"You want to come upstairs and peek in the trunk while I'm still in the room? Don't want any surprises popping out."
Kaitlyn's wide eyes met Iris' at Angus' words. Surely, Morris wouldn't stuff it with something...horrible, would he?
"I'm coming up with you two. It's too cold for snakes, but you never know," Kaitlyn murmured as she started for the staircase.
"Ma! I'm joking!"
"Well, you're going to open the lid for suggesting it, Angus."
Iris watched as Angus gingerly lifted the trunk lid, shook her clothing, and laid it on the bed. It was soon clear that the trunk hadn't been opened since she left Louisville, as nothing seemed out of place.
"Everything I packed seems to be in the trunk. I'm happy to receive my belongings, even though it means I have to face Morris now."
"We are facing Morris with you, so don't worry," Kaitlyn stated as she ushered them all from the room and down the stairs.
"Angus, if your pa isn't over at the church, he talked about visiting the elder Clancys this morning."
"So he'll be at the café then." Angus turned to Iris as he stomped into the boots. "Don't worry, Iris. Fergus won't let anything happen to you." This time Angus looked serious with his final parting.
*
A mask of concern spread across Morris' face as Iris and Kaitlyn walked through the studio door. Fergus stood to the side of him, his face stony, and his hands in fists at his side.
"Iris! I've been worried sick about you. Are you all right?" Morris rushed forward to meet Iris at the door but Kaitlyn deftly put herself in front of Iris so Morris couldn't grab her.
It was time Iris stood up to Morris, so she placed her hand on Kaitlyn's forearm so she knew she was calm, and stepped up beside Kaitlyn.
"I am perfectly fine, Milton. Why are you here?" Iris kept her voice steady even though she was quaking inside.
"To retrieve you from this place so we may continue on to San Francisco." Morris sounded like he was talking to an eight-year-old girl.
"I now live and work in Clear Creek, but I do thank you for finding me to deliver my trunk."
"Your trunk? It's still on the train with mine. I'm just stopping here long enough to collect you so we can be on our way."
Was he daft? No, but he thought she was, apparently. But Iris wasn't the same person who left Kentucky with him.
"I am not traveling on to San Francisco, nor am I marrying you, Milton."
"But, your brother—"
"Ruddell Junior needs to pay his own debts. Trading me for money should never have been an option.
"But my brother's debt wasn't the real reason you wanted to marry me was it?" Iris continued, feeling strength as Fergus moved to stand on her other side.
"Of course it was, and you accepted my proposal of matrimony, so you're bound to your word." Morris' eyes grew narrow and hard as he ground out the words, ignoring the men in the room standing around her.
"She chose not to marry you when she left the train in Nebraska," Fergus sternly commented. "So why come after her now?"
Morris didn't answer as cold air drifted through the room as the door opened behind them.
Iris quickly glanced back to see Marshal Wilerson scraping snow off his boots on the braided rag rug by the front door before moving into the room. Pastor Reagan took his turn cleaning his boots next.
The marshal nodded to her and Kaitlyn before looking at Morris. "Angus said I needed to talk to a Mr. Morris? Is that you?"
Morris stared at the marshal's badge a second before regaining his composure. "Yes, I'm Milton Morris. What's the problem?"
"Nothing, if you don't cause any." The marshal's stance showed he was ready for any situation that might arise in the room though.
"I'm in town to reunite with my fiancée, and we'll leave as soon as we can get back on the train heading west."
Iris braced herself, as she knew her next words were going to make Morris volatile.
"I wrote to Mr. Bramble for advice, and he wrote back that I inherited money from my father. Somehow you knew about this, but I didn't."
For a split second, Morris’ face looked as guilty as a child whose hand was caught in a store's candy jar—until he changed his demeanor.
"Yes, I was taking care of that matter for you so you didn't have to concern yourself with it." The man's forehead had a sheen of perspiration as he fought to control his temper.
