Edge of Time (Langston Brothers Series)

by Melissa Lynne Blue

  She smiled weakly.

  “If they try to arrest you we’ll flee to Montana.”

  “Be serious, Craig.”

  “I am being serious. I’ve heard there is a great need for doctors in the western territories.”

  She gave him a wobbly smile. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  A few minutes later the couple entered the study hand in hand.

  Craig nodded to his father. “Pa? What are you doing here?”

  Robert stepped forward to grasp his son in a fatherly embrace, but Craig felt how gently he held him, as if afraid of hurting him. “Genie wrote me about yer troubles lad.” He cleared his throat gruffly and stepped back. “The thought of losin’ another son was more than I could bear. I went straight to Major Bernstein when I arrived this afternoon.”

  “Genie?” Craig asked returning the embrace. “Genie Harris wrote you?”

  “Aye,” his father nodded. “We’ve been keepin’ in touch since I came for that farce of a weddin’.”

  “That was no farce, sir,” Marissa said. “I love your son and every promise I made I intend to keep.

  “Oh, I’m certain of that, lass,” Robert’s eyes flashed. “Of course without you my son wouldn’t be—”

  “Not now,” Craig cut in firmly. He turned to Major Bernstein. “What can I do for you, sir?”

  A broad smile stretched across the major’s face. “Craig you look wonderful!” Merely nodding in response, Craig waited for his superior officer to continue. “I just dropped in to check on you and let you know we have a date for the formal hearing. Colonel Briggs and I have gathered all of the necessary evidence and witnesses and a formal hearing will be held at the town hall, Monday at two o’clock in the afternoon. This situation will be resolved once and for all.”

  “Can you tell me a little more than that?” A muscle in his jaw worked tensely at Craig’s temple. “How does it look for us? Does everyone still believe Marissa is a spy and I’m a lying bastard?”

  “Unfortunately, I cannot divulge a great deal of information at this time, but I can tell you that everything should go well for you and Marissa.” With a cordial tip of his hat Major Bernstein turned to leave, with Robert Langston close behind.

  Silence ensued for nearly a full minute after they had gone. Monday? Day after tomorrow? Craig locked gazes with his wife. In two days, they would either be exonerated or on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains. He hadn’t been kidding about Montana, or at the very least Texas, but either way it would be over. Over.

  “What are you thinking?” Marissa’s voice was soft.

  “Whether we should cut our losses and run west now or take our chances running after the hearing.” Drawing her to him he nestled her into the protective fold of his arms and placed his chin on top of her head.

  “Will you shut up about going to Montana?” she scolded, though a small smile tugged at her lips. “What do you expect this hearing to turn up?”

  “Nothing,” he assured her. “The pendulum of public opinion has quite obviously swung back, putting us into the favor of society. Even Kirsten hasn’t been brazen enough to show her face. If it was going to be bad James would warn us.”

  “You’re probably right,” she murmured. “I know you’re right. Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

  “As long as I’m with you I’m perfect.”

  Edge of Time 230

  Nineteen

  Sunday morning dawned clear and sunny as Marissa and Craig prepared to attend church for the first time since Craig’s injury.

  “Aren’t you going to eat more than that?” Craig questioned, watching his wife push her breakfast around the plate with her fork. “Services start at nine o’clock sharp.” It was already half past eight and he’d spent the last hour waiting for her to eat.

  Marissa raised her eyes and decided she must look as pale as she felt. She shook her head. “I’m not feeling very well this morning.” God, if that wasn’t the understatement of the century! She’d never felt worse!

  Craig nodded in immediate understanding. “You know morning sickness is all quite normal in the early months of pregnancy, and in my experience it’s a sign of healthy pregnancy.”

  “So reassuring, Doctor,” she snarled, shoving the plate away and rising.” Let’s just go to church.”

