He paced the room some more, sweat beading his forehead. A sinking feeling engulfed him, of being trapped in a nightmare from which there was no way out. He had to find the reverend and demand that the old man send him back to the future. He no longer belonged here in this time. He knew where his place in the world was, after wandering all his life. He’d found what gave his life meaning and a purpose, and dammit, he couldn’t simply stand by and not fight to get that back.
Gabe rushed to the door and yanked it open. If the reverend had brought him here to this saloon, maybe has was still somewhere nearby. He had to find him, demand that he send him back to Morgan.
The air was thick with cigarette smoke, and Gabe coughed. Before he could step into the hall, Cora’s familiar voice, a voice he hadn’t heard in more than two years, drifted from the other room. She laughed.
“I made sure that my son hates you until the day you die,” her muffled voice spat viciously. “He has no idea who you are, but I made sure that if he ever meets you, he’d just as soon shoot you, and you’ll never know his name, Jonas.”
Gabe straightened. His heart pounded fiercely in his chest. He stood on numb legs, and swayed against the wall to steady himself.
Jonas! A sudden surge of anger swept through him, and he had a mind to rush into that room and demand answers to the questions that had haunted him all his life. The man’s next words stopped him in his tracks.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me I had a son by you, Cora?” the man asked loudly, but there was a defeated tone in his voice.
Cora laughed coldly. “You left my bed for that pretty little whore, Lizzy. I was going to tell you that I was with child, but you’d already married her before I ever got the chance.”
Gabe moved closer to the door to his mother’s room to listen better. The walls were paper thin, and he had no trouble hearing, even over the noise from the saloon below.
“I would have provided for you and the child you bore. I was in love with Lizzy, but I would have gotten you out of Clay’s. You had no right to keep such a thing from me.”
“Don’t tell me about my rights, Jonas Monroe. I was good enough for you, until Lizzy came along.”
“You always told me you weren’t the kind of woman who’d want to get married. You said you enjoyed your life the way it was.”
She scoffed. “I suppose that changed when I got knocked up, and had another mouth to feed.”
“I would have taken him, and raised him.” Jonas’ voice grew louder in anger.
Cora laughed scornfully. “Oh, I know you would have raised him. You always talked about wanting a large family. When I heard that Lizzy was barren after she bore you a son, I’m sure you must have been heartbroken. She even told me so herself when she came to me all those years ago.”
She laughed some more. Gabe stood still, trying to make sense of what he was hearing.
“Lizzy came to you?” Jonas choked out the words.
“Some twelve years ago. Somehow she found out about my boy, and she begged me to tell her who he was, and to let you know. She said you’d be overjoyed to hear that you had another child. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Feet scuffled on the wooden floor inside the room.
“Lizzy sent me a letter, saying she’d gone back to her old life, that she was done being a rancher’s wife, and I shouldn’t bother to come looking for her.”
Gabe had to strain his ears to hear the man’s words. He sounded defeated, beaten, and utterly in despair.
Cora laughed. “I wrote that letter. I was always good at copying someone else’s penmanship.”
“What happened to my wife, Cora?” Jonas demanded, apparently having found his voice.
Cora chuckled triumphantly. “She had an unfortunate accident, I’m afraid.”
“You killed her?” he roared. “All these years, I believed she’d left me. Left me, and Tyler. And now I come to find out you killed her? And you denied me the right to know that I have another son?”
“Control your temper, Jonas, or Franklin will be up here with his shotgun. I think it’s time for you to leave. If you want to kill me, go ahead. I’m already dying, so it won’t really matter none to me.”
“I’ve been dead since my wife left.”
“Go back to that horse ranch of yours, Jonas. Pine away for Lizzy there. I‘m sure you’ll be together again when it’s your time to meet your maker. Now get out. I done told you what I wanted you to know before I die.”
“Tell me about my other son,” he demanded heatedly.
“It’s too late for that. He thinks you didn’t want him. He’s hated you since the first time he asked me about his daddy.”
