Cindy Holby

by Angel’s End

  “Timothy was a gracious man. He took me in, without question. He fed me, he treated my wound and he shared a meal with me. He didn’t deserve to die the way he did.” He stopped again. Swallowed. Looked upward. Was he searching for a sign?

  “This is Timothy’s Bible. I was looking through it one day. Trying to learn all I could about Timothy, when I happened upon this verse. It’s Hebrews 11:40. ‘God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.’” He looked up. “Now God knows I’m not perfect. I’m pretty certain Timothy wasn’t perfect, since he took in someone like me.”

  There was a guffaw, a laugh, a titter. Leah ignored it. She kept her eyes on Cade.

  “It was Timothy’s opinion that he was put in my path to take care of me. To help me. To feed God’s sheep. That was what he said; those were his last words actually. ‘Feed my sheep.’” Cade took a deep breath and let it out. “He said we have no way of knowing where God’s path will lead us. He said the Lord will forgive me for my sins. That all I had to do was ask. So this morning, I asked.” He looked at Leah. “And now I’m asking you. Forgive me.”

  No one said a word. It took courage for him to stand up there and admit he had wronged them. More so to do it without any excuses. Tears gathered in her eyes and she willed them away. He wasn’t done yet.

  “I’ve been in a lot of bad places, and I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, yet I can’t help but think that in a roundabout way, God led me to this place, and to you.” Leah knew his words were for her and only her, yet he spoke them for the town to hear. There would be no more secrets.

  “God knew what I needed before I did. It was you, Leah. I don’t want to leave you, but I will, if you think that is for the best. I want to be a better man. I promise I will be, whatever you say, stay or go. But I’d sure like to be a better man for you.”

  “Momma?” Banks said.

  What should she do? What could she do? She was madly in love with the man, no matter what his name. She’d fallen in love with the real man. She knew he was good and he was good for her, and her son.

  “Yes.” She stood up and went to Cade. She heard Jake’s gasp, heard him stomp out but she didn’t care. “Yes. I love you. Stay.”

  Cade put his hands on her shoulders. His eyes were full of hope. It was such a beautiful thing to see. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.” She kissed him then. The entire town saw it. She didn’t care. All she needed was right here. Banks pulled on her arm. Cade picked him up and placed him between them and Banks puts his arms around both of them.

  “Can we go home now?” he asked.

  “Yes.” She smiled. “Let’s go home.”

  “Wow, it’s big,” Banks said.

  Cade stood the tree up in the corner of the parlor. The top brushed against the ceiling and the branches poked out in every direction, filling the room with the scent of pine. “I believe I told you that when you picked it out. But you said it was the one you wanted.”

  “It is,” Banks said. “Can we decorate it now?”

  “Ask your mom,” Cade said. They both looked expectantly at Leah. Their cheeks were flushed with cold and their hair damp from the snow. Both of them had wide grins on their faces and their eyes danced with excitement. It was Christmas Eve and joy filled her house once more.

  “I don’t know which one of you is worse,” she said. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think you were six years old too.”

  “That was the last time I had a Christmas tree.” Cade shrugged sheepishly.

  Leah felt her heart jump, as it always did when she looked at this man—her husband now, thanks to the circuit preacher coming through last week—and thought of all he’d suffered through in his life. But he’d survived it. He’d never lost his soul, although from what he’d told her, it had been a hard battle fought and he’d had to keep it hidden for so very many years. Now he wanted to find his brother and she would help him as best she could.

  “The box of decorations is on the table in the kitchen.”

  Banks let out a whoop and ran to get them. He set it on the table before the sofa and immediately went to work. Ashes sniffed around the base of the tree and jumped onto the trunk and disappeared into the branches. Dodger woofed at her one time and then lay on the rug before the fireplace.

  Cade came behind Leah, wrapped his arms around her waist and put his chin on her shoulder. “It looks like the decorations are all going to be around the bottom,” he said. She shifted a bit. The sheriff’s badge that hung on his shirt jabbed her.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Leah replied. “I’ll spread them out when he’s done. He’ll get tired of it soon.” She didn’t move, as she enjoyed the feel of Cade’s arm around her, while his body stood solidly behind her. Through the window she watched as big fat flakes floated down, once more covering the town of Angel’s End with a beautiful snowfall. It was welcome, as the streets had been muddy lately, from a recent thaw. The world would be clean and new when they woke up Christmas morning.

