The Good, The Bad and The Ghostly ((Paranromal Western Romance))

by Keta Diablo

  "I don't know what I'll do." Burke glanced up at Clori's window on the second floor of the house. "I had hoped maybe Clori and me...." He didn't have the heart to finish. Everything seemed hopeless since Clori turned away from him.

  "I suspected as much." Ted clasped Burke's shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Give her time. As Nellie says, she'll come around."

  "I don't know if I have that much time. How can I know I won't be walking along, as I am now, and suddenly find myself back in 2016? Or 3016?" He lifted his arms in a gesture of despair. "Who knows what will happen? I never should have told Clori the truth or how I felt about her. The whole situation is hopeless."

  "You can't be sure of that, just like you can't be sure of anything else in this world."

  Spook raced up with a stick. Burke took it and tossed it as far as he could. The dog took off so fast he nearly outran the stick. "No, but I have a powerful feeling my time here is limited."

  "I hope not. I like getting to know my great-grandson." Ted paused and turned to him. "Besides, I have a surprise for you. Your great or whatever-grandfather Curt is coming for a visit next month."

  "Yeah?" That won a smile from Burke. "Fantastic."

  Ted grinned. "Will you tell him?"

  "You think I should?"

  "I think he'd be disappointed if you didn't. When are you going to tell your great-grandmother?"

  Burke smiled. "Actually, she already knows. She overheard me telling Clori."

  "No shit! How’d she take it?"

  "Very well, better than Clori did." Burke stopped and looked back at the house. "Speaking of Clori, I’d like to go talk to her, see if I can convince her I don’t belong in a nut house?"

  "Nut house?"

  "Asylum."

  "God forbid. Of course, go talk to her."

  Burke entered the house through the front door and found Nellie in the entry hall dusting. He immediately swept her into a big hug.

  Laughing, she half-heartedly slapped at him. "Stop that. Save your romantic gestures for the woman you love."

  Burke sighed. "Is she up there?"

  "Yes, but her door is locked."

  "Hell."

  "You know, dear boy, I knew there was something extra special about you the minute I saw you," Nellie told him. "I think it was that devilish gleam in your eye, so reminiscent of your great-grandfather."

  He stared at her.

  "Of course, I figured it out, once I learned you had come from the future."

  "Are you glad?"

  She cocked her head and gave him a disbelieving look. "To have you for a great-grandson. I couldn’t be more delighted. Especially if you make my favorite young lady my new great-granddaughter."

  "I promise, I have every intention of doing that. Or die trying."

  "Clori will realize her error. Believe me." Nellie winked at him. "Dying won’t be necessary."

  Gabe entered the house. "Burke. Been looking for you. Can we talk?"

  "Sure." Burke kissed his great-grandmother on the cheek. "I'll see you later."

  "You’d better," she replied.

  Outside, Gabe led Burke away from the house toward the stable.

  "Listen, I'm afraid the time has come for us to make some decisions."

  "Like what?" Burke asked, kicking at a rock. His mind remained on Clori. Spook raced alongside the men. "Are you thinking of going to Denver to bring Ruth back?"

  "Oh, I’m not thinking about it." Gabe gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder. "I’m going to do it."

  "Then what do we need to decide?"

  "You have to choose between staying here and going home."

  Burke stopped cold and stared at him, a sudden nauseous feeling in his gut. "Why now?"

  "You'll see in a minute. First, tell me how you feel about sticking around here. You know, in 1881 and opening our own ghost hunting team."

  Burke shrugged. "I have no intention of leaving, but I think Fate will have something to say about it. We may not have a choice."

  "But you don’t want to leave, right?" Gabe turned and walked backward, facing Burke.

  Glancing back at the house, Burke sighed. "I'm in love with Clori."

  "I figured as much. Does she know?"

  "Sort of. She knows I want a future with her." Burke kicked at another rock. "Unfortunately, I did something that didn’t turn out too well. I told her I’d come from the future. She doesn't believe or trust me anymore."

