The Texan's Reward

by Jodi Thomas

Nell agreed and rolled into the study to do her part in helping Harrison plan their next move. They had to find Dalton.

  The bookkeeper leaned over a map he’d rolled out on the table.

  “Where could Jacob be?” She asked the question that she knew was on both their minds.

  “He didn’t ride out. Dusty’s still in the barn. He’s too big to be lying around in the mud. Someone would have noticed by now. My guess is the posse has him, or rather had him.”

  “You think they made sure something happened to Jacob so he wouldn’t take custody of Hank by the time they picked up the other three outlaws.”

  Harrison nodded. “Maybe they kidnapped him, or left him tied up somewhere. Only somehow, they lost track of him and may think he actually got Hank out. Otherwise, they’d be beating it out of Jacob right now and not searching barns.”

  Nell looked up from the map. “You don’t think they killed him, do you?”

  Harrison shook his head. “No. They’re the good guys, remember. But in this case we just met an overachiever in Anthony Kelly. They want to bring all the outlaws in and be the big heroes. Jacob helped them in the hunt, but he’s getting in the way of their glory.”

  “So, if they don’t have him, and he didn’t ride away, he’s where?”

  “Somewhere in town. And my guess is about now he’s waking up with one hell of a bump on his head.” Harrison smiled down at Nell. “You want me to go to town and find him.”

  She nodded.

  He reached for his jacket. “You know, Miss Nell, being your bookkeeper is a busy job, but being your friend runs round the clock.”

  “Want to quit?”

  He winked. “Not a chance.”

  CHAPTER 29

  JACOB ROLLED OUT FROM UNDER A BENCH. CLOTHES tumbled in an avalanche over him, and he swore as he opened his eyes and tried to focus.

  Sitting up, he shoved all the fabric away and looked around, finding himself in the ugliest room he’d ever seen. The walls were painted, by someone possessing little talent, with birds and flowers. Cheap jewelry and hats hung on nails near the low ceiling. Clothes were piled everywhere, and perfume thickened the air.

  “Morning, Ranger,” a woman’s voice squeaked.

  Jacob looked around. It took him a few seconds to pick her out from all the colors. “Morning,” he mumbled as he felt the knot on the back of his head. “Where am I?”

  She smiled with stained teeth framed by dark red lips. “I found you last night in the alley, passed out cold. It smelled like someone broke a full bottle of whiskey over your head. I got Dave to haul you in here ’cause I feared whoever hit you might come back to finish the job.”

  “Thanks.” Jacob stumbled over a mountain of clothes. “I think?”

  She shrugged. “You were nice to me once, Ranger, and Pearlie don’t forget. Dave said about an hour after we moved you in here, a pair of young fellows came in looking for you. They claimed to have seen you stumble off the walk, but we remembered noticing you pass earlier, and you didn’t look like you were drinking. Dave didn’t tell them nothin’.”

  Jacob tried to untangle his arm from a scarf that had grown attached to his shirt. “Have any idea what time it is?”

  “After noon, I’d guess.” She patted powder on her throat. “We opened early on account of so many people in town come to see the outlaws off this morning. Once the sheriff and that posse got them loaded on the train, everyone was wanting to drink and talk it over.”

  Jacob combed his fingers through his hair. He smelled of whiskey, perfume, and mud. “Could you do me another favor, Pearlie, and loan me a horse?”

  “Dave’s got one tied up out back. He won’t need the nag till he rides home tonight. You’re welcome to it till then.”

  Jacob thought of offering her money as thanks, but knew it would cheapen what she did. “I owe you one,” he said. “Thanks for the favor.”

  She smiled. “Don’t worry about it, Ranger. That’s what friends are for.”

  Handing him his hat, she added, “We couldn’t find your gun. Dave said it’s probably lost in the mud.”

  Jacob brushed his empty holster, feeling strange without the Colt on his hip.

  “Next time you come spend the night, Ranger,” Pearlie’s painted-on eyebrows danced, “try to be awake.”

  Laughing, Jacob promised, guessing that they both knew he’d never return.

