“It’s nothing to cause concern,” he said. And it was the truth. It was all in the past. Clarkson and the other men were in prison. He’d paid his price. No one was coming for him.
She said nothing for a moment. “When I met you, I thought I saw something in your eyes. Something . . . dangerous, I suppose. I don’t know what it is, Mitchell, but I think it has something to do with whatever it is that you have on your mind.”
He gritted his teeth. Her curiosity would be his undoing if she kept pushing. It was sweet—up to a point. If she pressed, she’d learn things she shouldn’t.
And that was not something he’d let happen. Not when everything he held here was on the line—including her.
“Some things are best left in the past, Lara.” He stood abruptly and stepped over the children and Belle on the stairs. He needed air, needed space, needed a moment to remind himself there was no reason that any of it should ever surface here.
This wasn’t Denver. And he wasn’t that man anymore.
Chapter Fifteen
The Wendler children—allseven of them—swarmed the post and telegraph office. Dot, Hannah, and Joseph fell in with them and the Landrys’ only son at once.
“Out!” Celia Wendler yelled over the chaos. “Out with all of you!”
The children tumbled out the door of the main room, heading toward what Lara hoped was the back door and not Faith Landry’s carefully kept rooms.
“I’ll keep an eye on them,” Belle said, following the kids out the door.
“Oh, my goodness, listen,” Celia said.
Lara listened . . . and didn’t hear a thing. She glanced at Faith, who raised her eyebrows at her sister Celia.
“There is nothing to hear,” Faith said as she sorted through a stack of mail.
“Exactly.” Celia grinned. “This never happens at home unless it’s the dead of night.”
Lara could only imagine, with all of those children. It was loud enough at their ranch with just Josie’s girls and the addition of Joseph. She tried to remember what it was like back in Ohio, with all her younger siblings. She couldn’t remember it being that loud—but maybe it was because she’d been a child too.
“Let’s see, Josie has a letter, and I know I’ve set some things aside for her husband and for George.” Faith bustled over to a shelf to search while Celia sat in a nearby chair and closed her eyes.
“Here they are.” Faith handed her a neat stack of envelopes. “How is Josie? She looked exhausted the last time she was in here.”
“I think she’s past ready to give birth,” Lara replied. Faith was one of Josie’s oldest friends, and it had pained her to admit she shouldn’t ride into town in her condition. “She doesn’t much deal well with not doing as she pleases.”
