The Prodigal Son Returns

by Jan Drexler

  Yes, the Gardiners were an old family, well respected, with a great estate and vaults of money, as her father so often said with utmost reverence in his voice.

  “Of course,” Margaret started, considering her with a mocking smile, “if you’re dreaming of love and romance—”

  Linette jerked back. “All I’m thinking of is escape.” Love did not enter into a suitable marriage, which was fine with her. She fully intended to keep her feelings out of the picture. A trembling in the depths of her heart warned her that love would make her weak, vulnerable, ready to give up her personal goals. Not something she intended to let happen. She grabbed a piece of paper. “I’m going to do it. Anything is better than what my parents have in mind.” Being a rancher’s wife in the new world suited her fine. She was weary of the social restrictions her parents insisted on and not at all loath to living the kind of life she’d heard existed in the new world. There, women marched side by side with their men. They were even allowed to own land! Doubtlessly they’d be allowed to get their hands dirty and be involved.

  Before she could change her mind, she’d penned a short letter. A marriage of convenience if it suits you. Please reply to Margaret’s address. She knew her father would read any letter that came to the house. Much better to know she had a positive answer from Mr. Gardiner before confronting her father. If she had to be part of a business deal, it would be on her terms. She’d say who and where.

  She clasped her fingers on the answering letter that had carried two tickets—one for herself and one for a traveling companion. The missive was brief. Not much more than an invitation to come. Her heart had danced for joy. Margaret was right; her father had glowed at an invitation from a Gardiner.

  The stagecoach swayed to a stop. “Hello, the house.” The driver’s call shivered up and down Linette’s spine. They’d arrived at Eden Valley Ranch.

  It wasn’t as if Eddie were a total stranger. She’d read his letters to Margaret. He sounded like a strong man, an independent thinker. She had no trouble imagining herself sharing his life. Yet her insides clenched in trepidation.

  She squeezed right back in protest. She would not let nerves weaken her resolve. She’d prayed for such an escape and God had generously provided. Hitherto hath the Lord helped me. Renewed faith filled her, driving away any doubts and fears.

  One of the two men who also rode in the coach flicked aside a curtain. “Looks like a fine establishment.”

  Linette parted the curtains again and peeked outside. The coach had drawn up before a log cabin with only a narrow door and small window in the wall facing them. This must be where the man lived. She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth and refused to think how small it looked. Hardly big enough for all of them. Never mind. Nothing could deter her now. She’d prayed her way from London, over the Atlantic Ocean, and across most of the North American continent. The rooms she’d had on the trip had left barely enough space for stretching. Although vastly different from the spacious home she’d grown up in, she’d gotten used to it readily enough. This cabin would be no different.

  The door of the cabin opened and Linette took a deep breath. A man stepped forth, ducking as he crossed the threshold. This had to be Eddie Gardiner. She’d seen his likeness in pictures, but they failed to do the man justice. Despite the chill in the air, he hadn’t bothered to grab a coat or hat and in the bright sunshine his brown hair shone. He dressed like a range hand—dark denim trousers, a blue shirt that had faded almost colorless on the sleeves with dark remnants of the color in the seams, and a leather vest that looked worn and friendly.

  Her heart jumped to her throat. She hadn’t expected to feel anything for him. Surely it was only excitement, combined with a touch of nerves. After all, despite the letters, he was a stranger. She wanted nothing more or less from him than a marriage of convenience.

  His gaze sought the parted curtains and his dark eyes narrowed as he tried to make out the face in the dim interior.

  She flicked the curtain closed and turned to her traveling companion. “You keep the child while I meet him.” The boy would remain a secret for now. Seeing her intention, one of the gentlemen stepped down and held out a hand to assist her. She murmured her thanks as Eddie strode forward.

  He slid his gaze over her as if she were invisible and looked toward the stagecoach. “Is Margaret inside?”

  Linette shook her head trying to make sense of his question. Surely he’d mistakenly spoken her name out of habit.

  “Is she at Fort Benton? If so I’ll go for her immediately.” He glanced at the sky as if already trying to outrace the weather.

  Her mouth felt like yesterday’s dust as she realized what he meant. “You’re expecting Margaret?” It took every ounce of her stubborn nature not to stammer.

  “Any day. I sent tickets for her and a chaperone to come before winter.”

  Come before winter. She remembered the words well. They’d bubbled through her heart. But she thought they were meant for her. “Did you not get the letter?”

  At that the driver jumped down. “’Spect any letters you’d be wanting are in here.” He waved a small bundle. “Seems you haven’t picked up your mail for some time, so I brought it.”

  Cold trickled across Linette’s neck, dug bony fingers into her spine and sent a faint sense of nausea up her throat. She swallowed it back with determination. If he hadn’t received her letter, then the tickets he’d sent hadn’t been meant for her. He didn’t know she was coming. He wasn’t prepared to welcome her and accept her as a suitable helpmate on the frontier. Now what?