“I cared about you. I even offered to get you out of Clay’s, and help you become a respectable woman.”
“But you never once asked me to marry you, like you did with Lizzy,” Cora said scornfully. “Now get the hell out of my sight, before I call Franklin to fill your belly with buckshot.”
The door opened to the room, and Gabe stood rooted to the spot. He was too numb to move. A man emerged, but didn’t look up. He slowly headed down the staircase, his head hung low. His father! Gabe shot a quick glance at the room.
What he’d heard still hadn’t completely sunk in. All his life, Cora had led him to believe that Jonas didn’t want him, but what he’d just heard contradicted all that. He’d always known that his mother couldn’t get over Jonas rejecting her, and her child. After what he’d just heard, Jonas never even knew he existed, until now. This was Cora’s attempt to extract her final bit of revenge.
Gabe stared at nothing in particular. The man who was his father disappeared down the stairs. He looked at the door that led to his mother’s room. She’d been hateful and bitter toward Jonas all her life, and she’d successfully managed to instill all that hatred in him as well.
Anger at his mother surged through him. He stepped forward, ready to confront her about what he’d heard. Then he stopped. What good would it do now? Cora was dying, and now he’d been given a chance to hear the real story, rather than what she’d told him when he came to pay his last respects. Gabe looked toward the staircase again. He could follow the man who was his father, a father who wanted to know him, who hadn’t even known he existed.
Gabe hurried down the hall, and the stairs to the saloon below. He glanced around the smoke-filled room. Men sat at tables, playing cards, a piano played in the corner, and Franklin stood at the bar, serving drinks to several cowboys who looked to have just come off the range. The man who had left his mother’s room was nowhere to be seen.
He rushed from the crowded saloon, ignoring Flo’s calls to come see her later. He stepped out onto the wooden boardwalk, and nearly collided with someone.
“Beg your pardon,” Gabe said, stepping back.
He forced the lump that had formed down his dry throat. He stood face to face with . . . his father. They were the same height, with the same dark hair, although his father’s hair was sprinkled with gray. His body wasn’t as stout and filled out, the muscles those of an older man. When he looked into his father’s eyes, he was met with a watery, sad stare.
“No harm done, son. It was my fault,” Jonas said.
Gabe stood, too stunned for words. Son.
The older man offered a haunted smile, then turned toward the street, where several horses were tied to the hitching rail. He mounted a chestnut, and without another glance, headed up the dark street. Gabe stared after him.
Why hadn’t he said something to the man he’d never had the chance to meet? He should go after him, tell him he was his son. He’d told Cora that he wanted to know his son. Some unknown force held him back.
Morgan’s face flashed before his eyes. Her soft smile, her tender words of love.
You can’t change your past, but you can change your future.
Gabe closed his eyes for a second and clenched his jaw. He’d never see her again. He continued to stare after his father, who quickly disappeared into the d
arkness. Indecision gripped him.
Should he go after his father or try and find the reverend? This was his chance to change his entire future here in the time in which he belonged. He shook his head. He didn’t belong here. His future was with Morgan. The past had already happened.
Gabe headed up the boardwalk, unsure of where to go. He wasn’t going back into the saloon. He should confront Cora, demand to know why she’d lied to him all his life, but he’d already heard the answer. She’d been a jealous, bitter woman, and he was merely a pawn in her scheme to seek her revenge on Jonas. What purpose would it serve to confront her? Morgan had taught him to let go of his bitterness and need for vengeance.
He headed toward the church near the end of town. Maybe the reverend was there. Jonas was no doubt heading home to the Double M. If he wasn’t mistaken, it was about a two days ride from here. He’d figure out a way to get there, walk if he had to, if he couldn’t find the reverend.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Morgan took the porch steps two at a time to reach the front door of the Double M ranch house. She knocked firmly, and rang the bell several times. The maid, who’d opened the door for her the last time she was here, stared at her, wide-eyed, when she pulled the door open.
