by Natalie Dean
“You don’t have any disrespect for me since I’m American do you?”
Piper slid her clear blue eyes to his much darker brown ones. “Now, why would you ask such a foolish thing?”
Jack could feel heat rising past his collar. “Well, you know…the war and all.”
“Which has been officially over for seventy-two years.”
“Yes, that’s true, but…”
Her face was like stone. “Are you implying that all of the Brits are grudge holding narrow-minded people?”
Jack’s eyes bulged from their sockets. “No, Ma’am!”
“Please stop calling me that. Call me Piper.”
“Alright. And I was only asking because you seem a little bit…well…disgusted by the people here.”
“I find some of the snippets of conversation I’m over hearing vulgar, and some of these people could use a bath, but other than that, it doesn’t look much different than some of the hotels I’ve seen in Great Britain.” She sipped at her spoon, taking a tiny portion of soup into her mouth. “A few places I have seen were downright shameless.”
Jack grinned. “And how did you find yourself in such a place?”
“I do missionary work. Three other women and I would bring clothes and sometimes medical help for some of the poor women and their children.” Her eyes lowered. “Most of them were prostitutes. We also brought them the word of God.”
Jack was rendered speechless. He had a hard time wrapping his mind around the prim and proper woman seated across from him as having the gumption, and more importantly the desire, to enter a whore house.
“That’s really something else. You should be very proud to have done work like that.”
“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves.”
Jack blinked. “Huh?”
“The book of Philippians. That’s where that verse can be found.”
“Oh…the Bible.”
She looked at him sharply. “Yes, the Bible. Are you not a Christian? My father assured me you were.”
“I mean, I do believe in God. I attend church on all the major holidays.”
Piper pursed her lips. “I will attend church every Sunday. I expect my husband to do the same.”
Jack had reached the sudden end of his rope. He leaned forward to tell her exactly what she could do with what she expected when Benjamin approached the table.
“Evening folks.” Benjamin smiled, his eyes lighting on Piper.
“Piper, this is my friend and fellow Marshall Benjamin Graves.”
Benjamin removed his hat and nodded to Piper. “Pleasure to meet you. Ma’am.”
“You as well.” She smiled pleasantly. “Will you be traveling with us to Detroit?”
“Yes, Ma’am, I will.”
“Please…would you like to join us?”
Jack shifted his eyes to Piper. He wasn’t sure he wanted a third person at the already cramped table, but maybe the distraction would be good for them both.
“No, thank you, Ma’am. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of time for visiting once the caravan leaves.”
“Not really,” Jack commented. “We’ll have our hands full.”
Benjamin clamped a hand on his shoulder. It felt more like a warning than a friendly gesture.
“Aww, now; we can’t have all work and no play.” He winked at Piper and gave her a nod. “Nice meeting you, Piper.”
“You as well.” She replied, the note of disappointment in her voice unmistakable.
Guess I’m not good enough company.
They ate in relative silence, and Jack soon found himself back up in their makeshift dual room. He lit two candles, handing one to Piper. Her slim finger slipped through the finger hole and the rest of her hand wrapped around the base of the candle holder.
“Thank you.”
“Goodnight.”
Piper watched him round the edge of the hanging blanket. His large frame was, at times, graceful; poetic even. Still, he wasn’t at all what she would have picked for herself.
“Goodnight,” Piper called after him.
She took off as little as possible to be able to sleep comfortably. She had no doubt that Jack’s intentions were pure. Why else would he have gone to all the trouble of making the room separate? She was worried less about him than the other patrons of the hotel.
Light vanished from Jack’s side of the blanket, and Piper mouthed silent prayers to God for mercy, blessing, and patience. The moment she blew out her own candle a sound rumbled through the room. It was a soft rumble that soon became a distinctive sawing noise. She risked a peek around the hanging blanket and saw Jack laying on his back, his gun belt laying at his feet, and his boots neatly side by side on the floor. The sound was emanating from his open mouth.
Piper slipped back to her bed and laid down. She stared at the darkened ceiling, a grimace deeply etched on her pretty face.
“Lord Jesus, help me. The man snores!”
Chapter Two
Jack looked at Piper sitting listlessly on the edge of the bed, her eyes tainted with dark circles beneath. He frowned and hoped they wouldn’t require a trip to the doctor before departing. The sun had just crested the horizon, and they needed to be on their way.
“Are you ill?”
She turned her head slowly. “Ill?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“No. I’m tired.” Her head came forward, and her eyes stared at him intensely.
Jack’s brow came together. “You couldn’t sleep last night?”
“Oh, I tried, but your infernal snoring kept me up all night!” She stood abruptly and plopped a bonnet on her head, tying the wide matching ribbon under her chin with deft fingers, leaving a bow to rest under the right side of her jaw. Jack didn’t think it would be wise to tell her that she looked cute as a button. The lace around the sides and top of the headwear framed her face perfectly, and the plain green of the rest of her bonnet complimented her dress. But no, now was not the time for compliments. It was the time for apologies.
“I’m sorry. I can’t exactly help it.”
