Give My Love to Rose (27 page)

“
I know who you are and
what you do,” Marston growled. “I need to make sure you know right
now that Rose is off limits.”

“
You got a lot of nerve
talking to me that way,” Duke warned, his hand inching toward his
gun. Then he sighed and dropped his hand to the ground. “But
okay.”

“
It was nothing personal,
Duke,” Marston assured the older man as he helped him to his feet.
“I suppose I’m a bit overprotective.”

Jeremiah continued to laugh as Duke swatted
dirt from his pants. Rose called Marston to the window. He went to
her and folded his arms on the window sill. “What is it?” he
asked.

“
You do realize that
you’re fighting with people on Christmas, don’t you?”

Marston grinned and kissed her nose. “We
weren’t fighting.”

Rose’s eyes widened and she pointed at Duke
who was wiping blood from his lip. “Then what would you call what
just happened?” she demanded.

Marston simply shrugged. “I was proving a
point.”

“
No, it was called marking
his territory,” Jeremiah cut in. “Don’t let him fool you, Rose. The
man might as well have gone and peed on your leg.”

Marston glared at his brother as Langley
stepped out onto the porch. “Who peed on mama?”

Chapter Twenty-Five

“
Okay, now can we open
presents?” Langley exclaimed as he flopped himself onto the sofa
after completing his chores.

Rose couldn’t help but notice that Duke sat
at the far end of the living room, as far from Rose’s seat at the
kitchen table as he could get. She had to wonder if his distance
was because of the confrontation between himself and Marston—she
rolled her eyes as she slid her knife through the skin of the
potato she was peeling.

“
Alright, I reckon we can
open them now,” Marston agreed. “Come on, Rose,” he added. “You’re
supposed to be taking it easy. I’ll peel the potatoes after we’re
done with gifts.”

Jeremiah batted his lashes and laid his hand
over his heart. “Aww, have you ever peeled potatoes in your
life?”

“
He sure has!” Langley was
quick to respond as he hopped to his feet. “He peeled some for me
the first day I met him and he cooked us dinner. He even used the
big old knife!” he added before running into his room.

Jeremiah shivered. “Yeah, I know all about
that knife. I’ve been on the sharp end of it a few times.”

Rose’s eyes widened as she walked to the
back of the sofa and laid her hand on Marston’s shoulder. “You’ve
stabbed your brother?”

Langley positioned himself on the sofa next
to Marston with a burlap sack from his room clutched tight in his
hands. Jeremiah nodded toward Rose. “That’s not the half of it!” he
assured her. “He’s shot me, stabbed me, left me for dead in the
desert, sent a posse in my direction so they wouldn’t be going in
his and has stolen my horses over and over. That’s a real winner of
a man you got there, Rose.”

Rose glanced down at her man who was simply
sitting on the sofa with a bored expression, his legs stretched out
in front of him and his arms crossed over his chest. “Marston, did
you truly do all that to your own brother?” Rose asked.

Marston grunted. “First off, he’s annoying
so he deserved to be shot and stabbed and he’s shot and stabbed me
plenty of times as well. Second, I didn’t leave him for dead in the
desert, I just left him. Third, ask him who sent that damn posse
after me in the first place and fourth, damn near every horse he’s
ever had he’s stolen from me.”

Rose attempted to wrap her head around that
mixed up relationship but was unable to. “That make me very
thankful that I don’t have any brothers or sisters,” she admitted.
Langley and Duke were quick to nod in agreement.

Duke stood from his chair. “Come on,
Jeremiah. It’s present time and our gifts for these fine folks are
outside.”

Marston frowned at the duo’s retreating
backs. “I’ll be right back.” Without further explanation, he
followed them out the door. As Duke and Jeremiah stepped out of the
barn with a burlap sack, Marston’s frown deepened. “Where exactly
did the two of you go last night?”

“
How the hell do you know
we went anywhere?” Jeremiah demanded.

Duke chuckled. “The bastard can hear a gnat
take a shit from a hundred yards.”

“
So what’s in the bag?”
Marston pressed.

Duke held it up higher. “Presents for
Christmas.”

Marston scratched at his jaw. “You’re saying
you went out in the night on Christmas Eve and stole presents for
Christmas?”

