Escaped (Intrigue Under Western Skies Book 4)

by Elaine Manders

  Maggie held her back. “There’s something I feel led to tell you, Juliette, but I keep putting it off because you might think I’m meddling, but I want you to know I only speak as a friend.”

  The seriousness of Maggie’s tone sent a chill through Juliette. “Of course, Maggie. I appreciate all your advice.”

  “I regret waiting to marry Clay. I wished we’d gone ahead with the wedding as soon as I came home from…my studies.” She clasped her hands together and gazed skyward. “That was three years ago. I can hardly believe it.”

  “Why did you wait?”

  “Because like you and Jake, we felt we had to be ready to set up housekeeping in our own place. I wanted the perfect wedding at the perfect time. But when the time came, it wasn’t perfect and time passed by. One thing happened after another. Clay lost the shop. I signed a contract with the school.”

  “Are you trying to say Jake and I should go ahead and get married before he builds the house—that I should tell Carianne to find someone else for the library.”

  “No, not exactly. Carianne won’t require you to be unmarried to serve as librarian. But there’s no reason why you and Jake can’t get married before the house is built. I think you’d have fun working on it together.”

  “Where would we live? And don’t forget, I’m responsible for Annie.”

  “Why not stay at Sollano, just as you do now? Rhyan and Carianne won’t mind you rooming at the ranch house until yours is finished.”

  Indeed, why couldn’t they do that? Had Jake even thought of it? She certainly hadn’t. “I feel we’re already so indebted to Rhyan and Carianne, we’ll never be able to repay them.”

  “They don’t expect repayment. They’re good people.”

  “I don’t want to impose on their hospitality.”

  Maggie hooked her by the arm and headed toward the leather shop. “Well, it’s just something I had to mention because—as I said—it’s something that popped to mind in church yesterday. Wouldn’t want you to have regrets.” She said it like her regrets still bothered her.

  “Waiting on our own home isn’t the only reason Clay and I aren’t already married.”

  They had gained the other boardwalk, but Juliette stopped in her tracks, wanting to know where Maggie was going with this story. “What was the other reason?”

  Maggie wrinkled her brows as if she’d said too much. “Would you believe when Clay first asked me to marry him, I refused to say yes because I had…something of a secret in my past he had to know about, and I was afraid he wouldn’t want me when he knew. Isn’t that silly.” She laughed, but the sound held no amusement.

  Silly? Hardly. Juliette had to force a smile, and a chill slid down her spine. She knew why Maggie heard from the Lord at church yesterday. She’d felt the conviction too. God couldn’t make it any clearer. Juliette had to confide in Jake sooner rather than later.

  Chapter 17

  With a rough sketch of the house plans stuffed inside his shirt and Juliette riding with him, Jake pulled Dauntless to the right. The big horse beat a path in the grass for Sweetie Pie to follow. They headed to the potential building site. Clouds gathered on the western horizon but were too far away to threaten rain for hours. Still, they blocked the sunset he’d hoped for. He’d wanted Juliette to picture them on their porch watching that sunset.

  He studied the place from every angle and stopped at what he deemed the best spot. He started to dismount, but Juliette moved around in front. “Don’t get down. Your crutches might get tangled up in this grass.”

  She was right. He swiped his nose with the back of his hand. Confounded crutches.

  Forgive me, Lord. It’s a blessing to have been able to keep my leg.

  He pulled out the sketch and held it up for her to see. “I figure we’re standing in our parlor. The kitchen will be to the east with Annie’s room in back.”

  Juliette reached over and tapped the place identified as the kitchen. “This space gives enough room for our dining table, don’t you think?”

  “Sure, right in the corner where the two windows will be.” He nudged Dauntless a few steps forward. “This place to the right of Annie’s room will be the back porch. Then from the porch to the parlor will be our room.” He coughed, wondering if that might embarrass her.

  She merely smiled and nodded. They were already as comfortable with each other as a married couple could be. Discussing house plans. “I know it’s an added expense, but I’m glad the plans add a wide front porch,” she said.

