by Kari Trumbo
“Don’t go cursing anyone yet. You heard from Mable these men were louts. That isn’t saying much. She said the same of me before she knew me. Let’s not go in there with guns blazing.”
Josiah spit, trying to get the taste of anger off his palate. “I’m scared, Beau, okay? I hope someday you find a woman who turns your insides all around so you would move heaven and earth to make sure she was safe.”
“I said no cursing. That means me too. Let’s go.” Beau turned forward in his seat and held on.
Josiah flicked the lines and drove the remaining yards to the front of the cabin. These men weren’t as careful as the other groups had been. They had an obvious fire going and the windows glowed against the darkness.
“Brazen, aren’t they?” Josiah climbed down.
“It’s a couple men. They’ve fought their way here. I doubt they’re scared by much anymore.” Beau whistled the call. Both men waited.
The door opened and a large head popped out. “I cain whistle. I’s missen too many teef. Uh…Thine eyes have seen the glory or some such…”
Josiah approached the cabin. “We carry no swords, only shields. I’m Josiah and this here’s Beau. We’re here to take you to the Loop, but first, have you seen a young lady come through here, or a horse come through without a rider?”
“No, suh.” The man shook his head and opened the door further. He had on a faded flour sack made into a shirt with rough pants held on by suspenders. The man traveling with him came out just behind and they could have been twins. They even wore similar clothes.
“I’m A, and this is C.” The first man gestured to the other.
“You don’t have names?” Josiah squinted into the dark and motioned all of them back into the cabin. Anyone could be watching them.
All four closed themselves into the cabin.
C spoke up first. “We’s old enough to remember the plantation, but young to have left it to fight the war. Our mastah sent us off to fight for the Confederacy instead ‘a him. We defected and fought with the yanks. Then they didn’t want us neither.”
Josiah stood in front of the door acting as guard. “I know you’ve been sitting here for a few days waiting for us—”
Beau interrupted. “I’ll be taking you men on my own from here. Josiah is needed back at home but wanted to make sure he got me to you. The river is just a half mile to our west and we follow it all the way to the Loop. It isn’t much of a town, but they have land and the people are hard-working and willing. We should go as soon as possible.”
Both men nodded and gathered the few things they had with them.
Josiah lowered his voice. “Beau, are you sure? I don’t pay you to do this alone.”
“I’m not.” Beau tossed his rifle to A. “Shouldn’t be much different than what you used in the war.”
A looked it over. “It’s much nicer n’ what I had. ‘S a wonder we survived.”
“Be careful, you three. I need Beau back in one piece.” Josiah looked to each man, glad his aunt had heard wrong.
“He will be, cap’n.” C saluted Josiah, and he left them to prepare for the last leg of their journey. He said a prayer for them and for Penny…adding himself at the end, for help to find her.
~~~
Penny was sure she was dreaming. When the voices continued, she opened her eyes and saw two large men standing about three feet from her and having a nasty, most likely drunken, conversation. She did her best to hold still within the tree. If they found her in there, there was no telling where she might end up.
The men continued to talk of a place called The Den and if they should go back. One of them couldn’t see in the dark and kept stumbling closer to where she lay huddled on the branch. Lord, please. This isn’t where I ever planned to find myself. Send me help. I need it right now!
A horse rode down the trail and the man riding hailed the arguing men. “Halloo there.” The stranger reined in and swung down from his horse. “You are the first people I’ve seen all night. How far am I from the Wolves’ Den?”
The two men stood shoulder to shoulder and crossed their arms, barring his passing. “Who’s asking?” the man who sounded slightly less inebriated asked.
“Name’s Jo. I’m looking for someone who may have passed by here and thought the best place to look would be the Den.”
“Well, Jo. We ain’t seen no one along this trail, but we’d be happy to tell you how far it is to the Den, even take you there ourselves, if you pay the tariff.”
Jo, who Penny recognized as Josiah, thumbed his belt to make himself look simple. From her vantage point, she could see the slight glint of his gun.
“What would that be? I know that I just follow this here trail, but I don’t know how far, and it’s getting mighty late.” He looked up at the tree tops momentarily and back at the two men.
“I think we could tell you where it is if’n you paid us with your horse.”
Penny growled low in her throat and the men jumped at the sound right behind them. As she sat up and adjusted herself in the bush, it moved and swayed. The men backed away and she heard them mumbling and whining. Penny covered her head with the hood of her cloak and crept from the bush. “Fools!” she yelled, then enunciating each word. “I will hunt you down.”
The first man looked to the other and grabbed his shirt, pulling him away from her. “Tree sprite! Run!”
Penny and Josiah waited until the yelling and crashing was far distant. He approached her slowly and pulled her hood back, revealing her tangled hair. His face shone in the soft light. Tenderly, he touched both hands to her hair, running them down her forehead and face to cup just under her jaw. He guided her close to him and she raised on her toes. Her pulse beat a rhythm in her ears. His hands felt hot on her chilled skin.
