JUSTIFIED DECEPTION Read online

  Her gaze shot to his cupped hands. "And will you stop doing that! It's obscene!"

  Uncupping his hands, he folded his arms and said, "Is this better?"

  Attempting to bring order out of the chaos, Ruth drew in a long breath to steady her nerves, willed her heart to settle into normalcy, and said, "It's bad enough that Annie sees men in the raw, but seeing her own father is worse. Haven't you heard of Sigmund Freud and the effect the sight of a naked parent can have on a child?"

  Matt curved a finger under Ruth's chin and lifted her face until her eyes met his, and said,

  "What would Freud say about a man wanting to kiss a woman senseless?"

  "Stop changing the subject!"

  "Ruthie girl, I'm not changing the subject. You"re the one who brought up Freud. And since you"re not my mother, I intend to do this...." He bent down and kissed her. She allowed her lips to cling to his long enough to feel lightheaded from lack of air. Then abruptly, she broke the kiss and pushed him away. "You should not have done that," she said, angry that she'd again lost herself. "I'm not one of your Lorindas. And if you don't care enough about Annie to discuss this in a mature and reasonable way then my services are of no use to you and I'll pack my bags and leave." Good grief! Had she said that? Told him she'd leave? Had she been so distracted by his kiss that she"d completely lost sight of her reason for being there?

  To her surprise, Matt squeezed her arm, and said, "Okay, honey, I"ll promise to behave myself, and you can give me that tongue lashing about Annie."

  Ruth started to protest about his continued use of hollow endearments, but decided to hold to the subject of Annie. "I don"t see how you can make light of all this. Like I was saying, Annie is no longer three years old. She"s a little girl about—"

  “I know, about to become a young woman.” He began idly rubbing up and down Ruth's arm as he said in a sober voice, "You need to lighten up, honey, you"re far too—"

  "I am not your honey!" Ruth snatched her arm from his grip.

  He dropped his hand to his side. "When you kiss me like you did you are my honey. You're about as sweet as anything I ever tasted." He looked at her with such candor she found herself wanting to believe his meaningless words. "As for Annie," he continued, "it's different out here.

  Except for Randy, there's not a man here who hasn't looked after her—fed her, read to her, helped her dress. They're all like big brothers."

  Nostrils flaring, Ruth said in a high wavering voice, "But they are not her big brothers, and they are definitely not little boys. They are men, fully grown. And even little girls can fantasize.

  But they can also get confused."

  Matt raised her hand to his lips and kissed her palm, his warm breath fanning the embers inside her. Holding her gaze, he said in a sober voice, "That's why I need you, Ruth, because right now I'm as confused as Annie."

  Ruth felt the prickles of his day-old beard against her palm. Even that stirred something inside her. Alarmed with the strong reaction his nearness triggered, she pulled her hand from his and said, "I want to buy some girlish things for Annie."

  Looking steadily at her, Matt replied, "Fine. While we"re tracking down the cougar, Edith can take you and Annie to town." He moved toward her as if to kiss her again, but this time Ruth pressed her hand to his chest to stop him, then turned and headed for the truck, troubled by her inability to control her responses to Matt's presence, and determined to hold him at bay until she found the answers she as seeking. And the first step to finding her answer could be waiting for her in the form of test kits in her post office box at Cedar Grove. If the kits were there, she'd pass the swabs inside Annie's cheeks while she'd be sleeping, and in a little over a week, she'd know for certain if Annie was Beth. But she also knew that even if Annie were Beth, the battle to take custody of her would just be starting.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Annie gazed at herself in the dressing room mirror. "I look like a sissy."

  “You look beautiful," Ruth said, straightening the collar of the dress Annie was trying on.

  Annie stood staring at herself, as if uncertain it was actually she staring back. Then her brows gathered with a small frown, and she said, "It's all flowery."

  "It's pretty. And you look so grown up."

  She pursed her lips. "I don't want to wear a dress."

  "I don't blame you," Ruth said, "I didn't either when I was your age, but your father commented on how pretty he thought you'd look in a dress, and I thought it might be nice to surprise him."

  Annie looked at the reflection of Ruth's face in the mirror. "Daddy said that?"

