All Roads Lead Home

by Christine Johnson

  “Perfect for what?” Mariah tensed. This was beginning to sound like a repeat of yesterday, except this time she felt nothing for the man. If Frank Gillard had fallen in love, it definitely was not reciprocal.

  “Perfect for me, we’re perfect for each other. Surely you feel it, too. Our lives have been intertwined for years, even though we didn’t know it. We both love Luke. We both want what’s best for him.”

  Did they? Anna’s accusations rang in her ears. Before yesterday, Mariah had been so sure of herself. Not now. Neither one of them had asked Luke what he wanted.

  “What is best for Luke?” she asked softly.

  “A family,” he said without hesitation. “A mother and a father.”

  “He has that,” she pointed out. “My brother and his wife adore Luke.”

  “I’m sure they do, but your brother is not Luke’s father.”

  Mariah thought back two years to when Felicity discovered that she’d been adopted. The news had shocked her deeply, but in the end she’d realized that her true father was the man who had loved her and raised her. If that was the measure of fatherhood, then Gabe was much more of a father to Luke than Gillard was.

  “Fathers come in many forms,” she said.

  He ignored her. “This will all be Luke’s one day.” He spread his arms wide. “He will inherit my ranch and its three thousand acres. He will grow up free as the wind. He will look to the mountains and know their power. He will be someone.”

  “He already is someone.”

  “Of course, but with the love of a mother and father and the inheritance I’ll leave him, he will become all he’s meant to be.” Gillard took her hand. “He needs you.” His voice had grown thick, and she instinctively recoiled.

  “I will be his nanny,” she blurted out. “I’ll help him make the transition to his new life. It’s the least I can do.”

  “But not the most. I love you, Mariah.”

  She shuddered.

  “I know it’s only been a short time,” he said, his smile too practiced, “but life moves quickly on the frontier. You would be the perfect mother for my son. Just think. You’d never have to leave him.”

  He ran his lips down her hand to her wrist, and a cold chill shook her. This was wrong, terribly wrong. Her chest tightened so she could barely take a breath. She tugged her hand away.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Gillard, but I don’t feel the same way.” To be safe, she slid a short distance away from him.

  “I don’t understand. Why settle for being a nanny when you can be a wife?” His proprietary air did nothing to settle her nerves.

  Gillard collected whatever caught his eye, and that now included her. He saw her as a conquest, a trophy to capture. Was that how all the staff had come to his ranch? Were they lured there, bought, forced? If she married him, she would be forced to submit. Her breath caught in her throat.

  “I can’t have children,” she cried when he reached for her.

  He laughed. “Is that what’s stopping you from accepting? I have Luke. I don’t care about any other children.”

  Shocked, she backed away. What man didn’t want children, especially when he was so desperate to get his son? “A-are you sure?”

  He tipped up her chin, as if to kiss her. “Yes, I’m sure.”

  She felt ill. This had to stop now. She shook away. “I’m sorry. I’ll work for you as nanny, but that’s all. Please understand. I can’t marry without love, and I don’t love you.”

  He watched her, considering. The man betrayed no emotion. Hendrick had been devastated when she turned him down, but Gillard seemed to feel nothing.

  At last he shrugged. “Fair enough.” Then he grinned. “I had to try, though. No hard feelings?”

  He’d recovered awfully fast. Though relieved, Mariah also grew more concerned. What had she gotten herself into? Nonetheless, she nodded. “No hard feelings.”

  “Wonderful. How soon until Luke arrives?”

  What could she say? After rejecting his proposal, should she dare to ask for more concessions? Though he might refuse, she had to try. “Could we wait a couple of weeks?”

  His gaze narrowed. “A couple of weeks? Why?”

  “My sister-in-law is due to deliver around the end of the month. She’s having a difficult pregnancy and she doesn’t know yet that you want Luke back. The news will shock her and might send her into premature labor.”

  His steely eyes bored into her. “That isn’t my problem. Your brother should have told her. I don’t see why I need to wait for a situation that isn’t my fault.”

