“Dang it, Molly. What have I done to you?”
She laughed. “Come on. We have to hurry, the reverend and his wife are coming for dinner.”
“Son-of-a-biscuit-eater!” Rubal walked the rest of the way in reflective silence. He’d wronged Molly and wronged her and just seemed to keep on wronging her. Now the whole town was talking about her and the only way he knew to stop them was to leave Apple Springs.
Or marry her. And before he could marry her, he had to tell her the truth. But the only truth that mattered right now was that he didn’t deserve as fine a woman as Molly Durant. He didn’t deserve her love. He didn’t deserve to marry her.
But danged if he could give her up. Not any longer. Some inner voice told him he never could have—not from that first night of dancing and lovemaking. That first night that had filled his mind for a year, day and night, with the nettlesome visions of her—her hair, her laughter, her passion. No, he would never have been able to give up her memory.
Now that he’d returned, he’d never be able to give her up. Now that he’d returned, he had to spend the rest of his life with her.
At the porch he opened the screen door, then tugged on her arm until she stopped in the threshold, where he planted a wet, hungry kiss on her lips.
“Feather, you say?”
“Don’t you wish we could try it out?”
“In the worst way, Molly love. In the worst way.”
Molly crossed the foyer, removed the pins from her hat, untied the puffy pink bow, and placed it on the top hook of the hall rack.
Rubal tossed his Stetson on an opposite hook. He cast a wistful glance up the staircase, then turned a grim expression on Molly. “But I wouldn’t give those dried-up old biddies the satisfaction of being right about that, too.”
Travis continued to surprise the family. He appeared at the dinner table, taking a place on the opposite side of Jeff from Lindy.
With the increase in customers, Molly had gone to two seatings for Sunday dinner as well as for supper. The table filled quickly for the first seating. The Reverend and Mrs. Callicott and the Petersens joined Betty and Cynthia and Jimmie Sue, who were seen to cast wistful eyes back and forth between Molly and Rubal.
Rubal wondered exactly what they were thinking. Did these girls, like the older females in town, think he and Molly were sleeping together? Surely Lindy had told them differently. Surely Lindy knew differently.
They had certainly taken pains to show all the kids how virtuous they could be.
Sugar had just begun to serve the first course, turtle soup—the turtle having been caught on the little boys’ trotline the evening before—when two additional diners appeared, Olivia and Nathan Rau.
“I smell sourdough bread,” Olivia Rau enthused when Molly met them in the foyer to take their quarter and hats. “Hope there’s room for us.”
“We’ll make room.”
Suddenly Cleatus’s place at the head of the table was glaringly vacant.
Molly caught Rubal’s eye. “Jubal, would you…?”
He glanced quickly to Travis. “Why don’t you give Mrs. Rau your place, Travis?” he suggested. “You sit here.”
“But that’s—”
“Doesn’t look like it’ll be used,” Rubal added. “An’ after all’s said and done, it’s your rightful place.”
Travis’s shoulders seemed broader when he stood, seating Mrs. Rau before taking his place at the head of the table.
The reverend’s prayer came as no surprise. Although he left out the part about the poor orphaned children, he stressed the other part, the one beseeching the Lord to take care of Molly’s virtuousness, a bit too much for Rubal’s taste. He chanced a glance at Molly, and she winked.
How in heaven’s name did she take this abuse so calmly? He supposed knowing the offenders all her life helped, but he couldn’t for the life of him see how that mattered. Rudeness was no more justified coming from friends than from strangers. Less so, to his mind.
Mrs. Callicott was atwitter about the engagement. “Took us by surprise,” she admitted to Molly. “You know, dear, we all thought—”
“I know what you thought, Mrs. Callicott. But you were wrong. I was never betrothed to Cleatus.” Molly passed the basket of Sugar’s moist and fragrant sourdough rolls. When she spoke again it was in a tone that would have challenged the angels above for sweetness. “A lot of other things folks are saying aren’t true, either.”
