“How long can you stay?” Ella asked.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Didn’t Sheriff Pike bring you back?”
Max grinned. “He tried to. But I have a good friend who’s helped me to get around the mayor’s newest scheme.” Then she whispered, “Degan Grant married me to put me out of Carl’s reach—but it’s just temporary until we find out what Carl really wants.”
Ella’s eyes flared, then started to water. “You’re married? And I didn’t get to witness it?”
They were holding hands across the table. Max squeezed Ella’s tightly. “It wasn’t a real wedding . . . well, it was, but we did it knowing it wasn’t going to be permanent. We may have to wait until I’m twenty-one to annul it, though, if Carl won’t give up.”
Ella sighed. “I know what the mayor wants, but I didn’t when you left. It had been so long since he tried to buy the farm that it didn’t occur to me yet that he was trying to get it a different way—through you. I realized it after I got summoned to court for those ridiculous incompetency charges. I didn’t even get to say a single word in my defense. I just had to sit there listening silently to what a terrible parent and grandparent I was.”
“You were no such thing!” Max said hotly.
“It doesn’t matter now. You figured out a way to ruin his plans. Rumors were swirling around town that Carl distributed wanted posters for you outside of Texas in order to get you back here. But no one had the gumption to confront him about it.” Ella shook her head. “I’ve lost respect for a lot of people in Bingham Hills. I confronted him about those posters, but he told me I was crazy and then he filed those charges against me.”
“It’s true, Gran. Carl turned me into an outlaw with a thousand-dollar price on my head.”
“I despise the man, but I’m so proud of you, Max, for surviving on your own and figuring out a way to best him.”
“It wasn’t my idea to marry, it was Degan’s, but, yeah, Carl won’t like it that he got outsmarted by a simple clause in the document he finagled to get drawn up. But how does his being my guardian get him the farm?”
“It gave him the power to marry you to whoever he wanted, including himself or his son, if he ever comes home, and it wouldn’t matter what you had to say about it.”
“Wait, what happened to Evan?”
“He left town shortly after you did for parts unknown. I believe he really cared for you, Max, and hated what his father was doing to you. Anyhow, once one of the Binghams married you, Carl would be the oldest male in our family, which would give him the legal right to make decisions for all of us. No one would bat an eye if one of those decisions was to tear down this place.”
“That’s not going to happen, Gran. Degan is now the oldest male in our family.”
“Where is this temporary husband of yours?”
Max knew Degan was giving her some private time for her homecoming and to explain why he was with her. “He’s seeing to the horses. You’ll meet him shortly.” But then she warned, “He’s a gunfighter, Gran, but you don’t need to be nervous around him.”
“Is he capable of butting heads with the mayor?”
Max chuckled. “Dealing with trouble like this is his line of work, Gran. But why did you never say that Carl tried to buy the farm from you? When was that?”
“You and Johnny were still children. It was right after your grandfather died. Carl offered me a decent price for the farm, then a higher price, then a ridiculous price.”
“You never considered it?”
“I love this house, but more—”
Ella didn’t get to finish. Degan appeared in the doorway, all six feet three inches of him filling it. He tipped his hat to Ella before removing it, then to Max’s amazement, he smiled at her grandmother. Max quickly introduced them, but it still took a moment for her grandmother to find her voice. Even with that smile, at first glance you just knew he was a dangerous man.
But then Ella ordered, “Sit. For whatever reason you’re helping Max, you have my gratitude.”
Max grinned. “He’s probably going to want a bath first, Gran.”
“You read my mind,” Degan agreed.
“Second door on your right, and we have pumped water for the tub, just not hot,” Max told him. “But I’ll heat some for you now.”
She got up to do that while Ella suggested, “You can put your things in my grandson’s room, Mr. Grant.”
Max swung back around. “He’s not going to share a room with Johnny.”
“It’s fine, dear. Johnny sleeps elsewhere.”
“Degan shares with me. We have to keep up appearances, Gran.”
Degan backed out of the room, merely saying, “Let me know what you decide.”
Max glared at his back before he disappeared. He obviously wanted no part of this explanation. She put her arm around Ella’s shoulders and whispered, “It’s okay. We had a wedding night.”
“Maxine Dawson!”
Max winced and decided lying might be the quickest way to end this embarrassing conversation. “We had to. Grady was spying on us. If Carl finds out this marriage isn’t real, then I’m going to get stuck under his thumb and he wins—everything.” But then Max admitted in an even lower whisper, “Besides, I—I like sharing a bed with my husband.”
“So you’re keeping him?”
“No, but—”
“You’re keeping him,” Ella cut in with finality.
Max rolled her eyes. She was never good at butting heads with Ella. Max could explain later, after Degan moved on, why keeping him hadn’t been an option.
Right now she wanted to know “Where is Johnny?”
“At the mayor’s house, I reckon. He likes it there. The mayor’s got him bamboozled with fancy new clothes and servants waiting on him, and talk of sending him to school in the East come fall.”
“That’s really his choice after he shot that man for me? He’s not being forced to stay there because of that dumb guardianship decree?”
