“Time to go,” Josiah yelped.
“If my boy offended you, Katie Ellen, you just tell me,” Calbert said. “You know I’ll straighten him out quicker than a sadiron.”
She hesitated just long enough to earn a look of warning from Josiah. “He treated me just like I deserve.” His eyes held hers. The dimple had never been more fetching.
“Well, when you’uns decide you need the services of a parson, you be sure and send for me,” Silas said, “and don’t make me wait too long.”
Josiah caught her hand in his. It was then that she realized she’d forgotten her gloves, but she enjoyed the warmth and roughness of his hands.
They made their way to the hastily constructed bridge. Calbert led the way across, with Silas following. Josiah tarried at the riverbank.
“I feel poorly about not staying to help you clean the place up.”
“Don’t worry about it. What’s a little mess?”
He smiled. “Good, ’cause I’m in a mighty big hurry to find your pa. We need to have a talk real quick.”
Katie Ellen smiled. “Are we . . . ? Did you . . . ?”
“Propose?” Josiah scratched at his chest. “Not hardly. First there’ll need to be a period of carrying-on, in which I’ll do my best to humiliate myself credibly. Singing under your window, dressing like my ma, and any other strange activity you’ve been hankering after.”
The clouds were thinning. Katie Ellen squinted up at him, sun in her eyes. “I’ll be waiting,” she said.
He flicked her nose before taking out to the bridge, the swagger in his step more pronounced than ever.
Katie Ellen watched him cross the boards and finally disappear into the thick forest. Josiah Huckabee, her dearly loved friend and dearly unintended beau. So many things had gone wrong, but she’d learned that she couldn’t do it all on her own.
Nothing had turned out as she’d intended. . . . And for that she was grateful.
Chapter One
HOUSTON, TEXAS
MARCH 20, 1879
Quiet, she had to be quiet.
It was the darkest hour of the night. She had a while before the sun came up and Mother would start fussing at her, needing a cool cloth for her fevered brow. Then Carrie would need to cook breakfast. With one maid coming in weekly, all the daily chores fell to her.
Isaac.
She packed more for him in the valise than she did for herself. He knew tonight was the night.
Carrie listened at the door, then slipped into the hall and rushed on silent feet to her brother’s room. She opened the door only inches, and he was there. She thought she’d have to wake him and nag him to dress, but he’d taken his part of this with dead seriousness.
He jerked his chin at her, careful not to even whisper. They turned to the back stairs, farthest from the rooms her mother and father slept in, and tiptoed down, flinching at every creak.
Father came to bed late, and Mother got up early. There wasn’t much time when one or the other wasn’t awake and demanding something.
They reached the landing at the bottom of the stairs and went out through the kitchen. Still, without speaking for fear a window was open on an upper floor, Carrie reached in the pitch-dark of the minuscule backyard and brushed Isaac’s hand. He clasped it, and she realized that this wasn’t a child’s hand anymore. Her little brother was growing up. In fact, having him along was more comfort than burden.
They left the yard behind and rushed down the alley until they were a good distance away. But it wasn’t just Mother and Father who had to be fooled; the neighbors too couldn’t know of their passage tonight.
They needed to vanish without a trace.
It was either that or agree to Father’s loathsome plans.
Audra had promised to come, and Carrie trusted her, but they’d left it too late. The wedding, announced just days ago, was scheduled for tomorrow. And the man terrified her. He was old, although that alone wouldn’t send her running into a treacherous world. It was the gleam of cruelty in his eyes that had shaken her, the sense that he was buying her. And he’d do as he wished with what he owned. Father must have lost too much, and he was paying his gambling debt with his own daughter.
He’d done it before.
The night held a thousand dangers, and Carrie knew she was risking her life, or worse, her little brother’s life, by going out like this. She had squirreled away money and could buy horses—not good ones but good enough. They’d ride so that no one would see them at a train station or a stagecoach stop. And there was only one place she wanted to be. Halfway across the continent.
