Texas Rose

chapter 30

"I'm sorry, Evie," Tyler whispered, spreading her hair across the mattress with his fingers before kissing her cheek and reluctantly getting up. He surveyed the destruction of the room and ran his hand through his own hair in a gesture of confusion and dismay.

Becoming aware of her wanton position, Evie gingerly sat up and pulled the bedcover around her. Still shaken by the riot of emotions Tyler had set loose, she could only watch as he visibly pulled himself together.

"Sorry for what?" she murmured. She felt odd, as if everything she had thought she was had disappeared, replaced by some stranger.

Tyler's expression was wry as he faced her. She looked deliciously rumpled with her chestnut curls tumbling down over partially bared breasts and her lovely face wearing a dazed look that made him want to tumble her again, this time with a whole lot more tenderness. He resisted pulling her out of the bed and taking her in his arms.

He gestured with his hand instead. "Stop a minute and listen."

Totally attuned to Tyler, Evie had ignored their surroundings. At his words, she took the time to realize where they were and what they had done. It was the middle of the day and half the town had seen her coming up here. She could hear voices down the hall. She heard footsteps in the room above this one. She heard someone coughing. Slowly, a flush rose to her cheeks.

Seeing that hint of color, Tyler shoved his hands in his pockets and walked to the window. "We weren't exactly quiet," he mentioned, as if she needed to be reminded.

"I'm sorry," Evie whispered. She flushed even deeper as a vague memory of how loud she had been came to her.

Tyler swung around, and a bit of his usual grin clung to his lips. "Don't be. I like knowing I'm appreciated. And with you, I know it's no act. You don't know how good that makes a man feel."

Evie buried her cheeks in the bedcover, but she smiled back. Tyler couldn't resist any longer. It was obvious he had spent what self-control he possessed. Why fight it any longer? He sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms. None of this was her fault. She was a sprite from another world given into his protection. He had failed at that as he had failed at almost everything else, but right at the moment he didn't feel sorry.

"We'll have to tell them we're married, Evie. They'll whisper and wonder and gossip, but you'll be able to stay here and keep your teaching position as long as they think we're respectably married."

Evie nodded against his shoulder, but a lump came to fill her throat. "What about you? You didn't want to be married. And I didn't do anything to prevent babies like Starr told me to. I didn't mean to tie you down, Tyler. Honest, I didn't."

Tyler looked down at her in amazement. "Starr told you about those things? She ought to be taken out and shot. I'm going to have to have a word or two with that woman." He stroked Evie's lovely hair and tried to imagine having babies with her. The thought was too tempting by far. He sighed and held her close. "Chances are that one time won't make a baby. We need to talk about making a marriage first."

A pounding on the door jerked them away from that frightening thought. Tyler scowled and called, "Go away."

"Open up, Monteigne. I want to talk to you, and I want to talk to you now." The sheriff's voice carried enough authority to make the badge he wore a formality.

"Your timing is not auspicious, Powell. I'll be out shortly."

"Now. And if you've got Mrs. Peyton in there, I want to see her out here, too. You can't get away with molesting innocent women in this town, Monteigne."

Tyler cursed, rose from the bed to grab his shirt, and discovering it's lack of buttons, threw it on the floor again. "I hope your job is an elected one, Powell. I'm going to have you run out of town for invasion of privacy. What my wife and I do behind closed doors is none of your affair."

Ignoring Evie's corset and torn chemise, Tyler threw her gown to her while he rummaged in drawers for a clean shirt. The stunned silence from the other side of the door gave them a few moments' reprieve.

Evie wriggled into her gown, but Tyler hadn't been gentle with the fastenings, and without her corset, it didn't fit properly. She felt scandalously bare with nothing beneath it and the back gaping open. She hurriedly pulled up her petticoats while Tyler put on his shirt.

She thought she recognized the lawyer's stilted, furious whispers on the other side of the door. She remembered leaving Hale in the hotel lobby. He would have been the one to send for the sheriff. Sighing, she accepted Tyler's offer of a coat to go over her gown. It might be ninety degrees in the sun, but she couldn't go out the door with her dress open.

"Are you coming out of there, Monteigne, or am I coming in?" The sheriff had evidently recovered his self-possession, not to mention a load of anger.

Still tucking in his shirt, Tyler flung open the door. He blocked any sight of the interior with his body as he faced his audience. Hale stood white-faced and furious just behind Powell. Everyone else had evidently chosen to stand out of range of a potentially dangerous killer.

