Rio Page 15

  She blushed and took his arm, twirling her lace parasol with its yellow ribbons. “Senator, you embarrass me. I’m sure you have known many women, some much lovelier than I.”

  He looked at her seriously as they walked. “It is true, I have known many women. I’ll not lie to you, my dear, I have been known as a womanizer for years, as my father and grandfather were, and in all that time, I had never found a woman who interested me for more than a week or two.”

  She felt awkward under his adoring gaze. “Perhaps I will only interest you for a week or two.”

  He smiled down at her. “I thought that at first, the night I first saw you, but then, there was something about you that seemed to call out to my lonely heart, as if we were soul mates or had known each other in another time or place. Do you believe in reincarnation, my dear?”

  “I—I don’t know. I don’t know much about it.” She wasn’t as well read as she wished, and he was so educated and well traveled.

  “I’ll take you to Europe and to the Orient,” he said. “We’ll have so much fun. My life was so dull until you came along.”

  He patted her hand as he led her to a table. It was a small café away from the road where the cattle came up as the cowboys drove them into the marketing pens. There were bright umbrellas over the tables on the flagstone-paved patio and there were flowers in bright-colored pots all around.

  “Why, this is charming,” Turquoise said as he pulled out a chair for her.

  “A charming luncheon for a charming lady.” He smiled and sat down across from her. “I just got through speaking to a bunch of cattlemen, so I thought it was the only time today I would have for you and I wanted to see you again.”

  “Did you really?” She smiled back into his adoring eyes. He might be older, but he was so distinguished, with his graying hair and fine clothes.

  “Don’t be coy. You surely knew that.” He reached, took her hand, and smiled again. “I have never been so happy as I have been lately. It’s almost as if you complete me, as if I’ve been looking for you forever. Of course, you must know how I feel.”

  She felt herself blush again under his direct gaze. “I suppose I had guessed, but I was afraid I might be wrong and just another one of your silly conquests. I hear half the women in Texas are scheming to be your wife.”

  “No.” He shook his head and a light curl fell across his forehead. “You are not wrong. From the first moment I saw you, I felt a connection that I have never felt with any other woman and believe me, I have met most of the most beautiful and accomplished women in Texas.”

  She didn’t know what to say.

  The waiter came and Edwin ordered a pitcher of sangria, the red wine with slices of orange and lemon floating among the ice. “Also, we’ll have chilled fruit salad,” he ordered with a tone of authority, “and perhaps some cold roast beef sandwiches if it suits the lady.”

  “It does.” Turquoise noticed the deferential way the waiter bowed and nodded. Yes, Edwin Forester was an important and powerful man. As his wife, she would be treated with the same respect and deference.

  Turquoise turned to watch the cowboys a few hundred yards away driving the cattle into the pens. “This is so quaint.”

  He shrugged. “It’s just business, my dear. What I really want to talk about is us—you.”

  “Yes?” She wasn’t certain now if she wanted to know.

  “I will just say it, Turquoise. I know I am almost old enough to be your father and our families have been enemies for several generations.”

  “I don’t think of you as older. I think of you as mature. And as for the families, I was certain yesterday that your mother did not approve of me.”

  He shrugged and frowned. “My mother is getting senile and I am gradually taking charge of the family businesses. I can deal with her, but it is true, the family feud could create problems.”

  “My guardian might come around if he thought I was really loved and provided for.”

  He leaned closer. “No woman would ever be as loved and adored as you would be, my dear.” He kissed her hand. “You will have everything you ever dreamed of: money, jewels, travel. Whatever your wish is will be my command.”

  “Oh, Edwin, I—I don’t know what to say.” She had a sudden feeling that she was getting into something she didn’t want and was angry with herself. Hadn’t she dreamed of a marriage like this since she was a very young girl?

  He took both her hands in his and kissed them. “Just say you will let me court you. I will go to Trace Durango and beg on my knees if I must, humble myself before an old enemy, for a chance to win your heart. Then I will beg on my knees to you.”

