Return to Whispering Pines

by Scarlett Dunn

“If, as you say, she is a nice young woman in a bad way, I am not without some sympathy for her and her questionable future. I would be prepared to offer a generous compensation if she were amenable to leaving Denver and never return. What would you think of that proposition?”

  Just as he thought—a bribe. It was all he could do to keep from smiling. “I think that’s an interesting plan. What do you have in mind?”

  “I would think a young woman may find ten thousand dollars acceptable. Naturally, I would want a signed agreement that she would stay away from Robert. What do you think of that sum?”

  Frank swirled the brandy in his glass as he thought of his response. “I think that is generous. Of course, it will take me some time to get to know her, and to find out if she would even consider this. How would I spend time with her without the judge knowing? He’s staying pretty close to her.”

  “I’ve thought about that. Robert told me last night that he needs to go back to Colorado City. He needs to get back to work, but I think he’s been waiting to make sure she will survive. While he is away, you could use that time to get to know her better. Robert said he may be gone two weeks, and that should be enough time to see if we could work out an arrangement. If she agrees, perhaps you could accompany her on your way to the mine and see that she is settled somewhere.”

  “It would be best to do this while he is away. If he got word that I was involved in this plan, he wouldn’t like it.”

  “So you will handle this negotiation for me?”

  “I would be happy to, Ruth.” The more time he spent with Ruth, the more he liked her.

  * * *

  Frank arrived back at the doctor’s office to find Leigh sitting up and talking with the judge.

  The judge was overjoyed at her miraculous recovery. “Frank, Leigh was asking about you when she woke. She thought you were no longer here.”

  Frank walked to her side. “I’m glad to see you’re awake. We’ve been mighty worried about you.”

  “Robert told me what happened.” Leigh said very little when she awoke because she couldn’t recall the shooting. The judge filled in the blank spaces for her, and she thought perhaps Frank had left without her.

  “The judge hasn’t left your side,” Frank said.

  “Frank was here with me too. He’s been as concerned about you as I have been,” the judge added.

  Leigh looked at Frank, and said, “I’m sorry about your wife.”

  “Thank you. I’m just happy you are going to be okay.” Frank stared into her eyes. He wanted to talk with her alone, but there was little chance of that happening with the judge hovering over her like a nursemaid.

  The doctor walked into the room and said, “I think the patient better get some rest now.”

  “Yes, I am tired,” Leigh said, and closed her eyes.

  Frank looked at the judge. “Judge, you go ahead and get something to eat. I’ll sit with Leigh.”

  “That’s kind of you, Frank. I would like to have some coffee.” He leaned over and kissed Leigh on the lips. “I will see you in a little while, my dear.”

  The judge left and Leigh opened her eyes. Frank held his finger to his lips, indicating for her not to speak until they heard the judge walk down the sidewalk. Frank pointed to the back of the doc’s office, and whispered, “The doc is in the back.” When Frank was certain it was safe, he leaned over and kissed her.

  When Frank pulled back, she said, “I thought you left me.”

  “I had to leave for a day to meet the boys. Once you can travel, we will leave Denver. I have a plan.” Frank kissed her again. “I’ve missed this.” He’d never been possessive of a woman, but it was different with Leigh. He didn’t even want an old man like the judge kissing her.

  “Did they get the money?” Leigh asked.

  “It’s a long story, honey. I’ll tell you about that later. Do you like that old man kissing you?”

  “No, I hate it. Do you want me to tell him to stop?”

  “Not yet, but you can tell him you are not up to his attentions. I don’t want him getting suspicious about us right now.”

  “The doctor said I could go back to the hotel tomorrow to recuperate. He’ll come by every day to see me.”

  “That’s good. I’ll just have to be careful coming and going.” Frank told her the judge was going to go back to Colorado City. “Don’t let him spend the night with you.” Frank fully intended to be the one spending nights with her.

  * * *

  The judge left the restaurant and walked to the jail to see Sheriff Trent. “Sheriff, what have you heard about Marshal Holt?”

