Hank's Runaway Bride (Brides of Chimney Rock Book 1)

by Mia Blackwood

  Silas did his best to comfort her as well. “Besides, he didn’t mention your step-father at all. It might have nothing to do with him.”

  “But…but he came from the direction of Redington. That’s where Horace lives! Why else would he be looking for me?” Josephine desperately wished Hank was still at the ranch. Of all days for this to happen—the very day Hank left for Gering!

  Silas shrugged. “Well, now…I don’t rightly know. Tell you what…I’ll head into town and see if I can’t find out more.”

  “You’d do that for me?” Josephine was stunned by his offer. Silas barely knew her, yet he was willing to drop everything he was doing to help her. Her opinion of him just grew tenfold. She knew that all the men on the ranch were loyal to the Starks and, in turn, to Hank. This just proved to her how loyal they really were, and she was moved beyond belief.

  “Of course. You’re one of us now.” He gave her a shy grin and headed into the barn to saddle up his horse.

  Madeline pulled her back toward the wash that was still waiting. “Come on. Let’s get back to work. Pardner will let us know if anyone comes near.”

  George, who had been watching from the door to the house this entire time, decided that if his aunt and Miss Jo were going back to work, he should as well. He moved slowly and watched his aunt carefully, to see if he would be sent back inside.

  Madeline saw George slowly making his way back to the rugs and waved him on with a smile. George immediately grinned and ran back to continue whacking the rugs with all his might. Dust and dirt flew everywhere and formed a dark cloud around him.

  The ladies watched him for a moment and shared a good chuckle. Josephine’s sounded a little more nervous than normal, but Madeline could see that she was making an effort to shake off the scare that the sheriff had given her.

  Madeline shook her head in wonder. “He’s going to need a bath when he’s done.”

  “Yes, but he’ll take a good, long nap today. Don’t worry, I’ll give him one before lunch.”

  The ladies worked together for a short time before Josephine remembered the bread in the oven. “Is the bread out yet?”

  Madeline’s eyes grew wide in shock. “The bread!” She dropped the pair of pants she had been wringing out back into the water and raced back into the house as fast as she could.

  Josephine chuckled and continued with the laundry, though she was on high alert to every sound that the wind carried her way. She had watched Silas leave on his horse and anxiously awaited his return, though she knew it could be some time before he came back with news.

  By the time she had finished hanging the last of the clothes on the line, George was finished beating the rugs. Josephine knew that she would probably have to go over them one more time, but he appeared to have done a good job.

  “All right, George. Time to have a bath and wash all that dirt off.”

  “Awww…this is fun! Do we have to, Miss Jo?” Disappointment creased his forehead.

  She nodded. “I’ve been watching. You did a marvelous job! But we need to have you cleaned up before lunch.”

  George’s stomach growled in anticipation of food and he grinned. “Well, all right. My tummy is hungry!”

  They headed inside, although Josephine took the time to look down the road toward town first. She knew she would be on pins and needles until Silas returned.

  *****

  It was well past lunch before Silas returned. Madeline and George were both sound asleep upstairs, while Josephine was bringing in the rugs from the line. There were only a few rugs that needed more work. George did a remarkably good job, considering he could not easily reach the top of the rugs where they hung from the line.

  Josephine only had two more rugs to bring in when the dog started barking once again. She glanced down the road to see Silas riding back to the ranch and promptly forgot all about the rugs. She waited as patiently as she could, although she was wringing her hands and chewing her lip nervously when Silas came to a stop.

  He dismounted and gave a respectful tip of his hat before he noticed how worked up she was. “I’m sorry it took so long. I wanted to wait around town until the sheriff left.”

  “What…what happened? What did you find out?” Josephine wrung her hands in distress as she awaited the news she dreaded to hear.

