by B. J Daniels
Russell had moved closer, his eyes on Dulcie. She knew it was now or never. She looked down at the knife on the floor, then up at Russell. He nodded.
Things got crazy after that. Dulcie shoved her sister and kicked out at the knife. She heard it clatter across the old wooden floor toward Russell as she threw her sister and herself behind Jolene’s large desk.
The gunshot boomed in the small school. Behind Dulcie, the blackboard shattered, raining down onto the floor beside them. A second shot followed and a third on its heels.
Dulcie was on her feet, terrified what she would see when she rose from the floor.
Over the sound of pounding rain, she saw Russell standing over the bodies of Tinker Horton and his mother. Tinker still had the gun that he’d taken from his mother in his hand. Ronda lay on the floor next to the computer, the words she’d typed still visible across the room.
She was holding her chest where her son had shot her before taking his own life. Her eyes were wide with surprise, even in death. Just as Laura Beaumont’s had been.
Epilogue
Dulcie didn’t hear Kate Corbett approach. It wasn’t until she sat down next to her in the large Trails West Ranch living room that she stirred from her thoughts.
“Beautiful view, isn’t it?” Kate said. “I never tire of sitting here. But it must be very different from Chicago and what you’re used to.”
Dulcie knew Kate hadn’t joined her to talk about the view. “I was just thinking about Russell.”
“I know,” Kate said. “He’s in love with you. But your life is in Chicago, isn’t it?”
“It used to be,” Dulcie said.
“He’ll go back with you, if it’s what you want,” Kate said. “I know Russell. He’d do anything for you.”
Dulcie knew he would. She’d fought him when he’d tried to protect her, believing she had to hang on to her independence. But something had changed since the night at the schoolhouse. It gave her nightmares to think how Tinker could have just as easily wrenched the gun from his mother’s hand and turned it on Russell instead of his mother and himself.
A brush with death changed people. It had changed her. Just as this man and this land had changed her.
“I wouldn’t ask Russell to go back to Chicago with me,” she said. “I know how much he loves ranching with his father. It isn’t just the ranch. His family is here.”
Kate rose to her feet. “There are worse things than him leaving his family and the ranch. I couldn’t bear to see his heart broken. I know Russell. He doesn’t love easily. There won’t ever be anyone else but you. Let him go with you. If you love him.”
Left alone with only the view of the Montana prairie and the Little Rockies in the distance, Dulcie thought about Russell, her feelings for him and what was waiting for her back in Chicago. Then seeing the time, she hurried to her car.
On the drive into town, she found herself reliving the night at the schoolhouse. In a flash of lightning, she’d seen Russell rush to her, drag her into his arms and lead her and Jolene outside. Life and death. Only a flash of lightning between them.
Russell had kept saying her name, over and over, as he held her. Water ran from the brim of his hat and the soft, dark strands of hair at the nape of his neck. He blinked back the rain, his blue eyes alight with the storm and her.
“I love you!” he’d yelled over the pounding rain. “I love you, Dulcie Hughes!”
He’d held her tight, rain and the tears running down her face in the darkness. She had turned her face up to the rain, letting her tears finally come. Around her lightning flashed, thunder boomed and she’d cried for the mother she never knew and for her sister, the blessing, she’d almost lost.
Laura Beaumont had lost herself here. Her youngest daughter had found herself, Dulcie thought. And found a sister she’d never known she had.
Would she ever be able to forgive her grandparents? In time. She told herself that they had known she would find Jolene. And save her? Or was that just her way of dealing with it, believing there’d been a plan bigger than herself?
She knew they had blamed themselves until their dying days for leaving Angel. For leaving Laura.
But Angel had survived it. She smiled at the thought of her sister, Jolene. A strong woman like herself. Jolene would be fine. In time.
Speaking of Jolene, Dulcie thought. Her sister would be waiting for her at Northern Lights.
JOLENE LOOKED UP AS HER sister came into the restaurant. Her sister. She’d always wanted siblings. She smiled and rose to give her a hug. They held each other for a long moment.
“I hope you’re hungry,” Jolene said. “Laci insisted on cooking us something special for lunch.”
Dulcie laughed. “I’m starved, but then I always am.”
Jolene studied her. “How are you?”
“Better. How about you?”
Jolene nodded. “I feel lighter.” She laughed. “I took your advice. I’m seeing a psychologist. Talking about it helps.”
She understood why she’d hidden her truth for so long and so deep. She’d believed she’d caused her mother’s death because of one weak moment on the creek that night when she’d wished her mother gone.
“I just feel bad about Tinker. Maybe if I had remembered sooner…”
“Don’t do that to yourself,” Dulcie said. “Ben knew the kind of woman he was living with. How is Mace, though?”
