“Let them think what they want. I’ve never cared about those things.” She tossed her head. “We could always say we’re still married—that we never got a divorce or an annulment.” Allyson came closer, her beautiful blue eyes pleading. “Please, Ethan. It would give us time to talk, to make up for all the hurt. God must mean for you to help me, or he wouldn’t have brought you to Cripple Creek. If I strike it rich, I’ll share it with you, fifty-fifty. I’ll put it in writing if you want.”
He watched her sadly. “I don’t need anything in writing. I don’t even want half. If I go up there with you, it will be to help an old friend, not because I expect a share of the proceeds. That’s the difference between us, Ally. I do things because I feel certain people deserve to be helped, and because I want to do it. I don’t use people to help me get what I want.”
She studied his handsome face, wondering herself how she could work with him day after day without falling into his arms and his bed again. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“What else am I supposed to think? You’ve done it before. Now here we are, reunited for only a couple of hours, and you want me to go up there with you and help you chop out the side of a mountain so you can be a rich woman. Once you find your fortune, I don’t imagine you’ll want anything more to do with an Indian man. You were obviously embarrassed to be married to one once you found out I couldn’t help you keep your property.”
“It wasn’t that way, Ethan.” She studied the way his dark hair blew fetchingly around his handsome face. “I wasn’t ashamed or embarrassed that you were Indian. I was just disappointed that your being Indian meant I would lose everything after all. I couldn’t help my first reaction to knowing that. I had worked so hard for all of it, hardly sleeping, always afraid of Nolan Ives finding a way to take it all away. When he finally did, it just hurt so much. The disappointment you saw wasn’t because you were Indian. It was just that I was losing everything. You took it more personally than it was meant. I…I loved you, Ethan. I never realized how much until you walked out.”
He waved her off and turned away. “I don’t want to talk about love. Not now.”
“Fine, but the fact remains we were married. We…we made love, and there was…is…something special between us that will never go away now. We need to find out how we really feel.” She touched his arm. “You can’t tell me, Ethan, that you aren’t glad you found me, that you haven’t worried and wondered about me, that no matter how angry you were you could just stop loving me that easily.”
Ethan sighed, turning slightly to look into the blue eyes he had dreamed about almost every night for over a year. “I don’t want to talk about love, Ally. Too much has happened. I’ve seen the results of misunderstandings between white and Indian. You and I come from such different worlds, and we both want something different out of life. I should have known better than to marry you in the first place.” His gaze traveled over her in that way he had of setting fire to her loins. “But what’s past is past. I’ll say it once. I did love you, but I’ve lost those special feelings. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about you or that I won’t help you. I just need some time to think about it.”
Allyson felt like crying. She realized that convincing him how sorry she was about what she had done—that she had never regretted anything more in her life and that she had realized she really did love him—was going to be almost impossible. She looked down and turned away. “Maybe you coming up to my claim isn’t such a good idea after all. I just thought—” She shrugged, deciding to show him it didn’t matter. “I’ve needed someone to come and help me dig into the mountain, someone with some strength. I just can’t afford to pay someone, and there isn’t one man in this town I would trust to stay up there with me. I didn’t mean for it to sound like I was just using you again.” She faced him, holding her chin high. “It’s a legitimate offer. Fifty-fifty if I strike it rich. You do what you think is best. I’ll stay in a hotel tonight—not Mr. Holliday’s, of course. I’ll buy what supplies I need this afternoon and head back first light. You can come or not.”
Ethan grinned. “You never change, do you?”
“I’m sorry if that disappoints you.”
Ethan walked over and picked up the reins to Blackfoot. “Get on. I’ll take you back to your mules and help you and the assayer sort through the mess in that leather sack. You go on to the bank and get your supplies, whatever you have to do. I have some things to straighten out with Holliday.”
“Fine,” she said nonchalantly. She walked to the horse and took her hat from the saddlehorn, plopping it on her head.
“You’d better twist that hair back up under the hat. I don’t think you understand how fetching a woman looks to a man when her hair is falling all over her shoulders.”
She glanced at him, then walked to the rock to pick up the ribbon. She quickly tied her hair, then began repinning it, wondering just how “fetching” she looked to Ethan Temple right now. She put her hat back on over her upswept hair, then managed to mount up on Blackfoot by herself. Ethan came over and took hold of the reins, leading the animal back toward town.
“Aren’t you getting up here with me?”
Ethan looked back at her, his eyes moving over her again. “Right now I’ll think more clearly with you up there and me down here.”
Allyson felt her cheeks flushing red. Was he saying it still excited him to be close to her? She was not going to admit it yet, but deep inside she knew she still loved the man. Seeing him again, how he looked, how he handled himself, even the smell of him…it all brought back the memory of that one night of passion, and the realization that she had loved Ethan Temple even before she realized it herself. But he’d been hurt, and she had to be careful, tread lightly, or she would lose him forever. Finding him had been the most wonderful thing that had happened to her in a long time, and she was not letting him slip away again.
“Are you coming back with me then?” she asked. Ethan did not reply right away. He just kept walking, puffing on the little cigar. Allyson frowned in annoyance. “Ethan, you wouldn’t really, really let me go back alone, would you?”
