“Sure thing.”
The walk there had never seemed longer to her. Perhaps she should have waited for Dade to join her, but this wasn’t his battle. And down deep she still worried that Whit would turn on Dade in anger.
She stepped into the house she’d considered her refuge to find Whit Ramsey sitting in the parlor. The stern expression he’d always worn was gone, replaced by an easy smile that she didn’t recognize.
“Thank God you came back,” Caroline said, rising from her chair and crossing to Maggie with just the aid of a cane.
“What are you doing here with him?” Maggie asked.
Caroline beamed. “We are on our honeymoon.”
The look of adoration her foster sister gave Whit left Maggie thunderstruck. She looked fit and happy. With Whit.
“I don’t understand. This man didn’t want you as his wife,” Maggie said.
“Actually that wasn’t true,” Caroline said. “Father had told Whit that my health had taken a downward turn and that I’d likely not survive the winter. He compounded that lie by telling Whit that you’d agreed to take my place as his wife with my blessing.”
“Why would he say such a thing?” Maggie asked.
“I can answer that one,” Whit said. “If I married Nowell’s daughter, I acquired her shares of Nowell Mining and gained control of his holdings. If I wed you instead, I’d only become his equal partner.”
“But after you escaped Burland and Father’s clutches, he feared that Whit would insist on marrying me,” Caroline said. “So Father sent me to a sanitarium in Manitou Springs.”
Whit patted Caroline’s hand and smiled at his wife. “It took me awhile to find Caroline. When I finally did, I asked her to be my wife.”
“We married at the Springs, much to Father’s outrage,” Caroline said.
Maggie took that in and realized that Harlan Nowell had carefully manipulated them to do his bidding. “No wonder he hired a bounty hunter to bring me back to Burland.”
Caroline grasped Maggie’s forearm with trembling hands. “Oh, God, Maggie. If it were only that simple. You’re in grave danger.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, trembling now too.
“Father held you to blame for losing control of his empire,” Caroline said. “Because if you hadn’t run away, Whit wouldn’t have visited me in the sanitarium in hopes that I knew where you’d gone. We wouldn’t have realized we’d been lied to from the start, and we surely wouldn’t have had the chance to form an affection for each other.”
Whit nodded in agreement with his wife. “Your telegram made me realize that something quite foul was afoot. So we confronted Harlan. He admitted he hired a bounty hunter to find you. But after our marriage, Harlan wired Carson and ordered him to kill you.”
Maggie pinched her eyes shut, reminded of a similar story that Mrs. Gant had told to her. At the deserted Circle DB ranch, Allis Carson had come terrifyingly close to murdering her as he’d been hired to do.
“You need to come with us,” Caroline said, drawing Maggie’s attention back to her. “You’ll be safe in our house until Whit can figure out a way to diffuse this situation.”
“There’s no need for Maggie to hide,” Dade said, his voice strong. “Allis Carson is dead.”
Whit tensed. “Are you absolutely certain?”
Dade gave one curt nod. “Saw him gunned down myself. What about Nowell? What’s to stop him from hiring another gun?”
Maggie’s knees threatened to buckle, for she’d not thought of that very real threat. How could one man be so vindictive?
“Father was so enraged over it all that he suffered a fit of apoplexy. He can’t move, talk, write, or care for himself,” Caroline said.
“The doctor told us he’s failing quickly,” Whit added.
Maggie couldn’t feel any sympathy for the man. Just relief that she was truly free now.
“Then it’s finally over. I don’t have to hide,” she said, turning to Dade with the intention of rushing into his arms.
The remote look in his eyes froze her in place. “You’re safe. I’ll be back in two weeks to escort you to St. Louis.”
And with that he was gone.
She knew he was headed to the Crown Seven to confront his brother Reid. She knew, even if he didn’t, that he needed her by his side. But that old fear of rejection kept her from running after him.
So she blinked back tears and tried like hell to put on a brave front. But Caroline, the woman who knew her better than herself at times, saw right through her ruse.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Caroline said. “Don’t just stand there like a lack wit. Follow your heart.”
The chance of his turning her away scared her, but the fear of losing him forever terrified her. She threw her arms around Caroline. “Thank you.”
