Quicksilver Passion (172 page)

Marry? Are you asking me to marry you?” He heard both the relief and disbelief in her voice.

Of course! You think I don’t want to give my child my name? She deserves at least that much.”

Child? Let me get this straight.” She sat up in bed.
You’re only asking me to marry you to give Waanibe a name?”

No, that’s not the only reason,” he said.
I love you.”

No, I don’t think you do—not really.” She began to laugh, a strange kind of laugh.
You’re just trying to do the ‘decent’ thing by me. Wannie’s not yours—or mine either. Is that what you thought?”

But someone said she was the owner’s daughter—”

So she is, by a Cheyenne brave, or so the Duchess says.

The Duchess?” There was another long pause.
Silver, don’t you own the Palace?”

She lay on her back and he leaned over her.
Is that what you thought? Cherokee, I only work there.”

He heaved a sigh of relief, but said nothing. The woman he loved wasn’t mixed up with Jake, and wasn’t wealthy anymore. He did feel a hint of sadness that the child was not theirs. He had already been picturing them as a family.

I shouldn’t have mentioned marriage,” he said, thinking that if his sight didn’t return, he didn’t intend to burden Silver with a blind man; it wasn’t fair. And he still had the problem of Jake Dallinger. He couldn’t pull Silver into that; the man was too ruthless.