  Barely able to suppress a smile Craig held up a hand in mock defense, wisely choosing not to speak. Helping her with a light shawl, he took hold of her arm as they walked the quick two blocks to the church. Though they took a pew at the back of the sanctuary it was impossible to remain inconspicuous, and near every head in the congregation turned to stare at them.

  “Oh! You did what?” An offended cry and a harsh slap rent the air at the front of the church and all eyes instantly turned from Craig and Marissa Langston, to Kirsten Jamison and James Rowe sitting together in a pew. Kirsten slapped him again and both of them rose to their feet. James held a hand to the reddening mark of a handprint on his cheek. “What was that for?” he demanded indignantly. “I simply asked you to marry me and asked to have our banns read.”

  “And what makes you think I would want to marry you?”

  “I don’t know,” James replied caustically. “Maybe because I’m the father of your child?”

  The church plunged into hushed silence, no one even bothered to breathe. Not even clothing rustled. A coin chinked onto the floor but no one moved to retrieve it.

  Kirsten’s eyes widened in alarm. “You? You’re not the fa-father!” She stammered, her composure more than ruffled. “I told you before you and I even—” She broke off. “I-I mean Craig Langston is my child’s father.”

  James scoffed. “Craig Langston? I find that quite impossible to believe, my dear. How can you be so certain the child is his and not mine?”

  “I… you… How could you, James?” Kirsten’s cheeks flushed a deep scarlet. “How can you be certain?”

  James Gestured about the church. “Would you really like me to elaborate in front of all of these people how certain I am? Including your parents? And in the house of God?”

  “Why are you doing this to me?” Kirsten’s fair cheeks deepened to a vermillion hue Marissa would have thought impossible. “James! You said you loved me, that you’d do anything for me.”

  “Except hang my best friend out to dry,” James said. “Even I didn’t believe him when he insisted that you’d set him up. But then, much too late, I remembered you coming to get laudanum from me the day before his bachelor party. Your mother wasn’t really having difficulty sleeping was she?”

  She clung to the back of a pew, appealing to him. “Don’t do this, James. Please! I never meant to hurt anyone. I—”

  “If you never meant to hurt anyone, why did you go to bed with me? How can you be so sure Dr. Langston is the father of your child and not me?”

  Kirsten glared at him icily. “A woman just knows.” Her shrill voice rose even higher. “I know! I do know who fathered my child!”

  “Please,” James said, stiff-arming Kirsten’s angry father who rushed to her defense, his face mottled with fury. “Please enlighten a poor man who lacks your womanly intuition in such matters.”

  “Yes, Kirsten, do enlighten us.” This time Craig spoke, rising despite Marissa’s efforts to keep him at her side. He strode forward confidently, his eyes glittering with the promise of redemption. “James, were you an innocent pawn in this woman’s quest for my hand? Not to mention my fortune.”

  James laughed. “So it would seem. I gave her laudanum. You passed out after two drinks, woke up in her bed with her father conveniently pointing a shotgun at you. I find those facts to be a little too coincidental.”

  Kirsten raised her voice, shouting over James, “Oh, please, Craig, how can you deny it after we were caught together?”

  “Caught t
ogether after you drugged me.”

  “I? You think I drugged you?” she said weakly, a hand fluttering to her throat. “But... I wasn’t even there that night. I do not frequent saloons.”

  “I was falling asleep at the bar after two drinks. I never understood why until I learned about the laudanum. I wasn’t drunk. I was drugged.”

  “That’s true,” a man piped from a pew near Marissa. “Doc Langston was so far gone I had to help Paul Christenson carry him to the alley behind the saloon and spill him into a cart. I don’t think he could have told you his own name that night, much less climbed into any lady’s bed on his own.”

  Craig pegged Kirsten with a penetrating stare. “How much did it cost you from your father’s dwindling funds to pay Paul Christenson to drag me, unconscious, into your bed?”

  Kirsten glanced about the church and took a stumbling step toward her mother. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. As Dr. Rowe said, this is a house of the Lord. This is not the place for such a discussion. Mother? Father? I want to leave. Now.”

