Chapter Fifteen

Sam signaled frantically for silence, and Catherine clapped both hands over her mouth and glanced apprehensively over her shoulder to see if her outburst had alerted the Taggerts. When she looked back at Sam, he was motioning for her to come to where he had concealed himself in the rocks. She hiked up her skirts and ran, scrambling awkwardly over the rough ground.

Sam dragged her back into his hiding place and straight into his arms. They clung for one glorious moment.

“Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”

His whisper sounded unnaturally hoarse, and she knew how frightened he must have been for her safety. “No, they didn’t hurt me. They wanted to keep me healthy until they had you.”

His breath came out in a long, shuddering sigh.

“How did you find me?” she asked.

“We followed your trail. You did a good job, Cat.”

“We?”

“Davy’s with me.”

“Oh, no! I led you into a trap! They want to kill you.”

“They won’t. Let’s get you out of here.”

He released her and started down the hill, holding her arm so she wouldn’t fall. She saw he carried a rifle in his other hand. At the bottom, David materialized out of a clump of brush.

“Miss Eaton, are you all right?”

“Tired and bruised, but they didn’t hurt me.”

“Thank God,” he breathed.

“Take her to where we hid the horses,” Sam told him, “and head on back to town. You’ll probably run into the posse on your way. Don’t stop for anything, no matter what you hear.”

David nodded, taking Catherine’s other arm, prepared to lead her away, but she refused to budge. “Aren’t you coming?” she asked Sam as a new panic bubbled up in her.

“If we all go, they’ll just follow. I’ll make sure they don’t.”

“Sam!” she cried in protest. She couldn’t leave him.

“Don’t you have a hat?” he asked sternly.

She touched the top of her head in confusion. “No, I—I took it off. I had to use the hatpin on Floyd Taggert.”

Sam muttered a curse and took the hat from his own head, plopping it down on Catherine’s. It covered her ears, and she had to hold it up with both hands to see his face. “I won’t leave you, Sam!”

His face hardened stubbornly. “I’m not going to let them have you and the baby, Cat.”

Stunned, she could only stare. How did he know about the baby?

“Come on, Miss Eaton,” David urged, pulling her away. “We’ve got to get you out of here before they come looking.”

Numbly, she allowed David to lead her off into the tangle of brush, but she stared after her as long as Sam was still in sight. She had so many things to tell him, but there was no time. Instead, she forced herself to think of her baby and followed David blindly, trying not to stumble.

Sam stared after them longingly. Even with her clothes filthy and torn, her hair hanging down her back in a tangle, and her face cruelly sunburned, Cat was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. The thought of the Taggerts even touching her filled him with unspeakable rage, and he knew he had no other choice except to kill them both.

The instant Cat and Davy were out of sight, he turned back to his vantage point in the rocks and settled in to wait for the Taggerts to realize Catherine wasn’t coming back. He didn’t have much of a wait.

“Lady?” one of them called after a few minutes. “Lady? Where are you?”

Floyd Taggert’s demented giggle shimmered over the distance. “She’s trying to hide from us, Will. I’ll fetch her.”

“No, you stay here,” Will said. “I don’t trust you alone with her.”

Sam could hear Will coming through the brush. He lifted his rifle, bracing it on the rocks in front of him.

“Lady,” Will called. “Where are you, Lady? Don’t forget what we told you about getting lost out here. Now stop playing games and come out.”

Will reached the spot where Sam had seen Catherine, and he paused, looking around. Then he swore, snatching the lace Catherine had tied to the bush. “Still trying to leave a trail for Connors?” he shouted. “You’re wasting your time. He’ll never find you here!”

“Yes, he will!” Sam shouted back.

Will whirled, drawing his gun, and before Sam could react, Taggert fired into the rocks where he hid. Sam fired back even before Will’s bullet stopped ricocheting, sending up a plume of dust at Taggert’s feet.

Will swore profanely, jumping backward and diving for cover. Sam’s second bullet caught him in the calf, and he yelled sharply in pain.

“Will! What’s going on!” Floyd called from the cave.

“It’s Connors!” he replied, snapping off a shot in the direction of the rocks.

