by Rose Gordon
“I suppose.”
“You suppose?”To say he was befuddled by her statements and actions wouldn’t be entirely wrong.“If you only suppose it makes it more exciting to travel across the country and marry a stranger, then why are you doing it?”
“I have no other choice.”
Joel nearly choked on his laughter.“I might not spend every day exploring the woods with you like I once did, but even I have seen the attention you garner around town. The men practically stumble over themselves to talk to you.”
“I know.”
Her quiet admission befuddled him all the more. What was going on in that head of hers?“So what’s wrong with them? None of them suit your fancy?”
“No.”She shifted, closing the gap between them.“They’re not interested in me any more than I’m interested in them.”
Joel had a hard time believing that. The part about the men in town not being interested in Jessie, that is. Every time they both happened to be in town at the same time, he could always tell exactly where she was and where she’d been by the little cloud of dust made by the men who followed her around, doing anything they could to vie for her attention.
“I think you’re wrong,”he said quietly.“If you wanted any of the men back home, any of them would be happy to make you his bride.”
“It’s of no account now. By this time next week I’ll be married to Caleb.”
“You don’t sound too excited about that,”he mused.
“I am.”Jessie moved to a sitting position and pulled her legs under her.“It wasn’t my first choice, but it’s the most logical.”
“He wasn’t your first choice?”Joel forced a cough to cover the roughness in his voice.
“Hewas my first choice,”Jessie explained as if she hadn’t noticed a thing unusual about Joel’s question.“Marriage wasn’t.”
“You didn’t want to marry?”He could scarcely believe that. What woman didn’t want to marry? Then again, her father had probably tainted marriage for her.
“I did.”She tucked a lock of fallen hair behind her ear.“Eventually.”
Joel crossed his ankles and idly picked apart a piece of hay.“What was your first choice?”
“Working in a factory.”
Joel cringed.“Why?”
“I-I don’t know. I’m not a man. I couldn’t very well just hop on a horse, say,‘giddy up’, and ride until I got tired and set up residence in the nearest town.”She ran her fingers over the stitching at the top of her skirt.“My cousins Patience and Mercy live in Lawrence, Massachusetts and had worked at a factory that employs one hundred women. Last summer I wrote and asked if they could help me with a job and lodging.”
It was a rare moment that Joel had no words. This was one of those times. Finally, one word came to mind and managed to make its way to his lips:“Why?”
“Why didn’t I go?”Jessie asked for clarification. At Joel’s nod, she said,“Factory burned down.”In the dim light he could see her throat working.“I’ll never know for sure, and I’d never want to voice such a thing, but I think my father found out and…”She shrugged as if that was a perfectly acceptable way to end a sentence.
“You think he’s responsible for a factory burning down,”Joel blurted out.
“I was thinking more that he threatened my cousin or her mother, my aunt.”She shrugged again.“Either way, I didn’t wish to bring trouble to their door.”
“So you decided to marry a murderer,”Joel finished for her.
She threw a handful of hay at him.“Caleb isn’t a murderer.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because—because—”She threw another handful of hay at him.“He’s not.”
“How convincing,”Joel commented, repositioning himself to lie down on his left side.“Why don’t you read me his letter and I’ll let you know for sure.”
“And how are you going to know?”
“The questions he asks you,”he said simply.
“He didn’t ask me any.”
Joel’s eyebrows rose.“That’s even worse!”
“No, it’s not.”
“Yeah, it is. If he doesn’t care to ask you anything about yourself, then he’s definitely a murderer.”
“Do you possess a serious bone in your body, Joel Cunningham?”
“Yeah, but I think you broke it when you dropped that hammer on me—”
“That was an accident and you know it!”She burst out, laughing.
Joel did know it was an accident, but it was still fun to tease her about it.“If he didn’t ask you any questions, then how does he know you’ll be a good wife?”
“Well, he did ask a few,”she confessed.“Just nothing impolite. He’s a perfect gentleman.”
Joel fought the urge to laugh at her naivety.“There is no such thing as a‘perfect gentleman’.”
“Yes, there is,”she argued.
“And let me guess, his name is Caleb and he lives in Montana.”
“You act as if you know him well.”
No wonder you’re afraid he won’t like you.
“What did you just say?”
Panic seized him. He didn’t think he’d said that out loud.“Jessie, this man isn’t perfect.”He reached for her hand.“And he can’t possibly expect you to be, either.”
“Are you saying I’m not perfect, Joel?”she asked with a wobbly smile.
“Yup.”He rolled onto his back.“Now, get some sleep. I’ve had enough of you talking about Mr. Perfect. It’s making me ill.”
Chapter Six
Something was bothering Joel and it didn’t take a skilled detective to know that it had to do with the nightmare he’d had the night before. What might take a skilled detective to ferret out was whathe’d dreamt about. She sighed.
“You can have some of that buffalo jerky, Jessie. All you have to do is ask.”
Jessie wrinkled up her nose. Joel knew full well she’d sooner lick the dirt than eat jerked buffalo.“When are you going to tell me about the wretched dream you had last night?”
“Perhaps when you accept my offer.”
