Gabriel's Lady (Leisure Historical Romance)

by Charlotte Hubbard

  Gabe then crouched to solemnly shake the dog’s paw, eye-to-eye. When Rex placed both his paws on the man’s shoulders, darting in for a quick lick on his cheek, Solace’s heart fluttered. “That’s a high honor, Gabe. Rex doesn’t kiss just anybody, you know. We’re choosy about the company we keep.”

  She was teasing, trying to make Gabe feel more at ease. Yet when his dark eyes focused on her from between Rex’s fluffy ears, she saw an intensity she hadn’t expected.

  “The honor’s all mine, Solace. I-I’m flabbergasted at the way you can ride and—”

  “Well, we’ve gotta do what we can with what God gave us, don’t we?” she cut in before he got gushy. “I sure didn’t get any of Lily’s talent for singing or Gracie’s skills in teaching. So I ride horses and play with my dog. And maybe I can shoot a little, too,” she added as Billy approached them.

  “From what I can see, you’re an extraordinary teacher, Solace. Don’t sell yourself short, just because you don’t fit your sisters’ molds,” he replied quietly. “Watching you just now has brought me more joy than I’ve felt in a long while. I can foresee a day when you’ll amaze the hundreds of people you’ll perform for. Right, Billy?”

  “Yeah, well don’t encourage her,” his buddy teased as he handed her a big red apple. “This kid’s been threatenin’ to run off and join the circus since the first time she saw one, even though her folks’ve done all they could to tame her ambitions. We’ll see who wins.”

  Nipping her lip, Solace trotted to the barn for her pearl-handled pistols. These, too, were a gift from Billy—a special honor, because they’d once belonged to his father. But she was used to Billy’s playful praise and encouragement. It was Gabe Getty’s eloquence that echoed in her head now.

  Don’t sell yourself short…. more sheer joy…a day when you’ll amaze hundreds of people…

  Could those be the words of a man who’d married a beautiful, wealthy woman? Solace heard more than just surface admiration between Gabe’s lines. For a moment he’d forgotten to be anxious…had perhaps forgotten about losing his wife. He’d spoken straight from his heart about her talents and abilities.

  And her heart had certainly heard him. She couldn’t stop grinning as she took the more accurate of the two pistols from their case. For just a moment there, Gabe had looked, well—interested in her!

  But she set this sentimental claptrap aside. Gabe was still grieving, after all, and she couldn’t let a single stray thought distract her during this trick. Sure, she practiced it often with her faithful dog, but only one bad shot would end the love that sustained her. Long after Gabe moved on to a new job and probably a new wife, Rex and Lincoln and Lee would be her dearest friends.

  “You ready, Rex?” she called.

  His eyes lit up and his whole body wiggled.

  “You know the rules, fella. Gotta sit tight—no panting, and no looking around to see if everybody’s watching how wonderful you are,” she reminded him. “We save all the congratulations for later.”

  When Solace stroked his silky ears, he gazed at her with devotion only a dog could know. She marveled again at the beauty of the markings around his ears and eyes…his muscled, angel-white body. Rex sat regally still, muzzle up, as she positioned the apple on the flat of his head.

  “Real still now,” she murmured. She counted back about fifteen paces, not thinking about Billy and Gabe watching…not allowing potentially fatal consequences to cloud her inner vision, or to distract her from the perfection this trick required.

  Solace turned to face her dog. With slow, smooth moves from hours of practice with tin cans on a fence, she inhaled…raised her pistol and sighted with one eye closed on that big red apple. She said a quick, silent prayer as she exhaled. She squeezed the trigger.

  It took an eternity for the bullet to hit, no matter how many times she did this trick. She’d never missed, but she took nothing for granted. If a fly buzzed into Rex’s ear, it was all over.

  Thunk! The apple exploded into a hundred soft pieces.

  Rex let out a victory yip and dashed toward her—leaped—and she caught him in a triumphant hug. “Yes, yes, you were spectacular, boy!” she praised the wiggling, licking, ecstatic dog. “You brought the house down with that one!”

