Montana Bride

by Joan Johnston

  Andy said anxiously, “Better break it up, folks, or that bear is going to have himself a Norwood sandwich for lunch.”

  “Get mounted and get out of here,” Karl urged, pulling Hetty’s arms from around his neck, easing Grace’s arms from around his waist, and forcing Griffin to let him go. “Let me take care of that bear, and I’ll come join you in a little while.”

  Karl’s heart was filled with love. And pumped so full of adrenaline that he was afraid it would burst from his chest.

  “Get them out of here, Andy,” he ordered in a harsh voice. “Take care of them, Bao.”

  Then he turned and headed into the underbrush.

  Karl could feel Hetty’s eyes on him even after he disappeared into the undergrowth. He quickly checked the Winchester to make sure Griffin had left a bullet in the chamber, then shoved his way into the maze of mountain greenery.

  It took Karl a moment to realize that the bear had stopped dead in its tracks. He peered through the foliage and saw that instead of shoving forward, the grizzly was backing out. Once the beast was in the clear, it lifted its nose high in the air, apparently hunting for the scent of something on the wind.

  Karl turned his face into the breeze and discovered Dennis sitting on his horse on the other side of the clearing, his back to the bear.

  Karl realized with horror that the grizzly must have caught the scent of that bloody cougar pelt Dennis had salvaged and tied into a roll on the back of his saddle. Karl opened his mouth to shout a warning but realized his cry would only turn the bear back in his direction. And toward Hetty and the children.

  So he remained silent.

  Karl stalked the bear as the bear stalked Dennis, whose gaze was focused on the ground in front of him as he slowly walked his mount forward, painstakingly searching for something.

  He’s hunting for a blood trail, Karl realized. Something to lead him to my body and Griffin’s remains. He needs to know what happened to us so he can tell Jonas and my father he did everything he could to save us from that bear.

  Karl kept his Winchester ready, hoping he could get a clear shot at the bear before the grizzly caught up with Dennis. Karl was impressed with the way the beast stayed out of Dennis’s sight line.

  Dennis’s mount must have caught the bear’s scent, because it began to sidle and jerk its head up and down, anxious to be free of the constraints that kept it from running.

  “Easy, boy,” Karl clearly heard Dennis say. “It’s all right. Whatever’s up there is already dead. It’s no threat to you.”

  At that moment, the grizzly gave a terrifying roar and charged, landing on the gelding’s haunches. Karl saw the bear take a savage swipe at Dennis’s shoulder with its claws, leaving bloody furrows. Dennis went flying and landed facedown on the ground.

  The horse kicked the bear in the chest with both hind hooves, and as the grizzly backed off, the horse galloped away, stirrups on the empty saddle flapping.

  Before Karl could draw a bead on the bear, it disappeared behind a tree, where he had no shot.

  “Dennis, don’t move!” Karl called out. “Lie still.”

  “If I do, he’s going to eat me alive!” Dennis shouted back in terror.

  “Your only chance is to stay where you are. Don’t budge an inch,” Karl warned. “Pretend you’re dead. I’m going to move where I have a shot at him.”

  Dennis didn’t say anything more, because the bear had started lumbering in his direction. Karl moved as quickly as he could in Dennis’s direction, desperate for a shot at the grizzly before it reached the man on the ground.

  Karl had the rifle to his shoulder, taking aim behind the bear’s shoulder where its heart should be, when Dennis suddenly leapt to his feet and darted for the closest tree. Karl took the shot he’d lined up, but the bear bolted after Dennis with lightning speed.

  Karl ran forward and yelled, “Run, Dennis. Climb!”

  But there were no trees with branches low enough for Dennis to reach. He’d shinnied only six feet up a narrow-trunked pine when the bear swiped at Dennis’s ankle with its enormous paw and knocked him from the tree.

  Dennis fell straight into the jaws of the behemoth.

  He screamed. And screamed again. And then was silent.

  Karl emptied his rifle into the grizzly as he ran forward, closing the distance between himself and the bear. “Dennis!” he yelled. “Dennis!”

  “Karl! Stop! Don’t!”

