Emmy (Gold Rush Brides Book 2) (11 page)

Of all the men who’d tried to court her in New York, the most they’d ever done was kiss her hand. Besides her father, only one other man had tried to wrap his arms around her, and he was the reason she was in California now. A shudder rippled across her skin at the memory of his touch.

Then her mind turned to Mason’s embrace. Big strong arms tucking her into his chest, his strong male scent overwhelming her senses, a sense of safety washing over her. Instinctively, she’d nuzzled a little closer, or as close as she could from the back of a horse.
 

In an instant, he was gone, and she was left swaying in her saddle, hoping she wouldn’t tumble off. Confused thoughts pinged around her brain, making her even dizzier. Was she attracted to the sheriff? Did he feel the same? Is that why he shoved her away and ran off like a cat on fire?
 

She clutched at Blaze’s mane and dipped her head to rest against his neck. His solidity was comforting, but he sure did smell bad. The stench almost made her gag. What on earth—?
 

Then she understood. Mason hadn’t been attracted to her. He’d been repulsed by her! The bear fat smelled so terrible that even
she
couldn’t stand it. She’d been wearing it for so long that she’d sort of forgotten about it until she’d snuggled up to Blaze. The smell was concentrated in the close quarters.

Mason must have acted impulsively — he was simply excited about having a specific place to search for Roy — and realized his mistake when he caught a whiff of the malodorous grease. But that didn’t change the fact that she’d felt something while she was in his arms.

Fred’s story the night before had shed new light on why Mason was the way he was. She’d never loved anyone the way he must have loved his wife, but she’d loved her father. When he died, so did a part of her. She couldn’t imagine losing a husband or, God forbid, a child — especially to a murderer — and sympathy for the sheriff welled in her heart.

Even her dreams were filled with him. In her favorite, he ran down Roy with his horse, and just before the evil swine drew his last breath, he signed her annulment papers, leaving her free to marry again. Of course with him dead, she would have been free anyway, but logic rarely plays a role in dreams. Sadly, the dream evaporated quickly when she awoke, as so often happens, but she was left with a lingering warmth and the distinct impression that Mason had been just as pleased at the outcome as she was.

Blaze stomped his feet impatiently, pulling Emmy out of her dreamworld. The posse already had a good lead on her but she wasn’t worried. Blaze would catch them, if only to show them who was boss.

“If I had the money, boy, I’d pay that stableboy twice what he paid for you,” she cooed to him. His muscles tensed beneath her and they were off.

They’d been riding hard for an hour when Mason slowed the group to let the horses cool down for a bit. The last thing he wanted was for one to go lame now, not so close to their goal.
 

“D’ya think he’s really there, Sheriff?” asked David, trotting his horse next to Mason’s. “Meanin’ no disrespect to Miss Emmy, but he coulda been lyin’ to her.”

Mason nodded. “Yup, that’s possible, but I got a good feeling about this, David. It feels right, feels true. Can’t explain it any better than that.”

“‘Sides,” interrupted Fred, moving up to join them. “Even if he ain’t there, someone mighta seen him. Right, Mace?”

“Yup, and it’s also possible that they’ve already come and gone. We lost a bit of time wandering around like Moses out here. But like I said, I got a good feeling on this one.”

He left David and Fred at the front of the group to debate whether Kirby was in Auburn or Sacramento or bound for the Sandwich Islands aboard some rickety ship. Dropping back, he sidled up next to Emmy, who was uncharacteristically quiet.

“How’s that rash today?” He winced as the words left his mouth, but he couldn’t think of anything else to talk about. And for some reason, he really wanted to talk to her, maybe thank her for helping out.

She ducked her head and let out a big sigh. “Better, I guess. I put on more of that bear fat, as you discovered, and the itching isn’t so bad anymore. But I still look and smell like a prospector, I suppose.”

She tried to smile but, even through the black gunk, Mason could see it didn’t reach her eyes. For a girl like Emmy, appearances were everything. He’d known her kind for many years and they’d rather be dead than caught looking like her, though it didn’t make much sense to him.
 

“Well, I gotta give you credit, Miss Emmy. You got dealt an ugly blow and you never let it slow you down. I wish my men were half as tough as you.”

