by Paty Jager
“I wasn’t going to hurt you, son.” Ethan knew enough to not push the issue, but he’d done nothing to make the boy think he would cause him or his mother and sister harm.
“He knows that, Mr. Halsey.” Aileen grasped the boy by the shoulders, pulling him into a hug as her arms slid across his chest. The boy’s eyes flared with indignation, but he didn’t fight to leave his mother’s embrace.
“I’ll be back this afternoon with my brothers.” Ethan touched the brim of his hat, ruffled Shayla’s curly hair, and climbed into his wagon.
He’d bring Clay and Hank over this afternoon. Maybe between the three of them, they could figure out how to break through Colin’s hostility. If he couldn’t break through, Aileen would stay distant and make his life harder with her demands.
Chapter 8
“I still don’t see why we have to go see this woman.” Clay followed behind Ethan, mumbling.
“I want Aileen to feel comfortable with you two in case I’m not around.” Ethan slanted a look at his brother. Why was he so against meeting the woman? “She isn’t going to try anything with three of us there.” Even as he said the words, Ethan realized he was playing into Clay’s fears about the woman.
“Clay keep an open mind. Ethan has been dealing with her and look…” Hank grinned and slapped a hand on Ethan’s shoulder, “he’s still raring to go back.”
Ethan flung out his hand, stopping both brothers just as they rounded the bend in the creek. He turned, putting his back to the cabin and confronted the two imbeciles. “I don’t want either of you to say anything other than polite conversation. One of you fools could spout out about your fears…” he glared at Clay, “or your presumed thoughts I’m having about this woman…” he narrowed his gaze on Hank, “and ruin the whole deal.”
“If she signed the contract, why the hell are you making us pussyfoot around her?” Clay crossed his arms and glared back.
“Because, she—hell, her husband beat her—a lot, according to Myrle. If she gets scared, thinking one of us or the men working at the mill are going to go after her, she could very well cause trouble.” He hadn’t wanted to spill Aileen’s vulnerability to them, but he had to get them to behave.
“Happy Man!” The excited squeal from Shayla shifted his thoughts from vileness to innocence.
He turned and she ran to him, clutching his legs. The snickers behind him didn’t take away from the giddy bubble expanding his chest. He picked her up, presenting her to the surprised men. “Shayla, these are my brothers. Hank and Clay.”
“Hi.” She giggled and buried her head against his chest. Peeking at the two, she giggled again.
“Hi, Shayla,” Hank reached a hand out, and she grasped his finger.
“You’re not as big,” she said in a slightly disapproving tone. Ethan laughed when Hank frowned.
“What about me?” Clay stepped forward and flashed his devilish grin.
“What happened to your nose?” She reached out giving it a tweak.
“Hey!” Clay stepped back, giving Ethan and Hank a good laugh.
“Where’s your ma?” Ethan asked, setting the child on the ground. He knew her squeal had to have been heard by the mother or at least the brother.
“She’s in the mine with Colin.” She pointed to the opening in the earth and wrinkled her nose.
“Can you take my brothers to the tree over where your ma and I talked the other day? I’ll go get her and your brother out of the mine.” Ethan motioned to the large tree with the chairs still placed underneath. Shayla grasped a hand from each of his brothers and started chattering and walking toward the spot.
He hurried across the ground to the mine. Ducking, he entered the narrow passage. It was definitely a one man or one boy and one woman operation. The shaft was only wide enough for one person to walk. Every fifteen feet, he’d find a larger area where pockets of ore had been dug out. Fifty feet in, his hat scraped the ceiling. He ducked before smacking into the low ceiling.
The passage wound back in the mountainside farther than he’d anticipated. The air grew thick and hard to breathe. He used his hands to navigate the dark passage. Scraping noises and the chink of steel on rock rang through the darkness. Light began to filter along the passage.
He stepped into the ring of light and watched the boy and woman as they took turns swinging the pick and knocking trailings from the sides of the shaft. How could they work in the thick air? He could hardly breathe and he wasn’t working.