“Your offer,”she said slowly, her mind going back to a conversation they’d had upon loading the wagon before leaving the stable…
“Jess, I’ve been thinking. If you’re so worried about this fool in Montana not liking you maybe you—”
“I’m going,”she cut in before he could do anything foolish like suggest she go back home. Heaven only knew what kind of man her father would try to foist upon her if she stayed in his home any longer. She’d already avoided three‘upstanding gentlemen’by feigning certain illnesses: melancholia after her true loveleft her and a breathing ailment that made it impossible for her to take more than three steps without the need for someone to carry her. The third, a businessmen who’d come to visit Papa from Charlotte thirty years Jessie’s elder decided they wouldn’t suit when he asked Jessie her age and she used her fingers to count to eighteen, her age at the time, with no fingers left over.
“Have you ever considered letting me finish a statement?”
“I’ve considered it,”she said thoughtfully.“But I don’t think ones that are ridiculous bear finishing.”
Joel laughed.“I agree.”He steered Biscuits and Gravy out into the street.“But my statement is not only brilliant, it bears repetition every hour on the hour between now and when you depart the station in Charleston.”
“And what is that?”
“That you shouldn’t be worried if he likes you or not, you should be more worried if you’re going to like him.”
Jessie forced a laugh.“He’s not my father, so I’m sure I’ll like him just fine.”
Joel guffawed.“If that’s your only criteria, then any single fella in Williamsburg County should have been a prime candidate for marriage.”
She once thought one was… “No.”She shook her head for emphasis, frowning.“They’re all under Papa’s control.”
A shadow crossed Joel’s face.“Well, if your
only requirement is they aren’t your father, I’ll help you find a husband in the next town we enter.”
“I’d rather hide out in a cave for the rest of my days than be settled with the kind of husband you’d find for me,”she said, scowling
Joel pulled on the reins.
“Oooof,”Jessie squealed, lurching forward. She gripped the edge of her wooden bench seat and watched as half the contents of her purse fell to the footrest that was covered in a thin layer of hay from when Joel had been tossing it into the wagon bed with a little too much zeal the night before.
The heel of Joel’s large boot started pushing around the coins and papers that had spilled on the floor, mixing it into the hay under their seat.
“Stop,”she hissed.“You’re pushing everything into the hay.”
“Shhh,”Joel said, his voice as hard as steel sending a shiver down her spine.“Or you might get your wish of living in a cave.”
Jessie didn’t understand but as soon as she stopped scowling at him and looked up in front of them, she did. A suffocating band wrapped around her throat. Not one hundred yards ahead of them a little group of three men had come out from the copse of trees and had formed a blockade across the dusty highway.
Fifty feet from their barricade, Joel pulled the horses to a stop.“Don’t say a word,”he warned.“I mean it.”
Instinctively, Jessie scooted closer to Joel.
“You boys need a ride to the next town?”Joel called out in the thickest Southern drawl Jessie had ever heard.
“No. Just your money,”the tallest man said, setting the cock on his gun—a sound that couldn’t have been missed from a mile around.
The unarmed man next to him with an unkempt beard and very few teeth rubbed his hands together and leered at Jessie. She went rigid.
“It’s all right,”Joel assured her under his breath.“Me and Maggie ain’t got much, I’m afraid,”he hollered down in the same thick tone he’d used before.
“We’ll take what ya got,”the one on the far end said.“All of it.”
“All right,”Joel said, handing the reins to Jessie.
She wrapped her shaking fingers around them and brought them to her lap.
Joel made a show of stretching out his leg and digging into his pocket. The heel of his big, dirty boot finding its way into the mound of contents he’d earlier spilled from Jessie’s purse. With every movement he made, his boot mingled the spilled items into the mess of hay under their seat. Awareness shot through her and as much as her gown would allow, Jessie used the toe of her boot to aid him in pushing her coins further into the hay.
“Hurry up,”the man with the ready pistol shouted.“Your pockets ain’t that deep.”
Jessie winced on Joel’s behalf, but Joel laughed. For a moment their eyes locked, the words trust mewritten deep within the depths of his. And she did trust him. Even as he grabbed her purse then wordlessly stood up and withdrew his hand from his pocket, his large fist loosely closed around a handful of coins. Without a word or even a glance in her direction Joel held out his fistful of coins and dropped them into Jessie’s purse.
The anxious man on the end started walking toward them. Jessie’s heart slammed in her chest.
“Stop,”the man with the ready gun barked. The overzealous man halted immediately.“What about your other pocket.”
Joel reached into his opposite pocket and pulled the fabric out to show them it was empty. Then did the same with the first pocket he’d emptied.
Satisfied, the man who was obviously in control, barked,“Throw it down.”
Joel immediately obeyed.
The scruffy man eagerly ran up to retrieve the money.
“One last thing,”the armed man said.“Your boots.”
Joel made a sound of irritation as he flopped down on the bench next to Jessie and began to unlace his boots. He kicked one off and tossed it toward the men, narrowly missing the unarmed one’s head by an inch, garnering a snicker from the man with the gun.
“Hey, there!”the dirty one shouted.
