Delighted to finally have a dog of her own that she could raise and train herself, she didn’t give the hole another glance, turning to rush back to camp to show Morgan what she’d found. She shouted for him to come out of his mine. He came tearing out, gun in hand, and with a big grin on her face, she held the puppy up for him to see. But he barely glanced at it; he was looking behind her instead.
“You shouldn’t have brought that here.”
Her chin rose a notch. “I’m keeping it.”
“If you want to stay here and live with it till it dies, fine, I’ll kill its mother for you when she shows up, and she will. But you can’t take it wherever you’re going from here. Most folks have a strong aversion to wolves, even small ones.”
“A wolf?”
“Did you really think it was a dog?”
“It’s a baby!”
“Which has a mother who will be looking for it. Damn, when the hell did wolves move onto my slopes? Have you seen any others while you’ve been wandering?”
“No,” she said miserably.
She was crushed, so much so that she felt tears welling in her eyes. Obviously she couldn’t keep it or have its mother killed.
“Come on, we need to put it back exactly where you found it, and douse it in water to remove your scent. Go dunk it, I’ll get a sack to put it in.”
She knew he was right, she just didn’t like it at all, and promised herself that as soon as she got back to England she was buying a dog, though she supposed she ought to discuss it with Elliott first. Maybe he already had lots of dogs. Maybe he didn’t like dogs. If he didn’t, she might have to reconsider him as her primary choice of husband.
Morgan took Caesar for the short journey, pulling Violet up behind him. He didn’t waste time saddling the horse. Thanks to Carla, she was already used to riding without one. Reaching the hole, he dismounted and carefully rolled the pup out of the sack onto the ground. It immediately pounced on his boot, but Morgan didn’t notice, had already glanced up at her to warn, “You’ll need to stay away from here.”
“But I haven’t finished searching this area. I thought I had gotten lucky when I saw this hole, but I got distracted by the puppy and forgot to look.”
He glanced inside it for her. “It’s not deep, looks freshly dug out, too, probably for the birthing. The female could already have been in the process of moving her litter if she noticed you around here in the last day or so. That could be why there was only one pup here, when she-wolves tend to birth four or five. If this one is gone later today”—he paused to shake the pup off his boot—“then she’s likely moved on with the lot of them. They tend to avoid people. I’ll check again before dinner.”
Back at camp, he lifted her down from Caesar, but didn’t remove his hands from her waist once her feet were on the ground. She glanced up to see why and found his blue eyes studying her.
She waited with bated breath, only to hear him say, “You’ll feel better after lunch. You can eat while you’re fishing.”
She stared at him as he headed inside the cabin. What the deuce had just happened? Fishing?!
She followed him to demand, “When did I decide to go fishing?”
“You need a distraction from the pup you had to part with. You can get it fishing. Charley fished twice a week for us to contribute to our store of food, so I don’t see why you shouldn’t as well. I would advise you to hold a pole in one hand and a revolver in the other, but I’ll make it easier for you and go with you instead. Your father’s pole is on the other side of the house, along with his box of lures. He fashioned a bunch from the smaller slag stones and tied a few around his hook, since slag turns shiny in water. I suppose you need me to teach you how to fish first?”
“No, Papa taught my brothers and me when we were children. He would take us fishing at least once a month during spring and summer.”
“If you tell me you dug for worms, too, I won’t believe it.”
She smiled at him. “I did actually join my brothers at night for the worm hunts and turned over my share of stones looking for them, but I always called one of my brothers over to gather them up. And they didn’t need to be asked to attach them to the hook for me the next day. There are some things a girl just isn’t meant to do, touching worms being one of them,” she ended primly.
He chuckled. She went out to find the pole. His improved mood was promising. Had he forgiven her for threatening to kill him? If so, it was going to make asking for that loan and partnership a little easier. Maybe she wouldn’t wait until tonight.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“D’YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED to my father’s pocket watch? Did he break it or lose it? I checked his valise, but it wasn’t there.”
Violet was sitting on the riverbank a few miles from Morgan’s mountain; he was lying back next to her in the grass, his hat mostly covering his face. She had a pole in one hand and her parasol in the other, and a good thing she’d brought it, since there were no trees in either direction along this section of the river to offer shade. But she was having trouble keeping her eyes off of that long stretch of body. At least he was wearing a shirt, and had started doing so whenever he wasn’t in his mine.
When he didn’t answer, she wondered if he’d fallen asleep, so she added a little louder, “I meant to mention it sooner, but I kept forgetting. It has sentimental value, or I wouldn’t ask. My mother gave it to him and there was an inscription on it: So you don’t forget to come home. Papa said it was a joke between them because he was often late getting home for dinner.”
“I saw him use it only a couple days before he had the heart attack and fell, so he didn’t lose it. If you didn’t find it among his belongings, then he probably had it on him when I took him to town—and he would’ve been buried in what he was wearing.”
“That’s—that’s actually comforting. He would have liked that.”
