He swallowed.
“For marrying me?”
Emily’s eyes widened.
“No!”
She pushed herself upright.
“No, Daniel.
Never that.”
Relief should have come.
It didn’t.
Because she was still crying.
Daniel could repair a fence during a blizzard.
He could calm a frightened stallion.
He could work from sunrise until darkness and never complain.
But he had no idea how to help the woman he loved when she looked at him with tears in her eyes.
“Then why are you crying?”
Emily opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Her fingers tightened around the blanket.
And Daniel saw something in her expression.
Fear.
Not embarrassment.
Not regret.
Fear.
He deliberately stepped backward.
Emily watched him.
“I won’t touch you,” he said.
She blinked.
“Daniel—”
“Tonight.
Tomorrow.
Ever, if that’s what you want.”
His voice remained calm, although the pain beneath those words was impossible to hide.
“You don’t owe me anything because you stood beside me and said vows in front of a preacher.
Marriage doesn’t give me the right to make you afraid.”
A tear rolled down her cheek.
Daniel looked away.
Perhaps he had mistaken gratitude for love.
Perhaps Emily had convinced herself that marrying a hardworking rancher with a home and land was sensible.
Perhaps tonight she had finally realized what being his wife meant.
Whatever the reason, he would not trap her.
Daniel reached for the shirt he had set aside.
“I’ll sleep in the loft.”
He turned.
The mattress creaked behind him.
“Please don’t leave.”
Daniel froze.
The cabin became so quiet that he could hear the September wind moving through the cottonwoods outside.
Slowly, he turned.
Emily was sitting upright now.
Her face was pale.
“There’s something I should have told you before we married.”
Daniel lowered the shirt.
“Tell me.”
Emily looked at him for a long time.
Then she whispered four words that changed everything.
“I was paid to meet you.”
Daniel did not move.
Emily’s breath shook.
“Two years ago, before I came to Mercer Valley, somebody sent me a letter.”
Daniel stared at her.
“What somebody?”
“I don’t know.”
His face hardened.
“You don’t know?”
“The letters were signed only with an initial.
C.”
Daniel crossed the room slowly but did not approach the bed.
“What did they want?”
Emily closed her eyes.
When she answered, her voice was almost inaudible.
“They wanted me to make you trust me.”
The silence afterward felt endless.
Daniel finally laughed once.
It was not amusement.
It was the sound a man made when something inside him had cracked.
“You’ve done that very well.”
“Daniel—”
“How much?”
Emily flinched.
“How much did somebody pay you to become my wife?”
