Travis looked at Mike. "Sounds like you'll need the wagon to get all the supplies to the judge's. If Roy stays with the widow, see if you can't talk Sage and Duck into coming over to help. I'm sure the judge can use the help." He met the young Ranger's eyes. "Stay beside Sage all evening."
Mike nodded once. "I promise. Anyone getting to her will have to go through me first."
Travis knew Mike meant every word.
CHAPTER 30
When everyone but Rainey and Travis finally left the Langlands' home, the one-room apartment seemed roomy. She'd been surprised when he hadn't argued about her insisting on making more pies before leaving. In fact, he'd simply nodded and resumed his place on guard after the others left.
Surrounded in the aroma of apple pies, the silence weighed heavy between them. Even Pearl raised an eyebrow in question when she'd passed Rainey to put little Jason down for a nap. But Rainey didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say. Travis didn't seem angry, or bothered. If anything, he seemed bored.
She felt like they'd been on a runaway train since the kidnapping. He'd risked his life to save her. All the other Rangers thought she was his, but he'd never once mentioned love, or even liking her. In fact, except when she visited him late at night, he barely acted as if he noticed her around.
"Want a piece of pie?" Rainey tried to shatter the ice between them.
He shook his head.
"Want some soup?"
He didn't answer. He simply folded his arms and leaned back in the chair.
"Want me?" she whispered as she turned back to work. They'd been alone for an hour, and he'd made no move to touch her, or even talk to her. She frowned, thinking of how quickly she'd become addicted to his touch and wondered if he'd mind if she curled into his bed every night to sleep. Somehow the rhythm of his breathing matched her heart's beat. When he held her at the ruins of the mission, it had been the first time she hadn't feared the night.
Rainey considered if feeling safe could equal love. She decided it didn't. Maybe she should look at the reasons why he'd asked her that first night to marry him. He could just want a wife to come home to, but she'd be the last one he'd pick for that. He'd have to find her every time. Maybe he felt sorry for her. After all she was the pitifulest person she knew even if that wasn't a real word. She could see lots of reasons why any woman, but her, would want to marry Travis, but she couldn't find one reason why he'd want her.
Rainey continued to work until the table was filled with pies cooling, but Travis never made any attempt to talk to her. Once, when he'd stood and walked to the water bucket, he'd been careful to get a dipper of water without touching her. He'd hung the dipper back on its nail a few inches from her head and hadn't touched her hair.
She wanted to ask how he was feeling, but didn't dare. He'd rubbed his left leg several times, but she didn't miss that he'd left his cane by his chair when he'd walked across the room to get a drink.
When she finished the dishes and pulled off her apron, he stood… waiting.
Pearl crossed through from the store and glanced at both of them. "Owen just pulled up. He says he'll make your deliveries today."
"Thanks." Rainey didn't try to protest. She looked at Travis. "I'd like to go by the boardinghouse and change into my other dress."
Travis nodded once as if she were no more than an assignment he'd been given to keep up with. "I'll put the wagon around back. Don't come out until I'm at the porch."
She slipped into Sage's too-big shoes and watched him go.
When he'd disappeared, Pearl moved to her side and put her arm around Rainey's shoulders.
Rainey blinked back tears. "I don't know what's wrong. It's like I don't know him at all. He held me last night, but we had little chance to talk. Now we have nothing to say."
"What do you want him to say?"
Shaking her head, Rainey whispered, "I don't know. I wish he'd talk to me like he did in his letters. I liked hearing about what he was thinking and feeling and worrying about."
Pearl shrugged. "I don't know what to tell you except your paper Ranger is there somewhere in that hard man. All you've got to do is look for him."
A few moments later they heard the wagon. Rainey ran out. Travis made no effort to get down and help her up so she climbed in beside him. When she accidentally brushed his arm, he moved a few inches away.
They rode in silence to Askew House. The roads were muddy and each time the wagon rocked, she'd touch him, and each time he moved away.
When they reached the steps of Askew House, Rainey jumped out as soon as he slowed the horses. "I'll only be a minute."
He shoved the brake stick forward, tied the reins around it, and said without looking at her, "I'm going with you."
The front door was unlocked. Their steps echoed in the foyer across air as still as a tomb. Rainey called for Mrs. Vivian and then Mamie, but no one answered. All the weeks she'd lived there she could never remember the house being silent. There had always been the sounds of someone talking, or Mrs. Vivian yelling at Mamie from the kitchen, or Dottie singing in her room.
The blood that had been spilled in the foyer had been cleaned up, but the stain still darkened the wood. Rainey carefully walked around it. She took the first few steps up the stairs and turned back. "I'll change and be back down."
Travis followed her. "I said I'm going with you."
"All the way to my room?" She took the next step. "It's not allowed."
Using only his right leg to climb, he moved up the stairs. "I'm going with you," he repeated more slowly as if he thought she'd missed a word.
By this point she was so frustrated she wanted to kick his good leg. The man was taking his guard duty to the extreme. She lifted her head and walked up the stairs not even glancing back to see if he followed.
When she reached her door, she was surprised to find him only a few steps behind.
"Turn around," she said, blushing.
"What?" He moved closer.
"Turn around. I have to get my key."
He raised an eyebrow. "Afraid I'll see where you hid it?" He glanced around, as if he could guess.
"No, I'm afraid you'll see what I hide it in."
Travis didn't move.
"Suit yourself," she finally said as she lifted her skirt and pulled the key from deep inside her petticoat pocket.
When she looked up, he seemed totally surprised and embarrassed. "I'm sorry. I didn't know ladies' underwear had pockets."
She rolled her eyes. "Did you McMurray men split one brain evenly among yourselves, or did you get shortchanged?"
He grinned. "Maybe the widow's right. Maybe I don't know much about women. Sage usually wears trousers and when she does wear a dress, she has no use for a place to put a key."
Rainey unlocked the door and he pushed it open, brushing her shoulder as he walked in ahead of her. "Lots of room," he mumbled as he took one step and bumped into the bed.
"It's plenty of room for me." She gathered up a change of clothes. "I can go downstairs to change."
"I'll turn around." He shifted until he was looking out the window. "I don't want you that far away in case there's trouble." He tested the bed. "Mind if I sit down?"
Rainey bit her lip. She wanted to say that nothing had happened all day, surely she'd be all right in the bathroom. The hip tub and washstand wouldn't harm her. "Suit yourself," she finally answered.
She unbuttoned the buttons at her throat and hesitated. "I don't think I can do this," she whispered. "Not with you so near."
He looked back at her. "Don't you trust me?"
"I do. But this isn't proper."
"And sleeping with me in your nightgown is?" he questioned, then turned back to the window. "Forget I said that. Just get changed."
She unbuttoned her blouse as he opened the window. He hadn't shown any interest in her all day; why should she think he'd change suddenly?