Faith (Goldwater Creek Mail-Order Brides 1)

by Leighann Dobbs

  His instincts told him he had to treat Faith gently. Go slowly. He suspected from the way she’d sympathized with Rosie and the way she’d cringed in the library almost as if she expected him to strike her that Faith may have been mistreated by a man.

  His fists clenched at the thought of it. If he ever found the guy, he’d make sure he never mistreated anyone again. But, for now, he would protect her and refrain from any physical gestures toward her … at least until she was ready. And he fully intended to do everything in his power to ensure she did become ready to trust him, both physically and emotionally.

  He wanted to start on it that very next morning, but he’d let her sleep in. He knew just how to go about it, though. He could not expect her to trust him unless he trusted her.

  Jax opened the bottom drawer of the rough pine bureau against the wall across from his bed. He shoved his shirts aside and reached the bottom, coming up with the worn poetry book.

  He ran his hand lovingly over the tattered cover. He felt bad about the way he’d snatched the book from Faith. Giving it back was the first step on the path to showing her that he could be trusted. Mary would want someone else to enjoy the book, he thought, as he tucked it under his arm and made his way to the library.

  He put the book on the table next to the blue wing chair and scribbled a hasty note to Faith.

  Last night, your beauty rivaled all of the poems in this book.

  Yours,

  Jax

  The clatter of pots and pans lured him toward the kitchen where Maisie was busy behind the stove. The sweet smell of buttermilk flapjacks mingled with the spicy smell of sausage made his stomach growl.

  “Oh, Mr. Jax. You’re just in time. I got a new maple syrup recipe for you to try. You sit right down and have some flapjacks.” Maisie glanced toward the door. “Where is Mrs. Faith?”

  “I’m letting her sleep in. We had a late night last night.”

  Jax grabbed a plate and reached around Maisie to pick some sausage out of the frying pan.

  Maisie slapped his hand. “You know better than that. You sit down and wait until I can serve you proper.”

  Jax laughed and sat down at the table, letting Maisie wait on him as she had done since he was a child. She slid a stack of flapjacks onto his plate, topped them with mounds of butter and a puddle of maple syrup, then stood back, hand on hips, waiting for him to taste it.

  Jax lifted a fork to his mouth. The sweet maple flavor tickled his taste buds. He closed his eyes to savor the delicious taste.

  “Well? It’s my best yet, isn’t it?”

  “Uh huh.” He didn’t want to waste time talking. The food tasted too good.

  “Varnet Williams done gets the sap out of his trees!” Maisie threw her hands up as if this was the most outrageous thing ever. “Imagine that. Then I boiled it down and added some secret ingredients. Better watch out. Ezekiel Brown says I should bottle this and then I’ll be famous and won’t be taking any of your gump anymore.”

  Jax smiled. “Now, Maisie, come on, I know you wouldn’t know what to do without me to look after.”

  Maisie smiled at him affectionately. “That may be, but you got a wife to look after you now. Speaking of which, when you gonna’ start acting like a real husband to that poor girl?”

  Jax was taken aback. Maisie knew about his reason for wanting a wife and also that he never intended for it to be a real marriage. But, by her tone and the look on her face, he could tell she knew things weren’t going as planned.

  “You think she wants that?” he ventured.

  “You bet. I know how women think and I see the signs.” Maisie glanced at him sideways. “And I think I see some signs from you, too.”

  Jax sighed. Was he that transparent? He never could hide anything from Maisie. The woman knew him better than anyone and was like a second grandmother to him. She’d practically kept him alive after Mary’s death. If it wasn’t for her almost force-feeding him, he would have starved. But he knew that Maisie had loved Mary, too.

  “Do you think it’s okay?” Jax asked. “I mean, Mary hasn’t been gone that long.”

  Maisie put her hand over Jax’s. “Three years! It's long enough. And it’s perfectly fine. Mary would want it this way. You can't live your whole life in mourning for her and blaming yourself for something that wasn’t your fault. Now, are you gonna have a proper breakfast with your wife or not?”

