“I know I haven’t seen Gabe in twenty years, but we’ve been corresponding the entire time,” Mark continued. “And I’m telling you, I’ve never seen a woman affect him the way you have. I encourage you. I think you should go out there and tell him exactly how you feel with no reservations. You don’t have to worry about his reception of it. Don’t even think he’s going to reject you. He isn’t. That man is in love with you. But don’t let me tell you that. You go hear it from him.”
Claire enjoyed the pep talk and the feeling it gave her when someone else told her they could see Gabe was in love with her. Her self-doubts tended to creep in at the worst times. When it was someone else saying they see the love, well…
She spun on her heel and pushed against the outside storm door. She hurried down the two steps to the grass and raced out to the fence around the pasture. As she approached, she wished she had riding breeches on, so she could jump the fence, grab a horse, and go find him.
She made it to the fence and leaned on it with both arms, scanning the field in front of her. There were cows all around her, munching on grass, standing still, walking around. A bull was in his pen to the right of the pasture. She looked at the huge animal. She knew better than to get anywhere near that thing. She turned away from it and began to walk the length of the fence, looking for the gate while at the same time searching the field for Gabe.
It was as if she was meant to see both at the same time. She spotted the gate and could see Gabe in the distance, riding back toward the farm. He came out of the wooded area and was riding over a small hill. He stopped at the top before coming down the other side.
He had seen her. She was sure of it.
She picked up her skirt in one hand and dashed to the gate as fast as she could.
Gabe had spent the morning clearing his mind. He wanted to go to church this morning but Adam had come to warn Gabe that Agatha had lost her mind and was spreading stories about him.
“I thought she was going to keep quiet?”
Gabe shook his head. “In the end, I was unable to convince her that trying to get me to love her that way wasn’t going to work. It angered her that I continued to spurn her advances.”
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” Mark had said.
“Exactly.”
“Well, whatever happens, we’ll help you. We’ll protect you and stand up for you. That’s what family is for and more importantly, that’s what justice is.”
Gabe smiled, thinking about his cousin’s words. He was lucky to be a relative to one of the most important men in Wickenburg. Everyone would listen to Mark. No one would listen to Agatha. Not after the first time. When they realized they were lied to, they would know who to trust. However, Gabe didn’t want to advertise the story behind his troubles. He didn’t feel like everyone in Wickenburg needed to know what happened. Now Agatha had made it impossible for him to escape it. He would always be known in his beloved hometown as the man who shot another man down in cold blood. Adam had told them some of the stories he’d heard. So far, there were three different versions. When Adam began to see the differences, he told each of them what they’d heard was false and they shouldn’t judge a man until he is proven guilty.
When Adam mentioned Claire and her possible involvement in the killing, it sent Gabe into a frenzy of anger. He gnashed his teeth and growled out that he was about to go “kill a lying harlot of a woman”. Mark and Adam both had to keep Gabe from leaving to go find Agatha. They knew she would be sleeping it off in her bed, giving Gabe easy access to her neck, which he would either squeeze or break, depending on his mood.
It had taken them hours to get him to calm down. He thought all night about how Claire was going to react. He should have gone to her already. He should have gone to find her and tell her exactly what was going on. She would have stood by his side. It was too late now. He’d waited too long. She would hear the stories and she would drop him like a bad habit.
He shook his head. He couldn’t believe that would happen. He and Claire had found a connection. They had bonded in a way he never thought possible with a woman. Certainly, he’d never felt it with anyone before.
He reached the top of the hill and looked out at the horizon. It was going to be a clear, sunny day, one of the late spring days that led into summer quickly. A little hot, a little breezy, but always peaceful. Even if it was thunder and lightning, the atmosphere that surrounded him in Wickenburg was the most peaceful he’d ever known. He longed to buy some land and build a home here.
His thoughts brought back a new wave of fear and anxiety. He was afraid Claire would not understand and he was anxious that she would leave him for good. He didn’t want to be with anyone else. He’d waited so long to find the right woman. Now that he’d found her, he wouldn’t be able to let her go and love another.
He dropped his eyes to the ground at the end of the pasture and brought his horse to a stop. He could see Claire, her blond hair shining in the sun, loose and flying behind her back as she hurried to the fence gate. His heart began to thud against the inside of his chest. His breath quickened. He watched her scanning the field. She had come to find him.
What did that mean? Was she furious? What was she thinking?
He cleared his throat and urged his horse to go down the side of the hill in her direction. She’d found the gate and gone through it quickly. She was walking toward him. The wind had caught her hair and loosened it from its pins. It was covering her face and waving behind her as she walked. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight. He tried to see the look on her face but he was too far away. He urged his horse to move faster.
She’d been crying. That was the first thing he noticed. Her eyes were red and swollen. Her eyebrows were furrowed in worry. It hurt his heart to see that look of pain on her face.
How stupid not to go to her first thing, he scolded himself. How stupid! She would have listened to you. Now you’ve let her hear the things they’re saying from someone else.”