  "Bummer. I'm sorry, Burke. Will you still stay, if you have the chance?"

  He shrugged.

  "Well, I like it here in Eagle Gulch," Gabe said. "Ruth went to Denver to talk to her boss about opening up a branch here. That would be good, but I’d rather start my own business with you."

  "I see. I'm happy for you, buddy." He held out his hand, and the two friends shook. "I hope you and Ruth will be super happy."

  "Thanks."

  The stable stood just ahead of them. Spook stood in the doorway on point.

  Uh-oh.

  Burke picked up his pace. Who was the ghost in the stable?

  Before he reached the building, Silver stepped outside, saddled again. Burke's heart fell. Now he knew what Gabe had been talking about. Silver had come to take him home.

  Lovingly, he stroked the mare's dark mane and silvery neck. "Hello, girl. "Come to get me, have you?"

  Burke leaned his head against Silver's cold neck. How could he make such an important decision so fast? There was too much to consider. Go home and continue to hunt ghosts, but without the woman he loved? Or stay here, move to the boarding house, continue making peanuts as a deputy, and hope she learned to love him back? What if she never did? Maybe it would be better to cut his losses and leave now.

  Put the pain and daily torture behind him forever.

  Return to a world no longer inhabited by Clori.

  Agony sliced through him, gut-deep and debilitating. He nearly staggered beneath its weight.

  Forcing his head up, he looked at the house. Empty uncaring windows stared back at him. Not a single flicker of movement from her bedroom window.

  God, he'd miss her. Every single day of his life. Here. Or there.

  How could he live without her?

  He would miss his great-grandparents tremendously. Every instinct he owned screamed he should stay. He belonged here now. What would his great-grandparents think if he simply disappeared without a word?

  Ted would understand. Burke had no doubt of that. And he would help Nellie understand.

  No use grasping for more excuses to stay.

  He bracketed Silver's long face with his hands and stared her in the eye. She blinked, and he saw sadness in those brown depths. Sadness and finality. If he were to leave, it had to be now.

  "I'll miss you, buddy," Gabe said. "But I'm staying."

  "If I get back, I’ll let your family know where you are."

  "Thanks."

  Burke drew an unsteady breath. The time truly had come. No backing out. No changing his mind. Or Clori's. She couldn't trust him. He had failed. "I would hate to leave without saying goodbye to my great-grandparents." And Clori.

  "I’ll explain you had no choice but to leave now. If you go inside, the horse may not wait, though, and you’ll lose your chance. Maybe forever."

  Burke nodded, knowing his friend was right, but heartsick all the same.

  Spooked gave a half-bark, half-whine as if to ask what was happening.

  Swallowing the lump in his throat, Burke turned to Gabe. "I'm afraid I'm going to be one sorry son of a bitch, but if Clori won’t have me, I may as well go back where I belong."

  "If you stayed, you might find another girl you can love. Ruth probably has friends she could introduce you to."

  "I’m afraid I’m not much interested in that right now."

  The men shook hands and hugged. The lump reformed in Burke's throat. He hated leaving, but knew it to be for the best. At least, it would make life easier for Clori.

  He craved the opportuni
ty to say goodbye. To look her in the eye, to ask her, once more—no, tell her. Tell her he loved her. The kind of love one can't obliterate by a hundred and forty years of time spent. The kind of love that would ghost through his life, no matter where he resided, haunting him until he drew his last breath.

  Sucking air deep inside his aching chest, he released it, along with all his hopes, and hefted himself into the saddle. Spook jumped into his lap and whined. "Text me and keep me up to date on everything, Gabe." At least, back home, he could recharge his battery. If not his heart.

  "I will." Gabe smiled, but the curve of his lips held a hint of sadness. "I want you to know it was great working with you. You taught me a lot."

