Gabe reached for his canteen that was hooked over the saddle horn. He uncorked it and took a long drink. The water was warm and tasted stale, but it soothed his parched throat. He gazed out across the wide expanse of the meadow below. A stream meandered through the tall grasses, and disappeared into a forested grove of evergreens.
The vegetation was good along the stream, but the range wouldn’t support a hundred head of horses for long. Just as Jake had said, these mustangs would have to be supplemented with hay very soon. His eyes scanned into the distance. Somewhere to the west was the Double M. When Morgan had told him last night that the ranch encompassed more than twenty-thousand acres, his jaw had dropped. The ranch had most definitely grown and thrived.
If half of it belonged to him, he would be able to provide Morgan with a nice home, and perhaps even a place for these mustangs. When he’d asked her to be his wife, he hadn’t really thought about how he was going to provide for a family. All he’d known was that he couldn’t live without her. In her arms, he’d felt completely whole, as if he truly belonged somewhere for the first time in his life, and he wasn’t going to lose her.
He smiled slowly. He hadn’t been this relaxed or content in his life, ever. His thoughts had drifted to Morgan more than once as they moved the mustangs to this spot. When he’d seen her standing with the stranger earlier, and the familiar way in which he’d touched her, the intense anger and feeling of jealousy that overtook him had surprised him. He’d immediately realized who the man was. Some part of him wished that Bryce Monroe was the friendly sort, but everything Morgan had told him about Tyler’s kin had put him on guard. After taking his measure, Gabe had decided that he didn’t like the man, even though he’d wanted to. He was a living link to Tyler, after all.
Now that he’d come to grips with his past and was ready to make a new start, he would have liked some connection to the man he’d tried to hurt. He’d realized immediately that Bryce Monroe would not be his friend, and anger had surfaced when he thought about the man hitting Morgan. No one would ever hurt her, as long as he was around.
He could have easily beaten the tar out of Bryce, who, although his features reminded him of Tyler, shared nothing in common with Gabe’s brother. This man was a city slicker who had no business running a horse ranch, and who evidently had no desire to do so. Perhaps offering to buy him out of his half of the place wouldn’t be so difficult, but as Morgan had said, Bryce Monroe wasn’t the kind of man who’d play nice and simply hand him his half.
“I’ll do right by the place, Tyler,” Gabe said into the late afternoon breeze. “I’ll make sure your dreams don’t die, and that your bloodline takes after you and appreciates all you’ve worked for.”
Logan already showed that he loved horses, and Gabe would raise him up to do his ancestor proud.
The gelding underneath him suddenly raised its head and turned its neck to the left. Out of habit, Gabe’s hand reached down to where a rifle scabbard would have been attached to the saddle in his time. He quickly glanced to where the horse’s attention was directed. His eyes widened, and a jolt of adrenaline surged through him. Walking toward him from behind a stand of pines was a man dressed in black, his silvery hair shining in contrast to the clothes he wore. Gabe cursed silently.
The man raised his hand in greeting as he approached, then stopped a few paces in front of Gabe’s horse. The usual friendly demeanor on the old man’s face was absent, and his blue eyes held none of the sparkle Gabe had seen in the past.
Gabe smiled inwardly. No doubt the reverend was mad that he’d simply left California, and he’d had to come looking for him.
“Mr. McFarlain,” Reverend Johnson greeted. “I see you’ve found your way here, in this time.”
“Reverend.” Gabe tipped his hat. He slowly dismounted his horse. It was the polite thing to do. “What brings you out here? Come for a social visit to see how I’m doing?”
“No,” the reverend shook his head. “This is not a social visit. I usually bring good news to my charges when I see them again. This time, I’m afraid, I must be the bearer of bad news.”
“Bad news about what?” Gabe’s face sobered. “Is Morgan all right?”
The reverend studied him with those blue eyes of his. A sad smile formed on his lips. “Miss Bartlett couldn’t be better, to the best of my knowledge. I’m not here because of her.”
