Trail of Aces (Hot on the Trail Book 8)

by Merry Farmer

  “I want my money. You cheated me, you’ll—”

  Chet didn’t finish his sentence. His hand slipped out of Charlie’s. Olivia screamed at the jolt of his weight shaking free. Chet plunged to the sharp rocks at the bottom of the cliff as Charlie’s hand peeled away from the base of the tree. Fear wracked through her, threatening to make her weak, but even through the sickening thunk of Chet hitting the rocks, she held on.

  Charlie was quicker to react. As soon as he saw it was too late, he swung his free arm up, grasping the base of the tree. With that grip secure, he adjusted his hold on Olivia’s hands and scrambled to find footholds in the cliff-face. With a combined effort of Olivia’s pulling, Charlie’s muscle power, and a tiny ledge that he was able to hook his foot into, Charlie was able to fight his way up the edge of the cliff and onto solid ground. Olivia jerked back with him, scrambling far away from the edge before collapsing on her back in tears.

  “It’s all right,” Charlie panted, crawling toward her. “I’m safe, you’re safe. It’s all right.”

  His body was scratched and bruised. Blood tricked from a few cuts caused either by Chet’s struggling or jagged pieces of rocks. The more details Olivia noticed, the more her own fear washed away and only concern for her husband remained.

  “You’re hurt.” She pushed herself to her knees and crawled to where Charlie had finally come to rest with a groan.

  “Yes, Sweet Pea, I’m hurt. But I’ve had worse.” He flopped to his back, regardless of his naked state.

  “Really? Worse than this?” She reached him and scanned his wounds. Scratches, bruises, cuts, but nothing that looked life-threatening.

  Madman that he was, Charlie started laughing. “Remind me to tell you the story of the time I fell off the monastery wall into the swamp. This smells a darn sight better than that did.”

  He may have been crazy for laughing, but she was equally crazy. Giggles bubbled up from her lungs, and she dipped down to hug him, so happy he was alive she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  “Ow, ow, ow,” he protested, still laughing.

  They lay there laughing and shaking and weeping with relief and pain. As soon as she felt up to it, Olivia rushed to bring Charlie his clothes. He shrugged gingerly into his shirt, but they both knew he needed to wash the dirt from his cuts before dressing. That meant venturing to the bottom of the cliff to the stream, which would take them to the rocks where Chet had fallen.

  It was clear from the bent and broken way Chet had landed that he didn’t survive the fall. Blood pooled under his lifeless form. His leg had smashed into the splintered stump, several pieces of which jutted up through his trousers.

  “Don’t look,” Charlie ordered Olivia, turning her away to limp down to the clear water of the stream.

  “What should we do about him?” Olivia whispered as they reached the water’s edge.

  With a wince and a groan, Charlie began scooping clean stream water over his battered body to wash it. “We’re neither of us up to retrieving him and taking him back to the wagon train. We’ll have to leave him here.”

  As much as Olivia hated the idea of abandoning a body in the forest, she hated the thought of having to retrieve Chet and take him back even more. She swallowed the twist in her stomach over what had happened and helped Charlie clean his wounds.

  It wasn’t until the two of them limped back to the camp at the top of the cliff that the weight of so much anxiety and frustration began to lift. Chet was dead. That link to Charlie’s dark past was gone. He was a new man, and because of it, she was a new woman.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Charlie had never been so happy to be in so much pain in his life. Chet’s punches had left bruises that were more than skin deep. The terror of the cliff caused scratches and cuts that stung when he washed them and burned when he put his clothes on. And that particularly sensitive part of him wasn’t happy about being squashed and scraped against hard, rocky ground, but even that would recover.

  He and Olivia were lucky. More than lucky. Chet could have done so much more harm. If he had simply shot Charlie, snatched Josiah’s fortune, and turned his sights on Olivia, he might have succeeded in his plan. Pride had gotten in his way in the end. Charlie and Olivia were doubly lucky to not only find Barnaby wandering in the forest nearby, but to find Chet’s horse as well. The two of them were able to ride, sore and wincing, down through the forest and to the valley where the wagon train was rolling along.

