Broken Angel Read online

  The desire to be involved with Rachel’s past, to hear stories and know who she had been as well as who she had grown into– “I had better not,” he said in a tight voice. No use inviting more regrets, he chided himself. “Though I thank you for the invitation.”

  Todd laughed. “Fine, fine. We won’t talk about them.” He leaned slightly forward and sent Robert a wink. “But sure as I’ve got great stories….”

  Robert reluctantly smiled. The man’s accepting attitude encouraged it. “While I’m sure the temptation is meant well, I don’t believe Ra–Miss Samson would appreciate it.”

  Todd raised an eyebrow as he straightened. “Sure as she wouldn’t. Said the same thing herself. Never thought another gent would….”

  Robert gave a wry smile.

  Todd pursed his lips and crossed his arms as he regarded Robert, his expression suddenly serious. “Ye gonna marry her?”

  Ears reddening, Robert lifted an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

  “Rach said as how her pap betrothed her to someone else and she said ‘yes’ to your offer. So,” he pressed again, “are ye gonna marry her?”

  Robert cleared his throat and looked away. “A question like that isn’t as easy as you suppose. Not when in regard to… her.”

  “Bah!” Todd said, waving an arm in protest. “She’s gotten hard-headed in her old age, but she’ll come ’round.”

  Again, Robert reluctantly smiled.

  Todd rubbed the back of his neck. “Boy and howdy she sure has changed a lot. You shoulda seen her then. Timid as a nun’s unders. Never really wanted to do anything she’d never done before, and that was nearly everything. Mags and I had to coax and prod to even get her to go climb a tree. She’d fight and fuss…. Well, as much as Rach did back then, which wasn’t much. But she’d finally do it. She’d be all smiles and giggles, too.” Todd laughed and shook his head. “Fool girl, she was.”

  Robert listened with pained attention to detail.

  “There was one time I thought she’d die an early death. All Mags and I did was try and get her to go swimmin’ in her bloomers, Mags and I’d been doin’ it for years, and she looked as if she’d been asked to sell her soul.” Chuckling, Todd gave his head a shake, thumbs again hooked on the belt-loops of his denims. “We tried everything, but she finally ran home crying. Her pap nearly took a switch to my hide when she ’fessed to her ma what we’d done. And Mags nearly lost her place there. She didn’t have nowheres else to go, what with her being an orphan like me, so Rachel’s ma kept him from letting her go. But I had to lay low for nearly a month before Rach girl would come out and play again.”

  Todd gave Robert another punch on the arm, drawing a smile. “I guess she’s always been a bit of a spunk. I remember one time I stole a kiss in the back orchard – they’ve got the largest plot of land this side of anywhere. She up and slapped my face and then gave me a talkin-to that musta lasted nearly an hour. But I didn’t care none. I was sweet on her and the kiss were worth the slap.” Todd laughed. “Boy and howdy it stung, too.”

  Robert restrained a sharp retort, but the combination of her visit to a mysterious friend and the initials in the tree and the kiss– Robert clenched his jaw and turned for his horse. “I had best go,” he said in a tight voice. He pulled himself into the saddle.

  Todd tipped his hat. “Nice meetin’ ye. You’re welcome to head on over any time. Just tell them to bring you to Old Man Pars. They’ll know it. Brought Rach and Mags out often enough.”