“It’s a change for him, Max, and I don’t begrudge him that. He was so lonesome and bored after you left. All he ever talked about was going to sea like his pa.”
Max frowned. “He wasn’t going to leave you here alone, was he?”
“No, he was waiting for this nightmare to end, for you to come home—one way or another. The mayor assured him you’d be here before he left for school. And he still comes by every day to help me with the chores, so you’ll see him tomorrow if not sooner.”
“But he can come home now. Degan’s being a part of our family negates that damn guardianship decree for both of us.”
“I’m not so sure Johnny will want to come home. In fact, if he thinks you’re back for good, he’ll probably head for the nearest port.”
Unlike her father and her brother, Max had no desire to visit other countries. She’d already seen far more of her own country than she’d ever wanted to see. But Johnny had told her about his dream to see the world. So she wasn’t all that surprised by Ella’s speculation.
“Whatever he decides, he’s old enough to be on his own, so you won’t have to worry about him, Gran.”
“I’ll always worry about the two of you,” Ella grumbled. “Habit.” Then she tsked and headed for the sink. “And you haven’t even started that water for your man.”
Her man? How was she going to convince Ella that Degan wasn’t when Max wished he were?
Chapter Forty-Eight
“GRAN IS MAKING SOMETHING special for your dinner. She went out to get two chickens for it. I suspect she thinks you’re a big eater.”
Degan turned as Max joined him at the end of the porch, the side that caught a view of town. He thought she made a much better view. She’d changed into one of the dresses she’d left behind, a blue-and-green gingham that brought out the blue in her eyes. She looked beautiful, even in an old dress, even with butchered hair, but he’d like to see her in silk, just once, before . . .
He didn’t finish the tho
ught. Usually he looked forward to moving on, but not this time.
“Your grandmother reminds me of Adelaide Miller.”
“Are you calling her cantankerous?”
“No, just bossy.”
Max grinned as she put her hands on the porch railing next to him. “Maybe a little. But she’ll grow on you.”
The way Max had grown on him? She’d definitely gotten under his skin. She’d broken down his barricades, too, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing. He couldn’t remain aloof anymore. Not with her.
He looked back toward town and the house on the hill behind it. Like a lordly manor, it had full views of the domain the man inside it ruled. Was he a flawed leader or an ironfisted tyrant? Degan would be finding out soon. He nodded toward the house. “I assume that’s your mayor’s residence?”
“He calls it a mansion.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“He does, just ’cause it’s got more’n five bedrooms in it. Gran said he just kept adding to it over the years, spreading it all over that hill.” But then she warned, “You need to have eyes in the back of your head while you’re here, Degan. There’s no telling what Carl will do when he finds out you thwarted him.”
“Do I look worried?”
She glanced up at him. “Would you look worried? Ever?”
He didn’t answer. He fluffed her hair instead. “She hasn’t cut it yet.”
“Give her time, we just got here. And she did notice. She picked up a lock and humphed. I expect she’ll come after me with the scissors tomorrow.”
They both saw Grady Pike riding toward them from town. Max leaned a little closer to Degan. He put his arm around her shoulders. He didn’t like the way Pike made Max nervous, didn’t like the way the man had treated her, either, all in the name of Bingham’s trumped-up law. It was a wonder he hadn’t shot the man. He’d certainly had the urge to and still did.
Grady pulled up his horse below them at the side of the porch. “The mayor would like a word with you, Mr. Grant. You’ve been invited to dinner at his house.”
“Do you like being an errand boy, Pike?”
“This is official business,” Grady insisted.
“No, it isn’t. And I’m having dinner with my wife’s family tonight. But I’ll pay your mayor a visit afterward. You can tell him I’m looking forward to it.”
Grady gave him a hard look before he yanked his horse around and rode back to town. Beside Degan, Max said determinedly, “I’ll go with you.”
“No, you won’t. You don’t have the temperament for this meeting.” Then he lightened his tone before adding, “But if I end up in jail, you can rescue me.”
“He wouldn’t dare!” she growled, but after a glance at him, she snorted. “Oh, you were joking.”
“I’m actually not discounting any possibility. But then all I know about Carl Bingham is what you’ve told me, and you’re known to exaggerate. And you have another visitor.”
She followed his gaze and then squealed, “Johnny!” She ran down the porch steps to meet her brother. Degan leaned against the railing, watching them as the young man lifted Max and swung her in a full circle around him before giving her a bear hug. It was easy to tell they were siblings. They both had the same ash-blond hair and the same bone structure, which made one beautiful and the other quite handsome. While the boy might be younger by a few years, he was now the taller by a half foot.
Max remarked on it. “Look at you! You sure sprouted, baby brother.”
“You’ve been gone a long time.”
The censure in the boy’s tone earned him a punch in the arm. “Not by choice!”
Abashed, Johnny said, “I know, it’s just been horrible around here without you. I expected you back last year when the mayor became our guardian.”