  “Bless my soul, what happened to you?” Josephine shouted when she spotted them approaching the wagons.

  They must have been a pitiful sight, for the moment others in the wagon train spotted them, gasps of surprise and horror rose up, and more than a few of their friends and neighbors broke away from the trail to meet them.

  “We had a little trouble on our detour,” Charlie said, doing his best to keep his familiar smile and roguish nature, even though climbing down from Barnaby was an exercise in torture. It hurt to help Olivia off of the horse Chet had taken to find them as well, but he was as careful as could be and didn’t want to let her out of his arms once her feet were on the ground.

  “We were worried about you,” Graham confided, walking them back toward the train, Estelle and Josephine on their other side. “Pete told me your plan.” He sent a cautious look Olivia’s way. “I wish you’d asked me about it first.”

  “It was a damn fool idea,” Josephine said outright what Graham hinted at.

  “Did everyone know about the plan except for me?” Olivia balked as they reached the crew wagon. From the front of the wagon train, Pete came riding to join them, the dark scowl on his face filled with worry.

  “No one knew about it except for Pete,” Charlie assured her.

  “Until we all woke up the next morning,” Estelle seconded. “We all knew something was up the moment we noticed both of you were gone.” She nodded to the others, reaching for little Tim and holding him close to her skirts when he poked his head out from around the wagon.

  “Unfortunately, that devil Devlin knew something was fishy right off the bat,” Josephine said.

  “What?” Charlie frowned. Pete reached them and dismounted. “I thought you were going to tell him we’d left the wagon train to make our way to San Francisco on our own.”

  “And that’s exactly what I told him,” Pete said. He left his horse in one of his crew members’ care and marched up to them, arms crossed. Luke and Libby Chance left what they were doing to join the growing circle of concerned friends, and so did Freddy and Muriel. “Only, right about the time I said something, Mrs. Hamilton poked her head into things. She had Olivia’s shoes and was demanding to know why you would run off without them.” He looked from Olivia to Charlie.

  “I told you we should have gone back for my shoes,” Olivia sighed. As frustrated as she appeared to be, Charlie could see the joy of relief in her eyes.

  “Next time I kidnap you to avoid the machinations of a ruthless thief and murderer, I’ll be sure to consult you about shoes first,” Charlie said.

  Olivia’s lips quivered as she tried to maintain a stern expression, then she softened into laughter, shaking her head.

  “What happened to Chet anyhow?” Pete asked. “He catch up with you?”

  Charlie’s stomach tightened to a sick knot at the last sight he’d had of his old friend, the struggle that had landed him there, and how close he had come to being killed himself. “He found us, all right.”

  Pete must have caught everything he needed to hear in the tone of Charlie’s voice. He blew out a breath, then marched over to Charlie’s side. “Everything taken care of now?”

  Charlie answered with a solemn nod.

  Pete nodded once in return, then slapped Charlie on the back. “Well, I—”

  He stopped at Charlie’s pained shout and yanked his hand away.

  “Are you all right?” Graham asked. “You’ve turned white as a sheet.”

  Charlie managed a weak, wry grin, and said, “It mi
ght be a good idea if I saw Dr. Pyle about a few things before we go any farther.”

  That was all he needed to say. Within minutes, Pete had stopped the wagon train, while Estelle and Tim ran to fetch Dr. Pyle. Josephine and Graham found seats for Charlie and Olivia near a hastily-constructed campfire, and Olivia launched into an explanation of the entire ordeal.

  Leaving out a few key details about how they’d spent the previous night.

  “I’ve never been more terrified in my life,” she ended the story, unconsciously rubbing her arms after describing the way her muscles had burned as she held onto him. “I still don’t know how we managed to make it through.”

  “We gave each other strength,” Charlie finished. Aching though every inch of him was, he reached for her hand and squeezed it.

