Compromised Hearts (20 page)

“
T
hat’s the Peterson home. My bank holds their mortgage as well.”

Emily turned away from the man driving the buggy and rolled her eyes. Thomas Chilton clearly considered any building mortgaged to him a point of interest. He was the sort of man, she mused, that gave bankers a bad name. She wished she had not agreed to a drive before dinner. It had been a mistake to think the man would improve with time. She gave a little start when she realized he was still talking to her.

“I was pleased when I heard you intended to join our growing community.”

“Thank you, Mr. Chilton.”

“Yes, we need women like you in Lockridge.

Women of breeding. Women who know what’s proper and have learned all those social refinements that are so valuable to a town.”

What a snob, she thought but murmured a polite response.

“Coming from Philadelphia myself, I sorely miss that gentility. I began to think it unattainable out here. Now I can see there is hope. Yes, with women like you and Dorothy here, things certainly look brighter for Lockridge.”

“I’m glad you think so, Mr. Chilton.” She frowned when he stopped the buggy at a somewhat deserted spot a short distance from Harper’s house. “Is something wrong?”

“No. I felt it would be nice to have a moment or two alone.”

“I’m not sure that’s proper, Mr. Chilton.” She thought she saw annoyance flicker through his eyes, but it came and went too quickly for her to be sure.

“I don’t believe you understand what a desert for the senses and the mind Lockridge has been.” He took her hand in his.

Emily frowned as he sidled closer and she subtly but fruitlessly tried to free her hand from his. “I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. Chilton.”

“From the moment I saw your picture and Harper told me about you, I knew I had to meet you. There isn’t a woman here suitable for a man in my position. No one with the proper upbringing and background.

A man like me needs a genteel lady he is not ashamed to introduce to his business associates, one he can take into the finest homes, who can even help him to get there.”

Emily decided she did not like the trend of this conversation at all, nor how close he was pressing to her. “Mr. Chilton …” She tightened her grip on her parasol.

“A woman like you can only help a man climb that ladder to success.”

He put his hand on her knee and squeezed slightly. Even as Emily stared at it, wondering how his touch could feel cold through several layers of dress and petticoat, he inched his hand up from her knee. Without another moment’s hesitation, she brought her parasol down squarely on his head, and his curse nearly drowned out the sound of the parasol splintering. While he clutched his head and checked for signs of blood she jumped out of the carriage and ran for Harper’s house. Her pace slowed when she realized he was not giving chase. Once back in the house, she hurried up to her room before Dorothy could ask after Chilton. She heartily wished the man would be too embarrassed to come to dinner, but she doubted it.

Letting go the yawn she had stifled for the entire evening, Emily prepared herself for the lecture she was sure was coming. She had not been very civil to Mr. Chilton. The
man could not help it if he reminded her of a weasel and was an excruciating bore. She was also still annoyed, even disturbed, over the incident in the buggy. Emily just wished she could shake the reeling that there was a plot afoot. Thomas Chilton’s actions during the buggy ride only enhanced that feeling.

It was a feeling that had been with her almost since her arrival three weeks ago. Harper was not as she had remembered him, something she attributed to his narrow-eyed, tight-lipped wife. Even so, he was her brother and it seemed disloyal to think that he intended something underhanded.

On the other hand, Dorothy was quite capable of plots. Emily knew it was not her imagination that told her that Harper’s wife disliked her. She was sure Dorothy had not extended the slim hospitality of her home without good reason. Emily just wished that she could figure out what that reason was.

She sighed as she wondered if her worrying about plots was simply a distraction clung to in order to not think about Cloud. He had said he would come back, that he wanted to see her again, yet three long weeks had gone by. Emily did not really think that his “few items” should take so long. She could not help but feel that, once away from her, he had decided to stay away, and that hurt her deeply.

Just as she had tried not to, she had hoped. She had read a promise of continuity in his passion during their last night together that
had not been there before. With her body had gone her heart, and now she was paying for her lack of good sense. A man like him had no use for love and the ties that went with it.

