"Thought we better eat good before we head back. We'll be pushing it to make it to Colbert's Ferry by tomorrow night." He handed me a plate with a large chunk of meat on it, still too hot to bite into, yet.
I nodded, reaching for the coffee he handed me. My fingers and palms were sore and bruised looking from my time with the shovel the day before.
"Let that rabbit grease soak into your hands while you eat," Jacobi said. "I got the same problem."
I nodded. "Glad to be done with it all." I tried the meat, unable to wait any longer. It was still hot, but not unmanageable.
"Me too."
"Eddington...he turned out different than I thought."
Jacobi gave a short laugh. "So did Trask. It's rare I read a man that wrong."
"Mm. I don't think you did."
Jacobi bit into his meat. "How's that?"
"Well...maybe he wasn't always greedy, you know? I mean, maybe he got older and got to thinkin' he didn't have anything to show for all his years of hard work. That's when the greed took over. He saw a chance to make some money, and he took it."
Jacobi didn't say anything for a minute. Finally, he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, could be. Might've worked out for him, if he hadn't planned to kill you."
By the way he said it, I knew that there was no way he'd have taken a chance on bringing Trask back alive. He would not have risked the threat to me, should Trask manage to escape.
But there was still a threat, as long as Ben Compton lived. There would be another taker, at some point, for his scheme to take over Grandpa's business.
"You know he won't be the last one." I reached to cut another piece of meat. "Not as long as Ben Compton still wants to take over Green Ship Building."
"He'll be going to prison," Jacobi said firmly.
"How?" I set my plate down for a moment. "I've been thinkin' about all this. There's no one left to tell about the plan – I mean, Atkins and Shale are dead. So is Wheeler. Grandpa's gone now, and Trask and Eddington were the two who would've been able to tell the truth about what was going on. There's no way to prove anything."
Jacobi smiled. "I've got something that might help. A few lines on a piece of paper that your grandfather wrote before he left. We didn't know for sure what Atkins and Shale had planned, but it was enough to make him as nervous as it made me. He wrote of his speculations and fears before he left. I think it'll be enough to help get Compton locked up for a very long time."
"Jacobi ... I still don't want to take over the business."
"You may think different later on, Will, but it'll be your choice. I intend for that decision to be yours, no matter what."
I nodded, not wanting to argue the point. I had to admit, Jacobi had been right about a lot of things over the last couple of years. I supposed anything could happen.
We finished eating and broke camp quickly, then headed southward, toward Texas.
Chapter 42
Five days later, dirty and trail-weary, we rounded the final curve of our journey, and our cabin came into view. My heart swelled in my chest until I felt like it would explode.
Deelie Ray sat on the front porch with Merry Lee. The early afternoon sun caught the highlights in Deelie Ray's blonde hair, lighting her face as she laughed aloud when Merry Lee reached for her.
It hit me right then that Deelie Ray was...pretty. Almost beautiful. But heck, I didn't even like Deelie Ray. How could it be even possible that I could see her as a beauty, rather than the pesky girl she'd been days earlier when I'd left?
I'd been so glad to ride away and leave her behind. Her words echoed in my mind. I'll bake you an apple pie when you come home. I would've given her a stinging reply had Laura's chiding not stuck with me. Thankfully, I had said nothing; I was glad the words had remained bottled inside me so that there would be nothing to regret or to apologize for.
Deelie Ray seemed...grown up, somehow – more than she had been just a few days earlier when we'd ridden out. I drew the wagon up as a thought hit me square between the eyes.
Maybe it wasn't Deelie Ray who had grown up; maybe it had been me.
"Will?"
I glanced at Jacobi when he spoke my name, and he grinned as if he understood every thought that was running through my head. "Let's go see if Delia's learned to make that apple pie yet," he murmured.
"Will!" Deelie Ray yelled as she caught sight of us.
Laura put her head out the door, and in the next instant, she and Deelie Ray were running toward us with the babies in tow.
We were home.
And all the love in the world was headed our way.
About the Author
Cheryl Pierson is a native of Oklahoma. She lives in the Oklahoma City metro area with her husband. Her short stories have been published by Prairie Rose Publications, Western Fictioneers, Adams Media, Chicken Soup, and Western Trail Blazer (WTB). She has six novels to her credit, FIRE EYES, TIME PLAINS DRIFTER, THE HALF-BREED’S WOMAN, GABRIEL’S LAW and SWEET DANGER (PRP); and TEMPTATION’S TOUCH, (The Wild Rose Press).
Her novel, Fire Eyes, was an Epic Award Finalist. Cheryl received the PNR PEARL Awards Honorable Mention as Best New Paranormal Author of 2009 for her time-travel paranormal western Time Plains Drifter. She also placed third in the San Antonio Romance Authors (SARA) Merritt Contest with her novel, Gabriel's Law. Kane's Redemption, Ms. Pierson's Young Adult Western Novella, was chosen Best Mainstream Short Story of 2012 in the Preditor & Editor Readers' Poll.
Writing is so much a part of her life that recently, she and long-time friend Livia Reasoner, opened a publishing house. PRAIRIE ROSE PUBLICATIONS furthers the western-themed writing offerings of women. www.prairierosepublications.com
Cheryl is the current President of the Western Fictioneers (2014-2016).
To learn more about Cheryl and her exciting books, visit her at www.cherylpierson.com/
You can e-mail her at [email protected]
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