Arizona Embrace (8 page)

“Have you talked with her about it?” Trinity asked, trying to sound offhand.

“Of course not. Not after the terrible time she had with Jeb Blazer. I talked to her uncle.”

Just like a man of Buc’s stamp to decide Victoria was going to marry, him even though he’d never broached the subject with her. Did he think he owned her just because he saved her life?

Trinity felt something inside him knot.

“I think you’d better talk to her. She may have some different ideas.”

“What do you know about Victoria’s ideas?” Buc asked, his stance belligerent. “You spend one day following her over the mountainside and think you know more about her than I do after five years of living with her day to day.”

“I didn’t say a thing about knowing her better than you “Trinity said, hoping to neutralize some of Buc’s anger. He didn’t like the man, but he didn’t see any point in unsettling him needlessly. “I just think you ought to talk to her. When a woman has as much time on her hands as Victoria, you never know what kind of things she’ll get to thinking about.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Buc said, with an abrupt about-face. “There’s no end to the number of excuses she can come up with for not staying inside the house. Not to mention going about on her own, no matter what I say to the contrary. At least when we’re married, I can tell her to stay home.”

And you think Victoria will do it, just because you say so?”

“It’s a woman’s duty to obey her husband.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Victoria has a slightly different idea of duty.”

“It don’t matter what you think,” Buc responded irritably. “Shell do what I tell her. And while I’m dunking of it, you stop calling her Victoria just like you been knowing her since the two of you were babies.”

“She asked me to.”

“She asks everybody to, but they all call her Miss Victoria. Only Mr. Davidge and I call her by her Christian name.”

“And what am I supposed to do when she jumps all over me? She’s already forbidden me to call her ‘ma’am.’”

“Just tell her you don’t think it’s proper to call her by her first name until you’re better acquainted.”

“Suppose she says she wants to get better acquainted?”

Trinity said the words partly out of frustration with Buc’s blindness, partly to needle him, and partly as a joke. He got more than he bargained for. Buc had his hand on the bunkhouse door, but he turned and came at Trinity like a wounded grizzly.

Trinity drew his gun and fired into the ground between Buc’s feet. Buc stopped in his tracks.

“You make another disparaging remark about Victoria, and you’ll have to use that gun to keep me from tearing you apart,” Buc said.

“I didn’t say anything disparaging about Victoria, and I didn’t mean to get you upset,” Trinity said, “but you’ve got some ideas that won’t jump with Victoria’s. There’s no need to get out of frame with me,” Trinity said when Buc showed signs of starting for him again. “If I’m wrong, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If I’m right, Victoria would have felt that way whether or not I came along, so you can take it up with her. Either way, I don’t like to be crowded. I intend to speak my mind whether you like it or not.”

Trinity saw Buc’s eyes cut to something behind him. Trinity whirled around to find Perez leaning against the bunkhouse doorway, a rifle aimed directly at Trinity’s heart.

“Put that away and get back inside,” Buc called out. This is between Trinity and me.”

“Just making sure,” Perez said as he pulled his rifle and his head back inside.

“You be careful what you say,” Buc said to Trinity. “Perez and I aren’t the only ones who’ll take exception if you say anything against Victoria. And a couple of them are better with guns man you are.”

“I’ve already run afoul of Red. You people have got to stop acting so jumpy every time a stranger rides up. You’re going to shoot somebody one of these days, and then the territorial marshal will be on top of you.”

“You threatening to notify him?”

“You don’t listen to anybody, do you?” Trinity realized he’d never be able to explain anything that the big man didn’t want to hear. “All I’m saying is you got to be careful not to give the law a reason to come nosing about. The best way I can think of to bring them down on you like a nest of hornets is to start shooting at people any time they say something you don’t like.”

“He’s got a point there, Buc.” Grant spoke from the shadows behind Buc. Neither man had heard him come up. “Gunshots don’t go uninvestigated,” he said, “even in the wilds of Arizona.”

“Is anybody hurt?” Victoria asked.

“I told you to stay in the house,” Grant said, turning. Impatience made his voice sharp. “You didn’t know what might have been going on out here.”

“Let me guess.” It only took a glance to see Buc and Trinity were squared off against each other. “Trinity said something Buc didn’t like, so Buc charged him, and Trinity fired over his head to prevent a fight.”

“Close enough,” said Trinity.

“He said things about Victoria” Buc explained.

“What kind of things?” Grant asked, firing up dangerously.

“I doubt he said anything to justify a fight,” Victoria said, intervening to stem her uncle’s anger. “I don’t know Trinity yet, but I have a feeling he likes to bait people. I do know you, Buc. An outsider being around me for more than five minutes winds you up tighter than a clock. All you need is one ill-chosen remark and you explode like a wild man.”

“And I provided the remark,” Trinity confessed. “I wouldn’t have if I’d known the kind of response I was going to get.”

“Well, now you do,” Victoria said, “so please be careful what you say. I’d hate to have to patch either of you up.”

“Come on up to the house and cool off,” Grant told Buc. “Perez, maybe you’d better take a bunk between these two.” The old man had remained standing just inside the doorway.

“You’ve got to stop fighting with every man who comes on the place,” Victoria said to Buc. “Pretty soon there won’t be anybody here but you and Uncle Grant. And you’ve got to get some sleep,” she said, turning back to Trinity. “I’ve got a whole ridge to survey tomorrow.”

Trinity watched the trio walk back to the house together, and a flicker of loneliness flared in his heart. For the first time in years, he wanted to belong someplace. For the first time since his father’s death, he didn’t look forward to traveling the trails alone, spending the night by himself under the stars, cooking his own food over a solitary campfire.

