Page 6 of Texas Glory
“I think very highly of her because I respect her father. We’re both working hard to carve an empire from desolate land, and we’re both on the verge of destroying all we’ve attained. Barbed wire is part of the future. I put it up, you tear it down. I’m going to keep putting it up.” He took a deep breath, ready to play his final hand. “But tomorrow at dawn, I’m giving my men orders to shoot to kill anyone who touches my wire or trespasses on my land.”
“You are a son of a bitch,” Angus snarled.
“Maybe, but I’ve poured my heart and soul into this ranch. I’m not going to let you destroy it. Marrying your daughter will give us a common bond.”
“You don’t even know her,” Angus repeated, bowing his head. “She’s—”
Dallas had his first sense of foreboding. “She’s what?”
“Frail, delicate, like her mother.” He lifted his gaze. “I honest to God don’t know if she could survive being married to you.”
“I’d never hurt her. I give you my word on that.”
Angus walked to the window. Beyond the paned glass, the land stretched into eternity. “You’ll pull your fence back?”
“The morning after we’re married.”
Angus nodded slowly. “Deed the land that runs for twenty-five miles along both sides of the river to me, and I’ll have her on your doorstep tomorrow afternoon.”
Damn! Dallas wondered if Angus had read the desperation in his voice or in his eyes. Either way, Dallas had lost his edge, and staring at the cocky tilt of his neighbor’s chin and the gleam in his eyes, he knew that Angus understood he had the upper hand. “When she gives my a son, I’ll deed the land over to you.”
Angus pointed a shaking finger at him. “All the land that I thought I owned when I came here.”
“Every acre.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Houston roared.
Fighting not to squirm, Dallas stared into the writhing flames burning low in the hearth. Houston of all people should understand his brother’s desire to have a wife. Hell, he’d taken Dallas’s wife from him. Houston could at least support Dallas in his quest to find a replacement.
“Maybe I am, but the town we’re building hasn’t done a whole hell of a lot to get women out here. Eligible women, anyway.”
“You don’t even know her!”
Dallas spun around and met his brother’s gaze. “I didn’t know Amelia either when I married her.”
“You knew her a lot better than you know Angus’s daughter. At least you wrote letters to each other. What in the hell do you know about this woman?”
“She’s twenty-six … and delicate.”
“From what I hear, I don’t imagine she’s much to look at either.”
Dallas snapped his head around to stare at Austin. He sat in a chair rubbing his shoulder, his face still masked with pain.
“What have you heard?” Dallas asked.
“Cameron McQueen told me she doesn’t have a nose.”
“What do you mean she doesn’t have a nose?”
Austin lifted his uninjured shoulder. “He said Indians cut it off. Nearly broke her heart so her pa fashioned her one out of wax. He took the wire off some spectacles and hooked it to the wax so she has a nose to wear … like someone might wear spectacles.”
Dallas’s stomach roiled over. Why hadn’t Angus revealed that little flaw in his daughter? Because he hadn’t wanted to lose the chance to obtain the water and the land. He imagined the McQueen men were having a good laugh right about now.
“Call it off,” Houston said.
“No. I gave my word, and by God, I’m gonna keep my word.”
“At least go meet her—”
