Thea Devine Read online

  She thought that woman was gone forever, carefully hidden where no one could see.

  And still Logan had found her.

  Or he had always known she was there.

  The thought was overwhelming. Could any man see the hunger in her and know what she was? Could Reese? If he had said the same words, and had kissed her the same way, would she have been as ready to fall into his arms?

  All she could think about was her willingness in Logan’s arms the previous night. The memory excited her and blotted out everything else. Everything. All these years she had closed up inside her this desire seemed like a useless wasteland of deprivation to her now. One kiss, one touch, the right words, and she had come alive like some fairytale princess from a spell. All that hard-won composure and denial had been just a lie she had told herself.

  Whatever Frank had felt those three years ago about her and burning ardor, he had not denied himself the thing he refused her. But it was always so with men, she thought. They could have everything and allow their women nothing.

  So Logan would come and he would hold her and kiss her and talk of other ways and her need would be assuaged for the moment, and perhaps, she thought, that was all there had to be.

  He would never hurt her, she thought, and it reassured her to know that as she wandered from the back of the apartment into the parlor that overlooked the street and looked out of the window there.

  It was quieter than it had been the day before, with only an intermittent wagon or lone horse cantering its way along the plank boardwalk. There were no pedestrians—a lone cowboy perhaps on his way to Arwin’s store, but everyone punctiliously attended church on Sunday.

  From the window where she stood, she thought Colville looked like a small peaceful town that had been blessed by God, a place that could never be touched by commercial greed.

  She decided to go to Arwin’s store and face the derision of the congregants there. Without a doubt, public sentiment was not running in her favor.

  It was already crowding up when she arrived, but Arwin at least was happy to see her. The jibes were good-natured as she made her way to the back of the store.

  “So what do you think, Arwin?”

  “Have a cup of coffee, Maggie.”

  “That doesn’t require a lot of thought,” she said, smiling, taking the cup he offered her.

  “How’s that Reese fella?”

  “He’s off to church with Mother Colleran, and not too happy about it.”

  “Well, he’s here on a visit, ain’t he? Come to see the old lady? What else has he got to do?”

  “You’re right; I never thought of that. She’s so busy deifying Frank, she probably hasn’t even noticed who took her to church today to begin with.”

  Arwin clucked at her. “That was nasty, Maggie.”

  “Well, was it?” she asked reasonably. “Every damn body in town thinks it’s his duty to theorize that the coming of Denver North is exactly what Frank would have wanted. Why, as far as they’re concerned he would have sold the ranch to facilitate matters for them. Frank must have been some seer. I never saw that in him, but maybe everyone else did.”

  “He was a regular magician, Maggie, full of hocus-pocus.”

  “That’s about it,” she agreed caustically.

  “Well, you’d probably better lay off a bit then. If everyone’s so convinced, they’ll resent you even more for selling it down so consistently. They’ll think you can’t see both sides, they’ll think—maybe—you were doing Frank dirty by opposing the things he wanted, which, by definition, are the things they want.”

  “Oh, please, is it that bad?”

  “Worse. There’s a group that have made a passel of money selling off land, and they’re going to build closer in to town and be right there when that line comes steaming through. They’re going to travel up to Cheyenne and take the line whichever way the wind is blowing at the moment, Maggie, because they ain’t never been two miles down the road from the center of town in their whole lives. You watch out for them; they’re powerful and ignorant.”

  “I’m still going to fight, Arwin.”

  “Who?” he asked cynically.

  “Frank,” she retorted, setting down her cup.

  “What if I told you Melinda Sable is looking to buy and build along the far side of town?” Arwin asked confidentially, drawing her slightly aside and turning so that their backs were to the assembling crowd.

  “How?”

  “Danged if I know. I heard a breath of it the other day, couldn’t believe it. Don’t know where she’d get the money, but I’m damned sure that whoever loaned it to her is looking to make a big profit.”

