by Sarah Hegger
“No.” Cole stood. “Could you fetch my—”
“Coat.” Mellor handed him his coat. “I thought you might have need of this.”
Mother looked at Mellor and then him. “Pierce? Those are Ellie’s brothers?”
“Yeah.” Cole drew his Colt from his inside coat pocket.
Blinking at him, Mother paled. “What are you doing?”
“That looks like you could do with some help.” Brett stood and dropped his napkin on the table. “Could you fetch my pistol? It’s in—”
“The study.” Mellor nodded. He looked at Mother. “Mrs. Mansfield?”
“For certain!” She threw her napkin on the table and shot to her feet. “Fetch my derringer. No way in hell are my sons walking into this alone. I fancy a shot or two at Ellie’s brothers myself.”
Shocked into immobility, it took Cole a precious moment to catch up with his ears. By which time, Mother was marching through the foyer, cocking a small Derringer Mellor had produced from God knew where.
“Right.” She threw open the front door and aimed her pistol.
Jake’s hands shot in the air, followed by Paul and Patrick. Theo looked at the gun and bowed. “Good evening. Mrs. Mansfield, I presume?”
“Yes.” Mother locked her gaze on Theo. “Which one are you?”
“Theo.” He bowed.
Mother aimed at the other three. “He gets to live. Which one of you is Jake?”
Brett came up beside Cole. “I’ll cover the big one.”
“That’s not the one who needs covering.” He pointed his Colt at the twins. “Those two are the worst, and I believe our mother is going to kill Jake for me.”
“Mrs. Mansfield.” Theo stepped forward.
Cole covered him. He didn’t think Theo would have had anything to do with Jake’s schemes, but he still didn’t like the bastard that close to his mother.
“While I appreciate your desire to shoot Jake”—Theo clapped his hand on Jake’s shoulder hard enough to make Jake flinch—“he is my brother, and I haven’t completely given up on him.” Then he looked up at Cole, barely concealed fury in his eyes. “But if we could shelve Jake’s shooting for the moment, we have something more important to discuss.”
“Ellie’s going to kill you,” Jake murmured.
Theo kept glaring at him, and Cole could think of only one reason an older brother would be that pissed at him. A man who he had always gotten on well with. “Ellie will get over it,” he said. “Come in.”
Mother gaped at him. “This is not your house, Cole Mansfield. I decide who comes into this dwelling.”
“Fine.” Cole grit his teeth. “Mother, would—”
“By all means.” Mother gave Theo a tight smile. “Please come in.” She waved her pistol at Jake and the twins. “But this vermin stays on the porch.”
“Fair enough.” Theo stepped into the house. “You can put the guns away.”
“That remains to be seen,” Mother said. She nodded at Brett. “Keep an eye on those three out there.”
Brett nodded and cocked his gun.
“You.” Mother pointed at Theo. “Get in there and explain what’s happening to Ellie.”
Theo stopped in front of him. “Ellie will be fine. Ellie will be more than fine because I’m going to ensure your boy makes it so.”
Her arms full of clothes, Ellie had to step around Molly to get to her suitcase. Ellie seemed to have amassed more black dresses than any one woman needed since her time in New York.
The problem was that when she got a new fabric, she often tried it out in a garment for herself or Molly first. If anybody was rude enough to ask about the size of her wardrobe, that’s what she would tell them. By anyone, she meant her brothers. Who she was currently furious with.
She tried to shove a bombazine day gown into her trunk. A trunk she had sent Molly out to buy this morning.
“Stop that.” Molly rescued the gown and folded it. “I’m not sure why you won’t wait for your brothers.”
Ellie nearly growled at her. “You know why.”
“Because they went to demand Cole do the right thing?”
“But it’s not the right thing.” Suddenly exhausted, Ellie plopped on her bed. “Cole is in love with Victoria, and he wants to marry her. He’s wanted to marry her since he left New York years ago.”
