“Most days one of the Durfee boys takes the children. Or Travis Worthing, a nice, sensible boy.” Beside him, Millie clutched the edge of the seat to keep her balance. But even that couldn’t prevent her from suddenly grabbing his arm as the wagon pitched and rolled.
Her fingers encountered rock-solid muscle. The feel of it made her throat dry. It was with a sense of relief that she was finally able to let go. “But when there’s no one else available, I try to take them. The girls are so eager to learn. And I’m so grateful that they have the opportunity.”
In the back of the wagon, huddled under a quilt, Birdie and the three little girls laughed and chatted as they challenged one another to spell new words or do sums in their heads.
Tied to the back was Malachite’s horse, easily keeping pace with the slow, plodding movement of the wagon.
“Until Pearl came along, the children of Hanging Tree had never had a teacher or a school. I bless the day she found us.”
Malachite turned to her. “What do you mean, she found you? I thought you said Pearl was Onyx Jewel’s daughter.”
“She is.”
“Then how could she find you? Didn’t she always live here on her father’s ranch?”
Millie shook her head. “I guess I should explain. Diamond was the only one who grew up with her father here in Texas. The others, like you, had different mothers. When they learned about Onyx Jewel’s murder...”
“Murder?” Malachite turned to her in surprise.
Millie nodded. “By a man he considered his closest friend, his banker, Chester Pierce.”
Under his breath, Malachite muttered, “Bastard saved me the trouble.”
Millie chose to ignore his crude remark. “It turned out that Chester had been stealing from Onyx for years, and shot him to keep from repaying his debt. When Onyx’s daughters read about his death, each of them made the journey here to visit his grave. Pearl from Boston. Jade from San Francisco. And Ruby from Bayou Rouge, Louisiana.”
Malachite said nothing. His eyes narrowed as his thoughts turned inward. The presence of sisters was as perplexing to him as the presence of the woman beside him.
His thoughts were interrupted as their wagon topped a rise and the Jewel ranch house and outbuildings loomed in front of them. He guided the horse and wagon around to the back porch before bringing them to a halt.
He turned to Millie. “I’ll say goodbye. Thanks for the use of your room. I left the money on the table.” As he handed her the reins he added, “As for the kiss, I know I ought to apologize. But it would be a lie. I’m not sorry about that.”
Her cheeks flamed. “Then I can’t say I’m sorry you’re leaving, Mr. Jewel, because you are not a gentleman.”
He tipped his hat and gave her a most undignified wink. “That’s one of the few things I’ve never been accused of, Mrs. Potter.”
He climbed down and untied his horse from the back of the rig.
“Good morning,” Diamond called as the back door slammed. “How did you two happen to hook up?”
Behind her, Byron Conner stepped out onto the porch. For a moment his jaw dropped, then he caught himself.
“I decided to take Mrs. Potter up on her offer of a room in her boardinghouse.”
“He slept at your place?” Byron demanded.
Before Malachite could respond, Diamond said, “I’m glad you were sensible. There’s been a lot of trouble in these parts lately.”
Malachite’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of trouble?”
Diamond shrugged. “Cowboys found dead. Ranches failing. Like there’s a black cloud hanging over our town.”
“It isn’t a black cloud,” the banker said. “It’s a black stallion.”
When Malachite glanced at him, he added, “A wild mustang we call Diablo. Ever since he came to these parts, trouble started.”
Diamond seemed eager to change the subject. “Well, we’re all here and ready to visit Pa’s grave.”
“All?” Malachite asked.
The back door opened and Pearl, Jade and Ruby called out greetings before climbing into Jade’s elegant gilt-and-white carriage.
“Our menfolk are inside with the children.” Diamond mounted a skittish, high-strung mare. “Carmelita’s in her glory, cooking for an army.”
“But what about school?” June asked in dismay from the back of the wagon. “We studied every one of our words, Miss Pearl. We were hoping to win the spelling bee.”
