Compromised Hearts

by Hannah Howell

  “I don’t think he has one.”

  “Oh, but he does.”

  “His wife?”

  “Don’t sound so incredulous. Even the hardest of men can have a soft spot for the mother of his children. He’s also proud.” He watched her nod slowly in agreement. “So what do you think would happen if he thought her unfaithful?”

  “Unfaithful with whom?”

  “Me. Allow me my own need to get back at the pair.”

  “He could kill you.”

  “I don’t think so. I will cover myself against that threat, however.”

  “Just so long as you don’t enjoy yourself too much.”

  “She could never compare to you, Cat,” he said smoothly, but even as he took her into his arms his thoughts were on Emily and how much he was going to enjoy leaving his mark on Cloud Ryder’s little wife.

  Chapter Twenty

  “I am going to strangle her.”

  Emily smiled as she paused on the stairs next to Cloud, who was glaring at the sitting room door Giorsal had just gone through. At least once a day he threatened to do the girl a bodily injury. She knew full well that he did not mean it. In fact, he thought of Giorsal as a younger sister and had often compared her to Skye, his real younger sister whom he still felt might show up.

  “What has she done this time?” Emily asked as she started back down the stairs.

  “Just being pert as usual.”

  “Mmm. Giorsal is very pert. I noticed that from the first moment I met her.”

  “Maybe you would’ve been wiser to belt her over the head with your parasol.”

  They both paused at the sitting room door when a knock came at the front door. Dinner was done, the babies were in bed, Wolfe, James, and Harper had gone into town to carouse, and they had planned a sedate evening together. Company was the last thing they expected or even particularly wanted.

  Cloud opened the door, stared blankly at the man there, and then embraced him with a yell. “Thunder, you bastard!”

  As soon as the pair had separated and stepped back into the hall, Emily studied Cloud’s brother. There was a definite family resemblance in the features, build, and coloring, as there was between Wolfe and Cloud. Thunder’s face also held the ability to be beautifully charming or beautifully cold. When his light brown eyes settled on her, she sensed that he shared a great deal of Cloud’s once complete disdain for women, as well as the ability to draw them to him. She suspected that it was going to take a while to prove herself to this part of Cloud’s family.

  Thunder looked the woman over and deemed her not quite up to Cloud’s usual standards, if pretty enough in a delicate sort of way. He wondered how she had wormed her way into Wolfe’s home. When the time was right, he decided, he would get some answers.

  “Yours or Wolfe’s?” he quietly asked Cloud.

  “Mine.” Cloud answered firmly even as he turned to smile at Emily, holding out a hand to draw her near. “Emily, this is Thunder.”

  “I gathered. Hello, Thunder. Cloud has talked of your possible arrival nearly all winter.” She held out her hand, struggling not to smile at his evident confusion, a confusion that grew when Cloud subtly but firmly drew her hand from his before he could kiss it as he had intended to.

  “My wife.”

  “Your what?”

  Wondering if he knew that he was looking at her as if she had two heads, Emily smiled. Thunder had very nice eyes, but they were also a little strange with their shards of amber. Emily began to believe that strange eyes were indeed a Ryder family characteristic.

  “I think you have shocked him, Cloud.”

  “I can see that. I’d like to know what makes it so damn hard to believe I’d have a wife.”

  “Justine, Catrina, Pamela …” “Enough, Em.”

  “Well, they were reasons that sprang readily to mind.”

  “What about Angela?” Thunder began to think that he might have underestimated the little lady.

  “Angela? I never met that one. Where is she?” “St. Louis.”

  “My, my, we are well-travelled, aren’t we,” she murmured, sending Cloud a laughter-filled glance.

  “It’s not only Giorsal that’s pert. Hungry, Thunder?”

  “Starving.”

  “I know, I know.” Emily sighed when Cloud looked at her. She opened the sitting room door. “Giorsal, it’s back to the kitchen.”

  “Didnae all the mouths go out carousing?” Giorsal came out into the hall scowling fiercely, Thornton at her heels.

  “Who the hell are they? Wolfe’s not married too, is he?”

