. “Who can understand love? I certainly don’t. It seems to me that if you’re going to marry a man, you should choose a man who would be a good provider, reliable, a caring father. But women don’t seem to want men like that. Women want men who are dangerous, men who do really childish, stupid things like shoot people faster than they themselves can be shot. In short, Mr. Hunter, women want men like you.”
Cole gave up trying to remember to smoke. He was so fascinated by her that a keg of dynamite couldn’t have moved him. “I would impress your sister?” he asked softly.
“Oh, yes. You’re just the type who would impress Rowena. You’re rather like her Jonathan, except that he has used his…I’m not sure you would call it talent, but he’s used his ability to frighten people and terrify them to make enormous amounts of money.”
“Sounds like a real devil.”
“He is. But that’s what women seem to like. I don’t mean that Jonathan is a bad person. I think he’s generally considered a very good businessman. And he’s compassionate in his way, just as you are, but he thinks that any means is justified, as long as everything goes his way in the end.”
“And I am like that?” He could have bitten his tongue for asking, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Yes. It really wasn’t your business to settle those range wars, and I am amazed at the vanity it took on your part to think that you could settle them.”
“But I did settle them,” he couldn’t help pointing out.
“Yes, there is that. You see, Jonathan goes about making money just the way you go about interfering in people’s lives and killing them if they get in your way.”
Cole felt as though he should apologize for having been born. “I am sorry to have displeased you, sorry that women like your sister think I’m worth something,” he said sarcastically.
“Oh, that’s all right,” she said, taking his words seriously. “We all have our vanities. I am extremely vain in what I’m doing now. You see, my sister has only good intentions toward me, but she plans to come to Texas to find me a husband. She says that I am becoming a dried-up, sour…” She waved her hand in dismissal. “It doesn’t matter what Rowena says. She says whatever comes to her mind.”
“Unlike you, who are the very essence of tact and graciousness.”
She gave him a hard look to see if he was joking, but she could see no humor in his eyes. “Rowena has decided to manage my life, and she will do so if I don’t do something beforehand.”
“I’m having difficulty understanding something. You say that you want a husband and kids, and obviously, with your charms, you’re not going to find a man by yourself, so why don’t you allow your sister to find one for you?”
“Because she will sweet-talk some man like you into marrying me.”
Cole just sat there and blinked at her. It was difficult to think of oneself as the worst thing that could happen to a woman. There had been a few women who thought he was the best thing that could happen to them.
She let out a sigh. “I see that I’m not explaining myself thoroughly.”
“It’s probably my fault,” Cole said sweetly. “All that gunpowder going off near my head has made me rather stupid over all the many, many years of my life. Please do explain everything to me.”
“I do want a husband, and I plan to get one…eventually. But the man I want is not the sort that Rowena would want for me. I want a nice, plain man. I don’t want a man like her Jonathan or like you. I don’t want a man who is so handsome that I have to worry every night that he’s out with other women.”
Cole thought there was a compliment in there, but he wasn’t sure where it was.
“I want a man I can depend on, someone who’ll be there when I go to sleep and when I wake up. I want a man who will rock the baby when it’s teething. I want a man who will nurse me when I’m ill. In other words I want a man who is grown up, an adult, a man who is man enough to know that there are ways of settling arguments that don’t involve shooting someone.”
Cole found himself squirming in his seat. He was developing a genuine dislike for this woman. “So why don’t you get one of those sodbusters if that’s what you want?” He couldn’t believe it but his voice sounded petulant and maybe even jealous.
“Can you imagine what my sister’s reaction would be if she came to visit and found me married to some short, bald man who knew more about books than guns? Rowena would feel even sorrier for me than she does already.”
Suddenly she stood up, her fists clenched. “Mr. Hunter, you can’t imagine what it was like growing up with a sister like Rowena. All my life I’ve been compared to her. If she had to be beautiful, I don’t think it’s fair that she’s also talented. Rowena can do anything. She rides as though she’s part of the horse. She can cook; she can dance; she speaks four languages. Rowena is absolutely divine. She used to stand up to our father with great defiance and he loved her all the more for it. When I tried to stand up to him he sent me to my room without supper.”
She took a deep breath as if to calm herself. “So now my parents are dead, I live alone in an enormous, dreary old house, and my splendid sister is coming to Texas to find some man for me to marry. She says she’s doing this out of love for me, but it’s really out of pity. She feels sorry for me and thinks that I could never get a husband on my own, but she believes that she has enough charm to persuade a man to marry me.”
She looked at him. “It’s hardly been a year since my father died, and while he was alive I never had a chance to look for a husband. He said he’d lost one daughter to marriage and he was going to make damned sure he didn’t lose another. I have every confidence that now that I am free I can get a husband, but not by next week when Rowena arrives. At least not a good husband. Those men take time to find and need careful consideration. Marriage is a very serious undertaking. And besides, even if I did greet Rowena with the type of man I want on my arm, she’d still feel sorry for me because I didn’t have some swaggering, squint-eyed, hard-jawed, ruthless killer like her husband.”
Cole couldn’t help running his hand over his jaw. Was it hard? Was he ruthless? Did he swagger? Damn, but the woman was making him crazy. If he really were a ruthless killer, she’d be the first on his list to get rid of.
“So you want me to pretend to be married to you for two weeks in an effort to impress your beautiful sister?”
“Yes, exactly. I will pay you five thousand dollars for the two weeks, and during that time, of course, you will live in a comfortable house and be well fed.”
She talked as though he usually lived in a cave and ate dirt and worms for dinner. Of course this boardinghouse could use a good cleaning and maybe the food did leave a lot to be desired. But one time in Saint Louis he’d lived in a splendid hotel and eaten…Well, that had been after a lucrative job, and he’d stayed there until the money ran out. Maybe her bald farmer would have done something sensible with the money.