  “Not today. I have some business in town and I want to let her sleep in. But please let her know that I left her a little gift in the library. And when I get back, later this afternoon, I have a surprise for her, so tell her to be ready to go out.” Jax finished the last of the flapjacks and pushed up from the table.

  Maisie’s face split in a wide smile. “Now that’s more like it.”

  As Jax walked toward the front door, he glanced down the hallway towards Faith's room. Was she awake or still sleeping?

  His mind conjured up an image of Faith, her golden hair fanned out on her pillow, her delicate features serene and happy. Like an angel.

  The smell of lavender that lingered in the hall brought back visions of Faith in the ivory gown and caused his blood to stir. Jax wrenched open the front door and hurried toward the barn. It was best he got to town right away and got his business done before the distraction of Faith rendered him unable to produce a coherent thought.

  * * *

  Faith had tossed and turned all night. Dreams of Jax had replaced her usual nightmares of Charles. But, even though the dreams were wonderful, a dark cloud hung over them. She could never be a wife to Jax if she had to betray him to save her sisters.

  Her thoughts turned to her ‘mission’. She hadn’t heard from Lefty or his henchman, Silas O'Toole, since she’d arrived in Colorado. Maybe he no longer cared about the gold mine? Or, better yet, maybe something had happened to him and he couldn’t collect his payment.

  She fervently wished it was the latter. But it was more likely that he was just giving her time. How much time would he give her? Faith didn’t know. If only a letter from one of her sisters would arrive, she might have a better idea of what was going on back home.

  One part of her knew she should try to find the mine entrance right away, but the other part of her was angling for a way to be able to satisfy Lefty that wouldn’t involve betraying Jax.

  She made her way to the kitchen, distracted by the problem at hand. If only there was some way to make it work. She didn’t dare give Lefty a fake location, but maybe she could stall him somehow.

  If her assumptions about Jax needing to appear respectable so he could get money and approval to stake his claim were true, then maybe Lefty would leave her alone once that happened. She could only wish.

  “What’s got your face all puckered up like that?” Maisie asked as Faith sauntered into the kitchen.

  “What?” Faith had been so deep in thought she hadn’t even realized where she’d been going. She’d just been following the delicious smells. “Oh, sorry, Maisie. What are you cooking that smells so wonderful?”

  “I got some sausage, some flapjacks and a new maple syrup recipe.” Maisie slipped a plate stacked full on the table. “Now you eat up. You gonna need your appetite for this afternoon.”

  Faith’s brows drew together. “I am?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Mr. Jax is gonna come and take you on a surprise. He said you be ready to go out.”

  Faith’s spirits lifted. “He is?”

  The thought of going out with Jax excited her, but then she worried he might be taking her to show her the mine. And if he did, she would know the location, then she would have to decide whether to be loyal to her husband or her sisters. She didn’t want have to make that decision just yet.

  “Yes ma’am. He’s gone out now, but he said he left you a little something in the library and he’ll be back later.”

  Faith raced through her flapjacks, stopping only long enough to assure Maisie that the syrup was indeed her best yet. She couldn’t wait to see what Jax h
ad left in the library for her.

  When she was done, she offered to help Maisie clean up, but the woman would have none of it, so she put her dishes in the sink and practically skipped to the library.

  She stood in the doorway, her eyes scanning the room for something that looked out of place. They fell on the table beside the chair and she recognized the tattered cover of the poetry book.

  She crossed slowly, trepidation running through her. Did Jax know about her quest to find the mine? Was this some kind of trick? Maybe he had known she was after the map in the book all along.

  But when she saw the note on top, she realized that wasn’t the case at all. Her suspicions were due to her own guilty feelings.

  She read the letter in disbelief, her fingertips tracing the writing. The letters were blocky, not scrolly or frilly. Manly.

  He thought she was beautiful?

  Tears pricked the backs of her eyes. Charles had never said she was beautiful.