  “Not much, I’m afraid. Don’t worry. No one in town mentioned you at all. The sheriff specifically asked about a Miss Josephine Randall, so everyone honestly answered that they didn’t know anyone by that name. He gave a description of you as well, but as Old Man McGivens said, ‘that description could be any of a hundred women.’ Not that we have a hundred women around these parts, mind you.” Silas chuckled at his own joke.

  Josephine unconsciously sighed in relief once she heard that the entire town had stood by her, just as Hank and Madeline had reassured her they would. “What did the sheriff do when he left? Did he say why he’s looking for me? Did…”

  Silas cut her off gently by raising his hands. “Whoa, there…slow down. Sheriff headed west. He’ll probably run into Caleb and Hank before long. Maybe he’ll tell Hank or Caleb more. They all got pretty close while they hunted for Ben Stark’s killer. He did say that he has a few deputies out looking for ya, but they each went in different directions.”

  She took a moment to digest what he had just told her. Silas patiently waited for her to dismiss him before moving to take his horse to the barn.

  “Do you think the sheriff will be back?”

  He shook his head. “Not for this. He passes through from time to time, but he won’t be back for this.”

  Josephine gave a weak smile. She wanted to believe Silas, but her fear over her step-father was overwhelming. “It’s well past lunch time. Did you get anything to eat?”

  “No, ma’am.” Silas really did not want Josephine to go out of her way for him, but at the same time, he was hungry. He knew from past experience that Cookie would make him wait for supper at this point.

  “Come inside when you’re ready and I’ll fix you something.” She headed inside to get some leftovers warmed up for Silas. It was the least she could do, considering the trouble he had gone to for her.

  Josephine looked around and found some leftover stew in the root cellar. She brought it up and warmed it in a skillet. By the time Silas knocked at the back door, the stew was steaming hot.

  “Come in!” Josephine called out while she spooned the stew into a bowl.

  Silas came in the house and hung his coat and hat on a peg by the door, then moved to the sink to wash his hands. “Thank you kindly, Miss Jo.”

  She smiled as she set the bowl at the table for him. “Think nothing of it. It’s the least I could do, after what you did for me.”

  “That weren’t nothin’. You’re family now. We all watch out for each other around here.” He took a deep breath over the steaming bowl of stew and grinned. “That smells so good! Don’t tell Cookie, but I think I’ll like your stew better than his.”

  Josephine blushed and turned to busy herself with planning out what she would make for supper. She was unused to such compliments and quite uncertain what to do or say about them.

  Silas knew that she was worried about what the sheriff wanted, so he tried to ease her worries while he ate. Between bites, he filled her in on what he had witnessed. “I don’t think the sheriff’s trying to take you back home, Miss Jo. Now, he never did say why he was lookin’ for ya, but he was telling folks that it weren’t nothing bad.”

  She glanced back at him from the cabinet where she had been rifling for ingredients. “They were asking for more information?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Just the normal, curious-type stuff. Bob Pearson asked if there were any wanted posters he should put up. Sheriff told him no, that you hadn’t done nothin’ bad. He just didn’t say more.”

  Josephine sighed in relief. It eased her worry some, yet at the same time, if he was there to take her back home, would he have said anything about it? She wasn’t a crimi
nal and was certainly old enough to leave home, so she hadn’t broken any laws. The little she brought with her were her own belongings, so her step-father could not have called her a thief. Could he? If he had, there would have been a wanted poster, right?

  “Thank you so much, Silas. I just want nothing to do with anything from back home. I want to pretend it never even happened.”

  Silas thought about that as he chewed his stew. “Well, now…I don’t know what happened and I won’t ask ya, but whatever it was has made you into who you are today. And we’re all mighty glad you’re here. Especially Hank,” he teased with a wink.

  Josephine made a shooing motion as she turned beet red. “Hush, now.”

  Silas chuckled and devoted himself to eating his stew. Hank was a lucky man. Just seeing how happy Hank and Caleb both were made him long for a wife of his own. Maybe he ought to send off for a bride, like Caleb had done.

