James felt a lump forming in his throat. What if she said no? What if her confidence meant that she had already made up her mind and was leaving him?
He clenched his fists and opened them back up again.
“Ever since Frank…” Lyla began, then paused, “I haven’t trusted anyone, even my sister’s husband. I suppose that I’d just resigned myself that there were no good men out there. I realize now that maybe I was wrong.”
James took a deep breath and then let it out, waiting for her to continue.
“I don’t know how to forgive myself for everything that’s happened. I guess I don’t know how to forgive Frank, either, but we were both still kids, really. I don’t know how to move forward with Joey or with you, but I’m willing to try. I know I owe it to myself and to my sister to try.” Lyla sighed, looking as if she were letting go of something heavy that she had been carrying a long time.
James closed the gap between them and cupped her face in his hands. “Do you know how beautiful you are right now?” he asked her softly.
Lyla giggled, but her face quickly turned serious. “I don’t know what I’m doing, James. What if I mess this all up? What if I’m making another mistake?”
James brushed his thumb over her cheek while he looked deep into her eyes, as if they led straight to her soul. “Lyla, there is no way that you could mess this up, do you understand? No way.”
Lyla gave a soft smile. “I think I love you.”
James’s wanted to jump with joy. “You’ve just made me the happiest man in the west.”
As he looked down at the face between his hands, he knew that his words couldn’t hold more truth. Everything seemed perfect, if only for this moment in time.
“So, will you marry me?” James asked the question for a second time.
He wasn’t sure if this was the right time to ask it, but he had to know. He felt as if his insides were playing tag and wrestling all at the same time, and the only thing that would put them to rest was if he knew Lyla’s answer.
“I suppose that’s what I was trying to say,” Lyla said, with slight hesitation. “I don’t know how to be a wife or a mother. I really don’t know anything about milking cows or running a ranch. All I have to offer is my willingness to learn.”
James shook his head. “All I ask for is that you give us a chance. You’ll realize before long that all of us are meant to be together.”
As James said the words, there was no doubt in his mind that he was right.
---*---
James strummed his fingers over his guitar. They were all sitting on the porch, under the stars, singing a couple of songs together.
He glanced over to where Lyla was sitting, a drowsy Joey on her lap. She stroked his blonde hair and looked down at him with love in her eyes. Now that James knew that she was his mother, he couldn’t see her any other way.
The way she held his hand and traced the little fingers back to his palm, the way she rocked him back and forth as he fell asleep against her was so beautiful it made his heart ache.
She was a natural mother, whether or not she would admit it.
James hadn’t told anyone except for Bonnie about Lyla’s change of heart. It was still something that he was holding close to his heart, savoring it like the miracle that it was.
He almost expected Lyla to tell him that it had all been a dream and she was leaving after all, but when he looked at her and she gave him one of her contagious, angelic smiles, he knew that he was living in reality, somehow.
“I think it’s time for me to turn in,” Bonnie announced with an extra-long yawn.
James gave her a knowing smile.
“Goodnight,” Lyla said.
After his mother had disappeared inside, James continued his strumming.
“So, do you have any friends back home you want to invite to our wedding?” he asked casually.
“Not really. I didn’t have a lot of friends back home. There was this girl I worked with at the hotel restaurant. I suppose we were friends. But I doubt she would come all the way out here just to see me get married. Not unless I found a husband for her, too.” Lyla laughed at the idea of it, and then her face went sober. “I sent a telegram, in town.”
“To who?” James asked.
“To Keith.”
James’s fingers stopped strumming. He’d pretty much forgotten about Keith but now the idea of the man loomed in front of him like a sour taste in his mouth after dessert. “Why?”
“I wrote to tell him the truth about how I really feel, and that I have changed my mind about marrying him.”
James’s body relaxed and he felt himself soaring with happiness. “Oh, I’m glad to hear that. How do you think he’ll take it?”
While James was sure that Lyla hadn’t felt anything for Keith, he had no idea really about what kind of man Keith was or what kind of feelings he had for Lyla.
“He didn’t really love me. He saw me more as a business transaction. But I’m sure he’s not going to be happy when he reads my telegram.” Lyla shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
James stood up and set his guitar down on the porch swing before crossing over to where Lyla was sitting.
