Diamond in the Dust (Second Chances Time Travel Romance Book 3)

by Peggy L Henderson

  “They do?” Morgan laughed.

  She leaned forward and quickly scanned his face, cocking her head to the side and appraising him with interest. Gabe’s eyes narrowed. What the hell was a bio dad?

  “I’m pretty sure that Gabe and my ex have absolutely nothing in common, Sonja.”

  “It was just my first impression,” Sonja said, and smiled broadly. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you with my comment.” The woman clasped her hands together. She cleared her throat. “Well, you must be exhausted from the long drive. I’ll show you to your room. We’re so grateful that you’re here to help out this summer. My daughter-in-law, Rachel, is expecting my second grandchild in about a month. That, and her two-year-old daughter and three nephews, keep her plenty busy.”

  She looked at Gabe. “My husband and one of my sons are at a cattle auction in Butte this week. They’re usually the ones who hire new wranglers and ranch hands, but my other son, Jake, can talk to you.”

  “Much obliged, ma’am.” Gabe removed his hat.

  Sonja nodded, then led the way up the wide porch to the house. Was he supposed to follow them into this grand home?

  “Would you like me to bring your luggage and the boy’s crib?” he called to Morgan.

  She turned to Mrs. Owens, who nodded. Glad to be doing something useful, Gabe turned back to the truck and pulled Morgan’s bag and crib from the bed. Feeling rather self-conscious for the first time in his life, he followed the women into the house.

  * * * * *

  “One of our regular seasonal wranglers decided to run off and get married a couple of weeks ago. She called me the other day and said she wasn’t going to be able to work this summer.”

  Gabe’s eyebrows rose. “A woman wrangler?”

  “Yeah,” Jake Owens said slowly, appraising him with slightly narrowed eyes.

  After Gabe brought Morgan’s luggage into one of the upstairs bedrooms of the ranch house, Mrs. Owens had called her son on the phone to come and talk to him about a potential job. She’d offered him a glass of lemonade while they waited for the man to show up at the house. When he did, Morgan had introduced them, after they greeted each other like a couple of old friends. Mrs. Owens had then whisked Morgan away to give her a tour of the home.

  Gabe returned Jake’s stare, taking the man’s measure. Of similar height as he, Jake’s brown hair was cropped short to where the ends stood up rather than lay flat. He didn’t wear a hat, and certainly didn’t look much like a ranch foreman, at least none that he was used to dealing with. He’d gripped his hand in a firm shake, and looked him squarely in the eyes. The man carried himself with confidence, and he wore an easy smile. They had to be close in age.

  “You got a problem with women wranglers, McFarlain?” he finally asked. His eyes drifted to the collar of Gabe’s shirt.

  “I ain’t ever had the pleasure of working with a woman wrangler,” Gabe answered truthfully.

  “Where have you worked?”

  Jake led him down the porch of the house toward the barns. Horses stood dozing in several of the pens they passed. Gabe inhaled a deep breath. The familiar smell of fresh hay and horses eased the tension in him slightly.

  “Pretty much everywhere in Montana Terri . . . Montana. Latest place was at a spread called the Double M.” He wasn’t going to lie about his former places of employment.

  “The Double M?” Jake’s brows rose.

  “You know the place?” Something jolted in Gabe’s gut.

  “Biggest horse ranch in these parts. They used to breed some fine thoroughbreds, but I haven’t heard much about them lately. What’d you do there?”

  So, the Double M was still around, and by the sounds of it, had remained prosperous. Gabe was about to say he’d been Tyler Monroe’s foreman, but he reined in his words just in time. “Broke horses and general farm chores,” he answered instead.

  “Why’d you leave?”

  Gabe had expected the question, but if he answered truthfully, he might as well pack up and move on.

  “Got itchy feet,” he said, and looked Jake Owens in the eye.

  His muscles tensed. How the hell was he ever going to find work anywhere? The look in Jake’s stare told him he didn’t believe his vague answer. If he was honest, and told a prospective employer that he’d been responsible for the death of a dozen foals and yearlings, and had wanted to see the ruination of his boss’ ranch, who in their right mind would hire him?

