Luke’s back ached as he turned his rented horse down the Hayes estate’s long drive. He’d spent all day with Cynthia and Everett, staying so long at the orphanage he’d rushed to catch the last train out of Philadelphia and then rented a horse in Albany since the train to Valley Falls wouldn’t run again until morning.
The lights from Grandpa’s house gleamed in the distance, though he’d no idea why more than one or two lights would be lit at this time of night. What he wouldn’t give to be in bed right now, curled up under a heavy quilt on a comfortable feather mattress.
Time was when he wouldn’t have minded bedding down under the stars with a rock for a pillow, but this place was making him soft. And strange as it was, he didn’t mind coming back here, welcomed the sight almost as much as he did the view of his own ranch. Returning to the place Grandpa had built felt almost right.
So if the place felt right, if he wanted to be here, why was he trying to sell it or find a manager for Great Northern Accounting and Insurance?
Luke rubbed his bleary eyes. These thoughts were Elizabeth’s fault, every last one of them. Her words had niggled in his mind ever since he’d told her that he loved her. You’re leaving. Whatever you feel for me, whatever I feel for you, it doesn’t mean anything. It can’t, unless you stay here and manage your inheritance.
Besides the lawyer on his first night in Valley Falls, no one else had mentioned him staying until Elizabeth. Luke stared at the acres of trim grass, passing slowly by under the dim moonlight. Acres that he owned. Maybe he’d have been better off staying in Wyoming and never coming East, telling the lawyer to sell everything and send the profits West. His life would have been easier, for sure and for certain.
But then he never would have seen the Philadelphia orphanage or ensured Hayes Academy stayed open. He never would have looked into the faces of the students and orphans Grandpa had helped. Never would have realized his sister was growing up or faced Cynthia. Never would have met Elizabeth...
He shifted in his saddle. Returning to Wyoming with Sam used to mean reuniting his family, but with matters settled between him and Cynthia, and with Sam scheduled to leave on Monday for Wyoming, going back West for good took on a whole other significance. It meant ending his ties with all Grandpa had worked for and pretending the orphans in Philadelphia and the young women at Hayes Academy required nothing from him. Ignoring the needs of the staff at the estate and the hundreds of insurance agents, accountants and actuaries along the East Coast that he employed.
Was it right to rush away from the things Grandpa had left him, or was it some form of neglect? And was Grandpa even the one who had given him this vast inheritance? Or had God done that?
The thought echoed inside him like a shout reverberating through a mountain pass. His heart thudded slowly, surely, and he knew. Here he’d been blaming Grandpa for his new heap of responsibilities, but God controlled the world, not Jonah Hayes.
God could have let Grandpa’s savings and assets be lost in the panic, as had happened to the Wellses and countless others. God could have led Grandpa to disperse his assets and estate himself, donating everything to charities rather than a grandson he’d never met.
Luke swallowed as a new thought took shape. And God could have seen him shot rather than Blake on that sunny morning three years ago. Then Blake would have inherited everything.
Instead, God had given it all to him, Luke Hayes.
He couldn’t leave it behind and head back to the Teton Valley. Not anymore.
He could run the businesses Grandpa had left him well enough. In fact, it almost seemed God had used his ranch to prepare him for taking over Grandpa’s holdings. Sure he had a few things to learn, but numbers made sense to him, always had. And managing a business didn’t differ too much from running a ranch—except the workers smelled better.
He’d still miss the wide-open prairie, with those giant Tetons looming to the east. But the ranch would be well taken care of under Pa, and like Sam, he could go back and visit. Besides, New York had its own appeal. Though not as grand as the Tetons, the Catskill Mountains loomed to the west, their blue-shadowed slopes visible from his bedroom and office. He could take day trips into the wilderness or spend a weekend camping here and there.
And besides, if he stayed in Valley Falls...
He slowed his horse in front of the house. A vision of a woman, dressed in green velvet and standing in the hallway of Hayes Academy, curled around the edges of his mind. She looked hesitant, unsure as she said she’d have dinner with him the following evening.
