by Jodi Thomas
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here together in this dusty dugout, while awaiting our brother’s hanging, to join this woman and this man in . . .”
TWENTY-EIGHT
WOLF SLOWED HIS horse for the tenth time and allowed the boy to catch up with him. Three hours ago he’d arrived in Fort Worth on the stage. Wolf had no trouble finding Doc McLain’s place, but everyone in the house was crazier than bedbugs on a hot skillet.
A nun kept insisting she’d never seen any woman named Nichole and tried to push him off the porch. Once he finally got inside the house, a cute little cook flirted with him as if he’d been freshly washed. When he asked her about Nick, she didn’t lie any better than the nun.
Finally, a pale woman came downstairs. She claimed to be the widow who owned the place, but insisted he was mistaken about Nichole. She told him several times that nothing happened in the house without her knowledge, so his sister had never been under her roof.
Wolf believed her and was about to leave and look for Nick somewhere else when he collided with a tiny ball of lace and curls he remembered as Bergette. He smiled his best smile and offered a handshake. She screamed as if she were under full attack and started throwing things at him.
He was obliged to put his arm around Bergette and lift her off the ground a few feet to settle her down and give her a better look at his face so she’d remember seeing him. But she didn’t take well to settling.
The more she screamed and kicked and threw things, the more everyone else in the house seemed to take pity on him. At first he had the feeling the little princess didn’t like him, but with what happened next, he realized she’d done him a great favor.
The nun and the cook finally got him down to the kitchen and out of Bergette’s way. Before leaving her range of fire, he promised to come by for another visit with the little lady some other day.
Suddenly, the nun and the cook couldn’t say enough about Nick and all that had been happening. Bergette had convinced them that Wolf must truly be Nichole’s brother. The trouble they described didn’t seem like anything Nick couldn’t handle, till the little boy piped up about how Nick was hiding out by sleeping in Adam’s room.
Wolf stood and asked where to rent a horse. He’d heard enough.
Before he knew it, the kid named Nance was riding beside him talking like a magpie. All Wolf wanted to do was plot how to kill Adam, but the boy wouldn’t give him time. He’d sent Nick to Texas so she would be safe. He’d even convinced Tyler there was no need for him to come along to fetch Nick. But when he heard Adam had been sleeping with his sister, he knew he’d be killing a McLain. Wolf liked the family, but a duty was a duty.
As Nance caught up to him again, Wolf couldn’t help but smile. He liked kids. Back before the war, he used to dream of finding a woman and settling down with more children around than they could keep up with. But the closest he’d been to a woman in years was when he held Bergette back at the boardinghouse while she was trying to kill him. Wolf couldn’t hold back a laugh. She felt good, he thought. Real good. Like fire all wrapped in powder and lace. Maybe he’d even think of shaving before he paid her another call.
“Captain Hayward?” Nance asked. “Did you ever have to kill anyone in the war?”
“Not if I could help it,” Wolf answered.
“I bet you just scared them, didn’t you?” Nance held his reins tight. Like most boys his age, he could ride a good trailing horse. As long as he didn’t have to take the lead, he had no trouble riding.
“Hold them reins like this, boy.” Wolf put his fists in front of the saddle horn about six inches apart. “Run the right rein through first your right hand, then the left. Then thread the left rein through your left hand, then the right. That way both hands hold both reins.”
The boy closed his fists in front of him with his reins in place.
“Now, all you have to do is turn one fist down and you turn the horse.” Wolf pulled his right fist thumb up and the horse moved to the command. “But remember, you control a horse more with your legs than with the reins. The bit’s a guide. No sense tearing a horse’s mouth up by jerking on it.”
Nance sat up proud in the saddle, enjoying the lesson. It had been a long time since he’d gone with a man on a real adventure. But the nun said she’d square it with his mother cause the doc would look after him on the way home. Sister said he needed to get out of the house and get some air, like there was none left inside.
Wolf smiled. The boy had forgotten his questions of war.
An hour later, they came upon a place the stable hand had said would be Emery’s Post. Wolf slowed as he noticed several men gathered about a tree. The closer he got, the more his hand itched for the feel of his Colt. But he’d learned, never go in like you’re in a hurry and never offer help until you know which side right stands on.
“Stay well behind me, boy,” he ordered with no room for argument. “And don’t say a word, no matter what you see.”
“Yes, sir,” Nance whispered. “I can do that. I’ve been practicing most of my life.”
