Montana Bride by Christmas

by Linda Ford

  She opened her eyes to a shaded room inside the train depot, where Justice set her down on a bench and sat beside her, one arm still supporting her. She blinked to clear away the last of her fogginess. A telegraph operator sat by his machine, his kindly old face filled with concern. Susanna held on to Evangeline’s children. All three bore frightened expressions, with Isabelle and Susanna sharing their family resemblance and Gerard wearing his father’s anxious scowl.

  “You see, children, Mama’s going to be all right.” Susanna released them and sat beside Evangeline, touching her forehead and then gripping her hand. “No fever, thank the Lord. I’m sure you’re exhausted from your travels, but Nate went for the doctor just the same.”

  “Thank you.” Evangeline continued to lean against Justice, unwilling to end her fantasy.

  He still hadn’t spoken, but she could feel his heartbeat, its rapid pace saying volumes. So he was not without some feeling for her.

  She looked up into that beloved face. The years had been good to him, for he was even more handsome, more manly, than he’d once been. As she regarded him, the concern written there quickly disappeared, replaced by a hard facade. Yes, he was indeed going to arrest her.

  “Hello, Justice.” She moved away from him.

  He touched the brim of his hat, a surprising courtesy toward someone he must consider a criminal. “Mrs. Benoit.”

  She managed a wobbly smile. “So formal.”

  “What on earth?” Susanna practically bounced where she sat, not the ladylike behavior they’d learned as girls. “Do you mean to tell me you two know each other?” She laughed. “No wonder you fainted, Evie. You must be shocked to see someone you know way out here in Colorado.” She stared meaningfully into Evangeline’s eyes.

  Dear Susanna. She’d understood Evangeline’s desperate letter asking for a secret place to rear her children. As girls meeting each summer for family holidays, they’d devised a code to say more than plain words. What she hadn’t told her cousin was that her desperation stemmed from Lucius’s impossible debts to his cousin, Hugo Giles, which she must repay, and the debts he claimed she owed to several New Orleans merchants. And then there were Hugo’s other, more unthinkable threats. Her flight from him might have been enough for Susanna, or at least Nathaniel, to withhold their generous invitation to live at their ranch. She’d tell them, of course, when the time was right and it wouldn’t sound like a plea for money.

  “Well.” Susanna, always so cheerful, now looked at Justice. “Sheriff, you simply must come with us to the hotel for dinner so you and Evie can get reacquainted.”

  “Uh, I have some paperwork—”

  “Nonsense. You have to eat.” While Susanna continued reasoning with him, a wild sense of relief flooded Evangeline and almost brought on another, much different sort of fainting spell.

  Meeting him at the train had only been a coincidence. Justice didn’t mean to arrest her after all. Perhaps he didn’t even know about her flight from Hugo.

  He moved a few inches from her, his face a study in misery. “Susanna’s not going to let up until I say yes. Do you mind if I join you?”

  “Not at all.” She copied Susanna’s bright tone as much as her fatigue permitted. “That is, if you’ll agree to address me as Evangeline, as you once did.” He’d always claimed it was the most beautiful name he’d ever heard.

  The ripple of his clenched jaw both thrilled and worried her. “I’ll join you if you insist.”

  “Well…” Evangeline must set him free, since he didn’t want her company.

  “Of course we insist.” Susanna stood. “Now, let’s leave so Charlie can go back to work.” She gave the telegraph operator a friendly wave. “Come along, children.” She reached out to Isabelle and Gerard, both of whom pulled back. “Aren’t you hungry?”

  “Mama?” Isabelle sent Evangeline a questioning look.

  Gerard merely scowled, nothing new for him. He’d been unreceptive to every suggestion she’d made since his father died, despite Lucius never giving either child a modicum of affection.

  “Yes, of course.” Evangeline stood, swaying slightly before she regained her balance, and gripped each child by the hand. “Come along. I’m sure you’re as hungry as I am.” She smiled over her shoulder at Justice, whose face once again became a granite facade.

  If he wasn’t here to arrest her, couldn’t he at least return a smile for old times’ sake?

