Christmas Cowboy Read online

  She felt cold. “And your father?”

  “He was a good man, but he couldn’t cope with us alone.” His eyes grew dark. “When she took off and deserted him, part of him died. She’d just come back, out of money and all alone, from her latest lover. They were talking about a reconciliation when the flood took the house where she was living right out from under them.” His face changed, hardened. He leaned heavily on the cane. “Simon and Cag and I were grown by then. We took care of the other two.”

  “No wonder you don’t like women,” she murmured quietly.

  He gave her a long, level look and then dropped his gaze. She missed the calculation in his tone when he added, “Marriage is old-fashioned, anyway. I have a dog, a good horse and a houseful of modern appliances. I even have a housekeeper who can cook. A wife would be redundant.”

  “Well, I never,” she exclaimed, breathless.

  “I know,” he replied, and there was suddenly a wicked glint in his eyes. “You can’t blame that on me,” he added. “God knows, I did my best to bring you into the age of enlightenment.”

  While she was absorbing that dry remark, he tipped his hat, turned and walked out the door.

  She darted onto the porch after him. “When?” she called after him. “You didn’t say when you wanted me to start.”

  “I’ll phone you.” He didn’t look back. He got into his truck laboriously and drove away without even a wave of his hand.

  At least she had the promise of a job, she told herself. She shouldn’t read hidden messages into what he said. But the past he’d shared with her, about his mother, left her chilled. How could a woman have five sons and leave them?

  And what was the secret about the fifth brother, Simon, the one nobody had ever seen? She wondered if he’d done something unspeakable, or if he was in trouble with the law. There had to be a reason why the brothers never spoke of him much. Perhaps she’d find out one day.

  CHAPTER THREE

  It was the next day before she realized she hadn’t thanked Corrigan for the flowers he’d brought. She sent a note out to the ranch on Monday, and got one back that read, simply, “You’re welcome.” So much for olive branches, if one had been needed.

  She found plenty to keep her busy in the days that followed. It seemed that all her father’s friends and the people she’d gone to school with wanted her to come home. Everyone seemed to know a potential client. It wasn’t long before she was up to her ears in work.

  The biggest surprise came Thursday morning when she heard the sound of many heavy footsteps and looked up from her desk to find three huge, intimidating men standing on her porch just beyond the glass-fronted door. They’d come in that big double-cabbed pickup that Corrigan usually drove, and she wondered if these were his brothers.

  She went to open the door and felt like a midget when they came tromping inside her house, their spurs jingling pleasantly on boots that looked as if they’d been kept in a swamp.

  “We’re the Harts,” one of them said. “Corrigan’s brothers.”

  As she’d guessed. She studied them curiously. Corrigan was tall, but these men were giants. Two were dark-haired like Corrigan, and one had blond-streaked brown hair. All were dark-eyed, unlike him. None of them would have made any lists of handsome bachelors. They were rugged-looking, lean and tanned, and they made her nervous. The Hart boys made most people nervous. The only other local family that had come close to their reputations for fiery tempers were the Tremayne boys, who were all married and just a little tamer now. The Harts were relative newcomers in Jacobsville, having only been around eight years or so. But they kept to themselves and seemed to have ties to San Antonio that were hard to break. What little socializing they did was all done there, in the city. They didn’t mix much in Jacobsville.

  Not only were they too rugged for words, but they also had the most unusual first names Dorie could remember hearing. They introduced themselves abruptly, without even being asked first.

  Reynard was the youngest. They called him Rey. He had deep-set black eyes and a thin mouth and, gossip said, the worst temper of the four.

  The second youngest was Leopold. He was broader than the other three, although not fat, and the tallest. He never seemed to shave. He had blond-streaked brown hair and brown eyes and a mischievous streak that the others apparently lacked.

  Callaghan was the eldest, two years older than Corrigan. He had black eyes like a cobra. He didn’t blink. He was taller than all his brothers, with the exception of Leopold, and he did most of the bronc-breaking at the ranch. He looked Spanish, more than the others, and he had the bearing and arrogance of royalty, as if he belonged in another century. They said he had the old-fashioned attitudes of the past, as well.

