Chapter Twenty
It turned out worrying about Asa borrowing trouble was a moot point. The next morning, it galloped up to the front door as bold as brass in the shape of Aaron on his blood bay. As soon as he heard the hoof beats, Asa leapt out of bed. Despite his explicit “Stay there”, Elizabeth followed him to the window, her progress much smoother as she wasn’t hopping into her blue denims as she went. She merely had to shrug into her robe. By the time he was buttoning the fly of his pants, she was beside him. She ignored his exasperated glance and pulled back her side of the curtains.
She couldn’t believe her eyes. The message she’d sent Aaron two days ago had said she needed to speak to him. She hadn’t said it was urgent. As a matter of fact, she’d said anytime after breakfast would be fine. The rising sun flashed off the silver conches circling his hat. She flinched from the assault on her vision and the catastrophe brewing beside her. Asa was never at his most cooperative before a full stomach.
“Elly!” Aaron bellowed, the urgency in his voice unmistakable. “Elly! Are you all right?”
Asa let his side of the window curtain drop. “The man seems to have something important on his mind.”
“What makes you think that?” she asked, stepping back.
“Might be the way his horse is winded, or the way he’s bellowing like a bull.”
She strove for innocence. “It might?”
From Aaron’s haste, he must not have been home to receive her note, and had worked himself into a lather worrying as a result. She cast another glance at the window. She saw Cougar approaching from the bunkhouse where he’d spent the night. She breathed a sigh of relief. Cougar would keep Aaron entertained while she worked on her husband.
Asa reached out and touched her cheek, the grimness of his expression not matching the gentleness of his touch. “Yeah, it might.” He sighed. “What’d you do, Elizabeth?”
She tightened the belt on her robe and avoided Asa’s gaze. “What makes you think I did anything?”
Aaron bellowed again. Through the window, Cougar’s muffled drawl could be heard in response.
Asa trailed his finger down her cheek, tipping her gaze to his when he reached her chin. “The fact that you’re ducking my gaze. The fact that, if you pull that belt any tighter, I’m going to be caring for two wives, and because my gut says so.”
She couldn’t hold his gaze. “Your gut could be wrong.”
His fingers slid along her neck until they anchored in the curls at the base. One tug and she was back to looking at him. “Is my gut wrong?”
She took a deep breath. Instead of the hedge she’d intended, out popped the unvarnished truth. “I sent him a note.”
“After we agreed you’d trust me to handle this?”
She was glad she hadn’t lied before. “Of course not! I sent it two days ago.”
He stared at her a moment before the rigidity left his posture. The fingers still anchored in her hair began to stroke her skin. “I’m glad to hear that.”
She put her hands on her hips. “You were ready to believe I broke my promise!”
“Seemed possible based on the situation.”
“The situation being your worry that I place more value on Aaron than I do you?”
“You’ve known him all your life.”
“You’re my husband.”
“I know you’ve got a strong sense of duty, but—”
“You’re my husband.”
This time he didn’t argue. She stared at him a minute. Downstairs, she heard Cougar ushering Aaron into the study. No doubt he’d be up here in a minute. Aaron wasn’t easily put off. He would, however, just this once, have to wait. There was something she needed to get clear between herself and Asa. “Aaron and I grew up together. I know him and I trust him. I think you’re mistaken in your assessment of him based on my knowledge of his personality, but that doesn’t mean I put him before you.”
“You sent him a note.”
“Yes. I wanted to know if he saw anyone around. Anyone suspicious. Specifically, your previous foreman, Jimmy.”
“You think he’s causing trouble?”
She sighed. He didn’t need to sound so skeptical. “I think he’s vicious enough to do a lot of things behind a person’s back.” Asa stared over her shoulder, obviously pondering her statement. She touched his cheek, bringing his gaze back to hers. “About this ridiculous fear you have regarding my loyalty…”
“I don’t doubt your loyalty.”
She continued as if he hadn’t interrupted. “You are my husband. The man I trust with my ranch, my life, and the lives of any children we might have together. If you put that on a scale and balance it against my affection for Aaron, you’d see there really isn’t any competition.”
His expression didn’t change. Behind his eyes, emotions surged. She sighed. She was obviously going to have to spill her guts, to borrow one of Asa’s sayings. “I don’t believe you’re right about Aaron, but, if this comes to a confrontation and it doesn’t go the way I think it will, when the dust settles, I’ll be standing there by your side.”
