Compromised Hearts (19 page)

As Harper and Cloud politely exchanged news, Emily covertly studied her sister-in-law.

The woman had very light brown hair, fine features, a trim figure and lovely blue eyes. She should have been beautiful but there was, Emily mused, a tightness, a coldness, about Dorothy that stole her beauty. Dissatisfaction pinched the woman’s face. Glancing around the expensively appointed parlour, Emily wondered what could dissatisfy the woman. She had everything most women would feel was vital to the good life and a handsome husband as well. Dorothy gave Emily an uneasy feeling, a warning that things would not be as rosy as she had imagined.

Shaking off that feeling, which was only enhanced by Dorothy’s making no attempt to converse with her, Emily watched her brother. He looked the same, the years having simply honed his finely cut features. His sandy hair was still as thick and unruly as ever and his hazel eyes had only a few lines radiating from their corners. He looked like the Harper she remembered so fondly. She knew it would be a while before she found out how much else, if anything, had stayed the same.

When Cloud finally rose to leave, Emily hurried to follow him out. She noticed that Thornton stayed close to her even as she managed to get a moment’s privacy with Cloud. Aware that Dorothy and Harper watched from the veranda, Emily maintained a stance of polite gratitude, but she
knew her eyes revealed a lot more emotion and suspected that, despite her best efforts, they held a plea. She ruefully admitted that what she sought before he drove away was reassurance that he would come back.

“You be a good boy for your mother,” Cloud ordered a sad-eyed Thornton as he affectionately ruffled the boy’s hair.

“You’ll come visit me?”

Watching Emily as he replied, Cloud said, “I sure will. I intend to see a lot of you and your mother.” He stood up from where he had crouched before the boy. “I’ve got a few things I’ve got to sort out first. It’ll take a week, probably two, then I’ll be at the door.”

Her heart fluttered with hope. “We’ll be watching for you.”

“Good. Then we’ll have a serenade or two.”

She had to force herself not to blush. He grinned as he said good-bye and climbed into the wagon. It was difficult not to stand there and watch him until he was out of sight, but she felt that might stir too many questions from her brother and Dorothy. The moment she returned to the house, she discovered that Dorothy needed no such action to stir suspicions. She was confronted by the woman in the hall before Harper had even finished closing the door.

“Just what happened between you two?” Dorothy asked straight out. “You and that libertine were alone together for weeks.”

“Dorothy,” Harper said warningly but his
wife ignored him.

“Hardly alone,” Emily murmured. “We had Thornton and James Carlin with us.”

“As if that would trouble that heathen. I want some answers. I want to know what sort of trouble I am facing. There will be talk, you know—talk about you and that man.”

“The sort of talk that should not be spat out before a small child,” Emily said quietly.

Dorothy sputtered with indignation and Harper took quick advantage of the break in his wife’s assault. Collecting the bags Cloud had left in the hall, he ushered Emily and Thornton to their rooms. When he returned to the parlour, he found his wife angrily pacing the room. She turned on him and he sighed.

“You should have allowed me to question her.”

“What good would that have done?”

“I would have gotten at the truth.”

“If the truth is what you suspect it is—”

“Of course it is. The man’s a rake, a womanizer. He was with your sister for weeks. I won’t believe it if you try to claim that nothing happened.”

“It doesn’t matter what you believe. I repeat, if the truth is what you suspect, Emily sure as hell won’t admit to it. No properly bred Boston lady would ever admit to doing anything scandalous. That rule’s taught from the cradle. One avoids scandal at all costs.”

“She can be as silent as the grave and people will still know what happened.”

“Perhaps, nothing. It could have been innocent.”

Dorothy gave him a contemptuous look. “You don’t believe that any more than I do.”

He said nothing but had to agree. Nothing could make him believe that. Emily had grown up into a lovely young woman. Cloud Ryder was not a man to resist such a temptation. Harper had also noticed the way the two had looked at each other. He had no doubt in his mind that they had been lovers. He would not, however, force Emily to admit to it. There was no point to that and nothing to be gained. He was not sure what Dorothy wanted, however.

“Are you expecting me to demand satisfaction or something of the like?”

