“He never said a word about the will.”
She turned to Hawk. “What did you say to him to make him change his mind?”
“I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t listen,” Hawk said.
Joseph burst into the room. “What was in that will?” he asked. When Emily told him, he turned to Bret, pointed a finger at him, and shouted, “You always were a liar and a thief. Now you’re trying to steal Emily’s inheritance.”
“Want me to throw him out again?” Zeke had returned with Joseph and was eyeing him with a complete lack of friendliness.
“That’s what everybody’s going to think when they hear about this,” Bret said. “I own half the ranch, have control of Emily’s inheritance, and my brothers are the foremen. That puts me in a position to rob her blind if I wanted.”
“Which is exactly what you intend to do,” Joseph shouted.
“If you don’t learn to talk without shouting, I am going to throw you out again,” Zeke said.
“He’s just angry because he thinks Mr. Nolan beat him to stealing Emily’s money,” Bertie said.
“My father is far too wealthy to consider such a paltry sum as what this ranch is worth.”
“I noticed you didn’t say anything about your father having too much integrity or honor,” Bertie pointed out before turning to Jinx. “Come with me. There’s things likely to be said here that won’t be good for your ears.”
“How can words hurt my ears?” Jinx asked.
“If I have to take hold of one to drag you out of this room, you’ll find out,” Bertie snapped.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” Jinx said as he headed for the door. “I’m always being bossed around.”
“Be glad somebody cares enough about you to bother.” Bertie didn’t sound the least bit sympathetic.
“He bewitched your father,” Joseph said.
“I didn’t ask for this responsibility, and I don’t want it,” Bret said.
Emily swung her gaze to Hawk and Zeke, but they shrugged their shoulders. “We really did try to talk him out of it, but he was determined,” Zeke said.
“I warned you not to trust Bret,” Joseph said. “I warned you even before he got here.”
Joseph had warned her, but Bret wasn’t anything like the man she’d expected. From the very first, he’d chipped away at her preconceived notions until it wasn’t long before nothing of them remained. In their place was a man she’d fallen in love with, a man Bertie liked, a man her father apparently had trusted. A man Jinx adored.
“Mr. Abercrombie thought a long time before he made up his mind to change his will,” Hawk said. “He had to do some pretty sharp talking to convince Zeke and me to sign it.”
“What did he say?” Emily asked.
“It all boiled down to him thinking Bret was the man best able to see you and your interests protected,” Zeke said.
“Bret is no more than a fancy clerk,” Joseph said.
“There’s more than one person ready to step in if he needs help,” Hawk said.
“Who? His pitiful family of orphans?” Joseph sneered.
“For a man nobody likes, you sure do have a mouth on you,” Zeke said. “You might consider keeping it shut.”
“Are you threatening me?” Joseph demanded.
“You’re damned right,” Zeke shot back.
“You heard him,” Joseph said to Emily. “The three of them are in league to cheat you. And they’re willing to murder me to get away with it.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Emily snapped at Joseph. “Nobody’s going to murder you.”
“Don’t go speaking for me,” Zeke said. “I’ve got nothing against spilling a little blood from time to time.”
Bret took Emily’s hands, met her gaze squarely. “I didn’t ask for this, and I don’t want it. I’ll find someone else to handle your inheritance, and I’ll give you back my half of the ranch as soon as I can.”
“I don’t think you ought to do that,” Hawk said.
“See, I told you they were trying to cheat you,” Joseph said, pointing to Hawk and Zeke. “You should never have trusted men like them.”
Everyone ignored Joseph.
“Why not?” Bret asked Hawk.
“Because it’s what Mr. Abercrombie wanted, for one thing,” Zeke said. “He had a lot of good reasons. If he hadn’t, we wouldn’t have agreed to witness the will.”
Emily turned to Zeke, hopeful he could unravel this mystery for her. “What reasons?”
“Hawk already told you. He thinks Bret is the best man for the job.”