Pearl gave her a gentle smile. “Don’t worry. We’ll still hold class this afternoon. I’ll be back to pick you up as soon as we return. And while you children are waiting, you can join the others inside. Birdie,” she called to the young girl, “I’ll bet you can coax Gil to give up Amber for a few minutes if you’d like to hold her.”
At the mention of Gil, Birdie’s face became wreathed in smiles. Seeing it, June opened her mouth to make a teasing comment. Before she could, Millie caught the little girl’s hand and muttered, “Not a word, do you hear me?”
The little girl rolled her eyes. “Yes’m.”
“Thank you, Miss Pearl,” Birdie called. “I’ll go in and ask Gil right now.” She scrambled down from the wagon and hurried inside. With any luck, Gil would notice her hair before the Potter sisters had a chance to mention it.
As an afterthought Diamond turned to Millie. “Would you like to go with us to Pa’s grave?”
Millie shook her head. “I think Malachite’s visit should be reserved for family. I’ll stay here with the others.”
She climbed down from the seat on the wagon and followed her daughters up the steps. At once Byron crossed the porch to stand beside her. She watched as the carriage with the three women moved smartly away.
Malachite pulled himself into the saddle. For long moments he studied Millie Potter, then moved his steely gaze to the man standing beside her. The look wasn’t lost on Byron. With a smug smile he moved closer and dropped a hand casually on Millie’s shoulder.
Without another glance Malachite tipped his hat, wheeled his mount and followed the others.
Millie sighed. “I hope the visit to his father’s grave site brings Malachite Jewel some measure of peace.”
“Why should you care?” Byron demanded.
“Because he’s an angry, troubled man.” She should be relieved that he was gone. His presence, though brief, had caused her all manner of discomfort. But the truth was, she couldn’t stop thinking about the way it had felt to be crushed in his arms and kissed until she was breathless.
She waited until he disappeared over a rise. Then she turned and made her way inside the big ranch house, determined to put him out of her mind.
* * *
The grave site was on a barren, windswept hill. Hardly the spot Malachite would have chosen as the final resting place for a legend like Onyx Jewel.
“This was Pa’s favorite spot.” Diamond’s voice lowered respectfully, as though she were in a great cathedral. “He used to say that as far as the eye could see, it was all his. The buildings, the cattle, the land. Especially the land. He loved this land.”
If Malachite was surprised by Diamond’s declaration, he was even more surprised by the lack of fancy markers. Just a couple of big stones marked the grave. On four surrounding mounds of earth were more stones.
“These are the graves of our mothers,” Pearl explained.
“We had their remains brought here,” Jade said in her musical voice, “so their spirits could be at rest with our honorable father.”
“Only Diamond’s mother ever lived here.” Ruby’s voice had a catch in it, and she had to swallow before adding, “But we were certain our mothers would wish to be united in death with the man they loved in life.”
“They all loved him?”
At his look of surprise, the women smiled knowingly. Ruby laughed softly. “Oui. If you had known our father, you would understand why.”
He had his doubts about that. He’d come here prepared to hate Onyx Jewel. He’d learned nothing to cha
nge his mind.
But he wisely kept his thoughts to himself. “You all knew him?”
“Why, yes.” Jade seemed surprised by his question. “Though we didn’t get to spend as much time with him as we would have liked, we all grew to love him. I wish you could have known him, Malachite.”
It was Pearl who first saw the look in his eyes and knew that he was struggling to keep his emotions in check. He seemed a man tormented, not only by the past but by what he had learned since coming here.
Motioning to her sisters, she said, “We have the opportunity to visit the grave site often. But I think we will leave you alone now to pay your respects.”
The young women returned to the carriage at the foot of the hill. From a distance they watched in silence as Malachite stood over his father’s grave.
“So. Here we are. At last,” Malachite wasn’t aware that he had spoken aloud. Or that his hands had formed fists at his sides. The women were forgotten. Everything was forgotten except the man he’d been pursuing all his life. His voice was a low rasp of repressed rage.
