LEGEND Read online

  “And you want to go back to it? Except for a few horse thieves, my world’s a pretty boring place.”

  “Right. You just have lynching parties. And smallpox and typhoid fever and cholera. And outdoor plumbing.”

  “You seem to know a lot about us.”

  “I’ve watched a lot of television.”

  “And what is television?”

  As they’d been riding, Kady had leaned back against him and now was feeling rather comfortable. As she looked about her, at the incredible, breathtaking Colorado mountains, she couldn’t seem to remember exactly what television was. She’d never seen the Rockies before, and she’d had no idea they were so beautiful. Maybe she and Gregory could open a restaurant here. Maybe they could persuade his mother to leave Onions and come here.

  “Pretty, isn’t it?” he said softly, reading her mind.

  “Beautiful,” she answered. “I grew up in Ohio, went to school in New York, and have worked in Virginia. I’ve never seen this.”

  He didn’t answer, but she could feel that he was pleased that she liked the countryside.

  “Truthfully, why were those men trying to hang you?” The motion of the horse and the strength of the man supporting her were making her feel so safe that she was becoming sleepy.

  “They tried to take some of my cattle, and I protested.”

  “Do you have many cows?”

  He hesitated before answering. “Very few. I told you, the Rockies aren’t the best grazing land.”

  “Then do you work in a mine?”

  “No.”

  One of those silent cowboys, she thought with a sigh, and missed Gregory. He was always willing to talk about his business or listen to Kady’s stories of what had happened in the restaurant.

  “What’s this Grover like?” Cole said, and there was a definite sneer in his voice.

  Kady was sure that wanting a man to be jealous was not psychologically correct, but it did feel good. She’d always been too busy learning to cook to spend much time with men. Before Gregory, she’d had surprisingly few dates.

  “I don’t know anyone named Grover,” she said with exaggerated innocence. “I can’t imagine who you mean.”

  “The one you’re planning to marry.”

  “Oooooh, Gregory. Well, he’s absolutely gorgeous, very black hair, dark eyes, honey-colored skin, and—”

  “Any brains?” Cole asked tightly.

  “A degree from the University of Virginia—in business, which he is very good at. Buys and sells land in California. He’s almost rich, actually, and he’s bought me a three-story town house in Alexandria. Oh!” she said when the horse stepped into a hole and Kady nearly went tumbling. But Cole’s arms caught her—and kept holding her.

  “And what about you?” she asked sweetly. “No wife or fiancée? What about a girlfriend?”

  “None,” he said. “Just me and Manuel, my old cook.”

  “And is he a very good cook?”

  “If you like beans and chili so hot it can blister your tongue. You wouldn’t like to work for me, would you? I could pay you—” He cut himself off. “Naw, you want to be independent, have your own job. Tell me, are all women a hundred years from now like you?”

  It was obvious that he was laughing at her and had no belief that she had ever seen the twentieth century. “Most of them. We have careers and earn as much money as the men. Women can do anything, you know.”

  At that he snorted. “So who takes care of the kids?”

  Kady opened her mouth to answer, but she thought a discussion of day care and nannies might not make the point she wanted to. “Having children is a choice, and the children are taken care of.” Unfortunately, some rather horrible images of child abuse that she’d seen on the six o’clock news flashed before her eyes.

  “But if the women work all day, who—”

  “Is that the town of Legend?” she asked, changing the subject.

  “No, it’s a rock formation.”

  “Isn’t that amazing, that it looks just like—”

  “If you are from another time, not that you are, why are you here? And where did you get the picture of my family and my father’s watch? We thought they were lost.”

  “Who is we?”

  “My grandmother and me. She’s the only relative I have left.” He shifted his arms around her, making them just a bit tighter. “You do have an amazing ability to change the subject. What were you doing with my family’s photo?”

  “I bought an old flour tin, and when I opened it, this dress was in it, and on the bottom of the tin was the packet containing the photo and the watch.”

  When she said no more, he said, “Then what happened?”

  “I don’t know,” Kady said quietly, not wanting to think of those horrible minutes when she wavered between two worlds. She still expected to wake up any minute and be back in her apartment. No matter what time it was, she’d call Gregory and tell him she loved him and—.

  “Come on,” Cole said softly, “don’t turn coward on me now. You’re Little Miss Independent, remember? You can do everything all by yourself. Are you afraid to tell me what happened?”

  His tone said he was making fun of her. “I can take care of myself, if that’s what you mean!” she said angrily.

  He was chuckling. “There, that’s better.”

  For a few moments they were silent. “Why did you ask me to marry you?” Kady asked.

  He didn’t answer right away. “To protect you. Because I owe you. I wouldn’t he alive right now if it weren’t for you. You know, I think ol’ Harwood thought you were a ghost, coming out of the mountains in that white dress.”

  “I thought you were unconscious! How did you see anything?”

  “I was saving my strength.”

  Twisting around in the saddle, she glared up at him. “If you were awake, then you could have helped me save you!”

  “Mmmm,” was all he’d say, and Kady could see the smile he was trying to suppress.

  She turned back around. “You could have crushed me when you fell off that horse.”

  Instead of answering, he smoothed a curl back from her face and tucked it behind her ear.

  Somehow, the simple touch of putting her hair behind her ears was more intimate than anything else he had done, and Kady frowned at it. Yes, it was definitely better to get away from this man.

  Chapter 6

  THE TOWN OF LEGEND WAS NOT WHAT SHE’D EXPECTED. Maybe it was her innate cynicism, but she’d expected filth and saloons. As a kid she’d believed the beautiful movie sets that showed pretty little houses with white picket fences, but as an adult she’d realized that the women in those cowboy shows had spent three hours having their hair and makeup done. And the streets were swept daily by the crew.

  But as she rode into town on the horse in front of Cole, she had to change her mind, for Legend looked like something Walt Disney had created. It was clean and neat, and the people were all nicely dressed and bustling about with smiles on their faces.

  They rode down one street that Cole told her was named Eternity Road, then took a left down a well-maintained, wide road named Kendal Avenue. They passed clean, tidy shops, a hotel, a freight depot, livery stable, and a huge ice cream parlor that looked like something from a Judy Garland movie. She saw only one saloon, and it looked like a place you could take the kids on Saturday night. Between the buildings were vacant lots, some of them rather prettily landscaped.

  What further astonished her was that she didn’t see a gun anywhere. Not a single man was carrying a firearm. In fact, for the most part, everyone looked clean and prosperous and absolutely peaceful. Maybe it had been Cole’s story about the deaths of his family, but she’d expected Legend to be a little more, well, dangerous.

  “So much for the Wild West,” she muttered, and remembered hearing that that had been a myth. If so, then Legend was proof of that myth.

  “Where would you like me to drop you?” Cole asked.

  “Anywhere they