  “Not yet,” Craig and James answered as one.

  “Well, of you insist on talking about it…” Kirsten glared cagily at Craig. “You must have revived that night because you--you met me as planned and—”

  Craig stepped menacingly forward, shattering her confidence. “And? What was planned, Kirsten? If anything was, it was not between you and me.”

  “But...”

  “Did you also falsely accuse my wife of treason?” Craig’s voice took on a dangerously razor sharp edge.

  Kirsten’s eyes flitted to where Marissa still sat, frozen in place. “I never accused her of treason! I merely made the comment that her accent is northern.” Kirsten made a valiant attempt to assume a remorseful guise. “If anything I said may have been misconstrued, I am terribly sorry, but—”

  At that moment Cadence Jamison, Kirsten’s younger sister, jumped to her feet. “You did too accuse her of being a spy! You and Mama spread that rumor all over town, before she married Dr. Langston!”

  At this announcement from Kirsten’s own sister, a communal gasp nearly sucked the roof from the church.

  Colonel Briggs stood in his own pew and cleared his throat, turning a reproachful eye on Kirsten. “Miss Jamison, do you have any evidence or proof that Mrs. Langston has had contact with the Union Army? I feel inclined to inform you that should you be found to be lying in this situation the consequences for false accusation are dire.”

  “She made me do it!” Kirsten pointed a trembling finger at her mother who promptly gasped. “She made me get a bottle of laudanum from Dr. Rowe. My mother is the one who paid Paul Christenson to drug Craig at the bachelor party and put him in my bed. All of it was mother’s idea. All of it!”

  “Why you lying little trollop.” Molly Jamison jumped from her seat. “You begged—”

  “That will be quite enough.” Colonel Brigg’s voice boomed and he sent Molly Jamison a withering glare. “Does anyone have evidence that Doctor or Mrs. Langston have had contact with the Union Army?”

  No one stepped forward and more than a few bodies plopped back down into the pews as Craig strode down the aisle, back to where Marissa sat, shaking like a leaf.

  Colonel Briggs spoke loudly enough for the entire congregation to hear. “From what I’ve been able to gather through extensive inquiry throughout Charleston and the surrounding area, Mrs. Langston has never been seen in the company of Federal troops and for that matter has hardly been seen unaccompanied away from her residence, or that of her cousin. There is no evidence to support the notion that she or Captain Langston have been in any contact with the Union Army. I am hereby officially closing this inquiry. Tomorrow’s hearing is cancelled.” Marissa was sure that if he’d had a gavel, he’d have rapped it sharply on the back of a pew.

  Turning to speak with Craig, the colonel said, “Captain Langston you are to resume your duties as soon as you are fully recovered from your injury. Do you have any questions?”

  Craig shook his head and gave his wife’s shoulders a reassuring squeeze, “No, sir. I am just extremely pleased to have this behind us.”

  Colonel Briggs nodded. “The rest of this affair seems to be a personal matter and I wish you all luck in resolving it.”

  The sanctuary was abuzz as the officer marched out, and the townspeople showed no sign of quieting even after Reverend Hollister took to the pulpit. After a few moments the reverend gave up and announced over the din that Sunday services would be held that evening instead.

  “Is there anything else you’d like to confess to, Kirsten?” James crossed long arms over his chest. His face white under his flame of short, red hair. “Perhaps that your baby is mine once and for all?”

  Violet eyes dropped in shame Kirsten fled, and behind her rose the cackling of Charleston society. To Marissa’s surprise James followed her.

  Mike Jamison approached, clearing his throat, he turned his attention to a smear of mud on his boot. Finally he shuffled to face Craig and Marissa. “Doc, Mrs. Langston.” Mike stretched out a hand to Craig. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I just didn’t know.”

  Gallantly, Craig shook the other man’s hand. “I’d like to think we would all go to such lengths to protect our daughters.” He nodded, then turned to lead his wife away.