Molly snorted and picked up a satin evening gown that Ellie had no use for before and would certainly have no use for once she began showing. But she could always take the seams out, and her gowns were a part of her. She was taking them with her, and she didn’t care how much her brothers complained about all her luggage.
“You know he’ll probably chase after you.” Molly finished the gown and sat beside her.
“No, he won’t.” And that made her sadder than she had any right to be. “Cole needs to stay here and pursue his dream. He deserves it.”
Molly pulled a face. “How is it that he deserves his dream and you don’t deserve yours?”
“I have my dream.” Ellie managed to say the words without sobbing. “This is my dream.” She waved her hand to indicate the store. “Sugar Ellie is long gone, and the respectable Widow Pierce makes lovely dresses for ordinary girls.”
“Hmm.” Molly looked around her. “And yet you’re going to run away?”
“Well, this rather changes things.” She looked at her belly. “Unless you think people will believe my husband magically rose from the grave.”
“Er…no.” Molly shook her head. “And that is going to be difficult to explain anywhere you go.”
Ellie had this part covered. “I’ve thought of that. I can say my husband died without knowing I was with child. It will make me even more of a pitiful figure.”
Molly looked skeptical. “And what about the store?”
“You’ll be the face people see until I can come back.” Ellie stood and dug a sheaf of papers out of her desk drawer. “I need to lie low until the baby is born.”
Molly stared at the papers as if they might bite. “I’m absolutely certain Cole will not be happy with that arrangement, and as your partner, needs to approve it.”
“Cole had no use for this place.” Ellie shrugged. “And only Joy comes around to check on how we’re doing. I’m sure she will see that you’re the best person for the job.”
“What if I don’t want the store?” Molly folded her arms. “What if I want to come with you?”
Ellie hadn’t thought of that. “Do you? Want to leave?”
“No.” Molly rolled her eyes. “I like it here, and I’m close to my family again.”
It was true. “You’re good at this, Molly. I’ve watched you with the customers, you’re at least as good as I am with them, and I will be mailing you designs.”
“You’ve said all this.” Molly sighed. “But I don’t know why you’re in such a hurry to leave now.”
“Because my brothers went to see Cole.” She couldn’t remain still anymore, and she went to the window and looked out. “I don’t want to be forced on him.”
The normal morning bustle carried on outside her window. Now, however, the bustle had divided into familiar parts. The boy running with his cap pulled low over his eyes was Silas from three stores down. His dad owned a printing business, and Silas often ran messages and whatnot around the city. On the corner, Maria sold her delicious fresh bread that she baked every morning. Across the road from her store, the Gillespie brothers were arguing again. No matter the subject, the brothers would argue.
It felt familiar, but not like home. Perhaps with the baby coming, home took on a special importance for her. Theo had asked her what she wanted to do, stay in New York, return to the Four Kings, even come with him to California. That was before he announced he was off to see Cole, and all hell had broken loose.
For once in their lives, all four of her brothers had united against her. Cole needed to be told. That’s where opinions split. Patrick and Paul were in favor of beating Cole senseless, particularly Paul, who was
looking for some payback. Jake had tried hatching a scheme to use her baby to extort money from Cole and the rest of the Mansfields. Theo had beat Ellie to it and punched Jake in the mouth for that one.
Theo wanted to fetch the preacher. Fetch the preacher indeed. Ellie went back to her packing. As if a woman like her would ever need a preacher for anything other than the last rites.
“You really must hate that bonnet.” Molly rescued the crepe bedecked bonnet Ellie had been mangling into a hatbox. “Ellie.” She stood in Ellie’s path until Ellie looked at her. “Your brothers are right. Cole needs to know about his child.”
Right now, Theo could be telling Cole. He would be horrified, destroyed, see all his hopes and dreams crumbling. That’s if he recognized the child. The thought snuck into her mind and punched the breath out her lungs.
