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  “I’ll bet he had a fit when they read Duncan’s will, and he found out he couldn’t touch a penny of your money.”

  A brief smile crossed Alexis’s face. “I didn’t know a person could turn that color of purple. He didn’t realize a woman could own her own property in Wyoming Territory.” Her smile faded, and the earnest expression returned. “All you have to do is meet Jamie Treenery, decide you dislike him the way you did Duncan, and refuse to marry him. I’ll bet you could even convince Jamie he doesn’t want to marry me if you put your mind to it.”

  Angel rolled her eyes. “Why don’t you just tell Father you’re in love with someone else?”

  “Father won’t care. He’ll force me to marry Jamie Treenery no matter what I say.”

  “Come on, Alexis. Duncan left you a very rich widow, with two trustees to protect you from Father and his schemes. He has no control over you.”

  “Maybe not, but I can’t stand up to him like you can. He’ll yell at me, then he’ll threaten all kinds of awful things, and I’ll crumble.”

  “Father isn’t nearly as powerful as you think he is.”

  “Not to you, but Vanessa says that’s because the two of you are so much alike.”

  Angel frowned. “There’s no need to insult me.”

  “I wasn’t. I’ve always envied your strength, Angel. You won’t give in, no matter what pressure Father puts on you.” She smiled brightly. “And if you make him mad enough, maybe he’ll disown me too.”

  “That’s crazy. You’d hate being cut off from the family, and you only dislike Father when he’s trying to run your life. Besides, we may look alike, but we’re as different as sugar and salt. I’d never be able to pull off actually being you.”

  “Yes, you can. We did it all the time when we were children.”

  “That was years ago, and we didn’t do it for more than a few hours. We’d never fool Martha and Vanessa.”

  “Martha will be on our side. That’s the thing about servants that have been with the family forever. As for Vanessa, she’ll never know the difference.”

  Privately, Angel had to agree. Their stepmother was far from perceptive. “I don’t know any of the people you do. If I went out in public, I’d be sure to give myself away.”

  “I haven’t been in Cheyenne long enough to have any friends. Duncan and I spent most of his last year in Europe. About the only people I know are the wives of Duncan’s business partners at the bank, and they barely speak to me. Anyway, we have two weeks for me to teach you everything you need to know.”

  Angel frowned. “Two weeks?”

  “Father is giving a party welcoming Jamie Treenery to Cheyenne. That’s when we’re supposed to meet. It shouldn’t take you more than a week to convince him the match will never do, and you can work on Father at the same time.”

  “Forget it, Alexis. It’s a crazy idea, and I’m not doing it.”

  “Angel, you have to help me!”

  “You haven’t thought this through. If we get caught, you’ll be worse off than you are now.”

  “I couldn’t be,” Alexis said, her lip quivering. “If you turn your back on me, it will happen exactly like it did last time. I’ll wind up marrying Jamie Treenery the same way I did Duncan, and I’ll never have a chance at happiness.”

  Guilt washed over Angel. Though her sister never mentioned it, they both knew it was Angel’s fault Alexis had been forced to marry Duncan Smythe. If she lived to be a hundred, Angel would never forget her rage when she discovered her father had accepted Duncan Smythe’s offer for her hand. To Richard Brady, Smythe’s fortune and consequential connections were important. The fact he was over sixty was not.

  The wedding plans progressed rapidly, in spite of Angel’s efforts to stop them. Finally, in desperation, she decided to run away and start another life somewhere else. Alexis insisted she take the only thing of value the twins owned, their mother’s jewelry. So, with many tears and the first pangs of soul-deep loneliness, the twins parted for the first time in their lives.

  It was nearly three months before Angel was able to make contact with her sister again. In the meantime, Richard Brady had offered Alexis to Duncan Smythe, and he’d been just as smitten with her as he had been Angel. Alexis had become Mrs. Duncan Smythe in less than a month. Angel had never forgiven herself, not even after she and Duncan became friends, or when she realized how much Alexis enjoyed her position as adored wife and leader of society.

