are here. They arrived the day you left. They wanted to surprise us.”
He’d missed his sister and nephew terribly. Joshua, too. “I’ve missed two weeks with them? How long will they be here?”
“They aren’t visiting. Joshua bought the bank and moved them here. He decided to follow Abby’s dream, knowing it was the best thing for Daniel. And speaking of best... Best of all is he did it, Bren.”
Brendan narrowed his eyes. “What is it my brother-in-law did?”
“Joshua cleared your name. He stood up in court back in Pennsylvania and proved you’d been framed by his father and Franklin Gowery. They were both forced to admit there’d been no evidence to prove you were involved but your badly forged initials in the company store’s receipt book.”
Brendan blinked, then let out a deep breath he felt he’d been holding for half a year. “He did it? I didn’t think he could. I’m free?” She nodded and watched the joy bloom on his face as the realization sank in. “I’m free.”
“Even better, Joshua untangled my assets from Franklin Gowery’s control. My guardian can never touch us again. We’re both free. And we’re rich.”
It was like having a weight lifted from him, only to have that same weight dropped right back on his shoulders again. Brendan’s efforts all these months were like a dandelion puff in the wind—weak and powerless. Once again she could buy and sell him.
“No. You’re rich, Helena. I told you the day we decided to make a go of this marriage you so handily arranged.”
She covered his hand with hers and he stared down at it. A hand that had been soft and lily-white was now rough and red with toil. His belly tightened with dread. Her hands now looked like his mother’s had. Would this life kill her, as sure as life in a mining town had killed his ma?
He could feel Helena willing him to look at her. When he raised his gaze to hers, he saw worry in her blue eyes. “But I told you I wanted to buy that ranch for us if I got control of my funds in time. That’s what the money’s for. For us. The ranch house isn’t much better than this place, but the land, Bren. It’s huge. And ours for the taking. We can build Shamrock, just like we planned. The widow woman says her husband had a herd of longhorns. They only need to be gathered in and the steers taken to San Antonio. Our Shamrock is out there waiting for us to rename it and make it into a legacy for our children.”
Brendan pulled his hand from under hers and paced to the open door, to stare out at the rolling landscape of the Texas Hill Country. “That’s your dream. I never wanted anything so grand. I want to build what you simply want to buy. I won’t have it.”
He wouldn’t live on her father’s ill-gotten gains. On what amounted to blood money—blood of men like his own father, who’d left his leg in one of Wheaton’s mines. Brendan didn’t understand how she could expect it of him.
“It’s our chance, Bren.” She sounded so reasonable. “We have to take it. An opportunity like this won’t come along again. If we don’t step up, there’s someone else who wants it. The widow doesn’t want to have to sell it to him, but she can’t wait any longer. She wants to sell to us. You’ll see. It’ll be a wonderful place to raise a family.”
“No,” he said flatly.
It hurt to see her anguish and realize she cared more for a piece of land than she did for his self-respect. Didn’t she know him at all? He’d told her they’d make it on what he provided. She clearly didn’t believe in him; it was as simple as that. He fisted his hand next to his leg. “You have to have everything now. You don’t want to work hard for it. You want it handed to you, the same way everything has been your entire life.”
She stiffened her spine and raised her chin. “It’s too late to back out. I already bought it. They’re waiting at the land office for us to sign the papers.”
“I won’t sign any papers. I won’t be bought.”
She stared at him, her eyes narrowed in thought or disbelief. He wasn’t sure he knew her this way. Maybe he’d never known her at all. “Bought? You think that’s what I want to do—buy you, like a slave? Imprison you?”
He felt the words like a knife slash to his heart. He knew she meant nothing like that, but he couldn’t give in on this point. “I won’t use that money.”
The hurt in her eyes hardened into anger. “Then you’re going to stand in the way of my dream, all because you’re too egotistical and bitter to see past your small, miserly hopes and goals to care about mine. Joshua followed Abby’s dreams here to the West. Why can’t you?”
That was a low blow. “Fine. I’ll sign the damned papers, but don’t think I’ll ever set foot there.”
She tilted her head and her lips tipped into a sly smile. “Yes, you will, because that’s where I’ll be. You’ll be here in town. You’ll see me all the time. And you’ll want me. Then you’ll come to me and we’ll be happy again. My dream is yours—it’s just bigger....”
* * *
And he’d known she was right. Brendan hadn’t dared stay. He’d known it would be just as she’d said: he’d have seen her, given in and gone to her. Then he’d have hated himself every day for the rest of his life, for stooping to use the money of a robber baron. Brendan had heard powerful men like that guardian of hers described that way. Harry Conwell couldn’t have been far removed from men like Gowery and Harlan Wheaton. Those men had conspired to frame Brendan, and therefore forced him to flee for his life, leaving his family behind.
He’d looked around the little house where they’d been so happy. Not a cross word had been spoken in the months after they’d arrived there. He hadn’t known he would miss it—and Helena—so much, but he had known he’d have to move on and find something to do that would keep him away. Then he’d found a new family, a new love—the Texas Rangers and the law.
Now, with his mind and heart still in turmoil, he watched Helena walk out onto the porch and stroll down the step, to the top of the rise behind the house. He noticed she did that every evening and every morning. She’d cross herself, then stand there, gazing out over the valley in prayer. After endless moments, head bowed, she’d retrace her steps. He’d seen tears in her eyes the one time he’d approached her as she’d returned to the house.
He wondered what she wanted. What was it she asked God for twice a day, every day?
Drawn to her now, he guided Harry down the hill to the home place. It was time to at least talk to her about the measures he’d taken to protect her. And why.
She turned as he approached, and this time she rushed to meet him as he dismounted. “Is something wrong?” she asked, clearly flustered. He couldn’t help remembering when the sight of him had had a bright smile blooming on her pretty face.
He shook his head and got back to the here and now. What was in her expression? Worry? Fear? She should be afraid; all her protests to the contrary, Helena was no fool. Look at how ready for a fight her men were.
“Nothing’s wrong as far as I know. Not yet, anyway. I still think they’ll hit you before they move on the Rockin’ R. Shamrock’s run by a woman. I doubt he thinks you’d be as ready for them as you are, or as ready as the R is bound to be.”
“He?”