“Go with him, Maggie, and be happy,” Caroline said.
Maggie needed no further urgings. She lifted her hem and raced out the door, hoping she wasn’t too late to catch Dade.
The second Dade guided the buggy over the rise, he was hit with that odd sense of coming home that he’d felt the very first time he’d laid eyes on the Crown Seven Ranch. He let his gaze meander over the plains where a herd of fat Durham cattle grazed.
A dozen or so horses roamed with the cattle. The mix of calicos, buckskins, grays, and screwbalds told him these were the hands’ cow ponies.
His gaze shifted beyond the barn to the stable and the stout corral built on a protected rise. There were horses there too, and though he was too far away to get a good look at them, he knew they were Reid’s thoroughbreds. His foster brother’s pride and joy.
Beyond the corral rose a brand new house, not near as grand as the one Kirby had built. But a fine place all the same. Who lived in it? The new owner? Reid?
“It just takes your breath away,” Maggie said.
He eyed her and smiled, thinking she did the same to him. He’d surely burn in hell for leading a lady astray, but he didn’t regret spending the last two days and nights with her either.
“Let’s get this over with.” He flicked the line and guided the buggy down the lane to the house he’d called home.
He parked in front of the house and damned the case of nerves that gripped him. A few cowboys looked his way.
One hand ambled toward him, his limp the only visible change Dade could see in the foreman.
“As I live and breathe,” Booth Howard said. “About time you showed your face.”
Dade laughed though it sounded a bit strained to his ears. “Heard the place sold.”
Howard turned somber. “Just the shares Kirby and his cousin held.”
That meant Reid still owned part of the Crown Seven. Was Miss Jennean right? Did he and Trey still own shares as well?
“Reid around?”
“He left two days ago with Mr. Charlton, bound for Kentucky. Don’t expect them back for a month.” Howard thumbed his hat back and smiled at Maggie. “How do, miss?”
“Hello to you.” She extended a gloved hand to him. “Maggie Sutten.”
“Pleasure,” Howard said, giving her fingers the barest squeeze.
Before Dade could figure out how to explain his relationship with Maggie, the front door opened and a lady stepped onto the porch. A moment later a young woman joined her, and there was no mistaking she was with child.
“Welcome,” the older woman said, her accent reminding him of Kirby Morris. “What brings you to the Crown Seven?”
Howard spoke for him. “This here is Dade Logan.”
“Oh, my! Well, don’t just stand there, Mr. Howard,” the older woman said, suddenly seeming flustered. “See to their bags.”
“Yes’m,” Howard said and limped to the rear of the buggy.
Of all the scenes that’d played over in Dade’s head, a hearty welcome home hadn’t been one of them. He wasn’t sure what to make of it as he climbed down and lent Maggie a hand. And damn if she hadn’t been right–he did feel a helluva lot
better with her by his side.
The older woman met them at the steps leading to the front porch. “Forgive my rudeness. I’m Gertrude Charlton. Oh, my, I’ve heard so much about you.”
Dade was surely at a disadvantage here. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”
Mrs. Charlton grasped Maggie’s hand. “And you are?”
Maggie blushed. “Maggie Sutten, childhood friend of Dade’s sister.”
If Mrs. Charlton thought it indecent for Maggie to be traveling with Dade, she hid it well. “Welcome. Please, come inside and make yourselves at home. After all, it is Dade’s home.”
Dade was still reeling from that pronouncement as they trailed into the parlor where he’d spent many an evening playing chess or cards. A woman’s touch was clearly evident, and he found himself liking the change.
“A pot of tea is in order,” Mrs. Charlton said to the stoop-shouldered butler.
“I’ll alert Mrs. Leach,” Hubert said, then looked at Dade and added, “Welcome home, sir.”
“Good to see you, Hubert.”
“Have you heard from your younger brother?” Mrs. Charlton asked Dade as they took seats.
“No, ma’am. I lost track of Trey well over a year ago.”
“Oh, dear.” She tugged a lacy kerchief from her sleeve, dabbed at her eyes, and shared a worried look with the mother-to-be. “I’m beginning to lose hope.”