The bullet struck near Sam’s head, sending up a shower of stinging splinters. This time Sam took careful aim, squinting to make out Will’s form imperfectly concealed behind the scrub. He squeezed the trigger, and Will’s second howl echoed the explosion.

“I’m hit, Floyd. He hit me twice!”

“How bad?” the voice thundered from the cave.

“He got my leg. I can’t walk, but don’t come out. He’ll get you, too.” Will snapped off another shot. This one went wild, but Sam had been waiting for the puff of gunsmoke so he could locate his quarry exactly.

Catherine and David stopped in mid-stride at the sound of the first gunshots. They could hear men shouting but could not make out the words. Catherine’s heart lurched to a painful halt as she pictured Sam wounded or even dead.

“David, we can’t just leave him alone up there!”

“Remember what he said. I was to get you away, no matter what. You gotta think of your baby, Miss Eaton.”

Catherine saw the pain in his sky-blue eyes. The knowledge of her pregnancy had wounded him deeply, as she had known it would.

“Come on,” he said, dragging her along behind him. “You can’t be of no help to him. You don’t even have a gun.”

This was true, but she saw that David did. He wore Sam’s gunbelt and six-shooter. Sam must have given it to the boy so he could protect her, leaving him with only a rifle.

Another quick volley of shots echoed across the hills and then silence. Was it over? Catherine quaked with fear but David didn’t stop, and he wouldn’t let Catherine stop, either. Her feet fairly flew across the rough ground, and David’s firm grip on her arm prevented her from falling.

At last they reached the horses, who snorted in protest at their precipitous approach.

“You take my pony,” David said, helping her to mount. “I’ll take Sam’s horse.”

“What will Sam ride?” Catherine asked in alarm. Surely, David didn’t intend to leave his brother afoot.

David stared up at her bleakly. “He’ll either ride one of the Taggert’s horses, or he won’t need to ride anything at all.”

“No!” she cried, covering her mouth as another volley of shots shattered the stillness.

She saw her own terror reflected in David’s eyes. “We can’t leave him. I can’t help him, but you can!” she told him. “You’ve got a gun. Go back!”

“But I can’t leave you! I’ve got to get you out of here,” he protested, obviously torn.

“I ... is there really a posse coming?”

“Yeah, we came looking for you this morning, and when we found out you’d taken the stage, we followed. We got to it about an hour after the holdup. That’s why we caught up with you so quick. We sent the driver back into town for a posse, so they shouldn’t be too far behind.”

“Then I’ll meet them. I can go alone and follow my own trail until I do. Please, David, go back and help him!”

Any other time, she might have considered it folly to send a fifteen-year-old boy to help, but at the moment it was the only possible solution.

They heard another shot and David’s head snapped around, his eyes wild with indecision.

“David, please!”

Sam aimed carefully at where he had seen the last pistol flash and squeezed the trigger. This time no anguished cry echoed the explosion and no answering shot came.

“Will?” Floyd Taggert called, but he received no reply from the thicket into which Sam had fired. “Will!”

Still only silence.

“Damn you, Connors!” Floyd Taggert yelled from within the cave. “You’ve went and killed Will!”

Not quite so certain, Sam moved cautiously from behind the rocks, anticipating a shot from Will’s hiding place. When none came, he crept closer, maintaining his cover and keeping constant watch lest Floyd try to escape the sanctuary of the cave.

When Sam was within twenty feet of Will, he saw the slowly spreading crimson stain seeping out from beneath the prickly shrubs. Closer, he saw Will’s lifeless hand from which his pistol had slipped. Approaching boldly now, he prodded Taggert with the rifle barrel and got not so much as a groan in response.

Pushing aside the vegetation, he saw the gaping wound right over Taggert’s heart. A lucky shot, but Sam took no time to exult in his luck. He still had one more Taggert to dispose of.

Dropping to his knees, Sam worked his way closer to the cave. He lay down on his belly and spoke toward the ground so the exact location of his voice would be disguised. “Your brother’s dead, Taggert. If you come out with your hands up, I won’t shoot.”

“Like hell! Will! Answer me, Will!”

“He’s dead, I told you. Do you think he wouldn’t have shot at me by now if he could?”