  Robert’s temper rumbled. “Thank you. Good evening.” He turned his mount, putting a heel to the gelding that he wished he could have put to the all-too-agreeable sweetheart from Rachel’s past. “Timid as a nun’s unders…” Robert grumbled. A timid girl and young lady that he would never have the opportunity to know. To him she would always be the determined and strong woman with the forthright views and quick wit. Delicate. Shy. Uncertain…. Robert’s chest tightened and he urged the gelding to a faster pace. No. He would never know that young lady.

  ~~~

  “Mr. Todd Richards, Miss.”

  Rachel stood from the seat near the window in the sitting room, pulling her thoughts from a laughing tale of youth and adventure as she stepped forward. For a reason unknown to her, she had to force a smile. “Todd, welcome.”

  Todd looked around with his usual boyish smile. “Man. I feel awkward all over again.”

  The smile became more genuine as she regarded his uncertain glances. “I seem to remember a different Todd Richards.”

  He laughed and offered his arm, which Rachel accepted. “Say, you look pretty today. That green reminds me of the meadow out past the orchard. You been yet?”

  Keeping the smile firmly in place, Rachel shook her head. “No.” But why she would willingly volunteer a return to that meadow was beyond her. The memories it held would only mock her.

  “Which means I need to drag you and your Mr. Trent up there. Seems to me I had to do a lot of that after you said ‘no’ to something I wanted to do.”

  Allowing him the bait of “your Mr. Trent”, Rachel led him out of the sitting room and into the hall, guiding him to the dining room. “I remember giving more than one scolding because of the fact.” She sent him a sidelong glance. “You will never know how many times I resolved myself to hate you because of the joy you apparently took in causing me grief and embarrassment.”

  Todd’s laughter rang through the halls, causing a smirk from Rachel as she watched him. She had fancied herself in love with him in her youth. The way his blond hair forever fell into his eyes, the twinkle of their blue brightness, and the constant attentions he had paid while pushing her to do those things she had never dared risk…. But now she was uncertain how to define the effect he had on her.

  Todd held out the head chair and adjusted it as she sat. He sat to her right.

  Rachel rang the bell to signal the beginning of the meal. “What have you done while I’ve been away? Not everything has focused around old Mr. Parson’s ranch, has it?”

  “Well, how else do you think I’ll be able to get ahead?”

  Rachel smiled. “All right, all right. But how did you get involved with ranching? I seem to recall an abhorrence to manual labor.”

  Two serving maids set plates of salad in front of them and Todd grimaced. “Rach girl, couldn’t we just skip the greens and go to the real grub. I’m not a rabbit.”

  “Do your best to at least attempt a taste. I had hoped to have dinner last.” Whether it was to allow Robert the opportunity to appear or herself the time to qualify her attachment she couldn’t hazard to say.

  Todd sighed and scooped some dressing onto the greens. “Boy and howdy,” he complained. “The things I do for you.”

  “Stop your grousing. La.” But Rachel could not restrain the smile as she watched him grimace and frown at the bites of salad.

  “Now.” He struggled with another bite with such gusto that Rachel had to restrain a laugh. “How did I get into ranching? Well, let me see. I suppose it started when I got a job from Pars as one of his ranch hands. I think that happened when you’d just gone.”

  “So, he did not legally adopt you?”

  “Not in so many words. At least, it wasn’t legal or nothing. I just left the orphanage and stayed there at his ranch, helping him around the place. Now we’re as close to partners as a pair can get. A shock, I tell ye.”

  “A pleasant one, I should think.” A family that he had lost since the age of six. One that, while he would deny it, he had always longed for.

  “You betcha.”

  Noticing his occasional glances about the room, she motioned toward him. “What is your verdict? Are you ready to run back to the simple life on the ranch?”

  Todd laughed. “A part, sure. After all, I don’t know which way is up in a place like this. I’m afraid to touch anything because I might break it.”

  “I hear a ‘but’ in that sentence.”

  “Come on, Rach girl,” he scolded as he focused on her with
a playful frown. “You know me. This’s an adventure. I feel like a kid again.”

  The truth of which she could see in his expression.

  Todd suddenly reached across the table to take her hand. “Growing up weren’t as much fun without you and Mags both pestering me,” he admitted. “I didn’t really like it, to tell the truth.”

  And neither of them had been given much of a choice. Rachel lowered her gaze to their clasped hands. What seemed a lifetime ago, she would have swooned at the touch. It would have drawn her ever closer to a dedication to be his sole companion. A wife, if he would have had her. But now, she felt nothing. There was not even a hint of the friendship she had at one time shared with him. There was only numbness.

  Todd cleared his throat and gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it and leaning back. “’Course, I didn’t have much of a choice, huh? But life’s pretty good with old man Pars. He treats me good. Always did.”

  Rachel lifted her eyes to another scrutiny of Todd’s handsome face. “And why have you no ranch-hand’s wife to enact the role of support and encourager, Todd Richards. Many a poem did you write, if memory serves, longing for a shoulder to rest your head upon.” And, at one point in her life, she had thought it would be hers.

  Ears and face reddening, he grinned. “What? Come on, Rach girl. What girl would want the life of being a ranch-hand’s wife.”

  Her eyebrow arched. “What is wrong with such a life?”

  Todd leaned onto his elbows on the table and pointed at her with his fork. “Gardening, I’m sure you’d love pulling weeds. Feeding the chickens and gathering eggs. Mucking the stalls. Tossing hay for the horses and cattle in the fall when there ain’t no grass. Milking the cows. Butchering the chickens. Fixing the fences so the foxes and coyotes can’t get into the hen-house…. Want more?”

  Rachel smirked. “It sounds the daily adventure.”

  “Hah! Adventure, she calls it.” Todd pushed away his plate to regard her with an amused expression remembered from years past, especially in combination with his crossed arms. “So, you’re saying as how you wouldn’t mind at all? You wouldn’t miss the frills and fancies?”

  “Don’t be absurd,” she scoffed. “If there is gratification in a good day’s work, what are frills and fancies to that permanent testimony to a job well done?”

  Todd laughed. “Boy and howdy but aren’t you full of yourself. But you’re right. Only, it ain’t for girls around these here parts. And there ain’t nothing wrong with that. Some people do one thing and some people do others. It’s just the way of life. You know that.” Todd poked at her with his fork this time. “So, you squared away with your pap about this Trent fella?”

  Rachel set down her fork with the slightest hint of a clatter.

  “And what’s got you in a snit?”

  “I am not in a ‘snit’.” She rang the bell for the main course.

  “Rach girl, I swear. You’re wrapped up tighter than a fine cigar.”

  Rachel focused on him with a cool expression. “Todd Richards, a practice of self-control is not to be scoffed at nor ridiculed. I’m certain that you yourself would do with a lesson or two in the same.”

  “Ouch,” Todd answered, and he shook his hand as if slapped.

  The serving maids entered with the main course then, so Rachel focused ahead and distanced herself from the annoyance. That I should need to ‘square things’ with my father regarding my future husband is absurd.

  “Rachel–”

  “Todd,” she interrupted with a hard look his direction, “if he is unable to respect my decision of Mr. Trent, then I refuse to accept his leadership. Do not press the issue, for it is decided and closed.”

  “Fine, seeing as how I’m a guest and all.” He smirked and lowered his gaze to his dinner plate. “Now this is more like it.”

  Rachel laughed.

