The Irish Westerns Boxed Set

by C. H. Admirand

  “It is,” a familiar deep voice called out from behind them.

  “Ben,” Inga said, “I didn’t hear you come in.”

  He smiled and replied, “I didn’t intend for you to.”

  “So yer sneakin’ up on yer intended?” Jessi managed to ask.

  He grinned at Jessi. “I am, and I’m glad you’re feeling better now that Doc wrapped you up. It worked well for Pearl.”

  “Pearl fell and broke her ribs?”

  Doc shook his head. “No and it’s too long a story to tell right now. You and Inga are going back to the boarding house to rest.”

  “But I’m not tired,” Inga protested.

  Justiss drew in a deep breath and said through gritted teeth, “You and Jessi will both rest and that’s final.”

  Inga tilted her head to one side. “Just because I agreed to marry you, doesn’t mean I agreed to let you tell me what to do.”

  The marshal nodded. “Understood, but in this case you will.” He paused and surprised her by walking over to where she sat next to Jessi. Going down on one knee, he took Inga’s hand in his and lifted it to his lips. “I can’t lose you or the baby, Inga.”

  “In that case,” she said, “Jessi, we’re going back to my boarding house to rest.”

  Jessi sighed. “I’m gettin’ tired of restin’.”

  Doc pointed his finger at her. “By the time those ribs are healed, trouble should have found someone else to follow.”

  “Don’t be wishin’ trouble on anyone like that,” she pleaded. “ ’Tis bad luck.”

  Doc shook his head at her. “Can you walk?”

  “I’ll carry her.” Justiss offered.

  “I can walk,” Jessi insisted. “I need to keep me strength up.”

  “You need to rest,” Doc called out after her.

  “I will,” Jessi replied.

  “See that you do.”

  “I promise.”

  Justiss grit his teeth and bit out, “Like you kept your promise a little while ago?”

  “I promised to stay in town.”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  “Ben!” Inga tugged on his arm until he apologized.

  “I didn’t think you could get into any more trouble in town.” His sigh was long and low. “I was wrong.”

  “Don’t fret. I’ll be stickin’ close to Inga for the next few weeks.”

  “Why doesn’t that thought comfort me?”

  Inga shrugged at him. “Come on, let’s get Jessi settled.”

  They walked at Jessi’s new pace: slow and careful.

  “I’ve got to pay a visit to Mrs. Peabody,” the marshal told the women when they’d reached their destination. “Will you two be all right here?”

  “Aye,” Jessi answered.

  “Yes, Ben.”

  Justiss looked up at the heavens and then back at the women, as if he were silently asking God to make sure the women stayed where he put them. “I’ll be back as soon as I settle things.”

  “We’ll be right here,” Inga promised. “Resting.”

  “Cross me heart, she’ll rest,” Jessi told him.

  “So will Jessi,” Inga said.

  “God help me.”

  “Hasn’t he already?” Jessi asked. “By sending ye to Emerson where ye met Inga?”

  He chuckled softly. “Remind me to thank Him later.”

  “ ’Twill be me pleasure.”

  The marshal left them in the kitchen, where they’d been only a couple of hours earlier.

  “I’m gettin’ tired of this room,” Inga confessed.

  “We can rest on the back porch,” Jessi said. “There’s chairs to sit in.”

  “Do you need any laudanum?”

  “Maybe in a little while,” Jessi told her. “Right now, I just want to sit and rest.”

  “So you’re tired?” Inga prodded.

  “Aye.” Jessi turned to Inga. “Aren’t you?”

  “Yes, but I wasn’t going to admit that to Ben and Doc.”

  Jessi nearly chuckled, then remembered what the repercussion would be and cleared her throat instead. “Try not to say anythin’ to make me laugh.”

  “I’ll try,” Inga promised.

  They were sitting on the back porch when they heard the front door open and close and then heard Reilly shouting for Jessi.

  When she didn’t answer at first, Inga asked. “Aren’t you going to tell him we’re out here?”

  “Why?”

  “So he doesn’t go crazy with worry looking for you.”

