Cowboy Lawman's Christmas Reunion

by Louise M. Gouge

“Relax. Let me show these to our town lawyer. He can help us build a case.”

  Giles hesitated, then nodded. “Very well.” He stood and extended his hand, but worry still clouded his eyes. “Thank you, Sheriff.”

  “Giles.” Justice rose and accepted his handshake.

  “By the way, I never did get your name.” He chuckled. “Other than Sheriff.”

  Justice held on to a laugh. “Gareau. Justice Gareau.” He infused his last name with his thickest Cajun inflection.

  Giles’s jaw dropped, and he stared at him for a full five seconds. “You’re from Louisiana?”

  “Yep.” He anticipated the other man’s next question, which might cause problems, so he hurried on to say, “Left over eleven years ago. You know any Gareaus?”

  “Well—”

  “Yes, you’re right. It’s a common name. I’ve met a number of folks named Giles, too.” He walked to the door and opened it. “I’ll investigate this situation and get back to you. In the meantime, remember what we agreed. Don’t confront Mrs. Benoit with your—for lack of a better word—demands.”

  “Yes. Yes, of course.” Giles exited the office. He glanced east toward the library, but then turned west toward the hotel. He’d apparently taken the advice not to confront Evangeline.

  As much as Justice doubted all of the man’s accusations were true, he still could see Evangeline spending herself into debt. Even so, to his own hurt, he longed to protect her. Yet too many questions remained for him to take one side or the other. Her accuser might be a slick dandy, but that didn’t discount the evidence.

  He slumped back in the desk chair and put his head in his hands. If she did owe the money, should he send her back to her creditors? Didn’t she still have the money from the sale of the house and its contents? If not, should he pay off her debts? He could see she was trying to make a good life for her children, but that didn’t erase the past. Had she been part of her father’s crooked dealings in the business their fathers shared? That would account for her character flaw of fleeing her debts. Before his father died, he tried to tell Justice something about her, but could not finish before he expired.

  Justice examined the documents again. Along with other clothes, the dressmaker listed a red velvet evening gown and a red satin cape to go with it, but no widow’s weeds. He couldn’t imagine Evangeline in red. And who had sewed the two black bombazine dresses she wore? The milliner claimed a fee for hats with ostrich feathers and delicate evening slippers, but not the practical high-top leather shoes she wore every day. The stylish brown traveling suit and matching hat she’d worn upon arrival in Esperanza weren’t listed. Nor did any of the bills mention the expensive gardenia perfume she wore. Perhaps she’d managed to pay for some of the items outright.

  “Lord, please help me to figure this out because I surely cannot do it by myself.” Nor could he dismiss the longing in his heart to fix everything for her.

  * * *

  After the ladies left the library, Evangeline reshelved the books they’d perused but didn’t check out. Then she ate her sandwich. Now she had nothing to do but think, and all of her thoughts depressed her. If winter weren’t almost upon them, if she had money for travel and a place to go, she would once again take her children and run. She tried to pray, but guilt held her captive. Finally, she managed to lift a petition for God’s mercy...and Justice’s, not for herself but for her children. A gentle peace stole into her heart, along with the odd feeling that Justice could be trusted despite the way he’d abandoned her all those years ago. But feelings had failed her before, so she wouldn’t depend on them now.

  The afternoon wore on, and a light snow began to fall. The fluffy flakes piled up and covered the streets, hiding the partially frozen wagon wheel ruts. Evangeline wished the ruts in her life could be so easily covered.

  Around three thirty, small groups of children began to walk past the library on their way home from school. She watched for her own and Susanna’s to join her, as they did every afternoon. Finally, Lizzie and Natty arrived a half hour late, but Isabelle and Gerard were not with them.

  “I don’t know where they are, Cousin Evie.” Lizzie had adopted her mother’s nickname for Evangeline. “A man was waiting for them after school, and Gerry knew him, so they went with him. We waited for them to come back, but Natty was getting cold, so we came here.”

