She studied him. “That doesn’t leave room for anyone else,” she said.

“Sure it does,” he said. “Takin’ care of himself means takin’ care of the people he cares about.”

The tender note in his voice quickened her pulse, and she looked away.

“Cookie said you have the largest privately owned ranch around,” she said, desperate to fill in the awkward silence that pulsed between them.

“That’s true,” he said. “The drought forced many local ranchers to take out loans they could ill afford. Many of my neighbors lost everythin’. The loan company sold the repossessed properties to English lords and German barons at great profit. Guess you could say that foreigners now own a good portion of the west.” An edge of bitterness had crept into his voice. “Outside investors have no feel for the land or even the cattle.”

Emily listened with growing dismay. Chase hadn’t mentioned the loan company by name, but she now knew that he was talking about Fields & Fields. Her father would turn over in his grave if he knew how the company he’d founded had caused so many people to lose their homes and livelihoods.

Nothing of the sort would have happened had she taken over as her father had wished. Had her father known all along what his brother was capable of? Is that why he’d wanted her to take charge after his death?

Unfortunately, she’d had no interest in running a loan company. Instead of complying with her father’s wishes, she’d gone away to college, leaving the family business in her uncle’s hands.

Had she not stubbornly and maybe even selfishly followed her own dreams, things would have turned out quite differently, of that she was certain. The thought twisted inside her like a knife, and it was all she could do to breathe.

On some level, she was conscious of Chase speaking, but her frozen mind was unable to decipher his words.

“You okay?” he asked at length.

“What?” Snapping out of her inertia, she nodded. “Oh, I’m fine. I was just…wondering why your grandfather picked this particular piece of land.”

“Grandpapa said it was where the sagebrush grew the tallest.”

His teeth flashed in the moonlight, and his eyes shone bright as a sunlit sea. Grateful that she didn’t have to describe the color of his eyes in a way that Ginny would understand, she returned his smile.

One of the cows made a lowing sound, and Chase’s head swiveled in its direction before turning back to her. As if to guess her thoughts, he asked, “How are Ginny’s lessons goin’?”

“They’re going well. She has a quick mind. Sometimes I think she’s teaching me more than I’m teaching her.”

He chuckled. “Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?”

“I guess so, but…”

His gaze sharpened. “But?”

“I’m only here for a short while. After I’m gone—”

The ridges in his forehead deepened. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“You might have trouble finding a qualified tutor here,” she said. “That’s why I think Ginny would benefit from attending the school for the blind in Boston.”