Page 40 of The Copper Heir (The Gilded West #1)

Chapter Eighteen

J ust over two weeks later and he still hadn’t figured out how to keep her.

Hunter stared down at the empty tumbler cupped in his palm, Cas’s voice growing dimmer as his mind churned through the various options before he discarded them one by one.

The past weeks with her had been idyllic, a word he would never had thought to use before, but there it was.

It was the only way to describe their time together.

He awoke each morning with her in his arms and from there they’d plan the day.

Occasionally, he’d had to spend time in his study or out in the fields when a problem had come up with fencing or the cattle, but most of his days had been spent with Emmy and her sisters.

He didn’t even mind that Rose and Ginny were around.

He liked spending time with them. They were becoming the family he’d never had.

The family that he’d never realized he wanted.

More than once he’d almost broached the subject of getting the children a tutor, but with their time so limited it seemed like a moot point.

They would go back. They weren’t his. They had a father and a home somewhere far away from Jameson Ranch, far away from him.

Though this felt like their home now. The children had adapted to their circumstances extremely well, settling into a routine of play and learning about horses.

Emmy had even begun coming to his study with him in the evenings, picking out books to read through while he worked.

He’d noticed that she seemed to like the texts on Ancient Greece and Rome and had even imagined that he could take her to view the ruins.

But he never voiced the offer because the future was so uncertain.

“So we head out tomorrow.” Cas raised his voice just enough to cut through the haze of Hunter’s misery and raised his brow in question.

“Train leaves in the afternoon at four.” Hunter shrugged out from under the weight of his morose thoughts and leaned forward to place his tumbler on the desk. “You’re sure he still has Miguel?”

Cas had arrived just as Hunter was settling into his study after dinner. He looked haggard and tired, like he’d ridden nonstop, and had brought the news that an arrangement had been made to meet Campbell and make the exchange.

“As sure as we can be.” Cas nodded. “He better be alive, Hunter.”

“He is,” Hunter reassured him, though he wasn’t entirely certain of that. Campbell couldn’t be that foolish; he’d evaded them for now, but it was only a matter of time before they tracked him down if something happened to the boy. “He’ll want his daughters returned.”

Two weeks seemed too short. He’d thought they would have had a month together, maybe a bit more. Before he could stop them, the words tore from his chest. “I don’t want to give her up, Cas.” He ran his hands through his hair and leaned forward, elbows lowered to the desk.

His brother’s face went still. “We don’t have a choice.”

“I know. I know that. I want Miguel back just as much as you do, but I don’t want to give her back.”

“Maybe just the sisters—”

“No!” Hunter cut his words off. “I don’t want any of them to go back.

They’re not like Campbell.” His words trailed off as his mind began to race again.

One answer stood out in front of all the others.

He hadn’t wanted to give voice to it before because it had been so ridiculous, but the more he thought about it, the more he wanted it.

“I could marry her. If I married her I wouldn’t have to send her back. Campbell couldn’t demand it.”

“Married. Really?” Cas sat up straight, stunned.

“I know it sounds...”

“Extreme.” Cas supplied.

Narrowing his eyes, Hunter continued. “I know that I’ve known her for less than a month, but out here people marry quicker than that all the time.”

“People who have to, people who live secluded lives on ranches. That’s not you, brother. You could marry any woman in the territory. I bet some young girl from Boston would be willing to come all the way out here just to marry you.”

“Girl.” Hunter grimaced. That was just it.

He didn’t want an immature socialite. He wanted a woman.

He wanted Emmy. “I don’t want any of those.

I’ve met all of the women in Helena and the socialites my mother threw at me in Boston.

They’re all—every single one of them—just like my mother or worse.

They only care about my bank account. I never wanted a wife because I couldn’t see myself shackled to one of them.

Emmy is different.” So different that he hadn’t been careful with her at all.

The morning they had left the brothel, Glory had sent along a jar of sponges, perhaps knowing that one night together wouldn’t be enough for them.

She’d been right. Except for that first time in his bed, they’d been very diligent about using them to prevent a child.

A very small, very selfish part of him had begun to hope that their one time of haste had led to a pregnancy, but the hope had been laid to rest just a few days later when her cycle had appeared on schedule.

