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“Oh, you aren’t weak,” Dee explained, smiling a little. “It’s just that you’re too gentle to fight him when he needs to be fought. But cheer up. Maybe you’ll meet someone in San Francisco you really want to marry.”

  “Mother’s canceled the trip. She didn’t think it would be smart to leave Lucas for such a long time while he’s showing so much interest. Of course, Lucas may not have any plans to marry at all, and I could be worrying over nothing.” The thought popped into her head that Dee would make Lucas a much better wife than she herself would, and she almost blurted it out but stopped herself in time. Dee would look at her as if she were crazy if she said such a thing.

  But it was true. In both temperament and character Dee was a fair match for Lucas; both of them were so strong that they would completely overshadow anyone who wasn’t just as strong. The only thing was, Dee wasn’t the least interested in getting married.

  Nevertheless, the idea lingered.

  On the way home Olivia detoured by the bank to tell her father hello. Just as she stepped up on the sidewalk the door to the bank opened, and Kyle Bellamy came out, flanked by two of his men. He removed his hat as soon as he saw her.

  “Miss Millican, how are you today?”

  “Fine, thank you, Mr. Bellamy. And you?”

  “Couldn’t be better.” He looked down at her, giving her his self-confident smile. No doubt about it, Kyle Bellamy was a good-looking man, and he knew it. His dark hair was thick and curly, his eyes light brown beneath black brows, his smile white and straight. Moreover, he was tall and muscular, and his ranch, though nowhere near the size of the Double C, was prosperous and growing. For all that, something about the man made her uneasy.

  He made no move to continue on his way, and Olivia’s innate good manners came to the fore. “I hope you’re making plans to attend the spring social. It won’t be long,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t miss it.” He gave her his white, wolfish grin. “Especially if you’re going to be there.”

  “Just about everyone in town will be there,” Olivia replied, neatly sidestepping his comment, which was personal enough to make her feel uncomfortable.

  “I’ll look forward to claiming a dance with you.” He tipped his hat again and stepped past her, followed by both of his men.

  As the second hired hand passed he, too, tipped his hat, surprising Olivia into darting a quick look at his face. She had only a fast impression of black hair, darkly tanned skin, and black eyes warm with admiration before he was past her, but the impact was strong enough to freeze her in her tracks, a little stunned.

  Surely she had mistaken his expression. After all, her glance had been so quick. No, surely the man hadn’t looked at her with tenderness, the way Ezekiel looked at Beatrice. How could he, when he didn’t even know her? But the fact remained that his look, imagined or not, had made her heart beat a little faster and her skin feel a little warm.

  She entered the bank, smiling politely and returning the greetings of those who spoke to her on her way into her father’s office. Wilson Millican rose on her entrance, beaming his welcome. “Your mother’s had you running another errand, at a guess,” he said, and he laughed as their gazes met in perfect understanding. “She’s enjoying this as much as if she were sixteen again and this was her first party.”

  “She’ll swear she never wants to be involved in the planning again, but by the time next February rolls around she’ll be fretting to get started.”

  They chatted for a few minutes, with Olivia telling him about her visit with Beatrice. She didn’t want to take up too much of his time, so she kept her visit short. She was rising to her feet when her curiosity got the better of her, and she said, “I stopped outside to talk with Mr. Bellamy for a few moments. Who were those two men with him?”

  “Two of his cowhands, Pierce and Fronteras, though from the looks of them I’d say they were handier with a pistol than a rope.”

  “Gunmen?” she asked, startled. “Why would he need gunmen?”

  “Now, I didn’t say they were gunmen. I said they looked like they’d be handy with their pistols, and maybe they are, but then a good many men around here are good hands with a firearm. As far as I know, Bellamy’s cowhands are just that, cowhands.” He patted her arm in reassurance, though he wasn’t too certain of his own words, especially when they concerned the two men that had been with Bellamy. One thing was certain, though, and that was that he wouldn’t want either of those two men anywhere near Olivia. She was too fine a person to associate with that type of man. None of the ranch hands caused any trouble in town other than the normal drinking and fighting sometimes, but as a father he couldn’t be too careful of his daughter’s well-being.

  “Which one was which?” Olivia asked, still driven by her curiosity.

  “What?”

  “Which man was Pierce, and which was Fronteras?”

  “Pierce has been with Bellamy for a couple of years now. He’s a quiet man, never says much. The dark, Mexican-looking man is Fronteras. Guess he is Mexican at that, though he’s tall for one. Must be mostly Spanish.”

  He was a Mexican. She felt a little surprised at herself for not having realized that at a glance, though he was tall, as her father had noted. Then she was even more surprised by her own curiosity about a man whom she had never even met, because passing on the sidewalk certainly didn’t constitute an introduction. It wasn’t her usual behavior, but then she was upset by her increasing sensation of being caught in a trap. She didn’t know what she could do to escape, or even if she wanted to escape. All she knew was that she felt on the verge of panic.

  “A man could do worse than marrying a banker’s daughter,” Kyle Bellamy mused. “Especially one who looks like Olivia Millican.”

  Pierce grunted in reply. Luis Fronteras didn’t say anything.

  “She’s his only child. When he dies she’ll get everything. Or rather her husband will.”

  “I heard Cochran was courting her,” Fronteras murmured.

  Kyle shrugged his shoulders. “That doesn’t mean I can’t pay attention to the lady, too.”

  He sipped his whiskey, thinking about Olivia Millican. Why not? He had as much chance with her as anyone else, maybe more. Women had always seemed to like him. He liked a bit more spunk in his women than Olivia seemed to have, but she was pretty and rich, and in Kyle’s experience money made up for a lot of shortcomings. He was doing all right with money right now, but he had learned the hard way not to count on everything staying all right. Having Wilson Millican’s money would make his life a whole lot more comfortable. He’d start his own courting of Olivia and give Cochran something to think about.

  He was on his second whiskey, savoring both the biting, smoky taste of the liquor and his mental image of marrying Olivia Millican, when Tillie sauntered over to him. He leaned back against the bar and enjoyed the sight, because Tillie had a walk that could make a man’s privates stand at attention even if he had a lot more than two whiskeys in him.

  Tillie was something, all right. He’d met her for the first time about ten years back, in New Orleans. She’d been all of fifteen then, he guessed, remembering how fresh and wild she’d looked. He grinned, thinking that he was probably the only person in town who knew that her name was Mathilde. He called her that sometimes, when they were in bed together, always earning a long warning look from those heavy-lidded eyes of hers. It was all right with him if she chose to be Tillie the saloon girl; he just didn’t want her to forget that he knew where she came from.

  Of course, she knew more about him than anyone else, too, but he didn’t worry about it. Tillie had never tried to use the information to get money out of him. She was oddly accepting of her life in a two-bit saloon in a small town, her rich brown eyes full of a half-weary, half-accepting worldliness. A man never felt as if Tillie was judging him; she simply took him as he was and expected nothing else.

  A lot of the men in Prosper, including the married ones, had found their way into Tillie’s embrace. She was ge