  ~~~

  Robert felt the pang as he approached the gates leading into the Samson estate. Under the light of the early evening, as well as those lit on the front porch, he clearly saw Rachel holding Todd Richards’ hands in hers, very likely smiling. He pressed his lips together. Deal with it, old man. There is no reason she should relinquish her friends because you have a jealous streak. He drew the roan mare up and watched, their voices clearly carried to him by the late spring breeze.

  “Toddy, thank you again for coming,” Rachel said, her voice warm instead of calm. “Your face and humor was just what I needed to feel more at ease. I hope you can be persuaded to come again.”

  The statement felt much like a slap. Robert lowered his gaze to his hands clenching the reins of his horse.

  “And turn down eating the choicest beef this side of the Mississippi?” Todd responded. “You couldn’t keep me away. It was great fun to give you a hard time.”

  “Yes, you would receive a sadistic pleasure from that, wouldn’t you?”

  “Heh. You know me too well.” He retrieved his hat from her and set it on his head. “Just don’t have me over until things are squared with your Mr. Trent.”

  Robert raised an eyebrow and lifted his gaze to watch with interest as Rachel picked at the satin cord of her fan.

  “Rach girl. I mean it.”

  “For goodness sake, Todd Richards, there is nothing to ‘square’ between myself and Mr. Trent, and do stop calling him ‘your’. He’s a heart and mind of his own. I’m not his puppet-master.”

  Robert smirked. Good for you.

