To Capture the Sky (Choices of the Heart, book 2)

by Jennie Marsland

  “Hang on, Nate. We’re taking you to John’s. Neil can finish patching you up there, and we’ll have a doctor here tomorrow. You’ve made it through worse than this.” He’d never stopped to really think about that before. Nathan had paid a heavy price for his beliefs, too. Their gazes met, and an unspoken message passed between them before Nate found his voice.

  “Yeah, I have… is Beth all right?”

  Beth smiled at him from his other side. “I’m fine, Nathan. You two do all right as a team.”

  With a hint of his usual grin, Nate glanced at Trey’s bloody sleeve. “Yeah, right. Look at us.”

  There were a lot of things Trey wanted to say, but he would have to keep it short for now. “Thanks, Nate. For this, and for what you told me earlier. I think Justin would have wanted me to know.”

  Nate’s grin widened. “So, you aren’t going to kill me?”

  Trey returned the smile. “Not this time.”

  * * *

  As usual, the dry goods store was empty when Lena got to work. The owner put down the newspaper she was reading and stepped out from behind the counter. “I guess I’ll go get a coffee, Lena. See you in a few minutes.”

  “Take your time, Mrs. Harper.”

  Alone in the store, Lena picked up the paper Mrs. Harper had left on the counter. Nicknamed the Rocky Mountain Liar, the Denver paper always made for interesting, if unreliable reading.

  Her gaze flickered to the window as a man with a passing resemblance to Nathan walked by. Lena’s life was so different now that most of the time it was easy not to think of him, but that didn’t mean she’d forgotten.

  I did us both a favor. Getting out before they got in any deeper had been the smart thing to do, whether it felt like it or not.

  She rattled the paper impatiently. “Lena, you’ve got a decent job, a decent boss and a decent place to live, with no mean customers to handle. What’s past is past.”

  She turned the page and read a headline, then pulled her handkerchief from her pocket, wiped her eyes and read it again.

  It can’t be…

  KIDNAPPING IN WALLACE FLATS. SHERIFF GRAVELY INJURED DURING RESCUE.

  The paper was a week old. Lena put it down in a daze. She’d missed the southbound stage by several hours. She’d have to hire a horse. She scrawled a hasty note to Mrs. Harper, locked the store with the spare key, slipped the key through the mail slot and ran.

  Please God, I know I don’t deserve anything from you, but he does. He’s the only man who ever treated me like a friend. Please. I have to tell him.

  She alternately prayed and cursed through her long ride to Wallace Flats. When she dashed into Neil’s place, it was night, a warm one, and the saloon was busy. Every head turned. Neil looked as shocked as everyone else until he recognized her.

  “Lena? What the–”

  “Nathan. Is he still alive?”

  “Yes, he’s over at the Reeves’ place. He’s–” Before Neil could say any more she was gone.

  Lena stood in the street in front of the Reeves’ house, trying to scrape up the nerve to knock on the door. They’ll probably slam it in my face, a family with a young son. And Nate… maybe he won’t want to see me. I ran off without a word.

  She couldn’t do it. Nothing had changed. She still couldn’t be the woman Nathan needed, the woman he deserved. She should have stayed in Denver. She was about to run when the door opened and Beth McShannon came out.

  “Lena, is that you? Where have you been?”

  The words tumbled out in a rush. “I’ve been working in Denver. I read in the paper that Nathan was hurt. How is he?”

  Lena thought her knees were going to buckle when Beth smiled. “He had a close call and he’s still pretty weak, but the doctor says he should be fine in time. Trey and I came in tonight to see him. I’m glad you came, Lena.”

  Surfacing from a warm wave of relief, Lena remembered that she hadn’t bothered to read the newspaper article. “The paper said something about a kidnapping. What happened?”

  “Simon Grier got this crazy idea of using me to get his daughter back. Trey and Nathan had to get me away from him. Nathan did a brave thing. He made sure Simon shot at him first. I’m sure you’d like to see him. Come in.”

  Lena’s heart started pounding. She didn’t have any right. “I’m not sure… I mean, it’s late. I just wanted to know that he was getting better. I don’t want to disturb him.”

