If Bebe could have stayed cuddled up with Hubert in the stable for the rest of the day, the rest of her life, she would have. They sat in each other’s arms after the wonderful explosion of sensation that he had given her, stealing kisses and talking about the life they would have. Nothing they said was specific, but it didn’t matter, it filled her with hope.

Eventually, they were forced to come back to reality. Hubert had his job at the newspaper to go back to, and Bebe was eager to get back to the ranch. The sooner she put her foot down and told Vivian that she wouldn’t marry Price, that she was going to marry Hubert no matter what any of them said, the better.

Thoughts of Hubert and everything they’d shared, everything they would share, spurred her on. The ride back home seemed to fly by. She settled Glory in his stall, then practically bounced into the house, ready to take on her entire family and battle until she got what she wanted. It was a slight disappointment that Vivian wasn’t waiting in the dining room, ready to hear everything Bebe had to say. Bebe had to search the house, looking through every room downstairs and half of the bedrooms upstairs.

In the end, much to Bebe’s surprise, she found Vivian in the kitchen, attempting to relight the fire in the stove.

“What are you doing?” she asked, frowning at Vivian on her hands and knees, up to her elbows in soot.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Vivian answered more of a sigh than a snap in her voice.

Bebe couldn’t think of anything else but to reply with, “It looks like you’re lighting the stove.”

Vivian huffed out a breath and straightened. “Very good,” she said, dripping with sarcasm.

Bebe hesitated before asking, “Why?”

“Because the fire went out,” Vivian answered, her voice and her stare flat. “And if we want to eat supper tonight, we need a fire to cook it.”

“Isn’t that Maria’s job?”

A flash of pure hatred filled Vivian’s eyes before she bent down to fiddle with the stove again. “Maria left.”

Bebe blinked. “Maria left?”

“That’s what I said.” Again, there was more defeat than fury in Vivian’s voice.

“But Maria has been with the family for ten years.”

Vivian let out a wry snort. “Apparently loyalty doesn’t count for anything these days.”

Bebe swallowed hard. Her heart raced and she shifted anxiously on her spot. “Vivian, there’s something I have to tell you.”

“It’d better be that you know how to cook,” Vivian said shoving a log into the stove’s firebox. “Because if it’s not, you’re either going to be stuck eating raw meat or you’re going to have to learn.”

It felt as though snakes were writhing in Bebe’s gut. “No, what I have to say to you is…is….” She licked her lips. Never in her life would she have imagined she’d be declaring her independence to Vivian when her sister was on her knees on the kitchen floor.

Vivian seemed to ignore her. She reached for the box of matches that sat on top of the stove and struck one, tossing it into the firebox. It withered and died. Vivian huffed out a breath, struck another match, and did the same thing. That one burnt itself out too.

“Vivian,” Bebe said.

“What?” her sister huffed.

“What I’m trying to say is….”

Vivian struck yet another match and threw it into the firebox so fast that it went out mid-flight. She growled in frustration.

“You need kindling if you’re going to start a fire properly,” Bebe burst at last. “Here.” She marched over to the bucket of splinters, old newspaper, and straw that Maria kept in the corner.

“What’s that mess?”

“Stick it in between the logs and then light it. Like this.” Bebe crouched opposite Vivian and stuffed a few bits of rolled up newspaper into the firebox. “Now try.”

Vivian struck a match, then held it to the newspaper. The newspaper caught and burned down, igniting the other kindling with it. Bebe and Vivian watched for a moment, and when it was apparent that the fire had caught and would burn enough to heat the stove, Vivian smiled.

It was the first genuine smile Bebe had seen from her sister in years.

“That wasn’t so hard,” Vivian said, pushing herself to her feet. Bebe rose with her. “Now, what did you want to tell me?”

Bebe’s mouth went dry, and the snakes in her gut ran riot. She loved Hubert, loved him passionately, desperately. She reminded herself that her only chance for a happy life lay with Hubert, that Vivian would ultimately get by without her.

“Vivian,” she said, her voice cracking. In her imagination, her declaration had been easy and empowering. In reality, Bebe began to shake. “I’m…I’m not going to marry Price,” she said. “H-Hubert still wants to marry me, and I still want to marry him. I’m marrying Hubert.”

Vivian blinked. Then her eyes went wide with anger. Her jaw tensed, and red splotches spread across her cheeks. But worst of all, underneath the anger lay fear and hurt.

“What kind of nonsense is this?” Vivian demanded, her voice more shrill than usual.

Bebe swallowed. “I love Hubert. I’ve always loved Hubert. No one but Hubert. You know that.” She didn’t sound half as strong as she hoped she would.

“I don’t care if you love Mitch the baker’s son. You’re marrying Price.”

“No, Vivian.” Bebe did her best to keep calm. “I’m marrying Hubert.”

“After everything I’ve done for you?” Vivian’s voice shook. “After the way I put a roof over your head and kept you from starving.”

“We all worked together,” Bebe reminded her.

“And you would abandon us now?” Vivian threw out her hand to the stove.

