A tense silence filled the room, and April made another attempt to take the gun, but Sep stepped to the side. She grunted. For a fourteen-year-old, he sure was quick on his feet!
“Look, my sister needs a husband,” Sep began, keeping his gaze level with Joel’s, “and she needs a good one. I’m sick of watching men mistreat her. So, you’re going to marry her whether you like it or not.”
It was then April understood what her brother was doing. Chances were good that Lou would be back, and next time, he might not be drunk. Her stomach knotted up at the memory of his hands on her body. He had no intention of stopping. Thanks to Sep and the fact that Lou was too drunk to shoot straight, Lou didn’t succeed. But they might not be so lucky next time unless they had a man Lou’s age to stand up to him.
Joel shook his head and looked at her. “You’re not going to let him keep that thing pointed at me, are you? It’s not a toy.”
She bit her lower lip and glanced from Nora to Sep whose worried expression pierced her heart. Next time, Lou might not miss when he shot Sep.
“You can deal with me,” Sep snapped. “Now, sit!”
Nora’s lower lip trembled before she cried.
“Sep, you’re scaring her,” April softly pleaded. “Will you stop?”
Sep ignored her, his finger stroking the trigger of the gun which was aimed for Joel’s arm.
Glancing from April to a wailing Nora, Joel sat down.
“Hands where I can see them!” Sep demanded.
Joel raised his hands in the air, and Nora settled down.
Gulping the lump in her throat, April asked Sep, “Will you please get your finger off the trigger?”
Sep did and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Joel threw his hands on the table and groaned. “This can’t be happening.”
Her heart still beating loudly in her chest, she turned her gaze to the flour and bowl. No doubt the water in the pot on the cook stove was warm enough to mix the ingredients in. “We can discuss it…after breakfast.” She offered a weak smile at a bewildered Joel. “Did you eat yet?”
“I’m not eating anything in this house,” Joel snapped.
“Then you already ate?” she asked, forcing a cheerful tone in her voice.
“No,” Joel replied.
“A man shouldn’t venture out to a farm without a full stomach.” Her hands trembled as she opened the sack of flour. “We’re having pancakes this morning. I’ll get the coffee going in a bit.”
Joel grunted and rolled his eyes. Nora giggled in response. He glanced at her and shook his head again as if he couldn’t believe this was happening. Sep pulled out the chair across from Joel and sat down, keeping his rifle directed at him.
April concentrated on getting breakfast ready while the men waited in a tense silence. Had it not been for Nora’s playful squeals, April wouldn’t have been able to keep on working as if nothing was wrong. She avoided eye contact with Joel and Sep for the most part because it was easier to pretend the gun wasn’t in the middle of the room that way. At least she had the assurance that her brother was steady with a gun, so he wouldn’t pull the trigger by accident.
She started humming to herself like she often did while cooking, but recalling the company in the room, she stopped. Once she got the coffee ready, she poured it into the cups and placed them in front of Sep and Joel. Daring a glance in Joel’s direction, she caught his piercing stare and quickly looked away. Alright. To say he was upset would be a slight understatement. He was much more than upset. He was furious.
And who could blame him? He was one of the few people who’d been nice to her and Sep in the past year, and this was how they treated him? She turned her gaze to Sep, but his attention was on Joel.
She cleared her throat and looked back at Joel. “It’s not that Sep wants to force you into a marriage.”
“Then don’t,” Joel snapped. “Get that gun out of my way and let me go.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“Sure it is.”
He stood up, and Sep stood up with him, shoving the gun toward him.
“Sep, you don’t have to be so…so…” April tried to think of the right word, but her mind drew a blank.
“Do you want Lou coming back?” Sep demanded, not taking his eyes off of Joel.
Her face flushed in a mixture of fear and shame. “Of course not.”
“Then we don’t have a choice, do we?” he asked.
“We can at least explain the situation to Joel.”
“Stop talking about me as if I’m not here,” Joel said.
