Millie Criswell, Mary McBride, Liz Ireland

by A Western Family Christmas Christmas Eve; Season of Bounty; Cowboy Scrooge

  After a few more turns he finally stepped back and collapsed them into a chair, where they kissed some more then pulled apart ever so slightly. He looked at her, his face lit with emotion—the same strange, exciting brew that was swirling inside her. She wanted to tell him that she loved him, that this was the happiest she had ever been, that she never wanted to leave him. But he stopped her with his own declaration.

  “I have something for you.”

  “Oh, but—”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a letter. “I picked it up in town today. I hope you don’t mind my holding out on you, but I thought you might enjoy it best on Christmas Day.”

  The envelope made her heart beat double time. Carol! She took the letter from him eagerly and then, as quickly as she could get a glance at the writing, her joy evaporated. The chicken scratch on the envelope was not her sister’s round, loopy handwriting.

  Seeing her reaction, Justin frowned. “It’s from Boston,” he said. “I thought it would be your family.”

  She ripped the missive open, but a quick look at the letter’s contents made her feel sick inside. Sick and afraid. It was from Zack.

  “My derelvy…”

  Dear, he had the nerve to call her! After he’d let her go to prison for his crime. After she’d run two thousand miles to get away from him and the blight he’d left on her reputation. She hadn’t even known Zack could write, and apparently she wasn’t far from the truth, because his unsure scratch was riddled with mistakes.

  Yer sis told me you was out in Texas and doin rele well. Im glad for you, Ivy, you know I am. Why did you leve? Carol did not wunt to give me yer adress, only I told her we wuz still engajed I love you as much as ever. You was and are my only girl. Im rele sorry for what happened and that the police pinched you sted of me but you was a brick, Ivy, and Ill never forgot it. Yer a stand up girl. Im glad you got some money now and I intind to cum out for you just as soon as I can so we can mary. Wate for me.

  Yer hivinp husbund to be! Zack

  “Ivy, what is it?”

  It was only when Justin spoke that she realized her whole body was trembling. To one moment feel so safe and loved in Justin’s arms, then feel those icy tentacles of the past get a stranglehold on her was unbearable.

  Love her! Zack Hamilton didn’t know the meaning of the word. But he probably really did intend to come find her. Why not? Con men could prosper anywhere, and here, at least, the police didn’t know him!

  Justin frowned in concern. “Ivy? You’re white as a sheet!”

  She didn’t know what to say, so she remained silent. The paper had slipped out of her hands, and he snatched it up, glancing at a few lines. Then he darted a dark, confused glance at her. His whole body stiffened.

  “Your husbandtobe!”

  She shook her head. “No, he’s…” What could she say? The man who landed her in prison? Justin didn’t even know about her past. He knew nothing about her at all, and if he did, he probably wouldn’t have been kissing her like he had. That thought made her feel even more numb.

  “You never told me you were engaged.”

  “I’m not.”

  “You said you had no sweethearts at all in Boston.”

  “I didn’t have!” Her face burned. “I mean, not really.”

  “But this man is coming out to join you, he says.”

  He didn’t understand. He didn’t see at all. She shook her head frantically. “No, Justin, it’s not what you’re thinking.”

  He put her off his lap and stood stiffly. “Is that why you came out here—to get some money so your lover could join you?”

  “Justin, no!” She was on her feet now, too. How could such a beautiful moment turn ugly so fast? Her head was spinning from the turnaround.

  But Justin seemed to have no problem making the change. His face was red with outrage at her perceived betrayal, yet he already looked fully convinced that she had deceived him. Almost as if he had expected it all along. “What did you intend to do, play Josiah for a fool?”

  “I told you, I had already changed my mind about marrying Josiah when I stepped off the train in Otis!”

  “So you saw my niece and nephews and decided to follow them to me to see what money you could squeeze out of me.”

  Her mouth dropped. The man could have been speaking Chinese, for all she understood him. “This is outrageous!”

  “I’ll say!” he huffed.

