He chuckled. “What was that for? Not that I minded…”
She smiled. “For being so kind and understanding.”
Caleb wanted nothing more than to put his arm around her and hold her close to his side, but he knew he needed to stay alert and watch for his brother’s killer. He had originally assumed that the man had high-tailed it out of there after he had killed Ben and Lily, but now that they knew the man had been staying in the barn at his brother’s place, he could not let down his guard. Was the man there to finish the job and kill little George? Was he waiting to kill Caleb, too? Until they knew why he had done the killings, he would have no rest.
They rode the rest of the way home in a companionable silence. George had finished his candy stick and managed to fall asleep while he lay against the sack of flour. Madeline helped Caleb and Hank keep watch. The ride home was blessedly uneventful.
Chapter 10
They arrived home and were met by Jim and Silas, who had been guarding the ranch while Caleb was gone. The men continued to stand guard while the Caleb and Hank quickly carried the flour and cornmeal into the house.
By the time they returned, Madeline had George awake and out of the wagon. She quickly grabbed the baskets from the back of the wagon. “Come on, George. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“I comin’, Auntie Maddy,” George said as he sleepily followed after her.
Caleb gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek before he took the wagon to the barn to unhitch the horses.
Madeline smiled and blushed a little, then took George into the kitchen. She set the baskets on the table, turned, and smiled at the little boy. He had sticky remnants of the stick candy all over his face and hands, even a little in his hair, as though he ended up wearing as much of the candy as he had eaten.
She shook her head at the sight he made and put a small pan of water on the stove to heat. She knew the sticky mess would come off easier with warm water than cold. “Let’s go upstairs and get you a clean shirt, too. How did you get so messy?” she teased.
“I dunno,” George said innocently. “It just happened.”
Madeline laughed and led the way up the stairs. She took a clean shirt from his room, then led him back to the kitchen to clean him up. “I sure hope that stick candy was good,” she teased him as she unbuttoned his shirt for him. “It sure is sticky!”
George giggled. “It was!”
“Good!” Madeline removed the sticky shirt, then removed the water from the stove. She tested it first, then wrung a cloth out in it to begin the process of cleaning George’s face and hair.
Once she was satisfied, she helped him wash his hands in the warm water and dried them off. Then she crouched down to put the clean shirt on him. Just as she finished buttoning it up, she heard someone come through the door to the dining room. She had assumed it was Caleb or one of the men, but her blood turned to ice when she looked up and saw a stranger standing there.
George gasped in horror and hid behind Madeline. “Bad man! Bad man!” he whispered loudly, afraid to shout, yet too afraid to be silent.
The man in question was a short, scrawny man of indeterminate age. His hair was dark and greasy, and he had a bushy, unkempt beard and mustache. He looked and smelled as though he had not bathed in years. The most frightening thing about him, though, was the pistol he had pointed at little George.
Madeline stood up and pushed George more fully behind her skirts. “Who are you?” Her voice sounded stern, but inside she was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane.
“Who I am don’t matter,” the stranger said in a nasally tone. “Just give me the boy and I’ll leave you alone.”
Madeline started to slowly back her way toward the back door. She knew there was a loaded rifle waiting on the shelf above the pegs for their coats. If she could get to it in time, she knew she could protect George. “Somehow I doubt that,” she answered the stranger as she pushed George back gently but firmly with her leg.
The man chuckled and the sound grated at Madeline’s ears.
“You shot his parents, didn’t you?” she asked. She wanted to make certain that this was the man that they had been looking for all this time.
“I did,” he said proudly, which elicited audible tears from George. “Thought I got his brat of a boy, too. Come back to finish the job.”
George was shaking so badly that Madeline could feel it through her layers of petticoats. “You’ll have to go through me first.”
The man shrugged. “If I have to.”
Madeline knew that not knowing why this man had killed Ben and Lily was bothering her husband nearly as much as his loss, so to buy time for her to reach the rifle, she prodded the man for information. “Why? Why did you kill Ben Stark and his wife?”