An unexpected twist of guilt filled Bebe. But no, what reason did she have to be guilty? Her sisters had made her life miserable for years. They…they….

She tried to think to herself that they deserved what they got, but the cruel thought only made her more miserable.

“You can’t really want me to marry a man that I don’t love, can you?” Bebe appealed to her.

“I married Rance,” Vivian shouted back. “Do you think I loved him? Of course I didn’t. But Papa wanted me to. For the sake of the family. If I can do it, you can do it too.”

“No, I can’t,” Bebe argued, strength building inside of her. “I don’t think I can do it. You may have married Rance because Father said so, but you didn’t do that when you were in love with someone else.”

“Love is just a stupid fantasy.” Vivian too was gathering steam as the argument went on. The hurt was gone from her eyes, leaving a dangerous combination of fear and fury. “It doesn’t exist. I won’t let you destroy our family for something that doesn’t exist.”

“Love does exist,” Bebe said, feeling it down to the core of her being. “I didn’t think it did for a while,” she admitted. “I was so hurt by Hubert when he walked away from me. But that doesn’t mean that love isn’t real. And Hubert came back.”

“For how long?” Vivian snapped.

Her words hit their mark, whether Bebe wanted them to or not. Hubert had abandoned her once. He might do it again.

But before the fear could take hold, Vivian railed on. “All we have is this ranch. Without it, we’re nothing. We’ll end up working at the whorehouse instead of owning it. Is that what you really want? Is that what you want to happen to me and Melinda? You have to marry Price.”

“I don’t love him,” Bebe implored. “I can’t marry a man who I don’t love when the man that I do love is waiting for me in town.”

“Why, you ungrateful cow!” Vivian gasped. “You—”

She surged toward Bebe, looking as though she would slap her. But before she could raise a hand or hurl any other insults, the kitchen door burst open, and Price strode in.

“What’s going on in here?” he asked. His voice was concerned, but oddly cool in contrast to the heat pouring off Bebe and Vivian.

She’d already declared her intentions to Vivian, so it wasn’t difficult for Bebe to turn to Price and say, “I’m not marrying you, Price. I’m marrying Hubert.”

Silence filled the kitchen. A heartbeat later, Price relaxed into the kind of smile a man would give to a disobedient but adorable child.

“Bebe.” He slid to her side and took one of her hands in both of his. “I know that it must be quite a shock for you to have your former fiancé return to town so soon before our wedding.”

Bebe eyed Price skeptically. He was taking her announcement strangely well. “I love Hubert,” she said.

“I know you do, pet.”

Bebe’s suspicion grew. “I don’t love you.”

“I never thought you did.” Price continued to smile, continued to hold her hand with a strange degree of tenderness.

Bebe had expected a fight, had expected shouting and carrying on, like she’d had from Vivian. She didn’t have the first clue how to respond to Price’s calm. “So…so you’re not angry?”

Vivian darted a wide-eyed glance between Bebe and Price, looking as though she might either scream or weep.

“Angry?” Price flinched back. “No, no why would I be angry?”

“Because I’m not going to marry you?” Bebe suggested.

Price laughed, low and slow. It made the hairs on the back of Bebe’s neck stand up. “I’m sure this is just cold feet,” he said. “Clearly, everything has been upsetting, what with Christmas upon us and all. Especially since we’ve all been struggling so much with money.”

“I…I don’t think that’s it.” Bebe tried to draw her hand away and was shocked when Price let her.

“All I’m saying is that I can understand how difficult it is to scrimp and save and fight your way through a holiday as intense as Christmas when there is so little money to be had. Why, it makes perfect sense that you would be distraught, considering how tenuous the ranch’s situation is. I marvel at how you’ve been able to keep your head up at all when your home is so close to being whipped right out from under you by the bank.”

The prickles at the back of Bebe’s neck began to stretch down her spine. Price was still far too calm. He smiled much too much.

“I’m sure we can come up with some other way to appease the bank that doesn’t depend on the money my family is planning to send as our wedding gifts,” he went on. “Although I did receive a letter from my Aunt Helen the other day that hinted she would be doubling the amount of her gift and wiring the money directly to the bank on Christmas Day. She’s so eager to meet you.” He brushed an eyelash off of Bebe’s cheek.

The gesture almost made her recoil, and yet, she couldn’t put her finger on why. Price was being kind to her, understanding, even. So why did she want to run for her life?

“We don’t need the money,” he went on. “We’ll find another way. I’m sure the bank would be willing to make concessions if we proved we could pay back the debt eventually. We could learn how to tend the cattle ourselves, for example.”

“We could become ranch hands?” Vivian balked. She glanced at the stove as though that was bad enough.

“I’ve heard of plenty of women who wrangle their own herds,” Price continued, all optimism. “Sure, it means a lot of hard work and sacrifices. Consider it a different kind of dignity.”

The image of Melinda astride a horse, herding cattle rushed to Bebe’s head. It was absurd and impossible.

