Shiloh approached him. “Reverend Thompson?”
The middle-aged man looked up at him, closing the Bible. “Yes? May I help you?”
Shiloh put a hand out and the preacher stood and shook it. “I hope so, Reverend. I’m Shiloh Barrett. My…fiancée and I were hoping you could marry us this afternoon.”
Thompson’s smile was open and friendly. “Of course! I’m always happy to perform a wedding ceremony. Sit down, and let’s talk about it.”
• ♥ •
Kalli immersed herself in the warmth of the heavenly bath. Had anything ever felt so wonderful? The water was healing—washing away the travel grime, cleansing her hair and her body, and soothing the ache in her shoulders and neck that came from the tension and worry. Now that Shiloh was recovering, she was sleeping better, but how she looked forward to a real bed!
And…with that bed would come her wedding night.
She ducked beneath the water again, making sure the soap was completely rinsed from her hair. But the water couldn’t wash away her curiosity or douse the desire that fluttered in the pit of her belly.
What had she done? Marriage? It wasn’t “done” yet. Shiloh Barrett was a stranger to her in many ways…oh, but when he looked at her…those dark eyes of his saw right into her soul. And though he was guarded about his feelings, she could see what lay in his heart.
He is a good man. She smiled, that observation bringing all kinds of contradictions with it. A Texas Ranger who had kidnapped her—she shook her head. He’d trusted her—something that didn’t come easy for him. Trusted her of necessity, of course.
She realized she was frowning. Was he marrying her out of gratitude for saving his life? Oh, that would be worse than if he was marrying her to make certain the deed to his home was returned…
But doubt fell away when she remembered the kisses they’d shared, along with the tenderness in his eyes. There was something else there, too. Something that was as important to Kalli as love. Shiloh respected her. Both halves of her—the Anglo and the Cherokee.
She’d begun to recognize that from the moment they’d met. Kidnapping her was not something he’d wanted to do. And he’d been nothing but respectful and caring of her at any time. She’d never been afraid. Instead, she’d felt…cherished.
Her eyes stung with sudden tears. How long had it been since she’d felt that way? Not since…not since she’d been a child. Her father had cherished her, in his own way. He still did, or he wouldn’t have gone to the trouble and expense of seeing she got a white education.
Kalli sat up quickly in the tub, sloshing the water out with her abrupt action. Papa had been making sure his daughter would know there was a big, wide world outside the small village…that there could be happiness and satisfaction outside the confines of “the old ways”—if she dared to search for it.
And another thought followed swiftly on the heels of that one: Why had her father sent Shiloh after her instead of Asher? Knowing the journey back to Ft. Worth would take many days, was he…hoping…a relationship might develop between her and Shiloh?
One thing Kalli knew for certain. Her father had not built his fortune in the railroad by chance—he’d gone against all odds, faced the challenges, and anticipated the trends and obstacles.
Had he done the same with his daughter and the Ranger he’d sent to fetch her home?
• ♥ •
The wedding was short, but long enough to bring tears to Mrs. Colbert’s eyes.
She’d made certain Kalli had a wedding dress—her own, from many years before. At this time of year, there were no flowers to be had for a bridal bouquet; but they’d improvised. Ann had tied a bundle of sage and wheat together with a festive red ribbon to symbolize bounty and purity.
“It’s almost Christmas,” she’d said with a smile. “Red is such a joyous color! Deborah, bring me the vanilla, please.”
“Yes, Mama.” Her youngest daughter scampered for the kitchen, making certain the door was closed behind her to prevent Shiloh from seeing his bride before the wedding.
“We’ll put a dab on your wrists and behind your ears, dear,” Ann had told Kalli. “That man of yours will be utterly bewitched when he lays eyes on you!”
Kalli smiled. “Thank you for your kindness, Mrs. Colbert. And for the use of this spare room to get ready in, along with your beautiful gown. I imagine Shiloh is more bewitched by a hot tub of water to bathe in right now than anything else.”
