Carol Cox (20 page)

M
elanie finished arranging a single place setting of Blush by Blair china on a table in the front window and stepped back to judge the effect.
Beautiful.
The lace tablecloth she had used as a table covering set off the dinnerware with its rose design and blue highlights to perfection.

Leaning forward, she adjusted the cup and saucer slightly. A shadow fell across the table, and Melanie looked up to see Will Blake watching her through the window. When she smiled, he tipped his hat and came into the store.

Caleb looked up from sorting mail behind the counter when the bell jingled. “Morning, Will.” He took a second look and his eyes widened. “Look at you, all spiffed up this morning. What’s the occasion?”

Melanie took one last look at her china display and strolled over to join the men at the counter. Will did look different this morning. Now that he had removed his Stetson, she could see that his hair, usually tousled with dark curls tumbling over his forehead, was neatly parted and slicked down, and his
strong jaw showed evidence of a recent shave. Instead of his usual work clothes, he was dressed in a crisp white shirt with a string tie at the collar and neatly creased dark trousers. She looked up again at his face with interest, awaiting his reply.

Caleb set the mailbag under the counter and grinned. “The preacher’s not in town, so we aren’t holding a church service. Nobody has died this week that I know of, so you can’t be going to a funeral.”

Will grinned back, showing no offense at Caleb’s bantering tone. “I’m glad you like the way I look, but you aren’t the one I’m trying to impress.” He cleared his throat and turned toward Melanie. “I asked the café to pack a basket of food, and I picked it up a few minutes ago. Would you like to join me for a picnic?”

Melanie felt her lips form an
O
. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Caleb’s mouth drop open. “Why, I . . . I don’t know.”

She glanced at Caleb, whose mouth was now closed, his lips drawn tight in a thin line, wearing a look similar to the one he’d worn when he’d interrupted Dooley’s “proposal.”

Melanie looked back at Will. “I have some things I really ought to be doing around the store.”

“I’m sure those will keep. Things are usually pretty slow in the middle of the week.” Will smiled at Caleb. “Right?”

Caleb grunted. Will apparently took the sound for an assent and nodded at Melanie. “I thought we could take a ride in my rig, and I’d show you a bit of the countryside. Maybe we could go across the creek and eat near the ruins.” Crinkles formed at the corners of his eyes when he smiled.

The smile warmed Melanie like sunlight on a spring day, and she felt her interest quicken. The prospect of spending some time outdoors and seeing the ruins she had heard about
sounded much more appealing than staying indoors all day. And as Will observed, business was slow at the moment. They’d only had one customer all morning.

She looked at Caleb again. “Would it be all right with you?”

Caleb grunted again, adding a curt nod this time.

Melanie beamed at Will. “Thank you, that sounds like a lovely plan. Just give me a few minutes to run upstairs and change into a different dress.”

Will’s smile broadened. “You look just fine the way you are. There’s a bit of a breeze, though, so you might want to take something to throw over your shoulders in case it cools off later.”

Caleb stiffened. “How long are you planning to be gone?”

Will chuckled. “It’s a beautiful day. Why rush?”

Melanie laughed, caught up in his lighthearted mood. “All right, let me get a wrap.” She hurried to the back room, where she kept a light shawl on a hook. When she turned to go back into the mercantile, she nearly collided with Caleb.

She yelped and took a quick step back, startled by the intensity of his gaze. “What is it?”

His brows formed a straight line above his eyes. “I just don’t want you getting the idea that you can go running off anytime you want.”

Melanie stared up at him. “But you said it would be all right if I left for a while.”

Caleb went on as if she hadn’t said a word. “As I told you the other morning, it’s the height of folly for you to be off on your own, with a killer on the loose.”

“But I won’t be on my own. Will is escorting me.”

The muscles in Caleb’s jaw worked. “And Will is one of the few people I’d let you go off with like this.”

Melanie arched her eyebrows. “
Let
me?” She flung the shawl over her shoulders and pushed past him.

Will settled his Stetson back on his head when she reappeared and grinned at Caleb. “We’ll see you later.” He crooked his elbow at Melanie.

When she accepted his proffered arm, she saw a look pass between the two men but couldn’t tell what it meant. She followed Will’s lead out to the street, where a gleaming buggy awaited them. She looked up at him in surprise. “We’re going in this?”

There was that smile again. “Only the best for a special lady.” He helped her up into the buggy, and Melanie arranged her skirt on the tufted leather seats.

Will circled around behind the buggy and swung up beside her, then picked up the reins and set the flashy bay mare in motion with a click of his tongue. People stopped along the boardwalk and stared as they drove by. Melanie returned their nods, feeling a bit self-conscious as she proceeded down the street sitting at the side of a man who thought she was special.

Before long the buildings were behind them, and the buggy rolled across open country. Melanie felt her spirits rise with every turn of the wheels, reveling in the fresh-scented breeze that brushed her face and the sights and smells of nature, all seeming to promise them a glorious afternoon.

She watched the way Will guided the bay mare with strong, sure hands, the economy of motion in his gestures showing his proficiency. She relaxed and leaned back against the padded buggy seat. “Thank you for inviting me. I love working in the store, but I have to admit I enjoy spending time outdoors as much or more.”

She sighed and let the buggy’s gentle motion ease away
the tension of her odd encounter with Caleb. Looking out over the vast landscape, she said, “How long have you been ranching here?”

Will tugged on the right rein to guide the bay in a gentle curve that brought them alongside a sparkling creek. “I came out from Texas five years ago with a herd of five hundred breeding stock.”

Melanie raised her eyebrows. “So many?”

Will smiled. “That’s considered a pretty small number in ranching circles. Right now, I’m running around ten thousand head. That’s about all I can handle at the moment.”

