“Tut tut tut.” The youngest, Eli, palmed his own gun. “You think this game only goes one way—that you and your pa can try to burn us out and we’d just stand by?”
“What are you talking about?”
John reached into his pocket and pulled out a tarnished and charred pocket watch, letting it dangle from the chain. “Look familiar? Bet your pa was missing it this morning. You can tell him where to come get it.”
Axel turned away so they wouldn’t see the emotion he had no hope of masking as everything became clear. “Eliza.” That woman. This was all her doing. Heat coursed through him, and his grip tightened on the revolver. When he got home he’d...he’d think of a way to deal with her. And Pa—he was the one who got them into this mess.
Axel spun back to the Coopers. “You—”
Eli stood, his revolver drawn and smoking. Axel’s ears rang, slow to register the crack of the gun’s discharge. And pain…no, agony. He staggered back and glanced at the small patch of red staining his shirt and the hole in the fabric. Warmth trickled down his side. Black splotches obscured his vision. His knees met the rocky ground. Curse that woman.
***
Thunder echoing off the mountains pulled Elizabeth’s focus from the buckle on the cinch. Stitches shifted, perking her ears to the west. “Was that a—”
“Gun shot.” Lars stood only paces away. “Could be someone hunting. Or…” He raced back to the cabin.
Axel. He always wore his gun now. And with last night’s fire, the Coopers would be a hornet’s nest.
Lars grabbed a saddle from just inside the door and ran to where a tall bay stood in the neighboring corral. Elizabeth wouldn’t wait. Yanking Stitches’ stirrup forward, she untangled the reins from the post and hauled herself into the saddle. A cloud of dust billowed in her wake as her heart skittered out of control. It would be her fault if anything happened to Axel.
She wasn’t yet to the stream when Lars passed her on the bay. Up ahead a cluster of men and horses stood on the trail. A shout went up, and the men mounted and whipped their horses back onto Cooper land. One horse remained, a sorrel. Startling, the animal tossed its head and bolted several yards into the meadow. Elizabeth came over a slight rise as the air cleared, the haze of dust settling over the prone form of a man.
Axel!
“Please, God, no.”
Elizabeth’s heart echoed Lars’s cry. Surely God would see Axel was the only faultless one. She and Lars deserved the punishment. Stitches skidded to a halt as Elizabeth yanked on the reins. She half fell to the ground trying to get to Axel faster than her legs could move. Lars beat her to him and rolled him. Blood covered the side of Axel’s shirt. He moaned.
Alive.
Elizabeth stood back as Lars ripped open the stained shirt. A small hole oozed scarlet and he pressed his handkerchief over it, then rotated Axel enough to examine the twin hole where the bullet had exited.
“Went straight through,” Axel mumbled through gritted teeth. He cast a glance at Elizabeth and glowered. “What are you still doing here? Come to finish me off?”
“I…”
Lars staunched the blood with a handkerchief, and then set Axel’s hand over his wound. “Hold this while I get you on the horse. Elizabeth, keep mine steady while I get him up, and then see if the gelding will let you lead him home.”
Axel grunted and clamped his eyes closed as his father heaved him to his feet. He didn’t try talking again until he was propped up in the saddle. “Is that her real name, or just more lies?”
“We’ll discuss this later.” Lars swung up behind him and took the reins from Elizabeth’s hands, holding her gaze. “You come on back to the cabin. He needs your help.”
She gave a nod and backed away as Axel raised his head enough to give her one more glare. “I don’t.”
They rode away, becoming a blurred haze of color against the green and brown backdrop. Then the tears fell and she with them. To her knees.
Chapter 12
“This is all my fault.”
Axel eyed his father as he fastened the ends of the bandage. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought whatever she was going through would work itself out in time. I didn’t realize how deeply she blamed me for what her father lost.”