“Where’s Bryce?” Morgan demanded. She bounced Logan on her hip.
“I think he’s in his study, on a business call,” the girl said, lifting her chin in a haughty gesture.
“I need to see him. Now.”
The young woman frowned, but stepped aside to let her enter. “You can wait in the living room,” she said, a hint of an attitude in her tone. “I’ll let him know you’re here.”
Morgan stepped into the large room, glancing at the painting of the horse hanging over the fireplace. What did she hope to gain by coming here? Her first thought after Gabe hadn’t come back from the drive was that Bryce had somehow met Gabe out in the hills and said or done something.
She shook her head at the ridiculousness of her thoughts, but she wanted to talk to Bryce anyway. She’d spent a sleepless night pacing her room already, and just sitting around, not knowing, was killing her.
Morgan set Logan on the ground with his toy horse and some crackers, then leafed through the leather-bound book of the Double M’s history again, looking more closely at the older photos. Had the reverend sent Gabe back to 1872, like Jake seemed to think? If he had, would she ever see him again?
She touched her finger to Gabe’s photograph. Had he wanted to go home? He had been adapting so well to things in this time, but maybe he was happier in his old life, where things were familiar to him.
Morgan wiped at the tears that trickled down her cheeks. Gabe loved her, she was absolutely convinced of it. He wouldn’t have simply left without coming to tell her first. He’d asked her to marry him, and he’d given no indication that he’d changed his mind.
“Morgan? What brings you out here?”
Morgan wheeled around at the sound of Bryce’s clipped voice. He wore a frown. She swiped a hasty hand across her face. Bryce’s gaze went from her to Logan.
“Where did you go the other day after you left the Trails End?” She advanced on him.
Bryce raised his brows. “I drove back here. I was told, in a not-so-polite way by your new boyfriend to leave, remember?” he sneered. “Why are you asking me where I went?”
Morgan swallowed. She wasn’t ready yet to accuse him outright that he may have played a hand in Gabe’s disappearance.
“Because I know you’re not used to being put in your place by anyone, so I figured you must have been pretty mad.”
Bryce advanced on her. “Who is he, Morgan? And why didn’t you tell me you were seeing someone else, or . . . hell, that you’re getting married?”
“I didn’t think my social life was any of your business, Bryce. And I think you’re smart enough to figure out who he is on your own.” She glared up at him. “For the record, I didn’t know that he’s connected to the Double M until after I left here the last time.”
Bryce’s lips curled, almost in a snarl. “He’s the man I’ve had P.I.’s looking for all this time? Some dusty cowboy, right under my nose? Why the hell hasn’t he come forward already?”
“He didn’t know about his inheritance, but he’s ready to claim it, so you can forget about petitioning the courts to challenge that will.”
“He’d better have some proof of who he is,” Bryce scoffed. “Do you really think I’m just going to hand over half of this place to someone who says he’s the man on the title?”
Morgan laughed. “No, I figured you wouldn’t play nice. Don’t worry. He has proof of who he is.”
“So why isn’t he here himself? Why’d he send you? He threatened to beat me up if I so much as look your way. You can tell him that if he threatens me again, I’ll have my lawyers crawling all over his ass.”
Morgan looked up at Bryce, studying his face. There was no indication that he knew anything about Gabe going missing.
“As soon as he’s ready, he’ll come meet you face-to-face.” Morgan fought back the tears. Hopefully her words would hold true.
“Morgan.” Bryce reached for her arm. “I wanted things to work out between us.” He wore a serious expression on his face, and actually sounded sincere.
She glared at him. “You blew that chance when you hit me. I can forgive a lot, but not that.” With a shake of her head and a quick glance at her son playing at her feet, she added, “Besides, you’re not a family man, Bryce. You can’t even relate to your own son.” Her voice cracked slightly.
“I could, if you’d let me spend more time with him,” Bryce said forcefully. “I still plan to file for joint custody.”
