She cowered in her grandmother’s arms. “In the g-gorge.”
“Doing what?”
“Riding.”
“How? You left the gelding tied to a tree. You’ve been gone for hours!”
“I n-needed to talk to grandma.”
“Why didn’t you bring the gelding with you?”
“I don’t know.” Rebecca buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
Radford scraped his hair back with both hands and looked at their mother. “What is going on here?”
“Your daughter is suffering her first broken heart, Radford. And you’re not helping.”
“A broken heart from what?” he demanded.
Rebecca didn’t answer.
Duke still didn’t know where Adam was, and it worried him. The boy had been gone all day. He was half-dressed, and probably starving by now. “Rebecca, have you seen Adam?”
She nodded and cast a worried look at her father.
Radford gaped at her. “Were you with him today?”
“Y-yes.”
Radford rose to his feet, fire burning in his eyes. “If that boy did anything to my daughter, I’ll wring his neck.”
“That boy is practically my son, Radford. You’re the one who’s hurting Rebecca, not Adam.”
Radford grabbed the front of Duke’s jacket and jerked him toward Rebecca. “Look at her. I didn’t cause those tears. Now you keep Adam away from her!”
Furious at being manhandled, Duke shoved Radford back a step, but Radford didn’t let go. “Your daughter is growing up, and you’d better accept it.”
“This has nothing to do with her growing up. It’s her sneaking around with Adam I can’t accept. And I’m telling you for the last time, I won’t stand for it.”
Duke clamped his hands over Radford’s fists. “Well, I won’t stand for your unwarranted accusations. Adam has suffered enough unjust treatment, and I won’t stand aside and let anyone, be it some insane judge or my own brother, do any more harm to that boy. Now take your hands off me.”
“Stop this!” Their mother shot to her feet. “Both of you!”
Duke faced Radford glare for glare. “I’m sick of you pointing the finger at Adam every time you lose track of your daughter.”
Radford’s eyes flashed. “Until Adam came around, Rebecca didn’t run off. She was hurt once because I wasn’t vigilant enough. If that makes me overprotective, too bad. She’s my first concern. And if your son hurts her again, I’ll go through you and anybody else to put a stop to it.”
“Radford!” Nancy Grayson clutched his arm and gave it a hard shake. “What has gotten into you?”
“I’ve had enough,” he said, and Duke knew he meant it.
But Duke had reached his own limit. Adam would never hurt Rebecca, and the boy shouldn’t get blamed because Rebecca was showing some backbone. He wrenched Radford’s hands off his jacket then knelt in front of the girl. “I’m sorry about what just happened here,” he said, wishing he would have controlled his temper for her sake. “Where did you see Adam?”
“By your b-boat,” she said, her face awash in tears.
“Thanks, Sprite.” He hugged her then stood and faced his brother. “What are you going to do when some father tells you that your son isn’t good enough for his daughter?”
The sound of Adam crying pierced Duke’s heart. He lifted the branches out of his way and ducked into the small clearing.
Pine needles stuck out of Adam’s hair and his head was bleeding. Duke knelt beside the boy.
“What happened here?”
“I hit my head on the boat when Nicholas shoved me.”
“Nicholas Archer?” Duke saw scuffle marks in the pine needles. “What was he doing here?”
Adam held up a jewelry box. “This was in the boat. I think he wanted it, but when he saw me, he shoved me hard and ran off.” Adam’s eyes filled with tears and he hung his head. “I tried to stop him, but I blacked out a little when my head hit the boat.”
“It’s okay, Adam. I’ll go see Nicholas about this.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to stop the judge from taking Cora,” he said.
“It wasn’t your job to stop him. He’s a grown man, Adam, and more than twice your size.”
“I’ll learn how to fight better. I promise. Just p-please don’t make me go with that lawyer.” He knuckled his tears away. “I’m pretty sure I could make a good son if you could teach me to fight and stuff.”