After a moment of awkward silence, she took a deep breath and nodded. “Fair enough. Joel, there is no one here to protect us. Our pa went to be with the Lord right before I married Harvey. Now Harvey got himself killed during a gambling game where he was doing something he shouldn’t be doing. And now Harvey’s younger brother thinks it’s his turn to take over the place, and when I told him no, he didn’t take it well.”
Sep snorted. “That’s not the way I’d explain it.”
“Sep,” she warned. Joel didn’t need to know the part that still made her nauseous. “Anyway, Lou’s not a good man. But you’re a decent man, and you’re good with children. You’ll be good to us.”
“And if I don’t want to be here?” Joel pointedly asked.
“That’s not an option,” Sep replied before she could speak. “You’ve told him enough, April. It doesn’t matter to me if he agrees to it or not. He’s marrying you.”
“So this is what I get for being nice? Wonderful,” Joel muttered as he sat back down.
“I’m sorry, Joel,” she whispered. “If Lou didn’t come by here yesterday—”
“Will you please get the pancakes?” Sep interrupted. “He doesn’t need to know anything else, and Nora’s beginning to fuss.”
Since Nora was whimpering in a way that let April know she was ready to cry in a shrill voice unless she got something to eat very soon, April returned to the cook stove. She put the pancakes on the plates and set them out with a small amount of syrup to conserve as much as possible for the future. Sitting next to Nora, she helped her daughter with the meal. Though she didn’t have an appetite, she forced herself to eat, knowing they couldn’t afford to waste the food.
She didn’t expect Joel to eat his portion, but with a heavy sigh, he cut into his pancakes and ate it. That was good. She didn’t want him to go hungry. When they were done eating, she gathered the plates and cleaned Nora up. Sep walked over to the kitchen door and opened it. Surprised, she looked outside and saw that the snow had picked up.
He glanced at Joel and smiled. “Just as I thought. We’re having a snowstorm. You’re stuck here whether you like it or not. I’m going to put that sleigh and horse of yours in the barn. When the weather improves enough, we’ll find a preacher to make the marriage official.”
Joel glowered at him. “I would have made it back to town in plenty of time had it not been for you delaying me.” His eyes went to the gun for emphasis.
“I knew the storm was coming. We’ll have a blizzard within the next hour,” Sep said. “Someone up there is telling us this marriage is meant to be. I’ll be back soon, sis.” He left the house and shut the door behind him.
“Up, up!” Nora yelled.
April hurried over to her and released her from the highchair. Holding Nora in her arms, she ventured, “I know this looks bad, but Sep’s a good brother. He’s only protecting me.”
Joel’s response was to put his face in his hands and groan. Not knowing what else she might say or do to make the situation easier, she decided to change Nora’s diaper and let him have his space. Her pa and Harvey needed their space when they were upset, so she figured the same was true for every man. Maybe when she returned, he’d feel better about the situation. She could only pray that things would work out and, in due time, he’d be happy to be her husband.
Chapter Four
As soon as April took her daughter out of the kitchen, Jo
el headed for the door. He quietly opened it, glanced over his shoulder to make sure she hadn’t returned, and softly shut the door behind him. Taking his gloves out of his coat pockets, he slipped them on. Good. Her loony brother was nowhere in sight. It might be snowing harder than before, but Joel had enough experience traveling in the snow to know he could make it back to town by horse if he got to it.
He pulled up the hood of his coat and tightened the strings around his neck to brace against the wind. With a cautious scan of the property, he noted that Sep had, indeed, taken his horse and sleigh to the barn. Well, as his ma was fond of saying, there was more than one way to skin a cat. He might not be able to get to his horse directly, but unfortunately for Sep and April, Joel was good at sneaking into places. With a barn that had seen better days, there was bound to be a loose board somewhere.
