Page 11 of The Prospector's Only Prospect
“I have only ever been with my husband, and I haven’t seen him in five years.”
Uh huh. Virgil had been on the other side of that, and Harley proved babies could come with or without a husband around.
“Oh, don’t spare my feelings,Mr. Gardner.” She was not using the title out of respect. “I’ve been accused of worse by—” She pinched her mouth shut. “I was going to say ‘better’ men, but honestly? The solicitor who spoke for my husband proved both of them to be putrid as pond scum. They said horrible things about me in front of people I cared about. Friends from school. The wives of Ben’s colleagues.My sister.”
She looked backward on the track that had brought them this far. Her profile was polished white ash.
“I’m tired of being accused of something I didn’t do, Mr. Gardner. If that’s what you think of me, we’ll part ways here. I’ll find the cathouse and properly earn the title of strumpet, but right now I do not deserve it.”
He opened his mouth to tell her there was no need for dramatics, but the solemn way she met his gaze, and the lingering hurt in her eyes, made his chest itch.
“I didn’t call you a strumpet.” Maybe he had hinted at it. “If you’re not pregnant, good. Fine.” Damn, he hoped she was being truthful. “We’ll press on while we still have light. Get back in the wagon.”
She shook her head. “I’ll walk until my stomach settles.”
“Suit yourself.” He hitched the reins, and the oxen leaned into their yoke. The wagon creaked and rocked and began to jostle in the ruts.
She walked behind, since the trail was narrow enough the brush snapped and scraped the walls of the wagon bed. He tried not to look back at her. She wasn’t a child, but he felt as though she was mad at him, and he didn’t know why that dug under his skin like a tick. They barely knew each other.
She was awfully quiet back there, though.
He glanced over his shoulder to ensure she was keeping up.
She wasn’t there.
With his blood running cold, he yanked on the reins, snatched his gun from beneath the bench, and stood up, shouting, “Marigold!”
Chapter Four
Virgil’s bellow was so alarming, Marigold called, “What?” and hurried to finish her business.
“Where the hell are you?” He sounded furious.
She brushed her skirt down over her bloomers as she came back onto the path. “Nature called.”
He was standing in the wagon, a shotgun in his hands, his demeanor tense with readiness. It was such a manly show of strength and concern, she experienced an involuntary flutter of feminine response. A mix of shy pleasure and admiration bloomed inside her.
He promptly ruined it, though, railing at her like a doomsayer warning a sinner against eternal damnation. “Have you heard of mountain lions? Bears? Wolves? When we’re on the trail, you tell me when you have to go. I’ll say when it’s safe.”
“For heaven’s sake! What a fuss.” She caught up to the wagon. “I’m sure all those predators are far more interested in deer than me, and I haven’t seen any ofthose.”
“Because deer are smart enough to know that predators hunt at dusk.”
“At which time they hunker down into the bush? Because that’s what I was doing. Safe as a baby fawn.”
He swiped a hand down his face. “Christ, you’re a nuisance. Get back up here. We’re almost at the clearing where we’ll stop for the night.”
She climbed aboard, accepting his hand to yank her up the final tall step.
He was sitting on her cushion, she noted, but he removed it from under his backside to push it toward her.
As they rambled along, he asked, “Why did your husband say all of those things if they weren’t true?”
She was tempted to tell him that if he wasn’t marrying her, he didn’t have a right to ask, but very few people in Topeka had ever asked for her side of it, let alone believed her when she told them.
“Someone has to be at fault in order for the court to grant a divorce.” She spread her shawl over her knees; the air had grown chilly. “I came home from visiting Pearl at my uncle’s home. I found Ben with another woman in our bed. I wasn’t about to stay married to him after that, but his father is a congressman. Ben aspires to go into politics as well. He didn’t want a stain on his reputation, so he put it on me.”
“It was your word against his? What did the other woman have to say?”