  “Itchy enough to leave Montana and head to California?” Jake laughed. Gabe cursed under his breath.

  “Been there myself, Gabe, and it didn’t turn out well for me.” Jake’s face sobered.

  “Didn’t turn out so well for me, either,” Gabe confessed.

  “Looks like you met a nice girl.” Jake’s grin was back. “How’d you meet up with someone like Morgan Bartlett?”

  Gabe smirked. “She found me lying in the desert, half dead.”

  Jake studied him some more, his eyes lingering on his hat, then his shirt, his denims, and all the way to his well-worn boots. What was he looking for?

  “The job doesn’t pay as much as you most likely made at the Double M,” Jake said slowly, still gauging him. “Two-thousand dollars a month if you live off the property, twelve-hundred if you want room and board. We offer private cabins to some of our wranglers who live at the ranch.”

  Gabe’s eyes widened. “Twelve-hundred dollars? I ain’t seen that kind of money in all my life.” Too late, he realized what he’d said. Was twelve-hundred dollars a large sum of money? It sounded like a fortune, more money than he’d earned in his life. Recalling some of the prices on the cars Morgan had looked at, or the cost of food and other small items, it didn’t seem like a whole lot in this time.

  Jake stared at him some more, as if he was trying to see right through him.

  “When did you say you worked at the Double M?” he finally asked.

  Gabe cursed under his breath. “I didn’t say.”

  “And you decided to leave and head to California, then somehow ended up half-dead in the desert, Morgan found you, and now you’ve come back? Why?”

  Gabe ran a hand along his jaw. “Look, Owens, I ain’t crooked. I just need a job. I know my way around horses, and--”

  “Can you drive a tractor, or other farm equipment?”

  “Can I . . . what?” Gabe’s heart sank to the pit of his stomach. As far as he was concerned, this interview was over.

  “You ever driven a long-eared chuck wagon?” Jake asked.

  Gabe laughed in surprise. Now there was a familiar term. “Not more than once or twice. I ain’t dealt with mules in years, and I usually ride drag on a drive, not do the cookin’.”

  Jake shook his head, then smiled. “I never thought I’d see the day,” he said, almost to himself. “I thought that was all behind us.”

  “What are you talking about?” Gabe couldn’t help but ask. The man’s stare was downright disconcerting, as if he’d seen a ghost.

  “McFarlain, I think there’s someone you should meet. Someone with whom – if my hunch is correct - you’ve got a lot in common. Hell,” he chuckled. “I think you and I have a lot in common, too.”

  Gabe’s forehead wrinkled. The man wasn’t making any sense. “Who do you want me to meet?”

  Jake faced him squarely. “My wife.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Does the name Reverend Johnson ring a bell?”

  Gabe stared for a moment when Jake Owens asked the question.

  “You know him?” he asked tentatively, rather than answer outright.

  Jake’s smile widened. “What year are you from, Gabe?”

  “How do you know about that?”

  Gabe’s heart began to pound faster, and sweat beaded his forehead. Morgan couldn’t have told him that he was from another time, unless she’d done so in a phone conversation before they arrived here at the ranch. Why would she have done that? She herself didn’t believe that he came from the past.

  Jake
glanced over his shoulder, then motioned with his chin for Gabe to follow him.

  “Your clothes, and the way you talk, mainly. Obviously my hunch is right. And, I doubt very few people here would know what a long-eared chuck wagon is.”

  “You’re sayin’ it’s happened to you, too? You came here from the nineteenth century?” Gabe stared in disbelief. Jake Owens was from his time?

  Jake shook his head. “No. I got sent to the nineteenth century. To make a long story short, I was sent to the past by Reverend Johnson to straighten out my life. I made some bad choices a few years ago. I met my wife, Rachel, in 1848.” He glanced over his shoulder again. “No one other than my brother knows about this, so I’d rather continue this conversation up at the house.”

  Gabe nodded, dumbfounded. Wordlessly, he followed Jake Owens to the smaller home, and into the kitchen, where Jake introduced him to his wife.

