Love Finds You in Deadwood, South Dakota

by Tracey Cross

  “Now see whut you done,” Mam admonished him. “You gone and made Miz Jane sad. Don’t she got enough sorrow these days?”

  “Aw, Mama.”

  “No, please. Don’t think any more about it. I’m terribly nosy.”

  Mam fingered the folds of silk. “Sure is beautiful, ain’t it?”

  “Yes.” Jane gave a bittersweet smile. “The sort of gown every bride dreams of wearing. Silk and lace.”

  “Beautiful gown that brings only a life of misery.”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Once upon a time, Mistah Bedlow wanted another gal. Almost as much as he wants you, Miz Jane.”

  “Oh? What happened to her?”

  “She dead.”

  The sadness in her eyes nearly broke Jane’s heart. She reached out her fingers and pressed the dear lady’s hand. Mam clutched her hand tightly. “My Tish. He loved her.”

  “That’s enough, Mam.” Trent strode with purpose into the room. He glanced at the table. “How’s the dress coming along?”

  “It’s coming along beautifully.” Jane captured his gaze. “Have you heard anything about Danny?” She had to keep up the ruse. If he even suspected that she knew anything, or that his beloved Mam would be anything but completely loyal to him, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them both.

  The muscle along his jaw clenched. A telltale sign he knew something.

  “Trent? Is everything okay? Danny isn’t hurt?”

  His eyes searched hers, then traveled to her lips, her neck. Jane covered herself more fully with the shawl. Even knowing he couldn’t see any part of her covered skin, she still felt exposed.

  He gave a short laugh. “I haven’t heard anything about Danny. But I am confident he will be here for the wedding.”

  Mam’s head jerked up. Trent gave a little frown, and she averted her eyes quickly.

  Jane felt a rush of fear. She had to say something. “I pray he is able to attend.”

  “That’s quite a different attitude.”

  Jane nodded to the folds of silk. “There’s something about sewing a wedding gown that gives a woman romantic notions.”

  He bent and pressed a hard kiss to her lips, stinging the cut from yesterday’s brutality. “Just see that those romantic notions are turned toward me and none other.”

  Jane gave him an innocent smile. “Who else?”

  “Who else indeed?”

  Her face warmed under his scrutiny. He two-fingered her chin. “You won’t remember him for long.”

  “If you mean Mr. Lloyd,” Jane said lightly, “he’s long since left my mind. If he loved me, he would have taken me from your clutches long ago.”

  Despite the implication that she needed rescuing from him, Trent laughed. The sound of his own levity left an unsettled feeling in Jane throughout the rest of the day.

  By dinnertime the gown, from neck to waist, was complete. She gathered up her work, walked into her bedroom, and put things away. Then she made her way the few steps to the nursery, where Mam sat rocking and singing.

  “When you gwine give this little lamb a name, Miss Jane?”

  “I’ll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell.”

  The old woman’s eyes crackled with conspiracy. “Not a soul. The Lawd is my witness.”

  Jane leaned in close, so not a soul could hear as she breathed her son’s name for the first time. “Franklin John.”

  Mam’s eyes grew instantly bright. “I’m honored to know you, little Mastah Franklin.”

  Jane knelt on the floor at Mam’s feet as she rocked the sleepy baby. “Mam, you have no master but God. I want you to remember that. I trust that God can pull me out of this lion’s mouth if He chooses, but even if His purposes are better served for me to marry Trent and live here the rest of my days, my children are not to be called Master. How can I teach them that all men are created equal like the Bible says, if you, a free woman, call them master?”

  “I’s been a slave all my life, Miz Jane. Before the war, a slave be beat for not addressin’ a white person proper. Even little bitty ones like Little Mas—Franklin, here. But I am gwine help you raise them childrens right.”

  “Thank you.” Jane reached out and touched the wrinkled arm, giving it a tender caress.

  “But if I forgets ever once in a while, you won’t be cross with ol’ Mam, wills you?”

  “Oh, Mam. I don’t think that would be possible.”