  Karl was astonished to hear Hetty’s voice calling out to him. And terrified, because if she was within shouting distance of him, she was within shouting distance of the grizzly. He took a second to locate her—and Andy and Bao and Grace and Griffin—in a nearby stand of trees, before he turned his attention back to the bear.

  He realized the animal was slumped on the ground. All he could see of Dennis was an arm, sticking out beyond the grizzly’s enormous girth. Karl ran forward and slowed a half dozen feet from the bear. He circled the behemoth with his rifle at the ready until he was certain it was no longer breathing. Then he tried shoving the grizzly off of Dennis, but the bear was too heavy.

  “Andy, Bao, come quick!” he yelled.

  As the two men galloped their horses toward him, Karl shouted orders. They tied ropes around the bear’s head and rear paws, dallied them around their saddle horns, and using the strength of both horses, hauled the grizzly off of Dennis.

  By then, Hetty and the children had reached the spot where the bear had fallen.

  “Stay on your horses,” Karl ordered. He didn’t want them seeing the kind of gore he expected when Dennis’s body was revealed.

  Bao quickly examined Dennis, then looked at Karl and shook his head.

  Karl crossed to where Dennis lay and looked down at him.

  “There’s hardly a mark on him. What happened?”

  “Suffocated,” Bao said as he arranged a blanket in which to wrap Dennis’s body.

  “Then this is my fault,” Karl said flatly. “For shooting that bear so it fell on him.”

  “It’s Dennis’s fault for running away and leaving you to die, Pa,” Griffin said. “And for not lying still like you said.”

  Karl frowned. “You saw what happened?”

  “We were standing right there,” Grace said, pointing to the concealing underbrush. “We saw it all. You did everything you could, Pa.”

  “The children are right, Karl. You couldn’t have done more than you did. You saved Dennis from being eaten alive by that grizzly.”

  Hetty was off her mount before Karl could stop her. She stopped in front of him and surveyed the shallow claw marks the grizzly had left on his cheeks. “Oh, Karl. Your face.”

  He wouldn’t look ordinary anymore. He’d carry the scars from this day forever after. He opened his arms, which suddenly felt as if they had no strength, and closed them around the woman he loved. “Let’s go home,” he said.

  “Wait, Karl!” Griffin said.

  Karl was instantly alert. “What’s wrong?”

  Griffin stepped off his pony, pulled his brand-new knife from the scabbard, and said, “I’ve got a bear to skin.”

  Hetty stuck her nose against his neck and shuddered.

  “It’s all over, Hetty,” he said, rubbing her back soothingly. “You don’t have to be scared anymore.”

  She leaned close and said, “I love you, Karl.”

  Karl looked into her eyes and saw the truth staring back at him. He hugged her tight and whispered, “I love you, too.”

  It was still hard for Karl to accept that Hetty loved him. He supposed there had been too many lies in the beginning for him to accept that everything had turned out so right in the end. But Grace and Griffin were calling him Pa, and he was soon to be the father of a third child, who would be arriving in a matter of months. Having a family to love was so much better than he’d ever imagined it could be.

  So he was more than a little disturbed when, one month after the bear hunt, a man dressed in a black suit and a black duster and wearing a black bo
wler hat knocked on his front door and asked if he could speak with Miss Henrietta Wentworth.

  “Who are you?” Karl demanded.

  The man doffed his hat and said, “Excuse me, sir. I’m a Pinkerton. Can you direct me to Miss Wentworth?”

  “There’s no one here by that name,” Karl said, knowing full well whom the detective wanted.

  “Perhaps I was misled,” the Pinkerton said. “I was told that Miss Henrietta Wentworth traveled to the Bitterroot last fall.”

  “Miss Wentworth is now Mrs. Karl Norwood. My wife.”

  The Pinkerton smiled and returned his hat to his head. “I saw how the church register was signed, Mr. Norwood. I’m not entirely sure you’re married to Miss Wentworth. I’m still checking into the legalities of the matter.”

  The last thing Karl wanted to hear was that he wasn’t married to Hetty. He managed not to snap when he asked, “What is it you want with my wife?”

  “I’ve been hired by her eldest sister to find her.”