“The Whitehorse Sewing Circle is finding him a home,” Jolene said. “Pearl assured me that they would find him a good one and make sure he was all right.”
“Here, I want you to have this.” Dulcie pulled some papers from her shoulder bag and slid them across the table.
“Dulcie—”
“It’s the money from the property and half of the estate our grandparents left us.”
“Dulcie, no. They left that to you.”
Her sister shook her head, smiling. “No, you see that’s the thing I figured out. Why they didn’t tell me about you, about the Montana property, about our mother. I think they felt their hands were tied, but they knew me. They knew I wouldn’t give up until I got to the bottom of it. Until I found my sister and made things right.”
Jolene looked down at the check, then back up at her sister. “It’s so much.”
“Enough so that you never have to work again.”
Jolene shook her head. “I love teaching. I didn’t get into it for the money, that’s for sure,” she added with a smile.
Dulcie reached across the table and took her hand. “I’d hoped you’d say that. You’re a great teacher.”
Laci appeared then with a huge tray. “I made you samplers of all my favorites.”
They dug in, complimenting each dish and thanking Laci for her thoughtfulness.
After she was gone, Jolene asked her sister, “What about you? What will you do now?”
Dulcie shook her head, a faraway look in her eyes. “Russell has invited me to stay out at the ranch for a while.”
“How are things with the two of you?”
“I’ve never met anyone like him.”
“I’m sure he’s never met anyone like you,” Jolene said with a laugh. “I’m glad you’re staying for a while. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
Dulcie’s gaze locked with hers. “You were always in my heart and no matter what the future holds I’m never going to be more than a phone call away.”
IT HAD CLOUDED UP AGAIN by the time Dulcie drove back toward the ranch. As she passed the Whitehorse Cemetery, she slowed when she saw the rainmaker’s truck parked beside the road.
She could make out his dark silhouette standing on the hill by Laura Beaumont’s grave. She saw him put the small bouquet of flowers by the headstone and turn to leave. Stopping the car, she rolled down her window as she waited for him.
Finnegan Amherst saw her but there was no longer any malice in his expression, just grief. “Maybe now she can rest in peace. Maybe we all can.”
“I’m sorry I misjudg
ed you,” she said as he started past her car.
He stopped and looked back at her. “You do look like your mother. She was a beautiful woman. But she wasn’t strong. Not like you. She would have been proud of you and your sister…and sorry.” He nodded, tears shining in his dark eyes.
With a tip of his floppy black hat, he walked to his pickup and climbed in as large drops of rain began to fall.
Dulcie sat, thinking about her mother. Had the rainmaker been the love of her life? Or had it been Dulcie’s and Angel’s father? Or would Laura Beaumont have spent her life looking for that one man who would love her the way she so desperately needed to be loved?
The way Russell loved her, Dulcie thought.
The rainmaker’s pickup engine started, rumbling roughly, and he drove away, the metal pipes in the back of his truck clinking softly to the sound of the rain.
RUSSELL SAW DULCIE drive up and went out on the porch. She’d been quiet all morning and when he saw her face he knew she’d made a decision.
She stepped out of the car and stood, her face turned up to the rain. He’d never seen a more beautiful woman, never loved her more than he did at that moment. He had to let her go. He’d known that from the start. Just as he knew he would go with her—if she let him.
She must have sensed him standing there because she looked in his direction, a big smile spreading across her face. “I love you!” she called through the pouring rain. “I love you, Russell Corbett.”
He realized it was the first time she’d said it. He felt his heart take off at a gallop. “I love you, Dulcie,” he called back.
“Marry me and build me a house over there on that hillside.”
He met her gaze and was off that porch in a heartbeat, lifting her off her feet to whirl her around as the rain fell, beading in her lashes and running down her face. And they were laughing and he was telling her how much he loved her and then his mouth was on hers and slowly he was lowering her to the ground.
As he pulled back, both of them soaked to the skin, he had to ask, “Are you sure, Dulcie? This is no Chicago.”
She laughed. “No, Russ, it’s not. But this is where our children will grow up and, if we’re lucky, our grandchildren. This is where my heart is.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3943-6
SMOKIN’ SIX-SHOOTER
Copyright © 2009 by Barbara Heinlein
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†Whitehorse, Montana
†Whitehorse, Montana
†Whitehorse, Montana
†Whitehorse, Montana
†Whitehorse, Montana
†Whitehorse, Montana
†Whitehorse, Montana
*Whitehorse, Montana: The Corbetts
*Whitehorse, Montana: The Corbetts
*Whitehorse, Montana: The Corbetts
*Whitehorse, Montana: The Corbetts