  “Ye heard yerself this mornin’ that he doesn’t want to marry me. Why should he care what happens to me?”

  “Because I’ve known you more than half my life,” Reilly answered from inside the kitchen.

  “Sure and that doesn’t mean a whit to ye.” Jessi sniffed. “Haven’t ye said as much, and aren’t you not speaking to a schemin’ woman like meself?”

  Reilly stepped outside and squatted down next to her chair. “Does it pain ye, lass?”

  “How did yer chin feel when me fist connected with it?”

  Reilly jerked back as if she’d struck him again. “Ye’d best be curbin’ that sharp tongue of yours.”

  “If ye don’t have anythin’ decent to say to me, ye should be on yer way.”

  “I just rode all the way out here, pushin’ me horse to the limit.”

  Jessi shrugged and looked away from him. “Then ye’d best see to the poor animal before he drops from exhaustion.”

  “Jessi!” Inga turned to Reilly. “She’s in pain, John, and doesn’t realize what she’s saying.”

  Reilly stood and shook his head. “She’s always had a way with words. I’ll be back when ye feel more like talkin’.”

  “ ’Twill be a cold day in hell before I feel like talkin’ to the likes of ye.”

  “Can’t you be nice to the man after he rode all this way to see if you’re all right?” Inga asked.

  “Why don’t ye ask him why he bothered,” Jessi bit out, “since he doesn’t believe I didn’t set out to trap him into a marriage he doesn’t want?”

  Reilly shot to his feet and started pacing. “I came because I was worried about you.”

  “What about Michael?” Jessi asked. “Aren’t you worried about his poor broken nose?”

  “His nose isn’t broken.” He frowned down at her. “How did you find out about that?”

  “Weren’t ye the one to tell me bad news traveled fast in Emerson?”

  “I might have been.”

  “How is Michael?”

  “Alive,” Reilly admitted.

  “Ye should be nicer to the man,” Jessi told him. “He’s yer friend, and friends should care about one another.”

  “Then why can’t ye accept that I care about ye?”

  “Yer first words were to ask me when I was going back,” Jessi reminded him.

  Reilly threw his hands up in the air. “That was after I woke up after being punched by a pretty little thing I’d mistaken for a grown-up lady.”

  She straightened too quickly and had to suck in great gulps of air until the pain subsided.

  Reilly rushed back over to her and held her hands through the worst of it. “Better?”

  She opened her eyes and nodded slowly.

  “Ye shouldn’t let yer temper get the better of ye until yer ribs are healed.”

  Inga smiled at her. “Shall I add that to your list?”

  Jessi snorted in response.

  “Do ye want to tell me what happened?”

  “Maybe later,” she told him. “I’m weary.”

  He surprised her by asking, “Can I fix ye a cup of tea?”

  “You know how?”

  It was Reilly’s turn to snort in derision. “Just because I wear pants doesn’t mean I can’t put the kettle on.”

  “Thank you, John,” Inga answered for the both of them. “We’d love some tea.”

  “Have ye anything sweet to go with it?”

  Jessi smiled wickedly. “S
pice cake.”

  Reilly’s eyes widened. “With raisins?”

  “That’s the way you like it best.”

  “Yer a difficult woman, Jessi Fahy.”

  “Thank ye, John Reilly. That’s the nicest thing ye’ve said to me all day.”

  Reilly grumbled all the way inside and over to the cookstove, but true to his word, he put water in the kettle and coaxed some life into the embers in the cookstove.

  While waiting for the water to heat, he carefully sliced the moist cake Jessi had baked for him just that morning. He couldn’t say why her bringing recipes from home didn’t seem such a horrible thing now as it had earlier. Maybe it was because he’d had time to get used to the idea that his mother and Jessi had talked about him and made plans without consulting him.

  Of course, how could they consult him, when he was on the other side of the world from them? Still, the family Bible was no longer in the family, unless he chose to reconsider his stand and marry Jessi.

  The thought of having her sharp tongue and angel’s face in his bed sent a shiver of pleasure coursing through him. And wasn’t that his problem? She’d been turning him inside out from the moment she stepped down off the stage.

