As David tried it on, he said, “Something this nice should be worn on special occasions. I think I’ll save it for the social.”
Brianna was excited when Friday of that week finally came because it marked the end of the school year. Normally when David went to the ranch over the weekends, Daphne accompanied him because she had no classes on Saturday or Sunday. Now that summer had arrived, Brianna hoped that the child would stay in town with her over the weekends because the shop was closed from noon on Saturday until early Monday morning. Brianna looked forward to spending time with her daughter and had planned all sorts of fun things to do.
“But, Mama!” Daphne cried when Brianna made the suggestion, “I
have
to go with Papa tonight. Tomorrow is Little Joe’s birthday party.”
Brianna’s heart sank. “Oh, that’s right. I’d forgotten.” Quickly regrouping, Brianna said, “Well, perhaps your papa will bring you back into town after the party. I’ll be off work tomorrow evening and all day Sunday. I thought we might—”
“Then I’d miss the cookie bake. Aunt Rachel got some new cutters, and we’re even going to decorate them with icing and candies. And Grandma Dory is going to show me how to crochet.”
“But, dear heart, what about
our
special times together? I thought, since school is out, that you’d start staying in town with me on the weekends. It seems like forever since we had a chocolate dunking party, and I hoped we could make a cake. And with summer coming on, we need to select some yardage and pick patterns for your new summer frocks. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
Even as Brianna spoke, she knew she was being selfish. Daphne adored being at David’s ranch. To the child, that was her
real
home, and the apartment paled in comparison.
Coming from Daphne’s bedroom with a satchel filled with her clothing and toiletries, David said, “Your mother is right, pumpkin. Now that school is out, you should stay with her on weekends when she has time to do things with you. I can bring you back to town after the party tomorrow.”
“Mama,
please
. Can’t I stay with you another time?” Daphne’s blue eyes swam with tears. “I want to be with Papa and do things with our family. I’ll get to play fetch with Sam, and I want to curry Acorn. Papa says he’s my horse now, and I’ll be able to ride him when I get a bit older. If I have to come back here, I’ll miss all that and I won’t get to play with my cousins. I don’t understand why you won’t come so we can all be together. No customers will visit the dress shop tonight, and you could just keep it closed tomorrow morning! That way, you can be at Little Joe’s party. Papa can have you back early enough on Monday to open on time.”
Brianna had already endured one family celebration that week and had no desire to experience another one. She’d used work as an excuse not to attend Little Joe’s. Being
around David’s family unsettled her. They were demonstrative individuals, always hugging, patting, or verbally expressing affection, and it was all too easy for Brianna to forget she didn’t belong in their tight-knit circle.
Throat tight, she said, “I can’t go tonight, darling. I have some dress work I must do.” It wasn’t really a lie. The social was scheduled for the following Friday evening, and with Daphne gone, she could devote herself to the beautiful burgundy gown she was making. As the local dressmaker, she needed to make a grand appearance at the event to establish herself as a superb designer of originals. Bending down to hug Daphne, she said, “You have heaps of fun, all right? When you get back, we’ll pick out material for your summer frocks, and I’m thinking new slippers are in order as well. You’re growing like a weed!” Brianna did her best to sound bright and cheerful. “Now that I’ve got a shop that brings in a steady profit, you’ll never be in shoes that pinch those cute little toes again.”
As Brianna straightened, she met David’s gaze. Loaded down with his saddlebags and Daphne’s paraphernalia, he stood by the door that led downstairs. His blue eyes held shadows she’d never seen before. Sadness or possibly regret? Perhaps he realized how wrenching it was for her to see Daphne choosing to go with him rather than stay behind with her.
“We’d really love it if you’d come. Like Daphne says, I can have you back bright and early Monday morning.” He glanced at Sam, who lay at his feet. “He’s going to miss being brushed morning and night.”
Brianna had taken to grooming Sam twice a day to keep him from filling her shop with clumps of fur. The silly mutt loved the extra attention, especially when she ran the bristles lightly over his upturned belly and armpits. Or were they leg pits on a canine? With a jerk of her heart, she realized that she’d fallen in love with the dog, too.
“He’ll have so much fun that he’ll barely miss me,” she said with a forced laugh. “The three of you go on.” Flapping her hand, she said, “Hurry, now. I’ve work to do and you’re keeping me from it.”