Getting her with child would have been grossly irresponsible, though it would have solved a problem.

Campbell couldn’t demand her return if she carried his child.

It would have created another problem. He wasn’t ready to be a father.

Having a child, having a wife, they both meant that he had to give up a part of his life he hadn’t thought he was willing to give up.

And yet, the idea of a child with her had been so surprisingly pleasant that it had stayed with him.

He’d never wanted a child before, never even imagined himself as a father.

Until now. Until she had come into his life.

Sitting back in his chair, Cas studied him closely. “It won’t matter. Your mother would never let you get away with marrying anyone outside her circle.”

Cas was right, but his mother’s opinion had longed ago ceased to matter to him. Even if she disinherited him, his father wouldn’t—and he had his own income from the horses and his share of the mines. He and Emmy would be fine. “Her opinion doesn’t matter to me. I want Emmy.”

“Those are strong words, brother. You’re willing to give away a fortune for a woman?”

Cas didn’t understand the concept because he was too busy trying to hang on to the Reyes family’s crumbling empire. “Yes. She’s more important to me than my mother’s money or even her approval.”

Cas opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again and looked away. “You’re fortunate you can feel that way.”

“Dammit, Cas, don’t. I have money, yes, and you would too if you weren’t too damn stubborn to take it. Father offered it to you.”

Cas’s eyes blazed. “I will never take anything from the man who ruined my mother.”

“Fine. Don’t take it.” Hunter’s voice lowered as he regained control of his temper. A strange silence filled the room following the outburst. He finally broke it, saying, “I won’t walk away from the gang. I promise you that.”

His brother’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t reply.

“I mean it,” Hunter pressed. “I’ll stay until we finish what we set out to accomplish.”

Shaking his head, Cas said, “I couldn’t ask you to do that, especially if you have a family.”

The silence grew again, a strange void between them where none had existed before.

“Do you love her?” Cas finally asked, his voice low.

“Yes.” Though it mildly surprised him that he’d be so willing to admit that, his answer was immediate. There was no doubt in his mind that he loved her.

“Then you should have her.”

Stunned, Hunter took in his brother’s impassive features. Cas was loyal to his family, but he wasn’t given to bouts of sentimentality. “We’ll figure it out, but I won’t let you down.”

“No, it’s my vengeance, not yours. If you love her, I won’t let you risk yourself.”

“Cas, no. I can figure out how to do both. I can keep her and still keep my vow to you.”

His brother leaned forward then, his elbows on the desk, and a strand of black hair falling across his forehead.

“There is nothing greater than family. We have that.” He motioned between the two of them.

“And I saw it with my mother and Miguel’s father.

There is no greater calling. If what you have with her is real, then it must become your priority. ”

For a moment, Hunter couldn’t speak. He wasn’t ready to give up riding with his brothers, but the idea of Emmy being his was so evocative, that he couldn’t dismiss it. “It doesn’t matter. As you pointed out, without someone to exchange, we won’t get Miguel back. So my thoughts don’t matter.”

“Keep the woman. Send her sisters.”

Hunter nodded, though he knew he couldn’t do it. “Emmy won’t send her sisters unless she goes with them. If I send them back, I can’t tell her and we’d have to swoop in again and take them back later.”

“We’d have to wait for them to get home. We couldn’t risk them, not with Campbell’s men around. One of the ignorant bastards could start shooting.”

Cas was right, of course. They couldn’t risk gunfire. “How do we know that won’t happen anyway?” Letting out a harsh breath in response to his own rhetorical question, he pounded a fist on the desk. “I don’t like this.”

“Do you think Campbell would risk his own flesh and blood? He won’t want to shoot anymore than we do, at least while there’s a risk to innocent lives.”

“Shooting?”

Both men looked up to see Emmy framed in the doorway.

She had been upstairs with the girls when Cas had come in, probably waiting for Hunter to join them as had become their routine.

Her tiny hands pulled the top of her ivory-colored dressing gown closed, hair flowing free down around her shoulders.

She had clearly been expecting to find him alone in his study.

Hunter rose and walked around the desk to meet her, taking her hand and drawing her close to him.