“How do you know it’s not the bandits?” Silas asked.
“George would never let them find us,” Rose replied.
Even though she didn’t know anything about war and battle tactics, she knew George would make sure she was safe. He had already turned his life upside down doing just that.
She saw him the moment he broke cover. His face was wreathed in a broad grin. He looked happier and more relaxed than she could remember ever seeing him. She realized his happiness came from having commanded his men in a successful battle action, and her heart sank.
It must have been just like being in the army again.
Rose didn’t realize until now how much she had come to depend on George’s not returning to uniform. But if it made him this happy…
“That’s one herd I doubt will reach Mexico,” George said when he rode up. It only took a few moments for him to exchange his seat on Silas’s horse for one on the wagon next to Rose. “Maybe they’ll catch a few of those bandits along with the cattle.”
“Did anybody get hurt?” Rose asked.
“Nobody on our side,” George answered. Rose listened without comment as he gave Silas a brief rundown of the encounter.
“I wish I’d been with you,” Silas said.
“I wish you could, too,” George replied. “I haven’t felt this good in a long time. It’s a shame we can’t get a company together and drive them out of Texas altogether.”
“I’m sure the governor would be agreeable,” Salty said. “After tonight, a command like that would be yours for the asking.”
Rose felt something wither inside. She had slipped another notch in George’s heart. After tonight his determination to return to the army would be stronger still.
“No. It was fun,” George said, “but a married man has more important things to do than chasing bandits and outlaws for a living.” He put his arm around Rose. “If not, he shouldn’t have gotten married.”
All over her body, Rose could feel the knots of tension, the tight balls of fear, ease and fade away. George wouldn’t leave her. He didn’t want to leave her.
She had been right to marry him.
George was surprised at how glad he was to be back on his own land, to recognize familiar landmarks, even to see a well-remembered, mean-tempered steer or cow. Everything was so different from Virginia he had never even thought of trying to like Texas. He was stunned to find he now thought of it as home.
Did he owe this new feeling to Rose and to his marriage?
It was impossible to tell, but nothing had remained the same since the day he entered the Bon Ton. He expected it would continue to change. That excited him, but he was worried about the effect it would have on the boys.
He didn’t know how he was going to tell them about Rose. It would have been awkward enough without Jeff. With him, it was nearly impossible. They had almost reached the house. If he waited much longer, they’d see for themselves.
Salty and the four men he had hired to help with the roundup, Silas Pickett, Ted Cooper, Ben Preyer, and Alex Pendleton, had gone off to look for the twins. George and Rose continued on to the house by themselves.
“Nervous?” he asked her.
“A little. You?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s Jeff, isn’t it?”
He nodded.
“What are you going to tell him?”
“That you’re my wife.”
“And?”
“The and will be up to him.”
A shriek erupted out of the brush along the trail. It was so sudden and unexpected that both horses sidled nervously. George wasn’t the least bit surprised when Zac exploded from the brush.
“You’re back,” he shouted at Rose, completely ignoring his brother. He climbed up on the wagon and hugged Rose until her bonnet was knocked askew and her hair was in danger of coming down.
“You brought her back!” he exclaimed, turning to George. “I didn’t think you would.” The shining happiness in Zac’s eyes more than compensated for anything Jeff might say. Zac’s world was back on its axis.
“Why did you come back?” Zac asked after he’d settled himself on the wagon between Rose and George.
“Rose and I got married,” George said. “And a wife is supposed to go home with her husband.”
George waited for Zac to say something. His reaction would probably be a barometer for the others.’
“Can I have your bed?” Zac asked, excitement springing up in his eyes.
George’s shout of laughter snapped the bands of tension which had been gathering for the last hour at the base of his skull. He had spent all this time worrying how his brothers would react, and all Zac cared about was getting a larger bed.