Rhys sighed and dabbed his face again.
“But it’ll blow over. We all make mistakes, don’t we? I couldn’t let this go, you understand that, without letting you know I was aware of what you did. Now we’re all wiser.” He headed for the door. “And I hope smarter.”
Rhys gave a sheepish nod and Gabe exited the room.
Ten minutes later, Elisabeth knocked on the open door to her father’s office.
Sam looked up and spotted them both. “How was your ride?”
“Gabe’s house is almost finished. It’s going to be an excellent home.”
“We learned something today,” Gabe added. He went on to explain how Rhys had been making offers on his land and then explained how they’d discovered the mineral springs.
“I don’t want to think he was doing something under-handed,” Sam said. “But it sounds as though he knew all along, doesn’t it?”
“There’s something I haven’t mentioned to either of you,” Elisabeth brought up. “The time didn’t seem right until now.”
“What is it, daughter?” Sam asked.
“When Irene and I took the carriage to the theater in Denver and learned it was above a gaming hall, we saw Rhys with a group of men. He went inside that place.”
Sam shook his head. “That surprises me.”
Gabe didn’t appear to share his feelings.
“I take it you’re not surprised?” Sam asked.
“In my experience, most people don’t have the same…convictions your family does. Rhys strikes me as a greedy fellow.”
“Since he comes to my church, I suppose I’ll have to talk to him.”
“Before we came here, I let him know I was on to him.”
“His mother probably isn’t aware of his behavior, and there’s no need to draw her into it,” Sam said.
“It was okay that I told you?” Elisabeth said.
“Yes, of course,” Sam answered. “Just because something’s uncomfortable doesn’t mean we don’t need to address it and handle it. Now finish telling me your reactions to Gabe’s ranch.”
“There aren’t any horses or cows yet.”
Sam and Gabe chuckled and Elisabeth finished her descriptions.
That night Elisabeth went to her room shortly after supper and read her Bible. Finding the verses Gabe had called to her attention, she read the chapter in Philippians. Those words had never been as real to her as they became at that moment. It had taken a man who’d only seen those verses for the first time and spoken about them to bring them to life.
Glancing around, she got up and gathered the individual piles of stones and placed them inside a drawstring bag. No longer was she going to look at the symbols every day and regret a past that had been out of her control. She set the bag in her armoire to await her next trip to the mineral springs.
After she’d turned down the wick and plunged the room into darkness, she got comfortable on her bed and closed her eyes. Words and images swirled in her head like colors in a kaleidoscope.
What was she supposed to do with the news Gabe had delivered that day? He’d told her he wasn’t expecting an answer or anything in return. He’d just wanted to say the words. But she had to lock her mind around them some way.
He loved her?
I just wanted to say it. Just once. Those words told her he wasn’t going to bring it up again.
But the knowledge was there. Like a heart beating beneath a breast. He loved her. He loved her. He loved her.
She and Gil had been friends a long time, and while they did share a friendly affection, neither had ever had the inclination to express love. Yes, God’s children are commanded to love one another, but this love was something else entirely.
How was she supposed to sleep?
I’ve lived a life you can’t condone.
I can’t measure up to the standards you’ve set.
He’d been taking sole responsibility for her inability to accept him.
I can’t change who I am. I can’t change that I wasn’t raised in a family like yours or that I never really knew about Jesus until you spoke of Him…until your father taught me.
But he was changing who he was. At that point, she’d been too stunned to say that. Too stunned to say anything.
I’m inspired to be a better man. That’s the future.
She’d seen changes in him since his arrival. She believed his inspiration wasn’t created by anything she’d said or done, but fueled by the examples he was reading about in the Bible.
He’d gone to great lengths to provide for and educate his sister. He’d wanted to make a home for her…and he wanted her to have a good husband. More importantly, he’d been willing to forfeit some of his plans for them because he wanted her to be happy. Irene may have complained a bit about his overprotectiveness at the beginning, but Elisabeth suspected she truly appreciated his concern.
If she was really honest with herself, Elisabeth had to admit she’d been a little jealous of how easily he made friends and how quickly he’d acclimated himself into a new community. People liked him and some even admired him.
As though glossing over his ability to make friends, he’d said he was good at reading people. Understanding people was a gift, however, and he had the gift.
He’d undeniably saved Donetta Barnes’s life. That had been an amazing feat of skill and bravery, but the thing that stuck out the most to Elisabeth was the fact that he’d consequently found ways to take care of her now that she was widowed.
The congregation had taken her food, but Gabe had given her a job. That was an act of mercy and kindness, but also one conceived in wisdom.
He wasn’t the person she’d first thought. He wasn’t callused or heartless. Just the opposite in fact.
And she enjoyed kissing him.
How was she supposed to sleep now?
The following week, sooner than expected, Gabe moved Irene and Donetta out to the ranch house. He gathered them and Elisabeth instructed them how to manage a horse and buggy.
“Once you know this you won’t have to rely on me or one of the hands to get you back and forth from town. And you’re going to need to learn one more thing.”
