Noelle Read online

  She took the hand. “You aren’t a bad man, Andrew. But stop pretending to be what you aren’t.”

  “Advice which you could give equally to my stepbrother,” he murmured dryly. “Although after today, I think his secret will be well and truly notorious.”

  Her face closed up. “Jared will hear no advice from me,” she said. “Hurry, Andrew, or you’ll be late.”

  “Yes, I must.” He waved and went down the street toward the livery stable.

  Noelle smiled blankly at Mrs. Dunn as she closed the front door.

  “Noelle?”

  She turned. The older woman was still standing in the doorway of the living room. Mrs. Dunn was subdued and she looked faintly worried. “I hope you realize that Jared was driven to it—to what happened in town,” she said quietly. “He isn’t a killer. He only wounded the man. He could have done so much worse twenty years ago.”

  “I know. I don’t blame him. I understand why he did it. He saved Mr. Clark’s life.”

  “That’s a load off my mind, that you aren’t repelled by him now,” the older woman said heavily. “He’s a hard man to know. He keeps what he feels to himself. But I think that he would fall apart without you.”

  “The iron man?” She scoffed. “Hardly. He needs no one.”

  “How can you think that?” Mrs. Dunn asked gently.

  “Noelle, you have no idea how Jared has changed since he came back home and found you here. He laughs, he smiles, he spends time with us… Why, the Jared who used to visit was so quiet that we hardly knew he was in the house. And such a somber, taciturn man he was. He never smiled. He had nothing to do with women. Well, with decent women,” she amended uncomfortably, because she’d heard stories.

  “Jared married me because Andrew and I were found together in a compromising situation,” Noelle said curtly. “He made certain that I knew it. He may find me desirable, but there’s nothing more to it than that. He told me last night that our marriage was only a temporary condition, and that we had no future together. I’m certain that he means to divorce me.” She lifted her skirts and started up the steps. “I’ve decided that I’m going back to my uncle,” she said. “Jared can do what he likes. He’s an attorney, after all. If he wants a divorce, then he knows how to have our marriage set aside. He won’t need anything more from me except my signature on some document when the time comes.”

  Mrs. Dunn was horrified. “Noelle, you must be mistaken!”

  “There’s no mistake. He doesn’t love me, and he doesn’t want me.” The words hurt her. She kept walking.

  It only took her an hour to pack everything she owned in the world. She left her pretty new things hanging in the chifforobe—because she didn’t want anything that Jared’s money had bought—as she prepared to leave for the second time. Jared had forced her to make such a decision once before, when she and Andrew had been caught together. Perhaps this time she would get farther, because she did have a little money now. She could stay with her uncle until she could find a job as a housekeeper or a nursemaid in Galveston. The memories would be there, but she could cope now. Her marriage had made her strong. She was no longer the naive young girl who had come to Fort Worth to live.

  She looked around the room she’d inhabited and stared at the bed with narrow, pained eyes. Her first and only experience of intimacy had been in that bed, with a man whose motive was only to make sure of her and legalize their marriage. He had never wanted to repeat the experience. In fact, it seemed that he now only wanted to forget it.

  She put on her hat and wrapped her cloak around her, because the sunshine of the morning had given way to heavy clouds. It was now misting rain. She picked up her small valise and her string purse and started down the staircase for the last time.

  * * *

  JARED HAD BEEN to see the judge, along with the prosecutor and the tall, young city policeman who’d arrested Garmon and overheard his confession. The circuit judge, a longtime acquaintance of Jared’s, dismissed the case against Clark and ordered Garmon charged with assault and robbery. His arraignment hearing was set, and Jared felt certain he would be bound over for a preliminary hearing.

  The judge stared at Jared with pursed lips. “And what’s this I hear about you pulling a gun on Mr. Garmon right in the town square?”

  The young police officer stepped forward. “Sir, Mr. Dunn had no choice in the matter,” he said firmly. “Mr. Garmon had already shot Mr. Sims—and he was crazy enough to shoot anybody else who moved. Mr. Dunn did the citizens of Fort Worth a service.”

