Page 18 of The Bastard Heir
He nodded with a smile. “He was all of those things, yes. I’m certain he never met anyone who wasn’t a little afraid of him.”
“Then he taught you well. That describes you, too.” She noted the rifle in a saddle holster and that his coat bulged like he might have a gun holstered there. Between all the men being gone from the stables, Castillo’s tense demeanor and his weapons, she was beginning to wonder if something might be wrong. If he’d had word that Derringer was, indeed, targeting the ranch.
He followed her gaze to the rifle before looking back at her. “You’re not afraid of me.” The sunlight caught the gold in his green eyes and made it shine.
She was afraid of him, but not for the reason he might think. She’d experienced his gentleness with her on the train, and even in her room last night when he could’ve been harsher than he had been. She was afraid because she felt so many things that she couldn’t even name with him. She should call off this ruseand be done with him, but she couldn’t. Not yet. Swallowing to moisten her suddenly dry mouth and throat, she said, “I am.”
He shook his head, one side of his mouth tilting up in a smile that was everything sensual. “No, you’re not.” Then his gaze dropped to her mouth. She could feel it tracing the contours of her lips.
“I am,” she repeated, licking her lips, unable to stay still under his scrutiny. “But I can’t seem to stay away from you.” That last came out on a breath.
He dragged his gaze back to hers and something nearly tangible leaped between them. It was so potent that she had to look away before she said something else that she probably shouldn’t. Something like how much she wanted to kiss him.
“Would you mind sharing what happened to your grandfather?”
He shifted, looking off toward the mountains, and it was a few minutes before he spoke, keeping his gaze on the horizon. “Derringer was an investor. He claimed to be from California, but I doubt he’d ever set foot there. He came recommended by someone my grandfather respected, a neighboring rancher who’d done business with the man. He visited us for a couple of weeks. Was knowledgeable about cattle. Ours weren’t hardy and had been dying from disease. The cows had stopped having calves. Even the first-year heifers weren’t producing the next year.”
He ran the back of a gloved hand over his forehead. She wondered if he was remembering the despair and frustration that situation must have caused him and his family. “Derringer talked of a new breed of cattle from California. This new breed was resistant to all disease. I didn’t know it at the time, but my grandfather gave him money to buy a new herd.”
Caroline didn’t know anything about cattle, but she knew a little about disease. It was unlikely an animal would be bornimpervious to disease. There was inoculation, but that wasn’t the same thing as what he was describing, and she didn’t even know if such a thing was being done to cattle. Her stomach churned with the fear that they’d been betrayed. “The herd never came?”
“He took the money. My grandfather went to the authorities and about a week later I woke up one night to our house on fire.” He took a deep breath. She could hear it over the plodding of the horses’ hooves, and closed her eyes because she didn’t want to know what she knew he would say next. “He died in the fire. At times I still smell the smoke.”
“Oh, dear God, Castillo, I’m sorry.” She raised her hand to her mouth, while in her mind’s eye she imagined that horrible night.
He nodded to acknowledge her words, but he kept his gaze on some point in the distance. “Derringer was there that night. He was angry that we’d gone to the authorities. He’d figured no one would pay attention to an immigrant, but my grandfather was respected in the area. Derringer wanted to silence him.” Castillo sighed. “We nearly caught Derringer that night, but in the madness he got away while my home burned to the ground.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. Her life in Boston seemed so…so protected and privileged after hearing his story. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I can’t imagine what it’d be like to lose someone close to you and your home in the same night.”
He looked toward the hills on his left, away from her. The river was coming into view, a silver ribbon reflecting the sun as it wove out through the green field before disappearing into the mountains again.
“Of course you can’t. No one should have to imagine that,” he said after a moment. His gaze turned to the river.
“I hope you find Derringer.” And she meant it. She hoped with all her heart that he’d find the justice he sought.
Castillo gave her a long look, filled with intensity but completely unreadable. She opened her mouth to tell himthat she understood. That she wanted to help him, but was interrupted by one of Emmy’s sisters running toward them.
“Cas! There’s a snake. Come look!” The girl looked entirely too pleased with herself for someone who’d just seen a snake before she ran back toward the river.
Castillo smiled and dug his heels in to make the horse go faster, following the happy girl.
Caroline continued at her sedate pace, stunned in the knowledge that she’d been just moments away from releasing him from their deal. If he didn’t have to spend so much time pretending to court her, he’d have more time to look for Derringer. Right?
But then where would she be when she returned home to Boston? She’d be facing a future where she was at the mercy of a husband who almost certainly wouldn’t allow her to pursue her profession. She’d already met the entire crop of suitors her mother had in store for her, and not one of them had interested her. They’d all seemed very foppish and vain.
If she married one of them, it could be disastrous. Aunt Prudie had warned her many times about the importance of marrying the right man. Caroline didn’t know very much about Aunt Prudie’s marriage, but it had never seemed to be a particularly happy one. She and her husband appeared to be little more than distant strangers who occasionally shared the same social engagements, which was the primary reason Caroline didn’t want to marry a stranger herself.
Aunt Prudie had once said that she should make sure to find an honorable man with a gentle temperament. It was a funny twist of fate that she had found that man, and he seemed to be the one most ill-suited for her.
Chapter Eight
Caroline Hartford had enchanted him. There was no denying it anymore.
After dinner that night everyone retired to the gold salon where the tall French doors had been opened to allow in the cool breeze blowing over the mountains. The sun had just set, leaving the horizon with a burnished glow directly at odds with the bright stars struggling to shine in the velvet eastern sky. As beautiful as that sunset was, Castillo was having trouble pulling his gaze away from Caroline to properly enjoy it.
He’d been captivated by her on the train. And then annoyed with her when he found her here and she’d offered that proposal. But then—though he couldn’t say when it had happened—he’d started to become captivated by her again. She sat across the room on the settee next to Tanner, discussing her plans for the future. He’d tried not to listen, but her voice kept drawing him in. It wasn’t the sound of her voice, though that was pleasant…soft, with enough of a husky timbre that it spoke directly to hisbaser instincts. It was her words and the conviction with which she said them.
She knew what she wanted to do with her life, and it wasn’t at all what anyone else in her position would want. She didn’t value marriage, not the way his mother had. His mother had been crushed when she’d been abandoned by Tanner. Some of that had been heartbreak, but Castillo had come to realize that much of it was because the life she’d imagined for herself had been taken away.
