Her Outlaw (33 page)

Next Dair glanced at Kat’s portrait, a vision in emerald, before focusing on the third sister dressed in blue, the one he hadn’t met. Maribeth, whose sparkling eyes were the color of the sapphire hanging around her neck. She had golden hair that sparkled with shimmers of red just like her sisters. She was beautiful, just like her sisters.

“Whoa,” Logan said from behind him. “The last time I saw that many pictures of gorgeous women on a wall I was in a high-dollar whorehouse trying to choose my evening’s entertainment.”

“Shut up, Grey.”

“Now, I know you probably don’t approve of buying affection, but don’t forget, my work takes me places where the West is still wild. Sometimes professionals are the only option available.”

“There are more bags in the wagon.”

“I’m resting my muscles and indulging in a bit of fantasy. Are either of the other two single? If you manage to ruin my chances with Emma by staying alive, maybe I could—
humph.
”

Dair removed his elbow from his friend’s stomach. “Maribeth is married to a lawman. Remember? Holt knows her husband.”

“Oh, yeah. What about the other one?”

“Kat is—”

“Mine,” snapped a voice from behind them. “She’s my wife.”

Dair turned to see Jake Kimball glaring at Logan Grey from the doorway. Dair’s lips lifted in a grin. “That was a fast trip to Tibet.”

Shooting Logan one last warning glance, Jake advanced and turned his attention to Dair. They shook hands and slapped each other’s shoulders. Jake said, “Well, MacRae. You sure managed to cause a stir.”

“Your father-in-law took a shot at me.”

Jake’s mouth twisted with a grin. “Yeah? He had me thrown in jail. I suggest you do some fast talking, yourself, to avoid a similar fate. I’m afraid my brother-in-law discovered some outstanding arrest warrants for you, and Luke can be a real law-and-order fellow.”

“I was afraid of that,” Dair said with a grimace. Turning to Logan, he asked, “Can I count on you to have my back?”

“Of course,” Logan said, a faint sneer on his face as he looked at Jake. “I protect my friends.”

Not liking the way the two men were sizing one another up, Dair stepped between them. “If you two could refrain from fisticuffs for a moment, I’d like to get caught up on what I’ve missed. Jake Kimball, meet Logan Grey. Don’t be an ass about the fact that Logan admired your wife. With a woman like Katrina, that’s a reality you’ll have to learn to live with. And Logan, don’t be an ass about Jake needing to get along with his brother-in-law. The lawman is his family, just like you are mine.”

Jake arched a brow. “I didn’t know you had a sibling.”

“There’s quite a lot about Dair you don’t know, Jake,” Emma said from the hallway just outside the room. Her gaze fastened on him as she said, “My parents are asking for explanations, and I’d appreciate it if you’d join us. It’ll be easier to tell the story once to everyone than to have to repeat it over and over.”

“I’ll be right there. First, though, let me tell Jake about the news I learned at Chatham Park.”

Emma nodded. “Logan, you want to come with me? I’d like to introduce you to my family. Everyone is here now.”

Out of orneriness, Logan grinned big. “Excellent. I’m excited to meet your sisters, Emma.”

Once Jake and Dair were alone in the room, Dair rubbed the back of his neck and said, “I could use a drink.”

“I understand. Here.” Jake walked toward a cabinet where he pulled out two glasses and a decanter filled with amber liquid. “We’ll raid the old man’s bourbon. I figure he owes you a drink for shooting at you.”

“He ruined my hat.” Dair accepted the glass, clicked it against Jake’s in a wordless toast, then sipped the drink. As it burned a smooth path down his throat, he decided how to approach the problem at hand. “You look happy, Kimball.”

“I am. Though Kat and I officially married in England, yesterday we had a wedding. Today I don’t have to spend my second honeymoon with my in-laws, after all. Life is good.”

“You love her.”

“I do. Very much. I was a little slow about realizing it, so she made me pay, but in the end, well, I found my family, Dair.”

He couldn’t ask for a more perfect lead-in. “About that. Jake, I have some hard news for you. It’s about Daniel.”

Jake closed his eyes and blew out a long sigh. He tossed back a bracing gulp of whiskey, then his mouth settled in a grim line. “What is it?”

Dair told him about his trip to Chatham Park looking for Emma, and the visit by Miss Starnes’s family while he was there.