  He gave the broader of the three a push toward Dorie. He glared over his shoulder, but took off his hat and forced a smile as he stood in front of Dorie.

  “You must be Dorothy Wayne,” Leopold said with a grin. “You work for us.”

  “Y…yes, I guess I do,” she stammered. She felt surrounded. She moved back behind the desk and just stared at them, feeling nervous and inadequate.

  “Will you two stop glaring?” Leopold shot at his taciturn brothers. “You’re scaring her!”

  They seemed to make an effort to relax, although it didn’t quite work out.

  “Never mind,” Leopold muttered. He clutched his hat in his hand. “We’d like you to come out to the ranch,” he said. “The household accounts are about to do us in. We can’t keep Corrigan still long enough to get him to bring them to you.”

  “He came over Saturday,” she said.

  “Yeah, we heard,” Leo mused. “Roses, wasn’t it?”

  The other two almost smiled.

  “Roses,” she agreed. Her gray eyes were wide and they darted from one giant to another.

  “He forgot to bring you the books. The office is in a hel…heck of a mess,” Leo continued. “We can’t make heads nor tails of it. Corrigan scribbles, and we’ve volunteered him to do it mostly, but we can’t read his writing. He escaped to a herd sale in Montana, so we’re stuck.” He shrugged and managed to look helpless. “We can’t see if we’ve got enough money in the account to buy groceries.” He looked hungry. He sighed loudly. “We’d sure appreciate it if you could come out, maybe in the morning, about nine? If that’s not too early.”

  “Oh, no,” she said. “I’m up and making breakfast by six.”

  “Making breakfast? You can cook, then?” Leopold asked.

  “Well, yes.” She hesitated, but he looked really interested. “I make biscuits and bacon and eggs.”

  “Pig meat,” the one called Reynard muttered.

  “Steak’s better,” Callaghan agreed.

  “If she can make biscuits, the other stuff doesn’t matter,” Reynard retorted.

  “Will you two shut up?” Leopold asked sharply. He turned back to Dorie and gave her a thorough appraisal, although not in the least sexual. “You don’t look like a bookkeeper.”

  “Nice hair,” Reynard remarked.

  “Bad scar on that cheek,” Callaghan remarked. “How did it happen?”

  Heavens, he was blunt! She was almost startled enough to tell him. She blurted that it had been in an accident.

  “Tough,” he said. “But if you can cook, scars don’t matter much.”

  Her mouth was open, and Leopold stomped on his big brother’s foot, hard.

  Callaghan popped him one on the arm with a fist the size of a ham. “Cut it out!”

  “Don’t insult her, she won’t come!”

  “I didn’t!”

  Reynard moved forward, elbowing the other two out of the way. He had his own hat in his hand. He tried to smile. It looked as if he hadn’t had much practice at it.

  “We’d like you to come tomorrow. Will you?”

  She hesitated.

  “Now see what you’ve done!” Leopold shot at Callaghan. “She’s scared of us!”

  “We wouldn’t hurt you,” Reynard said ge
ntly. He gave up trying to smile; it was unnatural anyway. “We have old Mrs. Culbertson keeping house for us. She carries a broomstick around with her. You’ll be safe.”

  She bit back a laugh. But her eyes began to twinkle.

  “She carries the broomstick because of him,” Reynard added, indicating Leopold. “He likes to…”

  “Never mind!” Leopold said icily.

  “I was only going to say that you…”

  “Shut up!”

  “If you two don’t stop, I’m going to lay you both out right here,” Callaghan said, and looked very much as if he meant it. “Apologize.”

  They both murmured reluctant apologies.

  “All right, that’s that.” He put his hat back on. “If you can come at nine, we’ll send one of the boys for you.”

  “Thank you, I’d rather drive my own car.”

  “I’ve seen your car. That’s why I’m sending one of the boys for you,” Callaghan continued doggedly.

  Her mouth fell open again. “It’s a…a nice old car! And it runs fine!”

