“What do you mean, it’s none of my business?” he yelled in utter disbelief. “You made it my business when you stepped foot into my house!”
“You brought us here!” she yelled back, and Luke could almost physically feel the daggers her fiery eyes were shooting at him. “I didn’t ask you to!”
He couldn’t deny that part. That day, he’d acted in the moment to get all three of them to safety as swiftly as possible.
“You had nowhere to go!” he said sternly.
“How do you know?” she replied sarcastically. “Did you ask? No!” Madelaine scoffed and focused on the bags, not really doing much of anything, but angrily fiddling with one of the buckles.
“I needed to get you away from all the danger!” he growled, feeling slightly overwhelmed with this whole situation. “And you were injured!
He had never been forced to answer to anybody, let alone a stranger who could very well be scamming him right now. But most surprisingly, since when was Madelaine so combative? He wasn’t used to this kind of wayward behavior from a woman.
Madelaine spun around to him, and the hem of her long, wide skirt slapped against his boots as she did, which made him take a small step backwards. “Why do you even care? We are clearly just a burden to you!” she interrupted him, before she stalked back to the dresser again to rummage around in another drawer, not retrieving a single item.
“What?” Luke was appalled. “I have never said such a thing! Ever!”
“You didn’t need to. Your behavior showed it.”
Luke stared at her in disbelief. “What are you talking about?” Grinding his teeth hard, he closed his eyes to calm down. “I have never told you that you are a burden,” he said, fighting to remain calm. “You are not…”
Madelaine interrupted his speech yet again when she slammed the drawer shut, but she remained standing in front of the solid wooden commode and stared at the blank wall behind it. “It doesn’t matter anymore. We are not welcome here,” she said dismissively.
“Where’s all this coming from?” Luke raised his arms and let them fall by his side in a helpless motion. Instead of fueling it, her unexpected retaliation drained his fighting spirit a little. He was so perturbed by these accusations he almost forgot what he needed to say to her.
Apparently, Madelaine wasn’t finished.
“All these days we were here, you didn’t once ask me what was going on. You didn’t try to talk to me, and you didn’t try to get to know me. You actively avoided me for days. You showed me more than once that you don’t really care about us,” she said, almost sounding sad as she walked back toward the bed, but the bite in her tone didn’t let him forget how angry she was.
Well, so was he.
“I didn’t want to push you too hard!” he exclaimed defensively. “You are suffering from memory loss. I found you injured lying in the snow, being shot at by a group of angry men, for crying out loud!” Luke wanted to rein in his outrage at all of this, but he couldn’t. “What do you think?” he yelled. “That I don’t want to know more about you and your situation? Why you were there? Why you were out there in the freezing cold with two small children? Who those men were and why they were after you all?”
Madelaine heaved a stuttering sigh, but she avoided his eyes and didn’t reply. Luke saw her hands trembling.
“I do care! I care about all of you.” He glanced at Simon and Belle, hiding in their corner, looking too scared for his liking. He would deal with that later. “There are certain things we need to discuss, and seeing that you are seemingly up for adiscussion right now, Madelaine, there are men in town who are looking for you and the children.”
As soon as he said it, Madelaine’s body stiffened, and her eyes shot up to his face. He tried to calm his voice as he continued, but failed. She obviously knew something. Seeing her reaction, his voice was stone-cold.
“Caleb and I spoke to them in the saloon when they started asking questions at the bar about the three of you. They seemed to be quite well informed, knew your names and where you came from, but I did not get the impression that they were the good guys.” Scanning her face, he looked for another reaction to his statements. He didn’t know what to think of it when she didn’t seem surprised. Not at all. Although she had suddenly gotten very pale.
He knew he needed to proceed with caution. “I need you to tell me everything youdoknow, Madelaine. I can only help you if you help me.”
Madelaine glanced back toward the children in obvious distress. Luke did not want to believe that she hadn’t told him the whole truth, but her current behavior was not very helpful. It took everything in him to calm down his temper. He needed to be reasonable, or she might just run away.
When she looked up and directly into his eyes, she seemed clearly worried and very hesitant to speak.
“Madelaine?” he tried more gently.
“I can’t…” Her voice was nothing more than a whisper. “It would put you into danger. You and everyone on this ranch. Evelyn. Caleb…”
Luke shook his head, stepped closer to her, and very carefully took her delicate hand in his. “You do not need to worry about me or any of us. I’m the sheriff, and I do have a whole army behind me if the need should arise.” He said this with conviction. The reaction of the young men in the saloon tonight had confirmed exactly that. “Please talk to me. Tell me what happened. Who is Phineas Greed?” he tried.
As soon as he mentioned the name, Madelaine made a choking, sobbing noise. Her knees buckled, and she sank onto the edge of the bed. She ripped her hand out of his and wrapped her arms around herself. She closed her eyes, and the pain on her face was all too apparent. “This is too much…”
Luke was running out of patience, grabbing her elbow.
Remembering who he was, he spoke to her firmly. “Enough of that! Talk! I will not leave until you do.”