  “I’m not questioning that, young man,” the judge said. “I’m questioning the possession of a firearm in the city limits.”

  “It was Mr. Sims’s firearm, your honor,” the young man persisted courageously. “He loaned it to Mr. Dunn.” He straightened and lifted his chin. “Mr. Dunn was acting in the stead of a city law enforcement officer. You may consider him deputized for the duration of the incident. I’ll swear to that, sir.”

  Jared smiled indulgently at the unexpected gesture from the young man, who looked embarrassed.

  “Very well,” the judge said. He smiled, too. “You aren’t old enough to remember wild times in Kansas, young man, but I am. I know Mr. Dunn quite well. I was only tormenting him, for old time’s sake, and he knows it.”

  Jared chuckled. “Nevertheless, Officer…?”

  “Ryan, sir.”

  “Well, Officer Ryan. Thank you for your intervention, and your support. I won’t forget you.”

  He offered his hand, and the young man shook it. “You’re very welcome, sir,” he replied, grinning. He nodded to Jared and the judge and strode quickly out the door, the smile still on his face as he walked toward the corner.

  * * *

  JARED ESCORTED BRIAN Clark from his jail cell to the stable, where he hired the black man a good horse and handed him back his possessions, which had been turned over by the police.

  Clark shook hands with the attorney. “I can’t even pay you,” he said miserably.

  “Mr. Clark, you were innocent,” he said. “It’s a sad fact of life that generally only the rich go free, innocent or guilty. But in this case, justice was done. It did me good to work on your behalf. I don’t begrudge you my fee.” He didn’t add that Beale had offered to pay it, but he had refused. Some things were more rewarding than money.

  Clark seemed to understand. He nodded. “I’ll do something, someday, to make you glad that you gained my freedom for me.”

  Jared smiled. “See that you do. A man of your intellect is wasted doing odd jobs on a ranch, sir. A good education would benefit you.”

  Clark considered that. “I think it might, indeed,” he said thoughtfully. “Thank you for the loan of the horse, as well. I’ll send it back to you once I’m at Beale’s ranch. He’s a good man to work for.”

  “He’s a good man, period,” Jared said, with genuine feeling. “I only wish I’d had enough evidence to clear you, without having to resort to somewhat dubious methods to get at the truth,” he added, with a smile.

  “I think that your ‘dubious methods’ will be the talk of Fort Worth for many years to come,” Clark said, chuckling. “I thank you for taking such a risk on my behalf.”

  “Some risks are worth the end result.” He shook hands with the man and watched him mount up.

  As he trotted off down the street, dust flew up from the horse’s hooves and splatters of rain started to slam into it. Clouds had come up suddenly. Just as well, Jared thought, for Noelle’s tomato plants. She was having to water them every day because it had been so dry.

  Noelle. He sighed. He wondered if even now, she and cursed Andrew were planning their future. He’d saved Clark’s life, but he couldn’t save his own marriage. He was losing the thing that meant more to him than the whole world. He turned and walked back toward his office. He’d clea
r out the rest of the day’s work, he decided, before he went home. After all, there was no rush.

  Little did he know that Noelle was already sitting in the train depot with her bag and a ticket to Galveston in her gloved hand.

  She stared quietly into space, drawn and pale from the ending of her brief marriage. She had nothing to look forward to except years without Jared. He’d probably be relieved to see the last of her.

  She recalled her first days with him, when he was interested in her, when he’d taught her to dance and all the social graces. He’d prepared her as a suitable escort for Andrew, and then he’d been forced to marry her. That was when they stopped being friends. He hadn’t wanted her, but he’d taken her to bed just the same. Now she wondered why. Perhaps he’d just wanted a woman. But it had been everything to her, to lie in the arms of the man she loved most in all the world. But how often had Jared told her that there was nothing of love in him? Presumably that woman he’d killed for in Kansas so many years before had been his one true love. He hadn’t room for another woman in his heart. So it was just as well that Noelle was leaving.