  “Well, it wasn’t Frank,” Maggie said acerbically. “Damn, that’s bad news.”

  “Supposed to be secret news, but nothing’s secret in this town.”

  “Or this store.”

  “It’s the only thing that keeps me going, Maggie.”

  “Me too,” she said satirically.

  “Don’t go off the deep end about it,” Arwin cautioned. “It’s just rumor.”

  “I know. I’ll have a field day with the engineers when they come and try to figure out how to grade the track around Big Gully.”

  “They mayn’t have to in the end, Maggie. I’m willing to bet they’re going to have cases full of money to offer Sean and Annie, and maybe even Logan.”

  “Maybe,” she sighed.

  “And maybe they got the payoff reserved for you, Maggie,” Arwin added carefully, slanting a birdlike look at her.

  “I heard that too,” she said. “It’s crazy.”

  “You ain’t running cattle; you refuse to live there and build it up, Maggie. What do you expect people to say?”

  “Possibly that I mean what I say. But… oh … there’s Reese.” She waved to him as he stood uncertainly in the doorway looking around. She wondered how he had gotten away from his mother so quickly. Services were not over till noon and it was only eleven o’clock. “Reese, this is Arwin Bodey. I believe you two nodded to each other yesterday morning. Arwin, this is, of course, Frank’s brother, Reese Colleran.”

  The men shook hands cordially and everyone watched covertly as the buzz of conversation continued around them.

  “And where is Mother Colleran?” Maggie asked sweetly.

  “In excellent hands,” Reese said firmly, in a tone that brooked no questions. He had found a place for her and a ride, and he had been amused to see his mother welcomed into the fold of the church ladies who revered her for being Frank Colleran’s mother. For the moment, for the morning, it was enough, and it left him with the free hour or so to find Maggie and share that fleeting time with her. “Are you finished here?”

  Maggie leveled a humorous look at Arwin. “I expect I am. Arwin has filled me in on all the gossip and I can now go back to the office and write the locals column. Isn’t that right, Arwin?”

  “Don’t tease, Maggie.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it.” She allowed Reese to precede her as they walked out of the store, and she could hear the muted whispers around them: “That’s Frank’s brother.” “Oh, you can see he’s a Colleran.” “Don’t he have the look of Frank about him?” “They say he’s living with Maggie and the mother….”

  The last was the worst, and they made the door before Maggie could hear the anonymous response to it.

  “Well now,” Maggie said as they stood outside in the brisk spring sunshine. “I take it you have something in mind?”

  “Nothing much really. We’ve done the hotel dinner, I’ve seen you run the paper, we’ve scouted the surrounding area for railroad spies, and you’ve shown me what’s left of the Colleran ranch and property. I don’t believe there’s much else except your own fine company, Maggie.”

  She shook her head. “That’s really too much, Reese. This is my day of rest, too. I don’t generally do much more than trade words with your mother for hours on end about how unfairly I treat her or how unfairly Frank’s will treated her.
”

  “Let’s walk then, and you can tell me about that.”

  “Oh, but surely you’ve gotten an earful of my crimes.”

  “I refuse to let her vilify you.”

  “Nonetheless,” Maggie said, carefully watching his expression, “she threatened me with you.”

  He looked shocked. “How can that be?”

  “Apparently things are going to change somehow now that you’ve come.”

  “Truly, Maggie, it’s an old, disappointed woman’s rantings. What could possibly change?”

  “I couldn’t figure that out myself. After all, Frank’s will was lawfully probated, and I’ve complied with all the terms to the letter of the law—which includes, by the way, responsibility for your mother and a stipend for her, which she refuses to take. I’ve undertaken running the newspaper, and by the terms of the will, I’m to keep the Colleran ranch intact except for certain circumstances that Mother Colleran has interpreted as meaning lucrative offers. Neither she nor you were left anything by Frank, and I think your mother somehow thinks I engineered that, even though Frank and I were not close at the time he died. This is a will made by a man who loved his wife and was confident of her abilities. I don’t know why he did not change it. It wasn’t changed to reflect the status of our marriage at the time he died.”

