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  “I am learning, señora.”

  “They are nice men.” Liz lay back against his arm on the rear-facing seat. “How many times have you ridden in this coach?”

  “Many times. But it beats riding horses this far. We’ve done that, too.”

  She laughed. “I feel like a little girl who is ready for her birthday cake.”

  “I hope you will be pleased.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I will be.”

  She slept in his arms and felt such a part of him. This was his wife. Not wife-to-be, but his wife. He shook his head in wonder at the turns his life had taken. Not all that long ago, on a cold Texas winter afternoon, he’d lay under some cedars with three ambushers shooting at him. Two hour later, he rode away from there, and they weren’t breathing anymore. Now, here he was under some blankets against the cold, holding this lovely butterfly and taking her home. Man, he’d been damn lucky.

  Monica sent two buckboards for them. The two vaqueros driving them were excited, politely meeting the two females in the dark night. Their things were loaded and they headed for the ranch. The snow on the road had melted but covered the rest of the countryside and sparkled under the stars. Riding in the second seat, she held his arm tight.

  “There is snow,” she said.

  “Lots of it has melted.”

  “Will it snow more?”

  “We can hope so. It’s valuable winter moisture. When you meet my housekeeper, Monica, speak to her in Spanish.”

  “Why? I have worked so hard to speak good English while here.”

  “I can’t believe how good you are at it. I just love Monica. But you speaking Spanish will spin her around.”

  “You aren’t ever mean, are you?”

  “No, only with people I love.”

  When they drove up, he saw all the rigs parked in the yard and asked the driver, “Is everyone here?”

  “Oh, si, Señor Chet, they are all here.”

  He sat back and shook his head. He hadn’t expected this. “Forget my idea. Monica did this, bless her heart.”

  “I will get to meet everyone?”

  He nodded. “Welcome to your new family.”

  “What did you tell her?” Liz was amused.

  “I was bringing home a very important person and for her to be nice to you.”

  “She did what you said.”

  “That lady does not miss much.”

  The driver brought them to the front steps to drop them off, so they must all be in the living room.

  “Wait,” she said. She quickly put on her great silver earrings. “Are they alright?”

  “Oh, yes. That’s you.”

  “You hardly knew me without them in Nogales?”

  “Yes, but I knew why you didn’t wear them on the stage.”

  “So robbers would not steal them?” Amused, she laughed.

  “Right, but your earrings are safe here. Come, this is my family.”

  Valerie broke ranks, ran off the porch, and tackled him.

  “That’s Cole’s wife, Valerie,” Chet explained. “Go ahead, Anita. No one will hurt you.” He stopped and announced, “Her name is Anita. And this lady is Liz. In Mexico, they call her Elizabeth. Welcome her home to our ranch tonight.”

  The roar went up! Millie got her on the left side, and his sister, Susie, got her on the right. When he stopped on the porch to hug Hampt and Reg, they swept her away.

  “Where is Lucy?”

  “She’s here.”

  Lucy soon rushed in and hugged him. He kissed her on the forehead. Then he did the same to May, who was close to tears. “Oh, Chet, she is so pretty. I see why you found her.”

  “I think she found me.”

  May nodded her head real fast. “I saw the smile on her face. She’s very happy with you.”

  “So am I, with her.”

  Susie was at his side. “She’s gorgeous. Where did you find her?”

  “Southern Arizona. She stopped to talk to me about the Barbarossa horses.”

  “Really?”

  He bent over and whispered in her ear. “She is much prettier inside than she is outside.”

  “I want that story.”

  “She owns a large hacienda in Mexico, and has been a widow over three years. She came to buy a horse and stole my heart. I never thought she would cross the border and leave her place for me. She said she would even be my common-law wife.”

  “Why is that?”

  “They may not marry us in her church.”

  “You’re certain? Reg was married in one.”

  He shook his head. “We will be here, regardless.”

  Susie hugged him and sounded impressed. “To me, she is the prettiest woman in the world.”

