Texas Loving (The Cowboys) Page 22

“We were all asleep,” Finn said.

  “The horses didn’t make a sound,” Brady added.

  “I couldn’t have heard them over your snoring if they had,” Finn said.

  “We’ve been over every foot of the ranch without finding anything to tell us who it was or how he got here,” Edward said.

  Eden had seen her father upset and angry many times, but she’d never seen him look defeated. He strode about the big sitting room of Hawk and Zeke’s house like a bear in a cage.

  “The bastards are like ghosts,” Jake exploded. “It’s the same every time. They seem to know the ranches as well as we do, so they get in and out without being caught or leaving a trace.

  None of the boys can figure out who’s doing it or why.”

  None of the damage had been serious enough to affect the stability of the ranches, but after years of feeling safe, the family was finding this sabotage as frustrating as it was infuriating. It had gotten so bad, Luke was coming back from Arizona ahead of time. No one in the family actually spoke the words, but the feeling was percolating below the surface that the situation might turn into a gun war. Having Luke in Texas was their best insurance that wouldn’t happen.

  “If you can figure out why it’s happening, you’ll be halfway to figuring out who’s doing it,” Edward said.

  “I didn’t know you were trained as a policeman, too,” Finn said, his voice more oily than usual.

  “It’s common sense,” Edward said, visibly struggling with his temper.

  “Let us listen and learn,” Finn said. “We’re lucky to have a master among us.”

  “Stop acting like a moron,” Jake snapped. “If you can’t stop baiting Edward, clear off and look for a job someplace outside of Texas.” outside of Texas.”

  Eden smothered a smile when Finn subsided abruptly. Jake was the grizzled old bear of the Maxwell clan, but he had lost none of his strength or the sharpness of his claws.

  “There’s more than one person involved,” Jake stated. “The attacks are too far apart and require too much specific knowledge to be pulled off by just one man. I don’t know whether it’s a group of men working together or several men hired by a single person. I favored the latter theory at first, but now I’m not sure.”

  “Why?”

  “These men know too much to be strangers brought in from the outside.”

  “Are you saying it’s some of our hands?” Eden asked.

  “It has to be, even though most of them have been with us for several years. I’ve told the boys to pay close attention to every detail. If there’s the slightest question about anything, don’t let it go until you have an answer.”

  “We still don’t know why they’re doing it,” Eden said.

  “No, and until we do, I don’t want you to leave this house.”

  “I only go outside to ride Crusader.”

  “I don’t want you doing that.”

  “Why? Nobody’s after me.”

  “They went after your horse.”

  “I think Black Cloud was injured by one of the other owners in the race.”

  “All the more reason for you to stay inside.”

  “They’d only go after Crusader, not me.”

  “I want you to—”

  “Dad, I’m only riding the horse for a few minutes each morning.”

  “If your father thinks you ought to stay inside,” Edward said, “then you—”

  “I won’t be forced to hide like a prairie dog in its hole because some crank has it out for the family,” Eden stated. “I know you’re only being protective, Dad, but you can’t tell me my mother would have locked herself away in the house until the trouble was over.”

  Jake’s angry scowl turned to a smile as he emitted a rumbling laugh. “Your mother would insist on being in the middle of the fight. She’d have had nothing but scorn for anyone who did otherwise.”

  “Then you understand why I have to do the same thing.”

  Jake turned to Edward. “It’s up to you to look after her. She’s just like her mother, and everybody knows I never could corral that woman.”

  “Now that that’s settled, what do you intend to do?” Eden asked her father.

  “Go home and do some thinking. I have a gut feeling this is directed at me. But rather than attack me directly, they’re attacking me through my children. I need to think back over the last twenty-five years to see who I might have made so angry they’re still carrying a grudge. You two had better get back to your work,” he said to Finn and Brady. He turned to Edward when the two men had left. “You make sure nothing happens to Eden. Sleep with your bedroom door open. I don’t want a mouse to cross the floor without your knowing.”

  “Do you really think these attacks are directed at you?” Edward asked.

  “I don’t know, but if they are, the two most obvious targets are Isabelle and Eden. I can’t watch them both, so Eden is your responsibility.”

  With a smile on his face and his heart filled with optimism, Edward watched Crusader thunder down the trail, his stride long and powerful, with Eden crouched over his withers like a burr caught in his mane. Rid of the jockey he hated, Crusader had responded by running every bit as well as Edward believed. He would have been happier if he still had Black Cloud to measure Crusader’s progress against, but he felt confident his horse had improved his time by several seconds in the week Eden had been riding him. Crusader liked Eden. He nickered when she came into the barn and would stand perfectly still during saddling if she talked to him. Most important of all, he responded to her encouragement with bursts of speed that amazed Edward. Only injury or colossal bad luck could keep him from winning.

  Once Crusader slowed, Eden turned him and jogged back toward Edward. “That was his best run yet,” she said, breathless but brimming with excitement. “He really stretched out that last quarter mile.”

  Edward looked at the watch in his hand. What he saw there amazed him. “He was nearly a second faster than yesterday. You can get more out of him than I can.”