  She picked the book up gently. It was clear the book was important to Jax. She wasn’t sure why he’d snatched it out of her hands like that. Perhaps it did have the map in it and he didn’t want her to find it. If that were the case, she was sure he would’ve removed it by now.

  She opened the book and thumbed through the pages carefully. As she expected, no map was inside. No loose piece of paper fell out and all the pages were text.

  Why did he leave it for her?

  Was it possible that he felt bad about his earlier behavior and left the book here as an apology? Her heart melted at the thought and his sweet note.

  The book was in rough shape. Maybe she could do something to repair it. As she inspected the cover, the book fell open to the front page and she noticed a name written in faded blue ink. Mary.

  Who was Mary?

  She could see the fabric cover had been sewn over the original leather cover of the book. The leather was disintegrating and the fabric had been carefully attached with small stitches.

  But the fabric was tattered and fraying. Suddenly, an idea came to her. She could repay Jax’s kind gesture with one of her own. She was an excellent seamstress and could easily fix the cover. Maisie was sure to have some scraps of fabric that she could use.

  With the book clutched to her chest, she ran to her room to get a needle and thread.

  Chapter 15

  “I can see why you wanted to keep your new wife all to yourself. If I was you, I’d want to keep her away from a handsome devil like me, too.” Jax felt a rush of jealousy even though Ryder’s gray eyes twinkled with mischief and he knew his friend was teasing.

  “I wasn’t trying to keep her away from anyone.” Jax regretted his defensive tone and added. “Well, except for you.”

  Jax swished the lemonade around in his glass, then scanned the bar for signs of Cleb. Luckily, the man was nowhere to be seen.

  Ryder laughed. “I think you have a real gem there. You lucked out considering your ridiculous specifications for a wife.”

  Jax shrugged. He had lucked out. Ryder had tried to talk him out of stipulating a plain, unassuming wife in his mail order bride letter. Ryder had said he’d regret saddling himself with an ugly woman he couldn’t even have a decent conversation with, but Jax had insisted. At the time, he couldn’t imagine having feelings for anyone ever again, so ugly and unintelligent worked for him. “Funny, how you think you want one thing and it turns out you end up getting what you actually need.”

  “Ahhh … so you’re admitting it now. You have feelings for her, don’t you?”

  “I do.”

  “I could see it last night. And she has feelings for you, too.”

  “You think so?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jax grimaced. He sounded like an insecure schoolboy.

  Ryder laughed. “With all your experience with the ladies, I wouldn’t think you’d have to ask.”

  Raucous laughter from the table in the corner diverted their attention. Seated around the table were four scruffy-looking men. Cards and poker chips littered the surface of the table. A poker game was in session, even though it was only mid-morning.

  Jax tensed. He knew all too well that poker games could easily get out of hand. “They’re laughing now, but one bad play and it could turn ugly … especially with someone like Kade Berringer there. I hope we don’t end up in the middle of a shoot-out.”

  “Kade can be trouble.” Kade had appeared in town a month earlier. Neither Jax nor Ryder knew exactly what the man did for a living, though they had their suspicions it was something on the wrong side of the law. He wasn’t very pleasant, either, at least not evidenced by the few times they’d crossed his path—he’d been distant and unfriendly. A man of few words and even fewer smiles. In fact, Jax was surprised to hear him laughing. He didn’t know he had it in him.

  Jax watched as Kade tilted back in his chair. Cocky. Arrogant. Long legs stretched out in front of him, long brown hair spilling down from under his buckskin hat. His angular face appeared hard and rugged. He had dark skin like someone who was accustomed to spending long days out of doors, and a perpetual stubble of dark hair on his chin.

  But the thing that really put Jax off was the man’s eyes. They were piercing eyes of an unusual seafoam green, so pale they were almost translucent.

  “I’d like to go kick that chair out from under him,” Ryder said.

  Jax’s brows rose. “Why?” He was half surprised Ryder didn’t just go over and do it. Neither he nor Ryder had ever been afraid of a fight. Then again, these days they tried to keep a more respectable profile.