He hurried down the porch steps and made his way to the back of the barn which was hidden from the house. Good. If April happened to look out the window, she wouldn’t see him. With the wind blowing the snow around, she probably wouldn’t see his footsteps either. For extra measure, he glanced back and was reassured when he didn’t see her peering out any of the windows. Once he got to the side of the barn where Sep wouldn’t see him if he left it, Joel took another look at the house. He didn’t know why he didn’t notice it sooner, but the house needed work. Turning his attention back to the barn, he saw it needed work, too. Who in the world was in charge of repairs here?
He shook his head. “It’s not my problem,” he whispered to himself and hurried to the back of the barn.
Sure enough, there were a couple of loose boards, and as luck would have it, he was slender enough to squeeze between them. He knelt in the snow and listened for anything that might tell him what Sep was doing, but the only thing he heard was the howling wind. Well, he was either going to do this or he wasn’t. Being as quiet as he could, he touched one of the wobbly boards and it snapped. Surprised it broke with such ease, he stared at it for a second before he tossed it aside.
If he was going to do this, he had to be quick. If Sep was still inside the barn, he was bound to hear Joel at some point. Joel’s only hope was getting into the barn and sneaking up on Sep before he found him. Joel pulled a couple more boards off of the barn and flung them to the ground. He leaned forward on his hands and knees and started crawling into the barn when someone kicked him in the behind.
Taken off guard, Joel lost his balance and his forehead hit a board that was still in place. “Ow!” he cried as pain shot through his head and down his back.
“I suggest you get back to the house,” Sep said.
Grunting, Joel got up on his feet and turned to his opponent who, despite being fourteen, was a formidable one. His eyes went to Sep’s gun which was pointed straight at him. “Doesn’t that get old?” Joel asked, pushing the gun away.
Sep brought it back to Joel’s chest. “Nope.”
“I’m tired of these games. I’m not staying and there’s nothing you can do to make me.”
Joel took one step passed Sep when Sep tripped him and pressed his foot on Joel’s back. The gun touched the back of Joel’s neck, and for a moment, Joel’s life flashed before his eyes. Sadly, there wasn’t much to show for it. He spent most of it on his parents’ farm and then moved to downtown Omaha to work for Doctor Adams. That was it. He didn’t even save someone’s life, which had been one of his secret hopes when he started working for the doctor. Then, at least, he could say he did something important.
“You’re not getting away,” Sep said, using added pressure on Joel’s back.
“Fine!” Joel barked. “You made your point.”
“Good.” Sep removed his foot so Joel could stand up. “Now get back into the house before you get sick. I can’t have you dying on me. You’re worth more to us alive than you are dead.”
Rolling his eyes, he moved forward, keenly aware that the kid still had the gun trained on him. Just wonderful. He was being held hostage by a fourteen-year-old kid. He could only hope word wouldn’t get back to his brothers about this, especially Tom who’d never let him hear the end of it.
Once they reached the porch, Sep told him to shake the snow off his clothes. “I don’t want April to have to worry about cleaning up a wet floor.”
“Fine,” Joel muttered as he stomped his feet and shook his body the best he could.
Sep got the snow off his boots before he motioned to the door. “You go in first.”
Joel did as instructed and sighed when Sep told him to take his boots and coat off. He left his boots on the rug and hung his coat on one of the hooks. “Alright. I’m officially your prisoner. Now what?”
“Go upstairs.”
“Why? It’s not night.”
“That doesn’t matter. I need to make sure you don’t try to run off again.”
Joel didn’t like the sound of this. “So you’re going to do what?”
“Right now, I got to repair the barn. I can’t have snow blowing into the hole you made. When I come back, we can sit by the fire in the parlor.”
“What fun,” Joel replied in mock enthusiasm. “Can we play cards and tell funny stories while we’re at it?”
“You keep talking like that and I’ll keep you in the room until lunch.”
“You’re going to keep me in a room?”
“What else do you think I’m going to do to make sure you don’t pull another sneaky stunt?”