“Reid feared something dreadful had happened to Dade,” the younger woman said, “yet here he is. We have to believe that Trey is fine and possibly unaware of what’s happened here.”
He wasn’t the only one, Dade thought.
“Forgive me for not catching your name,” Maggie said to the young woman.
She laughed, a light sound that lifted the somber mood Dade was close to slipping into. “We’ve certainly made a muddle of this homecoming. I’m Ellie Jo, Reid’s wife.”
Dade scratched his head, more confused than if he’d stepped into the middle of a drama. “Suppose somebody start at the beginning and tell me how you all came to be here.”
“Excellent notion. Explain it to him, Ellie,” Mrs. Charlton said.
For the next hour, Dade listened to a story that shocked him, and enraged him. All this time he’d been led to believe Reid had betrayed him. But that wasn’t the case at all.
He’d been blackmailed to do the bidding of Kirby’s cousin or risk seeing his foster brothers hang for rustling. But what really stunned him was this tiny Englishwoman who believed that Trey could be the son stolen from her at birth.
Because of that small chance, she and her husband had stepped in and saved the Crown Seven for Reid, Dade, and Trey.
Their shares were here if and when they wanted them. Reid had already built his house beyond the stables. There was plenty of land for Dade and Trey to do the same.
“I don’t suppose you remember if Trey had a birthmark?” Mrs. Charlton asked.
“If he had one, I never saw it,” Dade said, and wished he could say otherwise when the lady’s shoulders slumped.
That evening Dade and Maggie sat on the front porch alone. His head was still reeling from all he’d learned.
“I hope I can find Daisy,” he said, troubled that he hadn’t picked up his sister’s trail, worried that she could be dead.
“Have you thought of hiring a Pinkerton man?”
“Nope, but I could afford to now.” He reached over and took Maggie’s hand in his. “Thank you, Maggie mine, for insisting I come back here.”
She smiled, and he knew he’d never tire of sharing moments like this with her. “I can see why you hated to leave here. Why it angered you so to think you’d been betrayed by your brother and robbed of your home.”
“It’s a good place to grow up, and grow old,” he said.
She laughed softly. Intimately. “I’ve only been here a day, and I don’t want to leave the Crown Seven.”
He entwined his fingers with hers, feeling the beat of her heart thudding in time with his. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking of giving up the idea of going to nurses’ school.”
She didn’t say a thing for the longest time, just sat beside him, holding his hand, unknowingly holding his heart in her hands.
“Nurses’ school was a means to an end,” she said at last. “I like helping people, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life taking care of strangers.”
She looked at him then, and pale moonlight kissed her nose and mouth like he longed to do. “What are you getting at, Maggie?”
“I want to spend my life taking care of my own family,” she said, her voice small and shy, as if she was afraid to admit her deepest longing.
“You sure you’d be content to be a wife and mother?”
“If the right man asked me,” she said with a smile.
“Interesting,” he said, allowing a smile of his own. “What’s your idea of the right man?”
“He’s honest. Generous. Brave. I’d love him, of course.” She lowered her head, and he’d bet she was blushing. “And he’d have to love me.”
He wet his lips and swallowed hard, gazing at the land that he owned and then back at the woman he longed to make his. He’d thought he just might love her the first time he’d stolen a kiss. The notion had grown stronger when he made love with her.
Now? Now he knew he loved her and didn’t want to think about living without her in his life.
He leaned close and brushed her lips with his. “The right man is asking, Maggie mine.”
He heard her breath catch. “Truly?”
“Truly,” he said, this time kissing her long and deep. “I love you, Maggie. I have for some time.”
“You know I love you,” she whispered against his lips. “That I want you.”
He rested his forehead against hers, stunned by the contentment washing over him. Any doubts he’d had about this ranch or this woman were long gone now.
“Marry me, Maggie mine. Say yes, and we’ll pay the preacher a visit tomorrow.”
“Yes,” she said, turning just so to nuzzle his neck and nip his chin. “About tonight...”
“You got something in mind?”
He felt her smile against his throat and drank in her sigh. “Stay with me.”
“You can count on it.” Tonight, and every night for the rest of their lives.
In a Cowboy’s Arms Page 31