Marriage Deal With the Outlaw & the Warrior's Damsel in Distress & the Knight's Scarred Maiden : Harlequin Historical August 2017 (9781488021640)

by St. Harper George; Fuller, Meriel; Locke, Nicole

“I’m sorry to have missed the visit,” Tanner said. “With any luck, the vote for statehood will go through soon and I won’t have to spend so much time in Washington.”

  “Is it luck or money that’s involved?” Castillo wasn’t involved in politics, but he knew enough to understand how it all worked. Whoever had the most money could generally get what they wanted.

  “A bit of both, I suppose,” Tanner said with an easy grin. “There’s no question it takes money. Lots of it. But it also takes a lot of convincing the right people that we’re not just a bunch of lawless, immoral heathens. I expect we’ll see some changes coming to Helena soon. Saloons, brothels and gambling dens will have to be brought down to a manageable number. We’ll have to do our part to fit in with Eastern expectations.”

  “Won’t closing those places anger a lot of people?” Castillo asked. “Those places cater to the people who work the mines.”

  “They do, but the times are changing. We’re not just a mining town anymore. There are families here, businesses, schools and churches. It’s time to move forward.” Tanner took a deep breath, as if he had something else he wanted to say but didn’t know how to start. Finally he let the breath out and met Castillo’s gaze. “We can talk about Montana statehood all night if you want, but that’s not why I asked you to come in here.”

  Castillo clenched his jaw, already preparing for what he knew was coming.

  “I want you to accept the income from your silver mine and acknowledge your interest in the Jameson Mining Company.”

  On Castillo’s first and only other visit with his father, Tanner had mentioned the silver mines he’d bought in both of his sons’ names years ago. Apparently they both produced a healthy income. Castillo had refused his in no uncertain terms. But when he’d returned home to Texas, and his grandfather had made him aware of the financial state of the hacienda, Castillo had been tempted to soften his stance. His outrage at his father couldn’t withstand his sorrow at seeing his grandfather’s dream crumble around him.

  When he would’ve weakened, his grandfather had urged him to stay strong, saying that he’d never allow Tanner’s dirty money to sully the hacienda’s good name. Hunter had taken over the management of both mines, and Castillo still wanted no part of his.

  At some point since his first visit, Tanner had redrawn his will so that Hunter and Castillo shared in the estate equally. He’d also made them partners in the Jameson Mining Company. Hunter had urged him many times to accept his share, but Castillo had refused. If standing strong against Tanner was the only way to honor his grandfather, the man who’d raised him, then that’s what he’d do. Making the hacienda a success wouldn’t mean anything if it was accomplished with Jameson money.

  “I have no interest in your money, Tanner. You know that.” Castillo clenched his hand around the tumbler, while the other balled into a fist at his side, as unreasonable anger coursed through his body. He shouldn’t feel this angry. Logically, he knew that it wasn’t productive. He’d spent too many years rationally weighing his options and outsmarting those who were a threat to the brotherhood to allow anger to rule him now. But, just for a moment, he indulged it, allowing it free rein. “I don’t want anything from you.”

  “It’s your inheritance, Castillo.” Hunter’s voice was soft but firm when he spoke, his expression earnest.

  “No, it’s your inheritance, and you’re entitled to it. Take it with my compliments.” Castillo looked back to Tanner’s wary eyes. “It’s not my inheritance. You abandoned her.” He’d never spoken so plainly to the man. On that first visit, he’d barely said more than to introduce himself and hand him the letter his mother had written. Tanner had spoken, but Castillo hadn’t. He’d been too angry, and too surprised and overwhelmed by that anger and his grief over his mother’s death, to say much.

  “Castillo, you must know… I didn’t simply abandon Marisol. I asked her to come with me.”

  Castillo’s breath caught in his chest. He’d never heard Tanner say his mother’s name before. Something about hearing it now made their relationship seem more real, which was foolish because of course it had been real. Castillo was living proof. The green eyes with a tint of gold he saw every time he looked into a mirror were staring back at him now. The strong jaw and wide shoulders had both come from the man sitting across from him.

