by Tanya Hanson
“Had my oma lose her farm when my granddad died…”
It was possibly not Hawk’s most manly moment, but he quite relished the rascal dangling from his grasp, flushed from the insults pelted at him.
Pelikan struggled and yelled. “I am not here to be liked. You may name-call me all you choose. I follow the laws of finance and do the job I was hired to do.”
“That does not include besmirching an honorable woman.” Hawk’s voice lowered, dangerous.
Gunnar growled. “Put him down, Hawk. We-uns will show him how we get things done in Paradise.”
Oh, permitting a melee was so tempting, but Sheriff Pelton might not approve. Although heartened by the support from Hawk’s new friends, Hawk set Pelikan to rights. “We must decline, chums. We are better men than he.”
Disappointment rumbled through the crowd.
He glared at the homely woman who tussled with her son’s collar. “No, let’s leave him be. All here know what a fine woman my Cordelia is. And we must accept that this sad little man did not have a proper upbringing.”
“Well, I never!” Mrs. Pelikan glared back.
Hawk saluted the group. “I offered Miss Meeker a loving, honest, heart-felt proposal, which she accepted with all the dignity of a respectable bride.”
With an outraged gasp, Mrs. Pelikan grabbed Percival’s hand like he was four years old and flounced the two of them back to the main street. She did one last indignant turnaround and muttered a very unladylike blaspheme.
The crowd both gasped and whooped, but Hawk prayed the other biddies in town didn’t share old Mrs. Pelikan’s convictions.
Nathan Moulton walked his horse over to Hawk’s side.
“Good job, my man. Fine horse.”
“Thanks kindly. And never mind those Pelikans. Disagreeable folk ever since the mister left in a huff. Probably running for his life.” Nathan punched Hawk’s shoulder. “All the rest of us hereabouts in Paradise—and the horses stuck in stalls all winter—think the world of Miss Cordy and thank you for this chance. We’ll be ready, Hawk. Let me help you get this frame done.” Nathan bent to get the hammer. “And you might ought to find your lady. Once the town cluckers get started on their cackling, it spreads like smallpox. And Brunhild Pelikan don’t let anything or anybody get in the way of her baby boy.”
“I’d like to help.”
Nathan laid a hand on Hawk’s shoulder. “And you will. We get the construction done, you nail up the screen. Gonna be a job, that one. A hundred feet long. Go to Cordy. Mighty fine woman you got yourself there.”
“I know.” Hawk grinned. Cordy. His blood danced with both joy and desire. From the first moment in his arms, his heart had insisted she belonged there. Of course he loathed being apart from her, but they’d soon be together forever. And she was a strong woman on steady feet. The perfect partner for a man bound for a new start in the West. “I’ll take up that suggestion and find my bride. I’ll return soon.”
“Hawk, first off you got to sign up some new contestants.” Gunnar grabbed him and for a quarter hour or so, Hawk tended to the new batch of contracts. Satisfaction covered him. The business venture looked to be a rousing success. And the hole in his heart being away from Cordy would knit right up in an hour or so when they spoke vows.
Finally he headed to the boardinghouse and wondered if Cordy would miss Paradise when she—they—left. The town was a fine one, truth to tell. It was inviting and comfortable and he just might miss it himself. The boardinghouse parlor was empty, so Hawk hurried to the kitchen to find his bride. Terror stopped his veins when he heard sobbing behind the doorway to her room.
“Cordy, what’s wrong?” He knocked loud, desperate to barge in. “May I enter?”
“You might as well.” She rose from a tumble of sheets and pillows, face streaked and red but glorious anyway. “I never thought I’d weep over a man again. In fact, I promised myself I wouldn’t, but I can’t help myself. Thanks to Pelikan’s foul mother, everybody in town thinks you spent all last night with me. At my invitation.” She threw herself into his arms.
“No one can possibly believe that! I set them straight.” Hawk’s arms tightened around the precious bundle.
“Well, not straight enough.” Her gaze dripped with tears as her lids crunched together. “Oh! Hawk, the catcalls. The insults. The biddies all stood in a circle, pointing at me. Mrs. Albert Schneider is positively satanic. Calling me names. The accusations. Nobody’s had anything else to discuss but the weather! Before that it was Clancy. So I’m the logical target. Simply because we shared a womb.” She buried her head in his chest.
