Page 51 of Fairest of Heart

“Looking back, I can see the signs of a long con at work. Building trust. Sharing secrets. Pulling him away from his family. Our mother invited Nora to the house several times, but she always had an excuse not to come. She convinced Tate that I made her uncomfortable. Said I looked at her improperly. Lustfully. She’d be more comfortable meeting with him alone. She fed Tate’s jealousy with lies about me until the two of us nearly came to blows.”

Penelope ached at the raw pain in Titus’s voice. To be vilified unjustly was bad enough, but to have his own brother believe the lies must have been torture.

“Nora flirted with all the men in town, but she seemed particularly focused on Tate, almost like she had targeted him. It didn’t make sense until I recalled the newspaper article that had been published about him the week before she arrived. About the prize shorthorn bull Tate had raised from a calf and sold at market for a county record of $500. Troubadour had placed first at the county fair that year, and a buyer from Kansas had offered top dollar. Tate planned to purchase his own acreage with the money and set up a cattle breeding business with one of Troubadour’s progeny, but Nora got her hooks in him before he had the chance.”

Anger flashed in Titus’s eyes, and the hand that had held hers so sweetly a moment ago curled into a fist. “A stranger named George Middleton showed up in town two months after Nora, claiming she was his fiancée. Said she’d run away from him, and he’d come to fetch her back. Nora begged Tate to save her from the unwanted marriage. Told him Middleton was controlling and abusive. Tate would’ve done anything for Nora at this point, so he confronted Middleton. Told him he was marrying Nora himself. Middleton threatened to sue her for breach of contract. He’d provided her with a new wardrobe and jewelry as an engagement gift and demanded repayment. She, of course, didn’t have any jewelry. She’d sold it to make her escape.

“I doubted the story. Too convenient. I knew Tate wouldn’t listen to me, so I shared my concerns with my folks, but Tate was so in love with Nora, he wouldn’t listen to anyone. Not even our mother. Middleton quoted a thousand-dollar price tag. Tate offered him six hundred fifty, every last penny he had in the bank. Middleton agreed.”

Titus’s head bowed. “I tried to stop him. Told him to wait until a suit was filed and a judgment pronounced before he handed over his life’s savings. But Tate was swayed by Nora’s pleas and driven to be her hero.

“I’m not sure what happened the night he went to meet Middleton for the payoff. Perhaps something I said finally sank in, and he started asking questions. All I know is that Middleton put a bullet in him and took his money. Doc tried to save him, but Tate had lost too much blood by the time I found him. He died that night. The same night Nora disappeared.”

“Oh, Titus.” The words emerged from Penelope’s throat in a broken whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

Her heart broke for him. For Tate. For their parents. And Doc.

“I made it my mission to track them down. To bring them to justice for what they’d done to Tate. To our family. It took three months to find them. In a different town, using different names. I turned them over to a group of Texas Rangers led by Sam McMurray. Captain McMurray heard my story and recruited me to join the Frontier Battalion. Convinced me I could make a difference. Could spare other families the pain we’d faced.”

Titus raised his head and poured himself into her eyes. “I won’t let her win, Penelope. If Narcissa LaBelle is behind these thefts, I’ll bring her to justice. I swear it. She won’t hurt you or anyone else ever again.”

His need to make things right thickened the air. But there was something else emanating from him. Something protective and personal. A promise that seemed unrelated to the missing jewels.

“There has to be a reason she would send Hunt to retrieve your corset.” The warm tone of his voice hardened into a tenacious resolve. “She must have known somehow that it was in the bag Mildred gave me. Or asked about it after I left.” His brow crinkled. “Although . . . Hunt was gone when I visited the troupe. For him to get here so soon after me, he would have had to return sometime that evening, then board one of the first trains out of Weatherford yesterday morning, like I did. But how would he have known where to find you? I took measures to ensure no one followed me.” Titus drew lines over the tabletop with his finger, as if tracing a map. “I suppose he could have returned to the tree where he left you and started searching from there. Still, the chances of him stumbling across the Diamond D and spotting you before I dragged you inside for questioning are incredibly slim.”

Penelope followed the path of his logic, then stumbled onto her own bit of insight. “What if he took the wrong corset?”

Titus jerked his face toward hers.

Penelope continued, slowly working through her thoughts. “It does seem unlikely that Mr. Hunt could find me so quickly. It makes me wonder if he was out here already. From before you visited the troupe.” Her pulse quickened as the pieces started coming together. “That would explain why he was gone when you questioned the company.”

She scooted to the edge of her chair, excitement building. Titus responded in kind. The distance between them shrank to mere inches.

“I wasn’t wearing my corset that night. I had to borrow one of hers in order for the dress to fit properly.” She bent closer to Titus, her heart racing at full gallop. “I found a plain one at the bottom of her trunk. One I’d never seen her wear. What if that was the corset she sent Mr. Hunt to fetch?”

Titus’s eyes lit, and he jumped to his feet. “Show it to me.”

Penelope launched off her chair and started down the hall. Being on the cusp of discovery dissolved her earlier embarrassment. It was just a piece of cotton in a drawer, after all. Perfectly harmless.

Maybe too harmless.

“I’m not sure what we’ll find,” she admitted, her theory losing a bit of shine as her mind continued working the puzzle. “Corsets don’t have much fabric.”

But maybe there was a tiny map showing the way to the illicit stash squirreled away in a hidden pocket somewhere. Or a key to a locked treasure chest tucked beneath a seam.

Or maybe she read too many adventure nov—

“Oh!” Penelope pulled up short as Rowdy barreled out of her room, nearly colliding with her in his rush.

“Rowdy?” Titus clasped her arms to steady her from behind. “What the devil . . . ?”

Feeling his grip tighten on her arms and sensing he was about to chase after the poor man, who was probably already mortified, Penelope covered Titus’s hand with hers and twisted to face him. “It’s all right, Titus. Let him go. Sometimes he comes into my room when I’m not there and leaves me gifts on my dresser. After last night, he probably thought to soothe me with a sweet little gesture.”

She tugged him toward her doorway and peered inside. “See?” Relieved to indeed find something new on her dresser top, Penelope urged Titus closer. “A handful of buttons. Aren’t they pretty?” She touched the collection with her finger, spreading them out to see them better. “A shiny brass button, a couple blue ones, oh, and a silver one embossed with a flower. That one looks like an antique.”

“I don’t like the idea of him coming into your room uninvited.” Titus stood in the doorway, one foot still in the hall, his narrowed gaze aimed at the front door that had just slammed closed.

“He doesn’t mean any harm,” Penelope said, pulling on his arm until he finally relented and joined her at the dresser. “Rowdy communicates in his own way. I’m still learning the nuances, but he’s never given me any reason to feel uncomfortable.”