  “Got to have that, for sure. How else could we sit out here and look at the sunsets and the tree line. These poplars will give the parlor a little shade, but we’ll transplant a few trees.”

  Juliette moved her horse over to the twin poplars. “I wonder where they came from. They couldn’t have just sprouted.”

  “No, when Oliver Cason first settled here, his wife planted a lot of trees. Not many of them lived, but those that did are hardy, including these.” The stronger trees, like people, survived.

  “They make a fine anchor for our house.” She pranced Sweetie Pie in a circle as if viewing the future rooms. “It’s going to be perfect, Jake, but it costs so much. It will take ten years to pay it off. Are you sure you want to take on that much debt?”

  Maybe he shouldn’t have even let her see the cost of the house. No, as Rhyan said, a married couple had to share money matters. “Sure, lots of people have bigger mortgages. I just wish it could be as nice as your Georgia house.” He reached over to tap her on the nose. “You worry too much about money, Juliette.”

  She snickered under her breath. “I suppose I got that from my father. He refused to go into debt at all, and built onto that Georgia house several times over his lifetime. When he and my mother first married, it was only two rooms.” She sighed and tilted her head back. He knew she was thinking about that scoundrel who was trying to take all her father had worked for.

  “Speaking of building on. I think we should pitch the roof high enough so the loft can be converted into a couple of bedrooms. You know, for when we have young’uns.”

  He didn’t know if her startled glance was for the prospect of spending more money. Or having children. “Don’t you want to have young’uns?”

  “Of course, Jake. I love children.”

  There horses were nose to nose, and she pulled Sweetie Pie up beside Dauntless, close enough for their flanks to touch. She was face-to-face with Jake.

  His gaze fell to the turquoise locket hanging from her slender neck, reminding him she’d pledged herself to him. Of all the men who could have offered her marriage. Men of means so she wouldn’t have to worry about money. He couldn’t believe this beautiful woman wanted him. Sensitive. Intelligent. Practical. And she loved him.

  He was a lucky man. No—not lucky, he had to remind himself. Blessed. God had accepted his eleventh hour profession of faith, brought him back from the dead—spiritually and literally—and blessed him beyond his imagination. A lifetime wasn’t long enough to thank God.

  “We don’t have to wait to get married, Juliette. Like I mentioned before, Clay says he regrets waiting. He wishes Maggie hadn’t promised herself to the school. If they had been married, they could have rebuilt together after the fire. Tragedy can happen swiftly and at any time. Besides, there’s no restrictions on female librarians being married. You could continue working at the library, and we could live at Sollano until our house is ready.”

  “I know. Maggie told me she regrets not marrying Clay sooner. But I don’t want to work at the library after I marry. I’d rather stay home to make this little house a home. Work in the garden. Cook for you. I want to be all yours. Be waiting for you when you come home. We’ll have to wait until Annie gets well, or at least know what her condition is.”

  She knew how to turn his arguments to mush. He reached out to tuck a loose tendril behind her ear. “I thought Mrs. Darlington was helping her.”

  Juliette’s shoulders lifted ever so slightly. “Maybe she is,
but I still think Annie’s helping to care for the babies is helping her more.”

  Holding onto the saddle horn with his left hand, he slipped his right arm around her and leaned in until their foreheads touched. “I love you from the deepest part of my heart. And that’s deep, Juliette. As deep as the Grand Canyon, and it was just as barren until you came and filled it up.”

  Peering into his eyes, she smiled, and tried to make light of it as she often did when nervous. “You’re a poet, Jake.”

  That put a grin on his face, silly as the idea of him being a poet was. “Not a poet. I’m just a cowboy, and I’ll always be just a cowboy. But I’ll be the happiest cowboy who ever lived.”

  Her arm came around him, and he kissed her, softly but hungrily. She pressed into him, deepening the kiss until his passion flared beyond logic. His inner voice screamed at him to stop.

