you. According to the trust agreement, the child inherits the bulk of the trust when she turns twenty-one, which should be roughly six months from now. I wouldn't have concerned you in the matter at all if it weren't for one thing."
Jason leaned both hands on the desk and waited. Hale glanced down at his paperwork.
"Your father's will left half his estate to you and Kyle. The other half went to Louise, as his wife. I don't believe he was any more aware of Louise's will than I was. Like I said, when she drew it up, you two had everything. She had no need to leave you anything. She was just recently wed to your father. I don't think it occurred to her that your father would leave half the ranch to her."
Jason lifted his hands from the desk and clenched them into fists. Even Kyle was listening now, and his glance went worriedly to his older brother for confirmation of what he was thinking. The look on Jason's face sent his stomach into spiraling knots.
"You're saying that because pa died instantly in that accident, half the ranch went to ma, even though she was dying, too. And now her half of the ranch is going to this mysterious Evangeline Peyton Howell."
Hale cleared his throat and nodded.
Kyle whistled in shock, and Jason's face crumpled into a blank wall of disbelief.
Chapter 6
Tyler's conviction that he should have stayed in New Orleans hadn't changed by the time the steamboat reached Houston. He'd managed to secure a second stateroom on their new boat to prevent the certain insanity of staying any longer than necessary in Evie's company, but there was an inevitability to their continuing encounters that made Tyler curse the fates.
Since returning from the federal prison where he had languished the better part of the war, Tyler had made it a point not to get involved with any so-called "good" women. The ties that bind weren't for him. For seventeen years he had been tied up in a cocoon of love that had burst with the onslaught of war. Now he was free and damned certain to stay that way.
But he had never anticipated a free spirit like Evie Peyton. In a manner of speaking, she was the kind of innocent miss he avoided at all cost. When he had taken up the gambling life, he had left behind the genteel society of his youth. He meant to take no part in the polite world of courtship that kind of innocence entailed. He wanted his women hot and willing and with no strings attached. Evie Peyton, however, seemed to fall into some category between the two.
In the constant company of her or her brother, he couldn't indulge himself as he would like in the charms of the other women on the boat. And with Evie constantly in sight, her big eyes flashing laughter, her slender waist wagging that enticing tail, Tyler couldn't find the urge to deliberately stake out another woman. He didn't look too closely into his reasoning. He just assumed the momentary aberration would disappear the minute he dumped Evie and her brother in Mineral Springs.
As Tyler stared now at the garrulous man in bowler hat in the Houston stagecoach office, he had to wonder if he would ever get rid of the troublesome pair.
"Only one stage a week? What am I supposed to do, put the lady and her trunks on a mule and send them in the general direction of Mineral Springs?"
The ticket seller shrugged. "There's still two seats available on tomorrow's stage. You could send her ahead with her brother and take the next one yourself the following week."
If only he could. The temptation was strong. He could just put them on the stage and wave his hat good-bye and walk away. What could happen to them on a stage going to nowhere?
Contemplating all the things that had happened between here and Natchez, Tyler cursed. Evie would no doubt convince the driver to allow her to ride on top, and they would have red Indians chasing after them to capture a piece of her tempting scalp. He had never disliked being in the company of an attractive woman before, but most attractive women didn't have the propensity for trouble that Evie Peyton did. The combination was deadly. He almost wished she had a hooked nose and a pointed chin.
Allowing Evie and Daniel to travel alone just wouldn't sit well with his conscience. Besides, Tyler was quite