  Leah put her hand over Cade’s and slid it down to her belly. “I have a present for you.”

  He spread his fingers over their child and kissed her cheek. She felt dampness as his cheek touched hers and she knew it wasn’t from the snow, but from tears of joy. “It’s a gift from God,” he whispered in her ear. “Thank you so very much.”

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  “Stop right there!” a gruff voice called out.

  Jacob Reece cursed himself for a fool for getting so lost in his musings that he didn’t see anyone coming their way. He looked up the trail and didn’t recognize the small appaloosa or the rider who was currently pointing the business end of a Spencer rifle at his head. The rider was small and new horses turned up all the time. Could it possibly be one of Jim’s older twin boys? But surely the twins would recognize him. And why would they be robbing him?

  Jake raised his hands, but he kept a hold on Libby’s lead. He heard Dan and Randy pull up behind him.

  “Boss?” Randy asked.

  “Let me see what’s going on,” Jake said. “There’s no need to punish foolishness with waste.” He knew the three of them could take whoever it was but he wanted to avoid bloodshed if it was possible. It was too pretty of a night to have to shoot someone, even if they were stupid enough to try and steal from him.

  “Turn loose of that donkey,” the rider said. The voice wasn’t as gruff this time. It was a boy trying to disguise himself by speaking lower than natural. Then the words sunk in to Jake’s mind.

  “Wait.” Jake tried to keep a straight face. “Are you trying to steal my donkey?” He stretched out Libby’s lead. “This donkey?”

  The rider cocked the rifle to let him know he meant business. “No. You are stealing my donkey.”

  “What the hell?”

  “Watch your language. And let her go.”

  “I think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding,” Jake started to say.

  The rifle raised a notch. “I’m guessing you understand this, don’t you?”

  “You want us to do something?” Dan said quietly from behind him.

  “I got it,” Jake responded. “The last thing I want to do is kill some fool kid.” He raised his hands higher so the idiot with the rifle could see that he wasn’t holding a weapon, and with a squeeze of his knees, Skip, his mustang, moved forward, slowly, with Libby walking along by his side.

  The rider, whoever he was, wore a coat that was way too big for him. It reached from neck to ankles and was made of heavy wool. He wore a wide-brimmed, flat-top Stetson that was pulled low over his face and a heavy knit scarf wrapped around his neck that covered any hint of skin. The rider was so laden down with trying to stay warm that Jake knew he could take him out before he had a chance to twitch his finge
r on the trigger.

  “Take it easy,” Jake said as they approached. “I’m bringing the donkey, although I don’t know why anyone in the world would want to steal the fool thing. She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”

  “Like I said before. It’s my donkey.”

  The rider sat on a small rise in the road. The moon was directly overhead and his features were lost in the shadow of his hat but the gloved hands on the rifle were small, albeit steady, and the tips of the boots that stuck out from beneath the folds of the coat barely showed.

  “What are you? Twelve?” Jake asked as Skip stopped about a head’s length from the appaloosa.

  “What are you?” the thief said after he cleared his throat. “Stupid?”

  Jake tapped his heels and Skip charged full bore into the appaloosa. The appaloosa reared and Jake wrenched the rifle from the rider’s hands as he tumbled backward from the saddle.

  Libby hee-hawed and kicked out, and the appaloosa, spooked, took off up the trail toward Dan and Randy, who quickly cut the horse off and grabbed its reins. Libby trotted a few steps away and turned to watch.

  Jake jumped from Skip’s back and jabbed the business end of the rifle in the chest of the kid who lay sprawled in the snow.

