Henry shook his head. “No. I don’t know where he found the young woman—” He broke off, puzzled. “How do you know about this? I just received your father’s last letters to me with copies of the documents. The young lady hasn’t arrived yet?—”
“Oh, but she has!” Hawk murmured. He leaned forward, staring at Henry. “Just tell me—is this marriage legal?”
“Well, of course, you could apply for an annulment, if both parties were willing?—”
“Is the marriage legal?” he demanded.
“It—er—yes,” Henry said.
Hawk expelled a long breath. “I can’t believe my father did this!”
Henry cleared his throat. “It—gets a little worse.”
Hawk arched a brow at him.
“A little worse?”
Henry’s Adam’s apple moved up and down beneath the collar of his formal white shirt. He cleared his throat again. “If she chooses to force the issue of attempting to negate the marriage, she will be disinherited except for a small stipend she is to receive, even if she returns home. If she remains here as your wife, naturally, the house becomes half hers.” Henry loosened his collar.
“Go on.”
“If you choose to attempt to negate it?—”
Hawk stood, incredulous. “My father disinherited me?”
“No, not completely. Only the Mayfair estate lands.”
Thousands of Black Hills acres. Land David owned through land grants and claims, but Sioux land. Land he never developed because it had belonged to his wife’s people, his son’s people. Land he had to keep.
He’d been raised Sioux. Raised to believe that a man of honor shared everything, did not need riches. But he needed those lands. Especially with the confrontations that promised to come.
He sank back into the chair, shaking his head. His father had known him, known how to manipulate him. Known he didn’t give a damn about Scottish estates or eastern property. He would have gladly rid himself of an unwanted wife by giving up those properties. But the Sioux lands…
The hot fire of pain spread throughout his chest. “I loved him,” he said simply, lifting his hands, at a loss.
“He—he loved you, too. I truly believe that he did what he did for your benefit. Of course, he must also have been quite charmed by this young woman when he met her to have stipulated that she must be in his will as well.”
“Yes, he must have been charmed.”
“Well, you’ve met your, er, wife, is that right?”
“Yes. I met her stagecoach. Rather by accident. I’d gone to Riley’s to see if my father’s body had arrived.”
“Well, then, is she—satisfactory?”
“Satisfactory?”
Henry was becoming increasingly more nervous and ill at ease. “I mean…is she, er…well, dammit all, Hawk, is she attractive? Is she—oh, lord—is she unattractive? Is there something wrong with her?”
Hawk smiled without amusement. “She’s just—charming. Tell me—you’re absolutely sure the marriage is legal. It’s a proxy marriage?—”
“Half the marriages in half the mining towns throughout the West are legal by proxy,” Henry said wearily. “How do you think these fellows get wives out here? What proper young woman is going to come this distance without being a man’s lawful wedded wife?”
“What proper young woman…” Hawk murmured.
“You know that I’m willing to be of service to you in any way,” Henry said. “But your father was of sound mind when he made his arrangements. My hands are tied.”
Hawk leaned forward. It was on the tip of his tongue to ask, “And what if she seduced, coerced, and killed the old man?” He didn’t say the words. He could probably never prove that she’d had anything to do with his father’s death. He might not even be able to convince Henry that Skylar Connor had thought herself married to his father—and a widow now. A widow ready to take possession of his property.
