“Do you have any idea how hard it is to run two farms and care for two young children? They aren’t my responsibility—they’re yours.” As soon as he said the words, a sharp pain gutted him. It sounded almost like he didn’t care for his niece and nephew.
“So did you sell my farm?”
Mason balled up his fist in his effort not to slug Jake. Was money all he cared about? “Yep, I sold it. Mine, too. How else could I get the money to bring the kids out here?”
“Jimmy and Katie are here?” Jake looked around. “Where?”
“Back at camp,” Mason grumbled.
“Well, let’s go see ‘em. They’ll be happy to see their ol’ man.” Jake set his hat back on his slicked-down hair; then he grinned.
“What are you grinnin’ about?”
“Just trying to imagine you changing Katie’s diapers.”
Mason straightened. “Katie doesn’t wear diapers anymore—hasn’t for a long time.”
Confusion flickered in Jake’s eyes. “Guess they’ve grown some, huh?”
“Kids grow a lot in two years.” Mason started for camp. The last thing he wanted to do was take Jake to see the kids, but this was the whole reason he’d made the trip, wasn’t it? Jake walked along beside him with a slight limp Mason didn’t remember. His brother-in-law was thinner and looked older than his thirty years.
Moving around a group of children playing ring-around-the-rosy, Mason watched Jake from the corner of his eye as they walked toward camp. “So you been gamblin’?” Jake wore a poker face if Mason ever saw one.
“Uhh … yeah. I’ve made a nice little nest egg. I’m planning on racing in the Run and getting me some land. I’ve already scoped out a nice little quarter section.” Jake smiled his first natural smile. “You should see it, Mase. Prettiest section of rolling green hills with a creek flowing through it.”
Mason stopped and turned to face Jake. “You’re one of those Sooners—those folks who’ve snuck in and tried to stake a claim before the Run?” He couldn’t believe it—on second thought, it sounded just like Jake.
“Pretty smart, huh?” Jake straightened his lapels then tucked in his fancy shirt.
“Pretty dumb. The army’s shootin’ Sooners.”
“Well, they are now, but they weren’t last month.” Jake tipped his hat at two teenage girls who giggled and snickered as they walked by. “Nice.” He whistled through his teeth.
Mason wanted to be sick. Jake was making eyes at schoolgirls. What had Danielle ever seen in him? Jake had never been any good, as far as he was concerned. Suddenly Mason stopped dead in his tracks. How could he honestly turn Jimmy and Katie over to a no-good like Jake Conners?
“What is it?” Jake stopped, too, and looked at the people passing around them.
The cadence of voices buzzed in Mason’s ears. The reality of his plan slapped him full in the face for the first time. There was no way he could give the children to Jake. The man would never take care of them or protect them.
“C’mon, Mase. I wanna see my kids.”
Mason’s first thought was to turn around and lose Jake in the throng of the crowd. It wouldn’t take much effort. Then he could pack up Rebekah and the kids and head out. But to where? He had enough money to buy a little farm somewhere, but his plan had been to head west, and he didn’t have enough money to get four people halfway across the country and still have enough to start over.
Who was he kidding anyway? The children didn’t belong to him. Rebekah didn’t belong to him. In fact, almost half the money he had hidden in the bottom of his wagon belonged to Jake and the kids.
“What is wrong with you?”
Mason stared at Jake. How could he explain his feelings to this man when he didn’t understand them himself?
“Uncle Mason!” Jimmy’s call broke into his thoughts. He hadn’t realized they were at camp already. “Where ya been all day?”
“I … uh …”
“Jimmy, boy, have you ever grown!” Jake looked at his son like any proud papa would.
“Do I know you?” Jimmy’s gaze focused on Jake’s face; then his boyish features registered alarm, and he glanced at Mason. Suddenly he took a step back, almost knocking down Katie. “Pa?”
Jake slapped his thigh and cackled. “That’s right, son. I’m your pa.”
Worry crinkled Jimmy’s forehead. Katie’s features resembled her brother’s. She stepped around him and surveyed Jake, looking him up and down. Katie crossed her pudgy arms across her chest and tapped her toe.