  What a foolish question. She must expect nothing from a man who’d refused to rescue her from a forced marriage to a man whom he knew to be cruel.

  *

  Justice trailed after the ladies and children as they made their way down the boardwalk toward the hotel. If it wouldn’t look like cowardice, he’d quietly change his course and return to his office. Or slip into Williams’s Café, a step ahead on the right. Too late. He’d already passed the door. Besides, a quick glance through the window showed all the café tables were occupied, and he didn’t see anyone he’d want to eat with in his current mood.

  He glanced up at Evangeline’s back. She’d actually had the nerve to smile at him, although it had seemed sad rather than flirtatious. If she’d played the coquette, he’d have left right away, and none of Susanna’s cajoling would have stopped him. On the other hand, as much as he wanted to remain indifferent to Evangeline, he worried about her fainting. Susanna was right. Evangeline must be exhausted from her travels. She’d probably fainted in relief over arriving safely to her cousin’s care.

  No, not true. She’d been all smiles and enthusiasm when greeting Susanna and Nate by the train. It was when she’d seen Justice that she’d wilted like a cactus flower in hot summer wind.

  Admit it, Gareau. It felt good to hold her in your arms.

  No, he must not allow such thoughts. While he couldn’t deny enjoying her feminine closeness and the scent of gardenias wafting from her hair, memories of eleven years of slowly receding pain shocked him back to reality. Just when he’d begun to consider looking for a wife, even praying the Lord would send him a companion to share his lonely evenings, Evangeline came along to remind him that giving a woman his heart brought nothing but misery. If he married, it would be merely for companionship, not for some foolish interest in love. Loving a woman only brought pain.

  Nate and Doc Henshaw met them at the corner of Main Street and the southbound highway, and across the street from the Esperanza Arms. After introductions, they trooped into the hotel lobby, where Doc sat Evangeline down to check her pulse and heart.

  “Because of the high altitude here in the San Luis Valley, many folks suffer lightheadedness for a while when they first arrive.” Doc tucked his stethoscope back into his black leather satchel. “Come see me if it persists beyond a few weeks. In the meantime, don’t rush into too much activity.” He eyed the two children. “You youngsters help your mother, understand?”

  “Yes, sir.” The little girl, Isabelle, nodded solemnly and moved nearer Evangeline, putting a protective hand on her shoulder.

  The boy, Gerard, scowled and shifted his eyes around like a cornered cougar. Justice’s lawman senses went on alert. Something wasn’t right with the boy, probably because he looked like his father, that scoundrel Lucius Benoit, who’d embezzled Justice’s father’s money and stolen Evangeline’s heart with his wealth. Justice would try to be fair, but the boy needed to be watched.

  After pronouncing Evangeline well, Doc made his exit.

  “Come on, now.” Susanna herded everyone toward the large hotel dining room. “Let’s eat. That should make Evie feel better.”

  As elegantly appointed as the best New Orleans hotels Justice recalled from his youth, the Esperanza Arms boasted a talented French chef and an expert English pastry maker. He rarely ate here because he preferred the homier cooking at Williams’s Café. Still, it wasn’t good for a sheriff to show favoritism, so he made occasional visits, more to chat with the owners, Garrick and Rosamond Wakefield, than for the food. Rosamond was Nate Northam’s sister, and their
whole clan had done much to build this community without trying to control the citizens, one reason Justice accepted the post of sheriff. True to his name, if there was anything he couldn’t tolerate, it was injustice, sleazy politics and men trying to control other men. Reminded of his past with Evangeline, he added something else to his list: people who didn’t keep their promises.

  Seated at either end of the long table as though hosting one of their formal dinner parties, Nate and Susanna oversaw the ordering and serving of dinner. Justice sat beside the boy and across from Evangeline and her daughter. From there he could observe the others, a habit he’d picked up in the Texas Rangers. A lawman learned a lot about folks by watching and listening. Yet, as much as he tried to remain indifferent, when Susanna questioned her cousin about various topics, he listened even more intently. Maybe he was trying to recapture memories of their happy childhood in New Orleans, when their fathers had been partners in a coffee import business, along with Lucius Benoit. More likely, against all that made sense in his lawman’s mind, he wanted to know what Evangeline had been doing these past eleven years and what had happened to her scoundrel husband, who’d stolen her heart all those years ago or, more likely, bought it with his money.

