by Kit Morgan
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You finally settle down a little and now you don’t even have a notion in your head to start a family!”
Percy glanced around the café and prayed no one was listening. It was no secret he hadn’t always been agreeable to live with. But after two years of having two big brothers, three brothers-in-law and the womenfolk in his family badgering him to change his ways, he’d finally gotten a clue. Looking back, he just wished it hadn’t taken so many black eyes at the hands of the men in his family to do it. But he also realized what a selfish jerk he’d been. He still was, now and then. Which brought up a good point. “I’m still not fit for marrying.”
“Of course you are. You just have to put forth the effort it takes to have a wife.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
Nate ran a hand over his face. “I’m telling you, Percy, you’d best start thinking about it.”
Percy studied him. What was Nate driving at? “I’ll marry when I’m good and ready, all right? Just because you and Bart feel you have to follow Walton’s timetable for everything doesn’t mean the rest of the world has to.”
Nate sighed. “We do it because he’s usually right. Things just work out that way.”
“Maybe for you. But that doesn’t mean it will for me.”
“It has so far. Your sisters all married fine, upstanding gentlemen …”
Percy nodded in annoyance. He’d heard this spiel before.
“… and Hank and Benedict got themselves two of the finest women I ever met – next to your sisters, of course. Your ma and pa are content being here with all of us and their grandchildren. Everyone’s happy. Except you.”
“What do you mean ‘except me’?” Percy snapped. “What makes you think I’m not happy? Just because Walt got it in his head I’m not, now he has to do something about it?”
Nate shook his head. “No, that’s not what I meant. But we can all tell something’s wrong. You mind the herds alone; the rest of your time is taken up with books. From what your pa tells me, you hardly touched them in school.”
“I wasn’t much of a reader then,” Percy shot back.
“You don’t talk to us much anymore either.”
Percy stared at him. “Maybe because I’m always being pestered about what I’m not doing or what I don’t have. Besides, you’re all so busy with your families that I …” He stopped short as he suddenly realized what Nate was driving at.
“Exactly,” Nate said. “Don’t you think it’s about time you thought about joining us? Then maybe you wouldn’t feel like such an outsider.”
Percy’s jaw tightened. Of his three brothers-in-law, Nate was the one that could speak his language. Bart and Walt had done their fare share of teaching him: Bart helping sharpen his shooting skills, Walt about business and how to run one. Walton Dalton, for all his faults, was smart as a whip, and Percy wasn’t about to pass up the chance to learn a thing or two from him. But this wife business was new territory – and to be honest, it terrified him even to think about it.
He swallowed hard as he came to grips with the cold honest truth. It’s not that he didn’t want a wife – he wouldn’t mind one, provided she was willing to travel. But he honestly wondered if any woman worth her salt would want him.
Two
Meanwhile, in Beckham, Massachusetts …
Adele Brown raced down the street and finally saw an avenue of escape. She ran through Mrs. Dodd’s gate and dove behind her prized rosebush, crouched and listened as the sound of booted feet fast approached … then hurried past and faded into the distance.
“Oh good Lord!” she sighed in relief in the darkness. She gulped air, then quietly stood and looked around. Seeing no one, she stepped out from behind the bush, darted through the gate and quickly ran up the street the other way. She had to make it, she just had to! If she didn’t, she’d be as good as dead.
Adele stopped again to catch her breath, taking refuge behind a huge oak tree. Elizabeth Miller’s house was two blocks over and she was quickly tiring. Worse, the clouds that had drifted in front of the half-moon were moving on, which would make it easier for her pursuers to spot her. She had to hurry.
She slipped between trees as she cut through the park, and prayed that the men she’d escaped from didn’t double back. Her abduction several days ago had been a horrific ordeal, one she was not about to repeat. The cruelties they threatened to inflict upon her should she not do their bidding were unmentionable. The ones they had inflicted, including a horrid black eye, she still wore.
She managed to get to the next block, then the next… thank the Lord, she might yet survive this! She spotted the house, the one place she could find refuge, and with the last of her strength sprinted for it.
When she reached the gate she stopped and spun around, thinking she’d heard a shout, then turned back and fumbled with the latch. Tears sprang to her eyes when it wouldn’t give and she tried again. And now there was no doubt about it – she could hear several men yelling back and forth. They were closing in on her!
The latch finally gave and Adele ran for the front door and began to bang on it. “Help! Help me, please!”
Silence from the other side. Adele turned and scanned the street. No sight of them, but their voices were getting closer. Even if she managed to slip inside, they might put two and two together and figure out where she’d gone. She beat on the door again, praying the sound didn’t carry to her pursuers.
Finally it opened. “Good heavens, what is it?” a disheveled blonde woman asked.
“Please let me in!” Adele gasped. “There are men chasing me.”
The blonde didn’t hesitate. She swung the door open wide, and shut and bolted it again as soon as Adele was through, as quickly and quietly as she could. Only then did she turn to Adele. “What’s the trouble?”