Mrs. Callicott’s reaction was to cast wide eyes at Rubal, after which she had the grace to blush.
Even though the Rau family had eaten at the Blake House before, today for the first time Molly guessed the reason. Mrs. Rau couldn’t keep her eyes off Willie Joe. Mrs. Rau was the lady Iola Young had been wanting to bring by the house.
Willie Joe ate his meal, oblivious to the woman’s attention. Finally Molly could stand it no longer. “Is it this afternoon Mr. Jarrett is taking you fishing, Willie Joe?”
Food was forgotten; Willie Joe’s eyes lit up like he’d been given an early birthday gift.
Rubal studied Molly to see what had prompted her unusual statement. She never suggested he do anything with the boys. He always initiated their expeditions, or the boys themselves did. He was just about to invite Little Sam to join them, when he followed Molly’s gaze to Mrs. Rau’s anguished expression. “Sounds like a fine idea to me,” he agreed. “Why don’t we all go? How about it, Little Sam?”
“Boy, oh, boy, mister.”
“Lindy, you and Jeff want to come?”
Lindy looked to Jeff; Jeff looked to Lindy. Messages passed between them, messages Rubal had no trouble deciphering. He hoped the reverend and the other good folks at the table were too caught up with their game of censuring Molly to notice the passion radiating between these two youngsters.
“Sure,” they said in unison, then broke out laughing.
“Sure, Mr. Jarrett,” Lindy said.
Rubal turned to Travis. “How ’bout you? Want to come along?”
Travis held Rubal’s eyes steadily. At length he replied, “Why not? We’ll make it a family outing.”
Rubal turned back to Molly with a guileless grin. “Looks like we’ll have fish for supper.”
But Molly was too busy savoring the moment. They were a family. A family. And the most unlikely one among them had announced it to the entire town by telling the women at this table.
“We’d better catch a lot,” she told Rubal with a broad grin. “Something tells me we’ll be overrun with diners for supper.”
Rubal, caught up in protecting Molly from the townsfolk, didn’t realize until the meal was almost over that Waldo and Calder hadn’t appeared for Sunday dinner. They didn’t always eat with the family, of course, but they rarely missed the first seating for Sunday dinner, while Sugar’s sourdough rolls were hot and fresh.
“Where’re Waldo and Calder?” he questioned Jeff across the table.
“Haslett sent word he needed them today.”
“On Sunday?”
Jeff shrugged.
Rubal considered the situation and his options, which, under the circumstances were unfavorable in the worst way. After the meal he met Molly in the kitchen, where she and Sugar were busily preparing for the second seating.
Taking the cup towel from her hands, he hung it over the dry sink, then captured her face in his hands and kissed her once.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too.”
“Do you think the kids will understand if I have to postpone our fishing trip?”
She frowned.
He kissed her nose. “Business. Urgent. I wouldn’t go otherwise, not after telling them we’d go together.”
“What…?”
“Wait up for me. I’ll explain.” His lips found hers, caressing, coaxing her to relax, to trust him.
Trust him? “I may be after dark. Wait on the porch.”
She kissed him softly. “Not in the feather bed?”
Lordy
, how had he ever found this woman? Why hadn’t he known a year ago that he would want to spend the rest of his life with her? To have children with her? To grow old with her? To sleep in that damned feather bed with her? He kissed her lips. “Don’t tempt me.”
“I’ll explain to the kids,” he told her. “I’m taking Jeff with me.” He thought a minute, considered the situation. “And Travis, if he wants to go.”
“Yes, you’ll have to. He’s made such a turnaround…”
“I know, love. This is no time to let him down.”
Rubal wasn’t sure this was the time to trust the boy, either, but he had no recourse. If he backed out on the fishing trip after Travis had proclaimed them a family in front of half the town, they would lose Travis’s trust for sure.
The whole thing was ludicrous, of course; he knew that. Sooner or later he was going to lose not only Travis’s trust, but Molly’s…and Lindy’s and the little boys’. Already his heart ached with the hurt he would cause them, the loneliness and hurt he had to cause them…and with the loneliness and hurt he would feel himself.