Penny put her hands over his as his lips came slowly down to hers. “My pretty Penny. I’ve never been so glad to see you.” His lips nibbled hers tentatively, and she couldn’t stop herself from pulling him closer to her. A groan tore from him. He moved his hand to her back, cradling her to him, keeping one hand tenderly on her cheek. She felt every breath of cold air against the hot skin of her face. He teased the tender flesh of her lips until she could take it no more and pulled back with a gasp.
“Josiah…?”
“I’m sorry. I thought I’d never see you again. Forgive me?” He rested his forehead against hers and exhaled a long breath. The cold air turning their hot breath to vapor and mingling in the chill breeze before evaporating into the night.
“Never, if it means you won’t do that again.” She pulled his hand to her lips and pressed them to the base of his thumb.
Josiah closed his eyes. “They were wrong. You are no wood sprite. You are a temptress.” He left a trail of hot kisses down her temple to her ear. “We must be going. Your parents are so worried. Everyone is.”
She couldn’t breathe or think. “Josiah…why are you here? You didn’t want me anymore…Ruby…” She clutched her cloak tightly to keep him from seeing her wound.
“I’ve never stopped wanting you to be mine from the moment I set eyes on you. It’s only gotten stronger the more I know you. Please don’t ever leave me again.” He pulled her into his arms once more and she never wanted to leave. They could stand right there forever and she was sure she would be quite content.
“Can you ride?” He led her to the horse.
“If you lift me up. I…couldn’t earlier.”
Josiah put his arms around her waist and she gasped as he lifted. He put her down immediately and pulled the cloak back from her shoulder. Even in the dark, she could see the dark stain on her light shirtwaist.
“Penny, we’ve got to get you to a doctor quickly to look at that. It has been weeks since that happened. If it’s bleeding now, there could be some sort of infection.” He looked up and down the dark path.
“Please.” She whispered. “Just take me home. I don’t want to go that way, even if it is closer. I was foolish to leave, but I thought you loved Ruby and I didn�
��t want to see it.”
“I just met Ruby. How could I love her?” He pulled Penny back into his arms and smoothed her hair.
“You just told me you wanted me from the moment you saw me. Couldn’t your love for her be just the same?” She pulled back to look in his eyes.
“No, it couldn’t. Desire is temporary and, I’ll admit, I’ve desired you from first off. But the more we spent time together, I knew I loved you because I’ve never wanted to see you hurt or unhappy, even if it means I hurt.” He caressed her cheek then held it to his chest. “Even when you didn’t remember me, I was upset but willing to start over because hurt is usually temporary. Giving up is permanent.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you, Josiah.” She cocooned herself in closer to him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t, either. I should have told you about my job and what I was doing, that it was dangerous, and that I should have stayed away from you for a while. I was selfish and couldn’t stay away.”
“Will you trust me now?” She looked up at his chin and drew her fingertips along his jawline and felt him shudder against her.
“Will you trust me?” He took her hand and kissed the fingertip. She returned the vibration.
“I do.” She sighed.
Chapter twenty-one
Penny lapsed in and out of sleep after he finally gotten her on her horse. It took a couple hours to ride the normally short distance back to Cutter’s Creek, but he didn’t want her to fall off or further injure her shoulder. He pulled up in front of the doctor’s home and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her off the horse with him. Her head drooped against her chest. He carried her to the front door, and kicked as gently as he could to get the doctor’s attention, since his hands were occupied.
After a minute, he came to the door in his white nightgown and long sleeping cap. He looked like he came straight out of a child’s story book. The doctor took one look at the bundle wrapped in Josiah’s arms and directed him in.
“I see you found her. Something went wrong or you wouldn’t be here at this hour.”
“I found her in a cedar tree in the forest. She’d been bleeding. I don’t know for how long. She has been in and out of sleep for the past two hours.” Josiah listed anything he thought the doctor might want to know.
“Lay her down here.” He indicated the bed and lit a lantern next to it. “Make yourself useful and light a fire in the grate. It’s chilly in here.”
Josiah did his best to not take the barb the doctor threw at him. Of course he was useful―he’d found Penny. He lit the fire and made sure it was going well before he returned to the bed. The doctor had peeled back the cloak and looked in disgust at the wound.
“You can’t stay here, young man. It’s bad enough that I have no nurse to help me, but you are not her husband and you most certainly cannot stay. Go back to the Hanovers and let them know their daughter has been found and is back in my care. Send her mother over here to help me.” The doctor shoved him out of the room without allowing any protest.
The Hanover house was not far from the doctor’s, and he led their horse back to the house where it all began. Bill waited on the front step.
“I’m glad you’re waiting, sir. I wasn’t looking forward to pounding on the door to wake you.”
“I couldn’t sleep with my daughter out there somewhere. Holston was back empty-handed hours ago, but strangely, Beau never reported back.”
“Beau went with me. I’ll explain that part to you later. I found her. She’s torn open her wound and she’s at the doctor’s home clinic. He asked me to have you send Sarah over right away to assist him.”
Bill nodded. “Thank you.”
Josiah handed him the reins to his horse. He couldn’t quite bring himself to say ‘you’re welcome’ after kissing his daughter so thoroughly after finding her.
Chapter twenty-two
Penny lay in her bed. Her father sat next to her. His face was somber, not at all like he usually looked.