“Laying on your side will help it.” She replied, slipping green gloves over her hands.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jack replied dryly, wondering how she knew he slept on his back. Curiosity must have gotten the better of her. He liked the thought of her peeking around the blanket at him while he slept. A smile crept over his lips, spreading the sides of his thin beard. One look at Piper’s irritated face swept his good humor away.
“I’ll take you down for breakfast, but I need to load your things onto the wagon you will be occupying, and there are a few other things for me to tend to.”
“Where are your things at?”
“Saddlebag.” He pointed towards the corner of the room.
Piper’s expression told him she didn’t approve of ‘things’ being kept in a dusty saddle bag. Jack wanted to explain that it was worn and that he kept it as clean as his clothes, but he refrained. The woman just seemed too critical on all accounts, and he preferred to not have unnecessary arguments. He saved his vigor and heat for the outlaws.
“I can see to my own breakfast. Thank you.” Piper said politely, but Jack could still feel a chill as she exited the room. He turned his face upward for a moment and asked the Creator for help understanding his most complicated of creatures.
Piper stood primly next to the covered wagon Jack indicated she would be riding in for most of the journey. It would hold the Brackett family. A plump woman with frizzy red hair, pinned as neatly as she could make it under her bonnet, smiled warmly at Piper. Four children would also share the wagon, three of which were boys that resembled stair steps when standing in a row. Piper had watched with increasing eye size as Bonnie placed a hand on each boy’s head in the way of introduction.
“Thomas. He’s eleven. Timothy. He’s ten. Tyler. He’s eight. And this is Ruth. She’s eleven months.” Bonnie smiled dow
n at the little girl who was clinging to her mother’s hip and side. She gave Piper a shy slide of the eye before smiling dramatically, revealing two teeth in the bottom of her mouth.
“They are…” Piper began. “They are just beautiful children.” She smiled in what she hoped was a warm manner. She loved children, she really did, but the line of little boys had mischievous smiles beneath their various shades of red hair. All of the children certainly took after their mother in the looks department. Only the baby resembled her father by way of her blue eyes and pale hair.
“Now, don’t worry about them. I’ll make sure they mind their manners.” Bonnie Brackett assured her. She seemed greatly relieved to see an extra woman along for the journey.
Benjamin Graves trotted past them on his gelding and tipped his hat.
“We’re about ready to leave, ladies.”
Piper smiled benignly to him while fighting the urge to double over from nervous stomach cramping.
This is it, Lord. My new unwanted life is about to begin. Please grant me patience.
“May I help you up?” Jack was beside her before she realized he was. He held out a black-clad hand to her, but his face didn’t show any emotion. She wondered what was going on behind his dark brown eyes. Was he nervous too? Piper barely shook her head at the thought. The man was a U.S. Marshall. He probably hadn’t been nervous a day in his life.
“Thank you,” Piper said and stepped up into the back of the wagon, taking a seat beside Bonnie, and smoothing her skirts in one movement.
Jack tipped his hat and wandered a few feet away to speak to Mr. Brackett. Bonnie leaned her head close.
“He’s going to be your husband?”
Piper nodded feebly. “Yes.”
“Oh my, but aren’t you the lucky one! He’s very handsome!” She whispered.
Piper stared at Jack’s profile, her brow drawn inward. Handsome? She tried to see what her riding companion saw. Yes, she supposed he was handsome, but that beard! It made him look grizzled and unkempt, even if it was tidily shaven down. At least the hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail for the trip.
Bonnie settled Ruth on her lap and exhaled sharply.
“I hope we don’t run into any Indians.”
Piper turned her head and studied Bonnie’s profile.
“Indians?”
“Yes. We will have to go through New York and Ohio to get to Detroit, and there are still a few Shawnee scattered about.” She shrugged in a far more casual manner than Piper cared for. “Iroquois too.” She shook her head. “There’s more Indian tribes than we can shake a stick at.”
“I guess I should have educated myself more properly concerning them.”
Bonnie let out a light laugh.
“You are far too young to have had time for that! A person could study them for a lifetime and still not have an understanding of their ways and languages.”
Piper needed to choose her words carefully. This was no time to offend her wagon mate. They hadn’t even left yet.
“The good book says that we are to love our neighbor. They are like our neighbors, yes?”
Bonnie looked at Piper with a simultaneous critical yet patient eye.
“Your accent tells me you didn’t grow up here.”
“No, I didn’t. I just arrived yesterday. I grew up in England.”
The statement did little to appease Bonnie. Her eyes held a harder glint after the word ‘England’.
“The Indians are too hard to manage. They attack, steal women, and steal anything else they can get their hands on.”
“Like the way the British and French came and stole their land?”
Bonnie’s face went completely blank.
“Stole their land?”
“Yes. The Indians lived here first, did they not?”
Bonnie looked at each of her children as they watched the conversation play out.
“I…I hadn’t thought of it that way before.” A shadow crossed her face. “I guess maybe that was why so many behaved so badly.”
