The question hung between them. The murmur of voices drifted in—the driver and the footman talking. A distant coyote let loose a howl. Devon might never hear a coyote again. Might never see the stars again.
She fought to steady her voice. “I wouldn’t give you anything because there’s nothing you could do. I don’t care what you promise me for a night on the carriage bench or whatever you might dream up. I’m not foolish enough to imagine all those generals down in San Antonio would listen toyou. Even you don’t have that kind of power. And I wouldn’t trust you if you did. Your word isn’t worth spit.”
“My word? I don’t recall lying to you. But you’ve spun a basketful to me. ” He drummed his fingers on the seat and blew out his cheeks. “What if your part of the deal wasn’t payable until Reynolds was free?”
“What do you mean?”
“If I save Reynolds from the noose, you have to marry me. That would be enough. He would live the rest of his life, knowing I had you.”
She blinked at him. Marry Nick? The threat of such a posh enslavement had hung over her head for weeks, easily cast aside. Until now. “I’m not going to discuss that with you because it’s not going to happen. You’re not going to set him free. You’re a liar, a braggart, and a cheat who cares for nothing but himself and his money.”
He scrubbed his hand over his well-groomed jaw. “I’ll tell you what.” He stretched his arms across the tops of the cushions and crossed his ankle over his knee as if he had all of the time in the world. “You know that slave friend of yours? Lucy? The one your uncle has chained up at the slave trader’s shop in town? We’ll fetch her. Let her carry a message to those traitors Reynolds was in league with.”
She gaped at him. “You must think I’m stupid. You’d have her followed, and you’d throw every Unionist you could get your hands on in jail or worse. It’d be more notches on your scalp pole.”
“You’d be with me the whole time. My two men won’t go anywhere. I’d get her free. More likely, buy her and turn my back while she runs off. You’d give her the information on where to go if she already doesn’t know, and you’d give her the message that Reynolds is being moved tomorrow. I’ll give you the name of the spot where the escort will likely spend the night on the road. Provided they can muster enough guts andguns, the Unionists will have an opportunity to rescue their hero. It’d give Reynolds a fighting chance.”
“This is a trick. You want to use me to destroy people’s lives.” She glowered at him, her nails slicing into her palms.
He pulled his watch out of his pocket and clicked open the lid.
Thetick, tick, tickpounded in her temples.
He snapped the timepiece shut. “We can sit here and talk all night. It’s up to you if you want to allow Reynolds a hope.” He tugged on his cuffs. “But you have my word that I won’t follow Lucy or try to find who she contacts. I won’t alert the military. She’ll have her freedom, and the men will have the opportunity to rescue Reynolds. They may or may not succeed. Reynolds might not survive the attempt, but if he doesn’t, that’d be a shame. His Unionist comrades should strike as soon as possible if they want to beat the lynching crew that will likely attack before San Antonio.” He cocked his eyebrows. “It’s up to you.”
“Why would you do this? If anyone finds out, you’ll be viewed as a traitor.”
He unscrewed the lid on his flask and took a swig. “A man doesn’t earn a partnership with Richard King by living ordinary and limiting his risks. One doesn’t hope to corner the cattle market by staying with the herd. You’d make a perfect wife for the future I envision for myself on the frontier. A life Reynolds could never provide. He’s too busy throwing away his opportunities for his principles. He’d rather scrape by kidnapping women and wasting his talents trying to avoid the war and then feel guilty about it and enlist, a man blown about by the wind.”
“He’s willing to risk his life for what he believes in and to save others. You’re only willing to risk your reputation and only to line your pocket.”
He rolled his eyes for the second time this evening.
This could be her only hope of saving Devon. But what if she ended up betraying everyone who had helped with themission, everyone who had any loyalty to Devon? She gripped her midsection. “Where would I be while we wait to see what happens? Locked up in my uncle’s attic?”
“Absolutely not. Once we set this in motion, you are with me. I’d leave word that I’m eloping with you, traveling to Galveston to get married, and then setting sail for England. I’m going to win the Confederacy the largest cotton contracts they’ve ever seen. The cotton lost at the warehouse will be but a thimbleful compared to it.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You said I wouldn’t have to marry you until after the escape.”
“You wouldn’t. You’d be with me in my rooms. Your reputation would be ruined, but I wouldn’t touch you against your will until we’re married, and we wouldn’t marry until we receive word of his escape.”
“You’d let everyone think that you’d…that we’d… No one decent would have me after that. I might as well be a saloon girl.”
He shrugged.
“You don’t care.” Of course, he didn’t. It’d be another tie binding her to him.
“And I should add that if you betray me, my men and I will hunt Reynolds down, and I’ll put a bullet between his eyes, and you’ll be mine, wed or not.” He smiled like a fox about to have dinner. “Just to be clear.”
She rocked forward, her chest pressed to her knees. Nausea engulfed her, but there was no purging. She drug her fingers through her hair, pressing her nails to her skull.Dear Lord, help me. What am I to do?
He shifted his foot to the floor and leaned forward, elbows on knees. “I’ll be a good husband to you, Morning Fawn. My mother wasn’t treated right by my father. I will treat you right.”
You don’t know the first thing about being a husband.It will be a prison sentence, not a life.
“From the way you two talked to each other in the jail, I thought you’d be willing to do anything to save him.”
She groaned down deep in her soul. She’d failed her sister. She’d not been willing to put herself at risk for Eyes-Like-Sky. “I won’t betray his accomplices. I won’t sacrifice Lucy.”