  “No, Thunder.” Cloud laughed softly. “This is Giorsal and Thornton. My brother, Thunder.”

  “Aye, I recognize the look of a rogue,” Giorsal drawled, only to have Emily hastily drag her off to the kitchen.

  “He looks lots like you, Papa.”

  “Papa?” Thunder croaked, glancing from the little boy to Cloud and back again.

  “Yes,” Thornton explained. “He’s my second papa. My first got killed by the Injuns. Now that he’s married Mama, I don’t hafta call him uncle no more.”

  “Maybe Mama and Giorsal will give you a little bit to eat, Thornton, before you go up to bed.”

  “Good idea, Papa.” Thornton strolled off.

  Looking back at his stunned brother, Cloud laughed softly and picked up Thunder’s gear. “I’ll explain as we go upstairs.”

  Thunder was still shaking his head as he helped Cloud pick up some of Thornton’s things a few minutes later and move them out of Wolfe’s room. “So you married her because she was an innocent.”

  “That’s some of the reason.” As they crossed the hall to the room where Giorsal and the twins slept, Cloud told of how Chilton had tried to marry Emily.

  “So you married her to keep her from that snake Chilton.”

  “That’s one of the reasons.” Cloud stepped quietly into the room where his children slept and waited for Thunder’s reaction.

  Staring at the two sleeping babies, Thunder only managed to croak softly, “Yours?”

  Setting Thornton’s things down, Cloud moved nearer to the cradles. “Mine. They’re nearly two months old now. Giorsal showed up in the midst of a howling winter storm, having trekked all the way from Lockridge, just as Emily went into labor. She and Wolfe delivered my children. I was a wreck, useless. So you’ll hear me threaten the pert little wench now and then, but I’d kill anybody who harmed one gawdy hair on her little head.” Deeming Thunder recovered, he took the rest of Thornton’s things from him, set them down, and said, “Let’s go back downstairs. The ladies will have something ready for you to eat.”

  “Now I see why you got married.”

  “I got married because I wanted to.”

  “Do you love her?” Thunder could not keep all his scorn for that emotion out of his voice.

  Cloud shrugged. “I like her. I trust her. I can’t keep my hands off her. She’s the mother of my children. When I thought I’d lost her, I felt as alone as I have ever felt in my whole misspent life. I’d have killed Chilton with my bare hands if he’d laid as much as a finger on her. Seems to me that’s good enough to build a marriage on.”

  Although he nodded, Thunder silently reserved judgment. Like Cloud, he had not been shown much reason to trust women. Unlike Cloud, he had let his emotions rule him once too often and been cruelly shown the folly of that.

  All through the evening he observed Emily and how she and Cloud communicated. Cloud did seem less closed up than he had been for years. He also seemed happier. Despite those good signs, Thunder discovered things about Emily that troubled him.

  For that reason he stayed awake until the three other men returned, long after the others had gone to bed. Harper, who was not used to such activities, retired to bed. James, Wolfe, and Thunder then went to the sitting room for a drink and a long talk.

  “You’ve got yourself a damn full house, Wolfe.”

  “I know. I’m going to miss it when Cloud takes his fa
mily and Little Red along to his place.”

  “Little Red? Ah, don’t tell me. That little Scot with the sharp tongue.”

  “She’s something, huh? I wager you got a shock finding Cloud wed and a father.”

  “Quite a shock, Wolfe. A shock as well to think that little lady gave him twins.”

  “Hell, that was an experience I won’t be forgetting. Never seen anything to compare. Em was even making jokes with Little Red near the end. God knows where she found the strength. Plainly there’s steel running under that soft white skin.”

  “You like her?”

  “Sure. Shouldn’t I?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just that she’s so different from the sort Cloud usually had dealings with.”

  “Em’s a good woman,” James said quietly. “Cloud’s not had dealings with that sort before.”

  “She’s also a city girl. Comes from money and society.”

  “Sure does. Stiff-necked Yankee puritan blood there,” agreed Wolfe. “Born and bred to be a fine Boston lady.”

  “So just how is she going to manage out here? A wife to a rancher? A man just starting out?”

