Callaghan's Bride
“You haven’t complained about the biscuits yet,” she reminded him curtly.
His black eyes swept over her disparagingly. “You look about ten,” he chided. “All big eyes. And you wear that damned rig or those black jeans and that pink shirt all the time. Don’t you have any clothes?”
She couldn’t believe her ears. First the brothers had talked about her lack of new clothes, and now he was going to harp on it! “Now, look here, you can’t tell me what to wear!”
“If you want to get married, you’ll never manage it like that,” he scoffed. “No man is going to look twice at a woman who can’t be bothered to even brush her hair!”
She actually gasped. She hadn’t expected a frontal attack when he’d just walked in the door. “Well, excuse me!” she snapped, well aware that her curly head was untidy. She put a hand to it defensively. “I haven’t had time to brush my hair. I’ve been too busy listing what bull sired what calf!”
He searched over her wan face and he relented, just a little. “Go to bed,” he said stiffly. “You look like the walking dead.”
“What a nice compliment,” she muttered. “Thanks awfully.”
She started to walk away, but he caught her arm and pulled her back around. He reached into his pocket, took something out, and handed it to her.
It was a jewelry box, square and velvet-covered. She looked at him and he nodded toward the box, indicating that he wanted her to open it.
She began to, with shaking hands. It was unexpected that he should buy her anything. She lifted the lid to find that there, nestled on a bed of gray satin, was a beautiful faceted sapphire pendant surrounded by tiny diamonds on a thin gold chain. She’d never seen anything so beautiful in her life. It was like a piece of summer sky caught in stone. It sparkled even in the dim shine of the security lights around the house and garage.
“Oh!” she exclaimed, shocked and touched by the unexpected gift. Then she looked up, warily, wondering if she’d been presumtuous and it wasn’t a gift at all. She held it out to him. “Oh, I see. You just wanted to show it to me…”
He closed her fingers around the box. His big hands were warm and strong. They felt nice.
“I bought it for you,” he said, and looked briefly uncomfortable.
She was totally at sea, and looked it. She glanced down at the pretty thing in her hand and back up at him with a perplexed expression.
“Belated birthday present,” he said gruffly, not meeting her eyes.
“But…my birthday was the first of March,” she said, her voice terse, “and I never mentioned it.”
“Never mentioned it,” he agreed, searching her tired face intently. “Never had a cake, a present, even a card.”
She averted her eyes.
“Hell!”
The curse, and the look on his face, surprised her.
He couldn’t tell her that he felt guilty about her birthday. He hadn’t even known that it had gone by until Leo told him two weeks ago. She could have had a cake and little presents, and cards. But she’d kept it to herself because of the way he’d acted about the cake she’d made for him. He knew without a word being spoken that he’d spoiled birthdays for her just as his mother had spoiled them for him. His conscience beat him to death over it. It was why he’d spent so much time away, that guilt, and it was why he’d gone into a jewelers, impulsively, when he never did anything on impulse, and bought the little necklace for her.
“Thanks,” she murmured, curling her fingers around the box. But she wouldn’t look at him.
There was something else, he thought, watching her posture stiffen. Something…
“What is it?” he asked abruptly.
She took a slow breath. “When do you want me to leave?” she asked bravely.
He scowled. “When do I what?”
“You said, that day I baked the cake, that I could go in the spring,” she reminded him, because she’d never been able to forget. “It’s spring.”
He scowled more and stuck one hand into his pocket, thinking fast. “How could we do without you during roundup?” he asked reasonably. “Stay until summer.”
She felt the box against her palms, warm from his body where it had lain in his pocket. It was sort of like a link between them, even if he hadn’t meant it that way. She’d never had a present from a man before, except the coat the brothers had given her. But that hadn’t been personal like this. She wasn’t sure how it was intended, as a sort of conscience-reliever or a genuinely warm gesture.
“We’ll talk about it another time,” he said after a minute. “I’m tired and I’ve still got things to do.”
He turned and walked past her without looking back. She found herself watching him helplessly with the jewelery box held like a priceless treasure in her two hands.
As if he felt her eyes he stopped suddenly, at the back door, and only his head pivoted. His black eyes met hers in the distance between them, and it was suddenly as if lightning had struck. She felt her knees quivering under her, her heart racing. He was only looking, but she couldn’t get her breath at all.
He didn’t glance away, and neither did she. In that instant, she lost her heart. She felt him fight to break the contact of their eyes, and win. He moved away quickly, into the house, and she ground her teeth together at this unexpected complication.