"Although I'm sure Miss Kerns could have handled her affairs by herself, our town's lawyer has contacted Mr. Bramble on her behalf.” Marshal Wilerson said with authority. “Her inheritance will be wired to the bank of her choice on her birthday."
"That's fine. What bank did you request in San Francisco?" Morris looked hopeful that she was traveling with him after all.
“It will be sent to the Clear Creek Bank, because I’m staying here, Milton.” It felt good to stand tall and state what she was going to do, to the man who’d scared her so badly she wanted to end her life.
Iris looked at Fergus, then around at the people surrounding her in the room. For the first time since her mother died, Iris felt loved and supported. Clear Creek was going to be her new home, and she hoped the handsome photographer would be the center of her life.
***
Even through Marshal Wilerson and his father were in the studio with Morris, Fergus wished Iris and his mother were not. He tensed his fists, waiting for Morris' next words, or worse, his actions. Knowing one thousand dollars was slipping through his hands had to bring the man to the breaking point.
Knowing this man had hit Iris had Fergus at his breaking point too. If Morris so much as touched his Iris...
His Iris. Did that put him in the same position as Morris, thinking Iris was his possession? No, it meant he wanted Iris at his side for the rest of his life, as his wife, best friend, co-worker, and mother of their children. Her money didn't matter at all to Fergus, where he was positive that was the driving force of Morris' want for Iris.
How could he end this standoff and get Morris to back down?
"Mr. Morris, I heard Miss Kerns say she was not going to marry you, so I'll escort you back to the train depot so you can be on your way." The marshal used his left hand to gesture to the door while keeping his right near the holstered gun on his right hip.
Someone opened the studio door, pulling their attention away from Morris.
One second later, Iris shrieked and Fergus twirled around to see Morris' left arm across her chest as his right hand pulled a small pistol from his coat pocket.
"Get away from the door! I'm taking her with me!" Morris struggled to pull a fighting Iris to the front door.
"Let go of Iris!" His mother yelled as she swung her right hand, stuck inside her reticule, toward Morris.
"Kaitlyn, don't do it!" His father warned as his mother pushed her purse against Morris' upper arm.
"Lady, you're not going to hurt me with your reticule so get out of my way!" Morris growled.
Bang!
Shell-shocked silence filled the room a second after the loud noise.
"Geeze, lady! You shot me!" Morris dropped Iris and his gun to grab his bleeding arm.
Fergus quickly pulled Iris to his chest and away from Morris. Marshal Wilerson kicked his gun on the floor out of the way and grabbed Morris by his good arm.
"Arrest her! She shot me!" Morris growled with pain and anger as the marshal pulled him toward the door.
"You raised your gun first, so she was defending the people in the room."
"But she shot me!" Morris was going into shock, by not only being wounded but also it being by a woman.
"Be glad she's a preacher's wife or she may have picked another target on your body for her peashooter." Fergus' father grinned; proud his wife had taken charge of the situation.
Fergus looked at the black-powdered hole in the side of his mother's reticule and realized it wouldn't be the first time she had to patch a hole in her purse.
"I’ll help you escort the priso
ner over to the jailhouse, Marshal," His father motioned to his mother to follow along.
"Kaitlyn, you might have to dig your bullet out of his shoulder since the new doctor hasn't arrived in town yet."
"Oh, I suppose, if I must," his mother sighed and followed them out of his studio.
"Bring back some memories, Marshal?” Fergus still held Iris tightly as he listened to his father chat on the way out the door. “When the women's vigilante group caught Darcie's ex-husband during church services?"
"Are you all right?" Fergus gruffly asked Iris as she pulled away from him.
"It happened so fast, I—" Iris started to say just as someone said, "Excuse me."
Fergus forgot someone else was in the room. They turned to see a man backed against the corner of the room, apparently trying to get out of the ruckus he'd walked into by chance.
"I'm looking for Miss Iris Kerns," the man politely inquired.
Iris whirled toward the man's voice, and both gasped at the same time when they looked at each other.