  Burke acknowledged the compliment by tipping his hat. Then he nudged Silver and rode toward the road to Halstead House. That was where his adventure had begun. Where it would end. On a lonely, tree-lined road where a van waited full of specter-detecting equipment, useless in 1881.

  At least he had accomplished the goal he’d come there for, banishing the Halstead ghost. He wouldn’t have to go to work running his father’s retirement community.

  "There’s something I need you to do for me, Gabe."

  "Sure. Anything."

  "Tell Ted that Horace confessed to killing Clori’s mother. I haven’t said anything to anyone because I felt the truth would only add to her pain. But I think Ted should know."

  "That bastard. I’ll tell Ted."

  Burke nodded. "Thanks." He gave the Jameson house one last look, then nudged Silver to take him home.

  * * *

  Clori jolted out of a fitful sleep and sat up. She’d dreamed of herself as an old lady living alone, bitter and grumpy. A horrible nightmare.

  She rubbed her eyes and looked at her night table for the glass of water she always kept there. A strange medallion on a long chain lay next to the glass.

  Burke. She’d seen the pendant on his bare chest the morning he’d held her after Horace had gotten into her room and scared her half to death. He’d told her later his company had given it to him when he’d worked for them ten years. He considered it his good luck piece. He must have sneaked in while she slept and left it for her. Why?

  Because he loved her.

  He loved her enough to worry more about her welfare than his. And she had rejected him. What a fool she had been. She would never find another man like him.

  It came to her what she needed to do, to fight for what she wanted, rather than lay down and give in to life. She had to take control.

  Had he gone? Could she stop him?

  Go after him, a soft voice whispered inside her head.

  Yes, that was what she must do.

  She hurried from her room to the top of the stairs. Directly across, through the wide open parlor doorway, she could see through the large window.

  Burke!

  He rode Silver toward the main road.

  Silver.

  The mare he said brought him to 1881. Would riding her again take him back to the time he came from?

  "No," she whispered and tore down the stairs. "No! No!"

  Nellie stood in the entry watching Burke leave. Tears stained her face.

  "Tell me he isn't leaving, Nellie."

  "Oh, but he is, dear girl. He saw no point in staying if you didn't want him."

  "Oh, please, Lord. I've got to stop him." Urging the older woman aside, Clori snatched open the door and leaped off the porch, ignoring the steps. "Burke! Burke, stop!"

  Ted came from the stable on top of Dusty. He halted in front of Clori, dismounted and gestured for her to get on. "Go get him, girl. Don't let him leave."

  "I won't. Even if I have to tie him up and hold him prisoner."

  "That's my girl."

  She mounted, not caring that her stockinged limbs and button shoes showed, and she had no sidesaddle. Women these days rarely did that anymore, not in rural Colorado. She urged the horse to run faster and faster and screamed Burke's name.

  He heard and turned in his saddle to look behind, then reined in. "Clori!"

  She caught up and stopped. "Burke! I've been such an idiot. I realized I can’t bear to live without you. I saw you leaving on Silver and knew I had to stop you. I love you, Burke. Please, don't go."

  Laughing, he dragged her from her horse onto his lap and kissed her long and hard.

  Clori's mouth tingled from the pressure of his. An aching need rushed through her. Kissing Horace had never felt like this. What had she been missing all these years? It didn't matter. She would find out from Burke.

  Dear Lord, I love him so. How could I have come so close to letting him go?

  "You'll marry me?" he asked when they broke apart.

  "Yes." All uncertainty had fled. Never in her life had she felt surer of anything. "Oh, yes. Just don't ask me to live in Halstead House."

  He laughed. "Never. We'll have our own home, and half a dozen kids."

  She kissed him again, desperate to feel that same sweetness, that same silent claim—You're mine.

  If only she'd listened to her mother and not married Horace. Would Burke have still come into her life then?

  Yes, they were fated to be together. Nothing would keep them apart. Not if she could help it.

  "I wish my mother had lived to meet you."

