Chapter Seven

      Caroline stepped down onto the ground and grabbed for Fernanda’s steadying hand. Her legs were stiff, a headache pounded in her temples and her bottom was numb from hours and hours perched on the hard leather bench. Behind them, the man who’d introduced himself as Mr. Overby jerked awake and snuffled. “Ah, dinner,” he exclaimed.

      She doubted she could eat anything after jouncing along in the stifling heat but she could surely drink something; her throat was dry and scratchy as sandpaper. And her nerves were jumpy.

      Fernanda conducted her into the tiny station, asked for water and walked on through straight to the necessary. When they returned, their host, a grizzled old man with a greasy apron looped around his waist, showed them to a rough wood table and dished up bowls of what looked like stew. Caroline picked up her spoon and immediately set it down and pushed the bowl away.

      “You must eat, mi corazón. We have many miles ahead.”

      She couldn’t. Caroline drank glass after glass of water, but her stomach was too unsettled for food. She watched Mr. Overby shovel in huge mouthfuls of his meal until he looked up.

      “What are you staring at, miss?”

      Caroline jerked. “Nothing.” She turned her gaze away and Hawk Rivera slid in beside her, bringing with him the scent of leather and sweat. She much preferred it over the cologne-heavy smell of Mr. Overby. In fact she was beginning to like the way the sheriff smelled, like a man instead of a candy shop. She wished he would sit inside the coach with them.

      “Stew any good?” he queried.

      “I wouldn’t know. I cannot eat it.”

      He snaked out his hand and pulled her bowl back to her. “Try,” he ordered. “Making speeches takes strength.”

      “Do not tell me you like my speeches?” She worked to keep the surprise out of her voice.

      He set his tall glass of water onto the table. “No, I don’t.”

      Fernanda looked at him from across the table. “Que? You do not like?”

      Their driver tramped in through the door. “Aha, supper! Thought I was gonna starve to death afore we got here. Food any good, Hawk?”

      “Yeah.” He slanted a look at Fernanda. “And no, I do not like the speeches.”

      Caroline leaned toward him. “Why not?” she intoned.

      “Doesn’t matter.”

      “But it does matter,” she protested.

      “Not to me.”

      She sat back and sucked in her breath. “Then why are you...? Oh, of course. You are a lawman. An ex-Texas Ranger, Fernanda said. You feel...responsible.”

      Somehow that made her angry. So angry that without thinking she jammed her spoon into the bowl of stew and swallowed down a bite. Beside her, Rivera dipped his head and chuckled.

      Well! At least she had cracked that imperturbable demeanor of his.

      “It’s true I don’t like your speeches,” he said in a low voice. “Don’t let it bother you.”

      “What? Of course it bothers me.”

      He laid down his spoon and looked directly at her. “Why?”

      She opened her mouth to respond, then snapped it shut. “Why” was a very good question. She should not care what this man thought of her speeches. Or her ideas. Or her.

      “Shouldn’t bother you,” he reiterated.

      “No,” she murmured, “it shouldn’t. I will address that issue on the remainder of our trip to Oakridge.”

      “Might do better to get some sleep,” he said.

      “That,” she said crisply, “is difficult.”

      He resumed eating. “Yeah, probably impossible. Better than riding a horse, though, isn’t it?”

      She laughed aloud, then clapped her hand over her mouth. “Yes, much better,” she said between her fingers.

      “Good. You were a disaster on horseback.”

      She laughed again. “Was I really?”

      He shot her a sideways glance. “You were.”

      He didn’t say it unkindly, but it nettled her just the same. Was he always so blunt? All at once she wondered what sort of woman he was used to? What sort of woman did he like?

      Fernanda patted her mouth with her wrinkled napkin and stood up. “I go for walk,” she announced.

      Hawk snagged her forearm as she moved past. “No, you don’t, señora.”

      “Ah,” she acknowledged after a slight hesitation. “Perhaps I do not.”

      Hawk grinned up at her. “I do like a smart woman, Fernanda.”

      He wondered at the odd look that crossed Caroline’s face, but before he could puzzle over it, he saw Jingo signaling him from the doorway. He rose, tossed down the sorry excuse for a napkin, and followed the driver outside. Dusk was falling; the big orange sun slipped slowly behind the hills and shadows were lengthening.

      “Time to roll, Hawk. Got us about three hours till full dark.”

      Hawk tried to shrug off the tension that tightened his belly into knots. Darkness was never a good time to avoid danger, especially the kind he sensed dogging the two women under his protection.

      He paced twice around the stagecoach and tried to think about the situation he found himself in. A woman like Caroline MacFarlane was always going to be trouble, purposely sticking her pretty little neck out and just begging some lowlife to harm her. As soft and female as she appeared, she had a spine of steel and a stubborn streak wide as a housewife’s broom.

      But he sure did wish her hands weren’t so white, that her voice wasn’t low and just throaty enough to sound seductive. That her mouth... Ah, hell, he couldn’t think about her mouth. And that hair, like fine spun silk and so black it reminded him of an ebony Arabian he’d lusted after years ago.

      He handed his rifle up to Jingo and sat until Caroline and Fernanda walked out of the station and climbed into the coach. Followed half a heartbeat later by Overby.

      Hawk eyed him. The gambler might not look menacing, but he sure made Hawk’s nerves twitch.

      * * *

      Caroline closed her eyes to avoid Mr. Overby’s glassy stare. The stagecoach had set off at a rapid clip and, despite the rough ride, the man had slept until ten minutes ago. Now that it was growing dark outside he suddenly became talkative.

      Fernanda sent her a warning glance, and she resolved not to engage in conversation. Like most men, no doubt he was violently opposed to giving women the vote; the less she said the better.

      Outside the coach window the landscape changed from gently rolling golden hills and broad valleys to a high tree-swathed plateau. Pines, Caroline guessed. Dark green, like those at their camp two nights ago, only closer together. Not much grew on the ground beneath them save for a kind of straggly grass with pale yellow flowers. Her lips firmed. The state of Oregon was inhospitable to not only women’s rights; green growing things struggled for life, as well.