  When he finished his stew, he carried the bowl to the sink and prepared to wash it himself, but Josephine shooed him away.

  “I’ll take care of that. Thank you for the offer, though.”

  Silas gave her a polite nod. “That was the most delicious stew I ever ate. Thank you kindly.” He quickly got his coat back on and headed back to work, pulling his hat on as he stepped outside.

  Josephine watched him head back to the barn while she washed up the dishes from his late lunch. She hoped that he was reading things right with the sheriff, but she still worried about it. If the sheriff was not there to take her back home, why on earth was he looking for her?

  *****

  The warm weather held over the next few days, so Josephine and Madeline began their spring cleaning. Josephine took on the bulk of the work, while Madeline and George did what they could to help.

  Jim and Silas helped out as well and washed the outside of the windows on the top floor. They did not want the ladies up on the ladder. Josephine was grateful for their help. She certainly did not want Madeline on the ladder, and she herself was afraid of heights. They made her dizzy. A step stool was about as high as she could comfortably handle.

  Josephine was washing the windows in the dining room when she noticed some nasty-looking storm clouds approaching from the west. They looked quite angry and black, and a chill ran down her spine to settle in the pit of her stomach. Always being one to trust her gut instincts, she dropped the wet rag she had been using into the bucket of water at her feet and ran through the house, looking for Madeline and George. She found them both in the kitchen.

  Madeline glanced up from where she had been scrubbing the floor beneath the cook stove. Her happiness at seeing her friend was immediately replaced with worry when she saw the look on Josephine’s face. She left the scrub brush where it was and got to her feet.

  “Josephine, what is it? You look as though you’ve seen a ghost!”

  Josephine’s glance slid from Madeline to George, who was busy scrubbing the floor nearby, and back to Madeline. “There’s a storm coming. It looks bad, Maddy.”

  Madeline was used to storms. It was not uncommon to have them when the weather was unusually warm like it had been recently. She would not have thought a thing of it, except for the fear in her friend’s eyes and the way Josephine was wringing her hands in her apron.

  “I’m sure it’s just a thunderstorm rolling in.” She kept her voice light to both allay her friend’s fear and to keep George from picking up on it. Even so, she stepped out the back door to get a good look at the incoming storm herself.

  The roiling black clouds to the west were rapidly approaching. The wind had begun to pick up at the house and Madeline could feel the temperature drop as she stood in the stiff breeze. Josephine had been right. This would be one heck of a storm, as Caleb would say.

  Just that morning, they had decided that their men should be returning home today, if all had gone as planned in Gering. They had prayed it was so. Now Madeline said a silent prayer that something had held them up and that they were still safe in Gering after all. No one should be out in a storm like that.

  George, always one to pick up on emotional nuances, appeared from behind his aunt’s skirt and stared at the incoming storm. “Is there gonna be a twister, Aunt Maddy?”

  Madeline looked down into his big blue eyes and saw the worried look in them. “I don’t think so, George. Just a lot of wind and noise.”

  She looked over to the open door of the house and caught Josephine’s eye. “We’ll just stay inside and keep cleaning, all right? A little rain never hurt anyone.” As she ushered George inside, she called Pardner to her side and brought the dog inside with them. She knew that George would be heartbroken if anything happened to his dog.

  Josephine moved aside to allow Madeline, George, and Pardner to come in, then stepped outside herself. “I’ll be right back,” she assured them as she closed the door. She was fairly certain the men would be watching the weather, but she just had to make certain that they were.

  When she got to the barn, she found Jim and Silas putting away the ladder they had used to wash the upper story windows on the house. Silas walked up to her as Jim hung the ladder on its side along the barn wall.

  “Did you need somethin’, Miss Jo?”

  She cleared her throat before she began. “You saw the storm coming in, right?”

  Silas nodded. “Figures it’d rain, right after we finished washing them windows.” He could sense that Josephine was exceptionally worried about the approaching storm, so he thought that a bit of humor might help.