“You really need to add some vent holes.”
Aileen jumped and Colin swung around with his pick, ready to defend.
“I didn’t mean to scare either of you.”
“What are you doing sneaking up on us?” Colin squeaked.
“I’m not sneaking. I brought my brothers just like I said I would.” He didn’t miss both their gazes darting past him to the dark depths behind. “Shayla is keeping them company. She told me you were in here.”
Aileen leaned her pick against the side wall and stilled her thrumming heart. “Colin, take the light and head out.” There was no way this man could know how many times Mr. Miller had attacked them in this very shaft. He’d be out drinking and come home to find them slaving away and beat her senseless because she didn’t have a meal ready. A person lost track of time while deep in the bowels of the earth.
Colin glared at Mr. Halsey and edged by him. She didn’t miss the way he made sure he didn’t touch the man.
“I’m sorry if we appeared startled, Mr. Halsey.”
“Please, call me Ethan.” He motioned for her to follow Colin. She glanced from his large hand extending down the tunnel toward the dimming light, to his face. The concern in his eyes told her he knew why they’d been hostile to his unexpected appearance.
She twisted sideways to move past him. He turned as well. Her breasts skimmed his chest. Heat rippled through her, and a nearly inaudible groan escaped his lips. She stopped, her body pressing against his. The light of the lantern no longer lit the tunnel. She couldn’t see him, but his warm breath swept across her face, and his hands clasped her upper arms.
“We need to move on.” His voice sounded pained. And she knew why when she squeezed along his body and felt his growing desire. The tunnel was dark and empty. She fumbled along the dirt walls, headed in the direction of the mine entrance.
“Ma! Ma!” Colin’s concerned voice echoed through the shaft. The light before her grew as she hurried forward, and he rushed back toward her.
“Ah’m comin’,” she called and checked over her shoulder to make sure Ethan followed. Making her way to the opening, she trembled not from cold but from the heat the man’s body had instilled. Many years had elapsed since she’d succumbed to the heat and sparks of desire. She had to keep her distance from this man. She wasn’t going down that road again. Not with anyone. Especially not with a man the size of Ethan.
She stepped into the daylight and shaded her eyes. Shayla stood under the trees, swinging her arms, and no doubt telling a whopper of a story to two men, who definitely resembled Ethan. They had the same coloring and the same build, though not as large as Ethan. She heard him exit the opening and walk up behind her.
“I didn’t mean to scare you back there.” The soft, husky words referred to more than his appearance in the mine.
“Ah’m fine. Just don’t do it again.” She continued forward afraid he might see how flushed her face had become. Aileen marched over to the tree. Both men stood and offered her a chair. Manners ran in the Halsey family.
She took her usual seat. Ethan moved to a spot between her and his brothers.
“Aileen, this is my brother Hank and my brother Clay.” He motioned them each forward as he spoke their names. Clay appeared nervous. Fidgeting and not quite meeting her gaze. He had the crooked nose of a man who got in brawls. She would have expected him to hold his nerves better.
“Ah’m sorry yer brother saw fit to bring ye here to meet the crazy widow.” She said it with humor, but saw the apprehension flash a
cross Clay’s face.
“You aren’t a crazy woman.” Ethan jumped to her defense and both the brothers’ eyebrows arched.
She laughed and motioned to Colin. “Take yer sister with ye and bring these men a glass o’ water.”
The glare Colin snapped her direction wasn’t missed by the visitors. “He’s a good laddie, just a bit overprotective of his sister and ah.” When the boy shuffled out of sight, she narrowed her eyes and speared each brother with her gaze.
“Ethan said ye two were to be our ‘protectors’ if he’s away.” She glanced at Ethan. He watched her with the same protective gaze Colin did. It both warmed her and irritated her. She resumed her grilling of the brothers.
“Can ye tell me right now that ye dinnae have a problem with watching out fur us?” She glanced from one to the other. “Because if ye do, ye might as well crawl back to work and no’ bother pretending.”
