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Elijah nodded grimly. “His interest does not seem to lie in the ranch itself. I had thought it strange he would have an issue with the Creek. The range is open. The watering hole isn’t fenced off. So it is all about Sheridan.”
“Sí.” Miguel was silent for a moment. “Patron, I fear for her. This Sullivan, he wants her very much. He will grow tired of her resistance and one day they will come to take her. There are talks in town of how vast her wealth is. That she is an English heiress. I am not sure what the Senora told you patron. But it is not the ranch Sullivan wants.”
After the brief encounter he had with Sullivan and Bartley he knew it wasn’t Whispering Creek they wanted. Even if they had murdered Thomas, it was not for the range. It was to leave Sheridan vulnerable. Elijah was not sure how to proceed. This is my home, Elijah. He’d seen the desperation on her face and heard it in her voice.
There was a deep part of him that wanted to give her all that she desired, for he knew what belonging somewhere meant to her. But the logical side of him screamed that women like her were not made for the West. His gut had told him that before, but he had ignored it. And now the nightmares that haunted him were daily reminders. He understood how much of a home this was to her, but she needed to leave.
Elijah knew he was not capable of giving her what she wanted, for she was too soft for the land. Th
e only thing he could do was offer his protection until she departed. And that was not negotiable. For her own safety and his sanity, she would have to leave eventually.
***
Sheridan had washed the trail dust from her skin and dressed in a yellow loose flowing shirt, tucked into a simple grey day skirt. Perched on the edge of the sofa in the parlor, she craned her neck, looking out the window towards the open range. Elijah had ridden out a few hours ago and he had yet to come back. She’d been anxious to speak with him after he visited Miguel. Instead of agreeing to her request to have lunch together, he’d headed out to the bunkhouse to meet with the few cowhands on the ranch. She had spied him several minutes later riding out onto the range with Tom.
“Sheridan, would you please cease watching for his return,” Beth snapped.
“I have to convince him to sell, Beth.”
“I fail to see how watching to see when he returns from the range will accomplish that.”
Sheridan exhaled a gusty sigh and sank into the deep cushions of the settee. For the first time she took in the strain that pinched Beth’s lips, and the shadows under her eyes. “Forgive me, Beth, I have been so selfish. Are you well? I know you said Mr. Sullivan had been the soul of politeness, but it could not have been easy sitting with him.” Sheridan rose and hurried over to where Beth sat near Grayson’s cot.
She waved her hands, dismissing her concern. “I am fine. I am more anxious about you. Did…” she cleared her throat and blushed red.
Sheridan was always amazed when Beth did that. For someone that had given birth to a child, she was very shy when it came to talking about the intimacy between a man and a woman. Sheridan battled her own blush and gave her a small smile. “I did manage to seduce him.”
“Oh!”
“He was very cold after.”
She winced at the sympathy that lighted Beth’s golden brown eyes.
“Did you not offer him your inheritance as a dowry?”
“He never gave me the chance to suggest a marriage alliance, and after…after he did not offer marriage. You did warn me, Beth.” Sheridan tried her very best to appear nonchalant. It would not do for Beth to see how Elijah’s rejection had crumpled something inside of her. Sheridan wanted nothing more than a family, a home, a place that was hers. The knowledge of how deeply she yearned for it petrified her, but only with Elijah. He was her safe haven, and to him she was naught. “He said that he will protect me until I leave.”
“Leave?” The cup clattered to the oak table. “He expects you to leave? Did you tell him that it is your money that was heavily invested in the daily operations? Did you let him know you are the steward of the ranch? That it flourished under your guidance, and not Thomas’s?” Beth demanded sharply.
“No. he did not give me a chance. I feared I blundered so horribly in the past he cannot stand the sight of me.”
Beth snorted indelicately. “He stood you long enough to bed you, Sheridan. That means he can hear whatever you have to say.”
She searched for the words to communicate to Beth what she faced. “I have never seen him this unbending. The teasing lover I knew is gone. He was so cold towards me, Beth. I knew I hurt him dreadfully when he discovered that I was married. But he never gave me a chance to redeem myself. And it sits between us. There are times I wonder how could he have loved me, but then treat me with such indifference. But then I realized he’d never once said he loved me.”
“But you were not married in truth, Sheridan. Thomas was my brother and I loved him dearly, but even I knew where his interest was. As his friend, surely Elijah would have known?”
“Yes. But it does not matter, does it?” her lips twisted in a grimace. “I told him I was unencumbered and I wasn’t.”
Beth spoke with quiet intensity. “Thomas never saw you. He never bedded you, and he had other lovers that he went into town to be with. No part of you belonged to him, and I think you need to let Elijah understand that.”
Sheridan understood Beth’s viewpoint, but she knew it was pointless. He knew Thomas had not been her husband in truth. Elijah had taken her virginity, for God’s sake. He had teased her about not knowing how to kiss. He was her first in everything. Had she not told him as much?
The only thing she needed to do now was to convince him to sell his stake in the ranch to her. Her leaving was not an option she could even consider. And go where? Her only family was currently Beth and Grayson. She had no one else. Knew no one else. After three years, England and polite society seemed like a cold distant dream, and she did not long for it. Even if she had wanted to return, the people she had left behind wanted her gone. In London, she had been a misfit the new viscountess had resented heartily. Her father had been eager to agree to the suit with Mr. Thomas Galloway to please his wife, and Sheridan had been happy to escape a place she felt unwanted and unloved.
“Would you like to go east?” Beth asked gently. “I would travel with you. Perhaps Boston or New York?”
Sheridan’s entire being rebelled against the idea. “I will not leave my home.”