“But that doesn’t explain why he’d give away half my ranch,” Emily said. “Did he tell you why?”
“He made us promise not to tell you,” Hawk said.
“Why?” Emily looked from Hawk to Zeke to Bret. “My father never kept things from me. Why would he tell you something he wouldn’t tell me?”
“Because he thought it was best,” Hawk said.
Emily couldn’t accept that. She liked Zeke and Hawk, and she loved Bret. He had said he would give her back his half of the ranch, but that wasn’t what was bothering her. Why had it been given to him in the first place? What had been said and done that she didn’t know about?
As much as she wanted to trust Bret, everything pointed to him. The dramatic change in the will benefited him to the exclusion of anyone else. Even herself.
Bret’s hold on her hands tightened. “You don’t believe I did something to cause your father to change his will, do you?”
Emily couldn’t answer. She didn’t know what she believed.
“I will give back my half of the ranch. It would be impossible for me to run it from Boston.”
“You don’t need to be here,” Joseph said. “You’ve already made sure your brothers are in control.”
Even after swearing he loved her, after having made love to her, Bret didn’t love her enough to stay in Texas. He figured he could handle her financial affairs from Boston, and his brothers would run the ranch.
“I don’t know what I think, and I don’t know what I want to do,” Emily said, addressing all four men. “This has come as a complete shock.”
“I can tell you exactly—” Joseph began.
“You won’t tell me exactly what to do,” Emily nearly shouted. “Nobody is going to tell me what to do.” She had to get away. She had to get her feelings under control so she could think clearly. The man she loved didn’t want to marry her, and her father hadn’t trusted her. The two most important men in her life had let her down, and she had to figure out what she was going to do about it. She wanted to talk to Bertie, but Bertie thought Bret was perfect. “I’m going to visit Ida for a couple of days,” she announced. “I’m not running away,” she said when Bret started to speak. “I just need some time to think, and I need it without you being so close.”
“I’ll go with you,” Joseph said.
“I’m going alone.” She turned to Hawk and Zeke. “I’ve got to try to figure out what Dad was thinking.” She turned back to Bret. “I don’t understand. I thought you loved me.”
“I do love you.”
“Then why are you leaving?”
“I told you why. But I thought of a way to—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” she said, stopping him. She pulled her hands from his grasp. “I’ll leave as soon as I can pack a few things and saddle my horse.”
“You have to go after her,” Hawk said to Bret as Emily was leaving the room.
“No. If she can’t find a reason to trust me by herself, nothing I say will make any difference.”
“She’ll never trust any of you again if I have anything to say about it,” Joseph said.
“Leave her alone,” Bret said.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” Joseph spat at him. “I’m not a clerk.”
“If we tie you to a fence post, nobody will have to tell you anything,” Hawk said.
“Right now she’s more hurt about her father doing
this without telling her than she is about anything else,” Bret said.
“You’re a fool if you think she’s more worried about that than about the money,” Joseph said.
“I think I just may have been a fool,” Bret said, “but it has nothing to do with money.”
“Amen,” Hawk and Zeke said together.
Two hours in the saddle under the hot summer sun had done a lot to take the steam out of Emily’s anger, but it hadn’t altered any of the facts. Bret didn’t love her, and somehow he’d been responsible for her father changing his will. How could she work with the man she loved, knowing he didn’t love her? It didn’t matter that he’d be a thousand miles away. She’d have to communicate with him about how to handle her inheritance. They would have to develop a plan for the management of the ranch. He would insist upon taking her to Galveston. He would be woven into the very fabric of her life.
Maybe he thought she didn’t love him. She’d refused to go to Boston with him before he’d refused to stay in Texas for her. It probably didn’t matter that she thought he had more reason to move to Texas than she did to move to Boston. It was all a matter of perspective. They each saw their position as unalterable.
Emily glanced over her shoulder. She knew someone was following her, and she was certain neither Bret nor his brothers would let Joseph out of their sight. Bret distrusted him. Hawk and Zeke distrusted and disliked him.