Ann laughed as she motioned Kalli to sit in a nearby chair. “Well, you did a wonderful job of doctoring him, my dear. A rattlesnake bite is usually deadly. You saved his life!”
“Oh, I—”
“Yes,” Ann interrupted as she began to style Kalli’s hair. “Don’t be modest. He told us he was on his way to fetch you back for a visit with your father.” She tried to arrange Kalli’s dark hair into a curl on the side, but it wouldn’t cooperate, and frowning, she gave up.
Kalli remained silent. There was no need to speak, as Ann Colbert loved to talk, and she continued on.
“He stayed with us several days ago when he was heading up into the Territory. Being a Ranger, we see him pretty frequently Such a nice young man. I’m so glad—”
“Here it is, Mama!” Deborah opened the door and slid inside quickly with the bottle of vanilla extract.
“Thank you, sugar.” Ann reached to take it as Deborah went back to her perch on a nearby chair. “We just never know how things will work out, do we?” she went on. “Shiloh heading up to escort you home for a Christmas visit, and him gettin’ snake bit…” She clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Then, you takin’ care of him—why, he’d’ve died if you hadn’t been there!” She finished styling Kalli’s hair and handed her a piece of a broken mirror.
“Oh!” Kalli smiled at her reflection. Mrs. Colbert had worked a miracle! She looked…beautiful. Even to her own critical eyes.
Mrs. Colbert chuckled at Kalli’s look of surprise that had turned to one of satisfaction. “You’re a gorgeous young lady, Kalli. Shiloh Barrett is a mighty lucky man.”
Chapter Seven
That night, long after the vows had been spoken and the small spur-of-the-moment wedding cake had been completely eaten, Shiloh lay in the darkness with Kalli. She slept contentedly in his arms, as she’d done when she’d been caring for him, but even closer than she had then.
She belongs to me now…and I am hers. The giving and taking in their lovemaking brought fulfillment to his body, heart, and soul. He’d never belonged to another person. Never felt this sense of “rightness” in his world as he did at this moment.
Her fingers caressed his side in her sleep, and she burrowed nearer to him.
The fire burned low, but the room was warm. His Kalli wasn’t cold, she only craved the closeness they created between them. And she would have it, he vowed. Forever. She was going to have the best life he could ever give her…but what would that be?
The future was uncertain for them. Her father was the “unknown” in all this. His anger at their marriage could be the downfall of…everything. Shiloh let his breath out on a long sigh. Would Seamus see this marriage as a kind of trickery on Shiloh’s part, to ensure the deed to the Barrett lands was restored free and clear?
Would he be angry that Kalli had already married—without her father’s blessing, or even his knowledge? Shiloh’s brow furrowed in the darkness. Maybe Seamus had already picked a husband for his daughter he hoped to entice her to marry…
Too late, now. A smug sense of satisfaction washed over Shiloh, and he rubbed a hand over his wife’s satin skin possessively.
“Shi?” she whispered softly.
“Sorry, Kalli.”
“Something wrong?” her lips moved close to his bare chest, and a tingle rippled up his spine.
“No. Not one thing. Go back to sleep, honey.”
“Your leg…okay?”
He had to smile at that. After all the lovemaking they’d done…she now wondered about his leg?
>
“It’s fine,” he reassured her. But she’d fallen back asleep, her head on his chest, her long, dark hair fanning out across his skin like black silk.
Everything would be all right. Seamus might be angry and upset with this unexpected turn of events, but what was done…was done. And the marriage had been consummated; there would be no annulment, even if Shiloh—or Seamus—had desired one. Which was the furthest thing from Shiloh’s mind.
Tomorrow would be a new day. The day he and Kalli would begin their married life together. They’d get up early and start south. And they’d make good time with the extra horse Shiloh had bought from the Colberts, a beautiful paint mare that he’d presented to Kalli.
Her smile had lit up his world, and he knew then there was nothing finer he could have given her. But he would buy her a proper ring—not the horseshoe-nail circlet the preacher carried extras of in his pocket for situations like this one.
