Page 24 of Texas Glory
Tonight he’d have someone beside him, and with any luck, nine months from now, he’d have someone in his heart.
He’d vowed for better or worse. He’d do all he could to make everything better for her, but he’d live with worse if he had to.
He put his hand on the knob, turned it, and discovered she had locked him out.
By God, he had been challenged at every turn today, and he was damn tired of it. With a burst of rage that sent the blood rushing through his temples, he kicked in the door.
She screamed and flew out of the chair by the fire he’d built earlier in the hearth, clutching her brush to her breast.
“Never lock the door against me,” he said in a low menacing voice. “Not in my house.”
She shook her head and took a step back. “No, no, I wouldn’t. I know my duty. I … I was just preparing myself for you.”
Her duty. The words sounded incredibly harsh, but then what had he expected? She knew less about him than he knew of her because all she knew of him had come from her brothers, and it was obvious after the confrontation in his office and conversations held throughout the day that they had few kind words to say about him.
Her eyes were as large as a harvest moon, and he could see now that her brush was tangled in her hair. Tangled in her thick black hair that cascaded down to her narrow hips like a still waterfall.
She wore a white cotton shift with lace at the throat and tiny pearl buttons running down the front. Something a woman might sleep in.
As he took a step forward, he saw her bare toes curl. For some inexplicable reason, that small action touched him as nothing had all day. He glanced over at the door, hanging at an awkward angle, torn from the top hinges. He looked back at Cordelia. “I’ll send someone up to repair the door.”
She gave him a jerky nod. He walked from the room, rushed down the stairs, and stormed into the night. He saw Houston, standing by the wagon, kissing Amelia as though he hadn’t spent the whole day with her, wasn’t sharing the rest of his life with her. “Houston!”
Houston lifted his head and drew Amelia closer to him.
Dallas felt like a fool. A damn fool. “I need you to … to fix the door to my bedroom.”
“Fix it? What happened to it?”
“A little misunderstanding. I kicked it in, and now it’s hanging off the hinges. I thought it might be better if someone else repaired it.”
Dallas grunted when Amelia hit him in the stomach.
“Watch our daughter,” she ordered.
Amelia and Houston hurried into the house. Dallas walked to the back of the wagon and glanced inside. Maggie lay on a bundle of blankets, the kitten Dallas had given her curled within the curve of her stomach. “Wouldn’t you like to have a little boy to play with?” he asked quietly.
He caught sight of a movement out of the corner of his eye. Austin was weaving toward the wagon. “Austin?”
Austin stumbled to a stop. “What?”
“Watch Maggie. I need a drink.”
He ignored Austin’s groan as he headed into the house.
Cordelia was shaking so badly that she didn’t think she’d ever be warm. Amelia had added wood to the fire, but Cordelia still felt cold, so cold. Amelia had draped a blanket around Cordelia’s shoulders but that hadn’t brought any warmth with it either.
“I can’t stay here,” she whispered.
Amelia knelt before her and took her hands. “It’ll be all right.”
Cordelia shook her head. “My brother Duncan told me that you had married Dallas and that he had been so cruel that you left after only a week.”
Cordelia saw a spark of anger ignite within the green depths of Amelia’s eyes.
“Is that what he said?”
Cordelia nodded. “I can understand why you left him.”
