“Caul does seem a pretty hard type.” Dag’s frown deepened. “His men have been poking around the Old China Mine. They shoot at anyone who comes near, no questions asked. But that’s not the worst. Besim’s disappeared. Folks swear they last saw him talking to Caul.” He looked at Emily. “Caul’s been asking about Pap, too.”
Emily’s whole body went cold. “Oh, Dag, no …”
“He’s safe.” Dag smoothed a hand over her arm. “Caul doesn’t know where he is. I’ve got him hid in one of the timber camp buildings, and a dozen of my men with him. I won’t stand for bullies harassing honest folk.”
Emily said nothing, but her heart swelled with gratitude. She repressed the urge to hug him, for she knew it would only mean the wrong thing.
“Thank you, Dag.” Tightness in her throat made her words small. “Thank you so much.”
Dag was silent, chewing things over. When he spoke again, it was a petulant outburst.
“But why do you have to go to New York? Why couldn’t they help you in San Francisco?”
“The professor who ran the San Francisco office was the one who double-crossed us,” Emily said. Dag’s nostrils flared.
“And so you’re going to New York so they can double-cross you there?”
“Mr. Stanton has a lot of trust in Professor Mirabilis,” Emily said.
“And you have a lot of trust in Mr. Stanton.” Dag’s voice was flat and strained.
“He has shown himself a decent and trustworthy individual,” Emily said.
“Have you slept with him?”
Emily was so shocked that she jerked back, knocking her head against one of the high walls of the buckboard. She felt her face blazing red as she rubbed the smart.
“Dag!” she said, furiously. A wide smile broke over his face.
“I’ve got my answer.” His voice was suddenly hopeful. “So it’s true? There’s really nothing between him and you? I’ve seen how he looks at you.”
“What are you talking about?” Emily snapped, her cheeks flaming afresh. “He most certainly does not look at me.”
Dag shrugged, scratching his jaw thoughtfully.
“When you ran off with him, I thought for sure …” He paused, checking himself. New hope glinted in his eyes. “But if I could believe … if I could believe that you were telling the truth, then maybe things could turn out all right after all.”
Emily shook her head.
“Don’t say it, Dag,” she murmured, but he took both her hands in his.
“Why not?” he said. “I’ll go with you to New York. I’ll get you to this Mirabilis Institute place. We can be married and you can travel like an honest woman. And then, after this is all taken care of, we can come back home and put it all behind us.”
Emily felt self-loathing soak through her.
“Dag … I have to tell you something. Remember when Besim did his Cassandra, and said that I was doing bad magic? You thought it was bunk, but it wasn’t. I was doing bad magic. The baddest magic I’ve ever done.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I hexed you,” Emily said miserably. “Put a love spell on you.”
Dag stared at her for a moment. Behind his eyes, contemplation chased understanding.
“Did you do it … because you were in love with me?”
No, I just thought you’d make a good husband.
Emily couldn’t bring herself to say the words, even though they were the truth.
“It was the most selfish thing I’ve ever done,” she whispered. “The most selfish and thoughtless and …” She paused, taking a deep breath, trying to make the words come out right. “When I saw how bad it hit you, I was going to undo it right away. Honest. But the stone … I can’t do magic with it in my hand, you see. So I went to San Francisco. I wanted to get the stone out so I could come back and take the spell off you.”
Dag smiled sadly as he brushed a tear from her face.
“Probably wouldn’t do any good,” he said. “I’ve loved you for an awful long time, Emily. I can’t remember when I didn’t. You didn’t need any love spell.”
Emily stared at him. Was he telling the truth, or was it just his memory tainted by the spell? To her dismay, she saw that he was telling the truth. She saw it in the deepest part of his eyes. She’d cast a love spell on someone who was already in love. So that was why it had gone so wrong. She hadn’t made one bad mistake, she’d made two.