  She turned away, but Beth took her arm. “I think you’ll be just what the doctor ordered. As for the time, day and night are pretty much the same to Nathan right now. Come with me.”

  Lena had no choice but to follow her inside. The men were out harnessing Trey’s team, but Mrs. Reeves was in the kitchen. Her brows lifted when she saw who Beth had brought in.

  “Hannah, you remember Lena Carter. She’s here to see Nathan.”

  To Lena’s surprise, Hannah smiled. “He’s upstairs, first door on your left. I don’t know if he’s awake, but go on up and see.”

  Lena hurried upstairs. In the dim lamplight, Nathan’s face looked gray and a bit sunken, as if he’d lost a significant amount of weight in a hurry. A lump rose in her throat. He’d had a close call, all right.

  He’s going to get well. He has to. The doctor said so. Lena sat in the chair beside the bed. “Nate, are you awake?”

  When he didn’t respond, she just sat for a few minutes, watching him. It would be so easy to reach out, touch his face… Lena had never felt the urge to touch anyone that way. No one had ever offered her comfort, and she’d never considered offering it to anyone else. The idea scared her more than anything else ever had.

  She imagined what Nathan’s hair would feel like, thick and soft and slightly coarse. Would she wake him if she touched him? Would he give her one of his ironic smiles, or would he ask her to leave? Or would he not care enough to do either? Not sure she was ready to find out, Lena started talking to him again. “I’ve missed you, Nate. I’m working in a store in Denver now. The money’s not as good as I used to get here, but it’s all right. I like the place. I thought leaving was for the best, and that doing it the way I did would be easier, but it wasn’t.”

  Lena reached out in spite of herself, stopped short of touching him and straightened his blankets instead. “If I’d told you, would you have let me go?”

  What else was there to say? Lena curled up in the chair, her gaze following the rise and fall of Nathan’s chest while she struggled against tears. The women downstairs meant well, but they really didn’t have a clue about her. How could they? As for Nate, he probably knew her better than anyone. He knew she couldn’t settle down here, even if she wanted to. If she came back to Wallace Flats, how many times would he have to fight because of her? How many years would have to pass before she’d be able to walk down the street with her head high?

  Lena took a deep breath, reached out, then pulled her hand back again. She hadn’t expected saying goodbye to hurt this much. “You were decent to me, Nate, and I won’t forget it. Goodbye, and good luck.”

  She dried her eyes, returned to the kitchen and faced Beth and Hannah with a smile. “He’s asleep. Thanks for letting me see him.”

  The sympathy on Beth’s face made her stiffen a little. “I’m glad you came, Lena. We’ll tell him you were here.”

  “I’d like that. Mrs. McShannon, you take care of yourself and that man of yours. He’s a good one.”

  Lena hurried out before Beth could reply. The warm night air dried her tears on the ride back to Denver, but it took a lot longer for her to stop crying inside.

  EPILOGUE

  Beth tightened her grip on Trey’s hand and clenched her teeth to keep from crying out as another contraction wracked her exhausted body. When the pain passed, she sank back against his shoulder. After twenty-four hours, she wasn’t sure how much more she could take.

  “Almost there, Beth.” Trey wiped the sweat and tears from her face with a cool cloth and stroked her forehead. “Almost there.”


  Maddy moved up from the end of the bed to take Beth’s other hand. “You’re doing fine, Beth. Catch your breath and get ready for the next one.” It hit as she spoke. “Push now, as hard as you can. That’s it, there’s the head. Keep pushing, just a little longer.”

  Beth screamed as she pushed, sure she was being torn in two. Then the searing pain miraculously lessened. As if from a distance, she heard a thin, indignant wail, followed by Maddy’s laugh. “Beth, you’ve got a daughter.”

  A little girl. Utterly spent, Beth collapsed on her pillows, still holding Trey’s hand.

  A couple of minutes later, Maddy laid a squalling, blanket-wrapped bundle in Beth’s arms. “She has your eyes and Trey’s dark hair. She’s beautiful.”