  “Will you finish telling me what you were telling me earlier? About why you and George stay with Trent? About your daughter, Tish?”

  She nodded, and instant pain formed in her dark eyes. “Tish was just a little bitty thing, about Miss Jenny’s age, when Mistah Trent went away to the war. He never give her a thought. Him and George. They went off together. One night while they be in a battle, a big, white Yankee soldier come screamin’ toward my George with his bay-o-net. George didn’t have time to raise his own gun. But Mistah Trent sees it. He out of bullets in his gun, but he don’t care. He run right at that Yankee, knocks the bay-o-net from his hands with the empty gun. Then he beat that Yankee dead.”

  “So George feels a debt of gratitude.”

  “Yes, Miz Jane. A man feel beholden to the man whut saved his life.” She shrugged. “It just be the way of things.”

  Jane nodded. “I suppose you’re right. But if Big George has his own life to pursue—a woman he loves, for instance—why shouldn’t he go and make a life for himself? Raise a family? He’s such a good man.”

  Pride spread wide over her dark face. The kind of motherpride that shines and refuses to be hidden. “He is, ain’t he?”

  Jane nodded. “Tell me about Tish. You said Trent loved her?”

  Such sorrow returned to the old eyes that Jane almost wished she hadn’t brought it up.

  “My baby girl. She like that white silk.”

  Jane gave her a gentle smile. “Pure and good?”

  Mam’s head shook from side to side, and for a second Jane wondered if the old woman had misunderstood her words. “My baby only look good on the outside. But inside, the devil make her black. She sashayed herself around Mistah Trent until she like to drove him mad. She lay with him in sin and bore his child, but she never give him the time of day after that. He about went mad with longing for her. She run off with a white cavalry officer.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Jane noted that the woman had begun to tremble. “Here, Mam, let me take the baby.”

  Mam nodded and handed Baby Franklin over to Jane. Jane sat back on the floor. “Tish ran away with an officer? Did you ever find her?”

  “Mistah Trent did.”

  A twister of emotion hit Jane full in the stomach. If Trent went after her…

  “He took George with him, and when they find her, she…”

  “What, Mam?”

  “She sellin’ herself like them girls in the saloon.”

  “What happened to her soldier?”

  “He done left her.”

  “Mam, she must have been desperate to go to a saloon for work. I know these girls—Trent’s girls—many of them have no choice.”

  She shook her head. “Tish could have come home. Mistah Trent and my George begged her. But the devil had hold of her soul. She like whut she doin’. So Mistah Trent sat down with the owner of that saloon and won her back in a hand of poker. Then she be workin’ for him. And he make her stop. Locked her up and kept her for himself.” She shook her head and pressed her fists to her chest. “My Tish couldn’t stand to be locked away. One night she hanged herself in his saloon.”

  “Oh, Mam, I’m so sorry.” Jane shuddered at the similarity—Trent’s so-called love for her, his determination to keep her locked away until they married.

  “You don’t need to be sorry, honey. You need to be careful.”

  “You said Tish bore him a child.”

  The old woman rocked and nodded, tears flowing down her cheeks. “Mistah Trent loved that boy. He rocked him and didn’t care a bit that he wasn’t white.
The boy was about eight years old when we started hearin’ ’bout gold in the Black Hills. Trent didn’t care nothin’ about gold. He said whiskey and women were gonna make him richer than any gold strike could.”

  “He was right for the most part, wasn’t he?” Jane had never doubted Trent’s shrewdness and intelligence. “But at what cost to his heart and soul?”

  Mam nodded. “A dear cost. To all of us.”

  “I take it the little boy’s name was Solomon?”

  “Yes.”

  “What happened to him?” The baby was starting to wake up and fuss. Jane unbuttoned her dress and offered her breast. The baby latched on, drinking and cooing. Jane couldn’t imagine losing either of her children. But something had happened to Trent’s boy.

  Trent stood in the doorway, his legs and arms crossed. “I’ll tell you the rest, since Mam has already revealed so much.”

  “I’s sorry, Mistah Trent.”