  Two other people came into the depot carrying bags. One was an elderly man, the other much younger, his grandson, perhaps. The older man sat down near Noelle and tipped his hat respectfully while the younger one went to the ticket agent at the counter.

  “Two tickets for St. Louis, please, one way,” the boy said, producing his billfold.

  “Yes, sir. Bit of excitement in town today, we heard,” the ticket agent murmured while he worked. “They said some cowboy drew on the wrong man.”

  “Never saw anything like it,” the young man said, unaware of Noelle’s rapt interest. “The fellow’s hand barely moved and the cowboy went down. You could see how surprised he was, like he didn’t expect anybody in a fancy suit could ever best him with a gun.” He shook his head. “They say that lawyer was a gunman in Kansas. Granddad knew him,” he added, smiling proudly at the old man.

  “Happens I did,” the old man agreed. “But it weren’t in Kansas. I knew him in El Paso, when he was a Texas Ranger. Stood off a lynch mob down there, saved a feller’s life. Nobody messed with Captain Dunn, no sir!”

  “Captain?” Noelle burst out.

  “Why, yes, ma’am,” came the reply. “He was one bad hombre before he joined the Rangers, they said,” he added, nodding. “He helped track down a murderer and saved one of the Ranger company that was chasing him. They got him a pardon and signed him on, on the spot. He spent a long time out there, around El Paso. Nobody messed with Captain Dunn,” he repeated. He noticed Noelle’s wide-eyed stare. “Sorry, ma’am. Guess all this isn’t fit talk around a lady.” He smiled apologetically.

  She smiled back, but her eyes were troubled. Now total strangers were telling her things about Jared, about her own husband, that she didn’t know. If she hadn’t already had the ticket, she would have gone back to Jared’s office and thrown something at him for keeping so many secrets from her. It was just as well that she was leaving. She really had married a stranger.

  * * *

  JARED FINISHED THE last of his paperwork and was just getting ready to leave the office when his secretary poked his head in the door.

  “Telephone, sir,” he announced.

  Jared nodded absentmindedly and picked up the receiver. He was expecting a call from the clerk at the court. “Dunn,” he said into the mouthpiece.

  “Jared?”

  It was his grandmother’s voice. “Yes,” he said quickly. “Grandmother, what is it?”

  “Noelle’s gone, son.”

  He stared at the desk, looking at the swirling patterns in the oak with eyes that barely registered it. “Gone?”

  “To Galveston,” she said sadly. “I did try to talk to her, but she wouldn’t listen. She just said that she was leaving… She didn’t even take any of her new things, Jared. They’re all hanging in the chifforobe.”

  “Did Andrew go with her?” he asked stiffly.

  Mrs. Dunn coughed. “Andrew?”

  “Yes,” he muttered. The connection was terrible; he could hardly hear her. “Are they going away together?”

  “Jared, Andrew has gone to Miss Beale’s house. He hopes to obtain Mr. Beale’s permission to marry Jennifer. Noelle and I are very happy for him. We hoped you would be, too.”

  “What?”

  Mrs. Dunn held the phone a little away from her ear. How close he sounded! “Andrew hopes to marry Miss Beale,” she repeated. “Didn’t you know?”

  “No, I didn’t know. How could I…?” He paused. “You say Noelle’s gone to Galveston? When?”

  “She left an hour ago,” she said sadly.

  He held on to his temper by a thread. “Why didn’t you call sooner, Grandmother?”

  “There was no point, dear,” she said. “She wouldn’t have talked to you. She’d made up her mind, you see. She said it was for the best. And maybe she was right, Jared,” she added firmly. “You’ve been very unkind to her lately. She said that you’d told her you didn’t have a future together. She thought you meant that you wanted a divorce. She said that you’d be glad to be rid of her, because you didn’t care about her.”