“And there’s the house,” Price went on. “We could rent out the rooms.”

“Turn our home into a boarding house?” Vivian squeaked, pressing a hand to her chest.

“It’s a respectable means of income,” Price said. “We could even build inexpensive housing on the fringes of the ranch for people who have just come west and haven’t established themselves yet.”

“You mean, turn the ranch into a town full of squatters and vagrants?” Vivian looked as though she might faint.

Bebe was just as alarmed, but for entirely different reasons. She knew what Price was doing. As gently as a nightingale, he was painting a picture of just what would happen if she backed out of their marriage. Vivian had every right to recoil. They would have to manage things on their own, and likely sell more land or even turn their home into a boarding house, as Price hinted. Her family would be humiliated, and it would all be her fault.

“I love Hubert,” she said, as much because she needed to hear it as to tell Vivian and Price.

“And a noble love it is,” Price said, patting her arm. “I only hope that someday, a woman such as yourself will love me like that.”

“Really?” Vivian looked at him with a mixture of incredulity and hope.

“Certainly.” Price nodded. “When a woman loves a man that passionately, that steadfastly, in spite of the way he abandoned her to a cruel fate? That’s true love.”

The knot of dread in Bebe’s gut began to unfurl, spinning doubt through her. “He left to seek his fortune so that we could be together,” she said, her voice hoarse and quiet.

“Of course he did,” Price said in a soothing voice. “Although seven years is a long time to seek a fortune. You’d think that after a few years, once he had a steady living and a place of his own, he would have sent for you. If he loved you the way he said he did.”

Heat that had nothing to do with the arousal she’d felt earlier in Hubert’s arms crept up Bebe’s neck to her face. “He was busy. His newspaper kept sending him to report on stories. He said it wasn’t any kind of life for a woman.”

“And it wasn’t,” Price agreed. “All those late nights. He probably had to spend time in some unsavory locations to get the stories he needed. That’s not the kind of life for a sweet, innocent woman from the wilds of Wyoming. Not at all.”

Bebe pulled herself out of the dark spiral her thoughts were heading down and met Price’s eyes. “Don’t do this,” she whispered.

“Do what?” He shrugged. “I’m simply telling you that I admire you for your selfless devotion to a man who left to experience a full and exciting life without you. And didn’t he travel abroad as well?”

“To Japan.” Bebe’s voice was nothing but a raw scratch. Everything that she’d been thinking since Hubert returned, every fear and worry she’d lay awake rolling over and over in her mind, was right there, on the tip of Price’s silver tongue.

“Fascinating place, Japan,” Price said. “I’d love to see it someday myself. I’m not sure I’d be able to stay away from a land so beautiful and exotic. I’d want to go back.”

Bebe took a step back, sitting heavily on the edge of the kitchen table. “Hubert wouldn’t leave me again. He promised he wouldn’t. You’re only saying those things to stop me from changing my mind and marrying him.”

Price moved to her side and gazed into her eyes with what any outsider would see as earnestness. “You’re right. You shouldn’t believe a word I say. I certainly wouldn’t. Why, I most certainly have ulterior motives. Because I do still want to marry you, Bebe. I think we could have a wonderful life together. So of course I’m going to try to convince you to leave this idea of yours behind and to stick to our plan.”

Every word he said made perfect sense. She shouldn’t trust him. He did have an agenda of his own. The problem was that too much of what he had just said fit perfectly with the fears she’d been carrying in her heart. It was one thing to worry by herself. It was another to have someone else confirm those worries.

“Hubert loves me,” she said, barely above a whisper.

“We all know he does,” Price agreed, glancing to Vivian, who looked beside herself. “Your family loves you too.”

Bebe arched a brow at Price.

“I do,” Vivian yelped, taking a step forward. Her eyes were round with understanding. “You’re my sister. I’ve known you your whole life. I love you, and I couldn’t get by without you. Why, you just helped me light the stove. I couldn’t even eat without you.”

The wave of guilt that washed through Bebe had her tasting bile. Vivian was lying, but not about everything. She would be in a tight spot without Bebe’s help.

“But I love Hubert,” she whispered.

Price took her hand again, raising it to his lips and kissing it. “You’re distraught. We’ve said too much. The wedding is still five days away. Why don’t you take some time to think about it, and if, by the time Christmas rolls around, you still want to call things off, we’ll call them off. And then we’ll all face the bank and the foreclosure together.”

Bebe stood. “I do need some time to think about this,” she said, then swallowed hard. “I think I need to lie down.”

“But I need you to help make supper,” Vivian started.

Price held up a hand. “Let her rest, Viv. She’s in a delicate place, and it’s important that we don’t abandon her.”

Bebe pressed a hand to her stomach. Price’s sentence didn’t fit together, except as yet another way to remind her that Hubert had left her. She marched out of the room, wishing she could leave everything behind. Her heart still wanted to run to Hubert and even flee Haskell as soon as possible, but her feet felt impossibly rooted to her ranch. And on top of it all, doubt was once again gnawing at her.