  “Oh, Mam, don’t be.” He sat on the wing chair against the wall and looked at Jane. “It had turned extremely hot. For days the temperature was sweltering, and I promised Solomon we’d go swimming. I didn’t let him go alone because, at that time, Deadwood was a filthy mining camp with the worst of people.”

  She didn’t say what she wanted to say, but Trent smiled. He must have read her face. “These days Deadwood is a fine city compared to just five years ago.”

  Jane nodded. “I’ll have to take your word for that.”

  His gaze slipped over the baby’s head. Jane’s face warmed, and she grabbed the shawl from the arm of the rocking chair.

  A short laugh escaped him as she covered herself. “Why bother?”

  “You are not my husband yet, sir.” And pray God he never became her husband. “Solomon wanted to go swimming?”

  His eyes took on a far-off expression. “I promised and broke the promise—and promised again the next day and broke it.”

  Jane began to understand even before Trent said the inevitable.

  “So he decided to go alone. The current was swift, and he wasn’t a strong swimmer.”

  “He drowned?”

  Trent nodded, his Adam’s apple moving up and down as he attempted to swallow down the tears. “And now you see why I can’t allow anyone to take Danny from me. For all intents and purposes, he’s become my son. I love him.” He stared hard at her. “I will find him, you and I will be married, and the four of us will be a family.”

  Jane nodded.

  Unless God worked a miracle, she was about to walk into the lion’s den.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Franklin made a stealthy trek out the back door and to the side of the steps.

  “Mistah Franklin,” Mam called to him with a hissing noise, “I’s over here.”

  He met her next to the back of the house. “I can’t thank you enough for getting Danny and Jenny to me.” He wanted to reach out and hug the old treasure but refrained for fear of embarrassing her.

  “They doin’ good?”

  He nodded. “Danny misses Jane, but he understands we’re doing all we can to get her out of there.”

  “Mistah Franklin, you gots to get her outta there quick.”

  “Is she okay?” Franklin stared down into the old lady’s eyes. “She isn’t hurt, is she?”

  “Nawsir, but she done got her weddin’ dress finished, and Mistah Trent say tomorrow they’s gettin’ married. He planned a whole big party.” She grabbed onto his arm. “But Miz Jane made up her mind. She be leavin’ tonight.”

  Franklin’s heart nearly exploded with joy. “What can I do?”

  “Meet us in the woods two miles from Mistah Trent’s barn.” She pressed her fingers to her temple as though trying to remember where. “Down by the creek. Three o’clock in the mawnin’.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  He watched her slip away and went back into the house to talk to Coop about the new development.

  “I’ll get some of the men ready,” Coop said.

  Franklin shook his head. “We can’t do that. We have to be as still as possible. I’m going alone.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “I have to. Bedlow’s men patrol those woods.”

  “All the more reason for backup,” Coop said, stubbornly holding his ground.

  “I am not taking any chances with Jane’s life.” Franklin put his hand on Coop’s shoulder. “You know what it is to love a woman. Well, I know what it is to love one and lose her, then finally fall in love again, only to lose her. This is my opportunity to get her back. If you go in there with me for my protection, you’ll jeopardize hers.”

  Coop was quiet for a minute. “Okay. But if you’re not back here by four, I’m coming after you.”

  Franklin grinned. “Deal.”

  Jane’s heart nearly burst from its chest as she walked the footpath between the main house and Mam’s cottage. The day had dragged on, and the evening had slowed to one hour for each minute. She had forced herself to remain up, working on her veil in the sitting room, where Trent had been going over figures in his books all evening. Finally a little past time when she normally retired, she faked a yawn and said good night.

  She hadn’t slept a wink but watched the clock as the minutes ticked away so slowly. Finally the time had come. She gathered up the baby, hiding extra diapers but nothing else, inside his blanket. She could replace his clothing and blankets after she got away from Trent.

  The aroma of bread filled her senses before she’d gotten halfway to the cottage.

  “Where are you going, ma’am?”

  Jane’s stomach curled as Shewmate unfolded from the shadows and towered above her.