  Billy clapped wildly. He trotted over, throwing his arm around her and Rex to share their excitement, as he always did.

  But Gabe Getty’s reaction gave her pause. He yanked his eyeglasses from his pale face, as though he couldn’t bear to witness her marksmanship ever again. “What if you—Solace, how can you look into that dog’s eyes and fire—”

  “That’s rule number one, Gabe,” she corrected. “I never look Rex in the eye, and I never think—even for a second—that I won’t make the shot. One tiny doubt—one split-hair of hesitation—and Rex is out of his misery. It’s me who’s left to suffer.”

  The slender man beside Billy exhaled slowly, thinking about what she’d said. His hand went to Rex’s back from habit. He’d missed having a dog, by the looks of it, and it pleased her when her pet gazed up at him with obvious adoration. Dogs were excellent judges of character, after all.

  She didn’t move her hand when Gabe’s fingers brushed hers. He was stroking the dog, wasn’t he?

  “It’s all about trust,” she explained in a lighter voice. “I’m relying on Rex to hold absolutely still—he’s learned to focus as completely as I do. And he’s trusting me to do it right, every time. He lays his life on the line for me, Gabe,” she insisted. “If I feel one iota of doubt, I call off the shot. Because if I hit him, I’ll be putting the pistol to my own head next.”

  Billy clamped his hand playfully at the back of her neck. “Don’t you dare leave me behind to tell your mother and Mike what happened! I’d never forgive myself if—”

  “Why would you need to, Billy?” She hadn’t meant for the conversation to turn this serious, yet there was no dodging its direction. She shifted Rex’s warm weight in her arms, looking from one man to the other. “I’ve made my own choices about riding and shooting. I live with the danger of it every time I mount a horse or cock a gun, because it’s what I’m good at. No need to blame yourself if I’ve lived by my own decisions.”

  Billy’s brow furrowed. “Don’t you go talkin’ that way about—”

  “Why? Because I’m a girl?” Her heart thudded in her chest, but she had to say this plain out. Wouldn’t duck this issue just because it wasn’t ladylike. Solace shoved her unruly hair out of her face to look at him straight-on.

  “You risked everything to reclaim this place, Billy Bristol,” she continued in a low voice. “I watched you talk your long-lost brother out of shooting you down—more than once he could’ve killed you and Eve, and he even threatened your mama! But you’re here, because you believed in your purpose. Your birthright!

  “So hear me out,” she said, hugging Rex to her chest. “Believe what I say, Billy, because I see no point in going on if I can’t live out my dreams, just like you have! It’s the way you and Michael—and my daddy, Judd Monroe—have taught me to live.”

  She let Rex hop back to the ground. Had she given Billy more of an earful than he deserved? As she walked back to the barn, Solace squared her shoulders and breathed deep.

  Thank you for being with me when I have tough things to say, Daddy. I just want to make you proud, and I sure wish you were here. Sometimes it feels like you’re the only one who understands.

  That evening at the table, Gabe was again transported to earlier, happier times when Billy stood up as the dishes were being cleared. Beulah Mae had fried chickens fresh from the hen house and had mashed potatoes from last summer’s garden. Asa’s peach cobbler, still warm and served with fresh cream, had demanded a second helping. He’d forgotten about such down-home pleasures while living in the city.

  He leaned back in his chair, feeling full in many ways…trying not to steal glances at Solace as she scraped chicken bones and scraps from their plates. She’d eaten more at this meal than Let
itia touched in weeks, yet she looked slender and strong. Tonight she wore a simple blue gingham dress and had tied her thick, wavy hair with a ribbon at her nape. Such an unsophisticated style, yet it suited her—called to mind her mother, Mercy Malloy—while in the depths of those bold brown eyes he saw her father, Judd.

  “Did you get enough, Gabe?” she asked quietly.

  I’ll never get enough of the warmth that surrounds me here…. or the way your voice and eyes make me think about …

  “Yes, thank you,” he rasped, hoping he didn’t sound adolescent.

