The older man eyed him curiously. “Thank you for the offer.”
John nodded. “My pleasure, sir. But I had another purpose in coming. A passerby mentioned that the young lady here was staying at this hotel. She, uh, had a bad fall on her way inside. I assisted her. I only wanted to assure myself that she was uninjured. Her companion was less than helpful,” he added with honest irritation.
“Sir Sydney drove off and left me there,” the woman said angrily with flashing eyes.
Colby gave her an unsympathetic glance. “If you will be clumsy and throw yourself into mud puddles, Ellen, you can expect to be ignored by any normal man.”
Ellen! This unfortunate little hen was the very heiress John had come to town to woo, and he was having more good fortune than he’d dreamed! Lady Luck was tossing offerings into his path with every word he spoke.
He smiled at Ellen Colby with deliberate interest. “On the contrary, sir, I find her enchanting,” he murmured.
Colby looked at him as if he expected men with nets to storm the room.
Ellen gave him a harsh glare. She might have been flattered by the visit, but she knew a line when she heard one. Too many men had sought access to her father through her. Here was another, when she’d hoped he might like her for herself. But when had that ever happened? Disappointed, she drew herself up to her full height. “Please excuse me. I am in the middle of important work.” She lifted her chin and added deliberately, “My father’s dog is having her bath.”
She turned and stalked toward a door between rooms, while John threw back his head and laughed with genuine glee.
Colby had to chuckle, himself, at his daughter’s audacity. She never raised her voice, as a rule, and he’d long since come to think of her as a doormat. But this man pricked her temper and made her eyes flash.
“An interesting reaction,” he told John. “She is never rude, and I cannot remember a time when she raised her voice.”
John grinned. “A gentleman likes to think that he has made an impression, sir,” he said respectfully. “Your daughter is far more interesting with a temper than without one. To me, at least.”
“You have a ranch, you said?” Colby asked.
John nodded. “A small one, but growing. I have begun to cross breeds to good effect. I have a longhorn seed bull and a small herd of Hereford cattle. I hope to raise a better sort of beef to suit Eastern tastes and ship it to market in Chicago.”
The older man sized up his guest, from the worn, but still useful, shoes and suit and the well-worn gunbelt and pistol worn unobtrusively under the open jacket.
“You have a Southern accent,” Colby said.
John nodded again. “I am a Georgian, by birth.”
Colby actually winced.
John laughed without humor. “You know, then, what Sherman and his men did to my state.”
“Slavery is against everything I believe in,” Colby said. His face grew hard. “Sherman’s conduct was justified.”
John had to bite his tongue to keep back a sharp reply. He could feel the heat of the fire, hear his mother and sister screaming as they fell in the maelstrom of crackling flames….
“You owned slaves?” Colby persisted curtly.
John gritted his teeth. “Sir, my mother and sisters and I worked on a farm outside Atlanta,” he said, almost choking on memories despite the years between himself and the memory. “Only rich planters could afford slaves. My people were Irish immigrants. You might recall the signs placed at the front gates of estates in the North, which read, No Colored Or Irish Need Apply.”
Colby swallowed hard. He had, indeed, seen those signs.
John seemed to grow another inch. “To answer your question, had I been a rich planter, I would have hired my labor, not bought it, for I do not feel that one man of any color has the right to own another.” His green eyes flashed. “There were many other small landowners and sharecroppers like my family who paid the price for the greed and luxury of plantation owners. Sherman’s army did not discriminate between the two.”
“Excuse me,” Colby said at once. “One of my laundresses back home had been a slave. Her arms were livid with scars from a mistress who cut her when she burned a dress she was told to iron.”
“I have seen similar scars,” John replied, without adding that one of the co-owners of his ranch had such unsightly scars, as well as his wife and even their eldest daughter.
“Your mother and sisters live with you?” Colby asked.
John didn’t reply for a few seconds. “No, sir. Except for a married sister in North Carolina, my people are all dead.”
Colby nodded, his eyes narrow and assessing. “But, then, you have done well for yourself in Texas, have you not?” He smiled.
John forced himself to return the smile and forget the insults. “I will do better, sir,” he said with unshakeable confidence. “Far better.”
Colby chuckled. “You remind me of myself, when I was a young man. I left home to make my fortune, and had the good sense to look toward trains as the means.”
John twirled his hat in his big hands. He wanted to approach Colby about his spur, which would give him the opportunity to ship his cattle without having to take the risk of driving them north to railheads in Kansas. But that would be pushing his luck. Colby might feel that John was overstepping his place in society and being “uppity.” He couldn’t risk alienating Colby.
He shifted his weight. “I should go,” he said absently. “I had no intention of taking up so much of your time, sir. I wanted only to offer you the freedom of my ranch for hunting, and to inquire about the health of your daughter after her unfortunate accident.”
“Unfortunate accident.” Colby shook his head. “She is the clumsiest woman I have ever known,” he said coldly, “and I have found not one single gentleman who lasted more than a day as a suitor.”
“But she is charming,” John countered gallantly, his eyes dancing. “She has a sense of humor, the ability to laugh at herself, and despite her companion’s rudeness, she behaved with dignity.”
Colby was listening intently. “You find her… attractive?”
“Sir, she is the most attractive woman I have ever met,” John replied without choosing his words.
Colby laughed and shook his head. “You want something,” he mused. “But I’m damned if I don’t find you a breath of fresh air, sir. You have style and dash.”
John grinned at him. “Thank you, sir.”
“I may take you up on that invitation at a later date, young man. In the meantime, I have accepted the other offer. But you could do me a favor, if you’re inclined.”
“Anything within my power, sir,” John assured him.
“Since you find my daughter so alluring, I would like you to keep an eye on her during my absence.”
“Sir, there would not be adequate chaperones at my ranch,” John began quickly, seeing disaster ahead if the old man or his daughter got a glimpse of the true state of affairs at the Jacobs’ ranch.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, man, I’m not proposing having her live with you in sin!” Colby burst out. “She will stay here at the hotel, and I have told her not to venture out of town. I meant only that I would like you to check on her from time to time, to make sure that she is safe. She will be on her own, except for the maid we have retained here.”
“I see.” John let out the breath he’d been holding. “In that case,