Lawfully Saved: Inspirational Christian Historical

by Carroll, Patricia PacJac

  Ed looked down and shrugged. “I’m sorry about that. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can’t rightly trust you to keep our business to yourself.”

  “Send John into town to find and tell her I’ll be back. She’s my responsibility.” He hated having to plead with an outlaw even if he was a friendly one.

  “Ah, that is what comes with taking on a woman. I hope you have a long and happy life. If it’s meant to be, she’ll wait for you.” Ed poured some coffee and handed him a cup. “I’m sorry, but I’ll not put me and my brother in danger. I think you can understand that.”

  Ben glared at him. Yeah, he understood all right. Ed had told him the same thing every night. He finished the coffee, and Ed tied him up. There’d be no getting out of the rope. Besides, John was a light sleeper. Not as friendly as Ed, the younger brother seemed haunted. He’d been all of fifteen when he found his father hanging from a tree.

  Shifting his weight, Ben settled down into the soft dirt to relieve the ache in his back. Odd that he would know so much about the O’Hara brothers. Ed was friendly and liked to talk. Even liked to confide family secrets with him. That’s how Ben knew about John and felt sorry for him. Life had been hard for them, but the path they were on wasn’t going to make it any easier.

  A short stint in jail had brought Ed and Jingo together. Ed had enlisted him as the one who could do the heavy work. Lifting and killing. Ben prayed Ed could keep Jingo from killing him. So far, he felt he had a chance, but he prayed every night the Lord would keep him alive so he could marry Rose.

  John came in and ate his dinner. He pulled Ed away, and they talked in low muffled voices far enough away that Ben couldn’t hear. Just as well, Ben saved the lonely nights for thoughts of Rose.

  The letters were the only things that connected them, but somehow, he felt he’d known her all his life. As if his heart had a Rose-shaped hole that could only be satisfied by her. The moon climbed the night sky and shone down on him. It gave him comfort that she could be looking at the moon.

  Dear Ben,

  I trust you are well. I can’t wait to meet you in person. To hold you. Feel the warmth of your arms around me. Every breath is a cry to come to you. The days are passing so slowly. Sometimes, I fear that this is all a dream. That my hope, so tender like spring grass, will be trampled down by the heavy footsteps life can bring. But my hope is kept alive by my faith. That God has saved me and breathes His life and plan into my heart and orders my footsteps. He upholds my faith and hope.

  I will be with you, and we will be married. As I watch the moon rise in the night and the sun rise in the morning, I know that we will be together. It was meant to be from the beginning of time.

  I love you,

  Rose

  Ben had her letters committed to memory. Each of them. There were ten in all. Each one brought hope to him. He loved her more than he thought possible or even probable for someone he’d never met. Someday soon, God willing, they’d be together.

  ***

  With a jolt, Rose woke and stared out the window. The gray sky blushed with the promise the day was near. She folded her blanket, dressed hurriedly and left the barn. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. The roses had already spread their fragrance, caressing the morning with their heavenly aroma.

  But there was something else. Bacon. She opened her eyes and stared toward the cabin. In the morning’s light, it looked different. Not knowing if she should knock on the door or wait outside, she chose to investigate the garden.

  There were two of them. One had neat rows of vegetables. The other she decided must be flowers. Since it was early spring, not many had blooms. The rose bushes made a beautiful backdrop, but only one of the bushes had flowers. The other had a single tiny bud with yellow in the seams.

  Such beauty in such an unlikely place. She turned back to the cabin. “You are a very unusual man, Rand Ketcham.” She laughed at the irony of a bounty hunter with a last name of Ketcham. She relaxed on a bench, thankful that she was rested and not starving or cold. A vast improvement over the beginning of her week.

  The door opened, and Rand threw out a bucket of water. He saw her and gave her a look close to a grin. “I’ve got bacon and eggs. Come on inside.”

  Hesitantly, she obeyed. Not sure what to expect, she went inside and gasped. The place was clean. She looked at him.

  “I straightened the place up a little. Tonight, you can stay in the cabin. Breakfast will be ready in a couple of minutes. Go ahead and sit down.” His voice was gruff, but the tone softer than yesterdays.