  “Morgan LeMasters sent me a telegram earlier saying the marshal is doing much better. He thinks he’s going to pull through.”

  “And the sheriff?”

  “He’s on the mend as well.”

  “Since Mr. LeMasters has been seeing to the needs of the marshal, I don’t expect you to bring him in. Are you going back after those bank robbers?”

  “I’ve contacted the U.S. Marshals’ office and they are sending two marshals. Those boys are probably in Purgatory Canyon, and it’ll take more than a few men to get them out of there. As a matter of fact, Sheriff Roper got shot in there a few months back, by one of Frank’s boys.”

  The judge was adamant Frank was not involved with the ambush. “The sheriff was ambushed and didn’t see the perpetrator. I still think you are wrong about Frank, Sheriff.”

  “Judge, I know you are wrong about Morgan LeMasters. That is a man of sterling character if I’ve ever met one. So is Sheriff Roper. I’d take their word any day over Frank Langtry’s.” He could see the judge was taking offense. “I know we are at an impasse on this issue, and I’m not certain how to solve it. But I won’t bring either one of those men in on the word of Frank Langtry.”

  “I appreciate your honesty. I guess it’s not necessary, seeing as how I’ve dropped all charges against Frank. It’s a moot point right now. I’ll tell Frank he needs to stay away from Whispering Pines, and let this situation settle down.”

  The judge’s solution wasn’t the outcome Sheriff Trent had wanted, but the judge had the upper hand. “Let’s hope Frank Langtry walks the straight and narrow from now on.”

  The judge returned to the doctor’s office and Frank left for a few hours. He grabbed some dinner, and walked to the little house to meet Corbin.

  “Tell the boys I’ll meet up with you in a month in Las Vegas.” He handed Corbin cash and helped him load his horse. “There’s enough food to last until you get to the next town to buy more, and there are guns in that sack.”

  “You won’t be there for a month? What if we run low on money?” Corbin asked.

  “You can do some rustling if you run low.” They were grown men, and Frank didn’t consider it his responsibility to provide them with cash indefinitely. He wanted their loyalty, but there were times he felt like they depended on him too much. Deke and Dutch were smart enough to handle rustling, so they could get their hands on some cash if they needed it. “I’ll see you in a month.”

  * * *

  When Frank returned to the doctor’s office, the judge was still there. “How’s she doing?”

  “She’s been sleeping soundly.” Frank wondered if Leigh was really sleeping, or pretending to be asleep.

  “The doctor says she can be moved to the hotel tomorrow. If Ruth were more reasonable, I’d move her to the house.”

  “The important thing is she is getting well,” Frank replied. He didn’t want Leigh in Ruth’s home.

  “There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about, Frank. I’m afraid I need to get back to Colorado City. I’m going to be gone for two weeks, and I’m asking you to look after Leigh for me while I’m away. I trust you to take care of her and get her whatever she needs.”

  “You know I’ll do that for you, Judge.” Granny often said life took strange turns. How much stranger could it get than having Leigh’s lover giving him permission to look after her? He planned to do a
very good job of looking after her.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Jack had Addie gather Granny, Morgan, and Rose in the bedroom to tell them the news.

  “It took you long enough, Jack Roper,” Granny said as she kissed him on the cheek. “I told you Addie was the one for you.”

  Morgan shook Jack’s hand. “Congratulations. You should have known better than to argue with Granny.”

  “So when is the big day?” Rose asked.

  “Soon. But we’ve decided not to tell the children until we speak with Prescott in the morning.” Jack had already told Addie he was riding to town in the morning to speak with Prescott.

  “I don’t want him to go. I don’t think he should ride yet,” Addie said.

  Jack reached for her hand and pulled her to sit beside him on the bed. “I’ll be fine.”

  Morgan looked at his friend. He knew if he were in Jack’s position, he’d do the same thing. “I don’t think I can make him listen to reason on this issue.”

  Jack figured Morgan knew what he was thinking. “Morgan would do the same thing.”