  It all played through Angel’s mind now. This was Alexis: her sister, her best friend, the kindest, sweetest person she’d ever known. Alexis, who had never let her down, who was everything she was not, her other half. It wasn’t her sister’s fault that she lacked Angel’s bullheaded stubbornness, or her ability to stand up to their father. She was the epitome of the delicately nurtured female they were brought up to be, the woman Angel might be herself had things been different.

  “Oh, Alexis,” Angel said, putting her arms around the other woman comfortingly. “If it means that much to you, of course I’ll do it.”

  “You will?” Alexis cried joyfully. “I knew I could count on you. You’re the best sister anybody could have.”

  “I hope you still feel that way when this is all over. I have a feeling we’ll both live to regret it. Our chances for success are pretty slim, if you ask me.” She released her sister and looked around the cabin distastefully. “I guess if I’m going to stay here until I meet this beau of yours, we’d better get this place cleaned up. Why don’t you send your driver after Martha while you and I get started?”

  Alexis grinned. “Martha’s waiting in the carriage.”

  “I should have guessed. Was she going to convince me if you failed?”

  “No, she said I’d have to do that myself.”

  Angel raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Then she doesn’t approve of this little escapade either?”

  “Not entirely, but she did say she’d help us if you agreed. I don’t think she believed you would.”

  Thank heavens for Martha, Angel thought as Alexis hurried outside. Martha had been their mother’s personal maid and companion. She’d stayed on after Julia Brady’s death and was the closest thing Angel and Alexis had ever had to a mother. If anyone could keep this from getting completely out of hand, it was Martha.

  “I can’t believe you actually agreed to this plan,” Martha grumbled when she walked through the door. “Always figured you for the one with sense.”

  Angel smiled. “Since you’re here, it looks like she talked you into it, too.”

  “Huh. I’m just a servant. I do what I’m told.”

  Angel and Alexis exchanged a grin and a wink behind Martha’s back as she looked around the room in disgust. Neither could remember a time when she hadn’t been a part of their lives. Though the svelte figure of her youth had been replaced with a matronly shape and the tight bun at the back of her head was more gray now than black, the snapping blue eyes were still the same and so was her acerbic tongue.

  “Well, what are you two waiting for?” Martha asked, draping her shawl over the back of a chair and rolling up her sleeves. “This place is a pigsty.”

  There was much for Angel to learn, from memorizing distinguishing features of all the people she might meet, to mastering the latest gossip so she could converse knowledgeably with her stepmother. Angel completely immersed herself in her sister’s life. It was more a matter of shedding her South Pass persona than learning anything new. Alexis’s mannerisms soon became her own again, and she began walking with small feminine steps instead of her usual direct stride. Angel even switched perfume, changing from her favorite rose water to her sister’s lavender.

  Physically, there was little to change. In spite of their dissimilar lifestyles, the twin’s figures were still exactly the same. In fact, about the only difference was their hair. Since Alexis’s was longer, they decided to cut both to match. They left the actual haircuts until the day before the switch. That way, Alexis’s hairstyle would still be so new to
everyone, they would attribute any difference they noticed to the haircut.

  “What do you think?” Alexis asked after Martha finished cutting her waist-length red hair. She turned her head this way and that, studying her image in the mirror.

  Angel walked around her sister, surveying it critically. “I like it. What about you, Martha?”

  “I think it’s about the best I can do without whacking off more hair than Alexis is willing to part with. Sit.”

  Angel obediently took the chair next to her sister and started to remove the pins from her coiffure.

  “Uh-oh,” Martha said. “It’s a different color.”

  “No, it isn’t.” Angel closed her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair to shake it free. “It’s just a henna tint I put on to make the color look artificial. You’ll cut off most of it.” When she opened her eyes, both Martha and Alexis were staring at her with identical stunned expressions.

  “Why do you want people to think you dye your hair?” Alexis asked in a strangled voice.

