Would-Be Wilderness Wife

by Regina Scott

  Drew couldn’t seem to grasp the idea. “You chose to gamble away what little you earned from logging? When did this happen? You’ve had plenty to do here.”

  Levi shrugged. “I did, until Ma got sick. Then you sent me back to the Landing. I was bored, and Scout needed help rounding up clients. Besides, Mr. Rankin hosts his games at night. It wasn’t hard to slip away...until she came.” He nodded at Catherine.

  Anger licked up Drew. Did Levi dare blame Catherine for his shortcomings? She evidently had as little liking for the comment, for her eyes narrowed.

  “Then it’s a shame I didn’t come sooner, Mr. Wallin,” she said.

  She was getting all prim and proper again, but Drew couldn’t blame her. He felt the same way. He’d thought he’d raised his brother better than this. He wanted to strangle Levi and lock him in the house for safekeeping at the same time.

  One of the oxen thudded through the mud, head low and call plaintive. The last of the smoke drifted from the barn. As much as Drew would have liked to question his brother further, they had bigger concerns at the moment.

  “We’ll settle this later,” he said. “For now, there’s work to be done. Simon and James, fetch back Ma and Beth and the stock. John and I will make sure all the sparks are out and get the oxen penned again. Levi, start supper. I don’t know whether anyone is in the mood to eat, but I want something on the table just in case.”

  As his brothers scattered, Catherine touched his hand where it rested on her hip. “How can I help?”

  “Keep an eye on Levi,” he said. “It seems someone has to.”

  He watched as his brother stumped up the porch, head bowed.

  “We’ll help him,” Catherine said, watching Levi, as well. “He’s lost his way, but he’s not lost.”

  Drew could only hope she was right and that he could reach his brother.

  And Catherine.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It was a solemn dinner that night. Though Levi had managed to put together a stew with dried venison, carrots and potatoes, as well as a pan of biscuits, no one seemed interested in eating. Simon had returned with Mrs. Wallin and Beth, and the men had built a makeshift pen for the stock until they could repair the fire damage to the barn.

  Simon must have told their mother about Levi’s confession, for the first thing she did when she returned was to cup her youngest son’s face in her hands.

  “What’s done is done,” she’d said, green eyes meeting blue. “Now you must make things right.”

  Levi had nodded, blinking back tears.

  Although Catherine knew Mrs. Wallin was wise to counsel action, she wondered how the boy would go about settling the matter. It was clear to her he was in over his head and up against people with no regard for life or property.

  Of course, she knew something about feeling out of control. Despite her best efforts, she had come to love this family. Especially the man who held them all together.

  Drew sat at the head of the table, gaze traveling from one sibling to another as if he were counting heads, making certain everyone was safe and fed. He didn’t eat until their plates were filled, didn’t rest until they were dreaming. And if their sleep was peaceful, it was because they knew he was standing guard. A prayer for him came easily.

  Father, they called You the Good Shepherd. I had forgotten that until I met Drew. He thinks he’s doing what his earthly father asked, but I think he’s doing what You expect and more. Show me how to help him.

  Mrs. Wallin and James had cleared away the dishes and were in the back washing up when Drew spoke to Levi again. “How much do you owe?”

  His brother seemed to shrink in on himself. “Two hundred.”

  “Dollars?” Beth asked with a gasp as Simon hissed in a breath.

  Catherine felt her stomach drop. It had cost her three hundred dollars to sail from Boston to Seattle, money she’d saved from the sale of her father’s house. Two hundred would surely be a huge burden to this family.

  “Where did you lay your hands on so much money?” John asked with a frown as if he could not make the sum add up in his head.

  “I told you,” Levi snapped. “They let me play on credit.”

  “Knowing your family would make good on your debt,” Simon said with a shake of his head.

  “I never asked you to pay my debt,” Levi protested, clutching his crutch as if he wanted to swing it at someone. “I told Scout I’d pay his father back. They just didn’t like waiting.”

  Catherine felt ill. “If they torched your family’s barn and beat you because they disliked waiting, I shudder to think what they’ll do once they know you can’t pay.”

  “We’ll pay,” Drew said, voice low and hard. “This harassment must end before anyone else is hurt.”

  “But we can’t let them get away with it,” John argued. “What they did is wrong.”

  “Not to mention potentially deadly,” James said, coming back into the room with a towel slung over his shoulder. He lay a hand over his heart. “Not that I hold it against them, seeing how Levi so abused their trust.”

  “‘Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,’” Mrs. Wallin quoted, following James back to the table. “I don’t like what Mr. Rankin’s done, but I won’t see more of my boys hurt because of it.”

  They were missing the point. Why was this their fight to begin with?

  “Surely this is a matter for the sheriff,” Catherine said, glancing around at them all. “Deputy McCormick said there had been other harassment out this way. Levi can’t be the only one to fall into the Rankins’ trap. If we tell Deputy McCormick our suspicions about Mr. Rankin and his son, he’ll have enough information to at least warn the man off, perhaps even jail him.”

  “But suspicion is all we have,” Simon reminded her. “McCormick isn’t going to arrest anyone unless he has proof.”