He sat up. “You aren’t going to cry again, are you?”
She glanced aside and gave him a weak smile, but his hat was still tilted so low that all she could really see was that ridiculous beard. Which had her blurt out, “Why don’t you shave? You have the tools for it at your camp.”
“Waste of time,” he said, and lay back down to completely cover his face again with the hat.
“D’you even have a mirror here to see how—how shaggy you look?”
“So my shaving would be for you, not me?”
She blushed. “I was just curious. Did you herd cattle with that beard, or did it scare the cows into running away?”
“Hell, no, my ma would skin me alive if I came in the house looking like this.” She started to chuckle, but he added, “And I have shaved here—twice, I think.”
She laughed this time, and guessed, “One of your disguises for town? Mountain man, hermit, cowboy, just never miner?”
“Something like that.”
An hour later, with still no bites, she stood up to recast the line farther out. Sitting again, she complained, “You can’t protect me if you’re sleeping.”
“Was I snoring?”
“No.”
“Then figure I’m not sleeping.” He sat up to open the basket between them. “Eat up, just don’t let go of that pole. It’s the only one we’ve got.”
She took the sandwich he handed her. “Are you sure there are fish in this river?”
“Pike and trout. Charley always came back with a basketful.”
She groaned. They’d be there all day if he expected that many fish. But he didn’t seem impatient to get back to work, and she couldn’t get back to the south slope until that wolf and her pups were gone. But more importantly, they were talking, without rancor, without accusations. She was surprised by how nice it felt.
She wondered aloud, “If my father fished here often, might he have hidden his money here?”
“Yeah, but I doubt he did. People passing through this area follow this river north and south, and Charley knew that. Seems to me he would’ve looked for a more priva
te spot where it would be less likely someone would stumble upon his money.” And then, as he dug out a handful of cherries from the basket for her, he asked, “Why’d you get shipped off to England?”
“You make it sound like I was sent away as a punishment. I assure you I wasn’t. Aunt Elizabeth is my mother’s sister and is married to an English lord. When she came to visit us in Philadelphia, she was appalled to find me running wild—her words. I merely liked the outdoors, but I admit I had been skipping some of my studies. But she also upbraided Papa for allowing me to act like an adult when I wasn’t even ten yet. She was concerned that I was missing my childhood. I think Papa was a bit cowed by her. She can be quite formidable. He didn’t argue with her about taking me to England, where I would have a woman’s guidance and be raised properly.”
“You don’t think it’s odd that Charley didn’t tell me about you?”
“Odd for you, but maybe not for him. He probably didn’t think losing his inheritance would affect me, since I was still in England in the care of my aunt and uncle. Or maybe he just didn’t think it appropriate to mention his daughter to a shaggy bear.”
“A bear, huh?”
“I heard more than one person liken you to one when I was in town.”
“But is that also your opinion of me?”
“Well, I won’t say if the shoe fits . . .”
He laughed, making her smile.
Finished with lunch and seeing him lie back down, she stood up to get more serious about catching a few fish. And standing on the edge of the river, she was able to cast the line out even farther. Ten minutes later she pulled in her first catch and let it plop down on Morgan’s chest, then laughed at how fast he sat up.
“That’s one,” she said, grinning. “One to go.”
“Or three to go, if you want to be nice and catch a couple for Tex. He was tickled pink over that cougar meat you didn’t want. Told me to thank you for turning your nose up at it.”
She chuckled. “No, he didn’t.”
So Texas had been reciprocating over the last few days with two rabbits and a turkey that he’d simply tossed down the cliff for Morgan to find when he came out of the mine. When she’d asked Morgan why she never heard the shots from those kills, he’d told her, “Tex actually prefers a bow and arrows when none of his buddies are around to tease him about it.”
Morgan removed the hook from the fish for her. She returned to the spot on the river’s edge where she’d got lucky and cast the line out again, then looked back at him to ask, “Why did you leave ranching to mine instead? Does your family need money?”
“No, we own a rich spread. But more’n once growing up, I had this idea that Nashart should have a store that stocked all the fancy eastern stuff that my ma, Mary, had to order and then wait weeks or even months for it to be delivered. I can’t count how many times she asked me and my brothers to ride to town to see if the merchandise had arrived. And how many times she looked disappointed when we had to tell her it hadn’t come yet. So I finally decided to build her that store right in our own town, but I couldn’t tell the family about it. Callahans are ranchers, always have been, always will be, and my pa would’ve flat-out balked at my idea, even though my ma is going to be tickled pink.”
“So you came out here to make the money to do it, thereby skipping the argument?”
“Oh, there will still be an argument, and a damn big one, but since I won’t be asking my father for the money, that store is still going to be built.”
“I just can’t picture you as an emporium owner,” she teased. “You’ll scare everyone out of your shop!”
He snorted. She grinned. But his reasons for wanting to do this were commendable. For his mother. To make her happy. To bring fine clothes and furnishings to the people in this wild, remote territory. If she didn’t dislike him so much, she might like him—wait, that made no sense.