He looked past her to the house. He saw Mark leaving through the front door, going down the pathway to his wagon. Molly was with him and someone else. Another woman. He could only see the back of her bonnet and her dress. She had a light yellow shawl clutched around her shoulders. He had no idea who that might have been.
He moved his eyes back to Claire. They were almost together. Before she got to him, he dismounted and held on to the reins, walking slowly forward.
Claire took small, quick steps to get to him. She had to watch where she was going because there were cow patties all around her and she didn’t want to step in one. She hurried, dodging them along the way.
She tried to see the look on his face, to see if he was at all remorseful that he’d put her through this with no warning whatsoever. She waged an internal battle between her head and her heart. She wanted to believe only good things about Gabe. She wanted to believe in him more than anyone else in the world. Now she had reason to doubt. He had, in fact, killed a man. She could tell by the look on Mark’s face and the fact that he wouldn’t just come out and tell her no. To Claire, that meant the answer was yes and that she needed to hear Gabe’s explanation.
She’d have no choice but to listen. Her head might be telling her anything he said was a lie, her heart told her to trust him.
She stopped when he dismounted. She scanned his face. He was so handsome. He moved slowly, keeping his eyes down. Finally, when he was only a few feet away, he looked up at her.
“Claire,” he said her name in a voice so deep, it resonated in her body. She closed her eyes for a moment, letting the feeling wash over her. She knew she was done for. It didn’t matter whether he told her the truth or not. She was going to believe him. She opened her eyes and looked at him. She couldn’t let him know that. “Claire, please allow me to explain. Will you go for a ride with me?”
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to be seen alone together,” Claire said softly. “Our reputations are currently at stake as it is.”
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“All the more reason to not care what they say,” Gabe said, holding out his hand. “Take a chance, Claire. Let me explain. Please. I’m begging you.”
Claire shook her head. “Don’t beg me, Gabe. I don’t want you to do that. I just want the truth. I just want to know the truth from you. Did you kill someone?”
Gabe swallowed and sighed. He tried to think of some way to quickly explain it to her but he knew she wanted a yes or no answer. She didn’t want a long explanation. She didn’t even want a short one. She wanted a yes or a no.
“Gabe?” Her voice shook when she said his name, causing a stabbing pain in Gabe’s chest. He frowned.
“Claire. Please come with me and let me…”
“I just want to know if you killed someone,” she repeated softly.
“I need to explain it to you. You need to know…”
“Gabe.” She said his name in a firm voice, the one she used with her students at the school. He blinked at her, chewed his bottom lip for a moment and then nodded. “Yes, Claire. I killed a man. That’s why I left Kentucky. But you need to know why. Please let me tell you why.”
She nodded, walking toward him and taking his hand. “All right, Gabe. I want to hear it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CABIN IN THE WOODS
CABIN IN THE WOODS
Gabe helped Claire up onto his horse so that she was sitting behind him. She circled her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his back. He turned the horse around and they went back toward the woods where he’d come from.
They rode in silence. There was no need to talk until they were somewhere settled, where they could look at each other. Gabe knew just where to go. He’d been looking at it earlier. There was a small cabin near the river that went through the back of Mark’s land. Mark had built a fishing dock off the shore. He would take her to the cabin. If it was in fine shape, he was thinking of taking it on and making it part of his new life. Mark would sell it to him at a reasonable price. He’d already given Gabe the key.
Gabe took the trail that had been cut into the woods. It would lead in three different directions. One of them would take him to the cabin. The other to the dock. The other lead out into the woods where Mark did his hunting. Gabe took the path to the cabin, aware the entire ride that she was sitting behind him. He imagined he could feel her heartbeat, though he doubted that was possible.
Her arms around him felt warm. She felt warm against him. He wanted to turn around and kiss her. He wouldn’t do it, but he wanted to more than he thought possible. He was glad when he could see the cabin in the distance. He wanted to be sitting next to her on a couch, looking at her beautiful face, talking to her, gazing into her eyes.
Claire held on as tightly as she could. He was a large man and her arms barely made it around him, even when she pressed herself against his back. She purposefully pressed her ear into his back, listening to his heart beat. It was beating fast.
She smiled.
She squeezed him a little harder for a moment, wondering if he’d notice the “mini-hug”. She was so glad to be close to him, she didn’t care how long they rode or the fact that she didn’t have on her riding breeches. She wasn’t as comfortable as she would have liked, but he wasn’t making the horse run too fast so the ride was essentially smooth.
When they did stop, she was comfortable enough to be surprised and a little disappointed they had to stop. When she pulled away from him and saw the cabin, she opened her eyes wide in surprise.
“Oh, Gabe! Where are we?”
“I’m thinking of buying this cabin from Mark and some of the land around it. Starting my own small farm. I’m used to running a ranch. I think a farm would be fun.”
“Do you know how to grow food?”
“I do.”
“Then you should be good to go.” Claire smiled at him.