  He went and found a cup of coffee. His first thought was that he really wanted some whiskey, but he rarely drank it anymore. He needed to greet the rest of the family.

  They finally all sat down in every chair and couch in the house.

  “I’m so glad you all came to welcome us home. This lady’s name is Elizabeth Delarosa Carmel. She has a great ranch in Mexico, and lost her husband three years ago. She can’t wait to see the Barbarossa stallion. Two days ago, she got off the stage in Nogales and didn’t have her earrings on and I blinked twice. I’d never seen her without them. I am honored she came up here to meet all of you.”

  He smiled when Rhea came in the room. She brought over the baby wrapped in a blanket and handed him to Chet.

  “Thanks.” His son in his arms, he walked over to Liz. “Here is the hell raiser.”

  “This is Adam?” Liz scooped him up. “He is so precious.”

  When she held him high, he yawned at her and everyone laughed. She found a chair and had her own conversation with the little one. Then she looked at Rhea. “I am so glad to meet you. I can see how much attention and care you have given him. I hope we can share him. I have never had a child of my own, and he is very precious. But I bet sleep is better for him than all these people who want to hold him.”

  Rhea nodded. She took him back and slipped away through the crowded room.

  Liz caught Chet’s look and nodded at him. “Those two are special.”

  “Come, you haven’t met the one who runs this house.” He pulled her out of the chair and led her into the kitchen. “Monica, this is Liz.”

  “I am so glad at last to meet you. I have not come to invade your house, but want to share my life with you. I will count on you to show me how to live in this far north and their ways.”

  Monica nodded, still looking steel-eyed at Chet. “When he sent me that letter, saying he was bringing another woman home, I packed my bags. Then I thought, he is bringing home a poor woman who does not know, and needs to know, what she is getting herself in for.” Monica hugged Liz. “Welcome to our house.”

  “Uncle Chet.” His ten-year-old nephew, Ray, took him aside and asked, “Does she like to fish?”

  “I bet she’d fish with you.”

  “Tell her we really catch fish.”

  “I’ll do that. Where is your brother?”

  “He’s treeing coons with a hound tonight.”

  “He treeing very many?”

  “No. But he sells their fur for a quarter when he gets one.”

  “I’ll find out if she fishes.”

  “Thanks. I like her.”

  When he caught up with Liz, Susie had her cornered.

  “You know this is my sister, Liz?”

  “Oh, we met earlier.”

  “Where’s your husband?”

  “Gallup, New Mexico, with a herd. In snowy weather, he and Victor team up to make the monthly cattle drive.”

  “We sell cattle each month to the Navajos. Susie and Sarge have the ranch about sixty miles northeast of here,” he explained.

  “You didn’t drive over here?” Chet asked Susie.

  She shook her head. “No, a cowboy brought me and the baby over in a buckboard. The boy is asleep. I’ll show him off in the morning.”


  Liz shook her head. “You all are so busy up here. I met Robert and Betty who do the logging up on the mountain. And there is Reg and Lucy who have another ranch up higher than here. They have a baby girl?”

  “Yes, Carla. And you met May and Hampt.”

  “Oh, Chet, you have such a large family. My poor head is swimming.”

  He hugged her. “You see why I had to bring you back here?”

  She quickly nodded. “Your man, Jesus, is coming in on the stage tomorrow night. Anita asked if she could go meet him. She is a very nice young lady. He obviously impressed her quite a bit in Nogales.”

  “If she wants to stay up that late tomorrow night, I can arrange it.”

  She hugged his arm tight. “Your people are so nice to me, and I feared the very worst.” She wagged her head from side to side. “They might think, what is this brassy girl from Mexico doing here? I know Marge has not been gone very long, and they might not like me.”