At first, she’d thought Bret was trying to catch up with her, but after a while she realized he was only following. Knowing he was trying to make sure she reached Ida’s safely made it hard to stay angry at him, but she had some serious issues to face, some hard decisions to make. What she decided in the next few days would determine the course of the rest of her life. She couldn’t afford to let her decisions be clouded by sentiment or anger.
The landscape didn’t offer much to distract her. The various kinds of grama grass, along with buffalo and Indian grass, were tall and green from the spring rains, but they would turn yellow during the course of the summer. She passed fat, healthy cows grazing in grass up to their bellies, their calves either hidden by the tall grass or struggling to fight their way through. As the day progressed, it would become so hot the cows would seek shade in the scattered stands of oak or the willows and cottonwoods found along a water course. She’d only seen one white-tailed deer, but several small herds of pronghorn antelope had eyed her uneasily as she rode past. Most ranchers wanted to get rid of them because they competed with the cows for grass.
She wondered if Bret would want to eliminate the antelope. They weren’t pretty—their convex faces and blunt noses made them look almost comical—but she liked the little animals.
She realized she could hear the hooves of the horse behind her. Though she was relieved that Bret wanted to make sure she reached Ida’s safely, she was angry that he hadn’t respected her need to be away from him for a few days.
Damn! Being in love was hell.
After hanging back for a time, it was clear that Bret meant to catch up with her. Emily held her horse at a steady pace, practicing the things she’d say. When his horse reached the flank of her horse, she slowed her mount and turned, words ready to tumble off her lips. When she realized she was looking at Lonnie instead of Bret, the words died stillborn.
“Are you surprised to see me?” Lonnie asked.
“What are you doing here? Where have you been?” She was so surprised she didn’t even think about the rustling.
“Waiting for a chance to talk to you.”
“What about?”
“To ask you to marry me.”
With all that had happened during the last few days, Emily had forgotten that Lonnie was in love with her. Her father was dead, Bret didn’t love her, and now the man who’d tried to steal her cattle wanted to marry her. She couldn’t take much more. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she snapped before she realized how hurtful that sounded. “I don’t love you,” she said in a milder tone. “And if I had, my love certainly would have ended when you betrayed me and tried to steal my cows.”
“I didn’t betray you or try to steal from you.”
“Hawk and Zeke have two men locked up in the barn who swear you hired them to brand my calves.”
“I did that because I love you. When we get married I’ll explain everything.”
“I’m not going to marry you. I’m on my way to stay with Ida for a few days. If you’re smart, you’ll leave Texas as fast as you can.”
“I can’t leave you. I love you. Everything will be fine once we’re married.”
Emily was in no mood to explain that things had gone too far ever to be fine again. “If Bret or his brothers find you, you’ll hang.”
“I’m sorry we have to do it this way.”
Lonnie had always been extremely deferential to Emily, so she was utterly unprepared for him to grab her, pull her arms behind her back, and tie her wrists with rawhide. “What are you doing?” she demanded.
“Taking you to find a preacher to marry us.”
Grasping her horse’s bridle, he turned off the trail and headed cross-country.
“I thought you said Emily needed time alone,” Hawk said as he watched Bret saddle his horse.
“I’m not going to stop her,” Bret said. “I’m not even going to talk to her, but I can’t let her ride all the way to Charlie and Ida’s ranch by herself. It’s a full day’s trip. If anything were to happen to her, she could die before anyone found out.”
“I insist that you let me go, too,” Joseph said.
“Shut up, little man,” Zeke said. “I’m tired of listening to you.”
Joseph was the shortest of the four men, but at close to six feet, he was used to being referred to as tall and imposing.
“You can’t keep me from riding out whenever I want,” Joseph said, his volume rising along with his temper.
“I can’t think with him interrupting all the time,” Hawk said to Zeke. “Why don’t you take him outside until I’m done talking to Bret.”