Death lurked at every turn. But it more than lurked at home. It was there, in the flesh. She didn’t believe she was overreacting to her marriage. She believed it would lead inevitably to her death.
Isaac squeezed her fingers firmly, drawing her out of her dark, fearful thoughts.
She whispered, the first words they’d spoken, “Are you sure? There’s still time for you to go back.”
“It’s not just to stay with you rather than cast you out into the world alone.” His voice sounded suddenly deeper. At sixteen he was nearly a man now. He was still shorter than her but not by much, and she needed to quit thinking of him as a boy.
“I don’t want to be what he is.” Then his voice cracked and rose to a higher pitch and he was her little brother again. “He’s already using me at the track and teaching me how to help him cheat at cards. If I don’t do something, he’ll have me in as deep as him before I’m old enough to get away.”
They passed a gaslight, new to this Houston neighborhood, and for a moment she saw Isaac. Their eyes met, and she barely looked down an inch. Her little brother was right; they both needed to escape.
Their hands held tight, they exchanged a firm nod, then fled together into the night.
Carrie reached the end of a dark lane that ran along the back of a group of mansions, including hers. Then she ran straight into the biggest man she’d ever seen. He grabbed her by the arms.
Her stomach twisted. She was sickened by whatever fate awaited her, and what danger she’d led Isaac into. She opened her mouth to scream, but a hard hand clamped over her mouth.
Big John Conroy couldn’t believe it, but this had to be her.
A fist slammed into his head. The boy. He had the punching force of a gnat.
The girl wriggled in his arms and kicked his ankle.
“Get your hands off of her!”
“Shut up, both of you. We’ll get caught. Audra sent me. Audra Kincaid.”
He’d been wondering how he’d find Carrie in the mansion. He’d been plotting his invasion for two days. He wasn’t much on city life and he sure as certain wasn’t much on mansions. He figured, though, he could sneak in and hunt around until he found what he was looking for.
Instead, Audra’s younger sister had delivered herself right into his arms.
The girl stopped fighting, and for one distracted second he knew he’d have to stop thinking of her as a girl. He definitely had a full-grown woman in his arms.
Finally the boy quit beating on him. “Audra sent you? Our big sister Audra?”
The hope in the boy’s voice could almost hurt a man’s heart.
Big John had about ten questions, and the first one was: Since when were there two people for him to haul all the way to Rawhide, Colorado?
This was what he got for saying yes when his friend Luke’s, sister Callie’s, husband Seth’s, brother Ethan’s, wife Audra needed a favor. Looked like a few details got lost as the message passed from hand to hand—such as the girl being a full-grown woman with a half-grown boy coming along.
“Are both of you coming?” Big John asked.
Carrie said, “Coming where?”
“To see your sister Audra, of course.”
“So Audra really did send you?”
He’d just said that, hadn’t he? John wasn’t a man who did a lot of talking, and he saw no reason to say things twice. But just this once he’d
do it. “Yep.”
A soft, slender, absolutely grown woman’s body hurled into him—again. She flung her arms around his neck and broke into sobs.
In the flurry of finding her and getting beaten on and trying to calm her and her brother down, John hadn’t taken in too many details, but now he looked and realized he could see the boy in the dim light.
The kid shrugged his shoulders. “Carrie doesn’t cry much, but it’s been a mighty bad week.”
John didn’t have time to cheer her up. He scooped her into his arms. “Let’s hightail it. I’ve got two horses around the corner, and you can have one until she quits her caterwaulin’. I can tote her with me till she can sit a horse, and then you two can ride together.”
The boy nodded. “I’m Isaac.”
“I’m John Conroy. They call me Big John. I’d shake your hand, but I don’t have one to spare. Let’s move.”
Isaac fell into step beside him. John felt his neck get soaked. It made him feel like some kind of brute, though he couldn’t figure out why any of this was his fault.
He walked faster.
“Carrie and Audra are my big sisters,” Isaac said. “Pa had a wedding planned for tomorrow.”