Taggert answered with a burst of gunfire, spraying the entire area. Sam hugged the ground as the bullets smashed through the undergrowth and kicked up dust all around him. When silence fell again, he crawled along the ground until he had a clear view of the cave’s opening.

“Taggert, I’ve got you covered. You’ll never get past me; now come out with your hands up.”

“Go to hell!” Taggert emptied his pistol in the direction of Sam’s voice while Connors scrambled to safety behind an outcropping of rock.

“There’s a posse on the way, Taggert! All I have to do is sit here and wait.”

“You’re lying! If there’s a posse, why ain’t they with you?”

“Because I found the stage right after you robbed it and sent the driver back for help. I blazed a trail a blind man could follow, and it leads right to your front door.”

“I should’ve killed you when I had the chance, Connors. One day you and your friends rode right by here, and I had you right in my sights. It would’ve been so easy.”

“You might’ve gotten me, but you know the others would’ve gotten you.”

Sam moved quickly, correctly guessing that Taggert had been conversing in order to get an idea of exactly where he was hiding. No sooner had he shifted positions than a hail of bullets came smashing into the rocks where he had been. The whine of their ricochets echoed into the succeeding silence.

“Nice try, Taggert,” Sam called. He didn’t bother firing back. His chances of hitting Taggert inside the cave were nil, and he had to conserve the little ammunition he’d brought with him. Finding a semi-comfortable spot, he settled in to wait, staring intently at the cave’s opening lest Floyd Taggert try making a break.

At least he needn’t worry about Catherine any longer. Davy loved her almost as much as Sam did, and he’d make certain she was safe. Soon the posse would arrive, and it would all be over.

Time crept slowly by. Insects buzzed lazily, attracted to Sam’s salty sweat as the blazing sun tried to melt his body into the stones. The air shimmered in the heat, and Sam missed his hat as he fought to keep his eyes focused. Lazily swatting at flies, he rested the Winchester on the rocks, pointed at the cave’s opening.

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled in warning. Glancing around, straining for any unusual sound, he saw and heard nothing untoward, but he knew someone was approaching. Probably it was the posse, being stealthy because they didn’t know where he was.

“Hey, Taggert,” Sam called to identify his location, “ain’t you getting bored with all this waiting?”

“Not yet,” said a voice immediately behind him. Sam jerked around and came face-to-face with the barrel of Floyd Taggert’s .45. “Sweet Jesus,” he muttered, wondering how Taggert had gotten out of the cave without him seeing. Obviously, there must be another entrance. Swiftly, he tried to judge his chances of getting his Winchester up before Taggert could fire.

“Don’t even think about it,” Taggert warned, cackling with delight. The click of his cocking pistol sounded unnaturally loud in the eerie stillness. “You killed my brother so I’m gonna kill you, and then I’m gonna get your woman. Do you wanna know what I’ll do to her? First off, I’ll strip her down so I can find out if the pelt between her legs is as yellow as what’s on her head, and then—”

Sam forced himself not to listen. He tensed his muscles, prepared to make one desperate lunge, when another voice hollered, “Taggert!”

Floyd’s head jerked up. Sam grabbed for his rifle just as the brilliant sunlight exploded.

Rolling, spinning, Sam came up on one knee, his Winchester aimed, not even knowing if he had been shot. But his target was gone. Floyd Taggert lay spread-eagled on the rocks, a neat round hole in the middle of his forehead.

“Sam? Sam, are you all right?” Davy’s voice piped from somewhere above them.

“Yeah, I’m fine! You got Taggert dead center!” Sam kept his eyes on the body as Davy scrambled out of his hiding place. “Good God Almighty,” the boy breathed when he saw the results of his marksmanship. His young face had gone chalk white, and the pistol shook in his hand.

“You saved my life,” Sam said, rising to his feet. “He had me dead to rights.”

“I was scared spitless when I couldn’t see you anywheres,” Davy said hoarsely. “I thought maybe they already got you, and I couldn’t call out in case they had.”

Sam clapped a comforting hand on the boy’s shoulder and drew a deep breath, trying to calm the surge of adrenaline for which he had no further need now that Taggert lay dead. “You did good.” He looked around. “Where’s the rest of the posse?”

