The Rancher's Courtship & Lone Wolf's Lady

by Laurie Kingery

  The schoolroom was empty, but it looked as if a wild bull had charged through it. Then he heard sounds coming from behind the closed cloakroom door—sounds of a man’s grunts of pain.

  He threw open the door. A wild-eyed Caroline, her breaths coming in heaving gasps, her hair wild, her blouse torn at the neck, wielded a mop like a weapon, bringing it down again and again on the head and shoulders of a big man crouching on all fours who waved his arms above his head in a vain attempt to protect himself.

  “Caroline! What’s going on?” he shouted.

  She whirled around, wild-eyed. “Henderson...” Caroline panted, pointing at the man on the floor. “He tried to...he tried to—” And then she collapsed in tears and ran to him.

  “She’s crazy...tried to kill me,” muttered the man on the floor. “Needs to be locked up...”

  “Liar! You attacked me!” Caroline cried, then put out a hand as Jack lunged toward the man on the floor. “Jack, never mind him—someone’s taken your girls!”

  Jack’s blood froze right there in his veins. “What are you saying?”

  “I—I’d sent the girls home to get Dan...and more cleaning supplies,” she said. “I came in here, and found Henderson hiding.... He attacked me, and then I heard one of the girls scream outside....”

  Jack was on Henderson in a heartbeat, yanking him to his feet, clutching his shirtfront. “Where are my daughters? What do you know about them?”

  Henderson, one eye swelling shut, was stupid enough to smirk. “You’ll never find ’em till you pay the ransom....”

  Jack weighed less than Henderson, but a righteous fury surged through him. He felt angry enough to whip ten Hendersons. He threw him against a wall. “Who’s got them?” he demanded, twisting the shirt collar as he yanked his Colt from its holster. “Tell me, or I’ll shoot you right here and now.”

  Henderson’s eyes crossed as he stared down the barrel of the pistol. Apparently he saw his peril at last, for new beads of sweat broke out on his forehead. “Your d-drovers,” he said. “Your former drovers, th-that is.”

  The idea of his innocent children in the hands of those scoundrels made a red mist swim in front of his eyes. “Which way were they going?”

  Henderson shrugged. Then, as Jack shoved the pistol into his belly, he began to blubber, “I dunno, I dunno! Don’t shoot me. Thurgood said to hide ’em good—”

  “Thurgood?” both Jack and Caroline cried at once. “Thurgood’s in on this?” Jack rasped, his nose a scant inch from Henderson’s.

  Henderson nodded, eyes wide. “Don’t shoot me....”

  “Jack, you’ve got to go after them! Go! I can manage....” Carolyn cried, wielding the mop threateningly again at Henderson, who actually cringed.

  There was no way he was going to leave her to keep Henderson at bay. He brought the butt of his pistol down, and the bigger man collapsed on the floor like a sack of rice with a big hole in it.

  Jack turned back to Caroline. “Caroline, sweetheart—run to the sheriff,” he said. “Tell him to have his deputy come collect Henderson. Tell Bishop to ride after me—”

  “But which way are you going? How do you know which way they’ll take?” she demanded.

  “There’s only two main roads going in and out of Simpson Creek,” he said. “The one going south, past the ranch, and the one that heads east past the church and then turns north. They won’t chance coming past the ranch. I’m figuring they’ll take the east road.”

  “Okay,” she said. She dashed ahead of him toward the door, then turned back. “But how on earth did you happen to come just in time like that? Thank God!”

  “Amen to that. I came to tell you I loved you, and to ask you—” He stopped abruptly. He couldn’t ask her now, in the shambles of the schoolhouse, when they were both frantic with worry about his girls. She deserved better than that. “I’ve got a question to be asking you, when I get back,” he amended.

  She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him. She gave him the biggest smile he’d ever seen. “Then I’ll be waiting.”

  He took her face quickly in his hands and kissed her. “Now, go, Caroline, hurry!”

  “Go with God,” she called over her shoulder as they both flew down the steps and into the schoolyard. “I love you, too!”

  * * *

  It was several hours later before Jack returned. Sheriff Bishop had galloped out of town heading east, while Deputy Menendez had followed Caroline back to school, handcuffed Henderson, who had just been beginning to come around, and hustled him to one of the jail cells. Then he’d escorted Caroline home, telling her he was going to ask Dr. Walker to come watch over the prisoner so he could ride out, too.

  A shaky Caroline had worn out the parlor floor, pacing back and forth, weeping and praying, despite her mother’s attempts to calm her. She kept going through the kitchen to the post office, so she could watch out the door for any sign of Jack. He’d be coming from the east....

  And finally, just at dusk, she saw him approaching on his horse, flanked by Bishop and the deputy. His gelding moved slowly, and well it should, for he carried his daughters, who were sticking closer to him than two burrs on a saddle blanket. As they drew closer, she could see that Sheriff Bishop and his deputy each led another horse, and each led horse bore a sullen-looking man with his hands bound.

  Jack reined in by the post office, and the sheriff and his deputy rode past, each nodding and touching the brim of his hat to her, their faces grim in victory.