  Olivia wouldn’t leave it at that. She lifted off of her seat and kissed him square on his lips for all the world to see.

  Dr. Pyle showed up a few minutes later, and he and Charlie retired to the bed of his wagon—which their good friends had been kind enough to bring along, in spite of the extra burden. Dr. Pyle inspected all of Charlie’s cuts and scrapes, declared that he did a surprisingly good job of cleaning them all in the wilderness—which Charlie attributed to Olivia’s special care—and treated the worst of them with salve and a few bandages.

  He was still in pain, but by the time Charlie returned to join his friends, Dr. Pyle had declared he would make a full recovery.

  “What I still don’t understand is why Mr. Devlin would go through all that trouble, would lose his life, just to…to what? Get revenge on you for leaving your partnership?” Graham asked.

  Charlie exchanged a glance with Olivia. He’d kept most of the true nature of Chet’s mission against him to himself. Other than Graham, the only person he’d confided even a little of his troubles to was Gideon, who was now miles away in Wyoming. Olivia met his steady gaze with a knowing nod. As far as Charlie was concerned, it was up to her to choose what to reveal and what to keep secret.

  “The fact is,” she began, “Charlie had something—a particular item—that Chet wanted. He wanted it so badly that he was willing to…to die for it in the end.” She swallowed and looked far more pale than Charlie was comfortable with.

  “What could be worth dying for like that?” Freddy Chance asked. He was a champ for sitting with the adults the way he did, but Charlie had a good feeling about the boy and about his prospects for the future. Unlike him, Freddy now had a strong system of support to keep him from going down the wrong path. The thought touched a deep nerve in Charlie.

  “I think it would be best if that information was kept between me and my husband,” Olivia said.

  Charlie turned his head to meet her eyes. She smiled. That simple, beautiful smile was enough to let him know that whatever else they faced, they could make it through as long as they were together.

  He told her as much later that night, when the two of them were alone.

  “I’ve never been so happy to cheat at a game of cards in my life than I am over cheating with you,” he said.

  “Just as long as you never cheat again,” Olivia scolded him.

  It was a challenge to find a comfortable position to lay in together in the back of their wagon. Charlie had a feeling every inch of his body would hurt for a few days or more, but he didn’t mind.

  “I was thinking about something else this afternoon too,” he said.

  “Oh?” She snuggled up against his side, her arm draped carefully over him, her head next to his on the pillow.

  “Josiah’s fortune.”

  “What about it?” She didn’t tense as she asked the question.

  “I’ve got an idea of how we can spend it.” When she didn’t immediately question him, he went on. “I wasn’t joking the other day when I said you could build a school.”

  Olivia held her breath. “A school?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He risked more pain to run a hand along her side. “A fine school with the latest in teaching materials and techniques. How would you feel about being not only a teacher at a school, but the principal as well?”

  “I—” She paused, holding her breath. At last, she blew that breath out. “I think I’d like that.”

  “It’s settled then. As soon as we figure out where we want to live, you and I will put Josiah’s money to good use. We’ll found the Josiah Hurst School.”

  “I love it,” she said with a happy sigh.

  He did too. At long last, he was the man of honor that he had always wanted to be, and the man that Olivia deserved. “And I love you.”

  Epilogue

  San Francisco was as bustling and busy a city as any back East, and far more grand than the few cities Olivia had visited in her life. It was perfectly lovely in the spring. From the window of her hotel room, where she sat, enjoying her afternoon tea and rubbing the gentle bulge of the baby growing inside of her, she could see rows of buildings—some several stories high—dozens of carts zipping through the thoroughfares, and more people than she had seen in all her time traveling the Oregon Trail. It was an exciting change from all the months she spent walking across the heart of America.

  She also spotted Charlie from her window seat. A happy thrill sang through her at the sight of his strong shoulders and long legs in the new suit he’d had custom-made last week. Her husband certainly did like fine clothing, far more than she did. As he approached the hotel, he glanced up and spotted her waiting in the window. His handsome face burst into a wide smile, and he raised a hand—filled with envelopes and folded paper—to wave to her.