Brianna kept the smile pasted on her face until they’d
left and she heard the shop door downstairs jangle closed. Knowing David always locked up, she stood at the window to watch her daughter skip happily away with him and Sam to the livery stable. An awful pain clutched her heart. The tears in her eyes burned like acid.
Fighting the urge to sit at the table and cry, she turned to her work the moment they vanished from sight. Weeping was a useless endeavor, and she’d learned long ago to set aside her feelings and push forward. Even so, the apartment felt empty and lonely. One of Daphne’s hair ribbons lay on the kitchen counter. She’d kicked off her patent leather slippers just inside her bedroom. Everywhere Brianna looked, she saw evidence of her daughter.
She wandered downstairs, hoping to find something to distract her. Behind the center display case, Sam’s hairy bed lay empty. In her sewing area, she found a wilted nosegay of wildflowers that Daphne had picked for her yesterday. She sat on her work chair and stared at the sewing machine. Her chest hurt so badly it felt as if someone had cut away a huge chunk of her heart. Without her daughter, she felt lost and alone in a way that chilled her very bones.
She couldn’t spoil this time for her child. For however long it lasted, Daphne was getting to experience what it was like to have a real family. At least she would be able to look back on this period of her life and know firsthand how it felt to be surrounded by people who loved her.
Brianna had allowed herself to be selfish once. She’d broken the rules, sneaked away behind the good sisters’ backs, and flirted with disaster—all because she’d enjoyed the excitement and been foolish enough to believe no one but she would ever suffer for it. Well, she’d been wrong. Moira had paid the price for Brianna’s wildness.
Now it was up to Brianna to keep her promise to her sister and look after Daphne. And what was best for Daphne now? Glancing around the shop and envisioning the apartment upstairs, Brianna knew she could provide financially for Daphne, but at David’s ranch something even better was being offered.
Crossing herself and then folding her hands, Brianna
bent her head in prayer. For the very first time, she implored God to somehow prevent David from ever discovering that Daphne wasn’t his. Brianna didn’t ask this for herself. No, she said the prayer for her daughter’s sake.
Please, God, let nothing happen to rob her of all this love.
During the ride out to the ranch, David barely heard Daphne’s constant chatter or saw the plants she pointed out to him. He felt the waning sunlight on his face and chest, but it didn’t warm his heart.
Brianna.
If he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget the pain he’d glimpsed in her eyes when Daphne had begged to leave with him. He kept recalling that time in the ranch kitchen when he had assured Brianna that he’d never take her child away from her, and how she’d whispered,
You’re already doing that.
He was guilty as charged. He’d lured Daphne away from her mother with a dog, kittens, a horse, and all his family. At the ranch, the little girl raced from one exciting activity to the next until she fell into an exhausted sleep at night. David doubted she even missed Brianna.
Once at the ranch, David left Blue in Rob’s capable hands. Daphne begged to curry Acorn and then walk him in the paddock. David needed to look over his accounts and do the books before he started supper. He couldn’t take the time to watch her.
“Rob, can you keep an eye on her?” he asked his foreman. “I have some desk work to do that really shouldn’t wait.”
Rob grinned and ruffled Daphne’s hair. “No problem. I’ll keep a sharp watch.”
Daphne flashed a huge grin and raced into the barn. David gazed after her for a moment, and then turned toward the house. It was dim inside, and the rooms smelled musty. As he settled at his desk and lighted the lantern, he made a mental note to open all the windows in the morning while he swept and dusted the furniture.
A stack of correspondence lay on the leather blotter. David guessed that Rob must have been in town and stopped at the post office to collect David’s personal mail.
Rob did that sometimes and then left it there for his boss to open when he came out to the ranch. Other times, David got it when he picked up deliveries for the marshal’s office.
He was regarding the top envelope, something from the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, when Daphne burst through the front door, her green play frock billowing, her white stockings already streaked with dirt. “Papa, while I’m still too little to ride Acorn, can I have a pony? Mr. Rob says Charley and Eva Banks have a nice one that Ralph is getting too big to ride.”
David rolled his chair back from the desk and patted his knee. His first inclination was to give Daphne anything and everything she wanted, but at the edge of his mind, he knew spoiling the child wouldn’t be best for her in the end. Children, just like adults, needed to learn they couldn’t always have everything they wanted.
