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Chris stopped cleaning Pilar’s wound. “Your husband?”
“I used to work with Red when I was younger. Tynan was there, the prettiest, sweetest little boy you ever met, and we all adored him. After the old man took him away when he was six, I hardly ever saw him again. And when I did see him, I’d see that he’d grown harder. He’d seen a lot in his short life and it’d made him cynical. But by then I’d married a rancher and we had a couple of kids of our own and I wanted to forget where I’d known Ty.”
“Children?” Chris whispered.
Pilar smiled. “Two little boys. They’re nine and seven now.” She paused a moment. “One day I was in town and I saw Tynan on the street. He grinned at me and started toward me, and all I could think of was that he was going to let the ‘good’ townspeople know where I came from and they were going to see that I wasn’t the respectable rancher’s wife they thought I was. I hate to say it, but I ducked into a store and acted as if I didn’t know him. Ty was the perfect gentleman and two days later when I ran into him again, he acted as if he’d never seen me before in his life.”
“So how did he save your husband’s life?”
“I don’t like what I did then. I wouldn’t speak to Ty on the street but a week later, when my husband was being threatened by a big rancher trying to drive us off our little place, I didn’t hesitate to ask Ty for help—and Tynan didn’t hesitate to come to my aid.”
“But later, when he asked you to help him get into Hamilton’s house, you agreed.”
“I didn’t even ask what he wanted. I just kissed my family good-bye and went with him. Jimmy didn’t ask what he wanted either, because he knew he could trust Ty.”
Chris’s hands paused in rebandaging Pilar’s shoulder. “Whydidhe want you to come and pretend to be his wife?”
Pilar smiled. “He wouldn’t say, wouldn’t answer me when I asked him. But one day, he muttered something about a curvy little blonde who was trying to tempt him out of his soul.”
“Hmph!” Chris said. “Some tempting I’ve done! I made the fatal error of liking him, just plain liking him. I liked the way he took on responsibility when he was leading us through the rain forest. And he helped me when I needed him.”
“And then he also happens to be the most beautiful man alive,” Pilar added.
“That had nothing to do with it. He was so quiet. With most men who are silent, I usually find that they just plain don’t have anything to say, but I thought that maybe Tynan did have something to say, but he was repressing it. I’m not sure what it was, but I was certainly drawn to him.”
“Was?” Pilar asked. “You aren’t any longer?”
Chris rocked back on her heels. “He isn’t any different from other men. He only wants one thing. I thought he felt the same way about me that I did about him, but he told me he wanted nothing to do with me, that I was wrong about him. He told me to leave him alone—except of course I was free to…”
“To go to bed with him?”
Chris nodded, her head down. “I’m not any different from a hundred other women to him.”
“I’ve never seen him act like he did a few minutes ago with another woman. I’ve never seen even the slightest sign of jealousy before. Are you sure you aren’t different?”
Chris stood, taking the bowl of dirty water with her. “I’m quite sure. He’s made it clear what he wants from me and he just doesn’t want anyone else to have what he’s being denied. Tynan doesn’t love me any more than he loves…than he loves that old dog. Now, I want you to rest and I’m going to cook something, if I can find anything around here that’s edible.”
“Anything will be all right,” Pilar said thoughtfully. “Ty will help you. He is quite capable of handling anything.”
“He can’t handle love,” Chris said softly. “He can’t find love at the end of a gun or by using his fists, so he runs away from it. Go to sleep now.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Chris spent an hour trying to make a stew with the few ingredients from around the cabin and from the saddle bags. There hadn’t been much time to pack when they’d been escaping Dysan and now they were feeling the lack of provisions. She looked at the cabin and decided to see if there was anything inside it. So far, the smell of the place had kept her from getting too close to it.
Holding her breath, she went to the door and looked inside. This looked as if it were the old man’s treaure trove. He seemed to have kept everything he’d ever owned. No matter how worn out it was, how deteriorated, how many bugs infested it, the old man had kept it.
Chris glanced over her shoulder toward where Pilar was resting and she felt a renewal of courage. What was a little unpleasant smell or a few crawly things compared to a human’s comfort?
She took the shovel that Tynan had leaned against the outside wall of the cabin and began to carve a way into the interior.
Two hours later, she had made a huge pile outside by the edge of the cliff. She wasn’t going to push anything over until she’d had a chance to inspect it in the daylight, but, mostly, there seemed to be improperly cured hides and hardened pieces of food that were covered with ants.
In the back corner of the single room, she found a little wooden crate, the kind used to ship fragile items across the sea. Lifting it, she carried it outside into the sunlight.
It had a big lock on it, but, like everything else in the cabin, the lock was rusting away, so, after a few minutes of work, she managed to open it. There were a few dollars inside, with mold growing on the bills, a big rock that looked as if it were solid gold, and in the bottom was a photograph of a young, pretty woman. Chris held it to the light, wiped the mold off a corner, and studied the woman. She looked happy and pleased about something and ready to take on the world. With a smile, Chris put the photo in her pocket and began to close the box.
“Anything interesting?” came Ty’s voice from behind her.