  “I brought Linus, Sophie and Joe Junior to you, remember? You didn’t even want them!”

  “You can skip the out of the goodness of your own heart nonsense,” he shot back. “You were looking for payment, as I recall.”

  Which was true, she was. But she hadn’t been as crass as he made it sound.

  Had she?

  She dropped back into the chair, feeling defensive and angry and beat. It was almost as if he didn’t understand her at all, didn’t comprehend what these past three weeks had done for her. “I’m not like that,” she insisted.

  And she wasn’t. She was happier, more generous. All this time she thought she was just biding her time, waiting to start a new life, when really she had already begun.

  But in a moment, in as much time as it had taken him to flick a gaze over Zack’s foolish letter, Justin had changed his mind about her. He was seeing her as someone else entirely. Seeing her as Mary, probably. Zack’s letter had opened the same old wounds Justin had been nursing for years and years, the ones Ivy thought had finally managed to heal. It wasn’t fair!

  “I knew better than to trust you,” he said aloud, though she suspected he was speaking mostly to himself. “I was suspicious from the start, figuring you were out for something.”

  “Well, if it was money I sure didn’t get it!” she hurled back at him. Did he really think she was just trying to take him?

  His lips thinned into the grim line she hadn’t seen for days. Somehow, seeing his old sourpuss expression hurt more than anything. “Not until you started throwing a little romance into the mix,” he said, glaring angrily at her dress.

  Her whole body flushed with humiliation, and she stood back up again, stiff with angry pride. “If you think that, Justin, then you’re not worth my time any more than Zack Hamilton was! She grabbed Zack’s letter and flung it toward the stove, then strode angrily from the room, leaving him to stew. But when she came back out a short time later, wrapped in her coat and determined to leave even though she was aching all over from having seen Linus and Sophie snug in their beds and not being able to wake them to say goodbye, the room was empty. Justin was gone. Zack’s crumpled up letter had disappeared, too. Justin had probably wanted to pore over it—the evidence of another woman’s duplicity!

  Feeling utterly empty inside, she left the house, unaware for the moment that she was being watched.

  Chapter Seven

  In the kitchen the next morning, Justin could barely hear himself think over Linus’s wails of despair. But that was probably just as well. Given the thoughts going through his head, he would have been just as happy not to think at all.

  As opposed to the good cheer of the night before, the house this morning had plunged into gloom. The hands, informed by John Tall Tree that Ivy was gone, had quickly eaten their breakfasts and headed out to do chores as if it were any normal day. Justin himself felt he could barely move, and the children were still too shocked to leave the table, though Justin wished they would. It was hard to face them looking so heart sore and forsaken, especially when he felt much the same way himself.

  “Where did she go?” Joe Junior asked.

  “I don’t know,” Justin said honestly. She had simply vanished. On the children’s bed, she had left her new dress and hat, Mary’s ring and a much read copy of Charles Dickens.

  His older nephew was thunderstruck. “How could you just let her go? Why didn’t she tell me where she was headed?”

  “I don’t know,” Justin repeated. It could have been his blanket answer for every question this morning.
>
  Because while everything—Ivy’s betrayal, his righteous anger—had seemed crystal clear last night, this morning matters were much fuzzier in his mind. Had Ivy really been hanging about the place waiting for her lover? By the clear light of day, that didn’t ring true. Especially not when he remembered their kisses. But there had been that letter.

  That letter he hadn’t been able to find when he’d returned from his walk last night. Probably she’d taken it with her.

  Why?

  Because it was from Zack, her husband to be. The term irked him. He had thought he himself was on the verge of being her husband. He’d thought his whole life was about to change. His whole life had changed! And now he felt he was being dragged back into a solitary existence he didn’t want to return to.

  Except now he wasn’t exactly solitary. He had three grumpy, upset, devastated kids to deal with. Linus sobbed loudly into his uneaten flapjacks.

  “Linus, why don’t you go play on your rocking chair?”

  The boy rubbed his fists against his red eyes and shrilled, “I don’t wannaaa…” The bellowed words strung out into a long wail.

