“Kade Remington. I see you think you can waltz in here and hurt my wife, Karen Remington and our daughter.” He glared at Laurel. “Put my daughter down and get out before I do something you’ll regret.”
“Oh, what a funny boy you are,” Laurel said, laughing. He smiled down at Lizette. “You see, my boy, I have the baby. And I don’t believe that you would do anything to jeopardize her.”
“You’re right, I wouldn’t. But unless you give her to me, you won’t be taking my wife anywhere.” Laurel rolled his eyes, as though everything were a game.
“I suppose you’re correct, Kade. However, once you have the child, you’ll have to let me take Karen because you have to hold the child. And you can’t leave her alone, can you?” Laurel untied Karen with one hand, still holding Lizette. She ripped the gag from her mouth.
“Kade, do it. Take Lizette.” She didn’t cry. Kade knew the look on her face - the unbreakable stubbornness that he found so endearing. “Please. Keep her safe.”
“You can do what you want,” Kade said, looking at his wife, trying not to cry himself. “But I want to say goodbye.”
“Fine. You have thirty seconds, then it’s time to go or I kill the baby. Which, considering how new she is, will take little more than dropping her.”
********
Karen ran to Kade, wrapping her arms around his neck. She bit back a sob and somehow managed to keep her eyes dry. His arms came around her waist, holding her close. It would kill her to leave him, to leave Lizette. But it might save them.
“I love you,” Kade whispered in her ear, so quietly she might have imagined it. “And this isn’t over. I’ll come for you, I promise.”
“Ten seconds,” Mr. Laurel called, tapping his foot. Karen took her husband’s face in her hands, trying to keep the goodbye from hurting.
“I love you, too.” She didn’t say that he probably wouldn’t find her, or that she’d try to find her way back. She kissed him, their first, and likely last kiss. Finally, her tears began to fall. “Tell our daughter that you love her every day.”
“Three, two, one, and zero. Come along, love, it’s time to go.” Laurel shoved Karen towards the door and threw Lizette at Kade, forcing him to drop his gun in order to catch her. The baby began to cry, her tiny voice displaying the sorrow everyone but Laurel felt.
Karen looked back one last time as Mr. Laurel dragged her towards the poorly made wagon. That one look might have killed her, but she was determined to follow through, to save her family. Because she loved them, far more than she’d ever be able to articulate.
********
The first thing Kade did when Laurel had taken his wife away was saddle his horse, taking Lizette with him. He desperately wanted to ride after them directly, but he had to take care of his daughter first.
It didn’t take long for him to find Grant and Herold in the pasture, just getting ready to leave. He rode over, his horse cutting an odd path as he tried to keep his grip on Lizette. Grant waved at him, happy as a clam.
“How did it go?” Kade handed the baby off to Grant, then rode off.
“I’ll explain later! I need you to watch her. I have to save Karen.”
Kade rode towards the road, praying he’d catch up, praying that Laurel hadn’t hurt Karen. That he wouldn’t be too late.
********
It was a bumpy ride as Mr. Laurel set the wagon trundling down the road, faster than such a rickety thing was ever meant to go. His laughter shot fear into Karen’s heart, icy cold and burning, all at once.
“And that fool cowboy thinks that he, of all people, will find you. He thinks he can get his precious wife back. Well, he’s got another thought coming. When he comes back, I’ll kill him. And then we can wed. There are places out here, places so lawless that even preachers don’t ask questions.”
Karen took a deep breath and told herself that he wanted her to be scared. He liked knowing that he could hurt people, that he could destroy them and wrap them in his darkness. She couldn’t feed the monster by doing as he wished.
The sound of hooves of the ground, beating more rapidly than could be believed, reached her. She didn’t know whether to pray that it would or wouldn’t be Kade. He might save her, yes, but he could also die. And at the hand of a far worse man than should ever exist.
“And here we stop, darling,” Mr. Laurel said, pulling the lines. The horse stopped, a cloud of dust billowing up behind the wagon and engulfing them. “Oh, what fun this will be.”
“Laurel,” came the scream from behind them. Mr. Laurel hopped down from the wagon, his boots making a hollow thud in the dust. Karen climbed down her side, her heart trying to beat out of her chest.
“Ah, my dear friend, Kade. How are you, my boy?” Kade smiled, reaching for the gun at his waist.
“I’d be doing much better, but a crazy man came into my home and seems to have taken my wife.” He shrugged. “But I’m about to bring her back home, where she’ll be safe.”
“Mmm,” Mr. Laurel rubbed his chin, as though he were thinking. “I don’t believe you will.”
The two men drew their guns, each prepared to shoot the other. Karen looked around frantically, hoping to find something - anything - that might help. Then she saw, in the wagon bed, the hunting rifle that used to sit beside the front door in her house. She smiled, taking it in hand. Kade saw what she was doing and started talking again.
