The Outlaw Takes A Bride (The Burnett Brides) (13 page)

They had the next week, after which he would put her on a stage for Fort Worth. Then she would be out of his life forever. How much could one more week of waiting hurt?

***

Beth spent the morning pacing. When she awoke to an empty room and realized Tanner had not come in the night before, she’d begun to pace the floor, worried that something had happened, that he’d never come back.

Questions revolved over and over in her mind until she thought she would go crazy with worry. And why was she so upset that he had walked out on her last night after the way he had treated her? Certainly he’d acted less than a gentleman.

The memory of the sounds of the couple next door coming through the thin walls still made her blush. Yes, she knew everything that went on between a man and a woman. The general had seen to that. He’d delighted in training a young girl in the ways a woman pleasured a man. But to overhear the intimate sounds while trying not to think sexual thoughts about the man right before her eyes had been awkward to say the least.

The moans of pleasure had been disturbing, and when she’d gazed at Tanner, all she could think about was the way he looked without his shirt, her urge to touch him, to feel his strength beneath her fingers.

Beth pushed the unwelcome thoughts from her mind and continued her pacing. She had to build her strength in order to leave the hotel before the emotions Tanner evoked consumed her. She needed to get on a stage and continue to Fort Worth, to join the man who was waiting for her.

She picked up the picture of herself and her parents taken before her debut ball, before the war had changed their lives forever. The girl in the picture no longer existed. Elizabeth had died with the war, and now the woman who promised herself to an unknown man existed in her place.

The woman in the picture had lost everything. But Beth hoped to regain some of those aspects of her life, like her self-respect, dignity, and sense of self-worth.

Beth glanced over at the dress that lay strewn on the table where Tanner had flung it several days ago, after she had attempted to pull it over her head.

She would put that dress on, go down the street, sell her jewelry, and send that telegram. She would be on another stagecoach as soon as possible. Mr. Tanner was not going to bully her with his cold silences, hot stares, and sultry kisses.

Beth would be on the next stage out of town. She had a man waiting for her, a man who wanted to marry her, and she had no reason to stay in San Antonio. Her future was in Fort Worth with a good man, not someone with a questionable background like Mr. Tanner.

She picked up the dress and raised the skirt high, the material bunched together to slip over her head. The folds gently fell to the floor as she managed to get her pained arm into the dress without as much fuss as several days earlier. The wound throbbed, reminding her of her injury, warning her of the consequences of her actions. Still, the arm was better, though it was in no way completely healed.

A quick glance in the mirror revealed that her hair, twisted up off her neck, looked presentable. She grabbed her reticule and stepped out into the hall.

It felt so odd to be out of the room without Tanner at her side. And she was amazed at how quickly they had become accustomed to one another. The thought of leaving him behind while she moved on to Fort Worth seemed strange, yet she knew they could not be together. He was too dangerous, too unsettled. However, unlike any man before, she was drawn to the gunslinger.

But he had to move on, and she had a stage to catch.

Walking carefully down the stairs, she was surprised to see the number of people bustling about the lobby of the hotel.

Beth walked to the front desk, where a young man was working. “Excuse me, can you tell me where to find the nearest store that buys and sells jewelry?”

The young man dragged out a hand-drawn map and proceeded to give her directions. “Go up the street two blocks and turn right. You should see it on your left.”

“Thank you.”

She stepped out the front door of the hotel and stopped startled by the brightness of the afternoon sky.

She hurried down the sidewalk, intent on getting to her destination. It didn’t take long to walk the two blocks, and when she arrived at her destination, she took a seat outside on a bench and rested for several minutes.

It took less than fifteen minutes to sell most of her jewelry. She’d already disposed of the very best pieces trying to hold on to the land but these were smaller ones: an emerald brooch, a diamond pendant, and a set of pearl earrings her father had presented her mother. She saved only two pieces, her mother’s wedding ring and a necklace her parents had given her.

The rest was now in the hands of the shop owner, and she refused to think sadly of the exchange.

Passing in front of the jewelry store, she realized she was beginning to tire and needed to get back to the hotel room as quickly as possible.

A block from the hotel, she stopped at the telegram office and quickly penned a message to Mr. Tucker Burnett, WILL BE ARRIVING IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS,LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING YOU. MISS ELIZABETH ANDERSON.

Exhausted, Beth hurried back to the hotel, feeling tired but pleased at the results of her outing. She ignored the niggling disappointment that Tanner would soon be out of her life.

***

Beth turned the knob of the door to their room and was surprised to see Tanner pacing the floor.

“Where the hell have you been?” he asked harshly.

“I ... I went for a walk.” She didn’t know why she didn’t tell him the truth—maybe it was the anger in his voice—but she didn’t. The jewels had been hers, though Tanner had already expressed his disapproval of her selling them. And she was too tired to argue right now or do anything more than gaze at the unyielding man.

He stared at her and then pulled out a chair. “Sit down before you fall. You look exhausted.”

“I am rather tired. I pushed myself today.”

“I see that,” he said. “Don’t overtax your strength.”

“I have to get well. I need to become stronger,” she said, walking across the room to the nearest chair.

She watched him pace the floor, his brow furrowed deep in thought. He seemed genuinely concerned that she hadn’t been here when he returned. Yet the surly man from last night wasn’t a distant memory, and she was wary of just who had returned to their hotel room, the real Tanner or his evil twin.

He paced for several more moments while she rested and stared out the window.

“I ... I owe you an apology,” he said, breaking into her reverie. His voice, calmer, still held a strident note.

“What?” she asked, stunned.