  A powerful, influential senator on his knees, begging for her hand in marriage. All she had to do now was say yes and all her dreams would be fulfilled. She would wed a man so rich and handsome, half the women in Texas would envy her. No one would ever whisper about her questionable parentage again. And yet, she hesitated. “I—I need to think about this.”

  “Of course you are overwhelmed, but while you are thinking, I am going to shower you with so many gifts, spoil you so much, you won’t dare say no.”

  “Oh, Edwin, you are too good to me.”

  “I love you, my darling, and I will spend the rest of my life proving it to you. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to win you.”

  The food and the drinks came just then and the wine was cold and the fruit salad chilled. The tiny cold roast beef sandwiches were excellent.

  “My,” she said as she wiped her lips on a linen napkin, “I had no idea there was such a good café out here. I guess Uncle Trace must not know about it. At least, he hasn’t mentioned it.”

  He laughed. “I’m pleased you like it. It’s one of Austin’s little secrets. The wealthy cattle barons like a good meal when they come out for the auctions.” He pushed back his plate and surveyed her as she finished her food and the waiter took the dishes away.

  “Edwin, you look amused. What are you thinking?”

  He laughed. “I’m truly happy, maybe for the first time in my life. All these years, I’ve been looking for something that my money and power could not buy and finally, I’ve found it. I’m trying to decide whether I should buy you a string of pearls or maybe diamonds.” He stared into her eyes. “No, it must be turquoise, just the color of your eyes, and maybe surrounded by diamonds.”

  She looked down at her hands modestly. “Edwin, I do think you are trying to sway me with gifts.”

  He laughed. “Of course I am. You are playing with me, my darling. I’m sure there’s no other man who can offer you what I can.”

  “No, of course there isn’t.” Rio crossed her mind. He was a poor rancher with as questionable a background as her own. She had always dreamed of just what Edwin Forester was now suggesting, but all she could think of was that moment in Rio’s arms when he had kissed her in a way that made her pulse pound and she had felt weak and helpless in his embrace. That angered her, that the vaquero came unbidden to her mind at this exact moment, which should be the happiest and most triumphant of her life.

  Edwin frowned. “Oh, here come the poor Mexicans’few cattle.”

  “What?” She turned to look at the road.

  “The Mexican ranchers get together and throw a few cattle into the sale now and then, but they don’t bring much. They can’t afford the fine bloodlines the Anglo ranchers offer. Now there’s a horse I’d like to own.”

  Through the dust, abruptly she recognized Rio on his fine bay stallion, driving a small herd ahead of him. He wore faded denim, but also a concho belt and a flat, black Spanish-style hat.

  Edwin said, “I’d like to buy that stallion, but that stubborn Mexican probably wouldn’t sell him. Say, isn’t that the one who showed up at the ball?”

  Turquoise didn’t answer. Her gaze was fastened on Rio and now he had noticed her and glared back.

  Abruptly a great black bull from the herd broke loose and, bawling loudly, rushed across the grass toward the diners on the
flagstones. Men screamed and tables were overturned as the diners fled from danger.

  Rio immediately wheeled his stallion and took off after the bull, but the tables and flowerpots kept him from maneuvering.

  Edwin scrambled to the top of their table. “Look out, my dear!” He reached a hand to lift Turquoise to the tabletop, but she caught her heel in her chair and went down, even as the bull gored a waiter on one of its curved horns and threw him across the flagstones.

  It all happened so fast: Edwin shouting a warning from the safety of the tabletop and Rio throwing himself off his horse and grabbing a red tablecloth. “Stay still, Turquoise!”

  She couldn’t move, entangled as she was in her yellow skirts and the fallen chair. She could only lie there in the dust in horror, staring at the huge black bull that pawed the flagstones. Around her, people still screamed and ran.

  The bull’s one horn dripped red from goring the waiter and she lay there paralyzed with fear, watching the scarlet blood drip into the dust. Abruptly Rio was between her and the bull, waving the tablecloth at him like a matador’s cape. “Ho, toro, here, toro!”