“They didn’t come yet.”

Sam started in surprise. “Didn’t come? You mean you came back here alone? Where’s Catherine?”

“I—I let her go on. Sam, she made me leave her!” he said, backing up in the face of Sam’s furious reaction. “She said if I didn’t come, she would. I tried to tell her she wouldn’t be any help but she wouldn’t listen, so I told her how to find the main road in case she missed the trail we left. For sure, she’ll run into the posse.”

“Are you crazy? She’s a city woman. She’ll never find her way back alone. And what if she faints or something? Go after her! Hurry up! I’ll take care of things here and follow as quick as I can.”

Nodding, Davy stuffed the pistol back in its holster and trotted away, slipping and sliding in his boots on the gravel. Sam hurried off, thinking he wouldn’t bother trying to drag the bodies back into the cave. If he could find some blankets inside, he’d cover them for now. His first priority was locating the Taggerts’ horses and getting to Catherine.

“Miss Eaton! Miss Eaton!”

Catherine roused herself, cursing under her breath when she realized exhaustion had claimed her again, sending her into a dangerous oblivion. She crept out of her hiding place in the shade of a rocky overhang to see who was calling her name.

“David,” she whispered in relief, jumping to her feet and running; out to meet him. “David! Here I am!”

As he turned his horse in her direction, she vainly searched for some sign of Sam behind him.

“Where’s Sam?” she demanded as David approached. “Is he all right?”

“He’s fine. The Taggerts are both dead. You were right to send me back. Floyd Taggert would’ve killed Sam if I hadn’t been there.”

“Oh,” she said, feeling the blood rush from her head. David caught her arm as she swayed and helped her sit down on the ground.

“You look kinda peaked, Miss Eaton. You aren’t going to faint, are you?”

“I certainly hope not,” she replied with a semblance of a smile. “Are you telling me the truth about Sam? Why didn’t he come with you?”

“He had to take care of the bod... of things, and then he had to find where the Taggerts hid their horses. I reckon he’ll be along directly. He was mad as blazes when he found out I left you alone, so he sent me on ahead.”

David paused, looking around at where she had tied his pony while she rested. “You shouldn’t have stopped. What if the Taggerts had got us instead and come after you?”

She smiled grimly, not wanting to tell him she wouldn’t have cared about living if the Taggerts had killed him and Sam. Nor did she want to tell him how j close she had come to falling off the pony out of sheer weariness. “I knew you’d win the fight, so I decided to wait here for you.”

David glanced over his shoujder as if afraid his brother might be near enough to overhear. “Don’t tell Sam you stopped, huh? He’s mad enough as it is.” She nodded her agreement. “Come over here into the shade. We can wait for Sam together.”

While they waited, David told her how he had returned to the cave and been unable to find either his brother or the Taggerts. He’d sneaked around in the rocks, waiting and listening, until finally Sam had broken the silence. By the time he’d located his brother, Floyd Taggert had a pistol pointed at Sam’s head.

Catherine shuddered in horror as David described the scene.

“I killed him,” David said in wonder, still not quite able to believe it. “I never killed a man before.”

“You didn’t have a choice. He would have killed Sam otherwise,” Catherine said, knowing she would have done the same thing in his place.

“He needed killing,” David said, repeating something she supposed he had heard said.

“They both did,” she replied, casting off her usual role as teacher. No moral lessons seemed appropriate today, and David certainly didn’t need to feel guilty for having saved Sam’s life. To change the subject, she asked him how they had found her.

“Well, when Inez told us about the baby—”

“She told you!” Catherine exclaimed, mortified.

“Well, not just right out,” he admitted. His pained expression told her how difficult this subject was for him. “She got all upset when she found out you was leaving, and Sam made her tell.”

Catherine understood. Inez would have stood no chance of keeping her secret under Sam’s interrogation. “David, I’m sorry you had to find out that way.”

“He’s a bastard! I told him so, too. I know he forced you, Miss Eaton, and—” His chin quivered slightly and he looked away, blinking furiously.

“David, he didn’t force me,” she tried, but he wasn’t listening.