“Time? You said yourself you have no time for him,” Morgan scoffed. “If you want to do something nice for once in your life, Bryce, allow me and Gabe to raise Logan. He adores Gabe. I’d never deny you to see your son, but neither you nor Logan would be happy with each other. You’d do well to follow Gabe’s advice and learn more about your ancestors. It’s because of them that you have your wealth, after all.”
Her cell phone rang, and she reached into her back pocket, and held the phone to her ear.
“Miss Morgan Bartlett?” the caller asked in a loud voice.
“Yes?”
“This is the police.”
* * * * *
Gabe pulled his horse to a stop atop the rise that led to a sprawling ranch in the valley below. The livery owner in Landry had been nice enough to lend him one, after Gabe had mucked some stalls and mended some broken corral fences. After an unsuccessful search for the reverend, he’d decided to head for the Double M. Maybe the old man had gone there himself, since he had to send Laney back to her time.
He shook his head. No, this was 1870, two years before Gabe’s plan to ruin Tyler would be set in motion. There was no reason for the reverend to be here now. More than likely, he’d traveled ahead to 1872 already to give Tyler and Laney the bad news that he would be sending her home to her time.
Despair had waged war with indecision for the last three days. Without the reverend, there was no possible way for Gabe to return to the future. If he found the old man, he’d demand to be sent back. After all, he’d successfully forced Laney to the future. He’d make the same threats again, if needed, to get himself sent back, as well.
Gabe had hitched a ride with a freighter the day after arriving in the small one-horse town where the reverend had sent him. He hadn’t bothered going back to the Daisy Mae. He had no desire to see Cora again. His first impulse had been to go to her and tell her that he’d overheard everything she’d said to Jonas.
Visions of Morgan had stopped him. She would have told him to let it go, to stop letting anger and hatred rule him. It was too late to undo his entire life. All he could do was look to the future. Cora would die a bitter and lonely woman. That would be punishment enough for her.
It was still a mystery to him what, exactly, he would do once he arrived at the Double M.
Would his father really welcome him with open arms? This could be his chance to make right all the things he’d done to Tyler. Gabe nudged his horse down the slope, his heart pounding with anticipation. Halfway down the hill, he was still undecided whether to reveal his identity.
A large gathering of buggies and people, under a grove of trees a short distance from one of the outlying barns, caught his eye. Everyone was dressed in black. Gabe’s stomach churned. If his memory served him right, Jonas had been buried there along with his wife, Lizzy. What he saw now was a funeral.
Jonas had hanged himself a year before Gabe arrived at the Double M . . . in 1870. He’d wanted to confront his father then, but the man had already been dead, and Gabe’s hatred had fallen on Tyler.
Comprehension dawned on him as to the reason why Jonas had hanged himself. It had to have been over his conversation with Cora. A new wave of dread hit him. Jonas Monroe had hanged himself because he’d found out he had another son, who supposedly hated him because of a lie Cora had told him?
“Damn you, Cora,” he said between clenched teeth, then cursed himself.
Why hadn’t he talked to Jonas when he bumped into him outside the Daisy Mae? He could have prevented this.
You can’t change your past, but you can change your future.
Morgan’s words haunted him. His past had already happened, but he could at least take this opportunity and pay his last respects to the man. Gabe nudged his horse along. No one paid him any attention when he stood off at the back of the large gathering of people who’d come to bid Jonas Monroe goodbye. Most people were ranchers, and folks from town. Gabe was a stranger to them, but they were all familiar to him.
Tyler stood with an older woman, Myra Hansen, near the casket, his hat in his hand, and his head hung low. Myra wailed loudly next to him, and hugged his arm. Gabe swallowed. Although Tyler looked sad, it was nothing compared to the look of despair he’d had the day he returned from a horse delivery to find out that his wife was missing.
Diamond in the Dust (Second Chances Time Travel Romance Book 3) Page 24
