Table of Contents

Cover Page

Excerpt

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Epilogue

Copyright

“I didn’t come all this way to visit for a day or two.”

All the glow from her interaction with the baby had left her face. “How long will you be here?”

Sean’s eyes went to the baby. “As long as it takes to convince you to marry me,” he answered tersely. The minute he said it, he knew it had been a mistake. He’d started out on the right path with the flowers, the gifts for the baby, trying to get her sister, Jennie, on his side. But meeting his daughter had rattled him. Suddenly it had become more important than he’d realized that he be able to stake his claim on her…and on Kate.

Kate made no reply for a long moment. Finally she leaned over, gathered the baby into her arms and stood. “Be prepared for a long stay then, Sean, because I’ll never agree to marry you…!”

Dear Reader,

Entertainment. Escape. Fantasy. These three words describe the heart of Harlequin Historicals. If you want compelling, emotional stories by some of the best writers m the field, look no further.

Ana Seymour made her writing debut in our 1992 March Madness Promotion. Since then she has written eleven historical romances, from Westerns to medieval stories. Critics have described her work as “brilliant,” “enchanting” and “impossible to put down.” Her latest Western, A Father for Keeps, is no exception. It is the stirring reunion romance of a San Francisco heir who returns to Nevada to win back his lost love, who is also the mother of his child. Don’t miss it’

Be sure to look for Robber Bride by the talented Deborah Simmons. The third de Burgh brother, Simon, finds his match in a free-spirited lady who is hiding from her despicable fianc&e2;. In Carolyn Davidson’s Americana tale, The Tender Stranger, a pregnant widow who runs away from her conniving in-laws falls in love with the bounty hunter hired to bring her home.

Award-winning author Ruth Langan returns this month with Rory, the first book in her new medieval series, THE O’NEIL SAGA. In it, an English noblewoman succumbs to the charm of the legendary Irish rebel she is nursing back to health.

Whatever your tastes in reading, you’ll be sure to find a romantic journey back to the past between the covers of a Harlequin Historical®

Sincerely,

Tracy Farrell

Senior Editor

Please address questions and book requests to

Harlequm Reader Service

U S 3010 Walden Ave., PO Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie Ont. L2A 5X3

Father For Keeps
Ana Seymour

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ANA SEYMOUR

The strong Scandinavian heritage of Ana Seymour’s native state of Minnesota has contributed to her love of writing stories about family strength and support. She says the idea for books about two sisters came from watching the interaction between her own two daughters, now young adults, who are best friends, as well as sisters. Readers may write to Ana at: P.O. Box 47888, Minneapolis, MN 55447.

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

Chapter One

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.”

“But he’s come back.”

Kate looked out the still-open door where Sean had disappeared into the night. “Yes.” Her voice was weary. “He’s come back.”

“You’re not telling me what it felt like to see him again.” Jennie Sheridan looked nothing like her sister. Shorter, darker, her eyes were brown instead of Kate’s crystal blue.

“Ouch! You don’t have to go clear through to the nail.” Kate watched with an intent frown as Jennie dug at the splinter in her finger.

“I declare, sis, you’re a bigger baby than Caroline. He was as handsome as ever, I suppose. Aha, got it!”

Kate let out a relieved breath and put her finger up to her mouth to suck the place where Jennie had poked. They were sitting on the bed in Kate’s room. Caroline was sleeping peacefully in her crib in the corner after taking her fill of her mother’s milk. “You were the one who always said he was a scoundrel and a scalawag and I don’t know what else.”

Jennie bounced back against the headboard and made herself comfortable among her sister’s pillows. It didn’t appear that she would leave until Kate answered her questions to her satisfaction. “He is a scoundrel,” she said. “But I never said he wasn’t handsome. He’s a black-haired, blue-eyed devil full of Irish blarney, but a mighty pretty one. Of course—” Jennie’s eyes sparkled “—I’m partial to blondes, myself.”

“Gray-eyed blondes. One in particular,” Kate added. She climbed over her sister’s legs to sit comfortably next to her at the head of the bed. “Yes, Sean’s as handsome as ever. But that has nothing to do with me anymore.”

“There’s no feeling left at all?”

Kate glanced sideways at her sister. Only sixteen months apart in age, the two had always been as close as twins. She’d never even bothered to try to lie to Jennie—it wouldn’t have done any good. “My heart was pounding like the steam pump at the mine. But it could have just been the surprise of it.”

“So when are you going to tell him?”

“Jennie, I’m not. My life is no longer any of his business.”

“But Caroline is his daughter.”

“Caroline’s my daughter.”

Jennie grabbed a pillow and hugged it to her middle. She was quiet for a moment, then said softly, “Don’t you think Caroline has a right to a father?”

Kate’s face was grim. “She has you and me. And she already has five men in her life—Carter, Barnaby and the silverheels.”

From the day their three silver-mining boarders had come to rent rooms, tracking silver dust into the parlor, Jennie and Kate had dubbed the men their “silverheels.” Jennie reached for her sister’s hand and squeezed it. “The silverheels love your little girl, Kate, but one of these days when the silver plays out, they’ll be moving on. Barnaby’s just a boy, and Carter’s her uncle, not her father.”

“So you think I should let Caroline learn to love Sean so that one day he can take off and leave her without warning the way he did me? I don’t think so.”

“He may regret leaving. After all, he came back, didn’t he?”

Kate knocked the back of her head against the headboard in frustration. “I can’t believe you’re arguing for him, Jen. After he left, you spent months trying to convince me that I was better off forgetting about any man who would be such a cad as to leave a woman pregnant and alone.”

“But he didn’t know you were pregnant.”

“He certainly knew we’d made love, didn’t he?” Kate’s voice rose in anger. “I can’t understand why you’re suddenly acting as if I should forget how he left without a goodbye, leaving me to face the consequences.”

Jennie sighed. “I’m not trying to take his part, Kate. Or suggest that you forgive him. It’s just that-in all this time, you haven’t seemed to be interested in any other man. It’s as if Sean took over your heart so completely there’s no room for anyone else.”

“Well, that’s silly to say. Lyle’s here almost every day.”

“Oh, pooh. Lyle Wentworth is an arrogant, spoiled boy who’s never done an honest day’s work in his life. He’s not even worth considering.”

“He’s a year older than you, sis, and he is working now.”

“A token job in his pa’s bank. No one else would have him.”

Kate sighed and slid down until she was lying flat on the bed. “I’m bushed, Jennie. If I have to face Sean again in the morning, I’m going to have to get some sleep.”

Jennie’s face twisted with sympathy. She ran a hand over her sister’s forehead. “You’re working too hard for a nursing mother.”

Kate reached up to squeeze her sister’s hand. “You’re one to talk about working hard. How about when I was in the hospital and you were running the boardinghouse all by yourself, and cooking for the men up at the Wesley mine?”

Jennie grinned. “You’ll pay me back. When I get in a family way, I intend to let you wait on me hand and foot.”

Kate smiled. “It’s a deal. And the way you and Carter disappear upstairs regularly, I suspect that time will come any day.” She ducked as Jennie swatted her with the pillow, then gave her sister a gentle push off the bed. “Now get out of here and let me get some sleep.”

It was getting late in the season for flowers, but a two-dollar gold piece had spurred ambition in the usually indifferent hotel clerk. Within an hour after breakfast, the lad had rounded up a bouquet large enough to stir the heads of even the snobbiest Nob Hill debutantes back in San Francisco. Here in Vermillion, the offering should take Kate Sheridan’s breath away. For good measure, Sean stopped at the dry goods store, balancing the flowers precariously in one arm. What did one buy for a baby? Not just a baby—his own daughter. The concept still made him weak in the knees.

The front table was stacked with bolts of heavy muslin, winter weight for the approaching cold. Did babies need winter clothes? he wondered.

“May I help you, sir?”

Sean gave an inward groan and wondered if it would be too impossibly rude to turn tail and run out of the store. Weaving her way through the colorful displays of cloth was Henrietta Billingsley, wife of the store owner and self-appointed guardian of Vermillion morality.

“It’s Mr. Flaherty, isn’t it?” Mrs. Billingsley continued. She had a proprietor’s smile on her face, but her eyes could kill a duelist at thirty paces.

“How do you do, Mrs. Billingsley?” Sean said, fumbling to remove his hat without dropping the armload of flowers. Lord, what had possessed him to come into this particular store?

“We all thought you’d left Vermillion for good. Over a year ago, wasn’t it?”

Sean had the feeling that Mrs. Billingsley knew to the day how long he’d been absent from town and also knew every detail of his transgression. Well, to hell with it. He didn’t expect to be in town long enough to care what she or anyone else thought of him. He’d come to collect Kate and his daughter, and as far as he was concerned, that would be the last he’d see of Vermillion.

“Unfortunately, the family businesses required my attention,” Sean answered in his most imperious tone. He’d discovered that self-righteous people were often best handled with a superior air.

“The family businesses…?”

“Shipping, banking…Flaherty Enterprises,” he ended as if to say that anyone important would recognize the name.

“Urn, of course.” Henrietta’s voice was a httle less certain. “What can I help you with today, Mr. Flaherty?” She cast a curious glance at the flowers.

“I need something for a baby. Something warm,” he ended uncertainly.

There was a gleam in Mrs. Billingsley’s eyes. “And how old is the child?”