  She was aghast. “But what if something happens?”

  “She’s almost due. What’s going to happen? I assume there are doctors where they live.”

  Mariah’s mind whirled at his cruel words. She’d always insisted that Gillard didn’t deserve Luke. If he didn’t care about the welfare of an expectant mother, he shouldn’t be raising a child. Yet he was Luke’s father. She could do nothing to keep them apart. Now it seemed that she couldn’t even postpone it for the sake of Gabe and Felicity.

  “I’m sorry to sound harsh,” he admitted, “but I’m so anxious to see my son. You can’t imagine what it’s been like to wonder how he’s been, and to hope he still remembers me. Please, Miss Meeks? Mariah.”

  She licked her lips. “I understand, but Luke’s too young to travel alone on the train. Someone would need to come here with him. My brother can’t come until after the delivery. It’s just a couple of weeks.”

  “I’ve waited more than two years. I don’t want to wait a minute longer than I have to.”

  She sighed, beaten. Gillard could send anyone to fetch Luke. Best it be someone Luke knew. “Then I’ll take the first train east and get him.”

  She stood, thinking their conversation was over, but he grabbed her by the shoulders.

  “It will take too long for you to travel back and forth. Surely there’s someone who can bring him, a friend or relative? Someone from your agency?”

  Her mouth got dry. Of course there was someone. Pearlman was small. An entire congregation would rally around their pastor. “I’ll ask,” she conceded.

  He beamed. “Good, we’ll head back to town so you can call your brother right away to make arrangements.”

  Thunder rumbled in the distance, signaling danger. To the west, dark clouds poured over the shrouded mountain peaks. How fitting.

  She’d just failed.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Hendrick started the new fire engine pump.

  “Ready with the intake?” he asked the man who’d dragged the hose down to Beson Creek.

  “Ready,” came the shout from below.

  “Nozzle open?” Hendrick asked Talltree and his friends who manned the fire hose.

  “Ready,” they chimed in unison.

  Hendrick opened the valve and heard the growl of water getting sucked from the creek. The intake hose filled and stiffened like a sausage. So far, so good.

  He trained his attention on the nozzle as the pump roared, all six cylinders firing perfectly. Any moment now. He tensed in preparation for the spray of water. Air bubbles exploded out the nozzle as the water pushed from behind. This time it had to work.

  “It’s coming,” Talltree yelled.

  It was. The hose had fattened its entire hundred-yard length.

  Hendrick waited, tense with anticipation.

  Water trickled out the nozzle. Then air popped and sizzled, interrupting the flow. Finally, with a gurgle, came the full stream of water.

  “Tighten the nozzle,” he barked. “Try to get some distance out of it.”

  Talltree did as directed and the men aimed the stream into the air. It went twenty yards up in an arc and twenty yards down, creating a rainbow in the sunlight.

  “Is that the best you can do?” he called out.

  “That’s all it’s got,” Talltree yelled back.

  “All right. Let’s shut it down.” Hendrick cut the motor, and the stream of water piddled out
.

  He scrubbed his head. “That’s good, but I was hoping for more.” He’d tinkered and tweaked, trying to get the most horsepower out of the motor. Maybe he should have taken apart the water pump. Now there wasn’t enough time.

  Talltree coiled the hose back on the engine. “It’s a hundred times better than before. Now we stand a chance of putting out a fire. Thank you.”

  Hendrick wasn’t satisfied. “I wanted to get it running better before I left.”

  Talltree grinned. “Don’t worry, chief. I can handle it. Go home where you’re needed.”

  “Home?” Judge Weiss had apparently noticed the test and came over to supervise. “You planning on leaving, son?”

  Hendrick looked the judge square in the eye. “I have to, sir.”

  Weiss assessed him quietly. “Woman trouble, eh?”

  How would he know? Hendrick bristled. “I don’t go back on my word, sir. I’ll do all I can to improve the engine before I leave. You can count on it.”