“Are you … are you Elizabeth Miller?”
The woman nodded.
Adele sank to her knees. “Oh thank God!”
Elizabeth knelt beside her. “Who are you? What is your name?”
“Adele Brown …” she said, stifling a sob.
Elizabeth studied her in the dim light from the parlor. “Good Lord! What happened to you?”
Adele unconsciously reached up to her bruised face and black eye. “I don’t know … I don’t want to know anymore …”
Elizabeth’s eyes widened. “You were being held against your will.” It wasn’t a question.
Adele nodded. “Men, men from my … from my church!”
Elizabeth closed her eyes in resignation. “Say no more. I know exactly whom you’re talking about.”
“Please, can you help me? I heard them talking! They even bought the sheriff out! There’s no place for me to go, nowhere to run! I don’t have any family …”
Elizabeth sighed. “I don’t doubt it. You’re just the type they prey upon – no family, few friends … ” She looked at the girl’s golden brown hair and green eyes, “… pretty. Someone easily forgotten once they go missing.”
Adele began to weep. Over the last few days, she hadn’t known if she would live or die. Only by catching a snippet of conversation from her captors did she even know to seek out this woman who was kneeling beside her and pulling her into a protective embrace.
“They won’t find you here, I promise,” she told Adele as she pulled her to her feet.
“How do you know … I heard them talk about you. You’re some sort of matchmaker …”
“Some sort, yes. But these days I’m a bit more.”
Adele gave her a quizzical look through her tears as the woman guided her to the parlor. “I don’t understand what’s happening? Why would men do such a thing?”
“Because you’re worth a pretty penny, my dear. And because pretty pennies are all these men care about. It all fits now, everything I’ve been wondering about.” She turned Adele to face her as she sat them both down upon a sofa. “You’re the only one that I know of to escape them.�
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“What? The only one?”
“No, I take that back. There were three others, several years ago when this first started.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Adele said as she sniffed back her tears. “But I do know you’re the only one who can help me.”
Elizabeth studied her. “How do you know that? We’ve never met before.”
“Because the men who took me … they hate you. I heard them say you were a thorn in their sides and that … if they could … they’d –”
“Never mind what they said,” Elizabeth cut her off. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d been threatened since she became involved in the battle against this new slave trade. Thankfully she wasn’t alone in the endeavor – she’d have to let the others know so they could keep a sharp lookout for other young women who suddenly went missing. The last year or so had been brutal, trying to find and rescue them before they could be shipped out of the country – or enslaved right there in her own beloved state of Massachusetts. Maybe even in Beckham itself! And now there was no question that’s exactly what was happening.
“What am I going to do?” asked Adele. “Where can I go?”
Elizabeth pulled her into another hug. This girl was a witness, one who could help bring the slavers down. But she had to protect her – and to do that she had to get her out of town. “You’ll be safe, I’ll see to that.”
“But what if they find me here?”
“They won’t.”
“But … but how can you be sure?”
“Because you won’t be here. And I know just where to send you.”
*
Adele stared at the marriage contract in front of her. “But I don’t understand. How will marrying me off to this …” She leaned closer to Elizabeth’s desk and squinted at the papers. “… Percival Blue save me?”
“The men who took you will be much less likely to come after you once they learn you’ve married. You’ll have protection, legal and physical. Besides, where I’m sending you, you’ll have not only your husband to protect you but five other men as well. I know the family well. Trust me, the slavers who took you won’t want to mess with the Daltons or the Blues. They’ve had encounters with them before and were thwarted by them.”
“I still don’t understand any of this.”
Elizabeth sat back in her chair. “I didn’t either at first. The men behind this … this slave ring all hold prominent positions in the community. They’re the last people you’d think would be responsible for such a heinous operation. And just as you noted, they’re connected with the local law. For all I know, they may have control of the sheriffs in the surrounding counties as well. And I don’t know what to do about them – yet.”
“Can’t you write Governor Greenhalge?”
“Believe me, I have.”
“And?”
“I haven’t heard anything back yet. I’m much deeper into this than I wanted to be, but I do it for women like you. You’re lucky you’re here. In fact, you’re lucky to be alive.”
Adele’s lower lip trembled. “I know.”
“Sign the papers, Miss Brown, and I’ll see you’re safely escorted to the train station in the next town. You’ll leave tomorrow night. I can hide you here until then, but not for any longer. I’ll have to smuggle you out of Beckham as it is.”
Adele sniffled, and with a shaky hand picked up the pen and dipped it in an inkpot. “What if they come here?”
“Hopefully by the time they think to look, you’ll be long gone.” She sighed. “I’ve been dodging this group for well over two years now. I know how they move and think at this point. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”
Adele swallowed hard and scrawled her signature across several documents. Elizabeth took them, blotted the ink, then neatly folded them and put them in an envelope. “Give these to your intended when you get there. I’ve enclosed a letter explaining the situation.”
“Oh, no – you didn’t! He won’t want to marry me if he knows …”
Elizabeth’s eyes widened. “You weren’t … compromised, were you?”