“Nuh-uh, you ain’t our pa. Unca Mathon is.”
fifteen
Jake whirled around, and his usual congenial countenance sparked into something almost vicious. “You told Katie you were her pa?”
Mason stood speechless. He’d never so much as insinuated such a thing. He shook his head, noticing a blur of skirt and blond hair as Katie rushed over and grabbed him around the leg.
“He’s not my pa. You’re my pa!” Katie screamed into his thigh.
Jake reached out and tugged on her arm. “Katie, I’m your pa. Don’t you recognize me?”
She turned her head away and tightened her grip on Mason’s leg. “Nooo! You’s not my pa.”
Mason reached down and patted her head, pressing it against his leg. “Shhh, sugar, it’ll be okay.”
Jake tugged on Katie’s arm again. The little girl let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Holding up her skirt, Rebekah raced around the side of the wagon, her blue eyes wide with concern. “Katie—”
She halted so fast, her long braid flopped over her shoulder and slapped her across the chest. She looked from Katie to Mason to Jake. “Is everything okay? What’s going on?”
“Webekahhh!” Katie cried as she suddenly released Mason and ran to Rebekah. Bekah stooped down, opening her arms, and Katie hurried into her embrace. “Tell him Unca Mathon is my pa.”
“Oh, sweetie, it’s okay.” Rebekah stood and hugged Katie, her questioning gaze locked with Mason’s.
After a moment of drawing strength from Rebekah’s stare, Mason broke his gaze free. He realized they were drawing a crowd. Jake paced back and forth, looking like a polecat that had eaten some rank meat. Jimmy watched his dad with wide eyes. Luther, armed with his old shotgun, stood next to Ella.
“Show’s over, folks. You’d best just tend to your own business,” Mason said to the crowd. He placed his hands on his hips and glared until people slowly began to disperse and the buzz of speculation faded.
“You’re the last person I’d expect to shoot me in the back like this, Mase.” Jake stood in a stance similar to Mason’s, glaring through his pale blue eyes. The words gutted Mason worse than the point of a brand-new bowie knife.
“Let’s take this to the privacy of our camp.” With a wave of his hand, Mason motioned the direction to Jake. Jimmy raced off ahead of them, while Rebekah carried Katie. Katie wrapped her arms around Bekah’s neck and her legs around Bekah’s waist.
In silence, they walked together to the campsite. Blocked by the wagons on two sides and grazing horses on the third, they had a fair amount of privacy. They gathered in a rough circle, and Mason opened his mouth to speak. In that instant, he heard the click of a rifle being cocked.
Jimmy stood on the wagon seat, looking like a fierce soldier, the rifle pointed straight at Jake. “You ain’t takin’ my sister,” he glowered.
Mason heard Rebekah’s gasp as he moved toward Jimmy. “Now just hold on there, pardner. No call to get all fired up.” Jimmy eyed him with a mixture of defiance and uncertainty. “Give me the rifle and hop down. We’ll get this all worked out, okay?”
Rubbing the back of his neck, Mason watched the different expressions cross Jimmy’s face as the boy decided what to do. Mason felt certain Jimmy wouldn’t shoot his own father. The boy could barely shoot a duck for dinner.
For the first time, Mason considered how his leaving might affect the children. In his mind, he’d been planning this ever since Danielle’s death; but to the kids, findin
g their father had been an adventure until the reality of their separation with him set in. He’d never once thought how hard that might be on them. His leaving would be another loss they’d have to suffer.
“Jimmy,” Rebekah’s firm but gentle voice called softly beside Mason. The boy looked from his father to her. “Please, Jimmy, give Mason the rifle. I know you don’t want to hurt your father.” Defiance flickered in his nephew’s dark gaze. “What if you missed and hit me—or Katie?” Instantly Jimmy wilted and lowered the rifle. Mason blew out a deep breath he just realized he’d been holding, then snagged the weapon out of Jimmy’s hands, tossing it into the back of the wagon. He pulled Jimmy off the wagon seat and wrapped his arms around the boy.
