Give My Love to Rose (18 page)

“
But…”

“
No buts!” Marston
snapped. “The doctor said you needed to rest and I intend to see
that you do. That means you’re not going out there and scrubbing
them clothes until your fingers bleed.” Rose opened her mouth to
speak again, but Marston silenced her with a sharp glare. “Stop
arguing with me. I’m not good with arguing and I’m more likely to
simply gag you and hog tie you to this couch to get my
way.”

Rose stared hard at him. She wanted to say
he was lying and wouldn’t truly do those things but judging by the
look in his eye there was a good chance he was very serious. She
sighed and flopped back against the sofa. “Fine.”

Marston smiled with victory. He fetched her
sewing from her bedroom and brought it to her. He also brought her
a plate of biscuits from the kitchen and the pitcher of water with
a glass just in case she got hungry while he was busy.

Rose watched him with disbelief as he did
all of this and then stoked up the fire in the fireplace and the
cook stove. “There you’re all settled in,” Marston said, glancing
around. “If you need anything else just yell for me. I’ll stay
close enough to hear you.”

“
I would say thank you,”
Rose said. “But you don’t seem to like it when I do.”

He flashed a smile that had her heart
stuttering. “Good to see you’re learning.”

Marston went about gathering the soap and
dirty clothes and piled them into a basket. He propped the basket
on his hip and then paused at the door. “You look mighty pretty
today.”

Rose was left there at a loss for words as
Marston left the cabin and she found herself alone.

***

Washing clothes was harder than Marston had
suspected it would be. He had never bothered with doing it before.
He’d always just stolen new clothes when his old ones wore out.

Marston pulled off his hat and blew his
thick brown hair from his face as he scrubbed a particularly
stubborn stain on Langley’s trousers.

Marston heard a twig snap behind him just
before a familiar voice made his blood run cold. “What the hell are
you doing, Marston?”

Marston dropped the washboard and pants into
the water filled bucket and slowly stood straight as he turned.
“What the hell are you doing here, Duke?”

Chapter Sixteen

“
Jeremiah and I followed
you,” Duke replied.

Marston found his eyes going to Jeremiah who
was heading for the barn where Marston knew Langley was currently
cleaning stalls. “Stop right there, Jeremiah,” Marston warned,
drawing his revolver and cocking it as he aimed it directly between
Jeremiah’s shoulder blades.

Jeremiah stopped in his tracks, raised his
hands high and turned to face Marston. “I was just gonna see if my
damn horse was in there.”

“
There ain’t nothing in
that barn that concerns you,” Marston growled. He hoped Langley
would be wise enough to stay in that damn barn. He didn’t want Rose
or Langley exposed to these types of people. The fact that he was
the same kind of person was not lost on him, but he knew that he
would never do a single thing to hurt the woman or the boy—Marston
couldn’t say the same for his brother and Duke.

“
Okay then…” Jeremiah
replied, throwing a concerned glance at Duke.

“
Jeremiah, get over here
and stand next to Duke,” Marston ordered, motioning with his
revolver. Jeremiah was quick to obey.

Duke frowned. “You look like a regular old
housewife, Marston. What are you doing washing clothes and shacking
up with some woman and her brat?”

Marston holstered his gun and his fists
tightened until his knuckles popped. “You’ve been watching me?” he
ground out, cursing himself for not being more vigilant.

“
Yep,” Jeremiah chuckled.
“And I haven’t seen your face that smooth since you were suckling
on mama’s tit.”

“
That’s real cute,”
Marston grumbled. “Who the hell did you bring with you?”

Jeremiah grinned. “Damn Marston, what kind
of monsters do you think we are? It’s just me and Duke here. We
wouldn’t have tracked you down with the whole gang.”

“
Why don’t you answer my
question, Marston,” Duke insisted. “What the hell are you doing
here? You ain’t trying to settle down are you? I taught you better
than that.”

Marston shook his head. “Don’t you worry
about what I’m doing.”

“
She must be a pretty one
to have you out here playing cleaning lady. We haven’t seen her out
though. Does she have the same red hair as that boy?”

