by Jodi Thomas
The brothers respected each other enough not to argue. The farmhouse would be Daniel’s. Adam would live with them until he found a place in town. Wes said, none too convincingly, that he’d like to stay until the baby came, but he had to get to Texas as soon as he rested a few days.
They ate breakfast, all talking and questioning at the same time. A silent bond was still between them, but Adam felt them pulling apart as he had when they’d left for war. No matter where he was, or how far away they were, they were his brothers, his blood. He guessed he’d always carry both their joy and their pain inside him.
An hour later, as Adam climbed the stairs to what had always been his room, he relaxed. It would feel good to sleep the day away and wake to another one of May’s meals. She might be a quiet little lady, but she could sure cook a meal worth shouting about. The war seemed a lifetime away as he stretched out atop the quilt covering his bed and slowly closed his eyes.
A moment before he fell asleep, sudden insight flashed across his tired mind. No one had mentioned Bergette.
Adam tried to push worry from his thoughts, but he couldn’t. Daniel and May lived in the same town with her. She was Adam’s fiancée. Wouldn’t they have mentioned Bergette’s name once? Or sent word that he was home? Why hadn’t he thought of going to her first?
He didn’t bother to pull on his boots. He ran down the stairs in search of May or Danny.
May was sitting at the kitchen table with her sewing in her lap as he entered. She smiled, telling Adam without words that he’d always be welcome in what was now her home. Adam could see why Danny had loved her since childhood. She had a kindness about her that made everyone want to try harder. Daniel called her his touch of heaven, his private angel.
“May?” Adam pulled a chair across from her and forced himself to be calm even though he was in a hurry to know. “Is something wrong with Bergette? Has she been killed? Did she tire of waiting and marry someone else?” When May looked at him with doe-round eyes, he added, “I have to know.” She didn’t smile as he’d hoped she would, telling Adam something was wrong.
“No,” she whispered. “When I saw her in church last Sunday she was well and still unmarried. As far as I know, she still waits for you, Adam.”
Her words should have calmed his worry, but they didn’t. “What is it?” He hated pushing May, but he had to know.
“Bergette is a lady, a grand lady now,” May’s voice was without judgment or emotion. “Her father made a great deal of money during the war, making her quite wealthy.”
“There are worse things I can think of than coming home to a rich fiancée.” Adam grinned. “Are you sure she still wants to marry me?”
May didn’t return his smile. “She still wears your ring. And Nellie Wilson said she sent all the way to Paris for a wedding dress as soon as she heard talk of the war ending.” May didn’t look at him as she spoke. The sewing seemed to demand her attention.
He couldn’t push her more. Whatever it was about Bergette that saddened May, he’d find out soon enough for himself. Maybe the two women simply weren’t fond of one another. Adam grimaced. If that was true, he wasn’t sure he could marry Bergette. A woman who didn’t like May surely wouldn’t be able to live with any McLain.
“I think I’ll ride into town and pay her a call.” He stood. “I’ll be back by supper time.”
He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. Maybe it had nothing to do with Bergette. Maybe it was him. Maybe he wasn’t as interested in getting married as he thought. For the past few months whenever he tried to sleep, it was green eyes he saw and not Bergette’s crystal blue . . . it was short midnight black hair he reached for and not sunny blond.
But Bergette had been the only future he’d let himself believe in for so many years. The plan of coming home and living a normal life someday had been the only dream that had pulled him through the years of night. He wouldn’t give up that dream, even if he had to court Bergette all over again.
One hour later as Adam stood outside her door, he thought himself a fool. Of course he loved Bergette and she loved him! He’d loved her since they’d danced that summer he’d come home from medical school. Just because he’d kissed a woman one night in the middle of a war didn’t matter. Bergette and he were alike. They’d both come from hardworking, stable families. They were alike in their values and beliefs. Four years couldn’t change the core of a man, or a woman. Nichole had just been a shadow that passed over his thoughts, nothing more. Bergette was his future.
An aging lady Adam didn’t recognize answered the door. When he asked about his fiancée, she pointed, “Go past the state capitol building one block. It’s the largest house on the left.”
Adam knew the square two-story building she referred to hadn’t been the state capital in forty years, but to her it probably always would be, for she’d never make the trip north to Indianapolis. Corydon had been the capital in the old woman’s youth.
“Thank you,” he said as she closed the door without another word.
Adam walked down the street and up the steps of a home twice the size of Bergette’s former house. When he rang the bell, a butler showed him in with great hesitation. Almost before Adam was through the door, the man closed it as though fearing more trash might blow in.
Squaring his shoulders, Adam fought down a few choice comments that came to mind. He might not be rich, or high ranking, but as far as he knew the McLains had always been welcome in any home in town. Their father had been a foreman when the canals were built and even years later, most folks remembered.
About the time he’d decided he was in the wrong place, Bergette came down the stairs in a cloud of satin. Adam could only stare. She was far more beautiful than he remembered. Perfection. Absolute perfection.
