Page 22 of The Promise of Jenny Jones

“It is you,” she said reasonably, looking up from the list she was composing at the table. “How do you spell pantaloons?”

“You didn’t know it was me. You should have asked.” He thought about locating a women’s apparel shop, walking inside, and asking to buy a pair of small pantaloons. Never in his life had he set foot inside a woman’s apparel shop. He’d never imagined that he would.

“I can spell corset,” she said, chewing on the end of the pencil, “but I can’t spell pantaloons.”

“Corset?” Blinking, he sat down across from her. By effort of will he kept his gaze above her flat little chest. “How old are you?”

“Don’t you know?” she asked, looking hurt.

“Six? Six is too young for a corset. You won’t need a corset for several years.

” He could not believe he was having this conversation.

Discussing undergarments with a six-year-old.

He had never wondered when women began wearing corsets, but surely they waited until breasts had begun to form.

He couldn’t be exact as to when this happy miracle occurred, but he thought it happened well beyond the age of six.

Feeling the heat scalding his throat, he tugged his collar away from his neck before it choked him.

Betrayal filled Graciela’s eyes, eyes so like his own. “Jenny said the same thing,” she said accusingly, as if she’d expected better from him.

“Jenny is right.” Now assured of being correct in his judgment, he repeated with confidence, “no corset. What else is on your list?”

She sighed deeply, then read out the other items. When she finished, Ty studied her in silence.

To accommodate her requirements, he’d have to buy two trunks.

He wouldn’t have believed one small child could need so many things.

And he didn’t have the faintest idea what some of those things were. What in hell was a crimping iron?

“I’m sorry, but you can only take what will fit in the saddlebags.” He’d pare his own things to the bare necessities and create as much space for her as he could, but it would be limited.

Interest gleamed in her eyes. “We’re going to ride horses? We don’t have to go on the train? Good. I didn’t like the train.”

“You can ride, can’t you?”

She tossed her head. “Of course I can ride.”

This information cast a new and encouraging light on the matter.

If she had her own horse, it would be more comfortable than carrying her on the saddle behind him.

But he’d need to find a horse that was well broken and gentle.

Another positive was being able to accommodate an extra pair of saddlebags.

This reminded him that he needed to buy an additional bedroll and provisions.

“I’ll need a riding skirt,” she commented, bending over the table to add another item to the list.

“We have a long way to go. Wouldn’t trousers be more comfortable? Easier to ride in?”

She glared at him. “She wanted me to dress like a boy. I wouldn’t do it. Young ladies do not wear trousers.”

“I see.” She was starting to sound like a very sensible woman.

“I ran away because she wanted me to cut my hair like a boy’s.

” The story of yesterday’s adventure poured forth.

Ty listened and felt his chest grow tighter and tighter.

Christ. His niece was lucky to be alive.

But he finally understood the scene he had witnessed at the train station, why she had been so ragged and filthy, and why Jenny had appeared so furious. “You must have worried Miss Jones.”

“I don’t care,” she said with a dismissive shrug. “I hate her. She killed my mama.”

Ty felt he ought to say something, but he didn’t know what.

Anything he offered would sound as if he were defending Jenny, and he’d already figured how the wind blew on that issue.

But her comment troubled him. If he understood correctly, Graciela was aware that Marguarita had chosen to take Jenny’s place on the firing wall, she hadn’t been forced.

It was a long stretch to blame Jenny for her mother’s death.

He cleared his throat and sidestepped the remark. “As soon as you’re ready to leave, we’ll find the corrals and buy two horses. We’ll pick up the things you need, then we’ll head north.”

Her eyebrows lifted in dismay. “I wanted to buy my new things first. And when are we going to eat?”

“Can you wait to eat? We’re getting a late start.

” Swiftly he ran some calculations in his mind.

Any man who bought a horse in less than a day was taking his chances.

A man who bought a horse based on only a few hours’ observation was a fool.

A man who bought a horse as Ty intended to, in about two hours, was desperate.

It couldn’t be helped. The most he could spare for the purchase was two hours.

Then, say, another hour at the apparel shop.