Marston reached out and grabbed his skinny
brother by the throat. “Don’t go worrying yourself about that woman
or that boy, understand? They belong to me and if you so much as
breath in their direction I’ll make sure you don’t breathe no more.
This isn’t one of your little games and you can’t just go in there
and take what you want.”

Jeremiah’s eyes widened while Duke shook his
head. “We weren’t the only ones that played that game, Marston. You
might not have enjoyed it as much as we did, but you always came
right along.”

Marston removed his hand from his brother’s
throat and took a step back as he shoved his hand through his hair.
“I’m playing different games now,” he snarled.

Jeremiah rubbed at his bruising throat. “I
can see that.”

Duke glared at Marston. “You think you’re
better than us now?” he demanded and Marston heard Langley’s
footsteps come out of the barn. “As far as I’m concerned it still
seems like you’re playing the game. Just how long did it take
before you had that little boy’s mama flat on her back and
screaming your name?”

Langley gasped, but Marston had a more
violent reaction. His fist rammed hard into the side of Duke’s face
and Duke instantly hit the ground. Jeremiah took a step back and
raised his hands, clearly in no hurry to be sprawled on the dirt
the way Duke was.

“
You’ll watch what you
say,” Marston snarled as he glared down at Duke’s shocked
expression.

Duke nodded and Marston reached down a hand
and helped the older man to his feet. “I guess I was wrong,” Duke
admitted as he rubbed at his red jaw. “You aren’t playing a game,
are you?”

“
No, I ain’t playing a
game,” Marston agreed. He turned to Langley. “Are you done with
those stalls?”

Langley shook his head and Marston could
tell he was trembling. Marston crouched down to the boy’s level.
“Why are you scared?” he demanded, doing his best to sound
uninterested even as he hoped his eyes would show the boy he
cared.

“
Are these men gonna hurt
me and mama?” Langley whispered.

“
Of course not!” Duke
assured him. “We’re just here to visit Marston.”

“
He’s my brother you
know,” Jeremiah added.

Langley’s eyes widened. “He’s the one that
shot you?” he asked Marston.

Marston nodded. “Everything is gonna be
fine, Langley. Get back to the barn now and finish your
chores.”

Langley nodded and quickly raced back into
the barn. “Why look at you, Marston,” Jeremiah mused. “You’ve
turned into a regular old, soft family man.”

Marston tensed at being called soft. Soft
men weren’t taken seriously. Soft men were weak. Soft men ended up
dead. Without giving either man time to react, Marston pulled his
revolver with one hand and his knife with the other. In less than a
heartbeat, he had his knife at Jeremiah’s throat and his gun stuck
deep in Duke’s gut.

“
I ain’t soft, dammit,” he
growled. “Keep thinking that way and I’ll show you what your
insides look like. Lay a hand on either of these people and I’ll
show you a little slower. Are we understood?”

Jeremiah was quick to nod and after a few
moments of studying Marston closely Duke nodded as well. “Yeah
Marston. We’re understood.” Duke sighed. “Marston, we didn’t come
for trouble. Your brother and I were worried about you. You were
beat up when you left and neither one of us liked how we left
things.”

Marston frowned as he put away his weapons.
“Worrying about others is against your rules, Duke.”

“
Sometimes rules are meant
to be broken,” Duke shrugged. “I nearly shot them damn men for
attacking you the way they did even though you asked for it. Damn
you for making me watch that, Marston. I couldn’t interfere without
looking soft and looking soft in front of those bastards would have
been deadly.”

“
I made my own choice,
Duke, and if they’d have killed me it would have been my
fault.”

Jeremiah snorted. “I wouldn’t have let them
kill you, you overgrown bastard.”

Marston wasn’t sure what to say. This wasn’t
a typical conversation between the three outlaws. Duke clicked his
tongue. “We’ve been through a lot together, Marston.”

“
Things I’m trying to
forget,” Marston replied. “I don’t want to be that man anymore.
This woman and boy see me as something different and I want to be
that man for them.”