  “Everybody knows Turkey Sanders sold it to you,” Callaghan said with a disgusted look. “He’s a pirate. You’ll be lucky if the wheels don’t fall off the first time you go around a curve.”

  “That’s right,” Rey agreed.

  “We’ll stop by on our way out of town and talk to him,” Leopold said. “He’ll bring your car back in and make sure it’s perfectly safe to drive. He’ll do it first thing tomorrow.”

  “But…”

  They put their hats back on, gave her polite nods and stomped back out the way they’d come.

  Callaghan paused at the front door, with the screen open. “He may talk and act tough, but he’s hurt pretty bad, inside where it doesn’t show. Don’t hurt him again.”

  “Him?”

  “Corrigan.”

  She moved forward, just a step. “It wasn’t like that,” she said gently. “He didn’t feel anything for me.”

  “And you didn’t, for him?”

  She averted her gaze to the floor. “It was a long time ago.”

  “You shouldn’t have left.”

  She looked back up, her eyes wide and wounded. “I was afraid of him!”

  He let out a long breath. “You were just a kid. We tried to tell him. Even though we hadn’t seen you, we knew about you from other people. We were pretty sure you weren’t the sort of girl to play around. He wouldn’t listen.” He shrugged. “Maybe we corrupted him. You might ask him sometimes about our parents,” he added coldly. “Kids don’t grow up hating marriage without reason.”

  There was a lot of pain in his lean face. He was telling her things she’d never have dared ask Corrigan. She moved forward another step, aware of the other two talking out on the porch in hushed whispers.

  “Is he still…like that?”

  His eyes were cold, but as they looked into hers, they seemed to soften just a little. “He’s not the same man he was. You’ll have to find out the rest for yourself. We don’t interfere in each other’s lives, as a rule.” His gaze went over her wan face. “You’ve been to hell and back, too.”

  He was as perceptive as his brother. She smiled. “I suppose it’s part of becoming an adult. Losing illusions and dreams and hope, I mean.” She locked her fingers together and looked up at him quietly. “Growing up is painful.”

  “Don’t let go,” he said suddenly. “No matter what he says, what he does, don’t let go.”

  Her surprise widened her eyes. “Why?”

  He pulled his hat lower over his forehead. “They don’t make women like you anymore.”

  “Like me?” She frowned.

  His dark eyes glittered. He smiled in a way that, if she hadn’t been half-crazy about Corrigan, would have curled her toes. “I wish we’d met you before,” he said. “You’d never have gotten on that bus.” He tilted the hat. “We’ll send Joey for you in the morning.”

  “But…”

  The door closed behind him. He motioned to the other two and they followed him down the steps to the four-door pickup truck. It had a big cab. It was streamlined and black, and it had a menacing look not—unlike Corrigan Hart’s brothers!

  She wondered why they’d all come together to ask her to go out to the ranch, and why they’d done it when Corrigan was gone. She supposed she’d find out. She did wonder again about the fifth brother, the mysterious one that Corrigan had mentioned. None of these men were named Simon.

  * * *

  Later, the telephone rang, and it was Turkey Sanders. “I just wanted you to know that I’m going to have that car I sold you picked up in the morning and put to rights,” he said at once. “I guarantee, it’s going to be the best used car you’ve ever driven! If you would, just leave the keys in it, and I’ll have it picked up first thing. And if there’s anything else I can do for you, little lady, you just ask!”

  He sounded much more enthusiastic than he had when he’d sold her the rusty little car. “Why, thank you,” she said.

  “No problem. None at all. Have a nice day, now.”

  He hung up and she stared blankly at the receiver. Well, nobody could say that living in Jacobsville wasn’t interesting, she told herself. Apparently the brothers had a way with other businessmen, too. She’d never have admitted that the car had worried her from the time Turkey had talked her into buying it, for what seemed like a high price for such a wreck. She had a driver’s license, which she had to have renewed. But never having owned a car in New York, it was unique to have one of her own, even if it did look like ten miles of bad road.

