“Yes, I can see that.” Harper looked at Emily even as he bent to help a groggy Chilton to his feet. “So, you’ve married Cloud?”
“Yes, Harper,” she said a little weakly, feeling a little guilty even though she would not have changed anything.
“Well, do something, Harper.” Dorothy nudged him aside to fuss over Chilton.
“There’s not much I can do,” Harper said calmly. “It’s done. I can’t change it.”
“Can’t you have it annulled or something?”
Harper could not suppress a swift glance at Emily’s stomach. “No, No, I can’t.”
“You’ll regret this, Harper.” Chilton turned his enraged gaze upon Cloud. “So will you, Cloud Ryder. You’ll wish you’d kept your hands off her. I’ll see to it that your life’ll be no bed of roses.”
Cloud smiled a little. “No. Lilacs.” He nuzzled Emily’s neck. “Yup, definitely lilacs.”
Emily groaned softly and elbowed him in the ribs. She ignored his exaggerated wince and watched the three people before her. Dorothy and Chilton were looking dangerously angry. Harper looked amused, which did not make any sense to Emily at all. Then, with a curse, Chilton strode out of the church to a chorus of hoots and remarks, some of which piqued Emily’s interest by referring to her as a second prize snatched from Chilton’s hands by Cloud. She suspiciously eyed her new husband’s too bland expression.
Harper had been watching the pair. He could not recall Cloud having acted so human before, his face open and readable. Emily was plainly not in awe of the man at all. Despite her fair daintiness and Cloud’s large, dark virility, he could look at them and see a well-matched pair. He felt confident that his little sister would be well taken care of. It struck him as amusing that sweet little Emily, bred to be a proper Boston lady, was the one to have finally snared the elusive Cloud Ryder.
Dorothy glared at Emily. “Your parents are no doubt turning in their graves,” she pronounced.
“No, I doubt it. That would be too undignified.” Emily’s eyes widened a little when Harper laughed softly.
“Here, Em, the preacher wants you to sign the book.” Cloud handed her the pen.
Taking the pen, she turned to sign the book only to stare at Cloud’s name—Cloud Llewellyn Ryder. “Llewellyn?” she whispered, her gaze flying to his face.
“Just be quiet and sign.”
Giggling softly, she did so. With a slight flourish, she wrote Emily Cordelia Mason Brockinger Ryder. She heard Wolfe curse softly in surprise and realized that he and James were peering over her shoulders.
“Four names?” Wolfe murmured, his amber eyes alight with laughter.
“They get real elaborate back east.” Cloud reached out and retucked Emily against his side.
Disgusted with their continued high spirits, Dorothy snapped, “Enjoy yourselves while you can. It won’t be for long. Thomas Chilton owns this valley and—”
“Not my bit,” Cloud interrupted softly. “Not a stone.”
“Or mine,” added Wolfe.
“There will come a time when you will need his capital.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it, Mrs. Brockinger.”
“Come along, Harper.” Dorothy started to leave. “There’s no saving Emily from her folly now. We have our own problems to sort out.” She realized then that Harper was not following her. “Harper?”
“In a minute. Go right along, dear.”
Her mouth tightening in annoyance, she left. Just outside the church, away from the milling onlookers, she met Chilton and thought there was, perhaps, still a chance of saving herself and Harper.
“He tried to stop her, Mr. Chilton. She crept away in the dead of night. We’d even locked her in her room.”
“Your husband should have instilled in her a greater sense of responsibilities.”
“Surely we can come to some agreement. Must we be penalized for her foolishness?”
Studying the woman who tried hard to hide her desperation, Chilton smiled to himself. It would be hard to do anything to the Ryders just now. However, he could begin his revenge against Dorothy and Harper. Dorothy’s weaknesses were well known.
“Perhaps,” he said slowly, brushing off his coat. “I’ll give it some thought.”
“Anything, Mr. Chilton. I need not hide from you the fact that I am desperate.”