When she saw him, her face lit with the delight of a child. She hurried to his outstretched arms, but stopped just before he could hold her. With a hand on each of his arms, she held him away as she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
“Darling!” she cried. “I can’t believe you’re home.”
When he reached for her, she stepped away. “But sweetheart, you’re dirty!”
Adam looked down at his uniform. It had several days of trail dust on it, but compared to what he’d lived in of late, the uniform didn’t look all that bad. Yet, compared to Bergette, he looked filthy. She was a brilliant butterfly standing next to a mud dauber.
“I didn’t take the time to change,” he mumbled in half apology, half explanation.
“Well, don’t worry,” She waved at the butler to bring tea and moved into a room larger than most officers’ barracks Adam had seen. “You’ll have time to dress before tonight. Even though father is in the capital, I must have a party to welcome you home.” She clapped her hands and danced around like a figure on top of a music box. “We’ll have the most delightful dinner.”
“Then you’re glad to see me home?” Adam smiled. It wasn’t the greeting he’d hoped for, but she certainly looked happy. He had to slow down and remember she was a lady, sheltered from the war, protected from hard times. She was the same as when he’d left, only more mature, more beautiful. It would take time for them to feel comfortable around one another again. But she was every ounce as perfect as he remembered.
“Oh, yes, I’m glad you’re home. I’ve planned for years, and I’ve kept the servants ready since the war ended. We’ll have a small dinner party tonight, then a grand ball in a few weeks. An ever so grand ball!”
“After we’re married?” Adam added. Every man in town would be jealous when he walked with her on his arm. “I’ll dance with my wife at the ball.”
“Oh, no.” Bergette’s bottom lip came out in a pout that broke any defense he might have built. “I’d planned on marrying in early spring. It’s too late to wear my dress now. It will be fall before I could dream of putting a wedding together.
When the war ended in April, I thought you’d be home by May. When you weren’t, I stored the grown.”
“I had to help the wounded make it back. The hospitals needed doctors for a few months longer.” Adam saw from her bored expression that his explanation mattered little. “It took time for some to be well enough to travel, and sometimes weeks to find hospital space for those who hadn’t recovered.” He was wasting his breath.
“It doesn’t matter.” Adam tried to hide his disappointment in both the wait to be married and her reaction to his reasons. “I can wait till spring. It’ll probably take me that long to find a house here in town and set up an office.” He couldn’t stop looking at her. Her hair was the color of sunshine. “I thought I’d get a place where I could have my office in part of the house, that way I could be close to you.” He could almost picture her smiling as he dropped in to check on her when she was as rounded as May with his child. He’d want his office close enough where she could call him if she needed anything.
Bergette shook her head as if he weren’t being logical. The young girl before him had grown to be an independent woman. She spoke her mind, saying that she had already started planning for their new house, and that they would talk of it later.
He admired her for having her own ideas, but felt uneasy with what her plans might be. Adam told himself he’d have to give her time. His life with her might have been his only dream for four years, but she’d had her own dreams. Only he found it interesting that during the hour he stayed at her house she showed no interest in even hearing his ideas.
His admiration slipped another notch later when he came down all dressed and ready to go to his welcome-home party and found his brothers still in their work clothes.
“Aren’t we eating at Bergette’s tonight?” Adam asked.
“Nope,” Wes answered without further explanation.
Daniel suddenly grew busy hauling water for May.
Only his meek little sister-in-law faced him. “It wouldn’t be proper for me to go anyway this far along in my condition. And Daniel would never go without me.”
“What about you, Wes?” Adam could feel the tension in the room. Tension that had never been there before.
“I saw that fine fiancée of yours in town an hour ago. She said she was real sorry she didn’t invite us, but the guest list was full.” He took a long drink from his cup. “Don’t know if I’d go anyway,” he mumbled. “I’m really looking forward to May’s supper.”
Adam couldn’t believe Bergette had forgotten to invite his family to a homecoming party. It made no sense. The one dream of the future he’d let himself believe in because it had been tucked away back home was beginning to crumble.
“Go, Adam.” May tried to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Have a good time. We’re all tired and want to get to bed early anyway. All your friends in town will be happy to see you again. And after all, Bergette has a right to ask for a little of your time. She’ll be in the family soon enough and have to put up with all of us.”
Adam reluctantly left, but when he arrived at the party, he was more unhappy than ever. The people Bergette had invited were the most important people in town, but none were his friends. Most he’d only heard of and had never talked with past a howdy. By the third course, he realized this was Bergette’s party, not his. He only provided the excuse. She was the center of attention. All the stories were about her hard time while Adam was gone. The hardest one seemed to have been her battle to remove an old lady from this house so she could buy the place.
By the time the men moved to have their cigars in the library, Adam was feeling completely out of place. He hadn’t been able to say a single word alone to Bergette. When she slipped into the study and motioned for him, Adam thought he’d finally have his chance. She must be as anxious to be alone with him as he was with her. They had a thousand things to talk about, a lifetime to plan.