Hank cleared his throat. “Ma’am, I don’t have a problem with you or the younguns as long as you all stay away from the work site. I don’t see any of the men wandering this way unless provoked.”
“Provoked!” She rose out of the chair and poked a finger at the smart-mouthed man. “How are we to provoke them? Answer me that. What do ye take me for? Ah’m no’ a whore and any man that lays a hand on me or ma bairn will find his balls layin’ at his feet.”
Ethan snickered at the white faces of his brothers. Obviously they had both underestimated the wrath and ugliness this woman had been dealt. She stated it plain as day. She wasn’t going to be taken by any man and damn if that didn’t make him want her more than he did when she squeezed past him in the mine.
Colin charged from the house at her outburst. The water sloshed over the pitcher he carried. Shayla hurried behind him, juggling stacked glasses.
He stopped beside his mother. His gaze darted between the men, his mouth twisted in anger. “Get off our land!”
“Colin, don’t get lit up, your ma was just testing my brothers, to see how much they could stomach.” Ethan inched closer to the woman. “Right, you were just fooling with them to see how much backbone they really had. I mean, if they don’t have any backbone, they really aren’t worth a dang to you or me.”
Aileen glanced at him. He winked and she burst into laughter. Her lilting amusement washed over him like a ray of sunshine on a winter day.
Clay stepped forward. “Now see here, when did you start calling us cowards?” His voice shook with uncertainty and anger.
“I’ll only call you a coward if you don’t step up and do your part to make sure Aileen and her family aren’t harassed by our men.” Ethan reached down and picked up Shayla. She smiled and held her arms out to Clay. He looked at Aileen. When she nodded, he reached out to the child, taking her in his arms.
“My momma won’t hurt you,” she said and patted him on the cheek. Clay’s eyes lost their anger. Shayla reached over and patted Hank’s shoulder. “You either.”
Ethan burst out laughing. One small child had diffused his brothers and had them clamoring for her attention.
“Come on, boys, we better get back and make sure things are getting done.” Ethan took Shayla from Clay. He set her on the ground next to her mother. “I’ll come by every couple of days and see if you have any concerns.”
“That ain’t necessary.” Colin placed himself between his mother and Ethan.
“Any time you want to come to work at the mill, come on over,” Ethan said, ignoring the boy’s hostile words. He wasn’t sure how to break through the boy’s anger, but he’d give it a try.
“Thank ye,” Aileen said, putting a hand on Colin’s shoulder.
“I’ll be by in a couple of days.” Ethan stared into her green eyes. He wanted to touch her, but knew that wouldn’t set well with his brothers or the boy bracing himself in front of his mother.
He turned and motioned for Hank and Clay to follow. He’d spend the rest of the day hefting beams to work off the energy pumping through him. A dip in the creek outside their cabin would be needed before he fell into bed tonight. His body still fevered from his contact with the woman in the mine and her feisty comeback to his brothers.
When they were out of earshot of the cabin, Clay whistled softly. “That’s one angry woman! I could see her killing her old man.”
Ethan grabbed him by the shirt front. “If you say something like that again, you’ll answer to me.”
Clay raised his hands in submission. “I didn’t say she did it, but I could see her doing it.” He squirmed as Ethan shook him.
“Shut up. You’re just digging yourself deeper.” Hank put a hand on Ethan’s arm. “Put him down. And cool off.”
Ethan took a deep breath and slowly released the idiot’s shirt. What was happening? He’d never attacked a brother before.
“You turned just as white as I did when she said she’d cut off our balls.” Clay sidestepped the hand that came up to cuff him.
“I never realized you had such a problem keeping your mouth shut before.” Hank smacked him when he dropped his guard.
“Knock it off, both of you.” Ethan pulled his hat off his head and glanced back at the cabin. The small group still stood under the tree watching them. “Come on.” He headed around the curve in the creek and ducked behind the arm of earth reaching out from the mountainside.
“Damn it. We have to show we work together not against one another. How will they feel safe, if we argue about them?” He stopped, pivoting to face his brothers.
