Gradually he withdrew, giving her small pecks on her lips, nose, and forehead. With a sigh he released her, leaving her senses reeling with want and desire.
They gathered up their belongings and took the short walk to the carriage. Emily still had a hard time with this new information about her husband. As they pulled away from the stable for their return to the dressmaker’s, she realized she had even more reason to be afraid of Louis than she’d had before.
Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory
Tori entered the library, then came to an abrupt halt at Jesse’s words. “Divorce? Why would Hunter want to know about divorce?”
“It’s only a guess, but most likely it has something to do with Emily.” Jesse flipped over the envelope the letter had arrived in. “This has a Galveston, Texas post mark. I guess his trip to Oklahoma City took him further south.”
Tori blew out a deep breath. “But divorce? That would be such a scandal for the girl. I don’t think I know anyone who’s been divorced.”
“We know Hunter. He wouldn’t do anything that would cause a scandal for someone he cared about, unless he had a very good reason. And given the way he hightailed it out of here a few weeks ago, he cares for Emily Cabot.”
Tori sat alongside him on the settee. “As much as I love my nephew, I’m not really certain I know him all that well. From the time I’d arrived in their lives, Hunter was a mystery to me. He was definitely the quiet one among the four of them, and it always seemed to me he was brooding about something. A problem much too great for a boy his age.”
“I got that impression, too. I tried a few times to get him to talk to me about more than inane things, but he would eventually clam up. I wonder if he was always that way, perhaps just part of his personality?”
Tori shrugged. “I’d always regretted that my aunt who raised me kept me from knowing my brother. Spending time with Henry and his four children would have certainly helped when their guardianship fell to me after Henry’s death.”
She recalled those days, and the fear she’d tackled every morning as she’d faced another sunrise. The responsibility of four children, three of them adolescents, had weighed heavily on her mind. Now when she looked back on her race for a piece of land for them by riding the train from Arkansas City to Guthrie, it amazed her that she’d succeeded.
Jesse pulled her from her meanderings. “One time after a particularly frustrating conversation with him, I asked Michael if Hunter had always been so quiet and thoughtful, and he said not as much as he’d been since his father had died.”
“Well, that’s certainly understandable. Thirteen is pretty young for a boy to lose the man in his life.”
Hunter always had trouble in school, but for a while after she and Jesse had married, it seemed as if the boy had lost interest in everything. He barely made it across the stage to collect his high school diploma when he announced he was packing up and leaving.
With no definite destination in mind, she and Jesse worried about him, but he was a man, and they realized he had to make his own way in the world. So after hugs and tears, the entire family stood on the porch and watched his back as he slung his satchel over his shoulder, and headed for the train station.
Over the years they’d gotten a letter or two, and once he even stopped in when he was working in the area. But for the most part the shadow Hunter had been when she’d first met him remained firmly in place until this very day.
Jesse slowly folded the letter and returned it to the envelope. “In any event, I will research this for him and send the information along.”
“Have you had any more success in weaning out the person feeding false information about Franklin to the newspaper?”
“Oh, I know who it is. Proving it is something else.”
She straightened her back, ready to do battle. “Who?”
Jesse flicked his fingertip on the tip of her nose. “I’m not ready to share that little bit of information just yet, sweetheart.” He rose and walked to his desk, dropping the letter on the surface. Turning toward her, he leaned against the edge, crossing his arms over his chest. “I prefer to keep it to myself until I figure out what to do with the information.”
“But that man—and I’m assuming it’s a man—has arranged for false, damaging information to be published about your client and friend.”
He grinned and pushed away from the desk, heading to the door. “Don’t assume anything, Mrs. Cochran.” He winked and let himself out, leaving her annoyed and frustrated.
Galveston, Texas
Emily stared at herself in the mirror. Since Tuesday, when she and Hunter had parted, she’d thought of nothing but the news about Louis and Hunter’s father. She knew her wretched husband suspected her of something, just by the way he watched her. She tried very hard not to act differently around him, but she couldn’t help the shivers when he came near.
“Are you chilly, my dear?” he’d asked last evening when he placed his hands on her shoulders after entering her bedroom while she’d sat in this very chair. She’d felt the blood drain from her face, afraid he intended to join her in bed. He hadn’t approached her that way since her return from Guthrie. But she knew it was only a matter of time.
He’d been fully dressed, and after
a few minor comments told her he would be out for the evening. She’d breathed a sigh of relief as he left the room.
She shook herself from her reverie and concentrated on tonight. Another one of Galveston’s society balls had Maria primping her hair, fussing as she maneuvered its weight into curls.
“Mrs. Smith, you have such lovely hair, so easy to work with.”