“
Maybe we bought ‘em,”
Jeremiah countered, the grin on his face making it clear that was
not the case.

Marston shook his head. “There’s a special
place in hell for people like you.”

“
We stole our presents and
you bought your presents with stolen money.” Duke shrugged. “We’ll
let you sit next to us down there if you promise to be
nicer.”

Jeremiah laughed and threw his arm around
Marston’s shoulders. “Come on, little brother, get in the spirit of
the season! It’s all about giving.”

Marston raised his brow and glared down his
nose at his brother. “I’m gonna be in the spirit of giving you an
ass whooping if you don’t get your arm off me.”

Duke grumbled and held the sack out to
Marston. “Can we still give these presents, papa? Even though we
stole them?”

Marston pinched his nose between his fingers
and counted to three—he didn’t’ want to hit either one of them
again on Christmas. He knew that would only upset Rose. “Did you
steal them from the H&H Mercantile?” he finally asked.

Jeremiah nodded. “We borrowed ‘em from
there, yes.”

“
Borrowed,” Marston
scoffed. He threw up his hands. “You can give your stolen presents
with a smile. I hate those damn bitches.”

***

“
Okay, we’ll let our
guests hand out their presents first,” Rose announced as she sat
sandwiched on the sofa between Marston and Langley. Duke was once
again sitting in the arm chair and Jeremiah had settled himself
down on the floor.

“
I feel terrible that you
got us something and we have nothing to give to you,” Rose
admitted, color staining her cheeks.

“
Don’t feel guilty,” Duke
countered with a comforting smile that made Marston’s fist twitch.
“We came unannounced but knew we couldn’t show up at Christmastime
empty handed.”

Marston grunted. Actually, they could.

When Jeremiah pulled a brand new storybook
from the burlap sack and held it out to Langley, the boy’s eyes
widened to the size of fifty scent pieces. “Thanks!” he exclaimed.
“I’d been wanting this one!”

“
Here ya go,” Duke said,
tossing a small leather sack toward Langley.

Langley snatched it out of the air and
pulled the string tying it closed. His eyes lit up. “Mama, I got
jacks! I have toys!”

Marston felt Rose shake and he glanced down
at her face to realize she was fighting back tears. “That’s great,”
she whispered. Marston’s arm gently squeezed her shoulders and he
pressed a kiss to her hair.

“
This is for you, ma’am,”
Duke said as he and Jeremiah handed her a new white bonnet and
matching apron.

“
Thank you,” Rose beamed,
gracing them with a bright smile.

Jeremiah glanced at Marston. “We didn’t get
you anything.”

“
Good,” Marston shrugged.
“I didn’t get you bastards anything either.”

Without warning, Rose got to her feet and
headed for the door, motioning at Marston to follow. “Where we
going?” he grumbled.

“
Come outside with me,”
was the only explanation that she gave. Marston nodded, left
Langley on the sofa playing with his new treasures and followed
Rose out onto the porch.

Instantly he wrapped his arms tight around
her soft body to protect her from the cold air. “You shouldn’t be
coming out here and letting that cold air in your lungs,” he
scolded.

“
I wanted to talk in
private.”

Marston kissed her hair. “Then talk.”

Rose fixed him with a determined stare. “We
have to give Jeremiah and Duke something.”

“
No, we don’t,” Marston
countered.

Rose ignored him and pointed at the
woodshed. “Let’s give them the pocket watch and saddle that Winston
had.”

Marston chuckled as he tweaked her cold
reddened nose. “You want to give them the things that I stole off
the man that I killed as their Christmas presents?”

Rose shrugged. “He’s not using them.”

Her statement had Marston laughing with
disbelief as the woman he loved surprised him yet again. “I’ll turn
you into an outlaw yet.”

“
I was raised in an
orphanage,” she reminded him. “And I was married to an outlaw. I’ve
got a little in my blood.”

“
Quit trying to steal my
thunder,” Marston grumbled with a wink. “You get in out of the cold
and I’ll go get that saddle and watch.”

***

“
Damn, that’s a nice
saddle!” Duke marveled as he ran his hands over the shimmering
brass stirrups and supple leather.

“
I like my watch and all
but why couldn’t I have the saddle?” Jeremiah moped as he glanced
enviously over Duke’s shoulder.