  He took a deep breath as he stepped out of her bungalow behind the bar, but most of the smells walked along with him. Crossing to the alley, he took the only horse tied there. He wanted to clear town as fast as possible before someone saw him and rumors started about him being a drunk. Or worse, if Nell found out where he’d spent the night. She was already mad at him. Any news might push her over the line into hating him, and that would probably ruin his chances of marrying her.

  Halfway home, he ran into Rand Harrison driving Nell’s buckboard.

  “Morning,” Harrison said as calmly as if they were simply passing.

  “Not much good about it,” Jacob answered. “They send you to look for me?”

  Rand nodded.

  “Mind if I take this horse back before I start explaining?” Jacob’s head pounded.

  “You think you can stay in the saddle?”

  Jacob swung the horse around and let Rand worry about keeping up with him.

  When they returned Dave’s horse, Harrison looked at the run-down saloon. “You spend the night here?”

  Jacob tied the horse. “Yeah. You planning on reporting to Nell?” He thought of threatening Rand if he did, but it didn’t seem right to pester a man about telling the truth.

  “No,” Harrison answered. “You do enough to ruin your chances with her without me adding fuel to the fire.”

  When Jacob climbed in beside the bookkeeper, Harrison held his nose.

  “Ride in the back, will you? You’re offending the horses.” Harrison thumbed toward the straw behind him.

  Jacob stepped over and sat in the middle of mud-covered straw. He felt like a pig being hauled to market. He even smelled like one.

  The bookkeeper laughed while Jacob told him what happened, then swore he could have guessed the entire story just from the look of the ranger.

  Jacob saw no reason for humor. “I failed, Rand. I let that boy down. I gave him my word he wouldn’t be on that train this morning, and I was out cold when the posse took him away.”

  “First of all,” the bookkeeper twisted on the bench so he could see Jacob, “you didn’t let him down. You were ambushed in the dark. Any man’s going down if someone slugs him with a full bottle, even you. And, second . . .” One corner of Rand’s mouth lifted slightly. “You didn’t break a promise. He’s not on his way to Fort Worth. Hank’s in Nell’s attic, tucked away in a bed with Mrs. O’Daniel fussing over him.”

  The bookkeeper shoved his hat back. “We got him out without anyone noticing and left your signed note on the sheriff ’s desk.”

  “What?”

  Rand turned off the road and circled to the back of Nell’s place. “I’ll tell you all about it while you bathe in the horse tank out by the windmill. If I take you into the house smelling like this, the women will shoot me. I’ll walk down to the barn and fetch a clean set of clothes I saw Gypsy place on your saddle yesterday.”

  Ten minutes later, Jacob stripped and fell face-first into the horse tank. He sank to the bottom like a rock and lay there for a few seconds, remembering that Mrs. O’Daniel promised to kill him if he got his bandages wet.

  By the time he came up for air and scrubbed some of the whiskey and glass out of his hair, Harrison had picked up the clean set of clothes for him. The bookkeeper relaxed on the bench facing the house and told him all about what they’d done the night before. He gave every detail of how the preacher kept talking and how Nell gave up her wheelchair so they could roll the kid out right under the posse’s noses.

  “You should have seen her,” Harrison said with pride. “She’s quite a woman.”


  “I knew she would be, even when she was a kid. She used to look at me with those big brown eyes and make me swear I’d wait for her to grow up. To tell the truth, I didn’t think it would be so soon.”

  Jacob pulled off the bandages and splashed water across his bruised and scabbed flesh. Then he reached for a towel atop the clothes, thankful there was no fresh blood coming from his wounds. He ignored Harrison’s suggestion that the wounds have fresh bandages and tugged into clean long johns.

  Harrison looked out toward the town, lost in his own thoughts.

  Pulling on his clean Levi’s, Jacob walked over to sit on the bench beside Harrison. He leaned his elbows on his knees as he dried his hair. “I’ve been thinking of what we talked about going into town yesterday. Maybe you’re right.”

  “About what?” Harrison tossed him a shirt.

  “Maybe I should court Nell a little. I guess I didn’t figure I had the time with others standing in line. But, looking back, that may be just what she wants. Seems like I went from bossing her around to kissing her. Maybe there should have been a little of something else in between.”