  “Ow,” a much more feminine voice said. Jake used the tip of the rifle to push the hat away from his…no, her face. The moonlight spilled down on delicate features and skin that looked like it should be on a porcelain doll. Her mouth was pursed into a pout that made his lips twitch with the urge to press a kiss against their fullness. Lush lashes formed crescent moons on her cheeks before she opened them to stare up at him with light blue eyes that captured the moonlight. Her hair was short and wispy, and its color was as pale as the moonbeams. It stuck out in every direction like tufts of grass.

  “Who the hell are you?” he asked.

  “Language,” she said as she pushed the rifle away.

  “What are you, a Sunday school teacher?”

  In the next instant Jake was lying on his back in the snow and she was standing over him with a .45 pointed at his chest. He heard Randy and Dan chortling in the background. He had to admire her. Tiny as she was, she’d managed to sweep his legs right out from under him with one of the slickest moves he’d ever seen.

  “I’m the owner of that donkey that you stole,” she said vehemently.

  “I didn’t steal her. She came to me.”

  She raised a skeptical eyebrow and the pistol she held in her left hand did not waver a bit. She was so petite he wondered how she could get her hand around it, but she did, and it was obvious she knew which end meant business.

  “Yeah, Libby is madly in love with him,” Dan said.

  “You’re fired,” Jake said. He didn’t take his eyes off the woman. He wasn’t worried for his life and he knew Dan wasn’t worried about his job. Jake knew his two men could take her out if they wanted to and were just cutting up, as he was, to put her at ease so she didn’t do anything stupid.

  She raised the gun and took her finger from the trigger. “You do know her name…”

  “And now you do too,” Jake said. “That doesn’t mean you knew it before.”

  Her pale eyes changed. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Do you mind if I stand up? My ass is freezing.”

  “Do you always talk like this?” she asked with a sigh.

  “Only when someone tries to rob me and then dumps me in the snow.”

  Randy and Dan snorted with laughter. The woman backed up a few feet but kept a tight hold on the pistol as Jake clambered to his feet and made a production of brushing the snow from the back side of his duster. She picked up her rifle while Jake cleaned himself off and stuck the pistol in the pocket of her oversized coat.

  “You can put the rifle away too,” Jake said as she stepped far enough back so that she could keep the rifle leveled on all three of them. “If I wanted to hurt you I would have done it already.”

  “Well excuse me if I’ve heard that before.”

  Jake found his hat and brushed the snow from it. “Lady, I don’t know who you are and where you are from but I can tell already that you have an attitude problem. So I suggest we both go to town and clear this up.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she said indignantly.

  “Then tell me who sold you the animal.” If she said Jim’s name he’d gladly turn Libby over to her. But he wasn’t about to give the donkey up just because some woman waved a gun in his face.

  Her tone turned defensive and her hold on the rifle slackened. If Jake wanted to, he could jerk it from her hands. “I got her last fall from the livery in town. I don’t know his name as it was a friend of mine who bought her.”

  “Well that sure does prove a lot,” Jake said. “How about we both go to town and we’ll see what the sheriff has to say about this.

  “What?” she spouted. “Like I said, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  “Suits me,” Jake said. “If this donkey is indeed yours then you can pick her up tomorrow at the livery. If she’s not…”

  “Oh she’s mine,” she said. “And maybe I’ll have a word with the sheriff about how you wound up with her.”

  “Fine,” Jake said. “You can both find me at the Heaven’s Gate.” As he didn’t trust her with the rifle he kept his eyes on her as he spoke to his ranch hand. “Randy, you can give her back her horse now.”

  The tiny woman gave an exasperated sigh and clicked her teeth together. The appaloosa responded by shaking her head. Randy let go of the reins and the little horse trotted over to her owner. “Stand back,” she said.

  “Gladly.” Jake raised his arms wide. She guided the appaloosa to a rock buried in the snow and used it to gracefully swing into her saddle. “Believe me, I plan on staying as far away from you as possible,” Jake added.

  She slammed the rifle into her scabbard. Without a backward glance she took off up the trail to Sam Parker’s spread.

  “Well now, don’t that beat all,” Randy said as they watched her move up the trail.

  Jake let out a heavy sigh before he slammed his hat onto his head and mounted Skip. “Boys, I am in desperate need of a drink.”