Beneath The Texas Sky (19 page)

As always, he seemed nervous talking with her. “Mrs. Weston, I saw you open the window and knew you were up.” He stepped back a few feet into the hallway. “The housekeeper left during the night. From the large bags she had, I’d say she took a bonus.”

Bethanie shrugged and started down the hall. “I don’t think we’ve lost much of a helper. I know finding someone to take care of this house must be a problem in this country, but it seems to me the house is better off without her.”

When she turned to see if he agreed, Cain’s face was twisted in agony. “I want to talk to you about that, Mrs. Weston.” He knew she was watching him, and turned the scarred side of his face away from her. “I know my job was just to get you here, but I was thinking…”

Bethanie had to smile. Never in her life had she frightened anyone, yet she seemed to scare this man to within an inch of death. She had the feeling if she yelled “boo”
at him, he would bolt like a wild colt. He looked like a rock of a man who’d never taken anything off anyone, yet around her, he was as jumpy as a rabbit in a dog kennel.

“I thought…if you would allow me…I could stay on around here and help out. This place needs lots of fixin’ up and the barn needs a new roof…and the fence out back wouldn’t hold a goat…and I could…”

“O.K., O.K., Cain,” Bethanie laughed. “I would consider myself fortunate if you would agree to stay.”

Cain let out a long-held breath. “Thanks, Mrs. Weston. I made some coffee in the kitchen. The trail boss told me there is a small settlement about five miles north. I thought if I left at daybreak, I could be back with supplies by noon.”

Bethanie agreed and went to survey the cupboards. She saw Cain off, then looked around the house until Mariah awoke. They spent the morning washing hair and clothes. If Josh came home tonight, she would be more presentable.

True to his word, Cain was back by noon with a wagonload of supplies and tools. To Bethanie’s surprise, a middle-aged woman climbed down from the wagon. Her clothes were little more than rags, but they were clean.

Cain pulled off his hat and began mutilating it with nervous fingers as he stood before Bethanie. “I met this woman in town,” he whispered to Bethanie. “She was taking in laundry and not doing too well among these dirt-loving miners. I checked around and found out she was a widow and respectable. I was hoping you could see your way clear to hire her.”

Bethanie got his point even before he said the word “housekeeper.” She nodded first to him, then the woman. How could she tell Cain that she would have hired the
woman herself if she’d met her first? The woman’s face had little beauty in middle age, but her eyes reflected an openness of character. Her lips turned up in a smile even though her life couldn’t have been an easy one.

Bethanie knew firsthand what it was like to try to make a living in a mining town. She offered her hand to the woman. “I’m Bethanie Weston, and I’d be delighted to have some help and company out here.”

A bubbly smile covered the woman’s plump face. “I’m Rachel, and I’d be glad to help for as long as you need me. I’ve heard of the Weston Mine, but I didn’t know about a house. Josh Weston is kind of a legend around these parts. Some say he works night and day, never sleeping at all.”

Cain started walking the horses to the barn as Rachel continued. “When your hired hand finished frightening me to death, I decided I didn’t have nothing to lose by coming out to meet you. I’ve been having trouble keeping body and soul together since my husband died last winter.”

Rachel patted Bethanie’s hand. “Mr. Cain told me of your loss only a few months ago.” The older woman heaved her chest as if fighting off sadness with determination. She looked toward Cain and changed the subject without hesitation. “I have the feeling Mr. Cain has a heart of gold to counter that ugly face. He even asked me if there was anything I needed at the store. Imagine a man thinking of a thing like that.”

“I don’t know what I’ll be able to pay you.” Bethanie realized she was probably being rash in replacing Josh’s housekeeper. “But I’m sure it will be fair,” she added. She already liked this woman who was free with her compliments and honest in her judgment of Cain.

By the time they had lunch, Bethanie knew Rachel was going to work out just fine. She doted over Mariah like a grandmother, and the child was delighted.

Everything was falling into place, but Bethanie still hadn’t seen Josh. The uncertainty of his reaction gnawed at her self-confidence. If he didn’t come home tonight, she knew she would have to go to the mine tomorrow.

