Only 04 - Only Love

Caleb said, closing the kitchen door behind him. “He left a few hours ago.”
    Shannon went very still.
    “Left?” Willow asked, turning away from the stove. “Where did he go?”
    “To see Reno.”
    “Oh.” Willow frowned and went back to spooning stew into a big wooden serving bowl. “Odd that he didn’t say anything to me. That’s not like him.”
    Caleb’s whiskey-colored eyes focused on the slender girl whose hair was the color of autumn.
    “Did he say anything to you?” Caleb asked Shannon bluntly.
    “No. But then, he’s a yondering man.”
    “That doesn’t excuse bad manners,” Willow said. “I declare, for all the customs in all the countriesof the world Whip has learned, he should know better.”
    Caleb hadn’t stopped looking at Shannon. There was the same tension around her mouth, the same darkness in her eyes, that there had been in Whip’s. Caleb had spent several hours thinking about how Whip had looked, and whether anything should be said about it.
    He had decided it should.
    “I understand Whip did some digging on your gold claims,” Caleb said.
    Shannon nodded.
    “Any luck?” Caleb asked.
    Willow shot him a surprised look. “Caleb, that’s none of our business.”
    He turned toward her with startling swiftness. “Not usually, no. But this isn’t usual.”
    Willow gave her husband a long look, said something under her breath, and went back to spooning stew.
    “Any luck finding gold?” Caleb asked again, turning to Shannon once more.
    “No. Whip said he lost the drift, whatever that is.”
    Caleb grunted. “The drift is the direction the vein of gold takes in the bedrock. When you lose it, all you’re doing is hammering stone.”
    “Whip did a lot of that. He came back every day covered in rock grit and sweat.”
    “Did he? Why? He hates gold mining almost as much as I do, and he hates working for wages even worse.”
    “Whip was worried about me,” Shannon said. “Winters are long in Echo Basin, and supplies in Holler Creek are very dear. He was worried that Iwouldn’t have enough to eat unless the claims paid for it.”
    “There’s always hunting,” Caleb said. Then he smiled slightly, remembering the story of the grizzly. “But you’re not much of a shot, are you?”
    “Ammunition is too expensive to waste practicing,” Shannon said, “so I just have to sneak up on game and do the best I can.”
    “I’m surprised Silent John didn’t make his own bullets. Most men like him do.”
    “He did. But he never trusted me enough to teach me how. He was mighty particular about the weight of his bullets. He counted each grain of powder.”
    “I’ll just bet he did,” Caleb said, thinking of Silent John’s reputation with a .50-caliber buffalo gun. “Do you think he’s still alive?”
    “No. But please don’t tell anyone.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t want two-legged wolves howling around the cabin each time they get a skin full of rotgut,” Shannon said bluntly. “Silent John put the fear of God in the men around Echo Basin. I want it to stay that way.”
    Caleb nodded, unsurprised. “What about Whip?”
    “Whip?” Shannon asked. She smiled sadly. “He can howl around my cabin any time he takes the notion.”
    Caleb laughed softly, even as he understood the pain in Shannon’s smile.
    “Does Whip think Silent John is dead?” Caleb asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Then what’s the problem?”
    “I beg your pardon?” Shannon asked.
    “Why did Whip light out of here like his heels were on fire?”
    “He wants me to stay with you and Willow.”
    “So do we,” Willow said from the stove.
    “I…thank you,” Shannon said. “But I can’t.”
    “Can’t or won’t?” Caleb asked in a clipped voice.
    “Caleb,” Willow said. “We have no right.”
    “Did you see your brother when he rode out?” Caleb asked curtly.
    “No.”
    “I did. When someone you care about looks the way Whip did, you start asking questions. And you get answers.”
    As Shannon looked at Caleb’s face, she remembered what Whip had once called him—a dark angel of vengeance who had followed a man for years to avenge the seduction, betrayal, and death of his sister. It reminded her of the man called Hunter, another dark angel moving over the face of the lawless land.
    Shannon closed her eyes and laced her fingers together until they ached. When she opened her eyes, Caleb was watching her with both compassion and determination.
    He knew his questions were painful for her.