Even though he would deserve it in the most royal way.
Lindy offered to take the boys fishing.
Rubal squeezed her shoulder. “Thanks.”
“I know it’s important,” she explained. “I saw the look you gave Jeff when he told you about that man named Haslett.”
Rubal winced. “Don’t go telling anybody else, okay?”
“Molly doesn’t know?”
“Not yet. I’ll explain to her when I get back tonight. But it’s serious, so be sure not to say a word.”
“You can trust me, Mr. Jarrett.”
“Thanks, Lindy.”
Jeff and Travis followed him to the barn. Before they had taken more than a dozen steps, Lindy called after them.
“Now that you’re going to be like our brother, can’t we stop calling you Mr. Jarrett?”
He turned, grinned. “Sure, call me—”
“Jubal?” she prompted.
Rubal stared at the innocent girl a moment longer, then shrugged. “Sure. Anything you like.”
After questioning Jeff as to the exact nature of the message Waldo and Calder received, Rubal headed north out of town toward Boggy Pond. The two boys kept up with the brisk pace he set.
“You’re not with the railroad?” Travis questioned at length.
Rubal shook his head.
“Does Molly know?”
Again he shook his head, thinking of all the other things Molly didn’t know. “Not yet. I’ll tell her when we get back. I am working with L&M though, and with the Rangers.”
“The Texas Rangers?” Jeff questioned.
Rubal studied each boy in turn. “I’m trusting you two. No one else in town knows. No one else can know. Do you understand?”
“Sure, Mr. Jarrett,” Jeff responded.
“Sure, Jubal,” Travis replied.
After a pause to redirect his thoughts, Rubal explained about the timber theft and his role in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
“There won’t be a railroad?” Travis wanted to know.
“There’ll be a railroad. It’ll be scouted by someone else.” He thought a minute. “Or, I could get the job. Right now the important thing is to bring these outlaws to justice.”
“You suspect Haslett?”
Rubal nodded. “Have for some time, but I never could find proof. We have to practically catch him red-handed to be able to make a case.”
“Is that where we’re going?” Travis questioned with undisguised awe. “To catch a thief?”
“I wish. But I doubt it. More than likely we’ll just locate him, then I’ll have to spend this week pouring over receipts, waiting for the logs to turn up at some sawmill, checking the receipts against deeds on file in the courthouse.”
“That’s what you’ve been doing all the time you’ve been here?” Travis asked.
“Yep.”
“How close are you to solving the case?”
“So far I have nothing but suspicions, no proof.”
“Maybe today.”
“Maybe,” Rubal conceded, more to appease the boys than because he thought it possible. “We have to catch him cutting on land we know, not suspect, but know belongs to someone else. Then we have to be able to produce the deed to that property in someone else’s name and prove that the rightful owners didn’t hire Haslett to cut their timber.”
They found Haslett in approximately the location Jeff had said, but it was property none of them recognized.
“Now what?” Travis asked.
“Act normal. Let me do the talking. Go along with me, okay?”
The boys nodded.
When hailed, Haslett invited them to step down and sit a spell. “All work and no play,” he commented dryly. “Even on the Lord’s day.”
“Same here,” Rubal told him. “The boys agreed to keep me company, though.”
“Where’re you headed?” Haslett asked the question in a casual way that would not have drawn suspicion from the most cynical observer.
“Up to Forest Bend. Haven’t been able to locate the feller who runs the mill up there. Thought he might be around on Sunday.”
Haslett nodded. “You’ve settled on a line then?”
“Another week or so,” Rubal offered. “Most of the mill operators and loggers agree with my conclusions.”
Haslett rose, offered his hand to Rubal. “Hate to rush you, but I’d better get back to work.” He extended his hand to the boys in turn. “Good luck. See you tomorrow, Jeff. Over at the Simpson place, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir. The Simpson place.”