With a squeak, Carrie’s tears switched off and she lifted her head off John’s shoulder. “Thank God you came.”
John could swear she was looking at him as if he were her very own guardian angel. It put heart into a man.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “You saved me.”
“Carrie had to get away,” Isaac went on. “I couldn’t let her go alone, and I didn’t want to stay there anyway. Thanks for coming for us.”
“You’re welcome.” If John had gotten here a few minutes later, Carrie and Isaac might have been running loose in a big, dangerous city. And considering the complete lack of dangerousness displayed in the beating he’d just taken, they’d’ve been dead by sunrise.
They reached the horses, and John wasn’t surprised to see they were still there. His horse was as loyal a beast as walked the whole land of Texas, and it’d take some doing to steal him.
“I’m a Texas Ranger doing this for my friend whose sister married a Kincaid. I’ll tell you more about it once we’re a ways down the trail.”
Isaac mounted up without responding. John was starting to like the kid. Carrie wasn’t crying anymore, but he decided to hang on to her anyway for now. She was light enough that his horse could handle the extra weight without any trouble, probably forever, but for sure until she stopped looking at him like he’d swooped down straight from heaven to be her hero.
Chapter Two
God had sent someone swooping down to save her.
All she could think was that it was her wedding day. And she’d escaped. Where would they be right now if help hadn’t arrived? She almost broke into tears again.
Noting that the black of night was giving way to the gray of dawn, she knew they needed to get shut of town before anyone saw her.
Blinking her eyes, she felt like someone had thoroughly salted them. Which, considering the tears, wasn’t too far from the truth. She focused on the man who carried her in his arms. He was looking right at her with calm, penetrating blue eyes.
“Where are we going?” She’d croaked more than spoke. “We need to get out of town.”
“That’s a good idea, Miss Carolyn.”
She felt herself blush. “I apologize. I’ve been in charge of my home for some time now and I’m the type to give orders. But you are doing fine without any help from me since I have no idea how to get out of Houston. I’ve barely been beyond my own street.”
“I don’t mind you givin’ me orders, miss, just so long as you don’t mind me not takin’ them.”
She looked up at him and he was smiling. A handsome man, and bigger than anyone she’d ever met. Even Kearse, her cruel fiancé, was small by comparison. No, this man didn’t need any advice from her on how to handle their escape.
Before long they’d left the heart of Houston behind, the rich neighborhood full of mansions and the hard-packed streets of the business district. Her guardian angel picked up the pace and began moving at a ground-eating lope.
She held on tight, enjoying his strength and hating her own weakness in needing him so much.
“We’re leaving town and heading into wild country,” he said.
“Glad to see the end of it.” Isaac drew her attention, and she looked back to see him riding near John’s flank. He looked full of energy while she was exhausted. Maybe it was being young that kept him going. There was no doubt that Carrie felt real old. She rubbed her eyes to get rid of the salty burn and sat up, still secure in the man’s strong arms.
“Um . . . what is your name?” Since she was sitting on his lap, it seemed only right to know.
“I’m Big John Conroy.”
He’d said that before. She remembered now. “I’m Carolyn Halsey.”
He nodded with a smile. “Miss Halsey. Your sister is kin to a good friend of mine. I don’t know how often you got letters from Audra, but Callie Kincaid is her sister-in-law and she’s got family back here in Texas. Her brother is my friend, Luke Stone. Audra has little ones at home, and Luke has a ranch to run. It’s hard to get away, so Luke asked me if I could come fetch you.”
“And take me and my brother to Colorado? That’s a huge favor.”
John looked down and shifted his arms as if to hold her a bit tighter. “I’d like to see Colorado. We’ll buy another horse in the first town we come to. I wasn’t planning on three riders. Once we aren’t riding double, we’ll make better time. I brought these two horses from Luke’s place in Palo Duro Canyon. Coming to Houston, I could switch mounts so one could rest while the other carried me. But that’s mighty hard on a man. I’m used to it, though I doubt a woman and boy could keep it up for long. So we won’t try and ride too hard. Besides, I don’t want six horses to care for.”