Like two parents ready to do battle for their children, Mason and Rebekah stood side by side, each holding a child. Jake whirled to face Bekah, fury blazing across his lean features. “Just who are you to be telling my boy what to do?”
“Don’t yell at Webekah,” Katie cried.
Mason cast a glance at Ella, beseeching her with his eyes for help. The older woman immediately picked up his signal. “Luther and me had a hankering to take a walk about town and see them new buildings they’re tossing up. Jimmy, you and Katie come on along with us and give the grown-ups here a chance to yammer some.”
“You won’t leave?” Jimmy asked Mason. His eyes reminded Mason of a skittish mustang.
“No, pard, I’m not going anywhere.” He gave his nephew a hug then set him on the ground. For the first time in months, Mason had a feeling he might not be heading west after all.
Katie took a little longer to be convinced to leave Bekah’s arms, but finally the Robinsons and the children walked out of camp.
“Why don’t we all sit down and have some coffee?” Rebekah gave a little half smile then turned without waiting for a response.
Mason could sense her apprehension. He shook his head.
Never once had he considered the children wouldn’t want to go with their father. Mason and Jake sat down on a couple of large rocks and waited for Bekah’s return.
“You wanna tell me what’s goin’ on and who this woman is, Mase?” Jake’s tone had softened somewhat. Evidently, having his own son point a rifle at him had shaken him up, too.
“Her name is Rebekah,” Mason said. Bekah disappeared in the wagon, looking for tin cups, he guessed.
“Yeah, but who is she? You and her ain’t married, are you?”
“No.” Mason shook his head, knowing a part of him deep inside wished he could answer yes.
Jake’s eyes flashed and his nostrils flared. “She’s not a—you know, a loose woman, is she?”
Mason jumped to his feet, ready to pommel Jake’s face into mashed potatoes. How could he think that about her? God, I could use some help here Unclenching his fist, Mason realized he’d just uttered his first proper prayer in half a year. He heard the clinking of metal behind him then felt Bekah’s soft touch in the small of his back.
“Let it go,” she whispered. “It’s not important.” She stepped around him, trailing her arm along his waistline, sending tingling sparks shooting up his spine. The fingers of her other hand were looped through the handles of three blue tin mugs, making her fist look like some kind of strange club. She held her right hand out to Jake and smiled. “I’m Rebekah Bailey, and your brother-in-law saved my life.”
Jake’s mouth fell open, and he halfheartedly shook Bekah’s hand. Mason felt pride surge through him that she’d be more concerned with his pride than her own.
For the next half hour, they sat talking and drinking their coffee. Rebekah shared how they’d met. Mason told Jake how much help she’d been caring for him and the kids, especially after he’d been injured. Bekah blushed and all but hid behind her coffee cup. He told Jake of his quest to locate him so he could return the kids and then go west. Bekah’s gaze darkened and she took on a faraway look.
All too soon, the children returned with the Robinsons. Jimmy and Katie squeezed in between Mason and Bekah. Neither seemed excited at all to see their father; in fact, they were just the opposite.
“I can’t believe how much you two have grown,” Jake said. “Jimmy, you’d just turned five last time I was home, and you, Katie, were still a baby.”
“I’m not a baby,” Katie said, a little louder than necessary. “I’m fwee.”
“Well, three’s still little.” Jake gave her a wry smile.
“Nuh-uh. I’m a big girwl.”
Mason knew he should scold Katie for talking to Jake so, but he didn’t have the heart.
“Katie,” Bekah said, “it isn’t nice to talk to your father like that.”
Great! Bekah’s braver than me But then he already knew that. Hadn’t she boldly faced him every time he’d tried to get her to do something she didn’t want to? She wasn’t one to back down—though she did have a problem with running away at times.
Mason tore his gaze away from Bekah and realized Katie was crying.
“C’mon, sweetie,” Bekah said. “I think you’re ready for your nap.”