And he understood for the first time that, even in the midst of a dozen men sworn to protect her, Victoria might be just as lonely as he. Victoria had looked at both men as she spoke, but Trinity knew she spoke only to him.

He knew it because of little things. She had looked for him the moment she emerged from the shadows. Her gaze lingered on him a moment too long. Did he detect a shade of warmth in her gaze which hadn’t been there yesterday? He could hear a different nuance in her tone when she spoke to him and when she spoke to Buc. He could feel an invisible reaching out he could neither see nor explain.

He felt an answering response within himself. That didn’t surprise him. He already knew he found Victoria attractive. What did surprise him was the strength of his response. If Grant and Buc hadn’t been present, he would most certainly have taken her in his arms—damn the consequences.

He found himself being thankful for her quick departure. He didn’t like feeling out of control. He never felt that way with men, no matter how dangerous the man or the situation.

“You better come in,” Perez said from the bunkhouse doorway. “If Buc comes back and finds you standing there, he will have a fit. We had enough fireworks for tonight.”

“I’m not looking for a fight. I just want to be by myself.”

Victoria’s departure left Trinity feeling abashed. He and Buc must have looked like two damned fool boys, standing in the middle of the yard, fighting over a girl who didn’t care that much about either of them. Damn Buc anyway. And to hell with his obsessive jealousy.

Trinity didn’t want to stick his nose in Buc’s business. It went against the grain for him to offer advice to any man. He had wanted to help Victoria, but from now on she could handle her own affairs. Interfering only made him feel foolish.

Unfortunately, rushing pell-mell to Victoria’s aid didn’t seem to demoralize anyone else. Everybody on the place lived in constant readiness to do battle at the most trifling provocation. And they didn’t think it the slightest bit unusual, the whole place was a tinderbox. He would have to be very careful, or he might inadvertently strike the spark that would cause the whole situation to explode.

Victoria needed time to think.

She liked Trinity Smith too much. She liked him more than anyone who’d ever come to Mountain Valley, and that upset her.

She enjoyed talking to him. He made her laugh and he made her forget. No female could help but be attracted to a man with Trinity’s good looks and his teasing smile, but that didn’t explain why the first thought to pop into her head when she heard the gunfire was Trinity might be hurt.

She hadn’t stopped to ask herself if Trinity had caused the trouble or had been the victim of it. She hadn’t thought of Buc or any of the hands. And that made her feel guilty. She owed her life to Buc. Why hadn’t she thought of him?

She hardly knew Trinity. Actually, she didn’t know him at all. She didn’t know where he had come from, where he had been, or anything he’d done before he came riding up the creek yesterday.

Then how could she possibly have become so enamored of him?

Victoria rejected the most obvious answer. No matter how attractive and fascinating Trinity might be on the surface, she couldn’t be falling in love with him in just one day. She had done that with Jeb, and she’d vowed she’d never again become involved with a man she didn’t know thoroughly. One such mistake was enough for a lifetime.

But Trinity treated her differently from any man she’d ever met. She couldn’t put it into words just yet. It seemed to be more in the way he thought of her than in his actions. She felt he saw her as a real person, someone with the same rights and privileges he had, someone capable of having opinions and feelings worthy of respect.

But even that couldn’t entirely explain her reaction to him. Did she feel responsible for him?

If anything happened to him, especially if it involved Buc, it would be because of her. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t help it or didn’t want it to happen. It would still be due to Buc’s inordinate jealousy of every man who looked at her … and his distrust of strangers. She’d be doing Trinity a kindness if she told him to leave. Buc would never like him and would always be looking for some reason to start a fight.

But no sooner did she think of Trinity leaving than she knew she wanted him to stay. She had never met anyone who made her feel so anxious to taste the wine of life. She didn’t know what the key to his secret might be, but he couldn’t leave until she had discovered it for herself.

And if it should turn out that he liked her a little bit…. Well, she wasn’t sure about that. A tremor of excitement ran through her. What woman wouldn’t be excited to have such a man interested in her? She couldn’t see anything wrong with a little harmless flirtation.

Just as long as neither of them took it seriously.

“What are you thinking about?” Victoria asked
the
next day. Trinity stood looking out over a remote canyon in the valley while she relaxed sitting under a giant oak.

“Not much,” Trinity replied.

“You’ve hardly said a word all day.”

“After Buc tried to make mincemeat out of me, I decided it might be best if I kept my mouth shut. And my opinions to myself.”

“So you do have opinions?”

“Yes, Miss Victoria, I have opinions.”

She threw a stone at him. He looked up in surprise. It was a large stone, and it hurt. He could tell from her look that she intended it.

“I’d rather you didn’t talk to me at all if you’re going to call me
Miss Victoria
. I’ve tried everything I know to convince you I hate it.”

“Everyone else uses it, and you don’t seem to mind.”

“You’re not everyone else, are you?”

“No.”

“Then why should I treat you the same way? I knew you were different the moment I saw you. I
counted
on your being different. You can’t let me down.”

“I don’t quite understand.”

“You’re the only person who treats me like a normal person instead of some precious doll to be protected from outsiders and from myself. If you’re going to act this way, I might as well have asked Buc to come with me. He might suffocate me, but at least he talks to me.”

Trinity dropped his reserve, and an irresistible smile danced across his face. “I tell jokes. I tell stories. I even tell tales. Which would you like?”

“Nothing like that,” Victoria said, an answering smile in her eyes. “I’d just like to be treated like a normal person.”

Trinity picked up a small stone and threw it at Victoria. It hit her on the shoulder.

“What was that for?” she asked, startled.

“You wanted to be treated like a normal person. Well, if a normal person had thrown a rock at me, I’d have thrown one back. So I did.”