Promises Kept (32 page)

“I wasn’t the one who was shot, but thank you.” Seeing he had finished eating, she jumped up to take his tray. “I need to freshen up. Is there anything you need?”

“Yes, a kiss.”

She shook her head at him. “I can tell you are feeling better.”

When she left the room, he closed his eyes and thought about how nice it was going to be to have her there with him every day.

Once she returned to Colt’s room, he told her they would be burying Tate the next day. He discussed the boys and the many questions they’d had for him that morning.

“I’m sure they enjoyed seeing you. They’ve been very worried.”

“You know they need a man to teach them how to run a ranch, and all the things only I can teach them.” It wasn’t a question but a statement, and before she could respond, Helen scurried into the room.

“Colt, there is a lady . . . well, a woman is here to see you.”

“A woman?” Colt repeated, trying to think of any woman he knew who would be visiting.

Helen looked flustered. “It’s . . . well . . . I think she’s that woman who works at the—” Helen stopped as Maddie flounced into the room.

Colt could hardly believe his eyes. To say he was stunned speechless would have been an understatement. She was the last person he expected to walk into his bedroom. To further add to his shock, Maddie was not dressed for a social call in polite society. The bodice of her dress was so tight her breasts were spilling over the top. Colt figured Bob from the livery must have tightened her laces, since he had the strongest hands in town. He’d never seen her dressed so provocatively, other than when they were alone upstairs in the saloon.

“Hi, Colt, honey. I’ve been so worried since I heard you were shot that I had to come to see for myself that you were okay.”

He didn’t know how she’d heard so quickly about him being shot, but right now he would have preferred to be unconscious. “You heard right.”

“Are you okay, honey?” Her eyes landed on Victoria sitting in the chair close to his bed. Seeing the woman responsible for keeping Colt from her made her furious.
A real cozy scene
, she thought,
with that woman on one side and a dog on the other
.

“I’ll be fine.” He wasn’t sure whether he should introduce Victoria, but fortunately for him, Helen stepped in before he had to decide.

“Colt needs his rest now. I’ll show you out.” Helen didn’t like the way the woman had barged in uninvited, and she wasn’t about to allow her to upset Victoria.

Paying Helen no heed, Maddie moved to the side of the bed where Bandit was resting. “I’ll leave in a minute,” she snapped at Helen. “Colt, I haven’t seen you alone in a long time, and I hope you don’t mind that I came, but I need to talk to you about something important,” she said sweetly, all the while glaring at Victoria. “Alone,” she added.

When Victoria stood to leave, Colt reached for her hand. “Stay here.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Helen turning to leave, but he stopped her. “Helen, wait a minute. Maddie won’t be staying.” He turned his gaze on Maddie. He hadn’t missed her meaning when she said she hadn’t seen him alone. “Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of them.” He figured if Tate knew about Maddie, it stood to reason that Helen did as well. Victoria was an intelligent young woman, and having seen Maddie in front of the hotel, she probably guessed his relationship with her.

“It might be best if you hear this alone,” Maddie insisted.

“I’ll leave so you can have some privacy,” Victoria said. It upset her to see that woman in Colt’s bedroom. Even though he’d told her he hadn’t been with Maddie in a long time, he hadn’t really told her how he felt about the woman. He had known her for years, so he had to feel something for her.

“No need.” He arched his brow at Maddie and said impatiently, “Say what you have to say, Maddie.”

“Are you sure? I mean, it could prove embarrassing for some in this room.” Maddie was confident in her plan to change Colt’s opinion of this woman.

He’d known Maddie a long time, but right now he was seeing a totally different side of her. He should have recognized how jealous she was when she saw him with Victoria. “I have no secrets.”

Maddie moved closer to the bed, but Bandit raised his head and gave a low growl. Keeping a wary eye on the dog, she said, “Really? I thought you and I shared some . . . special secrets.”

Colt was in no mood for her games. “Maddie, what did you come all the way out here to tell me?” he asked bluntly. If she thought she was embarrassing him, then she was clearly in for a disappointment. Victoria was willing to share her past with him, and he could do no less than be totally honest.

“Have it your way. I came out here to tell you about this woman.” She flung a hand in Victoria’s direction. “She is not who you think.”

Colt held up a hand.
“Hold it right there!”
He shouted the words so loudly that Victoria and Bandit jumped at the same time.