He held up his arms and she slid down into them. He set her on the ground and looked down in her eyes. She seemed happy. He knew she’d been crying. Now he’d confirmed the truth to her. He had killed a man in Kentucky.
She didn’t look like she even remembered he had told her that. She took his hand and they walked to the front of the cabin together. He opened the door and let her in first.
“I haven’t been here to do any cleaning,” he said. “So it looks the way it has for the past year or so. I think Mark has someone come in and clean it every few months, but it looks like it’s been a few months since they’ve been here.”
“So they’re due any day now. That’s good.” Claire ran a finger over the dust on the table in front of the couch. “I’m afraid to sit on this couch,” she giggled. “I think it might cover me in dust. And there might be little parasites in the cushions.”
Gabe chuckled. “I don’t think that’s so. But… I do have a solution.” He held up one finger. “Stay right there. I’ll be right back.”
He was out the door in a flash and returned promptly with a large folded blanket. He went to the couch and tossed the blanket up in the air, holding on to its sides. He draped the blanket over the couch and pushed it up around the curtains. “This is a clean blanket. Molly washed it just a few days ago. It’s safe to sit on.”
Claire smiled at him. “Thank you, Gabe. I appreciate it.” She took a seat and looked up at him, her hands folded in her lap. She looked at the space next to her and he hurried to sit there. She leaned toward him. “Gabe. I want you to know that I appreciate you so much, that I’m so glad I met you. I know you’ve told me you took a life, but the man I know… and have come to love…” she added softly. “You are not a violent man. You don’t get drunk and you don’t go around shooting people. Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re not wrong,” he replied quickly.
“Then tell me everything that happened, start to finish. I want to know what I’m telling people when they ask me about you. I know you aren’t a villainous man. I know you aren’t.”
“I’m so glad you have faith in me. You don’t know how much that means to me.”
Claire shook her head. “I need to know the story. Was it over a woman? Did you kill a man because of a woman?”
He nodded. “Yes, but not really in the way you think, my dear. I’ll tell you what happened, and if you have any questions, any questions at all, I want you to ask me. Can you do that, honey?”
Claire felt special. He had called her “dear” and “honey” in the same breath. She licked her lips. “I can do that, Gabe. Tell me, what was her name?”
“Her name was Annie. We were very close. We weren’t going to be married, though we did give courting a try.”
“A try?”
“Yes. It was such a strange situation. I employed her brother, Jack, at my ranch. I let their family members come and go regularly, borrowing horses, wagons or even my trained dogs if they needed them. His sister, Annie, began to come around the ranch when she was about 25 years old. She was young enough to be my daughter. I didn’t want a relationship with her that way. But we did make fast friends and we spent a lot of time together, traveling and seeing sights. We always had friends with us, so we thought nothing of it. Her brother was upset, though, and accused me of not being a man because I had not asked her to marry me. When I balked at that, he accused me of using a young woman’s heart and throwing it away. No amount of arguing could settle this man’s mind. I was… I just didn’t know what to do. He was younger than me but I’m still a very strong man and can hold my own in a fight.”
“I’m sure you can,” she said appreciatively. She eyed the muscles bulging against his shirt. He instinctively flexed and she giggled. He smiled from ear to ear.
“We are talking about something serious here, dear,” Gabe said. “No smiling allowed.”
“That, Gabe,” she replied gently. “Is never a rule. Remember that. There’s always time and a reason to smile.”
He pulled in a deep breath. “You are the sweetest woman I know.”
She blushed, covering h
er smile with one hand. He reached out and lowered her hand so he could see her smile. “And you have a beautiful smile.”
“Oh, Gabe.”
“Let me finish the story. I want to know what you think of me.”
She nodded and he continued.
“Her brother was out for blood. There was a fight. He caught us together and by this time, he was convinced I was using her for her youth, even though both of us told him our relationship did not go that far. As I said, we tried it because he thought we were supposed to be together at first. When the courting only made us uncomfortable around each other, we decided we were better friends. So we broke off the courtship. That made him even angrier. When he found us together, he lost his mind. He started fighting with me. Annie got in the way and he punched her.”
Claire gasped, both hands going up to her mouth. “Oh no!” she exclaimed.
Gabe nodded. “It was pretty bad. He hurt her something awful. I tackled him after that and we fought. It was in my study at the ranch and we near destroyed that room. At the end, he was trying to drag Annie out of the room by her hair. I couldn’t handle it and tried to stop him. He went for his gun but…” he shook his head. “I was a faster draw. I didn’t want to kill him. It just happened that way. If I hadn’t, he would have killed me.”
Claire pulled in a deep breath. “Oh, Gabe. I knew there was something that would justify what you’ve done. You killed to defend yourself and a good friend. Much as I would expect from you.”
“We’re going to suffer a lot of backlash, Claire. Agatha has said some pretty terrible things. She’s included you in my crime.”
“What happened after you… after he died? Where is Annie? Did you have to speak to the sheriff?”
“Annie and I both went in different directions. Neither of us wanted to be held responsible for what happened.”
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