Jeremiah shook his head. “You can’t just
stop being what you are, Marston. You’re a bastard, literally, just
the same as me. We were raised to hate, raised not to care. You’ve
done things that would keep most folks up at night, but you don’t
feel sorry for any of it and neither do I. That’s the beauty of our
life. Why would you want to give that up?”

“
You’re right,’ Marston
admitted. “I’m not sorry for my past. Being sorry wouldn’t change a
thing. Everything I did then, I did because I wanted to. None of
that changes the fact that I don’t want to be that man
anymore.”

“
That woman must be
something special,” Duke noted.

Marston let his carefully constructed
defenses down and nodded as his gaze softened. Duke worried about
the man. He had learned that love rarely ended well for men like
them and Marston was clearly in love.

“
She is special,” Marston
replied. “She’s got something about her that I can’t explain but
ever since first laid eyes on her, I’ve felt different.”

Jeremiah slapped him on the back. “Well, if
this is what you want and the crazy makes you happy then I guess
I’ll be happy for you.”

“
Can we meet the woman who
changed the unchangeable man?” Duke asked.

Marston quickly shook his head. “No.”

“
Why the hell not?”
Jeremiah demanded. “You don’t want her to meet her future
brother-in-law and realize she picked the less handsome
one?”

“
I don’t want Rose to know
you exist,” Marston admitted. “I don’t want to have to explain the
man I was in the past to her.”

“
You mean three weeks
ago?” Duke inquired dryly.

Marston glared. “I’m serious. Leave. Forget
you followed me. Forget I exist. I’m leaving that life behind and
I’m starting over. End of story.”

Marston pretended he didn’t see the hurt on
their faces and Duke and Jeremiah took a step back. “That’s fine,”
Duke said after several quiet moments. “But if you need us you can
send word.”

“
Alright then brother… I
guess I have no choice but to accept what you’re saying but make
sure you don’t stay a stranger for too long.”

Duke nodded. “Yeah and I know it’s still
nearly a week away but Merry Christmas.”

Marston watched the men walk to the edge of
the woods, mount their waiting horses and ride away.

“
Wow, Marston! You sure
showed them. You gotta teach me how to punch like that!” Langley
exclaimed as he came out of the barn.

Marston looked at the boy. “Langley I have
to go for a walk. You stay in the barn until I get back unless your
mama needs help and hollers.”

“
Why do you have to go?”
Langley asked.

“
I need to. And Langley,
don’t tell your mama those men were here.”

Langley shifted his feet. “I don’t
know….”

“
Knowing those men were
here will only cause your mama to worry and she’s too sick to be
worrying,” Marston insisted.

‘
Plus it’ll bring up some
questions that you’d rather not answer’ that voice chimed
in.

Langley finally nodded. “Okay. I won’t say
anything.”

Marston ruffled his hair. “Good boy. Now go
to the barn and finish up your chores.”

Marston waited until Langley was back inside
the barn before heading off into the woods. He had to make sure
that Duke and Jeremiah truly had left. He liked them well enough
and that conversation he had had just had with them had caused him
to doubt whether they would truly do Rose and Langley harm but
Marston still had to do everything he could to keep the woman and
boy safe.

***

“
Go wash up for bed,
Langley,” Rose said as she sat wrapped in a blanket beside the
fire.

Marston frowned as he sat in the armchair
and sharpened his knife. Rose knew he had noticed how tense she’d
been all afternoon and she wished she were better at hiding her
emotions. Rose was angry and she was uneasy.

The shutters had been open today and Rose
had seen their visitors. She had seen Marston’s reaction to those
men and she had heard every word they had said to one another. She
had seen Marston whispering to Langley after they had left and then
had watched Marston slip away into the woods.

Rose wasn’t sure exactly how she felt about
what had transpired outside today. All she knew for sure was that
she needed to talk to Marston. Rose didn’t want to push the man
away. She knew how scared he was both physically and emotionally
but at the same time, she couldn’t allow these kinds of things to
happen without at least speaking about them.