Four

Cole couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a home-cooked meal. The widow Carnes sure did know her way around the kitchen. Tonight’s fare was chicken and dumplings, and the savory dish was every bit as good as it smelled. It was a vast improvement over the rations that made up the Texas Ranger diet, that’s for certain.

Though it had been five days since he’d collapsed on the parlor floor, he still didn’t have his full strength back and tired easily. Nevertheless, he’d insisted upon getting out of bed for his meals. If he had any hope of gaining back his stamina, he needed to get moving.

The three of them sat at the table in the small but tidy kitchen. Mrs. Carnes had strapped Adam to a chair so he wouldn’t fall.

The lady was full of surprises—contradictions, more like it. She was plainspoken and ran the farm in a direct, no-nonsense way, yet her windows were dressed in ruffled curtains. Vases of late-blooming sunflowers graced her tables and counters. She was brusque at times with him, but always gentle with her son. She used words like ain’t and druthers, yet set the table with a linen tablecloth and an assortment of fine-looking china. Odder still, she spent her evenings poring over a book of grammar as if it were some sort of treasure map. When questioned about it, she’d said she wanted to learn to speak good and proper-like for her son.

Drawing his napkin to his mouth, Cole sighed with contentment. He’d almost forgotten what a real home was like.

It was only three weeks till Christmas. That meant his company would remain camped in Austin till the first of the year. The thought of spending another holiday in cramped winter quarters with a bunch of rowdy men hadn’t bothered him before. Shouldn’t bother him now, but it did.

The realization made him grimace. A week away from his line of duty, and already he’d grown used to the comforts of home. Another week of Mrs. Carnes’s hospitality and he’d be a goner for sure.

He’d fully expected the Carpenter brothers to have been captured by now. Blast his bullet wound! Lying around was not in his nature. Come January, he expected to be fully operational and would make up for lost time. Meanwhile, he may as well enjoy the widow’s hospitality. Starting tomorrow, he intended to show his gratitude by doing a little work around the farm, strength permitting.

He reached for another biscuit. “I have to say, ma’am, this meal is fit for a king.”

Mrs. Carnes smiled and color rushed to her cheeks. It wasn’t often that she smiled, but when she did, it lit up the whole room, and tonight was no different. Aware suddenly that he was staring, he set to work mopping up the last bit of gravy on his plate.

“Hope you saved room for apple pie,” she said, clearing the table.

He met her gaze. “You bet.”

There it was again, that smile. Suddenly he was having trouble breathing. Adam babbled something that sounded like “oh, ah, ah,” and Cole gratefully used it to break whatever hold she had on him.

“I think he wants pie too,” Cole said.

She carried the dirty dishes to the sink, laughing, a sweet musical sound that reminded him of a songbird. “That boy sure does have an appetite.”

Sucking in his breath, Cole reminded himself that she was a recent widow. “How did you and Richard meet?” Hearing her talk about her late husband was bound to take his mind off the intriguing way her eyes softened when she looked at her son. Or how she puckered her pretty pink lips to drop a kiss on the child’s blond head.

Now he could almost see the wheels turning as she considered how to answer his question. “Richard and I pretty much grew up together,” she said at last. “Old man Carnes was a preacher and started the church here in town.” She returned to the table carrying a pie and knife. “He wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, but Richard had other ideas. Soon as he turned eighteen, he left to join the Rangers.”

She stopped to dab the drool off her son’s chin before continuing. “He returned to town for his father’s funeral. When he found out my grandfather had died and I was struggling to save the farm, he asked me to marry him. Said he had enough of the Rangers and wanted to settle down.” She scoffed. “Turned out to be a lie.”

Cole tried to picture Richard as a farmer and couldn’t. Richard had avoided doing anything that required physical labor. “How long were you two married?”

She sliced a piece of pie before answering, her face tight as it always was whenever she spoke of her husband. “We were married for a year and a half, but he took off after only three months.”

Cole’s eyebrows shot up. “What happened?”

“He said farming wasn’t for him. It was too much work, and he missed the excitement of the Rangers. We argued and that was the last I saw of him.”

It wasn’t the first time Cole had heard such a story. Hard as it was to be a ranger, it somehow got into a man’s blood, and woe to the woman who loved him.

