His Brother's Wife (33 page)

The answer came in an
instant. She didn't. Not really.

She forced a smile onto
her face, hoping it looked sincere. "I have a favor to ask of you,
Evan."

"You can ask me anything,
Grace."

* * * *

Rafe still didn't have a
solution to their problem after nearly twenty minutes of staring
off across the valley. He'd ran through every scenario he could
think of but always ended up back where he started.

Jesse would never allow
him to marry Grace and be happy about it.

He turned and leaned back
against the fence rail, staring at the house. From a distance, the
old two-story home looked in perfect repair. The fence around the
property needed whitewashing but other than that, it didn't look
bad.

Of course he knew the
distance caused the illusion. The entire ranch needed more work
than he could possibly put in. It would take a team of men to get
the place back into shape and he didn't see that ever
happening.

The backdoor opened and
Rafe stuffed his hands into his coat pockets. Evan walked out, a
bag in each hand. He stowed them in his wagon and went back inside.
When he returned with a trunk, Rafe's heart hit his
stomach.

Grace walked out of the
house with her cloak and hat on and Rafe was crossing the distance
at a fast clip. He reached them as Evan was helping Grace into the
front seat of the wagon.

"Grace, what are you
doing?"

The look in her eyes said
it all. She was leaving.

Jesse chose that moment to
join them, the shock on his face clear. It didn't last long,
though. He straightened his spine, turned to throw a glare at Rafe
and went into the house without a word.

Walking to the side of the
wagon, Rafe reached up, taking Grace's hand. "Where are you going,
Grace?"

"I'm going to town." She
leaned down and lowered her voice. "I'll stay at the hotel until we
can figure out what else to do."

"You don't have to do
that." Rafe squeezed her hand. "Jesse will calm down—"

"Not until I'm gone, he
won't." The corners of her mouth turned up into what Rafe assumed
was supposed to be a smile. "This is for the best, Rafe. He's too
angry to try and talk to right now."

Rafe looked away, staring
out across the backyard for long minutes before meeting her gaze
again. "What about us?" he asked, softly.

"Is there an us?" Her
voice cracked and she cleared her throat. "Jesse will never
understand, Rafe. He's too angry."

"So, what? You're just
going to run off to town and marry someone else?" Evan looked his
way when he raised his voice. He lowered it, moving closer to the
wagon. "Grace, don't do this. Just stay. We'll work it
out."

"I know we will. We'll
just have to do it with me in town." She leaned down, kissed him on
the cheek and turned to Evan, asking him if they could
leave.

Rafe didn't say another
word. What was the point? Regardless of how much he wanted her to
stay, she was right. Jesse would never allow them to be happy, not
while he was so miserable.

He watched the doctors
wagon amble up the rode, Grace sitting at Evan's side. A sense of
foreboding besieged him, tightening his chest as he looked at her.
Regardless of what she said, he knew she'd not be back. He'd been
down this road one too many times.

They never came
back.

Chapter
Thirty-One

Grace pocketed the key to
her hotel room and walked back out onto the sidewalk. Doctor Reid
had been stopped by two elderly ladies the moment they arrived so
her trunks and bags were still on the back of his wagon.

The day was cold, cloudy
and dreary. It matched Grace's mood. A dull headache throbbed by
her right temple. It started when Jesse screamed at Rafe this
morning and hadn't let up yet. Thinking of the fight brought back
all that had transpired over the last several weeks.

She didn't know how things
had gone so wrong. She never imagined when she left Boston that her
trip would turn out so disastrous. Oh, she'd had more than a few
nightmares about the adventure. Nightmares of the unknown man she'd
promised herself to, but thankfully those didn't come to pass.
Jesse Samuels may have been a child but he was far from the monster
her dreams had conjured. What she hadn't counted on was meeting,
and falling in love with, her bridegrooms brother.

That scenario had disaster
written all over it.

She sighed and leaned
against the post holding the hotels roof up. The street was busy
and Grace noticed a young woman headed their way. She'd never seen
her before. Not that she knew many people in town but Abigail's
sewing circle seemed to be the social event of the month. She
wondered why this young lady hadn't been there.

When she reached the
hotel, she smiled at Grace and turned, waiting, apparently, for her
turn to speak to Doctor Reid.

Grace watched him too.
Evan was handsome. Not so devastatingly handsome as Rafe but he was
no way an eyesore. He was strongly built with wide shoulders. His
dark hair had been cut short and he was clean shaven. He would do
for a husband she supposed. He had a means to support her and any
future children they had and he didn't appear to be mean tempered.
He wasn't her first choice but Abigail and the other Avery women
were right. If she couldn't marry Rafe, Evan Reid would certainly
do.

He turned then as if he
heard her thoughts and smiled, but soon frowned when he saw the
young woman who stood on the sidewalk with her. "Melissa? What's
wrong?"

Grace followed his gaze,
staring at the woman who was now fidgeting at her side. "There's a
problem back at the house."

"What kind of
problem?"

The young woman glanced at
Grace before closing the distance between herself and Evan, then
leaned up on her toes and whispered in his ear. Grace raised an
eyebrow at the action.

