She was too tired to worry about it. David could deal with his family, blast it. She was only a leaf blowing in the wind.
B
“Your family must be very influential in No Name,” she observed.
“I guess you might say that.”
The realization struck her that David was a powerful man in his community, undoubtedly as respected in his own right as he was well connected. She stared for a moment at his badge, which represented authority and dominance few men attained in their professions. As much as she’d come to trust him on the prairie, she knew things would be different now. What if he changed his mind about their agreement and insisted on a real marriage? She would have no one to turn to for help.
“You feeling okay, Shamrock? The motion of the train isn’t making you sick, I hope. With fewer cars, there’s a little more movement, I reckon.”
“No, no, the car is lovely. I’ve never traveled in such luxury.”
“Ace doesn’t spare coin when it comes to comfort,” he told her. “His home is simple in layout, just a ranch house, but it’s got all the conveniences possible. Joseph and I have followed his lead. Esa is still toying with the idea of modernizing his place.”
Brianna suddenly remembered her question to David right before his shootout with the three ne’er-do-wells, and to distract herself from other, far more unsettling thoughts, she decided to follow up on that. “I’ve read stories about a gunslinger named Ace Keegan,” she said, forcing a smile. “Surely we’re not discussing the same man.”
David turned his tumbler, studying the amber contents. “Will you fall over in a dead faint if I say we are?”
Brianna did feel momentarily lightheaded. If David wasn’t joking, then his family was far more than simply influential; at least one member was downright dangerous. “The Ace Keegan I read about once killed three men with one bullet.”
“
That
was a freak accident. He shot the first guy, and then the bullet ricocheted to kill the second one. I think Ace fired another shot to kill the third fellow, but I could have my facts wrong. We don’t pay those novels much mind because they’re usually so far-fetched. The truth of what happened never makes for quite as good a story.”
Brianna set aside her glass of sherry. “So your older brother is
the
Ace Keegan.”
“Yes, gunslinger and gambler turned family man. He never wears his Colts now unless he’s forced to. He’s a good man, Brianna. I think you’ll like him. Just know up front that nothing nettles him more than the outrageous stories told about him in those damned dime novels.”
“Thank you for the warning. I don’t believe it would be wise to nettle Ace Keegan.”
David threw back his head and barked with laughter. “You can nettle him all you like. He’d never harm a hair on your head, and that’s a fact.”
Once in No Name, David rented a buggy from the livery to drive them out to Ace’s ranch. Brianna had hoped to postpone
meeting the Keegan and Paxton clan until tomorrow, but David nixed that with, “No way. They’ll all be gathered at Ace’s place, and the women will have a huge meal prepared to welcome you. If we don’t show up, they’ll be sorely disappointed.”
Brianna was unaccountably tense. Out on the prairie, she’d been completely alone with David, except for Daphne, and she’d come to trust him in ways she’d never trusted another man. But this was different. He was taking her into
his
world, he was her spouse, and at the back of her mind, she kept returning to the reality of her situation, namely that husbands had absolute power if they chose to exercise it. They were the kings of their households, and in many cases, wives were treated with little regard. She didn’t believe David would turn suddenly autocratic or consider her to be a possession, but way deep down where she couldn’t rationalize her way past it, she felt uneasy and vulnerable.
Daphne bounced on the buggy seat between Brianna and David, so excited to meet David’s family that she was nearly beside herself. Brianna supposed that for the child it was indeed a momentous occasion. Daphne had never had relatives, none that acknowledged her, anyway, and now the little girl suddenly had a host of them. It was Grandma Dory this, and Aunt Caitlin that, and she pestered David relentlessly to go over the names of everyone else so she wouldn’t forget.
When Brianna saw buildings in the distance, she turned to straighten Daphne’s clothing and tidy her hair. “Remember your manners, now. Wait until you’re properly introduced before addressing the adults, and once inside the house, you mustn’t ask for anything. If you’re offered something and you’d like to have some, what do you say?”
Daphne wrinkled her nose. “I say please, that sounds wonderful, and thank you very much for offering.”
