“Before you wrote?”
“Yes.”
She slapped him.
The sound cracked through the cabin.
Callaway’s head turned.
He did not move.
Maeve’s hand stung.
She looked horrified by what she had done.
Then anger returned.
“You let me thank you for every meal.”
“I know.”
“You let me worry that I had nowhere else to go.”
“I know.”
“You watched me count the money left in my purse.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Callaway finally looked at her.
“Because I was afraid you wouldn’t come if I told you.”
Maeve recoiled.
“That is not better.”
“I know.”
“Then explain.”
He reached into the chest again and removed several letters.
“The deed isn’t the whole problem.”
Maeve said nothing.
“Mercer has been trying to acquire this ranch for eight years. He wants the water rights.”
“What water rights?”
“The creek through the north valley feeds three other properties in dry season. Whoever controls it controls grazing for nearly twenty thousand acres.”
Maeve looked toward the window.
“Silas Mercer.”
“Yes.”
“He knows I own half.”
“He knows there is an heir.”
“And he knew my name.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Because his father kept copies of the old records.”
Maeve’s anger sharpened again.
“Then why bring me here secretly?”
Callaway’s voice roughened.
“Because Mercer intercepted two letters I sent to your solicitor.”
Maeve went still.
“How do you know?”
“One came back opened. The other never arrived. Three weeks later Mercer offered to buy the ranch for almost nothing and mentioned ‘the Irish complication.’”
Maeve’s stomach turned.
“So you wrote directly to me.”
“Yes.”
“As a husband.”
Callaway closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Maeve looked away.
“That was cowardly.”
“Yes.”
The immediate agreement unsettled her.
She turned.
“You could defend yourself at least.”
“I don’t deserve to.”
“You brought me here under false pretenses.”
“I told you the ranch needed a partner.”
“You let me assume that meant a wife.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew I already owned half.”
“Yes.”
Maeve’s voice shook.
“Why didn’t you tell me the first night?”
Callaway looked at the bed.
Then at her.
“Because you looked terrified.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“You were exhausted. You had crossed an ocean. You kept watching every door and every time I moved you tensed.”
Maeve remembered.
Callaway continued.
“If I handed you a deed that first night and told you half the ranch was yours, I thought you’d believe I’d brought you here to marry you so I could control it.”
Maeve’s expression changed.
“Could you?”
“Under some territorial laws, a husband could gain influence over property.”
Her blood chilled.
“And you knew that.”
“That is exactly why I slept on the cot.”
Maeve looked at it.
Callaway’s voice became quieter.
“I needed there to be no question. Not in your mind. Not in mine. Not in court if Mercer ever challenged us.”
She frowned.
“In court?”
“If you married me immediately after arrival, Mercer could argue I manipulated a foreign heir into transferring or combining property.”
Maeve stared.