“You didn’t have to run away. If he wouldn’t marry you, I would!”

“Oh, David,” she cried, blinking at her own tears and slipping an arm around his shoulders. “That’s not the reason I ran away. Sam would marry me in a minute. I’m the one who didn’t want to get married.”

“Why in the hell not?” he demanded, not even noticing he’d sworn in her presence.

“Because of the way he’s treated you. I was afraid my son would be just like you—or at least, I hope he will be. What if he wants to go to Philadelphia or even Paris to study art, and Sam refuses to let him go?”

David looked at her as if he thought she’d lost her mind. “You ran off because of what you thought he might do?”

She winced. “I know it sounds like a stupid reason, and believe me, I realized it before the stage had gone a mile. I probably would have come straight back tomorrow.”

He had no reply, so they sat in silence for a while, watching for Sam to appear. Finally he said, “My offer is still good.”

“Your offer?”

“Yeah, my offer to—to marry you. I know I’m just a kid, but the Spur is half mine. I could make Sam split it up so we wouldn’t have to live with him or anything and—”

“Oh, David, thank you,” she said, hugging him close and laying her head on his shoulder. “I’ll never forget your offer, and I want you to know I love you dearly and I always will, but I love you like a brother. It wouldn’t be fair of me to take advantage of you and ruin your life.”

“You wouldn’t ruin my life,” he protested, but she cut him off.

“Yes, I would, because I’d always be in love with Sam. Think how unfair that would be to you.”

“You love him?”

She nodded, feeling the tears well up again. “More than I can tell you.”

“And you were still going to leave?” he asked incredulously.

She gave him a self-mocking smile. “You’ll probably never be able to understand the female mind, so don’t even try. I couldn’t hope to explain the way I acted, in any case.”

David considered the situation gravely for a long moment. “Sam’s pretty mad at you,” he warned. “He has every right to be.”

“I was afraid he’d hurt you. That’s why I followed him this morning.”

“He won’t hurt me, although he’d certainly be justified after what I did to him,” she admitted.

Just then Sam came into view, riding fast. David jumped up and shouted, waving his arms as Catherine had done to catch his attention. Sam swerved his mount and galloped up.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded, flinging himself out of the saddle.

“Nothing,” David assured him. “Miss Eaton’s awful tired, so we decided to rest while you caught up.” Sam pushed by David.

“Cat? Are you all right?”

“I am now,” she said, thinking how wonderful it was to see him safe and sound after all the danger he’d been in. “I just needed a little rest.” She allowed him to help her to her feet. He took her in from head to toe, as if searching for wounds or injuries. “I’m fine, really, but I’m anxious to get someplace where I can have a bath and lay down in a real bed.”

Several emotions flickered across Sam’s face, but he quickly masked them all. “Let’s get going then.” They mounted up, Catherine alone on David’s pony and praying she could hold on for the long trip back. Except for Sam’s occasional inquiries about her wellbeing, they rode in silence, too weary from their ordeal for conversation. They had almost reached the edge of the rocks when they saw the posse approaching, led by Mathias Shallcross, who hailed them lustily.

“Twila’s going to be awful glad to see you alive and well, Catherine,” he said when the two parties met.

“I’m equally glad,” Catherine replied.

Mathias frowned, looking at her more closely beneath the shadow of Sam’s Stetson, which she still wore. “Maybe you shouldn’t try to get all the way to town tonight. The Spur is much closer, ain’t it, Sam?”

Sam nodded, silently thanking Mathias for suggesting what he never would have dared. “Davy can take her straight there and Inez can take care of her while the rest of us go back to pick up the Taggerts.”

Much too weary to argue, Catherine couldn’t even manage a perfunctory protest and rode off with David into the setting sun. At least this way there would be no delay in her confrontation with Sam. As soon as he returned to the ranch, they would settle things once and for all.

“Where is she?” Sam demanded the instant he entered the house that evening and found Davy sitting in the front room.

“She’s asleep,” he replied, rising to meet his brother. “Inez helped her get a bath and then put her to bed.”

“She’s not sick, is she?” he asked in alarm. “The baby?...”