“You mean that?”
“I’m not in the habit of saying what I don’t mean.”
His response was interrupted by the knock on the door that prefaced Cougar’s “Y’all up in there?”
“We’re up.”
“You got company.”
“We heard. Tell him I’ll be right down.”
“He wants to see Elizabeth.”
Asa put his fingers over Elizabeth’s lips, preventing her response. He stared into her eyes as he said, “He’ll have to make do with me.”
“Better hurry.” Cougar growled. “Looks like lack of sleep has been hell on the man’s patience.”
“I’m right behind you.”
As soon as she heard Cougar’s footsteps leave the door, Elizabeth shook free of Asa’s hand. “There’s absolutely no reason I shouldn’t go down and speak to Aaron.”
“Darlin’,” Asa drawled in that slow way that said his mind was set. “Until I’m as convinced of that man as you are, you’re not getting within shouting distance.”
She followed him as he headed for the dresser. “You’ll have a much better chance of intelligent conversation if Aaron is sure I’m all right.”
Asa opened a drawer and pulled out a shirt. As he shrugged into it, he said, “I’m not looking for intelligence. I’m looking for truth.”
“Which,” she persisted, “you’d be much more likely to encounter if both of you are calm and rational.”
He buttoned the shirt to mid-chest. He looked impossibly handsome and assured. “You’re not going down, Elizabeth. The man came here wearing guns.”
“Everyone wears guns.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You just got done saying you trusted me.”
She stamped her foot. “Don’t twist my words against me.”
He grabbed his boots and sat on the bed. His other eyebrow winged upwards to join the first. “Exactly how am I twisting things?”
“By trying to make me feel guilty so I’ll abandon rational argument.”
He stomped his right foot into its boot. As he stomped the other one in, he asked, “Is it working?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Somewhat.”
He stood and tucked his shirt into his pants. “There’s no somewhat about it, Elizabeth. Either you trust me or you don’t.”
Part of her wanted to argue, but he was right. . Either she trusted Asa to handle things or she didn’t.
“You won’t get into a fight?”
“Not unless I’m provoked.”
“You promise?”
He paused on the way to the door. “I promise I won’t hurt your precious Aaron unless there’s no choice.”
She really was going to have to take a sledgehammer to her husband’s stubborn pride. “I wasn’t worried about Aaron.” He stopped and turned. While she had his attention, she added for good measure. “And you were wrong earlier.”
“About what?”
“I wasn’t trying to tell you I trusted you.”
His only response was a surprised lift of his right eyebrow. She bit her lip and then risked it all. “I was trying to say I love you.”
He stood like he’d been pole-axed. Not a muscle moved anywhere on his body, but his eyes burned almost black with emotion. Her pulse hammered in her ears. Her impetuous revelation might have been a miscalculation, she decided, as he struggled to get himself together. She counted ten beats of her heart before Asa found his voice. If he hadn’t been so obviously off balance, she might have been crushed by his reply.
A low drawled, “Thank you, darlin’,” as the man slipped through the bedroom door was hardly the response of a woman’s dreams.
* * * * *
She stared at the closed door and decided it was a miscalculation making her announcement just then. As much as she wanted him to know he ranked first with her, telling Asa she loved him as he went to confront her best friend whom he regarded as an enemy might not have the calming effect she’d been hoping for. It might, in fact, trigger all those over-protective instincts she was trying to soothe.
She listened to Asa’s steps descend the stairs. When he hit the small landing two steps from the bottom, he paused. She pictured him in her mind, getting his bearings and settling his expression into controlled amusement. When his steps didn’t resume immediately, her grin spread to a full smile. Poor baby, she must have really thrown him with her declaration of love.
The smile dropped as he continued down the stairs. She heard the study door creak open. She held her breath. If the men were going to drop each other on sight, this would be the moment. Gunshots didn’t boom, but voices did. She caught a stray “son of a bitch” and a harsh, “cold day in hell” before the study door slammed closed.
Neither did anything to settle her nerves. She started grabbing clothes willy-nilly from the dresser. She winced when a “the hell I do” shook the rafters. It would be a lot easier to let Asa handle things if she was confident the matter would be settled with discussion and not fists. For all his bluster, Asa wasn’t completely healed. Aaron knew it, too, because she’d mentioned the shooting in her note. If he took advantage of that, she’d—
She looked around the room, glanced under the bed, and found inspiration. She’d brain him with the chamber pot.