At least it explained the sensation of meeting her before. Elizabeth Danton Landvik. The spunky girl with her hair still down and her eyes still big. She’d grown into a handsome woman…and a deadly one. His side pinched as he tried to shift positions. “It wasn’t your fault what happened to the Landviks, why should you have bothered with her?”
Pa’s lips pressed thin. “Because if I’d stayed there may have been a way to save the company, but I was so weary of keeping it from failing. No matter what I did, every year or so Robert would force us into some scheme that drained the funds. After your mother died, I just couldn’t do it anymore, couldn’t fight him anymore.” He shook his head. “I planned to simply sign everything over to him, the business wasn’t worth anything by that time, but Robert Landvik insisted he buy it for my very first investment—the few dollars I’d finally given him to let him know I’d join him.” Pa laughed. “A little over four dollars. All the time and years I sunk into him and his fantasies, he figured was worth four dollars.”
“Then you should have known better than to try to help his daughter. And to tie me into this mess.” Axel wasn’t sure who he was angrier with. Elizabeth, for trying to destroy everything they’d built. Pa, for keeping everything secret and marrying him off to an insane and vindictive woman. Or himself, for paying either of them heed and being so distracted by his anger that he’d gotten himself shot.
“Maybe I should have. But she’s got nothing, Axel. I still believe that, given the chance, she’ll be a good woman. Even a good wife.”
“She burned down our barn, Pa.”
He sighed. “Yes she did. But what is losing a barn compared to losing both parents?”
Axel let his head drop back into his pillow and covered his face with a hand. His temples throbbed, and the noonday sun did him no service. “I’m exhausted, Pa. Can you make sure she doesn’t burn down anything else before we can ship her back where she came from?”
“All right.” Pa stood and pulled the blanket over Axel. Mama’s quilt. So much for making his marriage like hers and Pa’s.
Something beautiful.
Axel closed his eyes and tried not to think about the emptiness of the bed beside him. Strange how after such a short time, that woman had already become a part of his life. What a fool he was.
***
It couldn’t be true.
Elizabeth scooted away from the door as footsteps approached. She busied herself at the stove, though not doing anything really, just opening doors to peek inside. As Lars stepped to the table, she reached for a split log. She’d stoke the fire—that was something to do—while trying to work through what Axel’s father had told him about hers.
Was he lying?
But why would he lie to his son? If Lars were the type of man she had believed him to be, why show such mercy to her? At the cost of his son?
Lies.
And yet, it could plausibly fit with what she remembered. Her father was angry and blamed Lars for the failing business…because Lars had been the one keeping the business alive, and he’d left. Her father had lost everything. While Lars took his son and made a new life.
She looked at Lars as he lowered into a chair and leaned forward, elbows on the table. His fingers linked, he rested his forehead on them. She’d almost taken everything from him when possibly he’d only been trying to help her.
“I’m sorry.” She couldn’t seem to put any voice to her words, but he raised his head to glance at her. Even now, his blue eyes held no hate, or even anger. Only sadness and weariness. Elizabeth hurried outside, wiping her clammy palms across her skirts. Everything was her fault and it wasn’t over. The Coopers had shot Axel and, according to him, they were building a dam to stop t
he stream from watering Forsberg land. What else would they do before they felt vindicated? Or would this feud continue to spiral out of control as hers had?
She spun to the fence where the horses waited, still saddled. There hadn’t been time to return them to the corrals yet.
Elizabeth glanced back to the cabin, and pressed a hand to her stomach as it did a sudden swoosh. Her pulse sped a clip. The Forsbergs had been hurt enough because of her. She would clean up the mess she started.
Breath hitched in her throat, Elizabeth took long strides to the horses, unfastened Stitches’ rein and mounted. One of the other horses gave a whinny as she spurred the little gray mare up the trail and toward the Cooper homestead.
***
The pounding of hooves beating out a departure pulled Axel’s eyelids open. The cabin door slammed. Pa shouted something. Then heavy boots trotted back into the cabin and to his room. The door swooshed open. “I have to go after Elizabeth.”