She frowned a little when he patted her on the back and he wondered why. He was complimenting her after all. Didn’t women like compliments?

They rode along in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, Mason wondering what he should say next. Seemed like every word out of his mouth was the wrong one and he didn’t want to step in it again. Finally, he settled on a topic he was sure she’d love to talk about: herself.

“So what brought you out here, anyway? Caught a little gold fever, did ya?”

He sensed her tensing up beside him. Even Blaze noticed, whinnying quietly and swooshing his tail. Finally she sighed and looked up at him.

“No, not gold fever, I’m afraid. To be quite frank, I ran away from home.”

He chuckled at her joke but stopped cold when he saw she was serious. “Um, ain’t you a little old for running away? And I thought both your parents had passed on.”

She nodded. “Yes, my mother died during childbirth and my father raised me. Some say he spoiled me, and I suppose that’s not far from the truth, but I loved him more than anything. If only I would have known, I never would have let him…”

She sniffed and Mason realized too late that she was crying. Oh Lord, what had he done? All he wanted to do was get to know her a little better and make up for treating her so harshly before. She’d made such an honest effort at making breakfast for them that he wondered if there was something more to the her than met the eye. And now he’d made her cry.

Shifting uncomfortably in his saddle, he snuck a peek back at Jake, who was bringing up the rear. Jake grinned at him. Insufferable good-for-nothing.

“I’m sorry, Sheriff,” she whispered, sniffling back tears.

“Aw, think nothing of it, Miss Emmy. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories or nothing. And why don’t you call me Mason?”

She smiled weakly up at him, but he could tell it was genuine. He couldn’t explain why, but he really liked it when she smiled at him, even with all that stuff on her face. It did nothing to hide her beauty, even though she probably thought it did.

“Thank you, Mason. As I was saying, my father spoiled me rotten. But he had a secret. On the outside, he was a successful businessman who ran his own shipping concern. We lived in a lovely house, socialized with the elite of New York, and I went to only the best girls’ schools and wore the newest fashions. Our life was absolutely perfect.”

“I’m guessing it wasn’t as perfect as he let everyone think,” Mason said.

Emmy shook her head. “Not even close. When he died unexpectedly during an influenza outbreak last year, my whole world caved in. I was shattered emotionally. I didn’t get out of bed for a week. Then my Uncle Tate came for a visit.”

The cold steel tone of her voice made his skin crawl. Already he knew that if he ever met Uncle Tate, the man would rue the day.

“Tate wasn’t really my uncle, but rather my father’s best friend and business associate. I grew up bouncing on his knee and thinking of him as family. When he arrived at our house, it was all I could do to pull myself together to meet with him. I’d been crying for a week straight and not sleeping. You think I look bad now, you should have seen me then!”

She laughed humorlessly, and while he wanted to argue and tell her she didn’t look bad at all, he also didn’t want to interrupt the flow of her story. For once, he kept his mouth shut.

“Anyway, there I am, a shadow of my former self, a grieving wreck, and Uncle Tate tells me that I have 60 days to vacate the premises. ‘I gave you an extra week’s grace period to grieve,’ he had the gall to say! I tell you, I’ve never been so confused in my life — or so angry.”

Her voice was strengthening, growing louder. The memories of her past troubles were still fresh and painful, that much was clear. Like the memory of Marie’s death was for him. At least she’d stopped crying.

“As it turns out, my father’s business had been declining but rather than cut back on expenses, such as frilly dresses and fancy schooling, he borrowed the money from Uncle Tate. He’d gone so far as to use our house as collateral for a loan! Not only had Father left me penniless, but also homeless.”

Emmy didn’t have to explain what that meant. He knew better than anyone that when one of the elite loses their fortune, their friends flee. He had no doubt that the same had happened to her. It must have been terrifying for her, a young woman suddenly faced with poverty and no friends or family to support her. He flushed with anger for her.

“But kind Uncle Tate wasn’t finished. He had a proposition for me. If I accepted, I would be allowed to remain in my family home, the only one I’d ever known. If I refused, I would have to leave within 60 days and I could only take my clothes with me. All of my valuables and everything in the house had been mortgaged to Uncle Tate.”

