"Lantz asked me to kill him several days ago," Luke said. "I refused."

"How? Won't you be marked a coward for failing to perform the job you were hired to do?"

"I was hired to find the rustlers," Luke said.

"Then what are you doing here?"

Melody couldn't get it out of her head that Luke was a killer. Did it make any difference to a man like that whether he killed a perfect stranger or somebody he knew?

"Luke wouldn't shoot me."

"What?" Melody's guilt over her thoughts caused her to flush.

"You're wondering if Luke might not shoot me even though I am his brother."

She tried to deny it, but her tongue wouldn't move.

"It's a fair question. Everybody knows killers have no conscience. We couldn't have. How else could we do what we do?"

"I wasn't thinking that," Melody protested.

"Yes, you were. I saw it in your face." She wasn't, not about Chet. Never about him. She could tell right then that any progress she'd made last night had just been wiped out. The worst part of it was that she'd done it to herself.

"It's not that," she said, desperately trying to think of a way out, panicked that she'd said something unforgivable, and Chet would never speak to her again. "Lantz was just in our room. He got mad when I told him I wouldn't marry him because I loved you. He said he was going to have Luke kill you. When I saw Luke climbing in the window, I thought"

"He was climbing out," Chet said.

"What's he doing here?" Melody asked again. Then she remembered where she'd seen Luke before. He'd been the man who found Chet after Blade shot him. "Why didn't you tell me you were his brother then?" she asked Luke.

"When was that?"

"After Blade shot him?"

"I didn't know what he was doing there, who you were, anything about the situation. I thought it best not to mention it."

"And now?"

"I came to tell him I know who's behind the rustling."

"Who?" Melody asked.

"Blade."

"I don't believe it," Melody said. "Why would he rustle his own father's cows?"

"Because he's mad at his father. He blames him for stealing you away from him."

Melody didn't know what to say. She'd never been close to falling in love with Blade. She'd almost forgotten he'd ever wanted to marry her.

"That's why he's been stealing your cows as well," Luke told Melody. "He thinks you threw him over for his father because of his money."

"But I'm not going to marry Lantz."

"That's not the impression you gave when you were at the ranch after Chet stampeded Lantz's herd."

Melody remembered that Blade had been particularly nasty that night.

"I was just trying to keep Lantz from guessing I'd had anything to do with the raid on his herd."

"Blade couldn't be expected to know that. I had something else to tell you," Luke said, turning to his brother. "Blade has sworn to kill you."

"I'm not worried about him," Chet said.

"You'd better be." Luke said. "He doesn't mean to meet you in a fair fight."

"How do you know?" Melody asked.

"It's been my job to see he didn't leave the house until he was well again," Luke said. "I've had plenty of time to hear nearly every thought that has pa.s.sed through his head."

"But they'll hang him."

"He thinks his father can get him out of anything," Luke said. "Don't underestimate him. I think he's crazy."

"What are you going to do?" Melody asked Chet.

"Nothing. You're going to hire a new foreman. I'll leave. If I'm not here, it won't matter what Blade wants to do."

Something about the way he said that scared Melody all the way down to her toes. "But I don't want you to leave. Belle and I have decided we want you to be our foreman. You can"

"No."

"Chet, you can't . . . I thought . . ." "I'd better be going," Luke said. "I don't want Lantz to know where I've been."

Melody didn't have any attention to give Luke as he climbed out the window. She had to make Chet understand that his becoming the Spring Water foreman was best for both of them.

"I don't understand why you won't take the job," Melody said. "We've got to have some place to live after we get married. It will be a little crowded at"

"We're not going to get married," Chet said.

There was no doubt in her mind that he meant what he said. He had looked straight at her. His gaze didn't waver. "I thought . . . after last night . . ."

"I thought so, too," Chet said. "For a few hours I thought it could work, that we could make it work. It wouldn't be easy, but I told myself if we loved each other enough . . ."

"What?"

"Nothing. It doesn't matter anymore."

"Why? What happened? Don't you love me anymore?"

"I love you as much as ever."

"Then why?"

"Do you remember what you were thinking a few minutes ago?"

Cold, deep and numbing, filled her inside. "I wasn't thinking it about you," she said, desperate to make him believe her. "I don't know your brother. Lantz had just said he was going to have him kill you."

"But you saw him as a killer."

"But" She didn't have to finish that sentence. Chet already knew what she'd been about to say.

"But he is a killer. Isn't that what you were going to say? It's what anybody would say about Luke. It's what they'll say about me. It's what you'll think one day."

"No, Chet, I'll never think that about you."