  The bull paused, his eyes red with rage as he pawed the ground. Rio did not move, he only waved the tablecloth to get the animal’s attention. She glanced up and saw Edwin shaking with fear, but he did not come off the table to protect her. Only Rio stood between her and the maddened animal and now he played the bull like a matador. “Ho, toro, come, toro!”

  The beast ran at him and he flipped the tablecloth so that the animal thundered past, coming dangerously close to Rio’s muscular body. But unlike a matador, Rio held no sword to defend himself. Even as she and the others watched, Rio teased the bull into chasing him, gradually, leading it off the patio until two vaqueros rode up with ropes to lasso the foaming, pawing bull.

  Rio turned to her now, touching the edge of his hat with the tips of his fingers. “Senorita.” Then he turned to walk toward his horse.

  “Wait!” Edwin yelled and climbed down off the table. “Let me offer you a reward for saving us, and I’d like to buy your horse.”

  Rio gave him a cold, dismissive look with his dark eyes. “I did not do it for you, senor, and my horse is not for sale.” He gave Turquoise a scornful look, then wheeled and mounted his horse, rejoining the vaqueros who were herding the cattle down the lane into the market pens.

  “Well, he’s an arrogant one, isn’t he?” Edwin sniffed, holding out his hand to Turquoise, who took it and stood up, dusting her skirt off.

  “Maybe he was insulted to be offered money for something any heroic Texan would have done.” She rethought how Edwin had scrambled to safety, leaving her to fend for herself.

  Edwin merely snorted. “Trying to make an impression on the ladies, no doubt. Cheap heroics. Are you all right, my dear?”

  She nodded. “It was exciting.”

  He smiled. “Well, it will make good press.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind.” He pulled out his big gold watch. “Well, my darling, I must be off to deal with business. I think you would find it dull, so why don’t I take you back to your buggy and you can go shopping or something?”

  “All right.” She had really wanted to see Rio again, to thank him. She thought Edwin’s actions had been humiliating.

  “I’ll send a message and we’ll meet again tonight. I know of an elegant place for dining and dancing. All the best people frequent it.”

  “All right.” She didn’t look at him. He might have money, power, and social prestige, but a little nagging worry nibbled at Turquoise’s mind.

  He led her back to her buggy, helped her up, and kissed her hand. “Until tonight then.”

  She nodded and drove away. When she looked back, he was staring after her with a possessive, passionate expression.

  Instead of going shopping, she returned to Fern’s ranch. She didn’t quite know what to do with herself. Fern and her fiancé and the children were still at the swimming hole and Turquoise couldn’t seem to settle down. Instead, she paced and thought. She was supposed to meet Edwin at some swanky place for dinner and dancing, but suddenly, she didn’t want to go. However, she didn’t want to return to the Triple D ranch either. She wasn’t sure what she wanted.

  Late that afternoon, a messenger came with an enormous bouquet of pink roses and a note of where she was to meet Edwin.

  Toward evening as she washed and dressed, Fern came back in with yelling, excited children. “Oh, it was so much fun!” Fern said.

  The children joined the chorus. “Si, it was fun.”

  Little Pedro said, “I dived off the bank and Susanna learned to swim.”

  “I’m glad you all had a good time, because we’ll probably be going home tomorrow,” Turquoise said, avoiding Fern’s surprised gaze.

  While the ranch cook fed the children, Fern followed her into her room. “What do you mean, ‘go home tomorrow’?”

  “I just think maybe we’ve been gone long enough.” Turquoise kept her voice vague as she began to brush her hair.

  “My word! I saw that gigantic bouquet in the living room,” Fern said. “It obviously cost a lot of money.”

  “Obviously.” Turquoise pinned her ebony hair up and looked in the mirror.

  “Well, out with it. Is the senator courting you?”

  “Yes, he is.” She continued to work on her hair.

  “Aren’t you going to give me the details?” Fern leaned on the dresser and waited.

  Turquoise shrugged. “He wants me to meet him for dining and dancing this evening. Oh, and a bull got loose at the market and caused some excitement before it was recaptured.”

  “Is that all?” Fern sounded disappointed.

  “For the moment.” Turquoise looked through her dresses, trying to decide what she owned that was fine enough to go dining and dancing with Edwin Forester. “I don’t really own anything suitable,” she thought aloud.

