Father For Keeps

For the remarkable Liz and Bill Whitbeck—with affection and gratitude for a lifetime of friendship and support

Chapter One (#ulink_4f9b4ad1-1ad4-5353-8c61-657bff085e57)

Vermillion, Nevada

September 1882

The blood drained from Kate Sheridan’s cheeks. Somewhere behind her in the house she could vaguely hear Caroline beginning to fuss, but the cries were not yet strident. She put a hand against the front door frame to steady herself.

“Hello, Kate,” he said simply.

She hadn’t heard the voice for over a year and a half, but the sound of it m her head was as familiar as her own breathing. She knew every contour of his face, every crinkle around those blue eyes. Without looking, she could have traced exactly the strong line of his jaw.

Out on Elm Street a buggy clopped by, the Ban crofts from two doors down. Kate’s eyes were too glazed to see if it was Mr. Bancroft driving or their manservant.

Sean kept his head turned toward her, his expression stiff. After a few more seconds of awkward silence, he said, “I should have written first. Or wired. I’m sorry if I startled you.”

She gripped the wood of the door frame more tightly and drove a splinter into her finger. “Lordy!” she said, pulling her hand away and waving it in irritation.

Sean’s lips turned up in a slight smile.

Kate frowned and finally addressed her visitor.

“What are you smiling about?”

Immediately his expression sobered. “Nothing. I mean.it’s just that you always used to say that when you were riled ‘Lordy!’ It took me back.”

Her wounded finger forgotten, Kim square in the face. The words tumbled out. “Well, you can just let it take you back, Sean Flaherty. You can let it take you all the way back to wherever you disappeared to for the past eighteen months. Because you’re not welcome here. Not here, nor anywhere else in Vermillion, I’d venture to say.”

Sean’s only reply was a wince. He was looking over her shoulder into the house. Caroline was crying in earnest now. Kate could hear Jennie singing to try to calm her, but her sister’s efforts seemed to be having little effect.

“I have nothing to say to you, Sean,” Kate said hurriedly. “I’m sorry.” She took a step back and began to close the door in his face, but he was too quick for her. His arm shot out and stopped the heavy door cold.

“I don’t expect you to welcome me, Kate,” he said. “But you will see me. And we do have some things to talk about.” He took a step toward her, crossing the threshold into the Sheridans’ front hall. Kate moved backward. “To start with, you can tell me why there’s a baby crying in the household of two single sisters.”

Kate could feel the blood pounding in her ears. “Jennie’s married,” she blurted. Sean’s startled look helped Kate relax. This was a safe enough topic. She continued more calmly. “She married a lawyer. His name’s Carter Jones.”

Sean frowned. “I don’t remember anyone by that name.”

“Carter’s new in town since you were here.” Kate’s voice turned colder. “Of course, you weren’t really in town long enough to remember a lot of people. You were only here long enough to.” She bit her lip.

Sean cocked his head. Now, she remembered that—the way he used to cock his head and flash his roguish smile. “Long enough to.what, Katie Marie?” He spoke more softly. “To make you fall in love with me?”

She shook her head and once again found herself blinking back tears. “I’m asking you to leave, Sean. Please don’t make this any more difficult.”

He reached out a hand and brushed a finger along her cheek. “You’re pale, sweetheart. You haven’t been spending enough time out in that beloved garden of yours.”

Jennie, Carter and their three silver-miner boarders had harvested the garden this year while Caroline’s month-long croup had kept Kate fretting indoors. But there was no way she would be explaining to Sean about Caroline’s croup.

“If I’m pale, it’s probably from the shock of seeing you again, Sean. The disagreeable shock,” she clarified.

He gave his half smile again. “Well, once you’re over the shock,” he said, his voice gently mocking, “I’ll get to work on convincing you that having me back’s not disagreeable at all.”

“Don’t waste your effort. I’m not interested in having you back. And if you don’t leave, I’ll just have to call my brother-in-law and ask him to escort you out.” She spoke firmly and, to her relief, her voice didn’t waver.

Sean’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You’ve changed, Kate. Where’s the gentle little sweetheart who used to weave me chains of wildflowers out on Pritchard’s Hill?”

Kate closed her eyes briefly, then faced him once again. “She grew up, Sean. Being jilted by the only man she ever loved and losing both parents in the same month serves as a rather abrupt boost into adulthood. I don’t go to Pritchard’s Hill anymore.”

He edged closer and held her upper arm to keep her near. “I’m so sorry about your parents, Kate.” His voice was low and husky, the way she remembered it in her dreams. “If I’d known about the flu epidemic.” He looked away as the words trailed off, but after a moment, he met her eyes once again and continued. “At least you’re admitting that you love me.”

“Loved. Past tense.”

His eyes narrowed. “That’s what I’ve come back to find out.”

Those vivid blue eyes. Even when she’d been most angry and bitter after he’d left her, she’d lie in bed at night remembering those eyes, and the wanting would come. She’d remember how they’d watched her, first with tenderness, then desire, as he taught her body to soar. Then she’d move restlessly between her sheets and ache for him.

“You can consider your mission accomplished. I want nothing more to do with you, Sean Flaherty. It’s over.”

His hair was longer, the curls more tangled than ever. He ran his hands back through them now, perplexed. “I’ve come a long way, Katie. I’m not about to give up this easily.”

Caroline, who had been temporarily calmed by Jennie’s singing, chose that moment to howl her displeasure at the continued delay of her regular feeding. Kate felt the familiar tingling in her breasts, and looked down with horror as the front of her dress grew damp.

Sean followed her gaze, his eyes widening. “That’s not Jennie’s baby, Kate,” he said tightly. “It’s yours. It’s our child, isn’t it?”

There was no way to deny the two dark spots in her light blue worsted dress. “She’s my baby,” she admitted, her throat constricting with sudden panic. “But that doesn’t mean she’s yours. You’ve been gone a long time. I could have been with any number of men by now.”

Sean shook his head slowly. “I don’t think so.” He stepped around her into the center of the hall. “I want to see her.”

The curtain to the parlor parted and Carter Jones’ tall form filled the archway. “Are you all right, Kate?” he asked, his eyes on Sean.

Obviously their conversation had been heard not only by Carter, but by the three miners as well, since the four men had been just beyond the curtain, engaged in their nightly card game.

Kate clasped her hands tightly at her waist. “Mr. Flaherty was just leaving,” she told her brother-in-law. The look she sent Sean was half-pleading.

Sean looked from Kate to Carter. He took a step forward and held out his hand. “Sean Flaherty,” he said.

After a slight hesitation, Carter shook his hand, then said, “It’s a mite late for callers, Mr. Flaherty. We’re early risers here at Sheridan House. Perhaps you could return with your business at a more reasonable hour.”

Sean met his level gaze for a long moment, then turned to Kate. “I’ll come back in the morning. Maybe you’ll be over the shock by then, and we can sit down and talk things out.”

Kate wanted nothing more than to be rid of him and to flee upstairs to clasp Caroline in her arms. “I’ve told you we have nothing to talk about, Sean. But if you need to have me tell you again, come in the morning.”

Sean looked up the stairs where the baby was still crying inconsolably. “I’ll be here at ten,” he said. Then he walked out the door and clattered down the front steps.

Carter stood in the parlor door watching Kate with a sympathetic expression. “You’re going to have to tell him, you know,” he said gently.

Kate shook her head. “I don’t have to tell him anything. Sean Flaherty may have been present when Caroline was created, but he wasn’t around when I almost died carrying her. He wasn’t around to help me or Jennie when our parents died or when we were about to lose our home. And he wasn’t around to prevent the entire town from branding me a fallen woman.”