Axel winced as he pushed himself up on one of his elbows. “What?”
“She just rode out of here on that gray mare you gave her.”
Axel’s emotions tugged him from two sides as he lowered himself back to the bed. “She’s resourceful enough. She’ll find her way back to town.”
“I don’t think that’s where she’s going. She packed saddlebags this morning and they’re still sitting out in the yard.”
“But…” Everything she did left him confused. Maybe it was the blood loss fogging his brain. “I don’t understand.”
“Coopers.” As soon as the word was out of his mouth, Pa hurried away.
“Why, so she can report her success?” Axel hollered after him. He took a slow breath as the throb in his side stabbed. “Wait. Pa?”
His father stuck his head back in the room. “I’m not leaving her to them.”
Axel groaned as he laid a hand to his side and rolled into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. His vision darkened momentarily. “Then hitch the wagon.”
“Why?”
“Because my head’s still spinning too much to stay on a horse. I’m coming with you.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Pa, it’s hardly more than a graze. It is not going to kill me. We’re going to end this all now, and I’m not going to sit here while you ride into who knows what. I, my Winchester, and my pillow are coming.”
Pa didn’t look happy about it, but he hitched the wagon. Axel didn’t make it out of the cabin with Pa’s help before he regretted his decision, but it was too late to turn back. He clenched the gun and gritted his teeth with every rut the wheels jostled over up to the Cooper homestead. As they drove past the barn, Axel got a good view out the back of the wagon of the scorched ground stretching across pasture land. Elizabeth’s handiwork, no doubt.
Where was that woman?
The wagon lurched to a halt.
“What are you doing here, Forsberg?” one of the Coopers shouted. Sounded like the eldest. “Come to get your lost filly?”
Axel eased his grip on the rifle as he waited for a wave of nausea to pass. He lifted his shirt just enough to see the red seeping through the bandage. There was nothing for that now. He held his side as he pushed himself up enough to see over the edge of the wagon box. Harvey Cooper stood on the porch of their house, toe to toe with Elizabeth, the boys gathered around. Her eyes widened, then narrowed at seeing Axel, and she spun to fully face him.
“Are you insane? What are you doing out of bed?” She pointed her finger to the trail. “Go home.”
“So you can continue plotting my demise?”
Her jaw slackened a little, but Harvey spoke first. “My boys told me about the incident at the dam, and then this woman shows up insisting we end all our differences with you.” He looked back to Elizabeth, his voice rising. “But she has yet to tell us who she is.”
Axel eased a breath as he sifted to a better position. “She’s my wife.”
“Your wife?” Harvey shook his head. “She for sure didn’t mention that.”
“Did she mention she let my horse loose and burned our barn, among other things?” Axel leaned into the side of the wagon and released the Winchester to the floor. Sweat moistened his shirt from the exertion of staying upright.
“Yes, she did. Said something about having a beef against your pa and trying to settle scores.”
Axel lowered his hand out of sight so no one would see it tremble. “Then you understand this war she started between us isn’t about you. I’ll replace the hay you lost and see that she doesn’t bother anyone again. But I will also ask you to take that dam down.”
The dark-haired middle boy, probably around Elizabeth’s age, gave a laugh. “If you can’t handle your own wife, maybe you should leave her here. We’ll take care of her for you.”
Axel shot him a glare. “Eliza, get…” He shifted his gaze to her and hardened his voice. “Elizabeth, get your horse.”
“I was trying to help this time, Axel. After everything I did, I couldn’t—”
“You’ve done enough.”
Pa twisted on the seat, his voice low but carrying a warning. “Axel, you—”
“No, Pa. You’ve done plenty enough, too. She’s my wife, remember.” Pain pierced through his side like a bolt of lightning, its needle-like branches lighting a fire through his whole body. “Elizabeth, on your horse!” As soon as he saw her move to obey, he sank back. Sticky moisture clung to his fingers laid over his bandage, but he no longer had the strength or desire to look. He should have stayed home. “Do we have a deal, Harvey?”
