The Bride Series (Omnibus Edition)

by Bittner, Rosanne

  “Doesn’t He? I’m not so sure. What about the great flood? And what about when Moses parted the Red Sea, and all those Egyptians or whoever they were rode in after him and were drowned?”

  She smiled and watched him dampen a rag and dip it in a can of baking soda sitting near the wash basin, watched him scrubb his teeth with the baking soda and pour water into a tin cup to rinse his mouth. “How do you know those Bible stories?” she asked.

  He took a drink of water and went to the mirror to study his beard. “My ma used to read to us from the Bible all the time. Remember I told you that? She used it to practice her own reading—named all of us after Bible characters: Joshua, Luke, Matthew, Rachael.” He ran a brush through his hair. “You just get dressed and make some breakfast. I’m going next door to talk to Aaron. Make enough breakfast for everybody. I’ll bring them back here, and I’ll shave after breakfast.” He leaned down and grasped her face, kissing her lips tenderly. “Don’t you worry about a thing. I’ve got the edge this time. That bastard snuck up on me when I thought he was dead. Now I have the chance to do the same to him.”

  “Josh Rivers, you’re actually looking forward to it.”

  The hard look of vengeance came back into his eyes. “You bet I’m looking forward to it! For one thing, I’m relieved to know what happened to him, instead of always having to wonder about him. Now I know he’s alive, and what he intends to do. I’m one step ahead of him, Marybeth. And when I’m through, that man will never bother either one of us again.”

  He bent down and pulled on his boots, then grabbed his hat from the bedpost. He hesitated at the doorway and looked back at her. “I love you, Marybeth. Last night was…it meant even more to me than even our wedding night. Things are going to be good for us from now on.”

  He went out. Marybeth got up and went to the window, keeping a blanket around herself and watching him walk to the Gentry cabin. He had the same masculine gait; the old, cocky confidence of the Josh Rivers she had married. Oh, how she loved him, and how she feared for him. How cruel and unbearable it would be to finally have him back, only to lose him again.

  Josh paced nervously, puffing on a cigar. “I wish Cap would get back with Stone,” he grumbled.

  “Josh, what do you have planned?” Marybeth asked. “I don’t like any of this.”

  “And I don’t like knowing a man who wants me dead is on the loose and could back-shoot me again. I’m going to flush that bastard out and get this over with. I’m not waiting for him to make the first move.”

  Marybeth glanced at Delores, seeing the worry in her eyes also. Both women kneaded dough for bread, while Aaron sat at the table repairing a bridle. “You just let us know what we can do, Josh.”

  Josh went to a window. “The last thing I’ll do is put any of you in any danger. If my plan works, this little confrontation will take place far away from here, away from friends and children. All you and Sam need to do is stay right here an extra few days and lie for me if John MacKinder shows up. I wasn’t sure what to do till Cap said he found Bill Stone working over at the sawmill, and I won’t know if my plan will even work if Stone doesn’t want to cooperate.” He puffed the cigar a moment longer, pacing again. His tension could be sensed by everyone. Even Danny sat quietly in a corner watching “Zosh” walk around the room like a caged wildcat. “Something had better happen pretty soon. I’m going crazy hiding in this cabin,” Josh complained.

  Someone knocked at the door, and Josh quickly opened it. Cap stood outside with Bill Stone. Stone’s eyes widened at the sight of Josh. He started to exclaim his name when Josh grabbed his arm and yanked the man inside. Cap followed, closing the door.

  Bill jerked his arm away from Josh’s grasp and stared at the man. “You’re alive!”

  “You bet I’m alive,” Josh answered.

  Bill looked around the room, meeting Marybeth’s eyes before turning back to Josh. “What the hell is going on here? What do you want from me?”

  “Do you know where John MacKinder is holed up?”

  Bill frowned, then stepped back, fear coming into his eyes. “Look, I’m not going to get mixed up in whatever you want with John MacKinder! The man is crazy! I want no part of it.”

  “You’ve seen him then? Talked to him?”

  Bill glanced at Marybeth again.

  “Come on, Stone, we need to know,” Cap put in, stepping closer to the man. Aaron rose from his chair, and Bill Stone found himself surrounded by three threatening men. He swallowed before talking.