Josh Weston waved good-bye to the miners as they climbed into buckboards. They were headed into town for their Saturday night fun. He knew that half, or more, would be out of money when they returned Sunday and wouldn’t even remember where they’d spent their pay. But the men were in high spirits tonight. He only wished that he could feel their wild, carefree abandon. If he were being honest with himself, it had been some time since he’d felt anything.

Josh grabbed a clean towel and headed between the trees that hid the spring. Maybe feeling nothing was better than feeling pain. He smiled bitterly to himself. He hadn’t even gotten drunk in weeks, so he must be getting better.

He stripped off his shirt and squinted watching the sun spread its fool’s gold over the mountains. Trained for alertness, he heard a noise at the camp and laughed to think one of the men must have forgotten something in haste. Josh ducked his head low in the stream and felt the icy water wash away the dust of the mine.

He raised his head as a twig snapped behind him. Slowly, Josh turned around. His face was relaxed, but his hand hung ready at his gun handle. The past years had been peaceful, but he remembered a time when claim jumpers were as pesky as mosquitoes. A woman’s form
moved as gracefully as a spring breeze from the shadows of aspens.

Josh watched her slender body come toward him like she had a hundred times before in his fantasies. Her hair was red-gold fire and her eyes the green of new leaves. She was dressed in black, this time, in a riding skirt and boots. “God,” his mind cried. “How could she grow more beautiful with each dream?”

Josh shook the water from his head and widened his stance. “Damn you!” he shouted in pain. “Go away and leave me alone. Must you haunt both my days and my nights?”

He watched her lips part in surprise at his outburst. He could see the hurt his words wrought in her expressive eyes. How could she look so innocent, as if she were unaware of the pain she caused him?

Josh stood and pulled the towel behind his neck. Every cell in his body wanted to run to her, but he had lived this nightmare of her disappearing too many times. “Damn, how I hate you,” he hissed. “And I hate myself even more for wanting you.”

He watched her head jerk to the side as if he had dealt her a blow. He had to face her straight on or go mad. Josh laughed without humor and fought to keep the tears from his eyes. His knuckles whitened from his grip on the towel. He must be cracking up. Maybe he had finally worked himself too hard. Usually he didn’t see her except after several drinks.

He watched her straighten and saw a stamina in her crystal green eyes that he’d never seen before. She was different somehow from the Bethanie he remembered.

“I’m not a dream.” Bethanie moved closer. “Or the nightmare you seem to think, Josh Weston, so stop yelling at me.”

Josh watched her close the distance between them. He studied each line of her face, each curl of her hair. She
was here, the same as he’d imagined for three long years. His heart began to thunder in his chest as he realized that his dream was, indeed, a reality. His mouth was dry, with words hung in his throat. He watched her move nearer and knew Bethanie was with him. But she wasn’t the same. Somehow the years had made her stronger and more beautiful. How could she be more lovely than the perfection he left behind? Josh tried to hear what she was saying.

“I bring tragic news.” Her eyes filled with tears and the sight tore into his heart. “I wanted to be the one to tell you.” Her voice was little more than a whisper as she stood only inches away. “Ben was killed almost six weeks ago in an Indian raid at the ranch.”

She was talking, telling him every detail of the day his brother died, but Josh couldn’t get her words to sink in. He could only watch one lone tear roll down her face. He would have moved the very mountain they stood on if he could stop the tear’s course.

Suddenly, the reality of her words registered like a bullet exploding inside his chest. Josh turned away from her, the pain of Ben’s death plowing through his mind. Never in his longing for Bethanie would he have wished Ben harm. Never! Ben was his only kin, the brother he admired and loved.

Her warm hand touched his shoulder. “I know, I know,” she whispered. “I loved him, too.”

Josh whirled around and encircled her in his arms. He pulled her to him in a need to hold and be held. She ran her fingers over his wet hair and whispered softly, things mothers whisper to heartbroken children.

Bethanie’s unhealed wound was ripped wide open again, and pain poured out with the same force it had the day Ben died. Held safely in Josh’s strong arms, she was free to allow her pain to flow. They clung to each other for a long moment, sharing their grief.

Josh pulled her closer to him…closer than he’d ever allowed another to come. She felt so wonderful and soft in his arms. A faint scent of honeysuckle seemed to surround her. He buried his face into the silk of her hair. He’d been wrong to think numbness was better than feeling. Even the pain of sorrow was better than the walking death he’d lived these past three years.