  All heads turned to Morgan, and he threw his hands in the air. “Yep.”

  Granny looked from Jack to Morgan. “I don’t know which one of you has the hardest head.”

  “You’re right, Granny, I do have a hard head. If I’d listened to you and not waited so long to ask Addie to marry me, we wouldn’t be in this situation with the children,” Jack said.

  “Jack, I’m old enough to know that if can be a troublesome word.” She tapped Jack affectionately on top of the head. “You’d best be getting some sleep. Sounds like you’re going to have an interesting day tomorrow.”

  Addie and Jack were left alone in her bedroom, and suddenly Addie felt insecure. “Jack, are you positive you are not asking me to marry as a way to adopt the girls?”

  Jack blamed himself for not telling Addie after that first kiss that he cared for her. He’d even tried to make her jealous by seeing Clarissa. He placed his arm around her shoulders, urging her to lean on his chest. “Honey, you said yourself that Prescott probably won’t change his mind. I’m not doing this for the girls. You love them, as do I, and I want us to adopt them, but if we can’t, I still want you for my wife.” He leaned over and kissed her, gently at first, but it quickly turned needy.

  Addie didn’t want the kiss to end, and it was difficult for her to pull away. “I think I need to sit in the chair.”

  Jack sighed loudly. “That might be a good idea. When you’re this close to me, I can’t seem to keep my hands off of you.”

  Addie attempted to scoot off the bed, but Jack wouldn’t let her go. “I said it might be a good idea, I didn’t say you should go. Stay put. I want to talk to you, so try to keep your hands to yourself.”

  Addie playfully smacked him on his uninjured shoulder. “I’ll do my best.”

  After Addie settled next to him, he said, “You know, you don’t need Prescott Adler to start an orphanage here. You don’t need his financial assistance. We could expand the garden to supply more food, get some cattle, and while it may not be as large as some of the orphanages in the East, we could be a big help to some children.”

  While she didn’t think it possible, Addie loved him even more in that moment. “It would be a lot of work. You would agree to do that?”

  “I’m not afraid of a little work. If we need to add on to this house to accommodate more children, I can do the work. We can count on Morgan and Clay to help out.”

  “But do you think it will be too much when we start our own family?”

  “We can handle it. I’m not saying we can adopt all the children, but they will have a home filled with love, and be well cared for until they are adopted.”

  “Some of these children can be a real handful,” Addie said.

  “Don’t forget, I was one of those children. I’d say I fell into that category. But from what I’ve seen of some orphanages, children oftentimes have reason to be difficult.”

  “What if some of them ran away, like you did?”

  “Addie, you’re wonderful with the children, and they’d have no reason to leave. There’s nothing we can’t handle. We’ll make sure they are adopted by good people.” His thoughts went to Davey. On the surface, Coburn and his wife had seemed as though they would be good parents, but Davey wasn’t happy.

  “You’re thinking about Davey, aren’t you?” Addie knew Jack felt guilty about Davey.

  “Yeah. I know he’s not happy there, and I just don’t know what to do about it.”

  * * *

  “Jack!” Addie screamed from the hallway the next morning.

  Jack’s eyes snapped open at the urgency in her voice. He was sitting in the chair by the fire, but he jumped up and grabbed his gun. Before he took another step, Addie was already at the door. “What’s wrong?”

  “The girls! They’re gone!” She ran to him and thrust a note at him. “Oh, Jack, they ran away.”

  Jack took the note from her shaking hand. Having heard the commotion, Rose, Granny, and Morgan had gathered at the doorway. Glancing at the group of concerned faces, Jack read the note aloud. “Miss Addie, we are sorry, but we don’t want to go with Mr. Adler. Don’t worry about us, Davey is with us. Mr. Coburn hits him, and we want to be together. We will miss you and the sheriff and your family. Thank you for trying to help us. Jane and Claire.”

  Jack put his arm around Addie’s shoulders. “I’ll find them.”