  Together, Beth and Trey gazed at their daughter. Trey’s eyes filled with raw emotion as he stroked the baby’s cheek. “She’s Mother all over again.”

  The sight of his broad finger brushing the baby’s delicate skin made Beth feel like laughing and crying at the same time. Lost in wonder, she cradled what her hours of pain had brought. A miracle.

  “Rochelle Elizabeth McShannon. Look at her, Trey. Just look at her.” Tiny lips open, a fine down of black hair on her head, her blue eyes fringed with sooty lashes, little Chelle fisted her hands and screeched as loud as she could.

  Trey shook his head. “She sounds healthy enough. Nothing wrong with those lungs.”

  “Nothing at all. Come here, sweetheart.” Beth put the baby to her breast. Chelle’s cries turned to small sounds of contentment as she discovered what a nipple was for.

  A smile of amazement spread across Trey’s face. “Beth, thank you.”

  Beth looked up at the man she loved more than she’d once thought possible. A very different man than the one who’d met her at Baker’s Mercantile on a bright April afternoon. Trey laughed easily now and smiled a lot more often, a smile that reminded her of the boy in his old picture. It was worth any amount of pain to give him a family again. “Trey, life doesn’t get any better than this, does it?”

  He leaned down to give her a slow, sweet kiss. “No, it doesn’t.”

  * * *

  Later, Trey stood at the cabin door in the raw, windy May twilight. Behind him, the main room of the cabin glowed with lamplight. Beth and the baby lay asleep in one of the two new bedrooms he’d built onto the cabin last fall. The other was a spare room for now. He’d also covered the earthen floors with pine throughout. To see how proud Beth was of the result, no one would know that she’d grown up in a home where wood floors and spare rooms were a given.

  A sharp gust of wind brought Trey back to the moment. He closed the door, added wood to the stove and sat cross-legged on the rug in front of it. A good night to be inside, counting his blessings.

  He found himself humming a tune he’d learned from his mother when he was small. In a moment, the words came back to him.

  “Mon père, aussi ma mère, n’avait que moi d’enfants…” The rest of it escaped him. He’d have to remember so he could teach it to Chelle.

  As a kid, Trey had always been the dreamer, looking for pictures in the fire. Now the visions he saw in the flames had shapes that were solid and real. He sat there for a long time, watching them come and go, until the fire died down and he was ready to sleep.

  ABOUT JENNIE MARSLAND

  Jennie Marsland lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Canada’s beautiful East Coast. She has had a lifelong love affair with words and history, starting with her family’s stories of life in Nova Scotia in earlier times. Jennie teaches English, science and history at a local private school, and when she isn’t writing, spends her free time cooking, gardening, playing guitar, and catering to the whims of her two very spoiled Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers.

  Find Jennie Online:

  Website - http://www.jenniemarsland.com

  Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Jennie-Marsland-Author-268022986552318

  Twitter - http://twitter.com/jenniemarsland

  YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/jenniemarsland

  G+ - http://plus.google.com/117455026655986401318/about

  Tirgearr Publishing - http://www.tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Marsland_Jennie

  OTHER BOOKS BY JENNIE MARSLAND

  CHOICES OF THE HEART SERIES

  WHERE THE HEART IS, book 1

  Released: January 2017

  ISBN: 9781370816842

  When Rochelle McShannon moves with her father from Morgan County, Georgia to the Yorkshire Dales, she thinks she’s leaving behind everything that matters to her. Her mother has passed away, her twin brother is going west to avoid the looming Civil War, and her family’s unpopular views on slavery and secession have destroyed her relationship with the man she hoped to marry. If returning to her father's childhood home eases his grief, Chelle asks for nothing more.

  Martin Rainnie understands grief. Since the loss of his wife in childbirth, he’s known little else, except anger. He’s retreated to his farm and turned his back on the world, including his baby daughter, who’s being fostered by Chelle’s relatives. With little Leah drawing them together, Martin begins to wonder if he can love again – and convince Chelle to do the same.

  But the war overseas has far-reaching consequences, even in a small English village. Can Martin and Chelle overcome danger, loss, and bitterness to make a home where the heart is?