Slowly, he moved his hand along her back, proving to himself she was real. She lifted her head from his shoulder, and he tenderly wiped a tear from her cheek. Her eyes closed as he cradled her chin in his palm. His thumb moved across her lips in a tender action that no amount of willpower could have stopped. He remembered the taste of her lips and the way they’d quivered at his anger when she’d told him she was married.

Heavy footsteps crashed suddenly toward them. Bethanie pulled away. Without turning she called out. “Over here, Cain.”

Josh watched a huge middle-aged man emerge from the trees and freeze as if awaiting orders. The left side of his face was a mass of scars and his hair a blend of dark red and white. He was not a man Josh had seen before or would likely forget seeing.

“This is Cain. Mike hired him to get us here. I’ve asked him to stay on.” Bethanie didn’t turn her eyes from Josh as she continued. “Cain, I’d like you to meet Josh Weston, my husband’s brother.”

Cain nodded at Josh, but moved no closer. He reminded Josh of an untamed wilderness creature. He would go near humans, but not so close that he couldn’t jump back before they advanced.

Josh nodded a greeting and watched Cain’s reaction as he placed his arm around Bethanie’s shoulder. The older man stiffened, not like a jealous lover but more like an alert watchdog.

Josh walked Bethanie back to her horse and said he
would be along later. She seemed reluctant to leave him, but she said nothing in front of Cain. Josh knew he had some heavy thinking, and maybe drinking, to do before he headed home. The way he felt about her hadn’t changed in three years, and he knew what would have happened if Cain hadn’t interrupted. By the look in her eyes, she knew, too, and that fact frightened Josh more than anything had in his life.

Bethanie lay awake most of the night thinking and listening for Josh, but he didn’t come home. She tried to act as if nothing were wrong all the next day, but even Rachel could read her clearly enough to know something was amiss. They cleaned house all day. The work used up Bethanie’s energy and allowed little time to think. By nightfall, Bethanie was too tired to wonder why Josh hadn’t come home.

Just after she went to bed, she heard voices in the hall. Bethanie ran to the landing to see Cain holding Josh against the wall as Josh yelled obscenities at him in a drunken slur.

Bethanie ran down the stairs. “Cain,” she shouted. “Don’t hurt him.”

“Hurt me, hell,” Josh yelled. “I’ll…”

Josh’s words were stopped by Cain’s fist at his jaw. She heard the pop of the older man’s knuckles and the snap of Josh’s lower jaw. Bethanie watched in horror as Josh slid unconscious to the floor like a huge rag doll.

Cain looked up with no hint of anger in his face. “Sorry, Mrs. Weston, but my hand slips when I hear that kind of language in front of ladies.”

Bethanie had to smile. Cain was a poor liar. He wasn’t sorry and his hand hadn’t slipped. “Can you get him upstairs to his room? He can sleep it off, and we can explain the accident tomorrow over black coffee?”

She followed as Cain slung Josh over one shoulder and took the stairs two at a time.

He stopped her at Josh’s bedroom door. “I’ll see he gets to bed.” Cain didn’t wait for an answer, but closed the door in her face.

Bethanie spent another restless night tormented by the knowledge that Josh was only a wall away from her. She recalled the words he’d said to her when he first saw her at the stream. He’d said he hated her, yet love was in his eyes. Even as she’d held him to comfort his sorrow, her body had warmed at the feel of his muscular shoulders and the touch of his hands on her back. Had Josh felt the desire and also the guilt of needing her, even as they grieved his brother? Maybe that was why he had to be drunk to come back home.

Dawn filtered into her room, and finally Bethanie heard movement in the hall. She climbed from her bed as her doorknob twisted soundlessly. She waited, thankful for the bolt blocking the door. The footsteps retreated back down the hall. She shook herself awake. She was overreacting. It was probably only Rachel checking to see if she was still asleep. Or was it Josh? Or was Cain on guard just outside the door?

Bethanie dressed quickly and went downstairs. Rachel was already hard at work in the kitchen. Two dirty plates cluttered the table. “Mornin’,” Rachel smiled. “You’re the last one up. Cain and Josh have already downed a pot of coffee and gone off to look at the herd over on the north pasture.”