  “Look, I heard he was in town one night—arm wrestled a bunch of men over at the Sierra Tavern. I was sure he was dead, so I wanted to see if it was really him. Besides, I figured he needed to know about his folks being dead. So I looked him up. He…he stayed the night there with a…prostitute.”

  The women reddened and busied themselves putting bread dough into pans. Marybeth felt she had to keep busy or go crazy with worry over what could happen to Josh. Bill swallowed nervously again before continuing.

  “I found him, and I told him about his folks. He got mighty angry. You know how he is. He…he asked about Marybeth.”

  In an instant Josh slammed Bill against the wall. “And I suppose you told him where he could find her, you bastard!”

  “Josh, watch yourself,” Cap put in, stepping over and grasping his arm. “Let go of him.”

  “I’d like to kill him,” Josh growled. “He knew John would try to hurt her—her over here alone, hardly healed from having her babies—”

  Aaron grasped his other arm. “You won’t get anything more out of him this way, Josh. Don’t go and get yourself hurt.”

  Bill just stared at him in wide-eyed terror. Josh let go of him, but his eyes were so full of murder Bill could almost feel a gun at his head. “Look,” he said, panting now with fear. “You…you know how that man is—especially when he’s angry. He’d have beat the hell out of me if I would have told anyone first. I’m sorry if he came over here and made trouble.”

  “You could have warned Marybeth!”

  “Well, I…I figured she had her friends around her. I didn’t know Aaron and Sam would be gone. He must have snooped around and waited till they left. All I know is afterward he came to my cabin, out behind the sawmill. I had told him I was living there—offered to let him stay there if he needed a place. Anyway, he came to me after the thing with Marybeth—wanted me to patch up his arm. He was afraid to go to a regular doctor; figured maybe the law would be onto him. He was madder than anybody I ever saw in my life. I was afraid to refuse to help him, so I bandaged up his arm for him. He told me he was staying in some kind of shack higher up in the hills…kept talking about how he was going to get Marybeth one way or another—her and the boy. Said he wanted to take them up to that shack to live with him. He kept saying that if he could just…” He glanced at Marybeth again, then back to Josh. “Well…you know—he figured if he could get her in his bed, she’d want to stay with him. You know how he is about women. He’s got one opinion of all of them.”

  Marybeth turned away and sat down in a chair, staring at the fireplace, unable to look any of them in the eye. Josh slammed his fist against a can of saddle soap and sent it flying. He began pacing again, while Bill just watched him, unsure of his own safety.

  “Josh, I knew the law would be in on it by then. I figured Marybeth was reasonably safe. John went back to his shack to heal.”

  “And he said he’d be back, didn’t he? He said he’d make Marybeth pay, and you just let him go, and never told the law or Marybeth or anyone that you knew where he was staying.”

  Bill stepped away from the wall, breaking out in a sweat from fear. “What the hell good would it have done? He didn’t kill her or anything like that. He’d have been arrested for nothing more than disturbing the peace. He’d have served a few days and got out again, and then he’d come after me for telling the law where they could find him!”

  Josh turned, fists clenched. “I intend to fix it so nobody—not even you—has to
worry about what that man is going to do any more. But I need your help, Stone, and after the danger you let my wife be put in, you owe it to her to help us!”

  “I don’t have to do anything of the kind! I want no part of any more dealings with John MacKinder, you hear? You can’t make me do it.”

  “Can’t I? You’ll help us, or I’ll have John MacKinder riding your ass so close your butt will feel on fire! Cap’s got a good nose for tracking, Stone. He’ll find that shack without your help, and he’ll go and get the sheriff. They’ll arrest John and put him in jail for a while, just like you said. Cap will make sure John thinks that you’re the one who told the law where he could be found. Then he’ll come after you, just like you said he’d do.”

  Bill looked at Cap, who just grinned and nodded. He looked back at Josh, almost ready to cry. “Listen, I traveled all the way out here with the MacKinders. Mac—he was a hard man, bullheaded, sometimes flat-out mean. But him and me, we got along all right. And he wasn’t a murderer or a rapist or anything like that. John, he’s different, especially since he spent the winter in the mountains. He’s a killer, Josh. Hell, he as much as admitted being the one to shoot you.”