  “Maybe a lot better than some that’s born here.” Wolfe smiled at his brother’s look of doubt. “She’s strong, Thunder.”

  “Takes more than strength.”

  “She also knows what’s really of value in life,” James said. “I don’t know the whole of it, but she didn’t have it all that easy back in Boston. Em’s seen all the rot that can be beneath the gloss. I traveled here with her and Cloud. Inept as hell, can’t ride worth a damn, and had to learn all sorts of things we were taught at the cradle. But not one whine or complaint came out of her. She never slacked in doing her share. No, she’ll do just fine, Thunder. Personally, I don’t think Cloud could’ve done any better for himself.”

  “It just seems such a mismatch.”

  “Just like Ma and Pa. He was the breed, half-Indian, half-English, and a farmer. Ma was a Pentrayne—satins, silver, and crystal. Her family near died when she married Pa. You heard the tale. Different as night and day, vet they did fine—better’n fine.” Wolfe nodded when he saw that Thunder was thinking that over. “ ‘Sides, it’s done now. Can’t be changed.”

  “Nope, I reckon it can’t. What’s her brother doing here?”

  “Left his wife. Found her with Chilton.”

  “Chilton? Thomas Chilton?”

  “Yup, Chilton. Did it to get back at Harper. He blamed him for losing out on marrying Emily. Harper had had it all set.”

  “So Cloud said. If Chilton went to all that trouble to get back at Harper, won’t he be trying to get back at Cloud as well? Or has he tried already?”

  “Hasn’t tried anything yet, but we think he will.” Wolfe shook his head. “Just wish we knew what he’d try.”

  “Cloud’s alert?”

  “Very,” answered James. “Trouble is, we’re sure Chilton won’t do anything that’ll get him arrested or killed. He’ll be real careful to keep it legal or at least real private. That makes it damned hard to figure out which way he’ll jump.”

  “He went for Harper’s marriage. What’s to say he won’t go for Cloud’s?”

  “Em says, Thunder. Even if she liked Chilton, which she doesn’t, she wouldn’t be cheating on Cloud,” Wolfe said firmly.

  “You say that with such certainty.”

  ‘I feel certain. She just ain’t the sort. If nothing else, she’s got a good strong streak of puritan in her.”

  “She also loves him.”

  “She tell you that, James?”

  “Nope. You can see it though. You just watch.”

  Thunder needed no encouragement to do so. As ever, when he visited his brothers, he settled in for a good long visit. There was plenty of work for him to do, for Wolfe could not let his own heavy quota of spring work lag, yet Cloud was determined to set his own place to rights.

  Emily and Giorsal found them every day at noontime with a hearty meal, each woman with a baby strapped to her back like some papoose and little Thornton in tow. Emily seemed to be honestly content with a way of life few of her ilk would tolerate. So too did she honestly seem to be in love with Cloud, although Thunder quickly realized that his brother was not fully aware of that.

  He had only been with them for a week when he began to feel just a little guilty over his original judgment of Cloud’s little wife. More and more it looked as if Cloud had struck gold. Thunder was not aware of how others had noted his observing attitude until he stood out on the veranda one night enjoying a smoke with Cloud, Emily having already sought her bed.

  “Well, have you decided yet?”

  “Decided what, Cloud?”

  “About Em.”

  “What could I be deciding about her? She’s your wife.”

  “Whether or not I’m making a raving jackass out of myself or not.”

  There was an apologetic tint to Thunder’s smile. “I’ll admit I was wary.”

  “I can understand that.”

  “You’re no raving jackass. What I’d like to know it how you managed to be so lucky as to stumble across what appears to be the proverbial good woman in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Not appears—is. I don’t know. I still can’t believe it sometimes. Neither can I believe the twins.”

  “Heard that took you aback some.”

  “Giorsal,” Cloud growled, knowing she must have told Thunder about how he had fainted. “I’m going to throttle her—slowly.”

  Laughing softly, Thunder shook his head. “So you threaten at least once a day. She reminds me of Skye a bit.”

  “Me, too. She gets those feelings too.”