  Dauntless suddenly side-stepped, separating them abruptly, and he dragged in a deep breath. It was just as well. He’d brought her out here in the middle of nowhere, and she was an unmarried woman. Unchaperoned. He wouldn’t risk her reputation being disparaged for the world.

  He forced his eyes from her and turned to the west where the boiling dark clouds were coming in faster than he’d first thought. “We’d better get on to the ranch. Looks like a storm.”

  It had stormed that night he’d almost died. Thunder had shaken the house, hail pounded the windows. He’d hardly noticed at the time. Juliette had filled his mind. Holding his hand. Stroking his brow. Radiating her love.

  Maybe she read his mind because when he glanced back at her, she spoke softly. “I love you, Jake. But since I’m not a poet either, I can’t find words beautiful enough to express how much.”

  He drew in a breath, moved by the intensity of her declaration, but the words carried a sadness he didn’t understand. “You express it very well, Juliette. Let’s get on home before we get wet.”

  They would give the horses their heads when they got back to the road, but slow-walked them through the tall grass.

  “That nasty-looking storm reminds me we’ll have to dig a storm shelter, too.”

  “Do you get many tornadoes?”

  “Not usually this time of year, but at least one or two in the spring. Did you have tornadoes in Georgia? I didn’t see a storm shelter.”

  “Yes, maybe every two or three years one comes close. About all we can do is pray. The water table is too high for underground shelter.”

  “You’re joking. What about graves? I see them all over the South.”

  “I guess they’re at least six feet under, but I’m sure the caskets get flooded at times, though they rarely float to the top.”

  He laughed, thinking she meant to josh him, but the scowl on her pretty face said otherwise.

  They reached the road, and neither had to urge their horses into a full gallop. Both Sweetie Pie and Dauntless knew they had a dry stall and hay waiting for them.

  ***

  Juliette squinted as they approached the ranch drive. Was that Corky running out, waving his arms?

  She slid off the saddle almost before the Sweetie Pie stopped. Though a wide smile cracked Corky’s face, she asked, “What’s wrong?” Panic always gripped her with the least provocation.

  Annie.

  “I was assigned to the stables this week.” Corky said it like it was the best job on the ranch. “There’s over sixty horses in there and that doesn’t count those in the remuda.”

  She heard Jake chuckle as he handed the reins of both horses to Corky. “Exactly one hundred stalls to be mucked out.”

  “Ah, I don’t mind that.”

  “I’m glad you like your job, Corky,” Juliette said. “But why are you out here instead of in the stables?” Corky’s grinning face reminded her there was more at stake than her or even Annie. Her brothers’ happiness was important, too. Killing Harp had liberated them and given them a chance for a good future. Regardless of what happened, she couldn’t regret what she’d done.

  “Mrs. Carianne wants to see you and Jake in the parlor as soon as you got home. I was watching out for you.” Corky pulled the horses along as he headed to the stables.

  That knot of panic stirred again. “What can be so urgent?”

  Jakes crutches tapped the paved drive. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

  Carianne sat at the tall secretary standing by the parlor’s eastern windows. She swiveled around at the sound of their entry, her face alight with enthusiasm. “Did you decide on your house plans?”

  Juliette released her pent up breath and surveyed this room she’d not yet seen. Rhyan was pacing about the large room, holding baby Airy in the crook of his arm, swinging her gently.

  Jake pulled the sketch of their house plans from his shirt and made his way to Carianne, and with more agility than she’d thought possible, drug one of the straight-backed chairs beside the secretary. Juliette turned her attention to the baby. She feared that have-you-set-a-date question coming and didn’t want to hear Jake’s answer this time, especially after both Maggie and Clay had convinced him waiting was foolish.

  On the way from the building site, he’d mentioned how wonderful it would be to hold the wedding sometime next week at that quaint little chapel surrounded by old walnut trees.

  Her reluctance disappointed him. Hurt him. She could tell it in his eyes, the cadence of his voice.

  Rhyan came towards her and on impulse, she asked, “May I hold her?”

  He smiled and offered her the bundle of sweetness and innocence. “Of course, gives me a chance to see those plans too, but I warn you if you stop walking her, she let out a pitiful little wail that will have you back in motion until you wear the carpet out.”

