Audrey and the Maverick (26 page)

“What do you think about what Audrey said?” Luc opened the conversation. He’d watched the sheriff hold his meetings with the ranchers. He knew how to run a meeting. Start off with the issue at hand, then let others speak, then tell them how it was going to be.

“I don’t want to go,” Colleen said.

“I don’t want to leave Willie,” Dulcie said. That shocked the others. For a minute, they simply looked at her, then Luc nodded.

“We gotta do something. There’s gotta be some way of stopping this,” Kurt said in an urgent whisper that had Luc shushing him.

“Maybe we could get Jenkins to help,” Colleen said.

“How could he help?” Luc scoffed.

Mabel smiled. “He could have wagon problems.”

“That would only delay our going, not let us stay here for good.” Luc shook his head.

“Well, maybe a delay would be good enough.” Kurt grinned. “We could take the time to work on getting Audrey to change her mind.”

“Maybe you should talk to Mr. McCaid, Luc. He listens to you,” Joey suggested.

“Let’s see if we can get Audrey to change her mind first.”

“We could all get sick,” Tommy offered. “My whole school closed down when we got the measles.”

“What’s the measles?” Mabel asked. “I don’t think I want to get sick.”

“Not really sick, pretend sick. You get a spotty rash and you itch and cough and you get a fever and you hurt all over. It lasts for weeks,” Tommy explained.

Kurt and Luc looked at each other. “That’s brilliant. If we each get sick, say in a couple days of each other, it’ll be more than a month before we could leave. And by then, maybe Audrey and Mr. McCaid won’t be fighting anymore.”

“I don’t think they were fighting,” Joey said. “She don’t got any bruises.”

“Some people fight differently,” Luc explained. “Sometimes they fight with words. Real quiet words.”

“How can we fake a rash?” Colleen asked.

“We could rub sand on our skin. And we could wrap ourselves in blankets until we get hot, then call Audrey to check on us.”

With that, a plan was hatched. The boys returned to their room feeling very much better. The spotty fever would begin tomorrow, with Colleen.

Audrey worriedly watched Colleen at breakfast the next morning. She looked flushed and had begun a dry cough. She sat too far away for Audrey to be able to touch her forehead. “Colleen, are you getting sick?”

Colleen cleared her throat and looked at Audrey. “I don’t think so. Why?”

Audrey shook her head. “I was just worrying about your cough.”

“I’ll give her some hot honeyed tea. That’ll fix her right up,” Bertie offered.

A few minutes later, tea in hand, Colleen and the other children settled in for their morning schoolwork. Audrey fretted about her, but Colleen assured her she was fine. As soon as she left with Amy, Kurt handed her a small pouch of sand. She dabbed some on her fingers and rubbed her face with it, then hid the pouch.

Luc grinned at her. “Take your cup and put it to your face. That’ll really prove you got the spotty fever.”

Colleen did as he suggested, holding the hot cup as close as she could to her face. In a short while, Audrey returned to check their work and help with questions. She took one look at Colleen and ordered her off to bed. She sent a worried glance over the other children, searching for any sign they were becoming ill. Just last summer, when Rachel and Sager were getting married, the children had a round of chicken pox. It went through all seven children—Tommy hadn’t arrived yet. That was one of the hardest months she’d yet endured as a mother. Hopefully this was just a short-lived cold Colleen had.

At supper that night, Julian noticed Colleen’s absence. “She got the spotty fever,” Mabel told him around a mouthful of peas.

“Spotty fever?” He looked at Audrey.

“She has a rash and a fever.”

“Chicken pox?”

“No, she had that last year,” Audrey told him. “This is different.”

“Measles, then?”

“I hope not. That brings a high temperature, doesn’t it?”

“It does. My sisters were very sick with it one year,” Julian commented. “I’ve had it myself, but don’t remember the experience.”

After supper, Audrey and Julian visited Colleen in her room, keeping her company while she ate soup. Poor thing. Her throat was so sore, she could barely swallow.