“Well, if you’re mad because I up and left California, I told you I’d find my own way. So, no need to keep checking up on me. I’m managing just fine.”
“I see that you’re making a new life for yourself, and that you’ve reconciled with your past. I’m glad for that.”
“Then what seems to be the problem, Reverend?”
“I’m here to escort you back to your own time.”
Gabe stared at the man. “You’re here to do what?”
His fists clenched around the reins he held in his hands, and his heart began to beat fiercely in his chest. He had to have misunderstood.
The reverend nodded solemnly. “I am here to take you back to the time where you belong, Mr. McFarlain,” he said, his eyes not wavering from Gabe’s stare.
Gabe curled his toes inside his boots to steady himself, or he might have lunged at the old man.
“You told me I couldn’t go back, that I was stuck here for good. I’m learning to live here. I ain’t goin’ back to 1872.”
“I’m afraid you have no choice, and neither do I.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Gabe roared. “You make all the decisions.”
“I’m afraid in your case, I overstepped my authority, and it has come to the attention of those who hold much greater powers than I do. I have not been given a choice. I must send you back.”
Gabe shook his head. He squeezed his eyes shut, and turned his back on the reverend. Kicking at the dirt, he wheeled back around. Nothing made sense to him anymore. Morgan. He’d finally found someone he could love, someone who saw beyond his flaws and past deeds, and loved him, regardless. He couldn’t lose her.
“Why the hell are you doing this to me? Don’t I have a say-so in my own life? I’m becoming a better man. Ain’t that what you do? Send people to different times so they change their ways?”
“Yes, that is what I am supposed to do. I’m afraid I broke the rules when I sent Laney with the express purpose to be a match for Tyler. The time travel ability was never intended for that purpose. I’ve been told that what I’ve done must be undone.”
Gabe ran a hand over his face. “You’re telling me that you have to send Laney back to her time as well? You’re going to break Tyler’s and her heart, too?” Gabe barely managed to force the questions from his mouth.
“That is what I was told I must do.”
“Told by who?”
“There are those to whom I answer, who cannot fathom why I have broken the rules and tried to bring people together through time for love.”
Gabe dropped his horse’s reins and paced in front of the old man. “What about Jake Owens and his wife, Rachel? Are you going to tear them apart as well?” he snarled. His anger grew with every second that passed. He was not going to lose Morgan, dammit!
The reverend shook his head. “It was not my intent to bring those two together. Theirs was a special circumstance, and they will be allowed to remain together, since I had no direct hand in uniting them as a couple. It’s because of them that I chose to try my hand at bringing others together who would not have found love under their normal conditions.”
Gabe glared at the old man. “You wanted Morgan to find me, didn’t you? You planned it.”
“I cannot interfere with what people will choose to do, once I give them the opportunity to meet. I was merely hoping that she would help you turn your life around, and that you would find happiness with her. I see I was not mistaken.”
“And now that we’re together, you’re just going to up and tear us apart? I ain’t gonna let you do that, Reverend.”
; The reverend placed his hand on Gabe’s arm. Gabe clenched his jaw.
“As I have said, this is out of my control. I must do what I am told.”
Gabe pulled away from the man’s touch. “Who the hell told you? Let me talk to them.”
“They won’t speak to you. I have already tried.”
Gabe shook his head. “I ain’t drinkin’ the concoction that’ll send me back. You just said yourself, you can’t force people to do something they don’t want to do.”
“I’m afraid it’s already too late.” The reverend pointed at the canteen dangling from the saddle.
Gabe cursed loudly. He turned on his heels and grabbed his gelding’s reins, then swung up into the saddle.
“Where are you going, Mr. McFarlain?”
“Back to the ranch. Back to Morgan.” He could barely get the words out.
“There is no time for that, Mr. McFarlain. I was instructed to take you back immediately.”
“That ain’t how this concoction is supposed to work,” he called, desperation in his voice. He would see Morgan again, dammit. “I have until morning.”