No more shouts broke through the muffling aspect of the closed door. All she could hear was the rise and fall of incomprehensible murmurs. She sat on the bed and dragged on her shoes. Wielding the boot hook like a weapon, she buttoned them tightly. When she was done, she strained to make out the conversation below. With no success.
She sprang to her feet and paced. They had no right to shut her out. She was as much a part of the problem as any of them. She had a right to be part of the solution, darn it! The rhythmic squeaking of the floor grated on her nerves. Grabbing the pillow she’d just finished embroidering the other day, she plopped into the wing-backed chair. She looked down at the needlework and shook her head. Her fingers traced over the intricate embroidery spelling out ‘Home, Sweet Home’. She crushed the pillow between her fingers before dropping it back into her lap. If Asa wanted his home to be sweet in the future, she decided, grabbing hairpins off the small table and twisting her hair up, he was going to have to stop being so darned protective.
A loud crash and a shaking of the floor beneath her feet startled her into jabbing a hair pin into her finger rather than her bun. She jerked her hand away. Every muscle in her body turned to stone as she sat, waiting, finger in her mouth, hoping against hope for a resumption of the shouting.
The floor shook again and she heaved a sigh. So much for peaceful solutions. She got up and jabbed the last hair pin into her hair. Dropping the pillow on the chair, she headed for the door. Her deal with Asa hadn’t included sacrificing her heirlooms to brawling.
She winced as another crash shook the walls. Damn Aaron! If he took advantage of Asa’s condition, he was going to have to deal with her. She hit the landing just as Aaron and Asa came hurtling through the study door. By leaning over the banister, she was able to save her Momma’s favorite vase from the table positioned below. The table was a total loss, shattering as four hundred pounds of angry male collided with it.
“Stop it!” she hollered around the flowers she’d spent a half hour arranging yesterday.
Her shout was lost amid the thump as both men landed on the floor, Aaron first with Asa on top.
“Don’t think they heard you.”
She looked up to find Cougar standing in the doorway to the study. An unlit cigarette rested between his lips.
“Why aren’t you stopping this?” she demanded.
His response was a shrug and a half smile as Asa landed a decent punch to Aaron’s face. “Doesn’t appear they’re through discussing things.”
She jumped as Aaron flipped Asa up into the railing. If they kept up this level of discussion, she wouldn’t have a house left. “They’re through.”
She tipped the large vase over, smiling as water and roses spilled onto the two men, conveniently landing in their faces and filling their noses and mouths.
As they spluttered and choked, she rested the vase on the railing and looked over at Cougar. “Do you think I have their attention now?”
His half smile turned to a full grin. “It would appear so.” His right eyebrow went up. With a dip of his chin, he redirected her attention. “At least, for the moment.”
She looked down to find the two men wiping blood and water from their faces, eyeing each other as if they were contemplating a rematch. “If you even think of resuming your previous unpleasantness, there will be hell to pay,” she informed them in no uncertain terms.
Asa’s resigned, “Aw, hell!” came on the heels of Aaron’s shocked, “Elizabeth!”
She ignored Asa and focused on Aaron. “Don’t you dare reprimand me for my language when you come into my house and pick a fight with a helpless man.”
“Helpless, my ass!” Asa growled.
Aaron stared at her, then looked at the blood on the hand he’d just pulled from his face. “Have you looked at me? This isn’t soup on my face.”
She refused to be swayed. “No matter how good an accounting Asa managed to give of himself, the fact remains that you knew he was injured and you picked a fight.”
Aaron wiped the blood on his pants, looked at Asa, and glanced over to Cougar who was all but doubled up with mirth. “You can’t believe I started this.”
“I most certainly do,” she snapped. “Asa is too intelligent a man to overlook the disadvantage his injuries present.”
Asa leaned his shoulder against the banister. She noted how gingerly he did it, and worried as he groaned and said, “I tried to keep it peaceable.”
“I’m sure you did.” She glared at Aaron. “I’m well aware of how hotheaded Aaron can be.”
“I didn’t provoke a damned thing and you know it!” Aaron growled at Asa, looking like he wanted to start up all over again.
The expression Asa turned on her was as eloquent as his see-what-I-mean shrug.
“If you didn’t start this fight, Aaron, how did it begin?” She shifted the vase more comfortably on the banister as she waited for his answer.
