resist any longer. It was obvious he had spent what self-control he possessed. Why fight it any longer? He sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms. None of this was her fault. She was a sprite from another world given into his protection. He had failed at that as he had failed at almost everything else, but right at the moment he didn't feel sorry.
"We'll have to tell them we're married, Evie. They'll whisper and wonder and gossip, but you'll be able to stay here and keep your teaching position as long as they think we're respectably married."
Evie nodded against his shoulder, but a lump came to fill her throat. "What about you? You didn't want to be married. And I didn't do anything to prevent babies like Starr told me to. I didn't mean to tie you down, Tyler. Honest, I didn't."
Tyler looked down at her in amazement. "Starr told you about those things? She ought to be taken out and shot. I'm going to have to have a word or two with that woman." He stroked Evie's lovely hair and tried to imagine having babies with her. The thought was too tempting by far. He sighed and held her close. "Chances are that one time won't make a baby. We need to talk about making a marriage first."
A pounding on the door jerked them away from that frightening thought. Tyler scowled and called, "Go away."
"Open up, Monteigne. I want to talk to you, and I want to talk to you now." The sheriff's voice carried enough authority to make the badge he wore a formality.
"Your timing is not auspicious, Powell. I'll be out shortly."
"Now. And if you've got Mrs. Peyton in there, I want to see her out here, too. You can't get away with molesting innocent women in this town, Monteigne."
Tyler cursed, rose from the bed to grab his shirt, and discovering it's lack of buttons, threw it on the floor again. "I hope your job is an elected one, Powell. I'm going to have you run out of town for invasion of privacy. What my wife and I do behind closed doors is none of your affair."
Ignoring Evie's corset and torn chemise, Tyler threw her gown to her while he rummaged in drawers for a clean shirt. The stunned silence from the other side of the door gave them a few moments' reprieve.
Evie wriggled into her gown, but Tyler hadn't been gentle with the fastenings, and without her corset, it didn't fit properly. She felt scandalously bare with nothing beneath it and the back gaping open. She hurriedly pulled up her petticoats while Tyler put on his shirt.
She thought she recognized the lawyer's stilted, furious whispers on the other side of the door. She remembered leaving Hale in the hotel lobby. He would have been the one to send for the sheriff. Sighing, she accepted Tyler's offer of a coat to go over her gown. It might be ninety degrees in the sun, but she couldn't go out the door with her dress open.
"Are you coming out of there, Monteigne, or am I coming in?" The sheriff had evidently recovered his self-possession, not to mention a load of anger.
Still tucking in his shirt, Tyler flung open the door. He blocked any sight of the interior with his body as he faced his audience. Hale stood white-faced and furious just behind Powell. Everyone else had evidently chosen to stand out of range of a potentially dangerous killer.
"What has he done with Mrs. Peyton? The man is a menace, Sheriff. You'd better lock him up until we find out what's going on. I don't believe for a minute that they're married. I've talked to Mrs. Peyton myself. She's a young, innocent widow, and this man is obviously trying to take advantage of her."
Tyler lifted a cynical brow at the lawyer's tirade, then turned affably to the sheriff. "My wife has that effect on men." He shrugged in dismissal of Hale. "I'll be happy to tell you what I know about this afternoon's incident, Sheriff, but it doesn't require an audience. And Mrs. Monteigne would like to return to the children, if you don't mind."
Hale puffed up like a banty rooster. "I insist on speaking with Mrs. Peyton. She's by way of being my client, and as her attorney, I must insist on seeing her."
Having found enough pins to shove her hair into a caricature of a chignon, Evie came up behind Tyler and peered around