  “I’m still standing in line,” Harrison announced. “So don’t start thinking that you have too much time. My offer to marry her any time she says the word is still there.”

  “Are you hinting I’m slow at this marrying game?”

  “How long would you have waited to ask her if she hadn’t placed the ad? A year? Five years? You would have left things like they were between the two of you until you both were old and gray.”

  Jacob scrubbed his scalp, wishing he could clear his brain. Harrison was right. He liked how it was between Nell and him for the most part. Sure, they fought and yelled, but he always knew they’d stay friends in the end.

  Harrison interrupted his thoughts again. “I’ll not take back my offer. I made it with honor. But I’ll help you any way I can. Not because I don’t want to marry Nell and own half her property, but more because I think she might be happier with you. The difference between the two of us, Ranger, is simple. I see it as a business, and you see it as a life. Even if I married her and lived with her for twenty years, I’m not sure she’d ever love me the way she loves you.”

  “You’re a good man, Rand. She could do a lot worse than marrying someone like you.”

  The bookkeeper nodded. “Thanks. Coming from you that means a great deal.”

  “So, what’s your first advice?”

  “Be slow and gentle with her. No matter what happens, don’t get upset and start going off half-cocked.” Harrison frowned as if he were trying to get through to a bear. “Try being polite to her for a change. Don’t rush her into anything.”

  “I can do that. How hard could it be?” Jacob ignored Rand’s raised eyebrow and continued, “No matter what she says, I’ll be nice. I’ll be so damn nice she’ll probably think I got brain damage from that bottle of whiskey colliding with my scalp.”

  Harrison looked like he had his doubts. “It won’t be easy.”

  “I can do it. Bet you.”

  “What?”

  Jacob realized having a wager might strengthen his resolution. He’d lost few bets in his life and none where he’d bet on himself. “A week of your pay against a week of mine.”

  “Fair enough.” Harrison offered his hand. “With an extra week’s pay I could buy another suit.”

  Jacob shook the bookkeeper’s hand. “And I could get another Colt. Pearlie thinks mine is lost in the mud in the alley.”

  They walked to the house and went in the rear entrance. Jacob slipped up the back stairs to see Hank. He had to know the boy was all right before he made any plans about getting him to Fort Worth. Harrison said he looked pretty bad after the last beating.

  Mrs. O’Daniel was guarding the attic door. “About time you showed up, Ranger. You missed all the excitement last night.”

  Jacob didn’t want to talk about where he’d been. “How’s the boy?”

  Mrs. O’Daniel’s face turned from anger to worry in a blink. “He’s not doing so well. Oh, near as I can tell his wounds will heal, mostly bruises and a few cracked ribs, from what I can tell. But I can’t get him to eat anything. He won’t even take a drink unless I threaten to hold his nose.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “He’s hurting from the beatings, that’s for sure, but it’s more than just physical pain. I don’t think he cares to live anymore. He lost his mother a while back, and the father who came after him didn’t do anything but beat him down in body and spirit.”

  Jacob nodded. He’s seen it that morning by the outlaw camp. Hank had fought to free himself, but not for his life. And when he’d come back with Jacob, the ranger knew it was more running from his pa than thinking he was heading toward safety. Hank saw Jacob as the lesser of two evils, and now he must think even the ranger let him down.

  “What do we do?”

  “If I can get him to eat, he’ll heal enough to ride in a week or so. But why should he? What’s he got to look forward to? A hanging. Life in prison. My guess is he’d have been a dead man if he hadn’t helped with the robbery, and now he’s a dead man because he did. Not much reason to keep breathing. I think, one way or the other, he believes fifteen is as old as he’s going to get.”

  Jacob’s head felt like a few thousand buffalo were stampeding across it, and now he had to figure out how to make a boy want to live. “Can I take a look at him?”

  Mrs. O’Daniel nodded. “He won’t open his eyes or even answer you.”

  Jacob nodded and slipped into the room. Wednesday was sitting in a rocker beside the bed. She rocked her baby and sang a song about the green hills of Ireland.