“You’re going to jail, sir, and for quite some time, too.” Mr. Laurel gave Kade a patronizing look.
“And you’re going to send me there, I take it?”
“Yes, I certainly am.”
Karen crept forward, careful to keep quiet. As Mr. Laurel opened his mouth to speak, she took the gun by its barrel and swung the but of the rifle at his head. He fell to the ground, the dust from the road clouding up around his prone form.
“I thought that you intended to shoot him,” Kade said, his face riddled with confusion. Karen rolled her eyes, running to give him a hug.
“He took all of the ammunition. I believe that you would find all of it in one of his pockets if you were to look.” She rested her head against his chest. “I’m glad that you saved me.”
Kade chuckled, the sound rumbling low in his chest. “If you ever need saving, you know where to find me.”
“Do you possibly mean in the house that we share?” He nodded.
“Yes. You’ll never find me anywhere else if I can help it.”
“Well, isn’t that fantastic?” She stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek. “Do you remember the verse in Proverbs that says something like, ‘the blessings of the Lord are rich and he addeth no sorrow with it’?”
“I most certainly do. And I think, after far too many years, I’m finally starting to understand it fully.”
“Me, too.”
Lone Oak Texas
December 1866
Karen watched Lizette as she attempted to crawl across the kitchen floor. She made it to her hands and knees, rocking backward and forward, her face all smiles and new teeth. It was amazing how quickly time had passed. Even more amazing was how much little Lizette had grown in just seven months.
The front door flew open, and the cold winter air blew in, along with a good deal of snow. Lizette squealed when she caught sight of her father, covered in the rare Texas snow. He rushed forward, scooping her up and letting the snow from his recently grown beard melt on her little face.
“Aren’t I lucky,” Kade said, carrying the giggling baby to Karen, “to come home to the two most beautiful girls on God’s Earth.” He pressed an icy kiss to Karen’s lips, then took a seat beside her.
“You most certainly are lucky. Lucky that I don’t throw you into a snowbank for getting my nice clean floors wet.” Though she tried to be stern, there was a wide smile on her face, the sort she wouldn’t have believed herself capable of just one year ago.
That’s the amazing gift of time. One year, you sit alone in a dusty house, dancing with the ghosts of what once was, and the ne
xt, you have a wonderful family, and you find that you’re not lonely. You find that you’re happy.
Karen found herself thanking God for his gift of time. She leaned towards Kade, resting her head on his shoulder. Lizette raised a little hand to her mother’s face, and Karen pressed a kiss to the small fingers.
“Mumumumum,” came the little voice. Kade chuckled, bouncing the little girl on his lap.
“And she doesn’t call me anything. Well, I suppose she has to give you something, as I’m her favorite parent.” Karen sat up, smacking his arm, still in his coat.
“You are not! I am her mother. Mother’s and daughters share a special, better relationship, thus I’m her favorite.” Kade shook his head, clucking his tongue.
“Maybe we should ask the child herself. After all, who better to know?” He kissed the top of Lizette’s head and said, “Is Ma your favorite?”
“Mumum,” was her only reply. Karen laughed, snatching the girl from her father.
“See? She loves me.” Kade stood, and more water dripped off of his clothing. “You should probably put on something dry. Go on. You can hang the wet things by the stove.”
Kade sighed and took off his boots before heading into the bedroom. Karen held her daughter in her arms, feeling like the world had come perfectly together, specifically for their family to happen. She began to sing, everything from hymns to lullabies, and everything else she knew.
When her husband returned, dripping clothes in hand, he found Lizette asleep in her mother’s arms, Karen still singing softly. He smiled, and that small expression lit up a space in her heart that only he could touch.
“She must have been tired tonight,” he said as Karen set Lizette in her bassinet. “What did you do?”
“I chased her through the house. The fact that she missed her nap, yet again, may very well have made a contribution.” She thought for a moment. “And I sang to her, instead of giving her bites of cookie like a certain father I know.”
“Haven’t you ever seen the way she gazes at a cookie? Those big brown eyes of hers, all filled with innocent longing. And all for something so small as a cookie.”
“That’s also the way she looks at knives and the woodstove, but that doesn’t mean she can play with them.” Kade shrugged, moving to wrap his arms around Karen. She sighed, leaning into him. He smelled nice, like hay and wood smoke.
“I think I’ve decided what I like the most about being married to you.” He kissed her cheek.
“And what’s that?” He chuckled.
“This. You, Lisette, and I, all together.” He sighed, thinking. “But it won’t always be this way, will it?”
“Mmm. She’ll grow up. And we’ll grow old. I wouldn’t mind the second bit if it weren’t for the first bit. Why can’t she be our baby forever?”
“Because then she’d never learn new things. And we would be denied the privilege of seeing her grow up to be an amazing woman, just like her mother.” A smile lit Karen’s face.