  “How could you shake that man’s hand? He may be the one who shot you.”

  “I don’t think he is, and anyway, if I suspected a man of taking advantage of my daughter, let’s just say… I wouldn’t have missed.”

  Marissa’s eyes widened. “Oh, God, I hope we never have daughters!”

  Spreading a hand over her stomach he smiled tenderly. “I wouldn’t go that far.”

  Outside, they saw the Jamison family’s buggy rolling away. James stood looking after it.

  “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?” Craig asked. “About Kirsten, the laudanum, all of this?”

  The other man shrugged slender shoulders. “I didn’t put any of it together until you made a comment about feeling hung over on laudanum. I reported to the Colonel and Major Bernstein. They were going to save it till the hearing tomorrow, but,” he shrugged, “as you can see it blew up before we’d anticipated. I’d hoped to... to protect Kirsten, by having it made plain today I want to marry her.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I was fool enough to fall for her games and now it’s the right thing to do.” He shrugged. “Her babe is mine. I’ve no choice but to follow through.”

  “I don’t even know how to thank you,” Craig said. “If there is anything I can do for you?”

  “Don’t even think of it. We’re friends and I’m sorry I didn’t believe you sooner.” Flashing a wolfish grin toward Marissa he said, “Granted, I couldn’t figure as to why you’d stray from a wife like that.”

  Grinning in return, Craig slapped James on the shoulder. “God willing, I could never imagine being tempted.”

  Edge of Time 230

  Twenty

  Life may not be perfect, but it’s definitely better. Craig smiled as he headed home after making a house call. Marissa was miserable, well loved, but feeling wretched, sick, tired and was perpetually grumpy. One child may well be enough if we survive this ordeal, he thought. He’d finally convinced her to take a few days off and rest.

  “Major Langston!”

  Not yet used to the new distinction, it took a moment for him to answer the call. Turning, he spotted the sheriff hailing him from across the street. With a friendly greeting he crossed to speak with the lawman. “Problems, Sheriff?” he asked, noting the grim expression on the other man’s face.

  “As you know we’ve kept a constant watch over the Harris farm ever since the bodies of the transport detail turned up.”

  Craig nodded.

  “The deputy I had posted out there last night never came back.” A de
ep sense of dread settled into the pit of Craig’s stomach and he shifted, crossing his arms as the sheriff continued. “I’ve got a few men rounded up to go looking for him and I was hoping you would ride out with us in case we find him injured. It can’t hurt to have a doctor along and I wouldn’t mind having another fast gun in the party in case we run into whoever is out in those woods.”

  “You’ve got it,” Craig said at once. “Just let me run home to tell my wife and get my horse.”

  As he jogged the last couple of blocks to his townhouse his mind whirled with the news the sheriff had relayed. What had happened to the deputy? Was it a freak accident or something more sinister? With the other turmoil in his life he had given very little thought to the man in the Harris’s woods, assuming he’d moved on when the law threatened to move in. Taking the stairs two at a time he burst through the front door and followed the sound of the piano to where his wife sat in the parlor.

  “Marissa.”

  She turned at the sound of his voice, the smile quickly fading from her face as she caught sight of his deadly serious expression. “Craig, what is it?”

  “One of the deputies never came back from Genie’s farm last night, and I need to ride out with the search party in case he’s hurt.”

  “Oh, my God,” Marissa clasped a hand to her breast. “I haven’t thought about the woods in weeks!”

  “I know.” He kissed her gently before turning to mount the stairs. Quickly he strapped dual side arms about his waist. Descending the stairs, he grabbed his medical bag from a chair in the entryway and turned to Marissa once again. “I don’t know how long this is going to take so don’t worry about holding dinner for me, or waiting up. I promise to wake you when I get home. All right?”

  “All right,” she nodded, embracing him tightly with love and concern. “You look more like a gunfighter than a doctor just now. Be careful.”

  “I will.” He strode from the house to saddle Jeb and rode toward the jail.