  “You’ve got yourself some household.”

  “I know. Every now and then it strikes me as odd that I don’t feel chained down.” Cloud frowned. “Just what brought you out this way?”

  “Don’t rightly know. Something brought me. Maybe I thought Skye might’ve been coming.”

  “She still might be. Wolfe and I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’d all be together come spring. You’re here, so maybe we’re right.”

  Thunder was not surprised, therefore, when he opened the door two days later to find Skye, Cameron, and their two children, Starr Catherine and Prairie Alexander standing on the veranda. Wolfe silently resigned himself and Thunder to a long rest in the stables as he led them into the sitting room. He yelled for Giorsal to bring refreshments and smiled at the less than dainty reply to his request that sailed his way from the kitchen.

  “Who is Giorsal?” Skye asked as she sat down, her eyes, so like Wolfe’s, wide with curiosity.

  “A friend of Emily’s,” Wolfe answered with a little smirk.

  “And who is Emily?”

  Smiling along with Thunder at their sister’s growing annoyance, he did not reply, for he could hear Cloud and Emily approaching. That made him smile even more, for he felt sure that the twins were being brought along as well. His sister’s look of total astonishment when the four entered and Cloud’s new family was introduced was all he could have hoped for. A moment later the visitors were forced to adjust to Giorsal and Thornton as well.

  Emily was pleased to meet the last members of Cloud’s family, if only because Cloud was so plainly happy to see them. They were also easy to like. Unlike Thunder, Skye clearly needed only one long look to make a decision about her. After that, Emily found herself a fully accepted member of the Ryder family. The evening flew by as they talked, ate dinner, talked and consumed what seemed to be an ocean of wine. Emily was, however, not able to fully enjoy the family reunion, for she had other things on her mind.

  For nearly a week she had been more than ready to renew marital relations with Cloud, but he had made no move to do so. She knew his body was more than interested but, for some reason, he kept it in control despite the subtle hints she tossed his way. Sipping her wine, of which she knew she had had more than enough, she stood behind the settee where Cloud sat and decided th
at subtlety was not going to work. She slid her arms around Cloud’s neck, kissed his ear, and rested her cheek against his hair.

  “Feeling sleepy, Em?” Cloud patted her hand. “Go to bed if you want. I don’t want you getting too tired. Could you get me some wine first?”

  Gaping at the back of his head, Emily blindly accepted his glass. She then glared at him before striding over to get the wine bottle. Giorsal, to whom she’d confided her problem, kept her from striding back with it to empty it over Cloud’s head, but only after a somewhat undignified struggle. Emily could sense that everyone but Cloud knew what she was up to and found it amusing, but she did not care.

  Turning at the sound of a scuffle, Cloud frowned. “What’s the matter.”

  “Couldnae get the bottle open.”

  “It was open, Giorsal.”

  “Weel, that’s why we were having trouble.” Giorsal filled up his glass.

  Bringing it to Cloud, Emily smiled sweetly at him and then yawned delicately. “I do believe I will go to bed. Coming?”

  “Bit early for me. You go on, though.”

  “I will. Good-night, all.” She strolled from the room, a puzzled Giorsal dashing after her.

  “That wasnae a verra good try,” Giorsal said as she followed Emily into her room.

  “I’ve had another idea.” Taking pen and paper from her small writing table drawer, Emily sat down at the small desk in the corner of the room and began to write. “If this does not do the trick I believe I will resort to rape.”

  Giorsal giggled. “Oh, aye, I’m sure he’ll fight fierce if ye set upon him.”

  “At the moment it would not surprise me if he did. Could you take this to Cloud?”

  “Aye.” Giorsal laughed when she saw the dates on the front. “Good night, Em.”

  “I hope so,” she muttered.

  Still giggling, Giorsal returned to the sitting room and handed the note to Cloud. “From Em.”

  Cloud frowned at the date on the front and the largely printed words. Opening the note he started to read, his eyes and mouth opening a little more with every word he read. By the time he reached the end he was all too aware of what Emily was saying. So too did he begin to see that she had been saying it for several days.