He led them behind the house where hay bales had been stacked and bottles set atop them. He presented each of them with a rifle.
Irene accepted hers. “You’re going to show us how to shoot these?”
“Yep. Never know when a coyote or mountain lion or even a two-legged critter will turn mean.”
Elisabeth wanted to protect herself, but she didn’t believe she could shoot another person. “Will you show us how to aim for a place that won’t kill a human?”
“Yes, I will, Elisabeth.”
He first taught them how to load the chamber and how to keep the barrel lowered for safety. Eventually the lessons progressed to target practice.
Donetta had experience, so right away she was the best shot. Irene jerked and jumped back each time she fired, so she didn’t hit much. But Elisabeth was as precise and efficient about aiming and shooting as she was about everything. Within an hour, the bottles she aimed for shattered nearly every shot.
“I might have known you’d be my prize pupil,” Gabe said to her later. “The one who hates guns.”
“If I’m going to learn, I’m going to learn to do it well,” she replied.
That week and the next were filled with normal activities in addition to shooting practice and Irene’s wedding plans. Elisabeth stayed busier than ever.
Irene invited her for dinner one evening, and they sat at the long table in the new kitchen. “How do you like that stove?” she asked Donetta.
“It’s a dream,” the older woman replied.
Gabe entered the back door. “I saw the buggy and knew it was you. Is your rifle under the seat?”
“Irene invited me. And yes, it is.”
“Told you you’re welcome anytime even without an invitation.” His hair was damp and his tanned face ruddy as though he’d recently washe
d. “The hands take their meals with us.”
“I remember.”
As Irene helped set the last few bowls on the table, John and Ward entered and hung their hats on pegs.
“How do, Mizz Hart,” Ward said and John, too, greeted her, giving her a broad smile that showed all his teeth. Both of them were freshly scrubbed and wearing clean shirts. They seated themselves across from each other in about the middle of the table.
Gabe held out Mrs. Barnes’s chair before taking a seat at the head. Everyone quieted, with heads lowered.
“Thank You for this food, Lord,” Gabe said.
Elisabeth was so surprised she looked at him from the corner of her eye.
“Thank You that we have plenty of work to keep us busy. Keep us safe and well. In Jesus’s name, amen.”
The prayer hadn’t been particularly eloquent or lengthy, but the fact that he’d said a prayer at all threw her thoughts askew.
Donetta picked up a heaping bowl of mashed potatoes and handed it to John. The food was simple fare of sliced roast, potatoes and carrots, but there was plenty of it and the men ate more than Elisabeth had ever seen anyone pile on their plate. They worked long, strenuous hours out of doors, and obviously worked up an appetite.
Irene met her eyes and grinned, obviously not a newcomer to this dinner table. “We pick up our dresses in Denver day after tomorrow.”
“After supper show Elisabeth the beds and rugs and bureaus,” Gabe said. “So she can see what her choices look like in the house.”
After they’d finished the meal and eaten rice pudding, they drank hot cups of dark sweetened coffee. Donetta stacked dishes. Elisabeth carried bowls to the sink and the woman took them from her. “Not here, you don’t. This is my job. You run along with your friend.”
Irene showed her all the pieces of furniture they’d shopped for, and Elisabeth was pleased with how they looked in the rooms.
Irene excused herself for a few minutes, and Elisabeth stepped out the back door. She appreciated that Gabe had built a covered porch on the back of the house, and she stood in the shade of the roof, gazing toward the hillsides with their variegated shades of green.
Gabe spotted her and strode over. He didn’t climb the stairs, but stood below her. “While you’re in Denver, take Irene to a few of those furniture makers and see what she likes best. If you can somehow manage it without her knowing, I’d like it if you ordered a bedroom set or maybe a dining table or whatever takes her fancy.”
“Without her knowledge?”
He nodded. “As a wedding gift. They’re going to have that house and will need things to fill it. I don’t figure Gil can buy it all on his lawman’s wages.”
She wanted to run down the stairs and hug him. Kiss him maybe. His thoughtful gesture touched her. “I already have somewhat of an idea what she likes from our previous trip, but I’ll ask questions.” She studied him in the fading daylight. “If I had an older brother, I couldn’t ask for a better one than you.”
He returned her perusal, letting his gaze take in her hair and fall on her dress. “I don’t think of you as a sister, Elisabeth.”
“I know.”
The sound of hoofbeats reached them, and Gabe’s attention shifted. Gil galloped toward them, then reined the horse to a walk and stopped several feet from the porch.
“Evenin’, Deputy. Is Irene expecting you?”
Gil climbed down and used his hat to swat dust from his pant legs. “No. I thought I’d be working this evening, but Dan was feeling better and took his own shift back.” He glanced up. “What kind of trouble are you finding here, Lis?”
“I’m well, thanks.”
He grinned. “You’re always well.” He turned back to Gabe. “Is she inside?”
“She’ll be out in a minute,” Elisabeth replied.
“Have a seat on the porch there,” Gabe said. “Elisabeth and I are taking a walk. Join me?”
She gathered her skirts and descended the steps.