Once again, Sean was certain that she knew precisely how old his daughter was. She probably knew more exactly than he. He frowned. Hell, a man ought to know how old his own daughter was. “Around a year. No, less.”

“Around the age of little Caroline Sheridan? Nine months?”

Sean felt the heat rising around his stiff collar. The annoying woman had the ability to make you feel as if she were a schoolmarm about to switch you for putting wet rags in the potbellied furnace. “Perhaps I’ll come back later,” he said. “After I find out what the baby needs.” He backed toward the door.

Henrietta began to straighten the perfectly arranged bolts of cloth next to where Sean had been standing, as if his presence had somehow disturbed their harmony. “We’ll be happy to take care of you when you’re ready, Mr. Flaherty. Just let us know. If it’s the Sheridan baby you’re interested in, I imagine the child could use a number of items. Those girls have been plumb broke since their parents died leaving nothing but debts. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been dressing the little tyke in rags.”

Sean didn’t know if his sudden rage came from effrontery of the gossipy woman or from the thought of his daughter in tatters. He clapped his hat back on his head. “How much material does it take to make a dress for a baby?”

“For just a tiny one? Oh, two yards should do.”

He gestured to the table of cloth. “I want two yards of each one of these sent to the Sheridan house.”

Mrs. Billingsley’s jaw dropped. “Each one?” she asked. “There must be two dozen different—”

“Each one. I’ll be in to settle the account later this afternoon.” Then he nodded and left the store, letting the flimsy door bang shut behind him.

Uncharacteristically, Sean felt his heart speeding up as he opened the gate and headed up the walk toward the Sheridan house. He hadn’t realized that he would be so affected by seeing Kate again. These months back in his own world in San Francisco society, he’d managed to convince himself that his lightning love affair with a simple girl from the mountains had been nothing more than a springtime idyll. But yesterday, looking into those clear blue eyes, he’d felt a stirring somewhere deep inside, somewhere that hadn’t often been touched in his comfortable life.

It was Jennie, not Kate, who opened the door. She seemed to be expecting him, but she didn’t step back to allow him to enter.

“Hello, Jennie,” he said. “It’s good to see you again. You’re looking well. Married life must agree with you.”

She didn’t return his smile. “She doesn’t want to see you, Sean. I’m sorry. I thought.”

“Thank you for writing. It was the right thing to do.”

Jennie looked quickly back over her shoulder as if to assure herself that the hall was empty. She spoke quietly. “I’m not so sure of that anymore. If she knew I’d written you about the baby, she’d be furious with me.”

“Well, I won’t tell her. I would rather she thought I came back for her all on my own.” He shifted the huge bouquet. “May I come in?”

Jennie ignored the request and continued talking almost to herself, justifying her action. “She’s fully recovered her health from the difficult birth, but she just seemed to be getting more…listless. And then there was Lyle coming around all the time trying to talk her into marrying him for the baby’s sake. I didn’t know what to do.”

“Lyle Wentworth? The banker’s son who used to lord it over you girls about growing up poor in the mountains?”

Jennie nodded and rolled her eyes. “He’s been sweet on Kate since we were children.”

“You’d never know it the way he treats her. I can’t believe she even suffers him in your home.”

Jennie bit her lip and looked at him with a pained expression. “Well, Lyle was a help during Kate’s pregnancy when we had to take her to a special hospital. We were all by ourselves, you know, after Mama and Papa died…” Her voice trailed off.

Sean finished for her, “And with the father of her baby gone.” His face grew tight. “Why didn’t she contact me, Jennie? She knew my family was prominent in San Francisco. It wouldn’t have been hard to find me.” He stopped speaking as Kate appeared in the back of the hall at the door that led into the kitchen.

“You don’t know me very well, Sean Flaherty, if you think I would go crawling to a man who left me with nothing but a terse note,” she said.

Jennie turned around, startled. “He knows about the baby, Kate,” she told her sister in a rush.

Kate walked toward them, grim faced. “I know. I’m afraid it was impossible for me to keep some of the more embarrassing aspects of motherhood from revealing the secret last night.”

Sean stepped around Jennie and held the flowers out to Kate. “I’ve come to try to start over, Kate. I know you’ve been through a lot and there’s no reason for you to forgive me, but I’m asking you to let me try and make it up to you.”

Her face was as calm and hard as a statue. “Caroline’s my baby, Sean. You forfeited any right—”

“I can help you, Kate. I want to help our child.” He looked around the hall, his eyes resting on the faded parlor curtain. “I have money, as you know.”

Jennie stepped back to allow him to move closer to Kate, who stood with her hands on her hips, bristling, making no attempt to take the flowers he was offering. “I don’t want your money, Sean, or your flowers. Caroline and I don’t want any part of you. I haven’t changed my mind since last night. You can just pack up your bags and head back to your papa’s business and your fancy big-city friends.”

Sean sighed and turned to hand the flowers to Jennie. “Would you mind finding somewhere for these?” he asked with a touch of exasperation. “And give me five minutes alone with this stubborn, beautiful sister of yours.”

Kate’s face had colored at the compliment, in spite of herself, and Jennie’s worried expression lightened slightly. She took the flowers in both arms and headed back toward the kitchen, saying over her shoulder, “You two might as well go sit in the parlor instead of standing in the hall shouting at each other like fishwives.”

Sean put his hat on the hall table and gestured toward the curtained doorway. “Shall we?” he asked.

Kate gave a reluctant nod and led the way into the parlor, where she sat on one of the high-backed chairs. Sean took the seat nearest to her on one end of the settee. He sank into the cushions, which left his head lower than hers, making him feel at an immediate disadvantage.

“Why didn’t you let me know, Kate?” he asked, his voice gentle. “I would have come. You could have had the finest doctors in San Francisco.”

Kate sat stiffly, her hands clasped in her lap. “It seems to me that I’m the one who has the right to ask the questions, Sean. You’re the one owing the explanations. Why did you leave? Why didn’t you come and tell me you were going? What happened to you?” Her voice trembled a little at the end.

Sean had a sudden urge to draw her into his arms as he had so many times during the passionate three months they’d been together. Instead he cleared his throat and said, “I’m not making excuses, Kate. It was wrong of me to leave without seeing you. But it’s just that I’ve never been too good at goodbyes. I thought it might be easier on both of us…”

“To leave me to have our baby alone?”

“I had no idea about the baby. Surely you believe that much anyway. I thought we’d tried to be careful. I’ve never had anything like this happen…ah. before.” He stammered a little as he realized the import of his words. Kate did not hesitate to call him on them.

“You mean none of your other women has ever had the effrontery to present you with a child? You’ve led a charmed life, Sean Flaherty. I’m sorry to have been the one to spoil your record. But, as I’ve been trying to tell you since last night, you don’t need to worry. Caroline and I are making no claim on you whatsoever.”

Sean blew out an exasperated breath. “Damn it, you’re a stubborn woman, Katie Marie Sheridan. Yes, I left. It was wrong, and I’m sorry. But now I’m back. I’ve come back for you and for our daughter.” His voice softened. “The truth is, sweetheart, I’ve never stopped thinking about you in all these eighteen months.” As he said the words, he realized that they were the absolute truth. Even before he’d received Jennie’s letter about the baby, Kate had been in his mind night and day. He’d had other women, but they’d been pale in comparison to the spirited, lithesome blond beauty he’d left in the mountains.

Kate was silent for a long moment. He couldn’t tell if she’d been moved by the obvious sincerity of his declaration or if she was thinking of yet another way to send him packing. But before she could speak, there was a rustling of the parlor curtain. Sean looked up to see Jennie standing in the archway. In her arms was a moppet with black curly hair and blue eyes that mirrored his own.

Chapter Two

Kate jumped to her feet and crossed the room to take the baby from her sister.

“I’m sorry,” Jennie said with worried eyes. “She was fussing, and I have to head up to the mine.” Although the financial situation had eased when Jennie had married Carter, she still went up to the mine each day to prepare the noon meal for the silver miners, the job she had obtained when they’d needed money to keep Kate in the hospital in Virginia City before the birth.

“That’s fine. You run along,” Kate told her, clasping Caroline tight against her.

Jennie looked doubtfully from her sister to Sean. “Will you be all right?”

Sean stood and took a step toward them. “I’m not a monster, Jennie. Your sister is perfectly safe with me.”

“I didn’t mean to be insulting, Sean. It’s just that…” She glanced at her sister, then back to Sean. “Well, good, then. I’ll leave you to get acquainted with your daughter.” She leaned over to give Kate a quick peck on the cheek, then darted out the curtain into the hall.

Sean walked over to Kate and the baby, a look of wonder on his face. “She has black hair,” he said, his voice choked.

Kate looked up at him, her eyes glazed. Her voice came out in a whisper. “Yes.”

He reached out a hand and ran his finger over Caroline’s silky hair. Safe in her mother’s arms, the baby watched him, eyes wide. “Does she…ah…is she healthy?” he asked. “Does she have everything she needs?”

Kate looked down at the baby tenderly. It was the first time he’d seen her smile since he’d been back. She was smiling at Caroline, not at him, but the expression slid straight into his midsection.

“She’s healthy and happy. Aren’t you, precious?”

Kate’s voice went up in pitch, her eyes lit with a special glow that was answered by a gleam in the baby’s own eyes. Sean watched the mother-daughter communication with awe. His own mother and father had always been too busy with their high-society world to pay much attention to the parent-child bond. Sean was totally unprepared for the wave of love that swept through him at this first sight of his daughter. Tears welled at the base of his throat.