"You won't be able to help yourself, because that's what I was. A man can't outrun his past. He can't deny what he was. Neither can his wife."

"I could," Melody pleaded. "I could!"

"You'd be lying to yourself, and I'd see it in your eyes. I couldn't stand that. I would leave before I let that happen." He turned to pick up his saddlebags. She grabbed him by the arm.

"Chet, please listen to me!"

"Go back to Richmond, Melody. Marry one of those nice men who's never lifted a gun except to hunt rabbits. You and your children will never have anything to reproach him with."

She pulled at his arm as hard as she could, but she might have saved her strength for all the good it did her. "Chet, for G.o.d's sake, listen to me! I'm not the same person who came out here from Richmond. I don't judge people the same way. I won't"

He grabbed her and kissed her, fiercely and hard. For a moment euphoria flooded her. He'd changed his mind. He would stay. But when he put her away from him, she knew she'd lost.

"Good-bye, Melody."

"Where are you going? You've got to tell me where you're going!"

"I don't know, but it doesn't really matter."

Then he was gone. The door closed behind him, and she was alone.

The bedits neatly made appearance giving no indication of the pa.s.sionate embraces that had been exchanged on it just a few hours earlier seemed to mock her. She'd risked everything for the man she loved, then lost him because she fell prey to the same blind prejudice she thought she'd shed. She hadn't meant it, not even the thoughts Chet had suspected. She was just so afraid for him that she didn't trust anyone, especially not someone who was a killer. Didn't he understand that?

Of course he did. He'd understood it long before she did. He'd known she felt that way even when she didn't. That was why he'd gone. He couldn't endure knowing his wife thought him a killer.

And, G.o.d help her, she still did.

Returning to the ranch didn't bring Melody any relief from the terrible feeling that her life was over. She hadn't managed to solve any of her problems, either. They didn't have a foreman, the rustlers hadn't been caught, and Lantz still meant to take her ranch. They hadn't had to hire Lantz's third candidate because Dan Walters had offered to handle the job until they could find someone. That pleased Belle, but it hadn't made Sydney very happy. Even Neill seemed to feel Chet's absence.

"I'm going for a ride," Sydney announced as soon as the buggy came to a halt.

"Me, too," Neill announced.

Melody was surprised when Sydney didn't raise any objections. She was even more surprised when Belle didn't either. Apparently Belle thought Dan's presence insured that everything would be all right. Melody liked Dan a lot, but nothing felt right without Chet.

"Just don't go too far," Belle said. "This will be our first dinner back at home. I'm sure Bernice has planned something special."

Melody knew the boys didn't care what Bernice had planned for dinner as long as it was plentiful. From the besotted look on Belle's face, she doubted her stepmother did, either.

That made Melody miss Chet all the more.

He'd disappeared without a trace. She'd even tracked down Luke to see if he knew. He answered every question she asked, but he couldn't tell her where Chet had gone.

Or he wouldn't.

She managed to pull herself together sufficiently to introduce Dan to the crew. She was pleased to see they responded well to him. She wasn't pleased to learn the rustlers had run off another batch of steers the night before.

"They didn't get so many this time," Speers said. "It was almost like they did it for spite. They took calves and yearlings, which ain't going to be worth much of nothing to them. They could have got fat steers if they'd taken a little more time."

Melody thought of Luke's saying Blade was behind the rustling. As difficult as she found that to believe, it made sense with the kind of rustling that was going on. She hadn't told Belle, but she'd have to tell Dan. If he was going to be responsible for their herd, he had to know what he was up against.

Melody found it most difficult to face Bernice. She'd never been able to hide anything from this kindly woman.

"He's gone, and he's not coming back," she told Bernice when she asked about Chet. "And it's all my fault."

Bernice made her sit down at the table. She poured them each a cup of coffee. Then she sat next to Melody and took her hand.

"Maybe you made a mistake, but it's his fault, too."

"How?"

"A good man ought to be smart enough to see past some foolish things said in haste."

"He can. I just couldn't see past his gun. I acted just like everybody else. You should have seen his eyes. I saw something in them die, and I couldn't do anything about it."

"Did he say where he was going?"

Melody felt a momentary impulse to smile, but it was too weak to reach her facial muscles. "I've already thought of following him, but I don't know where he went."

"Do you think he'll come back?"

The question was spoken softly, almost fearfully.

"No. I confirmed what he feared. If I just hadn't been so afraid that man had been sent to kill him . . ."

"What man?"

"Luke, Lantz's gunfighter. They're brothers. Chet and Luke are brothers."

"What were you doing meeting him?"

"He'd come to tell Chet that Blade meant to kill him. He also said Blade was behind the rustling."