While Dair spoke, Jake turned away, moving to stand in front of the window. Dair finished his story, then waited for Jake’s reaction. When it came, its direction surprised him.

“Do you believe in ghosts, MacRae?”

Ghosts were easier to accept than fairies. “I don’t not believe in them.”

Jake nodded. “I think that maybe he’s been dead all along. I think maybe time runs a bit differently on the other side than it does here, and that my dream was Daniel’s goodbye gift to me. It worked, too. ‘Find the necklace, find your family.’ I was just too blind to see it for awhile.”

“You loved him.” Dair took his own bracing sip of liquor and added, “It’s hard as hell to let go of those we love.”

Jake exhaled a heavy breath, then turned to face Dair. “Daniel is dead. I can finally accept it. Thanks, though, MacRae, for tying up that loose end for me.” He shook his head. “To think I almost settled for a woman who would pull a stunt like that.”

“You wouldn’t have gone through with it.” Kat McBride Kimball swept into the room. “You were already crazy in love with me. Hello, Dair.”

He nodded. “Mrs. Kimball.”

She grinned, but spared him little attention as she directed her focus toward her husband and walked into his arms. “I eavesdropped, Jake. What that horrible Miss Starnes did is awful. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry about Daniel.”

Jake dipped his head and rested his forehead against hers. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

Such was the intimacy and emotion of the moment that Dair felt like a voyeur. Now there was a couple who’d been lucky in love.
Poor Emma. She’ll have a hard time being around those two. Even worse if her other sister’s marriage is so blatantly joyful.

Dair was relieved when Kat stepped away from her husband, braced her hands on her hips, and turned a challenging look toward him. “Mr. MacRae. I swear I don’t know whether to slug you or hug you. Thank you for bringing my sister home.”

Though that wasn’t exactly the way it had happened, Dair saw no reason to correct her. “You’re very welcome.”

“Now I think it’s time to join the others. My father is about to bust a gut to find out the details of this murder you got Emma involved in, and if that’s not enough, I’m afraid your friend Mr. Grey and Mari’s Luke are about to come to blows. Mr. Grey is quite the flirtatious fellow, isn’t he?”

“Who is that sonofabitch, Dair?” Jake demanded.

Quite possibly, your future brother-in-law.
“Logan and I grew up together.”

Jake groused, “Well, he doesn’t have very good manners.”

“That’s funny coming from you.”

“Funny? I’ll tell you what’s funny. Me watching you at the McBride Inquisition.” Jake glanced at his wife. “Honey? You think Jenny has any peanuts in her pantry? I like having something to munch on while I’m watching a show.”

In the doorway into the kitchen, Dair paused. The large room was crowded with people and the vast majority of them were giving him the Evil Eye. He wasn’t so sure about ghosts, and he didn’t believe in fairies. He did, however, believe in the power of family. He wondered if he’d survive this with his skin intact.

Only for you, Emma. Only for you.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I
N HER OLD BEDROOM AT
Willow Hill, Emma held her breath as she eased open the door to one of the “secret passageways” her architect father had built into his design of their home. Modeled after the hidden staircases of the house where Trace McBride grew up, the space had provided the McBride children hours upon hours of fun in their childhood make-believe games.

This morning, they served another purpose. Stepping carefully and quietly, Emma made her way down a hidden staircase to a second-floor window. She slid up the window, then reached for a vine-covered trellis which she climbed down until her feet touched the ground.

Now came the tricky part—making her way off Willow Hill property without being seen. She’d given her word to keep quiet about the morning’s mission, and she preferred sneaking away to telling an out-and-out lie. She’d done enough of that last night.

Lying to her father, to her mother, was exhausting. She’d found it so much easier to give them the facts about Robbie Potter’s death and the hunt for the Sisters’ Prize than to gloss over the details of why she’d left Chatham Park and traveled along with a “sorry-low-down-no-good-sack-of-b.s.-outlaw.”

As difficult as it was to lie to her parents and Uncle Tye and Aunt Claire, looking her sisters in the eyes and fudging the truth was twice as hard. Mari and Kat knew Emma. They knew she wasn’t telling them the whole story, and when the two of them ganged up on her in the privacy of the nursery while Emma played with the twins, the words had bubbled on her tongue like a lemon fizz. But Emma had given Dair her word and she wouldn’t break it. Not about something as important to him as his privacy.