Duke had held back tears under some of the most difficult times of his life, but seeing a young boy begging to be loved shredded his composure. Choked by emotion, he pulled the skinny, shivering youth into his arms.
“I’m the one who needs to apologize,” he said, forcing the words from his tight throat. “I’ve pushed too hard and expected too much. You’re a good boy, Adam. The only one here who needs to prove himself is me.”
After Adam changed and ate two bowls of soup, he went with Duke, Judge Barker, and Sheriff Phelps to Wayne Archer’s house. Even with so many men on his side, Adam felt nervous.
Wayne Archer denied any knowledge of the stolen ring. But Nicholas Archer shocked everyone by saying his sister Melissa was behind the theft.
His father gaped at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Melissa’s been following Adam and Rebecca around since he moved to town.”
Adam knew that and hated it, but he’d figured it was a dumb girl thing to spy on people.
“That has nothing to do with stealing a diamond ring,” his dad said. “Nor does it explain why you’re getting blamed for hitting this young man.”
Nicholas winced and looked at Adam. “I’m sorry about that. I just wanted to get the ring back and return it so nobody got in trouble. I didn’t know you’d get hurt when I shoved you.”
Duke looked like he wanted to question Nicholas, but he let Sheriff Phelps do it.
“How did you know the ring was there if you didn’t take it?” Sheriff Phelps asked.
“I read Melissa’s diary.” He glanced at his father. “The way she followed Adam around made me wonder what she was up to. I thought maybe... I was just trying to look out for her. I didn’t know she was being an idiot until I read her diary. She took the parasol from the apothecary and left it at Rebecca’s house, hoping Rebecca would get blamed for stealing it. She was jealous that Adam liked Rebecca.”
All the men looked at Adam, making his face burn. Girls were so stupid.
“Did she take the fishing rod?” Duke asked, apparently wanting to clear up the whole mess.
Nicholas nodded. “When she found out Adam got blamed for taking the parasol, she took Dad’s fishing rod and hid it in your boat. She knew where you kept it because she’d been following Adam around.”
“How long have you known about this?” Sheriff Phelps asked.
“Since right after she took the parasol. But my dad was trying to get elected sheriff, and I knew it would be bad for him if anyone found out. I didn’t know Melissa would do something stupid like steal an expensive ring from the jeweler. I thought if I got it back and returned it to the store owner, he might not say anything to anyone.”
Mr. Archer sank down onto the parlor sofa as if the air leaked out of him. “All this time I’ve been pointing a righteous finger at others, and my own children have been at the root of the trouble.”
Adam almost felt sorry for Archer. The man looked gray and stunned, like someone had knocked him on the head with a rock.
Sheriff Phelps hooked his thumb in his gun belt like Duke used to do. “Where’s your daughter, Mr. Archer?”
Archer shook his head, but it was hard to tell if he was saying he didn’t know, or if he was just shaking his head because he couldn’t believe what was happening.
“I’ll get her.” Nicholas jogged up the stairs then returned a few minutes later with Melissa, who looked scared to death when she saw the sheriff and the other men in her living room.
Serves her right for spying
and stealing, Adam thought, but after the sheriff questioned her, and her father berated her for being a foolish, inconsiderate chit, Adam felt sorry for her. She was crying so hard it brought her mother rushing into the room. And when her mother learned the truth, her disappointment made Melissa howl all the more.
“You owe this young man an apology,” her father said sternly.
“I’m s-sorry” she blubbered, barely able to look at Adam. “I just wanted you to like me.”
Her crying made her face all blotchy and his head ache worse. All he wanted to do was go home and crawl into his warm bed.
She sniffed, and it made his stomach kind of sick. “Am I going to be put in jail?”
Sheriff Phelps rubbed the back of his neck as if he didn’t know what to tell her. “You’re in pretty big trouble, missy.”
Another gush of water fell from her eyes, and Adam couldn’t stand it. “Why don’t you do what Sheriff Gray—my—Mr. Grayson did with me,” he said, confused about how he should refer to Duke. “Let Melissa work for the jeweler until she makes up for what she did.”