He breathed in the scent of her hair and clasped her tighter yet. Around them flowed comfort, protection, love—yes, love. The reality bloomed like a sudden flower. Until death parted them, he wanted to give her all of that.
Most of all, love.
“Darling, it doesn’t matter what they think. We know the truth. And I promise you, none of the posse think any such thing. And besides…” He cupped her face like a priceless treasure. “We won’t need to stay here much longer. Unless you want to.”
For propriety’s sake, for Cordy had yet done nothing improper, he steadied her upright and snug in the cradle of his arm, left her bedroom. They headed to the kitchen and sat close together in front of the stove. She didn’t shift away from their nearness but did avoid his eyes.
“Hawk, these last twenty-four hours have been filled with too many emotions. I can’t think straight. But is our marriage even necessary now?” Her arms tightened but her voice turned sad.
“Cordy, my proposal is sincere. And forever. We can make this work, I promise.” His flesh sparked when he touched her cheek.
She sniffed away one last tear. “Oh, Hawk, I know women everywhere marry quickly and for reasons other than love. And I know, in your circles, brides are chosen for breeding and lineage and money, and other not-very-romantic reasons. But our reason no longer seems to exist.”
“What do you mean?” Was she backing out? He ached all over. When should he declare his love?
Her eyes swam with tears. “Well, think it through. My boardinghouse is full up and you must have a hundred entrants by now. We have the funds now to, to settle this Muybridge thing.”
His heart pounded with pain as he stared into her eyes. Had her love died before it was born?
“Cordy, so you don’t want to marry me?”
Chapter Nine
Of course she did. Tension tied up her muscles, but Cordy nestled against him, almost in farewell. Nerves grated her skin as bad as the rough kitchen chair scratched through her petticoats.
“I mean just this.” She shook so hard even her tongue trembled. Of course she wanted him, but of course she had to let him know he had a choice. “You have no need to go through with the wedding.”
“Cordy, you don’t want to marry me?” He repeated, his forehead crumpling. Even in just one day, she knew Hawk well enough to read the disappointment flashing in his eyes, and she gulped back a sob.
“Hawk, you don’t need me anymore.” She ignored the question while her heart snapped. With a deep breath, she stared him full on and saw her future melt. But he had to see the truth.
“How can you say that?” Pain glazed his gaze.
“Hawk, you know Davina doesn’t need her honor restored. But Mr. Muybridge doesn’t. We’ve made enough money so far for you to wire her. You can ask her to reply with the truth. That she never wanted to marry you.” She looked away from his hot eyes. “Then in case her godfather does show up, you have proof. Proof of your innocence.”
Hawk’s puzzled brow pained her, yet his strength warmed around her. “Cordy, I am certain Muybridge is on his way. He will show up. Tomorrow, if not sooner.”
“Then wire Davina quickly.” She grabbed his arm. “Once we know her true mind, Mr. Muybridge won’t need an affair of honor. And we won’t need to rush into something, um, something unthinkable a day ago.” Need and want wrestled down deep in her soul.
He held fast to her fingers. The words tore from her heart but landed on the air like aimless feathers on the wind. It had been magical, for a few hours, to think of herself as this man’s bride. To feel the sprout of forever.
“Unthinkable?” Hawk raised her hand to his lips, and her toes exploded. Oh, to feel his mouth upon hers. “Cordy.” His lips closed around her name like a caress. “Isn’t it the same for you? A dream we can make real?”
“The exhibition? Or the marriage?” Cordy swallowed harder and ran her fingertips across his mouth, then laid them back on her own lips. The taste of him seeped into her flesh. Her body sprang to life from top to toe, but she gave him no time to speak. “We’ll hold the exhibition just as we planned. You’ll be able to afford your travel to your ranch. I’ll settle up with the bank. Maybe I’ll have a little left to start up somewhere else.” Tears flooded her eyes, but she gamely met his gaze. “And if I don’t, well, I’m certainly not afraid to work hard for someone else.”