“I’ve spent a lifetime looking for you. Oh, I didn’t know your name. Or what you looked like. But I looked for you in the eyes of every stranger. Listened for you in every white man’s voice. Because of you I turned my back on my mother’s people and traveled the length and width of the wilderness. I broke mustangs in Wyoming. Herded cows in Montana. Lived in filthy tent towns. Survived in lonely isolation. And all because of that mysterious stranger who lived inside me, driving me. Taunting me. Haunting me. And now, finally, you have a name.” His tone lowered with fury. “Onyx Jewel.”
At the mention of the name he experienced the usual gut-wrenching pain and rage. He’d waited so long for this moment. “I would have preferred to find you alive, so that I could tell you face-to-face about all the pain you caused a woman who loved you. So that I could strike out and hurt you, the way you hurt my mother and me. But at least I’ve finally found you. Even finding you dead is better than never knowing. And I had to know. Had to. It’s been eating away at me for a lifetime.”
He waited, teeth clenched, eyes closed, as waves of anger washed over him, like a fire stoked by fuel and wind until it became a raging inferno. “You had no right,” he muttered. “No right to take what you wanted and then leave, without ever looking back to see the ruins you left behind. Ruins of a life that once had bright promise.”
He took a deep breath, determined to fan the flames. “Evening Star waited for you. She refused all offers of marriage. Even when her brother, the chief, ordered her to take a husband, she refused. In doing so, she brought shame to her family. Shame. Do you understand? And all for a man who didn’t deserve her loyalty or her love.”
He swore, loudly, fiercely, keeping alive the fire of hatred that had burned for so long inside him. He touched a hand to the stone at his throat and felt it warm and pulsing, as though alive. In a hoarse voice he shouted aloud, “I feel your presence here. I know you can hear me. Do you know what you did to the people who loved you, Onyx Jewel? Do you give a damn, you bastard?”
The words seemed to bounce off the rocks and echo off the walls of nearby canyons.
But the only reply was the keening of the wind.
At length he shivered, wondering how long he’d been standing there. It could have been minutes or hours.
When he turned, he realized the women were shivering, as well. Huddled together in the carriage under a thin winter sun, patiently waiting while he sought to make some sort of peace with a dead man.
But, he reminded himself as he made his way down the hill to the waiting horse, it wasn’t peace he’d come here for. It was vengeance.
Chapter Four
“Where could they be? Wouldn’t you think that Pearl would give a thought to her daughter?” Cal McCabe paced the floor, peering out the window every couple of minutes. At his shoulder, little Amber, who had been cooing and gooing just minutes earlier, was beginning to fuss.
“It’s nothing serious. She’s just hungry,” Carmelita said.
“Well, sure, but none of us can do anything about that.” Cal was beginning to sweat. He was new to fatherhood, and the sound of his baby’s cries cut his heart to the quick.
Seeing his dilemma, Millie opened her arms. “Give her to me, Cal. Maybe I can soothe her until Pearl gets back.”
She gathered the baby close and carried her to a rocking chair in the corner of the kitchen. Almost at once Amber settled down to sleep.
Millie breathed in the warm, sweet scent, so unique to a baby, and felt that familiar tug at her heartstrings. She’d loved having her babies. Loved the smell of them, the feel of them in her arms. She and Mick had talked about having a houseful of them.
Thoughts of Mick made her suddenly think about Malachite Jewel. The two men were as different as they could be. Mick had been a gentle farmer who had won her heart with his sweetness, his kindness. Malachite Jewel was seething with bitterness. There was a toughness, a hardness about him that frightened her. And an arrogance in him that just plain made her furious.
Now, what in the world had caused her to compare those two such different men? Malachite Jewel was gone by now, returning to whatever life he’d left. And Mick... Mick was gone forever. The pain was swift and unexpected. It was the thought of Mick, she told herself. Not the thought of bitter angry Malachite Jewel.
From outside, the children’s voices could be heard as they engaged in a game of tag.
Cal stormed to the window for another look.
Byron Conner added to his misery by saying, “I still say one of you should have gone along with them. No telling what might have happened.”