  “Not that it’s any of your business,” Jane retorted, “but the baby is suffering from colic. I’m going down to Mam for a remedy.”

  “I’ll come with you.” He grabbed her arm, too tightly, and moved in close.

  “Turn loose of me. How dare you?”

  “Come on, Jane. Be nice to me, and I’ll help you get away from Bedlow.”

  She gasped, her legs trembling. How much did he know? Had he heard her talking to Mam yesterday? Had he seen Mam return from Franklin’s?

  “Perhaps I don’t want to get away from him,” she said.

  He gave a short laugh. “Do you think I’m a fool? You’re desperate to get to Frank. You hate Bedlow as much as the rest of us.”

  Raising herself to full height, Jane lifted her chin. “You’re wrong. I care for him very much.” She choked out the words. “He’s been good to my son, and we are going to be a family.”

  Shewmate snickered. “Don’t be stupid. You’ll be dead in five years if you marry him.”

  “I think you best let me go before I scream.”

  A branch cracked behind them, and Craig turned as Trent came into view. “No screaming is necessary, darling. I’m here.”

  Relief combined with dread washed over her. She knew that expression in Trent’s eyes and didn’t want to be the cause of Craig’s death. The baby began to cry. “I was going to Mam’s for something to help the baby’s colic. Craig kindly offered to escort me.”

  “Don’t waste your breath, Jane. I heard the entire conversation.”

  “Trent, you know what to expect hiring thugs and outlaws. They have no loyalty. Don’t kill him, please. Not over me. He is just being who he is.”

  Trent frowned. “You expect me to let him go after the things he said to you? After he put his hands on you?”

  Jane nodded. “Please. I don’t want to start our marriage off this way.”

  His face softened as he stared at her. He turned back to Craig. “Get out of here, and thank your lucky stars that my bride is not only beautiful but an angel as well.”

  Craig hurried away toward the bunkhouse, presumably for his things.

  Jane smiled at Trent as he stepped toward her. “Thank you.”

  “Did you mean those things you said?”

  “I do care for you, Trent.”

  “I suppose that
’s a start.” He slid his arm around her. “What are you naming that boy?”

  “I’ll tell you tomorrow. On our wedding day.”

  “You mean today. It’s already morning.”

  “And I haven’t slept a wink.”

  “Here, I’ll take the baby to Mam for the remedy. And you go rest.” He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips as he took the baby.

  Panic welled up. “Oh, Trent, you don’t have to do this.”

  “My bride needs her beauty rest.”

  She had no choice but to surrender the baby and allow Trent to take him.

  “Don’t worry about him. When he gets hungry, I’ll bring him to you. Otherwise, we’ll take care of him all day while you sleep and then get ready.”

  Surrender was the only choice she had. Bitter disappointment threatened to choke her. There would be myriad people at the house tomorrow between the gawdy women and pretentious men out to celebrate the wedding of one of Deadwood’s most prestigious men. Trent had planned the ceremony for afternoon, then an enormous dinner followed by dancing. Now it appeared she would have no choice.

  A branch cracked, and Franklin turned just in time to see the butt of a rifle coming at him. Pain exploded in his head, and the ground rose to meet him as he fell from Tryst….

  Franklin awoke as water splashed across his face. He gasped loudly, trying to catch his breath.

  “Oh, good. You’re awake.”

  Opening his eyes, he found himself staring into the dark, flashing eyes of Trent Bedlow. He tried to move, but he was tied to a chair, his arms behind him. Even his feet were bound. Craig stood to the side, his arms folded across his chest. George looked on as well. But in the big man’s eyes, Franklin could see regret.

  Between the two men, standing directly in front of Franklin, Trent looked down, his face twisted with anger. “What were you doing in the woods?”

  “Hunting.”

  Pain thundered across Franklin’s face as Bedlow’s fist crashed into his cheekbone. “What were you doing in the woods?”

  Catching his breath, Franklin repeated his answer and the same response from Trent followed. “You’re a fool, Frank. I’ll never let her go—even if she came to you, even if she loves you and not me. Even if she fights me every night for the rest of our lives, I will not give Jane up.”