A minute fist came up toward his finger. He twisted his wrist to let the baby’s hand close around his thumb. The back of her hand was no bigger than a quarter and felt as smooth as a polished stone. “She’s…beautiful,” he said finally.

Kate looked up, and this time the smile was for him. “Yes, she is. We produced a beautiful child, Sean. And she’s smart, too,” she added eagerly. “She’s already talking.”

Some of Sean’s fascination with the baby was diverted by Kate’s sudden abandonment of her hostility toward him. It appeared that when she was talking about the baby, she was so intensely positive that there was no room left for old resentments. “Is she now?” he asked with the light brogue he sometimes adopted when he was flirting. “I didn’t think babies could talk this young.”

Kate was swaying back and forth in a natural, rocking motion to keep the baby content. She seemed to not even be aware of the movement. “Well, not exactly talking. But she makes sounds. And I think they mean something. She says a special goo goo that I think means ‘mama.’“

Kate shifted her gaze upward again, her eyes laughing. Sean stared at her, entranced. “Mama, eh?” he said softly. “Well, now we’ll have to get her to start working on ‘papa.’“

All at once, Kate seemed to realize how intently he was watching her, how close he was standing, and that the hand that had been stroking the baby now gripped Kate’s arm. She pulled away and walked past him toward the settee.

“If you want to visit her while you’re in town, I won’t prevent you, Sean,” she said, sitting on one edge of the couch and laying the baby along the rest of it so that there was no room for Sean to resume his seat. “But I’m going to ask you to come back and do so when Jennie’s here. I don’t intend to spend time with you.”

Sean’s eyes darkened. “I want to spend time with my daughter, Kate, but you’re the one I need to see. I didn’t come all this way to visit for a day or two.”

Kate looked up at him. All the glow from her interaction with the baby had left her face. She was pale again. “How long will you be here?”

Sean’s eyes went to the baby. “As long as it takes to convince you to marry me,” he answered tersely. The minute he said it, he knew it had been a mistake. He’d started out on the right path this morning with the flowers, the gifts for the baby, trying to get Jennie on his side. But meeting his daughter had rattled him. Suddenly it had become more important than he’d realized that he be able to stake his claim on her and on Kate.

Kate made no reply for a long moment. Finally she leaned over, gathered the baby into her arms and stood. “Be prepared for a long stay then, Sean, because I’ll never agree to marry you. I loved you, I won’t deny it. I was young, and a fool. I thought poetry and flowers and pretty speeches meant that a man had a heart. Now I’ve learned that the sign of a true heart is someone who’s willing to work hard for his family. Someone who’s there when they need them. You weren’t here when I needed you, Sean. And now I don’t need you anymore.”

The quiet dignity of her tone left Sean feeling for the second time that day like a chastised schoolboy. So far his visit had not gone as he’d anticipated when he left San Francisco. He’d expected that Kate would be somewhat resentful over his abrupt departure, but once she’d given him a chance to explain and turn his charm on her again, he’d figured that they would resume the relationship where they had left off a year and a half earlier. She’d been a sweet, sensitive girl and he’d been her first romance. She’d been desperately in love with him, which he’d found stimulating and intoxicating. But it appeared she’d changed in more ways than one. If she was still in love with him, she was hiding it well. And the rub of it was, the more time he spent witn her, the more he realized that he was as intoxicated as ever.

He looked down once again at his daughter. She was no longer interested in the stranger and had begun instead to squirm and pat at Kate’s full breasts. “I wasn’t around when you needed me, Kate,” he agreed. “But I’m here now, and I don’t intend to leave either you or my daughter to face the world alone again.”

Kate shook her head, juggled Caroline in her arms and looked as if the tears she’d been staving off would finally fall.

Sean brushed his hand briefly over the baby’s curly hair, then said softly, “Go ahead and feed our daughter, Katie Marie. I’ll see myself out.”

It started that afternoon with Barnaby slamming into the kitchen out of breath to announce that Irving, the odd-job man from the dry goods, had just left a mountain of packages on the front porch.

“A mountain!” he’d repeated, gulping air. Barnaby was the thirteen-year-old orphan who had been living with the Sheridans since he’d been taken in by their parents about a year before their death. He helped around the house, especially now that it had been turned into a boarding establishment, but his position was more of an adopted younger brother than a servant.

“What are they? Where did they come from?” Jennie had asked. But Kate had merely rolled her eyes. She’d expected something of the sort ever since Sean had left her standing alone in the parlor that morning. He’d had that look in his eyes that she’d seen before, a determination that sooner or later he’d get what he wanted. She’d seen the same look the spring he’d come to town and wooed her with such intensity. That time, he had gotten what he wanted, but, she resolved to herself firmly, he was not going to get it now.

When they went out to the porch to examine the packages, Jennie seemed to be taking Sean’s side once again. “They’re for his daughter, Kate. He has a right to give her something.”

But after they’d opened the tenth package of expensive, heavy cloth, even Jennie had to admit that Sean’s largesse had been excessive. “What in the world could one child do with so many clothes?” she asked.

“I’ll keep four of the lengths,” Kate announced, “and then I’m going to send the rest off to the hospital in Virginia City. There were plenty of babies there who could use something warm for the winter.”

Jennie had nodded her approval and the paperwrapped pieces of cloth had been neatly stacked at one end of the porch awaiting transportation to their new home.

That evening when Sean had once again shown up after supper and been informed of Kate’s proposed disposal of his gifts, he’d frowned and said firmly that the cloth was for Caroline. In addition, he told Jennie, he’d see that money was wired the following day from Flaherty Enterprises to the Virginia City hospital. “Enough to clothe a hundred babies,” he said angrily. But Kate had refused to see him that evening and the next and the next.

Over those three days flowers arrived regularly, morning and evening. A case of champagne had been delivered for Jennie and Carter with a card: “In belated celebration of your marriage.” Amanda Hill, the town milliner and seamstress had arrived saying she’d been hired to sew frocks for little Miss Caroline. By the third evening, when a huge box of sweetmeats had arrived for their evening supper, even the silverheels were urging Kate to give Sean an audience.

“If for no other reason than to make him stop,” Dennis Kelly told her as they sat around the big dining room table while Barnaby and Jennie cleared away the dishes. “The man’ll drive you daft, lass.”

“He’s driving me daft already,” Kate replied.

Dennis chuckled, jiggling the jowls under his muttonchop whiskers. “Aye, but it’s a nice way to go. Showered with attention.” Of Irish descent himself, Dennis’ speech sometimes reminded Kate of Sean’s slight brogue. And both knew how to use blarney to their purpose.

“If you really have no desire to take up with him again, Kate, you may have to see him one more time just so you can convince him of that,” Carter added. “And, of course, if he really wants to see his daughter, you may not be able to stop him.”

Kate looked up sharply. “You mean he might be able to see her whether I want him to or not?”

Carter nodded. “He’s the father. He has certain legal rights.”

Jennie swung through the kitchen door. “I don’t know why you’re so set against seeing him, sis. He did come back for you.”

“Yes. And he only waited a year and a half to do it.”

“Ah, lass, don’t be too hard on him. Some laddies are just slower than others,” Dennis Kelly urged.

The other two miners had been silent throughout the discussion, but finally the youngest one, Brad Connors, spoke up. “I’d throw the bastard out on his ear if I was you, Miss Kate. Excuse my language.”

“I agree,” chimed in the third boarder, Humphrey Smith, who had never been called anything but Smitty.

Kate suspected that neither Brad nor Smitty was being objective, since both had all but admitted warm feelings for her themselves. But it felt good to have someone taking her side. She gave both men a smile.

“If you keep turning him away, he might decide he has no recourse but to go to the courts,” Carter warned.

“And what would the courts do?”

Jennie went to put a hand on her husband’s shoulder as he looked gravely at Kate and answered, “They can’t make you agree to see him, but they could make you allow him to see Caroline. He’s a rich man, Kate. With the right lawyers, he could even win custody of her.”

Kate gave a little gasp of horror. “They could take her away from me?”

Carter gave a grim nod. “With the lawyers the Flahertys could muster, I reckon they could.”

Kate looked around the table at the three miners, then at her sister, standing behind Carter. All were watching her with concern. She swallowed hard. “No one’s taking my baby away from me,” she said. “I’ll see him tomorrow morning.”

Sean was pleased but not totally surprised when young Barnaby, the orphan living with the Sheridans, showed up at his hotel room early in the morning with the message that Kate wanted to talk with him. He’d figured she needed time to calm down and enough courting to soothe her pride, but he’d never doubted that eventually she’d give in. Some women just needed more coaxing than others. He’d calculated it might take up to a week, so four days was more than satisfactory.

He whistled as he set off toward Elm Street, his mood buoyant. What did surprise him a bit was how much he was looking forward to seeing her again. With any luck she might have softened enough for him to take her in his arms, perhaps kiss her. The very idea made his blood race in a way it hadn’t for months. And the second surprise was how much he was looking forward to seeing Caroline. He’d never been one to pay much attention to babies, but he found himself daydreaming about his daughter’s sweet little face and curly black hair. He flexed his hand and remembered the feel of her tiny fist around his finger. He wanted to see them both.

But once again it was Jennie who answered the door, and her smile was not as welcoming as it had been the other day. His glance went to the huge arrangement of flowers on the table, overpowering in the small hallway. They’d come from him, of course, but Jennie made no reference to them.