In a movement that was so fast Bret could hardly follow it, Zeke had both of Joseph’s arms behind his back at an angle that would make it extremely painful if he struggled.
“I don’t know why you insist on making things hard for yourself,” Zeke said as he propelled Joseph out of the barn. “We’re just looking out for you. If you tried to follow Emily by yourself, you might get lost.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to do more than just follow her?” Hawk asked Bret.
“Of course I want to do more,” Bret exploded. “I want to convince her I love her more than anyone on earth, that I don’t want to go a day without seeing her, holding her, making love to her.”
“That doesn’t sound all that hard to do. I’ve got a notion it’s what she’d like for you to do.”
“She would, but she doesn’t understand why I have to go back to Boston.”
“Hell, Bret, nobody understands why you went there in the first place.”
“I realize the Abbotts are never going to be my family. That’s what I wanted to tell Emily. I was going to ask her to wait while I went to Boston to finish some business. Then I’m coming back to Texas.” Bret grinned in spite of himself. “If Jake will let me, I’ll take up that land he offered me before I left.” Bret’s smile faded. “I don’t know about that now. Emily doesn’t trust me anymore.”
“Sure she does. She’s just upset.”
Bret smiled again. “It’s obvious you’ve never been in love.”
“You think I’m too ugly for a woman to love?” Hawk asked.
“You’d probably scare them half to death with that damned feather you insist on wearing. What I’m trying to say is, once you fall in love with someone, you’re connected in a way that lets you know what they’re feeling, even what they’re thinking sometimes. Right now she doesn’t trust me, and your making a secret of what her father said didn’t help any.”
“Hell, I’ll tell her if it’ll make a difference.”
“She’s got to decide on her own whether she can trust me. After she does, maybe you can tell her what he said.”
“Why are you making things so hard on yourself? Go after her. Talk to her. Make love to her until she can’t think of anybody but you.”
“You don’t know how much I want to do just that. But sooner or later you have to stop making love and face the real world. I want to know that after she does that, she’ll still want me to make love to her.” Bret tightened the cinch on his saddle. “I’m playing for keeps this time.”
“When should we look for you?” Hawk asked. Bertie had packed him some food, and he had his bedroll.
“I don’t know. I may need a little time alone myself.”
“You sure won’t get it here with your cousin yelling at you and Jinx dogging your heels like a puppy. Why did you adopt him?”
Bret grinned as he swung into the saddle. “I didn’t. He adopted me. Keep an eye on him. He reminds me of a cross between Will and Pete when they were his age.”
“God help us! We ought to smother him while we can,” Hawk said, following as Bret walked his horse out of the barn.
“I was going to take him to Jake and Isabelle,” Bret said, “But if Emily still wants me, I think I’ll keep him with us.”
“What is it with this family? Matt just took in guaranteed trouble in some kid called Toby, and Drew and Cole keep adding to their gang with more orphans even though Drew is pregnant again.”
“Blame it on Jake and Isabelle. I’ve got to go. I shouldn’t have waited this long.”
“Don’t give up on her. Any woman who can get you away from those bastards in Boston is worth all the trouble it takes to keep her.”
“I know, but it’s up to her now.”
“You can’t make me marry you,” Emily said to Lonnie.
“After spending several days alone with me, you’ll have to marry me to preserve your reputation.”
“Maybe no decent man will want me, but I still won’t marry you.”
“Why not?” Lonnie asked. “You know I love you.”
Lonnie had brought Emily to his hiding place in a dense grove of trees on the far side of the ranch. The deep ashes inside a circle of stones indicated the site was well used. The open area inside the grove was about twenty-five feet in diameter, but the surrounding trees formed such a dense barrier, Emily doubted Lonnie’s campfire could be seen even at night. The limbs overhead—so thick Emily could see only tiny patches of sky—dispersed the smoke, making it nearly impossible for a rider to know he was passing by a campsite.
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