  Terror struck her. Had Hugo kidnapped her babies, as he’d threatened to do before she fled with them from New Orleans? She grabbed her coat and put it on as she walked toward the door. Whatever the cost, she must go to Justice and beg his help to rescue them.

  She hadn’t yet put on her hat when they burst through the front door—with Hugo right behind them, a malicious smirk on his face.

  “Mother,” cried Gerard. “Look who’s here. Cousin Hugo.” He rushed across the room and flung himself into her arms. “Did you know he was coming to visit us?”

  Evangeline hadn’t seen her son this happy since before Lucius died. She hugged him tightly with one arm and held out the other to welcome Isabelle, who didn’t look happy at all. In fact, her daughter buried her face in Evangeline’s side.

  “Good afternoon, Evangeline.” Hugo removed his overcoat and laid it across the back of a chair. “I hope you’re having a good day.”

  Her heart racing with relief and fear, she eyed him. His expression transformed into that of an indulgent older relative. She would not speak to him unless forced to.

  “Come, my darlings.” She ushered the children to a table, removed their coats and her own, and brought out the cookies and milk Susanna had sent, as she did each day. Lizzie and Natty welcomed the treat, but Hugo and her own children refused it.

  “No, thank you, my dear.” Hugo’s smirk returned. “I’ve recently enjoyed a small repast.”

  “Cousin Hugo took us to the hotel for hot chocolate,” Gerard announced with an air of importance. Then he relented. “Well, I will take a cookie.”

  Isabelle didn’t speak, but stuck close to Evangeline while the others ate. She couldn’t help but think that Hugo had done something to frighten her.

  “Gerry,” Lizzie called, her blue eyes twinkling, “tell your mother about our tryouts for the Christmas pageant.”

  He shrugged. “Who cares about that stupid play.”

  “It’s not a stupid play.” Lizzie scowled at him briefly, then gave Evangeline one of her sweet smiles. “We have the play every year, but it’s always fun to do it again. Aunt Marybeth and Mrs. Means are our directors. We’re having tryouts after school tomorrow.”

  At last Isabelle relaxed and smiled up at Evangeline. “I want to be in the play.”

  “Yes, you should be.” Hugo winked across the table at her. “You’ll be the most beautiful girl on the stage. I have no doubt you could be a great actress.”

  A sick feeling arose inside Evangeline as her daughter leaned against her again. But she still must not say anything to upset the children.

  “We’ll talk about it this evening,” she told them.

  Hugo stood and made a pretense of searching for a book, clicking his tongue and shaking his head from time to time. “Such a paltry offering. Too bad my cousin’s library—”

  “You must excuse us, Hugo.” Evangeline rose and started cleaning up the refreshments. “Children, put on your coats. It’s time to go home.” She’d noticed Adam approaching with her buggy.

  “Good afternoon, Mrs. Benoit.” Adam took off his hat as he entered the library. “Your buggy’s ready. I thought with the snow you might want an early start going home.” As he spoke, he looked at Hugo with polite curiosity.

  Evangeline had no choice but to introduce them. “Adam, this is Mr. Giles.” She refused to credit him as a relation. Nor would she present Adam to Hugo, as manners dictated when introducing a younger person to an older one, however small the gap in their ages
.

  “How do you do, sir?” Adam reached out to him.

  Hugo sniffed and looked down his nose at Adam’s hand. “Really, Evangeline, have you come to this? Presenting the help to their betters?”

  Evangeline moved between the two young men. “Adam, here are some of Susanna’s delicious cookies. Please take them to your sisters and brother.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.” Adam, always humble, hadn’t reacted to Hugo’s inexcusable rudeness.

  She, however, couldn’t let the matter rest. Her back still to Hugo, she continued to address Adam. “I understand the tryouts for the Christmas pageant will take place tomorrow after school. I will be happy to see Molly and Jack get home safely afterward.” She’d met Adam’s well-behaved younger siblings at church.

  He smiled. “Thank you, ma’am. That’s mighty kind of you. I’ll see what Ma says.” He waved to the children and made his exit.

  Evangeline held the door and stared at Hugo. “You may leave now.”