The problem was that she did, especially now that she grew more certain with each passing day that his child grew inside of her. From what little she knew, the signs were right. Soon she would have to speak to her friend Giorsal, for if it was not a child thickening her waistline and stopping her flow, then she was in sore need of a skilled doctor. She was, however, fairly certain it was a baby, for tumors could not quicken and move within a woman’s womb with promising life.

“Look at her mooning over that damned half-breed Ryder.”

Emily winced as Dorothy’s strident voice greeted on her ears. “He is only one-fourth Indian.”

“Oh, I beg your pardon,” Dorothy shrilled sarcastically. “Little that matters. Indian’s Indian. The man’s no good anyhow. Doesn’t even have a sod hut on his land.”

“Dotty, honey, Cloud Ryder isn’t at issue here,” Harper said as he wearily took a seat.

“Isn’t he? If she weren’t so besotted by the villain she’d be nicer to Thomas.”

“I don’t think so,” Emily said coolly. “The man is a bore.”

“A bore is he? Well, I suggest you learn to smile even if it hurts.”

“Dotty, I think this isn’t the right time,”
ventured Harper, his gaze flicking nervously to Emily.

“Isn’t the right time? Harper, we have given the child nearly a month. She has shown that she hasn’t the sense to see how it is of her own accord. I think it’s time someone told her.”

“Told me what?” Emily felt a cold knot forming in her stomach, warning her that she would not like what Dorothy had to say.

“You weren’t invited out here to partake of the fresh air and scenery,” sneered Dorothy.

“Just why was I invited?”

“Thomas Chilton expressed an interest in you. He saw the photograph Harper has of you.”

“Do you mean to say that Mr. Chilton has been courting me?”

“In a manner of speaking. He’s been letting you have time to get to know him before you marry him.”

“Harper?” Emily cried, but she received only an unsatisfactory shrug from her brother, so she turned her attention back to Dorothy. “You can’t possibly mean it.”

“My dear foolish child, we most certainly do. Thomas Chilton is an excellent prospect.”

“He looks like a weasel and is a crushing bore.”

“Then close your eyes and ears to him. Many another wife has done the same. Because you rode in with that heathen, there are few men who would take you. Thomas
is forgiving enough to overlook that association.” Dorothy poured herself and a still-silent Harper a drink.

“Harper,” Emily pleaded, “have you truly arranged for me to marry this man?”

For a moment Harper merely stared into his drink, then rasped, “Yes, Emily, I have.”

“How could you? I should be allowed some say.”

“You best take what you can and be grateful of it.” Dorothy’s voice was shrill as her blue eyes scanned Emily with ill-concealed contempt. “You are in desperate need of a husband, aren’t you, my dear?”

Emily shivered as a chill seeped through her veins. They already knew what she had been fighting to ignore. She caught Harper’s pitying gaze and felt swamped with shame.

Sensing that, Dorothy played upon it. “How it happened doesn’t matter now. It’s time to try and rectify the mistake before your brother suffers for your shame. Mr. Chilton is aware of the situation and has forgiven you. Such is his love that he is willing to take you for his wife despite your sin.”

“Cloud should be approached first. It’s his child.” Emily wished her protest did not sound so weak.

“He should have guessed such a thing could happen, but is he here? Oh, no. He’s at the saloon drinking and whoring, right back to his old ways.”

The thought of Cloud with another woman

Struck Emily to the heart. “I don’t want to marry Thomas Chilton,” she managed to say despite a choking urge to weep.

“Don’t think you can stay here to parade your shame. You marry or you leave. I won’t have you making us a laughingstock by parading your pregnancy for all to see or let you raise that heathen’s brat under our roof. Marrying Mr. Chilton is all the choice you have.”

Very much afraid that Dorothy was right, Emily raced for her room. She needed to be alone. She would not cry before Dorothy. She stumbled to her bed, fell across it, and burst into tears.

“Was it necessary to lie?”

“Harper, darling, you can be such a soft fool. If she knew that rogue had been here asking for her, there’d be no stopping her from going to him.”

“There was no need to toss in the bit about the saloon and other women.”

“It’ll stiffen her spine, keep her from crawling back to him.”

“Maybe we ought to let her go to him. It is his child.”