  Olivia jumped away from the window and rushed to the door to be ready to meet him. Her baby was only just beginning to show, and she thanked heaven for still being able to move quickly, although that would all end soon.

  “You’re up from your nap,” Charlie said as he walked through the door and straight over to her to take her in his arms. “I would have waited for you to go out on errands if I knew you’d be up so soon.”

  “I’m tired of resting,” Olivia confessed. “All those months on the trail, walking and working every day, and now I can’t stand to be idle.”

  Charlie kissed her soundly. “You could never stand to be idle before, Sweet Pea.”

  “True.”

  He let her go long enough to hand her some of the pile of papers he carried. “Telegrams for you.”

  “Oh? Who from?” She turned over the first envelope from the telegram office and opened it.

  “One from your mother, and another from Lucy Haskell…that is, Lucy Faraday.”

  “Lucy and Gideon got married already?” she asked. But it was her mother’s telegram she opened first. She read it quickly and sighed. “More of the same. She wants us to come home to visit. She and my father want to meet you to see if you’re the kind of man they want married to their daughter.”

  “As if they could do anything about it now.” Charlie bent forward to kiss her soundly.

  Olivia ignored her telegrams for a moment to kiss him back. She laughed now when she thought about how she and Charlie had come together. It was amazing that she had ever had any doubts about her wily, clever, mischievous husband in the first place. Yes, he aggravated her to bits sometimes, but she gave as good as she got, and they were more happy together than either of them could have guessed.

  “What do you have there?” She leaned back and nodded at the fat envelope Charlie held.

  He let her go, took a step away from her, and lost his teasing smile in favor of something more serious. “This is the last of the money from selling Josiah’s jewels. Well, part of it. The rest is securely deposited in the bank. You should have seen the look on the face of the teller when I deposited as much as I did.”

  Olivia arched a brow. She could only imagine. “And you contacted Josiah’s lawyer in Nashville?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Charlie nodded. “Josiah’s house is nearly finished being converted into a home for women who wish to escape an abusive husband or
family. A trustee has been chosen to take care of the finances, and Mrs. Breashears has been hired to administrate the home and to help find better situations for the women.”

  “I’m so relieved.” Olivia leaned into him, hugging him. “Josiah would be proud of you. So would the Brothers of Saint Benedict.”

  “Yes, well, they were happy to receive a large contribution, that’s for certain.” Charlie kissed her again, then said, “What does Lucy’s telegram say?”

  Olivia broke away from him long enough to open the second telegram and read it. “Oh,” she exclaimed, expression filling with surprise. “She begs us to come back and visit her and to meet her family. She says that Graham and Estelle have already come, and they’re thinking of staying.”

  “Are they now?”

  “Yes.” Olivia scanned through the rest of the telegram. Her heart fluttered with excitement, and she darted an animated look up at Charlie. “It seems that Lucy’s father—”

  “Howard Haskell of Wyoming,” Charlie interrupted in imitation of the way Lucy always spoke of her father.

  “Yes, Howard Haskell of Wyoming, has gotten the idea into his head to build an entire town on his patch of land.”

  “Interesting.” Charlie beamed from ear to ear, as if he already knew where the telegram had gone next.

  Olivia met his mischief with her own enthusiasm. “He’s in intense talks to convince the railroad to build a station on his land which can act as a railhead for ranchers that are flocking to the area. And she desperately wants us to come live there.”

  “Well, I’ll be,” Charlie laughed. He circled an arm around Olivia’s shoulder and peered down to read the telegram.

  “She—” Olivia gasped. “She wants me to come and start a school, says her father will pay for the building to be built, but that they want me to have full control.” Her heart jumped for joy at the very thought.

  “Howard Haskell pay for a school? Nonsense,” Charlie said. “We already decided we would build a school. Haskell might have money, but I wager I’ll give him a run for his money.”