  He chuckled in his evil way. “As you wish. But I look forward to seeing you again soon. Very soon.”

  Her stomach twisted in knots at the warning, but she tried her best to keep her distress from the children. She must have succeeded, because on the way home, the little ones chattered and sang, as always. Even Isabelle perked up and joined the conversation. At supper, Gerard was still in good spirits, eager to tell Susanna and Nate about his “very important” cousin, who’d come to town solely to visit Evangeline, Isabelle and him.

  “Cousin?” Susanna questioned her with raised eyebrows. “Have you mentioned him before?”

  Before answering, Evangeline glanced at Nate, who watched with a shuttered expression. “No, I haven’t. It never occurred to me to talk about my late husband’s cousin. We weren’t close, and I certainly didn’t expect him to follow me here.” Not quite a lie. She’d prayed Hugo wouldn’t find her. Maybe Susanna’s disagreeable brother had told him where to search.

  “What do you suppose he wants?” Nate’s tone was light, but his eyes asked more than his words.

  Evangeline offered a smile and a ladylike shrug. “I can’t imagine. He has yet to tell me.”

  Susanna gave her husband a meaningful look. He returned a nod.

  “Well, of course we must have him out to supper.” Susanna busied herself serving Gerard more mashed potatoes and gravy. “Why not bring him out tomorrow after the tryouts?”

  Isabelle stopped eating and leaned close to Evangeline. If she had a lick of sense, she would tell Susanna and Nate everything this very evening. Instead, after Susanna put her little ones to bed, Evangeline lingered at each of her own children’s bedsides to learn all she could about their time with Hugo.

  “Mommy, I don’t like him.” Isabelle whispered so Lizzie couldn’t hear her, but her cousin had already fallen asleep.

  “Why not, my darling?” Evangeline brushed her daughter’s hair back from her sweet, innocent face.

  “He looks at me funny.” She studied Evangeline’s face to see her reaction. “I don’t like it.”

  “I see.” She kept a mild expression in place.

  “You told me to be polite to grown-ups.” Tears appeared in Isabelle’s eyes and glistened in the lamplight. “But I don’t want to be polite to him.”

  Evangeline swallowed hard, trying to keep her supper down. “You don’t have to be polite to anyone who makes you uncomfortable. Stay away from Hugo. If I’m not around, go to an adult you trust and ask him or her to bring you to me.”

  “I will.” Isabelle smiled, satisfied with the answer.

  Evangeline kissed her good-night and proceeded to the room Gerard shared with his boy cousins. Gerard was wide-awake and eager to talk.

  “Mother, I like Cousin Hugo. He’s real smart, and he talked to me about Father. Even though they were cousins, they were like father and son, he said. He said Father was a good man.” He paused and gave her an accusing look. “He said the reason Father didn’t spend more time with us was because you didn’t want him to. Is that true?”

  Tears burned her eyes, and she brushed a hand down Gerard’s tortured face. He wasn’t old enough to learn the truth about his father’s evil activities.

  “My darling, your father was a businessman with many responsibilities. He needed to spend a great deal of time away from home.” She scrambled to think of a way to diminish Hugo’s false accusation. “Your Cousin Hugo is an unmarried man without children—” at least none that she knew of “—so he doesn’t understand family life.”

  Her response seemed to satisfy Gerard, for he nodded against his pillow. “I can’t wait to see him after school tomorrow.”

  “You have tryouts for the play tomorrow.” She would make him go, no matter how much he resisted.

  “Ugh.” He scowled at her and rolled on his side, pulling the covers over his head. “At least he’s coming to supper tomorrow night,” he muttered through the woolen blanket.

  If the situation weren’t so distressing, she would laugh at his boyish antics. Instead, she kissed him where his cheek should be under the blanket and left the room.

  Although tempted to retire for the night, she walked down the short hallway to the parlor. With every step, she prayed for courage to tell her cousins why Hugo had come after her. To her relief, Nate wasn’t there, but Susanna sat in her usual rocking chair, a basket of mending in her lap. She looked up and smiled at Evangeline.

  “Nate’s out at the barn seeing about a mare who’s about to drop her foal.”

