Caleb let Jason set the pace, and he focused on handling the stage. Still, he kept an eye out along the trail, because four eyes were better than two, and there was always a chance that Jason might miss something.
As unlikely as that was.
Despite their vigilance, though, they found nothing. Caleb got the feeling that Jason wasn’t looking that hard, so this didn’t bother him.
Toward the end of the day, Jason slowed him up as the sun began to set. Caleb wasn’t entirely certain of it, but he thought he knew where they would camp that night, for he remembered a spot he’d passed with Althea just before they found Joseph.
“That should do it for the day,” Jason yelled as he wheeled around on his horse.
Here was yet another thing Caleb knew he needed to improve at; his riding skills were nowhere close to Jason’s, and he would have to get much better if he wanted to be a genuine scout.
Being out on the trail would bring some improvement, but Caleb understood that he had plenty of work to do on his own.
“Let’s make camp here,” Jason said, not as loudly, as Caleb pulled up.
Caleb nodded. “I remember this place,” he said. “We passed it on the way to finding Joseph.”
“Yeah, I use it as a first stop on this part of the trail all the time,” Jason replied. “Know it like the back of my hand, actually.”
With that, Jason turned his horse again and walked the beast toward the tree next to the campsite. He tied the horse up carefully, and Caleb knew that one of the first things Jason would want to do was water and then feed the horses once they’d gotten some rest.
There was ample space for the stagecoach, so Caleb found an open space that seemed like the best place for it. Jason said nothing as he did, so Caleb jumped off the top of the stage and walked the horses over to where Jason had secured his.
They made camp together quickly and quietly, and then Jason and Caleb ate supper together. It wasn’t much, really, just some hardtack and cold stew that Jason had brought for the first leg of the trip.
“So I take it you weren’t expecting to find anything,” Caleb said, deciding to try to make conversation as they shared coffee when they’d finished eating.
“Nope.” Jason shook his head. “Just wanted to make good time. If they’d been stranded out here, somebody likely would have found ‘em right away.”
“Makes sense,” Caleb said, nodding. “So tomorrow we start looking harder?”
“Yup,” Jason said, taking another sip of coffee. “Slower pace, and we’ll have to keep an eye out. The odds get a little bit better out here.”
But not much, Caleb thought. Still like looking for a needle in a haystack.
They finished supper in silence, and Jason said little as they got ready to bed down for the night. Caleb knew how quiet Jason was, and it occurred to him that it might be nice to be out here with someone a bit more conversational.
But he checked that thought as soon as he had it. Jason’s expertise was amazing, and Caleb had already learned so much from just watching him.
He still had way more to learn, though, so Caleb vowed to simply keep quiet and continue to watch and learn.
When he tried to go to sleep, though, Caleb felt restless in a way he couldn’t explain. Maybe it’s the coffee, he thought, but as soon as the possibility occurred to him he knew it wasn’t that at all.
Caleb tossed and turned for a while, and then he made himself be still, thinking that was the answer to his problem. But it wasn’t; a stretch of time that seemed interminable passed, and still Caleb found himself staring at the inside of his tent.
Finally he decided to get up. Caleb put on a pair of trousers, thinking the night air might be cold, but while it was chilly, it was much more comfortable than he’d thought it would be.
The horses stirred when they saw him, but only for a moment. Caleb looked over at Jason’s tent, thinking he might wake up, but nothing happened. Evidently Jason was saving his night instincts for when they got further along.
Not knowing what else to do, Caleb began to walk. It was a beautiful night, clear as a bell, and the stars were out.
He sighed, thinking about how lonely he was, and once again he thought about how nice it would be to have someone to talk to and take walks like this with him, out under the stars together.
That obviously wasn’t an option at the moment, though, so Caleb pushed the thought aside. He followed the trail out in the direction they’d be going tomorrow.
As he did, Caleb thought again about rescuing Joseph, how uncertain and tenuous that whole process had been. All of this is so random, he thought, and yet there are those like Jason who are experts at it. Could I ever be like him?