  “Alrighty, Rach girl. Don’t get your bloomers in a bunch.” Todd ignored her protest as he said, “and don’t give me that about nothing to square. I know how you are with new people, Rachel Samson. Keep ’em at arm’s length until they don’t know which way is up.”

  Rachel crossed her arms and looked away.

  “None of that, you little twit.” And Todd punctuated the comment with a gentle shove to her shoulder, which drew her gaze. “Be the same with him as you were with me, Rach girl. He’ll appreciate it, and it’ll be a lot more fun than keeping something to yourself that you should share with him in the first place. Don’t you remember all those romantic poems you and Mags used to torture me with?”

  “Torture?” Rachel scoffed, but Robert could hear the smile in her tone. “I seem to recall you begged us to read more than a few of yours.”

  “Only because I wanted to wrestle another kiss.”

  “Todd!”

  He laughed and then cuffed her on the chin. “I better git, Rach girl. Thanks again for having me over. And next time, make sure you tie your Mr. Trent down to stay.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she mumbled. “Good evening, Toddy. Give my best to Mr. Parson.”

  “Sure thing.” He tipped his hat and accepted the reins of his sorrel mare from the stable boy. Once he pulled himself up into the saddle, he tipped his hat again and turned the horse toward the front gate.

  Robert released a deep breath and then urged his horse away. A couple, forever in the past and still lingering in her present…. But Robert found it nearly impossible to dislike the specter from Rachel’s past. His jovial attitude and boyish prodding at Rachel’s tendency to regard things with suspicion drew a type of respect, as well as a certainty that the man’s presence in her life would cause more good than harm. That fact caused a pang, but Robert had resolved to allow her to lead them in their relationship. If she wanted distance, then he would do his best to give it to her. Much as it tortures my soul to do so.

  Robert sighed and sent a glance heavenward.

  Seven

  Untitled Passions

  Rachel tapped her lips with her fan as she sat within her mother’s sitting room, slightly frowning. She checked the time on the hall clock seen through the doorway. Lunch would be served shortly and Robert hadn’t yet responded to the note she had sent to his hotel the previous evening, nor even to the secondary invitation to coffee she had sent that morning.

  In fact, he hadn’t been seen since the adventure of her room’s redecoration two days before.


  Pressing her lips together, Rachel stood and left the room. Oliver approached from the back hall. “Oliver.”

  “Yes, Miss?”

  “Mr. Trent said that he would indeed attempt another visit at a later time?”

  “Yes, Miss.”

  “I see.” Rachel’s brows momentarily furrowed, deepening when she heard her father stomping around in his office/study on the second floor. “Please arrange for me a carriage, Oliver.”

  “Certainly, Miss. Right away.” Then he turned to do as requested, returning to the back staff offices on the left.

  Rachel ascended the stairs and entered her room, noticing Maggie sitting in an overstuffed chair in the corner mending the hem of one of her gowns. Rachel crossed her arms, frowning as she wordlessly paced in front of her writing desk. Yes, she had been away longer than she thought she would be, but not so late that he couldn’t have returned later that morning for brunch. By Oliver’s estimation, he had only missed her by approximately thirty minutes.

  “Has Mr. Trent come?” Maggie asked.

  Rachel gave a slight twitch as she focused on her friend. “Pardon?”

  “Mr. Trent?” she asked again, not lifting her gaze from her stitching. “Has he come to try again for coffee this morning? I know as how you sent a note this morning.”

  “No, confound the man.” Rachel’s frown deepened as she turned away.

  “I wonder if he made his way to the orphanage. That may be why he didn’t wait yesterday. It could be why he’s not yet visited this morning. Those wee ones love the man and are fit to be tied when it’s time for him to leave.” Maggie softly giggled. “He’s a nice man, that Mr. Trent,” she observed, not noticing Rachel’s sudden focus. “Handsome. And such a wit, he is. One forgets about his impish pranking when he puts on the charms.”

  Eyebrow arching, Rachel absently opened her fan to stir the air around her face. “All this you’ve managed to observe in but a few meetings of the man, Maggie?”