  She smiled as though she’d heard his inner thoughts and found his anxiety endearing. So sure of herself, Solace was—just as she’d been when they danced at his wedding. Why was he aware of her every move now? Thinking about the fit of her denim pants when she’d stood on her two horses, riding hellbent-for-leather?

  “Tonight we’re gonna continue our work on the Twenty-Third Psalm,” Billy announced. “Seems a fittin’ end to a fine spring day. And it’s a passage that helps us through many a rough spot. Reminds us how strong the Lord’s love is when we’re feelin’ too weak to carry our share.”

  His friend smiled at him then, and Gabe’s gut tightened. While he certainly knew this Psalm, his recitation skills were rusty; he’d never possessed the heartfelt eloquence Judd Monroe and Michael Malloy brought to these devotional times. Surely Billy wouldn’t ask him to—

  “Each adult picks a child to say it with,” his host explained, “so I’m hopin’ my kids do me proud with their recitin’ for you and Gracie tonight.”

  “Pick me, Gabe!” Owen piped up. “I know the whole thing by heart now! Well…mostly!”

  His heart swelled as the boy clutched his hand and grinned at him with that gap in his front teeth. Across the table, Olivia gave her new teacher the same earnest look, while Solace had lifted Bernadette from her high chair. But this moment between him and Owen, when Billy’s son had chosen him rather than waiting to be picked, touched Gabe deeply. This Psalm reminded him of Letitia’s funeral, so he hoped he could say it with conviction rather than tears.

  “‘The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,’” Billy began.

  Around the table, voices young and old joined in. The words flowed in rhythm as they always had, to carry Gabe along with their soothing reassurance; the faith of many generations had gathered together in this room as dusk wrapped around them like a blanket.

  “‘He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,’” Gabe continued, pleased that Owen’s voice sounded confident above his own. “‘he leadeth me beside the still waters…. He restoreth my soul…. he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me: thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.’”

  Where had his own voice left off and Solace’s taken over? When the words threatened to undo him, Gabe mouthed them—as though listening for Owen to say the verses correctly. Beside him, with Bernadette in her lap, Solace was forming the words distinctly as she recited them…hoping the little girl would read her lips and be coaxed into saying them herself?

  How did this family keep believing their curly haired Bernadette would talk someday? Not once had anyone made concessions to her muteness, or treated her as though she were to be pitied or coddled.

  “‘…surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’” Solace pulled the toddler close and smacked her cheek with an exuberant kiss to make her giggle.

  Owen’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t do none of that kissin’ on me, Gabe, or I’ll—”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it. But I will say you did a fine job of reciting your verses, young man.”

  The grin he got in return did those same sad-and-happy things to him. How it would feel to be hearing my own boy’s voice? Holding my flesh and blood by the shoulders?

  All boy, Owen didn’t stand still any longer than he had to. “Can we be excused—pretty please?” he pleaded.

  “May we please be excused?” his sister corrected pointedly.

  “Yes, you may,” Eve replied as she stood up. “But since Miss Malloy and Gabe are family now, don’t think you’re excused from helping Asa and Beulah Mae with the evening chores. See if you can amaze them by being the quickest, most efficient helpers they’ve ever seen.”

  Chapter Eight

  Gabe found himself waiting, watching…but for what?

  For whom, came the reply, even though he knew the answer. While he loved being here among the Bristols, they all had their routines at the end of the day: the children did their chores; Eve had invited Grace upstairs to discuss her duties as the family’s new governess; Billy had an account to prepare, for a buyer who’d claim his horses tomorrow.

  So where’s Solace?

  And why should that matter?

  Gabe’s lips twitched. He felt like a kid again, eager to gawk at a pretty girl. But he was twenty-seven, too old for the unique young lady who’d grown up as Billy’s kid sister. His life had taken too drastic a turn for him to be interested in anyone, yet when he stepped out into the evening shadows and the cool spring air, he looked for her. Solace had helped in the kitchen after clearing the table, but surely she was finished….

  And why would she want to see you? You’re a fish out of water here, same as you were in Letitia’s family ….