  He nicked his thumb with the knife and swore.

  “Are ye all right?”

  “Fine,” he grumbled. That’d teach him to pay attention. As he watched Inga and Jessi quietly talking, he noticed the way Jessi’s lovely face would light up or darken, depending on what she was saying. He could do worse, he thought.

  Eedjit! He’d be a lucky bastard to marry a woman as lovely as Jessi. But that wasn’t enough, was it? He wasn’t ready to marry anyone, let alone someone from his hometown. Why the hell didn’t she want Sean McNulty to court her? Sean was a decent-enough sort. Why did she wait all this time for John to come home?

  When the teakettle was hot enough, he carefully poured the hot water into Inga’s crockery pot and let the tea begin to steep. A distant memory prodded him to remember something. He’d been about to step on the gangplank and board the ship when Jessi had called out to him. She’d looked so sad, and he knew once Jessi started to cry, his mother would join in and he’d take the memory of their tears with him. So he blurted out the first thing that came to mind to keep her from crying. Ye’ll be the first lass I kiss when I get home.

  He looked out the door and saw her watching him. He called out. “Tea’s almost ready.”

  Inga smiled. “Thank you, John.”

  Jessi just stared at him. Did the lass read minds? He shook his head and knew it would be just like Jessi Fahy to hang on to a promise he himself never meant to keep. How could he explain it to her without hurting her feelings? She’d been so young, and he’d been a man already, twenty summers.

  How would they be able to come to terms with their situation? Jessi and his mother had tried to trick him into marriage. As he put the pot back on the table, it hit him right between the eyes. She hadn’t tricked him into asking her. He’d done that on his own after she’d been abducted.

  So far, the lass was only guilty of laying him out flat on his back in front of the entire town of Emerson. The blow to his pride was almost as fierce as the one that knocked him off his feet.

  Jessi hadn’t tried to get him to pay attention to her; she’d avoided him. Why? Did she feel guilty about the plans she and his mother had concocted?

  His head ached from all this thinking. It was time to have a long talk with Jessi. He heard her low moan of pain even though he knew she tried to be quiet. Now wasn’t the time. He’d have to wait until she was feeling better and her ribs were on the mend.

  While he waited, he intended to have a word with Millicent Peabody about her actions. She was as bad as Sarah Burnbaum had been when the old harpy had tried to run Bridget and then Pearl out of town.

  Carrying the cake out first, he carefully set the plate on the small table between them. “Can ye reach, Jessi, or do ye need me to hand it to ye?”

  Inga stared down at the slices for a few moments without speaking. Reilly wondered what the problem was. He’d kept the slices thin enough that the size would have pleased his own mother, who’d been particular about polite-sized slices of cake when company was coming. And then he realized what he’d forgotten. “Plates.”

  Inga shook her head. “We’d only have to wash them later, and neither one of us is supposed to be doing chores for the next few weeks.” Leaning forward, she picked up two slices of cake and handed one to Jessi and held the other out to Reilly.

  He shook his head. “I’ve got to bring yer tea.” He paused. “How do ye take it, Inga?”

  “Just cream.”

  Jessi sniffed. “Aren’t ye goin’ to ask me?”

  “Why? Don’t ye still take it with cream and a splash of honey?”

  Jessi’s smile changed her from lovely to beautiful as her lips curved upward. Transfixed, Reilly stood and stared, until he realized both women were staring back at him. “I’ll just get yer tea.”

  “I don’t know if Ben will be fetching for me,” Inga admitted.

  “And why not?” Jessi asked. “If he were injured and couldn’t do things himself, ye’d be the first to help him. Wouldn’t ye?”

  Inga smiled and bit into her slice of cake. “Mmmm, this is delicious.”

  Jessi smiled, and agreed. “ ’Tis.”

  “Are ye boasting?” Reilly asked, handing first Jessi and then Inga their cups of tea.

  “Not at all. Yer mother’s the one who created the recipe. I only mixed it together.”

  “Actually,” John said after returning from the kitchen with a third cup of steaming tea. “Me grandmother’s mother was the first one to bake the cake. Over the years, me grandmother and me mother have added their own special touches to it.”

