Caleb’s whiskey-colored eyes focused on the slender girl whose hair was the color of autumn.
«Did he say anything to you?» Caleb asked Shannon bluntly.
«No. But then, he’s a yondering man.»
«That doesn’t excuse bad manners,» Willow said. «I declare, for all the customs in all the countries of the world Whip has learned, he should know better.»
Caleb hadn’t stopped looking at Shannon. There was the same tension around her mouth, the same darkness in her eyes, that there had been in Whip’s. Caleb had spent several hours thinking about how Whip had looked, and whether anything should be said about it.
He had decided it should.
«I understand Whip did some digging on your gold claims,» Caleb said.
Shannon nodded.
«Any luck?» Caleb asked.
Willow shot him a surprised look. «Caleb, that’s none of our business.»
He turned toward her with startling swiftness. «Not usually, no. But this isn’t usual.»
Willow gave her husband a long look, said something under her breath, and went back to spooning stew.
«Any luck finding gold?» Caleb asked again, turning to Shannon once more.
«No. Whip said he lost the drift, whatever that is.»
Caleb grunted. «The drift is the direction the vein of gold takes in the bedrock. When you lose it, all you’re doing is hammering stone.»
«Whip did a lot of that. He came back every day covered in rock grit and sweat.»
«Did he? Why? He hates gold mining almost as much as I do, and he hates working for wages even worse.»
«Whip was worried about me,» Shannon said. «Winters are long in Echo Basin, and supplies in Holler Creek are very dear. He was worried that I wouldn’t have enough to eat unless the claims paid for it.»
«There’s always hunting,» Caleb said. Then he smiled slightly, remembering the story of the grizzly. «But you’re not much of a shot, are you?»
«Ammunition is too expensive to waste practicing,» Shannon said, «so I just have to sneak up on game and do the best I can.»
«I’m surprised Silent John didn’t make his own bullets. Most men like him do.»
«He did. But he never trusted me enough to teach me how. He was mighty particular about the weight of his bullets. He counted each grain of powder.»
«I’ll just bet he did,» Caleb said, thinking of Silent John’s reputation with a. 50-caliber buffalo gun. «Do you think he’s still alive?»
«No. But please don’t tell anyone.»
«Why?»
«I don’t want two-legged wolves howling around the cabin each time they get a skin full of rotgut,» Shannon said bluntly. «Silent John put the fear of God in the men around Echo Basin. I want it to stay that way.»
Caleb nodded, unsurprised. «What about Whip?»
«Whip?» Shannon asked. She smiled sadly. «He can howl around my cabin any time he takes the notion.»
Caleb laughed softly, even as he understood the pain in Shannon’s smile.
«Does Whip think Silent John is dead?» Caleb asked.
«Yes.»
«Then what’s the problem?»
«I beg your pardon?» Shannon asked.
«Why did Whip light out of here like his heels were on fire?»
«He wants me to stay with you and Willow.»
«So do we,» Willow said from the stove.
«I…thank you,» Shannon said. «But I can’t.»
«Can’t or won’t?» Caleb asked in a clipped voice.
«Caleb,» Willow said. «We have no right.»
«Did you see your brother when he rode out?» Caleb asked curtly.
«No.»
«I did. When someone you care about looks the way Whip did, you start asking questions. And you get answers.»
As Shannon looked at Caleb’s face, she remembered what Whip had once called him — a dark angel of vengeance who had followed a man for years to avenge the seduction, betrayal, and death of his sister. It reminded her of the man called Hunter, another dark angel moving over the face of the lawless land.
Shannon closed her eyes and laced her fingers together until they ached. When she opened her eyes, Caleb was watching her with both compassion and determination.
He knew his questions were painful for her. But he was going to have answers anyway, for Whip, too, was hurting.
«If I thought you didn’t care for Whip,» Caleb said calmly, «I wouldn’t have said a word about any of this to you. But I’ve seen you watching him. It’s the way Eve watches Reno, the way Jessi watches Wolfe, the —»
«— way Willow watches you,» Shannon finished for Caleb. «I’m sorry. I don’t have much practice at hiding my feelings.»
«There’s no need,» Willow said, putting the bowl of stew on the table. «You’re among friends, here. You know that, don’t you?»
Shannon nodded and tried to speak. Tears threatened to overflow her long, dark lashes.
Willow put her arms around Shannon and hugged her like a child.
«Then why can’t you stay with us?» Willow asked softly.
Shannon hugged Willow in return, took a deep, broken breath, and tried to make Whip’s sister understand.
«How would you feel,» Shannon asked, «if you loved Caleb and he wanted something more than he wanted you and he left you?»
Willow’s breath came in swiftly. She stepped back, wanting to see Shannon’s eyes. Then she wished she hadn’t.
«How would you feel,» Shannon said painfully, «if, after Caleb left, you lived in his sister’s house, saw Caleb in his sister’;s sun-bright hair and catlike eyes, saw Caleb in his sister’s child, a dimple in one corner of the baby’s smile…you saw all this and you knew every day, every breath, every heartbeat, that there would be no baby for you, no home, no mate to share your life?»
«I couldn’t bear it,» Willow said. «Loving Caleb, knowing he didn’t love me, being reminded of it everywhere I looked…. It would kill me.»
«Yes,» Shannon whispered.
She turned to Caleb, who was watching her with troubled eyes while his big hand stroked Willow’s hair in silent love.
«That’s why I can’t stay,» Shannon said to him.
«Is that what you told Whip?» he asked. «Is that why he looked like he had a knife in his guts?»
Shannon shook her head slowly, sending veils of autumn-colored hair sliding over her shoulders.
«No,» she said in a husky voice. «That’s not what I told him.»
«Why not?» Caleb asked.
«It would have been like asking him to stay…begging him. I won’t do that.»
«Too proud?»
Caleb’s voice was gentle but his eyes were the unflinching amber of a bird of prey.
He didn’t have all of his answers yet.
«Too practical,» Shannon corrected with a bittersweet smile. «Watching my mama and papa taught me how bad things can get when a man wants one thing and a woman wants another. He left and she took laudanum for the pain. For the first time, I understand why she did it. And I hope it worked.»