  She stiffened her shoulders. She had not crossed an ocean and a vast continent to be turned back now. Her prayers for escape had been fervent. God held her in the palm of His hand now as He had on the journey. This was her answer. She nailed her fears to the thought. Besides, nothing had changed. Not really. Margaret still wasn’t coming and he still needed a wife. Didn’t he? She sought her memories but could not remember that he’d ever said so in clear, unmistakable terms. Had she read more into his missives than was meant?

  Eddie took the bundle of mail and untied the strings. He flicked through the correspondence.

  Recognizing Margaret’s handwriting, she touched the envelope. “That one.” Her own message lay inside, unseen by the man she thought had invited her to join him. She sucked moisture from the corners of her mouth and swallowed hard.

  He slit the envelope and pulled out the pages in which she’d offered to take Margaret Sear’s place. I look forward to being part of the new West. He read her letter then Margaret’s, his fingers tightening on the paper as he understood the message. A flash of pain crossed his face before he covered it with a harsh expression.

  Her heart twisted. He expected Margaret and instead got his hopes and dreams shattered. If only she’d known. But what could she do about it now? Except prove she was better suited to be a woman of the West.

  Thankfully he did not read the letter aloud, which would have added to her growing embarrassment as the three men listened intently—one peering from the inside of the coach, one standing at its side where he remained after helping her alight, the other pretending to check on the horses though he made certain he could hear what was said. Even so, her face burned at their curiosity about an obvious misunderstanding of mammoth proportions.

  Eddie jammed the pages back in the envelope. “This is unacceptable.”

  Her muscles turned to warm butter. It took concentrated effort to hold herself upright, to keep her face rigid. She would not let him guess that the ground threatened to rise up and clout her in the face.

  One hand clasping the mail bundle, he jammed his fists to his hips and turned to the driver. “You can return her to the fort.”

  The man tipped his hat back on his head and shook his head. “Ain’t goin’ a mile more’n I have to. It’s about to snow.”

 
The wind bit at Linette’s cheeks but the cold encasing her heart was not from the wintery weather. She could not, would not, go back to London and her father’s plans.

  The coach driver went on in his leisurely way of speaking. “I’m taking these two gentlemen to the OK Ranch then I’d hoped to make it back to Fort Benton where I intend to hole up for the winter. I don’t fancy being stuck in Edendale.” He made a rattling noise in the back of his throat. “But it looks like I’ll be stuck at the OK for the time being.”

  Linette cared not whether the man was returning to the tiny cluster of huts bravely named Edendale or back to Fort Benton. She wasn’t going anywhere.

  The gentleman who’d helped her down still stood at the steps, waiting and watching. “The girl is strong. Tough. Takes a special kind of lady to take care of travel arrangements and her traveling companions. Not a lot of young women are prepared and able to do that. You could do worse than have her at your side in this brave new frontier.”

  Linette gave the man a fleeting smile of appreciation then turned back to Eddie.

  Eddie met her gaze. He must have read her determination though she hoped he hadn’t seen her desperation. “We need to talk.” He grabbed her arm and marched her around the side of the house, out of sight and hopefully out of earshot of the others, where he released her to glare hotly at her.

  She tipped her chin and met his gaze without flinching even though her insides had begun to tremble. Where would she go if he sent her away? Not back to the marriage her father had arranged. Perhaps money would convince him. “I have a dowry.”

  “Keep your money. I have no need of it.”

  “I came in good faith. I thought you’d received my letter.” Come before winter. The words had seemed so welcoming. She’d made preparations as quickly as she could. How was she to know he didn’t respond to her letter? Hadn’t even received it. She stood motionless. She wouldn’t let so much as one muscle quiver.

  “Obviously I hadn’t.” He stared at the bundle in his hand, sounding every bit as confused as she felt. A contrast to the anger her parents had expressed when she’d informed them she would not marry the man of their choosing and meant to go West. Only after she showed her father the letter from Eddie and only because the Gardiners were a well-respected family had he agreed. With many constraints. Her father knew her too well. Knew she would avoid this marriage, too, if she had the means to strike out on her own. Knew she would not flinch before the dangers nor shirk from the challenges. That’s why he’d allowed her barely enough money to keep from starving to death on the journey and made sure her dowry would be held until he had proof she was married. He’d made her understand he would allow her only enough time for the necessary documents to cross the ocean. Should they not arrive in a reasonable time he would send one of his henchmen to bring her back. She’d used the limited funds he’d provided caring for the sick and destitute she’d crossed paths with. She had not so much as a penny to her name.

  She shuddered as she imagined one of her father’s cruel servants poised and ready to pursue her.

  There was no escape from her father’s plans apart from this marriage.

  She understood Eddie’s shock. It couldn’t feel good to realize Margaret had refused to come, refused his offer of marriage. She swallowed back a swell of sympathy, and resisted an urge to pat his arm. She brought her thoughts back to her own predicament. “I’m prepared to care for your home.” As soon as she and Margaret agreed Linette should take her place, Margaret had reluctantly arranged for their cook to teach Linette to prepare food and run a house. She hadn’t dared to ask for such instructions at home. Her father had often enough said they were rich and had servants to do menial work. Only the death of some distant relative of her mother’s who’d made a fortune in India had changed the family circumstances from penniless to well off before Linette’s birth. Father wanted everyone to believe they were landed gentry, but she often wondered how much of the inheritance still existed and suspected her father’s plans for her were meant to add to the coffers. But how much was enough to satisfy her father? She wondered if enough existed.