He pulled her up and into an embrace and whispered against her hair. “If he has a problem with it, he can come and talk to me and I will let him know in no uncertain terms that you are no longer available.”
Laila giggled and leaned into him.
James tightened his embrace around her small figure. He had something precious in his arms, and he’d be darned if he was going to let anyone take it away. Ever.
Chapter 24
Keith stopped writing and took the paper off of his desk, then crumpled it into a ball and aimed at the waste basket in the corner.
The other crumpled letters laying around the basket caught his eye. He knew that it was a waste of paper, but he didn’t care.
He had been trying to write a letter to Lyla since a week after she’d left. Of course, he didn’t know if she’d arrived all right, yet. She’d never even sent him a telegram.
He had to push back his red-hot fury, “She’ll learn her place, once we’re married,” he mumbled to himself.
It was a conflicting dilemma for Keith. One of the things that had drawn him to Lyla was her strong will that no one had been able to dominate.
It was the allure of having something that no one else had been able to have before. Everyone in town admired her for her hard work and her ability to keep herself on her feet with an honest living.
Keith had wanted her from the moment he’d laid eyes on her at the hotel restaurant.
He’d always known he would need to marry one day. A man of his status and influence needed a wife.People didn’t respect a man who didn’t have a family.
But he had always known, as well, that he would never marry for love. He didn’t really believe he had ever loved anyone. At least, not in the same way that other people loved.
He saw people as things that you won to your side. If you treated them well enough, they would stick by you and give you the things that you desired. He had won something when he had persuaded Lyla to marry him. He knew she didn’t love him, but he didn’t expect her to.
What he did expect was for her to be the proper wife for him—and, of course, to fulfill her wifely duties. He knew the town would be watching them. They would be an example. She just needed someone who took charge and who gave her a firm hand.
Once they were married, he would educate her on what her place was. He couldn’t have her running off doing things he didn’t approve of. If people saw his wife like this, he would lose his respect from others—and his ability to control those around him.
Keith sighed. He hated that she had gone to get her nephew. Of course, it was a tragedy, but why did she have to insist on going? It wasn’t her problem. The child could go to an orphanage, for all he cared.
He had thought of outright demanding that she stay, but Keith knew how to read people
pretty well. There was only so far that Lyla would oblige him, and she had been set on going to get her nephew no matter what he said.
If only they had been married before this had happened! Then he would have been in a position to tell her “no”in no uncertain terms. He would have sent the child to the nearest orphanage and been done with it. What nonsense, for Lyla to go traipsing off alone to Kansas!
Keith stood and began pacing the room. Their wedding was drawing near and yet he had no fiancée by his side. People were beginning to notice. One of his investors had even asked him the other day if she was coming back. He had nearly snapped at the man for his impertinence, but bit back the angry retort that tried to come forth.
Why hadn’t she come back by now? Had something happened to her? She was supposed to have been back in six weeks, and now it had almost been seven.
A knock on the door made Keith swivel towards it. “Yes? Come in!” he barked. He hated being interrupted in his study. He had made it very clear to all of the staff that this was only to happen in the case of extreme importance.
“Sir, there’s a telegram for you.” Keith looked up to see the maid standing at the door, holding it in her hands.
“Who is it from?” Keith asked as he crossed the room. The maid cringed and held the paper out to him without meeting his eyes.
“I believe it is from Miss Lyla,” she said timidly. The maid gasped as Keith ripped the telegram from her hands.
Such a coincidence that he had been thinking about her at the moment of receiving this. So, she’d finally decided to send word. How thoughtful of her.
He ripped it open and read the lines, his heart dropping into his stomach with every word. His face burned with anger as he read the telegram.
Keith,
I’ve not been honest with you about my past. My nephew is actually my son, and I need to care for him. I have decided not to marry you. I will not be returning to Merrill. I apologize.
Lyla
Rage burned through Keith. He knew that a telegram was expensive to send, but how could she offer no more explanation than this? What did she mean, she’d decided not to marry him?
They’d had an agreement! She couldn’t just decide that she had changed her mind!