“Of course not. I am well aware of the dire straits your finances are in. As I said, I’ll give it some thought. Let us say, lunch? Next Tuesday? In my office?”
“Harper and I will—”
“Not Harper. Just you, Dorothy.” He watched her closely as he raised her hand to his lips and kissed her palm. “I’m sure you’re the more persuasive of the two of you. Good day.”
Dorothy watched him walk away. She had a very good idea of what collateral he was going to ask for extending his loan. Her husband did not enter her weighing of the pros and cons as she wended her way home. It was, after all, his fault that they were in such trouble, she thought angrily. He did not seem to care that they now faced total ruin.
She also felt a deep, simmering hatred for
Emily. Dorothy had always been aware of Cloud Ryder as a man, but he had never noticed her, and that had stirred her rancor. That a little nothing, as she considered Emily, should have him added to her fury. The girl would regret taking on far more than she could ever handle and Dorothy intended to be there to savor her downfall.
For the first time since it was suggested her marriage was not Emily’s first concern. She was worried about Harper. He did not seem, however, to be overly concerned about his supposedly imminent ruin.
“I’m sorry about your troubles, Harper. I have a few pieces of jewelry from the inheritance our parents left. They aren’t much, but if they would be of any help to you, you are welcome to them.”
“You’re sweet, Em.” He kissed her. “Don’t worry about me. If I can’t get out of trouble, I don’t deserve to. After all, nobody forced me into my precarious position. If anyone has to pawn their baubles it can be Dorothy.” He paused, savoring the idea.
“Oh, dear.” Emily shuddered at the thought. “That would make her very unhappy.”
“Dorothy is always unhappy. Take good care of Emily, Cloud.” “I intend to.”
“Be happy, Em. You deserve to be.” “He doesn’t seem very worried,” Emily murmured after her brother had left.
“Perhaps, sweet, he isn’t quite the spineless weakling I thought he was.”
Whatever she might have responded to that was lost as they were deluged by congratulations. Emily sensed that a lot of them were for making Chilton look like a fool. It was clear that a lot of people had relished that.
“I never did like that tradition of kissing the bride,” growled Cloud as he extracted Emily from the grasp of an enthusiastic male well-wisher.
Just as they reached the wagon they were greeted by another knot of congratulators. Emily looked at the women whose dresses exposed a great deal of their well-endowed bodies and scowled. One shapely redhead bussed Cloud soundly and gave him two bottles of champagne.
“Now we know why we haven’t seen you since you got back. These are a farewell gift.”
“Thanks, Rosie. That’s real kind of you.”
Emily’s mind latched onto what the woman had said and she blurted out, “You mean he hasn’t been at the saloon at all?”
“Why do you think I was so surprised that you went there looking for me last night?” Cloud protested.
“Dorothy,” hissed Emily, her hands clenching into fists as she savored visions of torturing the woman.
Taking her by the arm, Cloud tugged her nearer to the wagon. “You can punch her in the nose some other day,” he said cheerfully.
“I would never demean myself by even contemplating such a vulgar display of temper.”
He grinned at her. “'Course not. Besides, your hand needs a rest from protecting my virtue all along the trail.” He lifted her into the wagon.
She
bit back a laugh. “It’s impossible to defend that which does not exist.”
“Oh, I think I might have me a scrap or two left here and there.”
“Mostly there.”
“You better get a move on, Cloud,” suggested Rosie. “Here comes Catrina.”
“Oh, dear, another one.” Emily sighed, wondering if her life would be filled with such confrontations.
“Only a little dust of the past to brush away, little one.”
“You seem to be an extraordinarily dusty man.”
He grinned and gave her a quick kiss. When he turned to greet the shapely brunette, Emily saw that he was wearing the expression that made her shiver. She felt the wagon move and looked to see Wolfe and James behind her, their gazes fixed upon Cloud and the lovely woman facing him. Thornton seemed the only one not interested in the meeting.
“She cries well,” Emily commented softly.
“Does she?” Wolfe grinned at her.