  “It’s all part of the image I wanted the people of South Pass to see. I wear heavy make-up, too.”

  “But surely they can tell it isn’t real.”

  “Of course they can, but they assume I do both to look younger. If anyone even suspected my true age, I’d have a very difficult time running my business. Men don’t have much respect for a young woman.”

  “Oh, my poor Angel,” Alexis said, reaching out to touch her arm. “I never really thought about how dangerous it is for you there.” She shuddered. “I hate to think of the things you see every day.”

  Angel shrugged, but the disgust in her sister’s voice hurt. Suddenly, her life seemed shameful and depraved.

  “You have no call to look down your nose at Angel,” Martha said, picking up a comb and her scissors. “Your sister is a successful business woman, plain and simple. She makes a good living and doesn’t hurt a soul in the process.”

  Alexis was instantly remorseful. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just worry that something will happen.”

  “I can take care of myself,” Angel said with a brittle smile. “And my bartender makes a pretty good bodyguard.”

  “Oh, Angel, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I could never have supported myself the way you have. It’s just that I worry about you, and I want you to be happy.”

  “I am happy. Besides, I sold the business.”

  Alexis shook her head. “Someday you’ll want to get married and have children. I don’t see how you’re ever going to find a decent husband among all those terrible men.”

  “A husband is about the last thing I want.” But even as she spoke the words, the image of a man who was both good and decent popped into Angel’s mind. Once again, she could feel his lips whisper across hers in a kiss that had rocked her soul. What would marriage to Ox be like? Angel savored the picture for a moment, then pushed it away in irritation. She needed a husband about as much as she needed a wooden leg.

  Chapter 4

  “It’s about time you put in an appearance,” James Oxford Bruton Treenery Senior said with good humor. He stood behind his desk near the window, one hand grasping the lapel of his coat, every inch the influential business tycoon.

  James Treenery the Third scowled at his grandfather, unimpressed by the older man. “I had a few things to take care of first.”

  “Ah yes, that little hobby of yours. Really, James, you’re wasting your time there.”

  “It’s a business, not a hobby, and my name isn’t James.”

  The elder James Treenery’s face darkened for a moment, then he shrugged. “All right then, Jamie. I’ll be damned if I’ll call you by that other heathenish name.”

  “Suit yourself.” The younger man sat down on a chair and put his feet up on the polished surface of the desk. “I’m a busy man, and I don’t think you brought me here to discuss my name. Why don’t you get to the point?”

  Only the tightening of the muscles in his jaw gave any indication James Treenery was having trouble keeping his temper. “It’s time you stopped playing at being a common man and took your place in my empire.”

  “If you summoned me here to sing that song, old man, you’ve wasted your time,” Jamie said, picking his teeth just to annoy his grandfather.

  “Actually, I have a proposition for you.”

  “I can hardly wait.”

  “All in good time.” His grandfather visibly relaxed as the sound of footsteps came from the hallway. “Right now, I think there’s someone here to see you.” He smiled complacently.

  “Jamie!”

  Jamie straightened in surprise as the door burst open. “Mother?” He surged to his feet.

  “Oh, Jamie, you’re finally here!” The tiny woman threw herself into his arms. “When Papa Treenery said you were coming, I just had to brave the trip out from Chicago.”

  “He talked you into coming here?” Jamie glared over her head at his grandfather.

  “Of course not, my dear. In fact, he tried to talk me out of it. He said Cheyenne wasn’t the place for a delicately nurtured female.”

  “He’s right. Cheyenne is on the edge of the frontier. It’s full of hoodlums and riff raff.”

  “Now, Jamie, you know that isn’t true. You opened your new stage line here after all.”

  “He told you I opened a new stage line?” The look Jamie gave his grandfather was positively murderous.

  Beth Ann Treenery patted her son’s arm. “Don’t blame Papa Treenery. He wasn’t going to tell me at all until I wheedled it out of him. I had a terrible time getting him to talk.”