Luck was with her, however, and she made her escape without detection and headed downtown to Dair’s hotel. Thank goodness she didn’t have to break him out of jail this morning. She’d worried about that a time or two last night. Luke took his job as sheriff seriously, and it went against his grain to turn his back on a train robber. It wasn’t until Mari pointed out that she’d robbed a train before, too, and that if her husband arrested Dair she’d insist he arrest her also did Luke agree to Dair’s offer to turn himself in once Robbie Potter’s killer was found. Emma suspected that everyone in the room at the time had believed Dair was lying, but this made it easier for Luke to turn his back. Kat had declared it a minor miracle when Dair and Logan finally left Willow Hill last night without any blood being shed. Emma had to agree.

“I’ll make it up to them,” she murmured as she approached the hotel. Once she was able to tell them everything, they’d understand. If her hopes proved true and she was able to end the curse, then all certainly would be forgiven. Billy and Tommy and Bobby wouldn’t need to worry about the Bad Luck curse. Not even her father could argue with her in that case.

Dair waited for her in the lobby. Spying him, she offered up a shaky smile. This was their first private moment together since he met her family, and she wasn’t exactly sure what reception to expect from him.

He didn’t exactly look happy. In fact, he appeared downright grim. Without offering so much as a good morning, she asked, “Does your head hurt?”

“No. Let’s go get this over with.”

They were halfway to the door when a shrill voice called, “Emma? Emma Tate is that you?”

“Oh, no.”

Glancing over his shoulder, Dair’s steps faltered. “Don’t tell me. That’s the original—”

“Wilhemina Peters.” Emma continued her march outside without slowing down.

“The woman Kat impersonated the day of the bride interviews,” Dair said as they joined a bustling early-morning crowd on the sidewalk. “Kat caught her perfectly. I’m impressed.”

Emma didn’t want to talk about Wilhemina Peters, but at least her appearance had distracted Dair from his bad mood. Or so she thought. When she attempted to make ordinary walking-along-the-sidewalk small talk, he shot her a scowl and said, “Honestly, Emma, I don’t give a damn about the weather.”

She kept quiet until they arrived at Dr. Peter Daggett’s office in a block of professional buildings just west of downtown. “Peter…Dr. Daggett…studied medicine at Massachusetts General. He’s developed quite a reputation in town for being on the leading edge of science.”

Dair’s only comment was a
humph.

Inside, they found the physician in the office reception room. Upon seeing Emma, his face lit up. “Emma! How lovely you look. Obviously your trip agreed with you. I was so pleased to get your note last night. Fort Worth has been a pale and boring place without you to brighten the days.”

Dair leaned toward her and murmured, “A suitor? You brought me to a suitor of yours?”

Emma smiled weakly. Wonderful. Just wonderful. Weren’t they off to a great start? She made the introductions and thanked Peter for agreeing to see Dair on such short notice.

“Anything for you, Emma, dear,” Peter replied. He motioned toward a doorway. “If you’ll follow me to the examination room, Mr. MacRae?”

When Emma moved to join them, the doctor smiled and shook his head. “You’ll need to wait out here, my dear.”

“No,” Dair piped up. “I need her with me.”

Peter Daggett glanced between them, frowning. “That’s not the usual…”

“Emma and I have a…special…relationship, Doctor. I hope we can trust in your discretion?”

“Oh, I see.” He gave Emma a quick look of regret before formalizing his manner into one of complete professionalism. “However, I still prefer to perform my examinations in private.”

Dair shook his head. “She has to be there, doc. She’ll need to see and hear for herself. The last time she took me to a doctor I lied to her about his diagnosis.”

With that, Emma reached the end of her patience. “Physicians in England have told him he has a brain tumor. They’ve told him he’s dying, Peter. I’m not ready to accept that inevitability, and I trust you to give him the best medical care available.”

Peter nodded and led them into the examining room where he asked Dair to describe his symptoms, prodding for more details when Dair responded in general terms. Then he studied Dair’s eyes and used a tuning fork to test his hearing. He tested Dair’s reflexes, balance and coordination. He pricked his patient with a pin to test his sense of touch, doused cotton balls with different liquids to examine his sense of smell, then instructed him to smile, grimace and stick out his tongue.