CHAPTER 31
Brice wore a brown suit and a cravat with a turquoise stud holding it in place. He was freshly shaved, too, and in that moment of intense confrontation, Denny noticed a couple of tiny spots of dried blood on his throat where he had nicked himself. His light brown, slightly wavy hair was carefully combed and brushed. He was handsome enough that when he came into the town hall, he had probably drawn the attention of every young, unmarried lady there . . . and more than likely some of the not-so-young, married ones, as well.
He wasn’t wearing a gun, since coming to a town social armed was frowned upon, except for Sheriff Monte Carson. But even without a Colt on his hip, an air of taut menace surrounded him. An open challenge lurked in his eyes as he stared at Denny and Markham.
“Howdy, Rogers,” the cowboy said in a flat, noncommittal tone, as if he were willing to be friendly but was going to wait and see what Brice had to say next.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
That curt response made Markham’s jaw tighten. Denny saw a little muscle jerk in it, and since her arm was still linked with his, she tightened it a little to rein in whatever he might do next.
She didn’t want trouble, especially there, so she said quickly, “What do you want, Brice?”
“I told you, to talk to you.”
“Well, here I am.”
Brice glanced at Markham and said, “I need to talk to you alone.”
“Take a look around.” Denny used her free hand to gesture toward the crowd. “That’s going to be pretty hard to do tonight, don’t you think? Whatever you have to say, you might as well go ahead and say it.”
Brice jerked his chin toward Markham and snapped, “Not in front of this no-account saddle tramp.”
“Listen, fella, you’re actin’ a mite too proddy there,” Markham said. “You got no call to be talkin’ to the lady like that . . . or sayin’ such things about me.”
“Just telling it the way I see it,” Brice replied coldly.
Denny felt Markham starting to move forward and tightened her grip on his arm again. “Let me handle this,” she murmured to him.
“I ain’t scared of this fella, marshal or no marshal.”
“My job doesn’t have anything to do with this,” said Brice. “This is purely personal.”
Too many people were watching. Denny didn’t mind being the center of attention, but not like that. She slid her arm out of Markham’s and stepped forward. “All right, Brice, I’ll talk to you. We can go back outside.”
“Now hold on,” Markham objected. “You don’t have to do that, Denny. Whatever this fella’s problem is, he can just take it somewheres else.”
“She’s talking to me, not you,” Brice shot back. “Stay out of it, Markham.”
“For God’s sake,” Denny muttered. She took hold of Brice’s arm and pulled him toward the door. “Let’s just get this over with. Steve, I’ll be back in a minute.”
For a second, Markham looked like he was going to follow them, but then he jerked his head in a nod. “If you ain’t,” he said in a warning tone, “I’ll be comin’ out there to look for you.”
The crowd that had closed in a circle around them opened up again to let Denny and Brice through. They had to wait for a moment until there was a gap in the steady stream of people coming into the town hall, then they stepped out into the warm, pleasant evening. Only a faint line of light remained in the west to mark the sunset. Full night would soon be upon the valley.
Denny led Brice off to the side, out of the way, and said, “All right. What’s so important that you had to make a scene like that?”
“I thought we had an understanding—”
“Why the devil would you think that?” Denny demanded. “Because of a kiss now and then? We’ve never talked about anything beyond that, Brice, and you know it.”
“We’ve fought outlaws and gunmen side by side,” he insisted. “When you do things like that, there are some things you ought to just know.”
“Well, that might be true if you’re talking about another lawman or something like that, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a man of any sort.”
Brice drew a deep breath, blew it out in apparent exasperation. “I’ve noticed. Believe me, I’ve noticed. But I figured things between us would sort of just grow on their own . . .”
“You figured wrong.”
“Are you saying you don’t have any feelings for me?”
“You never told me you have any feelings for me.”
“Blast it, I thought you knew—” Brice stopped short and said, “We’re just going around and around in circles, aren’t we?”
“Seems like it.”
“Even if what’s between us isn’t exactly what I thought it was, you shouldn’t have come to the social with that cowboy. He’s not near good enough for you.”
“That’s not a decision for you to make,” Denny told him. “Sure, Steve’s a little rough around the edges, I guess, but I haven’t seen anything to indicate that he’s not a good man. And before you start talking about him being just a cowboy who’ll never amount to anything, at least he’s not risking his life all the time by going out and chasing outlaws. A woman wouldn’t have to wonder every time he rode away if he’d ever come back again.”
Brice stared at her in the light that came from inside the town hall. “You sound like you’re talking about . . . about marrying him and settling down—”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Denny interrupted. “I’m not planning on marrying anybody anytime soon. Good grief, Brice, it’s just one social! I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, any more than you do.”
He grimaced and rubbed his chin. “I still don’t like it—”
“I don’t care if you do or not. Who I see doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
Through gritted teeth, he said, “If that’s the way you want it—”
“That’s the way it’s going to be . . . unless something happens to change it.”
“What’s that going to be?”
She shook her head. “You’ll have to figure that out for yourself. Now, I’m going back in there, and I expect you to leave me and Steve alone for the rest of the evening.”
“You’re going to dance all your dances with him?”
Denny smiled. “Probably not. I expect there’ll be some other fellas who’ll ask me. And I might make Brad dance with me, just to start getting him used to the idea that all girls aren’t terrible. Are you hinting that you’re going to ask me to dance?”
“I might,” Brice said stubbornly.
“And I might say yes . . . or not. I reckon we’ll have to wait and see.” With that, she turned and started toward the door.
He didn’t try to stop her.
Markham was watching for her and hurried toward her when she got back inside. As he came up to her, he looked past her and asked, “Where’s the lawman?”
“Outside, I suppose. His whereabouts aren’t any of my concern.”
Markham frowned. “He behaved himself out there, didn’t he? If he didn’t act proper-like, I’ll find him and—”
“He didn’t do a thing except talk to me,” said Denny. “That’s all, Steve.”
Markham nodded, appearing to be somewhat mollified, anyway. “What’d he want? Just to run me down some more?”
“Actually, he didn’t.” Of course, that was because she hadn’t allowed him to, thought Denny, but Markham didn’t need to know that. “He just wanted to get a few things straight about where things stand between us.”
“And where do they?”
“Right now . . . they don’t. I admire him as a lawman, but that’s all.”
“Well . . . all right.” A smile spread across Markham’s face as the musicians at the front of the room began tuning their guitars and fiddles and basses.
The same group of cowboy musicians that had played at the dance after Louis and Melanie’s wedding would be providing the tunes tonight, along with a few others who were joining in.
“Sounds like they’re gettin’ ready to start.”
A few minutes later, the mayor of Big Rock climbed onto the little platform at the front of the room and called for everyone’s attention. When the clamor settled down, the mayor welcomed everyone to the town social and reminded them to be on their best behavior. “Don’t forget, our sheriff is here,” the mayor said as he waved a hand toward Monte Carson, who stood at the side of the room with Smoke, Sally, and Brad.
“That’s right,” Monte responded with a smile, “and I intend to spend the evening enjoying myself instead of hauling troublemakers off to the hoosegow!”
That brought laughter and applause.
The mayor joined in, then said, “All right, everyone, have a good time!” He signaled the musicians, who struck up a lively tune, and folks immediately began pairing off to dance.