  “He’s a smart horse,” she teased as she patted his sweating neck. “He probably figures if he’s sluggish when you’re on him, you’ll let me ride him.”

  Edward felt some of his enthusiasm wane. “I hope he doesn’t like you so much he won’t run like that for anyone else. He won’t have much time to get used to a new jockey.”

  Eden avoided Edward’s gaze as she slid from the saddle. “I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t ride Crusader in the race.” She looked up, hurried on when she saw Edward was about to object. “There’s no point in his having to get used to anyone else.” to anyone else.”

  “That’s impossible. Your father will—”

  “What if Crusader hates the new jockey? You won’t have time to keep trying jockeys until you find one he likes. There might not be any good jockeys available. You said I can get more out of him than you can.”

  The same thought had occurred to Edward several days ago. He’d tried without success to put it out of his mind. Even if he had been certain he could find a new jockey, he doubted he could find anyone better suited to Crusader than Eden. He offered to take the reins, but Eden shook her head.

  “I’ll make sure he’s thoroughly cooled down before I put him in his stall. It doesn’t take two people to walk him out. Besides, you need to get to work.”

  With trouble at several of the family ranches and everyone needing to spend as much time as possible in the saddle, Eden had started taking care of Crusader. “I promised your father I wouldn’t leave the house until you were inside,” Edward said.

  Everyone in the family had moved as much stock as possible to nearby fields to make supervision easier. But even though every available person was in the saddle from dawn to dusk, they didn’t have any better idea who was committing the vandalism or why. The numerous grandchildren, who had previously been free to go from one ranch to another, had been ordered to stay close to home. Isabelle said she doubted anyone would be foolish enough to at
tack a child, because even a fool had to know that would bring the wrath of every person in five counties down on their heads. Jake said there were lots of people stupid enough to stick their head in a noose and pull the rope.

  “I promised your father,” Edward told Eden.

  “Is that the only reason you’re staying?”

  The tenor of the conversation had changed so quickly it almost gave Edward whiplash. Trying to avoid saying too much while hoping not to say too little, he said, “I always enjoy being with you. I just feel guilty about not putting in as much time in the saddle as Finn and Brady.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that. Dad says I’m your first priority.”

  Edward was sure Jake hadn’t meant that the way Edward would like it, the way Eden seemed to be implying.

  “What are you going to do after you win the race?” Eden asked.

  Another jolting change in the conversation. “Buy a ranch and hope to have enough money left to buy a few quality horses.” He didn’t know if Texans would be as anxious to compete against each other as Englishmen, but he’d already figured out they were as competitive and full of pride as any of his countrymen.

  “I have some money if you need a partner.” Eden turned from Crusader, looked up at Edward. “You’ll need someone to help train your horses. Naturally you’ll issue challenges and organize races to showcase your horses. People will pay more for a proven winner. You’ll need someone to ride the horses, too, someone who knows how to get the most out of them.”

  Edward would love to have Eden as a partner, but what he had in mind was much more than a business relationship. He hoped Eden knew his interest in her went beyond mere friendship, but he couldn’t say anything, do anything, until he had the means to support a wife. “What about your teaching?”

  “I wasn’t planning to do that forever.” She looked away. “Just until I got married.”

  What responsible, loving, wealthy father would allow his daughter to marry a man who couldn’t name his father, couldn’t claim his mother, and was without financial resources? If she were really in love, Edward had no doubt Eden wouldn’t hesitate to marry against her family’s wishes, but he couldn’t in good conscience put a wedge between Eden and her parents. She had no idea what it was like to be without family, but he did. “Your parents wouldn’t like you living very far from them.”

  “They sent me to school in Pennsylvania. They had to know there was a possibility I would fall in love with someone up there.”

  “I can’t see you living far from your family,” Edward said. “You’re all so close.” He couldn’t imagine what it was like to have a family of more than two dozen who’d do anything for you. Some nights the loneliness he suffered was almost enough to make him consider going back to England. Eden was the reason he never considered it for long.

  “I wouldn’t want to be so far away I couldn’t see my parents fairly often, but my husband would be my family.”

  “Is that why you insisted you could never marry an Englishman?”

  “I said I could never marry and live in England because I couldn’t accept the way women are treated there. I never said I wouldn’t marry an Englishman. If I did,” she added as a qualification, “I didn’t mean one who’d left England.”

  Edward’s heart beat a little faster, but he was so conscious of his inferior position, he’d been careful not to say anything that could be interpreted as an offer of marriage. Now Eden had put the issue squarely on the table between them. The next move was up to him.

  “You can’t be unaware that I’ve always had a considerable fondness for you,” Edward began, “but I haven’t felt I was in a position to say anything.”

  Eden muttered something under her breath that sounded perilously close to a curse. “Will you stop being such a gentleman!” Her voice was so emphatic, Crusader tossed his head. “Sometimes you are so English I want to shake you. In Texas, if you like a girl, you say so. My father had no ranch and no money when he fell in love with my mother. Yet he married her and adopted eleven orphans.”

  “I do like you,” Edward said. “Surely you know that.”

  “I’d know it a lot better if you showed me.”