Aaron wiped his sleeve over his face. “I came over here as soon as I got your note. And, as soon as I stepped over the threshold, your husband,” he sneered the word, “started flinging wild accusations at me. Accusing me of shooting him and sinking the Rocking C.”
“I notice you didn’t deny it,” Asa piped up.
“Who the hell had time?” Aaron protested. “No sooner had you stopped throwing lies when you started throwing punches.”
Elizabeth turned on Asa. “Is that true?”
“Well…”
“I didn’t ask for prevarication. I asked if it were true.”
“Sorta.” Asa pushed a bit away from the wall, held his ribs and groaned.
Since she knew, if he were really hurt, he wouldn’t utter a sound, she ignored the blatant ploy to distract her attention. “You promised me you’d keep things civilized unless you were provoked,” she reminded him.
“Uh-huh.”
The glance he cast Aaron was full of frustrated anger. Her suspicions leapt to the fore. “Were you provoked?”
He shifted his weight and groaned louder.
“You’re wasting your time,” she informed him at his theatrics. “I’m not going to be distracted.” She tapped the vase gently on the banister. “Were you provoked?”
To her surprise, Aaron leapt to Asa’s rescue, making her instantly suspicious. “Now that I think back on it, I might have said a few things out of line.”
“That is true, ma’am,” Cougar spoke up.
She stared at them. All three wore identical expressions of sincerity. All three were suddenly united in a common goal where, just a few minutes ago, they’d been ready to bring her house down around her. What didn’t they want her to know?
“I don’t believe any of you,” she informed them.
All three had the gall to look shocked.
Something was definitely up, she decided. About the only thing that would cause Asa to do an about face was if he was protecting her. She looked at Aaron. A muscle twitched in his cheek.
She leaned her elbows on the banister and said, “You know, Aaron, the last time I saw that muscle twitching in your cheek and an expression that innocent on your face, you’d just told the teacher I was the one who’d put the frog in her lunch box.”
Aaron paused from wiping a trickle of blood from his mouth. “That was a long time ago, Elly.”
“Just goes to show that some things never change.”
“Miss Panetta liked you. I knew she’d go easy on you.”
“I’m sure, in your mind, that made it all right.”
“You only had to do a little writing. Me, she would have taken out to the shed.”
“And rightly so, since it was the fourth time you’d played that prank.”
“I didn’t like her.”
She sighed. “And you thought, if you could drive her away, we’d find someone you’d like better.”
“Yeah.”
“You always did think you knew best for everyone, but, for your information, Aaron, I liked Miss Panetta and didn’t want her to leave.”
“That’s probably why she stuck around so long.”
Elizabeth smiled. After all these years, he was still frustrated at not having his plan work out. “That and the fact she married up with the blacksmith.”
Cougar’s low laugh filtered into the room. “He wasn’t any more successful at preventing that than he was her teaching.”
Asa looked at Aaron. “Seems you have a habit of sticking your nose where it’s not wanted.”
“People don’t always know what’s good for them.”
“And you do?” Elizabeth asked.
Aaron folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the stair casing. “Did the blacksmith regret marrying the school marm?”
“I’m sure Miss Panetta’s marriage problems stem from things other than what a ten-year-old boy could foresee.”
“That and the blacksmith’s weekend habits,” Cougar offered, earning him a glare from Asa, which prompted a “begging your pardon” in Elizabeth’s direction.
“None of that changes the fact that I knew the marriage was a mistake,” Aaron pointed out.
With equal confidence, Elizabeth said, “And none of that changes that I know you’ve done something I need to know about.”
Asa looked at Elizabeth, then at Aaron. He seemed to deliberate before, with a wipe of his hand on his pants, he came to a decision. “Tell her.”
Aaron glanced at him like he’d sprouted a second head. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
Elizabeth was about to argue when she noted the set of Asa’s jaw. She settled back on her elbows and amused herself by rocking the vase on the banister.
Asa plucked a flower from where it sat adorning his lap. “I have to disagree with you there.” He looked up at her. “You rescuing these?” She shook her head. He flicked the flower to the front door before turning back to Aaron. “The way I see it, I can either climb into bed with you by keeping your secret or I can cuddle up with Elizabeth.” He looked Aaron over from head to toe before sending another flower winging to the front door. “No offense, but my wife’s got you beat nine ways to heaven when it comes to things I admire.”