The reverend stepped up to the horse. “Not this time. Now that you and I have made contact, the potion will take effect right away.”
Gabe had heard enough. His life was finally heading in the right direction, and now he was supposed to lose it all again? He kicked his horse into a run, desperate to get away from the old man. The gelding hadn’t taken more than a few strides, when a feeling of weightlessness came over him. He lost his grip on the saddle, and began to fall to the ground. Before he made impact, darkness overtook him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Morgan sat in Jake’s living room, her face buried in her hands. For days, she’d been distraught with worry after Gabe hadn’t come back from the horse drive with the other wranglers. Lisa, Judy, and Abby had assured her repeatedly that Gabe had said he’d be along shortly.
Rachel sat with her on the couch, a comforting arm around her shoulder. Sonja had taken the children to the big house to watch them there.
The day Gabe had gone missing, Jake had walked with her up to his house once all the horses and wranglers were out of sight. He’d sat down with her at the kitchen table, and without beating around the bush, had asked her if she believed that Gabe had come from the past.
“Apparently he didn’t keep it a secret from you,” she’d said after she’d recovered from her surprise that Jake knew.
“Gabe and I, and Rachel, have a lot in common,” Jake had said with a chuckle. He’d then proceeded to tell her all about his own experience with time travel, and the mysterious old man everyone only knew as Reverend Johnson.
“Seems like his time travel rules keep changing,” Jake had scoffed. “When he first sent me to the past, he told me my return to the future was automatically triggered by the completion of my assignment. He wouldn’t hear of it that I wanted Rachel to come with me, or that I’d want to stay in the past if she couldn’t come to the future.”
“But she’s here,” Morgan had said with a frown on her face.
Jake had smiled. “Rachel talked him into it. Since she was pregnant at the time, he had to make a special exception. He told me something like this had never happened before.” He laughed. “I guess he must have re-evaluated his time travel rules after that. Gabe told me that the good reverend had sent a woman to the past with the explicit intent to become his brother, Tyler’s, wife. And then when he sent Gabe here after Gabe forced her to ask the reverend to send her home, I bet it completely shot all the rules to hell again. Kinda makes your head spin, doesn’t it?”
When Gabe hadn’t returned, Jake had immediately said that the reverend must be involved somehow.
Morgan raised her head, wiping away the tears in her eyes. She glanced from Jake to Rachel, who patted her gently on the back.
“I’ve got Daniel and the girls out searching again,” Jake said. “I’ll ride out myself later today, if there’s no sign of him.” He stared directly at Morgan. “I stand by what I said the other day. The reverend came back, and did something.”
The police had been at the ranch already, and Morgan had filed a missing person report the day after his disappearance, even though they insisted that it was too soon to declare him missing. Jake had cautioned her not to say too much, and perhaps even elude that Gabe might have simply gotten cold feet about marrying her and left. The policeman had smiled knowingly before he left.
“Why would the reverend take him away? He told Gabe that he couldn’t go back to 1872,” Morgan asked, her voice raspy.
“I don’t know,” Jake had said quietly. “But I do know he wouldn’t have left on his own.”
Morgan stood from the couch. She had to do something. It had been nearly a week. She couldn’t simply sit around any longer.
“I’m going to talk to Bryce.”
* * * * *
Gabe groaned, and rolled onto his back. The pounding in his head wouldn’t stop. He opened his eyes to the darkness. A dim light drifted in through a crack under a door. Someone moved next to him.
“Morgan?” he rasped.
“No, Sugar, my name’s Flo,” a woman’s voice drifted from out of the dark. “Is that the name of your friend who brought you here?”
Gabe bolted to a sitting position. The woman giggled, and the bed’s springs squeaked loudly.
“I was told to come up here and make sure you was all right. Your friend told me to give you some extra care.” She moved up behind him, and ran her hands up his back and arms. “Now that you’re awake, we can get down to business,” she purred against his neck.
