out beside Reno’s moccasins. But neither man had the heart to tease Eve about her attempt to civilize one small part of the West. In truth, the men welcomed the gentle rituals and generous feminine warmth that made a home from a simple house.
While Whip ate, he told Reno and Eve about what he had been doing since they had seen him months ago. When he got around to talking about Echo Basin and Holler Creek, he passed lightly over the Culpeppers.
Even without explanations or embroidery, Eve understood what had happened in Murphy’s mercantile. She had lived in some rough places before she met Reno. She knew exactly what stripe of male animal the Culpepper bunch was.
What she didn’t know was why Silent John’s widow was at the Black ranch rather than with Whip.
«Why didn’t you bring Mrs. Smith with you?» Eve asked Whip.
«Mrs. Smith?»
Eve saw the blank lack of comprehension in Whip’s eyes and made an exasperated sound.
«The woman you brought from Echo Basin to the Black ranch,» Eve said, speaking slowly, as though to a backward child. «The woman who was insulted by the Culpeppers. The woman whose modesty you defended with that lethal bullwhip of yours.»
«Oh. You mean Shannon.»
«Lord above, of course I do,» Eve said, laughing. «Is your mind off woolgathering around the world again?»
Surprisingly, red stained Whip’s cheekbones.
«I don’t think of Shannon as Mrs. Smith,» Whip said tersely.
Eve blinked, sweeping long lashes over her eyes, concealing the sudden speculation in them. She very much wanted to look at Reno, to see what he thought of Whip and the woman who might or might not be a widow, the woman Whip obviously didn’t like to think about as married at all.
«I see,» Eve murmured. «WasShannontoo tired after the ride down from Echo Basin to come here?»
«I left her with Willy and Cal. I was hoping Shannon would want to live with them and help Willy.»
«That would be nice,» Eve said. «Willow has been looking to hire a girl for —»
«Not as hired help,» Whip interrupted roughly. «Not really. Sort of like a sister or a maiden aunt.»
Eve cleared her throat rather than point out that a widow was nobody’s maiden aunt. She knew the Moran men too well not to recognize the warning in Whip’s clear, bleak eyes. He was a man caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to move.
Yet he had to move.
Yondering man.
Half of Eve’s heart went out to Whip and his pain. The other half of her heart went out to Shannon, whom she suspected was caught in pain as Eve had once been caught, in love with a man who wasn’t ready to love her. But in the end, Reno had come to love her.
Eve wondered if Shannon would be that lucky.
She looked at the big, blond-haired man whose eyes were clear as autumn ice. Whip could be gentle and loving, but God help anyone who tried to hold him when he would rather roam.
«A family kind of thing, room and board and a little egg money,» Whip explained. «And safety. That most of all.»
A sideways glance at Reno told Eve that her husband was both amused and bemused by his brother. The gentle curve of Reno’s mouth told of his sympathy, as well.
«Is that what Shannon wants?» Eve asked, curious. «Safety and a little egg money?»
The line of Whip’s mouth flattened even more. Put that way, it sounded like a paltry kind of existence for anyone, much less for a young woman like Shannon.
Silence stretched uncomfortably.
«If Shannon is half the woman you make her out to be,» Eve said finally, her voice careful, «you won’t need to worry about her for long. Some smart man will come down the road and give her a lot more than room and board and a little egg money.»
Whip’s head came up. His eyes were narrowed to splinters of glittering gray.
«He’ll give her his name and his children and build a home for her,» Eve said calmly. «She won’t have to live on the kindness of others. She’ll have her own home to enjoy, her own man to love, and her own children to raise. He will be her safety and she will be his refuge.»
«No.»
Whip didn’t know he had spoken aloud until he heard the echo of his own savage denial at the thought of Shannon bearing another man’s child. Whip’s hands gripped the edge of the table until his skin was white. He shouldn’t feel this way about Shannon and another man.
But he did.
Eve’s dark gold eyebrows raised in silent query at Whip’s vehemence.
«She doesn’t have to marry some man and have his kids to be safe,» Whip said doggedly. «All she needs is…»
His voice died.
«I take it you don’t want to marry her yourself,» Eve said neutrally.
«It’s nothing against Shannon.» Whip’s voice was raw. «If s me.»
«Sugar,» Reno said softly, «it would be no kindness for Whip to marry Shannon. She might as well marry the wind.»
«Does she know that?» Eve asked.
«She knows,» Whip said flatly. «She told me she’d never marry a man who loved a sunrise he had never seen more than he loved her.»
«Smart woman,» Eve said.
«Stubborn woman,» Whip shot back. «She won’t leave the high country and it’s not safe there for a woman alone.»
«Why won’t she leave?»
«Up there, she isn’t beholden to anyone for her salt and bread.»
«Verysmart woman,» Eve said.
«Very damnedstubbornwoman,» Whip snarled. «I can’t leave her at the mercy of those miners and I can’t stay up there with her until she comes to her senses.»
Eve made a sound that was sympathetic, questioning, and subtly goading.
«The only way out of the mess,» Whip said, «is to find enough gold on those damned claims to buy her a place in Denver or back east or whatever, just so I know she’s safe.»
«And unmarried?» Eve suggested sardonically.
The bleak anger in Whip’s eyes was all the answer she needed.
«Whip, for the love of heaven!» she said, exasperated. «If you don’t want to marry Shannon, why should you get so upset at the idea that some other man —»
A nudge from Reno’s foot under the table cut off Eve’s words.
«Whip knows he’s being unreasonable,» Reno said. «That’s why his temper is on a hair trigger. If he needs a fight, I’ll be the one to give it to him.»
«Men,» Eve said under her breath.
Then she sighed and tried another approach.
«Why don’t you just give her some of your own gold from that Spanish mine?» Eve asked. «Lord knows you’ve barely touched it.»
«In her place, would you take it?» Reno asked before Whip could speak.
«No. But I was in love with a man who was a fool for hunting gold.»
«And Shannon,» Reno said, «is in love with a man who is a fool for yon —»
«She doesn’t really love me!» Whip interrupted harshly.
«Is that what she says?» Eve retorted. «Or is it what you hope?»
«She’s never been around anyone but a snake-mean old man hunter, and a tough old hermit called Cherokee, and a bunch of young miners with the manners of rutting elks,» Whip said. «Of course she would think the first man who treats her decently is special.»