  He had been unkind to her, that was true. He didn’t like having that pointed out to him. But he hadn’t meant that he wanted a divorce. He’d thought she’d wanted one, so that she could marry Andrew. But if Andrew was marrying Miss Beale… And Noelle was leaving because she thought Jared didn’t care about her…

  His heart lifted like a bird freed of a rope. “Which train did she catch?” he asked quickly.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen the schedules.”

  “I’ll be home soon,” he said, and hung up. Noelle had left him. She’d said she was going home, and he’d assumed she meant his house. She’d meant her uncle’s house. She’d left him. She’d thought he wanted a divorce.

  He laughed out loud. He’d given her up so that she could marry Andrew, and she thought he didn’t want her! He’d only given her up because he loved her and he wanted her to be happy! Didn’t she know, for God’s sake?

  He got up from the desk, shouldered into his jacket, and grabbed his hat. “Close up and go home,” he told his secretary on his way out the door.

  It was only a short walk to the train depot. He bypassed the streetcar, his hat and turned-up collar protecting him against the misting rain. He opened the door of the depot and walked into the waiting room, his pale eyes scanning it. It was full now, but Noelle stood out. She was the only unescorted woman in the room, sitting quietly beside an old man and a younger one on the long, smooth oak bench, with her small valise at her feet. She looked totally out of sorts.

  He stuck his hands in his pockets and stopped just in front of her. The old man, who recognized him, started to speak. But before he could, Noelle recognized her husband and took a sharp breath.

  “So it’s you,” she said. “Have you come to wave me off?”

  His chin lifted. He looked down his nose at her. The reading glasses were off, and his eyes were very blue. “No. I’ve come to take you back home, where you belong.”

  “Home?” she queried. “Ha! It isn’t a home. It’s your house, and I certainly don’t belong there!”

  His eyebrows jerked. “This is hardly the place for a private discussion,” he remarked, indicating the amount of attention they were attracting.

  Noelle glared at him. “You keep saying that! Well, why isn’t it?” she demanded. “Everyone in town seems to know more about you than I do!”

  He had the grace to admit that this was so. “I haven’t been truthful with you,” he agreed quietly.

  “No, you haven’t. I thought you were a sophisticated New York lawyer. I had no idea that you could handle a sidearm so well, or that you’d been a captain in the Texas Rangers…until today. Everything I kno
w about you I learned by accident or from other people.”

  “I didn’t know how to tell you all of it,” he said quietly.

  “Obviously. A wife should know a little something about her own husband—and not have to find out about him from total strangers!” she raged.

  The old man beside her was gaping now. So were several other people.

  “If you’d come home with me,” he said, “we could discuss this.”

  “I’ve nothing to discuss with you,” she told him. “I’m going back to Galveston. You can divorce me whenever you like.”

  “I’m not going to divorce you,” he snapped.

  “No? That was what you said last night!”

  “I thought you wanted a divorce,” he said flatly.

  “And I do,” she said angrily. “There’s nothing I want more! You’ve kept secrets from me and ignored and avoided me and insulted me… Why should I wish to stay with such a man?”

  He smiled wistfully. “I have no idea,” he said.

  She clutched her small bag. Her green eyes glittered up at him angrily. “Why do you want me to stay?”

  His eyebrows lifted. “Did I say that I did?” he drawled.

  She averted her face. He hadn’t said so. She hoped the train would hurry up and come. She wanted to get away. He was embarrassing her in front of all these strangers.

  He stared down at her with frustration. He couldn’t get her to come back. He didn’t know how. He glared around at the interested onlookers, wishing them miles away.

  “At least wait until tomorrow to go,” he said. “My grandmother celebrates her seventy-fifth birthday tomorrow. She was heartbroken that you’d gone.”

  She looked up. “Her birthday? She said nothing to me.”

  She’d said nothing to Jared, either, since it wasn’t her birthday. But Noelle didn’t know that. And if he could get her back to the house, under any pretense, perhaps he could persuade her out of this journey.

  “She didn’t want to impede you,” he said.