“That’s a good assumption.” Piper felt sorry for the woman. She assumed most of the Americans were under the same assumption that the Indian land was something owed to them. Piper resolved to speak to Jack about the current situation. She cast a look out of the back of the wagon. He mounted his reddish brown horse and called out an order for everyone to mount up or enter their wagons. Maybe Jack wouldn’t be the right person to ask. She had no doubt that all of his sympathies would lie with his own people. She needed an unbiased person to educate her.
“Thomas! Stop that!” Bonnie had already moved on from talk about the Indians to trying to keep her boys in line.
The wagon began to move, and Piper called up a silent prayer for strength, patience, and right words. She had a feeling she would offer up many silent prayers in the weeks to come.
The wagon train stopped two hours into their journey to give the party a rest from riding, whether it was in the back of a wagon or on horseback. Jack and Benjamin had found a beautiful open field between towns with several heavily shaded trees; their bright green leaves told the world that spring had indeed sprung.
Piper watched Jack move amongst the people, answering questions and checking all of the wheels on the wagons. He was a quiet, yet brusque man. He was a mystery. That would never do if they were to be man and wife. She needed a fresh perspective on her soon to be husband.
Piper allowed her eyes to scan the cluster of wagons and horses. When her blue eyes landed on Benjamin Graves, she knew he was the one person available who could shine some light on this mysterious man Jack Walker.
Piper lifted her skirts and began picking her way over the uneven grass of the field. Benjamin was tending to his horse and stopped to pull something out of his saddlebag wrapped in cheese cloth.
“Hello,” Piper said and hoped it sounded cheery.
Benjamin turned his head, and his face opened with a smile.
“Hello there, Piper. Is everything alright?”
“Yes,” she nodded and folded her hands neatly over her skirts. “I wanted to ask you a few questions.”
“Sure.” He held out the open cheese cloth and held it towards her. “Would you like some?”
Piper looked at the rough bread and block of cheese.
“Oh, no thank you. I wanted to talk to you about Jack, actually.”
He nodded knowingly and motioned for her to come sit under the tree.
“Getting a little nervous about marrying a complete stranger?”
Piper took his hand as he helped her lower herself to the ground. She spread her skirts and cursed the need to wear a cage that kept her skirts from tangling about her legs.
“It is a daunting task ahead of me.” She agreed.
Benjamin laughed heartily as he ripped a piece of the bread loose and did the same with the cheese.
“Well, what would you like to know?”
Piper blinked. What would she like to know? She ran a hand along the edge of her bonnet, making sure her hair was still in place beneath it.
“I think…everything.”
“Black Hands looks like a hard puzzle from the outside, but he really is a simple man on the inside.”
“Black Hands?”
He nodded. “It’s his nickname. You know…because he wears those infernal black gloves everywhere he goes.”
“I see. And why does he do that?”
Benjamin leaned towards her as if he were about to impart a spectacular secret.
“He has a problem with dirt.”
“Dirt,” she replied flatly.
“You ever seen a U.S. Marshall with clothes that clean before?”
“Mr. Graves, before yesterday, I hadn’t seen a U.S. Marshall period.” She smiled kindly.
“That’s true,” he agreed and popped the cheese and bread into his mouth. Much to her surprise he actually chewed and swallowed before continuing the conversation. “He hates to be dirty. And I do mean hates. Sometimes we have to get rough
with the outlaws, and he’ll gladly do it, but afterward he’s miserable until his clothes can be laundered and his body too for that matter.”
Piper moved her eyes across the field. Jack was standing near his horse, brushing himself off. It suddenly made sense as to why he was constantly inspecting his clothing, and touching his beard. She had thought him vain. Now she knew better.
“As far as the rest of Jack, well…it’s pretty easy. Before he announced that you were coming, he was married to his work. He’s twenty-five and lives like he’s fifty-five sometimes.”
Piper lowered her head. Twenty-five?
“I would have thought him at least thirty,” she sighed. “That’s it, is it?”
Benjamin nodded. “Pretty much.”
“What are his interests?”
“Criminals.”
“His hobbies?”
“Criminals.”
Piper was becoming irritated.
“His hopes and dreams? And please do not say criminals!”
Benjamin threw his head back and laughed.
“No, sweetheart, not criminals. He really just wants a little farm.”
Piper felt her chest contract with disappointment. A humble little farmer. No aspirations for anything greater.
“Stealing her from me already, Ben?” Jack said smoothly. He stood before them with a hip cocked easily to the side and his hands resting lightly on his hips. From the angle and lighting, he was an impressive, handsome sight. Piper felt a quickening of her heart but immediately admonished herself for it. It had just been a trick of the eye.
“We were just talking about you,” Benjamin said with a grin.
“I bet you were.” Jack looked down at Piper. “I have some lunch for us if you would like to have it.”
Piper raised her hand, and Jack took it, gently pulling her to her feet.
“Cheese and bread?”
“Those things yes, but I also have some dried meat and an apple we can share.”
“Yes, I am a bit hungry.” Piper turned to Benjamin. “Thank you for the conversation.”
“Anytime, Ma’am,” he replied and laughed lightly as Jack gave him a dark look over his shoulder.