  Rachel Owens was a dark-haired woman, heavy with child. She held her hand to her lower back, and welcomed him into her home. Her simple braid hung down her back in the fashion he’d seen farm girls wear in his time. Her face was devoid of the paint he’d seen on so many women here, and her dress was modest by the standards of the time he was in now – not quite covering all of her ankle, and the sleeves reaching half-way down her arms. Her plain appearance didn’t distract from her gentle beauty, and her cheeks glowed with a natural rosy hue.

  Jake kissed his wife’s cheek, and ran a hand over her swollen belly. She favored him with a soft smile, then raised a questioning eyebrow at Gabe.

  “I’d like you to meet Gabe McFarlain, Rachel. It appears our old friend, the good Reverend Johnson, has been granting second chances again.”

  Her eyes widened. She stepped forward, and held out her hand.

  “How do you do, Mr. McFarlain,” she said, a note of awe in her tone.

  “All right, considering I’m here in this time.”

  Gabe mentally shook his head. This was a most fortunate turn of events. These people would understand him. His tight muscles relaxed.

  “Reverend Johnson sent you to this time?” Rachel asked. “I suppose if he can send someone to the past for a second chance, he could send someone to the future for the same purpose.”

  Jake pulled a chair out from under the kitchen table, and told his wife to sit, then motioned for Gabe to do the same.

  Gabe took a seat across from the couple, his eyes darting from one to the other. Jake Owens had time traveled to the nineteenth century, and brought back a wife? And she looked perfectly happy and adjusted, from what he could tell.

  Laney was happy in the past, too. Where the hell does that leave you, McFarlain?

  “He sent me here without my knowin’,” Gabe answered, not bothering to conceal the anger in his tone.

  Jake and Rachel exchanged perplexed looks. “How did he send you here without you knowing about it? Weren’t you given an assignment of sorts?” Jake asked.

  Gabe scoffed. “An assignment? No. The old man sent me here to take my brother’s place.”

  Jake Owens’ forehead wrinkled. Apparently, something wasn’t making sense to him. “Your brother was sent to the future for a second chance?”

  “I don’t know anything about a second chance.” Gabe looked into the confused eyes of the couple. “My brother married a woman in 1872 who was sent to him from the future by the reverend.” He hesitated, and ran a hand along his jaw. “I forced the reverend to send her back to this time.”

  Gabe’s eyes didn’t waver as he stared across the table at the two people who perhaps understood what he was going through. Confusion was etched in their eyes. He opted for telling them the truth. When he finished his tale of how he’d planned to ruin his brother, and how his entire plan had backfired on him in the end, he was met with silent stares. Rachel Owens placed her hand over her husband’s. She smiled first, then glanced from Jake to Gabe.

  “If there’s one thing Jake knows anything about, it’s deserving a second chance after making some bad choices,” she said softly. “It looks like the reverend has sent you here for the same reason.”

  “He didn’t send me here for some chance at redemption,” Gabe replied adamantly. “I’m stuck here for good. I ain’t ever going back. That’s what he told me.”

  “Seems like the reverend has been breaking a lot of his own rules,” Jake finally spoke up.

  “Rules?” Gabe’s forehead scrunched in confusion.

  “When I finished my assignment in 1848, I told the reverend that I didn’t want to come back to this time if Rachel couldn’t come with me. He told me that’s not how time travel works, that I would automatically be sent back here. And Rachel couldn’t come to the future because she wasn’t chosen for a second chance, and that we should have never fallen in love.”

  Gabe shook his head. “He sent Laney to the past to marry Tyler. He hadn’t planned for her to come back to the future.”

  “But you forced her to come back to the future? And then the reverend sent Tyler to get her back? And he sent you along with him? Where’s your brother now?” Jake Owens looked even more confused.

  Gabe scoffed. “The reverend sent him and Laney back to 1872. And I’m stuck here for good.”

  Jake smirked. “Like I said, he seems to enjoy breaking his own rules. He told me he couldn’t force someone to stay in the time he sent them to if they didn’t want to stay. I could have chosen to go back home without completing my assignment, but my life here wouldn’t have changed for the better.”