  “I’ll bet,” Jamie said.

  His grandfather shrugged. “You know how your mother is. She just wouldn’t rest until I explained why you decided to give her a whole new wardrobe.”

  Jamie raised his eyebrows. “You hadn’t planned on telling her, I’m sure. My generosity quite overwhelmed you.”

  “It did indeed. You’re a very dutiful son.” The elder Treenery reminded Jamie of a snake who knew its victim was completely helpless in its coils and was fully enjoying the death struggles.

  “You really shouldn’t spend your money on me that way,” Beth Ann said.

  For the first time, Jamie’s smile was genuine as he gave his mother a tender look. “There’s no one in the world I’d rather spend my money on.”

  “That’s only because you don’t have a family. When you get married again and have children to spoil, you’ll feel differently.”

  “I’d feel different all right,” Jamie said with an amused smile. “A wife and a gaggle of children would send me running for the high country. I’d build myself a cabin in the wilderness and only come out once a year for supplies.”

  She smiled up at him. “You just haven’t met the right woman yet.”

  “The right woman doesn’t exist.”

  “Nonsense.” She gave him a hug. “At any rate, I think you should reconsider buying me my own house in Chicago. It was very generous of you to offer, my dear, but I’m perfectly happy at your grandfather’s.”

  “Ah...well, perhaps we’d better leave the discussion of that for another time.” Jamie felt his grandfather’s coils tighten about him.

  “Oh dear, I wasn’t supposed to know yet, was I? No matter, I’ll forget I ever heard anything.” She gave Jamie another hug. “I’m sure you and your grandfather have a great deal of business to discuss, so I’ll leave you to it. Will you be joining us for dinner before the ball?”

  James took Beth Ann’s arm and escorted her to the door. “Of course he’ll be dining with us. And you two will have plenty of time to visit before that. I won’t keep him long.”

  “Thank you, Papa Treenery. You’re so good to me.”

  Jamie crossed his arms and regarded the older man sardonically as the door closed behind his mother. “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

  “It’s always a delight to see a son so concerned with his mother’s happiness. Oh, did I mention you’ve
given her quite a substantial increase in her quarterly allowance, too?”

  “All right, you wily old bastard, what is it you want from me?”

  “Why, what I’ve always wanted. My only grandson shoulder-to-shoulder with me at the head of a thriving company.”

  “The new stage line my mother mentioned, no doubt.”

  “The Flying T, to be precise. Not only do we have the government mail contract, our line is the only public transportation from the railroad here in Cheyenne north to the mines in Silver Springs Gulch and beyond. It’s a guaranteed moneymaker. We’ve been in business less than six months, and we’ve already made back most of our original investment.”

  The elder Treenery’s eyes took on a familiar gleam as he began to talk about profit. Jamie could barely contain his disgust. He’d never seen his grandfather show that much emotion for any person, living or dead. “It doesn’t sound like you need me.”

  “On the contrary, you are exactly the person I need. I can’t stay here to run it; I have far too many other investments to look after. You have plenty of experience, though admittedly, it’s with freight rather than passengers. You know what sort of drivers to hire, the kind of stock to buy, what supplies will be needed...in short, you could walk in and run the whole operation tomorrow.”

  “Any number of people have that same kind of experience.”

  “True, but we need someone with...special qualifications.”

  “We?”

  “I have a partner, Richard Brady. He’s a man after my own heart.”

  Jamie’s mouth twisted. “He’s crooked then?”

  “In fact,” his grandfather said, ignoring Jamie’s remark, “he has the same problem I do. He can’t devote as much time as necessary to the business either.”

  “And he’s willing to let me handle it?”

  “Not exactly, and to be honest, I wouldn’t consider handing it over to his heir either.”

  “Then what precisely is it you want me to do?”

  “It’s quite simple really. We decided if two of the younger members of our families formed a partnership, we could confidently leave the running of the stage line to the both of you.”