Considering how late they were starting, they wouldn’t ride out of town before noon, which meant they’d depart in the worst heat of the day.

And that was stupid and dangerous. On his own he would have risked it, but not with his brother’s daughter.

“Never mind,” he snapped, annoyed. “We’ll have breakfast right away, and lunch before we leave. We’ll figure on riding out about three.”

Then she did something that paralyzed him. She studied his frown for a minute before she leaned forward, patted his hand, and gave him a dazzling smile. “ Gracias, Uncle Ty.”

“Oh hell, I’m hungry too,” he said gruffly, irritated that the word “uncle” had struck with such impact. He’d been thinking of her as his niece, why should it surprise him that she would call him uncle?

He didn’t figure it out until they were midway through breakfast. Referring to her as his niece was something of a cheat; in his mind he struggled with a lifetime habit of hating the Barrancas family, and of having let his father’s intolerance of Mexicans sink barbs in his mind.

But her “uncle” was honest and heartfelt; she unquestioningly accepted him as part of her family.

Ty hadn’t often experienced shame, so he didn’t immediately identify the discomfiting pressure pushing at the inside of his chest.

Jenny was wild with frustration.

She heard the nearest church bells peal nine times before a maid finally appeared to tidy the room and empty the chamber pot and discovered Jenny tied to the chair.

The maid screamed and ran out of the room.

Before the manager arrived to cut Jenny free the bells had sounded ten o’clock, and she lost more precious time while she persuaded the anxious manager that she didn’t want trouble any more than he did; they didn’t need to report the incident to anyone.

All she wanted was to get the hell out of here and find Sanders and the kid.

By the time she burst out of the hotel doors and rushed into the street, the sun blazed hot overhead and she was sweating profusely and approaching panic. She didn’t think Sanders had taken the northbound train, but the northbound had departed an hour ago, and now she couldn’t be certain.

She had to pin her hopes on her belief that Sanders would go to the corrals. If she was too late and had missed him, she didn’t know what she would do next.

As she trotted toward the edge of town, she reviewed her reasoning. Sanders had indicated that he would take Graciela on the train, so that meant he planned to leave by horse. Except, he didn’t have a horse.

She had watched every passenger emerging from the train last evening, looking for Luis or Chulo, and she knew the cowboy had not been among them. He must have jumped off at the last minute.

But he must have had a horse in Verde Flores as horseback was the only way to reach the no-name village from the depot.

Considering how a man felt about a good horse, he would have brought his horse with him on the train.

But he wouldn’t have had time to fetch it from the boxcars and still follow her and the kid back to the hotel.

Therefore, he now needed to buy another horse.

And, therefore, sometime today he would show up at the corrals, probably sooner rather than later.

As he’d want to leave Durango as quickly as possible, she figured buying a horse would be his first order of the day.

The inevitable conclusion? Sanders had bought a horse hours ago, and she had missed him.

Damn. Biting her lips, she increased her pace to a run.

By the time she reached the corrals her throat burned for air and daggers pierced her side.

Already street traffic was thinning for siesta.

Cursing, she fell against a tree trunk to rest and catch her breath, grateful for a spot of shade.

When she could breathe without pain, she lifted her eyes toward the dust swirling above the animal pens.

She didn’t immediately spot the cowboy and didn’t expect to, but her gaze flew like a magnet to a splash of deep maroon. Relief sagged through her body, turning her muscles to straw. Thank heaven for whatever had delayed them.

Narrowing her eyes and peering through a haze of dust, she focused on Graciela. The kid was wearing a new riding outfit. And her hair was pinned up all proper and ladylike. She waited beside a pair of stuffed saddlebags, little gloved hands patiently clasped at her waist.

A humorless grin thinned Jenny’s lips. Now she knew why the cowboy was late getting to the corrals, and she knew how he had spent his morning. Shopping. His aggravation, and she knew the kid well enough to guess the shopping excursion had not gone smoothly, was her gain. Good, and thank God.

After tugging her hat down to conceal her eyes and pulling the poncho away from her breasts, she slouched toward the enclosure farthest from the cowboy and Graciela.

She, too, needed to buy a horse.