Page 41 of The Bastard Heir
Miller shrugged, the corner of his mouth coming up again. “You’re a curious man, Jameson. I’ve been asking around about you.”
“Shut the hell up, Miller.” This came from Hunter.
“That’s enough.” Tanner’s authoritarian voice broke into the silence that followed, effectively shutting the conversation down for a moment.
“I thought you’d like to know that your son could be a killer. No one knows for sure, but it was reported that one body was found. There are bound to be more.”
“That’s enough,” Tanner repeated this time in a louder voice.
“You’re mistaken, Mr. Miller.” All eyes turned to Carolina who’d walked around the corner with her aunt at her side. Castillo’s heart stopped for a moment before slamming against his chest. His blood ran cold.
“I assure you that I am not. I have it on very good authority that that man,” he pointed to Castillo, “was involved in a shootout just outside of town. He was seen—”
“Oh, well, that’s where you’re mistaken.” Carolina smiled as if everything was all a big misunderstanding. “You see he couldn’t have been seen anywhere that day. While it’s true Hunter was in town on business—”
“Carolina, no. Don’t do this.” Castillo warned her but she kept going as if he hadn’t spoken.
“Castillo was here. We spent much of the day together…in my room.”
He stared at her in disbelief—everyone did. Even though he’d anticipated her saying exactly that, he couldn’t quite believe she had. Her eyes were wide and afraid, and she took deep breaths as if she’d just run a mile, but she was beautiful. And he knew that no matter what happened, their lives would be interwoven from now until forever.
***
Everything went silent. No one spoke and even the night sounds of the insects seemed to still in the aftermath of what she’d said. Caroline met Castillo’s gaze across the distance of the porch and saw a strange mixture of gratitude and regret, and it made her second-guess her decision to intervene. It hadn’t even been a conscious decision. She’d come around the corner to hear Miller threaten him, and she’d just said the words without thinking of their consequence or even if they were believable. She’d said them to save Castillo from suspicion.
Grant Miller’s face went pale, but then a blush of rage crept up his neck, mottling his skin. Everything that happened next was a bit of a blur. Miller cursed her as if she’d just ruined everything for him. Castillo rushed him, pushing him back against the railing and throwing a fist that landed on his jaw. The force knocked the man backward over the porch railing and down to the ground below. Castillo leaped the railing to follow him down, but Hunter had already rushed to the ground and grabbed Castillo before he could do any more damage to the man who was wobbly and trying to get back on his feet.
Mr. Jameson rushed forward to help him up, but it wasn’t from some spirit of altruism, because when Miller looked in her direction and called her a whore, Castillo broke free of Hunter’s hold and punched him again. Tanner held the man upright for the attack. Thankfully, Hunter grabbed his brother’s armsand pulled them behind his back, right about the time a ranch hand came running over out of the darkness, drawn by the commotion.
In fact, everyone from the salon had been drawn by the noise. As Miller was being pulled away toward the barn with the ranch hand on one side and Tanner limping along on the other, he called her every word for whore she’d ever heard and then some that she hadn’t. From the murmurs around her, she knew that word was spreading that she’d admitted to spending time alone with Castillo in her room.
Oh, dear Lord, what would her parents think of her? She’d said it on impulse to save Castillo from suspicion, but hadn’t thought about the hurt she might cause her family. She whirled and found her mother standing next to Aunt Prudie. Aunt Prudie didn’t look alarmed at all; in fact, she had a slight smile on her face as she grabbed Caroline’s arm and rubbed her back. Her mother, however, was pale and seemed horrified.
“Mother, please understand—” But that’s as far as she got before her mother shook her head and walked back into the house. Her father stood away from the group, his eyes sad and tinged with disappointment. “Father.” Caroline moved toward him and he reached out and took her hand. “Please believe that I never meant to hurt you.”
He nodded and gave her hand a squeeze before letting it go. “This is quite the blow, Caroline.” Then he shook his head as if he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around what had happened. “It’s quite the blow. Come, let’s go inside and discuss this in privacy.”
Tears pricked her eyes as she watched him follow her mother inside, but Aunt Prudie was there to put her arm around her. “Now is not the time for tears,” she whispered, so low that only Caroline could hear her. “You must finish what you started.”
Caroline only noticed then that the crowd still lingered, watching and waiting to see how this thing she’d started wouldplay out. Only she had no idea what to do next. Aunt Prudie’s voice prompted her. “You made your choice and you have to see it through. Appear strong when faced with adversity.”
One look at Castillo assured her that he was no better option than going to face her parents at the moment. He was livid. The intensity of his gaze ate up the distance between them and scorched her where she stood. Aunt Prudie was right, though. Caroline had set the wheels in motion when she’d defended him and she had to see it through, despite his anger and her parents’ disappointment.
Aunt Prudie gave a gentle tug on her arm and she turned to follow her parents inside. Aunt Prudie took her hand and led her to Mr. Jameson’s study. A few lamps flickered in the dark, but no one else was in the room other than the four of them. Her mother sat stone still on the settee, still in shock. Her father sat behind her, his hand resting on her back. He wasn’t talking to her and trying to comfort her. He was probably doing his best to come to terms in his own mind with what had happened.
Caroline took in a deep breath as Aunt Prudie closed the door behind them. Her fingers shook so badly that she had to clasp them before her to keep them still. With slow, deliberate steps she made her way to her parents, taking the chair nearest them. “Please believe me when I say that I never meant to cause you any grief.”
Her mother shook her head. “How could you do this to us, Caroline? How could you? I found a nice man to marry you, take care of you, and this is what you do?” Her mother didn’t even meet her gaze as she spoke, but kept looking off to the distance as if the answer to her questions could be found in the cold dredges of the fireplace.
Caroline wanted to take comfort in the fact that she’d lied to save Castillo, but there was no comfort to be had there. She’d spent last night in his arms, doing things that she’d never evenimagined doing with a man. Her parents didn’t know about that, but she was still guilty of it. She didn’t feel very guilty, though. What had happened between her and Castillo had been beautiful and tender and so full of unspoken love that it filled her heart to nearly bursting. “I didn’t do anything to you. I understand that you must feel betrayed and perhaps even embarrassed by my behavior. I am sorry for that. Please believe me.”
Her father nodded. “We do believe that. What we can’t believe is that you’d throw away your future on a man you don’t even know.”
Caroline tried not to allow the brief flicker of anger she felt to catch fire. “I still have my future,” she reminded them gently.
“No. No, you most certainly do not Caroline Marie Hartford.” Her mother straightened her spine, finally coming back to herself as the shock began to wear off. “You just made sure of that. Grant won’t marry you now. Once gossip of this spreads, I can’t imagine anyone will marry you. It’s not as if there was that much interest before this, but now…now there will be no one.”
Her father shifted to hold her mother’s hand with both of his, attempting to soothe her. To Caroline, he said, “This was uncharacteristically selfish of you. If there’s one thing I could count on from you, it’s that you would think things through and always do the right thing. This is not the right thing. You don’t even know this man.”
