The Courtship Of Izzy Mccree. Ruth Langan

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СКАЧАТЬ who had pushed aside her plate. “Had enough, Miss McCree?”

      “More than enough, I’m afraid.” She swallowed hot, bitter coffee in the hopes of washing away the foul taste of sour milk and meat that was barely cooked. Her plate was swimming with beef blood. The sight sickened her almost as much as the smell of the cabin and the complete lack of civilized behavior exhibited by its inhabitants.

      “Good.” Matt leaned back, sipping his coffee, watching her over the rim of his cup. “Then I guess we can get to this other business. Where’s your home?”

      “It was in Pennsylvania.”

      Was. The word grated. “As I understand it, you came here thinking I needed a wife.”

      “And your children needed a mother. That’s what your letter said.”

      He clenched his teeth. “Let’s get one thing straight. I never wrote any damned letter.”

      She folded her hands in her lap. “I don’t hold with swearing, Matthew.”

      “Damn it.” He stood, nearly upending his chair. “Don’t call me Matthew.”

      “Pa…” his oldest son began.

      “Not now, Aaron.” Matt swung back to Izzy. “And don’t say I wrote a letter when I didn’t, woman.”

      “Pa…”

      Matt turned on him. “Didn’t I tell you not now?”

      “Yes, sir.” The boy’s cheeks were suffused with color. He glanced at his father, then away. “But there’s something you ought to know.” He stared at a spot on the table and waited several beats before saying softly, “I wrote that letter.”

      Everyone stared at him in complete silence.

      Matt rounded the table to stand over him. “Say that again.”

      “I…wrote the letter. But it was more’n a year ago, Pa. I figured, since I never heard, that it had been lost or something. Then I…” He shrugged. “I just forgot about it.”

      Izzy’s eyes were wide with shock. Sweet salvation. She had made this long, hazardous trip at the whim of a boy.

      Matt’s tone was low with fury. “Why the hell would you do such a thing, boy?”

      Aaron pointed to the others around the table. “Look at us, Pa. With Ma gone, we don’t live much better’n the hogs. In fact, I think they live better’n us. Last time we went to town, folks were staring at us ‘cause our clothes were torn and dirty.”

      “There’s nothing wrong with a little dirt. We’re ranchers, not fancy bankers.”

      “It’s not just the dirt. Look at Little Bit here. She doesn’t even have any idea how to be a female.”

      At that, Izzy had to stifle a gasp. The youngest was a girl? With her hair chopped off and in her brothers’ cast-off clothes, Izzy had just assumed…

      “I figured if we had a woman around the place, we’d all be better off, Pa.”

      Matt’s anger was growing with every word. “And what about me? Didn’t you think to talk this over with me before you did such a fool thing? Didn’t you think I’d mind?”

      “I…” The boy looked away from his father’s accusing eyes. “I figured it didn’t much matter. You never smile anyway. You’re never happy anymore since Ma…” He swallowed, seeing the look of pain and rage that crossed Matt’s face. “But it’s not fair to the rest of us. It’s not our fault. We can’t do anything about Ma. But at least we can give Del a chance.”

      Matt’s hands balled into fists at his sides. “When we’re through here, you go to the barn and prepare for a good tanning, you hear me?”

      “Yes, sir.”

      Choking back his anger, Matt strode to the fireplace and rolled a cigarette, then held a flaming stick to the tip and inhaled deeply. Those few precious minutes gave him time to compose himself. He turned, determined to remain calm and logical. “I’m sorry about this, Miss McCree. But as you can see, you’ve come here for nothing. Since the nearest town, Sutton’s Station, is almost twenty miles from here, I’m afraid you’ll have to spend the night. In the morning I’ll take you to town and you can catch the stage back home.”

      “Back home? But I can’t…” The sour milk was forgotten. As was the fatigue she’d suffered only a short time ago. Now there was only panic. She pushed back her chair and faced him. “That is impossible. You see, I have no home to return to. I…sold all my worldly goods to get here. And the journey took all the money I had.”

      He took a long, deep drag on his cigarette while he mentally uttered every rich, ripe oath he could think of. His mind reeled at the seriousness of the situation facing him. He had some money saved. But he’d hoped to buy Amos Truesdale’s bull. And there was the addition he’d planned for the cabin. And the seed he would need in the spring.

      “Maybe she could just stay on, Pa…” Aaron began.

      Matt rounded on his son. “We may live poor, but we aren’t trash. We have our honor. An unmarried lady doesn’t stay under my roof.”

      “Then why can’t you just marry her?” he demanded.

      “Because it isn’t right. She came here thinking we all wanted her. And the only one who did is you.”

      “I don’t mind if you marry her, Pa.” Benjamin, closest in age to Aaron, stuck up, as always, for his older brother.

      “Me, either,” Clement chimed in.

      The youngest, Del, looked from one brother to the other, clearly influenced by everything they said and did. “If Aaron and Benjamin and Clement don’t mind, then I don’t, either. But she can’t turn me into no lady.”

      “Well, I have something to say about all this, and I do mind.” Matt tossed his cigarette into the fire, then stomped out of the room, returning minutes later with a blanket over his arm. “I’ll sleep in the barn tonight, Miss McCree. You can have my bed. In the morning I’ll drive you to Sutton’s Station. I’ll give you what money I have. If that isn’t enough—” he shrugged “—you’ll have to take a job in town and earn the rest until you have enough to get back home.”

      He turned to his oldest son. “I’ll see you in the barn, Aaron. As soon as you’ve checked out the herd.”

      “Yes, sir.”

      “The rest of you get on up to bed. Since I’ll have to miss a day’s chores to take Miss McCree to town tomorrow, you’ll have to take on mine as well as your own.”

      “Yes, sir.” Seeing the fire in their father’s eyes, the children scurried to a crude ladder and escaped to a loft.

      Matt yanked open the door and the hounds milled about, eager to follow their master. Aaron trailed behind.

      When the door closed behind them, the cabin grew strangely silent. Izzy stood in the middle of the room, staring about with a СКАЧАТЬ