“Do be sensible, Harper. I certainly don’t want you challenging that uncivilized man, and I don’t want you demanding that he marry Emily. Think, Harper. Remember the reason you asked Emily out here? What happens to that plan now? You don’t think Chilton will remain ignorant of what’s happened, do you? It’ll be all over town in hours. He probably won’t want the silly girl now.”

Harper frowned and, after a moment’s thought, said quietly, “Actually, I think he just might want her all the more.” He sighed. “Yes, I think he’ll find it very interesting,
especially if Cloud Ryder continues to show an interest in Emily.”

Emily sighed and collapsed on the bed once she reached her room. Thornton did not want to stay, and she had been hard pressed to quiet his protests, especially since she could understand his reluctance. Dorothy had made her distaste for the child all too apparent. Thornton did not really believe her assurances that that would change once Dorothy got to know him. Neither, Emily admitted sadly, did she.

As the day dragged on, Emily’s spirits plunged. No more mention was made about what may or may not have happened between her and Cloud on the journey, but she knew that both Harper and Dorothy had not decided in favor of her innocence. For a moment she was sorely tempted to tell them the whole truth, but common sense intervened. It would do none of them any good and could even cause Cloud some difficulty, which was the last thing she wanted. She realized that Harper’s presence had been the only reason for Dorothy’s forbearance when the woman caught her alone on the stairs for a moment as they all retired for the night.

“You think you’ve managed to slip through all this with no trouble and no need for repentence, don’t you?”

“Perhaps, Dorothy, I have no need to be repentent.” Emily felt a strong urge to strike the woman, but that boded ill for the harmonious relationship she still hoped to establish.

“Nonsense. You spent weeks with that man. He is notorious.”

“So, of course, I must be as well.”

Dorothy ignored that. “Harper and I intend to help you overcome this scandal.”

“How kind of you.”

“You’ll hear the talk soon and see the looks. Don’t think that man will do anything to help you. You’ve seen the last of him.”

“You’re sure of that, are you?”

“Quite sure and you’re a foolish little girl if you think otherwise. Cloud Ryder has used and cast aside more women than anyone cares to count. Don’t get to thinking that some little naive miss from Boston can change that. You’d better look elsewhere and start soon.”

Emily tried very hard not to heed Dorothy’s words. She wanted to believe in Cloud. He had said he would come back and, although she did not want to put all of her hopes on that, she did not want to doubt him.

As the days began to add up, she found her faith in Cloud Ryder harder and harder to maintain. It did not really surprise her that there was no word from him, but she heartily wished he would send some. Even the briefest of messages would have helped. Instead
she sat waiting without sight or word from him to bolster her wavering confidence in his return, a confidence Dorothy continually undermined with her seemingly endless reminders of Cloud’s notoriety and faithlessness concerning women.

Finding a friend helped her a little. Walking through town one evening, Emily came upon a man harassing a thin, redheaded girl who looked hardly old enough to be attracting male attention. Marching into the fray, Emily managed to extract the girl from her difficulty and they both fled. Giorsal MacGregor proved a diversion Emily sorely needed, even though the girl refused to go near Dorothy. Emily made an evening stroll a habit so that she could meet Giorsal and the two of them could pass a few hours in idle chatter. Emily considered it the best of ways to end what were becoming interminably long days.

Two weeks later, Cloud reined in before Harper’s and tried to quell an unaccustomed nervousness. He had not quite finished his plans but had convinced himself that he was ready enough. It was a need to see Emily that drove him and he knew it. Despite wanting a more stable and attractive future to lay out before her, he could no longer wait to see her.

Dismounting and lightly securing his
horse, he struggled to pull together his suddenly tattered confidence. That struggle amused him a little even as it irritated and worried him. Confidence with women was not something he had ever had much trouble with before.

When Dorothy answered his rap on the door, he was less than pleased. The woman went out of her way to touch him as she drew him into the front hall. Even if he had not been involved with Emily, Cloud knew he would never have returned the woman’s interest. Dorothy Brockinger was one of those women he avoided like the plague—a manipulative, greedy, and haughty woman whom no one and nothing could ever make happy.