  “I know I can,” Weiss said quietly. “Talltree here says that you’ve got integrity, and he doesn’t trust white men without good reason.” He squinted at the mountains. “Looks like weather coming, boys. Let’s get this pumper back to the station.”

  Everyone, Judge Weiss included, coiled up the hose and helped drag the fire engine back to the filling station. Ordinarily, horses pulled the old pumper, but for this short of distance, Hendrick hadn’t bothered to ask for a team.

  “We need another way to get this around,” the judge huffed, wiping his brow. “Last time we had a blaze, it took fifteen minutes to get a horse team here. Can it be hooked up to a vehicle?”

  “It could,” Hendrick said slowly, “but I need to install a hitch on the vehicle you plan to use.” He’d seen only a handful of cars in Brunley, and the only ones capable of pulling the weight belonged to rich men.

  “Use my Bessie,” Weiss said. “I’ll back her up to the garage door.”

  Hendrick looked at Talltree. “Bessie?”

  “His car.”

  The judge continued to surprise Hendrick. Apparently, he cared more for the community than for his belongings. Unlike Gillard.

  “He’d let me weld a hitch onto his Willys?”

  Talltree nodded. “He’d do that—and more—to help this town. That’s why the tribal business council favors his proposal.”

  The tribal business council. Mariah had wanted him to ask about their meeting the other day, to find out what they said about Gillard. If he’d done what she asked, maybe they wouldn’t have come to this crossroads. Maybe she wouldn’t be with Gillard right now.

  “What proposal is that?” he hazarded, not really expecting an answer.

  “For oil.”

  The paperwork that had been on Frank Gillard’s desk said something about oil leases. “Did Gillard want a lease?” Hendrick pressed.

  “What do you think?”

  “I think he does.” Hendrick worked it through his mind. Gillard wanted an oil lease that only the tribe could grant. “Then he’s going up against the judge.”

  Talltree nodded. “The council doesn’t trust Gillard, but he claims he has tribal blood in his family through his son.”

  Luke. The tingling started in Hendrick’s fingers and moved through to his toes. That’s why Gillard wanted Luke so badly.

  “But the council still favors Judge Weiss.”

  Talltree’s expression was grave. “We can’t ignore blood.”

  “Then Gillard will get the lease?”

  “If he can produce his son by the end of the month.”

  Hendrick felt sick. No wonder Gillard was pressuring Mariah. No wonder he flattered her, led her to believe he loved her and proposed marriage. He had to have Luke—and soon. “Are these leases valuable?”

  “There are rumors of oil near Sunburst, east of the reservation land that’s up for lease.”

  If exploration paid off and oil was found, this lease could make Gillard as rich as a Rockefeller. No wonder he wanted it so badly, but just how far would he go to ensure that he got it? Hendrick recalled Weiss’s warning that Gillard wasn’t someone to be crossed. If Mariah didn’t go along with his plan, what would he do to her?

  A low rumble followed by an earsplitting crack made him jump. Lightning had struck very close.

  “Sounds like the storm’s here,” Talltree said before heading outside to look.

  Through the open garage door, Hendrick saw that daylight had turned to night. The wind howled down from the mountains, bending the grass flat and sending the dirt through the air in a dust blizzard.

  Mariah was out in that with only Gillard to protect her. Hendrick wished he could fill that role, but Mariah had made it clear that everything was over between them. She’d chosen Gillard. He’d seen it in her look of determination this morning. She’d marched toward the man and let him seat her in his car. But, come to think of it, she hadn’t embraced him or even smiled at him. No, she’d looked more like a woman headed to a funeral. Well, that was her choice, and he’d better find a way to accept it and stop worrying about her all the time.

  He shivered as more lightning crackled outside. Letting go of Mariah wasn’t going to be easy.

  Thankfully, he didn’t have time to dwell on it. Weiss pulled his car across the open door and hopped out.

  “Let’s go, boys,” the judge said. “I’ll get Straight Arrow’s mule team. We’ve got a fire on our hands.”