Aaron looked to Cougar for support as he said, “There’s no reason to upset Elizabeth with something dead and buried…”
He didn’t find much help there. “I can’t say I’m in a position to make a statement. Seems as both Elizabeth and Asa feel you ought to ‘fess up.”
“It was the only thing to do at the time.”
Cougar shrugged. “Maybe.”
Aaron turned back to Asa. “What would you have done faced with the same situation?”
Asa stared back. “I can’t rightly say, not being there, but now you’ve got to come clean.”
“Could someone please tell me what is so poorly dead and buried that Aaron’s still wrestling it?” Elizabeth asked with the last of her patience.
All three men stared at her. Of the three, she felt Asa’s gaze the keenest. There was resolution in his gaze that told her he was going to make sure she knew. There was also pain, which told her this was going to hurt. He got to his feet. Aaron followed suit. As she was standing one step below the landing, they were at eye level. Taking a deep breath, she mentally prepared herself. Before she could let it out, Asa said, “It was Aaron here who set Brent on you.”
She couldn’t have heard right. She glared first at Asa, then at Aaron before repeating the procedure. She couldn’t focus on either, but kept bouncing between reassurance and disbelief. She released her breath in an explosive, “What? But you said you wanted me to marry Jed!”
He glanced down and muttered, “That was after Brent turned out to be such a disappointment.”
The only word she could push past her anger was, “Why?”
Aaron reached out a hand to her. “You needed a husband, Elly, and you weren’t interested in the local boys. You wanted someone prettier with more flash.” He shrugged. “I wanted you to be happy, so when Brent passed through, I made him a deal.”
Her breath came in hard gasps. “You bought me a husband?”
“I made him a deal. Cash for passing on my orders and keeping you happy.”
She remembered Brent’s arrogance, heavy fists, and complete disregard for her feelings. No wonder he hadn’t cared. She’d truly been a means to an end. Spots of light danced before her eyes. She couldn’t get enough air into her lungs. Her words came out in jerky bursts of rage. “You spent six months traveling all over the place, picking out just the right stud for your precious breeding program, but, when it came to a husband for your best friend, you grabbed the first male wandering out of the saloon?”
“It wasn’t like that, Elly!”
She launched the vase at his head. He caught it and bent to set it on the floor.
“You couldn’t have ridden into Cheyenne to see if the pickings were better there?” she shouted.
She looked around for something else to throw. Asa obligingly handed her a couple of table legs. They bounced off Aaron’s shoulder and back.
He jerked upright. “Ow! Dammit, Elizabeth! Cut that out!”
“I don’t want to cut it out,” she retorted, looking around for something else to throw.
Cougar tossed Asa a book from the study. Asa passed it to Elizabeth. She heaved it at Aaron’s head. He deflected it with a forearm.
“Will you stop chucking things at me and listen?”
He took a step forward as if to grab her arm. She swatted him with a flower. She would have hit him again if Asa hadn’t gotten between them and slammed his hand into Aaron’s chest, sending him stumbling back a step. “Don’t you touch her.”
A sharp whistle was the only warning she had before Cougar lobbed a humidor her way. She caught it, but she couldn’t throw it. Not with Asa blocking her way with his big shoulders. Shoulders that were clearly squared for a fight.
She glanced at Aaron and saw the same itching need to exchange blows reflected in his face. “Get out of my way, Asa.”
With obliging quickness, he stepped to the left. “How could you do it, Aaron?” she asked, tightening her grip on the humidor. “How could you do that to me?”
“I thought I was giving you what you said you wanted.” He growled, running his hands through his hair. “I asked Patricia what women wanted and— Hell!” He threw up his hands. “Brent seemed heaven-sent. He spoke with fancy words, tossed compliments around like they were candy, and dressed Eastern.”
“You asked Patricia?” she asked in horror. Lord, did the whole territory know her best friend thought her so pathetic, he’d bought her a husband?
Aaron shuffled his feet, blew out a breath, then pulled his arrogance around him like a shield. His gaze locked somewhere over her left shoulder as he admitted, “I wanted you to smile again.”
“So you bought me a husband you thought would make that happen?”
“Yes.”
The humidor was tugged from her grasp. She looked down as Asa’s finger’s squeezed hers gently. She looked over at Aaron, standing before her. She saw the fear of rejection in his eyes as he stood there, pretending he didn’t have a care in the world. She remembered back to her youth, the times he’d stood by her. The times he’d stood up for her.
I thought I was giving you what you said you wanted.