  "She did, honey. She's been here with you all this time, watching over you. She asked me to take care of you, and she helped us catch Horace and find your gold."

  Her eyes widened as she spoke and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Tears glistened in her eyes. "You mean, she was a ghost?"

  "Yes, the very nicest of ghosts." He didn't mention Horace's confession of having murdered Velda. The knowledge would only hurt Clori.

  "Oh, Burke. Thank you for telling me."

  Lowering his head to hers, he kissed her. When their lips parted, he whispered, "Let's get off Silver before she takes us both to the future. I want to stay here."

  He lowered her to the ground and jumped down. Her arms circled his waist. "Thank you for stopping. I would have hated having to try to figure out how to get to the year 2016."

  "You could have ridden Silver."

  She turned to the horse.

  Gone. Only Dusty remained, grazing on the nearby grasses.

  "I suspect she's gone for good, this time, honey. On to the next world." Burke held her close and kissed the top of her head. "We're both stuck here."

  She knew deep in her soul he was right. She'd never see her beloved Silver again.

  Burke swooped Clori into his arms, settled her on Dusty's saddle, and mounted behind her. "Let's go home, shall we?"

  "Home?"

  "Well, our temporary home anyway. The Jameson house. Oh, by the way, darling, you're about to become another Mrs. Jameson."

  She peered at him over her shoulder. "How is that possible?"

  "Because that's my name. Ted and Nellie are my third great-grandparents."

  "Do they know this?"

  "Everyone knows it, sweetheart. Just like everyone here knew we belonged together. And now, you know, too."

  She did indeed and marveled at her lack of surprise. Instead, she felt only a bone-deep recognition of certainty. Burke Jameson belonged to her and she to him. Regardless of other events, other people, who might enter their world, they would spend their lives together in undeniable love and trust.

  * * *

  Thank you for reading A Ride Through Time. If you'd like to know more about Charlene's books, please visit her Author Home here: http://charleneraddon.com/

  or her Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Charlene-Raddon/e/B000APG1P8/

  The Ghost and the Bridegroom

  By Patti Sherry-Crews

  Copyright©2016 by Patti Sherry-Crews

  cover art by © Erin Hayes

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organization, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and
all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.

  About The Ghost and the Bridegroom

  Life is looking rosy for Abbott Foster when he brings his new bride to his ranch in Arizona. But when he is unable to consummate his marriage due to a malevolent spirit in the bedroom, he is forced to call in Psychic Specters Investigations.

  Agent Healy Harrison doesn’t want to accept this case. She has her own demons and likes her quiet life, lived in the anonymity of St. Louis. But Tucson is where she finds herself—with instructions to "Have an adventure! Have a romance!" Things get interesting when she meets handsome Pinkerton detective, Aaron Turrell. Is this the romance she’s meant to have, or when their two cases intersect, will it drive him away?

  Chapter One

  Abbott tipped his hat back and turned to the young woman sitting next to him on the bench of the buckboard. She was his wife now. His new bride, Erline.

  Her head was held in profile to him. She had the sweetest, little upturned nose. Her lips were parted and her face held some expression he wished he could discern.

  "Your new home," he said.

  When she didn’t respond, he looked away from her and tried to see the ranch house through her eyes. He’d never been to Ohio but he reckoned the houses out that way looked nothing like his home. A rutted dirt road led up to the low house made of stone and adobe.

  "I suppose it’s not much to look at but we can fix it up how you like. We could...."

  "It’s beautiful." Her voice was soft, full of awe.

  She faced him now, cornflower blue eyes sparkling. His chest deflated with the release of the breath he held. His shoulders returned to their normal position—shoulder height, opposed to around his ears.

  "I’m so glad you like it. I was going to say, if you don’t care for it I’d tear it down this very day and build you a house fit for a fairy princess."

  Her tinkling laughter warmed his heart. He wondered if she’d think him bold if he kissed her.

  She tilted her head, one blond curl showing under her bonnet. "What are those mountains?"