“Well, now…seems I couldn’t afford to pay the man for shoeing my horse. Crazed fool was going to tell the sheriff. Couldn’t let him do that, now could I?”
“And his wife?” she asked as she reached the doorway to the lean-to where the rifle was waiting.
“She got in the way. Thought I wouldn’t kill her, too.” He grinned, showing several rotting and missing teeth. “She was wrong.”
Madeline swallowed. This man was definitely cut from the same cloth as her ex-husband. “And why George? He’s just a little boy. Why kill him?”
The man looked surprised that she would even ask. “Well, he saw me. Couldn’t risk him telling the sheriff what I look like.” He paused a moment as if in thought. “Come to think of it, I’ll definitely have to kill you too, now won’t I?”
By that point, Madeline was in the doorway to the lean-to. She quickly reached up, grabbed the rifle, and pointed it at the stranger. “George, go outside and get your uncle,” she said in a firm tone.
George just shook his head and kept himself buried in her skirts.
It was clear that the boy would not go anywhere without Madeline. She inched him closer to the door. Her heart dropped when she heard the man laughing.
“I will shoot you,” she threatened him.
He shook his head disbelievingly. “I don’t think you got it in ya.”
“I’ve killed a man before. You’re just as bad as he was, if not worse. Leave or I will shoot you.” She readied the rifle and brought the sight up to her eye.
The rest happened so fast, Madeline could not be certain what happened first. She pulled the trigger on her rifle just as she heard another shot fired from a second gun. George screamed just as a bullet broke through the window over the wood box by the stove.
The stranger blinked at Madeline, looked down in surprise to see two spots of red burst forth on his dirt-stained shirt, and fell to the floor. He was dead before he hit the floor.
Madeline looked up from the dead man to find her husband in the doorway to the dining room.
Caleb lowered his pistol and quickly closed the distance between them. He kicked the stranger’s pistol out of arm’s reach just in case the man was playing dead, holstered his gun, and placed his hand on Madeline’s rifle, which was still held at the ready. He slowly lowered the rifle and took it from her.
“It’s all right, darlin’. It’s all right,” he cooed as he pulled her into his embrace with his free arm. “He’s gone.”
“He…he killed your brother. He…” Madeline began to shake uncontrollably as Caleb held her. “I…I shot him.”
“I did, too,” Caleb reassured her. “Everything is going to be all right.”
George, who was still standing behind Madeline, began to shriek uncontrollably. Madeline and Caleb turned to look at the boy and found him with his eyes shut tight and his hands clapped firmly over his ears. “No! No! No!” he kept repeating, shouting with all his might.
Caleb felt torn in two. He wanted to comfort his wife, but his nephew desperately needed him. He glanced at Madeline, who nodded and pulled away so that Caleb could comfort his nephew. Caleb scooped George up in his arms and held the boy, who was as stiff as a board. George stopped shouting, but his ey
es remained pinched shut and his hands remained over his ears.
At that moment, Hank, Jim, Silas, Walter, and Cookie piled into the house. Some of them made their way in through the back door while others had clearly used the front.
“You okay, boss?” Hank asked as he took in the situation. He looked down at the stranger, then back at Madeline, Caleb, and George. “Silas, go get the sheriff. Now.”
Silas nodded and left immediately to do as he was told.
“Caleb, get George and your wife into the parlor, away from this mess.” He indicated the dead man lying on the kitchen floor. “We got this.”
Caleb nodded his thanks and carried George from the room.
Madeline followed at his heels, eager to leave the room. The smell of gunpowder filled her nostrils and seemed to cling to her, even as they left the kitchen.
When they reached the parlor, Madeline sank onto the davenport, her face frozen in shock. She stared straight ahead, reliving the moment over and over in her mind.