Shiloh wanted Kalli to have every good and perfect thing in the world he could give her.
Now, if only he could convince her father that was what he wanted to do. Christmas was a time of miracles. And a miracle was all he could hope for.
• ♥ •
“There it is,” Shiloh said, reining Racer in at the top of a gentle rise.
Kalli looked down at the house she vaguely remembered from her childhood, before her mother had taken her away. Thirteen long years had gone by. Why hadn’t Papa come to see her in all that time? And why had he resorted to sending someone to kidnap her? What had gone wrong between Papa and Mama all those years ago?
She was going to find out. Her father wasn’t the only one who needed answers!
“Kalli…your father is probably going to be none too happy with what we’ve done.”
“Papa will just have to accept it, Shi. He hasn’t been around for a very long time.”
Shiloh nodded. They’d talked about this before. She understood he just wanted to be certain before they rode down into the lion’s den. “Ready to face him?” Shiloh asked.
She was nervous. But she was eager, too, to see her papa after so many years. “I’m ready,” she answered.
Shiloh smiled at her, and her stomach flip-flopped.
“Remember, honey, I’m right here with you.”
She nodded and started down the small rise, Shiloh beside her.
“Hold up, Kalli.” The warning in his voice made her pull Star to a halt beside a stand of oaks about half the distance to the house. He stopped beside her in the cover of the copse of trees.
“What’s wrong?” she murmured, anxious for the reunion with her father.
“Something…”
• ♥ •
Below them, Shiloh noticed several horses tied haphazardly at the front hitching rails. Just then, three men came out the front door.
Shiloh let go a low string of curses.
“Shiloh?”
“It’s Henry Baker,” he answered tightly. “I’ve been tailin’ that son of a bitch for the better part of this year. When Asher wired me about Dirk, I was close—but I had no choice but to come home and see to things. Now…here he is. And this…isn’t good.”
“Who is he? I don’t understand—”
“He’s—” But the thought of telling Kalli about Henry Baker left him with no words. How to describe one of the most evil men he’d ever encountered? How to even begin to discuss the atrocities he’d committed? “He’s the devil himself, Kalli. And he’s got a crew of followers just like him.”
“Why are they here at my father’s house?”
Shiloh didn’t want to speculate. Whatever it was, it meant trouble, with that gang. Where were Seamus’s men?
“Kalli—” He turned swiftly to face her. “Listen…you have to go get help.”
“But what about you?”
“I have to see what I can do to—help your father,” he said carefully, watching as the diminutive Baker barked out an order and then headed back inside the house.
“Oh, dear God, Shi. Have they—do you think they—” The thought was too terrible to speak aloud.
Shiloh shook his head. “I don’t know. But I don’t see any of the Rocking K men. And I—I know what Baker and his crew are capable of doing.”
“Where—I don’t even know where to go to bring help back.”
“Go back the way we came. When you get to the stagecoach road, turn right, head east. The town of Dalmire is about ten miles from there. Everyone knows where the Rocking K is. They all know your father. Tell Sheriff Davidson the Baker Gang is here, and he needs to bring a posse—and ride like hell.”
“I’ll come back soon,” she said, turning Star around toward the way they’d just traveled.
“No, Kalli. You stay put in Dalmire until this is settled—”
“I will not! I’m as good a shot as any man, and you might need me.”
He laid a hand on Star’s stirrup, across Kalli’s moccasined foot. When she looked down at him, he said, “I do need you, honey. For the rest of my life. So you have to take care of yourself. And let me take care of you, for a change, too.”
• ♥ •
Kalli rode the way Shiloh had told her to go, but she felt the minutes ticking by quickly. Would she find help in time? Lives were at stake, if those men were as terrible as Shiloh said. And her heart told her they were even more so. That sinking feeling she’d had in the pit of her stomach when he’d haltingly described Henry Baker and his men had been caused by her intuition. Shiloh had wanted to spare her some of the more gory details.