Waldo and Calder didn’t return to the Blake House that night, nor afterward, which only added to Rubal’s suspicion. But it took him another week to put together a solid case against Victor Haslett, much of which Rubal spent in courthouses comparing sawmill receipts to property deeds, trying to zero in on a discrepancy, attempting to unravel a paper trail that was the timber thief’s trademark.
Half the time he didn’t know whether the deeds were legal or counterfeit, whether the owners were alive, deceased, or had never even existed.
Timber thieves of the caliber of those plaguing L&M were crafty hombres. They snatched land by filing deeds in the names of friend or foe, then transferring the deed to some fictitious person, then back to themselves, building a chain of ownership that the most astute lawman would have trouble deciphering.
And they weren’t above moving lines on maps or altering legal descriptions of property. Which made it all the more difficult. Generally by the time a feller tracked down one of these son-of-a-guns, he’d cut the trees, sold the timber, and hightailed it out of the forest.
The L&M thief was bold. He’d hung around longer than most. Only thing, it took a hefty amount of time to sift through the paperwork and come up with enough evidence to put the man away.
And Rubal had the time. He was getting paid to spend time in courthouses rifling through musty old records. It didn’t beat chasing wild cattle across a range. But it did have one advantage. It brought him back to Molly.
Jeff had agreed to keep his eyes and ears open, and Travis finally came around.
“He’s like a different person,” Molly said one night while she and Rubal snuggled in the swing. “I guess he’s growing up.”
“He’s taken a big step in that direction,” Rubal acknowledged.
“It’s the effect you have on him.”
Rubal held her close, her back snuggled against his chest. His hands cupped her breasts in the darkness; he felt them swell in his palms. His thumbs drew circles around her nipples through the thickness of her clothing.
“You’ve had an effect on all of us,” she mused.
Tugging her tighter against him, he snugged her into his side. When his arousal pressed into the small of her back, he groaned.
“That’s the effect you have on me, love.” He kissed the top of her head, twisting her again, kissing the
side of her face, unable to bring satisfaction to either of them.
But when she tried to turn in his arms, he pulled her back in place. Before she realized it, he had worked his hand beneath her skirts, her petticoats, and had found the opening in her bloomers, where he cupped her mound of silky hair and felt her desire throb hot and wet against his palm.
Quivering, she pressed her head against his collarbone. Her mouth was dry; her breath came short. “I want you so bad,” she muttered, “…so bad it hurts.”
He grunted. “Me, too, Molly love.” He kissed her mass of hair, pulled his lips through strands of curls, while beneath her skirts his fingers slipped inside her, delving deep, surfacing, reentering.
“Oh,” she whispered. “Oh, oh…”
“I want you, too, Molly. In the worst way. Want to be inside you, filling you, moving, moving, inside you, filling you, pleasuring you…” While he spoke his fingers played her body, flirting like his tongue often did with her lips, her mouth.
“You’re so wet, Molly. So wet and hot…” His fingers tweaked a kernel of flesh somewhere on the outer limits of space—like he often tweaked her nipples, pleasuring her, drawing from her such excruciating levels of yearning that she began to move against his hand.
He continued his sweet assault, until he felt her quiver against him.
“Oh, Ju—”
Twisting his neck, his lips covered hers; his tongue delved deep, hard, fast, and he brought the world crashing down around her—with his brother’s name on her lips.
“Oh, Jubal,” she cried when he released her. “I’ve never been so happy.”
He drew her close, careful to avoid contact with his own throbbing body. “You know what they say, love. Joy and sorrow are two sides of the same coin.”
Chapter Fifteen
The following Friday was Lindy’s sixteenth birthday, so they celebrated by throwing a dance on Saturday night. Although Rubal spent most of the week away, wrapping up the case against Haslett, he managed to take the boys hunting, including Travis and Jeff. Together they bagged five turkeys, a couple of whitetail deer, and another wild hog.
Secret Surrender--Jarrett Family Sagas--Book Four Page 24