Forever and Always (32 page)

“He'd never leave. He's related to half the people in this town.”

She didn't know how these people could stand having brothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, nieces, and nephews around every corner. They always knew all the things about you that you hoped other people would never know. And no matter how beautiful you were, how rich your husband, or how high you rose in society, they still thought they were your equal. She'd always been thankful she didn't have any siblings. “I still think it's foolish to rely on his opinion. I think you ought to start taking your medicine again and go back to Chicago with me. Now that you're feeling better, I'm sure James can find a cure.”

“For a long time the medicine didn't have much effect on me. After James changed it again, I had my worst attacks after taking a dose.”

“James said he was trying different medicines. I'm sure he can find something that won't make you sick. Besides, now that you have a chance of getting well, you'll have to go back to Chicago. You won't want to sell your company now. And it was my uncle's work of a lifetime. He never considered letting it out of the family.” She knew how much Logan revered his father. She hoped that would be enough to counterbalance this momentary lunacy.

“I don't know what I'm going to do about Chicago or the company. Now that I'm going to get well, I have to think through everything again, but I do know that I
am
going to marry Sibyl. And if we're lucky, we'll have a couple of children. That means I'll have to make a new will. You'll have to learn to live on your allowance. That's a very stylish dress you're wearing, but I doubt you have paid for it yet. You're a beautiful woman, Bridgette. I know a dozen men who'd be happy to marry you. Go back to Chicago, look around a bit, and then settle on one of them.”

She wasn't going back to Chicago, and she wasn't going to settle for a husband who would give her an allowance when she ought to have a fortune of her own. She would not see the Lowe money go to support the spawn of
that woman
. She didn't know what she was going to do, but Elliot Lowe was going to his grave whether or not he went back to Chicago with her. One way or another, the Lowe fortune would be hers.

* * *

“I hate to think of you going back to Chicago just after we've found each other,” Jared said to Logan, “but there's no reason we can't visit Chicago or why you can't come here. They already have trains in the southern part of the Territory. As soon as trains reach Prescott it'll be easy to get to Chicago and back.”

Logan could tell that despite Jared's words, he was not happy. Colby wasn't as diplomatic.

“I'm going to take advantage of my position as baby of the family to say I'll be mad as hell if you disappear after I spent most of my life hoping to find the two of you. Every time I went to our parents' grave, I swore to them I'd never stop looking. I'm ashamed to say I
did
stop looking. I was so sure I would never find either of you that I wouldn't listen to anything Jared said. I was afraid to let myself believe. When you told me you were my brother, my first thought was that I wished I could tell our parents that we were finally together again. I know this sounds a little gruesome, but since everybody expected you to die and be buried here, I was thinking about moving our parents' graves here so we could all be together.”

“That's not fair,” Sibyl protested. “You're putting unfair pressure on Logan.”

But nobody attacked Naomi's husband and got off scot-free. “I don't think wanting to have his family close to him is unfair or unreasonable,” she said. “Colby is just telling Logan what's important to him.”

“What about you?” Colby asked Sibyl. “Are you willing to move to Chicago? All your family is here. This is your home.”

“I will go wherever Logan goes,” Sibyl said. “His home will be my home.”

“What will you do about the bank?” Laurie asked.

“I haven't had time to think about that,” Sibyl confessed. “I've been so afraid Logan might not get well I hadn't thought of what to do if he did. Besides, I wasn't always in love with him.”

“Nonsense,” Naomi said. “You were in love with him for weeks before you would admit it.”

“I was in love with her even before that,” Logan confessed, “but I didn't think about the future, either.”

“I don't see why anybody has to make any decisions right away,” Laurie said. “Logan can go back to Chicago and decide what he needs to do. Sibyl can go with him and see if she can be happy there.”

“I'll be happy anywhere as long as I'm with Logan,” Sibyl insisted.

“But would you be as happy with him in Chicago as you would with him in Cactus Corner?” Colby asked.

“No, but that's not the question.”

“It ought to be,” Naomi said. “You have family and friends here, people who love you, who've been part of your life since you were born. For goodness sakes, Sibyl, my father delivered you and Kitty.”

“I know that, but—”

“I haven't finished,” Naomi said. “Logan has no family in Chicago, but he has two brothers here. You worry about his business in Chicago, but you have a business here. The way I see it, you're giving up friends, family, and your business while Logan would be giving up only his business. That doesn't look like a fair exchange to me.”

Logan had never intended to do anything that would cause friction between Sibyl and her family, but his saying that he might have to go back to Chicago had put the cat amongst the pigeons. Worse than that, he'd put Sibyl squarely in the middle. “Look,” he said before anyone could say anything else, “I haven't made up my mind what I have to do.”

“I think you have,” Naomi said. “You just haven't said so.”

“I agree,” Laurie said. “And you've put Sibyl in the position of having no choice.”

“I
do
have a choice,” Sibyl declared. “I have a choice to love him or not love him. I chose love. I have a choice to marry him and follow him wherever he goes, or not marry him and stay here. I've chosen to follow him wherever he goes. That's not a choice either of you had to make, so you don't know what it's like. And if you tried for one minute, Naomi Blaine, to tell me you wouldn't follow Colby if he decided to move to Prescott or Tucson, I'd be forced to say something very unkind about you.”

“Of course I'd follow Colby wherever he went,” Naomi said, “but I'd make him suffer for it.”

Logan breathed a sigh of relief when everyone laughed. Things had gotten entirely too heated.

“Everything he's ever worked for is in Chicago,” Sibyl said. “I have Kitty to take care of, and I hope to have more children. I'll miss the bank, and I'll miss everybody here more than I could ever say. But if I can be Logan's wife, and hopefully the mother of his children, I'll count it worth the cost.”

