The woman’s voice rose in hysteria. She made his spine tingle. He felt an urge to promise he’d never touch a knife again, not even to cut his steak. Or butter his bread, if it came to that.
“I wasn’t going to use it,” he assured her as best he could. It didn’t seem to do much good, if the outraged expression on her face was any indicator.
“Honestly,” he added. “I left my military blade in the hospital back east and bought the kind of knife the ranch hands usually have. It’s more to cut twine than hurt anyone.”
She looked at him, suspicion pinching her face. “Some men have been trained to kill with a fork.”
“Not me,” he said, defending himself. He could kill with a ballpoint pen, but he thought it best not to mention that. “I’m finished with violence.”
The chaplain had brought him that far, at least. He wasn’t prepared to gather any more guilt on his soul over people being hurt. Not even when it came to the feelings of a flighty, emotional woman like this one.
“I need to take your vitals,” the nurse announced as she stopped pushing buttons on the machine by the bed. “It’s best if you’re lying down when I do.”
“Just a minute.” Rusty kept his eyes on his visitor. She wasn’t looking too steady.
“My daughter was there,” she finally said, as though that explained it all.
Even if he hadn’t done anything to cause her distress, Rusty didn’t like seeing her this way. He reached to his left and pulled a chair over for her. He was remembering more about last night the longer he stood there. Maybe he wasn’t as blameless as he thought.
“I promise you were safe,” he assured her. He wasn’t sure how she’d react if he took her hand, but that was what he wanted to do. “I’m sure I scared you, but I would never have hurt you. I owe you my life. If you hadn’t taken me into your house last night, I would have died.”
He hated to say it, but he was a fair man. She deserved the acknowledgment. “I owe you big-time.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” she said, a little downcast.
That wasn’t the response he’d expected.
“Well, I’d like to think you don’t regret it,” he said a bit stiffly.
She finally sat down on the chair.
“No, I don’t regret it,” she admitted and a shy smile formed at the edge of her mouth. If he wasn’t mistaken, she was teasing him. “Not too much, at least.”
The morning light came in through the window and settled around her, making her face shine a little. He could see why he’d thought her skin was the color of pearls last night.
“You truly are remarkable,” he said softly.
Her honey-colored eyes widened and the specks in them seemed to multiply. She clearly hadn’t expected him to be that nice.
“I’m just myself,” she said.
That was why he should never forget that excitable women were completely incomprehensible to him. It wasn’t as if he’d been going to lean over and kiss her or anything. She didn’t need to be alarmed at a simple compliment.
And then he realized he was standing too close. She was sitting in the chair and he was leaning in a little so he could talk to her easily. Hovering, really. Maybe he would have kissed her if she kept smiling that way.
That would never do, he thought as he straightened himself.
“What I should have said is that I’ll pay you for last night.” He instinctively reached for his wallet. Which, of course, he didn’t have since his clothes were gone. He looked over at the small table beside his hospital bed. “Don’t worry. I’ll write a check before you leave.”
“I really should take your blood pressure,” the nurse interjected. “And don’t let Renee tell you that she’s just a cook. She keeps that bunkhouse working. Doctors the men when they’re sick. Makes them take their vitamins. Sees they call their families.”
“So your name’s Renee,” Rusty said with a smile.
The woman gave a curt nod. “Renee Gray.”
“Lovely name. I’m Rusty Cal—”
“—houn,” Renee and the nurse said in unison and then laughed.
“There’s no such thing as a stranger around here,” the nurse finally said. “We all know your name.”
“Can you give us a minute?” Rusty asked the nurse. He still wasn’t certain that Renee was doing so well this morning. She was acting a little erratic, in his opinion. Scared one moment and delirious the next.
“Well, I guess I can come back later,” the nurse agreed.
Rusty couldn’t detect any hint of hurt feelings or dismay in the nurse’s voice. Yes, she was the kind of woman for him, even if he couldn’t quite picture kissing her.
“Now,” Rusty said when he turned to Renee. The nurse was gone and he realized he had nothing left to say. “Oh, and I owe you for taking care of Annie, too,” he suddenly remembered.
She shook her head. “Pete, one of the ranch hands, helped me. She’s doing fine in the barn.” She paused. “I didn’t see your dog, but Pete and I left some steak bones out by the barn and they were gone this morning.”
“He’s around. He won’t be far from Annie.”
“What’s his name?”
“Dog.”
“He looks like a wolf.”
“That’s why I call him Dog. To remind people.”
“Oh.”
“Tell Pete thanks, too.”
Rusty was going to owe a lot of people before this was all over.
“I—ah.” The woman nodded and then stood up. “I came because I called the Elktons this morning and told them what happened last night. Mr. Elkton wanted me to pass along an invitation for you to stay in the bunkhouse, if you want—with the ranch hands. Mr. Elkton said he remembered you from when you’d worked for him a few days when you were a boy.”
“Really? He remembered me after all these years?”
That touched him.
Renee nodded. “He said he’d never seen a kid work like you did. And all for a necklace. Wouldn’t even take a break for a soda. And then you came back two extra Saturdays and chopped wood because you thought he’d overpaid you the first time.”
“We Calhouns don’t take charity.” Rusty wouldn’t have been able to buy the necklace in time if he hadn’t accepted the man’s extra money, though.
“Well, I hope whoever you bought those pearls for appreciated it,” Renee said politely. “Mr. Elkton remembered you describing it to him. Said you talked about it being the most beautiful strand of pearls ever strung together.”
“I should have taken those pearls out and buried them like Dog does his bones in the backyard,” he said bitterly.
“Oh.”
Renee looked at him for a bit.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” he finally admitted. “They were proper pearls. Still are. It’s not their fault they weren’t good enough.”
He saw no point in stirring up past heartache. He’d bought the pearls for his mother’s birthday, only to have her leave home with some guy in a pickup five hours after Rusty had given the necklace to her. She didn’t even have the courage to tell his father what she was doing. She’d left when