David flashed Brianna a grin over the top of the child’s head. “Shamrock, you’re in for a big surprise. We aren’t a family that stands on ceremony. Just relax, okay? None of them bite.”
Brianna couldn’t relax. She was about to meet people who had every reason to stand in judgment of her and
might also resent her for ruining David’s life. As the house came into view, she made tight fists in her skirt, straightened her shoulders, and lifted her chin. No matter what they said or did, she would face them with pride.
A little dark-haired boy Brianna guessed to be a bit over three was the first to spot the buggy. He tore across the front veranda, shouting, “Unco David, Unco David!”
“Little Ace,” David said. “Going on three and a half, and full of mischief.”
Brianna thought he was adorable, with olive skin, shoe-button eyes, and a shock of pitch-black hair. He was dressed in a blue pullover shirt, denim knickers bloused at the knees, black stockings already smeared with dirt, and sturdy little black boots.
David drew the buggy to a halt, looped the reins, and set the brake. Lucy, tethered to the back of the conveyance with Blue and Acorn, let loose with a happy hee-haw. The mule clearly recognized her surroundings and knew she was almost home. The geldings joined in with shrill nickers to voice their excitement, too.
Just then an extremely tall, jet-haired man in jeans and a blue chambray shirt stepped out onto the porch, holding the screen ajar behind him to offer passage to a beautiful, slightly built redhead in a blue-checked gingham day dress. In her arms, she held a raven-haired little girl who was chubby and darling in a lacy pink frock.
“Ace, his wife, Caitlin, and their youngest, Dory Sue, named after my ma,” David supplied. He leaped from the buggy and circled the matched set of blacks to come around and help Brianna down. “And there comes Joseph with his wife, Rachel, and Little Joe.”
Brianna was so startled by the sight of Joseph, who from a distance appeared to be a dead ringer for David, that she lost her footing on the step. David caught her around the waist to keep her from falling and swung her easily to the ground. At his touch, Brianna’s breath caught. Was it only her imagination, or was David acting more proprietary than he ever had before? “Calm down, Shamrock. It’s just my family, you know? They’re happy to have you here.”
Brianna wasn’t so sure about that. Though Ace wore no weapons, his stance and air were of a man who could look death in the eye a thousand times and never blink. Brianna didn’t miss the way he assessed her from head to toe with his dark eyes. His fiery-haired wife came down to stand at the left of the front steps with him, and Joseph and his wife took their positions to the right. It was almost as if they’d rehearsed the greeting and stood off to each side to make way for a queen.
And then she appeared, an older lady in a lavender housedress with perfectly coiffed blond hair shimmering with streaks of silver. Brianna froze, staring at her with fascinated incredulity. In another fifty years, it could have been Daphne standing on that porch. The resemblance was astounding. No, no, Brianna corrected herself, it was downright unbelievable. Little wonder David remained so fully convinced that Daphne was his. The little girl truly was the spitting image of his mother.
Dory Paxton remained on the porch for a moment, her slender hands pressed to her heart. Even from many feet away, Brianna saw her blue eyes, the same color as Daphne’s, go bright with tears. Then, with her skirt lifted in one hand and exquisite grace of carriage, she came down the porch steps and cut across the patchy front yard, her gaze never wavering from the child still sitting in the buggy. She bypassed David and Brianna, stepped between the iron wheels, and lifted her arms.
“Hurry, hurry,” she said with a laugh. “Come give your grandmother a hug.”
Daphne launched herself into the woman’s arms. Dory Paxton caught the child fiercely close, swayed side to side for a moment, and then beamed a smile at David, her lovely face streaked with tears. “She looks just like
me
. I can’t believe it! Just like me! What a lovely gift to bring home to your mother!”
“Ain’t she something?” David laughed and curled an arm around Brianna’s shoulders. She stiffened under the weight of his hand on her upper arm.
Not my imagination,
she decided. He was letting everyone present know that she belonged to him. “I almost fainted when I first saw her.”