  “He should have servants to do those things,” Margaret had fumed when Linette badgered her to arrange instruction.

  “It will be an adventure to do something useful.”

  Unless Eddie changed his mind, her lessons seemed destined to be useless. She stiffened her spine. Failure was not an option.

  Eddie turned his gaze back to her then with a great sigh eased toward the stagecoach.

  She followed at his heels. “I’m a hard worker.” She would press her point but she wouldn’t beg.

  The driver stood at his horses, staring at the horizon and shifting from one foot to the other. “Eddie boy, the wind has a bite to it. Winter is likely to clutch us by the throat any moment.”

  She’d wondered at the earliness of the snow, but the man in the coach had explained it was due to being in high country. “Snow can come early and stay or leave again. There’s no predicting it.”

  Eddie turned to speak over his shoulder. “I’m to be stuck with you then. But only until the weather moderates then I’ll send you back.”

  “Stuck? Seems you’re getting the better part of this bargain.” She had no intention of staying one day more than she must, but she silently prayed the winter would set in early and be long and cold, preventing travel. That would give her sufficient time to persuade Eddie to change his mind.

  She would not—under any circumstances—return to her father and his despicable plan for her.

  Despite her lack of funds, she considered setting off on her own but she must acknowledge the facts—her father would not let her escape his clutches. He had ways and means of tracking her wherever she went. And he wouldn’t hesitate to use them. She knew she couldn’t hide from him even if she found a means of surviving on her own.

  Eddie still provided the only answer to avoiding her father’s plans. Winter provided a reprieve. She would use the time to prove to him she was the ideal pioneer wife. She would make him want to keep her. He’d beg her to stay.

  Eddie ground to a halt and turned to face her.

  She blinked back her silent arguments lest he guess at her thoughts.

  He edged forward, forcing her to retreat until they were again out of sight and hearing of the interested party waiting at the stagecoach. “You might want to reconsider this rash decision of yours. It’s wild out here. There are no luxuries. No chaperones.”

  “I brought my own chaperone.” If he found her arrival a burden, he was not going to like her next announcement. She tipped her chin and faced him squarely. Not for all the roses in her mother’s garden would she reveal so much as a hint of trepidation. “And a child.”

  “A child?”

  “Yes, I brought a child.”

  He swallowed hard enough to lose his Adam’s apple. “You have a child?”

  He thought the child was hers? Embarrassment, laced with a heavy dose of amusement, raced through her at the shock on his face. Her amusement could not be contained and she laughed delicately, feeling her eyes dance with merriment. “He’s not mine.”

  “Then why do you have him?”

  “I met his mother on the boat. She died in the crossing and asked me to take the child to his father.”

  “I’m not his father.” The poor man almost choked at the thought.

  She laughed again, thoroughly enjoying his discomfort. “I didn’t mean to imply you were. His father met us in Montreal and when he heard his wife had expired, refused to take his son.” A dreadful scene had ensued as Linette tried to convince the man of his duty. “I had little choice but to bring him along.”

  Eddie choked again.

  Maybe she would have to thump him between the shoulders, and found the idea rather satisfying. With every passing moment, he proved more an
d more annoying. She’d expected a welcome of some sort, guarded perhaps, or even perfunctory. She assumed he would have made arrangements to have someone present to perform their emotionless union. But never in her many far-flung imaginings had she considered this possibility.

  He cleared his throat. “I think a place the size of Montreal would have a foundling home. I think the nuns have—”

  “Are you suggesting I should have abandoned him to strangers?”

  “It’s not called abandon—” He must have read the challenge in her eyes for he stopped short. “Seems to me that’s what a sensible woman would have done. Besides, wouldn’t he be better off there with schools and playmates?”

  She pulled herself as tall as she could, annoyed she still had to tip her head to glare at him. “We better get something straight right here and now. I have no tolerance for the pharisaical affectations of our society. I refuse to stand by and not offer help to someone when it is within my power to give more than an empty blessing. I could not, nor would I, turn my back on a small child.” Helping others was one of the many things she and her father had warred about. She expected things to be different in the British Territories of Canada.

  She planned to make sure they were.

  Eddie stared at her then scrubbed at the back of his neck. “All I have is a small cabin. Only one bed.”

  She had gained a small victory. No need to push for more at this point. “We’ll take the bed.”

  “And I’m to what?”

  “I understand from your letters to Margaret that there is a bunkhouse for men who work for you.”

  “I will not sleep with them.”

  His words had a familiar, unwelcome ring to them. “Does it offend your sensibilities to share quarters with the men who work for you?”

  “Not at all, but it would be awkward for them. I’m the boss. They deserve a chance to relax without thinking I’m watching them.”

  His reply both surprised and pleased her. She admired a man who thought of others. But her admiration did not solve what he perceived to be a quandary. She didn’t see a problem. “I believe the cabin has two rooms. You can sleep on the floor in the other room.”