Page 24 of The Outlaw and the Heir

"Well, I stayed in this lovely place in the nearby town of Rapture," Samuel said, and I rolled my eyes. "Wonderful place, really, very welcoming. Why, not only was I given a personal escort, but they swiftly made sure my accommodations were ready. True, they could have been better accommodations, but I suppose one takes what one can get this far west."

"God above," I muttered to myself. "You were injail."

"Did you help raise him?" Samuel asked her, making my eyes widen.

"You could say I had a part," she answered.

"Abigpart," I interjected, unsure why it annoyed me so much.

"You couldn't have, I don't know, helped him get a sense of humor? Some love for a little whimsy in his life?" Samuel asked, glancing back at me with an expression that said I was somehownot measuring up to his standards. Which was absurd, the only person allowed to dothatwas my father, and I would have to take it as high praise that I didn't measure up to this man's expectations.

"There are just some things you can't give someone," Hipolita said with a chuckle. It was good that I could hear familiar warmth in her voice otherwise, I would have been a little offended. "He has plenty of other things the Lord gave him that he can use to add to this world. But he's not a mystery to me. You are."

"I get that a lot," Samuel said, and I realized it was the first time I'd heard him sound so...casual. I'd never realized it until it was gone, but before, there had always been a wariness about him. Now I was thinking of it, I was reminded of when I saw one of the ranch cats have a standoff with a snake, both watching each other intensely, trying to seem as big and mean as possible to scare the other off. Was he no different than a scared tomcat trying to make it to the barn to hunt for mice?

I didn't like that thought much.

"All I hear is someone used to hiding," Hipolita said, reaching over to pat his hand. "But don't you worry, we all got reasons to hide. I won't pry into yours."

"Oh," he said with a contented sigh. "Please tell me you're the one who actually runs the house around here because theyneedsomeone like you in charge."

"I mind my own affairs as they're given to me," she said, and I suddenly realized she’d dropped her 'guest' accent. It was only used when she was around someone new or who she didn't trust. It had always been strange and a little irritating to hear her dumb her speech down. I knew that people took one look at her and automatically assumed she was uneducated and stupid. All she was doing most of the time was confirming what most people already believed about her.

"Oh?" Samuel asked with a chuckle. "And here I thought minding your own business was just how things were handled this far west...with some exceptions, of course."

"Like the kind that lands you in a cell?" Hipolita asked, and I didn't need to see her to know she had a smirk on her face. Until Samuel had come here, I would have said no one on the ranch could do smug quite like Hipolita. Now I was thinking of it, having the two of them spend too much time together might be a bad idea, as neither of them needed help being snarky.

"I've been led to believe that sort of thing is when people stop minding their own business," Samuel laughed softly, patting her arm. "Funny how that works."

"Delightful," she said as they mounted the steps and reached the double doors leading into the house.

"This is the first delightful conversation I've had in...well, actually, it's been since...I can't remember," he admitted with a laugh that sounded surprised. I could see his face as he grabbed the door to open it, and I thought that for a moment, the corners of his mouth turned down, a shadow passing over his face. It was gone in an instant, and he turned to hold the door open for Hipolita with that same easy, almost lazy smile I'd grown used to seeing after he tried to get under my skin.

Hipolita unwound her arm from his before stepping through, bowing her head in thanks. “I'm sure you don't run into too many people willing to talk."

"This one talks," he said, smirking at me before following her and leaving me to trail after the two of them…again. "Mostly grunts, grumbles, curses, and complaining about me, but he talks."

Hipolita turned to look at me, smiling fondly. Which should have made me feel good, but the woman had raised me, and I knew her almost as well as she knew me. I knew that whatevercame out of her mouth would irritate me. "He talks...if you can figure out how to avoid the things that get on his nerves."

"So, anything to do with me, anything I say, anything that exists under the sun and under the moon...and definitely don't talk about his family, especially his father."

"There's nothing you have to say about any of that worth hearin'," I told him in a low voice that I hoped carried enough warning to make himthinkabout shutting up.

"See?" he said with a shrug toward Hipolita.

She eyed me with that same irritating fondness. “You couldtryto be a little less...abrasive."

"I am not having this conversation," I told her with a glare.

"He means he doesn't want you to give him trouble about his attitude while I can hear," Samuel said in an exaggerated whisper that would have carried through thick walls.

"I know," she said with a chuckle.

A throat cleared, and I turned to see my father standing in the hallway, back and shoulders as stiff as ever. The tilt of his head told me he was waiting, but not impatiently.

"Brought them just like you asked, Mr. Isaiah," Hipolita said, bowing slightly. "Can I get you anything else?"

"Not at the moment. Thank you, Hipolita," he said. I noticed the way Samuel's head tilted before straightening. I wasn't sure what was suddenly so interesting to him, but if he thought he was going to get one over on my father, of all people, he needed to start reevaluating whatever plots he had going on in his head.

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