  “I don’t like the way he treats his horse.” Ryder’s eyes were still narrowed on Kade.

  “Oh?” Jax knew that Ryder’s Achilles’ heel was animals. His boyhood friend was a tough guy on the outside but a softy for anything with fur or feathers. It was too bad he didn’t show that side to more people, especially women, but Jax knew that was only because Ryder was afraid to appear vulnerable.

  Ryder was the closest thing Goldwater Creek had to a veterinarian. He shoed horses, birthed cows, and tended to the needs of the townspeople’s animals.

  Ryder had been reared on a family farm by his father and his grandmother. Bessie Mae still lived on that very farm and Ryder often worked there, helping her out. Jax didn’t think Ryder needed to actually work there. He had his own business, but Ryder doted on Bessie Mae and working the farm gave him a good excuse to check in on the old lady.

  “He has a beautiful palomino, Goldenrod, but he doesn’t treat him right. He brought him in the other day and his shoes were a mess. Clearly, he’s been riding the horse hard and for a lot more miles than he should.”

  Jax’s eyes flicked from Ryder to Kade who was now leaning with his forearms on the table, engrossed in his poker hand. Jax lowered his voice. “You mean like someone who was robbing stagecoaches?”

  Ryder’s gray eyes met Jax’s. There had been a rash of stagecoach robberies coinciding with Kade’s arrival in town. Kade didn’t have a job, yet he always had plenty of money for drink, poker and women. It didn’t take much to put two and two together, but Jax and Ryder had no proof. So far it was all just speculation. They'd also speculated that Cleb had something to do with the robberies. Maybe the two of them were in on it together.

  “Who knows?” Ryder turned back to his beer. “All I know is he’s trouble, and he’s certainly playing with a bunch of other unsavory characters.”

  Jax slid his eyes back to the table. It was true. Kade was playing with three men who had less than stellar reputations. Then again, his and Ryder’s reputations weren’t all that great, either, and if anyone knew you couldn’t judge a book by its cover, it was Jax.

  “They used to say that we were unsavory,” Jax pointed out.

  Ryder laughed. “We used to be unsavory.”

  Jax snorted. “That’s true. I guess Mary saved me.” Jax was surprised to discover that it didn’t hurt as much to say Mary’s name. Perhaps he was healing from the hurt of losing her. Had Fait
h done that?

  “You gave her a chance, Jax. You saved her, too,” Ryder said. “But she’s gone now and you have a whole future ahead of you. Mary wouldn’t want you to spend that alone.”

  Jax nodded. He new that was true. “And that’s why we need to make sure that the other saloon girls get a chance at a future. Mary would want that, too.”

  “We’re making good progress.” Ryder scanned the bar. “I heard Cleb took off towards Northbrook Pass this morning.”

  A smile spread across Jax’s face. Distracting Cleb from the fact that they were planning to open a saloon at the other end of town had been difficult, but they’d hit on the perfect plan.

  The area had become famous several years earlier when gold had been discovered at Pike’s Peak. People had flocked to what was then Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory, the area swelling with prospective gold miners. Over a hundred thousand came and the Colorado Territory had been created. But now, the gold frenzy was dying down. Jax and Ryder knew the rumor of a fresh new gold mine would be too tempting for Cleb to ignore.

  They’d started a rumor that Jax had discovered a secret gold mine north of town. Getting the word to Cleb’s ears and still making it seem like a big secret had been quite a trick. They’d apparently been successful, though, since Cleb had been spending a lot of time heading north to scout for the mine.

  The ruse had had an added benefit of keeping him out of town and his focus on something other than harming the saloon girls.

  “I heard his contacts in Boston are interested in the mine, too.” Ryder took a swig of his beer.

  “We’ll have Cleb’s people and half of Boston looking for the nonexistent mine to the north of town,” Jax said.

  “Which is perfect because it will keep them away from what we’re really doing to the west of town,” Ryder said. “Which brings us back to the question. Are you going to fill your new bride in on our activities?”