  "He sure did." Ruth untied the wide sash and started unfastening the row of buttons down the back. "But it doesn't matter. We'll buy the dress and hang in your closet so it will be there if you decide to surprise him."

  "The guys will laugh."

  "I'll kill them if they do."

  Annie smiled.

  Ruth slipped the dress over Annie's head and hung it on the hook over the little blue bathing suit. She helped Annie dress, paid for the clothes and joined Edith in the truck for the ride home.

  It had been a both a successful and a disappointing trip to Cedar Grove. While Annie and Edith were in the feed store buying a dog bed, puppy food, and an assortment of dog toys for the puppy Annie was soon to have, Ruth checked her box at the post office and was distressed to learn that the DNA test kits had not arrived. She had no idea when she'd be able to get to town again, but while she was there, she mailed the photocopy she'd had made of Annie's birth certificate to Bill.

  Her next task would be to find a way to slip the certified copy back into the file.

  On the return trip to the ranch, she glanced through the window of the truck cab at the mound of bags and boxes. Most contained girlish clothes and puppy supplies, but some held gifts for the men, including Matt. She"d thoroughly enjoyed her shopping spree. However, she was reasonably certain the men would not share her joy.

  Three days later, when Edith rang the big, brass bell announcing supper, a dusty, trail-weary, unshaven bunch of men took their places at the lengthy table. However, one spot on the long bench remained vacant. Matt looked at Ruth and said, "Where's Annie?"

  Ruth draped her napkin over her lap. "She'll be down in a minute."

  "She knows she's to be here when Edith rings for supper." Matt, said. He started to rise.

  Ruth motioned for him to sit down. "Leave it be. She'll be down in a minute. And when she gets here, if any of you says anything derogatory, I'll skin you alive.” Her gaze moved slowly around the table, passing over each grizzled face.

  Matt had no idea what was up, but the look on Ruth's face clearly told them that if any of them crossed her, she'd do precisely what she'd said. Still, he added, "Well, if she doesn't get her little fanny down pretty soon, I'm going up after her. She knows the rules."

  "Then tonight we'll bend the rules."

  Matt was about to remind Ruth that she was his employee and Annie would follow his rules, when the room became silent and he heard Deke say, "Will you look what we have here."

  Annie stood in the doorway, her small frame clad in a pink and white checked dress with a pink sash, and its collar and cuffs embroidered with tiny flowers. She wore her hair in long pigtails, each fastened with a tiny pink bow. Shiny, black patent leather shoes with little straps, and pink socks fringed in lace, completed her outfit.

  Matt stood. "Honey, you look beautiful."

  Annie looked at Matt and beamed.

  The men followed suit. And when Annie stepped up to the table, Tanner slid off the long bench, allowing her to slip into her place instead of crawling over, like she usually did. For the first time since Annie had learned to talk, she seemed at a loss for words. Matt also saw that she was blushing. Maybe Ruth was right. Maybe Annie was on the verge of becoming a young woman. Funny how he hadn't noticed it until now. Dressed as she was, she even acted different, more ladylike, more grownup. He looked at Ruth and winked, and Ruth returned his
gesture by blushing profusely.

  The spell was broken when Seth nudged Annie and said, "Next thing we know you'll be strutting your stuff around here like Miss Lorinda."

  Annie glared at him. "Shut your mouth, Seth, or I'll shove this biscuit up you where the sun don't shine."

  " Annie!" Ruth yelped.

  "Well, I will."

  Ruth glared at Seth. "Annie is a young lady and she should be treated like one." She turned to Matt, "I want to talk to you after dinner."

  Matt liked that idea, but he didn't intend to spend the whole time discussing Annie's vocabulary. He had other ideas for Miss Ruth Crawford. Her tongue lashing at the campsite, and the kiss that followed, gave him a sample of the passion she kept bottled up inside. It also opened up a whole range of possibilities. For three long, restless nights, while lying under the stars, he'd thought of nothing but those possibilities.

