Guy wanted to protect her because he thought no woman could take care of herself, but Tyler thought she was smart enough to succeed on her own. Guy said he loved her, but his feelings never once threatened to overpower him. Tyler wanted to make love to her because he couldn't help himself. She found his unruly pa.s.sion much more to her liking.

She doubted Adora would appreciate such treatment. Her mind boggled at anything like that happening between Mr. and Mrs. Cochrane. Yet she was certain it happened between Hen and Laurel. There was a powerful bond that existed between them, an explosive force that seemed to be on the verge of combustion. She hadn't understood at first. But now that she was back with the Cochranes, she realized she had sensed it whenever she was with Hen and Laurel.

She had felt the same thing those last days in the cabin with Tyler. It had seemed dangerous then, even undesirable, but now she regretted its absence. Everything now was calm, predictable, comforting, yet very unsatisfying.

As Daisy drifted off to sleep, she realized that nothing felt right any more. She doubted it ever would again.

"You can't still want to marry me," Daisy said to Guy. She hadn't put her hair up this morning. She pulled at her curls. "I look a fright. I doubt any respectable woman will speak to me."

"Nonsense. Your appearance is a trifle odd just now, but once everyone knows all you've been through, they'll wear a path to the house offering to do anything they can to help. Besides, your hair will grow back."

Mr. Cochrane had gone to his office immediately after breakfast. Mrs. Cochrane had taken Adora off to visit soon after. Daisy had taken the opportunity to release Guy from his promise to marry her. She was stunned when he declared nothing would change his feelings for her.

"But I've got a scar." Daisy lifted her hair to show him.

"You can't see it."

Daisy decided she had to tell him what happened. If he really wanted to marry her, he deserved the truth. Some of his color had faded by the time Daisy had finished her story, but he didn't falter.

"I'm positive you behaved impeccably throughout," he said. "It was wonderful of you to tell me." He took her hand and squeezed it. "But there's no need to speak of it again, even to Adora."

Daisy thought he looked a little dazed, but it probably wasn't fair to judge. He had just received a terrible shock.

"Mother says this Randolph is a gentleman," Guy said. He fidgeted nervously. "I'm sure she's right, but can you be certain he'll stick to his story?"

"He's the one who insisted I go to his brother," Daisy said. "He wouldn't have brought me to you if you'd been in town. He was determined no one should know I wasn't properly chaperoned. I'm sure he'd be angry I told you."

"Very proper," Guy said. "And the rest of them?"

"Are you worried the story would embarra.s.s you?"

"Good G.o.d, no," Guy said, flushing. "I was concerned about you. I know it would practically kill you to have this story get out."

Oddly enough, Daisy didn't think it would.

"I know, you know, and the Randolphs know. It doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks."

"Not quite," Guy said. "I have complete faith in you, but there are many people who might not. I've asked around about the Randolphs. They're rich, but they also have a reputation for being men who take what they want. That includes women."

"You haven't met Tyler. He doesn't want anything."

"I'm glad to hear that, but this whole thing is best forgotten. I'll be relieved when the Randolphs return to their ranch."

Daisy didn't want Hen and Laurel to leave. It was her only connection with Tyler.

She told herself not to be stupid. He didn't want anything to do with her. It would be better if she could accept this, not keep hanging onto something that was over, something that had never been very much of a hope in the first place.

Guy patted her hand, a smile which seemed only slightly forced on his lips. "I know it's terribly soon after your awful ordeal. Naturally you'll want to observe a decent period of mourning for your father, but I wish you'd set a date."

"What for?"

"The wedding."

Daisy had the oddest feeling of being sad and relieved at the same time, like something was closing in around her, choking off her air. At the same time something she feared was receding into the background. She must be losing her mind.

"I can't, not now."

"Then at least let me announce our engagement."

"No! People would want to come by and congratulate me, ask me about the wedding, about my father, all kinds of things. I can't deal with that and getting married at the same time."

"Of course." Guy smiled in a way that ought to have been endearing. "I'd like to say I want you to take as long as you like. But I really want us to get married as soon as possible. I don't want to rush you," he hastened to add. "Just know I'm anxious to make you my wife."