  Gabe’s chest ignited with sudden hope. Would the reverend have to send him back if he demanded it? He shook his head. He’d already made that demand of the old man the day he showed up at Ashley’s house. The reverend had been adamant that he was here in this time to stay.

  “If I had chosen not to complete my assignment, I would have been sent back home, but I still would have had the same messed up life I had before I met the Reverend,” Jake continued.

  The conversation Gabe had overheard between the reverend and Laney when he first learned her secret sounded similar to what Jake was telling him.

  “He told Laney about the same thing,” he said slowly.

  “If you can find the reverend, and if you really want to go home, there has to be a way that he can send you back.” By the sound of Jake’s voice, he didn’t seem to care much for the reverend. Another thing they had in common.

  “I ain’t seen him since the day I got here. He showed up on Morgan’s doorstep the day after she found me.”

  Jake smirked again. “Well, he seemed to know how to find you. Sooner or later, he’ll show up again, mark my word.” He looked Gabe in the eye, and smiled. “For now, you have a job here and a place to stay.”

  Gabe stood, and reached a hand across the table. Jake shook it.

  “Much obliged.”

  “Did you leave someone behind? A sweetheart, or a wife?”

  Rachel’s innocent question startled him momentarily. The mention of a sweetheart immediately conjured images of Morgan. He’d be leaving her behind if he found a way to get back to his time.

  She ain’t your sweetheart, dammit.

  “No,” he said hastily. “I ain’t never met a woman who’d want to be hitched to the likes of me.”

  Rachel nodded. “Well, at least you aren’t pining for someone, or someone is waiting for you. I remember how I felt when Jake was taken away. I thought I’d never see him again, and that my heart would break.”

  Gabe studied her. Her appearance, the way she spoke, and her mannerisms, were more familiar to him than anyone else he’d met in this time.

  “How do you get by in this time?” he asked slowly.

  Rachel smiled. “It was all very frightening at first. Since my brother passed away, I had his children with me, and I didn’t know what to expect after the reverend gave us the concoction to drink that would send us here. It was all a big relief once I found Jake. I can’t imagine what it must be like for you, not knowing anyone.”

 
Gabe straightened, and cleared his throat. “I’ve always done things on my own. I ain’t never relied on anyone.”

  “He had some help, sweetheart.” Jake grinned at her, then at Gabe. “Morgan Bartlett, the one who’s here to help out while you take it easy, brought him here.”

  Rachel’s eyes widened. She looked at Gabe. “I remember Morgan. You told me she was a city slicker if you ever saw one.” Rachel laughed.

  Jake joined her. “Yeah, she didn’t know one end of a horse from another when she was here with Cousin Ashley.”

  Gabe’s eyes volleyed between the couple. The two of them looked completely happy and in love with each other. Another couple came to mind - Laney and Tyler. They’d been starry-eyed for each other the same way. An odd sense of emptiness crept through him. Morgan’s smiling face, the passion-filled look in her eyes last night, her admiring glances directed at him when she thought he hadn’t noticed, all tore at his insides.

  “Stop making fun of her, Jake.” Rachel scolded her husband. “I remember her as a sweet lady. Isn’t that right, Mr. McFarlain?”

  “Beg pardon?” Gabe focused his attention back to Rachel.

  “Morgan Bartlett. She’s a nice lady, yes?”

  “She is.” Gabe cleared his throat. “She’s done a lot for me.”

  “Does she know you come from the past?”

  “She knows, but she don’t believe it. I ain’t been able to convince her yet.”

  “Yet?” Jake’s eyebrows raised. “You’re trying to convince her? Best not tell anyone your story. The only person I ever told what had happened to me was my brother, Tom, and we agreed not to tell our folks. Tom came up with the idea of saying that Rachel and her nephews came from an Amish community. That’s how we explained away that she barely knew anything modern.”

  “Amish?”

  “They’re a group of people who’ve chosen to live like folks did in the nineteenth century,” Jake explained.

  “I ain’t plannin’ on telling anyone else, but Morgan already knows all about me. Whether she’ll choose to believe me or not, is up to her.”