  “Her eldest sister?” Karl said. “Not her twin?”

  “Her twin, Mrs. Flint Creed of the Wyoming Territory, is also seeking Miss Wentworth, but the Pinkerton Agency was employed by Mrs. Jacob Creed, who resides in South Texas.”

  “Both married sisters have the same last name?” Karl said. “How is that possible?”

  “They married brothers, one living in Texas and the other in Wyoming,” the Pinkerton said. “Could I speak with your wife, Mr. Norwood? It’s my duty to inform her that her sisters are searching for her, and to give her information on how she may contact them.”

  “Karl? Who’s at the door?”

  Karl turned to find Hetty standing behind him, looking adorably rumpled, as though she’d just gotten out of bed. Which she had. He’d kept her there making love to her after they’d woken up, and told her he’d make breakfast while she slept in. Except, those plans had gone to hell when this stranger knocked on the door.

  “It’s a Pinkerton,” Karl said bluntly.

  “Why don’t you invite him inside?” Hetty said, tying her robe more tightly around her nightgown.

  The Pinkerton removed his bowler again. “How do you do, Miss Wentworth? I have a message for you from your sister.”

  Hetty’s eyes lit up. “Hannah? Then she’s alive? Please come in! And it’s Mrs. Norwood,” she said.

  The Pinkerton’s eyebrows rose at the correction, and he shot a look at Karl, who couldn’t help smiling back smugly. Then the detective stepped inside and allowed Hetty to usher him to the kitchen table. She offered him a seat, which he took.

  “Please tell me,” Hetty said anxiously as she sat down at the table across from the detective, “how is Hannah?”

  “Happily married to Mr. Flint Creed of the Wyoming Territory and the mother of a little girl named Lauren,” the Pinkerton reported.

  “Karl,” Hetty said, reaching out a hand, which he crossed the room to grasp. “She’s alive! She’s married and a mother. I didn’t kill her!”

  The sudden tears in Hetty’s eyes gave evidence of the burden of guilt she’d carried. Karl couldn’t believe this was really happening. Hetty was being offered the chance to reunite with her family.

  “I’m also delighted to report that your eldest sister, Miranda, is married to Mr. Jacob Creed, and that along with your younger brothers, Nicholas and Harrison, is living on a ranch in South Texas,” the Pinkerton said.

  Hetty’s grip on Karl’s hand became painfully tight. He took a step closer and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

  “What’s going on out here?” Griffin asked as he entered the room barefoot, dressed in his smalls and a long john shirt, and rubbing sleep from his eyes.

  “We have company,” Hetty said. “Go get dressed.”

  Griffin froze where he was, his eyes frightened. “I know who you are,” he said, pointing at the stranger. “I’ve seen your kind before, dressed all in black and with that bowler hat. You’re a Pinkerton!”

  “Yes, my good man, I am,” the Pinkerton confirmed.

  “Grace, get in here!” Griffin shouted. “There’s a Pinkerton in the house.”

  A moment later, Grace appeared in her bedroom door, wearing wool socks without shoes and tying a robe Hetty had made for her. “What does he want?” she asked her brother.

  From the anxious look his children exchanged, Karl had the feeling they were guilty of more in the past year than deceiving him. “Who else did you scam?” he asked.

  “Griffin only did it for me, Pa,” Grace said. “And I snuck the money back where it belonged as soon as I found out.”

  “Come here, both of you,” Karl said sternly.

  Grace grasped Griffin’s hand, and they took the few steps necessary to face Karl.

  “I won’t ever do anything like that again, Pa,” Griffin said. “Please don’t send us away!”

  Karl reached out to enfold both children in his arms and hugged them close. “I’ll take your word that both of you have given up your lives of crime. I’m not sending you anywhere except into the bedroom to get dressed.”

  “What about the Pinkerton?” Griffin asked, eyeing the stranger suspiciously.

  “He’s here to give your mother some good news. He’s found her missing family.”

  Grace left Karl’s side and rushed over to hug Hetty. “Mom, that’s wonderful! I’m so happy for you. Are they coming to the valley to see us?”