Dory stepped over to touch Brianna’s hand, then leaned forward to kiss her cheek. “Forgive my appalling lack of manners, dear, but a grandmother does have her priorities.” She cricked her neck to study Daphne’s face again and beamed another smile. “My, my, such a grown-up girl you are, Daphne.” She turned so the child could see her other relatives. Pointing, she introduced them. Daphne seemed particularly taken with Little Joe, Joseph’s son, who would celebrate his first birthday in only a few weeks.
Little Ace ran up to tug on Daphne’s slipper. “Get down, Daffy, get down! Come see our kittens! We got lots and lots!”
“Hold on for just a moment, Little Ace,” Dory said. “First let your uncle David introduce his wife to everyone.”
The introductions passed in a blur for Brianna. The famous Ace Keegan stepped forward first, gave her a firm hug, and said, “Welcome to our family.” To Brianna, he seemed as tall and sturdy as a tree. Next she was being embraced by Caitlin and treated to a wet, open-mouth kiss on the cheek from Dory Sue. Upon closer inspection, Brianna confirmed that Joseph was indeed a dead ringer for David, his mannerisms and speech nearly the same. He hugged her with a clench of strong arms, then set her back a step to survey her face. “She’ll do,” he told David with a smile. Rachel, still holding Little Joe, gave Brianna a shyer greeting, but it was nonetheless welcoming. She was a lovely woman, diminutive of stature, with large blue eyes, corn-silk blond hair, and an angelic countenance.
“Now can we go see the kitties?” Little Ace cried.
Dory laughed and set Daphne on her feet. “Mind the cow and horses, Little Ace! I don’t want you getting kicked!”
The warning fell on deaf ears. The little boy was already racing toward the barn with Daphne following in his dusty wake. Caitlin handed Dory Sue to her husband. “I’d better go supervise.” She settled sparkling blue eyes on Brianna. “Would you like to come along to see our kittens?”
Brianna felt David’s palm at the center of her spine, nudging her forward. The heat of his hand gave her a start. As she fell into step behind Caitlin, who was hurrying
to catch up with her son, she heard Joseph’s wife, Rachel, say, “You take Little Joe. I want to see the kittens, too.”
Before Brianna knew quite how it happened, she was in the barn with two just-met women who called her by name and acted as if they’d known her forever. It was the oddest experience of her life. No sidelong looks of disapproval, no uncomfortable questions, no sense of separateness. Brianna felt overdressed, for both of her sisters-in-law wore cotton, not silk. She comforted herself with the thought that their simple gingham dresses were far nicer than the one she’d worn the day before yesterday, and she was glad David had insisted on buying her new outfits, inappropriate for the surroundings though they might be. At least she didn’t feel humiliated beyond bearing.
Feeling absurdly overdone, Brianna removed her hat and hooked it over a stall post. The dim interior lacked the rank odor of manure that had always assailed her nostrils in Ricker’s barn, which told her that Ace, like David, took excellent care of his stock. Lifting her skirts, she sat on the scattered hay with the other two women to watch the children admire the kittens. Daphne’s face glowed as she lifted a tiny bit of tabby fluff to her cheek.
“Oh, Mama, I’ve always wanted a kitten!”
Caitlin, strikingly beautiful with her glorious red hair, refined features, and vibrant eyes, laughed musically. “Take your pick. When they’re old enough, I’ll send one home with you!”
Rachel interjected, “Oh, no, you don’t! Daphne can come to my house and take her pick now. Mine are already old enough to leave their mamas.”
“I offered first!” Caitlin cried. Then, grabbing Little Ace by the backs of his hands, she said, “No,
no
, you be gentle. Ears are to hear with, and eyes are to see with. If you poke, I’ll give you a swat.”
Little Ace immediately lightened his hold on the kitten and, following Daphne’s example, held the bit of fur to his cheek. “Can I have one, too, Mama?”
Caitlin rolled her eyes. “I’m afraid you can have all of
them except for the one Cousin Daphne picks. Papa says we’ve plenty of milk, cream, and rodents to have a hundred cats. Aren’t you a lucky little boy?”