“How on Earth did you two meet?”
“Your friend Jeremiah was planning a little prison break,” Heath replied, “but when Purity found me and told me what had happened I wanted to find the bastard responsible for putting you in so much danger.”
Justice noticed Jeremiah’s black eye for the first time.
“Heath’s fist introduced us.” Jeremiah continued the story. “After a while, we decided that killing each other wasn’t helping you any. Grace is the one who came up with the plan.”
“After seeing you in jail, my husband saw how much I was hurting for you.” Grace shrugged. “We tried to bribe the judge first, but he wasn’t having it, neither was the supervisor. The rest of the jury took the bribe, but unfortunately, the foreman and the judge convicted you without the unanimous vote. We felt forced to move onto plan “B”. Ricardo called in a couple of favors and enlisted the help of your jailer. He has a terrible gambling problem, and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to pay off some debt. Regan detained the priest and after that—you know the rest of the story.”
Justice enveloped her sisters in a tight hug. There were no words to express the magnitude of what was in her heart.
Purity spoke quietly, “I’m sorry that we left you hanging.” Justice snorted. “No pun intended, but we couldn’t risk our plan being suspected. Your fear had to be real. Forgive us.”
Justice wiped at the tears in her eyes. “No forgiveness required. I can’t believe you all did this for me.”
Jeremiah pulled her to him and pressed his lips on hers. He kissed her until she no longer noticed the others in the room. When he pulled back, she saw something unmistakable in his beautiful eyes.
“I thought I lost you,” he told her roughly. He cleared his throat and nodded toward the back of the cellar. “I have something for you.”
Justice followed him to the back of the cellar and he handed her one of the bags she had thrown off the train.
“This is your share of the heist,” he told her. “You can leave Texas and start fresh somewhere. This is enough money to live a great life if you keep a low profile. I’d like you to make that life with me. As my wife.”
Sitting in her jail cell this morning, waiting to be hanged on the gallows she had listened to the workers build, Justice would never have envisioned this moment as a part of her day. When she had woken up this morning she had made the decision to die with dignity, and now she found herself asked to make another frightening choice. She was surprised at how simple a decision it turned out to be.
“I love you too, Jeremiah. Yes. I’ll marry you.”
Jeremiah let out a loud whoop that disturbed the card players. They gave the couple a dirty look as Jeremiah picked Justice up and swung her around. Tears trickled down her cheeks, and he kissed them away. Her sisters rushed over and hugged her. Heath walked over to Jeremiah and extended his hand.
“You’d better be good to her,” he said with sad, but deadly earnestness, “And whatever you do—keep her out of trouble.”
“I’ll do right be her,” Jeremiah responded. “She’s one in a million and I won’t soon forget.”
“You’d better not, cause if she ever needs me, I’ll kill you for her in a heartbeat.”
“Don’t worry friend,” Jeremiah told Heath with a devilish smirk. “You won’t need to worry about her. I’m going to make Justice a very happy woman.” Jeremiah set his hand possessively against her stomach. Heath’s eyes darkened and despite her happiness, Justice felt a tinge of regret for her friend’s hurt. Then Heath turned to her, hiding his pain with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Justice swatted Jeremiah’s arm away from her, angry that he could kick her friend when he was down. Jeremiah rubbed his arm and had the courtesy to look a tad ashamed for his blatant possessiveness.
“Let me be the first to kiss the bride then,” Heath said huskily.
He snatched her up and kissed her with a passion she had always known he held for her. She had never truly understood how deep it ran until that moment. Jeremiah growled, but Purity stepped in before it could come to blows again.
“Boys, boys, there will be plenty of time for a pissing contest later. Right now the three of us have a wedding to plan!”
She pulled Justice away as the men continued to stare each other down like dogs circling a bone. Ricardo and Regan walked over to diffuse the situation.
Justice still hadn’t felt so happy in all of her life.
Chapter Eight
Cascade, Colorado-A small farm-August 1867
The country was recovering well from the Civil War. Reconstruction was in full swing, and Grace reported that her husband’s “business” was flourishing because of it. As much as Justice missed her sisters, she knew that she could never risk going back to Texas. Every year Purity and Grace arrived at her home to spend two weeks with her, and this year they were both bringing their new babies. Shortly after she’d left Texas, the instant Telegram had come announcing that Purity and Regan had married. It seemed all three of the sisters had a soft spot for bad boys. Luckily, it seemed that fatherhood and love had begun to tame their men, if only slightly. Justice patted her rounded abdomen, hoping that her first-born would hold off arriving until after Purity and Grace had left, so that she wouldn’t be bedridden during the visit. Modern medicine had come a long way, but she was still nervous about the birth. Jeremiah insisted that she would be giving birth at the town’s new hospital, instead of at home, but she wanted to do this the traditional way and knew she would win the argument. She didn’t see the point in wasting good money when both of her sisters had enjoyed reportedly easy home births. His overprotective spurts annoyed her, but at least he was cute when he was worried.
Justice stood on the porch, letting the cool evening breeze refresh her as she watched her sister’s Zeppelin land far off in the field. Her brother-in-laws felt that Zeppelin travel was safer than stagecoach or horseless carriage, and hired a small private Zeppelin for their wives and children for the annual visit. Despite her personal reservations about the reported safety of Zeppelins, Justice was glad that the trip was twice as fast for her sisters and her nephews. Feeling her child kick her in the ribs, hard, she wondered if she would soon be bringing another boy into the family. She called to her husband, hard at work in the barn.
“Jeremiah, my sisters are here, could you go and bring them to the house?”
Jeremiah came out of the barn and waved to his wife with a smile. She watched him hitch the horses to the wagon, and smiled as he bounced out to the field where her family waited. A bright pink, purple, and golden sunset gave the departing Zeppelin a brilliant backdrop. She watched her sisters waving to their brother-in-law, and she felt a sense of contentment she had never expected to feel.
She had started out her life going in a very different direction, and even with all the pain and hardship, it had been worth it to be where she was. Her family was reunited, loving and forgiving. She had a husband that she adored, who adored her in return, and she was expecting his child. There had been a time when she had never thought any this to be possible. Looking up at the beautiful sky, she uttered two simple words to the heavens.
“Thank you.”
The End
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