Page 44 of The Outlaw and the Heir

"Former, in case you didn't hear, I'm serving my sentence," I said brightly. "I would think a man of...what was it, smarts, right? Someone with so much brains as you apparently have should know the difference."

Joseph blinked slowly, clearly taken aback, before snorting harshly. "This is a private conversation. You have no part in it. Now crawl back to your cabin."

"It's private? You wouldn't know it from how loud you're being," I said, cocking my head and frowning in feigned puzzlement. "I thought it was an open forum."

"A...a what?" he asked, looking even more confused.

"Oh, so sorry. I thought you were the learned one," I said with a chuckle, shaking my head. "A forum was a gathering place back in the Roman era. It was used for public speeches, debates, discussions, and the like. Of course, with it being open, it invited anyone to come in if they so wished. Which is, in case you didn't realize what I was saying, precisely what you were doing when you decided to shout for everyone nearby to hear clearly."

Joseph stared at me like I’d just slapped him in the face and spit on his wife in front of him. Ambrose stared at me like I’d just grown wings and started speaking in tongues. He turned his attention toward his brother for a moment, then looked at me as his brother's face turned redder and redder.

"I mean, are you trying to rally the whole ranch and town to take care of...whatever it is you want taken care of?" I asked Ambrose politely.

"No, just get a couple of people from here and town to check it out. Confirm if it's true," he said, mouth a thin yet twitching line.

"Well, that's hardly what I'd call an overreaction," I said with a shrug. "Now, I might be a lowly reforming criminal, but it seems to me that if this really is a big deal, or evencouldbe a big deal, then it makes sense to get more information. For what reason could you object to it?"

"It's a waste of time and resources and will get people riled up," Joseph shot out in a hurry, but I didn't miss the way his fingers twitched or his eyes darted to mine, away, and back again.

"Ah," I said, clicking my tongue. "A small team of personally picked men to investigate is...scaremongering and wasting resources. Interesting. Fascinating even."

If I didn't know better, I’d swear Ambrose was trying to stop himself from laughing. His eyes were wide, and his lips tried to twitch. Joseph, however, looked like he wanted to strangle me on the spot. I was almost willing to push him further, just to see if he would do it...and a little curious to see how Ambrose would handle it.

Even I hadn't noticed their father standing behind them in the hallway, apparently content to let the two of them have their moment before deciding to let them know he was there. I had to give the older man credit, he could be imposing and somehow blend into the background. It was an uncomfortable combination, and I could understand why Ambrose grew up nervous around his father.

"A select group to look into things isn't unreasonable," he said, his tone soft, but there was a sharpness around the edges, like whips cracking ever so slightly to keep everyone's attention on him. "We certainly don't need to attract too much attention and risk getting people riled up or scared."

For a moment, I thought Joseph would argue from the look in his eyes, which would have been quite the show since I didn't think even he was bold enough to argue with their father. Unsurprisingly, his mouth snapped shut, but the furious look didn't wane as he glared at his brother. It certainly didn't seem to matter that their father had agreed partially with him in making sure a fuss wasn't kicked up...though about what I still didn't know. All that seemed to matter to Joseph was that his father hadn't outright agreed.

"As you say," Joseph said in a voice stiff enough it wouldn't have bent in a storm. "You know best."

We watched him for a moment, and it was obvious to me Joseph was fighting like hell to keep himself under control. After forcing a grimace that was probably supposed to be a smile, he turned and walked off, going deeper into the house and leaving the four of us alone. I could hear his footsteps, heavy and fast, on the other side of a door that I couldn't see. If the man had been bad at hiding his anger while facing everyone, he wasn't even trying to conceal it now no one could see him...though he didn't seem to know or care that he could be heard.

When I turned back, it was to find Ambrose frowning at me in what I was pretty sure was a thoughtful way. I couldn't always be sure with him. Most of his expressions came in the form of a frown, and trying to understand which one required experiencing them all. It didn't feel like he was contemplating knocking my head from my shoulders, mostly because it lacked the thin lips or that weird pulse in his neck that I found oddly attractive when he was especially mad. Mostly, it was in the slight tilt to his head, like a curious child or Bear when he thought he saw some critter scuttling around in the shadows of a barn.

And to think I had accused Hipolita of making comparisons that would piss him off.

After another drawn-out moment, Ambrose sucked in a breath and turned to his father. "Thank you, I'm sure of this."

"You had better be," his father said in an even tone that somehow managed to be foreboding. "Even picking a select few men is a risk. Men will talk given the chance, you know that."

"I know, but?—"

"But what?"

"I-I'm sure of this."

"If I didn't think you capable of making up your mind, I wouldn't be agreeing with you," he said and then turned his eyes on me. Part of me wanted to shrink into myself under his harshgaze while the rest rebelled at the idea. I settled on beaming as he stared at me, to which he, of course, had no reaction. "I thought you were planning on getting this one under control."

"What am I, an unruly stallion?" I muttered to Hipolita, knowing I could be heard by the other two.

Ambrose cleared his throat, and I glanced at him, suddenly wondering what he was going to say to his father. "Samuel is...doing what we wanted. We wanted him to work, and he's working. We wanted him not to try to leave the ranch, and he managed that. If he really wanted to escape, he would have done so by now."

His father's eyes stayed on me. “And that...mouth?"

I watched as Ambrose's expression froze for a moment, but I caught it all the same. I knew right then what he was thinking about in the face of his father's question, and I couldn't contain the snort that burst out of me. My suspicions were confirmed when Ambrose turned around, his cheeks coloring as he widened his eyes and stared furiously at me.

"Sorry," I said with a little laugh. "But that's just how the good Lord made me. Plenty of folks, some a lot meaner than you, have tried and failed. So it's funny to think you might believe there's a chance of it happening."

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