Caleb stood in the middle of the room, bouncing George and trying to comfort his nephew, but George resisted and stayed stiff as a board. He was relieved when Walter appeared in the doorway. Walter was always good with his nephew. “Here, take George.”
Walter looked between Caleb and Madeline, then took the boy from Caleb. “C’mon, Georgie-pie,” he said as he hurried upstairs with his bundle.
Caleb rubbed his hands over his face. He had never killed a man before, and was as shook up about it as his wife appeared to be. Determined to stay strong for her, he took a deep breath before sitting next to her. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
They sat like that for some time before Madeline pulled back to look up at him. “Are you all right?” she asked as she brushed a lock of hair from his eyes with a shaky hand.
He smiled at her concern. “I’ll all right. Are you?” He searched her eyes for his answer and saw dozens of emotions flitting through them.
Eventually she nodded. “He…he admitted to killing your brother.”
“I heard. I heard everything.” Caleb cupped his wife’s beautiful, pale face in his hands and kissed her forehead tenderly.
Madeline’s heart pounded in panic. “Everything?”
Caleb nodded, his forehead pressed to hers. “Everything.”
Madeline didn’t know what to say. He had heard her admit to having killed someone before. Not just anyone—her husband. What did he think of her now? Would he want an annulment? A divorce? Would she end up in jail?
“It’s all right, darlin’. Everything will be all right. I promise.”
“But…but I killed a man. Two men! How can it be all right? How can you possibly ever love me now?” The words tumbled from her mouth as tears tumbled down her cheeks.
Caleb wiped her tears away with a callused thumb and kissed her soundly. “I am so proud of you, for what you did today.”
She looked into his eyes, confusion stamped across her face. “What? How…?”
He smiled tenderly at her. “You stayed strong. You were brave. You protected yourself and little George, just as I’d taught you.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “And we killed him. You and I. Together.”
“Together…” Madeline repeated, awestruck at what she was hearing. Instead of being angry with her, of being disgusted with her behavior, her husband was proud of her?
“That’s right. We’re a team, you and I. Together forever.” He hugged her as he said the words. Emotion choked him as he realized he loved his beautiful bride with a ferocity that frightened him. He wanted to tell her as much, but he could not force the words past the lump in his throat.
Tears of joy began to mix with her tears of fear and sorrow. She hugged him to her and held on as tight as she could. Never in her life did she imagine she would love a man like she loved her husband, but in that moment she realized just how deeply she did love him.
“I…I should tell you what happened, with my first husband. I should tell you how he died,” she said as she pulled back.
Caleb nodded his encouragement. He had been wondering since the day they had met, but he knew that she would tell him in her own time.
“When Roland and I first married, I was young. My parents died from influenza when I was only sixteen. I didn’t know what would happen to me, where I would go, how I would live. Roland worked in the factory with my father. He approached me with an offer of marriage. I didn’t know what else to do, so I accepted.”
Madeline fidgeted with her hands before she continued. “He wasn’t a nice man when he drank, and he drank a lot. After a while, he started to hit me. He blamed me for not giving him any children. He told me I was worthless, useless. He broke my arm once when he pushed me into the cook stove. One night he came home, drunker than I’d ever seen him.”
She paused there, her eyes closed as she relived the scene in her mind. “He was calling me…bad names. He started to hit me. I decided that I’d had enough. I was at the stove, see…making his dinner. I picked up the frying pan and hit him over the head with it, as hard as I could. He’d left the door to our apartment open when he came in, and after I hit him, he started to stumble about. He stumbled through the door and fell over the banister. We lived on the fourth floor”
She looked up at Caleb, sorrow etched on her face. “I hated him. I did. I wanted him dead. I did, but I didn’t mean to kill him. When the police arrived, I just told them that he had fallen. They could smell the drink on him and didn’t question me twice about it.”
“So you’ve kept this secret all this time?” he asked, stunned by her announcement. His heart ached for the scared, young girl she must have been. All those years of suffering at that man’s hands. He wished he could have been there to rescue her. “How long ago did he die?”