“I’m going to play a game, but it’s just an act. Do you understand?” Wolf was close enough to smell trouble, and he wanted to know the boy would follow orders and stay out of harm’s way.
“Yes,” Nance answered, his voice shaking slightly. “No matter what, you can count on me.”
“Good,” Wolf whispered. “Follow me.”
Nichole looked up and saw Wolf riding in. She lowered her head, not wanting to give away her joy at seeing him. She’d been near panic when they’d been hauled out of the dugout. The trial had lasted about five minutes and now it was time for Wes’s hanging. Only Wolf was here. Wolf would know what to do.
“Afternoon,” Wolf said casually to the ranch hands standing about. “Mind if I watch?”
An older man who was obviously the leader shook his head. “It’ll be good for your boy to see a horse thief hang. Keep him on the straight and narrow.”
“Much obliged.” Wolf’s Southern accent marked him as a friend. He smoothly introduced himself as a captain with the Tennessee regulars.
The ranch boss smiled and identified himself as Colonel Wilcox, formerly with Terry’s Rangers.
Wolf pointed with his head. “You hanging them all?” He glanced at the cowhands’ stained leather chaps and knew these were working men, not drifters or troublemakers. If they were hanging a man, they probably thought they had good reason.
Colonel Wilcox pointed toward Wes. “The other three are just friends of his come to watch. We’ll let them go when the hanging’s over. I don’t have no quarrel with them. Only with this Yank with the scar on his face. He stole my horse while I left it here for Emery to keep an eye on. My place is a few hours north of here, so my men have been waiting for the stranger to pass by. We don’t look kindly on horse thieves in these parts.”
Slowly lowering himself from his horse, Wolf walked over to Wes. “He looks like a mean one, all right.” Wolf leaned closer. “Evil eyes,” he added as he stood within an inch of Wes. “Worst I’ve ever seen. And that scar would frighten most women and children.”
Growling like a trapped animal, Wes shoved Wolf with his shoulder.
Wolf’s arm went around Wes for only an instant as he tried to right himself.
In that moment, Wes felt the blade of a knife slide between his wrists and slice the rope binding his hands.
Leaning back, Wolf took a good look at the prisoner. “Yep. Evil eyes.” He winked at Wes. “Good thing you got him tied.”
When Wolf moved away, Wes kept his hands crossed behind him.
“But I think you’re hanging the wrong one of these fellows.” Wolf rubbed his hairy chin as he addressed the ranch boss. “You see, one of them slept with my sister while he was guarding her from harm. Now, a man who’ll do that is worse than a horse thief.”
Colonel Wilcox nodded. “But it
was a fine horse.”
“It was my only sister,” Wolf countered.
“Get another rope ready, boys!” Colonel Wilcox yelled, then turned to the McLains. “Which one of you low-life, no-good snakes slept with this man’s sister?”
They all three looked guilty, and Wolf had to fight for control to keep from heading straight into them with fists flying.
“I did.” Adam stepped forward facing Wolf squarely.
Years of playing the game of control, like an actor on a stage, snapped in Wolf. His mighty fist swung, catching Adam hard on the jaw.
Adam staggered and spat blood.
“I thought you were an honorable man!” Wolf growled like a wild animal. “I thought she’d be safe in your care.”
“I am an honorable man, and she’s not the easiest woman to keep safe,” Adam defended. “But I slept with her, and I plan to again if I get out of this mess.”
Wolf hit him with another right, hard and full with a blow that would have knocked most men down.
Adam staggered once more.
The ranch hands stood back, cheering the huge man on. It wasn’t a fair fight, but it was more fun than a hanging. They all seemed to think that a man so foolish as to admit he wanted to sleep with a girl in front of her brother deserved to have some sense knocked into him.
Nichole held her tongue. She guessed Wolf was just playing a game, getting the men off guard. But when she saw blood dripping from Adam’s lip, she wasn’t so sure.
“Untie him!” Wolf raged. “Let him try and defend himself. Hanging’s too easy for him.”
Someone cut Adam’s ropes, and Wolf hit him again before he had time to lift his hands in defense.
When Adam raised his head, with blood streaming from his nose and his left eye swelling closed, Nichole had enough. She charged her brother. “Stop it!” she shouted, shoving him hard with her shoulder. “Stop trying to kill my husband!”
All the cowhands froze in sudden silence.