  She sat. A clean checkered tablecloth adorned the table. A plate and fork at her place. She looked around the cabin. Neat and clean. He must have stayed up all night.

  He came out of the kitchen and set a plate of biscuits on the table, left her, and came back with a pan of eggs and bacon.

  “Hope you like your bacon crispy.”

  She smiled at him. “That’s fine.” She’d have eaten it burnt or raw.

  “I scrambled the eggs. We always … I like them that way.” He sat down across from her and passed the plate of biscuits. “Sorry, I don’t have butter. I’ll have to get another milk cow. I let Bluebonnet dry up. I’ll have her bred again.” Looking sad, he gazed at her. “Sorry, shouldn’t talk about that in the presence of a woman. How’s your hand?”

  She put her fork down. “It’s all right. Doesn’t even hurt.”

  “After breakfast, I’ll see what I can find out about your Ben.”

  “Thank you. I’d like to go with you.”

  He glanced at the door where his gun and holster hung on a peg. “I travel alone.”

  She chewed on a piece of bacon, savoring the flavor as it exploded in her mouth. After a few minutes, she shook her head. “I want to go with you. Please. I won’t get in the way. You won’t be responsible for me in any way.”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  She let it go. He wasn’t changing his mind, and she didn’t want to negate the progress he’d made. At least he had cleaned up his cabin and was talking to her. And as she looked at him, she realized he’d cleaned himself up. His face was now clean-shaven. His clothes changed. He was a handsome man.

  He took up the dishes after breakfast, not letting her help in any way. It was as if he was letting her know that this was his house. His, and what name did he say? Susanna. That was it. That it was still their house, and she wasn’t to have a part in it. Rose understood him. His need to remember his wife and keep the house for her.

  Rand pulled the holster from the peg and strapped it on. He checked the gun, spun the cartridge and then filled the few empty holes on his gunbelt. “I’m going into town first. I’ll stop by and get you before I go to Ben’s ranch. Just let me talk to the sheriff first, alone.”

  She nodded. “All right. I’ll be waiting. Any chores you want me to do?”

  “Don’t touch anything.” He looked at her. His brown eyes a storm of emotions.

  “All right.” She figured the less she said the better. His offer to help was tenuous at best, fragile and liable to break if she pushed him.

  He went outside.

  She followed and watched him saddle Jack. Wondering what kind of man, he was. He showed the world a hard, cold man who didn’t care. Yet, he’d spent the night cleaning the house, and his rose garden was well-kept. And he was helping her.

  He didn’t say a word, mounted the horse, and rode off.

  Rose sat on the bench in the garden and enjoyed the sight and smell of life around her. It was quite the contrast to the cloud of death that hung around Rand Ketcham. Maybe some of the gloom was from his former profession.

  Hunting for blood money, his heart had to be closed to feelings. And then there was the war. It had damaged them all. She remembered seeing the battlefield in Gettysburg and the blood-soaked ground littered with bodies. A sight to forget if one could. The problem being, it still haunted all who had witnessed it.

  She watched a butterfly flit fr
om one flower to another and wondered if Rand would come back. If he would help her find Ben. She loved him so. Odd that she could love a man she’d never met. But she did. Even now, thinking of him, her heart warmed with feelings so strong it felt as if he was part of her.

  “Oh God, please let us find him. Protect Ben wherever he is. If he has changed his mind about me, let me know. Yet, I know he loves me. Help us, Lord.” She knelt and let her tears drop onto the rich earth, hoping her prayers would be answered.

  Chapter 4

  Rand galloped Black Jack into town. He shouldn’t run the horse, but the streets were near empty. Too early for business and too late for the drunken cowboys to stumble out of the saloons. That the small town of Duston had two drinking establishments, spoke of the town’s wild existence.

  After the war, many had turned to drink. To add to the hardship, good money was tight and jobs scarce. Finally, the cattle industry grew as enterprising men sent herds north for great gain. Rand pulled the horse to a halt in front of the jail. He tugged on his hat and frowned. He should have gone into the cattle business.