That’s what she was really scared of. Cole would find out she was carrying his baby and not care. He would carry on with his life, even marry Victoria in some lavish society wedding, and never once think about a girl who had loved him enough to give herself to him, and the child she had brought into this world.
Ellie had seen it happen more times than she’d seen saloon brawls. Dammit! Half the girls who had worked for her had started like this and ended up being tossed out of home to fend for themselves. It wasn’t fair, and it darn sure wasn’t right, but she had lived in the real world for too long for girlish dreams to survive.
Men walked away once they’d gotten what they wanted, and they didn’t look back.
Cole hadn’t walked away from her. She could acquit him of that. They had ended things by mutual agreement. If anything, she’d been the one pushing that agreement for the sake of her poor, battered heart. She was the one who had told him not to come and see her. Of course, Cole had gotten around that by sending Joy, but he’d abided by the letter of their agreement.
Molly was right. He did deserve the chance to know this child. The man who had rescued her from Jake, and then Pete, brought her all the way to New York, and set her up in a business was a man who would want to know he had a child. She pressed her palm to her belly. Cole had made this life with her and he deserved the chance to be a part of the baby’s life.
“What is it?” Molly was by her side immediately. “You don’t feel good?”
“I feel fine.” Physically at least. “I need to tell Cole about the baby.”
“I—”
Hammering at the door startled the two of them.
“Ellie!” Cole yelled from the street. “Open this door.”
“Well.” Molly peered out the window. “The good news is I don’t think you need to tell him anymore.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
After weeks of not seeing Cole, Ellie took a long moment to drink him in.
Molly had let him in and then left them alone in the workroom.
With wind-ruffled hair and his cravat askew, he reminded her more of the Cole she used to know. He had that rakish air that drew women to him. At least it drew this woman like a magic spell he cast over her.
“Ellie.” Cole studied her, his gaze lingering on her midsection. “Is it true?”
“Yes.” He was there, strong and tall and dependable, and she wanted to collapse into him and weep. Except she’d given up the right to do anything of the sort.
Cole shoved his hands in his pockets. “You should have told me.”
“I was working up to that.”
“Why?” He raised his voice and then lowered it immediately. “I don’t understand why I had to hear this from Theo.”
That Cole was more bothered about the delivery of the news than the news itself threw her off, and she had to find her voice. This wasn’t the question she had thought to be answering first.
If she had given herself time to think through the possibilities, the scene might have played out like this: Cole arrived puffed up with righteous indignation and demanded how she had allowed such a thing to happen.
Except, Cole never did what she expected him to. “You want to marry Victoria,” she said. “I couldn’t take that away from you. It’s been your dream for so long, and I want you to have that.”
Cole studied her in silence for a while and then he said, “Why, Sugar? Why is it so important that I have my dream?”
It was similar to what Molly had asked, and she still couldn’t answer it fully. “Because you waited all those years for her. You loved her, Cole. I want you to have the love and happiness you deserve.”
“I did love her.” Cole closed the distance between them. “When I was young and spoiled. She was young and spoiled too, and we fit together perfectly in our world.”
For a moment, Ellie struggled to catch a breath. That hurt more than she would have thought possible. Also, hearts really did feel like they were snapping in two. “There, you see.” She cleared her throat to loosen it. “That’s why I haven’t told you.”
Cole stopped in front of her. “Would you ever have told me?”
“I don’t know.” Ellie answered as honestly as she could. “I know you had the right to know about your child, but I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize your engagement to Victoria.”
“What engagement?”
That surprised her, but she maintained her line. “Well, if you’re not engaged now, you soon will be.”
“I’m engaged as of this moment.” Cole caught her by the waist and tugged her closer.
“Cole!” Ellie tried to free herself. “What are you doing?”
“Making sure my fiancée can hear me good and clear.” He wrapped his arms around her waist.
He’d brought Victoria? Ellie peered around him, but the workroom was empty.
“Are you listening, Sugar?” He tightened his hold. “Say ‘Yes, Cole’ if you can hear me.”