A smile crept across his lips as he stared up at the white three-story mansion. Such a grand house needed a beautiful woman to run it. A beautiful woman with a heart for teaching and a wagonload of reddish-brown hair. Now he only had to figure out how to ask her—and hope she said yes.
He gulped. A woman as fine as Elizabeth would have plenty of reasons not to want a country bumpkin like him.
Luke swung off his horse and took the steps two at a time. The butler opened the door before he’d even reached the top.
“Stevens, what are you doing awake? Do you realize how late it is?”
“Yes, sir, quarter of two.”
Luke stepped inside and waved his hand at the fully lit chandelier. “Then why’s the house lit up like there’s some fancy dinner going on?”
A sob echoed from the direction of the drawing room, and he turned. He knew that sound, had heard it far too many times when he’d first arrived. “Samantha’s still up?”
“Yes, sir. You have a visitor, and I’m afraid she delivered some rather distressing news.”
Distressing news? Was something wrong with Ma? Had Sam received a telegram after he’d left yesterday afternoon? He strode toward the drawing room and opened the door, only to find Elizabeth sitting on that fancy white and gold couch. What was she doing here? And in the middle of the night to boot?
He whispered her name, running his eyes over her unkempt hair and pale face. Samantha sat hunched in her arms, sobs emanating with every breath.
Elizabeth raised her head and looked toward the door.
“What’s wrong?” He came closer, and she hugged Sam tighter to herself. Redness lined her eyes while devastation haunted the hollows and planes of her porcelain face. His heart thumped against his ribs. “Is it Ma? Or Jackson? Was there an accident? Is someone...”
Dead?
Sam pulled back from Elizabeth, her hands clenched into angry fists. “Oh, I wish there were some accident. I wish it was all some mistake, or maybe that I’d never met the conniver at all.”
Luke strode toward his sister, his own fingers clenching in response. “What’d he do? Tell me, and I’ll make him pay.”
Sam leaped into his arms and started crying all over again. “I should have listened to you. You were right from the very beginning. All he wanted was money.”
“Hush now.” Luke stroked her hair, but the soothing movements had little effect on her. “It’s all right. We’ll work everything out, just calm down.”
She only cried harder.
He lifted his eyes to Elizabeth’s. She’d backed away from him and Sam, and stood near the fire, her arms wrapped around herself in a lonely hug.
Confound it. He should be holding Elizabeth in his arms at this moment, kissing her and whispering promises about staying in Valley Falls. But with Sam sobbing in his arms and that silent sorrow etched across Elizabeth’s face, this was hardly the time. “What happened?”
“I’m so sorry, Luke.” Her whispered words barely reached him above Sam’s shudders. “I didn’t know. I promise I didn’t.”
“Didn’t know what?”
She shook her head, as though trying to deny whatever she needed to say.
“Go on, now. You can tell me.”
“I tried to go to the police, but they wouldn’t believe me.”
“The police?” His hands tightened on Sam’s back. “Why would you need to go to the police? What did Jackson do?”
“He...” Elizabeth pressed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples. “I’m sorry. This is harder than I’d thought.”
“Here, Sam, sit for a minute.” He set his sister on the couch and gave her a pillow to clutch before moving to Elizabeth. Tears glistened in her eyes, tears she seemed determined not to shed.
“Tell me.” He reached for her, but she took a step back.
“No. Don’t touch me. Not right now. Not after what my family did.”
Her family. Dread, icy and hard, sank its claws into his chest. Had they coerced her into becoming DeVander’s wife? Had she already signed a marriage license?
But then Sam wouldn’t be so upset at Jackson. The fear constricting his heart loosened just a bit. “Will one of you please tell me what’s going on?”
“You need to do an audit on your Albany office.” Elizabeth stared into the fire.
“What?”