“I’ve come to see Em.” He found it hard to be polite but, for Emily’s sake, was determined to do his best.

“She has gone up to rest after church. Perhaps if you come back later.”

“She’s expecting me.”

“Of course. I’ll go tell her you are here.”

He smiled crookedly as she walked up the stairs. For a haughty woman who had pushed herself to the top of what little society there was in town, she had a very come-hither sway. He wondered idly if Harper knew how easily he could find himself cuckolded, then turned his thoughts to what he would say to Emily.

“Psst! Uncle Cloud? It’s me.” Thornton
slipped into the hall from the parlour, his gaze shifting and narrowed as he looked around.

“Hello, Thornton. Something wrong?” Cloud was suddenly aware of the boy’s somewhat sneaky air as he crouched before the boy.

“Nope. I don’t want
her
to see me.”

“Dorothy? Mrs. Brockinger?”

“Yeah. Her don’t like me.”

Cloud did not doubt the boy’s opinion for a moment. “Does she give you trouble, Thornton? Is she mean?”

“Nope. Just don’t like me round. Always telling me to go ‘way. Are you here to take us away from here?”

Before he could reply, the boy slipped away. As he stood up, Cloud was not surprised to see Dorothy returning. He was troubled by the way Thornton had acted, but those concerns were pushed to the background when he saw that Dorothy had returned alone.

“Where’s Em?” The tension he felt suddenly knotting his insides made his voice curt.

“Oh, my, I don’t know what to say.” Dorothy’s hand fluttered nervously to her throat as she eyed him warily.

“Did you tell her I wanted to see her?”

“Yes, yes I did. She’s very tired and I suspect it has made her ill-tempered.”

“What did she say?” he demanded coldly,
feeling his whole body tense as if readying for a blow.

“I told her you were here to see her,” Dorothy replied with strained reluctance, “and she said she doesn’t want to see you. She said—well, she said that what happened between the two of you was best forgotten.”

Shock silenced Cloud for several minutes. Then his eyes turned cold, making Dorothy shiver slightly. “Forgotten it is,” he said flatly and, sharply turning, strode out of the house.

“What was that all about?”

Dorothy, who had been watching Cloud ride away, squeaked in surprise and turned to look at her husband. “You frightened me.” She shut the door, then started into the parlour. “How long have you been lurking out of sight?” she asked crossly as he finished descending the stairs and followed her.

“I saw you standing in the upstairs hall counting to twenty and decided you were acting strange enough to warrant a closer look. What did Cloud Ryder want?”

“To see Emily.”

“And you didn’t even tell her he was here.”

“No, and you won’t either.” Even though it was still early on a Sunday, Dorothy decided she wanted a drink and, ignoring Harper’s glance of disapproval, poured herself one. “Want one, dear?”

“No. I want to know what plot you’re
hatching now.”

“No plot except the one we hatched together when we invited your sister here. Chilton and the money, remember?”

“Of course I remember. It’s not easy to forget a debt that big. What does that have to do with lying to that man, to Emily?”

“Think, Harper, for God’s sake.” She sat down on the settee and wondered crossly what Emily possessed that drew a man like Cloud to the door, hat in hand, while she had never gained even the slightest spark of interest. “She’s been moping around here watching for him. Chilton can’t stir a spark of interest in her, and it’s because of that man.”

Harper doubted that was the only reason but declined to say so. “So you neatly get rid of Cloud Ryder.”

“Of course. Would you rather I let him start sniffing around your sister again? That it would ruin any bargain with Chilton goes without saying. To my surprise, you were right. The man did seem even more interested in Emily after he heard about Ryder. However, he won’t be pleased if we allow Ryder to keep coming around the girl. Then there is the scandal that would arise if we let her associate with that half-breed rogue. I certainly don’t want to hear it or suffer it, thank you very much.”

She leaned forward. “I won’t let that half-breed ruin what chance we’ve managed to grasp to pull us out of the hole we’re in, nor
will I let your sister’s folly do it. He didn’t come, he’s never come, and that’s that. Let her think herself deserted. It’s the only way to save ourselves.”

After a moment’s hesitation, while rebellion stirred faintly in his breast, Harper nodded.