  After Seth's comment, and Ruth's rebuke, no one dared tease Annie about her appearance. In fact, everyone remained uncommonly quiet throughout the meal. While the men sat around the table finishing their pie and coffee and lighting up cigarettes, Ruth, who sat at the opposite end of the table from Matt, shoved her chair back and left the room. When she returned, she held several boxes stacked against her arms. “These are for you boys," she said, then walked around the table, handing a box to each man.

  From the curious looks on the men's faces, Matt knew they weren't sure whether to thank Ruth or not. Understanding their skepticism, he opened his box first, then stared at its contents, unblinking. "What the hell?"

  "I'm sorry I couldn't find suits in solid colors," Ruth said, "but all they had were Hawaiian prints."

  As the men lifted off the lids to their boxes, Annie looked at the colorful bathing suits and started giggling. "You guys are gonna look like a bunch of gall-danged flowers floating down the river."

  Seth jammed the lid on his box. "Shut up, twerp."

  His comeback served to prompt a challenge from Annie. "You can't make me. Just wait'll I tell Sue Anne you've takin' to wearing flowers. She'll laugh herself silly."

  "And you look like a gall-danged sissy in that get-up."

  At once, Annie's lips quivered and tears filled her eyes. She looked around at the men, climbed over the bench and ran from the room.

  Ruth glared at Seth. “How could you do that? She's just a child."

  "I didn't mean anything by it and Annie knows it."

  "Obviously, she doesn't. She"s not a boy who you can tease and mock and play rough with and toughen up to be a ranch hand. And the language you men use in front of her is appalling.

  And furthermore, when the lot of you come to supper you should be washed and shaved!"

  Turning abruptly, she marched out of the room.

  Matt stared after her, determined to channel all that spitfire in another way...

  After he'd had his say with her about the prissified bathing suits.

  Shoving his chair back from the table, he swept up the box with the bathing suit and started after her. He caught up with her in the hallway. Waving the box, he said, "Honey, there's no way in hell the men will wear these suits you got them. You might as well take them back."

  Ruth pinned him with smoldering eyes, and said, "If they don't, then Annie will not be along when they swim."

  Matt knew he was fighting a losing battle if he thought he could change Ruth's mind. Still, she should realize what she was asking. "If word got out that the boys at the Kincaid wore flowers there'd be hell to pay, never mind the knock-down, drag-out brawl that would take place when my men learned they were the laughing stock of Cedar Grove."

  “That may be so," Ruth said, "but it doesn't change the fact that if your men refuse to wear bathing suits, then Annie will not be with them, not as long as I'm in charge of her well-being."

  Matt held her unwavering gaze. "You're overreacting to something that's been going on around here for years. Besides, it's about the only chance Annie gets to swim."

  "She'll get a chance tomorrow. I told her we'd go."

  "Where?"

  Ruth stubbornly lifted her chin. "It's really none of your business."

  "Honey, don't get your hackles up. Ranch rules. No one rides out of here without telling their whereabouts."

  Wariness lurking in her eyes, Ruth said, "Well, if you really must know, we're taking the horses and going to a swimming hole Annie knows about not too far from here."

  "Indian Hollow."

  Ruth's nod was almost imperceptible. Obviously she didn't want him, or anyone else bothering them. "Annie said it was secluded," she added.

  "Sure is. Best place on the ranch to swim in the raw." And she would, Matt vowed, determined that the day would come when she'd shed her clothes, and her inhibitions, and swim the way God intended.

  She looked at him steadily. "Annie has a new bathing suit, and I can assure you, we will not be skinny dipping." But the flush rising up her face contradicted her words. Had he read her wrong? Did she have the guts to do it? There was no question she was a gutsy woman. She had no problem standing up to him or his men. But swimming in the raw after making such a fuss....

  "Have you ever tried it?”

  She glared at him. "Of course not!"

  “Then you don"t know what you"re missing. If you ever tried it you"d never swim any other way. It"s like every inch of your body is being caressed by—"

  "Stop!” she cut in. “I can assure you, I will never swim like that."

  "Yeah, well, we'll see."

  Ruth braced her hands on her hips and faced him squarely. Eyes filled with ire, she said,

  "No! We will not see. There's nothing, and no one, who could even so much as tempt me to swim in the raw, so don't even go that route."