Julian felt her forehead. She was warm, though maybe not feverish. The rash looked odd. It was just on her cheeks. He remembered his sisters getting the measles the summer before his life had gone to hell. Colleen’s rash was mostly on her face, but Julian thought his sisters had rashes from their hairlines down to their chests. And they were much more feverish. But perhaps this wasn’t the measles. Or perhaps she had a mild case of it. Without a doctor’s diagnosis, it would be impossible to know for sure.

Within the next four days, five children were sick in bed. Audrey and Bertie ran themselves ragged caring for them. Julian had quarantined the girls’ room. Tommy and Joey were sick, as were Colleen, Mabel, and Dulcie. Amy was put to bed with Luc. Kurt slept in Tommy and Joey’s bed.

Julian was bringing up a tray of hot soups and a soothing salve Audrey had concocted to rub on their chests to help them breathe better when he found Audrey leaning with her head against the jamb of the girls’ room, her hand on the closed door. He quickly set his tray down and hurried to her side.

“Julian—” Her voice broke on a sob as she looked up at him, her face showing her fatigue and fear.

He swung her up into his arms and carried her to her room. “You’ve had enough. I’m putting you to bed too.”

“I can’t. I have to stay with the children.”

“I’ll stay with them. You aren’t alone in this, Audrey Sheridan.” He set her gently on her bed.

Tears collected in her eyes. “I am alone, Julian.”

“You don’t have to be. You choose to be.”

She touched his cheek, studying his eyes. He kissed her hand, then leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “Please rest tonight. I will be with the children.”

“I haven’t done any packing. We’re supposed to be getting ready for the move.”

“The move can wait.”
Forever
. “I don’t want you getting sick. I’m going to feed the kids, and then I’ll come back and check on you.”

Audrey sniffled and rolled to her side, too tired to undress. She was always weeping lately. She missed her brother. She missed Julian. And the children were so sick. Her monthly time would never start if this stress kept up.

Julian sat with the sick kids while they coughed and whimpered through their broth. He looked at the lot of them, thinking something just wasn’t as it should be. And then he figured out what bothered him. They were all sitting up. His sisters had to be held while broth was spooned into their mouths. These kids were…perky.

He excused himself and went downstairs to round up Kurt and Luc for bed, preoccupied with what he’d just discovered. Amy had to be taken to the outhouse—she was too young yet to go by herself. She scampered ahead of him and saw to her business while he waited at the door. When she finished, she straightened her clothes as they went around to the wash station. Halfway back to the house, she bent and collected a handful of dirt and sand and began briskly scrubbing it against her cheeks.

“Amy Lynn, what are you doing?”

“I’m getting the spotty fever!” She grinned up at him.

Reality blasted in on him with the force of a wooden beam. He picked her up and stormed back to the house. Inside, he set her down and told her to go get Luc. Luc came alone into his den.

“I would like to have a word with you and all the children. You will please bring them down here.”

“They’re sick, Mr. McCaid. I don’t think I should get them out of bed.”

Julian looked grim. “I think, if you don’t get them out of bed, you will discover an aspect of my personality you have not yet encountered.”

“Yessir.”

Not a minute later, all eight children were lined up in his office. He paced in front of them, anger warring with curiosity. He made another pass by them, looking each one in the eye. “One of you will please tell me what the hell is going on.”

“It was my idea, sir. Not theirs,” Luc spoke up.

“We all thought of it together, Luc,” Kurt clarified.

“There’s no point in all of us getting a whipping,” Luc growled at Kurt.

“I can take a whipping as well as you,” Kurt responded.

Julian spoke up before the boys could come to blows. “There’s not going to be any whippings given out. At least, not until I get to the bottom of this. Now, what is it you all thought of together?” Julian came to a stop in front of the older boys.

“Audrey told us we were moving.”

“And we didn’t want to go.”

