The Homesteader's Sweetheart

by Lacy Williams

  She needed to tell him her news, as quickly as possible. But Penny settled back onto the settee in her parents’ parlor to wait for her father to arrive home. She’d promised she wouldn’t run off again, and she would keep that promise. She just needed to find a way to convince her father to take her back to Bear Creek. And Jonas.

  She and her father had come to a tentative agreement about Mr. Abbott, and she didn’t want to do anything impulsive to ruin their accord. Sam, too, had settled since their return home. He’d apologized to their parents for his previous pranks and irresponsible behavior, and even taken a job at the livery, working with horses all day. Yes, Sam was growing up and becoming the man she’d known he could be.

  Her former friend Millie’s veiled reference to Penny’s unmarried state had barely registered. That might’ve bothered her before, but not now that she knew the White family, and loved them, she couldn’t be disappointed in her circumstance.

  If only she could convince Jonas that they belonged together. She’d gone with her father, but after a week away from the Whites, she was desperate to see them again, desperate to tell Jonas how she felt about him. She should have done so before she left, but she’d let fear get in her way.

  She’d spent two days convincing her father that she would never consider marrying Mr. Abbott. He hadn’t believed her about Abbott sabotaging Jonas’s farm, but after a lot of blustering, he finally came to accept that a wedding was not in the future.

  He’d said he would take care of things with Mr. Abbott, and Penny hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the man since.

  She’d gone to Calvin’s town marshal to explain about what had happened at Jonas’s homestead, but been disappointed that Marshal Danna Carpenter couldn’t do more. Without firm evidence against Abbott, it was Penny’s word against his. And although the marshal had said she would question Abbott, Penny knew the man wouldn’t admit to any wrongdoing.

  Penny wished she’d gotten a better look at the figure on horseback she’d seen that morning while walking over to Jonas’s homestead. If she’d seen Abbott’s face clearly, maybe then the marshal would have believed her.

  The front door opened and closed. Finally, her father was home. She rose and smoothed the skirt of one of her simpler frocks. Wearing the fine silks and satins she’d enjoyed before wasn’t as important to her now.

  “Father? I need to talk to you.”

  The floor in the hallway creaked as her father drew near, but he didn’t respond to her greeting. She took a deep breath, prepared to explain all her reasons for visiting the Whites.

  “I’ve just received a letter and it has some very important information that I need to share with Grandfather’s neighbors. It’s about the little girl, Breanna.”

  “I’m afraid you won’t be going anywhere near that farmhand, my darling.”

  The unexpected voice preceded Abbott’s appearance in the doorway. Penny glanced behind him, expecting to see her father, but the hallway was empty.

  “I’m afraid your father has been detained at his office.”

  Penny backed around the sofa, putting it between herself and the man she hadn’t wanted to see ever again. What was his purpose here?

  “I have to admire your independent spirit, my dear. It will make settling you more enjoyable for me. I’m not sure how you convinced your father to discourage my suit, but I’ll have my way in the end.”

  She suppressed a shiver at his sinister words, but forced a brave face.

  “Mr. Abbott, as you said, my father is away. It’s not appropriate for you to be here, so I’ll ask you to leave.”

  Abbott slipped a derringer from the inside of his vest and pointed it at Penny. “I think not. You’re coming with me.”

  “I won’t.” Somehow, she kept her voice from shaking, but the sight of his weapon unnerved her. Would he really shoot her if she didn’t do what he wanted?

  “You’re questioning whether I’ll fire on my intended bride. Your face is so delightfully expressive, my dear.” He inhaled deeply, his eyes closing momentarily. “Yes, breaking you will be ever so enjoyable.”

  “I’ll thank you not to call me my dear. I’m not your anything.” Penny backed farther away, frantically trying to figure out a way to escape the man. She had no intention of accompanying him anywhere. She ran into the writing desk in the corner, bruising the back of her legs.

  “Oh, you will be. I’ve a preacher waiting in Cheyenne to marry us. Now come along, I’ve got the train tickets here.” He patted his breast pocket with the hand not holding his gun. “We’ll be off immediately.”