“Surely he sent you money. Something for the boy.”

Her eyes blazed with accusatory lights. “He didn’t know about Adam.”

Cole sat back in his chair. “Didn’t know?”

“He never told me how to reach him.” She shrugged. “Figured he didn’t want me to know.”

Cole shook his head. Great Scott! No wonder Carnes had never mentioned a child. Come to think about it, he’d hardly mentioned having a wife. “So that’s why you accused me of lying to you.”

She shrugged. “Hard to believe Richard would whittle something for a son he didn’t know he had.”

Cole felt bad—real bad. He hated knowing that one of his men had made such a mess of his personal life. He prided himself on picking the best men, men who were of good moral character. Men who didn’t get drunk or cause a ruckus. Men who didn’t shirk responsibility.

“I just wanted the boy to have something to remember his father by. I’m sure that’s what Richard would have wanted.”

She cut a second slice of pie and scooped it onto a plate. Before handing the pie over to him, she sought his eyes. “Was…Richard a good ranger?” When Cole hesitated, she slammed the plate on the table in front of him. “And I want the truth. So don’t go saying he was, if he wasn’t.”

The truth? If only it was that simple. Carnes had deserted his responsibilities here at home. That made him less than a man in Cole’s eyes, but he couldn’t say that, however much he was tempted.

“You can tell Adam that his father was a fine ranger and died a noble death,” he said.

A look of gratitude and maybe even relief crossed her face. “I’ll tell Adam that,” she said. “Soon as he’s old enough to understand.”

* * *

Sadie had just put Adam down for his afternoon nap that second week in December when a hammering sound drew her to the kitchen window.

“Dang that man!” Now the ranger was on the barn roof, hammering down shingles. Last week, after he spent the day repairing the fence, he’d run a fever and had to spend two days in bed.

Now here he was at it again, overdoing it.

She pulled a woolen shawl from a peg by the back door and stepped outside. The wind was cold, and angry clouds crowded in from the north like a bunch of wooly sheep.

Upon reaching the barn, she yelled up to him, “If you fall and break your neck, don’t come runnin’ to me!”

He peered over the edge of the roof. His nose was red from the cold and his hair tossed about like sails in the wind, but he sure was a sight for sore eyes. “I guess I’d just have to wait till your friend Scooter came.”

She balled her hands at her side. “I’d think you’d have a little consideration for my reputation.”

His eyebrows quirked upward. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

“How do you think it looks for a woman to entertain a man that’s not her husband?”

She’d not yet told anyone of Richard’s death. She didn’t want friends and neighbors coming to her door to express condolences until after the ranger was long gone.

He shrugged. “Isn’t it a little late to worry about that? Some of your neighbors already know I’m here.”

“I told them my husband sent you here to recover from your bullet wound.”

“Your husband sent me. That might be hard to explain when the truth comes out.”

“That’s my problem.” She tossed her head. “I mean it, Captain.” She grabbed hold of the ladder and gave it a good shaking. “If you don’t come down, I’ll see that you’re stuck up there for good!”

“Why, Mrs. Carnes, is that a threat?”

She glared up at him. “You’ve already had one relapse, and I’m not about to take care of you for another.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll come down, but only on one condition.”

She straightened, hands at her waist. “What?”

“You stop calling me Captain. My name is Cole.”

“Not gonna happen,” she said. Calling him by his given name would only strengthen the bond between them, and she couldn’t allow that. It was hard enough trying not to like the man more than was absolutely necessary.

“Why not?” he asked.

“I never name an animal I plan on eating, and I sure don’t aim on naming a man who’ll soon be gone.”

“All right, Mrs. Carnes. Have it your way. But could you at least tell me what your Christian name is? I promise not to use it unless you say it’s okay.”

She chewed on a bottom lip. “Sadie,” she said. “And I don’t want you calling me that, you hear?”

“Nice name,” he said. “It suits you.”

She didn’t know what he meant by that and she wasn’t about to ask. “So what’s it gonna be, Captain?” She grabbed hold of the ladder and rattled it. “You coming down or ain’t you?”

“Oh, I’ll come down, Mrs. Carnes. But only because I don’t want you complaining about me to your husband.”