“I said I owe you an apology,” he repeated. “For the way I acted last night.”

“Oh,” she said, surprised.

“I was rude,” he acknowledged.

She sat and stared at him, astonished that he was admitting he was wrong.

“You didn’t do anything to deserve to be treated badly, and I apologize for my behavior,” he said, not looking at her.

Beth felt as if someone had just kicked her in the shin. Before this moment, she had begun to doubt that he had ever felt any sympathy regarding her injuries, yet she knew better. It was just so much easier to think of him as a scoundrel she would be glad to be rid of than the man who had taken care of her, fed her, and seen her at her very worst. A man she had been forced to depend on.

Although she didn’t want to be beholden to him for anything, whenever they were in the room together, everything seemed intensified. Smells were stronger, tastes were richer, feelings were deepened, and Beth was afraid. Tanner evoked emotions she had never explored and couldn’t afford to discover at this time in her life.

“Your a . . . apology is accepted,” she said stumbling over the word and still reeling from this unexpected turn of events. She’d never heard a man, other than a family member, express regret, especially one who looked capable of taking on the world by himself.

He took a quick look at her dress. “Since you’ve already been out of the hotel, I was thinking, if you aren’t too tired, maybe we could go downstairs tonight and eat.”

She glanced down at her hands. “Just let me rest for about fifteen minutes and then I think I’ll be well enough.”

“Why don’t you rest while I change clothes?”

Oh, God. How could she lie on that bed and watch him shed his clothes? The sponge bath he’d taken the other night had almost done her in, and now he was going to change in front of her?

She wasn’t prepared to face Mr. Tanner without his clothes on today—maybe never.

“I . . . think maybe I’ll meet you down in the dining hall.” Before he could object, she all but ran out the door.

***

Tanner glanced around the crowded dining room and realized immediately that he’d made a mistake. He should never have brought Beth down to dinner. The waitress had asked her how she was feeling, he’d overheard the words “shot during a hold up” several times, and he knew they were being observed by the other guests of the hotel. And she was with him.

From the moment they appeared in the doorway, people had turned and stared. Not only did Beth’s auburn hair attract attention; the emerald-green dress that clung to her curves brought out the brilliance of her eyes and reminded him of a Georgia Pine forest in summer. She was by far the most beautiful woman in the room, and Tanner was awestruck at her beauty.

Yet she appeared completely unaware of the sensation she had caused when entering the dining room of the hotel. Seated across from him, she daintily wiped a crumb from her bottom lip and smiled. “I’m so glad we didn’t eat in the room tonight. I was tired of staring at those same four walls.”

“Well, it shouldn’t be much longer before your life will be back to normal,” he said, his voice deepening. “I spoke with the doctor this morning, and he said in another week you should be able to ride.”

Beth picked up her wineglass and twirled it between her fingers. “Where did you see the doctor?”

Tanner couldn’t tell her he’d been looking for a place to leave her, so he lied. “He was on his way to visit someone when I ran into him.”

“One more week.” She glanced up at him, her emerald eyes dilating in the candlelight. “Soon I’ll be meeting the man I’m going to marry.”

Tanner knew their time was limited, that another man was waiting for her, but that didn’t mean his thoughts didn’t wander down paths he knew he could never travel. Paths that he wanted to explore with Beth.

She took a sip of the wine, her tongue running along the curve of her lips.

“Why did you decide to become a mail-order bride?” he asked, suddenly curious about her. “I would have thought that you would have more marriage proposals than you could handle.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I lived in a rural section of Georgia, not far from Atlanta. I was barely of age when the war began, and then so many of the boys from back home died. There wasn’t anyone left to marry.”

“So you decided to take your chances in Texas with a man you’ve never met?” He scowled.

Her smile seemed to droop as her eyes changed the green turning a shade darker, and she took a deep breath.

“I answered an ad. We corresponded for a while, and then he asked me to come to Fort Worth, Texas.” Tanner felt a pang of homesickness rattle his bones at the sound of Fort Worth. Home, where he could never return.

He didn’t ask the man’s name. He didn’t want to know Beth’s new name once she was married. That way he could never be tempted to look her up. Or even worse, he might know her husband. No, it was better if he didn’t know who she was marrying, and she didn’t seem inclined to tell him.

She tilted her head to the side, and the candlelight reflected off the smooth plane of her cheekbone, bathing her in a luminous glow that made her even more beautiful. If only his life had been different, he could have been the man Beth was going to marry.

“What about you? You’ve not told me what bank you work for. Or even much about yourself.”

He cleared his throat, determined not to let the glow of the candles on her satiny skin, dainty nose, and full lips distract him. But somehow all he could do was stare at the beautiful woman before him, knowing he was losing the battle. He wanted to run his fingers along her chin and touch her skin to see if it felt velvety soft beneath his fingertips.

“Not much to tell. I work for whoever needs me.”

“I know you served in the war.”

She was referring to his dreams at night. He glanced away “Yeah, so did everyone else.”

“You must have family somewhere.”

He shrugged and watched the elegant way she put her fork to her lips. Beth was a refined lady who, like so many others, had been misplaced by the war. Unlike himself, she’d dealt with her loss and moved on.

“Yeah, I have two brothers. How about yourself? Any brothers or sisters?”

She laid her fork on her plate and dabbed her mouth with her napkin. “No, I was an only child. My parents were older when they had me.”

He remembered her saying they were dead and suddenly the image of her, feverish and pleading with him that she was a good girl, came back, and he wondered at the memory. The lady was so proper, so refined that he couldn’t imagine her doing anything unseemly.