  * * *

  It was a cold, blustery morning when a polite young man drove up in a black Mercedes and held the door open for her.

  “I’m Joey,” he told her. “The brothers sent me to fetch you. I sure am glad you took on this job,” he added. “They won’t give me any money for gas until that checkbook’s balanced. I’ve been having to syphon it out of their trucks with a hose.” He shook his head ruefully as he waited for her to move her long denim skirt completely out of the door frame so that he could close the door. “I hate the taste of gasoline.”

  He closed the door, got in under the wheel and took off in a cloud of dust.

  She smiled to herself. The brothers were strange people.

  The ranch was immaculate, from its white wood fences to the ranch house itself, a long elegant brick home with a sprawling manicured lawn and a swimming pool and tennis court. The bunkhouse was brick, too, and the barn was so big that she imagined it could hold an entire herd of horses.

  “Big, huh?” Joey grinned at her. “The brothers do things on a big scale, but they’re meticulous—especially Cag. He runs the place, mostly.”

  “Cag?”

  “Callaghan. Nobody calls him that in the family.” He glanced in her direction, amused. “They said you’re the reason Corrigan never married.”

  Her heart jumped. “No kidding?”

  “Oh, yeah. He doesn’t even look at women these days. But when he heard that you were coming back, he shaved and bought new clothes.” He shook his head. “Shocked us all, seeing him without a beard.”

  “I can’t imagine him with one,” she said with some confusion.

  “Pity about his leg, but he’s elegant on a horse, just the same.”

  “I think he gets around very well.”

  “Better than he used to.” He pulled up in front of the house, turned off the engine and went around to help her out.

  “It’s right in here.”

  He led her in through the front door and down a carpeted hall to a pine-paneled office. “Mrs. Culbertson will be along any minute to get you some coffee or tea or a soft drink. The brothers had to get to work or they’d have been here to meet you. No worry, though, Corrigan’s home. He’ll be here shortly and show you the books. He’s trying to doctor a colt, down in the barn.”

  “Thank you, Joey.”

  He tipped his hat. “My pleasure, ma’am.” He gave her a cursory appraisal, nodd
ed and went back out again.

  He’d no sooner gone than a short, plump little woman with twinkling blue eyes and gray hair came in, rubbing her hands dry on her apron. “You’d be Miss Wayne. I’m Betty Culbertson,” she introduced herself. “Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

  “Oh, yes, please.”

  “Cream, sugar?”

  “I like it black,” she said.

  The older woman grinned. “So do the boys. They don’t like sweets, either. Hard to get fat around here, except on gravy and biscuits. They’d have those every meal if I’d cook them.”

  The questions the brothers had asked about her cooking came back to haunt her.

  “None of them believe in marriage, do they?” she asked.

  Mrs. Culbertson shook her head. “They’ve been bachelors too long now. They’re set in their ways and none of them have much to do with women. Not that they aren’t targeted by local belles,” she added with a chuckle. “But nobody has much luck. Corrigan, now, he’s mellowed. I hear it’s because of you.”

  While Dorie flushed and tried to find the right words to answer her, a deep voice did it for her.

  “Yes, it is,” Corrigan said from the doorway. “But she isn’t supposed to know it.”

  “Oops,” Mrs. Culbertson said with a wicked chuckle. “Sorry.”

  He shrugged. “No harm done. I’ll have coffee. So will she. And if you see Leopold…”

  “I’ll smash his skull for him, if I do,” the elderly woman said abruptly, and her whole demeanor changed. Her blue eyes let off sparks. “That devil!”

  “He did it again, I guess?”

  She made an angry noise through her nose. “I’ve told him and told him…”

  “You’d think he’d get tired of having that broom-stick thrown at him, wouldn’t you?” Corrigan asked pleasantly.

  “One of these days he won’t be quick enough,” Mrs. Culbertson said with an evil smile.

  “I’ll talk to him.”

  “Everybody’s already talked to him. It does no good.”

  “What does he do?” Dorie asked curiously.

  Mrs. Culbertson looked at Corrigan, who’d started to answer, with eyes that promised culinary retribution.