  “Who could resist spoiling her? She’s adorable.” Juliette nestled the baby in the cradle of her arms, and Airy jerked her tiny fisted hands as if startled, then favored her with a lop-sided grin when she started pacing.

  She was a beautiful baby. Curly, black hair. Big dark brown eyes fringed with long, feathery lashes that fluttered on rosy cheeks. She had her father’s and grandmother’s coloring, and would probably inherit her mother’s sweet nature. Davy’s personality was already favoring his mother. A happy-go-lucky child. He was likely in the nursery, playing with Annie. He adored Annie and followed her like a rambunctious puppy.

  What would Jake’s and her baby look like? Juliette glanced across the room where he sat, flanked by Rhyan and Carianne, waving his hands while describing some aspect of their future home.

  If only.

  How could she tell him if he married her, he might never be a father because she would spend her child-bearing years in prison? It would be better that she be hung, but she was convinced neither judge nor jury would hang a woman who’d killed a scoundrel like Harp, even if they didn’t believe she was protecting her sister.

  Neither would they let her go free. She’d shot the man in the back and hid his body.

  But it was possible no one would ever discover the body, nor care enough to search for him.

  The only decent thing to do was tell Jake and let him decide if he wanted to take that chance—to take on her guilt by becoming a conspirator. But was that fair? Just thinking of it brought a throb. She didn’t realized she’d stopped ambling about the room until the baby cried out.

  All three adults looked her way, and Carianne left the group to take her child. “It’s past time for her feeding.” Airy’s cries ceased as soon as she spied her mother. “I love the house plans, Juliette, and I think you’ve chosen a lovely setting, and close to both the town and the ranch.” She put Airy on her shoulder and patted her back. “You will continue managing the library for a while, won’t you?”

  “Yes, I intend to. I have to repay you for all you’re doing for Annie.”

  “Don’t worry about that, just make those wedding plans.” Carianne said over the baby’s head as she took her leave.

  “Rhyan said I could pay off the mortgage in five years, Juliette.”


  She wished she could match Jake’s enthusiasm. “Thank you, Mr. Cason, for all you’ve done.” She still felt funny using these people’s first names, though she thought of them that way.

  Rhyan snapped his fingers. “Which reminds me. I heard from Matthew Ward. Stay here, and I’ll get the letter from my office.”

  Letter? “That’s awfully fast, isn’t it? I know trains have improved mail service, but not this fast.”

  Rhyan laughed. “It hasn’t. He sent it by his courier.”

  Jake inclined his head to the desk chair Carianne had left, adjacent to his. “Come here, my Juliette, and sit so I don’t have to crane my neck.”

  Her mind still pondered what the lawyer’s response would be, and it took a couple of seconds before she acknowledged his request and sat beside him.

  Jake shifted his stiff leg. “The only drawback is the house kit will take six weeks to get here.”

  “What?”

  He slashed a hand in front of her face. “Are you paying attention? The kit containing the lumber and materials to build our house.”

  “Oh, of course. But that’s a blessing, isn’t it? By that time your leg should be healed.” She leaned in to tap his knee playfully. “You can hardly build a house on crutches.” And maybe within six weeks, she’d gather enough courage to confide in him.

  Rhyan breezed back in, snagging a ladder-back chair from its position by the door. “Here it is.” He set the chair between them and straddled it, propping his arms on the back, and waving a paper in his hand. “Matt was familiar with Abner Wexman. Apparently, Wexman had cheated a widow from Thomasville out of her life savings in some phony scheme. Matt doesn’t think it will be hard to convince a judge Wexman’s IOU is bogus.”

  “So he won’t have to find Harp after all?”

  Rhyan’s mouth twisted. “Well, no, it doesn’t mean that. He says his investigators will have to get a statement from Harp Munson, but he doesn’t think it’ll be necessary to bring him back, or even let them know you and your family have left Georgia.”

  “See,” Jake said. “You have nothing to worry about.”