McKettrick's Choice - Linda Lael Miller [133]
“Anybody come forward to claim that baby?” Holt asked, when the silence stretched too thin for his liking.
Lorelei shook her head. “According to Heddy, the marshal says we might as well keep him. He’ll send word to San Antonio if someone steps forward.”
Holt sighed. “The trip we’re about to take is too rough, and too dangerous, for a kid. Especially one that’s still in diapers.”
“Tillie won’t leave him behind,” Lorelei said, though she was sure Holt already knew that. It was just his way of worrying.
“No,” Holt agreed, with another sigh, this one gustier than the first. He looked weary for the first time since Lorelei had known him, and she felt a pang, tallying up the weight of the burdens he usually carried so easily on those broad shoulders of his.
She wanted to reassure him somehow, rise from that step and put her arms around him, tell him everything would be all right, but she wasn’t so bold in Heddy’s backyard as she had been in that room in the inn at Reynosa. Anyway, how could she assure him of such a thing? Fate had yet to confide in her. “You’ll be shut of me in a few days,” she said, because that was all she had to offer.
He cocked his head to one side, turning his hat slowly in his gloved hands. “Is that so?” he asked.
Again, Lorelei was glad of the darkness, because she blushed. “What happened between us,” she began awkwardly, “well, it didn’t make you beholden, if that’s what you’re thinking. I knew what I was doing.”
“With all due respect, Miss Lorelei,” Holt drawled, and in the dim light pouring out of the kitchen, she could see that his eyes were twinkling and one side of his mouth was quirked up, “that’s about as far from what I was thinking as Texas is from Paris, France.”
Her heart tripped over a few beats, regained its balance with a flailing tremor. “What were you thinking, then?” she managed. He was going to say he had cattle on his mind, of course. Gabe Navarro, probably. And Comanches.
She’d been a fool to ask such a question.
“That I’d like to buy your land and your share of those cattle out there,” he said, with a nod in a southerly direction.
Lorelei tensed reflexively; it was as if he’d drawn back his hand and slapped her. Her eyes stung and watered, and it was a moment before she could catch her breath. “What?”
“You’ve proven your point, Lorelei. You broke away from your father and acquitted yourself on the trail as well as anybody I’ve ever seen. Now, it’s time to be reasonable. With what I’m willing to pay you, you can start over in some other place. Maybe buy yourself a rooming house like Heddy has here.” No mention of the marriage he’d proposed; no doubt, he’d changed his mind.
“What makes you think I want to ‘start over in some other place’?” she demanded in a furious rush, but inside, she already knew the answer. She was a fallen woman now, tainted goods. If she was pregnant, everyone in San Antonio would know it soon enough, and they’d make her life a misery, brand the child as illegitimate. If she moved to San Francisco or Denver or Boston, she could pretend she was a widow, and open a respectable business.
It wasn’t her land or her cattle Holt wanted. He was buying his own way out. Whether Lorelei was carrying his child or not, he’d be able to ride away with his conscience clear when he’d finished his business in Texas. He’d dallied with her, taken the most precious thing she had, and when he was gone, back on the Triple M, he’d probably never give her a second thought. Never wonder if he had another child somewhere, besides Lizzie.
“What’s going through your head right now?” he countered, watching her quizzically.
Heddy chose that moment to return. “Where’s that buggy?” she demanded. “I’m ready to go out there and get me a husband!”
Holt’s mouth dropped open and, blessedly, Lorelei was able to forget her own quandary for a few moments.
“Heddy means to marry Mr. Cavanagh,” she said.
“Get that buggy hitched,” Heddy commanded.
Holt started to speak, stopped himself. He’d made a half gesture with his hat; now, he put it on his head. “Yes, ma’am,” he said,