  “ ’Tis the love,” Jessi said chewing the last of her cake.

  “Love?” Inga asked.

  “Aye. Ye can taste it in every bite.” Turning toward Reilly she asked, “Doesn’t it taste of home?”

  His eyes met hers, and he watched her for a sign that she was indifferent to him. He saw interest flicker in the depths of her warm brown eyes and knew it was her temper that had done the talking earlier. The lass still cared for him.

  Would caring be enough? His parents shared a love that lasted beyond the grave. Caring could lead to love, couldn’t it? The possibility of Jessi remaining in America shot a thrill of pleasure straight up his spine, but America was a young country, a rough country. He’d have to be careful to watch over Jessi, whether he married her or not.

  She laughed softly then shifted stiffly.

  “Have a care, lass.” He poured them each another cup of tea, added the cream and honey for Jessi, and passed the cream to Inga. “Do ye need help?”

  The older woman shook her head. “I’m allowed to lift the pitcher of cream,” she reassured him.

  “That’s fine then,” Reilly answered.

  “But that’s it,” a voice called out from behind them.

  “Ben!” Inga started to rise to her feet, but he motioned for her to sit back down. “Rest. Remember?”

  Inga grumbled something only the marshal could hear. He chuckled and grinned at her.

  “So Mick told you what happened?” Justiss surmised as he approached the group.

  Reilly nodded. “I came as soon as I could.”

  The marshal looked at him and then asked, “So how’s Flynn’s nose?”

  Reilly sighed loudly. “I didn’t break the man’s nose. I only bloodied it.”

  “Oh, well,” Jessi said. “If that’s all, sure and won’t he be pleased with ye?”

  Justiss looked from Jessi to Reilly and back before he gave into the urge and laughed deeply. “Doc rewrapped her ribs. She needed them to be tighter so they don’t move.”

  Jessi nodded. “But it’s hard to get my breath.”

  “Then don’t talk,” Reilly said with a smile.

  “Why, ye—”

  The sound of Jessi drawing
in air had both the marshal and Reilly shuddering. “It’ll take some getting used to,” Justiss told her. “But they will start to feel better if you don’t overdo it.”

  She nodded and sighed. “It seems I’ve been restin’ since I’ve arrived.”

  “Me ma always said Trouble was yer middle name, lass. I’m thinkin’ she had the right of it.”

  “So yer not upset with herself?”

  Reilly shook his head. “She’s back in Ireland. Why would I be mad at her when you’re so much closer?”

  Jessi closed her eyes and started counting out loud to keep from shouting at the thick-headed man. By the time she got to twenty she opened her eyes. “Yer mother was right about ye.”

  “What did she say?”

  “ ’Tisn’t polite,” Jessi admitted.

  Justiss roared with laughter and Reilly smiled. Maybe he’d like the woman his childhood friend had grown into. Time would tell.

  “Why don’t you tell us how your talk went with Millicent?” Inga urged.

  “She had a headache and was resting upstairs,” he said. “I spoke with Peabody instead.”

  “What did he have to say?” Inga prompted.

  “That his wife had been upstairs with a headache all morning.”

  “But that’s a lie.” Jessi sucked in a breath and held it.

  “Don’t let yer temper hurt ye,” Reilly cautioned her. When she seemed to be breathing easier, he asked her, “Why would ye say Mrs. Peabody lied?”

  “Because me mother would have me head if I told a lie,” Jessi ground out, “and yer mother would as well.”

  Reilly nodded. “But neither one of our mothers is here right now.”

  “And ye think because they can’t see me, I’d ignore a lifetime of teaching? That I’d throw it all away just to get back at Mrs. Peabody when she’s been castin’ aspersions me way since I arrived?”

  Reilly took her hand in his and held it. “Calm down before ye hurt yerself.”

  Jessi tugged at her hand and tried to pull it free, but Reilly held fast. “I’m bigger and stronger.”

  “And that makes ye a bully.”

  He rolled his eyes and asked Inga, “Do ye see what I have to put up with?”

  Jessi opened her mouth to speak, then thought better of it.