Evan laughed and wrapped
his arm around the woman's shoulder, then turned to Grace. "I'll be
just a few moments, Grace. I need to get Melissa settled." His eyes
widened slightly before he smiled. "Forgive my manners. Melissa
this is Grace Kingston."

Melissa smiled and nodded
her head. "Melissa Reid. It's very nice to meet you."

Grace's heart gave one
hard thump. Melissa Reid. Was the new doctor married after all?
Frustration settled in as Evan and Melissa both turned and walked
some distance away.

"So much for that idea,"
Grace mumbled to herself as she watched them. "Now what do I
do?"

Contemplating her
circumstances was cut short by the appearance of Ben Crowley on the
other side of the street. She turned, darting into the hotel,
hoping he hadn't seen her. She made it all the way to the stairs
when he called her name. She sighed, one foot raised to make her
escape.

"Ben," she said, after
turning. "What can I do for you?"

He smiled at her, his
craggy face filled with some unknown delight. He tipped his hat at
her and gave a courtly half-bow. "Good day, Ms. Kingston. You're
looking mighty fine if I may say."

Grace knew the instant he
stopped speaking something was up. He looked too happy for there
not to be. "Thank you, Mr. Crowley."

He looked around the lobby
of the hotel and craned his neck, trying to peer into the dining
room. "Are you having supper here in the hotel this
evening?"

Grace opened her mouth to
answer him but thought better of it. If she answered his question,
it invited conversation, and talking with this man was the last
thing she wanted to do. "I'm sorry to be so abrupt, Mr. Crowley,
but I have business I need to attend." She turned, hoping he'd
leave, and started up the stairs.

"Where is Rafe and the
kid? I have something to show them." Something in his voice stopped
her. Looking over her shoulder, she peered down at him. "And that
would be?"

He grinned, his eyes
dancing with mischief as he pulled a folded piece of paper from his
coat pocket. "You know what this is?"

Grace resisted the urge to
roll her eyes. "Of course not. How would I."

Ben chuckled. "This, my
sweet lady, is the proof I've been waiting on!" He unfolded the
paper, smoothing out the wrinkles. "This here is the letter Harland
Samuels wrote giving me rights to his land and herd." He looked up
and smirked. "Rafe might think he still owns that land, but this
here says he don't."

It took Grace long moments
before she could speak. She stared at the paper, the scribbling of
words written across it, and had to hold onto the stair rail with
both hands to keep from shaking. "Can I see it?" Her voice cracked
as she spoke. She cleared her throat and tried to smile. "I'm not
sure I believe you."

He took each step slowly,
climbing the staircase toward her while his gaze bore into her own.
When he reached her, he sneered and handed her the letter. "See,
Ms. Kingston. That land is mine and I intend on taking
it."

Grace read the letter, her
heart in her throat. She had no idea if it was, in fact, written by
Rafe and Jesse's father but she hoped it wasn't. If so, then what
Ben had been claiming was true.

Harland Samuels turned
control of the ranch, and the livestock, over to Ben. She read the
entire letter twice, memorizing what she could. Seems as if the
wording Harland used could be taken several ways. In his concern
for Jesse's welfare, and in Rafe's absence, he'd placed Ben as
guardian of Jesse and gave him complete control of the property.
She supposed Harland thought he was doing the right thing at the
time.

How wrong he
was.

She raised her head. "I'm
sure if Harland had known Rafe would be coming home he would have
never given you control of everything."

Ben shrugged his
shoulders. "You're probably right, Ms. Kingston, but he did." He
laughed again. "I can't wait to see the look on Rafe's face when he
reads this. We'll see how smug he is then."

Grace's stomach tightened,
her legs weakening until she thought she wouldn't be able to stand.
"You mean to take the ranch from them?"

He looked shocked by her
question. "Of course I do, woman. What the hell do you think I've
been trying to do since Rafe rolled back into town?" Taking the
letter from her, Ben refolded it and stuck it back into his pocket.
"Now, tell me, where are Rafe and Jesse? They here in town with
you?"

Dread filled Grace until
she couldn't breathe around it. She stared at Ben, at the pocket
he'd stuffed Rafe and Jesse's future in.

What would happen to them
if Ben took their ranch? Where would they go?

She pictured their faces,
saw them sitting around that old, battered kitchen table. A
reluctant family who had no one but each other. As much as they
fought, they were still all each of them had.

Fear crawled up her spine,
her stomach knotting until the pain was physical. The smug look on
Ben's face was nauseating and as much as she wanted to slap the
sneer off his face, she knew a different sort of tactic was in
order. It sickened her to even think it.

She forced a smile onto
her face and straightened her spine. "I'm here alone, Mr. Crowley."
She glanced toward the dining room. "I was about to have supper.
Would you like to join me?"

A slow smile curved his
lips. His gaze lingered, then lowered to her breasts as they were
practically in his face. When he looked up, she knew she had his
attention. Now all she had to do was come up with a plan and hoped
she could get that land back without selling her soul.

Chapter
Thirty-Two