Daphne bounced up onto his lap. “Can I, Papa?
Please?
”
David was about to speak when the child shoved her hand down the front of her dress and plucked out their lucky penny. Before she could make a wish, David caught her small fist in his grasp. “Whoa,” he said. “We have to be careful with our penny, Daphne. Wishing on it should be saved for very important things.”
“Why?” Her blue eyes widened with anxiety. “Will it run out of magic?”
“It might if we abuse it by wishing for things that aren’t truly important.”
“But, Papa, a pony is truly important!”
David resisted the urge to smile. “No, darlin’, a pony is just something you’d really like to have.” He kissed her forehead. “The proper protocol for getting a pony is to ask your papa for one.”
“But what if you say no?”
David couldn’t look into his daughter’s pleading eyes without feeling as if his bones might melt. He needed her mother here, he thought. Brianna would intervene with that no-nonsense manner of hers and quickly regain control of the situation. Left to his own devices, David was beginning to realize he had a problem denying the child anything.
“If I say no, then you won’t get a pony.”
Daphne glanced down at her fist, in which she still grasped the penny.
“Don’t do it,” David warned. Maybe, he decided, Brianna had been right all along and it had been a mistake to tell Daphne the penny was lucky in a very special way. He didn’t want her to grow up thinking she could have anything she wanted simply by wishing for it. “Our penny is to be saved for very special, important wishes, and a pony doesn’t qualify.”
“But I
want
a pony.”
David sighed. “All right, but you’re going to have to earn one.”
“How?”
“By doing chores, not only here at the ranch but also at the shop. Nothing worth having in this old world comes free.”
David gave the child a list of tasks she could do in the barn that afternoon under Rob’s supervision. Daphne bounced off his knee and raced for the door. “I’ll work really hard, Papa. You’ll see! I’m going to
earn
my pony.”
David smiled as she exited onto the veranda and slammed the door closed behind her. He had a lot to learn when it came to being a good father. His grin faded as he leafed through the mail. He flattened his fingers against one piece in particular, a thick envelope addressed to him by the Pinkerton Agency: the report on Brianna’s background.
His stomach clenched. He clamped his teeth together. A part of him wanted to pretend the missive hadn’t come. But it had, and he couldn’t ignore its contents. It was time for him to learn the absolute truth.
With shaking fingers, he opened the envelope, drew out the documents, and started to read.
As always, the late afternoon brought a brisk breeze. David sat atop a paddock rail, watching Daphne exercise Acorn within the enclosure. He was acutely conscious of the paperwork he had stuffed inside his shirt. Tears slipped silently down his cheeks.
What in God’s name have I done?
The question circled mercilessly in his mind. As he watched his daughter, he felt as if his heart might break, for she wasn’t really his. Brianna had told him the absolute truth that day by the stream. Recalling that conversation, David felt sick. She had bared her soul to him, and he’d discounted every word as a lie. And she’d been right to accuse him of mocking her. He had done exactly that.
Acorn’s hooves kicked up dust as Daphne led him around the pen. The child glanced up at David and reeled to a stop. “Papa, what’s wrong? It looks like you’re—like you’re crying.”
David forced a smile. “Some dirt blew in my eyes, darlin’. That’s all.”
He kept his lips curved until the little girl led the horse away. Gazing after her, he realized he was still reeling with shock. How could the child not be a Paxton? She looked so much like his mother. How in the hell could that be? David had no answers anymore. He only knew for a fact that Daphne was not his daughter.
The orphanage had kept excellent records, and the documents the nuns had released to the Pinkerton agent chronicled the lives of Brianna and Moira O’Keefe, who had indeed been left on the doorstep as infants and grown up within the orphanage walls, cared for by the good sisters. The detective had spoken directly with Mother Superior, who remembered the O’Keefe girls well. Moira had been raped, choked, and beaten senseless in the conservatory by Stanley Romanik, a farmer’s son. The violent encounter had left her pregnant. To the heartbreak of the nuns, their first responsibility was to protect the reputation of the orphanage, and they’d had no choice but to eventually ask Moira to move out. Brianna had gone with her sister. The two girls left with only a few dollars from the nuns and a knapsack of clothing.