Bekah picked up Katie and took her inside the wagon. The Robinsons were nowhere to be found. Jimmy had finally warmed a bit and was talking with Jake. Watching them, Mason knew his life was fixing to change in a big way, but he didn’t know if he was ready to handle that change. He suddenly realized that it had been days since he’d thought of Annie—maybe even a week. It was one thing to lose a woman to death, but totally another thing to lose one because she wanted something more than she wanted him. Mason looked heavenward. God, I think I may need Your help with this
Now that Katie had fallen asleep and the men were still talking, Rebekah finally had a chance to slip away and check on the price of her train ticket. She’d counted her money last night and hoped her measly amount would be enough.
Please, God, make it be
She slipped out of the back of the wagon and headed for the depot. Soon she spotted the brand-new pine building that housed the ticket booth and waiting area. As she approached the building, the smell of freshly cut pine mixed with the pungent aroma of coal. The new platform was already darkened from coal dust and the shoes of travelers hoping for a new start. A few hundred feet from the depot, the train tracks ended.
Rebekah hopped up the three steps to the platform just as the train chugged and spewed backward out of the depot. She raised her hand to her mouth to keep from inhaling the black smoke and coal dust. Her insides quivered. What would it be like to journey in the belly of such a beast and to travel so fast? Shaking off her apprehension, she looked around the depot. Some of the people who’d recently arrived still wandered about with the same dazed expression she knew must have been on her face the first time she saw the enormous tent city and the myriad of people, all vying for the same land.
The arrival times posted next to the ticket cage indicated three trains per day arriving every day except Sunday. With the Land Run only fours days away, the population in the area could easily double if each of the trains was full. Where would all these people live and find water?
Rebekah stepped up to the counter and waited until the clerk turned around and noticed her. He wore what she figured was the typical train clerk garb—black pants and white shirt, with a flat black cap and string tie.
“Howdy, ma’am. What can I do for you?” He laced his slender fingers and gave her a businesslike smile, reminding her of a fox she once nursed after it had gotten caught in one of Curtis’s traps.
“Can I get a ticket to Denver?”
“You betcha.” He rubbed his pale hand over his jaw. “Course, you’ll have to switch trains a couple of times. Be best to go to Wichita first and overnight there.”
“Okay, then, I’ll take a ticket to Wichita.” Rebekah fingered the coins in her pocket, praying they’d be enough. She’d worry about what she’d do next when she got to Wichita.
“You’ll pert near have the whole train to yourself, I reckon. Folks these days are wantin’ to come into the Ter
ritories, not leave.” He cackled like he’d told the funniest joke in the world. When she didn’t laugh, he sniffed then looked down into a book filled with prices.
He quoted the price. Two dollars and twenty-five cents! That was almost twice the money she had. Rebekah thanked the man and headed back to camp. How could she earn the money she needed in such a short time? The last thing she wanted was to be stranded here or live with the Robinsons, as Ella had suggested. With the kids back with Jake soon, she knew she couldn’t travel with Mason any longer.
Rebekah fought against the tears blurring her vision. She wouldn’t cry—not here where so many people could see. Holding her head up, she ignored the stares and whistles of the men she passed.
Please, God. Show me a way to make the money I need. You helped me get away from Curtis and sent Mason to help me and protect me. Now I’m asking You to show me a way to make some money
Walking back to camp, she decided to make a stop at the ever-busy outhouse. The bright afternoon sun had nipped the chill out of the spring day, making her crave a drink of Mason’s water. As she waited her turn in the long line of women, she studied the men in the nearby line to their outhouse. They ranged from young boys to old, bent seniors; some dressed in fancy city clothes while others sported faded overalls.
After about ten minutes of waiting, her ears honed in on a particular voice. “Lookie here,” said a middle-aged man dressed in a flannel shirt and black pants. “I only got one button left on this here shirt. There ain’t no general store here so’s I can buy some new ones, and even if I did, I don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout how to fasten them on.” He heaved a sigh.
“Just look at all those women.” The tall, thin man standing next to him waved his hand in the air, pointing at the line of ladies. “Can’t you get one of them to hook them buttons onto your shirt?”
The other man looked up and down the line then shrugged. “You know I don’t know any of them womenfolk. Their menfolk might not take kindly to me askin’ one of ‘em to take up clothes fixin’ fer me.”
“You could pay her.”
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