She painted her memory of the train robbery, in particular, Amanda's sitting down with her look of shock and gunpowder all over her face just after she'd been shot at. The passengers around them were a blur, had been a blur at the time, so she left them that way. The two robbers who had marched down the aisle were in the picture, the one who'd shot at Amanda more clearly defined. Though she could only depict half of his face, since the other half had been covered with his bandana, his eyes were rather distinct, more golden in color than brown, and very round in shape.

She started smiling before she was even half done, her mood greatly lightened. Though there hadn't been anything amusing about that robbery as it was happening, Amanda with her face blackened from gun smoke and shocked into silence, was priceless. Maybe she'd let Amanda have a look at it when it was finished, after all.

She grinned at the thought, but knew she wouldn't. Amanda would destroy it, just like she'd destroyed the last picture Marian had done of her diat didn't show her at her best.

She was surprised when the light faded and she realized that it was almost evening. But then she always seemed to lose track of time when she painted. The knock came at the door shortly thereafter.

"Dinner in fifteen minutes," she heard Rita call out.

She wasn't planning on going downstairs, not tonight anyway, but she did want to catch her aunt to let her know that, before Kathleen went down. She retrieved her spectacles. While she was painting was the only time she refused to wear them. Of course, she always painted in private, where she wouldn't be interrupted, so it didn't really matter.

The second knock at the door came before she reached it. She assumed it was Rita again, making sure she'd heard her, but Kathleen was standing there when she opened it.

"I was told you started painting this afternoon," her aunt said. "May I see your progress? Or do you prefer to wait until you've finished each piece before anyone views what you're working on?"

"I don't mind," Marian replied with a shy smile, and opened the door a bit wider.

"Oh, my." Kathleens surprise was genuine as she approached the easel. "Did she really get that close to gunfire?"

"She was shot at when she wouldn't give up her purse without a fight."

"That was—rather brave of her."

Marian grinned at her aunt's pause. "No, it was about as stupid as she can get, when there were four of them, all with drawn guns, and we had no reasonable way to prevent the robbery. She's lucky he only tried to scare her."

"Or he missed."

"That, too."

Kathleen had to cover her mouth to hide her own amusement over the depiction of Amanda's surprise.

"You're very good. It looks just like her, despite the gunpowder."

"It's all right to laugh, now that the danger is over. Her expression was quite funny."

Kathleen released her humor with a chuckle. "Still is. I'm impressed, sweetie. Staring at this makes me almost feel as if I were there and—oh, my."

"What?"

"I just noticed, the robber, I think I know him. Goodness, he looks just like John Bilks who used to work at the general store in town. He got fired when it was discovered that some money was missing from the cash box. The owner wanted him arrested, but there was no proof that he actually took the money. He moved on soon after—and has apparently progressed to train robbing. I'll bet the sheriff would like to see this painting."

"I'm pretty sure Amanda would object to that," Marian replied with a grin.

Kathleen, squinting her eyes at the painting, said, "You think so?" and they both chuckled. But then she suggested, "Maybe a miniature then, of just John Bilks? We can give it to the sheriff when we go to town on Saturday—and get you more canvases while we're there. You're obviously a much faster painter than I ever was. Were there at least enough in my old supplies to hold you over till then?"

"Yes, I—"

Marian didn't finish. Kathleen had moved to the side to look over the material that had been dug out of storage—and caught sight of the half-finished portrait of Chad still leaning against the back of the easel.

"Oh, my," Kathleen exclaimed before turning to look at her. "Your talent is simply amazing. And you do this from memory, don't you? Yes, you must. Incredible—and I'm glad you like him. Now, there's no need to blush about it. Any young girl your age would."

Marian looked down. "It's not that, it's—no one has ever complimented me on my painting before. My father insisted I had no talent, that I was only wasting my time—"

Kathleen cut in angrily, "Mortimer was a bastard, I'm sorry to say. If he could say something like that, I have no doubt it was because his 'favorite' had no talent in that area. She doesn't, does she?"

"No."