Of all the men in the world to become infatuated with, Cag Hart was the very last she should have picked. But knowing it didn’t stop the way she felt. With a weary sigh, she turned and went back toward her room. She knew she wouldn’t sleep, no matter how tired she was. She linked the necklace around her neck and admired it in the mirror, worrying briefly about the expense, because she’d seen on the clasp that it was 14K gold—not a trifle at all. But it would have been equally precious to her if it had been gold-tone metal, and she was sure Cag knew it. She went to sleep, wearing it.
Chapter Three
E verything would have been absolutely fine, except that she forgot to take the necklace off the next morning and the brothers gave her a hard time over breakfast. That, in turn, embarrassed Cag, who stomped out without his second cup of coffee, glaring at Tess as if she’d been responsible for the whole thing.
They apologized when they realized that they’d just made a bad situation worse. But as the day wore on, she wondered if she shouldn’t have left the necklace in its box in her chest of drawers. It had seemed to irritate Cag that she wanted to wear it. The beautiful thing was so special that she could hardly get past mirrors. She loved just looking at it.
Her mind was so preoccupied with her present that she didn’t pay close attention to the big aquarium in Cag’s room when she went to make the bed. And that was a mistake. She was bending over to pull up the multicolored Navajo patterned comforter on the big four-postered bed when she heard a faint noise. The next thing she knew, she was wearing Herman the python around her neck.
The weight of the huge reptile buckled her knees. Herman weighed more than she did by about ten pounds. She screamed and wrestled, and the harder she struggled the harder an equally frightened Herman held on, certain that he was going to hit the floor bouncing if he relaxed his clinch one bit!
Leo came running, but he stopped at the doorway. No snake-lover, he hadn’t the faintest idea how to extricate their housekeeper from the scaly embrace she was being subjected to.
“Get Cag!” she squeaked, pulling at Herman’s coils. “Hurry, before he eats me!”
“He won’t eat you,” Leo promised from a pale face. “He only eats freeze-dried dead things with fur, honest! Cag’s at the corral. We were just going to ride out to the line camp. Back in a jiffy!”
Stomping feet ran down the hall. Torturous minutes later, heavier stomping feet ran back again.
Tess was kneeling with the huge reptile wrapped around her, his head arched over hers so that she looked as if she might be wearing a snaky headdress.
“Herman, for Pete’s sake!” Cag raged. “How did you get out this time?”
“Could you possibly question him later, after you’ve got him off me?” she urged. “He weighs a ton!”
“There, there,” he said gently, because he knew how frightened she was of Herman. He approached them slowly, careful not to spook his pet. He smoothed his big hand under the snake’s chin and stroked him gently, soothing him as he spoke softly, all the time gently unwinding him from Tess’s stooped shoulders.
When he had him completely free, he walked back to the aquarium and scowled as he peered at the lid, which was ajar.
“Maybe he’s got a crowbar in there,” he murmured, shifting Herman’s formidable weight until he could release the other catches enough to lift the lid from the tank. “I don’t know why he keeps climbing out.”
“How would you like to live in a room three times your size with no playmates?” she muttered, rubbing her aching shoulders. “He’s sprained both my shoulders and probably cracked part of my spine. He fell on me!”
He put Herman in the tank and locked the lid before he turned. “Fell?” He scowled. “From where?”
“There!”
She gestured toward one of the wide, tall sculptured posts that graced his king-size bed.
He whistled. “He hasn’t gone climbing in a while.” He moved a little closer to her and his black eyes narrowed. “You okay?”
“I told you,” she mumbled, “I’ve got fractured bones everywhere!”
He smiled gently. “Sore muscles, more likely.” His eyes were quizzical, soft. “You weren’t really scared, were you?”
She hesitated. Then she smiled back, just faintly. “Well, no, not really. I’ve sort of got used to him.” She shrugged. “He feels nice. Like a thick silk scarf.”
Cag didn’t say a word. He just stood there, looking at her, with a sort of funny smile.
“I thought they were slimy.”
The smile widened. “Most people do, until they touch one. Snakes are clean. They aren’t generally violent unless they’re provoked, or unless they’re shedding or they’ve just eaten. Half the work is knowing when not to pick them up.” He took off his hat and ran a hand through his thick hair. “I’ve had Herman for twelve years,” he added. “He’s like family, although most people don’t understand that you can have affection for a snake.”
She studied his hard face, remembering that his former fiancée had insisted that he get rid of Herman. Even if he loved a woman, it would be hard for him to give up a much-loved pet.