“Kate’s waiting to speak with you in the parlor, Sean. She asked me and Carter to join you.”

A family gathering wasn’t exactly what Sean had had m mind, but he smiled pleasantly and said, “Fine,” and followed her through the curtain into the parlor.

Kate and Carter were together on the settee. Carter stood when they entered, but Kate remained seated. She looked tired. There were circles under her eyes, and her cheeks were even paler than when Sean had first arrived. He frowned with concern. “Are you feeling all right?” he asked her without preliminaries.

She met his gaze directly. “I’ll be feeling better when you leave town.”

“Kate!” Jennie exclaimed at her sister’s rudeness.

Carter gave a half smile and extended his hand toward the visitor. “Kate’s interested to know the purpose for your stay in Vermillion, Flaherty.” The two men shook hands. “What exactly are your intentions here?”

Sean looked around the group. Jennie walked over to stand next to Carter, who slipped an arm around her waist. Kate glared up at him from her seat on the settee. There was less warmth in the room than in an icehouse at midwinter.

“I came back to see Kate, to see if we could resume…if we could find…” He stumbled over the words, then cleared his throat and started again. “Of course, now that I know about my daughter, it just makes it all the more urgent.” He shot Jennie a glance to make sure that she realized that he was keeping her part in his return a secret. He wouldn’t reveal that he’d learned of Caroline’s existence from Jennie’s letter.

“Caroline’s my daughter,” Kate began, her voice shaking. Carter put a steadying hand on her shoulder.

“No one will deny that you are the father of Kate’s child,” Carter said in a lawyerly tone. “We’ve asked you here today to discuss the ramifications of that admission.”

This was not the discussion Sean had expected. He’d hoped Kate had come to her senses. He’d hoped for some kind of tender reunion, had even pictured taking her back to his room at the hotel to rekindle the passion they’d been so quick to find eighteen months ago. He felt awkward standing before her as if at some kind of tribunal.

“May I sit down?” he asked, gesturing to the highbacked chair.

“Of course.” Carter sat down again on the settee, and Jennie sank to a low stool beside him, leaving her hand in his.

As Sean took his seat, Kate spoke again. “You’re not taking away my baby, Sean.”

He looked up in surprise. “Is that what you think of me, Katie?”

“We just want to get this straightened out,” Carter explained. “As the father, you might have certain rights.”

“By all means, let’s get it straight,” Sean replied. He was beginning to get angry. “I have no intention of taking Caroline away from anyone. A baby belongs with her mother. But she belongs with her father, too. I’m here to try to make that happen.” He shifted his gaze directly to Kate and spoke intently. “I want us to be together, Kate. I’m asking you to forgive me and to give me—to give us—that chance.”

There was a long moment of silence during which it was obvious to everyone in the room that Sean’s words had somehow reached their target. Kate’s expression had softened and there was a look of something like longing in her clear eyes.

Finally Carter stood, pulling Jennie up with him. “I think I hear the baby,” he said.

Jennie gave him a puzzled glance. “Barnaby’s with her.”

Carter lifted an eyebrow and gave a slight nod toward Sean. “Maybe we’d better go check to be sure,” he said.

Jennie looked from Sean to her sister, then back to Carter, who nodded again. “All right.” She let him lead her across the room and out the curtain. “We’ll be close by if you need anything,” she told Kate. Then the couple ducked through the curtain and Sean and Kate were alone.

“Did you really come back for me?” Kate asked finally. “To try again?”

Sean wasted little time in moving in at what appeared to be a wavering of the opposing forces. He got up and swiftly crossed the room to sit next to Kate on the settee. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you in all these months, Kate.” This much he could say with complete sincerity.

Kate’s gaze became unfocused and drifted toward the window. “I couldn’t believe it when you left,” she began slowly. “We were so happy. My world had become a paradise, and then suddenly you were gone. You didn’t even come to say goodbye, just that cold letter…”

He took her hand. “Ah, Katie, if it sounded cold it was because I was writing it with a broken heart. I didn’t know what to tell you.”

“You said you had to go back to your family’s business.”

“I was forced back by my father. He said he was tired of my foolish whim to play prospector. If I hadn’t gone home, he might have disowned me.”

“And he forced you to leave so quickly you couldn’t even come to tell me in person?”

Her voice was growing cold again. Sean looked down at the floor. “No,” he said m a low voice. “That was sheer cowardice. I think I knew if I had to look into those beautiful eyes of yours to say goodbye, I’d never be able to leave.”

Kate pulled her hand out of his almost regretfully, without her earlier anger. “As you said the other day, I’m not the same person I was back then, Sean. We don’t know if we would even feel the same about each other.”

Sean met her eyes. “Maybe you don’t, but I knew it the minute I saw you again, Katie.” He recaptured her hand and this time brought it to his mouth and planted a kiss on her palm. “Tell me you don’t feel it, too.”

She made no reply, and this time she didn’t pull her hand away. He followed the one kiss with another on the inside of her wrist, right at the spot where her pulse was pounding. His voice grew husky. “Since the minute I saw you, Katie, I’ve been wanting to do this again.”

He shifted closer on the settee and enfolded her in his arms, then bent to find her mouth with his. He was gentle, tentative almost, not at all the passionate, demanding lover she remembered. It was devastating.

She felt a swirling inside her head and then her mouth opened to accept his deepening kiss. For a moment the past year and a half receded and she was back on a hillside m the early spring, in love for the first time in her life.

He pulled her against him, her breasts hardening as they pressed into his chest. Her insides turned liquid and hot and her head fell back against his arm as his kiss became two, then three, then she lost count.

“I never forgot this, sweetheart,” he murmured. “All this time, I’ve remembered the taste of these lips.”

The sound of his voice helped clear the haze that had descended on her so abruptly. She pulled away, her cheeks burning.

“You haven’t forgotten, either,” he said. When she refused to meet his eyes, he took her chin in his fingers and gently turned her face up to look at him. “Have you?”

After a moment, she answered, grateful that her voice was steady. “They say a girl never forgets her first love.”

“And I was your first, Katie. That was your precious gift to me. I was a cad for accepting it and then leaving you, but I’m here to convince you to forgive me for that. Is there any hope?”

Kate sank back against the soft cushions of the set tee and sighed. “How could I ever trust you, Sean? You broke my heart once. Wouldn’t I be foolish to entrust it to you again?”

He smiled. “Five minutes ago I might have answered yes, but not after those kisses. Now I’d have to say you’d be foolish not to give me another chance. Because you’re still in love with me, Katie Marie Sheridan. A woman doesn’t kiss like that unless she’s in love.”

She didn’t bother to deny his assertion. Part of her had never stopped loving Sean Flaherty. But if she’d learned one lesson in the past eighteen months it was that sometimes loving is not enough.

“Perhaps we can spend some time together and see how we feel,” she said after a long pause.

Sean gave a whoop and leaned over to buss her on the cheek. “That’s my girl. That’s my sweet Kate.”

She slid away from him across the silk seat. “I’ve told you, Sean, I’m not the same sweet little Kate I was when we met, but we’ll get to know each other again and see what happens.”

“We’ll do this any way you want,” he assured her.

She nodded firmly. “For one thing, we’ll have none of that kissing business for a while. It muddles my thinking.”

Sean grinned. “Nothing wrong with a bit of muddled thinking now and then.”

Kate gave a reluctant smile. “Well, I prefer to stay clearheaded, thank you very much.”

He stood and reached for her hands. “Fine. I won’t kiss you again until you ask me to. I promise.”

She let him take her hands and pull her up to stand intimately close to him. The heat was instantaneous. She felt her cheeks flush again.

Sean laughed, obviously aware of her reaction. “Come on, my clearheaded darling, let’s go find my daughter so I can get better acquainted with her.”

Chapter Three

“Do you think I did the right thing?” Jennie asked, snuggling against Carter in their soft bed.

“To go against your sister’s express wishes and write to Flaherty, putting her at risk of losing her child to his powerful family?”

Jennie winced and buried her face in his shoulder. “You don’t really think he’d try to take Caroline, do you?”

“I don’t even know the guy, honey. I think you were playing with fire, but I’ve learned my lesson about trying to make you change your mind when you get one of your notions.”

His voice held laughter and a lazy, post-lovemaking indulgence. “I find that hard to believe, counselor,” Jennie said dryly. “But, seriously, maybe this time I’ve made a terrible mistake. Kate and I have always tried to take care of each other.”

“And you’re still trying to take care of her, Jennie. That’s your problem. Your baby sister’s all grown-up now. It’s up to her to decide what she wants to do about Flaherty. You’ll just have to trust her to make the right decision.”

“I don’t want her hurt again, Carter. She deserves to be happy.”

Carter sighed. “Perhaps you should have thought about that before you wrote the letter, honey. But it’s too late now. He’s here, and, personally, I think Kate is perfectly capable of dealing with him.”

“Do you think she’s still in love with him?”

“She hasn’t said a single kind word, and her eyes flash daggers when she looks at him, so I would say…yes.”

Jennie pulled her head up to look at him. “That doesn’t make sense.”

He pulled her on top of him and gave her soft bottom a loving pat. “It makes perfect sense. How many verbal daggers did you throw at me before I could get you to admit that you were crazy about me?”

She smiled at him in the darkness. “I threw plenty. But that was before I fell in love with you.”