She reached the stagecoach road and turned east, as Shiloh had said.
What was happening back at her father’s spread? The only men they had seen were some of Baker’s. If the gang had killed all her father’s men, had they murdered him, as well?
Kalli choked back a sob of frustrated anger. To have come so far, to have not seen him for so many years—if he was dead, she could never forgive herself for not having tried to come to him on her own before now. Because now, it might be too late.
Had she somehow passed the town? How could that have happened? No…it just seemed to be much farther than what Shiloh had described…
There! A church steeple! Relief flooded through her as she came over a little rise and rode into “Main Street”—the only street. At the far end, a sign read, “JAIL” and she headed directly there. She ignored the curious stares of the people going about their business.
Dismounting quickly, she looped Star’s reins around the hitching rail and hurried up the steps. She flung the door open to find the sheriff sitting at his desk, feet up, drinking coffee.
“Sheriff, I’m Kalli O’Connor B-Barrett. I need your help. Please, it’s urgent.”
The sheriff set his cup down and lowered his feet to the floor from the desk. “Have a seat, ma’am.”
“No—please, there isn’t time!” she went on breathlessly. “Henry Baker’s gang has taken over my father’s ranch and—we—Shiloh and I, were headed there for Christmas, and—”
“The Baker Gang?” Sheriff Davidson’s eyes narrowed. “O’Connor, you said? And Barrett?”
“Yes, Seamus O’Connor is my father and Shiloh Barrett is my husband. Please—”
“Kalli? Well, my goodness, I remember you! Last I saw you, you were a little thing—” He broke off and abruptly stood, strapping on his gunbelt that hung on a peg near his chair.
“Please, hurry.”
“How many of them are there?” He took a step toward the door, grabbing his rifle from the rack.
Kalli tried to remember how many horses she’d seen in front of the house, but she couldn’t. “I don’t know—eight—ten—I’m not sure.”
“Come with me—I need to round up some men. I want you to go over to the café and stay there with Loretta until the dust has settled out at your pa’s place.”
“No, Sheriff. I’m a good shot, and—”
“Mrs. Barrett, I will not risk your safety,” he said sternly, turning to face
her. “If something happened to you, Shiloh or your pa would cook my goose. You’ll be safe here, and we’ll be back in no time with Baker’s gang in tow. Then, you can have your Christmas reunion with your pa.”
By his tone, Kalli knew he wouldn’t be swayed. With a sigh of resignation, she followed his long strides toward Loretta’s Café.
• ♥ •
Shiloh had watched Kalli ride away with a sick feeling in his gut. He’d done what he could to keep her out of harm’s way—but would it be enough? And would she do as he’d told her? Kalli had a mind of her own—it hadn’t taken him long to learn that much about her.
Putting thoughts of Kalli out of his head, he turned his attention back to what needed to be done for her father. Henry Baker was unspeakably cruel, and his men followed his lead blindly. How had Baker managed to take over Seamus O’Connor’s operation?
From what Shiloh had observed where he hid in the stand of oaks, Baker’s men surely did not outnumber the men employed by the Rocking K. That could only mean one thing: There was a hostage, and that was the leverage being used to control Seamus’s men. And that hostage must be Seamus himself, or someone close to him.
Shiloh’s thoughts raced. Every second counted—but he was only one man. Still, he had to do what he could to buy time for the posse to get here.
Baker didn’t know Shiloh on sight—he didn’t think—but Shiloh knew Baker from the WANTED posters and the descriptions his few victims that had survived had given.
Maybe he could hold off whatever they were doing down there by creating even a small diversion—giving the sheriff and his men enough time to arrive.
Resignedly, he dismounted and reached into his saddlebag for the packet of money Seamus had given him. He took the small spade he carried with him and dug a shallow hole in the earth, laid the packet in the hole, and covered it up again. Taking stock of exactly where he was should he get out of this alive and be able to reclaim the money, he then wiped the spade clean and put it away.
Kidnapping Kalli Page 5