  “I don’t know if they have plans to come here,” Hetty replied. “I certainly can’t travel south until the baby is born, and I can figure out how to pay for my passage,” Hetty added, looking at Karl.

  Karl grimaced. Hetty was well aware of the fact that, instead of profiting from the work he’d done over the winter, he’d been left high and dry by his brother. He’d met Jonas’s quotas for lumber, only to have Jonas inform him that he’d failed to work out financing for a railroad into the valley to haul the lumber out. Until Jonas could figure out a way to economically get lumber out of the valley, the entire logging project was on hold.

  Since both Hetty and Karl loved the valley and wanted to stay there, Karl had been toying with the idea of ranching. The valley was ripe with long grass, and Andy had suggested they drive some longhorns up to the Bitterroot from Texas.

  Which led Karl to say, “Andy and I are planning a trip to Texas to buy cattle. Maybe that would be a good time to visit your sisters.”

  “I believe the entire family is planning a reunion later in the fall.” The Pinkerton handed a letter to Hetty. “The details are all there.”

  Karl watched Hetty take the letter reverently in her hands. She looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears of joy. “We’re all going to be together again, Karl. Miranda and Hannah and me and—” She cut herself off and turned back to the Pinkerton. “What about Josie? Have you found her? Is she safe?”

  “Your youngest sister, Miss Josephine Wentworth, is no longer a captive of the Sioux,” the Pinkerton said. “She was bought by an Englishman who—”

  “Bought!” Hetty exclaimed.

  “Exchanged for a gold watch, actually,” the Pinkerton said with a smile.

  “So where is she?” Hetty asked.

  “The Englishman was traveling abroad and took your sister along with him. I believe he’s scheduled to return to Blackthorne Abbey, his home in England, by the end of the summer. We will be there, that is to say, I will be there,” he corrected, “to inform him that Josephine’s eldest sister is seeking her whereabouts, and to arrange for her return to the bosom of her family.”

  “This must be costing a fortune,” Hetty murmured. “Who’s paying your fee?”

  “Your sister Miranda employed the agency, madam,” the Pinkerton said.

  “But we’re orphans!” Hetty said. “We don’t have—”

  “You’re all heirs to your father’s fortune, which was not burned in the Great Fire, as was first reported. Unfortunately, your uncle Stephen absconded with a great deal of your father’s wealth. Rest assured, w
e will find him.” He winked and said, “A Pinkerton never sleeps.”

  Hetty jumped up and hugged Karl. “I can’t believe this is happening. My family is safe! And we’re rich! I can buy Grace a whole trousseau of dresses, and we can get Griffin a Sunday suit.”

  “I’d rather have a dog,” Griffin said.

  “Whoa!” Karl said. “Let’s not put the cart before the horse. If I heard the Pinkerton right, your uncle has most of your father’s fortune, and he hasn’t been found.”

  “That is correct,” the Pinkerton said.

  “Aw, shucks,” Griffin said. “Does that mean I don’t get a dog?”

  “We’ll see about the dog,” Karl said. “Meanwhile, let Hetty read the letter from her sister.”

  Hetty plopped back down in her chair, opened the letter, and began to read aloud.

  Dear Hetty,

  If you’re reading this, it means the Pinkerton has found you at last. I’m living in Texas with my husband, Jake, his former father-in-law, a beautiful stepdaughter, and a feisty son who was born earlier this year.

  Hannah is married to Jake’s brother, Flint, who lives near Jake’s other brother, Ransom, in the Wyoming Territory. Hannah has a daughter, Lauren, by Mr. McMurtry, and is pregnant again with Flint’s child.

  We decided to postpone reuniting until we can all be together, which means after we find Josie. We know she’s alive, but we’re concerned about the scoundrel who bought her from the Indians. It seems he’s the black sheep of the family, even if he is the Duke of Blackthorne. There’s no telling what he’s done to Josie.

  The Pinkerton has also told you by now that Father’s money wasn’t burned up in the Great Fire after all, but we have to catch Uncle Stephen to retrieve it. The Pinkerton is authorized to provide whatever funds you need to make the journey here.

  I love and miss you and look forward to the day when we can all be together again here in Texas.