“Inez sent for her mother, and the old woman says she’s fine, just exhausted.”

“Thank God,” Sam sighed wearily. He ran a hand through his uncovered hair, then walked straight to the liquor cabinet and poured himself a stiff belt of whiskey. When he had downed about half of it, he went over to the sofa where Davy sat and sank down beside him. The silence between them was awkward, but neither of them was anxious to broach any of the painful subjects they must discuss.

Sam chose the least painful with which to begin. “You did a brave thing out there today. I’m not saying you should’ve left Catherine alone, but I know how she gets, and she probably didn’t give you any choice.”

“She didn’t.”

“I figured. Anyway, I been thinking ever since how wrong I’ve been about a lot of things, but mostly about you.”

“Me?”

Sam sighed again. “Yeah, I’ve had a lot of crazy ideas about you and your pictures. Catherine tried to tell me I was wrong, but I wouldn’t listen. I almost had to get myself killed before I could see the truth. Like I told you, I was afraid of you leaving here and never coming back, but that was only the half of it. I was also afraid that if I let you draw your pictures, you’d somehow be less than a man.” Sam made himself look at Davy and endure the hurt he saw on the boy’s face.

“That’s why you got so mad about what Johnny said,” Davy guessed, his blue eyes clouded with a pain Sam could barely stand to see.

“I was wrong, Davy. I was stupid and wrong.” Davy turned and started to rise. Sam laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. “I said I was wrong. What you did today proved it.”

“Because I killed a man?” he asked bitterly.

“No! The Taggerts killed, too. Killing doesn’t make you a man. I’m talking about the way you acted. When you came back, you didn’t run in like some silly kid, yelling and screaming for me. You took your time and sized up the situation. When you saw Taggert had the drop on me, you didn’t panic. You acted like a man, Davy, and you saved my life.” Sam made no effort to disguise his own hoarseness, and Davy turned, finally, to look at him again.

“I couldn’t let him kill you,” he said brokenly.

Sam managed a rueful smile and gave Davy’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’m glad you couldn’t.”

They stared at each other for a long moment while Sam gathered the courage to say what he most dreaded saying. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot since what happened today. If you still want to go to Philadelphia, it’s all right. I won’t have much ready cash this year, so—”

“Sam, do you mean it?”

“Hell, yes, I mean it,” Sam said, pretending to be affronted. “Did you ever know me to go back on my word? Like I said, you might have to wait a year because money’ll be tight, but—”

Davy jumped to his feet and walked quickly across the room, head down, hands jammed into his pockets. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy.”

“I am,” Davy replied in a muffled voice, keeping his back to Sam.

“Then what’s the matter?”

He stared into the fireplace for a long time before he replied. “She told me why she ran away.”

“Catherine?” Sam asked in surprise. Davy nodded without turning around. “What did she tell you?” he asked warily, wondering just how angry she was at him and whether she was angry enough to use her knowledge of Davy’s past to get back at Sam.

Davy turned just his head to look at him. “She said she was afraid you’d treat her baby the way you’ve treated me.”

Sam went cold with dread. “What do you mean?”

“She thinks her baby’ll be an artist, too. I guess she figures if you won’t let your brother go study art, you sure as hell won’t let your own son go.”

Sam’s shoulders sagged with relief. He should have known Cat wouldn’t betray his secret. No matter how angry she was at Sam, she’d never hurt Davy. “I reckon she was right to be worried.”

“But now you’re going to let me go,” Davy reminded him. “That’ll prove you’ve changed, and then she won’t want to leave you anymore.”

“Wait a minute,” Sam said in confusion. “Why do you all of a sudden care what she thinks of me?”

“Because she’s gonna have your baby and I care what happens to her, that’s why. We can’t let her run off again to God knows where.”

Chastened, Sam frowned. “She’ll never believe I’ve really changed. She’ll just think you told me what she said and I’m trying to get back on her good side.” God knew he’d already been guilty of such ploys in the past, and Cat knew it, too.

“Then you’ve got to show her you’ve changed. Remember you told me you can’t force somebody to love you? You can’t force somebody to stay with you, either, and you might even make them want to run away.”

“Like you were going to run away to Philadelphia?”