Gabe sprang from the bed, and cursed. He fumbled with the oil lamp on the small table in the corner, then turned to face the near-naked woman reclined on the mattress.
“Where the hell am I?” he demanded.
The woman laughed softly. “Why, you’re at Daisy Mae’s. Your friend said you might be a bit disoriented, that you took a nasty fall from your horse. Don’t you worry none. Flo will make you feel right better in no time.” She climbed off the bed and stepped up to him, her ample bosom straining for release from her tight corset.
Gabe backed away. He shook his head to clear his mind. His last memory was of the reverend, telling him he was sending him back to his own time. He’d gotten on his horse, and then there’d been nothing but darkness.
“What friend?” he asked slowly.
Flo cackled like a hen. “Some old man. Dressed like a preacher, he was. The place sure got quiet when he walked in with you barely conscious.”
Gabe cursed again. The reverend had sent him back to 1872.
“Where is he now?” he asked between clenched teeth.
“Oh, he didn’t stick around. He left right away.”
Piano music drifted from somewhere downstairs, and the laughter of men and women became clearer. Gabe squeezed his eyes shut. The Daisy Mae Saloon . . . something wasn’t making sense to him. The last time he’d been at the Daisy Mae had been . . .
“What year is this?” he asked.
“Year?” The whore laughed again. “Sugar, how hard did you fall from that horse?”
“Tell me what year this is.” Gabe advanced on the woman, and glared at her.
“No need to get upset,” the woman said, her eyes wide.
She reached up and ran her hand up Gabe’s chest, a false smile on her face. The smell of some strong perfume nearly made him gag.
“Just tell me the year, and then leave. I won’t say anything to Franklin that you didn’t earn your money.” Gabe stepped away from her.
Surprise registered on her face, and her smile turned genuine. “Well, in that case, I’d best be going, then. Time is money.”
“You haven’t told me what year it is yet, Flo,” Gabe said quickly, although he was certain he already knew the answer.
“Why, it’s 1870, Sugar. What year did you expect it to be?” She laughed.
Gabe’s temples throbbed. The last time he’d be
en at the Daisy Mae was when his mother had sent for him, just before she died. She’d written a letter, telling him she was sick, and probably dying, and that she had something important to tell him. It had taken weeks for the letter to get to him.
He’d been drifting through small towns in Montana Territory, taking odd jobs on horse and cattle ranches at the time. He’d arrived shortly before she died, had paid his last respects, and she’d told him the one thing she’d always kept hidden from him – the name of his father. The reverend had sent him back to that time? Why?
Flo opened the door to the room. She turned, her eyes traveling appreciatively along the length of him.
“If you change your mind, I’ll be downstairs.”
A woman’s loud voice drifted from the next room, followed by the heated tone of a man. Flo scoffed, and shook her head.
“Cora Lee’s arguing with her customers again. Don’t go getting’ any notions of visiting her. She might be a bit old for a prime man such as yourself.” Flo winked at him, then left the room.
A cold wave of dread washed over Gabe. He’d heard enough of his mother’s fights with her customers while growing up to haunt him for the rest of his life. Why was he here now, while his mother was still alive?
He paced the small space between the bed and the wash stand. Why had the reverend sent him back two years before he left to go to the future? It made no sense. Maybe he ought to talk to Cora again, pay his last respects one more time, but he couldn’t simply barge in on her while she was entertaining a man.
He raked his hands through his hair in frustration, then slammed his fist against the washbasin along the wall.
“Why the hell did you do this to me, Reverend?” He gnashed his teeth.
What would Morgan do when he didn’t return from the horse drive? She’d no doubt fret and worry that something had happened to him. Despite the despair that raced through him, a warm sensation doused him. It was her nature to worry. No one had ever doted over him the way she had. A pain gripped him, as if someone had grabbed hold of his heart and was ready to rip it from his chest.
Diamond in the Dust (Second Chances Time Travel Romance Book 3) Page 23