“Oh, yes. Holds her handkerchief with just the right flair, well-formed droplets trickling artfully down her cheeks. I always get puffy eyes, a drippy nose, and the hiccoughs. This is art.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“This has become very tedious,” James muttered. “What number are we up to, Em?”
“I stopped counting half the way here.”
Wolfe laughed softly. “Cloud plainly hasn’t been showing his best side.”
“Depends upon your point of view.” Emily smiled, then turned her attention back to the confrontation.
“How could you do this to me, Cloud?” the brunette murmured.
“Do what?”
“Marry another after all we’ve been to each other.”
“Whatever we’ve been besides a mediocre tussle was all in your head, Catrina.”
“Ouch,” Emily whispered even as she blushed over his crude retort.
“How can you say that? I left Chilton for you,” wailed Catrina.
“Chilton?” Emily looked to Wolfe and James only to find that they would not meet her gaze, but suddenly became intently interested in an excited Thornton’s chatter.
“I never asked you to do that. In fact, I never asked you to do anything.”
Emily tensed, but not because of what was being said. Cloud’s hand had slipped beneath her skirts and was lightly caressing her calf. Looking closely at him, she decided that he was not fully aware of what he was doing.
Gritting her teeth against the feelings his touch was evoking, she refrained from removing his hand and drawing unwanted attention. She was certain that, married or not, caressing a woman’s leg in public was not exactly proper.
A change in the confrontation took her mind off his touch. Catrina shed her weeping, broken-hearted guise abruptly. She had plainly thought herself the woman in Cloud’s life. Knowing Cloud was not a man for sweet lies and that he had been extremely unfaithful to Catrina, Emily could only feel that it was vanity that had put that idea into the woman’s head. She also suspected that it was stung vanity that was sending Catrina into a glorious fury now.
“Ah,” murmured Wolfe, “now here’s the Catrina I know, the real one.”
“You know Catrina?” Emily looked at her new brother-in-law in honest curiosity.
“I’m too much the gentleman not to comfort a lonely woman.” Wolfe grinned when Emily rolled her eyes.
“How dare you treat me so shabbily. You made promises—”
“Not a one, Catrina. You offered, I accepted. It was that simple.” Cloud gave her a brief nod of farewell, intending to put an abrupt end to the meeting.
“Oh, yes, do go! Run off with your little bride. You’ll come sniffing around again as soon as you tire of that little puritan. You’re crazy if you think a child like her can keep you satisfied.”
That hurt and Emily had the sinking feeling that it showed on her face. Catrina’s eyes narrowed with a look of satisfaction. Emily struggled to meet the woman’s venomous look without flinching.
“I know you married her for the sake of the child she carries.”
Emily gave a start as she wondered who could have told Catrina.
“You know very little then,” Cloud said in a voice that hinted at his growing rage.
“Do I? We’ll see. There’s no way a prissy little girl like her pan keep you at home. I may have lost, but she hasn’t won. You’ll come looking again when this Boston tart wears thin.”
“I think that had better be the last word out of your mouth.”
Catrina paled at the tone of his voice. Even she realized she had gone too far. Vainly trying to regain some dignity, she threw a last hate-filled glance at Emily and strode away.
“Don’t you pay that little bitch any mind,” said Rosie, glaring after Catrina.
Emily managed a smile for the woman if only because Cloud was watching her closely. “It’s become quite old hat now, Miss Rosie. Thank you for your gift.”
“Our pleasure.” She beamed at Wolfe. “Don’t let the snows keep you home, sweetie.”
“Never, Rosie love.” He winked at the girls, who laughed and went back into the saloon.
Cloud tucked the bottles of champagne in the wagon and got up onto the driver’s seat, his gaze on Emily the whole time. She was fiddling with her appearance too much, smoothing nonexistent wrinkles from her skirts and readjusting her cloak. It was a sure sign that something was bothering her. If it was Catrina he could only wonder why, for Emily had come through other such scenes with apparent ease. Still frowning, he started them on their way.