Carter shook his head. “Nope. It was because you fell in love with me. The opposite of love is indifference, not hostility.”

“So your theory is that if Kate is hostile, it means she still cares about him?”

Carter pulled her a couple inches along the top of him, enough for her to feel evidence of his renewed arousal. “We can have a heck of a tiff, baby,” he said in a low voice, “and you still do this to me. The one thing I can’t be when I’m around you is indifferent. If Kate were calm and nonchalant, I’d say Flaherty should start packing, but as it is. I don’t know. She just might weaken.”

Jennie shifted her legs to fit her body more closely around him, eliciting a low growl from her partner. “If he hurts her again, I’ll personally take Papa’s shotgun and run him out of town. I swear.”

Carter reached his hand up to pull her head down toward him. “I don’t want to talk about Flaherty anymore,” he said tersely. Then he proceeded to close her mouth with his own.

By the end of the week it was obvious that Carter had been right. Kate was anything but indifferent to her former lover. She tried to pretend that her interest was casual, but Jennie could recognize the signs in her sister—the extra primping before he was due to call, the starry gazes out the window when she thought no one was around, the flushed cheeks at the sound of his knock on the front door.

She hadn’t agreed to go off alone with him yet, so Jennie assumed she was keeping some degree of control on the relationship, but she suspected that would change. Sean could be very charming.and very persuasive. Even though she’d been responsible for bringing Sean back to Vermillion, Jennie’s misgivings grew. As the older sister, she felt as if she should at least warn Kate about giving in too far, too fast. But since the couple in question already had produced a child, the advice seemed a bit silly.

So when Kate asked shyly if Jennie would mind Caroline while she had supper at the hotel with Sean, Jennie merely agreed and held her tongue.

Kate sensed her sister’s apprehension and was grateful for her forbearance. She had enough doubts herself without adding Jennie’s. Sean had wanted to be alone with her all week, and she had continued to resist, though every day she felt more comfortable in his company, more tender watching his obvious delight in his daughter, and more reluctant to see him leave in the evening. He’d kept his word and had not tried to kiss her, but the tension between them as they parted each night made it obvious that at the barest nod from her, she would once again be in his arms.

The first chill of fall was in the air as they crossed the street toward the Continental Hotel. She was glad she’d worn the old silk shawl that had been her mother’s. She and Jennie had divided their mother’s clothes between them after her death. They were too short of money not to use them, though for weeks it had been a pang to see them on each other.

“I should have hired a rig,” Sean said, looking at the glowing western sky. “I remember how you liked sunsets.”

“I don’t get much time for a drive in the country these days,” Kate answered a bit wistfully. “I almost envy Jennie her job up at the mine. It gets her out into the mountains every day. Of course, I’d probably be intimidated cooking for all those men.”

Sean took her arm to help her up the stairs to the wooden sidewalk in front of the hotel. “You cook for the three miners boarding with you.”

“That’s different. Dennis, Brad and Smitty are almost like family nowadays. And they’re easy to please. They say anything I make tastes like heaven.”

“Sweetheart, we had some of the finest cooks in San Francisco at home when I was growing up, and not a one of them could produce a brisket like the one we had last night.”

“Ah, Sean Flaherty, you and your Irish blarney again,” she protested. But she was pleased in spite of herself. Sean’s descriptions of his wealthy childhood had always intimidated her. The luxuries of Nob Hill sounded much farther than a mountain range away from her simple Vermillion life. Meeting Sean had opened a whole new world to her, a world beyond the mountains, where men and ladies wore fine clothes, dined on exotic foods and delighted each other with their witty sallies. There had been a time when she’d dreamed of marrying Sean and being swept off to that enchanted world. But those days were over. She was happy at Sheridan House with her daughter and the rest of her family around her. Nevertheless, remembering Sean’s tales of lavish San Francisco banquets, she’d worked all yesterday afternoon to be sure the supper was perfect.

“I can tell you one thing,” Sean was saying with his crooked grin. “We won’t be dining as finely tonight. The Continental must have recruited the hotel chef from one of the neighboring mines. His steaks are hard as ore and twice as gritty.”

Kate chuckled. One of the things that had made her fall so fatally for Sean had been his humor. Though there’d always been plenty of lively talk around their table, Kate had to admit that her own family had been a serious bunch.

He did his best to keep her fascinated throughout the meal. The laughter felt good. She hadn’t laughed so hard or felt so carefree since a year ago spring, before Sean had left her, before the death of her parents in the flu epidemic, before she’d learned that she would have to face the town unwed with a baby growing inside her.

“Ah, Katie Marie, you need to laugh more often,” he said as the waiter cleared away their plates including the rum cake which Kate had scarcely touched. “It makes your face glow like a freshly opened rose.”

She nodded and swirled the coffee in her cup. “Yes. There was too much sadness in our household after Mama and Papa died…and then I was so sick with the baby. And Jennie had a terrible battle with Carter when the town was trying to close down the boardinghouse.” She straightened up in the chair and smiled. “But that’s all past now. Carter and Jennie are happy as two June bugs on a screen, Caroline is healthy…;”

“And her father’s come back,” Sean added softly.

Kate lowered her eyes. “Yes. He’s come back. And I’ve discovered that he still can make me laugh like no one else I’ve ever met.”

Sean reached across the table and grasped the hand that held the cup, stopping the swirling. “He can still make you feel, too, Katie. He can make you laugh and then cry from the intensity of it. Remember?”

He spoke softly, but the words drummed into her ears. She did remember. The intensity. The tears of release after Sean had brought her to incredible heights of passion. But she remembered other tears later, the ones she’d shed after he had left her. Oceans of them. She pulled her hand away and put down the cup.

“I think I’d better get back, Sean. Caroline will be wanting her mama before going down for the night.”

“I thought Jennie was going to feed her a bottle.”

“Well, it’s always better if I feed her myself.” She spoke the words in a rush and stood up abruptly, trying to tamp down the sudden panicky feeling.

Sean stood, as well, reached into his pocket and carelessly tossed three silver dollars onto the table. “Katie, it’s after ten. Caroline’s undoubtedly been asleep for over an hour.”

“Have you become such an expert on her schedule, suddenly, with less than a week’s practice?” Her voice was sharper than she had intended, but Sean didn’t seem to be offended. He walked around the table and took her arm.

“We’ve had such a lovely evening. I’m not ready to give you back yet.” He put an arm behind her waist and steered her toward the Continental’s narrow staircase. “We’ll have some Queen Charlotte in my room.”

“What’s Queen Charlotte?”

“It’s a raspberry claret—very much the rage in San Francisco. I brought some with me just for you.”

San Francisco. That mysterious, glamorous world he’d painted for her in tantalizing glimpses in between their magical moments of lovemaking. Yes, she wanted to go upstairs with him to drink Queen Charlotte and get heady on the elixir of faraway places and close-up passion. Her body was strumming with the wanting of it. But her mind told her that once she climbed those stairs with him, she’d be lost. She’d have unlocked her mended heart and left it vulnerable, out in the open, just waiting for him to rend it apart again.

She stopped his forward movement by holding on to the end of the banister. “I can’t, Sean.”

She was up on the first step so their eyes were level, just inches apart, hers anguished, his pleading. “Let me help you remember how good we were, Katie,” he said, low and husky.

Kate looked around for some sign of life to help break the spell of those intent blue eyes, but the hotel lobby was empty. Even the desk clerk had abandoned his post. She turned back to him and took a deep breath. “That spring I let you make love to me, Sean, because I was young and foolish and desperately in love. But it was a mistake.” He tried to protest, but she held up a hand and continued, “Mama always said the wisest people were the ones who make plenty of mistakes, because they learn so much from them.”

The image of her sensible, down-to-earth mother, the woman who had wanted to raise her daughters in the simplicity and beauty of the mountains, helped Kate grow calmer.

Sean seemed to sense that he had lost the battle. He dropped his arm from behind her. “I promised that you’d do the asking next time, Katie,” he said with a sad smile.

She nodded. “Thank you.”

He put his hands at her waist and boosted her off the step, then left them there for a long moment. “Having a baby didn’t thicken that waspish waist of yours any, sweetheart,” he said, his voice a little shaky.

She slipped out of his grasp. “There are plenty of pleasingly plump girls in town if you’re on the lookout, Sean,” she snapped.

“Katie! That wasn’t a complaint. You’re.perfect. Just the way you are.” He stepped back and took a quick glance at her graceful, slender form. “You’re perfect,” he said again softly, almost to himself.

Kate suddenly felt tired. She’d been up feeding Caroline before dawn. “Will you take me home now, Sean?” she asked.

He stood looking at her one more long moment, then seemed to come to some kind of resolution. His face became animated once again. “Yes, I’ll take you home. But tomorrow night we’re going for that sunset drive.” When she started to demur, he added, “We’ll take Caroline along with us. That way we won’t have to trouble Jennie again. C’mon, sweetheart. I want to have a picnic with my daughter.”

Once again, Kate knew the more she let this go on, the more at risk she was, but a sunset picnic with Sean and their daughter sounded wonderful. She smiled her agreement. “I’ll pack us a supper.”

Barnaby was the only member of the household to put it to her directly. They spoke in the kitchen as he helped her make the meat pies Kate had planned for supper. She would pack several to be eaten cold on the picnic. In his matter-of-fact voice that was just beginning to show signs of slipping into manhood, he said, “I thought Mr. Flaherty was a bad man, Kate, ‘cause he left you, and you had to have Caroline all by yourself and almost died. So I don’t understand why you’re going on a picnic with him.”

