Chapter Twenty-Four
The night was so still that not a single blade of grass moved. The air felt heavy and oppressive, like a blanket of humidity that was pressing down across the entire county. Amelia had attempted to sleep, but even with her window thrown all the way open, her room was far too warm and stagnant.
Unable to bring herself to dress fully, she slipped out of her room wearing a chemise and a petticoat, throwing a summer shawl over her arm for modesty should someone see her.
She crept down the stairs on bare feet, minding the spots where they were most prone to creaking.
She moved through the house like a ghost, silent and pale in her white undergarments.
Holding the screen door with both hands so that it wouldn’t slam, Amelia squeezed out through the smallest gap possible and onto the porch.
She took a seat in Cody’s customary chair with a sigh as she settled in.
Free from supportive outer clothing, she let herself pull a leg up and slouch over so that her elbow was on the arm of the chair.
She cradled her head in a couple of fingers and closed her eyes, willing her skin not to be so warm.
What I wouldn’t give for a good swim just about now, she thought wistfully. She calculated the distance to the river and, by force of habit, how much farther it would be to get across and away from Gunnison.
It was a tempting thought, one that she lingered on for longer than she would care to admit.
It would be a wrench for her to leave; the thought of the children, abandoned again by someone they needed and cared for, almost broke her.
Her imagination conjured images of them, alone and sad.
Cody’s face, too, swam behind her eyelids, reproachful.
She knew good and well that he wasn’t the sort of man to tolerate cowardice.
No, she thought firmly. You created this danger for them—you will stay and protect them.
The sound of the screen door creaking open had her eyes flying open and her head snapping up. She flailed about with her shawl, pulling it over her shoulders to preserve her modesty.
“Couldn’t sleep?” she called gently, assuming that it was one of the children likewise driven from their bed by the heat. She was glad of the chance to make amends; she was ashamed of the way she’d treated them earlier.
“No,” Cody responded, making Amelia sit up straight. She hadn’t expected it to be him; so far as she knew, he’d always slept soundly. He hesitated in the doorway, neither in nor out.
Self-consciously tugging on the shawl again, Amelia stood up. “I’m in your chair,” she said unnecessarily.
Cody waved her back down, and she sat perched on the edge of the chair, ready to bolt up again.
He stepped out onto the porch wearing only his trousers and a shirt.
Amelia glanced down and saw that his feet were bare, a sight that almost made her burst out laughing for some reason.
She couldn’t remember whether she’d ever seen him without boots or socks before.
I guess at least I know that the socks don’t just grow onto his feet every morning, she thought wildly, feeling a little hysterical.
He seemed to understand her strange mood—that if he approached her too quickly, she might just run off into the night, never to be seen again. He kept his distance, going to stand so that he could lean on the porch railing with both hands.
“Rain over the mountains,” he commented. “It gets trapped sometimes on the other side, bakes the town for a while.”
Amelia didn’t respond to that; she didn’t know how to make small talk right now. She absently pulled her hair over her shoulder, twirling the end of her long braid around her fingers just to have something to do.
Cody, realizing that this tactic wasn’t working, shifted his focus, turning slightly to the side to look at Amelia. She steadfastly avoided his gaze, staring out into the darkness determinedly.
“Don’t you figure it’s about time to tell me what’s got you in such an ill humor?” he asked.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she replied sharply, proving that she absolutely did know what he meant.
With a sound somewhere between a hum and a sigh, he stepped closer to her.
Wordlessly, with very slow and deliberate motions so that she could see what he was doing, he lifted the wooden fruit crate he normally put his feet on.
Upturning it onto its end, he sat on it directly across from Amelia and stared passively at her.
“I can wait,” he said, and with his slouched posture and relaxed limbs, he did indeed look like he could have waited all night and then some.
Amelia pulled back from him without actually going anywhere, like a cat that bristles when someone intrudes on its space.
Cody didn’t alter his quietly determined stance at all, merely continuing to stare at her.
She glared back at him for a moment, engaging in a silent contest of wills, almost half-wishing he would just get angry.
Instead, he leaned his shoulder against the porch railing, slumping over a bit. This was a man who was used to dealing with wild horses, and he’d learned the skill of quietly waiting for them to trust him.
“Oh, very well,” Amelia sighed at last. She’d put it off for as long as she could, but she didn’t see a way around it now. Whatever the consequences were, she would just have to take them on the chin, much as she’d taken everything else life had thrown at her thus far.
She pulled her shawl tighter around herself. Still refusing to meet Cody’s eye, she began to tell him her story.
“Before I tell you, you have to understand something: my sister and I had nothing, and I truly mean nothing. The land was too poor to farm, and we couldn’t afford to keep any livestock, not that we had the grass for them.
We had to take on whatever jobs we could after our parents died.
Kate suffered greatly, but she never complained. ”
Amelia paused; probing around that particular wound evoked a pain that she couldn’t ignore. She took a deep breath and soldiered on.
“The whole county was pretty poor, really,” she explained.
“It was something to do with land speculation gone wrong, or something. It all happened before I was born… that’s not the point.
” She shook her head, clearing it. “The actual point I’m trying to arrive at is that there were only a couple of people of any means in the whole area. One of them was Dean Chase.”
The name fell like rocks from her lips. It had been so long since she’d said his name; irrationally, she was afraid that it might summon him somehow. Her lip curled, and her nostrils grew pinched.
“He was kind, or at least I thought it was kindness. Looking back… that doesn’t matter.
He was the son of the wealthiest man in the county, and he was ruthless.
If there was a resource that could further enrich him, he found a way to take it.
I thought he was just ambitious, eager to secure his future. I couldn’t see the cruelty in him.”