  “You think I didn’t already figure that out?”

  “All I’m saying is, I don’t want to get on the wrong side of him.”

  Josh stepped closer. “If my plan works, you won’t have to worry about him at all any more.”

  “But what if it doesn’t?”

  The room fell chillingly silent for a moment. Josh glanced at Cap. “If it doesn’t, we’ll probably all be dead. But I’ve got a wife and three children to protect. Don’t you think I’ll make damn sure it does work?”

  Bill closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “What is it you want out of me?”

  Josh’s eyes glittered. “It’s real simple, Bill—no danger to you at all.” He walked over to the table and picked up his cigar, relighting it. “All you have to do is go find John—make out like you’re being a loyal friend by telling him something you know he’d want to know about. You go find him, and you tell him you’ve heard Marybeth has decided to go back east.”

  Marybeth turned and looked at him in surprise, as did Delores and Aaron. Only Cap knew what Josh’s plan was.

  “That’s it?” Bill frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  “You don’t have to understand. The less you know, the less danger there is to you. You tell John you figured he’d want to know. Tell him Marybeth has learned I died up at Fort Hall, that she figures there’s nothing left here for her and that Cap has agreed to take her back east. You ran into Cap in town, after he got back from going to find out about me. You tell John you got all your information straight from Cap—that they’re leaving in, oh, let’s say one week from today. That should give you time to find him. Next Saturday. Remember that. Cap will be taking the regular route—same one he used to come into Oregon. Marybeth figures she can find work easier back east; figures it would be better for the babies to live in more civilized places. You got all that?” Bill nodded. “You think you can find where he’s living?”

  The man nodded again. “He described it pretty good.”

  Josh stepped closer, taking his six-gun from a holster that hung on the wall near Bill. Bill stared at the gun wide-eyed as Josh pulled back the hammer and slowly pressed the barrel of the gun against Bill’s throat. “One more thing,” he said, keeping the cigar between his teeth. “If anything goes wrong—if MacKinder finds out I’m still alive and comes after me here, for instance—or if something happens to Marybeth, I’ll know who told him, won’t I?”

  Bill swallowed. “Yes,” he answered gruffly.

  “And you’ll be a dead man, I promise. If I get killed, it’s Cap who’ll come after you. He’s a good friend. He’ll do it—for me and Marybeth. Don’t you cross me, Bill, or you’ll be found with a big hole from under your chin clean up through your brain and out the top of your head. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir. I just…I don’t understand what you’ve got planned,” he whispered.

  Josh slowly put back the gun hammer. “I told you, you don’t have to know. I don’t want you to know. You just get going and find the man and deliver the message. How about repeating it to me?”

  Bill wiped sweat from his forehead. “I…I ran into Cap in town and found out you died. Cap said Marybeth has decided to go back east to find work, and where it would be safer for the babies. Cap’s taking her—leaving next Saturday.”

  Josh grinned and nodded. “Just don’t act so goddamn nervous when you tell him. Remember, you don’t have to be nervous. You’re doing him a favor. He’ll be grateful. You don’t have one reason to be afraid of him.” He puffed the cigar again. “One more thing—this is between just the people in this room and nobody else. No matter what happens, you don’t say one word to the law, understood?”

  Bill nodded. “I understand. If anybody’s got a right to pay a man back for what’s been done to him, you do. When it was a family thing…back in the beginning…I figured it was their affair. I stayed out of it. But John, he got kind of crazy about it.”

  “I’ll tell you how crazy he got. Just so you don’t feel like too much of a traitor to him, you ought to know he killed his own brother so Marybeth would be left a widow—figured he could move in and take over after that. He told Marybeth in so many words. Leastways, he didn’t deny it.”

  Bill lowered his eyes and shook his head. “I kind of suspected. I just didn’t want to believe he could really do a thing like that. Dan, he was a big bully just like John, but the way he died—it was awful. For a man to do that to his own brother…” He sighed and looked around the room at all of them. “Whatever you’ve got in mind, you just make sure you do your job right. I don’t want that man coming for me.”