“Malachite Jewel doesn’t look like the sort of man who’d let anything happen to our womenfolk.” Lulled by the thought of lunch, Dan lifted his cup of coffee and inhaled the fragrance of Carmelita’s venison stew.
“With all that’s been going on around here, how can you say such a thing?” Byron glanced toward Cal and Adam for support. “I, for one, don’t trust him. Last night he looked like he’d grow fangs and grab us by the throats if someone didn’t tell him where his old man was.”
Adam became thoughtful. “He looked a lot like I did when I first came to Texas. There’s a whole lot of anger festering inside Malachite Jewel. It’s like a boil. If a man doesn’t find a way to lance it, he can go half-mad with the pain.”
Millie listened in silence. Everything they were saying was true. Malachite Jewel had given them a glimpse of his hair-trigger temper and his arrogance. But she’d also sensed a deep well of pain in him. Not to mention passion.
Just the thought of it made her cheeks grow warm.
“Well. Finally, they’ve made it back.” Byron let the edge of the curtain fall. “It’s about time,”
There was the sound of carriage wheels, and a moment later the lilt of women’s voices as footsteps sounded on the porch.
Cal yanked the door open and stood aside as the women entered. But when he started to close the door, he realized they’d been accompanied by Malachite.
“Took you long enough.” Cal’s tone was accusing.
“Sorry.” Pearl kissed his cheek.
“You’re cold.” Contrite, he caught her hands in his and began to rub them.
“It’s my fault.” Malachite stepped inside and removed his wide-brimmed hat. “I didn’t expect to spend so much time at the grave.”
“I thought you were leaving.” The words were out of Millie’s mouth before she could stop them.
“I thought so, too.” He turned and caught sight of her in the rocking chair, the baby snuggled to her heart. The pain was swift and shocking.
Hunger, he told himself. All that unleashed anger had given him an appetite. He glanced across the room and saw the banker watching him closely. The knowledge that his presence irritated Byron Conner gave him a sense of satisfaction. “But I’ve learned that the Jewel women can be pretty persuasive. They talked me into returning for a meal before I head out
.”
“Bueno. You can wash up over there.” Carmelita indicated a basin and pitcher. “I have a little something you can eat.”
Millie tucked little Amber into a cradle, then joined the others seated around the table. She glanced at Malachite. “What did you think of your father’s grave?” she asked shyly.
It seemed an effort to pull himself back from the dark places in his mind. So many conflicting thoughts. So much to mull over. “I’d expected it to be more ornate.”
“Oui.” Ruby nodded. “That’s exactly what I said the first time I saw it.”
“But it suits Pa.” Diamond drizzled honey over a biscuit and broke it into little pieces for Ony, who was snuggled on her lap. “Pa just loved this land. There’s no place else he’d want to be.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“And I feel him there,” she added.
“Oui. Each time I visit, I feel his presence.”
Her sisters agreed.
Millie watched the expression on Malachite’s face and knew that he’d felt it, too, though he seemed reluctant to admit it.
“Did you notice Malachite’s amulet?” Pearl asked. Everyone turned to stare at the strip of feather at his throat and the gleaming jewel.
“That’s very similar to the necklace each of us was given by our father on our sixteenth birthday,” Pearl said. “That was Daddy’s way of assuring us he’d be with us always.”
Without thinking, Malachite touched a hand to the green stone. He felt a pulse of heat, as though the stone were a living, breathing thing. His mother’s people believed in the spirits. And though he often tried to deny it, he believed, as well. Right now, he knew that the spirit of Onyx Jewel was present and exerting his influence on this assembly. That realization only added to his anger and resentment.
“Now that you’ve had a chance to visit the grave...” Cal cleared his throat and glanced around before saying, “The reason why the women persuaded you to come back here is because we had a family meeting last night, after you left. Since I’m foreman of the Jewel ranch, and the only nonfamily member to share in Onyx Jewel’s estate, the women asked me to be the spokesman.”