  “I won’t marry you. I don’t want anything to do with you.” Her hand closed over a letter opener on the desk. Did she have the fortitude to use it as a weapon?

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jonas adjusted the tie Oscar had talked him into. It felt like it was strangling him.

  He strode down the boardwalk in Calvin, the same way he had over a month ago, with the same destination in mind. The bank. Only this time his purpose was completely different.

  He’d come to ask if he could court Penny.

  The boys had voted for him to ask for her hand, but he thought he might have better luck if he started slowly.

  He tried to swallow, but his mouth was drier than his burned out fields. What if her father denied him?

  What if Penny denied him? What if she couldn’t forgive him for sending her away?

  He blew out a shaky breath. He’d spent two days thinking and praying after his conversation with his three oldest sons. And he’d finally decided they were right. He couldn’t let fear rule his life.

  He had to know if Penny could accept him. He prayed it was so.

  Another deep breath and he was there, just outside the gilt glass doors of Mr. Castlerock’s bank. He pulled, but nothing happened.

  Locked.

  Pulled again, and the door rattled. Definitely locked. Was he too late to catch Penny’s father at the bank?

  A sound from inside had him shading his eyes against the late-afternoon sun’s glare on the windows. Was someone still there?

  After a glance around and noting that the dirt-packed streets were nearly empty, Jonas decided to try one more time.

  “Hello?” he called through the doors. “I need to see Mr. Castlerock!”

  This time, he definitely heard a noise from inside.

  A moan.

  “Is someone there? Do you need help?”

  Jonas leaned closer to the glass-plated door, but couldn’t see enough of the inside of the bank to determine if anyone was in there. It was too shadowy inside.

  He moved to a large window that took up most of the building’s outer wall and peered inside. There! It looked like someone was lying on the floor half-behind one of the desks.

  Jonas glanced around again, but there was no one around, no one he could ask for assistance.

  “Do you need help?” he shouted, hoping the person could hear him through the window.

  He leaned his head close to the glass and heard a soft, “Help.”

  But looking at the window, there was no latch, and the sill looked solid.

  “I can’t get in the front!” Jonas shouted. “I’ll have to break the window!”

  He only hoped the glass wouldn’t fall on the person lying prone inside.

  “Can you move away?” Jonas called through the window. He listened for a response and heard a faint, “Back…door…”

  There was another entrance? Jonas hurried around the side of the building, until he found a rear door, this one nothing like the fancy facade at the front, and pushed inside.

  He made his way to the lobby, where it appeared there had been a brawl. The interior looked nothing like the organized office he’d seen when he’d visited during his previous trip to Calvin. Desks and chairs were shoved into odd configurations. Papers were strewn across the floor.

  Jonas moved to where he’d seen the figure on the floor, mouth opening in surprise as he knelt next to Castleroc
k himself. The man’s hands and feet were bound. There had been a handkerchief twisted around his face as a gag, but he’d managed to wiggle it off.

  Jonas quickly moved to untie the knots binding Castlerock’s hands. “Sir, are you all right?”

  “Of course I’m not all right. Look at me!” the older man blustered.

  Jonas freed Castlerock’s hands and helped the man sit up, before scooting down to untie his feet. “Were you robbed? Should I try to find the marshal?”

  The older man rubbed his wrists, appearing agitated. “I was trying to tell that fool Abbott my daughter wants nothing to do with him and he went raving mad. Knocked me around before I could reach the pistol I keep in the bottom of my desk and then tied me up.”

  Jonas’s heart thudded at Castlerock’s mention that Penny had refused Abbott. She wasn’t marrying the other man. Relief roared through him, and leaving him momentarily feeling weak.

  Then he heard the last part of Castlerock’s sentence and went cold.

  “—she tried to tell me there was something wrong about him but I thought she was just refusing on principle. I’d never subject my daughter to a madman.”

  Finally loose, Castlerock shifted his legs a bit—shaking blood back into them, Jonas imagined—and used the nearby desk to lever himself up.