In anger, Keith threw a vase of flowers sitting nearby onto the floor. How dare she! Did she think she could just decide what she was going to do on a whim?
Keith would not be pushed around like this!
“Sir, what is it?” The maid was still standing at the door, wringing her hands in worry and watching Keith with a frightened expression.
“It’s nothing, just some personal business,” Keith managed to get out through clenched teeth. “Go do your work! It has nothing to do with you. GO!”The maid scurried away like a frightened mouse and he threw a book at the wall by the door as she went.
That ungrateful Layla! She was just a menial worker at the hotel, barely able to care for herself, and he had chosen her to be his wife, to be his.
She would have had the run of his estate. She would have had all the clothes and things that money could buy. All she had to do was submit to be his wife and obey his wishes.
Instead, she had chosen to go against him, and Keith could count on one hand the people that had gone against him and gotten away with it. Folks didn’t do that to him. They knew better.
Keith was pacing now, back and forth, his anger building within him with every step. What could he do? How could he stop this? How could he set things back to how they were supposed to be?
If Lyla thought he was going to read a telegram and forget about the whole thing, she was very wrong.
She obviously did not know him as well as she thought she did. He didn’t know what he was going to do yet, but he was going to do something, and Lyla was going to learn exactly what it meant to agree to be his wife. And she had agreed. They were engaged, and she already was his. She just needed to see it. He would prove it to her, one way or another.
---*---
Keith jerked awake. He must have dozed off a while back. He peered out of the stagecoach window, trying to see if he could make out where they were.
The landscape was unfamiliar to him. He didn’t recognize a thing. They must be far from Merrill for him not to recognize anything. HE had done extensive travelling with his parents as a child.
He could hear people talking, and assumed Jeremy [JG1]must have picked up a conversation with the driver.
He hadn’t wanted to risk coming alone, just in case he met any resistance along the way. So, he had hired both a personal stagecoach driver as well as Jeremy to accompany him.
Of course, they were both riding outside, Keith wasn’t one to take a long trip with someone staring at him and trying to make conversation all the way. Keith was a private man, and he didn’t hesitate to use his money to guarantee his own comfort.
He was doing something he should have done in the first place. He should have followed Lyla from the day she had left, just to make sure that nothing went awry on her trip. Now, he was almost two months behind her and had no idea what was really going on.
What had she meant about her nephew being her son? Could it really be true that she had not been kept as pure as she had made it seem she was? While it did change how he saw her, it didn’t impact how he felt. No matter what Lyla’s past was, her future belonged to him.
He would find out the truth. He would demand she tell him and then from there, the past would be just that: the past. Now, the nephew, or her son, whoever he was, wouldn’t be coming back with them. He couldn’t risk someone else finding out about this.
If anyone did, Keith’s reputation would be ruined. He knew what people would say. Out of all the women he could pick, he had picked a loose girl, someone who had already had a child out of wedlock.
Keith sighed. How had everything gotten so complicated? Why couldn’t he have just had the wedding he’d wanted, his wife and his business exactly how he’d planned. It felt as if forces around him were working to make him unsuccessful.
The stagecoach rolled to a stop and Keith knew that they were going to stop for the night again. He had gotten used to the routine they had followed for the last six days of their journey. The boredom of it all was a torture to him, but it was necessary. He wasn’t about to let a woman dictate his future.
He climbed out of the stagecoach and stretched himself out, then found a nice place to rest while Jeremy and his driver set up camp.
He wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to be able to put up with this.
Once the fire was started and dinner was ready, he reluctantly got up and joined the other two by the small blaze.
Jeremy handed him a plate of food. “Are you sure that you want to continue with his trip? It’s a long way to Kansas.”
“Are you doubting me, Jeremy? I know what I am doing,” Keith growled. He was in no mood to explain his motives to Jeremy or anyone else.
“I am not doubting you, I’m just asking you if it’s worth it? Any young woman in town would be overjoyed to have you pick them to be your wife. Why not pick someone who is more worthy of your affections?” Jeremy looked truly confused and, for a moment, Keith felt pity for him.
Men like Jeremy weren’t the kind to scheme and demand and twist things to their advantage. That was why they would never be on top.
A Treasure Brought by Fate: A Historical Western Romance Book Page 18