  “If you marry him, you can buy out the stores,” Fern said with a grin. “Of course, the best one, the La Mode, has burned, but there’s lots of others.”

  “Uh-huh,” Turquoise finally said. “I’m having second thoughts about marrying Edwin Forester.”

  “Are you thinking about what a fit your guardian will throw?” Fern asked.

  “That’s part of it.” Turquoise put on the finest lace lingerie she owned.

  “What else?” Her plump friend seemed to be hanging on every word.

  “I—I’m not sure.” She turned on Fern irritably. “I really don’t want to talk about it until I think it over.”

  “But this is everything you dreamed of….”

  “I know, but it’s complicated. Please, Fern”—she patted her friend by the shoulder—“I—I’ve got some thinking to do. A lot of things have happened and now I’m not sure what I think.”

  Fern looked puzzled. “Okay.”

  “I’ll tell you when I decide, all right?”

  Fern sighed. “All right. I hope you know what you’re doing.” And she left the room.

  No, she did not know what she was doing. She was beginning to feel she might be playing with blasting powder. Here she was, getting dressed to meet with a man who had declared his love and who wanted to shower her with luxuries. Her heart ought to be singing, but if it were, it was a sad song. She was angry with herself and not sure why.

  It was almost dusk outside. Turquoise sprayed herself with forget-me-not perfume and put on the bright turquoise dress she had bought for the debutante ball. It might not have been appropriate for the ball, but it would be just right for elegant dining and dancing. Then with a heavy heart, she walked out into the living room. Fern was reading the children a story and got up, coming over. “The buggy is waiting for you outside.”

  “Thank you, my dear friend.” She hugged Fern. “Don’t wait up. I’m not sure I’ll have an answer for you tonight.”

  “Maybe I’d better pray for you,” Fern said.

  “I think you might.” Turquoise smiled and went ou
t the front door in a whirl of silk skirts.

  She drove into town as night fell across Austin. On a street corner, a scruffy newsboy yelled, “Read all about it! Heroic Senator Saves Crowd!”

  She reined in and called to the boy. “Please, I’d like a paper.”

  “Hot off the press, miss. Just came out a few minutes ago.” The scruffy boy came over to the buggy and handed her a paper. She tossed him a dime. “Gee, thanks, miss.” He tipped his cap to her.

  It was difficult to read the paper in the glow of the gas streetlights and she squinted to see the headline.

  “Heroic Senator Saves Crowd. Senator Edwin Forester, scion of the well-known family, behaved in an exemplary fashion today as he stood off an escaped and dangerous bull at the stockyards. The lovely lady accompanying him fainted in the excitement and he had to help her to her feet after he ordered the vaqueros to take away the dangerous animal. Senator Forester is at the moment trying to pass a bill that will give the livestock raisers a better tax situation, and after today’s heroic action, no doubt …”

  “No doubt he was a pompous fool.” Turquoise threw back her head and chuckled to herself. Of course only a handful of people would know the truth. Everyone else in Austin would believe the newspaper story. Well, when she met Edwin tonight, she wouldn’t mention the article.

  Abruptly she wondered if Rio had seen this. He probably didn’t take the paper, so he needn’t know that he had been omitted from his own heroic tale. Not that he would care. He hadn’t taken on that bull for the senator or anyone else in the crowd, he had done it for her and her alone. She knew that from the way his penetrating gaze had glared back at her as he rode away.

  At the very least, she ought to thank him profusely and apologize for Edwin’s abrupt rudeness. It wouldn’t take very long and Edwin would think she was being fashionably late.

  She turned and drove toward Rio’s small spread.

  She pulled up at the hitching post and little Tip began to bark. There was a dim light on in the crude adobe and for a moment, she wondered what she was doing here and if he would harshly rebuff her. Perhaps she was a fool. She almost turned the buggy and drove away but about that time, Rio came out on the porch. He was naked to the waist and stood there silhouetted against the light, the crucifix gleaming in the moonlight. He had a rifle in one hand. “Who’s there?”