  Jonas rose from his crouch. “If he’s angry, might this man go after your daughter?” What if Penny was in danger this very minute?

  Castlerock’s face paled. “D’you think—? I’ve got to go for the marshal.”

  Remembering the broken barn ladder and the fields burned with no regard for human life, Jonas began to tremble. “It might be too late. What if he’s already got her?”

  Castlerock shook his head, moving to the outer doors and unlocking them. “As you can see, I’m no match for Abbott. Better to let the marshal and her deputies get involved.”

  Maybe it was better for the gently bred man, but Jonas’s woman was in danger! He didn’t wait for Castlerock, but brushed past the older man and took off down the boardwalk toward the stately home farther in town.

  “Wait—”

  Jonas couldn’t wait. He had to get to Penny, now.

  * * *

  “I said I won’t go with you, so you might as well just leave now.”

  Still clutching the letter opener amongst the folds of her skirt, Penny didn’t dare turn her back on the lunatic holding a gun on her.

  She’d known there was something off about Abbott from the beginning, but she’d never imagined he was actually insane. And it must be insanity that made him imagine she would marry him after everything that had happened. Did her father know?

  Abbott moved farther into the room, leering at her. “While I’m certain I would enjoy the struggle you would put up, my dear, I’d prefer you not be too mussed for our little train ride.”

  Behind Abbott, a shadow passed over the parlor window. Was someone coming? Penny’s heart began thumping in her ears.

  “I’m not going with you.” Penny slipped across the room, careful to face him at all times.

  “I’m afraid the business dealings with your father were just a ruse, Penelope. While I do have money—enough to do most anything I want—I knew from the moment I met you that I had to have you for my wife. I’ll enjoy bending your independent spirit to my will. No matter how long it takes.”

  Penny shivered, unable to conceal the reaction from Abbott’s intense gaze. How had her father ever thought this man was a good business partner? Had Abbott hidden his true motives that well?

  Her over-aware senses picked up a soft sound from the front of the house. The door opening?

  Unfortunately, Abbott heard it, too, because he turned toward the hallway.

  “Sam!” Penny shouted, taking a guess to who was coming inside. “Watch out!”

  “Why, you little—”

  Penny crouched behind the heavy wingback chair in the corner, afraid Abbott would fire on her, but he stomped into the hallway. Penny craned her neck from her hiding place to see late-afternoon light streaming onto the wood floor. Someone had opened the front door. Had Sam heeded her warning and run away?

  She waited for a shot to be fired, or shouts, or anything, but only heard eerie silence and the clamoring of her heart.

  The door slammed and she heard Abbott’s heavy tread indicating he was returning. “Must’ve been the wind that blew it open. We have no more time to waste.” He waved the gun wildly at her. “Get up. We’re leaving now.”

  “No—”

  Penny’s denial was cut short when a figure launched at Abbott from the opposite direction, the back hallway, and attacked him.

  A flash of blond hair glinted in the lamplight—those shoulders—

  “Jonas!” she cried.

  He glanced at her, and in that moment of distraction Abbott’s fist connected with his cheek.

  “Oh!” Penny stifled her cry by biting her knuckle. How had Jonas come to be here?

  The tussle continued, fists flying. From her hiding place, Penny couldn’t remove her eyes from the silver derringer as Jonas wrested Abbott’s arm to one side and banged it against the wall. Abbott didn’t release the gun.

  The sounds of fists hitting flesh made Penny cringe, but she couldn’t tell if either man was winning. It worried her that Abbott still held the gun. What if he got a shot off and it hit Jonas? At this range he likely wouldn’t miss.

  She couldn’t let that happen.

  Penny crept out from behind the chair on shaking legs. She stayed on her hands and knees, hoping Abbott wouldn’t see her movement if she stayed behind the settee.

  The men shifted and bumped against the wall in the hallway, sending a framed portrait to the floor with a crash.

  Penny reached up and hefted her mother’s heavy brass lamp from the table, then edged around the settee and put her back against the wall, standing next to the doorway. How could she be sure to hit Abbott and not Jonas?