  *

  “Oh, it’s not terribly interesting.” Evangeline gave Susanna a meaningful look, praying she’d understand. When her cousin returned a blank stare, Evangeline tilted her head toward Isabelle, then Gerard and blinked her right eye and then her left, their signal for “later.”

  “Oh.” Susanna sat back. “Well, honey, please let me say how sorry I am for your loss. As my daddy can tell you, widowhood is so difficult, especially when you’ve had a good marriage.” She gave a sad smile to each of the children. “I’m sure you miss your papa.”

  While seven-year-old Isabelle stared down at her plate and pushed the food around with her fork, Gerard snorted before shoveling a large bite of potatoes into his mouth. Evangeline glared at him across the table until she noticed how intently Justice was watching her.

  “Manners, Gerard.” She spoke sweetly but gave her son a tight smile.

  Gerard scowled at her. Justice appeared about to correct the boy, but Nate beat him to it.

  “Son, your mother reminded you about your manners. You say ‘yes, ma’am’ and do what she says.”

  As she’d feared, Gerard slammed down his fork and sat back, arms folded over his slender chest. “Make me.” Although he was only ten years old, his growl sounded horribly similar to Lucius’s when he’d been angry, which was often.

  Nate questioned Evangeline with one raised eyebrow, perhaps asking permission to correct her son, but Justice took action. He leaned his considerable height over Gerard and gave him a menacing look that made Evangeline shudder. Any criminal would tremble at that look.

  “Son, your mother reminded you about your manners.” He repeated Nate’s words in a cool tone. “You say ‘yes, ma’am’ and do what she says.” He spared Evangeline a glance before going on. “In this town, we don’t tolerate recalcitrant conduct among our young folks. Believe me, you don’t want to know how we deal with any boy who disrupts the peace around here.”

  Gerard blinked a few times, and his jaw dropped. He glanced at Justice then at Nate, looking trapped. Evangeline could almost laugh at Justice’s choice of a grown-up word like recalcitrant if her son’s recent behavior weren’t one of her biggest heartaches.

  “What do you say?” Justice moved an inch closer to Gerard.

  Eyes wide, her son stared up at him. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Say it to your mother.”

  Gerard gulped and looked at Evangeline. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Good.” Justice sat back and cut into his thick, juicy steak as though nothing had happened.

  Nate and Susanna also resumed eating and chatting. But Evangeline saw the rebellion, perhaps even hatred, returning to Gerard’s eyes as he glared at Justice. She could never figure out what was behind those angry eyes, and her son certainly never told her what he was thinking.

  “Evie, I’m so thrilled to have you here.” Susanna appeared determined to keep the conversation pleasant. “Once you settle in, I’m going to put you to work on my latest project for the community.”

  For the first time since seeing Justice at the train depot, Evangeline felt a spark of hope. “Well, aren’t you the clever one. Do tell, what is your project?”

  Susanna smiled at Nate. “We’ve recently finished building a lending library. That is, we constructed the building and the shelves, and we already have several boxes of books donated. What with harvest and roundup and all going on in the fall, nobody’s had time to organize them.” She gave Evangeline a sly smile. “You can be our librarian. What do you think?”

  Her pulse racing, Evangeline considered the possibilities. She and Susanna both loved books and had spent many a summer day reading together. Yet she’d been forced to sneak away from New Orleans, not able to keep a single book from Lucius’s vast library he’d inherited from his father but never used. As she tried to visualize working in the Esperanza library, another thought leaped to mind.

  “What will I do with the children?” Isabelle would be a big help in the library, but Gerard might prove an insurmountable problem.

  “Why, school, of course,” Susanna said. “We have an excellent grammar school. Over the weekend, we’ll let them catch their breath from their long trip, but we’ll enroll them on Monday.”

