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Did he mean to let her go so easily?
Then his footfalls were right behind her. “Anna, I’m tired of trying to persuade you to stay.” He swept her up in his arms and turned around. “You’re coming back to the house with me. You’ll need to be there when the sheriff comes. Then, if you really don’t want to stay, you can leave with him.”
His jaw jutted forward as he strode back the way they’d walked.
“You’re going to get tired of carrying me.”
“I’ll never get tired of carrying you.” He walked a few steps and said, “Answering your incessant questions, maybe, but holding you close—never.” He pulled her tighter against his chest.
“I wouldn’t have had to ask so many questions if you hadn’t been lying to me.” She put her arms around his neck, because folding them in front of her seemed rather silly.
“Well, it is damn hard work lying to you, so I prefer to avoid it in the future.”
“You can put me down. I can walk.”
“Wasn’t a doubt in my mind that you could walk,” he said and continued on. “But I’m not of a mind to let go of you, and you have not always been Miss Honesty yourself. You might mean to trick me into letting you down and then running off.”
“You said yourself I can’t outrun you.”
“Yes, but I’d rather not spend all afternoon chasing you.” He stopped and shifted her. He looked down into her eyes. “I’d much rather kiss you.”
She shook her head. “I haven’t forgiven you.”
His eyes narrowed. “I do think your freckles are darker all of a sudden.”
She put her hands over her nose. She hadn’t worn her hat. Likely her freckles had popped and her fair skin was burning.
“Perhaps I should stop and kiss them,” he said with a lowering of his lashes.
“Don’t you dare,” she said.
He sighed and resumed walking.
They continued along for a while. They surely were at least a mile from the house. Daniel’s breathing deepened, but he walked steadily without showing any signs of growing weary.
All right, she was curious about some things. “Last night when you said you wanted me from the first moment you saw me, were you talking about when you were holding up the stage?”
“Yes. When I first saw you and the sun lit up your hair, I had a hard time looking away,” he said. “You were the only one who saw me. The only one who turned around to look.”
She sensed there was more to what he was saying, that he was always in his brother’s shadow. Her heart broke for him with the way his mother had treated him, obviously putting Rafael first in all things, even stealing his inheritance from him and giving it to his brother.
“How long have you known about your father’s will?”
He smiled ruefully. “I didn’t know about it until you showed me. I knew the ownership of the ranch was not what I’d been told for years, but only since yesterday morning.” His eyes narrowed, and his jaw tightened. “Ma always told us the ranch was hers. We believed her.”
“But your father bought it before he married her.”
“In hindsight, I’m fairly certain the only reason she married my father was because he owned the ranch,” Daniel said tightly. “She hated him, but he was a good man.”
“I don’t doubt it.” He got his strength of character from someplace.
Daniel’s lips flattened. “Rafe didn’t know everything, either, but he learned things weren’t as they should be when he went to court. He’s been trying to get himself killed since then so he could set things right.”
All right, so Daniel had been caught between a rock and a hard place. It didn’t mean she had to forgive him for all the deceiving he’d done.
“I know with a crazy mother and the ranch ownership in question, I’m not a great catch, but, Anna, I love you, even though I didn’t want to fall in love with you. Please, marry me.”
“All right, I’ll marry you, but I’m still mad at you.”
He smiled and spun around in a circle. “Try to forgive me before the priest is scheduled to come.”
After a bit of time, he sobered. “I know it will be hard for the next few months. I don’t know how this will work out with that woman, but if I have my say, she’ll go to prison for trying to kill you.” He closed his eyes for a second and swallowed. “It could get mighty uncomfortable.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” she demanded.
“Rafe thinks she killed my father.”
“My God. I really don’t like your brother.”
“Don’t blame him. He wasn’t that old when my father died, and he must have been terrified of her.” Daniel frowned. “Rafe was consulting with the lawyer to figure out what he should do about the holdup. I don’t know how my role will be viewed, either.”
“Really don’t like him,” she repeated.
Daniel tilted his head. “For not liking him, you looked mighty comfortable with him earlier.”
“It wasn’t the same. I don’t look at him and wonder what it would be like if he kissed me. My heart doesn’t beat faster when he catches my eye. I don’t miss him when he’s not around. He’s not you, and I love you, Daniel Werner. Only you. When you drove up to the stage office in Stockton, you seemed familiar to me, as if I’d known you all my life.”
“You probably recognized me from the holdup.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think my heart recognized you were the one I was meant to be with.”
His mouth twitched.
“What?” she demanded.
“You don’t want to know.”
She scowled at him, disappointment that he wouldn’t share what he was thinking soured her pleasure. He probably thought her silly for her thoughts.
He sighed. “Oh, Anna, I felt it, too, but my interpretation of what was happening was much more base. I wanted you with your hair down and nothing else covering you.”
Her face heated.
“Which was not a good way to be thinking about my future sister-in-law. But whatever it was, I’m certain we are supposed to be together.” Then he kissed her.
Epilogue
By order of the General Land Office, the patent for the land known as the Werner Ranch, formerly the land grant issued by Spain to one Pedro Martinez, inherited by his son, José Martinez, and sold to August Werner, is confirmed in the name of the sole and lawful heir, Daniel Werner.
Sacramento, California, mid-July 1863
Daniel’s heart pounded as Rafael was led into the courtroom. His brother looked thinner than he should, and Daniel felt traitorous that he wasn’t standing beside him with his own complicity in the stagecoach holdup.
But as Anna was the only one who’d seen him and she’d declined to testify against him, the prosecutor had decided it wasn’t worthwhile to charge him. Besides, his worst act—lassoing the outrider—had been to prevent the man from shooting his brother. A jury was unlikely to convict him on that act alone.
“How do you plead?” asked the judge.
Daniel knew what was coming, but he couldn’t help but tense.
Anna slipped her hand into Daniel’s, and the gesture helped ease his nervousness.
His lawyer beside him, Rafael spoke firmly, “Guilty, Your Honor.”
The judge’s face was impassive as he pronounced, “I hereby sentence you to fifteen years.”
Daniel gasped and started to stand. Horror ran through him in cold rivulets. “That’s not—”
“Shh! Wait.” Anna jerked him back down to the hard wooden pew, then patted his arm. Hard to believe she was the one counseling patience. He almost laughed at the idea he’d tempered her quicksilver nature.
But this sentence wasn’t what they’d agreed upon. All the discussions with the lawyers, the statements taken from all the shot men saying they bore the robber no malice and had not suffered any lasting injuries weren’t supposed to end like this. He’d been working like a fiend to see that Rafael wasn’t locked up forever, because he hadn’t trusted Rafe to make the best decisions for himself.
The judge continued, “The sentence to be deferred on condition that you serve in the United States Army for the next five years. This condition is acceptable to you, Mr. Werner?”
Anna wiggled her fingers, letting Daniel know he was practically breaking them he was squeezing so hard.
“Sorry.” He eased his grip but didn’t let go.
He didn’t know what he would have done without her the past year. She’d been by his side as the false will was exposed and his father’s real will was authenticated and the ranch was granted to him. It was determined that his mother had traced most of the will and had just flipped her two sons’ names in order to give Rafael the ranch.
