Page 6 of A Dangerous Heart
Isaac blocked Quade when he tried to step closer, keeping his lean, muscular body between Quade and Clare and her nephews. Almost like he was shielding her.
Her chest tightened. Had anybody ever stepped between her and danger? She didn’t think so.
“Did I hear you say you had a letter? A written promise to marry could be considered a binding contract.”
Clare’s fingers gripped the letter tighter. She wanted to shove it back into her pocket. But that would be too obvious now.
Quade spoke to the man closest to him. “What do you think, gentlemen? It’d sure be a shame if one of Calvin’s first homesteading families got sued for breach of contract.”
Isaac’s shoulders tensed, and his stance grew more rigid.
The other rancher looked uncomfortable. “If McGraw can’t keep his word, the circuit judge can sort this out when he comes to town.”
Something passed between Quade and Isaac. She wished she could see Isaac’s face.
Quade said, “Maybe we should just walk over to the marshal’s office and see what Marshal O’Grady has to say about this.”
Eli, a statue throughout the whole exchange, began to shake. His fists were clenched at his sides, and he was standing on the balls of his feet, ready to run.
Clare gripped his sleeve. “That won’t be necessary,” she said quickly to Quade. “I’m sure Mr. McGraw and I can come to an equitable?—”
Isaac turned toward her. He motioned to the stairs off the platform. “The wagon is thataway. Get a move on.”
The command in his voice grated on her last nerve, but she also had a sense that this was the only offer he was going to make. And she needed to get off the platform, away from so many prying eyes. Eyes that could report back to Victor if he ever sent a scout looking for her here.
She grabbed Eli’s arm with one hand and Ben’s hand with the other and followed Isaac’s long-legged stride off the train platform.
Chapter 2
With her finely tuned instincts, Clare felt a prickling awareness of the curious gazes from passengers on the boardwalk and the men they’d left behind at the station as Eli and Ben scrambled into the wagon box.
The wagon itself was loaded with supplies and waited outside the dry-goods store.
A few feet away, Isaac and a boy with a similar stubborn jawline, a little older than Eli, were engaged in an intense conversation. Every line of Isaac McGraw’s body conveyed suppressed anger and frustration.
The wind carried his last clipped words to the boy. “You ride ahead and start fixing this.”
“I’m hungry,” Ben muttered again.
Clare leaned over the wagon bed to pat his shoulder. “Try to take a nap,” she urged. “We don’t want to cause trouble in our first moments here.”
“Too late,” Eli mumbled.
Isaac stalked to the wagon, ignoring a lifted hat from a man passing by as he approached.
Clare quickly climbed onto the front seat. The trip would be tense at the start, just inches from him on the seat, but she knew how to calm angry men.
“You don’t happen to have children?” she asked, a hint of honey in her voice.
The wagon shifted as he settled on the bench. His hesitation lasted so long, she thought he wouldn’t answer.
“My nephew,” Isaac finally grumbled.
“I thought I could see the family resemblance.”
Another grunt, a flick of the reins, and the wheels began to turn.
“I know you weren’t expecting the boys,” she said with a tentative smile. “We hadn’t really gotten that far in our letters.”