“What will you do with your mine when you go home?”
“I’ve considered turning it into a big production when I’m ready to leave, hiring a manager. But I’ve also considered blowing it up when I go.”
She gasped. “And just bury all that wealth? You could sell it instead.”
“That’s the thing—I might’ve, if Sullivan hadn’t pissed me off, but now I won’t.”
He didn’t actually growl those words, which was promising; unexpectedly, this gave her a perfect opening to discuss business with him, so she said, “There’s one other option. My brothers and I can continue to mine here if you form a new partnership with us.”
“You’re going to swing a pick?”
She would probably be as pathetic at it as Charles had been, but she stubbornly lifted her chin. “I will if I have to. I should already be your partner. The laws of inheritance should have applied, making me a mine owner. And need I point out that the terms of your agreement with Papa haven’t been fulfilled yet? Didn’t you say you formed the partnership to help my father and his family out of their financial bind? So we need to renegotiate to see this through.”
“Is that so?”
He lay back down and covered his face with his hat. She reprimanded herself for approaching this the wrong way. Demands weren’t going to work with this man, hadn’t she already learned that?
“Let me start over—”
“Maybe—after you catch another fish.”
Her brows snapped together in a frown. Stipulations? Or had she caught him off guard, and he needed a few minutes to do his own fishing—for an excuse to tell her no? But, according to him, he didn’t need an excuse, didn’t need to deal with her about anything since, as he’d pointed out, he no longer had a partner in her family. And he could easily invalidate her father’s claim the next time he was in town. So maybe he was only making sure that she caught enough fish for their dinner before he told her no, guessing she’d stomp off angry when he did. Infuriating man!
She stared at the water again, in time to see two fish swimming past, completely ignoring the lures. She stepped back to pull her line into that pathway, and a few minutes later got the second tug.
It was an even bigger fish, and she resisted the impulse to drop it in the center of Morgan’s chest again. She just held it next to him and said, “The hook, please?”
He sat up and smiled. “Now, that’s a big one. One more should do it.”
She cast the line again and, keeping her eyes on the water, took a deep breath and blurted out, “I need a loan for three thousand dollars. The next payment on the loan Papa took out against our family home is due soon, and it won’t even make a dent in the balance still owed, even if my brothers had the money to make the payment, which they don’t. There is not enough time to get my brothers here to start mining, when the trip to Butte took me nearly a week. But if you could send them the money now to pay off the loan in full, they could come here immediately to mine and pay you back.”
“So you want a loan from me to pay off a loan?”
“Yes—please,” she said sweetly. “You did agree to help with this very thing.”
“When did I do that?”
“When you partnered with my father. He was desperate to get rid of this loan and make a fortune so he could give us back the life we were accustomed to, you said it yourself, and that’s why you helped him. The reason still exists. The loan is still looming. The goal that started this hasn’t been met yet.”
“There’s no tearing hurry, Violet.”
She swung around to stare at him. “How can you say that? My brothers are almost out of time!”
“No, they aren’t. I sent off a second load of silver from Charley’s mine the day before his accident. After I took your father to the doctor, I sent a telegram to my buyers, the silversmith brothers, and told them to deposit Charley’s money with mine until he recovered. The next two times I checked on him that month, he was still unconscious. And then Tex went to town to play poker and brought me the bad news that he’d died. That was about a month after the accident. Charley never di
d find out that he’d netted another eighteen hundred.”
“You have that money?”
“Not anymore. The last time I went to Butte, I arranged to have that eighteen hundred sent to your brothers. That was the same day I heard about you. In any case, they should have gotten that money this week.”
That was such a relief! Daniel or maybe both of her brothers might already be on their way here because of it. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“I did, the night you convinced me you are Violet Mitchell, in the mine. I told you your brothers would hear from me soon.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did, actually, but I guess you could have been too distracted looking through your pa’s belongings to hear me. Now, I suppose I could reverse the seventy-thirty arrangement to thirty-seventy, but only long enough for you and your brothers to pay back the loan.”
She was incredulous. Had she just gotten two yeses? But then she groaned—no, only one yes. That “only long enough” wasn’t going to get her a dowry or enough money for her brothers to live comfortably.
Upset, she said, “Or you could make it a real partnership with them and a fifty-fifty split. They are both strong men, and with both of them digging, they can mine double what you do.”
“You’re offering me more’n I just said I was willing to accept? Why?”
“Because it’s a viable mine that can produce more silver than is required to pay you back. It can secure my brothers’ future.”
“And get you a dowry.” He suddenly sounded annoyed, which she didn’t want until after he agreed to this business arrangement! But then he added, “You don’t need to dangle a carrot in front of a man to get married. A man is going to want you just for yourself.”
She blushed at his flattering opinion of her, but pointed out, “It’s different among the English aristocracy. A dowry is expected, it is a tradition. A lord can’t marry a pauper, it would be scandalous.”
“But you’re an American.”