I imagine that we"re talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars in horseflesh alone.
And von Heusen doesn"t care. He wants the property, but he doesn"t care if he burns it to the ground."
" He"s a vile son of a b.i.t.c.h, that"s why!" Tess stated.
"Well, yes," Jamie acknowledged with a wry grin.
"But there"s more to it than that, I think."
Dolly took a seat at the table again and spooned up a mouthful of squash.
"Vile, certainly! Why, our dinner has gone quite cold!"
"That"s the spirit, Dolly," Jamie told her.
"Jori, sit. The turkey may be cold, but it"s delicious."
"That"s it?" Tess demanded heatedly.
"What do you mean, that"s it?"
"Where did you go? What were you doing? You were supposed to be here!"
"Jon was here," Jamie said evenly.
"But" -- Jamie was b.u.t.tering a roll. Jane and Hank and Jon sat and picked up their forks. Jamie"s b.u.t.ter knife went still and his eyes were slightly narrowed as he stared at her.
"Miss. Stuart, I don"t like the tone of this conversation. I came back in time to save your hide."
"You wouldn"t have had to rush back if you"d been here--where you should have been! You want to be paid so highly, and you can"t even stick around!" He stood suddenly. His knife clattered against a dish.
"I.
don"t argue like this in front of others, Miss. Stuart."
" There is no argument!" she snapped.
"No, there isn"t. I"ll make it simple. Wherever I choose to go is my own business, Miss. Stuart. You are not my keeper. And as to payment, h.e.l.l, yes.
Tomorrow we"ll go into town and you"ll turn over half interest in this place to me."
She gasped aloud, stunned.
"Jamie, she doesn"t understand what you"re doing," Jon said, ignoring the rising tensions and reaching for a roll himself.
"If you just explained" -- "Explained! h.e.l.l, I feel as if I"m up before the judge and jury!"
"Judge and jury! I really don"t give a d.a.m.n what you do with your time, but"
"You begged me to come here, Tess."
"Begged!"
"Begged!"
"Oh!" she cried. Then she wound her fingers tightly together.
"I don"t argue in public either, Lieutenant!" she snapped. She was shaking, she realized. She"d been so d.a.m.ned amazed and grateful to see him, but she"d also been scared, and now she was furious and shaking and she wasn"t even sure what she did want. She turned, having no taste left for dinner.
Angrily she began to stride for the door. "Tess!" He was on his feet, calling to her. He really expected her to stop because he had commanded her to. She didn"t stop, she didn"t turn, she didn"t even pause. She sailed straight for the front door. She would go to the carriage house to make sure the fire von Heusen"s men had started had been stamped out.
"Jamie, give her a minute," Dolly suggested.
"The h.e.l.l I will!" Jamie snapped.
Before Tess heard the door slam in her wake, she thought she heard Jamie"s chair hit the floor as he pushed it over.
She started running toward the carriage house, anxious to reach it before he could see her. She was at the side door when she heard the front door to the house slam. She slipped into the eaniage house. She inhaled and exhaled, but couldn"t smell any smoke. All she could smell was the fresh scent of the alfalfa hay that was being stored behind the chaise.
She fumbled in the darkness to light the gas lamp by the door. When the glow filled the carriage house, she went to check the wagon and the printing press. She crawled into the wagon and gave a soft sigh of relief as she saw that the printing press was fine. She sank down on one of the bunks. "Tess!
Where are you!"
Jamie was obviously angry. She clenched her teeth and tried to ignore him.
She stepped from the wagon and went to the buckboard. No flames had lapped against it. The chaise, too, seemed untouched. Walking around, she discovered a half burned bale of hay. It had been dragged into the center of the room and lit. Von Heusen had meant it to be a slow fire.
He had really meant to be long gone when the place burned.
She moved away from the hay and from the faint, acrid smell of fire that remained.
"Tess!"
He was still calling her, like a drill sergeant. With a sigh she determined that she would have to open the door, but she hesitated with her hand upon it. Where had he been? He"d been gone for hours. Had he really enjoyed the saloon so much? What part of the saloon?
And why was she torturing herself so thoroughly over him? She couldn"t change the man.
The before twist the With a back.
was hat less, his shirt open at the neck, his hands on his hips, his sandy hair tousled casually over a brow, but his manner anything but casual.
"Why didn"t you answer me?" he demanded. "Because I didn"t want to speak to you."
"It didn"t occur to you that I might have been worried?"
"I could have been in and out of the carriage house all evening, and you wouldn"t have known. What, I"m supposed to be on a ball and chain if you"re around? But if you"re not, it doesn"t matter?"
She saw his jaw twist and a pulse tick hard against his throat.
"That"s about it, yes. Think you can live with the niles?"
"No!"
"Then I"m leaving."
"what?"
"You heard me."
"But--"," In astonishment she stared at him. She inhaled sharply. She couldn"t let him leave her. She couldn"t!
But she thought he wouldn"t go. He just wanted to see her beg.
"Leave," she told him. She"d call his bluff, she determined.
He turned and reached for the door. She thought quickly and desperately, then said, "I thought you liked the property.
And the house, and the horses. And I thought you wanted half of everything.
If you want it, you have to earn it."