  Matt suppressed the desire to pull her into his arms and kiss away all that prudish, citified nonsense, and he would, when the time was right. "How long do you plan to be gone?"

  Ruth shrugged. "I don't know. A couple of hours. Maybe more. I'm bringing along a picnic basket and a book on etiquette for little girls. It's time Annie learned to act like a young lady instead of a cowhand."

  "Honey, the picnic"s fine, but let's just skip all the etiquette stuff. Annie doesn't need those kinds of female notions put in her head."

  Eyes darkening with something akin to pure, unadulterated fury, Ruth said, "Learning etiquette is not a female notion. You and your men could do well to learn some decent manners.

  With the vocabulary the lot of you use around Annie it's no wonder she has a mouth like a guttersnipe. And you don't set much of an example yourself. She should be scolded and corrected when she uses crude language."

  "Annie doesn't use crude language."

  "Maybe not in your book she doesn't, but telling Seth she'll „ shove her biscuit up him where the sun don't shine‘ is definitely crude language in my book, not to mention very poor English, which you should have corrected, though the entire sentence should have been scrapped." Lifting her chin, sparks of anger flaring in her eyes, she added, "And speaking of Seth, I can't believe you just sat there while he said what he did to Annie. Heaven knows if she'll ever wear a dress again. The least you could have done was to tell Seth to leave her be. But you said nothing."

  His temper simmering just below the surface, Matt said, “I don"t need you telling me how to handle my men, and Annie doesn"t need to learn etiquette. What she needs to learn is how to ride well, shoot straight, and boss a bunch of bullheaded men. Some day this ranch will be hers, and if she can't hold her own against Seth's teasing she'll never be able to stand up to an ornery cowboy who doesn't want to do what the boss lady says."

  "She's only six years old, for crying out loud!"

  "The younger she learns, the better! And a closet stuffed with dresses won't do her a hell of a lot of good either, when what she needs are boots, chaps and rain gear!"

  Ruth glared at him. "Your problem is you can't accept the fact that she's going to grow up to become a woman, not a cowhand!"
<
br />   "She's going to grow up to become the owner of the Kincaid Ranch!"

  Ruth"s nostrils flared, and golden sparks flickered in her eyes. "Maybe she won't want to take over this place and spend the rest of her life eating dust, chasing cows and having to deal with—" she jabbed a finger in the direction of the dining room "—the likes of that bunch in there! They're not exactly role models!"

  "Let me tell you about that bunch in there,” Matt hissed. “When Annie came face-to-face with a cougar last year, Tanner threw himself between the two of them. He was more dead than alive by the time I killed the cougar, and he has the scars to show it. And JT climbed down a cliff to fetch Annie's dog when it got stuck in a crevice. The only reason he didn't shoot the critter was because he couldn't bear to do it in front of Annie, so he risked his life instead. And Seth's missing two toes from frostbite because he carried Annie five miles through blinding snow, with no socks on, because he put them over Annie's boots so she wouldn't get frostbite. So don't get on your high horse about my men, because any one of them would lay down his life for Annie in a heartbeat, and don't you forget it. And here, take this—" he grabbed her hand and slapped the bathing suit against her palm "—because I won't be using it." He left to rejoin his men.

  ***

  Net in hand, Annie ran in random circles, darting this way and that, while trying to catch a butterfly as it flitted among the wild flowers growing along the riverbank. The butterfly disappeared into a thicket of blackberry brambles. Annie dropped the net and bent down to pick a yellow snap-dragon-like flower and a couple of blue ones, then skipped over to where Ruth sat on an oversized towel, one leg stretched out, the other propped up, her back against the incline of the gently-sloping embankment.

  Annie handed the tiny bouquet to Ruth. "These are monkey flowers,” she said, pointing to the yellow flowers, "And these are monks heads." She touched a blue flower. "But Daddy and I call them knight's heads because they look like little helmets."

  Ruth added the flowers to her spray of scarlet columbine, purple shooting stars and pink coltsfoot. "Thank you, sweetie," she said. "We'll press them between the pages of a book, and when they're dry, you can arrange them and we'll paste them into a bouquet picture."