“Are you trying to ease my mind with flattery, Kade?” He shrugged.
“That depends on whether or not it’s working in my favor.” She laughed.
“Oh, I’m certain it is. But when we’re old and full of wrinkles and white hair, it may not. I could get grouchy, like the other old women.” She stepped back, winking. “And I might not look so well at that point.”
“You’ll always be beautiful to me, you know.” Karen blushed, wondering how she’d gotten so lucky. “And when we’re old, full of wrinkles and white hair, whether you’re grouchy or not, I’ll still love you.”
“I believe that I’ve now figured out what I like best about being married to you, as well.” He raised an eyebrow skeptically.
“And what’s that?”
“That you always surprise me. That, even though I’ll never deserve to have you be so good to me, you are. And you’re the perfect example of what love looks like.” She hugged him again, burying her face in his clean shirt. “Thank you.”
Think back to the trials, the worries, the things that once stood in their way, Karen knew that there was, beyond the shadow of a doubt, a loving God, watching over them. How else can two lives, so full of loneliness and sorrow, find each other, and turn into the same song?
Some would consider such things to be a coincidence. But she’d learned to much in the past several months to believe in coincidence. And, she strongly suspected, so had Kade.
As she smiled up at her husband, positive that they were only together by the grace of God, he said, “I love you.”
“Well,” she replied, still smiling like it was already Christmas, “In case it wasn’t obvious, I love you, too.”
*****
THE END.
A Journey to Him
Mail Order Bride
By: Christian Michael
Chapter 1
Robert Ames looked down at his son Jack, the boy’s eyelids brushing the top of his soft cheek. Robert’s heart constricted. The boy’s features looked so much like his wife Mary’s had. Rounded and soft cheeks. A perked nose. Dark hair.
He turned away, his hand covering his mouth. He forced the tears back—he wasn’t going to let them come, not now, not ever again. They didn’t help him pay tribute to her memory, but only sufficed to make him weak in his loss of her.
He walked down the creaky stairs as quietly as possible, halting at the sight of his sister’s concerned eyes on him.
“What?” he said, gruffly.
“You look troubled.”
He wanted to shoot a quick report back at her, but she didn’t deserve it. Lola had come to stay with him since Mary’s death five months ago and he knew how much of a God-send she’d been.
“I’m fine.”
She rose, coming to stand in front of him, effectively blocking his path to the door. She knew him too well.
“You’re not. But I won’t press that issue in lieu of another one.”
His brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I need to leave for home.”
Her words thudded into his chest like a fence poll pounded into a hole. “What? When?”
“Soon. I may have one more month here, maybe two, but it depends. I got a letter from Ma. Pa isn’t doing well.”
Why was Robert surrounded by death? Pa was close to it. Mary had been taken by it. What was next?
“I see.”
“Look,” she placed a gentle hand on his arm. “I don’t want to go, but I have to. You know that.”
“I do.”
“But I wanted to talk to you about something else too.”
“What?” he asked warily.
“I know you’re not going to want to hear this,” she began tentatively, “But I think you should take another wife.”
Robert felt like the air had been sucked from the room. “What?”
“I know you won’t want to think about this—I don’t want to either, really—but you have to consider Little Jack. When Mary died,” her eyes misted and he ground his molars together, “She left a hole in your life. I can see that. But Jack is still here. He needs a woman to care for him. No, more than that—he needs a mother.”
Robert wanted to stick his fingers in his hears and pretend he wasn’t hearing any of this, but the rational side of him knew that Lola was right. Jack needed—deserved—a mother.
“Everything in me rebels against that,” he finally said, low and quite.
“I know. But it’s the only way. You can’t work for Mr. Collins and take care of Jack, and when I’m gone that’s exactly what you’ll have to do.”
The truth of her words struck him again. It was true. He was running out of options. If Lola wasn’t there, he knew he couldn’t afford to pay for someone else to watch Jack.
“You’re right,” he said. “I’ll need to marry again.” The words tasted bitter on his tongue.
“I’ll put an advertisement in a few Matrimony Journal’s in the East. I’ll take care of it and when I narrow down the sea
rch, I’ll have you help me pick who you…” she dropped off, not able to say “who you want to marry”. She knew he didn’t want this, but that he would go through it, or anything else, for his son. Anything for his son.
“Fine,” he said, stepping around her.
The front door banged closed but he kept walking, out toward the afternoon sun. He’d let its rays burn the heat of truth into his heart. He could force himself to marry for a second time, but he couldn’t force himself to love again.
***
Alice Winston trembled from head to foot. The hot breath of the head maid whispering against her neck as she ground out the words, “Will you never learn?”
The slap of the wooden spoon against Alice’s knuckles streaked up her arms, tears springing from her eyes and down her face.
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