He stopped walking, turning to look up at her. “For God’s sake, woman, you must know what we’re both looking at here.” He looked angry. “We were married once. We’ve been lovers.” He looked away. “If you can call what happened love. At least it was on my part.”
“Ethan, it was on my part, too. I wish you would believe that. I didn’t expect it, but that’s how it turned out.”
He sighed deeply. “All right, here’s how it is.” He looked up at her again, saw her cheeks looked rosier and realized he had flustered her by mentioning their intimacy. He took the cigar from his mouth. “I tried real hard to forget you, but now that I’ve found you again, I feel a certain responsibility. I always did feel a little guilty for walking out like I did, but you didn’t seem to want me back anyway. No matter what has happened between us, I still care enough about you that I can’t let you go back up there alone, and I know that right now that’s what you’re determined to do. You’re not about to listen to any common sense I might try to hand you because you’re as stubborn and pig-headed as you ever were! For the next few months I want an understanding between us.”
Allyson pursed her lips. “What kind of understanding?”
“Honesty, for one thing. Are you capable of that?”
“Well, I…I—”
“I won’t be used again, Ally. I’ll go back up with you because I’d worry too much about you if I don’t. I can’t guarantee I won’t want you the way any man would want a woman after being alone with her for weeks. If that happens and you’re not ready to truly commit yourself to me, then I’ll have to leave. But you’d by-God better not take me to your bed with words of love just to keep me up there to help you! It’s going to be real or not at all. I don’t even want to talk about love for a while, but if we do find out we still love each other, then I want it understood and agreed-to right now that we give
it one year at the most.”
“Give what one year?”
He rolled his eyes in exasperation. “The mine. If it doesn’t pay out after one year, we sell the claim, take the money, and go live like normal people. I want a ranch of my own, Ally, and I’ll need a woman to help me with it, to give me children. There was a time when I thought you were that woman, but now I’m not so sure. After some time together, we’ll both know, but I want that chance.”
“If we strike it rich, you’ll have that chance,” she answered. “Either way you can have half of whatever we get out of there, and you still should have enough to get started with.”
“Fine. If we find out we don’t love each other and don’t belong together, I go my way and you go yours, and that will be the end of it.”
Their eyes met, both knowing that now that they’d found each other again, it would be next to impossible just to drift apart once more and forget. “All right,” she answered. “No pretending. You are officially hired, and we split the profits fifty-fifty. We get one year together to find out how we really feel. Then we either go our separate ways, or we go build that ranch in Wyoming.”
“No matter what happens with the mine. If we hit a bonanza, we hire others to mine it right and we still get that ranch. I’m not staying up here forever, Ally. We can always settle in the valley near Colorado Springs. If we don’t hit it big, but we want to stay together, we sell the claim. I want that understood.”
“Fine. A year should be plenty of time.”
Ethan wondered what it was about her that made him lose his mind this way. He was probably walking right back into trouble. “Yeah, plenty of time for a lot of things,” he answered. “I mean it, Ally, about being honest.”
“I won’t lie to you, Ethan, about anything, ever again, but please don’t lie to me either. You have every right to try to hurt me, and you’ve been working for Roy Holliday. You wouldn’t just pretend to be quitting, would you? You could act as a spy for him, agree to go back with me just to see if I hit it big, maybe try to talk me into selling, using old feelings to sway me.”
Ethan snickered. “You know me better than that. I’m not a man to work both sides of the fence. Besides, nobody sways you when you set your mind to something.” He turned away and started walking again, sticking the cigar back between his lips, grumbling.
“What?” Allyson asked.
“I said you make me crazy,” he spoke up louder. “What I should do is give you a good kick in the ass and say good luck and let you go back up there alone.”
She smiled. “You’re exactly right.”
He stopped again. “What if I put it the other way?” he asked. “What if I gave you the choice—go back up or sell out right now and come with me to the valley?”
Her smile faded. “Well, I…I couldn’t—”
“Just what I thought,” he said, turning away to start walking again. “At least you’re being honest about it. That’s a start.”
She was going to say she couldn’t let him out of her life again, but she decided not to tell him…not right now. She had a claim to mine, and at least now she had help. Maybe it was best he thought that was all she wanted. “Thank you, Ethan,” she said softly. “You have no idea how grateful I am, especially after the way I hurt you. I know you have every right to stay out of my affairs.”
“Well, I’m right back in them again, fool that I am. I don’t know why we keep getting thrown together.”
She smiled again. “Maybe it’s just a curse.”
He looked back up at her, this time with a handsome smile that stirred deep desires and sent a wave of remembrance surging through her. “That’s one way to look at it,” he answered.
He continued walking then, and Allyson felt warm and happy and excited. She’d found Ethan Temple! It was like a miracle. She had Ethan and her mine! Everything was going to be wonderful now! Thank God she had come to town when she did. Now she didn’t have to go back up there alone.