  A glance at the board where the sheriff tacked up wanted notices begged his attention. Before, that’s where he’d found his money. Good with a gun, young, brave and stupid enough, he’d gone after wanted men for the money their miserable lives would fetch. Most he brought in alive. Some he couldn’t.

  He regretted them all now.

  Rand dismounted, tied the horse, and banged on the door. Sheriff Harper was a hard sleeper, but this morning, he must have already been up because the door swung open.

  Looking none too happy, Harper glared at him. “What? You on the hunt again? Because if you are, I have some cattle rustlers for you to find and bring in.”

  Rand shook his head. “No, just some questions.”

  “No to being on the hunt or no to the rustlers.”

  “Both. A lady came by and wants me to help find her husband.”

  “Oh, yeah. Pretty little thing. She asked me about him, Ben Anderson. Nice fellow. Haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks. Checked his place. He’d been there, but no sign of him, now.”

  Rand shoved his hat back. “Any idea why he’d run off?”

  The sheriff stroked his mustache. “No, and with that pretty little lady coming to him, I don’t see why he would. Oh, I suppose he could have gotten cold feet, but he told me about her. Had the cow-eyed look of love all over him. No, I don’t think he’d leave on his own.”

  “I got the feeling someone’s taken him. Maybe he saw something.”

  The sheriff strode to his desk. “There is a gang of rustlers in the area. All Trey Duston’s cattle. I don’t think Ben would be mixed up with them, but he seems to have disappeared at the same time the cattle did.”

  “You going out to look for him?”

  Shuffling some papers, the sheriff shook his head. “Not today or probably this week. Duston has been on my back to find his cattle. Then there are the usual wild cowboys coming in for a drink or two or twenty. I don’t have a deputy, that is unless you’d be interested?”

  That was about the last thing Rand wanted to do. “No. I don’t want anything to do with the law or lawbreakers.”

  “Think it over Rand. You’d be a good one.”

  He sent a wry grin to the sheriff. “Is that as a lawbreaker or deputy?”

  With a grin to match, the sheriff pulled his hat off the peg by the door. “Either one. I better make the rounds. Want to come along?”

  Rand knew he should. He needed the fellowship, but he always declined as if he were punishing himself for what happened to Susanna. “I’ll do some more looking. Maybe someday.”

  The sheriff stopped at the door. “Rand, what happened to Susanna was a tragedy. As sheriff, one thing I’ve reconciled to myself and the Lord is that bad things happen to good people. You’ll not bring her back by hurting yourself. Susanna would want you to go on and live a good life.”

  Rand walked past the sheriff and to his horse. He didn’t want to hear what others thought. It was his loss, and he was responsible. No one could understand. Rand took Jack’s reins. “Thanks, Sheriff. If you hear anything about Ben, let me know.”

  “Rand is that woman staying with you?”

  On his horse, Rand whirled the animal around to face the sheriff. “Yeah, she is. I’ll stay in the barn.”

  “Town might not understand.”

  “It’s none of their business.” He jabbed a heal in Jack’s side and reined him to the hard side of town. He’d ask the outcasts. Some were desperate enough to turn in their own mothers for a drink. More often than not, he’d gotten information from them.

  Anger burned hot in his middle. Mostly at himself. Why did he have to turn bounty hunter? He could have been deputy back then. Could be sheriff by now. Maybe Susanna would be alive if he had. It was his fault.

  A dull nagging started in the back of his mind. What if Rose got hurt because she was with him? He’d have to make her stay somewhere else. He’d not risk another woman’s life. Then again, she was nothing to him. A nuisance really.

  He stopped at a crude shack. Billy Ewell’s. He’d been a drunken mess the three years Rand had known him. He dismounted and tied Jack while pushing away images of Rose. The longing and pain he saw in her eyes haunted him. Maybe because he also knew the helpless feeling of losing one you loved.

  Rand peered into the dark shack with its door hanging half-open because of a missing hinge. “Billy! You in there?”

  He heard shuffling and then the sorry remains of a man walked to the door. “What? Who?” He squinted in the sun. “Rand?”

  “You know Ben Anderson?”