A long low building had been framed with a stone fireplace at one end. The structure was a new addition since her last visit. “The bunkhouse?” she guessed.
“The men are lookin’ forward to moving from the stable,” he said. “I talked with a rancher who runs a spread up by Pagosa Springs. He told me he’d placed sod in between two layers of wood on the roof. Before the shingles went on his bunkhouse and barn. Holds in the heat, he says. I’m gonna try it.”
Elisabeth considered how their relationship had evolved from that first day on the train until this moment as he spoke to her about the development of his ranch and day-to-day happenings.
She trusted God for her provision and her safety, and in doing so she had to believe He’d had a hand in how they’d met. “Have you ever thought,” she asked, “that you and I could have taken different trains? But we were aboard the same one.”
“That’s a fact.”
“Those bandits could have held up a different train and hurt innocent people, but they chose the train the two of us were on.”
“I’ve thought a lot about people and the choices they make. The choices we all make. Remember the day Doc Barnes was killed?”
“Clearly.”
“I asked you how God could have let that happen.”
“I remember.”
“You told me God has given each of us free will to make choices.”
“That’s right.”
“If I believe that—and I do now—then God didn’t put those bandits on that train. They had free will to do as they chose. They chose to do wrong. Ours was the train they picked.” Their walk took them to the stream that ran behind the clearing where the house and outbuildings sat. It was a narrow rivulet of water, only about five feet wide, but flourishing trees grew along the banks. “You and I have free will, too. How can God use us?”
“Because we listen to that still small voice on the inside,” she reminded him. “God doesn’t have to manipulate us. He simply speaks to us, and we respond.” She studied the branches of a huge oak tree that towered over them. “I’ve never told you this. I was planning to stay in Morning Creek another day, but when I woke up that morning, I felt very strongly that I should go home. I packed my bag and bought my ticket.”
Gabe bent to pick up a stick. “I read in the Psalms that God knows everything about us. He knew us before we were born. He knew you’d take that particular train.”
“Nothing is a surprise to God. He wasn’t up in heaven wringing His hands when He saw those robbers get on board. I’m sure it breaks His heart when people do sinful things, but He made a plan to rescue innocent people by sending you.”
“You’re saying God worked through me?”
“You were willing. That’s all He needs. You’re important to Him. He had a plan for you, too, just as He created a plan for all mankind by sending Jesus.”
“It took me a while to grasp that when Sam told me, but I understand how big God’s love is now. I’ve accepted His love for me.”
Elisabeth got a lump in her throat. She walked several feet away and stood looking out over the water. The sight and sound no longer had the hold over her it once had. She had released her guilt and her grief. Gabe had helped her do that. One more reason she knew God’s hand was at work in bringing him here.
Tears welled in her eyes and blurred the sparkling stream in her vision. Why this man, Lord? Why not the man she had believed for—the one just like her father?
She composed herself and turned. He squatted a few feet from the edge of the water, breaking a stick into pieces and tossing bits in. He’d left his hat back at the house, and she studied the way his dark hair curled over his collar and around his ears. A lock fell forward over his forehead.
He was pleasing to look upon, no doubt about that. And he was smart and enterprising, with a plan for a ranch and the tenacity and grit to make it happen.
Her father had taken their family west because he had a vision of a new life, and he’d faced adversities to make it happen�
�continuing on even after the death of his beloved wife. He’d loved his daughters enough to marry a woman he wasn’t sure he could love, but who would be there for them.
Gabe loved his sister like that. Enough to sacrifice and do what he’d believed was best for her.
Her father loved God with all his heart and served Him in all his ways. He taught people about God’s love by example and through his preaching.
Elisabeth thought of that simple prayer Gabe had spoken at the supper table. He had once said he couldn’t change who he was, but he had been changing ever since Elisabeth had met him. I can’t change that I wasn’t raised in a family like yours or that I never really knew about Jesus until you spoke of Him. Until your father taught me. Now I’m inspired to be a better man. And that’s the future.
Her father had been raised in a Christian home, taught of the Lord his entire life, so of course he had more experience and eloquence. But maybe the important thing was what a person did with the knowledge they had. Gabe’s hired hands saw the example of a man who sat down to pray at the supper table. Maybe he was their only link to hear about God’s love for them.
Sam Hart loved people and went out of his way to help them. Gabe had provided a job—a good job and a home—for a widow. How could a person show more compassion than that?
It had been easy to set a lofty expectation, knowing there wasn’t another man like her father and thereby conveniently keeping herself out of the marriage market.
She’d been so afraid of losing herself that she hadn’t been open to love. She’d envied Irene’s ability to make herself vulnerable. Love made a person transparent, and for a long time Elisabeth hadn’t wanted anyone seeing through her.
No, there wasn’t another Sam Hart.
But there was only one Gabe Taggart, as well.
And she loved him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The sun had dropped low in the sky, casting her long shadow across the grass as she walked toward him. At her approach he threw the stick in the water and turned to sit on the bank and face her. One side of his mouth turned up in the teasing grin that had once provoked her, but now turned her insides to jelly.
Marrying the Preacher's Daughter Page 20