Most especially, she remembered her whispering to him once that she wanted a prince in wonderful clothes who wouldn’t stink like cows, and who’d take care of everything so she’d never have to worry about anything again. She’d been so young when she’d told him her dreams. So young and ignorant of her own personality, but he’d remembered and taken to heart his promise to give her all that. He’d had to dredge the bottom of society to find the epitome of a fourteen-year-old girl’s dream, but he’d found it and gifted her with Brent. She sighed. Someday, she was going to have to get through to him that she was all grown up now and her taste had definitely changed.
“I can forgive you Brent,” she admitted. “Especially as I didn’t see through him either.” She doubted she’d ever get over the humiliation of that. “But what I can’t forgive is driving the Rocking C into the ground.”
Aaron’s hands clenched into fists, and even the curls on his head seemed to bristle. “I haven’t done a goddamned thing to the Rocking C!”
There was no mistaking the sincerity in his voice or his eyes. God, she was so relieved to be able to believe him. “But Asa said…”
“I was wrong,” Asa admitted heavily.
“Did I hear you right?” she asked
“I never said I couldn’t be wrong.”
“Not in so many words…”
He silenced her with a hard kiss. “You want to get into this right now?”
“Not particularly.” But later, that was a whole other kettle of fish. “But, if Aaron isn’t the one sabotaging the ranch, who is?” she asked.
“That’s what we have to figure out,” Cougar said, pulling the unlit cigarette from between his lips as he stepped away from the doorjamb.
“And fast from the looks of things,” Aaron interjected.
“The look of what things?” Elizabeth asked.
No one paid her any mind.
“Elizabeth mentioned that Jimmy might bear looking at.” Asa mentioned, releasing her hand and putting the humidor away.
“He’s good with a gun,” Cougar offered.
“He doesn’t have a reason,” Aaron countered.
“Revenge is usually reason enough for most things.”
Aaron cocked an eyebrow at Asa. “And you think losing a job would drive him to killing?”
“That and my objections to his treatment of ladies.”
Never slow on the uptake, Aaron cut Elizabeth a sharp glance. “Jimmy was pestering you?”
She shrugged. “Maybe he got the impression that, being for sale, I was up for grabs.”
“Goddammit, Elizabeth!” Aaron shouted, reaching for his nonexistent hat before dropping his clenched fist to his side. “I did not sell you!”
“That’s a matter of opinion,” she said with infinite sweetness.
“That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t come to me for help!” Aaron growled.
“Elizabeth has a real aggravating habit of thinking she can solve things herself,” Asa said, giving her hand a warning squeeze when she would have answered for herself.
“She always has,” Aaron agreed. He looked at Elizabeth and then at the tall man beside her. He gingerly dabbed at the cut on his cheekbone with his finger. Some of the frustration ebbed from his face as he said to Asa, “I assume that’s a trait you’ll be working on?”
“I’ve about got it under control,” Asa answered with irritating confidence.
Elizabeth jerked on her hand. “I’m not deaf and dumb, gentlemen.”
Asa didn’t let go, but his “Of course not, darlin’,” was immediate enough to set her teeth on edge. The approving look Aaron gave him finished the job. What was it about men that drove them into an instant fraternity when they had a chance to gang up on a woman? Three minutes ago, Asa and Aaron were looking to kill each other, and, now, they couldn’t be more united than if they were brothers.
“You know,” Cougar broke in, his tone thoughtful, the cigarette between his lips bobbing like an exclamation point on every syllable. “If I’m remembering correctly, the trouble on the Rocking C started about the time Jimmy hired on.”
Aaron looked to Asa for confirmation. He nodded.
“From the books, that looks about right.”
“Jimmy might be our man, then.”
“Or not,” Elizabeth interjected before the idea could gain more momentum. “As much as I hate Jimmy, I just can’t see him masterminding a plan as complex as this one.”
“The man knows cows and the way a ranch works.” Asa shrugged. “Wouldn’t need much more than that.”
“But why?” she asked. “What did he hope to gain?”
Asa squeezed her hand. “The Rocking C.”
“And you,” Aaron added grimly.
“Pretty sweet reward for a year of easy pickings,” Cougar agreed.
Elizabeth remembered Jimmy’s constant pawing. Outright disrespect. Not a moment of his attention had been spent trying to get her to see him as her savior. Just the opposite, as a matter of fact. She said as much. She might as well have saved her breath.
“Never said the man was good at courting,” Asa countered.