Melanie shook her head. “I can’t imagine how you manage to keep up with it all.”

The clear whistling calls from a bevy of quail met her ears, and she smiled when she spied their heads bobbing as they scratched beneath the underbrush. The mother quail darted from the undergrowth at the base of a cedar tree, heading toward a low creosote bush with quick, determined strides. The plume on her head bobbed in rhythm with her movements. Six babies, identical to their mother except for size, scurried along behind her.

Melanie laughed, then looked around. “So where are these ruins I’ve heard about?”

Will pointed off to the left. “Over there. You’ll see them in a minute.” He turned the buggy in that direction as he spoke, heading straight toward the creek.

Melanie gave a loud gasp, and Will chuckled. “Don’t worry. The water’s shallow here. We can ford it easily enough.”

She watched as they splashed through the flowing water, relieved when she saw it didn’t even come up to the level of the wheel hubs. A hundred yards beyond, they reached
the base of the cliffs. Will pulled the mare to a halt under a huge sycamore tree at the edge of a large meadow. “Here we are. This is also where we’ll have the Founders Day celebration. Plenty of room for races and games out here on this meadow.”

He hopped down and circled the buggy. Melanie put her hands on his shoulders and let him help her step down. She scanned the area, looking for piles of broken rocks and rubble from forgotten, tumbledown dwellings. “I still don’t see the ruins.”

Will grinned. “Well, let’s start off with these caves at the base of the hill.” He pointed to several round openings along the cliff wall. “Those were used for storage for shocks of corn and other food supplies. But the actual ‘houses’ are up here.” He led her close to the cliff wall and pointed overhead.

Melanie raised her eyes and caught her breath. Fifty feet above them, narrow clay structures resembling a giant swallow’s nest clung to the sides of the sheer rock. The mud walls matched the coloring of the cliffs, providing perfect camouflage. No wonder she hadn’t noticed them before. Slots in the walls, which apparently served as windows, looked like dark eyes peering down at them.

Melanie stared upward, utterly fascinated. So these were the ruins of the ancient people she had heard about. She shook her head. “What are they like inside? How could the people who lived here even get up to them?” When Will didn’t answer, she turned to find he had returned to the buggy and was busy arranging their picnic on a blanket he had already spread on the ground.

She repeated her questions after she’d seated herself on the blanket and filled her plate with fried chicken and two
buttery rolls. “And why would anyone want to live on the side of a sheer wall like that?”

Will took a moment to swallow a bite of chicken. “For protection, mainly. Enemies couldn’t get at them from above or behind. The only access is from below. And that ties in with your other question about getting up there. They used ladders to climb up to the ledges. They could pull those up if trouble came along. Then there wasn’t any way for an attacker to reach them.”

Melanie bit into a juicy drumstick, unable to take her eyes off the remarkable sight. “I’m trying to imagine what it would have been like to live that way. What did they do about their children? How could they keep them from tumbling over the edge?”

Will shrugged. “I have no idea. I’m sure they probably lost a number of people that way.” Seeing her startled expression, he added, “It’s a hard life out here. For them and for us. Nature has a way of keeping all of us on our toes. I’m sure they did what they could to protect their youngsters, though. Just like your parents must have watched over you.”

She sighed and crumbled one of the rolls between her fingers. “I’m sure they would have . . . if they’d been able to.”

When Will looked at her questioningly, she set the roll aside and moistened her lips. “I was raised by my grandparents. My mother died of typhoid when I was only a year old. I never even knew my father. He was a part of the 79th Ohio Infantry. He left home before I was born, and he fell at the Battle of Peachtree Creek.”

Will reached out and covered her hand with his. “That must have been hard, not knowing your parents.” He gave her fingers a squeeze and slid his hand away. “I guess life can
be difficult, no matter where you live. I know it’s different out here than what you’re accustomed to, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s a good life if you learn how to work within nature’s boundaries instead of trying to fight against them.”

Melanie pondered Will’s comment in silence while she ate the rest of her meal. His attitude toward the value of life seemed altogether too indifferent to her, but maybe he was right and that was just the way things were done out west. If she planned to make her home in Cedar Ridge, it appeared that she would have to make some adjustments to her thinking.

They polished off the apple pie—with Will eating two slices. Licking the last crumb from his fingers, he glanced up, and a shadow crossed his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“See those dark gray clouds blowing in over the ridge? There’s a storm coming. We’d better pack up and head back.” He suited his actions to his words as he spoke. “We may not get a heavy rain here, but if there’s a downpour upstream, it’ll raise the water in the creek until it becomes a torrent, and we’ll be caught on this side of the creek.”

A glimmer of humor lit his eyes. “Not that I wouldn’t like to spend more time with you, but it wouldn’t do your reputation any good if we didn’t get home until sometime tomorrow.”

Melanie felt a blush tinge her cheeks at his teasing. She helped him load the basket and the blanket into the buggy, then climbed aboard.

Will shook the reins, sending the bay mare into a brisk trot. Melanie held fast to the buggy seat as the rig rocked along at a far more rapid pace than when they’d traveled out.

“I really wanted to tell you more about myself,” Will said. “I know I like what I see in you, but I wanted to give you a chance to get to know me better. After all, you see Caleb every day.”

Melanie twisted around on the seat to get a better look at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Will flashed a glance at her, his easy grin fading into a more serious expression. “When two men are interested in the same woman, and one of them has the inside track, the other one needs to take advantage of every opportunity he can find.”

Melanie threw back her head and laughed. “You’re talking about Caleb? You saw what happened the other day. He’s been trying to marry me off to anyone who would have me. He’ll do anything to get rid of me so he can have the store back.”