Maddie continued as if Colt hadn’t spoken. “She worked in a saloon in Abilene, and those two brats do not even belong to her. She’s the daughter of a sportin’ woman. And from the looks of her, she must have started young.”

Colt was so angry he tried to get out of bed. Victoria tried to keep him from getting up, but she was no match for his determination. Helen rushed across the room with the intention of dragging this horrible woman from the room by the hair if necessary.

Seeing fresh blood on his bandage, Victoria pleaded, “Colt, you’re bleeding again, please lie back.” Just as she feared, Colt was placed in the position of defending her to his own detriment.

“Maddie, I suggest you leave now,” Colt ground out, ignoring the pain as he struggled to his feet. He hadn’t given a thought to what he wore underneath the covers, but when he realized he wasn’t wearing much in the way of clothing, he wrapped the sheet around his waist.

Bandit stood on the bed and started barking until Maddie backed away, but she upped her volume to be heard.

“Everyone knows, at least everyone but you. The woman you’ve been courting and taking to church is a soiled dove,” Maddie continued smugly. “Lucy’s already told every man that comes into the saloon.”

Colt glanced at Victoria’s grief-stricken face. She turned to run from the room, but he was faster. He reached out and grabbed her wrist and held her next to him. He glowered at Maddie. “You are speaking about my future wife, so be careful what you say. And you’d best tell Lucy the same thing. Anyone who insults her name will answer to me.”

Helen took Maddie firmly by the arm. “That’s quite enough. I will show you out now.”

Maddie wasn’t deterred as Helen half dragged her across the room. “Wife? Don’t be stupid! You can’t marry that woman. Everyone knows, Colt. Everyone knows you’re courting a wh—”

Helen put her hand over Maddie’s mouth in an effort to shut her up since she couldn’t get her out of the room. Colt couldn’t let go of his sheet and he didn’t want to let go of Victoria, so he said, “Helen, get T. J. and have him carry her out!” The words had barely left his mouth when T. J. walked into the room.

“You need me?” T. J. asked. He’d been walking to the house to check on Colt when he saw Maddie going inside. He had a bad feeling nothing good was going to come of her visit. As soon as he got to the porch, he heard Colt’s booming voice from the bedroom and he knew by his tone things had gone awry.

“Get her off my ranch,” Colt told him.

Without another word, T. J. picked Maddie up and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and walked out of the room with her screeching in his ear.

“Put me down,” Maddie squealed. “I’m not finished!”

“Oh yes, you are,” T. J. told her. “Now quit squirming or I’ll throw you down the stairs.”

Mortified, Victoria didn’t know what to say. She looked from Colt to Helen. “I need . . . I need . . .”

“You don’t need to do anything,” Colt said, sitting back on the bed. He leaned back on the pillows, exhausted from the exertion of standing.

“Did I hear you say Victoria was going to be your wife?” Helen asked, totally ignoring what Maddie had told them.

If he hadn’t been in so much pain he might have laughed. It was amazing that out of Maddie’s tirade, that was the only thing Helen latched on to. “If I can convince her to have me,” he answered with a grimace.

“I can’t marry you. That is what I was trying to tell you,” Victoria began. “What she said . . . well, it’s partially true. I’m not a—”

“Victoria, there is nothing to explain,” Colt interrupted.

“Yes, I need to tell you about my past.”

Colt wanted to tell her he knew, but he could tell that she needed to get this off her chest.

Helen started for the door. “I’ll leave you two alone.”

“Helen, I want you to hear what I have to say. I want you both to know the truth.” Before she even considered her words, she said, “I have worked in a saloon. I cleaned, cooked, and sewed dresses for the women, but my mother was . . . well . . . she worked there.”

Chapter Thirty-One

“Oh, he was shot all right, but he ain’t dead,” Maddie told L. B.

“How do you know? Is he going to be okay?” L. B. asked.

Maddie knew she couldn’t tell L. B. she had been to Colt’s ranch, so she lied. “I saw T. J. in town.”

“One of the men from Wallace’s ranch said he was dead,” Lucy said, joining the conversation at the bar.

“I think T. J. should know the truth,” L. B. said. “Did Colt really find that boy dead?”

“Yes, that’s what T. J. said.”

L. B. shook her head. “God help the man that killed that boy. Colt will surely put a bullet in him for that. He was plumb crazy over that boy.”

