August 1876
The moon rose high and shone blood red above the Gamble ranch. Teddy peered out of her bedroom window at the bright sphere. She had not seen a moon like that since—
“Dammit!” she said and pulled the curtains tight over the open portal. It was another of those damned devil moons, Felicity’s devil moon, a ball of crimson with dark dancing shadows, fraught with change. She hadn’t seen a moon like that since the night after she and Rhys had escaped from Taviz and the banditos, shortly before she had learned she was carrying his baby. Babies.
She looked over at the twin cradles where tiny, dark-haired Marc Andre Gamble Delmar and his golden-haired sister Theodora Gamble Delmar slept. Well. Teddy smiled contentedly and felt the wonderful warming in her heart that came every time she looked at them. They were worth it all.
But that bastard father of theirs—Teddy’s countenance changed like the shadows on the moon, from a loving smile to a simmering scowl. Well, no he wasn’t a bastard. Word had come from Felicity’s London correspondent that Marc André Rhys Delmar hadn’t been born on the wrong side of the blanket after all. He was the legitimate son of a cantankerous old earl who had not seen fit to acknowledge his heir while he lived.
Additionally, Rhys had been the victim of a plot by a rapscallion nephew of Knox’s, a degenerate, if Felicity’s friend was to be believed. Avery Knox had engineered the plots to have Rhys falsely accused of murder. And hanged. Knox was getting what was coming to him now. As was the unprincipled Derby Seward.
Rhys wasn’t on the wrong side of the law any longer either. After months of legal finagling he had been cleared of the murder charge in London and subsequently, through his new attorney in the Arizona territory, of the charge in Wishbone. All this had evidently been fodder for the London papers, for Felicity’s correspondent, who had been tardy in replying to their original request about Rhys, now took delight in posting clipping after clipping to keep them informed of the events. The last letter and batch of clippings had declared Rhys Delmar sole heir to the sizable fortune of old Andrew Knox. An earl.
***
Teddy didn’t care if Rhys was an earl or an eel. He had left her. Left her and the babies. And there hadn’t been a word from him since. After all that high and mighty talk about wanting his child to have a name, he hadn’t even written to ask if he had a son or a daughter.
She supposed she was indebted to him. He’d saved the Gamble Line for her. With Adams gone, the holdups had ceased and the company had flourished. She was nearly out of debt and the contracts she depended on were secure. What’s more, Cabe Northrop had been beside himself for not believing what she had told him about Adams. Cabe had a lot to make up to her and he was doing his damndest to see she got Wells Fargo’s full cooperation on every endeavor.
Yes. She owed Rhys for all that. She wasn’t forgetting, either, that he’d saved her life a time or two. And he’d given her his shares free and clear before he left. Except for the thousand dollars he’d taken. But then, that wouldn’t have bought a good team of horses.
One of the babies stirred and made a sweet little sound that brought the smile back to Teddy’s lips. Rhys had given her little Marc and Dora, too. Much as she wanted to, she couldn’t hate the man who had given her the most precious of gifts.
When the baby quieted Teddy rose and walked to the window once more. She was restless and she blamed the moon. Yes. She admitted it all. She owed Rhys Delmar.
But if she ever saw him again he’d best have a good fast horse to get out of her way.
***
Alain Perrault had brought order to Lord Sumner’s neglected estate, purchasing stock for the empty stables, hiring good men to get the fields cleared for the next planting. Even the massive old manor house had begun to shake off the look of an overgrown ruin.
Everything was coming to top-notch shape except the lord of the manor.
“You’ve no head for being an earl.” Alain, broad-shouldered and lean-hipped and as handsome of feature as Rhys Delmar, spoke to his childhood friend.
“Luck is mine that you have served as overseer on an estate nearly as large as this one,” Rhys replied. “I doubt I could manage it any better than did Andrew Knox in his final years.”
“Not when your mind is ever on the wilderness and that hellion bride you left behind.”
“Teddy Gamble didn’t want a husband.” He turned away from Alain and strode across the marble floor of a room with an arched ceiling that rose thirty feet above his head. He didn’t want Alain to see the disappointment in his eyes. Any other man in his place would be happy beyond measure. As he should be. All his life he had dreamed of being master of an estate such as now was his. One who has been a servant has such dreams. But now that all the wealth he could aspire to was his, he’d trade it all for what he’d left behind in Arizona. Teddy. And his babies.
Mae Sprayberry had written about the babies. A boy and a girl. His and Teddy’s. Fine and feisty. Like their mother. Not a word from Teddy. But he’d understood. She’d made her one and only concession to him when she’d agreed to take his name.
***
“She might have changed her mind,” Alain suggested.
Rhys shook his head. He’d never meant to stay away, but at first he had not been free to leave, not until the magistrates had taken their merry time to clear his name. Then there had been the matter of the inheritance to be settled. Another month had passed. Then another. And he’d been afraid of going back and finding all he’d get from Teddy would be a quick invitation to leave Wishbone.