  Heart racing, her grip damp against the metal lamp, she prayed God help me!, raised the heavy object above her head and flung herself around the corner.

  * * *

  Jonas’s heart nearly stopped when Penny flung herself into the altercation. He hadn’t been able to take the small gun from Abbott and as far as he knew, it was still loaded.

  Penny clubbed Abbott in the shoulder with a piece of furniture, and he finally dropped the gun. It skidded on the wooden floor, disappearing in the shadows.

  “Please—” Jonas gasped. “Get back!”

  He elbowed her out of the way, putting himself between her and Abbott. The other man swung a wild punch and Jonas dodged it, returning with a quick jab to Abbott’s face that whipped his head back. He slumped to the floor as the front door banged open and two men rushed inside with pistols drawn.

  “Hands up!” one of them ordered.

  “Wait!” Penny exclaimed, reinserting herself into the conflict by moving in front of Jonas. She wrapped one hand over his shoulder, as if to shield him from the deputies. “That’s the man you want.” She pointed to Abbott lying on the floor. “Jonas came in as he was trying to kidnap me and they fought.”

  One of the deputies, tin star flashing on his chest, knelt next to Abbott and patted his clothing. Probably determining he didn’t have any more weapons.

  “He dropped his gun,” Penny said helpfully, pointing down the hall.

  “This the man we’re looking for?” the second deputy asked. He didn’t address Penny or Jonas, and for the first time Jonas noticed Castlerock standing just outside the open front door.

  Castlerock nodded. “He was my business partner…” He shook his head, seemed to shake himself out of his thoughts.

  Abbott began to rouse and the deputies each took one of Abbott’s arms and hefted him to his feet, holding him securely between them. They ushered him out of the house, saying something to Castlerock as they went.

  The older man hurried inside, reaching for Penny. “Are you all right? Were you hurt? Oh, thank goodn
ess your mother wasn’t here. She’d have had a conniption…”

  She went into her father’s embrace, leaving Jonas’s side. “I’m fine. A little shaken up. Thankful that Jonas arrived before that awful man could force me to leave with him.” Over her father’s shoulder, Penny gazed admiringly at Jonas. Or was he imagining her looking at him that way because that’s what he wanted her to feel?

  “Yes, we have much to thank this young man…” Castlerock seemed to take a good look at Jonas for the first time. “Say… You’re Walt’s neighbor.”

  Penny drew away from her father. “Father, this is Jonas White. I think you might’ve met him the night of your most recent party. He has a beautiful homestead near Bear Creek. Grandfather’s going to help him get started raising horses.”

  The pride in her voice encouraged Jonas to extend his hand. He half-expected Castlerock to reject it, but the other man stepped forward and accepted his handshake.

  “I’m grateful for what you did for my daughter this evening. Will you accept a monetary reward?”

  Shocked, it took Jonas a moment to respond. “No, sir. I actually came to ask you—” He glanced at Penny, listening attentively at her father’s elbow. “I came to speak to you about another matter.” If Castlerock intended to deny his request to court Penny, Jonas didn’t want her to know.

  “Hmm.” Castlerock considered him briefly. “I suppose I can spare a few minutes for you. Come into my office—”

  “Father,” Penny chided, interrupting. “Jonas is a little banged up from rescuing me. Can your talk wait for a few minutes? I’ll see about fixing him up.”

  Castlerock agreed, though reluctantly, sizing up Jonas with a look. Jonas wondered if the man could sense his nervousness. Now that the altercation with Abbott was resolved and he knew Penny was all right, his misgivings were back in full force.

  “Come into the kitchen.” Penny took Jonas’s arm and pulled him along the hallway and into a large, open room with a long table in the center. She pushed him down onto one of the stools lining the table and turned to rustle through a cupboard. “I know it’s here…”

  She let out a triumphant exclamation and turned back to set a glass bottle of antiseptic and a clean cloth next to Jonas’s elbow. He lost his breath when she moved close, thumbing his chin to tilt his head to one side.