“Jimmy was probably as ham-handed at that as he was at breaking horses,” Cougar agreed.
Aaron pinned her with a glare. “One of these days, you’re going to have to explain to me just how ham-handed a beau he was.”
Not while she was breathing, Elizabeth thought. All she needed was for Aaron to go looking for Jimmy and have Jimmy find out about it and shoot him in the back. Meanwhile, Cougar’s comment played on her memory. The plan to drive the Rocking C under was well-orchestrated, requiring finesse. The same sort of finesse required in courting.
“Brent was excellent at courting,” she observed aloud.
Her observation landed in the silence with the startling impact of glass shattering.
All three men stared at her like she’d lost her mind. Asa was the first to speak. “You can’t be seriously thinking that little pissant had anything to do with this.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “I think the chance bears investigating.”
“No offense, ma’am,” Cougar offered, “but your first husband didn’t have enough meat on his bones to toss a day-old calf.”
“It doesn’t take muscle to drive a ranch into bankruptcy,” she pointed out. Her observation fell on deaf ears.
“You may want to get back at the gambler,” Aaron reasoned, “but I met the man, Elizabeth. He was a spineless wimp.”
“My point exactly,” she agreed. “Just the type to lurk behind the scenes and take advantage of innocent women.”
“If that were the case,” Asa asked, “how come he didn’t kick up more of a fuss when you threw him over?”
“Yeah,” Aaron challenged. “He could have tied things up for years in court, rendering anything Asa tried to do useless.”
She didn’t have an answer for either of them. “I don’t know,” she admitted.
“Trust us on this one, Elizabeth,” Aaron said, reaching for his hat from the floor. “Jimmy had the knowledge and motive for driving the Rocking C under.”
“Brent just doesn’t have a motive that we can identify right now,” Elizabeth cut in.
“None that can be identified at all,” Asa countered.
Elizabeth yanked her hand free of Asa’s. She knew she was right, but without facts, she didn’t stand a prayer of busting through all that male self-importance.
“Anybody up for checking in town to see if anyone’s noticed Jimmy hanging about?” Cougar asked, rolling to his feet with an easy movement that drew the eye. He was, Elizabeth realized as he took the cigarette out of his mouth, a very masculine, very good-looking man in his prime.
“Good plan,” Asa agreed with a growl. Elizabeth glanced up and saw his gaze had followed hers. She bit back a smile.
“And soon,” Aaron cut in as he settled the brim of his Stetson to the proper angle on his head.
Asa waved Cougar ahead of him as he headed for the back door where his own hat was kept. “Yeah. There isn’t much time and, with bullets flying, I’m not sure how safe it is for the ranch hands.”
“You got any plans for what to do when we find him?” Aaron asked, trailing in his wake.
Asa looked pointedly at Elizabeth. “Why don’t we save this discussion for after we wash up?”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. Did they think she couldn’t figure such a thing out for herself? “I repeat, gentlemen. I am not deaf and dumb.”
Asa snagged his gun belt off the hook. “Never said you were darlin’. Just can’t see the sense in standing here chatting,” he wiped his sleeve across his cut lip, “bloodying up your nice floors.”
“And I could use a smoke.” Cougar gave his unlit cigarette a disgusted look. “Got this poor thing so soggy, it’s about useless.”
Elizabeth looked at Aaron. “Do you have an excuse?”
He merely smiled and jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Yup. I’m with them.”
She sighed. As if there was any doubt.
United in their misplaced need to protect her, they left the house. She watched as they strolled purposefully to the pump. No doubt all sorts of plots were being discussed outside her earshot. She bit her lip and frowned. Asa may have been right, Jimmy might have the knowledge to hurt the ranch, but there was something about the whole set-up that didn’t ring true. Jimmy was a behind-the-back sort of snake, but he’d never struck her as a long-term thinker. He tended to act on impulse and pay the price later. In other words, all brawn and very little brain.
As soon as the thought hit her, so did an image of Brent. He’d been short on brawn, but very, very good at manipulating people. No matter how logical the men’s reasoning, she couldn’t shake her feeling that they’d misplaced their faith, putting too much emphasis on brawn when they should have been looking for brain.
With a sigh, she headed for the kitchen. They’d be back for breakfast, and, when they did, she’d bring up the subject again. As she pulled out the frying pan, she planned her arguments. Her intuition was telling her she was right and she wouldn’t give up until she made them see the possibility.