"Jasper?" Iris' eyes grew wide as she laid a hand on her chest.
"Iris? Are you my baby sister?" The man walked forward but stopped two feet in front of Iris.
After only a second's hesitation Iris flung her arms around the man, sobbing at being overwhelmed with finally seeing her brother after all these years.
Fergus stood in the middle of the room watching the siblings reunite. Less than ten minutes ago, he was framing a portrait in the workroom, thinking of his and Iris' first kiss yesterday and planning the next one.
Then Morris showed up, threatening Fergus' future with Iris.
In a blink of an eye, his mother gave his chance with the woman he loved back to him.
Now her brother appears, pushing Fergus' future into the unknown again. Would she go home with Jasper, wherever that was?
"Mr. Reagan? I'm Jasper Kerns, and I can't thank you enough for helping my sister." Fergus shook Jasper's outstretched hand, nodding his acknowledgment even though the man still had his left arm around Iris.
"Fergus Reagan. Nice to see you in Clear Creek. Iris has talked about you, so I'm glad we met by chance in Nebraska." Fergus was sincerely happy that Iris had contact with her brother again.
"If you hadn't been in the homesteader's photo, we'd never have found each other," Iris eyes glittered with happiness, but Fergus was still uneasy because he didn't know the man or his background. He could be an outlaw, panhandler, or who knows what, but he had to keep his questions in check because Iris was ecstatic now.
“We have a lot of catching up to do, but I know you have to work. I’ll be staying at the hotel this evening, so how about the two of you coming over to have lunch with me?” Jasper asked looking between him and Iris.
Fergus knew Iris didn’t want to part with her brother after just meeting again, and he was sure Jasper felt the same way.
“How about you going on to visit in the hotel lobby now and I’ll come over at lunchtime to join you?” Fergus offered, enjoying Iris’ beaming acknowledgment of his suggestion. He’d prefer Iris be in a public place for their first visit.
“In fact, I’ll walk over there with you, and then stop at the jailhouse to hear what Marshal Wilerson decided to do about Ma and Morris."
“Your momma was quick on the draw. I was impressed,” Jasper shook his head.
“Well she raised six sons and knew she wouldn't hesitate to break up a fight, or whatever shenanigans we got into. There were times we kid’s lives were at stake, usually because of our own faults.” Fergus shook his head thinking how quickly his ma had saved Iris while three grown men stood there gawking at Morris holding Iris.
Fergus owed his ma a big hug for saving the love of his life today. But he had to let Iris decide if she wanted to stay here in Clear Creek with him, or leave with her brother.
Chapter 13
"I still can't believe you're here," Iris was still shocked at seeing her brother after two decades. His boy's body was now a grown man, but she had instantly recognized his face, probably because he resembled her mother. His skin was light and his hair black and curly.
Still, she felt better sitting in the hotel lobby with Helen and Ethan Paulson supervising them. After what she'd been through with Morris, she was skittish of men she didn't know. She knew nothing of Jasper's past, good or bad.
"Pappy said time and again I had to find you and Momma if he couldn't, so it's been on my mind for years."
"Well, it took you long enough," Iris nervously kidded him. "Where have you been?"
"A lot of places. When Master Kerns caught our parents together—"
"What do you mean? Momma moved to the plantation house before I was born," Iris stopped to correct him.
"She might have moved, but our parents still met in secret when they could."
"Why do you say our parents? Master Kerns was my father."
"Oh no. Pappy swore up and down you were his secret child, but they couldn't let on to anyone since they were slaves."
"Oh my word. Are you sure? Master Kerns didn't treat me like a real daughter because I was illegitimate, but better than a servant."
"Iris, there is no doubt in my mind because you're the spitting image of our father. And that's why Pappy and I were sold when Master found our folks together."
"Momma was so beside herself when you left that I thought she was going to die."
Iris was a young child, but she still remembered her mother weeping every night for her loss. "I just remember you disappearing from the place one day and never coming back."