  “I know. I wondered, too. But she would have wanted this for me. She was such a bighearted woman. This would please her, that I don’t have to raise our son alone. And that I won’t be alone. But you don’t have to compete with her. Be the butterfly that I met on the river. The woman I sealed this deal with in the hay. Damn, oh, damn, that had to be witchcraft. I haven’t passed a haystack since that you don’t come into mind.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut hard. “That is so funny. I wanted to impress you and I did. Good. I recall thinking once—If he thinks I will love him for the price of a damn horse, I will go home and let him break my heart.”

  “Yes, you shocked me with those words. I knew at once what you meant. Someday, you’ll meet JD’s wife, Bonnie. She’s the one I rescued with those horses. I told her what you said and she said you were a special person, and she hasn’t even met you.”

  “You’ve lived in my mind the last four weeks. Oh, I have rehearsed that day over and over. I saw you take your hat off when I stepped out of that coach and I . . .” She cupped her hands to his ear. “This is terrible to say. I about peed in my underwear.”

  He smiled. “Really?”

  She laughed. “Oh, yes. Have you ever seen a horse for the first time and that minute you had to buy him?”

  “Regardless of the price?”

  “Regardless.”

  Susie came up to them. “Excuse me, Liz. He’s our leader and, at such gatherings, we ask him to bless us all. He isn’t real long winded, but we count on him to find the words. Chet, would you pray for all of us, and for your future wife, here tonight?”

  The room quieted.

  “Lord, we wish to thank you for once again bringing us together to meet and greet Elizabeth and Anita into our fold. Since Texas, we have expanded with several newborns and new members. Lord, we appreciate your grace you have on all of us. We are grateful for your forgiveness of our sins. Keep us strong in our hearts. Bless those on the trail and in the south. Make us all better people and help others. Amen.”

  He hugged Liz. Tears ran down her cheeks like large raindrops, and she was trying to help poor Anita who cried as well.

  Susie, wet eyed, punched him. “You did it again. When you think life has evaporated, Liz, he’ll bring you home. Thanks, brother.”

  Big Hampt was there, his arms over both of them. “Liz, he ain’t a boss, he ain’t ever forgot how he got here. But, by damn girl, he’s the only man on this earth can say a prayer and get me wet eyed. God bless you two in any way you do it.”

  “Thank you so much.” She dabbed at her eyes with a white hanky.

  “It’s been a real long stage ride. Let’s put the rest off till tomorrow. Anita, do you have a room?” Chet asked.

  “Si, I am sharing one with your sister.”

  “She may bite your head off. She’s done that to me.”

  Everyone laughed. He showed Liz the staircase and they went to his room.

  “You need anything to wear to bed?” he asked her in a whisper.

  “With you? No.”

  “Good.” He was opening a new book in his life with a neat partner. This time, in his own bed at home.

  CHAPTER 6

  The next day, after a big breakfast, almost everyone headed home. Chet promised them they’d have plenty of time to make plans for the wedding. And until they got it worked out, she’d be with him, unless he had law work to do.

  When the company departed for their ranches, he spread out on the dining table maps of all of them.

  “My, you have built an empire in the past three years.”

  “And the thing I like the most is, it pays for itself.”

  He stood with his butt against the table edge and held her by her narrow waist. “You looked shocked at me that first day, getting off the coach at the headquarters.”

  Her brown eyes went to the ceiling. “I told you my reaction. Then I was off balance talking to you. Was this big-shouldered man real? Was he mean? Did he think I was some dumb little girl?”

  “You amazed me, too. Here came this beautiful Mexican woman and she had so little accent and she sparkled in the sunlight.”

  “I was very careful with my words that day. I didn’t want you to think of me as some puta who came in a coach. But I realized and regretted I had so little experience with getting a man—one who I knew instantly that I wanted. Since my husband courted me, I had simply never desired another man. After his death, several men came to win me—you know what I mean?”

  Chet nodded.

  “I didn’t want them. But here I was. I had seen your golden horses in Mexico. Don Baca showed them to me. He said a rancher in Arizona sold them to him. Do you think he owned Bonnie?”

  She peered hard at him for his answer.