  Sophie, who had been staring at Justin—those big eyes of hers grating on his nerves as not even Linus’s crying could—finally spoke up. “Do you think Ivy left because I let Princess Cornelia take her place in bed?”

  The sad little question nearly made him crumble. “No,” Justin bit out, then realized he’d answered too harshly. “I mean, you can’t blame yourself for this, Sophie. None of you are to blame for Ivy leaving.”

  Joe Junior shot him a glare. “Then who is?” His glower at Justin, however, seemed to answer his own question.

  I am, Justin should have gone ahead and said. / am completely at fault.

  But part of him chafed at admitting guilt for this. He’d been betrayed by a woman before—with his own brother. And after all, he didn’t really know Ivy Ryan, except for three measly weeks. What could twenty-one days teach a man about a woman?

  Everything, a voice inside him scolded. Those few days they’d had together had showed him that she had green eyes that could melt his heart, a tumble of red hair he ached to run his hands through; that she had a beautiful smile worth coaxing out of her, and a quick, tough spirit that was as fierce as a bear when it came to something she felt strongly about. Like these kids. Like telling him he was wrong, which he so often was.

  Did that man Zack really mean nothing to her? And if he didn’t, why had she taken the man’s letter with her?

  Sophie pushed back her chair and stood. She was glaring at Justin now, too, just like Joe Junior. Come on, Linus. You and me can go look at that book Ivy left us—that one about Mr. Scrooge!”

  After the two had left, Joe Junior asked in a tight, proud voice, “Is the pony still mine?”

  Justin looked up, astounded. “Of course, he is. That hasn’t changed. Nothing has.”

  But those last words rang hollow even in his own ears. Everything had changed. Nothing in the house felt right without Ivy.

  “I’m going looking for her!” Joe Junior said, turning and running for the door.

  Justin sighed and got up to follow him. He didn’t want Joe riding around upset.

  But as he reached the door, John Tall Tree stopped him. The cook had been standing in the corner of the kitchen watching them all morning, not saying a word. But now he spoke to Justin directly and forcefully, “Let the boy go. It would do him good to ride swiftly and get out his anger toward you.”

  “Towards me?” Justin said defensively. “But I didn’t do anything!”

  John shook his head. “You have committed the gravest offense to man everywhere.”

  “What?”

  “You have been an idiot.”

  Justin let out a ragged sigh and nearly started yelling in his defense when, as proof of his words, John Tall Tree held up Zack Hamilton’s letter.

  “Where did you get that?” Justin asked, shocked. He’d thought Ivy had taken it with her!

  “Off the floor in the parlor last night. You argued loudly, my friend. Naturally I wanted to see what the commotion was about.”

  Justin was stunned. “You shouldn’t have read that!”

  “That is your opinion,” John replied. “My opinion is that you should have read it more carefully. You would see that this relationship is not what you think. That this Zack Who Cannot Spell—” he spoke the name with disdain “—is not a man a woman like Ivy could love.”

  “Ha!” Justin snapped.

  “And if you looked into your own heart more carefully, you would see that it did not matter. Would you spend the next twelve years regretting letting another woman walk out on you for a man who did not deserve her?”

  Speechless, Justin snatched the letter out of John’s hands. As he read it, he felt his heart sink in his chest. John was correct. There was something suspicious sounding in the man’s only contacting Ivy after she had sent money home. And what was this about the police catching her for something he had done? He began to get angry. Was this man really coming after her? No wonder she had run…no wonder…

  He looked up at John. “Wait. You picked up this letter?”

  John nodded.

  “Then Ivy…?”

  “She was content to leave the letter for kindling.”

  Justin felt panic race through him. What was he going to do?

  Fortunately John had a plan. “The hands have hitched your wagon,” he informed Justin, pulling out his chair. “It is waiting. No doubt Ivy has not left Mrs. Tubbs’s boardinghouse in Wishbone.”

  Justin tilted his head. “How do you know where she is?”