Jasper's features hardened before he spoke. "We were sent downriver to New Orleans and sold at the slave market."
“Oh my, oh no.” Her family was separated forever because of the rights of masters before the war.
"Where did you go? Were you...sold together or separated?"
"Sold together to the Washburn Plantation east of New Orleans." Jasper looked away, recalling the day, their treatment? Iris wasn't going to pry if he didn't want to talk about it.
"What happened when Lincoln set us free? We stayed on at the Kerns because we really had no choice."
"We stayed put at first too, because Pappy was afraid we'd get shot or strung up if we left." Jasper's eyes clouded thinking of his past. "Those were bad times," he blew out a long breath.
"Then New Orleans was captured by the Union and things changed rapidly. Freed blacks signed up to fight against the Confederacy, and Pappy decided to enlist. Of course he thought he'd only be gone a month or two and the war would soon be over."
"Most of the freedmen from the Kerns Plantation left too, leaving crops unharvested in the field."
"So did you stay at the Washburn while your father was gone?"
"Our father, Iris. I know it'll take time to sink in, but Pappy was your father, not Master Ruddell Kerns."
Iris nodded, her mind shocked by everything she'd heard today.
"Yes, there was an older woman who took care of me and several other children while their fathers were gone."
"Did...Pappy come back?" Iris tried to remember what the man looked like but she'd been so young when separated from him and Jasper.
"One time, about two years later, while he was fighting in the area. Then I never saw or heard of him again. Who knows what battlefield he met his Maker and was buried on?" Jasper's shrug showed he'd always wonder.
"Could he have been in the Andersonville Prison?" Iris asked because she remembered an envelope in her momma's chest with Andersonville, Georgia as the sending address.
"I suppose. Hadn't thought about that. Why did you bring it up?"
"I remember Momma receiving a letter at the end of the war. Master read it to her, and then he threw it in the burning fireplace. She snatched at the burning papers from the fire, burning her hand in the process, but she was able to retrieve the envelope and part of the letter. She ran upstairs with the letter and hid it. Momma cried for weeks again.
“Momma died when I was
sixteen. She was never the same after receiving that letter."
They sat in silence a while, thinking of their parents and how slavery and the war had shaped their lives.
"I stayed and worked for Master Kerns until he died. Then his son set up a trade of me for his debt to Morris. That's a day's story in itself.
“So where have you been, and what have you done, since the war?" Iris wanted to know to piece together her brother’s life.
"Everything from picking cotton to loading ships in the New Orleans harbor. Helped rebuild New Orleans, so done a lot of carpentry work."
"So why'd you decide to find me?"
"My wife and boy died in a wagon accident," Jasper quietly spoke while rubbing his chest.
Iris placed her hand over his to show her sympathy. It was horrible for all he'd been through!
"I was injured, but I survived. It finally took thinking about finding you to decide I wanted to live again."
"How long ago was the accident?" Iris whispered.
"Two years in February." Unshed tears glistened in Jasper's eyes.
"How long have you been looking for me?"
"I traveled to Kentucky, not sure if you or Momma would still be at the Kerns place. Ruddell Junior said to look in the cemetery for Momma, and you'd left for San Francisco recently."
"So you were on your way to California when Fergus stopped at the homestead taking photographs?"
"Yep. I helped harvest their corn and was about to leave when the owner busted his leg. I stayed on to help until he could get around."
"And because of his accident you were there when I wrote looking for you," Iris breathed a sigh of thanks, not for the man's pain but the timing.
"So, what next, now that you've found me? Care to stick around Clear Creek? I really do want to stay here myself," Iris emphasized. She didn't want someone deciding her life as in the past, except for Fergus asking her hand in marriage.
"I'm between jobs and want to get to know my sister again. Think I can find work here during the winter?" Jasper continued, oblivious to Iris' wish.
Grooms with Honor Series, Books 1-3 Page 24