“You’re a stupid damn fool!” Roy Holliday roared at Wayne Trapp. It had been three hours since his run-in with Ethan, but although he had changed into dry clothes, Trapp was still nursing a broken, swollen nose and still feeling the hideous ache in his gut from Ethan’s vicious punches. “I told you to go easy on the woman, and what do you do? You bully her, right in front of the miners, and in front of Ethan Temple, who used to be married to her, for God’s sake!”
“How was I to know that?” Trapp argued.
“It wouldn’t matter if you did or didn’t, if you had handled the situation the way I told you!” Holliday shouted back. “Now everybody out there thinks I go around bullying people out of their claims!” He lowered his voice for a moment, leaning close to Trapp. “For God’s sake, they might even start wondering about why John Sebastian was shot—that maybe I had something to do with it!”
“You told me to go and see what was happening.”
“That’s right—just go and see, not threaten the woman in front of everybody! Now the miners are all behind her, and she damn well knows it! She’ll use that, don’t you understand? On top of that I’ll probably lose one of my best men! Now that he knows she’s up there and she’s been threatened, Ethan Temple will probably go back with her to watch over her. There won’t be one damn thing I can do to talk her into selling! Temple will probably find the damn vein and that will be the end of it, unless the apex of that vein stems from my mine. The geologist I hired still isn’t sure.” Holliday began pacing while he fumed.
Wayne winced as he shifted in his chair. “I’ll make up for it some way, Mr. Holliday.”
Holliday turned and glared at him. “You’ve gotten fat and careless this past year, Wayne. I won’t tolerate much more of it. As far as Ethan Temple and that woman are concerned, we have to wait and see what he’s going to do; but if he goes back up there with her, I don’t want you doing anything, not for a while. All fingers would point to us. All we can do is hope they don’t find the real vein and that they give up after one good, harsh winter up there. If not, maybe we can make a move in the spring. We have to be very careful, whatever we do.” He turned and walked to a window. “Damn! I almost had her! Can you believe the irony of it? Ethan Temple was once married to that she-devil! A fine pair they make. I wonder what the whole story is behind that one.”
“Ain’t many proper white women who’d marry an Indian. Maybe we were wrong thinkin’ of her as a lady. You should have let me have at her when we were up there. That would have broke her down good, and apparently I wouldn’t have been soilin’ anything special. She’s already been had, by an Indian, no less.”
“Maybe we can use that to keep the miners from siding with her too heavily, especially if Temple goes up there with her. It won’t look very good.”
Wayne started to grin, but it hurt his face too much. “It sure won’t.”
Someone knocked on the door. Holliday looked at Wayne. “If it’s Temple, keep your mouth shut and stay in that chair. Come in!” he called out.
The door opened, and Ethan stepped inside. He stiffened when he spotted Wayne Trapp sitting there, and his dark eyes glittered with pleasure at the sight of the man’s battered face. The look Trapp gave back told him the man would like to see him dead, but he stayed in the chair and said nothing. Ethan moved his gaze to Roy Holliday. “I’ll be taking my back pay now. You owe me a hundred and fifty dollars for the past thirty days.”
Holliday sighed with disgust. “Ethan, let’s talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to discuss. I heard what you did up at Ally’s claim. I don’t do business with men like that.” He looked at Wayne again. “I should have killed you.”
Wayne started to rise. “You red-skinned sonofabitch! When I’m better—”
“Wayne!” Holliday snapped the name. “Sit down and shut up! You’ve caused enough trouble today. Any more and I’ll fire you! You’re damn lucky I haven’t already.” The man fished some money from his desk drawer while Wayne settled back into his c
hair, still glowering at Ethan.
“You and I ain’t finished with each other,” Wayne grumbled.
Ethan stepped closer. “Any time you want more, look me up.”
“And where will that be?” Holliday asked. “You getting back together with your wife?”
“She’s not my wife anymore.” Ethan stepped up to the desk and took the money Holliday handed to him. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I just know I can’t work for you any longer. I might go up to Ally’s claim with her, now that I know she’s been threatened. She may not be my wife, but I still care about her. She’s determined to find her bonanza, and I can tell you that trying to discourage her from her dreams is like trying to smash a rock with a stick. It can’t be done.”
Holliday sighed with a scowl. “Ethan, no matter what she has told you, it wasn’t as terrible as you think. I went up there with a damn good offer of three thousand dollars. I was doing it out of concern for her safety. A woman alone just shouldn’t be up there fighting the elements and wild animals, let alone the thousands of woman-hungry men. It’s just too dangerous. I thought I was doing her a favor. She could live very well on three thousand dollars, and start her own business someplace more civilized, like Colorado Springs or Denver. If you really care about her, you’ll try to talk her into selling. You know damn well I’m right in saying she shouldn’t be up there, and you know how hard it is to properly mine a claim without men and the right equipment. I assure you that claim will never yield enough for her to go to this much trouble to try to hang on to it. You tell her my offer still stands.” He came around from behind his desk and put out his hand. “You have my word that whether you stay with her or let her go back up alone, she won’t be bothered by me or Wayne or any of my men. I made an offer and she rejected it. That’s the end of it.”
Unforgettable Page 33