"What has he done with Mrs. Peyton? The man is a menace, Sheriff. You'd better lock him up until we find out what's going on. I don't believe for a minute that they're married. I've talked to Mrs. Peyton myself. She's a young, innocent widow, and this man is obviously trying to take advantage of her."

Tyler lifted a cynical brow at the lawyer's tirade, then turned affably to the sheriff. "My wife has that effect on men." He shrugged in dismissal of Hale. "I'll be happy to tell you what I know about this afternoon's incident, Sheriff, but it doesn't require an audience. And Mrs. Monteigne would like to return to the children, if you don't mind."

Hale puffed up like a banty rooster. "I insist on speaking with Mrs. Peyton. She's by way of being my client, and as her attorney, I must insist on seeing her."

Having found enough pins to shove her hair into a caricature of a chignon, Evie came up behind Tyler and peered around him. She smiled at their audience, fluttered her lashes, and grasped Tyler's arm. "Gentlemen, you are embarrassing me enormously. Could you please wait until another time to interrogate Tyler? I have to get back to the children."

Tyler stifled a chuckle as the two men visibly blanched and stepped backward. Men might stand up to a man's weapons, but they fell before a woman's without a qualm. It was absolutely amazing what the power of a woman could do.

"I'll see you safely back to the house, Mrs. Pey—" the sheriff hesitated as Tyler shifted position—"Mrs. Monteigne. Then, if you don't mind, I'd like to borrow your husband for a while. I've got one man dead and another seriously injured, and I need some kind of report."

"I understand that, sir, and you deserve some explanations. It's a pity we don't have many." Evie tugged Tyler's arm and reluctantly, he stepped into the hall to follow the sheriff toward the back steps.

Tyler halted and glared at Hale when he attempted to follow. "As you can see, Mr. Hale, my wife doesn't need your assistance. We'll let you know if we need your services."

Hale glared back. "If she's married to you, the lady came to me under false pretenses. I think I deserve some explanation."

"When we're ready to give one, we might consider it. Until then, I'm asking you to leave, Hale. This is none of your affair." Tyler pulled Evie possessively to his side.

Evie glanced around Tyler's broad shoulders to smile her regret at the lawyer. "I'm so sorry if I've misled you, sir. It's a long story. Maybe we'll have time to talk later."

Tyler rolled his eyes heavenward, then dragged Evie toward the stairs. How in hell had he got himself hitched to a temptress who would inevitably attract every man within a fifty-mile radius? It was fitting punishment for his wandering ways, he supposed, but he didn't know how he would keep from killing every one of them.

Not wishing to follow where that thought led, Tyler started down the stairs. He'd get her back to where she would be surrounded by kids. He'd noticed she never looked at a man when the kids were around. That was the safest place for her to be.

When they arrived at the little house, Jose threw himself into Evie's arms, Daniel emitted an audible sigh of relief, and Ben discreetly removed himself from the scene with the entrance of the sheriff. Evie took a rocking chair and pulled Jose into her lap, hugging him close, and he surprisingly allowed it.

Maria wandered to Tyler and pulled on his pants leg. He scowled down at her, but she smiled almost as convincingly as Evie. "Tywer, up," she commanded.

Tyler glanced helplessly to Evie.

"She just wants to be picked up and held, like anybody would after a day like this."

Tyler scowled blacker as he read the significance of Evie's words in the flashing look of her dark eyes. But he leaned over and picked up the little imp. Maria crowed with delight and snuggled against his shoulder as if she belonged there.

The sheriff coughed, and Manuel eyed him with a degree of speculation, keeping a safe distance from the hand of authority. Carmen caught his shoulder before he could back off any farther.

"I don't mean to impose on your family, Monteigne." The sheriff didn't notice the sudden look of interest passing between several members of that "family." "But I've got a report to write. The city board will have my job if I don't explain this shooting to their satisfaction."

Tyler bounced Maria in his arms. "There isn't much I can tell you. I overheard some men talking about drawing out Pecos Martin and using the kids for shields. They found Manuel and Jose before I could. You need to talk to the boys about that part of it. I saw them carry the kids out to the street, so I slipped up to the hotel. It's the best lookout in town. You know the rest."

Powell didn't look appeased. "I told you I didn't want any gunfighting in this town, Monteigne, or Martin, or whoever you are. I want to know who those men are and why they were looking for you and if I can expect any more of this kind of riffraff around here. I'll have to ask you to leave, if so. I've never seen shooting like that in my life, and I'm not willing to see it happen again. You near killed those men from a distance and at an angle that most men would never try. You could have killed those kids just as easily."

"No, he wouldn't. He saved us." Manuel placed his fists belligerently at his waist and glared at the sheriff.