“I didn’t know about that, and if I did, I would have been running even farther in the opposite direction. He might’ve dropped the charges against me, but how was I to know when he didn’t bother to have the wanted posters canceled?”
As they approached the porch, Johnny caught Degan’s eyes on him. “Holy cow, it’s true? You brought a husband home with you?”
“Who told you?”
“Carl sure didn’t,” Johnny complained. “I heard his servants gossiping about it after the sheriff visited.”
“Gran said you were planning to go off to college in the fall. Was that your idea?”
“Yeah, not that I really want more schooling. But I figured it would prove what a fraud Carl is if he refused to send me. But he didn’t, and it’s better’n staying in Bingham Hills. Anywhere would be better’n here.”
“Then you didn’t like living in Carl’s house?”
“Are you kidding?”
Max rolled her eyes. “You sure fooled Gran. She thinks you like it there.”
“I put on a good show for her. I don’t want her to worry about me.”
“We’ll figure things out, Johnny, I promise. I don’t think Carl can still claim guardianship of you now that we have a new head of the family. Come and meet him.” Then she added in a whisper that Degan still caught, “Don’t be afraid of him. He’s on our side.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
DEGAN RODE HIS HORSE up the hill. It was steep enough that it would be a tiring walk for someone Bingham’s age, which was probably why a buckboard and two horses were left out front. The man had wanted to be up high enough to easily survey the town he’d founded, but he hadn’t considered how inconvenient that would be. His two-story house was built of stone and had a wide front porch that ran the length of the house.
Degan was shown to a grand parlor. It could have been a parlor in Chicago. Not very tasteful in decor, a little grandiose, but obviously every piece of furniture had been freighted in from the East. It probably didn’t get much use and had likely been decorated for show, to impress the locals. Degan wasn’t left there long. Another servant appeared and escorted him to the mayor’s study. Bingham was already there.
He wasn’t as old as Max had led him to believe, possibly approaching seventy, yet still robust with few wrinkles on his face. He had a full head of white hair, side whiskers, and light green eyes that showed no malice. Degan found it hard to credit that this man had ever frightened Max. He appeared utterly harmless, but Degan sensed it was an illusion, the man’s public persona, not his true nature. No wonder he’d fooled this town for so long.
“I assume we can dispense with introductions?” Carl said, waving a hand toward the comfortable chair across from the large desk. “You might be notorious in the rest of the West, Mr. Grant, but down here, we haven’t heard of you—until now, that is.”
“Does it matter?”
“I suppose not. Whiskey?”
“No.”
The bottle and two glasses were on the desk. Carl still poured one for himself. As long as the mayor kept his hands above the desk, Degan would keep his gun holstered. Threats would be pointless. They wouldn’t last after he rode out of Bingham Hills. But one thing still needed saying.
“If you had raped Max, this meeting would be for a different reason. You know that, right?”
Carl was only discomposed for the briefest moment before he replied confidently, “You wouldn’t kill me.”
“Yes, I would.”
Confidence gone, the man’s true colors showed when he complained hotly, “She shot me!”
“Self-defense. You were in the wrong, Mayor, she wasn’t. But I’m here for an explanation. I want to know why she had to leave home for close to two years because of you.”
Carl sighed and sat back, a glass in his hand though he didn’t drink from it. “I’m used to getting what I want. That’s why I founded this town so long ago and built it into what it is today. And someday, in my lifetime mind you, it will rival Fort Worth. This is my town. I control what happens here. I thought Max would be thrilled to marry my boy once she was old enough. She’d have servants waiting on her hand and foot, all the fancy dresses she could’ve wanted, anyt
hing her little heart desired. Not once did I think she’d thumb her nose at all this.” Carl waved a hand to encompass his house. “You know I could’ve done worse things to get rid of that eyesore farm of theirs, but I didn’t. I’m not as ruthless as she seems to think I am. I might’ve gotten a little carried away, trying to compromise her to the altar, but I was desperate at the time.”
“What warranted desperation?”
“The gal had turned into a beauty. Half the men in town were in love with her. Someone else was going to snatch her up before much longer.”
“You’re wrong, you know. Force her to do something she doesn’t want to do, and she’ll fight you tooth and nail. And that’s a fact I’ve seen verified.”
“Well, stubbornness runs in that family. I offered Widow Dawson a fortune for that farm of hers. I even offered to take it down piece by piece and put it back up anywhere she wanted, and she would’ve got rich to boot. That woman isn’t reasonable. She wouldn’t even discuss it. But my offer still stands.”
“In the time Max has been gone, you could have whittled down some of your hills to the south or turned your woods into a park and built around it. Did none of that occur to you, Mayor?”
“Of course it did, but that farm is still going to be an eyesore, butting up against town as it is now. It’s standing in the way of progress. This affects the whole town, not just me. I love this town, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do for it.”
“Including forcing Max to marry you or your son.”
“She would’ve been happy in the end. All women are enamored of wealth.”
Degan shook his head at that reasoning. “Then you would have forced her to get her grandmother to sell to you?”
“I wouldn’t have had to do any such thing. Max in my family makes me the head of hers.”