“We thought if we could get sick, good and sick, then maybe you two would quit fighting and we could stay.”

“This is the best home we ever had, sir.”

Julian felt that confession like a fist in his gut. “Did Audrey tell you we were fighting?”

“No. She said you had important stuff to do and we were keeping you from it.”

“Stuff like running your businesses and finding a wife.”

“Why couldn’t Audrey be your wife? Then you could be our dad.”

That brought Julian up short. He’d done everything in his power to show Audrey how he felt. Hadn’t he? He’d told her he loved her. He even offered marriage, if she were pregnant. He shut his eyes, hearing that pronouncement. God, what a damned fool he’d been. Who would accept a proposal like that? Had she declined because of the graceless way he delivered his offer and not because of who—what—he was?

His heart began a painful beating. Did he still have a chance with her? He looked down the line of the children. “Is that how you all feel?”

As one, they nodded. Except Luc. “Luc?” Julian prompted.

He sniffed and wiped the back of his hand against his nose. “I had me a pa once.” He shook his head. “I reckon I don’t ever want another.” Kurt slammed his elbow into Luc’s side. “But, maybe, if you was to be our pa, well, maybe that would be okay. I guess.”

Julian crossed his arms and glared at the kids. His heart was hammering so fast, it made thinking difficult. “Well then, you’d best be off to bed. Colleen, please help Amy Lynn wash the spotty fever off her cheeks. I will think up a suitable punishment for the lot of you. In the future, you will speak to me directly when you have a problem and not pull this type of shenanigans. I expect to see you all at the breakfast table, clean and healthy. Good night.”

The kids filed out of his office, but in the hallway, they let out a loud whoop! Julian popped his head outside his office. “You’ve exhausted Audrey with your playacting this week. You will get yourselves settled quietly. Now.”

“Yessir!” they called as they hurried away.

Julian sat in the wing chair in Audrey’s room and watched her sleep. She still wore her dress, but he’d pulled a blanket over her. For the first time in weeks, maybe even in his lifetime, he felt happy. He knew who he was and what he wanted. This turn in his life wasn’t where he’d expected to find himself. It was far better. If the kids wanted him in their lives, he knew he could convince Audrey.

“Julian?” she whispered from her bed as she leaned up on her elbows to look at him.

“Yes.”

“What are you doing?” she asked sleepily.

He drew a fortifying breath. “I love you.”

She sat up, regarding him. “But it isn’t enough, is it?”

“It’s enough. It’s everything.” He moved to sit on the edge of her bed. “Marry me, Audrey. Make me whole again. I can’t bear to face life without you.” He didn’t touch her. He didn’t want to overwhelm her.

“You really do love me?”

A pained huff of breath broke from him. “With every fiber of my being. I even love your eight misbegotten orphans too. I cannot live without the lot of you in my life.”

Audrey covered her face and started crying. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t seem to quit crying. Julian, I love you so much it hurts.” She hiccupped. “I’ve tried all this month to set you free. And you just wouldn’t go.”

He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. “I thought you were ashamed of me. Because of what I am.”

She drew back and looked at him. “How could I be ashamed of you? You are beautiful. And kind. And generous. I was ashamed of me. I’m no society girl. I will embarrass you, I’m sure.”

“Never, heart of mine.” He kissed her then. Sweetly. He breathed her essence. “God, I’ve missed you this month. You wouldn’t let me comfort you over Malcolm. I could do nothing but watch you suffer.”

She looked up into his eyes, wishing the moonlight was brighter so she could see his expression more clearly. “Julian, I think I might be pregnant. My courses haven’t begun.”

He stilled. She drew a ragged breath.

His hand went to her stomach, feeling the flat plane of her belly. “If you aren’t, Audrey Sheridan, you soon will be.” He drew her to her feet. “Why don’t you change into your nightgown? You need to rest. Tomorrow’s your wedding day.”

“My wedding day?”

“Yes. I’m not living another day without making you mine.”