“How did you know?” Davy asked in surprise.

“Don’t worry, she didn’t tell me. I eavesdropped on the two of you. And she was right. You probably could’ve worn me down. I’ve never been able to refuse you anything you really wanted, not for long, anyways.”

“And you can wear her down, too, if you try. Stop trying to force her to do what you want. Maybe if you’d ask her real nice, she’d even marry you.”

Sam frowned again, still unable to make sense of Davy’s drastic change in attitude. “I thought you wanted to protect her from me. What changed your mind?”

Davy smiled mysteriously. “Same reason you changed your mind about me and my pictures: I found out something I didn’t know before.”

“What?” Sam demanded. “What else did she tell you?”

“You’ll have to ask her that yourself, and you’d better get cleaned up before you do. She’d probably pass out cold if she got a whiff of you right now.”

No amount of coaxing or threats or offers of bribery would move Davy to reveal any more secrets, so Sam went off in search of clean clothes and a bath in preparation for his confrontation with Catherine.

When Catherine awoke she lay still for a long time, expecting to fall asleep again immediately as she had done several times already. This time, however, she remained awake. After tentatively moving her arms and legs to check for soreness, she decided she could get up and use the chamber pot if she were extremely careful not to move too quickly.

Someone had thoughtfully shuttered the windows, so Catherine had no idea how long she had slept until she pulled one open and saw the mid-morning sun shining brilliantly.

“Good heavens!” she said aloud, realizing how foolish her plans for confronting Sam as soon as he returned to the house had been. She’d slept more than fifteen hours.

Before she could think any further, the door opened and Inez peeked around at her. “You are awake!”

“At long last. Did Sam get back all right last night?”

“Si, and he is anxious to see you, but I think first I will bring you some breakfast and some clothes, no?”

“Yes, please,” Catherine said, looking down at the nightdress she wore, a loan from Inez, and realizing for the first time how famished she was.

An hour later, Catherine had eaten a hearty meal and dressed in clothes also belonging to Inez. They were a little large, so Inez had pinned them up on her. Catherine left her hair loose, first of all because the effort of pinning it up seemed overwhelming and secondly because it seemed more appropriate with the richly embroidered blouse Inez had given her to wear.

Catherine studied her reflection critically, judging the effectiveness of the rice powder Inez had provided to tone down her sunburned nose and cheeks. The worst part would be when her damaged skin peeled in a few days, she thought critically.

She was wondering how best to arrange a meeting with Sam when someone knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” she asked, knowing instinctively and placing a hand over her racing heart.

“It’s me,” Sam said. “Can I come in?”

He was being a little more circumspect than he had been the last time, she thought irrelevantly. “Yes.” The door opened slowly, as if he were still uncertain of his welcome. He wore a red yoke-front shirt and jeans still stiff with newness. He’d shaved quite recently, and his ebony hair had been carefully combed. Holding his broad shoulders stiffly, he closed the door behind him with a snap. His dark eyes were veiled, his rugged face void of expression.

Neither of them spoke for a long minute, and Sam drank in the sight of her. She looked like an angel with her golden hair framing her face and spilling down her back. In spite of the sunburn, her skin still looked almost translucent. Only the wariness in her sky-blue eyes warned him of how human she was.

At last Catherine could stand the silence no longer. “You don’t look like a man who almost got killed yesterday.”

“And you don’t look like a woman who got kidnapped yesterday.”

Another silence fell, and then Sam said, “Inez told me about the baby.”

“I’m sorry, Sam,” she said, taking a step toward him as guilt twisted inside her. “I should have told you myself. I had no right to run away the way I did, and I realized it as soon as the stage left town. I would have come right back, although I don’t expect you to believe that. I acted like a fool and I know I hurt you terribly, and now you think I’m no better than Adora for stealing your child and—”

“No, don’t ever say that. You’re nothing like Adora.”

Catherine blinked in surprise. She felt certain he was mistaken but decided not to correct him.

“Davy told me why you left,” he continued. “I reckon you had every right to be afraid of the way I’d treat our baby after the way I’d treated you.”