Kate smiled slightly at the unanswerable logic. “Sometimes adults do things that don’t make much sense, don’t we?”

Barnaby nodded. He needed a haircut and his body had sprouted out of his clothes, as it seemed to do regularly these days. He resembled a miniature scarecrow. “So how come you’re going?” he persisted.

Kate gave a little shriek as her finger slipped off the towel and touched one of the hot pie tins. She set the pie on the counter and dipped the tip of the burned finger into the pan of dishwater. “Well, for one thing, Sean is Caroline’s father. I think it’s only fair for me to let him get to know her and give her the chance to have a father, if things could work out that way.”

“You mean, like you marrying him after all?”

Even Kate hadn’t wanted to confront the question after roundly rejecting Sean’s initial proposal, but now that the issue was raised, she realized that marrying Sean was exactly what had been on her mind these past three days. It was hard to believe after all she’d been through, but suddenly it seemed the only course that would make her life perfect. She had her health back, she had Caroline. Now all she needed was Sean.

She pulled her finger out of the water and frowned at it. “Well, I told him no once, and he may not ask me again.” Barnaby was methodically pulling off the pieces of crust that had overlapped the edges of one of the tins and popping the bits of dough in his mouth. “Don’t burn yourself,” she cautioned.

“Oh, he’ll ask you again all right.”

Kate blushed. “How do you know that?”

“The way he looks at you…you know, all dopey eyed. And I heard Carter and Jennie talking about it. I guess it’s all right. It would be good for Caroline to have a pa.”

A slight shadow crossed his face. Like Caroline, Barnaby had been born illegitimately. Shortly after the baby’s birth he’d been so concerned about protecting her from the stigma he’d carried throughout his own short life that he’d tried to run away with her into the mountains. It had taken Carter, who also had been born to an unwed mother, to convince the boy that the love of a close-knit family like the Shendans could make up for the lack of a name.

Kate sensed the direction of the boy’s thoughts and leaned over to ruffle a hand through his reddish hair. “Caroline would do just fine without a pa, Barnaby. But I guess it would be nice for her to have one just the same.”

“Yeah. Caroline’d like that, I think. But you’d still be living here, wouldn’t you?”

Kate’s thinking hadn’t taken her that far. “I don’t know,” she said slowly.

Barnaby looked worried. “You can’t take Caroline away. We all love her.”

“I know, Barnaby. She loves you, too. But anyway, no one’s even talked about my getting married yet, so we won’t worry about it, all right? Now how about you take some of these pies into the dining room? Be sure to set them on a plate so they don’t scorch the table.”

He nodded and began to do as she asked, but his face was glum.

Barnaby’s dismal expression stayed with Kate as she and Sean drove up the gently sloping road that led west out of town to Pritchard’s Hill. She was less enthusiastic than she’d been earlier in the day anticipating the excursion. There was no doubt that the feeling she had had for Sean was returning. She recognized the symptoms—sweaty palms, a giddy sensation in her head, fullness in her chest. But things were more complicated than they had been eighteen months ago when she’d been a carefree girl discovering the beauty of young love.

“You’re quiet tonight, Katie,” Sean said, turning his head from the horses to study her.

“I’m sorry. Caroline awoke three times last night. I’m probably tired.”

Sean reached into her lap and seized one of her hands. “That wasn’t a reproach, sweetheart. No need to apologize.” He looked into the back of the buggy where Caroline was lying awake and wide-eyed, but peaceful. “I thought you told me she usually sleeps all through the night now. She’s not sick, is she?”

Kate shook her head. “No, but I think those new teeth coming in are bothering her a little. I rubbed some of Carter’s whiskey on them before we left tonight.”

“Whiskey!” Sean looked horrified.

Kate laughed. “Not to drink. Just rubbed on the gums. It won’t hurt her any.”

Sean was viewing his daughter with a critical eye as if trying to identify signs of drunkenness. “I don’t know anything about babies, Kate,” he said finally with a sigh.

“Most people don’t until they get one. Then you learn fast.”

They’d reached the grove of old cedars where they had been accustomed to stopping during their visits here that first spring. “Shall we make it here, for old times’ sake?” Sean asked.

Kate’s heart sped up a little, but she nodded. “It’ll be too dark if we try to go farther.”

Sean sprang out of the carriage and was around to Kate’s side before she could climb out on her own. His arms came up around her waist and swung her down. When her feet touched the ground, she tried to take a step away, but he held her firmly against him, looking down at her. His eyes were slightly hooded, the nostrils flared. When he spoke, his voice was husky. “I won’t break my promise about waiting until you ask, but a kiss for old times’ sake would be nice, too.”

Their faces were only inches apart, and Kate could feel an actual tingling in her suddenly dry lips. She licked them. “I think we’d better eat,” she said. “Caroline will be fussing for her own supper before long.”

He released her instantly, his face impassive. “I’ll hand her down to you,” he said, boosting himself up on the side rails to reach for Caroline’s basket.

Kate felt the tension drain out of her as she busied herself preparing for the meal. They set out two blankets and let Caroline sit up in the middle of one, entertaining herself with the wooden blocks Dennis Kelly had whittled for her. On the other, they set out the food Kate had packed. Sean had brought along a bottle of wine and two glasses. “This is for you, now, not the baby,” he joked as he handed her a glass.

Kate smiled. “In a manner of speaking, Caroline drinks whatever I do.”

Sean looked a little embarrassed by the reference. His eyes went to Kate’s full breasts, then slid away. “I don’t know much about that, either,” he mumbled, and began digging into one of the meat pies.

Dinner went quickly and with much laughter over Caroline’s antics as she crawled around trying to explore each item on the menu. Finally when they’d finished the last of the maple cakes for dessert, Kate took Caroline in her arms and said a little shyly. “I’m afraid I’ll have to feed her before we head back. She’ll be hollering up a fit before long if she doesn’t get her supper.”

Sean jumped to his feet and picked up the extra blanket. Folding it over three times he fashioned a little seat and propped it against the nearest cedar tree. “Will you be comfortable here or would you rather be in the buggy?”

Kate stood, still carrying the baby, who was beginning to squirm. “That will be fine.” She hesitated a moment, avoiding his eyes.

Sean walked over to her and took Caroline. “You make yourself comfortable there and do whatever you need to get yourself ready, and then I’ll hand her to you.”

Kate sank down onto the padded seat and arranged her skirts around her. “I should have her blanket from the basket,” she said.

Sean nodded but still held the baby, waiting. When she made no move to unbutton her dress, he said, “I’ll go take a walk or something if you want me to, Kate, but I’d prefer to stay and watch my daughter with her mother.”

Losing a little of her self-consciousness, Kate undid the top of her dress, then reached up for Caroline. Sean retrieved the blanket and tucked it tenderly around the baby, who was already finding her dinner.

It seemed, after all, natural and sweet to sit in the darkening evening with Sean while their baby tugged at her breast. Sean’s eyes were mostly on her face, but every now and then he’d reach out a hand to stroke the back of the baby’s head ever so gently.

When she was finished, she sat Caroline on her knee and patted her back. “Let me do that,” Sean said, reaching for the baby.

“Careful, she might spit up,” Kate warned, and helped him arrange the blanket over his trousers in case of any sudden eruptions. She fastened up her dress, then sat back against the tree to watch Sean minister to their baby. The sight made her throat fill.

After several minutes, she said, “She’ll sleep now if you want to put her down in the basket.”

He smiled and gave Caroline a final hug, which she returned by putting her chubby arms around his neck. She made no protest as he put her down and carefully arranged the blanket around her.

“She’s half-asleep already,” he said, his voice tender and a bit awed.

The evening was beginning to grow cool. Kate untangled part of the blanket she was sitting on to wrap it around her shoulders. “We should be heading back, I guess,” she said sleepily. “But it’s nice here.”

Sean took a final look into Caroline’s basket, then went back to drop beside Kate, dragging the other blanket beneath him. “We can stay awhile longer, if you like. Jennie said you weren’t to worry about cleaning up at Sheridan House tonight.”

“She and Barnaby will handle everything just fine,” Kate agreed. “I don’t know what I would have done without them this past year.”

Sean stretched out on the blanket, propping himself on one elbow and looking up at her. “This past year when you should have had a husband with you to help in the burdens of bearing and raising your child.”

Kate looked down at him, her face serious. “Perhaps I was wrong not to contact you, Sean.”

“No ‘perhaps’ about it, Kate. But there’s no way to relive the past. The question is, what are we going to do now?”

The meat pie she’d eaten seemed to be stuck at the base of her throat. She remembered the conversation earlier with Barnaby, so certain that Sean would want to marry her. And as much as the young orphan hated the thought of losing Caroline, he’d thought she’d be better off with a father. “Why did you suddenly decide to come back, Sean? You’ve never really explained what brought you back here.” She held in a breath. Somehow the answer was vitally important to her.

Sean looked at her a long moment, his eyes unreadable in the increasing dusk. “I’ve told you, Kate. I never stopped thinking about you in all these months.”

“Surely there have been others.”