  “How wonderful. Another foal for Gerard to enjoy.” She longed for the day when her son could have his own horse again.

  “I know he was disappointed over not getting to see the colt at Rand and Marybeth’s anymore.” Susanna kept her eyes on the sock she was darning.

  “Jealous, you mean.” It wouldn’t help to deny the truth about her son’s volatile emotions. “I’m still mortified over the way he treated little Randy.”

  “Water under the bridge.” Susanna removed the glass darning egg from the sock and picked up another one. “Speaking of Marybeth, she asked me to ask you to attend the rehearsals. That is, if Gerard is going to be in the play.”

  Evangeline sighed. “I don’t blame her. Yes, I can close the library early or ask Georgia to come in for two hours each day until Christmas Eve.”

  The matter settled, she excused herself and went to bed. Upset about having to watch over her son’s behavior, she no longer had the emotional strength to wait for Nate and begin a long, complicated discussion about her tragic life in New Orleans. All of that would come out soon enough.

  Chapter Ten

  After a night of agonizing prayer, Justice started his day at Tolley Northam’s law office, next door to the jailhouse. The young lawyer studied the promissory note, the power of attorney and the merchant invoices.

  “This is quite a stack of debts.” Tolley shook his head. “I can’t see Mrs. Benoit being so dishonest as to refuse to pay them. She appears to be a sincere Christian lady.”

  “That’s the problem. She appears to be.” Justice heard the sorrow in his own voice.

  Tolley stared at him. “You sound personally disappointed. Were you and the lady more than acquaintances in New Orleans?”

  The question startled him. During these two months Evangeline had been in Esperanza, no one asked it, despite their obviously common background. Glad to speak of it at last, he unfolded to Tolley the story of their youthful romance, including the promises to wait for each other while he traveled to Europe on his Grand Tour for close to nineteen months.

  “Then I came home to find out she was about to marry Lucius Benoit, one of my father’s partners and a crook if I ever met one. She refused to see me.” He released a long sigh. “My father died the next day, the same day she married and...my nineteenth birthday.”
r />   “Ouch.” Tolley grimaced in sympathy.

  “I should have known something was wrong when she didn’t answer my letters.”

  “I don’t blame you for being disappointed, though sometimes letters do go astray, especially overseas.” Tolley glanced at the documents again. “Here’s what we’ll do. Let me check into Louisiana laws regarding debts. Of course she’ll have to pay the merchants.”

  “How about the note with Giles’s bank? If memory serves, I think a widow can be held responsible for her husband’s debts under Louisiana Civil Law, even if she didn’t sign the note, but what about Colorado law?”

  “Sounds like you want to protect her.” Tolley gave him a questioning grin Justice chose to ignore. “You know, of course, most states agree to return felons to the state where the crime took place, even if their laws differ.”

  “Yes, I know.” Justice shrugged helplessly. “I’ve never in my life as a lawman been in more of a quandary. I’m still not sure about the matter of the children. It’s obvious Evangeline tries to be a good mother, so I’m suspicious of Giles in regard to wanting the guardianship.”

  “Let me check into Colorado law regarding custody of children whose father has died. In some states, a judge must grant a widow the right to rear her own children. Of course, if the mother is competent and can support them, as Evangeline seems able to do, I can’t see any reasonable judge taking them from her.”

  “I can’t figure out why her husband wanted Giles to rear the children.”

  Tolley gave him a long look. “Maybe he didn’t.”

  “Ah.” The question appeared as a lifeline, and Justice grabbed it. “So we should find out why a young, unmarried and probably busy banker wants to adopt two children who could end up penniless.”

  “Maybe they’re not penniless. We need to discover whether or not Evangeline has the money from the sale of Lucius’s property.” Tolley took a lined tablet from his desk. “You know the quickest way to find out is for you to spend more time with her.”

  “I suppose.” Justice wouldn’t tell him about the secret Christmas village, but he must find a way to work alongside Evangeline on the project again. Then he’d casually ask questions about her marriage, even though the idea of revisiting the painful past turned his stomach.