  “Yeah, he let me help him clear an acre of ground for a garden.” The skin-and-bones of a man wiped a dirty sleeve across his mouth. “My throat’s awful dry?”

  “I got a bottle in my pack for after you answer some questions.” Rand almost hated to bait the man. Billy led a miserable enough existence. As Rand looked at the rundown shack, a chill crept down his spine. That could be him in a few years if he didn’t change.

  “What kind of questions?”

  Rand reached in his saddlebag and took out the bottle of whiskey. “Just questions.”

  Billy sat down on a step and licked his lips. “I’m ready.”

  “You hear anything about the cattle rustling going on around here?”

  Billy’s eyes darted left and right. A sure indication the man had heard something. In a whisper, Billy began. “A man, big and mean, came through once. He hid out behind my shack in the creek. I didn’t let him know I saw him.”

  “You ever seen him before?”

  Billy shook his head. “No. Don’t ever want a see him again. He’s a bad one. Got evil in his eyes and heart. I saw it.” The man shivered. “No siree, I don’t want to see him again.”

  Rand gently prodded for more. “Did he say anything to you?”

  The fear on Billy’s face said yes. “No.”

  “What did he say, Billy?” Rand held up the bottle. “Sure makes a nice color in the sunlight.”

  Billy’s eyes lost their fear and took on the look of want. “Say?”

  “What did he say to you?”

  “Nothing.” He laughed. A desperate squawk as his attention stayed on the bottle. “He was talking to hisself. Must have lost his horse. He was swearing and cussing. He said,” Billy lowered his voice and spoke in gruff broken words. “Ed and John better watch themselves. I’ll not hang because they don’t have the guts to do what needs doing. Then he sat down or maybe fell in the mud and talked to himself some more. “Jingo, you’re going to have to shoot him if they won’t.” Back in his normal sing-song, slurred voice, Billy continued. “No siree, I don’t like that one. At all. Jingo he called himself.” Billy reached for the bottle.

  Rand held it away from him. “You know who he was talking about? Was it Ben?”

  Slowly, Billy shook his head. “He didn’t say. I hope not, because he’s more than likely dead by t
he way that man talked.”

  Not the information Rand had hoped to get. “Ben tell you anything about a mail-order bride coming to Duston for him?”

  Billy’s face lit up. “Rose. Yes, he did. She sounds like a good woman. He read one of her letters to me once.”

  “Was Ben afraid of anyone?”

  Billy shook his head. “No. He was real happy about Rose coming. That’s why we made the garden.”

  Rand handed the bottle to Billy. He’d earned it. “If you hear anything else, let me know.” He fished in his pocket and gave Billy a twenty-dollar gold piece. “Get yourself something to eat.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Rand.” He cocked his head, and his eyes misted over. “I’m sorry about Susanna. I liked her.” He looked down and pulled at the rags he wore. “I know how it feels to lose the ones you love.” Billy opened the bottle and took a swig, turned, and stumbled into the dark shack.

  Rand stared at the miserable man until the shadows erased him from view. What was Billy’s story? The old man had never said even though Rand had asked him a time or two. When he did, Billy’s eyes would go blank as if they were looking inward, and then he’d shuffle away never saying a word.

  Rand turned and stroked Black Jack. He’d promised Rose he’d come back. One thing was sure, he needed to get her out of his cabin so people didn’t get the wrong idea. The sheriff was right.

  He grumbled a chuckle. Then again, maybe it was so he didn’t get the wrong idea. She was a pretty woman. Soft, curves, and perfumed. But she wasn’t his. And he didn’t want another woman. Ever.

  He mounted Black Jack and let the horse walk back to the cabin. He could stop for supplies. He could stop and get her a horse. But he kept going straight to the cabin. He needed to get her out. Away from him.

  He’d just ridden up the hill when he saw her sitting on the bench he’d made for Susanna. She had one of the red roses to her face. A sweet, peaceful look flooded her countenance. He wanted to look away and not care. But he couldn’t, and he did.

  ***

  Rose drank in the lovely aroma of the rose. It soothed her ragged feelings. She’d prayed the Lord would watch over Ben and bring him to her. There was such peace in this garden. She wondered if Rand ever enjoyed it.