Part 15 (1/2)
”First, I'm going to get Chet to teach me everything he can about running a ranch.”
”And after that?” ”I'm going to get him to tell me how to save the ranch from Lantz.”
”Your father chose well,” Chet said to Melody. ”This canyon is a perfect place to winter your herd. It offers plenty of food and water and protection from the worst of the winter storms.”
They had been riding for over an hour. Chet felt a little weak from spending two days in bed, but it felt good to be in the saddle. In a day or two he'd feel like his old self.
”Are you saying we've got the best ranch in the area?” Melody asked.
”Probably.”
”Is it valuable enough to make Lantz determined to take it?”
”Sometimes people don't care what something costs. They just have to have it.”
”Like Lantz saying he doesn't want all the land in the world, just the land that joins his.”
”Something like that.”
”Do you think he means to take it?”
”Don't you?”
”Maybe. I understand what you say about Texas being different, but I find it hard to believe people can just walk in and take what they want.”
”It won't always be that way.”
”That doesn't help me or my brothers.”
”Turn everything over to Tom. Let him hire a gunfighter.”
”Can't I win any other way?”
”As I see it, this is going to come down to who has the most men and guns and who's willing to use them first.”
”That sounds like the War all over again.”
”There's always at least one person willing to take advantage of any weakness. Right and the law mean nothing to people like that.”
”Is that the kind of men you worked for?”
He should have known it would get around to his past sooner or later. It was almost as though she thought if she asked him enough times, he would finally admit that he hadn't really been a gunfighter after all.
”I worked for people I thought were in the right. Sometimes it was a tight call, but I think I made the right choices.”
”Would you work for me?”
Her request surprised him so much that he jerked his mount to a stop. The horse demonstrated his objection to such rough treatment by trying to buck him off.
”You said I had to hire a gunfighter,” she said. ”Tom says the same thing.”
”What made you change your mind?”
”I don't like having my ranch taken away from me. And I trust you not to go around shooting people for the fun of it.”
He wouldn't bother to explain that no gunfighter went around shooting people for the fun of it. That was a good way to die. Neither did he try to explain that if Melody hired him as a gunfighter, she'd never be able to see him any other way. That touched on areas he didn't want to have to explain to himself.
”I told you I've given up hiring my gun.”
”Why?”
”If you live by the gun, you die by the gun. I decided I'd rather go on living.”
”What are you going to do?”
”Find some corner of the world where there aren't many people, buy myself a piece of land, and raise a few cows.”
”Your wife might not like living so far from other people.”
”A man like me doesn't get married.”
”Why not?”
Did she always have to know everything? Couldn't she just accept some things at face value? ”Because there's always some young fool trying to build a reputation. And the best way is to kill someone with an even bigger reputation. I don't want to leave a widow or fatherless children. I know what that's like. You just leave all the guns and the fighting to Tom. Now we'd better be getting back before Belle sends out a search party.”
He needed to put some s.p.a.ce between them. She'd asked him to stay. True, she wanted his gun, but she'd said she trusted him. That might not sound like much to other people, but it worked powerfully on him. She'd been thinking about marrying Lantz Royal, but she'd turned him down and was planning to fight him. Chet couldn't help believing he was somehow responsible for that change.
She was attracted to him. He'd been pursued by women often enough to be able to gauge the extent of their interest in him. Until this morning he'd thought her interest was mainly curiosity about a stranger, especially one as exotic as a gunfighter. Now he realized that serious interest wasn't just on his side. Something had happened to make her see him as a man, or at least look past the gunfighter label. She liked what she saw. That was dangerous because he already liked all he saw of her. If he took the job she offered, in her eyes he'd be a gunfighter for the rest of his life. Besides, if he stayed, he might come up against Luke. He could never do that, not for anyone.
”Why not go home to your family?” Melody asked as they cantered back toward the ranch house.
”I don't want to bring trouble to them. They were too good to me to be served such a backhanded trick.”
”They might not feel that way. I know I wouldn't if you were my familymy son or my . . . husband.”
”You'd let me come back knowing what might happen?”
”Of course. I wouldn't like it, but I couldn't do anything else if I loved you.”
”That's not very sensible.”
”Belle says refusing Lantz wasn't very sensible, either. But I want to love the man I marry, and I want him to love me. If I did, I would never turn my back on him, no matter what trouble he got into.”
Chet urged his horse along faster. He had to get back to the ranch before he started believing her. He'd faced temptation before, but until now he hadn't had so much difficulty resisting it. The longer he stayed, the more excuses he found to stay.
He forced himself to talk about the ranch, mentioning everything he thought could be of interest. He doubted she'd remember half of it, but it kept his mind off what she'd said about not turning her back on the man she loved no matter what he'd done. They arrived to find the ranch silent, the corral empty. Neill came racing out of the house as they rode up.