"I'll try. It's just that so much has happened."

"I know. You're feeling overwhelmed."

Yes, she had been overwhelmed, but not for the reason Guy believed.

Chapter Nineteen.

Tyler returned to his base camp. He took care of his animals, cleaned his tools, then prepared and ate his supper. He had found more color today. He knew he was getting close to locating the source of the gold.

In the four days since he had returned from Albuquerque, the weather had turned as unseasonably mild as it had been cold the weeks before. The ground was so wet every hole he dug soon filled with water. He wished he'd packed his tarpaulin, but his cabin was fifteen miles away, too far to go back. He sat on a rock, staring out over the hills as they fell away toward the Rio Grande nearly twenty miles away. Millions of stars twinkled in the clear sky, but Tyler hardly noticed.

Thoughts of Daisy filled his mind, as they had nearly every moment of the last week. He tried to go over in his mind what he planned to do the next day. But instead he found himself wondering if Daisy was still with Hen and Laurel or if the Cochranes had returned from Santa Fe. Studying the way the water ran away from the hills, he tried to guess from the location of the bits of gold where the source might be, but he found himself wondering if Daisy was going to marry this Guy Cochrane after all. He tried to decide where to begin his digging tomorrow. Instead he wondered if she was happy.

He wasn't. He'd never been more miserable in his life.

He missed her. It wouldn't do him any good to keep denying it. It seemed ridiculous after doing everything he could to escape from her, but it was true. He found himself remembering little things he hadn't even been aware of at the time.

He liked the way the curls cl.u.s.tered around her face after he cut her hair. It made her look younger, more charming than she would believe. He remembered the way she wore her bandage, almost like a Turk wears his turban. It didn't bother her at all. It almost became a part of her. But he guessed his favorite recollection was of Daisy swallowed up in one of his coats. There was something about that memory that made him fiercely protective.

But most of all he worried if she was safe. She would be as long as she was with Hen, but what about afterwards? He worried she would marry Guy Cochrane because she thought she had no other choice. He worried she wouldn't be happy no matter what happened. Not that he could help her with that. Only at the end had they begun to understand each other.

He got up. He'd better get to sleep. He had a long day of digging ahead of him tomorrow.

But even after he went to bed, he had difficulty falling asleep. He kept remembering the Daisy he held in his arms. That hadn't been mere l.u.s.t. It wasn't a feeling he could transfer to the next female he met. The feeling was for Daisy alone, and it was still there.

It was a good thing he didn't have to go into Albuquerque for supplies for at least a month. It looked like he was going to need every minute of that time to let this feeling die. It scared him to think it might only grow stronger.

"You fool! You a stupid, dim-witted fool!" Regis Cochrane shouted at Frank Storach. "I told you not to touch the girl."

"But she saw me coming out of the house," Frank protested. He was loading bales of wool from one of Cochrane's warehouses for shipment. The spring shearing would start before long.

"Did she see you kill the old man?" Regis demanded. He didn't climb down from his buggy. The yard was muddy.

"No."

"Then you could have lied, told her you stopped by for a cup of coffee and discovered the body."

Frank paused in his work. Despite the cold, he was perspiring. He wiped his forehead with his sleeve. "But she heard the shot. She was bound to figure out--"

"She could prove anything. You and the fools you hired could have disappeared, and it would have blown over. Where are they now?"

"They headed for Mexico."

"Good," Regis said, like he was thinking of something else. "You do the same thing. Go as far away as Montana if necessary, but don't come back to New Mexico. I've got to think of somebody to blame it on."

Frank stepped over to the buggy. "I could still kill the girl."

"I need her to get the land, you fool."

Frank resented being called a fool. "I still got some money coming."

"I'll give you a hundred, enough to get down the trail, but not a dime more. You botched the job. It's liable to cost me even more to fix this mess." Regis counted out the money and handed it Frank.

"I killed the old man just like you wanted," Frank said. "You owe me that money."

"No."

"I know people who'd be interested in things I could tell."