  Catherine lay her hand on Levi’s shoulder. “And Levi’s word and injuries aren’t enough?”

  Levi cast her a quick glance. She thought he looked surprised that she considered his word important.

  “He claims to have fallen out of a tree,” John pointed out.

  “And he hasn’t actually been the most trusted and respected of citizens,” James added.

  Levi slumped under her hand. “I really mucked it up this time.”

  “Yes, you did,” James agreed. “But never fear. We still need an annoying little brother to make the family complete, so you might as well keep playing the role. Unless we could get that Gulliver Ward fellow to stand in last minute.” He glanced around at his family, as if seeking approval.

  Beth shook her head at his silliness, but Catherine felt Drew’s sigh.

  “Levi made a mistake,” he said, and she thought he took it personally. “Rankin made a bigger one by destroying property and threatening lives. But the fact of the matter is that Levi owes him money. Like it or not, deserved or not, the debt must be paid.”

  The conviction in his voice seemed to build her strength, as well.

  Simon did not seem to share it. He leaned forward. “And just how do you intend to pay it? You don’t have two hundred dollars.”

  Drew’s jaw tightened. “I’ll go to Yesler, offer him a contract on timber for his sawmill and ask for an advance.”

  John snorted. “Yesler doesn’t pay on time even after we deliver the wood. I doubt he’ll give us money ahead of receipt.”

  Now Drew’s shoulders were tensing, as well. He was trying to protect his family, as he always did.

  “I’ll find a way,” he insisted. “I refuse to see this family endangered.”

  “And you think the rest of us will sit by contentedly?” Simon asked. He rose from his seat, gaze on Drew’s. “I heard Pa that day. He made you head of this family. I know the sacrifices you’ve made to raise us all.
Your clothes wore out, but you made sure ours didn’t. You were the first one out in the fields in the morning, the last in at night.”

  So he saw it, too. What Catherine couldn’t understand was why he sounded so angry about it.

  Simon bent and braced both hands on the table so that he and Drew were eye to eye. “You did your job, Drew. We’re grown men. It’s time you started letting us have a say in how things go around here.”

  Catherine leaned back from him. She still disliked his tone, but she realized that he was right. If Drew’s brothers took more of a hand in keeping Beth and Levi safe and supporting their mother, it would surely ease Drew’s mind. Maybe enough to start the family his mother hoped for him.

  Perhaps with her.

  Drew was watching his brother. “I never told you to hold your peace,” he said. “Not about family matters.”

  “No, but you act as if we’re all your responsibility.” Simon straightened. “When something threatens one of us, it threatens us all. I have sixty dollars saved from my cut of the timber. That can go against Levi’s debt.”

  “I have forty,” John put in. “I can do without a few books for a time.”

  “I brought you Culpeper’s,” Catherine offered, and he beamed.

  James fingered his shirt. “I have thirty, but I owe twenty at the mercantile.” He shrugged. “Mr. Howard has commented more than once on my taste in clothing. I could probably get him to pay twenty for my waistcoat.”

  Sacrifice, indeed. Not to be outdone, Beth took a deep breath.

  “I have three dollars from gifts,” she said, twisting a strand of hair around one finger. “I was saving it for my social dress, but James is right. When will I attend a social?”

  Catherine touched her hand. “Sooner than you think.”

  Levi glanced around at them. “I can’t take your money. I don’t deserve it.”

  “You certainly don’t,” James said. He patted his brother’s shoulder. “I believe that’s why it’s called a gift.”

  “That’s one hundred and thirty-three,” Simon said. “If we put in the hundred from Captain Collings, we’ve more than enough.”

  “But that money was to go for a plow,” John protested. “And we’ll need lumber to repair the barn.”

  Catherine clasped her hands together on the table. “I am paid two and a half dollars a week at the hospital. I’ve saved five dollars, and I have it with me. You are welcome to it.”

  They all stared at her.

  James spoke first, tugging down on his smoke-stained shirtsleeves. “If you had told us you were such an heiress, Catherine, I might have tried harder to wedge my way into your affections.”

  Drew’s hand came down on hers, warm and firm. “Thank you, Catherine.” He looked to his brothers. “It seems we’re all in this together, then.”

  Together. A family. Oh, but that was what she hoped they soon might be.

  * * *

  They set out the next morning. Drew wasn’t sure what to expect at the Rankins’, but he’d agreed that Catherine should come with them. She’d fought for her place at his side when they’d laid out their plans around the table last night.

  “Having a lady with you may make him think twice about his behavior,” she’d insisted, eyes bright with fervor.

  Levi had snorted. “You’ve never met Mr. Rankin.”

  “You’re right,” she’d admitted. “I haven’t had the pleasure.”

  “Believe me, it’s not a pleasure,” James had assured her.

  “He’s proved he cares about nothing but money,” Drew had agreed. “He could have killed us all or damaged acres of timber by torching the barn. It’s not safe for you to come with us, Catherine.”

  “Then it’s not safe for you to go, either,” she’d insisted. “You cannot expect me to sit idly by while you are in danger.”

  His brothers should have done more to help him counter her logic, but instead they had all grinned at her.