“You’ll stay with me tonight?”

“Always, my love.”

Audrey changed, then climbed back into bed. It was sheer heaven feeling the bed dip as Julian settled next to her. He wrapped his arms around her and drew her back against his body.

“There’s one other thing, Audrey.”

“Mmm-hmm?” she mumbled, fading fast.

“The kids are all better now. They were faking a ‘spotty fever’ so that they wouldn’t have to leave. I guess they’ve voted me in as their dad, if that’s okay with you.”

“They’re bad kids, Julian.”

“No, my love.” He kissed her cheek. “They’re perfect.” Brilliant, in fact. He set his large hand against her belly, hoping against hope she was indeed expecting.

Audrey sat next to Julian the next morning as he drove the wagon into town. The day had a dreamlike feel to it, as if she were observing something happening to someone else. She sat close to Julian, unable to bear being near him without touching him. She was so excited; she wasn’t sure whether she’d stopped grinning the whole trip in. He smiled down at her and wrapped an arm about her shoulders.

Julian drew up outside Jim’s store, pulling behind another wagon. He jumped down, then lifted Audrey down, pausing for a minute to grin at her before helping the kids down. The children ran into the store and the adults quickly followed.

“Julian!” Jim hollered as he hurried from the counter to greet him. “You came back!” he said, shock evident on his face as he pumped Julian’s hand in a robust handshake.

“I never left.”

Hearing the commotion, Sally hurried from the back room. “Oh, thank God!” she whispered fiercely as she came forward to give Audrey a quick hug. The door behind them opened and banged close, admitting Sager, Rachel, Jacob, and Maddie.

“Audrey!” Rachel exclaimed, coming over to hug Audrey. “I haven’t seen you for too long! I was sorry to hear about your brother. How are you doing?”

“Thank you, Rachel. I miss him terribly. But I have good news—Julian and I are getting married today!”

Rachel squealed and hugged Audrey.

Julian shook hands with Sager, noticing immediately that something wasn’t right with his friend. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

Sager made a face. “It’s Jace.”

“What’s wrong with Jace?” He looked from Sager to Jim.

“I had to send for Sager, Julian. We thought you’d left. No one could stop him. He’s gone berserk.”

“What do you mean?” Julian asked. The room grew silent. Audrey stood with the women, but turned to focus on the conversation the men were having.

“Leah left him,” Jim started.

“He’s been unable to find her.”

“I went to see if I could pick up her trail.” Sager shook his head. “She’s not coming back.”

Audrey reached for Sally’s hand. “She did this before, when the sheriff killed her father. She was gone for a month then.” She looked at the worried faces of her friends. “Leah did come back then. She’ll come back from this.”

“It’s too late. Jace has gone crazy. No one in town will help him—they’re all afraid of him, after how he handled the sheriff,” Jim said.

Julian frowned. “What’s he doing?”

“He’s tearing down the shanties with his bare hands. He’s out of his mind.”

Sager exchanged a look with Julian. They’d both seen what happened to him after his wife’s betrayal during the war.

Julian sighed and turned to Audrey. She smiled at him. “Go. He needs you.”

He kissed her cheek and left with Sager. They had only to step outside and turn down the street to see the havoc Jace was creating along the row of shanties where Audrey and Leah had lived. The house closest to the store was just a rubble heap. The second house was in an imminent state of collapse, the roof bowing down over the front half of the house.

They walked around the far side of the house and found Jace gripping one end of a long piece of siding with his hands, a boot braced against the wall as he tugged at the wood. Red marks stained the board when he repositioned his hands to get a different grip. Julian looked at Sager.

“Hi, Jace. What are you doing?” Julian asked casually, at a loss as to how he could reach his friend. He thought he’d try a normal, calm approach first.

Jace did not respond.

“Jace, what’s goin’ on? What are you doing?” Sager asked, coming up and touching Jace’s shoulder. Jace shrugged him off. Sager put a hand on Jace’s shoulder and another on his arm and pulled him away from the house. “Come on, it’s enough now.”