“I don’t understand. I thought all this misunderstanding was taken care of. What is left to argue about? We want to be together. Isn’t it enough?”
Bill sat back in his chair and stretched his legs in front of him. “It most certainly isn’t. Josiah has kept secrets from you that almost cost you your life. I shouldn’t have to tell you about the hot anger that takes over me every time I walk in that sweet shop for an afternoon coffee and I see that hole in the wall.”
“But, Father, I trust him.” She reached for his hand, but he didn’t give it.
“You won’t cajole me into this. He will tell all of us what he’s been doing and he will ask you properly to make up for taking you in the dark of night. You won’t see him again until he does.”
He held out his hand. “Agatha’s ring doesn’t belong on your finger until he does.”
She slid the ring off her finger and held back her sobs until her father left. It seemed the older he got, the less swayed he was by tears. Mama never used them and now they just frustrated him.
Ruby came in as he left. She stood in the doorway in a soft pink gown that Penny recognized as one that Lily used to wear. The color suited her perfectly.
“Penny, may I come in?” Her voice had softened in the last few days and she now seemed like anyone else in Cutter’s Creek.
Penny didn’t want to speak, but nodded her acceptance.
Ruby sat in the chair next to the bed and drew the pattern on the quilt with her finger as she frowned. “I don’t know why you thought I would take your man from you, but I am sorry. I should have known that you were the Penny he’d been talking about.” She looked up and then back down at her hands. “Truth is, I’ve never had someone care about me. Not my parents or my husband, may he rot in peace.”
Penny gasped and then giggled. “Was he really so terrible as that?”
“My husband was old as the hills and twice as craggy. He had a temper, oh my.” She shook her head and rubbed her brow. “He’d been through three wives already. What was a fourth? I managed to outrun him all the time, so he never got to me.”
“Ruby, I’m so sorry.” Penny reached out. Ruby touched her hand but didn’t hold it. “Before all this mess, I’d hope that the Penny Josiah talked about could be a friend. I’ve never had one.”
“Ruby, I think you, Lily, and I will be fast friends. I’m so sorry about all the accusations and confusion. It has been a trying time, to say the least.”
Ruby smiled and the sparkle in her eyes changed her whole face. She really looked quite pretty. “Forgive me for listening at the door, but I think your father is right. I might have come from a sham of a marriage, but I know that you’ve got to start on honesty. My mama’s sister and her husband, now there was a couple! They would hold hands all the time. She used to tell me the greatest stories of love. I often wished I could have been their daughter. They never had children.”
Penny listened to Ruby begin a story when Lily knocked on her door. “May I join you?”
“Lily, come in!” Penny motioned to the bed and Lily sat at the end.
“I see you made it home. You never told me about that part of your plan.” Lily huffed.
“It just happened. One minute I’d read the letter, the next I was riding a horse.” Penny settled back into her pillows.
“Oh, the letter!” Ruby rushed from the room and brought the envelope. She handed it to Penny and sat back in her seat.
“Lily, have you met Ruby Gresham?”
“We had the pleasure of meeting briefly while you were gone.”
Penny laid her head against the head of the bed. “What am I going to do? Father won’t even let me see Josiah until he does certain things. It is completely unfair. I want to see him now.”
Lily patted her leg. “It is even more unfair considering that your father had considered letting you both get married today if the dinner had gone well last night, or so your mother said.”
Penny frowned. “I’ve never been one to lay here and ju
st take what’s coming. I need to talk to Josiah and let him know what he needs to do to meet father’s approval. Who’s going to help me?” She looked at the two women. Though Ruby was even younger than both of them, she looked and acted older.
“I won’t. I saw how worried your parents were last night when you disappeared. Your sister was inconsolable, and your brother was a wreck. Mr. Hanover paced, wanting to run after you but not knowing where you went and your mother spent time in her room. I heard her praying when I went to bed. No, I won’t be a part of another disappearance.”
Lily shook her head. “Wait a few days, Pen. You never know if your father has talked to Josiah or not. It’s also possible that Josiah will come to your father, as he should, and ask for your hand. When he does, your father will tell him what needs to happen. He’ll either fight it, or do what he needs to.”
Penny clutched at her coverlet. “You both are absolutely no fun.”
Chapter twenty-three
“Beau, you going to help me with this load or not?” Josiah wiped his brow and hefted the plow with his pulley. It made the load tolerable, but was still heavy.
“You looked like you were handling things just fine, boss.” Beau came over and pulled on the rope to help Josiah swing it over the cart.
“The last delivery has been canceled. Mable said the church she worked with has decided to keep the last family. I got word that Moses and Cori are doing just fine. Ned helped them get a plot of land about a mile outside of town. A and C have chosen new names, Adams and Charlie. They have been working with the local militia and are working for the small railroad station laying track.” Josiah let the rope go and leaned against the rig, pulling a drink from his canteen on the back.
“All good news. Now Mable can clean up her cabin and sell it. Isn’t that what she originally planned to do?” Beau leaned against the wall of the stable, his hat low over his eyes.
“Yep. Why? You thinking of buying it?” Josiah handed him the canteen and Beau declined.