Sheriff Phelps lifted an eyebrow. “That’s mighty kind from the young man who’s been accused of taking these items.”
“But you know the truth now, so it doesn’t matter.” He rubbed the throbbing lump on his head and looked at Duke. “Can we go home?”
At his nod, Adam shot out the door intending to run home, but Duke hooked an arm around his shoulders and walked him across the yard. Then he said, “You’re a special young man, Adam, and I was very proud of you in there.”
Duke donned a nightshirt while Faith tucked Cora in their bed. “I thought you were putting her in her own bed tonight,” he said.
“I tried, but she woke up crying. She’s afraid.”
Of course she was. Duke looked at his sleeping little girl and didn’t blame her for being scared. But he longed to be alone with Faith, to have their bed to themselves again.
His wife stood uncertainly beside the bed, brushing Cora’s curls off her cheek. “I wish you hadn’t seen the brothel,” she said quietly.
He drew her into his arms. “It helped me understand.”
She rested her forehead against his shoulder. “I thought I’d be escaping with Jarvis, and that everything would be all right because he knew the truth. Instead of being my salvation, he was my first mistake. Lying to you was my worst one.”
“Did you love him?”
She was silent for a long time, but Duke didn’t rush her. He wanted the truth. “Jarvis was the first man who made me feel special, but I didn’t even know him.”
Then she couldn’t have loved him.
“Tell me about the bell.”
Faith lifted her head, confusion in her eyes.
“Why did your mother make you ring a bell?”
A sigh escaped her and she stepped away to fiddle with the hand mirror on her dressing table. “Mama couldn’t have me around while she was working, so she rigged up a bell as a way of checking on me.”
While Duke listened with his heart aching, she told him about the bells and being left alone while her mother and aunts worked, and how she’d welcomed Adam and Cora as her own babies because she needed them in her life.
“I’ve loved them from the minute they were born,” she said. “They’re my children. I regret hurting you with my lies, but I don’t regret protecting them.”
Duke could see Faith as a little girl like Cora, missing her mother, needing a daddy and wondering why she didn’t have one. How easy it had been to take his parents and the good life they’d given him for granted.
“Do you hate your mother?” he asked, knowing she had a right to, but hoping for her sake that she didn’t.
“I did. Sometimes. Mama didn’t share herself with anyone. Not with my aunts. Not with her children. Until I read her letter, I didn’t know if she loved me or loathed me.” Her voice broke and she lowered her chin. “I hated her as much as I loved her. I didn’t know she was trapped and couldn’t leave. I thought she was a coward and that she didn’t love us enough to give us a better life.”
Duke wanted to embrace her, but he held back, sensing she had more to say.
Sorrow and regret filled her eyes. She pressed her palm to the spot on his chest where his badge used to rest. “What are you going to do now?” she asked quietly. “You’ve been the sheriff for so long...”
“I’m content working the mill,” he said. And despite the tension with Radford, he enjoyed being there and working with his brothers.
“That’s not the same as being sheriff.”
No, it wasn’t. But it wasn’t less of a job and it didn’t make him less of a man.
Tears brimmed in her eyes. “I’ll never forgive myself for causing you to lose something you were so proud of.”
“I’m proud of the mill.”
“You were proud to be a lawman, a sheriff.”
He was, and he would miss the purpose and direction that had come with the demanding position, but his new disorderly and messy life was just as challenging and rewarding.
He’d always followed rules and enforced laws and never seen himself as separate from his badge. He’d never really made up his own mind about life or even what mattered to him. He’d chosen his path as a way to shine in his father’s eyes. Boyd shared their father’s wood-carving talent and had always made their father laugh. Kyle was a businessman to the bone, smart and rock solid with a good head for investments and expanding their business. Radford went to war and became a decorated hero. Duke was a third son unworthy of notice or any particular distinction until he’d pinned on his badge. Then he was Deputy Grayson, and later sheriff, a man his father could be proud of.
But now he was more than a lawman.