Then John tilted his head forward. “There it is. We can find breakfast and a horse in this town.”
She turned in his arms to face forward as best she could. What she saw was a town so small she could look all the way through it and out the other end to the country beyond.
“Do you think we’ll be safe here?”
John glanced down at her. “We won’t tarry, miss. What worries you?”
“Mr. Kearse,” Isaac said baldly.
Carrie shuddered, and John looked down again. “I’ve been in Houston a couple of days now and checked around with other lawmen. They’d all heard of Kearse. More than that, they’d heard of a bet being talked of in the more dangerous neighborhoods. About Kearse marrying you. You made no secret of refusing his proposal, and there were those who made a joke of it and bet their money he’d never get you to take your vows. He matched their bets. A lot of money is on the line if he lets you go, so he’s not going to like his bride running away. Besides the money, it’ll cost him his pride.”
Carrie’s throat was bone-dry so she didn’t respond.
Off to the side, Isaac said, “Pa owed him, and Damian Kearse agreed to forgive the debt in exchange for Carrie’s hand in marriage.”
Big John tightened his grip again. “And I reckon Kearse is determined enough that he’ll chase after us to get you back. For the money, for his pride, and because nobody crosses him.”
“He’ll be coming.” Isaac spoke with such confidence, Carrie believed it. Kearse would be coming. “He’s a mighty rich man, and he don’t like to be told no.”
John considered that most men, and plenty of women too, didn’t like to be told no. And yet life dished out enough no that a man got used to taking it. Liking it or not didn’t have a whole lot to do with anything.
“We’ll eat fast,” Big John said. “I’ll buy a third horse, and we’ll be on the trail in under an hour.”
Carrie nodded. Isaac shook his head. John was inclined to trust the boy more than the woman just because she seemed too kindhearted to expect the worst.
But they had to e
at and they needed another horse, so they rode into town despite the risk it posed. He headed for one of about ten businesses in the sleepy little cow town. That was ten businesses if you counted as two a barbershop that also claimed to be a doctor’s office and a tinsmith who, the sign said, could also pull your teeth as two more. They went toward the one that said Nellie’s Diner.
John had Carrie on her feet in an instant, and it was just flat-out surprising how unhappy he was to let her go. He made sure Carrie wasn’t wobbly on her feet, got the horses a long drink from a nearby trough, and gave them each a bait of oats in a feed bag, then led them to a grassy spot and swapped their bridles for halters, staking them out to graze.
The trio entered the diner, and judging by the flyspecked windows, John thought they were lucky it was a cold November day—it kept the insects to a minimum. They sat at a table for four. John faced the front door and the windows, his back to the wall, with Carrie on his right and Isaac on his left.
Three tin cups were plunked down on their table by a heavily bearded man, who then proceeded to pour them each a cup of boiling-hot coffee without asking if they wanted it. “How about some beef stew?” he barked.
“For breakfast?” Carrie asked.
The man narrowed his eyes and glared at her as if he’d had a bellyful of troublemakers and Carrie’s question was the last straw.
Not wanting to have to shoot him, John quickly said, “The beef stew sounds good.”
The gruff old codger grunted and stalked bowlegged back to the kitchen.
John had been in a lot of diners just like this one. The fact that it was breakfast time didn’t matter much. He said quietly, “Beef stew might be the only thing they serve, the only thing they know how to make. We’re lucky to get it.”
Carrie said, “Where’s Nellie? A woman usually brings a kinder attitude when she serves a meal.”
John shrugged. “I reckon our waiter is Nellie. Or else Nellie sold this diner to him and he’s seen no reason to paint a new sign. Knowing won’t make the beef stew taste any better.”
He took a few sips of his coffee, which tasted just right. Strong enough to keep John’s eyes open after a night with no sleep, with long hours still ahead of them.
With This Ring? Page 15