Dorothy laughed coldly. “Is it?”

“Yes, it is.” Harper glared at her. “Emily may be foolish, but she’s no whore.”

If there was one thing Dorothy knew well, it was when to back off. “Of course, Harper. It is just too bad she has to pay such a high price for her error—and pay it while under our roof. However, letting her go to Cloud

Ryder will solve nothing. He’s not the marrying sort. She’ll only end up adding to her disgrace.”

“The man might feel differently if he knows she’s carrying his child.”

“He never has and you can’t tell me that that philanderer doesn’t have field colts scattered from New York to San Francisco. He also doesn’t have the capital to give us the money we need. You have to pay Chilton by spring. If we don’t keep that man happy we’ll lose everything.”

Harper winced at the bald truth. “I just feel as if I’m selling my own kin.”

“Nonsense. Most marriages are arranged with mutual benefit in mind.”

“I suppose you’re right. I just wish her heart wasn’t involved.”

“The state of her heart matters not at all. It’s a small price to pay to get what we need.” Dorothy did not see the frown that crossed her husband’s face at that callous remark. “Now, I think this courting nonsense has gone far enough.”

“I wanted to make it easier for her.”

“Well, she’s not cooperating. Best to let Chilton have her as soon as possible. You can talk to that new young preacher tomorrow. We’ll have the wedding the day after.”

“All right, Dorothy. It might be best to get it over with.”

“Certainly it is, especially if she starts to think about running. We’d better keep an eye on her.”

“I’m not posting a guard on my own sister.”

“No, of course not. However, I think it would be a good idea to lock her door at night.” She saw that Harper was looking obstinate. “It’s for her own good, after all. She’ll do something foolish.”

He argued for a while but eventually gave in. Dissention had been born in his breast, however, and as he turned the key in the lock of Emily’s door, Harper found himself hoping that she would find a way out of the mess she was in.

Emily was trying desperately to come up with some plan, but nothing was coming to mind. All she could keep thinking of was that she was unwed and with child. Dorothy was right in saying that she needed a husband. Emily fervently wished that it was anyone except Thomas Chilton.

She supposed that some women would think the man quite a catch. He was rich and inceasingly powerful. It was likely that she was the only one who thought his aristocratic features made him look like a weasel. Other women no doubt found him handsome, just as they found his talk of money fascinating. Dorothy certainly did.

There was a very good chance that any man would pall after Cloud Ryder. He had left her with a constant ache, a hollowness that threatened to be permanent. She felt she could easily hate the man for that. And soon
she would have his child—which could never be ignored.

For a moment she was seized by an anger so strong it made her shake. Not sure of what she would do, only that she would confront Cloud with what she saw as his crimes, she jumped off of the bed and strode to her door. It was a moment before she realized that the door was locked and her anger at Cloud faded in the blink of an eye.

After several fruitless attempts to open the door, she stumbled back to the bed. Emily could not believe Harper would do such a thing to her. Her new life was rapidly turning into a nightmare. She had not found sanctuary with Harper, but a prison.

“Mama?” came a soft, plaintive voice. “You’ve locked me out.”

Wiping away fresh tears, Emily raced to the door. Thornton was very young, but he was also very clever. The chance that he could help her might be small, but it was not to be ignored.

“I didn’t lock you out, Thornton. Dorothy and Harper did it.”

“Were you a bad girl?”

“They want me to marry Mr. Chilton, darling.”

“I don’t like him. Would we have to live wif him?”

“I don’t like him, either. I said I didn’t want to marry him and that’s why I’m locked in my room.”

“How long do you haf to stay in there?”

“Until I get married. Unless you help me, Thornton. Will you listen very carefully?”

“Yup. You don’t haf to whisper. They wents to bed.”

Emily said a quick prayer of thanks. “You have to get the keys, darling. They keep the keys in a drawer in Harper’s big desk. The top one of those seven little drawers.”

“It’s dark down there, Mama.”

“If you’re real careful and brave, you’ll be all right. There’s a full moon tonight that’ll shine into the room. The keys are on one big ring that should be easy to see or easy to feel in the drawer.”