The implacable cruelty in Regis's nature was easily visible in his eyes. "There's n.o.body alive who's double-crossed me. Remember that," he said, impatiently dismissing Frank's threat as though it were of no more concern to him than a gnat. "Not get out of town before I turn you over to the sheriff. Daisy Singleton has a dead accurate description of you." Regis took up the reins and drove off.

With anger in his heart, Frank counted the money before stuffing it into his pocket. He was the one who had done all the work, who'd spent a week nearly freezing looking for the girl. He knew she could identify him. It was his neck that would stretch if they ever caught him.

He went back to work, but anger against the Regis Cochrane burned in his heart. He'd been cheated of money that was rightfully his. He'd been hired to kill an old man and burn down his house, two hundred and fifty up front and the same when it was done. He'd been cheated of a hundred and fifty dollars. It would serve Regis right if he killed the girl so he couldn't get his hands on her land.

"It's a boy," Laurel announced. "Big and blond just like his father."

Laurel was propped up in the big bed she had shared with Daisy that first evening. She looked tired but happy. Hen, who stood at her side like a proud but silent bulwark between his wife and the world, had sent Daisy a message before breakfast. Daisy had come as soon as she could get away.

"I'm sure you're proud of him," she said.

"I was secretly hoping for a girl," Laurel confessed. "I already have two boys. But I should have known better. Except for Rose, that's all anybody has in this family. Fern has four already."

"You can only blame one on me," Hen said.

"I'm sure I'll get a chance to blame you for more," Laurel said, but she didn't look the least bit unwilling. "Now you can take the boys for a ride without worrying about me. Daisy will sit with me until you return."

"I won't stir an inch," Daisy said when Hen hesitated. "If she looks the slightest bit uncomfortable, I'll go straight for the doctor."

"You're not to go near a doctor, no matter what happens," Laurel said after Hen had gone. "It's taken every bit of my persuasive powers just to get him to allow me to sit up. I told him I had Adam in the morning and cooked my own supper before nightfall." She chuckled. "It only made him more watchful."

They talked of unimportant things until they heard a cry from the ba.s.sinet. "Do you mind getting the baby?" Laurel asked. "It's time to feed him. I'd get him myself, but Hen would be sure to find out."

"I've never held a baby," Daisy said.

"It's not difficult. Just put one hand under his head and one under his bottom. He'll wiggle like jelly, but you won't drop him."

It turned out just as Laurel said. Daisy decided there was something magical about a baby. This was her first experience with one, but it gripped her instantly. She only held him a few seconds, but she was reluctant to hand him to his mother. "What's his name?"

"William Henry Harrison Randolph. I named him after his father despite Hen's objections," Laurel said as she prepared to feed her son. "I know it's a mouthful, but Hen can't have three sons and none of them named after him. He'll probably end up being called Harry, but I'm holding out for Harrison."

The baby began to nurse with surprising aggressiveness for such a tiny creature.

"Greedy, that's what he is," Laurel said in doting accents. "Just like his brothers. He'll fit right in."

The baby was absolutely adorable. Harrison was a real person who would some day grow up to be a man just like his father.

It was a miracle.

It required no feat of imagination for Daisy to see herself nursing her own son. Rather it required an effort not to be jealous this wasn't her child. She'd always known she wanted children. She hadn't known how much until now.

The thought that absolutely stunned her was that she imagined herself holding Tyler's son, not Guy's.

"How are things going with you?" Laurel asked once she was certain her son had settled down to his work.

"Fine," Daisy said, refocusing her thoughts. "The Cochranes couldn't be any kinder if they were my own relatives."

"Wonderful. Have you heard from your father's family yet?"

"No." Daisy realized she hadn't even thought to contact them. "I don't know their address," she said, realizing it would have burned up in the fire. "I don't know how to contact them."

"Put an announcement of his death in all the newspapers giving your name and address. I'm sure they'll contact you."

Daisy wasn't sure she wanted to do that. She wouldn't know what to do if her father's family did contact her.

Laurel studied Daisy closely. "How are you feeling?"

"A little dazed. I was certain Guy wouldn't want to marry me. I told him everything that happened. He insisted it made no difference."

"I meant how are you feeling about Tyler?"