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Asher looked at his plate of food. “Did it ever occur to you that the wicked uncle might have been the one who killed her?”
“Of course it did. But her dying request was that I help by protecting Lionel.”
“And just how do you propose to do that? Walk up to this uncle and say, ‘Excuse me, but are you stealing from your nephew? If so, would you please turn yourself in and go to jail for the rest of your life?’ Really, Chris! This is too absurd.”
Chris took a deep breath. “I thought that since this man has never seen his cousin, I might be able to pose as her.”
Asher’s jaw dropped as he gaped at her. “But if he’s the one who has had her killed, don’t you think he’ll be a little suspicious when you walk in the door?”
“I don’t guess he can say that he thought I was dead, can he?”
“Notyou,Chris, Diana Eskridge. You couldn’t possibly get away with this. There’s too much that you don’t know about her. How are the two of them related? Maybe this Diana has a birthmark that’s a family trait. There are a thousand things that you don’t know. Why has she never met this man before? No, you couldn’t possibly do it.”
Chris looked down at her plate and she tried to control herself but she felt the tears coming.
“What’s the matter, Chris?” Asher asked, reaching for her hand.
“Tynan,” was all Chris could sob. She heard Asher’s sharp intake of breath and she realized it was the first time she’d admitted that there was actually anything between her and the guide. But right now, secrecy didn’t matter to her. All she thought about was Tynan.
Asher kept holding her hand. “If you went to visit Diana Eskridge’s cousin, what about her husband? Surely Owen Hamilton would be expecting the two of them? You can’t exactly say that you lost him on the way out west.”
“I hadn’t thought about him,” Chris said, wiping her eyes with her hand. “Maybe I could appear as a widow. Smallpox got him or a rabid dog or maybe Indians on the plains or—”
“What if you appearedwithhim?” Asher interrupted. “What if you came with your husband?”
“You mean get Tynan to pretend to be my husband? After the things he said to me about marriage? He’d probably take after Owen with a gun the first day. He’d no doubt—”
“Could you get that man out of your mind for a moment?” Asher asked angrily. “I was thinking about myself.”
“You as my husband?” Chris asked, her mouth open in disbelief.
Asher gave her a look of disgust for a moment. “Do youreallywant to help Lionel or not?”
“I do but…besides, Mr. Prescott, you can’t do this. I’m sure you have somewhere else you have to be and the last place you want to be is risking your life to save someone you don’t even know. No, I’ll just have to do this by myself. I’ll say that my husband was killed under a stampede of horses when the train stopped for water. Or maybe the water pipe fell on him, knocked him unconscious and he drowned in the middle of the desert. I’d like something awful to have happened to Mr. Whitman Eskridge. He deserves it for the way he treated Diana.”
“Chris, if I don’t go along on this to take care of you, I’ll tell your father where you are and what you’re up to this time.”
“You wouldn’t,” Chris gasped.
“Try me,” he answered, narrowing his eyes at her.
Chris leaned away from him and suddenly felt his intensity. He’d made several attempts at showing how much he liked her, but now she felt that he sincerely wanted to help her.
Asher smiled at her. “Of course I’ll have to read the diary before we go to see just what kind of a son of a—oh, excuse me.” He grinned. “Think you can play the dutiful little wife who agrees with her husband no matter what he does?”
Chris’s lips tightened into a line. “I can play whatever role is needed. How would Owen Hamilton know what I was like?”
“I’m sure that if he’s a man like you think he is, to take away a child’s inheritance, to have his relatives killed, then he’s the type who would investigate a person. Surely he knows about Diana’s father’s suicide and he must have heard about the funds I”—he winked at her—“was embezzling.”
“You’re willing to risk your life for something that’s none of your business?” She still couldn’t believe hewantedto do this. Did he like her that much? Or was it her father’s money?
“If you hadn’t risked your life so many times as Nola Dallas, there would be fewer reforms in our laws. Chris, I’d be honored to be your husband whether for a night or forever.”
“Oh,” Chris said, blinking.
“Now, shall we start making plans?” Asher asked. “I think we should stay here today and maybe tomorrow, and read that diary aloud and find out everything we can about Diana Eskridge and her husband. You’ll walk into this as prepared as you can be. Agreed?”
Chris looked up from under her lashes at Asher who was smiling as if he were extremely pleased about something. This time tomorrow this man would be her husband—sort of.