“Darling,” she whispered as she pulled him into the hallway and held him at arms’ length when he would have moved closer. “There’s a man who wants to see you.”
Adam thought she looked a little frightened, but he couldn’t tell if it was from fear of some man or from the possibility that someone might ruin her evening.
“A man?”
“Actually, there are two. One came right up to the front door and said your brother told him he’d find you here. I tried to send them away, but the man at the door said you treated him for a wound and you had to take a look at the healing. The other, waiting in the shadows, was twice the size of Charles, my butler. I told them to go around to the kitchen and left orders to let them come no further into the house than the butler’s pantry.”
Adam raised an eyebrow. He’d treated hundreds, but couldn’t remember one being from anywhere near his home. Rarely had there been time to ask.
“Send them away, darling!” she cried. “I can’t have people like them ruining my party. I swear, one looked more like a bear than a human. You’d think those kind of people would have sense enough to come to the back door.”
“But what if one of them is in pain?” Adam started down the hall to the dining room.
“Then let Dr. Wilson take care of him. I can’t have this kind of thing happening.” She followed Adam. “If you let them come to our home, before you know it they’ll be bleeding all over the rugs.”
Adam wasn’t listening. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear anything she was saying. “Which way to the kitchen?” he snapped at her. Perfection was crumbling before his eyes.
She waved in the direction of a closed door at the back of the dining area. “I hope Charles managed to hold them back. I couldn’t very well have the strangers mingling with the guests.”
“No,” Adam fought down his anger as he stared at her. Her hair wasn’t sunshine, it was gold, cold hard gold. “We wouldn’t want them dying past the butler’s pantry, would we, Bergette?”
She look disgusted. “You don’t think he’s dying, do you?”
Adam moved down the row of dining chairs pushed back from a huge mahogany table. “Did these men give a name?”
Bergette’s full skirts kept her from following him. “I heard the thin one call the huge one Wolf. Wolf, what a name.”
He reached for his gun, but no holster was about his waist. It must be two of the Shadows! If Nichole’s brother had followed him for four months to kill him, one gun might not be enough. Besides, the war was over. Hadn’t this Shadow rider gotten the word?
“Stay with the guests!” he ordered. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
He moved through the dining room thankful that Bergette hadn’t argued. As he approached the far exit, a tall form pivoted slowly around the doorjamb, opening the door as he moved.
“Evening, little brother.” Wes grinned. “I thought I might just drop in for a few minutes. Hope I didn’t spoil Bergette’s party.” His tone left no doubt that he cared little for Bergette’s feelings.
“You saw the two men?” Adam met his brother’s gaze.
“I saw them.” Wes brushed his gun handle. “The big one almost frightened May to death when she stepped out on the porch and found him standing in the middle of the yard like he grew there at sundown.”
“You know who they are?” Adam stood only inches away from his brother. Silently, Wes slipped him a derringer and Adam folded it into his coat.
“I’ve seen too many men not to be able to size them up. They’re shabby and underfed, but both ride like the wind. And the thin one carried your medical bag. A bag you lost right about the time the war ended.”
Wes didn’t need to say more. Adam knew he’d filled in the blanks.
“Only thing I can’t figure”—Wes moved toward the closed doors of the room called the butler’s pantry—“is . . . are they here to thank you, or kill you?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” Adam gripped the knob an
d opened the door.
FOUR
NICHOLE REMOVED HER jacket, folded her arms, and leaned against the spotless counter. All she’d wanted to do was see Adam McLain again . . . prove to herself that he was more a daydream and less a reality. No man could have been as kind, or good, or tender as she remembered. She must have lost a great deal of blood to conjure up such a fantasy. All the men she’d known were hard and measured their worth by their ability to fight. All but the doctor, it seemed.
But getting to see Adam McLain again had turned into a traveling minstrel show. Wolf, always protective, insisted on coming with her. She’d spent the war crossing back and forth along the line, outrunning bullets most of the time. Now he thought she needed a bodyguard to travel by train to this little town at the southernmost tip of Indiana. Standing in a fine house, Wolf, puffed up like the bear he resembled, was pacing the polished floor of a room not three strides long.
“I don’t see why you wanted to come here,” Wolf mumbled in a low roar as he scratched his beard.
“I told you,” Nichole answered for what felt like the hundredth time. “I owe him my life, the least I can do is bring back his bag.”
Wolf looked around. “He can afford another one.” He bumped against a cabinet, causing glasses to tinkle like church bells. “All hell’s going to break loose back home. I haven’t got time to ride a train north just to see some doctor.”
“I could have come alone.”
“No, sir.” Wolf shook his head so hard she could almost see some of his fur fly. “If you’re crazy enough to want this, Nick, I’ll be close in case there’s trouble.” He shook one beefy finger at her. “Always have someone you can trust to watch your back. You never know when you’ll have to retreat.”