Mason almost didn’t want to know what the man demanded, but couldn’t resist asking. “What did he want, Emmy?”

“To marry me.” Her voice was tight and she was sitting like a statue in her saddle. The way she spoke made him think this was the first time she’d spoken of these events to anyone.
 

“I thought of him as my uncle, for goodness sake. He was older than my father and twice as fat. How long had he been wanting to marry me? It’s a question that haunts me, Mason. He’d known me since I was an infant. When did his feelings toward me change?”

Mason’s stomach roiled in disgust. How could a man practically raise a girl and then think it was anything but disgraceful to fancy her romantically. Except he suspected that ‘romance’ had little to do with Uncle Tate’s feelings toward Emmy. He vowed then and there that if the man ever set foot in California, he’d lose the foot and anything else that managed to cross the border.

“Of course I refused him. I cried and screamed and threw a dilly of a fit, quite honestly. But he’d seen me at my worst and it didn’t faze him a bit. He simply reminded me that I would have nothing if I didn’t change my mind, and that he would make sure none of my friends ever spoke to me again. He had me over a barrel and I very nearly resigned myself to that fate because of it.
 

“The worst part is that I think my father knew about it all along, or at least suspected. He refused to allow anyone to court me seriously, and I now believe it was because he and Tate had made a tacit arrangement for me. Uncle Tate never mentioned it, but I can’t shake the feeling and, Mason? It breaks my heart to think my father would do such a thing, but it makes some sort of sense. Why else would he not allow me to be courted?”

Mason didn’t have an answer. He imagined that, as a father who raised a daughter alone, it would be difficult to see her grow up and move away, but couldn’t imagine denying her a husband because of his selfishness. No, he had to admit, Emmy was probably spot on.

“But then I found what I thought would be my salvation: A copy of
The Nuptial News
. Marrying a stranger was risky, but I knew I’d regret marrying Uncle Tate. He would break me, and I barely knew who I was at the time. I couldn’t stay in New York because he would spread so many vicious rumors that no man would have me, and I wasn’t certain I would even be safe. So I responded to several of the most promising advertisements in hopes that a lonely — and, I admit, well-off — man out west would save me from certain hell.”

They rode along in silence because they both knew how that had turned out. She’d corresponded with and married his wife’s killer. It was awkward and unsettling, but it was what it was.

“How did your uncle take the news?” he finally asked.

She glanced up at him and shrugged, a glint of mirth in her eye. “I have no idea. My time had run out while I was waiting for responses, you see, so I agreed to marry him but only under the condition that we would have a big wedding. Those take time to plan, and I needed a little more of it to secure a proposal from someone out west. It’s amazing how quickly letters get from California to New York — thirty days, give or take — but when you only have sixty days of freedom, it’s interminably slow.”

“So what happened?” He had to admit, her story was enthralling.

“Honestly, I was scared and wavered in my resolve. I wasn’t sure leaving New York was the right thing to do. Surely my friends wouldn’t desert me, would they? Maybe life with Uncle Tate wouldn’t be so bad. It couldn’t be worse than suffering through a voyage to California, could it?

“I got my answer the day I received Roy’s proposal letter. It arrived shortly after Uncle Tate came over with a selection of flowers to for me to choose for the wedding. I didn’t care so I pointed to one — azaleas, I think — and he got very angry with me. He said I was going through the motions and if I didn’t put more care into my choices, it would lead to a very unhappy marriage for me. I started to get angry right back but instead of humoring me as he’d done in the past, he slapped me across the face.”

Mason pulled his horse up to a stop, and Emmy followed suit. “He
hit
you?” he asked coldly, his eyes blazing with fire. He amended his promise to himself. If the man ever stepped foot in California, Mason would see him dead.

Fresh tears welled in her eyes but she blinked them away. “He told me he wouldn’t tolerate any more of my temper tantrums, then he did something far worse than slap me. He pulled me into his arms and tried to kiss me, but I managed to escape that fate when a servant walked in. I’m entirely certain that if his lips had touched mine, I would have been sick all over him. Lord only knows how he would have reacted to
that!
”