“That wasn’t why—”

He silenced her with a gesture. “I should’ve known I couldn’t make you fall in love with me or make you stay with me if you didn’t want to. When I went after you yesterday, I was going to drag you back by the hair if I had to, but you probably would’ve run away again, first chance you got.”

“Maybe not,” she tried, but he wasn’t going to be interrupted.

“The reward for the Taggerts is almost five hundred dollars. Davy and I agree you should have it.”

“Why?”

“Because—” he hesitated, betraying the first sign of uncertainty, “because you’re going to have a baby. You’ll need money.”

Catherine’s heart turned over in apprehension. “Are you going to send me away, Sam?”

“Don’t make fun of me, Cat,” he snapped as anger shattered his composure. “You’re the one who’s leaving me, remember?”

“But I’m back now,” she pointed out, concealing her relief that he had finally revealed his true feelings. She could deal with anger.

“Only by accident. If you hadn’t run into the Taggerts, you’d be halfway to Philadelphia by now.”

“No, I wouldn’t,” she cried triumphantly, “because you were coming after me to drag me back by my hair! Why did you come after me, Sam? Was it only because of the baby?”

Fury stained his face a dull red. “You know why.”

“Yes, I do. You came after me because I was stealing your baby away just like Adora tried to steal David from you.”

“No, you’re wrong!”

“Am I? Are you saying you don’t want your baby?”

“I want you more!”

The words seemed to vibrate in the air between them. Sam stared at her, aghast at what he had revealed.

“Are you saying you love me, Sam?” she prodded.

“I already told you I did,” he replied grudgingly.

“I wonder how much you love me. Do you love me enough to forgive me for running away? For not trusting you? For not telling you about the baby?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the future. I hurt you very badly, and unless you can forgive me, we’ll go on hurting each other for the rest of our lives. I don’t want our child to see that, do you?”

He considered her question carefully. “I’ve hurt you, too.”

“So you have, or I wouldn’t have been running away in the first place. What a pair we are, my darling.”

His eyebrows lifted at the endearment. “Am I really your darling?”

“Yes, you are. I love you, Sam Connors, whether you believe it or not.”

His expression softened, and for the first time she saw what might have been hope flicker in his dark eyes. “Cat?...”

“What?”

Sam struggled with the myriad questions in his mind to find exactly the right one. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

He stared at her for a long moment, stunned by how simple it had been. Then he closed the distance between them in two long strides and caught her up for his kiss. Their lips met hungrily, sealing the commitment they had just made. The kiss went on and on until they separated, gasping.

“Why are you grinning?” Catherine asked.

“I was just thinking that if I’d asked you that question a couple of months ago, I could have saved us both a lot of trouble.”

“But you didn’t want to marry me a couple of months ago.”

“Of course I did!”

“Then why didn’t you ask me?”

“Because you didn’t want to marry me.”

“What made you think that?”

“You said so,” he reminded her.

“Only because I thought you didn’t want me.”

Sam groaned in disgust, resting his forehead against hers.

“ ‘What a pair we are, my darling.’ ”

“Am I really your darling?”

“Forever and ever.”

“You never answered my question.”

“What question?”

“Can you forgive me for running away and for not telling you about the baby?”

He sighed and kissed the tip of her nose. “Only if you promise to spend the rest of your life trying to make it up to me.”

“And how shall I do that?”

“We’ll think of something,” he said, pressing his hips to hers suggestively.

Feeling the very obvious evidence of his arousal, Catherine’s body responded instinctively. She smiled up at him. “Mmmm, seems like I’d better start right now.”

His dark eyes glittered with desire, but he shook his head sternly and pulled away. “You’ve been through enough the past couple of days. You need to rest.”

“I’ve been resting,” she protested, sliding back into his arms. “I’m fine now, really, Sam.”

“More than fine, I’d say.” He grinned, running his hands over her slender body. “But the next time I make love to you in that bed, we’ll be man and wife.”

“My, my,” she said, pressing herself against him to test her power. “You must be much stronger than I am. I don’t think I can wait.”

“You won’t have to wait. long. I’ll have Reverend Fletcher out here tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow!” she exclaimed in surprise.

“Or maybe this afternoon,” he said as his mouth covered hers again.