  Josh’s eyes glowed with the smell of victory. “He won’t be coming for you. I guarantee it. Now get going. It might take you a couple of days to find him.”

  Bill nodded and hurried to the door, looking around when he stepped outside, then hurrying away.

  “Josh, what on Earth do you have planned?” Aaron frowned at him. “If you send Marybeth out there in a wagon, she’ll be in danger.”

  Josh just grinned. “Marybeth won’t be with the wagon. Cap will lead a wagon east, all right, and there will be a woman sitting on the seat of the wagon. You can bet John will be waiting for them, ready to ride down and steal Marybeth and Danny away. But Marybeth will be right here. She’ll hide out in the Gentry cabin, in case John comes here first to see if she’s left. You’ll tell him she has, that I’m dead and Marybeth has gone back east. You’ll even beg John to leave her alone. That will just make him more determined to go after her.”

  He patted his thinner waistline. “I’ll bet I could fit into a woman’s clothes, thin as I am right now—at least a loose skirt and a shirt. With a big slat bonnet on my head, who’s going to know from a distance it’s not a woman sitting on the wagon seat?”

  They all stared at him for a moment, as Marybeth slowly rose. Aaron grinned, then burst into hearty laughter. “Oh, I sure would like to be there to see the look on his face!”

  Josh glanced at Marybeth. She was not laughing; not even smiling. He saw only fear in her eyes. She knew the danger involved. He walked over to her, and she fell into his arms. “It’s got to be done, Marybeth. He’s a back-shooter. As long as he’s alive, we can’t go anywhere to live without wondering when he’ll sneak up on us. I’d rather flush him out and face him head on. It’s going to work, and at last we’ll be free and able to live our lives the way we planned.”

  She couldn’t find her voice for the moment. She clung to him, relishing the feel of his arms around her; she had had him back for such a short time. But she understood why he had to do what he had planned. She pulled away from him, wiping at her eyes. “Let’s go see…if we can find something for you to wear,” she told him then.

  He laughed lightly. “That’s the spirit.” He gave her the teasing wink she had com
e to love. “I want something pretty—maybe with flowers.” Everyone laughed as he followed her into the bedroom. Josh shut the door and grabbed her close, kissing her hungrily, both of them remembering the horror of being apart and never wanting that to happen again. He pressed her head against his chest. “It will work, Marybeth. I promise it will work. I’ve never broken a promise to you yet, and I’m not about to start now.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  The wagon bounced and jostled over Barlow’s Road, alongside the raging Columbia. Orville Dunne had agreed to help Cap and Josh in their plan. He was someone John MacKinder would not recognize, appearing as simply a hired hand to help lead the oxen while Cap rode ahead.

  Josh sat on the wagon seat, wearing a blue skirt and flowered blouse. From a distance, no one could tell the inside seams of the blouse’s sleeves and bodice had been ripped open so it would fit over Josh’s arms and chest. Since Florence Gentry was bigger through the ribs than Marybeth, Josh wore one of her camisoles, which had been stuffed with stockings and pieces of cloth to give Josh the full bosom of Marybeth. Getting him ready had helped ease some of the tension over the danger of his mission. He doubted anyone had seen a more comical vision than he was when he finished his disguise. When he put on the slat bonnet, everyone laughed until the tears came; everyone but Marybeth, who only watched with fear and concern in her eyes.

  He thought about her now, about their night of lovemaking before he left, made more intense by the realization that they could again be separated. But he had made up his mind to take any risk necessary to keep her from ever again being threatened by John MacKinder, let alone the fact that his own life would be in constant danger. He had been through too much to let anything stop him now from having a happy life with Marybeth and his new family.

  They had been traveling for three days now. Josh carried a bundle in his arm that was wrapped to look like a baby, but inside his six-gun lay hidden. Occasionally he would climb into the back of the wagon and get some sleep by day, since he spent his nights sitting awake inside the wagon, sure that if John made his move, it would be at night. He knew it could be any time now. The man would wait until they were well away from Portland. He searched the wild, brush-covered hillsides constantly, watching for any strange movement, hoping neither Cap nor Orv would get hurt.