  “Do you…have you ever been to Gering? Do you think Hank and Caleb are going to be caught in it?” She tried to keep her voice steady, but it broke several times as she asked.

  “I reckon they’ll find shelter if they are. They’ll be all right, Miss Jo. Don’t you worry none about that.”

  Josephine tried to smile at his attempt to alleviate her fears, but it came out as more of a grimace. As she turned to head back to the house, she saw that the storm was almost upon them. The wind had definitely picked up speed, kicking up dirt and small bits of debris from the road, and the sun hid her face behind the dark blanket of clouds, which had begun to take on a greenish hue.

  A few raindrops began to fall just as she neared the house. As she stepped onto the porch, movement on the road to the east caught her eye, and she saw a family with a covered wagon approaching as fast as their team of oxen could go, given their load.

  Fear for their safety overtook her own fears of the storm and she ran back to the barn. “Silas! Jim! Come quick!”

  Both men came running at her call, with a questioning look on their faces.

  Josephine pointed to the family with the covered wagon. “They’ll never make it to town before the storm hits. Can we have them bring their wagon into the barn? We have room for it, don’t we?”

  Jim nodded as he began to open the barn doors wide. He had to fight against the wind as he secured the doors open.

  Silas ran to the road and began to wave the family down to get their attention. Large raindrops began to fall in earnest, pelting everyone outside with icy cold water. The man pulling at the team of oxen waved in response, and the woman and child walking alongside the wagon broke into a run toward the ranch.

  As they got closer, Josephine noticed that their skin was dark, not that it mattered to her. She hoped that no one else on the ranch would mind. She knew all too well that prejudice hid in places you might not expect.

  Seeing this family brought back all the old hurts she had felt as a child and reminded her once again of the secret she was carrying. She knew that she ought to tell Hank before they were wed, but there never seemed to be the right time to do so. Looking back at the clouds looming overhead, she prayed that there would be an opportunity to confess, and that Hank would return home safe and sound.

  As the woman and child neared, Josephine saw a small bundle clutched protectively to the woman’s bosom as the woman ran as fast as she safely could while carrying a baby. By the size of th
e bundle, the woman must have given birth not long ago.

  The child reached the yard first, then stopped to look back at his parents. The father waved the boy on, and he looked anxiously up at Josephine and Silas, who were waiting for them by the roadside.

  “This way, son,” Silas told the boy as he gestured toward the barn.

  The boy looked to Josephine, who gave him a smile, then ran into the open doors of the barn. He waited just inside, and anxiously watched for his family.

  The woman and baby arrived next and hurried into the barn. She hugged her son to her side as she held the baby close and gasped for air. She watched for her husband to arrive with the wagon from just inside the barn.

  As the wagon drew near, Josephine saw that an elderly couple was riding on the buckboard. The elderly man was holding the woman close and attempting to shield her from the pelting rain, which began to fall in a near deluge. She also noted two horses tied to the back of the wagon and one tied to the side.

  Silas shouted to Josephine to be heard above the thunder and wind. “Miss Jo, get inside! We got this.” He ran ahead to help the man lead the team into the barn.

  Josephine knew that he meant for her to head back into the house, but she ran into the barn instead. There was no way that she would leave this family until she knew that they would be treated properly.

  “Good heavens!” she exclaimed as she came to a stop next to the woman and her children. “I’m glad you made it before the storm really hit! Are you all right?”

  The woman watched Josephine with wide eyes, clearly uncertain as to the kind of welcome they would receive. She nodded, still too winded to speak much. “Yes, thank you,” she managed to squeak out between gulps of air.

  The boy, who could not have been much older than George, clung to his mother’s skirts, his face half-hidden in its folds. He stared up at Josephine from under the brim of his straw hat. He did not even look away as his father brought the wagon into the barn.

  As the wagon was brought in, Jim closed one of the barn doors behind it. The other he left open for the light it provided.