As he got further from the campsite, Caleb realized that it was on a small bluff of sorts, overlooking a larger stretch of prairie.
He stopped for a moment, not sure he wanted to start down the hill. Caleb knew it was the middle of the night, and he wasn’t sure how long his energy would last, much less his taste for walking.
He started to turn, thinking it was time to go back. As he did, though, Caleb thought he saw movement of some sort off in the distance. He blinked, thinking it must be some kind of prairie animal, but Caleb kept looking anyway without knowing why.
Then he realized that whatever he’d seen was moving far too slowly to be some sort of animal. Caleb continued to watch, and that was when he began to realize that whatever he’d seen was two-legged and walking.
Caleb took a deep breath, and his heart began to race. There was someone out there, and whoever it was was walking toward him.
He considered the hill, which wasn’t that steep. The figure was about half a mile away, maybe more, and Caleb watched for a few more seconds to make absolutely certain it was a human.
When he was, there was no doubt in Caleb’s mind what he had to do.
Taking a deep breath, he started to run down the hill, as fast as his legs could carry him.
Hallie had no idea why she went for a walk that night.
She should have been exhausted. It had taken more energy than she’d thought it would to set up the campsite, and the walk ended up being thoroughly exhausting as well. She should have been sleeping like a baby.
For some reason, though, sleep wouldn’t come to her. Hallie knew full well what the reasons were—she was still hungry after eating a bit more jerky for her ‘supper’, and she was worried about what they would do the next day.
The latter was far more of a concern than the former. And ultimately, perhaps, that was why she ended up going for a walk, for Hallie felt like she needed to go further than she had with the two girls earlier in the day.
Without thinking, she set out toward the top of the small hill they’d seen to the east. Then, as she drew closer to it, Hallie realized it was the only possibility to find something revealing, for everything in every other direction was both bleak and unappealing.
She heard a loud noise when she first started walking, and Hallie felt a shiver that nearly made her turn around and head back to her tent.
A coyote or a wolf, she thought, but I am nowhere near familiar with the prairie to know which it is.
For some reason, though, she kept going. Hallie didn’t know why, but she was determined to climb that hill and see what was up there.
Then she saw the figure at the top. For a moment Hallie was startled, then frightened, for she thought it was some other sort of animal, and a frighteningly large one at that.
Slowly, Hallie took another look, calming her breathing as she did. That was when she saw that the “animal” was standing on two legs, and seemingly walking toward her.
Is it possible? she thought. Could this actually be a rescuer?
Her heart racing, Hallie quickened her pace, until finally she was running. As she neared the hill, she could see that whoever it was was running toward her as well.
They both slowed as they got closer, and Caleb was the first to speak.
“Are
you one of the mail order brides?” he asked, his voice tense with anxiety.
“Yes,” Hallie replied, breathless. “There are two more.”
She stopped and pointed. “Back there,” she added, barely able to breathe.
“Are they alright?” Caleb asked, trying to sound a lot calmer than he felt, and as he studied Hallie he realized she was beautiful, even with her dark hair pinned up into a bun. Somehow he managed to speak.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes,” Hallie said, determined to make a good impression once she saw that Caleb was handsome. “We are tired and scared and hungry. But we’re fine.”
“I can understand that,” he said, nodding. “But you’ll be alright now.”
“We will?” Hallie asked.
“Yes,” Caleb said, his voice strong and firm. “I’m with another—I mean, I’m with a scout. We have a stagecoach back up at our campsite.”
“Oh!?” Hallie started and shook her head. “You do?”
“Yes.” Then, without thinking about it, he offered her his hand. Caleb had never done anything like that before with a girl or a lady, but it was instinctive, something he simply couldn’t help.
“Come on,” he said, his tone more friendly.
She took his hand, and that was when they both felt it. Something electric, as if a bolt of lightning had struck downward in the middle of the night and joined them.
Simultaneously, they both had the same thought.
I want this to last forever.
For Caleb, the thought seemed silly when he first had it. But he couldn’t deny what he’d just felt, no matter how hard he might try.