  He’d never known that Tanner had tried to take his mother with him when he left. She’d never told him that, but it didn’t matter. “If she said no it was with the understanding that you’d come back for her, and she never saw you again. You abandoned her.”

  “There’s more to it than that, Castillo. It’s more complicated.” Tanner was agitated. He set his whiskey on the table beside him and dragged a hand over his chin.

  “I’m certain there’s more to it, but it’s not all that complicated. You were more interested in building a fortune, in this—” Castillo raised a hand to encompass the opulence of the room “—than you were in honoring your commitment to her. After all, what better way to solidify your ambition than to marry into a political family like the Hartfords? Something tells me a Reyes for a wife wouldn’t have held as much political weight.” Castillo jerked his gaze toward the fire. He hadn’t meant to drag those old demons out. He’d told himself when he found out Tanner would be here that he’d stick to benign topics and avoid the man as much as possible.

  The room went silent, with only the crackling of the wood as it burned filling up the air. Finally, Tanner said, “I’m sorry for what happened with your mother. Sorrier than you’ll ever know. I can’t change the past, but I’d like a fresh start with you.”

  A fresh start. As if Castillo could just wipe away how it felt to grow up without his father. As if he could forget how helpless he’d felt every time he found his mother crying. As if he could forget the way people looked at him when it had become known that Tanner had married someone else. Castillo wasn’t a bastard, but having it known that your father had thrown you away to start another family was pretty damn close to the same thing. “Why do you deserve that, Tanner?”

  “I probably don’t. I deserve as much of your anger as you want to throw at me. But that’s not going to bring either of us any happiness. Also, I’d like for you to call me Father, at least this week while people are here.”

  Castillo shook his head and rose to his feet, setting his tumbler down on the mantel. “Thank you for your recommendation. Miguel wouldn’t have been accepted to the university without it and whatever favors you requested. I do appreciate that.” Castillo had also paid the tuition from the silver mine’s account. It was the least he could do after Miguel had almost been killed, but that’d be the only money he’d take. “But that’s the extent of this. I’m here because of Hunter, because he’s asked me to stand up next to him when he marries Emmy. Alejandro Reyes raised me as his own. He’s my father.”

  “You’re just like him, Castillo. Too proud and stubborn. He wouldn’t accept any of the money I offered him over the years. If he had, maybe things would’ve gone better for him.”

  Maybe he’d still be alive and the hacienda wouldn’t be a failure. Tanner didn’t say that, but that’s what he meant. Castillo hadn’t known about Tanner offering his grandfather money over the years, but it didn’t change anything. Turning, he walked from the room.

  There was some rustling behind him, and he assumed Tanner or maybe both of the men got to their feet. Then he heard Hunter say, “Let him go, Pop.”

  Whatever else Hunter said faded into the darkness as Castillo made his way to the stairs. He took them two at a time and found his bedroom. He’d take his things and move into the bunkhouse for the week. They’d need as many bedrooms as they could get for the guests that would arrive, anyway. He wouldn’t sleep under this roof, not while Tanner was here to see it as some sort of capitulation. Yet as soon as he walked into his bedroom, he realized that he couldn’t leave.
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  Caroline was down the hall and he needed to stay close to her. He cursed and kicked over the ottoman just before plopping down into the overstuffed chair before the cold fireplace. That woman was going to be trouble. He’d have to watch her day and night to make sure she kept her end of their ill-advised bargain.

  An unwelcome vision of her as she’d been on the train swam through his mind. She’d been soft and sweet in his arms, an almost direct contradiction to the woman he’d met earlier tonight. That woman had been all challenge and confidence. He wanted to figure out how both personalities melded together.