“I already know that. I know your strength, your resilience. But darling Cordy.” He pressed his warm lips harder into her palm and once again, she cried silently for the kiss that had never happened, for despite his endearment, he held the act so meaningless. “We could…”
“No.” She pulled away. “Hawk, you must admit your caution upon marrying someone you barely know.”
His wonderful lips struggled over his words. “Cordy, did we not decide it worthy to explore each other?”
Her eyes brimmed. Love was too deep to make light. “Yes, to save your life. But we have a way out now. Marriage isn’t an expediency any longer. And if we marry, they—the whole of Paradise—will think it’s true.”
“What’s true?”
Her cold fingers screened her eyes. “That I forced you to dishonor me. They’ll use my brother’s reputation against me. No one would believe an English lord would, you know?”
“Know what?”
Then she grabbed his hand all on her own. “No proper English lord would marry someone like me if he didn’t have to.”
“It isn’t true.” His touch grazed her face. “Merely the vituperation from a disgruntled suitor and his overbearing mother.”
“But everyone will believe it true.”
“From what I gathered, no one thinks much of either Pelikan.”
Cordy sniffed into her sleeve. “You mean your posse? They are fine men in their way, but they hold no influence here. Mrs. Pelikan can be dreadful, but she runs the Ladies Charitable Society and is quite generous. And Percival, while a snake and an infant, is an elected alderman. But that’s not it at all, Hawk. Not at all.”
As if on cue, Hawk held her tight against his heart. Once again, she accepted this as where she wanted to be. No, belonged to be. But…
“Hawk, I can’t go through it again.”
“Go through what again? Darling, Clancy’s embarrassments are not yours. And I’m so fortunate to have found you.”
That darling again. She shivered with deliciousness, but breathed out hard. “Not Clancy. My heart came apart, seeing those women point at me and laugh. As if foreclosure isn’t bad enough. My reputation in tatters again. Humiliation beyond my control.”
“In tatters again? Cordy, I don’t know what you mean. No one, other than the Pelikans, counts Clancy’s sins against you.”
She flapped her hand. “No, it’s me. The reason I left home. The man I let kiss me…he was a man of class and reputation. I fell for him. I trusted him.” Her heart clenched with the old pain Lambert had drilled into it. “He said the right things, then tried the wrong things. Of course I said no. But he told the world things that weren’t true. He humiliated me and destroyed me.”
“No, darling. You are not destroyed. Then or now.” Hawk’s breath warmed the top of her head; his sweet word thrilled her ailing heart. “Just like Pelikan, your rejection caused him to lie. But you’re still here, strong and able. You started a whole new life. Unafraid. You can do the same with me.”
Could she? Oh, she wanted to.
“People love to believe bad things,” she hedged. “Oh, such miserable rakes.” Her teeth ground so tight together she wondered if Hawk heard. “And that hellish Hair and Brains Club…”
“The Hair and Brains Club?” Hawk’s breath rushed out and rustled her hair. Against her, he stiffened in shock. “How do you know of such a despicable society? Rich boys with far too much money and papas with far too much influence.”
A horror she didn’t like frissoned through her. He knew of the horrible club? What if?
“Say you weren’t one of them.” She breathed into air that had grown suddenly cold around her.
“Of course I wasn’t.” Insult pulsed beneath his cheekbones. “All of Bronckton College knew. And pretended they didn’t.”
“Bronckton?” Cordy’s bones turned to porridge. “You matriculated? How can this be? How can I not know this?”
Hawk crossed his arms in defense. “Despite that club, Bronckton has a marvelous reputation even across the pond.”
“I know of its reputation.” Her heart shattered. “My father was a noteworthy professor. But Hawk, is this more proof against our marriage? I don’t even know where you went to school. We don’t know enough of each other to promise our lives together.” She swallowed tears and shank from him. Her lace collar tightened like a noose, and her throat tore with a sob.
Hurt blanched Hawk’s face. Then he returned his arm across her shoulder, and she sagged into him. “Your father was the legendary Professor Meeker? I took his seminars. I made no connection before.”
