“Guess I was better at hiding than you.”

They stared at each other for a long moment, the air tense. “Did you recognize anyone?” he asked at last.

She shook her head. “No, but…”

“What?” he pressed. “Tell me.”

For answer, she turned to her horse and reached into her saddlebag. She pulled something out, but it was too dark to see what it was. She handed it to him.

It was a piece of a leather rope. He frowned in puzzlement. “What is this?”

“That’s what you were tied up with. Only one person I know makes a rope like that.”

Chase fingered the braided leather strands, and a sick feeling washed over him. “Gabby,” he said. Timewise, it made sense. The rustling problem had gotten worse since Gabby’s hire.

She nodded. “Gabby.”

He frowned. “You don’t sound surprised.”

“I was just thinking of something Ginny said. She insisted he was an angry man.”

“Guess we should have listened to her.”

“I’m sorry, Chase. What…what will you do?”

“Do?” he asked, not sure what she was asking of him.

She met his gaze with sympathetic eyes. “About Gabby?”

“Nothin’,” he said. “It’s the sheriff’s job now.” He didn’t want to talk about Gabby. Didn’t want to think about him. “I thought you’d left town.” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “That’s what Royce hoped.”

“I thought about it,” she said. “But I couldn’t bring myself to walk away from you, from the ranch. From Ginny.”

“Why…why did you come to Haywire in the first place?”

When her answer finally came, her voice sounded strained, as if each word had been pulled from the deepest regions of the heart. “After my uncle’s arrest and trial…things got difficult. I decided to leave Boston. To go someplace where no one knew me. That’s when I saw Mr. Garvey’s advertisement in the newspaper for a mail-order bride. I know it sounds crazy, but at the time, I thought it was an answer to a prayer. I had no idea that my uncle… I would never have come here had I known.”

“And you didn’t know Royce before you arrived?”

“How could I? I didn’t even know my uncle had done business here until I found a letter in your desk. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know what to do. I tried to tell you…”

He studied her in the soft glow of the moon. “I know,” he said softly.

“I was afraid you’d hate me.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why? Why would I? You aren’t to blame for your uncle’s crimes.”

“That’s just it. I am.” She beseeched him with her eyes before continuing. “My father wanted me to take over the family business following his death. But I had other plans…”

“Other plans meanin’ college?”

She nodded. “Had I done as my father wanted, you wouldn’t be fighting to save your ranch.”

“You can’t blame yourself,” Chase said.

“But I do. I now know why Papa pushed me so hard to take over for him. He didn’t trust his brother. He never said as much, but the signs were all there. I was just too wrapped up in my own dreams to notice.”