“Are you all right, Em?” he asked when she had not said a word for a while.
“Fine, Cloud.” She forced her mouth into another smile.
“You’re awful quiet.”
“I am just worried about Harper. That’s all.”
He glanced as if for confirmation at James and Wolfe, but they simply shrugged. “Harper can take care of himself.”
Harper sat in his parlour with a glass of whiskey and looked at all the finery Dorothy had insisted on having. He felt increasingly depressed. It was what he had grown up with, but he suddenly realized he cared little about it, did not really need it.
He had been blindly in love with Dorothy when he married her. She had seemed to him to be the epitome of all that a lady should be, but looking deep within himself now, he could not find a trace of that feeling left.
It made him both sad and angry. He was nearly thirty and he really had nothing. There was a chance he could pull himself out of the hole he had dug for himself, but he was not all that sure it was worth it. The best thing might be to toss it all and start afresh.
The question was what to do about Dorothy. He knew he would have to try to make the best of that as well. Perhaps, with a little help from her, they could try to recapture what they had begun with, if only because he believed in honoring his vows and was not quite ready to give up on them. He watched her storm into the room and struggled to recall how sweet it had all been at the start.
“Well, just what do we do now, Harper?”
Her voice had sharpened considerably over the years, Harper thought. “Start again, I guess.”
“Start again? You mean give up the store and all this and begin with nothing?”
Looking around, he drawled, “All this? It’s furniture, carpets, frills. One can live without this, my dear.”
“I won’t.”
“I think you will have to learn to. Starting again is the only reasonable thing to do.”
Dorothy stared at her husband. He was plainly very serious, and worse, for once he was firm. She was not sure of how to handle him. All she could think of was buying time.
With time she could work out something with Chilton. She had seen the look in the man’s eyes. It flattered her in many ways. Harper was so trusting that a deal with Chilton should be easy to manage without Harper’s finding out.
After a few years of marriage she knew well how to soften her husband. With a smile that gave him visions of the e
arly days of their love affair, she moved to sit beside him. Placing her hands on his thighs she looked up at him beseechingly.
“Just keep the store going for the winter, Harper. It’s too cold to move on now.”
“Well, I was not necessarily thinking of moving on.”
“Still, just for the winter. You’ve worked so hard for what we have. Don’t be so quick to toss it all away. Just a few more months’ efforts, that’s all I ask.”
Harper knew he was being bribed, but when her long fingers began to undo his trousers, he decided not to fight it. A few more months could not hurt. He tangled his fingers in her hair as she bent her head, her lips warm and eager. There could also be some benefits to waiting.
“All right, pet,” he rasped. “A few more months.”
Chilton’s mind was on Dorothy as he strode toward a house at the edge of town. He had no intention of allowing Harper to default on his loan. It would be amusing to see how hard and how long Dorothy would work before she realized that. With skillful handling, he could keep himself entertained for months. Then, at just the right moment, he would let Harper know just how much he had lost.
Catrina opened her door, but failed to slam it shut before Chilton had gotten inside. “What the hell do you want?”
“Why, to offer my condolences, of course. Aren’t you going to offer me a drink?”
Just as Chilton had thought she would, Catrina began to think in the direction of a possible reconciliation. She had lost her gamble with Cloud Ryder, but Chilton had claimed to love her not too long ago. If she could revive his passion she could recoup her losses.
“Of course. Come in and sit down. Whiskey with a dash of mineral water. Right?”
Making himself comfortable on a large well-cushioned settee, Chilton nodded. “You remembered.”
Handing him the drink she sat down close to him. “I never really forgot you, Thomas.” She dabbed at suddenly moist eyes with the edge of her diaphanous nightgown. “When I saw him today, I realized it had all been some sort of madness. I just cannot explain it.”
“There’s no need, dear,” he said soothingly, handing her a hankerchief and putting an arm around her shoulders. “The man’s well known for his mysterious hold on women.”
Compromised Hearts Page 20