A cowboy whistled for Lucy to bring another bottle to their table. When Lucy walked away, Maddie decided to tell L. B. what she knew about Victoria. “I also heard that woman he’s courting worked in a saloon in Abilene.”

“That’s nonsense if I ever heard it,” L. B. retorted. “I met her and she’s a fine lady. Who told you such a thing? I know it wasn’t T. J.”

Maddie laughed. “Apparently she’s fooled everybody. That cowboy that works for Wallace, the one called Hardy, knew her in Abilene.”

“She worked for that Englishwoman in her boardinghouse for a few years, so she would have been too young to be in our profession,” L. B. countered.

“I started working in a saloon when I was fourteen,” Maddie said. “Lucy started earlier than that.”

L. B. wasn’t convinced. The young woman she met was a well-bred young woman. “That cowboy was probably just spouting off. His whiskey was likely doing the talking.”

“Yeah, well Hardy said she was the daughter of some well-known gal in Abilene. Her name was Ruby.”

L. B. gasped, and the color drained from her face as she clutched the bar for support.

“L. B.?” Maddie thought she was going to faint so she yelled for Sam.

“You need some help, boss?” T. J. asked Colt.

Colt motioned for him to come into the room. “The doc and Tom helped me get dressed. Is everyone here?”

“Yes, Bartholomew picked up Mrs. Wagner and her children.” T. J. could tell by Colt’s grim face that he was in pain, so he poured them both a shot of whiskey. “Are you up to this?” The doc already told him Colt shouldn’t even be out of bed, but they all knew he wouldn’t listen. There was no way he would miss Tate’s funeral. At least the funeral was being held on the ranch, so he wouldn’t need to travel to town. He handed him the whiskey. “Maybe this will help.”

“Thanks.” Colt gulped the whiskey, hoping it would numb the pain. “Let’s go.”

Victoria and Bandit were waiting for them at the front door as they made their way down the staircase. T. J. tipped his hat to her. “I’ll be outside at the buckboard so you don’t have to walk up that hill.”

“I’ll walk,” Colt responded indignantly.

Victoria reached up to straighten Colt’s collar. “You most certainly will not. Doctor’s orders. If you are going, you’ll ride in the buckboard.” She knew he was getting ready to protest, so she added, “I’ll ride with you if that’s okay.”

He liked the fact that she was treating him like a wife. At the same time, it galled him that she didn’t think he could walk up that hill like he’d done thousands of times. On the bright side, if he rode in the buckboard she was going to be beside him, close . . . real close. “Bossing me around already, huh?” he teased.

“Someone needs to since you don’t have enough sense to listen to the doctor.”

“I’ll be okay.”

“I see you shaved,” she said, thinking he looked more handsome than ever.

“Yeah, I didn’t want to scare people.” He wanted to ask her why she hadn’t been in his room much since Maddie’s visit. If she thought he’d changed his mind about wanting to marry her, then she’d better think again. If anything, he’d become more comfortable with the idea of being a married man. He admired her because she wanted to make sure he knew everything about her past. Now he knew, and he wanted her more, and he planned to tell her that before the day was over. “Where are the boys?”

“With Mrs. Wellington and Bartholomew. Everyone is already on the way up there.” The McBride family plot was on a hill overlooking the ranch house. “I was up there this morning and it’s a beautiful spot,” she added.

“I like to go up there from time to time. That’s where I do my best thinking. If I have problems with the ranch I always seem to walk away with an answer.” He’d never confided that to anyone before.

She envisioned Colt sitting on the bench where she’d sat this morning, overlooking the graves of his parents. “In a way it’s almost like you still have them with you. It must be comforting to stay in one place all your life and know that’s where you belong.” Her voice had a wistful note to it. “That’s what I want for the boys.”

He wanted the same thing. “I guess some people might not think it’s an exciting life. All I ever really wanted was to run the ranch the way my dad did, and die right here.” He stopped her before they walked out the door. Perhaps it was losing Tate so suddenly that made him feel the urgency to live life
right now
. He didn’t want to put off the important things. Now he wanted something besides the ranch. He wanted her and the boys. And he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He remembered how Tate kept badgering him about his feelings for Victoria the last night they were together. Tate was right when he said Colt needed a wife to share his life. Imagine that—young Tate knew what was important and he hadn’t even lived life yet.