  “Because that is where I took her last night.” To Justin’s surprised glance, he replied, “I could not let her walk all that way, and she would not hear of staying under your roof another night.”

  The words lit a fire under Justin. He grabbed his hat and coat off the peg by the door, then went back to call the children from their room.

  John looked disapproving. “You are taking Sophie and Linus?”

  Justin nodded. “Sophie, Linus, the hands, even you!” he replied. “We need to round up Joe Junior. If Ivy won’t forgive me and agree to be my wife, then you all are just going to have to help me wrestle her into the wagon and bring her back anyway!”

  John considered the matter, then nodded in resignation and turned to the door. “Unfortunately, white men often seem to need help in matters of romance,” he agreed sadly.

  Ivy stood on the sidewalk, looking into the mercantile, which was now closed. It was late morning, her feet were tired and her head ached, but she didn’t know where else to walk. She’d been going crazy in the tiny room at Mrs. Tubbs’s house. It was a nice place, but Mrs. Tubbs had stared curiously at the strange young woman who’d arrived at her doorstep so early on a Christmas morning, weeping and distraught. Ivy couldn’t blame the woman for thinking she was peculiar.

  So she’d gone out walking—and going over and over questions she had no answers to. What was she going to do? She said she was waiting for the stage, but even when it got here she didn’t know where she would go. And how she would pay her way? She needed to think about how she would get by, but right now she couldn’t concentrate. Once again she seemed to have hit rock bottom, only she was almost too stunned, too heartbroken to care.

  She was weary and worn-out from spending half the night bouncing between self-recrimination and full-out anger at Justin. She was so tired that all she could do now was peer forlornly into the mercantile, where she’d been so giddy and joyful just days before, and marvel at how a cup so overflowing with happiness could be drained dry so quickly.

  She heard wagon wheels and hoof beats behind her, and when she looked into the glass she saw the Bar M’s wagon driving up—filled to the brim with people!

  “Ivy!” Linus yelled at the top of his little lungs as the wagon pulled up behind her. The boy looked like he might jump out of the vehicle, but he was stopped by John Tall Tree. Everyone w
as crammed into that wagon!

  “Stay here,” John instructed the fidgeting child. “Your uncle needs to talk to Ivy alone.”

  Ivy simultaneously felt her heart race and her back stiffen defensively at that prospect. What did Justin have to say to her? Was he coming here to say he was sorry, to ask her back? Impossible! She couldn’t imagine him apologizing, which would have necessitated admitting he was wrong.

  And yet he hadn’t been wrong. She had also been to blame for not telling him who she was and why she’d come to Texas. She had been using him, just not the way he’d said. It hadn’t been so intentional, so ugly, as he’d said.

  Meeting her eyes, he stepped out of the carriage and approached her cautiously. When he was about a foot away from her, he tilted up his hat brim.

  In return, she tilted up her chin. After last night, it was hard to look into those dark eyes and not remember the angry words he’d hurled at her. The accusations.

  “Well?” she said. “The store is closed.”

  “I didn’t come here to go to the store and you know it,” he said, a little irritation in his voice.

  His tone got her ire up. “Then why did you come here?”

  “I don’t know! You’re the prickliest woman I’ve ever known!”

  A loud cough sounded from the wagon, and when they both turned, everyone was peering at them worriedly. John Tall Tree shot Justin a warning glance.

  “I’d like to say hello to the children,” Ivy said, brushing past Justin.

  “Hold your horses,” he said, stopping her. He held her arm, and she felt her cheeks glow from the mere touch of his hand. “I’ve got something to say to you.”

  She crossed her arms, partly because she was shaking, partly out of shock. He was going to apologize! She could see it in his eyes.

  “I—” His face seemed to twist in pain, and his forehead was creased.

  All of the sudden, Ivy felt as if all the anger had been sucked out of her. He’d come this far, was trying so hard. She could at least meet him halfway. “No, Vm sorry,” she interrupted. “Last night was as much my fault as yours. More, even. I should have told you all about myself from the beginning. Then it would have been clear that Zack meant nothing to me.”