Tyler grinned and ruffled the boy's hair. Manuel dodged the show of affection, but he didn't move far from Tyler's side.

"I'd like to know who they were, too, but you'll have to ask the brats here or the one the doc is tending to. The one I killed was one of your escapees. Maybe he resented being caught. But I'd like to know who told them I was Pecos Martin." Tyler turned an accusing look to the sheriff.

"Half the town heard the boy there tell Phil that Pecos Martin was coming to town and that Ben was your friend. Word spreads. And if you're not Martin, how did you learn to shoot like that?"

"The war, Sheriff, same as you and a lot of other people. I'm just better at it than some." Tyler glanced to Manuel. "Have you ever seen those men before?"

Manuel shrugged. "There's always strangers at the livery. I don't notice them none."

Tyler frowned. The boy was as tense and nervous as a high-strung yearling, but he couldn't force the boy. Not yet. He turned back to the sheriff. "You'd better talk to your patient, Powell. And let me know what you find out. My wife has a hankering to stay in this town, but if the law can't keep her and the children safe, we'll have to be thinking about moving on."

The word "wife" caused the children to grow wide-eyed, but they remained properly silent while the adults conversed.

Powell turned his gaze Evie in the rocking chair with the child in her arms. She returned his look with an innocent smile. Tyler knew the frustration the man felt. A man couldn't yell at a woman for explanations.

"You haven't explained why you've allowed your wife to pose as a widow yet." The sheriff tried a new tactic.

Tyler deposited Maria in Carmen's arms and moved toward the door. "And I don't intend to, not yet. It has no bearing on the matter at hand. If you have any other questions, Sheriff, feel free to come by." Gently, but firmly, he edged Powell to the door.

When the sheriff was gone, the room erupted in an explosion of questions. Tyler held up his hand and waited for silence, then pointed at Manuel for the first question.

"If you and Miz Peyton are married and all, does that mean you're going to stay here? Will you be working at the Double H? Can we go see the horses?"

Tyler heard Evie's faint chuckle behind him. He'd done this to himself. The last time he'd lost control like that, he'd wound up in prison for three years. That should have been enough lesson for any man. But no, now he'd shackled himself for a lifetime, and not just to a wife. He didn't think there was a chance in hell that Evie would give up these kids, even for him.

"The horses at the Double H aren't anything to see. They're half-broke mustangs. And I wasn't exactly working out there, so I'm not promising anything."

Tyler could see the disappointment already spreading across the boys' faces. He wasn't meant to be a family man. He wasn't any good at it. He wasn't good at much at all but playing cards, shooting guns, and winning women. Helplessly, he turned to Evie.

She set Jose back down on the floor. "Go get wood for the stove. We need to start dinner. And don't you dare go sneaking back to that livery. I don't want you anywhere near that place ever again." She stood up and shook out her skirt and answered the children's unspoken questions. "We don't any of us know what we'll do until we hear from your uncle. California is a long, long way away. So you might as well be patient."

"He didn't answer my telegram," Carmen pointed out reasonably.

"Maybe he didn't get it. Things like that get lost all the time. We'll send another one tomorrow." Evie tried not to think about Hale's declaration that the uncle was dead. If he were dead, shouldn't somebody have wired back with that information? She would believe the best until informed otherwise.

She saw Tyler standing helplessly by the door, and her stomach did strange little flip-flops as she watched him there. Her husband. It seemed impossible to conceive. She knew he was incredibly attractive, but that wasn't what she saw now when she looked at him. She saw a man as lost as she was, a man with spectacular strengths and a vast store of knowledge but lacking roots and an incentive to grow them. Or was she just seeing what every other woman of his acquaintance was seeing—a man who needed to be tied down?

She went up to him and touched one of the arms folded defiantly against his chest. "Will you be staying?" She touched the tip of her tongue to her dry lips as she sought the right words. "I'd like you to stay, but you don't have to if you don't want."

Tyler watched that enticingly pink tongue slip over kissable lips and felt his insides slipping. She still wore his coat over the gown he'd literally ripped from her back. He'd treated her like an animal, ruined her chances for a good husband, showed her what he was, and still she didn't retreat from him. Evangeline Peyton Howell was a very odd woman. And he didn't want to lose her.

He didn't accept that fact gracefully. He didn't want s house or a passel of kids. He didn't want ties of any sort. Marriage meant all those things and more. But marriage meant Evie was all his.

Tyler shrugged. "I'll be back for dinner. Save a place for me."

He walked out, leaving Evie staring after him, wondering.