She shook her head slowly at her younger self’s foolishness and naivete. It hurt to think of all the people whom he’d ruined. She chanced a glance up at Cody, who was watching her intently, his face impassive.
“He asked me to marry him, and I was thrilled. I was nobody from nowhere, and someone of such means wanted me to be his wife? How could I refuse?” she asked plaintively, shrugging one shoulder. Her shawl slipped off slightly, exposing her shoulder to the night air. “So, I accepted him.”
She paused, waiting to see if Cody would react. He didn’t, not beyond a slight quirking of his brows. Amelia took a deep breath and forced her jaw to unclench.
“That was when the cruelty rose to the surface. He’d always treated me with charm itself, but…
well. I’ll spare you the more grisly details.
Suffice to say, he no longer saw a point in keeping up the fa?ade now that I was promised to him.
He would use anything to keep me under his control, including my sister. ”
Unexpectedly, Amelia’s eyes began to sting. She wasn’t sure if it was the pain of remembering, her humiliation, or the silent admission that she was responsible for putting Kate in harm’s way. Whatever it was, Amelia swiped angrily at her eyes with the back of her hand, refusing to let herself cry.
“I tried to refuse him. I tried to break it off—I even returned his ring. I had no desire to spend a single moment with him, let alone a whole life. He refused to accept it. He made threats. That’s when Kate and I left home.
We’ve—I’ve—been running ever since. Every time I come to settle somewhere, whenever I feel even the least little bit safe, he finds me.
He’s been tracking me for so long, and I can’t remember the last time I felt safe.
I’m tired… I’m just so tired,” she said, her voice breaking.
She could scarcely bring herself to look at Cody. She feared his judgment, his pity, his anger. Any of those would have been a valid response to learning that he’d married a woman who hardly had the unblemished past she had pretended.
To her surprise, he reached out hesitantly, as if afraid that she would either bolt or bite him.
With far more gentleness than she would have thought him capable of, he laid his hand softly on hers, gathering her fingers up in his.
His hand was warm and rough, but welcome. She lifted her eyes to his.
“You’re here now,” he said simply.
Amelia’s eyes welled up again. This time, the tears spilled over before she could stop them. “So is he,” she whispered. Cody tilted his head. “I saw him,” she said slightly louder. “At least, I think I did. At the dance,” she clarified.
“Are you certain?” Cody asked.
“I suppose I could’ve been wrong…” she said slowly, her voice trailing off. “No,” she said more firmly. “It was him. I’ve been hunted by him long enough that I know what it feels like. He’s near.”
Cody nodded slowly. He withdrew his hand and stood, pacing away for a moment. Amelia held her breath, unsure of what he was thinking, terrified that she had just irreparably damaged things between them. I can’t even blame him if I have, she thought sadly.
“The way I see things,” he began, speaking in a low, even voice, “you tried to do right. It’s this man, this Dean Chase, who’s in the wrong of it.
This land out here can mold men into figures of strength, or it can break them down entirely.
” He paused and looked out over the ranch again.
“I reckon there’s really only one solution to this problem. ”
Amelia stood slowly, her shawl slipping down farther so that it was looped around her elbows.
She crossed her arms over herself, full of dread.
She knew good and well that the easiest solution, the one that would protect his family, was for Cody to send her away.
It wouldn’t be done out of any maliciousness, just the simple drive to keep his children and ranch safe, and Amelia couldn’t begrudge him that.
“We need to keep a weather eye out,” Cody continued. “We’ll be vigilant; no more going out alone, not you or the children.”
“Not alone?” Amelia repeated, blinking rapidly. “What… do you mean that I can stay?”
Cody turned to look at her, his brows lifted with surprise. “Why wouldn’t you?” he asked simply. “I mean, I’m not about to chain you to the stove, so if’n you want to light out of here, you can,” he continued, his voice flat.
Unable to fully contain a smile, Amelia shook her head. New tears sprang to her eyes, and she wiped at them again.
“If you do stay,” Cody continued, stepping closer to her, “then you do so understanding that we’re in this together now.
You’re my wife now,” he said. He made a face after saying those words, like he’d just bitten into a strange fruit that he’d never sampled before.
“And as my wife,” he said, more confidently this time, “it’s my responsibility to keep you safe. ”
By this time, he was so near to Amelia that she could feel the warmth that radiated out from him, even warmer than the humid night air that surrounded them.
She’d never been so close to him before without a few layers of protective clothing to shield her.
Now, there was only thin cotton lawn and muslin draped around her arms. She could almost feel him breathing.
He didn’t move any closer to her, leaving it to her to close the gap between them.
She hesitated, and then, as soft as dandelion fluff landing, she laid her cheek against his chest. Whatever she expected, it wasn’t the rush of comfort and safety that she felt when she did so.
The tension left her body, a tightness that she didn’t know she’d been holding on to for years and years, and she melted into him.
Cautiously, he brought a hand up and encircled her waist. She found that she liked this a great deal, too, and couldn’t stop herself from humming in response. It was a wonderfully sheltered place to be.
“I do have to ask one more thing, and it’s important,” he said.
Amelia tilted her head back slightly. “What’s that?”
“Can you shoot?”
Amelia gave him a baleful look that said everything and lay her head back on him. She felt rather than heard him laugh.
“We’re in this together now,” he said firmly.
For the first time in a long time, Amelia didn’t feel entirely alone.
The night was still full of unknown noises to make her jump, but she allowed herself to believe, even for just a while, that she didn’t have to face them alone.
It was so peaceful, so serene as they stared out across the ranch that it almost didn’t seem possible that Dean was out there somewhere, waiting to pounce.