  He sucked in a breath and leaned forward to hold his head in his hands. Spending time with her was going to be challenging. There was no denying that she intrigued him. He’d never met a woman so certain of herself and what she wanted. It didn’t help that he was attracted to her.

  This was going to be a tough week.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Caroline awoke the next morning more excited than she’d ever been in her life. Well, perhaps more excited was extreme. She’d been excited when she’d been accepted to the medical program. This feeling was simply a different kind of excitement, a new excitement. It was similar to when she was ten and she’d been given a pony for her birthday. She’d unwrapped the papers for her new treasure and had had to wait until Sunday when her father could drive her out of town to the stables to see it. The whole way there she’d felt like she might burst out of her skin because she was too wound up for it to contain her.

  This excitement was like that. Only better. Because it wasn’t a mere pony who waited for her. It was Castillo. One of the most intriguing men she’d ever met in her life. Hunter Jameson was very handsome. A few of the men at the charity balls in Boston had been every bit as handsome. This man was handsome in a different way. He was dark sensuality mixed with rugged intensity, an enigmatic combination she’d never encountered before. And when she looked into his eyes, she saw that he knew things that she’d never know on her own. Things that she wanted him to teach her.

  Castillo. Even his name was exotic and mysterious. She said it to herself as she sat in front of the mirror at her dressing table. He’d called her Carolina. Not Caroline. Nothing so boring and normal as that. She’d lain awake in bed for hours last night just remembering the way his smooth voice had practically caressed the sounds as they came out of his mouth. If she wasn’t so befuddled by her reaction to him, she’d take the time to chastise herself for it. But that’d have to wait until after she saw him again. Right now she was too busy getting ready.

  She tugged on one of the perfect sausage curls that fell across her shoulder and wondered if she shouldn’t have had Mary spend the time with the hot iron. Caroline had perfected a series of simple twists and pins years ago to deal with her heavy hair. It’s how she wore it every day at her father’s office. Father and Aunt Prudie were bound to know something was amiss if she was putting extra effort into her hair now, when it wasn’t even evening. Then she smiled at her own foolishness. If she was pretending to fall in love with Castillo, then they’d expect her take the extra time with her appearance.

  She kept forgetting that. This was all pretend, only the flutters in her belly didn’t know that.

  Standing, she ran her hands down the skirt of her morning dress. It was a sunny yellow with white tulle around the bodice to keep it modest and with just enough of a bustle to keep it fashionable. The fact that it went well with her coloring had only figured a little into her reasons for choosing it for this particular morning. The blush staining her cheeks in the mirror called her a liar. The truth was that she’d never felt this way about a man before. She’d found some handsome, but this level of attraction was beyond her experience.

  She shook her head at herself as she made her way to the door to collect her father and go down to breakfast. There she hoped to see Castillo again. She practiced saying his name, trying to get the Spanish double L to sound the way it had when Hunter had said it.

  “Castillo.” The sound of a man’s voice saying his name left her dumbfounded.

  Castillo was leaning with one shoulder against the wall just outside her door with his arms crossed over his chest. He smiled and repeated his name, this time enunciating each syllable, taunting her. “Go ahead, try it again.”

  Her cheeks flamed in embarrassment. “I thought…if we’re to pretend… I thought I should know how to say it correctly.”

  Castillo inclined his head in acknowledgment. “Of course, Carolina.”

  A shiver of pure pleasure snaked through her body at the sound of his voice saying her name again. It raised gooseflesh on her arms and made her skin tingle. Even her breasts seemed to tighten somehow, though Caroline had no firsthand experience with what that meant or even why it happened. She cleared her throat and pulled her shoulders back to disguise her reaction. Surely he couldn’t tell what he did to her.

  He smiled as if he did know. His eyelids lowered slightly, heavy, and one corner of his mouth quirked upward, bringing her attention to his fuller bottom lip. He was dressed like a gentleman this morning in a plain yet perfectly tailored suit of dove gray. The coat was stretched across the broad width of his shoulders, emphasizing their strength. The men at the charity functions in Boston definitely did not have shoulders like that. His dark hair was parted at the side and pushed back from his forehead. It fell in rich waves just past his collar, too long to be fashionable but it looked appealing on him. He was a strange mixture of gentleman mixed with rugged handsomeness that she found very appealing.