“Why do we have to make them feel safe?” Hank searched his face.
“Because I want them to feel safe. Do you need more reason than that?” Ethan sat on a boulder.
“I think you’re getting soft.” Clay plopped on one side of him and Hank on the other. “Not that it’s a bad thing.”
“But it is a bad thing. I can’t run a business and try to cater to that woman’s wishes.” Ethan wanted to make every day a happy day for the family in the rickety shack. But, he had more people to think about than those three.
“You haven’t catered to her any more than was necessary to get this mill going.” Hank waved to the men moving boulders to create the foundation for the stamp mill.
Ethan stared at the beginning of his family’s future. The mill would provide for his brothers and their children and perhaps, if the mountains continued to produce gold and silver, for their grandchildren as well. Bringing the closest miners in on the deal had not only garnered his family more working capital, it had also shown the miners their faith in the mountain and the bounty it would produce.
“Boys, let’s go see if we can’t move this process on a little faster.” He stood and headed to the group of men pushing and levering a boulder. He’d spend the next few days immersed in getting this project off the ground. When the building started to take shape, he’d bring Aileen over to see what they’d accomplished.
He stopped. Why would he want to show it to Aileen? Because, you care what she thinks about you and this project.
“What’s wrong?” Hank placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Nothing. I just had a thought that…” He shook his head. “Never mind. Let’s get busy.”
Chapter 9
Aileen woke each morning wondering when Ethan would come by. She didn’t understand why her body responded to the man. He was larger than either of her husbands, yet, he had a calmness about him neither had possessed.
Shayla, too, watched the bend in the creek each day. Aileen patted her daughter’s curly head.
“He’s busy puttin’ up his mill. He’ll come around when he’s the time.” She picked up a faded shirt from the basket of washed laundry and hung it over a rope stretched from the tree to the corner of the lean-to. The best part of laundry day was working outdoors. She breathed in the clean scent of lye soap and the tang of the pine trees around the shack.
Shayla let out a squeal of delight.
Aileen shaded her eyes and peered at the creek. Flutters in her stomach tickled, and she smi
led at the sight of Ethan’s strong stride carrying him toward them. He waved to Shayla, and a broad grin thinned his full lips.
Colin rose from his crouched position by the sluice box and walked briskly toward her. The boy was too protective. In his younger years she found it endearing. Now it had become too much like her second husband. A man who wouldn’t even let her use the outhouse without permission.
“What brings ye here?” she asked as Ethan walked straight to her.
“There’ll be three wagons loaded down with the mill equipment coming through in the next few days. I wanted to make sure you knew they were supposed to be here.” His gaze didn’t stray from her face. The intensity in his eyes curled heat in her belly and spread upwards, flushing her face.
She cleared her throat, continuing to stare into his eyes. “W-we appreciate the information.”
He took the wet breeches from her hands and placed them over the rope.
“We could use Colin’s help as well.” Ethan turned to Colin, giving her a chance to run her cold, damp hand over her heated face. Mercy. The man was a walking torch.
“What kind of help?” It would do the laddie good to work with men and see not all were as mean spirited at Mr. Miller, but she wasn’t gonna let him go without a bit of sparring with Ethan. She had to keep their relationship at odds. It was the only way to keep from thinking he would be good in her bed.
“As the men build higher, we need more bodies to scramble up and down the structure with materials…”
“Ah’ll no’ have my child hangin’ from a skeleton o’ a buildin’!” The nerve of the man putting her only son in danger.
“You didn’t let me finish.” Ethan crossed his arms and stood toe to toe with her. The twinkle in his eye didn’t escape her. He relished their squabbles as much as she.
“What’s to finish? Ye said as much he’d be crawling up and down an unstable buildin’.” She placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward just enough to get a whiff of his clean shaven face.
“Colin won’t be climbing. He’ll do the cleanup work on the ground.” He didn’t back up as she’d anticipated. Rather, the cheeky man leaned in as well.