  “I never was sure. If he didn’t, I felt he could get her away from the men who held her. I had no army down there, nor a fortune to pay for her. But I had those horses that had no price.”

  “Well, anyway, I heard that this big man, Byrnes, stayed sometimes at that ranch by Tubac. So I stopped there to see this gringo horseman.” She put her forehead on his chest. “And he was there.”

  She rose up, shook her head and her earrings gave off sparkles. “Lightning struck me. At first, I panicked. Then my mind began to think of things. I wanted you. You only made me more convinced by the hour, the minute, that hope grew inside my heart. But I also knew our paths might never ever cross again. So I had to take risks. Would he consider me a fool, or a—how you say—loose woman?”

  He shook his head. “I love your story. Continue.”

  “I am baring my heart to you.”

  “I know that. I’m not laughing. Your honesty eats at my guts. You wore cinnamon. I could smell it.”

  “That is for good luck.” She shrugged it away. He didn’t.

  “I was delighted when you took me for the tour. The river fascinated me. You have more patience than any man I ever knew. While I was wading, I was so busy thinking that you would say, ‘Come on, let’s go.’”

  “Hell, I was spellbound, watching you. There was shafts of light reflecting off you and your silver. My brain kept saying God has sent her—do something.”

  “You were very patient. You dried my feet. Didn’t Jesus dry his apostles’ feet at the Last Supper?”

  He nodded. “I never for a moment thought about it that way. I just thought that your feet would be wet when you got out of there. I’d get a towel and dry them. That way, I would get to touch you, too. No angelical thought in my mind. Maybe more lust than anything else.”

  “Well, see, I thought the other way. No matter what, it struck me about you doing that. What man dries a woman’s feet after her wading in a river to avoid him?”

  “You didn’t think I would do that? I really got to dry your feet and put your boots and socks on.”

  “Then you said I was a butterfly. That was so nice, but I thought with concern in me, ‘Who in the hell could catch a butterfly?’” Her brown eyes twinkled and she sparkled all over.

  “Excuse me?” Monica sa
id. “Anita and I are eating lunch. Rhea will be down soon with the boy. What are your wishes?”

  “Thank you. We’re near the end of the story. We’ll join you.”

  “The enchiladas won’t spoil. Since you are the boss gringo, you can come anytime.”

  He chuckled. “We’ll join you soon.”

  “Sounds good.” Monica went back in the kitchen.

  “The party idea you brought up down there was very nice.”

  “Oh, that is no more than Hispanic tradition. I was through with my concerns over what I planned to do. I had decided I would go all the way. But how? I knew I needed to wear a minimum of clothing that evening. And I needed you—but not on some cot, not in some bed, but outdoors, in a place that only a boy would do such a thing to a girl.”

  He closed his eyes and hugged her. “And every time I’m around hay since then I think about you. I will all my life. That was brave of you to do that.”

  “Had you been courting me at my hacienda, I would never have been that impulsive. But I wanted you, paid the price, and won.”

  “It was the longest, best day of my life.”

  “Mine, also. Now, I will talk to Monica. I have help at my hacienda. Not as all-knowing as she is, and we will make a pact. I will speak more to Rhea. She is so dedicated to that boy, but I will be a part of him, too. Now, what else can I do?”

  “Marge handled the books. She and Millie from the ranch did it. Millie would rather someone took that lead, but will help you.”

  “Good, now I have a real job. You can show me how. All these foremen are so nice. You need to share your job with me. I love ranching.”

  “I will, of course. My story is long. But we are moving forward. I never could have done this much expansion in Texas. We got here early enough to beat the land speculators. In the next ten years, Arizona will get railroads, and then nothing will stop it.”

  “You are a leading edge now. One more thing about our arrangement. I know I told you right out that first day. I have never had a child. Doctors could not tell me why. You have an heir, Adam. He is a wonderful boy. But someday will you think it is my fault you have no more children?”

  “Another nice woman told me that. I am not marrying you for your child bearing. I’m going to marry you for you. To me, you’re the perfect wife. No holds barred.”