  Edward wasn’t so English he couldn’t recognize an invitation. He had, however, hoped that when he finally got to kiss Eden the way he wanted, it would be under different circumstances. Not even a cold-blooded Englishman could think having Eden preoccupied with a thousand-pound horse, a couple of flies buzzing around, and the sun beating down on their heads was romantic. And as he thought he might manage it, a drop of perspiration rolled down between his shoulder blades. Still, he had been in Texas long enough never to waste an opportunity when it presented itself. He took Crusader’s reins from Eden and tied them to the low-hanging branch of a tree. Then, taking her in his arms, he kissed her.

  Experience had shown him kissing Eden in friendship was a great improvement on kissing her hand or cheek, so he expected kissing her with real feeling would be still better. He’d underestimated the difference.

  The simple act of having her melt into his arms caused a weakness so profound he trembled. It was no hardship to tighten his arms around her, no penance to pull her closer. It was nearly more than he could stand when she slipped her arms around him, rose up on tiptoes, and returned his kiss with a heat more than sufficient to melt his English reserve.

  From somewhere deep inside him emerged a man Edward didn’t recognize. A man who, with a growl that sounded primitive, enveloped Eden in a crushing embrace, ravaged her mouth with the savagery of someone on the edge of starvation, staked his claim to her, and defied anyone to challenge him. Caught between two versions of himself, Edward yielded to instinct.

  Instinct told him Eden wanted him as much as he wanted her, that she was unafraid to make that known to him, that she—

  “I doubt Jake had this in mind when he asked you to protect his daughter.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The sound of Finn’s harsh voice was more startling than a bucket of cold water. It took all of Edward’s control to gradually release Eden from his arms rather than fling her from his embrace and guiltily jump away. He struggled to formulate a response that would prevent the situation from turning ugly while letting Finn know that whatever happened between him and Eden was none of his business.

  “What are you doing here?” Eden demanded before Edward could get his feelings under control.

  “My horse got a stone wedged in his hoof so tight I couldn’t get it out. I’m walking him back.” The horse, a pinto with black, white, and brown markings, favored his left foreleg.

  “Then you’d better get him to the barn,” Edward said. “If you don’t remove it soon, he’ll be worse off.”

  Finn eyed them with a look Edward could only characterize as malevolent. “I couldn’t reconcile it with my conscience to leave Miss Maxwell alone with the likes of you,” Finn growled at Edward.

  “I’m in no danger from Edward,” Eden assured him. “I never have been.”

  “Nevertheless, Miss, I—”

  “What Edward and I choose to do is none of your concern,” Eden said. “You needn’t worry about my safety. I’m well able to take care of myself.”

  “No woman is able to take care of herself with a varmint like him around,” Finn spat at Edward. “He comes in here thinking his funny talk and fancy horse make him better than the rest of us, pretending to be a gentleman so he can take advantage of unsuspecting females like you.”

  “He’s not taking advantage of me,” Eden insisted. “I wanted him to kiss me.”

  “That’s exactly what I mean,” Finn declared. “He’s used his fancy talk and dandified ways to confuse you.”

  Some instinct warned Edward there was something wrong with this conversation. Despite Finn’s words, despite the hate-filled looks he directed toward him, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Finn disliked Eden more than him. That made so little sense, he decided it was just another instance of his be
ing unable to understand Texans.

  “I haven’t done anything of the sort,” Edward said to Finn. “I wanted very much to kiss her. If anyone has been bewitched, it’s me.” He looked down at Eden and was rewarded with a smile. “I have been from the moment I saw her.”

  “I wonder how her ma and pa will feel about this?”

  “My parents like and trust Edward,” Eden told Finn. “Now, I have to finish cooling out Crusader, Edward has to get to work, and you have to get that stone out of the pinto’s hoof.”

  For a moment, no one moved. “You go on,” Edward said to Finn. “I’ll catch up after Eden and I finish talking about Crusader.”

  “You weren’t doing any talking when I showed up,” Finn reminded him.

  Edward thought it best to make no reply.

  “What are you gonna do if that pretty horse of yours doesn’t win?” There was so much malice in Finn’s voice and expression, Edward wondered if he’d do something to make sure Crusader didn’t win.

  “He’s going to win,” Eden said. “He’s even better than Black Cloud.”

  Surprised, Edward looked at Eden.

  “I hate to admit it,” she said, “but I’ve ridden them both and Crusader is faster.”

  “Only because you’re riding him,” Edward said. “He does things for you he never did for me.”

  “I wouldn’t go congratulating yourselves just yet,” Finn snapped. “The race is still a ways off.”

  Edward wondered what Finn meant by that, but he’d turned and headed toward the barn, the pinto limping along behind him. “I don’t trust that man,” Edward said to Eden.

  “Forget about him. He talks a lot, but he’s harmless.”

  Edward wasn’t so sure, but he was more concerned about Eden than he was about Finn. “You promise to stay inside after you finish with Crusader?”

  “I’ll promise if you hurry back. I’m anxious to pick up where we left off.”

  Edward felt the same way but doubted it was a good idea. A man could be expected to control himself only so far, and he was feeling perilously close to the edge.