“I used to have an iguana,” she said, “when I was about twelve. One of the guys at the rodeo had it with him, and he was going off to college. He asked would I like him.” She smiled reminiscently. “He was green and huge, like some prehistoric creature, like a real live dragon. He liked shredded squash and bananas and he’d let you hold him. When you petted him on the head he’d close his eyes and raise his chin. I had him for three years.”
“What happened?”
“He just died,” she said. “I never knew why. The vet said that he couldn’t see a thing wrong with him, and that I’d done everything right by the book to keep him healthy. We could have had him autopsied, but Dad didn’t have the money to pay for it. He was pretty old when I got him. I like to think it was just his time, and not anything I did wrong.”
“Sometimes pets do just die.” He was looking at Herman, coiled up happily in his tank and looking angelic, in his snaky fashion. “Look at him,” he muttered. “Doesn’t look like he’s ever thought of escaping, does he?”
“I still remember when I opened up the washing machine to do clothes and found him coiled inside. I almost quit on the spot.”
“You’ve come a long way since then,” he had to admit. His eyes went to the blue and white sparkle of the necklace and he stared at it.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, wrapping her hand around it guiltily. “I never should have worn it around your brothers. But it’s so lovely. It’s like wearing a piece of the sky around my neck.”
“I’m glad you like it,” he said gruffly. “Wear it all you like. They’ll find something else to harp on in a day or so.”
“I didn’t think they’d notice.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “I haven’t bought a present for a woman in almost seven years,” he said shortly. “It’s noteworthy around here, despite my intentions.”
Her face colored. “Oh, I know it was just for my birthday,” she said quickly.
“You work hard enough to deserve a treat now and again,” he returned impatiently. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
She nodded. “A little thing like a broken back won’t slow me down.”
He glowered at her. “He only weighs a hundred and ten pounds.”
“Yeah? Well, I only weigh a hundred!”
His eyes went over her suddenly. “You’ve lost weight.”
“You said that before, but I haven’t. I’ve always been thin.”
“Eat more.”
Her eyebrows arched. “I’ll eat what I like, thank you.”
He made a rough sound in his throat. “And where are those new clothes we’ve been trying to get you to buy?”
“I don’t want any more clothes. I have plenty of clothes.”
“Plenty, the devil,” he muttered angrily. “You’ll go into town tomorrow and get some new jeans and shirts. Got that?”
She lifted her chin stubbornly. “I will not! Listen here, I may work for you, but you don’t tell me what I can wear!”
He stared at her for a minute with narrowed eyes. “On second thought,” he muttered, moving toward her, “why wait until tomorrow? And like hell I can’t tell you what to wear!”
“Callaghan!” she shrieked, protesting.
By the time she got his name out of her shocked mouth, he had her over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. He walked right down the hall with her, passing Leo, who was just on his way back in to see what had happened.
“Oh, my gosh, did Herman bite her?” he gasped. “Is she killed?”
“No, of course he didn’t bite her!” Cag huffed and kept walking.
“Then where are you taking her?”
“To the nearest department store.”
“To the…you are? Good man!”
“Turncoat!” Tess called back to him.
“Get her a dress!” Leo added.
“I hate dresses!”
“In that case, get her two dresses!”
“You shut up, Leo!” she groaned.
Rey was standing at the back door when Cag approached it with his burden.
“Going out?” Rey asked pleasantly, and opened the door with a flourish. “Have fun, now.”
“Rescue me!” Tess called to him.
“Say, wasn’t there a song about that?” Rey asked Leo, who joined him on the porch.
“There sure was. It went like this…‘Rescue me!’” he sang.
The two of them were still singing it, arm in arm, off-key, at the top of their lungs, when Cag drove away in the ranch truck with a furious Tess at his side.
“I don’t want new clothes!” she raged.
He glanced toward her red face and grinned. “Too late. We’re already halfway to town.”
This strangely jubilant mood of his surprised her. Cag, of all the brothers, never seemed to play. Of course, neither did Simon, but he was rarely around. Leo and Rey, she’d been told, had once been just as taciturn as the older Harts. But since Dorie came back into Corrigan’s life, they were always up to their necks in something. All Cag did was work. It was completely unlike him to take any personal interest in her welfare.
“Leo could have taken me,” she muttered, folding her arms over her chest.
“He’s too polite to carry you out the door,” he replied. “And Rey’s too much a gentleman. Most of the time, anyway.”
“These jeans just got broke in good.”
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