  The exhausted girls spotted her. “Aunt Caroline! Papa saved us!” Abby cried. And then Caroline waited no longer but went flying off the boardwalk to them, reaching the horse and his rider in time for him to lower first Amelia, then Abby to her. Behind them, Caroline’s parents and brother watched, tears of joy in their eyes.

  As soon as Jack dismounted, they all embraced together, crying and laughing and murmuring “Thank God!” and “I love you!” at once.

  * * *

  The rest of the Wallace family had gone to bed mysteriously early—right after the twins, in fact. Now Caroline and Jack found themselves alone in the parlor, and they couldn’t have been happier about it.

  Jack got directly to the point, for once the children were safe, he’d thought of little else. “We have some unfinished business, Teacher,” he began.

  She began to smile. “Yes, we do, Jack.”

  Kneeling in front of her, he took her hand in his, the hand that wore the pearl ring. Gently, he drew it off her finger. “Pete gave you this, and now I’d like to give it to you again, from me.”

  The hand in his began to tremble, and she gazed into his eyes, her own shining with joy.

  “Caroline, will you marry me?” he asked.

  “Yes, I will, Jack,” she said, her voice tremulous. “I love you so much!”

  His own hand shook just a little as he slipped the ring back onto her finger, and then their lips met in a tender kiss full of promise.

  * * *

  “I’ve been asked to make an announcement before my father begins his sermon,” Gil Chadwick announced the next morning at the Simpson Creek church. “In view of what happened yesterday, Caroline and Jack are spending some time together this morning. They have some matters to discuss—” he broke off and looked up, and smiled at the congregation “—regarding a wedding.”

  Slowly, as people began to grin, Gil smiled, too, and went on. “Today is the Sabbath, and we’ll observe that, but tomorrow’s been declared a school holiday, because the school needs to be cleaned and repaired. I think we ought to give the couple an early wedding present, don’t you? Why don’t each of us who are able show up at the school, sleeves rolled up, prepared to help?”

  Now the applause was thunderous, with shouts of “I’ll be there!” and “You can count on me, Preacher!” added in.

  * * *

  The sun shone as if winter was al
ready vanquished as the buckboard rolled toward Collier’s Roost. Today it seemed as if spring would come early to the Hill Country, and Caroline was more than ready.

  “Bishop stopped by this morning to tell me the sheriff of San Saba has Thurgood in his jail,” Jack murmured, clearly keeping his voice down so it wouldn’t carry back to the bed of the wagon, where Abby and Amelia sat playing “wedding” with their dolls. Children were remarkably resilient, she thought; though they’d been scared out of their wits by their abduction yesterday, they seemed to have survived it with their spirits intact.

  “After everything Henderson told him in an effort to save himself,” Jack went on, “Bishop says there’s more than enough to ensure Thurgood goes to prison right along with Henderson. Your county will be needing a new school superintendent.”

  “Thank God,” Caroline said. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d said that phrase since yesterday.

  She knew Sheriff Bishop had gone to check on Billy Joe and Henderson’s wife yesterday, and that he had taken them to stay with his wife. The mayor was going to give them enough money to resettle elsewhere if Mrs. Henderson wished, so Henderson couldn’t find them when he got out from behind bars.

  “We are so lucky, you and I....” Caroline murmured and smiled as Jack reached his hand across the seat to clasp hers.

  They were nearly at the ranch. “Jack, I—I’ll move to Montana, just as soon as you send for us,” she said. “It sounds a little scary—the long trip and all, but—”

  “You won’t have to,” he told her, as they pulled off the road and onto the dirt lane.

  And then she saw it as they pulled onto the dirt lane of Collier’s Roost—a ranch house, where the previous owner’s house had once stood. It wasn’t completed yet, she could tell, but it would be very fine when it was, with freestone walls and a shiny tin roof, two stories, where the Waters ranch house had been only one.

  “Papa! You built a house!” the twins said, and were hopping down from the wagon as soon as it rolled to a stop.

  “Why don’t you go see it?” Jack told them. “Caroline and I’ll be along in a minute.”

  They did as he had bid, shrieking in excitement, as the drovers emerged from the bunkhouse, grinning. When Jack hadn’t returned last night, a couple of them had come into town to check on him, and he’d told them what had happened.

  Caroline could only stare at the building, laughing. “When did you do this?”

  “While I was trying to think of a way to be worthy of you. It took nearly all winter,” he told her with a grin.

  “You silly man!” she said and took hold of his face and kissed him. It wasn’t the first time they’d kissed since yesterday, and it wouldn’t be the last, but each time was wonderful beyond words.

  “I’m staying right here, Caroline,” he told her. “With you as my wife, and the twins, and as many more children God sees fit to bless us with.”

  They stopped and kissed again.

  “But what about your teaching?” he asked her then, a furrow of concern showing on his brow. “I know it’s important to you....”

  “It is,” she agreed. “But you’ll be taking those cattle to Montana, won’t you? I can finish the school year, at least, and then Louisa Wheeler can take over as schoolmarm.... Would you even be back before next fall?” Her smile faded somewhat as she thought of the months of waiting for him to return for her and praying he would make the journey safely.