It appeared that Sibyl's cousins had said all they were going to say, but he could tell Colby wasn't through yet.

“Maybe I was a fool, but I never let myself believe you would die,” he said to Logan. “From that day you told me you were my brother, I've been trying to think of ways the three of us could work together.”

“Did you come up with anything?”

“You could tell us more about your business. Could you bring it to Arizona? That way you'd have something to do, and Sibyl wouldn't be forced to lose her job. I've even planned a couple of hunting trips. We have so many years to make up for I thought we'd need to have as much time as possible to be together. If you go back to Chicago, we might as well give up on being a family.”

If Colby had been trying to make Logan feel like a rat, he'd succeeded.

“Colby is obsessed with family,” Naomi explained. “For him, nothing is more important than that.”

“It's important to Logan, too,” Sibyl said, “but he's just found his family. He's got thirty years with another family to balance against that.”

“Don't you dare tell me that he considers Bridgette Lowe's claim equal to that of Colby and Logan,” Naomi said in a flash of temper. “Because if that's the way he feels, he ought to go back to Chicago.”

“Even though I've known Bridgette my whole life, and I've just come to know Colby and Jared, I'd never think of her as family in the same way,” Logan said. “What I decide to do will have nothing to do with her.”

“If you do decide to go back to Chicago,” Naomi said, “you've got to take her with you. She doesn't like us any better than we like her.”

Logan was certain Bridgette would demand to leave with him. “I haven't decided what I'll do,” he told everyone. “As I said, I never expected to be in a position to have to make this decision, but I wanted to talk with you, to find out how you felt. I feel like all of you are my family.”

“Family is about more than blood,” Colby said.

“I know that. I see it every day in this town.”

Colby rose abruptly. “I'd better go. I've said more than enough already.”

“I'd better go, too,” Naomi said. “The children know something is up. I wouldn't be surprised to find Peter has been listening at the window.”

“Don't leave yet,” Jared said. “I have something I want to say.” He turned to Logan. “I understand some of how you feel. I had some of the same doubts when Steve and I decided to sell up and leave Texas. All I can tell you is that it was the best decision of my life. After asking Laurie to marry me, that is. I found a kind of happiness here that I would never have had if I'd stayed in Texas. I know Texas is nothing like Chicago, but it's the people who make the difference. You won't find any better than right here in Cactus Corner. Now I've said enough. What about you, Laurie?”

“I'll miss Sibyl terribly if she leaves. The three of us have been like sisters ever since we were born, but her happiness is what's important. If that means going to Chicago, then I think that's what she should do.” Tears started to gather in her eyes. “That doesn't mean I won't think some mean things about Logan for taking her away, but it doesn't mean I won't think you did the right thing.”

The two women embraced, both shedding a few tears.

“That is a lot harder than I expected,” Logan said. “I feel like I'm tearing your family apart.”

Sibyl put her arms around him. “It will put some distance between us, but it will never destroy the bonds we've built throughout our lives.”

“I know, but can you be happy in Chicago?”

“I don't know anything about Chicago, but I will be happy anywhere as long as Kitty and I are with you.”

Logan never doubted that Sibyl was the most wonderful woman in the world, but she'd just added another to the list of reasons why he couldn't envision living another moment of his life without her. He couldn't imagine why he'd ever considered marrying a woman like Bridgette when everything was always about what
she
wanted. All Sibyl asked was that he love her and that they spend the rest of their lives together.

But that's all Colby and Jared had asked. Could he balance that against the loyalty he felt toward his father's company? The answer came immediately and with undisputable clarity. His father's life might have been centered on the company, but his wasn't. What was the company anyway but an impersonal enterprise that didn't care whether he lived or died? To everyone in this room, his life was something precious they wanted to be a part of. In return, they wanted to share their lives with him. What could his company offer in comparison to that?

Nothing.

“I've made up my mind,” he said. “I'm not going back to Chicago. This is where I belong. I've finally come home.”

* * *

Bridgette was so furious she could barely think. She'd already broken her mirror by throwing her water pitcher at it. She'd driven the landlord from her room by throwing the ewer at him. He hadn't come up when she'd thrown every shoe within reach, as well as a bottle of scent that was so strong it nearly overpowered her. Nothing was enough to assuage her fury.

Elliot had decided to stay in Cactus Corner.

He'd told her of his decision just like it was the most natural thing in the world. That was on top of telling her that he was going to change his will
again
and leave her nothing more than the miserable allowance Uncle Samuel had seen fit to give her. Even worse, he was thinking about selling his company and going into business with his brothers.

His brothers.

The very thought of strangers getting their hands on money that should be hers nearly drove her to the edge of madness. There wasn't a single person in this miserable hellhole who was remotely related to Samuel Lowe, but she was his niece,
his only living relative
. Everything should have been left to her. Elliot could have stayed in charge of the company. She'd have seen that he got a good salary. But no, Uncle Samuel had said Elliot was his
son
and that everything would be left to him. Bridgette had been willing to share with Elliot when he was going to marry her, but now he deserved nothing. And his greedy relatives deserved nothing as well. They pretended they didn't want his money, but she knew better. No one who could afford to leave this godforsaken spot would have stayed if they'd had two coins to rub together.

What had to happen next was inevitable. Bridgette felt a tiny twinge of regret, but she banished it as easily as she would swat an annoying insect. Everything was Elliot's fault. None of this would have happened if he'd died like he was supposed to.

She'd have to take care of that.

* * *

When Bridgette saw so many strange men staring at her with naked lust in their eyes, she knew she'd come to the right place. When you wanted something dangerous done, there was no better place to look for someone to do it than among the men who'd been dismissed from the army. They were used to danger, had fewer morals than most, and were always in need of money. The only question was how to go about finding the right man.