He was a family man…a husband and a father.
“I have a more important position now,” he said, drawing Faith into his arms. “Because of you I’m a husband.” He looked toward the bed where Cora lay curled on her side. “And a father.”
“Is that enough?”
“Yes,” he said with conviction. It was enough because it was everything that mattered. He lowered his mouth to hers and took their first honest step toward their future.
Chapter Thirty-seven
Faith crossed the yard by the greenhouse where Adam and Cora were building a snowman. “These will make perfect eyes,” she said, pushing two big black buttons into the snowman’s head then adding a bulbous red button for a nose.
Cora giggled, the sound a balm to Faith. Her little girl was healing. And so was Faith’s relationship with Duke. With each day and each conversation, he was learning to understand and forgive her. And she was learning how much he loved her and the children.
Even now, he was across the street on their porch talking with her father about Adam, while watching over the children, ever vigilant.
“Mama, he needs arms,” Cora said, scowling at the snowman. She dug up a handful of snow with her mismatched mittens and stuck it on the snowman.
Faith would knit them warmer sweaters and matching mittens, but Cora didn’t care about her clothes any more than Adam did. Duke said he would buy them boots, and get Adam a gun so they could go hunting, but Adam didn’t need a gun. He just needed to know he could stay here with his family.
“There,” Cora said, eyeing the arm she’d made for the snowman.
Adam laughed. “It looks like a white pickle sticking out of his shoulder.”
Cora giggled, sending little puffs of frosty air from her mouth.
“A couple of small twigs will make fine arms,” Faith suggested.
Cora trudged through the snow to get a small branch that was lying beneath their maple tree. The snow nearly reached her knees, but she merrily plowed through it. Adam could have jogged over and back in the time it took her to reach the branch, but Faith was proud of him for letting Cora get it. She liked doing difficult things on her own; it made her feel grown up.
Instead of picking up the branch, Cora gasped and
backed away as if she’d seen a snake. But snakes didn’t come out in winter.
A man stepped from behind the building, his cold gaze spearing Faith’s heart like a blade of ice. She’d known he would come, but thought he’d sneak up like a thief in the night, not waltz into her yard in broad daylight.
Before Faith could yell or lift her skirt to run, Stone grabbed Cora by her blue knit scarf and pulled her against him. Cora’s terrified cry drove Faith forward in panic. She reached for Cora’s arm to pull her free of Stone’s grip, but he raised a revolver and swatted Faith away like an annoying dog.
Lights exploded in her head as the gun struck her, and she felt herself falling.
“Unhand her!” Duke’s fierce command cracked across the yard, and the muffled sound of boots thundered across the snowy road.
Head ringing, forehead bleeding, Faith pushed to her knees and looked into Adam’s terrified eyes. “Get help, Adam.”
A rush of wind hit her as Duke raced past and lunged for the Judge. The loud, echoing crack of a gunshot filled the neighborhood, and Duke stumbled back three steps.
Adam bolted from the yard.
Duke staggered forward, swinging his fist upward to try and knock the gun from Stone’s hand, accepting this was going to be a bloody, perhaps deadly day.
The judge angled away and pressed the revolver against Cora’s temple.
“I don’t want to hurt her, so stay back,” he said, his voice tense and grating.
Duke’s legs turned to rubber. One careless move by the man and that gun could fire. Duke couldn’t even think about the result. Burning with outrage and pain, he clutched his bleeding left shoulder and stared intently into Cora’s eyes.
“Don’t move, princess. Be like your snowman. Be very quiet and very still.”
“You’re b-bleeding, Daddy” Tears streamed from her eyes, and her nose ran.
“It’s only a scratch.”
“That’s your sore sh-shoulder.”
“I’m all right, sweetheart. You just stay real still.” She stared at him, tears streaking her face, but she stood still like he’d asked. “Good girl,” he said gently, praying to God he could get her out of this safely. “Don’t move at all, honey” He met Stone’s ice blue eyes. “Take the gun off her.”
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