  “He’s not goin’ anywhere, ma’am. I’m drivin’ those cattle—and to Kansas,” Raleigh Masterson called down from an upstairs window of the house, paintbrush in hand. “It’s a lot closer’n Montana. Then I’m coming back as Jack’s foreman.”

  She turned from looking up at Raleigh and gazed at Jack. “Sounds as if you have it all figured out.”

  Jack grinned. “Now why don’t we go have a look at the house? It’s not done inside, so you have plenty of time to slap your own brand on it....”

  Arm in arm, they strolled toward the house he had built for her.

  * * *

  Lone Wolf’s Lady

  Judy Duarte

  Since 2002, USA TODAY bestselling author Judy Duarte has written over forty books for Harlequin Special Edition, earned two RITA® Award nominations, won two Maggie Awards and received a National Readers’ Choice Award. When she’s not cooped up in her writing cave, she enjoys traveling with her husband and spending quality time with her grandchildren. You can learn more about Judy and her books on her website, judyduarte.com, or at Facebook.com/judyduartenovelist.

  Books by Judy Duarte

  Harlequin Special Edition

  Rocking Chair Rodeo

  Roping in the Cowgirl

  The Bronc Rider’s Baby

  A Cowboy Family Christmas

  The Soldier’s Twin Surprise

  The Lawman’s Convenient Family

  The Fortunes of Texas: All Fortune’s Children

  Wed by Fortune

  The Fortunes of Texas: The Secret Fortunes

  From Fortune to Family Man

  The Fortunes of Texas: The Rulebreakers

  No Ordinary Fortune

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

  —Ephesians 4:31–32

  To my editor, Susan Litman, for going above and beyond. Thank you for believing in me and this book.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Summer, 1884

  Pleasant Valley, Texas

  “Caroline Graves is dead. And your job is done.”

  Tom “Lone Wolf” McCain turned in his saddle, the leather creaking with his movement as he faced Trapper Jack, his crotchety old traveling companion. “She left a six-year-old daughter behind.”

  “And the kid’s being raised by a woman who’s known her since she was born.” Trapper Jack lifted his battered hat and mopped his weathered brow with the dusty red flannel sleeve of the shirt he’d worn for the past several days. “What are you going to do? Uproot her?”

  “If I have to.” As Tom met the man’s glare, he had to admit that when push came to shove, he wasn’t sure what he’d do. But he owed it to Caroline to see to it that her daughter was safe and well cared for.

  If only Harrison Graves had hired Tom to find his granddaughter six months earlier, Caroline might have been alive when he’d followed her trail to Taylorsville. Then Tom would have had a chance to talk to her. He might have convinced her to go back where she belonged, to her grandfather’s ranch in Stillwater.

  “You ought to just tell the old man that Caroline died,” Trapper added, as he surveyed the typical Texas town that lay nestled in the valley below. “And let that be the end of it.”

  “Harrison Graves is looking for an heir.”

  Trapper spit a wad of tobacco to the side. “Seems to me that Graves isn’t too fond of illegitimate heirs.”

  Tom knew that better than anyone. And he’d given that some thought, too. After all, when Harrison had learned that his granddaughter was with child, he’d sent her to Mexico to have her baby, instructing her
to leave it there. And he’d never mentioned anything to Tom about searching for the baby Caroline was supposed to have left behind in a Mexican orphanage—he’d only wanted his granddaughter back.

  So how would the dying cattleman feel when Tom returned with Caroline’s illegitimate child in tow? Would that appease him? Would he rewrite his will, leaving everything to the little girl? Or would he insist that Tom leave her where he’d found her?

  Maybe Trapper was right. Maybe Caroline’s daughter was better off not going back to Stillwater.

  But was she better off being raised by a fallen woman?

  From what Tom had gathered in Mexico, Caroline had run off with a former prostitute from Pleasant Valley. For the next few years, she’d managed to keep her friend on the straight and narrow—or so it seemed. But after Caroline had died, the woman had returned to the only other life she’d known, taking the child with her.

  That might be true, but something didn’t sit right. In fact, a lot of things just didn’t add up.

  “He could have hired any number of bounty hunters to search for his runaway granddaughter,” Trapper said. “Why’d it have to be you?”

  Tom wasn’t sure why Harrison had summoned him, other than his reputation for being good at finding people who didn’t want to be found.

  “That old man doesn’t deserve the time of day from you,” Trapper added. “Not after all he did to make your life miserable. I still can’t believe you’d even consider working for him.”

  “I’m not doing this for Harrison Graves.” Nor was he doing it for the money. Yet when the wealthy cattleman had handed him the twenty-dollar gold piece, Tom had pocketed the coin rather than explain why he would have agreed to search for Caroline on principle alone.

  Trapper chuffed. “I still think you’re making a big mistake, kid. And I’m not about to sit around and watch you make a fool of yourself. I’m going back to Hannah’s place. We’ve been away too long as it is.”