Jace turned and planted a fist in Sager’s jaw. “Leave me the fuck alone.” He turned back to the piece of siding, which he now had half off. “She did,” he muttered. Julian wasn’t certain he’d heard that correctly.

Sager had a hand on his jaw. He’d expected the blow and had been able to deflect the worst of the punch. He angled his jaw back and forth as Julian came up behind Jace and pulled him away from the house. Jace landed an elbow in Julian’s ribs and turned to face his friends, fists clenched.

There was something unfocused about his eyes, something akin to madness, Julian thought. Jace lurched forward, and Julian and Sager jumped him, slamming him back against the splintering siding, restraining his legs with theirs, pinning his fists above his head.

“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Julian asked.

Jace’s face was tense, his eyes dark. His breathing was shallow and irregular. “Get off me!” he fumed through clenched teeth, still struggling to be freed. Neither friend let go of him.

“Not yet. Not till you’re calmer,” Julian declared.

“Jesus, look at his hands.”

The remnants of his leather gloves hung in shredded tatters from his fingers and palms. Bright red blood flowed freely from his torn skin, splinters spiking through the swelling flesh.

“That’s it. You’ve done enough. Let’s get you cleaned up.” Julian pulled him from the wall but did not release him. He and Sager walked on either side of Jace, holding his arms folded behind him as they headed for the public water pump a little ways down the street.

Audrey, Rachel, and Maddie hurried toward them to see what they could do to help; Sally stayed with the kids at the store. As the men passed the women, Julian sent Maddie for some hot water, salt, bowls to soak his hands in, scissors, tweezers, and bandages. She hurried off to gather those things. Audrey went ahead to prime the pump. Julian and Sager pushed him to sit on the low rock wall surrounding the waterworks. He complied without resistance now. The men stood back and let the women take over getting him cleaned up.

Audrey was stunned. Jace looked nothing like the man she’d seen in her kitchen several weeks ago. His shoulders hung limp, his hair was dusty and matted with dirt, blood, and construction debris. His eyes were bloodshot and unfocused. His cheeks were gaunt, his hands shredded. Blood was splattered over his clothes, dried on his face. Dirt was caked into his clothes, as if he’d lived the last year in the same outfit. A weeks’ growth of beard added to his unkempt appearance.

Audrey brushed a chunk of his once golden-bronze hair away from his face. “What happened, Jace?” she whispered. He didn’t respond, didn’t even look at her, just stared listlessly into space.

Rachel set to work cutting off the glove of his left hand so that she could soak his hand in the warm salt water Maddie brought over. She handed the scissors to Audrey, who repeated the procedure with his right hand. The salt water on his raw skin should have elicited some reaction, but he gave no indication he felt anything.

Watching, Julian wondered if he would ever be able to handle a pistol again. “Where are your guns, Jace?”

“I took them off.”

Audrey looked at him, thinking of the ordeal it had been to get him to remove his guns when he’d visited Hell’s Gulch.

“Where are they?” Sager asked.

He shrugged. “I dunno.”

Rachel bent over his hand, trying to clean out all the foreign objects he’d gotten embedded in his skin. Audrey dampened a cloth and washed the blood and dirt from his face.

He looked at her. “She wanted a church.”

Audrey smiled. Leah had always wished they had a church in town. For a while, a traveling preacher used to provide Sunday service at least one week a month. Audrey wondered what happened to him. It had been years since he’d come through.

Jace stared at the line of tiny houses behind her. “I’m tearing down those shacks. Gonna build her a big white church.” A muscle at the corner of his jaw flexed. “Then maybe she’ll come home.”

Audrey and Rachel exchanged a look. “With a bell,” Rachel added. “It needs a bell so that we can ring it and call her back.”

He looked at Rachel and nodded. “A bell.”