  “I’ve always admired a woman willing to fight for those she loves,” James had said. “That and one with a good head of hair.”

  She had ignored him. “And Scout. I promised myself I’d look in on the boy. I’m convinced his father is beating him.”

  That might be, but the thought that Catherine might fall under those fists as well had made his back stiffen, his fingers tighten. He’d wanted to argue further, but she’d laid a hand on his arm. “If anyone is hurt, Drew, I want to be there to help.”

  As always, that logic he could not defeat. So Catherine was walking in front of him when they left at first light that morning.

  “Be careful,” she murmured as they started into the trees. “You don’t know how Mr. Rankin will react. If he gambles all night as Levi said, he may not take kindly to visitors so early in the morning.”

  Drew was counting on it.

  Only an old game trail, heavily overgrown, led between the two claims. They went single file, Simon at the head, Drew at the back. James held the bushes so John could help Levi and Catherine could come through with her wide brown skirts. The boy had tried to remain behind, worried that his injured leg would slow them down.

  “You started this,” Simon had told him. “It’s only right you be there to finish it.”

  Now they moved quietly, his brothers with axes in their hands and knives at their waists. James carried his rifle, but Drew had warned everyone use their weapon only for protection. Catherine carried her bandbox, which she’d packed with the bandages Levi had rolled and some medical supplies she had brought from town this time. Drew only hoped she’d have no call to use any of them.

  The Rankin cabin was set near the shore of the lake, drowned trees lying like giant needles in the mud all around it. Scout had once bragged that his father let the water do his clearing for him.

  But it didn’t look as if Rankin had worked on his land in any other way. Blackberries had overtaken the vegetable patch, and a few chickens pecked among the weeds of the yard. The log cabin looked nearly as deserted, standing silent as they approached.

  The Rankins had never bothered to install glass in their windows. Shutters closed up the house like the shell of a turtle. Only smoke trickling from the chimney, rising to meet the gray clouds, said someone might be home. But a new hitching post had been built in front of the house, resin still dripping from the timber, and the dirt around it had been packed solid, as if any number of horses had waited for owners busy inside. Somewhere near to hand, Drew caught the acrid scent of fermenting grain.

  As his brothers fanned out across the yard, Catherine behind Simon for her protection, Drew nodded to Levi, who limped up to the door and banged on it. “Mr. Rankin? It’s Levi Wallin. I have your money.”

  Inside came thuds and a raised voice before Benjamin Rankin yanked open the weathered door. A large man with ample folds around his thick neck and a protruding belly, his eyes squinted against the light. The sneer on his flabby face quickly vanished as he spied Drew and the others in the yard.

  James raised the rifle, but Drew thought Catherine’s glare was far more effective in making the man take a step back.

  “We don’t want any trouble,” Drew assured Rankin. “Pay the man what you owe, Levi.”

  Levi shoved the sack of silver and gold coins at the man. “Two hundred, just like we agreed.”

  Rankin spat a stream of something yellow into the yard, as if the sight of the money left a bad taste in his mouth. “You forgot the interest.”

  Drew stiffened. So did Catherine and Levi.

  “Interest?” his youngest brother cried. “You never said anything about interest.”

  Rankin shrugged with a roll of muscle and fat. “Didn’t think I had to. Goes without saying that there’s interest on a loan. You get to use my money. I get a consideration.” He opened the sack and dug a th
ick finger into the coins, making them clink against each other. “I see no consideration here.”

  “How very inconsiderate of us,” James quipped. “What do you say, Drew? Shall we pay Mr. Rankin back the same way he paid Levi?”

  Simon smacked his ax handle into the palm of one hand.

  To Drew’s surprise, Catherine strode forward, eyes flashing. “Levi already paid your interest, Mr. Rankin, with his blood. And so, I believe, has your son, Scout. I demand that you show us the boy.”

  “You demand?” Rankin laughed, the sound like the creaking of a badly oiled door. “You have no rights on my property. A man can treat his boy any way he likes.”

  Catherine looked him up and down, standing tall and trim in her tailored brown wool. “And he can treat himself as he wishes, as well. You certainly have. Veined nose and bloodshot eyes—the effects of too much alcohol. Ample girth, too much food of the wrong sort. Shortness of breath and wheezing laugh, indications of an asthmatic condition brought about by excessive exposure to tobacco smoke. If you do not mend your ways, Mr. Rankin, I predict you will shortly die of heart failure.”

  Drew took a step closer, fully expecting Rankin to light into her verbally, if not physically. Instead, the man squinted his eyes at her. “Who are you?”

  “Catherine Stanway,” she replied. “Trained nurse and assistant to Doctor Maynard. And I strongly suggest you take my advice and see to your diet and surroundings immediately.”

  Rankin glanced between her and Drew. “Is she crazy?”

  Drew smiled. “Not in the slightest. Ma nearly died of a fever. She nursed her back to health in a couple of days.”

  “Took care of Old Joe’s rash, too,” James called. “For which we are all grateful.” He shuddered, as if even the recollection of the puffy skin was painful.

  Scout crept up beside his father, one hand tugging at the man’s sleeve. “She knew about my nose, Pa, before I ever said a word.”