Then, as they continued to walk, he realized how natural this felt. I’ve done this before, he thought, with her. And even though he knew the thought made no sense, he knew there was something to it.
Hallie, however, had an entirely different stream of thoughts. She believed strongly in love, and she knew she’d found it, however unlikely this turn of events might seem.
For her all of this seemed as natural as a river flowing toward the sea, the two of them flowing together in an analogous fashion.
Finally Hallie saw the stagecoach, and the two tents nearby. She realized that neither of them had spoken in some time, since their walk had begun, for there had been no need to.
Now, however, there was. So she did.
“You do know, do you not, that we came out here to find husbands?” Hallie asked, knowing she wanted Caleb for her own before the other two girls could get to him.
He turned to her, and even in the faint moonlight Hallie could see that Caleb was blushing.
“I do,” he said sheepishly. “I’ve had that in mind since we started looking for you.”
For a second Hallie wondered who ‘we’ was, but she decided not to ask. She would find out about all of that later, when the time was right.
“Good,” she said, and then Hallie decided the time was right for her to be bold. In fact, there would never be a better time for that than right now.
“For I’d like to think I’ve found one,” she said, giving his hand a soft but definitive squeeze.
Caleb could feel himself blushing furiously, and for a moment he had no idea what to do. He turned away, and then turned back to Hallie.
“Well, I guess we’ll just have to do something about that,” he said, feeling a confidence in his words that stunned him, to say the least. “Since you’ve got your heart so set on getting married.”
Hallie smiled, and even in the faint moonlight Caleb could see how radiant her smile was. Suddenly, he felt the urge to do something he would have thought unthinkable just a few moments ago.
He kissed her. Softly, on the cheek.
And they both felt the same kind of electricity, of the lightning variety, that they’d felt when their hands had first met.
For a moment they were both stunned, and then suddenly both Hallie and Caleb smiled at the same time. Hallie giggled slightly, and Caleb laughed, then they both realized that there would be plenty of time for all of this later.
“We should probably get the stage down the hill to get your friends,” Caleb said shyly, knowing he’d need to wake Jason up within a few minutes, if he wasn’t up already.
“Alright,” Hallie said with a sigh. She knew she would have walked all night in the moonlight with him, if the circumstances were different.
“But there’s something I want you to know,” she said softly.
“What’s that?” Caleb asked.
Hallie shrugged and smiled. “When all of this is done, and you’ve taken us to safety, there’s something we’ll need to take care of.”
He smiled, cocking his head as he did “And what might that be?” Caleb asked.
Hallie leaned over, and she returned his kiss, gently giving Caleb a peck on the cheek.
“We’ll have a wedding to plan,” she said, her voice a tender whisper. “When the time is right for that.”
Also By Lucille Chisum
Thank you for reading The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: The Rodeo Brides! I hope you enjoyed it!
You can access many of the books in this collection on my author page, here’s the link:
https://www.amazon.com/Lucille-Chisum/e/B013PDLFUW/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1502892017&sr=8-2
To sign up for my email list and get a FREE BOOK, click on the following link. The book that’s currently being offered is from my new series, The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: The Rescued Brides Arrive.
http://eepurl.com/cZIQDD
Finally, here are the links to several other recent titles.
1. The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: Babies, Brides, Cowboys and Officers (A 14-Book Western Romance Box Set)
Click Here
2. The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: The Journey West For Romance (A 34-Book Western Romance Box Set)
Click Here
3. The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: Seven Babies for Seven Brides (A 7-Book Box Set)
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4. The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: Seven Brides of Seven Officers (A 7-Book Box Set)
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5. The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: The Philadelphia Brides (A 20-Book Box Set)
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6. The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: The Bride and the Outlaw
Click Here
7. The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: From Romance to Rescue
Click Here
8. The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: A Bride for an Officer
Click Here
9. Mail Order Brides of Last Chance: A 15-Book Western Romance Box Set (Mail Order Bride)
Click Here
Expect many more titles in the very near future. . . I hope you enjoy the books!
Lucille Chisum
The Mail Order Brides of Last Chance Page 21