“There’s a thunderstorm threatening. I think we should take him inside,” Audrey said to Maddie, feeling the chill in the air as the storm blew in.

“I’ve got water heating for a bath,” she answered. “I’ll fetch a change of clothes from his packs while you two get him cleaned up.”

“Whoaa—he’s a grown man. He doesn’t need help in the bath,” Julian grumbled as he lifted Jace by the armpits and hoisted him to his feet.

“Look at his hands, Julian. He can’t bathe himself.” Audrey gave Julian an admonishing glance. “It’s not as if we haven’t seen a nude man before.”

The women each tucked one of Jace’s arms around their shoulders and turned him toward Maddie’s house, supporting him with an arm around his waist.

As he watched them go, Julian’s brows lowered. “Sonofabitch.”

Sager laughed and pounded him on the back. “Jace is in no shape to be thinking what you’re thinking. Let’s go get the kids. I bet Sally’s worn out by now.” They started down the street toward the general store. “What are you doing in town today anyway, all of you in your fancy duds? Did I hear Audrey say something about a wedding?”

Julian sighed. “Audrey and I were going to get married today.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Sager said in shock. “You did come to your senses. Rachel said you would.” He clapped his hands, then rubbed them together. “This calls for a celebration!”

Two hours later, with a feast on hold in the kitchen and Jace bathed, shaved, and standing in fresh clothes, Audrey and Julian exchanged their vows in Maddie’s front parlor.

Julian was struck by every detail about Audrey as he stood before her, about to kiss his wife for the first time. She wore her prettiest dress—a beautiful sage-green wool dress with a scoop neck that showed her soft skin from her throat all the way down to the tops of her breasts. He leaned toward her, his eyes open, wishing he could run his hand from her cheek down that soft expanse of skin. She smiled as she met his kiss, her face coloring. He grinned—his wife was a mind reader.

The children swarmed them then. Audrey kissed their cheeks and hugged each of them. Julian picked up Amy so that she wouldn’t be trampled and turned to his friends. The women hurried back to the feast that was ready to be served up. Sager shook his hand, grinning like a man who believed in love. And then came Jace.

Julian shook hands with him at the wrist, a less painful proposition for Jace’s bandaged hands. “I’m sorry—” Julian began, but Jace stopped him.

“I’m happy for you, my friend. I was afraid you’d screw this up.” Jace’s smile did not reach his eyes. What the hell had happened between him and Leah? Before Julian could dwell too long on those concerns, Jim brought over some choice cigars and poured celebratory whiskies for all the men as they awaited supper.

It was an eternity later before Julian and Audrey lay in their marriage bed in one of Maddie’s boarding rooms. The bed wasn’t as large as those Julian had grown accustomed to, and his feet hung off the end of it. But Audrey was naked and snuggled up next to him—he couldn’t remember ever being happier.

“We never talked about what our life would be like once we were married,” he said as he absently stroked his thumb over her skin.

“No, we didn’t.” She brushed his hair away from his forehead and leaned over to kiss the faint cleft in his jaw.

“I’d like to stay in town and help Sager and Jace build that church.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Then, perhaps, we could go to Virginia. You mentioned you wanted to go to the States sometime. We could spend the holidays with my family.”

She pulled back, her eyes aglow with happiness. “All of us?”

“Of course all of us. How could we enjoy the holidays without the children? We’re a family, Audrey McCaid.” He put his hand on her belly. “All eleven of us.”

She squealed with delight and straddled him, pressing kisses to his cheeks and lips and nose. He had a hard time remembering what he was trying to say to her.

“After that, I usually go to the Caribbean to check up on our family shipping interests there. Have you ever been to the ocean?”

Audrey pushed up from his chest, her hands on his shoulders, her hips rocking against his hardening cock. God, this was torture. She shook her head, her eyes wide.

“Then, perhaps, we could come back here and spend the summer.”

“All of us, together?”

He growled and rolled her over, embedding himself in her slick warmth. “Always, my love.”