  Mariah felt exposed on the mountaintop. Thunder crackled around her, and lightning streaked across the sky. The wind rushed upon them all at once, rattling the bushes and scrub trees. Gillard rode by her side, but that was little comfort. She urged her mare to hurry down the trail toward the spruce forest where they had to travel single file.

  Rain hadn’t fallen yet, but the wind whipped the branches into a clattering frenzy. Needles and pinecones showered down. Cold air sliced through the heat, turning summer to fall in an instant.

  “Hurry,” she urged the mare, anxious to get away from both Gillard and the storm.

  “She’s going as quickly as she dares,” he snapped. “Horses don’t like storms any more than we do. Just make sure you let her know you’re in control so she doesn’t get spooked.”

  Mariah was not in control—of her horse or the situation. Gillard expected her to have Luke sent immediately. He wouldn’t listen to reason. Why? Why was he so adamant that Luke come now? She could understand a father’s longing to see his son, but a couple of weeks didn’t matter. It would take days to get here by train anyway. She shook her head. It didn’t make sense.

  “When we get out of the forest, we’ll ride side by side again,” Gillard said. “That way I can take the reins if your mare gets spooked by the storm.”

  Those were not calming words. Mariah gripped her reins against the saddle horn, dreading the moment they got back into the open. At least when they rode single file, Gillard couldn’t see her expression. She could think freely, without worrying about inadvertently frowning, which would prompt a question.

  The trek through the forest seemed to take longer than it had going up. The trees all looked the same, and Mariah began to wonder if she’d taken a wrong turn. Then they reached an impasse. A downed tree blocked the trail.

  “I must have missed a turn,” she said. “There wasn’t a tree blocking the trail on the way up.”

  Gillard dismounted and examined the tree. “This is fresh. See the soil? The split where lightning struck? We’re lucky it didn’t catch fire.”

  A shiver ran down Mariah’s spine. Fire. The last thing they needed in the midst of this tinder-dry forest.

  “Can we get around it?” she asked.

  He pointed to the left. “Dismount and lead your horse around the base of the tree. I’ll be right behind you.”

  That gave her little comfort. More and more she felt trapped, as if an oppressive blanket had been cast over her. Luke was just ten. She would be here eight more years, making her nearly forty by the time
Luke became an adult. She could never love Gillard. She didn’t even trust him. In time, he might strike her or worse. She shuddered. But she had to protect Luke. Someone had to protect Luke.

  “How much farther?” she asked as she mounted again.

  “No more than a mile to the meadows.” His smirk sent shivers through her. “Don’t worry, Miss Meeks. Soon we’ll be safe.”

  Mariah doubted she’d ever feel safe again. She prayed she could somehow keep Luke safe.

  They left the forest and entered the open meadow, where the wind whipped the grasses flat. Lightning crashed all around, and her horse pranced, anxious. Mariah had visions of the horse rearing and throwing her to the ground, but then Gillard grabbed her reins.

  “Take charge,” he barked, “or she’ll run on you.”

  Mariah had long since lost control. Trembling, she realized that she’d never really had it. Oh, she thought she could control things, but in the end, she was the one who’d been manipulated. She’d placed herself in Gillard’s hands and now found herself in the midst of a storm on a jittery horse. Death might release her, but not Gillard. All she had left to trust was God. He never failed. He gave His followers the power to defeat the enemy. On Him could she rely. At that moment, clinging to a horse, she finally did what she should have done from the start. She let go and commended everything into His care.

  A sense of calm came over her at once, followed by bitter regret. Despite the wind and lightning, she saw herself with terrible clarity. How wrong she’d been during this whole trip. She had treated Hendrick without the consideration he deserved. She’d taken him for granted, had misled him by accepting his kiss and then tossed him aside. She was no better than Frank Gillard. The truth stabbed through her with painful precision.

  With a sob, she prayed that God would give her the chance to right her mistakes.

  “Please forgive me, Lord,” she wept. “How I have sinned, how horribly I have sinned.”

  As the tears flowed, she felt His healing grace and forgiveness.

  “Why are you blubbering?” Gillard snapped. “We’re almost there.”