  Jacob touched his finger to his lips and indicated for her to continue. He sat for a while, listening to the song and trying to figure out what to do. According to the law, he should take the kid in. Let the jailer worry about keeping him alive until the trial.

  But why lock him in a cell? If he were dying, maybe all Jacob could offer him was a place to do it quietly. The kid deserved that much. Mrs. O’Daniel had a point. If his pa and the others were planning a robbery around the kid, they probably would have felt the need to kill him if he hadn’t gone along.

  Jacob studied Hank. He wasn’t even shaving yet, though a few whiskers sprouted on his chin and upper lip. If he lived, he’d have a few scars from the beatings. The ranger wished he knew which men had done such a thing. He’d teach them a lesson they’d carry into hell.

  Frowning, Jacob realized he was getting mad. He’d better start working on his temper before he even talked to Nell. There were lots of things that made him angry, but Nell always seemed to know where to light the match, and he swore she pestered him sometimes just to see how long it would take her to make him start yelling.

  Well, no more. He would take Harrison’s advice and be polite. He’d be gentle and not raise his voice. Hell, he thought, I’ll be so calm, she won’t even recognize me.

  Hank moved in pain, shifting slightly beneath the sheet that covered his bandaged body.

  Before Jacob could react, Wednesday laid her free hand on his shoulder and patted as softly as she patted her baby’s back. “Hush now. Don’t you cry. Hush now and rest.”

  Hank seemed to relax, and Wednesday went back to singing.

  Jacob watched them. Both were little more than children who’d had their share of trouble for a lifetime. In the few hours they’d bonded, probably with very few words. He’d known Nell over half her life and he didn’t understand her half as well as Wednesday seemed to understand what the boy needed.

  He slipped from the room, figuring Hank was getting the best of care already. There was nothing Jacob could do for him.

  He wandered down the hallway to Nell’s room and was surprised to see her silhouette against the window. For a moment he watched her. When had she turned from the ugly duckling he’d known a few years ago? When had she grown from pretty to beautiful?

  “You looking for someone?” he said
in a low voice.

  “Jacob!”

  For a blink he thought she might rise and run to him. He almost opened his arms to catch her. He’d twirl her around with her skirts and hair flying.

  Only she didn’t move. She waited.

  Jacob walked to her and knelt on one knee. “You’re looking quite fair today.” He smiled as her hand reached out to touch his face.

  “I was worried about you.”

  “So was I,” he admitted. “Not so much about myself but about what I didn’t do that needed doing. I got knocked cold in a dark alley. I thought I’d let Hank down. Thanks for rescuing him for me. Harrison told me what you did.” He didn’t want to think about what would have happened if she’d fallen or been caught taking Hank from jail.

  “It was nothing,” she lied. “Only a few steps.”

  He stood and offered his hands. When she gave him hers, he pulled her slowly to her feet. He’d forgotten how tall she was, half a head or more above most women. But she still seemed small to him. He leaned down a few inches and touched his lips to hers.

  Nell circled her arms around his neck and let him take her weight against his heart as she kissed him back.

  He loved holding her like this, standing as if they could face all the world had to offer. But he was all too aware that he couldn’t hug her too tightly or sway more than a few inches without feeling her stiffen in pain. She kissed him with warmth and the hunger of a woman, but he could never forget that he was holding glass.

  Harrison had been right; if Jacob couldn’t be gentle, he could never have her. He lowered her back to the chair. “We have to talk.”

  Jacob didn’t miss the sadness in her eyes. “I know.”

  “What you did last night was a major crime. Folks just can’t go into a jail and take someone out.”

  “We had your paper, signed and filled out.”

  “I know, and if it gets down to it, I’ll swear I was with you, but I don’t like lying, so try to stay within the general letter of the law from now on.”

  She nodded. “Just so you can always tell the truth, I’ll try.”

  “Thanks. Now, no one besides that army downstairs is to know that I even came here. Is that clear? You have to act like you have no idea where I am. It’s the only way to keep Hank safe. If anyone thinks I’m staying here, or even stopped by, they might be back, and this time the search will be complete.”