“Why would you? It’s a common enough surname. And that’s just what I mean! We know so little of each other.” She wiped her eyes, but tears spilled anyway, warmed her cold cheeks. Hot blood poured through Cordy’s body as Hawk tightened his arms. She nestled into him. “But yes, he was my father.” Oh, Papa. Her heart all but bled. Such a good and honorable man. “He’d passed away the year before, but his good name was the only credibility I had against…Lambert Truefitt. One of the notorious Hair and Brains Club members. But the damage was too far gone. Lambert’s apology was halfhearted at best. And the sly looks in his eye let doubt be raised about me. Not long after…” She choked back the memories. “…I had the chance to come to Paradise. I’d started St. Agnes at sixteen, studied Economics, so it seemed I might have skills enough to run a business of my own.”
“Of course you have and you did. Remarkably well.” His eyes, tone, held pride in her. Hawk’s left hand left her to run fingers through his deep brown hair. “I can’t quite remember the blackguard’s name, nor the lady’s, but I did help defend the honor of a young lady from St. Agnes.”
“Oh, the duel.” Life and light sparked once again in Cordy’s heart. Hawk had done the proper, honorable thing. “That must have been wonderful for her. Despite the foolishness of dueling, I did think you gallant to defend her when you told me of it. But the young lady wasn’t me.”
“Can you be certain? The coincidence would be serendipity and fate all in one. That we were meant to be together.” Hawk touched her chin, seemed unwilling to give up. “Her cousin was my housemate. Matthias Willer.”
“Oh, Hawk, I would remember such valor.” She squeezed his arm. “But I have no cousin. As it is, I wish I’d known about the duel. That someone cared about the honor of the innocent. But campus gossip rarely reached me. I lived in town.” Her lips pursed. “Mama always needed help corralling Clancy.” She rolled her eyes, then looked up at him. “Was it possible I attended your sister school at the same time you were at Bronckton?” She peeked down at her lap. “I don’t even know how old you are.”
Hawk grinned. “I am twenty-four. You?”
“Twenty-two last month.”
“Then we’re the proper age to be a couple.” He nodded with determination, and her heart fluttered. “I began Bronckton at just turned eighteen. Right after, you know. Davina. But I had some gaps in my studies. I returned to England for Burt
on’s wedding, and his children’s subsequent births.”
Her spirit lightened at the joy in his eyes. “Weren’t you afraid of running into Mr. Muybridge again?”
“No.” Deep laughter rumbled in his chest. Every tension eased. “He became renowned lecturing on motion pictures throughout the States, then he took a position at the University of Pennsylvania. Wealthy patrons provided him an outdoor studio, access to the veterinary hospital, and the zoo, all so he could study animals in motion. And after animals, Eadweard began to photograph male students in motion, and some faculty, um.” He flushed. “Without…their garments.”
Cordy heated back. “Goodness me. All their garments?”
“Every single stitch.”
For a flash, a vision of Hawk’s chest, unclothed and rippling with muscles, swam in her head. “Ooooh.” She caught her breath. “Uh, so was photography your field of study then?”
“No. History.” He chuckled. “American. But these last months, Burton arranged for me a grand tour of Europe. He explained I needed some culture stuffed in my head before I undertook a life in the Wild West.” Then a stab of fear jabbed his face. “I truly don’t know why Muybridge is in Nebraska, of all places.”
“Well, maybe he’s back to lecturing throughout the States.” Cordy gave a firm nod.
“Perhaps.”
“Maybe he just wants to show off his pictures of, you know.” She tried a coy grin to hold off another powerful picture of Hawk…
Hawk’s eyes twinkled. “Pleased to see your mood has improved, but you are avoiding the subject of our marriage. Is it on, or off?”
Although her practical nature reared its head, most of Cordy wanted to say yes. However, somebody crashed through the front door before she could do so. Hawk’s protective arm held her tighter at the loud yelling.
“What now?” Cordy grumbled, hating to leave the cuddle, but moved to get up. “I best go see.”
As soon as they left the kitchen, Charlie Tuttle rushed toward them, his sloppy hat in hand. Cordy, jaw askew, wondered anew just what it was Katie saw in the scruffy wrangler but, in her own newfound love, reminded herself of Katie’s words: the heart wants what the heart needs.