“Five years ago,” she admitted and hung her head in shame.
“Darlin’, look at me.” He gently lifted her chin with his fingers. “You didn’t kill him. You just knocked him silly, and he deserved it. He was drunk. He stumbled. He fell. That’s what killed him, not you.”
Logically, she knew that Caleb was right. Yet, deep in her heart, she had wanted him dead and he had died. She didn’t see much of a difference between wanting him dead and killing him. “But now I’ve killed again. Maybe I am a bad person. Maybe…”
He cut her off with a kiss. “Sshh, now. We killed that bastard, remember? We did it. Together. He didn’t leave us any choice.”
She nodded. She knew it was true, that he would have killed both her and George, and who knows how many others, before he was done.
Caleb kissed her temple softly. “We did it for Georgie. That man was evil, pure evil.”
Madeline nodded again. He was right. That man truly was pure evil. Then, for the first time since the shooting, she realized that her husband had killed a man as well. This had to be hard for him too, and here he was, calming her down and consoling her.
“We’ll get through this,” she told him earnestly. “Together.”
Epilogue
With the threat gone, things settled down on the ranch into a happily normal routine. Madeline, Caleb, and George each had their moments of angst and sorrow, but they worked through it together as a family.
Thanksgiving came and went without much fanfare. Everyone was still emotionally exhausted from the events of the week prior, but Hank surprised them all with a freshly caught wild turkey. Madeline insisted that he join them for dinner as a thank you, and Caleb offered to have Hank live in his brother’s house to keep an eye on things there.
After Thanksgiving, preparations for Christmas began in earnest. Madeline spent one afternoon each week visiting with her friend Ella, and she worked on Caleb’s new shirts there. In the evenings at home, she worked on gifts for George.
She was excited to learn that Caleb had found a puppy for George after all. The men had him hidden in the bunkhouse with them and would deliver him to the house Christmas morning. Madeline had a pretty red bow
she planned on tying around his collar and Caleb found and polished up an old jingle bell to add to the ribbon. They could not wait to see George’s face.
Caleb did indeed find a cook book to give to Madeline for Christmas, but soon after realized that she deserved more than that. He looked through his mother’s things and found an old brooch he remembered her wearing. It was a simple gold wreath inlaid with garnets. He hoped Madeline would like it.
Madeline’s best gift for Caleb was not something she could give him for several more months. For a few weeks, she thought she had been coming down with something. It took her a bit to realize she had not had her cycle since the end of October, and she had always had a twenty-eight day cycle. Between that and her bouts of nausea, the doctor in Bayard agreed that she was with child.
She lay awake waiting for Caleb to return from singing George to sleep. It still amazed her that George fell asleep best to “Johnny Get Your Gun.” Caleb sang it quiet and slow, and Madeline enjoyed listening in. Her husband really had a lovely singing voice.
Caleb slipped back into their room quietly, not wanting to wake his wife if she were asleep. She had worked hard to make their first Christmas together a special one and he knew that she must be exhausted. He slipped into bed and was surprised when Madeline immediately cuddled close. He smiled and pulled her into his arms.
“Merry Christmas, darlin’,” he murmured as he kissed her temple.
“Merry Christmas to you, too,” she replied. “I have a special Christmas present I want to share with you.”
“Don’t you want to wait until morning?” he asked as he looked down at her. The room was lit by pale moonlight streaming in through the window, which gave Madeline an ethereal glow.
Madeline shook her head. “I want to share this with you now, while everything is quiet and we have some alone time together.”
Caleb chuckled. He thought he knew what she had in mind and started to kiss her.
“Caleb, no…not that. Not yet, anyway,” she laughed.
“Then what?”
“It’s a miracle. Our own little Christmas miracle.” To emphasize her point, she lifted his hand and placed it on her lower abdomen.
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