Nichole closed her eyes in dread. She’d given herself away. In one moment of anger, she’d foiled any plan Wolf had. After all the years of training and drilling, she’d failed him. There could be no doubt of her gender now.
Wolf placed his hand on her back and smiled at her as the blade of a knife cut her ropes. “It’s all right,” he whispered, knowing she expected him to yell at her for breaking her disguise. “It’s time to stop pretending to be something you’re not.”
When she looked up at him, he added, “Now I know you must love this Yank. I think I knew it from the first. If you married him, it’s time for me to step aside.”
Then he lifted her up in his arms and gave her the big bear hug she’d waited for all her life. To her horror, tears welled in her eyes. She shoved them away. Right here in front of her brother and all the McLains, she was starting to act like a woman.
The ranch hands couldn’t have been more enthralled if they’d been at a grand opera house in the city. They all stood around waiting like the curtain would be coming up any minute on the second act.
While Nichole ran to Adam, Wolf faced the ranch boss. “I changed my mind,” he said with a smile. “I don’t want to hang him. Not now that I know he’s in the family. In fact, if we had whiskey, we’d all need to drink a round to celebrate my little sister’s marriage.” He patted Nance on the head, letting the boy know the game was over.
Emery answered the call. Within minutes everyone was lifting a cup of whiskey to the bride and groom, and Emery filled to the brim as long as he knew the big man was paying. No one seemed to notice that Wes had removed the rope from around his neck and was toasting with the rest.
Wolf told the story of how Adam and Nick met as the sun lowered. Eventually he told of Wes and Daniel and May and of the night they all felt like family. Emery was so touched by the story that he admitted he might have been mistaken about the stolen horse. Since it was back in the corral, maybe it had been borrowed and not stolen. His memory didn’t extend to Wes paying for the horse. For even with Wes’s encouragement, he could remember no money exchanging hands.
Then Colonel Wilcox lost any anger in his whiskey. Like many, North and South, he’d had too few reasons to celebrate. A marriage outranked a hanging any day. He cornered the youngest McLain, asking if Daniel might consider riding out to his ranch some Sunday to marry several of the couples.
Adam walked over to the well and used his handkerchief to wipe the blood from his mouth. The shadows spread night over the prairie, making the earth seem peaceful in sleep. He noticed Nance already curled up on the porch asleep with Wolf’s bedroll tucked around him.
“How many times were you planning to let Wolf hit you before you hit back?” Nick asked from behind him. She was in her world now, the shadows, but she was no less beautiful.
“I told you once I was through with fighting.” Adam faced her. “I figured he had a right. I not only slept with you, I forced you into marrying me. If I’d been your brother, I’d have probably killed me.”
“But you’re not my brother. You’re my husband.” Nichole touched his arm lightly, letting her fingers slowly move up to his shoulder. “No one forced me into anything today.”
He studied her closely, knowing she was right. He might love every ounce of her, but he controlled none. She was her own woman, but she was also his wife. And she was looking at him with those beautiful green eyes that promised a lifetime of passion.
Adam put his hands on her waist gently, testing. When she didn’t pull away, he drew her close, loving the way she fit against him. “Nichole Hayward, will you marry me?”
She laughed. “You’re a little late in asking, Doc.”
“I know, but I don’t want my wife to say someday that I didn’t ask her properly. I love you more than I’ve one lifetime to show. I want you by my side, no matter what happens. Be my wife, Nick. Be the mother of my children. Be my partner in everything I do.”
“Do your brothers come with the deal?”
“I’m afraid so.” Adam grinned. “Though I’m the one who should be asking that question.”
She smiled into the warmest brown eyes she’d ever seen. “Someone’s got to keep you out of trouble. This is a wild country, this Texas.” She gently kissed his busted lip. “It’ll be a full-time job just keeping my brother and brother-in-laws from killing you.” He was a man of peace in her world. She’d known it the night they’d met. He alone could heal her inner scars with his love. “I’ll marry you, Adam.”
He kissed her tenderly. “I have a feeling with you as my wife, I’ll probably die in bed.” He moved his hands over her hips and pressed her close. “Say it,” he whispered against her ear. “Say you love me.”
“I love you, Doc, I always have.” She rocked against him, kissing him lightly as she whispered, “From now on, I’m no longer a Shadow. I’ll be beside you in day and night.”
“In day and night,” he echoed as he kissed her fully. “Until death do us part.”
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