  “Why are you here?” she asked.

  “To watch you.”

  He didn’t mean that with any sort of intimacy, quite the opposite actually, but the words plucked a chord of longing deep inside her. Across the hall, just a couple of yards back toward the staircase, her father’s door was cracked open. She lowered her voice a bit so her father wouldn’t hear. “And what if someone catches you here?”

  “I’ll say that I’m enamored of you and can’t stay away.” His lips twitched as he tried to contain his smile. “You do look lovely.” His glance went from her hair to her morning gown before lighting on her face again.

  Her heart pounded in her chest. Never had such a casual, possibly disingenuous compliment had such an effect on her. Instead of addressing that, she said, “The charade was my idea. I’d hardly change my mind about it.”

  “Trust must be earned, Miss Hartford. I can’t very well give you my trust after one conversation. For all I know, now that it’s morning, you might’ve reconsidered.”

  She sighed, but she couldn’t dispute that. If she were in his shoes, she’d be equally suspicious. “Well, I can assure you, Mr. Jameson, that I’m not some fainthearted dolt. I made a commitment and I’ll see it through.”

  Something like respect shone in his eyes. He straightened a bit and gave her a once-over, as if sizing her up in a different light. “Then let’s go down to breakfast.” He held out his arm as if he intended to escort her like a proper gentleman.

  This man was so contradictory that she was quickly becoming fascinated with him. Here, in this hallway on this grand estate, he had the aura of a gentleman, but that dangerous man she’d seen on the train lurked just beneath the surface. “I need to collect my father first.”

  He nodded once and led the way to the bedroom, though he stayed in the hallway while she pushed the door open and went inside. Her father was sitting outside on his balcony with a medical text in hand. She recognized it as the one she’d read on the train. “Good morning. Are you feeling rested?”

  Her father set his book down on his lap and took off his reading glasses. A gentle wind blew wisps of his gray hair out of place. “I’m feeling much better. Thank you, dear. I apologize for my disappearance last night.”

  “I assumed you’d decided to go to bed early when you didn’t come down for supper.” She c
rossed his room and took in the healthy color in his cheeks and the clear whites of his eyes. The sallowness was gone. The rest had done him good. His tired spells were happening more often lately, but they never seemed to last long. “You look much better.” She leaned over and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

  “As do you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you curl your hair when your mother didn’t demand it for a function.” He grinned and rose to his feet, going into his room and placing his book on the bedside table. “I’ll let her know as soon as she arrives.”

  Caroline smiled. He was right about that. Her mother was constantly after her to pay more attention to her dress and hair, all in the name of catching a husband, of course. “We’re on an adventure. I thought the change was called for.”

  A twinge of guilt at the fib tugged at her chest. She wanted to tell him about the plan she’d concocted with Castillo. She’d never kept anything from her father before. While a part of her thought that he might understand and actually go along with it, another part knew of his deep loyalty to her mother. He sent her daily letters whenever he traveled. There was no way he could keep quiet about this, and then Caroline would be right back in the position of facing marriage to a virtual stranger in order to continue her education. Or worse. That stranger might actually demand she not go through with medical training. As much as she despised the deception, it was necessary.

  He smiled back at her as he offered her his arm. “You look beautiful. You may find yourself a husband yet.” He winked at her and she took his arm and laughed at the jest, but she thought of Castillo. Somehow she knew that there would be no one else to draw her attention the way he had. In just two brief meetings he’d fascinated her in a way no one else ever had. Her reaction to him was almost frightening, because it was completely unprecedented in her experience. She’d been attracted by a handsome face before, but this was more. This was deeper. She reacted to him on a visceral level she didn’t quite understand.