  “I was downstairs making breakfast and I noticed some biscuits missing that I had made last night, but I just thought someone got hungry in the middle of the night. When I went into their room to wake them, the note was on Jane’s pillow.”

  “They couldn’t have gotten far.” Jack released Addie to grab his shirt.

  “I’ll go, Jack,” Morgan said.

  “I’m going.” Jack buttoned his shirt, fastened his holster around his waist, and grabbed his coat.

  “I’ll go with you. I’ll have Murph stay here,” Morgan said. “I’ll saddle our horses.”

  “It’s so cold outside,” Addie said.

  Jack held her for a minute before he kissed the top of her head. “Honey, I promise I’ll find them.”

  “I want to go with you.”

  “No, you wait here. Morgan and I will move faster alone, and if Prescott comes, you’ll need to explain the situation.”

  Addie swiped at the tears on her cheeks. “I should have known they were thinking of something like this because they weren’t crying last night when I put them to bed. They’d cried every night before that.”

  “Honey, if anyone should have known what they would do, it was me.” Jack remembered all too well the first night he’d run away from an orphanage. It was frightening, but he couldn’t think of another way to change his circumstances. He’d had a different reason for running away. He was being abused, but these children ran away out of love for one another.

  “I’ll get some sandwiches together.”

  Jack took her by the hand and together they walked downstairs to the kitchen.

  Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, Jack grabbed his rifle from the top of a high shelf in the kitchen. He’d placed it there when he’d spent nights on the settee. The women quickly prepared sandwiches for the men to take with them.

  As soon as the bundles of food were ready, Jack kissed Addie good-bye. “We’ll be back as soon as we find them.”

  Jack found Jane and Claire’s footprints from the back door and followed them to the pines. A sense of foreboding threatened his confident determination. Those trees covered miles and miles of territory, and many men got lost, or captured by Indians, over the years. It was frightening to think of what could happen to young children vulnerable to the elements and other unseen forces.

  When Morgan rode from the stable leading Jack’s horse, he saw Jack at the pine tree boundary. He reached Jack and passed him the reins of his horse.

  “They’re in the trees.” Jack braced himself aga
inst the pain as he hauled himself into the saddle. Jack pointed to an area by a large tree trunk where the pine needles were compressed, as if someone had been sitting there for some time. “Looks like Davey was waiting here for Jane and Claire. He had a long walk from Coburn’s to the farm in the middle of the night.” Just thinking about Davey out on the road overnight, in the cold, broke Jack’s heart.

  “If Davey left Coburn’s right after dark, they could have at least three hours on us,” Morgan said.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t want to say that to Addie.”

  Morgan understood Jack’s reasoning. It didn’t make sense to give the women more to worry about. “I’ve got to go to the ranch to get Murph. You go ahead, I’ll catch up to you.”

  * * *

  Morgan caught up with Jack in no time after he stopped by his ranch. “I wish Joseph was around, he could be a big help.”

  “Yeah, we’re going to need all the help we can get. The kids are so light, their tracks are hard to see.”

  Two hours later, they no longer saw a trace of small footprints. But they found hoofprints.

  “Unshod,” Jack said.

  “Yep.” Morgan knew that meant it wasn’t Joseph Longbow on one of those horses.

  “It’s not Joseph’s,” Jack said.

  Morgan nodded. “No, his horse is shod.”

  They dismounted and searched for footprints. Jack tried to keep his mind off the many disastrous scenarios threatening to tear apart his control. “Whoever is riding those horses has the children.”

  “It looks that way,” Morgan said.

  Jack mounted his horse. “Let’s follow them.”

  They followed the hoofprints west until the sun could no longer be seen through the trees. They’d been in the saddle all day, and when it became too dark to continue, they pulled to a halt.

  “Jack, there’s a spot a day’s ride from here where I’ve left messages for Joseph.”

  “You mean you know how to find him?” Jack was surprised Morgan had never shared this information before.

  “I’ve never told anyone, but years ago, Joseph told me of a spot where I could leave a message for him if I found the need. It looks as though these hoofprints lead in that general direction.”