  And so is Solace.

  As this thought struck him, Gabe stopped beneath a weeping willow tree that glowed bright and green in the sunset. Why hadn’t he seen it? Solace Monroe might handle a horse and a gun as competently as any man—better than most but—her talents set her apart from Lily and Grace, as surely as her staying at home had separated them when her sisters attended Miss Vanderbilt’s academy. She looked confident riding in the ring and aiming a pistol above her dog’s head, but Solace was every bit the outsider he was. Feeling the same sting of society’s disapproval.

  He saw a bushy white tail wagging near the lilac bushes behind the house; the object of his curiosity had sought refuge from the busy, noisy Bristol family, just as he had.

  Gabe’s pulse pounded painfully. Why couldn’t this be easier? He was supposed to be sorting out his thoughts, planning his next professional step, getting his life in order—even if he felt like a shell of himself, so fragile he might crack at the least provocation.

  Yet his feet went where they wanted to. Rex’s bright eyes followed him as he approached the canopy of lilacs that waved in the evening breeze, wafting perfume like a lure he couldn’t ignore.

  He saw Solace’s bare feet then, and about six inches of slim, sturdy ankle below her gingham dress. He heard papers rustling—she was shuffling something out of sight—and he chided himself for being so insensitive. Solace needed time to ponder and assess, just like he did, and he was intruding. “I—didn’t mean to interrupt your—”

  “It’s all right, Gabe. Rex and I are glad to see you!” She leaned around the lilac bush to smile at him. “I love these Bristols dearly, but it’s overwhelming to be in their midst sometimes.”

  “So I’ve noticed! They all have their own pursuits.”

  “And this is when Eve usually takes Bernadette to her studio. I don’t want her to entertain me, when she needs this time with her little girl.”

  “She takes a three-year-old where she works?” He glanced toward the tall white house. The round window in the third-floor dormer marked Grace’s new classroom, while the larger window on this side let in the light Eve needed for her work. “How does she get any painting done with Bernadette there? She’s a busy little thing.”

  Solace smiled, patting the other end of the swing. “Bernadette may be mute, but her sense of form and color are extraordinary. Billy built her a miniature easel so she can paint, like her mama. Her brushes take off in their own directions, but she astounds us when she captures things she sees…and things no one else does.”

  Gabe perc
hed on the edge of the swing, considering this. “How do you mean, things no one else can see?”

  Solace rested her arms across a portfolio, as though protecting its contents from him. “She draws little winged creatures…sprites and fairies and angels. She paints extraordinary animals, too. She gave me a sketch of Rex that’s priceless!”

  Solace opened her portfolio and flipped through pages of firm, precise script that might be a journal or a…

  Gabe looked away. He’d learned his lesson about reading diaries.

  His gaze wandered, though. When she tugged out a piece of heavy drawing paper, he saw a page heading that said something like…“Daddy Was a Desperado.”

  That made no sense at all! So he took the sheet she offered and forced his attention away from those handwritten pages.

  His jaw dropped. Anyone who’d seen the dog with the unusual markings would recognize Rex immediately, but in this picture, he’d grown wings like a butterfly. Gabe realized then that these wings matched the shape of his darker ears and the mask around his eyes.

  It took more than artistic talent to complete such a portrait: it required a sophisticated thought process. “If I didn’t trust your word that Bernadette painted this—”

  “I was in the studio when Rex sat for her.”

  “—I’d swear Eve had.” Gabe studied the picture again, shaking his head. “Incredible. Absolutely incredible.”

  Solace scooted closer to admire the painting herself. Rex hopped onto the wooden swing then, which meant his mistress was sitting so close to Gabe, her blue checked skirt edged over his leg.

  He cleared his throat…. a futile attempt not to notice her nearness.

  Solace smiled as though she knew exactly what effect she had on him. “Eve believes that Bernadette’s artistic skills have developed to compensate for the fact she can’t express herself any other way.”

  “To…relieve the frustration of not being able to talk.” Oh, how he knew about frustration! It had been the hallmark of his marriage….