“Sure,” the man grumbled. “We’ll call it even for now. Just keep that filly of yours off our land.”
Axel closed his eyes. Now to figure out what to do with his bride. Though she deserved to be left stranded at Bumble Bee, he’d gladly buy her a ticket to wherever she wanted…just to be rid of her. He’d rather not admit it, even to himself, but more than just the hole in his side needed time to heal.
***
Elizabeth held her hands only inches from the stove, craving the heat though the day was by no means chill. Boots echoed against the floor behind her, but she didn’t want to look at him yet. “Is Axel…is he going to be all right?”
“He’ll be fine,” Lars answered as he neared. Thankfully he stopped at the far end of the table. “He lost more blood, but he should heal as long as he gives himself some time.”
Breathing came easier now. She hugged herself with her warm hands. “I should leave.”
“Should you?”
She choked on a laugh and turned. “Surely you don’t want me here any longer. After everything I did. I’m not blinded anymore to think that you owed my father anything. And even if you did, surely nothing compared to what I have put Axel through.” She lowered her gaze to the floor, no longer able to meet his steady one. “I heard what you told Axel about my father. That was the truth, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
Not that Elizabeth required his answer. Deep down she already knew. The need to blame someone had dissipated in the heat of her shame. She slipped her hand into the pocket of her apron and pinched the ribbon between her fingers, drawing out the silken pouch. She extended it over the table and set it in Lars’s palm. “These are yours.”
The ridges of his brow deepened as he pulled it open and looked inside. “How did you…?”
“I thought because the box was locked it must be where you kept your money—money I thought you’d cheated my father out of. I needed it if I was to leave this place so I…broke in.”
“I kept that box locked for my own sanity. Axel keeps the key.” Lars drew out the ring, slipping it on to the very tip of one finger. “This has been in our family for a couple of generations now. Camilla wore it. And my mother.” His mouth formed a sad smile. “It should be yours. Axel was planning to give it to you. When the time was right.”
“The time never would have been right.” Elizabeth blinked back the burn of tears. She’d already cried more in
the past twenty-four hours than the previous nine years, and she wasn’t finished, but not right now. Axel probably slept, and for his sake she didn’t want to be here when he awoke.
“It’s still early enough,” she said. “If I borrow Stitches, I should reach Bumble Bee before dark. I’ll leave her there for you.”
Lars’s gaze remained heavy on her as she walked to the door and collected the saddlebags with her belongings. “And how will you get home?”
The question haunted her, but she couldn’t possibly ask for money. “I’ll find a way.” Her voice carried much more confidence than she felt. She reached for the door latch.
“Elizabeth, you’re not going anywhere tonight. Come back to the table and sit down. I’ll fix some supper, and later I’ll make up a bed for myself out here.”
She pressed her eyes closed against a flood and hugged the saddlebags. “Why?” Why would he still want to help her when she should be run off, or hauled away by the nearest US marshal? Why such mercy?
But there it was—forgiveness. Love, despite everything she had done. And if Lars could show her such…perhaps God would, as well.
Chapter 13
Axel gazed out the window at the same tiny patch of blue sky he’d been staring at for the past three days. Flat on his back. He changed his view to the door but a kink already burned in his neck. The rumble of voices in the main room only made his temper flare. They probably sat at the table talking about the past, about Elizabeth’s parents, or what she’d done with herself since their deaths. Or maybe they read from the Bible about hope and forgiveness…again.
Either way, he didn’t want to hear it.
Unfortunately, with all these hours left to himself, he couldn’t help searching his memory for ones of her as a child, her hair curled, and her eyes bright. Ribbons and bows. Youthful innocence as she tried to catch his eye. Five years her senior, he hadn’t considered her flirtations, but those years had shrunk significantly in the past nine. It was strange to now see her as a grown woman and to recognize her.
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