“Unbelievable.” Joel trudged up the stairs, thinking it was going to be a long morning, but he’d rather spend time alone than with the crazy people in this house. Sooner or later, Doctor Adams would look for him, and at that time, they’d have to let him go or else his brother-in-law, the deputy, would set the law on them. When he reached the top of the stairs, he asked, “Which lovely room is my prison cell?”
April came out of one of the rooms with a newly washed Nora in her arms. “Prison cell?” Her eyes grew wide. “Sep, you’re not going to put him in the room!”
“I have to,” Sep said. “He crept on out of here like a rat scurrying for a hole to hide in. He was going to take a horse and ride to town. Not that he would have made it. The snow and wind would have done him in halfway there.”
“I would have made it,” Joel argued. “I grew up on a farm and know what a horse is capable of in the winter.”
“I know what a horse is capable of, too. Those temperatures are dropping, and the wind and snow are getting worse.”
“I could have made it.”
Sep smirked and shook his head.
Irritated, Joel pointed his finger at him, ignoring the gun. “Look here, kid. I’m twenty-two. That makes me eight years older than you. I think I know a little bit more than you do when it comes to horses and snow.”
“Please, stop!” April interrupted, looking bewildered as she glanced from one person to the other. “This is a tough situation for everyone, and this useless bickering isn’t going to make it any easier.” She took a deep breath. “Sep, you can’t put Joel in that room.”
“But I can’t leave him free to leave this house again,” Sep replied. “While you were up here taking care of Nora, he tried to escape on a horse.”
“Ah ha!” Joel snapped his fingers. “You admit that I could have made it to town.”
“I said ‘tried to escape,’” Sep said.
“Enough!” April shifted Nora from one hip to the other. “I’ll stay with Joel. We’ll go to the parlor, and I’ll give him one of your old dime novels to read. Joel, you promise you won’t try to leave again?”
Joel frowned and examined the three rooms around them. Her bedroom door was open, and in there was her bed and Nora’s crib. Another bedroom door was open, and he could make out the end of a bed in it. That left the third room, and the door to it was shut. He wondered what was in the room that bothered April so much.
“Alright.” Sep’s voice broke the silence. “He can stay in the parlor. But if he tries to leave the house, he’s in the room.”
/>
Joel’s gaze went back to the closed door to the third bedroom. Something in April’s tone warned him that the room was connected with bad memories, which meant, the room had been used for one of them in the past. The questions were who was it for and what happened in it?
“You want the gun?” Sep asked April.
She grimaced. “No, Sep. I think we’ve put him through enough. You should stop pointing it at him. How do you expect him to relax?”
“I don’t expect him to relax,” Sep replied. “I expect him to stay here and marry you.”
With a sigh, she brushed back the dark curls from Nora’s face. “I’m taking her downstairs. She’s been cooped up here long enough. Joel, we have plenty of dime novels if you’re interested. There are stories about outlaws and sleuths. Good stories that a man can enjoy. I’ll be tending to Nora and some sewing, so I won’t be in your way. If you want anything to drink, let me know and I’ll be happy to get it.”
While she took Nora downstairs, Joel examined Sep to see if he’d listen to his sister or not. At first, Sep remained frozen in place, the gun still raised and ready to go if he needed to assert his authority in the situation. Then his face softened and he lowered the gun. Joel’s shoulders relaxed.
“I’ll get to that barn,” Sep told Joel and followed April down the steps.
Joel resisted the urge to check out the room with the closed door and went down the stairs, noting each creak and the wobbly banister. He shook his head. Someone really needed to come in and fix the place up.
“The parlor is this way,” April said, motioning to the room by the front door. She put Nora down. “The dime novels are on the shelf over the couch.”
Since Sep was watching him, Joel decided to follow her. His steps were slow since Nora took her time as she made her way to the parlor. When he entered the room, he noted the shabby curtains, worn-out rug, and old furniture. The fireplace was in good shape, though he could tell it’d recently been repaired. So Sep probably took care of the items that needed to be fixed while letting the things that didn’t need immediate attention go.
Shotgun Groom Page 3