"As I thought. It probably infuriated him that you outshone her in this. And you should have known better. Just look at this painting. You've already captured the heart and breath of him, and it's not even finished."

"He does have an interesting face."

Kathleen burst out laughing. "Interesting, huh? I suppose you could put it that way. Now come on, dinner's waiting. Let's get downstairs before Consuela sends out the posse."

Marian didn't move. They'd been talking too long for her to claim she had a headache as she'd planned to do. But she wasn't about to sit down to dinner with Chad, not tonight, not until she lost the urge to shoot him on sight for the conclusion he'd drawn.

"You go ahead, Aunt Kathleen. I think I'm going to turn in early—"

"Oh, come on, you still have to eat. And it's just the two of us tonight. Chad's already begged off. He ended up hanging around my kitchen for quite a while this afternoon for some reason, and Consuela stuffed him to the brim. She can't stand to have a man underfoot without feeding him."

"Well, I suppose I could eat a few bites."

Chapter 31

CHAD SHOWED UP FOR dinner anyway. They were about halfway done when he walked in, sat down, and asked what was for dessert. Kathleen teased him a bit about his horses objecting to the amount of food he was putting away. They bantered back and forth, both laughing, moods light, until he introduced a new topic.

"Is Amanda ill?"

"No, she'd just rather not join the rest of us," Kathleen replied.

"Don't tell me she still needs resting up from the trip?" he asked.

"Possibly. She hasn't taken to the heat very well. You're used to it, so you barely notice it, but—"

"I notice it. It just hasn't been that hot lately, at least not enough to wilt the lady. So she's still pouting over being here?"

Kathleen coughed. Marian stared. To hear him call it on the mark, well, it didn't quite make sense to her, since he'd never spoken derisively about Amanda before. But then she was forgetting that he was probably still angry with her sister because he thought she'd played one of her tricks on him that morning.

She was amazing herself by how calm she'd remained ever since he walked in. Bantering with Kathleen, laughing, he'd behaved as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened that morning—until he mentioned Amanda. Then his tone had changed abruptly.

Her own anger was still simmering beneath the surface. Not that she still didn't want to shoot him. Of course, she knew she was being unfair. She'd known from the start that he'd wanted Amanda.

"I'm glad y'all didn't wait on me," Amanda said in the doorway, using a thick, if poor imitation of a Texas drawl. "And no, I haven't been pouting, darlin," she added, staring at Chad as she fanned herself vigorously. "Goodness, you aren't still annoyed that our little tryst in the stable got interrupted this morning, are you?"

Marian sucked in her breath. How on earth had Amanda found out about that? And why was she deliberately reinforcing Chad's conclusion that it had been her that he'd made love to?

Chad was blushing profusely, with Kathleen now staring at him wide-eyed. This was just the sort of scene Amanda loved to create, but for once it probably wasn't completely deliberate, or planned. She'd obviously overheard his less-than-flattering remarks about her and was now getting even with him. She wouldn't have come right in, because it would have taken her a few minutes to get her rage under control.

Marian was doing some blushing of her own. God, this meant Amanda had overheard a lot more than the table conversation just now. She had to have been in the stable this morning. There was no other way she could know about what had happened there.

But she had no reason to be in the stable. She didn't like horses, and she didn't know how to drive a carriage even if it had occurred to her to escape with the one still on the premises. There was simply nothing to draw her there—except Chad. She'd either seen him return to the ranch and decided to amuse herself with him for a while, to relieve her boredom. Or—actually, it was more likely that she'd simply been watching from her room when they were in the corral, saw Chad drag Marian back inside the stable, and was curious enough to come down to investigate why—and found them making love, and overheard what he'd said.

She must have thought it hilarious, that he'd drawn the wrong conclusion. She'd probably been laughing over it all day and plotting how to make the best use of what she knew in order to hurt Marian. This little scene wasn't for Chad's benefit. Amanda could care less what he thought. He was merely a tool to use, and a perfect one, since Amanda now knew that Marian wanted him for herself.