  “I see.”

  “I wonder if you do. Your mother was adamantly against Frank’s marrying me, and now, since you’ve told me about—Priscilla, was that her name?—I can perhaps understand that. But she never accepted the marriage, even after Frank assured her over and over that it was exactly what he wanted to do, and she has resented me for all these years.”

  “Of course Frank loved you. You are a beautiful and vital woman.”

  Maggie ignored that. “Yet your mother insists on staying with me and fighting with me as if somehow she were defending Frank against me. It makes no sense to me whatsoever.”

  “She loved Frank too much,” Reese said soberly.

  “Yes, she did. And she’s very anxious to keep the town myth about him perpetuated.”

  “Perhaps he really was an extraordinary man.”

  “Do you believe that?”

  “No.”

  Maggie smiled. “He was an extraordinary salesman, and he knew how to sell himself.”

  They walked in silence a few moments more. Reese marveled at her all over again, her perception and her strength. He was willing to bet that no one in Colville saw Frank Colleran in quite the same light as Maggie, and though it was possible her candor was tinged with the faintest odor of the scorned wife, she was also a woman who seemed to see things with unclouded clarity. She couldn’t have been in love with Frank at the end. Possibly she was even grateful to Melinda Sable for becoming his convenience.

  However, he also knew she would never confess any of this to him. All he could hope to do was make her understand that she had an allure and a seductiveness for him as well. But he was already aware that fine words and easy phrases would never convince her of his sincerity.

  “Most men in business know how to sell themselves, Maggie,” he said suddenly, as the thought occurred to him as well as a way to approach her.

  She stopped and turned to look at him. “Is that true? Do you?” She had to shield her eyes from the sun at that moment; she had to see his face clearly.

  “I hope to sell myself to you, Maggie,” he murmured intimately. He wasn’t surprised when she turned away from him; he had the feeling that her reaction was that those words had come too easily to him and that they had made her suspicious. He took her arm and pushed her to continue walking. “Sounds glib, doesn’t it?” he said, just a little ruefully.

  “It sounds rehearsed,” she said succinctly, “and not worth your effort. You’ve known me all of three or four days, and you couldn’t possibly know that yet.”

  “I’m not delighted that you think I don’t know my own mind,” Reese retorted sharply, and then he pulled back. He could not push a woman like Maggie and he knew it. “I hope you’ll give me time to prove that to you.”

  “As long as you like,” she said sardonically, because she knew she could never allow herself to be taken by Frank’s brother. Like to like, she thought, but he didn’t have to know that. When his pursuit proved futile, he would leave, and she was going to do her utmost to see that it was soon.

  Nonetheless, his declaration distracted her and made it impossible for her to enjoy their walk. Now she had to look for hidden meanings in his conversation, and to be aware of personal references creeping into the most mundane exchanges between them. She was very sure she didn’t like him at all just this minute.

  “I wish,” she said pointedly, “you hadn’t done that.”

  “Excuse me, Maggie; when should I have done that? Or do you think I’m not aware that others have feelings for you too. My dear girl, I refuse to sit back and let someone else get the upper hand when I know very well that you and I understand each other. I took a chance. You shot me down—for now. Nothing has changed, Maggie. I will try to prove to you I mean what I say.”

  “I expect you will,” she murmured, put out with him. Others have feelings indeed, she thought angrily. All of a sudden, in just one day! When had she become so desirable? she wondered caustically. She surely presented the most unfeminine of pictures, with her inky hands, unruly hair and plain cotton dresses, and her bossy manner. Men never saw her as being attractive and captivating, and they never had. Not even Frank.

  Reese laughed. “You’re like a porcupine, Maggie, thrusting out your spikes so everyone will keep hands off. A smart man can see through those tactics. You don’t scare me one bit.”