Restless, Rhys walked out into one of the gardens Alain was in the process of restoring. The night was clear and overhead the moon was red as blood. He hadn’t seen a moon like that since the night after he and Teddy had gotten away from Taviz.
It was the night he had known with certainty she would always have his heart. Damn her!
***
The stage rumbled into Wishbone throwing up a wake of dust that hovered in the still, hot air what seemed an unnaturally long time.
Teddy Gamble, in fringed buckskins and wearing a silver and turquoise band around her throat, came out to meet it. “How was the run, Curly?” she called to the new driver.
“Smooth as glass, Teddy,” he said and tipped his white Stetson to her. “Got a passenger for you. Says he’s been real anxious to get here.”
Smiling, Teddy swung open the door of the coach. “Welcome, strang—”
Rhys bounded out, looking fit and fancy as she’d ever seen him in a finely tailored black coat and trousers. As his feet hit the ground he gave a tug to a vest of leaf green brocade and turned that nettling half-smile of his on Teddy.
She found her heart up in her throat and her temper ablaze as she stared at him in surprise and open suspicion. “What in all of hell brings you back?” she said.
He raised his brows. The pale blue eyes beneath them shone brightly and seemed to touch her everywhere. “Why, Teddy. I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
“In a pig’s eye,” she retorted. “Now spill it out. What brings you back?”
“I’ve a few reasons for being here,” he said. “There’s the matter of our marriage to be dealt with. And there’s the matter of our babies.” Aware that, squared off on the street, they had begun to draw the whole town’s attention, Rhys caught her by the arm and tugged her toward the office.
“It’s about time you remembered,” she told him.
Her besieged heart slammed back into her chest where it belonged as she and Rhys slipped through the doors of the stage office, but now it beat so fast she felt lightheaded. Her arm tingled as if burned where his fingers lay against it. The tingling sensation slowly spread, not ceasing when he let her go. It flowed over her body like a warm wash of rain. She felt her resistance to him, which she had been stoking and building all the months he had been gone, washing away like fallen leaves before a flood.
She felt the old yearning for him sliding in. Whether she wanted to or not, she remembered how his touch had moved her, how his hands had slid with gentle determination over her skin, how even the lightest kiss from his lips could rouse her, how he filled her. And, dammit! She wanted him. With all her heart she wanted him and had since the day he had gone away.
None of it was supposed to be like this. She had thought she would want to shoot him on sight but that wasn’t at all what she wanted.
He didn’t love her, she reminded herself bitterly. And she didn’t know why he had come back.
They were inside the small office. Rhys noted that it had changed little in the months he’d been gone. The floor was crowded with crates and boxes, the desk littered with tickets and papers. A new schedule hung tacked to the wall, an indication not quite everything was the same. She had added another run out of the mines, which meant business was good. He was glad.
“I never forgot about you, Teddy,” he said. “I never forgot about anything.” His voice had lost the taunting edge. “You may have heard my circumstances have changed since I left.”
Teddy braced herself and scowled. “I heard you got yourself a title and enough money to salt down a gold mine. And I can see you spent a pretty penny on those dandy duds. Anything I’m leaving out?”
He nodded. She wasn’t making this reunion easy in the least and he was finding it awfully hard to sit and be civil when what he wanted was to sweep her in his arms and tell her that she was his wife and that he loved her from the depths of his heart. He needed to hold and touch and taste her, feel the provocative warmth of her body around him. He needed her. Always.
“I got myself cleared of murder,” he said. “So you can add a good name to the list.”
Teddy rested her hands on her hips. “About that name. Knox, isn’t it? Am I expected to change my name and that of the babies to Knox?” She cocked her head to one side. “Teddy Knox,” she spoke the name thoughtfully. “Can’t say I like the sound of it.”
“You plan to keep my name then?”
“Knox?”
“Delmar.”
She smiled and nodded. Her world was changing again and she was heartily glad of the direction it was going. “Seeing that you paid so much for me to take it, seems only fair I keep it.”
“And me?” Hope surged inside him.
Her hands slid off her hips and she gave him a shove that rocked him back on his heels. All his hope evaporated until, in the next instant, she grabbed him and wrapped her arms around his waist.
Teddy felt a shudder rake through him as her arms closed about him. She was trembling too as, eyes darkening, she raised her face to his and answered softly. “I could use a fancy man around. If he’s good with his hands.” She brought her mouth against his. “And with his lips. And—”
“And?”
“And if he loves me.”
“He does, Teddy. And he’d very much like to see his son and daughter. And he’d like to show their mother what else he’s good at...if she’s willing.”
“She is.”
Rhys bound Teddy to him with his arms and kissed her with all the fullness of his love, drinking her in like sweet, cool wine, slowly, deeply. He had all the time in the world. And this was a beginning.
###