This Loving Land - Dorothy Garlock [60]
“There’s no reason for you to cry. You must listen to me,” he said, in a strange, expressionless voice. “Don’t be misled by Travis’s glib tongue and charming manner. He’s like a mad dog with a woman. I know this to be a fact, Summer.” His hold on her forearms tightened. “Women are like so much meat to him. I won’t have him near you. If he so much as touches a hair on your head, I’ll kill him. I’ll gun him down as quick as I would a mad dog. He may think Sadie is fair game, because of what she did in Hamilton, but while she’s on my land, she’s under my protection, too. Am I getting through to you, Summer? Do you understand?”
“Of course I understand. It’s only . . . he was so nice today. Not only to me and to Sadie, but to the children, too.’
“If he should come here again, you’re to fire the signal shot.” He gathered her close, pressing her wet face against his shoulder. “You’re not to worry. I’ll sleep in the shed, although I’d rather sleep with you.” He kissed her tenderly. “We better see about getting a bunkhouse built down here, so Sadie won’t be alone after you move over to the other house. Go on in now, and drop the bars across the doors.”
Inside the house, she dropped the bars and went to the window. The shadow that was Slater led his horse to the back of the house and she went to the rear window to watch. The horse drank from the water trough before Slater stripped the saddle and turned him into the corral. With rifle in hand, he moved around the buildings, pausing every few feet to listen. When he returned to the shed, he stood in front of the door for several minutes before he went inside.
Summer’s spirit was humbled. She had never before felt so physically and emotionally wrung. To love a man as passionately as she loved Slater, and to see him transformed before her eyes from a warm, loving,gentle man to a cold, unrelenting and violent one was heartily depressing. Her mind moved back to the hourspent in love’s intoxicating completion. Never had she known such glorious fulfillment, such extraordinary satisfaction. Now, lying alone in her bed, bathing in the glow of this marvelous night, she stirred, placing her hand on her stomach just above her sex. His seed. Would she become pregnant? Possibly! She should feel disgracefully wanton; instead, she was delighted in the prospect, already perceiving a small dark boy with straight black hair, a serious face and blue-black eyes.
Ten
Summer was disappointed but not surprised the next morning, to discover that Slater had left without stopping by the house.
Sadie saw her bewilderment and sought to ease whatever disappointment she might be feeling and at the same time satisfy her own curiosity as to why the master of the ranch would choose to sleep in the shed.
“Jack said they have a few more days of rousting steers out of the brush. Slater works as hard as anyone, Jack says. Guess he’s got his own reasons for stayin’ the night out there, if’n he did,” she added carefully.
“He did. He was angry about Travis being here.”
“Angry?”
“Angry wasn’t the right word. He was furious. We are to fire the gun if he comes back.” She waited until she could control the slight quaver in her voice. “Oh, Sadie, Slater will kill him! Travis is bad with women, he says, and he doesn’t trust him near us. I can’t believe
Travis would hurt us, but Slater is so sure, he’s going to sleep in the shed until he can build a bunkhouse.”
“Let him kill him!” Sadie’s face and voice betrayed her desperation.
“Sadie! Why do you say that? Has he . . . ?”
“He’s bad, Summer. Rotten! Let Slater kill him. He’s just a piece of . . . nothin’.”
“You’re afraid of him! What did he say to you out there in the yard? You’re trembling. Is it because of him, or are you getting sick?”
Sadie fought the conflict raging within her. Travis would surely kill her and Mary if she told Summer of his threats. All night long, she had wrestled with the problem of what to do. Now, if Slater