  His smug answer made her bristle, and she had to force herself not to make a stinging reply. “Good,” she said lightly; she didn’t want him to think that anything he said was meaningful to her. “I believe we have no place else to go,” she added, as they reached what was nominally considered the end of Main Street, a place where the plank boardwalk dwindled into stones and finally the rough track that led to the Denver road.

  “I wish we could go further,” Reese said regretfully. “But this is enough for today.” He offered her his arm and they turned around and walked back into town in silence.

  “Do you have any plans for this week?” Maggie asked idly after a while.

  He looked at her speculatively. “I’d like to help you out this week, Maggie.”

  She didn’t answer him. She didn’t know quite what to make of this seemingly helpful request. As they drew up before the office door, she said finally, “We’ll see,” and was saved from elaborating on that by the arrival of a buggy bearing Mother Colleran and driven by Dennis Coutts.

  “Maggie!” he hailed her. “What luck. I was hoping, when I offered to drive Mother Colleran home, that I would run into you. Do you have time to come for a ride with me now?”

  Maggie looked at Mother Colleran and then at Reese, who was glaring at Dennis. “I’d like that very much,” she said sweetly, and waited for Reese to help her into the buggy.

  She was thankful Dennis didn’t say much as they drove away. He was heading out of town in the opposite direction, toward the ranch land and the free range, and she supposed there might be a reason for it, or then again, there might not. She knew that she did not need to make idle talk with Dennis. If he had something on his mind, he would air it soon enough.

  Meantime, the air was sweet and the sun was warm. The buggy whipped by the town landmarks: the express station, Arwin’s store, the turnoff to the ridge that led to the church, the hotel, the trickle of homes that edged that end of town along the main street.

  “So where do you suppose Melinda Sable is going to build this new house I hear about?” Maggie wondered aloud, after they had cleared the main street and had veered off onto the west road.

  “Oh, you heard about that, did you?”

  “Do you know?”

  “I would think on the other side of town, Maggie, near where they’re going
to build the depot. She wants to run a boarding house; she sees real opportunity there.”

  “Oh, I bet she does,” Maggie murmured ironically.

  “Now Maggie, maybe she does.”

  “Now Dennis, you know what kind of opportunity she sees: men and money and luxury accommodations for a half hour, and it doesn’t include home-cooked meals.”

  She was gratified that he looked shocked.

  “Maggie, that’s really—you can’t go around saying those things.”

  “Truly? Excuse me, my husband was the one who abandoned his wife for the town whore. I’ll say exactly what I want to and what everyone knows, and I don’t care one whit that she was supposedly faithful to him. It wouldn’t surprise me, Dennis, if she had consoled herself with every man in town, including you.”

  He had the grace to look slightly uncomfortable. “I don’t think we came for a ride to talk about Melinda Sable, Maggie.”

  “Oh. Then what did we come out for, Dennis? Do you want to chastise me yet again for something I’ve done that Frank would not have liked?”

  She was a witch, he thought, as he drew the buggy to a halt so he could properly deal with her stinging tongue.

  “Let’s just say the Reverend Minister had much to say about this edition of the paper, Maggie. Let’s just say the church is squarely behind Harold Danforth’s philosophy of expansion, growth, and profit for everyone.”

  “Including Melinda Sable,” Maggie put in sarcastically.

  “Even Melinda,” Dennis agreed resignedly. “I just wonder, Maggie, if it isn’t time for us to start looking for an editor whose views are more in tune with the town managers and the majority of the landholders.”

  She wasn’t shocked; she had known it would come one day, especially because Dennis was the most conservative manager she had ever known. The wonder was he had let her have her head so long, and had freely interpreted Frank’s wishes to suit her purposes.

  Nonetheless, she was silent for so long that Dennis thought she might be crying. Or maybe he hoped she would be crying because it would be much easier to approach her and make her see things his way.

  But when he leaned over and touched her, he saw that she was only staring out into the distance, her face grim and her mouth set. She was the same old Maggie, and she was girding for a fight.