He shook his head. “I’m not a saint, I guess you know that better than anyone. But none of them seemed to mean anything after you. Every time I was accosted by one of the society belles on Nob Hill hunting a socially acceptable husband, all I could think about was my sweetheart up in the mountains. And when I’d try to forget you by carousing in one of the gambling halls down by the waterfront, the painted ladies would turn my stomach and make me long for the fresh white skin and clear blue eyes of the beauty I’d left behind.”

She wanted to believe his sincerity. But she’d believed him once before when he’d talked of love everlasting. It hadn’t even lasted through the spring.

“I have more than my own heart to guard now, Sean. I have my daughter’s, as well.”

He was quiet for such a long time that Kate wondered if he was beginning to fall asleep. But suddenly he sat up, moved to her side and put his arms around her.

“I’m going to break my promise and kiss you,” he said. “I swear it’s the last promise to you I’ll ever break.”

Chapter Four

When he’d planned a drive away from town, Sean had anticipated that the privacy and distance would ignite the feelings that he and Kate had both been resisting for several days. But he’d planned to let her be the one to initiate things. He’d had every intention of continuing to play the role of gentleman until she gave him the word. But seeing her with his daughter had evoked emotions that he’d never before experienced. And when he’d heard the crack in her voice as she talked about entrusting him with her heart, he’d simply had to hold her. His mind, his body and something deeper than either of these were all combining to convince him that he could not live another second without feeling her in his arms.

Once she was there, nothing else seemed to matter. She’d not protested. In fact, she was willing and pliant. Within short moments, she was eager and yearning.

He kissed her, deeply, and she responded much more thoroughly than she had at her home the other day. So thoroughly that his entire body began to throb. “Ah, Katie,” he murmured. “How I’ve missed this. You feel so very right to me.”

She lay back in his arms and smiled up at him, her eyes shining in the light of the rising moon. “You feel right to me, too, Sean. Remember, how I told you that first time.?”

He kissed her forehead, then each of her eyes. “I was the one you had waited for, you said. I remember every single detail of that night.”

“On this very hill.”

“Yes, up there beyond the boulder.”

They smiled at the shared memory. Then Sean renewed his caresses, kissing the tip of her chin, then underneath it and along the length of her neck. He tasted her earlobe, then whispered, “I thought I never could want anything as much as I wanted you that night, Katie, but I was wrong…because tonight I want you even more than I did then.”

She gave a little groan as she rocked against him, then asked, “Caroline?”

In an instant he released her, jumped to his feet and walked over to the carriage where he’d placed the baby’s basket on the seat. Before the night breeze could cool the warmth where his arms had been, he was back, rearranging the blanket as he joined her once again on the ground “We’ll hear her if she stirs. Right now she’s in dreamland.” He kissed her again, softly. “And I’m about to take her mother into a dreamland of a different sort.”

Kate had one last fleeting thought that she shouldn’t let herself be carried away. She had responsibilities now. She should be discussing Sean’s intentions, his plans. But all she could think about was the feel of his lips on her face, his hands moving firmly along her rib cage and coming to rest gently alongside each of her breasts. “Is it all right?” he asked, sounding suddenly unsure. “You’re not too sensitive?”

She felt incredibly sensitive at the moment, but not in the way he meant. It seemed as if every inch of her was quivering, waiting to feel his touch. In response to his question she began unfastening her dress and pulled his head down toward her full breasts. “Make love to me, Sean,” she murmured. And as she said the words she felt an immense need begin to build in the lower portion of her body. She moved her legs restlessly against him.

He sensed her urgency and pressed a hand against her private parts through her dress as he began an onslaught of deep, rhythmic, slow kisses. She opened her mouth to his, grasped his back and moved against his hand, the sensation building so quickly that before she knew what had happened she’d tumbled over the edge into quick convulsions of release.

Sean gave a little chuckle and held her tightly. “It’s been so long,” she said, hiding her face against his shoulder.

“I’m glad,” he said in a fierce, low voice. “I’m glad no one else found you in all these months that I was foolish enough to leave you here by yourself. Now you’re mine again, Katie Marie. And this time I’m not letting you go.”

His declaration seemed to spur him to action. In short order he had discarded both her clothing and his own. Neither noticed the cool night air on their burning skin. It was enough that they were together again, flesh against flesh, their mouths seeking each other with needy, almost desperate kisses, their hands touching everywhere, relearning the once familiar paths to passion.

“I love you,” Kate breathed without conscious thought as their bodies joined, and as they moved together and the feeling spiraled, the words spiraled, too, in her head. “Love you, love you, love you.” Until finally once again the wave of feeling broke over her, and this time Sean shared the moment, clutching her more tightly as he climaxed inside her.

Afterward they lay totally still for several long moments, each lost in private thoughts. Sean was the first to speak. “I’m sorry, Katie, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

Kate froze, then felt her heart plunge. But even as she struggled to hold back the sob that rose in her throat, Sean continued, “I’d meant to get you to agree to marry me before we did this again.”

There was a rushing behind her ears. All the doubts that had surfaced earlier when she was talking to Barnaby and on the drive up here dissipated like dust in a rainstorm. She sank back against his arm and smiled with joy and relief. “Did you now?” she asked.

He tucked her snugly against him and kissed her cheek. “Caroline needs a father.”

Her smile dimmed a bit. She’d hoped for a more romantic declaration, but perhaps she shouldn’t be so particular. Sean must love her if he wanted to marry her. After all, he’d come back to Vermillion to find her before he knew anything about the baby.

He didn’t seem to notice her hesitation. Smiling at her, he gave her a playful kiss. “And who knows, we may already have started on a little brother for her. I’d say it’s more than high time we were married, young lady.”

She chuckled. “I’m not a young lady anymore, Sean. I’m a mother now.”

He stroked her soft skin from her shoulder to her hip. “No one would believe it, Katie. You’re more beautiful than ever.”

She moved beneath his hand with a murmur of contentment. “You truly want to marry me? I’m not dreaming this?”

He stopped his caress and rolled away from her. “We keep getting things backward, sweetheart. I wanted to do this proper, but I can’t think straight when I have you naked in my arms.”

He gathered up her clothes and handed them to her, then stood to don his own. He was dressed before she. The first stars had just begun to appear alongside the quarter moon in the dark sky. By their light, he helped her fasten up her dress and straightened her shawl around her. When she was properly attired, he dropped to one knee in front of her and took her hand. “Miss Kate Sheridan,” he said, his voice low and vibrant, “I would consider myself the luckiest man on earth if you would do me the honor of granting me your hand in marriage.”

Kate felt the tears smart her eyes and her nostrils. She nodded, then, unsure if he could see in the darkness, she said, “Yes. I do. I mean…I’ll marry you.” She laughed. “I don’t know what one’s supposed to say.”

He stood and took her in his arms to give her a chaste kiss. “The ‘yes’ was all I needed to hear.”

She leaned her head against his chest, her heart bursting with happiness. “I love you, Sean,” she said again. Perhaps this time he’d say the words himself.

“I almost forgot!” he said instead. He released her and began to fish in his watch pocket, finally drawing out a tiny ring box. “This is for you.”

She took the velvet case and opened it. Even m the darkness, the stones glittered in regal splendor. A spectacular diamond, completely encircled by smaller rubies. Kate looked up at him in amazement. “You didn’t get this in Vermillion.”

He laughed. “Lord, no. It’s from San Francisco. I brought it with me when I came. Are you thinking it was vain of me to be so sure I could persuade you to forgive me?”

She shook her head. What she was thinking was that this showed he really had come back for her, come back expressly to marry her. Which meant that his words about how he had never stopped thinking about her in all those months were true. “It’s so beautiful, Sean,” she said simply.

He took the ring from the box and slipped it on her finger, then held her hand out to the moonlight so that they could admire it together. “It suits you, I think.”

Kate smiled and shook her head. “It’s far more elegant than anything I’ve ever owned or expected to own.”

“You can flaunt it in front of Mrs. Billngsley and all those other self-righteous biddies who gave you a hard time about the baby.”

Kate dropped her hand to her side. “I’ll love the ring because you gave it to me, Sean, not for any other reason. I have no bitterness against those ladies. They were merely upholding the standards of propriety that they had been raised to believe in.”

“Well, they didn’t have to try to ruin your and Jennie’s lives because of it.”

“That’s all past. Everyone in town accepts me now. And our true friends have supported us all along.”

Sean shrugged, but said with a grin, “I’ll still look forward to seeing old lady Billingsley’s face when she sees it on you.”

Kate laughed. “I might get a tiny bit of enjoyment out of that sight myself.”

“He bought the ring in San Francisco, Jennie. You see what that means—he came back intending to marry me.”

Kate’s face was radiant with happiness. The two sisters were out in the little washhouse behind the main house, working on the seemingly endless task of washing linen. Dennis, Brad and Smitty came in filthy every night from the mine and went through several towels each. Carter’s prosecutor job was not as dirtying, but he was a fastidious man who also liked a daily bath. And Barnaby, though he would easily forgo the bathing process if the sisters would let him, managed to track m more dirt than the four adult men combined. With so many towels, along with the sheets and other laundry, Kate and Jennie found themselves out at the washing shed almost every day.

“It’s too bad he couldn’t have done that a few months back,” Jennie said dryly. She seemed reluctant to endorse Kate’s sudden change of position on Sean. Of course, Jennie had been cynical about men in general before she’d fallen for Carter.

Kate picked up the ring, which she’d carefully set on a shelf while they scrubbed the clothes. “I never thought to have anything this pretty,” she said dreamily

“A pretty ring doesn’t make a marriage, Kate. Are you sure about this? Are you sure you won’t be too lonely way off in San Francisco?”

