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Runner gave her a slight shake and forced her to look up at him again. “Never blame yourself or me for what happened here,” he said sternly. “Especially yourself. You paid for her to have a warm shelter, food, and the comforts offered by this hotel. As for myself, I will still see that her son gets a proper upbringing.”
He framed her face between his hands. “Together we can raise him as our son,” he said. “As I was taken in long ago by two kind people, so shall we take little Jimmy into not only our hogan but our hearts.”
“Our . . . hogan . . . ?” Stephanie said, searching his eyes. “You are speaking as though we will be living together as man a
nd wife. Are you proposing to me?”
“It is a hell of a time to propose, is it not?” he said, his eyes searching hers. “But, yes, I am. Will you be my wife?”
“Now? Today?” Stephanie said, her eyes widening.
“It does not have to be today,” Runner said, drawing her into his embrace, “but soon. Will you be able to live my simple life? Will a hogan be enough? Can you turn your back on your photography?”
Stephanie’s head was spinning with his questions, and with the knowledge that he was rushing her into marriage. She still had a responsibility to the Santa Fe Railroad. They had spent a lot of money on her special photography equipment, and only because she had agreed to travel to Arizona to take photographs for their tourism plans.
“I want nothing more than to be your wife,” she said, placing her cheek against the buckskin fabric of his beaded vest. “And I will. But first I must finish what I have come to the Arizona Territory for.”
She could feel his body tighten and understood why. She eased from his arms and gazed up at him. “You honor your commitments, don’t you?” she said, her voice guarded.
“Always,” he answered, his eyes dark as he gazed down at her.
“Then you will surely understand that I must honor my own,” she said softly. “Let me take a few more photographs, develop them, and Adam will see to it that they reach the proper people when he attends his next Santa Fe board meeting.”
She paused, then placed a hand to his cheek. “Is that fair enough?” she murmured. “I do want to be your bride. I will be happy enough in a hogan for, my darling, I will be sharing it with you.”
“And little Jimmy?” Runner asked.
Stephanie nodded. “And little Jimmy.”
“We will soon give him a brother or sister?” Runner said, weaving his fingers through her copper hair, to draw her lips only a whisper away from his.
“We shall give him many, if you like,” Stephanie said, smiling up at him.
When he kissed her, it was soft and sweet, yet filled with passion.
Then they broke away and rushed down the stairs.
Stephanie took enough time to tell the desk clerk that she needed the two rooms for another full day and night. She had no time to repack her belongings, so she felt it was much simpler just to pay for the room until she returned for them. And she left strict orders that Sharon was not to be disturbed.
The poor woman, she sadly thought. Because of Damon, she had been forced to live a life of hell. Hopefully, she was now finding peace somewhere in that place where tears were no longer shed. Yet Stephanie felt that Sharon could not truly rest in peace until her child was saved from the life that Damon was planning for him.
Leaving the pack mule stabled at the hotel, Runner and Stephanie swung themselves into their saddles and rode in a flurry of dust out of Gallup.
Stopping only long enough to briefly rest their horses and to get drinks of water from their canteens, they finally came to the outskirts of Damon’s ranch. A wide spread of pole fencing reached out across the land on all four sides of the ranch. It was now midafternoon, and many ranch hands were busying about, doing their chores.
Stephanie and Runner reined their steeds to a stop. In tune with its master’s feelings, Runner’s stallion neighed and pawed at the grass nervously.
“Should we wait until night?” Stephanie asked, smoothing stray locks of hair back from her eyes.
“No,” Runner said flatly. “No matter when we arrive, we will be noticed. Everyone is aware of the strained relationship between me and Damon. The fact that I came with your brother recently to meet with Damon may help us out. Once we get past the ranch hands and inside Damon’s house, then we can show our true colors—our true reasons for being here.”
“All hell with break loose,” Stephanie said, her eyes narrowing as she stared at Damon’s house. “I only hope that he’s there so we can get this over with. I don’t like the idea of Jimmy being under that man’s roof for any amount of time. How on earth is the child being fed?”
“Damon will have hired a wet nurse by now,” Runner said, patting his horse’s neck to calm it. “She will stay there at the ranch, I am sure, until the child is weaned.”
A shiver coursed up and down Stephanie’s spine at the thought of a total stranger holding the child that had been so precious to Sharon.
“Let’s go, Runner.” she said, giving him an anxious look.
