Love on the Range (Brothers in Arms #3)(26)
Her voice rang with zeal. As sick with fear as this made Wyatt, he admired her courage. He also knew there was something else going on here. The depth of her fervor, the gleam in her eyes, told him she wasn’t doing it for justice. To fight for right and wrong. Nor because Hobart had inspired her. Those things were part of it, but Molly had personal reasons, and they had to be rooted in her past.
Molly had said loud and clear she never intended to marry. She’d said her pa was no great pillar of decency. Molly had been hurt. She was grabbing her chance to fight back.
Wyatt intended to find out who’d hurt her. And while he was learning, he’d be close by to protect her.
Twelve
Are you out of your mind?”
Molly’s hair nearly blew back in the face of Kevin’s outrage.
“No, Molly.” Win leapt from the table. “You can’t. This isn’t right. You could be harmed.” She came around the table and threw her arms around Molly.
Win and Kevin, Wyatt, Rachel Hobart, and Molly were the only ones at the table. Falcon and Cheyenne hadn’t come back last night.
Molly had her pretty blue dress on again, the one sprinkled with white flowers. Win wore a neat black riding skirt with a pleated white shirtwaist. Wyatt looked at the two of them. Win with dark curls, blushing pink cheeks, and bright blue eyes brimming with tears. Molly with hair so fair it was more white than yellow. Fine hair she wore in a tidy bun on the top of her head, but with wisps escaping, framing her face, accenting her lighter blue eyes. Studying them, Wyatt hoped they worked things around to make themselves a family. Win and Molly needed one.
Win’s arms came around Molly’s neck from the side, so her left arm crossed Molly’s chest. Molly reached up and held on to that arm.
Then the crying started. Win only.
Molly wasn’t much of a crier, but Win seemed to have a talent for it.
“I’m leaving now.” Molly clutched Win’s arm. Wyatt thought it looked like her hands were acting the exact opposite of her words. She was leaving, but she really didn’t want to.
“I swear to you, Molly”—Kevin, sitting directly across the dinner table from her, jabbed a finger right toward her nose—“I will follow you over there and ruin it.”
Win hung on, sniffling.
Molly patted Win’s forearm. “Let go, Win. I won’t be harmed because—”
“Because I’m going with her.” Wyatt had been thinking about it, even talked about it, but until this moment, he hadn’t realized his mind was made up.
“What?” Win raised her head and drew a sleeve across her eyes. “That makes no sense. Pa won’t believe you would move over there with Molly.”
“Your pa lost almost all his hands. His foreman put out the word for more help, but I don’t think he’s found it. Leastways I’m sure he’s still shorthanded. I’ll go over and sign on. I plan to tell him I’m fed up with life here.” Wyatt loved the RHR, and no one with a functioning brain would believe otherwise. Lucky enough for him that Hawkins didn’t seem to use what few brains he had . . . except to harm women.
His jaw tightened. “I’ll tell your pa I plan to strike out farther west in the spring, but I don’t want to cross the mountains in the winter. I’ll say I’m mad as blue blazes about the new brothers as good as stealing my land, and I won’t spend another hour under the same roof.”
“We didn’t steal your land though,” Kevin said. “We need to . . . to . . .” He snapped his fingers and pointed at Rachel. “We need to hire one of you Pinkertons! See if you can find the exact date of Falcon’s ma’s death. If Pa was still married to her when he married Wyatt’s ma, the marriage isn’t legal and neither is the will.”
“We haven’t told anyone that yet,” Wyatt said. “We settled it amongst ourselves, but the will needs to be struck down legally. I haven’t spoken to Carl Preston since you got here, and we probably oughta get his lawyerin’ involved. I figured Pa’s will being illegal made Ma’s legal, and we’re just going back to splitting things in half.” He stalked out of the room and could be heard thundering up the stairs.
Kevin scowled at Rachel. “This is your fault. You came in here and stirred up trouble for my wife, making her relive an ugly worry she’s wanted to escape from. And now you’re putting my sister in danger while you hide here in the house.”
Molly rose from the table and began clearing breakfast dishes. She’d waited until morning, until right before she left, to announce her plan, in order to lessen the wear on her ears. She knew Kevin wouldn’t like it.
“You won’t change my mind, Kevin. And you can’t ruin it. Come over and make your accusations to Win’s pa, and I’ll just act like you’re lying to keep me from working.”
“He’ll know we’ve got suspicions.”
“Then I’ll be in even more danger. Thanks to you.” She made short work of cleaning up the kitchen. Win fell in and helped her. It was a good reminder that all this was going to fall on Win from now on.
“You two move into the house.” Wyatt came downstairs with a satchel and bedroll. Then he said grimly, “Maybe we’ll be back in a couple of hours. Maybe Hawkins won’t hire neither of us. But if anyone talks of it, remember we’ve had a bad falling out. And ride over to see Cheyenne and Falcon and tell them, so they don’t trip up. Tell Cheyenne she’s in charge of this place. They’d probably best come back here while I’m gone. I’ll tell Rubin I’m leaving. I trust him enough to be at least mostly honest. He’d never believe I’d abandoned the ranch.”