“Cain and Josh?” Bethanie accepted the offered coffee.

“Sure,” Rachel laughed. “Once that young man sobered up, they were thick as thieves. Mr. Weston is a gentleman, even if he did belt one on last night. He came down this morning and apologized to me right off.”

Bethanie cleared away the men’s plates and sat down
with her coffee. Rachel poured herself a cup and took the chair beside Bethanie. “They said not to expect them back until mid-afternoon. What part of the house should we tackle today?”

Bethanie had lost all interest in housekeeping. She drank her coffee and nodded at Rachel’s chatter. Her bleak mood continued all morning while they worked. The weather seemed to mimic her emotions as clouds gathered and threatened rain.

By four, Bethanie could stand the house no longer and saddled Twilight. The clouds were now dark, and thunder echoed off the surrounding mountains. Mariah was busy helping Rachel make long curls from apple peelings. Bethanie promised a mothering Rachel that she would go only a short distance from the house. With her first taste of freedom all day, Bethanie kicked her horse into a gallop toward the north.

The woods were unfamiliar, and the wind whipped Bethanie around. Even the joy of riding was lost in her dark mood and the brooding weather. Why was Josh avoiding her? Maybe she had only brought him pain. Then, the sight of the doorknob turning flashed in her mind. Did he think he could come without knocking to her bedroom? She felt angry at him for thinking he could just take up where he left off, and angry at herself for knowing she would not only allow his advances, but welcome them.

Large drops of rain stung her face. She had ridden farther from the house than she’d planned. In a race to beat nature, Bethanie kicked Twilight into a run toward the barn. The storm opened forth a blinding rain as thunder crackled in victory. She gave her powerful animal his head and leaned low over him. If she hadn’t been lost in her thoughts, she would have never been caught so unaware of the sky.

As Twilight galloped into the open barn door, Bethanie
allowed her cramped hands to let go of the reins. She leaned forward and patted the strong neck in a “thank you” to the animal for bringing her to safety.

Suddenly, powerful hands encircled her waist and pulled her off the horse with a jerk. She whirled to see Josh’s face twisted in anger. “What kind of fool are you to be out in this?” he yelled above the thunder. The rain hammered against the roof like a thousand workmen. Shadows darkened the barn as clouds blocked the setting sun outside. Nature’s storm was reflected in Josh’s angry, dark eyes.

Josh’s hands were still tight around her waist as he pulled her closer. “When I got back and discovered you were out in this storm I thought I’d go mad.”

“I can take care of myself.” Bethanie resented being thought of as incompetent.

“Don’t ever do that again.” Josh moved his hands to her shoulders. Though his words were hateful, his fingers were a caress.

“I’ll do what I please, Josh Weston.” Bethanie’s anger at herself for being caught in the storm transferred to Josh.

“When did you get so sharp, woman?’ Josh’s words were a slap.

“About the same time you became a drunk,” Bethanie answered, and saw her words had stung him also.

She pulled free, knocking herself off balance. Josh lunged to steady her, and they both fell backward against an empty stall. Josh swore and Bethanie screamed as the wood cracked, giving way beneath their weight. She fell against the packed earth, and Josh tumbled atop her. For a moment they lay face to face, staring at each other. Bethanie could feel his hard body covering her, their wet clothes doing little to hamper her sense of touch. His shoulders were wider, more muscular than she remembered. His dark hair was damp, covering his forehead.

In a flash of lightning, Bethanie could see it all in his eyes. She saw the need he had for her even though anger still clouded his smoldering gaze. As his chest pressed against her breasts, she could see the desire in his eyes. The longing, not for a night, but for a lifetime.

The instant shattered. Josh rolled violently off her as mighty arms jerked him to his feet. In a blink, Cain’s hand reached to help Bethanie up. “I heard the crash. Are you all right, Mrs. Weston?” Cain glanced in rage toward Josh, and she watched his hands ball into fists.

Bethanie steadied herself. “I’m fine, Cain. It was just an accident.” She looked over at Josh. The raw passion in his dark eyes embarrassed her. Were her feelings toward him as obvious? “I must get out of these wet clothes.” Fire rose in her cheeks as Josh’s eyebrows lifted slightly.