  “Yes, of course.” Evangeline hadn’t thought that far ahead. Escape had been her sole focus when she’d fled her home city.

  “And of course you’ll receive a salary.” Susanna gave her a smug smile, pleased with her own plan.

  Evangeline was pleased with it, too. Now she wouldn’t have to burden her cousin financially. And what a lovely way to spend her days, far better than anything she could hope for. “Then I would be delighted to accept the post.”

  At the other end of the table, Justice and Nate spoke quietly, their faces serious. Were they talking about her? No, she mustn’t assume she was the topic of private conversations, as often was the case among her supposed friends back home. Once Lucius went broke and fell from society’s good opinion and then died at the hands of a fellow gambler, once their lavish home and furnishings—including his books—went on the auction block, everyone had turned away from her. No one believed her innocent or unaware of Lucius’s shady business dealings. No one believed she hadn’t run up those debts with various merchants. When at last the house had been sold and she and the children moved into a tiny shack, where creditors came to hound her for the staggering debts, society entirely cut her off. Those who knew nothing of her husband’s gambling and licentious lifestyle assumed she’d spent her husband into poverty and ruin.

  “You’ll have to excuse me.” Justice stood, his sudden movement and awe-inspiring height startling Evangeline from her musings. “My paperwork won’t finish itself.”

  “Sit down, Justice.” Susanna waved him down. “I’m not finished.”

  A pained look on his face, he obeyed her. “Yes, ma’am. How can I help you?”

  Instead of answering, Susanna looked at her husband. “Nate, I’m sure these little ones would like to visit our town’s ice-cream parlor. Why don’t you take them down the street?”

  Nate chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.” His knowing smile indicated he understood why his wife made the request.

  Once he and the children left—even Gerard couldn’t resist ice cream—Susanna gleefully began her explanation. “Evie, Justice has been working on a special project.”

  Justice shook his head and exhaled through pursed lips. “Susanna—”

  “Now, Justice, you can’t build that entire Christmas village all by yourself. Evie is a brilliant artist. She can help you.”

  Evangeline stared at her cousin. “What on earth are you talking about?” The last thing she wanted was to work with Justice. “What Christmas village?”

  Susanna appeared more than pleased wit
h herself. “Every year we have a big Christmas pageant at the church, with a party for the children afterward. Every child receives a toy, usually a carved soldier or doll, which our talented cowboys make. This year, we’re adding another special gift for the whole community, but especially the children. Justice is making a miniature village with a church, houses, trees and all sorts of things.” She shot Justice a smile, which he did not return. “Because there’s so much traffic at the jailhouse, he can’t work on it there because it’s supposed to be a surprise for everyone. That’s why he’s working on it in the library’s locked back room, where no one can see it.” She sat back, grinning. “So that’s settled. You’ll work on it together.”

  Her heart dropping, Evangeline could only stare at Justice to see his reaction. He looked trapped, the same way she felt.

  Once again, he stood. “You ladies will have to excuse me. I still need to—”

  “Yes, of course.” Susanna gave him a gracious nod. “Don’t forget we’re expecting you for Sunday dinner.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.” He gave her another pained look and nod of resignation, and then bowed to Evangeline. “Ma’am.”

  While his unsmiling face sent her heart plunging, the woman within couldn’t keep from admiring his masculine form as he strode from the dining room. Why? From everything she’d seen so far, he wasn’t the least bit happy she would be living in his town. And he certainly wasn’t any more pleased than she was to have Susanna manipulate them into working together on the Christmas village.

  Which shouldn’t bother her as much as it did. After all, she’d come here to save her children from the shame and poverty, or even worse, brought on by their father’s evil deeds. To save herself from a lifetime of repaying close to four thousand dollars to an unscrupulous man whose only claim to the money came from beating and probably cheating Lucius at card games, and whose only evidence was his bank’s IOUs supposedly signed in her husband’s shaky hand. Hugo hounded her for the money, which threw her life into torment. But when he threatened to have her declared incompetent so he could take guardianship of her children, she knew she must escape.