“Settle,”the one with the gun warned him just as Joel heaved his other boot at him, this time zipping by his other ear.“Grab your boots and let’s go.”
Just as quickly as those no-good scoundrels had appeared, they were gone and Joel and Jessie were trotting down the road again.
Jessie wanted nothing more than to throw her arms around Joel as soon as she was sure they were out of sight of those awful men.
She refrained.
Her personal restraint only went so far, however, and she did reach for his hand.“Thank you,”she said, squeezing his hand once before letting go.
“What exactly are you thanking me for?”
“Teaching me to always hide my valuables.”
“Hide your valuables?”
Jessie propped her feet up on the front of the wagon.“Yep. Remember the time we rode to town and I was playing with a dollar bill?”
Joel scowled.“I was waiting for it to blow away.”
“It might have, but you told me to put it where no one would find it.”She idly tapped the sides of her half boots together.“Or think to look for it.”
“Dare I ask what you found valuable enough to hide in your boot—and yet not valuable enough to for you to shield from the stench of your foot?”
She swatted him on the shoulder.“My feet don’t stink.”
He gave her a dubious look.“Perhaps if you keep telling yourself that one day even you will believe it.”
She went to swat him again, but he caught her hand. He lowered their hands to the wagon bench, not immediately letting go.
Joel brushed his thumb over the top of her hand. Excitement swirled within her traitorous body.“So, other than a couple dollars in coins, and three pounds of jerky and a bag full of your finest gowns I hid in the hay this morning, what else do we still have in our possession?”
“Excluding my charming personality?”
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gotten them to take you had I given them all your coins.”
She elbowed him.
“It’s true,”he burst out, throwing his free hand into the air.“They’d have been chasing me down, trying to return you within three minutes.”
“It would have been half of that had they tried to kidnap you.”
“No, they’d have been dead,”he said simply. He patted her knee.“They’d still be in the midst of torture had they tried to take you.”
All of the air left Jessie’s lungs at once. What did he mean by that? She was still trying to formulate a way to ask when he spoke again.
“You sure do have a way of avoiding questions,”Joel mused.“Always did.”He nudged the side of her left boot with his toe.
Taking his meaning, she tapped her left toe against the dashboard of the wagon.“Ten dollars in my left.”She tapped her right foot.“Train ticket in my right.”
Joel’s laughter seemed forced.“You think the conductor is still going to accept a ticket that’s been trapped in such hellish conditions?”
“Would you care if he didn’t?”
“I might.”
Jessie’s skin turned to gooseflesh.“Oh?”
Joel’s Adam’s apple bobbed.“Then I’d have to help you find a husband in Charleston. Couldn’t take ya back home.”
A wave of disappointment crashed over Jessie. She scowled and dropped her feet to the floor.“No need to worry on that score. It’s only proof of my reservation, not my actual ticket.”
“Good,”he clipped. He cleared his throat and offered her a wide smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.“It’d be a shame to disappoint your perfect gentleman.”
“I thought you were the one who said I shouldn’t be afraid of disappointing him.”
“You shouldn’t,”he said with conviction.“Hand me that buffalo jerky and we’ll discuss your expectations when you get there.”
With a loud groan, and perhaps a hidden smile, Jessie reached behind them and retrieved the bag of jerky fro
m the back. She couldn’t even imagine what Joel might think to give her as a list of expectations for Caleb, but she couldn’t deny that she wanted to know.
Fortunately, the rest of the day wasn’t nearly as eventful as the morning had been.
Unfortunately, with each mile that passed and each inane comment and suggestion Joel made, Jessie’s heart grew heavier. How she could possibly meet her groom wondering if he’ll make her happy rather than the other way around she didn’t know. Mama and Papa had both ingrained in her head that it was the wife’s duty to make the husband happy. No matter what. His only obligation to her was to take care of her financially.
She peeked at Joel from beneath her eyelashes. What did he do for funds? His farm was just as overgrown now as it had been when his father had been alive.
“Can I ask you something?”She lifted a finger.“And don’t tell me that I just did.”
“Well, didn’t you?”
Jessie rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed.“I suppose I did.”She kicked him with the toe of her boot.“What do you do?”
“Do?”he drew the word out then made a series of clicking noises with his tongue.
“Your occupation,”she clarified.
“Does being a lowlife count?”
She pressed her lips together, cocked her head to the side, and gave him a pointed look.“I never thought you—or your father—were lowlifes.”She smoothed her hands over her skirts.“I know your taking me to Charleston has to be taking you away from something else.”She bit her lip and made a show of looking up at him from beneath her lashes.“You didknow just what to say to those highway robbers.”
She expected Joel to laugh at her jest; instead, the look of horror stamped on his face at such an insinuation, no matter how absurd, made her wish she could swallow her words.
“I’m sorry,”she said softly.“I was only teasing.”
He nodded slowly, his eyes still wide and his jaw clamped shut.“No, apology necessary.”He wiggled his toes within his socks, frowning. Then suddenly he let out a loud howl of laughter.“I suppose I deserved such.”
“No, you didn’t.”She felt terrible already that he believed she truly thought he was once a highwayman, but for him to think he deserved to be called such.“I shouldn’t—”