“Yes, Cole.” Her mind had blanked.
“I am not, nor have I been, engaged to Victoria since my return.” He leaned closer to her ear. “Ask me why, Sugar?”
Her pulse drummed in her throat. She didn’t want to think too hard about what was happening. Her everything hung in the balance. “Why?”
“A week ago, I admitted Victoria and I did not suit.” One hand rested on the curve of her spine, the other slid into the hair at her nape. “I haven’t seen her since, but I have it on good authority she’s not suffering alone.”
“Oh.” All this man ever had to do was touch her, and she melted for him. Surely, a woman should have more backbone than that.
“Now ask me where I was going before your brothers interrupted my breakfast?”
“Where?”
“Here.” He nuzzled her neck. “I couldn’t stand not seeing you anymore. Now ask me why.”
And Ellie discovered her gumption by sheer force of will. “I tell you what.” She drew back enough to meet his gaze. “How about we stop the guessing games, and you lay it out for me?”
“There’s my Sugar Ellie.” Cole smiled, and in his eyes was an expression that made her breath stop and her heart miss a beat. He looked at her as if there was nobody he’d rather be looking at and nowhere he’d rather be. “Here we go then. I love you, Sugar Ellie Pierce. I think I’ve been half in love with you for years. No man offers twenty thousand dollars for a woman he’s fond of.”
It had always been Cole for her. Deep in that place within that she steered clear of, Cole was nestled in burr-like and forever. “You were never serious about that.”
“No, I wasn’t.” He kissed her forehead. “But I would have paid every cent I owned to have you look at me like you’re looking at me now.”
“How am I looking at you?” It was past time for Ellie to ask the questions.
“Like you love me.” Cole held her gaze. “Do you, Sugar? Do you love me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He wrapped her into him and surrounded her with the scent and feel of him. “Because you’re the dream I’ve been chasing all these years.” He kissed her temple. “It wasn’t Victoria at all. I was chasing the dream of
a woman to share my life, love me like I loved her, and make the sun come out every day for me.”
Ellie glowed from the warm happy place inside. “Ask me if I want the same?”
“Do you, Ellie?” He rested his head atop hers. “Do you want the same?”
Snuggling as close as she could, she said, “I do, Cole. In every way I possibly can, I do.”
Epilogue
Ellie huffed and puffed alongside Cole as they walked into the Denver Pacific Railway station. They were running a bit late on account of there being so much more of her to dress and get moving these days.
“I still think you should have stayed at home.” Cole stared at her huge belly pointedly.
As they waited for their baby to make its appearance, Cole had been getting more and more antsy and protective.
“Not with Bridget there,” she said. “And besides, I wanted to be here to meet the train.”
“Sugar.” Cole raised his eyebrow at her. “When are you going to start the obeying part of your vows?”
Ellie giggled, because they both knew the answer to that. “Never.”
They’d both decided New York was nice for a visit but the red dirt of Denver was baked soul deep into both of them. Cole had kept his beautiful house when he had left for New York and Roberts was delighted to have them back. He was still trying to turn Silas and Caleb respectable. Caleb had taken to working in a smart house just fine, but Silas still missed his days of tending bar.
Ellie still got the occasional person from the Four Kings recognize Sugar Ellie, but it didn’t bother her anymore. Sugar Ellie was a survivor and part of who she was. Cole had tracked down the old oil painting of her that used to hang above the bar and it now hung in their bedroom.
Isaac had brought Bridget to Denver for the birth of her first baby. They’d arrived on Cole’s doorstep two nights ago with the news that Pete had sent them to make sure the birth went well. Roberts had taken charge and moved them to a room as far away from Ellie and Cole’s as the mansion allowed.
Ellie would not have thought it possible, but Bridget had gotten even lovelier, and she was ridiculously happy. Of course, that meant she chattered more than ever. Isaac, and he must really love her, listened to every word she said as if it came straight from the lips of God.