“
I’m not giving you a
fancy saddle-like that one,” Marston replied. “You get your horse
stolen too damn much.”

Jeremiah’s eyes flashed with temper. “The
only time my horse gets stolen is when you steal it!”

Marston shrugged and wrapped his arm around
Rose on the sofa. “Exactly. Why give you something that I’ll just
be stealing back later?”

Jeremiah stepped forward. “Why you son of
a….”

Rose held up her hand and his jaw snapped
shut. “Please, no more fighting on Christmas.”

Jeremiah glared at Marston a moment longer
before grumbling under his breath and sulking away. He settled down
on the rug in front of the fire, pulled his new watch from his
pocket and began to look it over intently.

“
My turn!” Langley
exclaimed with excitement. He grabbed the burlap sack he’d kept
close to him and pulled out the carefully wrapped present he’d
gotten for Rose.

“
You got me a present?”
she whispered as tears gathered in her eyes.

Langley simply nodded and bounced from foot
to foot. “Unwrap it mama!” he urged.

Rose painstakingly pulled back the soft
cloth wrapped around her gift and revealed the delicate ceramic
hummingbird beneath. Bright green feathers were surrounded by
detailed pink flowers and even Marston had to admit the thing was
beautiful.

“
Langley, this is
beautiful…” she managed to say, though the words were thick and
heavy. A tear fell down her cheek and Marston knew immediately that
those were the happy tears that Langley had warned him
about.

Rose carried her new treasure to the crooked
mantle and sat it proudly upon the scarred wood with Langley
beaming as he watched her.

Marston frowned when Langley dropped the
burlap sack into his lap and he realized something was still
inside. “What’s that?” Marston asked.

“
Your present…” Langley
urged, his hands fidgeting with the bottom of his thin
shirt.

Marston felt the collar of his shirt
tighten. “You got me a present?”

“
I sure did.. I hope you
like it. Mr. Tray’s son, Travis, I talk to him now and then when
mama is cleaning house for them and, well, Travis told me that
every pa needs to have one of those so I wanted to get you
one…”

As the boy was rambling Marston pulled a
light tan, polished corn cob pipe from inside the sack. “There’s
some tobacco in there too,” Langley added with a shrug. “Cuz what
good is a pipe without tobacco?”

Marston wanted to give the boy the approval
he was clearly wanting but he feared that if he spoke, the emotion
clogging his throat would be too obvious. He cleared his throat and
scratched at his chin.

“
I uh.. This is a nice
pipe, Langley. I’ve never gotten a Christmas present before and
this is just about the best thing I could have imagined
getting.”

Langley’s face lit with joy. “Really?! Good!
I’m glad you like it! I searched that whole store to find it.
Travis told me a pa needs a pipe and I knew you didn’t have
one.”

Marston simply nodded. “Then I needed this
pipe,” he croaked. Damnation! Marston felt Duke and Jeremiah’s eyes
on him but thankfully neither said a word as Marston worked hard to
compose himself. He let his gaze turn to Rose and he knew she would
see the depths of what he was feeling.

She offered him a tearful smile and took his
hand, giving it a tender squeeze which Marston returned. “I guess
that means it’s my turn to give you and Langley your gifts,” she
sniffed.

Rose left the sofa and returned moments
later with her sewing bag. She handed each of them a shirt and a
pair of trousers. When Marston met Langley’s gaze the boy was
giving him an ‘I told you so’ look of historic proportions.

Marston bit back laughter and smiled at his
woman. “Thank you, Rose. I certainly needed me some new
clothes.”

“
Yeah mama,” Langley
smiled brightly and hugged her. “I think these are the best ones
yet!”

Jeremiah clicked his tongue and deposited
his pocket watch into the front of his shirt. “Alright, Marston,
you’re the only one who hasn’t given any gifts of your won. You got
some or are you lacking the Christmas spirit?”

Marston glared at his brother. He’d rather
die than have them be here to witness this time with his family.
Marston still didn’t fully trust them and he didn’t like knowing
they were leaning just how deep his weakness ran with Rose and
Langley—he’s seen them take advantage of weakness like that and use
it to get their way a thousand times in the past. Hell, he himself
had once been a man who did so… He’d rather them see him as a
cold-hearted son of a bitch than anything else.