Her chin trembled, and she raised it, calling on that inner strength that had mesmerized him from the first time he’d met her. “Jackson and my father...th-they’ve been...” She swallowed, the tight muscles in her throat working far too hard. “Embezzling. From you. Since the panic, they’ve been using your accounting and insurance offices to steal from you and the companies you service.”
Every idea about what had happened, every thought about what he’d do to Jackson Wells, every word he’d planned to comfort Elizabeth with, deserted him.
“What do you mean, embezzling?” He heard his voice speaking, knew his mouth had somehow formed the words, but the implications of what Elizabeth had said seemed as vague and hazy as a mountain fog.
“I mean that I went to Jackson’s office before dinner tonight to find his ledger for Hayes Academy. Sometimes the supplies and materials arriving at the school haven’t matched the amounts that were supposedly ordered, so I wanted to compare my books with Jackson’s.” Her breath quivered as she blew it out. “I—I didn’t find the ledger for the academy, but I found another ledger instead. It was an accident. I wasn’t supposed to discover it. I never knew anything about what they were doing before tonight.”
“Oh, Lizzie.” He reached for her hand, but she pulled it away.
“You believe me, then?” Shock flared in her eyes.
“Why wouldn’t I?”
Two tears slid down her cheeks, silent compared to Sam’s noisy gulps on the couch, but almost more wrenching. “I went to the police station before I came here. The police officer—he wouldn’t believe me without the ledger. Said I had no business going through the accounting office at all, and maybe I could be prosecuted for looking at Jackson’s books without permission.”
“Elizabeth, that’s ridiculous. They’re my offices, and I promise no one’s going to prosecute you.”
She wiped furiously at the tears on her cheeks.
“Where’s the ledger now?” He didn’t think it possible for her face to lose more color, but her skin blanched yet again, and she stared at the blaze in the fireplace.
“Jackson threw it... Father wouldn’t let me leave, and—”
“Jackson? Your father?” He gripped her shoulders and jerked her around until she faced him fully. “You went to see them?”
She stood rigid in his arms, the warmth she’d shown him over the past week buried under layers of rigid hurt. “I had to make sure. What if I’d misread things? Imagined something that wasn’t really in the ledger? You weren’t here, and I couldn’t walk into a police station and accuse my family of stealing thousands of dollars without knowing for sure.”
He pulled her against him, pressing her head to his chest and wrapping his arms around her waist.
She only stiffened more.
“There were other companies listed in the ledger besides Hayes Academy. Connor School for Boys and Maple Ridge College with their normal operating expenses and the hospital in Albany. St. Thomas Orphanage and...” She sank her head. “I don’t remember what else. I’m sorry. I should have paid better attention.”
“Stop apologizing. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Don’t say I shouldn’t apologize.” Her eyes turned fierce, and she shoved at his chest.
He didn’t have to let go. He was stronger and could force her to stand in his embrace. But forcing people into his will had caused him enough trouble of late. So he released her, though every muscle in his body screamed to keep her close.
“My family was stealing from my students. And what’s worse, they expected me to keep silent.” Elizabeth fisted her hands in her already wrinkled skirt. “They actually thought I’d marry David and let him take care of matters, while Father and Jackson walked off with the money and promised not to steal again. If I don’t apologize for what they did, who will?”
He raked his hand through his hair. She stood only two feet away, but she may as well be standing on the other side of a mountain. His arms ached for the feel of her, but she wouldn’t come, not now. And he could hardly blame her. She’d been hurt, and even though he hadn’t been the cause of it, he was tangled in the mess right good, as he owned the company her family had used to steal. “Then let me apologize, too. I’m sorry for what your father and brother did and for the pain it’s putting you through.”
She shook her head and took her cape from where she’d draped it over a chair, then moved to hug Sam before turning back to him, her face as desolate as the prairie after a blizzard. “Thank you, for being my friend, Luke, and for believing me when no one else would.”
You’re more than a friend. I love you. I want to marry you. Didn’t she see that? Didn’t she understand he would stand by her through whatever trouble her discovery unleashed?
But she disappeared through the door before he could open his mouth to tell her.