Kate’s expression dimmed. “Sean said we’d come for regular visits. And you can come to see us.”

“It’ll be hard for all of us to let little Caroline go. The first thing the silverheels do each night when they get home is go in to check on her. Carter, too. And you know Barnaby considers himself her personal protector.”

“I’ll always be grateful for that, Jennie. Caroline hasn’t felt the absence of a father because she’s had a whole household of them. But if she can have her real father, don’t you think that’s better?”

“I just hope Sean’s family will love you both as much as we do.”

“I’m sure they’ll be wonderful. Sean said he told them before he ever left that he was hoping to bring home a bride.”

“He was sure of himself, wasn’t he?”

Kate chuckled but then became serious. “You can’t imagine how important this has been to me, sis. When he left me that spring, I thought I’d been foolish to believe that he loved me. But now I see that he really did love me all along. It just took him a bit longer to figure it out.”

Jennie’s smile was weak, but she walked around the wooden washtub to give her sister a hug. “He’d just better have it figured out now, because it’s a big responsibility to take on a wife and baby. If he’s not up to it, he’ll have to answer to the whole passel of us.”

“I can’t believe you would be such an idiot, Kate.” Lyle Wentworth was striding angrily up and down the front porch of the Sheridan house while Kate sat on the swing at one end trying to stay calm.

“And I can’t believe you would use that tone of voice to me, Lyle Wentworth. If you came here to shout, you can leave right now.”

He spun around and walked back toward her, his long face contrite. “I’m sorry, Kate, but, honestly, you’ve got to realize what a mistake you’re making. This man abandoned you when you were expecting his child.”

“We’ve been through that, Lyle. I’ve listened to Sean’s explanations and I’ve decided to forgive him. I’m sorry that this is disappointing you. I know you…”

“You know I’ve loved you my whole life. I’ve waited for you. When you had to be by yourself at the hospital in Virginia City, who was the one who stayed by your side? It sure as hell wasn’t your fast-talking rich boyfriend.”

Kate stood and faced him. “I’ve asked you to watch your language, Lyle.”

His eyes reflected his misery. “Don’t scold me, Kate Can’t you see how I’m suffering?”

“I’m orry, Lyle.” Ana she was truly sorry. Lyle

had been a help and comfort to her when she’d been so sick before Caroline’s birth, and he’d been a devoted visitor ever since. If she’d let him, he would have called on her daily. Frequently he arrived with trinkets for the baby, flowers for her or sweetmeats for their table. But she’d never been able to get over the feeling that Lyle viewed her as something he wanted to possess. As the only child of the town banker, he’d had everything he wanted his whole life—everything except Kate.

“Just take some more time to think about it, Kate. The guy’s been back less than a month. And you were together only a couple months in the first place. You don’t really know him that well.”

She could have told Lyle that she knew enough to realize that Sean’s kisses made her heart soar, whereas the few times Lyle had kissed her, she’d felt nothing. But such an admission would be too cruel to an old friend. “The heart is a funny thing, Lyle. Sean and I haven’t spent that much time together, but I love him. It’s as simple as that, really.”

They were still standing in front of the swing. Lyle grabbed the chain and moved it back and forth in frustration. “I think you’re wrong, Kate. Sometimes it’s not that simple at all. When you go into his world in San Francisco, you may find that love isn’t enough. And by then it’ll be too late. All the people who love you will be too far away to help.”

Jennie had offered similar sentiments, but Kate was ignoring them all. Of course, Sean needed to be back in his world. He was expected to take his place in his father’s business and, as his wife, it was her duty to live where he needed to be. She stopped the motion of the swing with her knee and laid her hand on Lyle’s. “It’s where I belong,” she said, her eyes sad. “I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me, Lyle. But you’ve got to let me go and give me a chance to build a life with my child’s father.”

Lyle pulled his hand out from hers. “I won’t wish you luck, Kate,” he said tightly. Then he turned around, crossed the porch and ran down the path to the street.

Kate insisted on keeping the wedding preparations to a minimum. Though everyone in the household offered best wishes, she knew that Lyle’s skepticism and Jennie’s concern were shared by the others. No one else in town had been invited. Some of their friends had been staunch supporters during Kate’s unwed pregnancy, but she thought it was unseemly to advertise the nature of Caroline’s birth with a regular wedding.

So it was just the family and the three silverheels who lined up in the parlor to listen to Kate and Sean exchange vows in front of Reverend O’Connor. An Irishman himself, the blustery minister seemed willing to overlook Sean’s tardy arrival on the scene months after his daughter’s birth.

“May the Lord bless you both on this holy occasion,” he said in closing, and shook the groom’s hand warmly before accepting just a “wee” glass of the celebratory champagne Sean had insisted on having brought from Virginia City.

Kate was kissed by each of the silverheels in turn, then Carter, and finally by a teary-eyed Jennie. “Be happy, Kate,” she whispered. “That’s all I want.”

All in all it was a subdued evening, and by the time she and Sean left to go back and spend their wedding night at his hotel, Kate’s stomach was jumping with nerves.

“Would you like me to have some food sent up, sweetheart?” Sean asked as he took off his blue suit coat and hung it on the clothes tree. “I noticed that you didn’t eat anything back at your house.”

“I wasn’t hungry,” she said, and walked toward the bed, feeling odd and lonely, as if she had already said goodbye to her family and home.

Sean came up behind her and put his arms around her. “You’re tired. You’ve worn yourself out packing the last two days. I’m sorry I couldn’t have waited longer, but I know my father is anxious for me to get back to San Francisco.”

The warmth of his arms dispelled some of her gloom. “It’s going to be hard to leave tomorrow,” she agreed. “But as you say, we’ll see them often. And I’ll have the two most important people in my life with me.”

Sean turned her to face him and looked down at her with a serious expression. “I heard what your sister said, Kate, and I saw the misgivings in the faces of the others. But I do want to make you happy. You and our daughter.”

She smiled up at him. “Caroline’s quite taken with her papa already. And, of course, her mother’s been hopeless about him since the day we met.”

“On the steps in front of the Wentworth Bank.”

She nodded.

“You were wearing a blue dress, just the shade of your eyes, and I thought you were the prettiest sight I’d ever laid eyes on.”

Kate moved more fully into his arms. “You said, ‘Miss, I hope you’re planning to lock some of that beauty up in the bank here, because it’s not safe to have it out in the open.’“

“Did I now?” Sean grinned.

“Yes, and I thought it was the most outrageous nonsense I’d ever heard.”

“But look where it led us.”

“Yes.”

She turned her face up for his kiss, and all the misgivings of the brief wedding ceremony faded as once again her body responded to his caresses with increasingly strident yearnings.

“Ah, Kate, you turn me to fire every time I hold you,” Sean murmured in her ear, and the hardening of his body against her was ample proof of his words.

They were too impatient to pull back the coverlet on the bed, tumbling right on top of it and shedding clothes as they fell. “Jennie gave me a lovely nightdress to wear.” Kate began, but trailed off the words as Sean met her mouth with searching, skillful kisses that made her head spin. Her eyes closed and she lay back and let him stroke her into passion, her thighs, her stomach, her breasts.

“We’ll put it on you later,” he whispered. “For now I want just you…naked and soft and warm.” The words accented his deliberate caresses. Eventually his hand slipped between her legs where she was moist and ready to receive him. He pulled himself over her and asked softly, “Now?”

She opened her eyes to look up into his, glittering blue fire above her. “Please. .now,” she whispered, and guided his entry.

Their union was slow perfection. The speed they had felt at the beginning was through, replaced by a delicious sense of timelessness. All their feelings were centered on their joined flesh. Kate reached the edge first, and she whimpered at the back of her throat and hugged him more closely to her, prompting him to hasten his movements into a quickened shared rhythm that sent them both crashing into completion.

His body rested on top of hers, their damp skin sticking together wherever they touched. Kate’s fingers played idly through his tangled hair.

“You were magnificent, Mrs. Flaherty,” he said finally.

Kate gave a slow smile. Mrs. Flaherty. It had a lovely sound. “You were pretty magnificent yourself, Mr. Flaherty,” she said happily.

He rolled off her and pulled himself up to lie next to her on top of the coverlet. “To all appearances, Katie Mane, one of us was in a bit of a hurry. We didn’t even undo the bed.”

She loved the teasing note to his voice. “I believe we both were impatient, my love.”

Sean smiled. “My love…I like the sound of that.”

Actually, the endearment had slipped out unintended. Sean had still never told her in so many words that he loved her, and she had thought that she should not push the matter. But he was her love, and after what they’d just shared, it only seemed right to tell him so.

“Then I shall call you that every morning when I wake you up in our new home in San Francisco,” she said, tapping a finger lightly on his nose.

His smile dimmed, and for a moment his thoughts seemed to wander away from her. “I may change my bedroom,” he said after a moment.

She frowned in confusion. He’d already explained that for the time being they would be living at his family’s mansion, which was plenty big enough to house them and Caroline. “Change it?” she asked.

“We’re right down the hall from Mother, and I have a feeling if we don’t do something about it, the first sound either of us hears each morning will be her knock.”

“Surely your mother wouldn’t intrude on a newly married couple.”

For just a moment Sean looked younger than his twenty-five years. “We’ll see,” he said, but his voice lacked its usual confidence.

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