“I definitely am not.”
“But you’ll be able to return to the safety of that life soon enough.And then you can just forget about everything that happened here.”
She looked at him like he’d just told her she could fly to the moon.“The dangers in New York are different from what you face here, but the city is no safer than the frontier.”
“I can’t say nothing about that, but I’d wager you’re better protected there.”
“One can build a fortress to live in anywhere, Marlowe, but that is not the life I’m looking for.In fact, you should know, I’m not going back.I’m staying in Elkhorn.”
She blurted out the last words, and Caleb watched her full lips thin and the furrows deepen in her forehead.Her chin jutted slightly, and she looked ready to fight this out.
Caleb wasn’t the one to fight with, however.“Talked to your father about it?”
“Not yet.”Her features softened, and she looked for a moment like a lost child.“You’re his friend.You probably know him better than I do.Do you think he’ll object to me staying?”
Caleb knew nothing about father-daughter relationships, but this woman was looking pretty damn vulnerable right now.When it came right down to it, though, Doc was his friend.Who was Caleb to say anything about his daughter’s future?Hell, he and Sheila were closer in age than he’d like to admit.
Still, he knew he’d object if she were his daughter.No matter what she thought, frontier life was hard and dangerous, especially for women.That is, women who weren’t raised to it.This past week was proof of it.She survived the perils she faced, but she’d also been lucky.He’d face a hungry grizzly before he’d say that to her, though.
“I’m sure Doc only wants what’s best for you.”
“And who’s to know what’s best for me?”The fighter was back.“My father?My grandfather in New York?You?”
“Don’t come at me with your claws out.You asked a question.I answered.”
“Is that so?How old were you when you left your parents’ home?”
“We ain’t talking about me.”Her question took him by surprise.“But I see what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?”
“You want someone so you can practice the argument you know you’re gonna have with your father.”He shook his head.“Sorry, Miss Burnett.I’m the wrong person for it.”
“I think you’re the right person for it.”She was not quitting.
“And why is that?”
“Because you’re a man.The only man out here that I can talk to about this before I speak to my father.”
“Go practice on Lucas.”
“What does he know about my father?Or me?”She made a face that said she was appalled he would even suggest such a thing.
“Well, it don’t set well with me, Doc being my fr?—”
“He needs me.”She was going to have this conversation with him.Period.“I lost my mother at the age of nine.Since then, my father has been alone.Don’t you agree that I should come and live with him now that I’m a grown woman?He’s not married.He has no one to look after him, and I’m his only daughter.It’s my duty!”
The only way to avoid getting dragged into this was for Caleb to pick her up and throw her off this ledge.And she’d still be jawing at him all the way down.
He took a deep breath.“Miss Burnett, are you doing this for him or for you?”
“For both of us.”
He held her gaze.“For him, or for you?”
She paused before answering.When she did, her voice was no more than a whisper.“For me.I need to stay.I can’t go back to New York.The life I had there ended when I left.”
Caleb was surprised by her reply and—he hated to admit it—curious what had happened in New York.But that was none of his business, he told himself.