“No …” Adele said with a shake of her head. “But the man you’re sending me to might not believe it, and then …”
“Your bruises and eye should be healed by the time you get there. Who says you have to tell him?”
Adele’s eyes widened.
“At least not right away,” Elizabeth corrected herself. “Get to know him first, spend some time courting if need be.”
“All the more time for him to say no … once he finds out …” Adele whispered as she took the envelope from her.
Elizabeth sighed again. “But you can’t stay here. It’s only a matter of time before they find you. Again, you’re the only one to escape them in years.”
Adele stared at her, unable to speak.
Elizabeth nodded sagely. “Indeed. I wish these foul men had stayed in the South, but no, somehow it was all brought here and I’ll just have to deal with them.”
“The South?”
“Yes. There’s a woman in New Orleans, who runs a mail-order bridal service just like mine. She’s been rescuing women for decades, sending them out as brides and saving them from the slaver ring down there.”
“But … don’t these women have families to protect them?”
“No more than you do. The slavers prey upon orphans mostly, ones too old to stay on at their establishment. They know they’ll be forced out, and when they are …”
“The men take them …” Adele stood up. The enormity of the task this woman had taken on was beyond her comprehension. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.”
Elizabeth smiled. “It’s my pleasure.”
“But how … how do you keep safe? What happens if they come after you?”
“As I said, don’t worry about me. I have my own way of dealing with these blackguards.”
Adele slowly nodded. She suspected she was still in a state of shock after her midnight run through Beckham’s streets, not to mention that she was about to be sent off across the country to Texas to marry a man who … “Good Lord!”
“What? Are you all right?”
Adele turned to her. “Does this Mr. Blue even know I’m coming?”
Elizabeth took a deep breath. “No, I’m afraid not. But you shouldn’t come as too big a surprise – he did answer my advertisement for a mail-order bride. He just won’t have a chance to exchange letters with you. But it’s still better than the alternative.” She inclined her head toward the front door.
Adele closed her eyes and nodded. After all, what choice did she have?
*
Weatherford, Texas, two weeks later …
Percy brought the buckboard to a halt. He’d been busy that morning, and the last thing he wanted to do was travel all the way to Weatherford to pick up something Walton had ordered for the ranch. Of course, he was the most logical person to go as he didn’t have a wife or family to tend to – he couldn’t argue the fact. So here he was, barely making it in time for the noon train to roll in.
Of course, this would be the day it was running a little late. Just his luck.
During the drive, he’d had plenty of time to ponder what sort of parcel or package he was getting. Walton insisted it was something the ranch needed and everyone would benefit from it, especially Percy. Why, Percy had no idea. What could Walton have ordered that would be of any sort of benefit to him?
He’d mulled over the possibilities. A prized stallion or bull would benefit the ranch, but he couldn’t haul that home in the back of the buckboard. But maybe Walton expected him to lead it home. Or perhaps it was something only Percy would be able to operate. But the only thing Percy could do that no one else could was play the piano – he was the only one out of his siblings that his mother had been able to coerce into taking lessons all those years. It had paid off, though – he had been told, by people who should know, that he was quite accomplished in that area.
>
Well, if Walton had invested in a piano for Percy to play at family gatherings, he hoped Walton had also arranged for several strong men to help him get it loaded onto the wagon. He didn’t fancy the thought of leading a piano home on a rope!
His head snapped up at the sound of a train whistle. He threw on the brake, hopped down and headed to the platform to watch the locomotive pull into the station. It came to a screeching, steam-filled stop, and within moments passengers began to disembark.
Percy maneuvered through the growing throng on the platform, heading toward the cars that carried goods and livestock. He waited as men began to open the train-car doors to unload cargo, noting as he did how quickly the passengers not only disembarked, but left the platform altogether. Several still milled about, but he paid them no mind – he was more intent on what was going to be unloaded.
A cow puncher walked past him straight to a car transporting livestock. Several horses were led down a ramp, and the man took a beautiful paint horse from the handler, patted it on its neck and led him away.
Percy glanced around again. How in the heck did Walton expect him to pick this thing up when he hadn’t even told him what it was? By now only he, a few men and a lone woman remained on the platform. Men continued to unload the cars while the woman, who had her back to him, waited for whatever relative was to meet her. They were probably running late.
One of the men unloading walked by Percy, a bulky burlap sack in his arms. “Excuse me,” said Percy. “But is there anything on the train for the Dalton Ranch?”
“I ain’t the one t’ask,” he replied, and pointed. “Best check with Mr. Baker o’er there – he’s the grey-haired fella. He can tell ya.”
“Much obliged,” Percy told him with a tip of his hat. He made his way over to Mr. Baker. “Excuse me, sir?”
Mr. Baker turned to him, a clipboard in his hand. “What can I do for ya, son?”
“I was sent here to pick something up. The name is Percival Blue. I’m here on behalf of the Dalton Ranch.”