Rose's Mail Order Husband - A Historical Mail Order Bride Story (Montana Brides) (10 page)

“So it was her idea to come and get me?” Jake asked.

“She made me promise,” Rose told him, “that I would convince you to turn yourself in peacefully without a fight. She was worried about Mick getting hurt, if it came to a shoot-out between you and the Sheriff and the men. So we waited until they left this morning, and she brought me up here.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you changed so much.” Jake examined her again. “I mean, look at you.
You’re unrecognizable. Your hair is down, and you’re glowing. You look like some kind of angel.”

“Angel!” Rose repeated. “My hair is black, and I’ve got mud all over the bottom of my dress.”

Jake shook his head again. “I reckon there are black-haired angels, too. And as for the mud, well, that just completes the picture. So what happened to you?”

“Iris said we should bring two horses,” Rose told him. “She said you would need something to ride, and it’s been years since I rode.
So I came on Paddy here. I’d forgotten what it felt like to ride a horse. I forgot how your legs become part of the horse’s body, and the wind beats into your lungs and your skin, and you turn into something that doesn’t belong to the earth anymore. You turn into some kind of four-legged bird.”

Jake listened in silence.

“And it isn’t even just the riding that does it,” Rose continued. “Do you know what? Now that you tell me I changed, I can remember where I was and what I was doing when it started. I was brushing Paddy down and saddling and bridling him. Touching a horse, getting his smell in your nostrils and the dust in your eyes—it does something to the very fiber of your being.”

“I know,” Jake murmured.

“You know something else?” Rose went on. “I never even noticed these things when I was younger, when I was riding every day. I only noticed it now, after I’ve been locked in the attic of the house for years with no sun and no air and no dust. You don’t realize how all those things make you alive, and without them, you aren’t alive anymore.”

Jake nodded. “I noticed that about you before. I noticed there was something missing from you. You were like a statue in a wax museum. You
didn’t talk, you didn’t move, you hardly breathed. You didn’t really even look alive. You look alive now.”

The color mounted in Rose’s cheeks and she shook her hair back from her face. The crisp clear air of the mountains bathed her face. “I feel alive. I feel more alive than
I’ve ever felt before. I feel like I know what life is supposed to be like, and that I know what to do to make life worth living. I see my life stretched out before me, and it isn’t the life I thought I would have when I first wrote to your about a mail-order marriage.”

“Is there room for me in your new life?” Jake asked.

“Of course!”
Rose exclaimed. “There better be. I’m going to an awful lot of trouble to make sure of it.”

“So what do you see us doing together in this new life of yours?” he asked.

Rose gazed at the green of the treetops against the blue sky, but images from her future passed before her eyes. “I see myself doing all the things I planned to do before, but there’s another dimension to it. I see myself making a home for us in the Bird House, but when I see myself there, I don’t act the same. I’m more…I don’t know…more engaged, I guess.”

“More alive?”
Jake offered.

Rose smiled at him.
“Exactly. I’m happier, more lively, and more loving to my children—and everyone else. Iris told me, when I was saddling Paddy, that she hadn’t seen me so happy in a long time, but I didn’t even realize I was unhappy.”

“I didn’t think you were unhappy,” Jake remarked, “but I didn’t think you were all that happy, either. Now, you look happy.
Definitely happy. So keep talking. Keep telling me about your future.”

“Look.” Rose pointed to the corner where they approached the main canyon. “Here we are at the Bottom Run. Iris told me the cowboys camp here in the summer when they come out tending the cattle.”

“Mick told me the same thing,” Jake replied. “It’s a nice spot.”

“Iris also said,”
Rose told him, “she and Mick plan to come out and camp here in the summer, just to get out of the house and spend some time together outdoors. It would be nice if you and I could do that, too.”

“That does sound nice,” Jake agreed. “There’s just the little problem of the Sheriff wanting me for Cornell’s murder. Have you forgotten about that?”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Rose replied. “But I’m more certain than ever that we can make him understand the situation. When you think about it, it really is a very small problem.”

“Not so small, when you’re the one accused,” Jake countered.

Rose pierced him with her stare. “I
am
the one accused. You forget that.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Jake declared. “That’s why I haven’t pushed you to sacrifice yourself to protect me.
But still, it’s a problem we have to solve before we can go camping on the Bottom Run. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.”

“I’m just telling you what I envision of our future life together,” Rose told him. “I ought to tell you that, now that I’ve tasted the life outdoors again, I don’t mean to give it up again. I’ll spend a lot more time outside, riding horses and getting dirty the way I used to do when I was a girl.” She laughed. “Those were the days! You should have seen me!”

Jake smiled. “I’d like to have seen you. That would be something to see.”

“I’m telling you now,” Rose repeated, “I won’t give it up again. I
won’t go back to the way I was before. I won’t be a wallflower in front of mirror.”

“That’s fine with me,” Jake replied. “I’m more than happy to see you tanned and windblown the way you are now. You look beautiful to me this way.”

Rose blushed. “You’ve never said that before.”

“We hardly talked before,” Jake reminded her. “We’ve talked more in the last hour than we have in all the time since we first met.”

Rose laughed, but looked away in embarrassment. Talking about talking stopped their conversation in midstream, and they strolled along the riverbank. Rose listened to the tinkle of the water over the stones and the voices of the birds. They whispered the sentiments of her heart more eloquently than she could express herself.

What was the point of talking, with these kindred all around her, revealing their wisdom and pointing her where she ought to go? She
didn’t have to make any decisions. She only needed to see these creatures and elements at their work to know her own purpose.

She slowed her pace as they reached the end of the canyon. Soon
they’d be back at the house. It was only a matter of time before the Sheriff came back, and then he would want to take Jake back to Butte.

Could she handle the pressure? Would her new strength carry her through that confrontation? Would the life brimming inside her protect her and Jake from the Sheriff, or from any other adversary that came along?

She lapsed into a doubtful reverie, imagining all the possible scenarios that could unfold when they got back. She walked along blindly until her foot rolled off of a stick lying across her path.

In a flash, the stick whipped away from her with a hiss and a rattle, and Rose jumped back out of its way. The snake landed three feet away, rattling and thrashing and baring its fangs. Rose’s sudden movement startled Paddy, who reared up on his hind legs, screeching and staring at the slender apparition of horror on the ground in front of him.

Unable to keep his seat with only one foot in the stirrup, Jake tumbled off the back of the horse and pitched head over heels over the grass.  He crashed through a clump of brambles, and the thorns snagged on his shirt and tore the sleeve open.

The horse reared again, yanking the reins out of Rose’s hands, and backed away. He probably would have bolted in the opposite direction, leaving them stranded, if Rose
hadn’t darted forward and seized the reins once more.

She glanced once back over her shoulder to make sure the snake was far enough away from them to pose no further threat. Indeed, she saw it slithering away into the grass.  Paddy, on the other hand, refused to
be pacified by reassuring words. He continued to rear and back away, staring all around him at imaginary foes.

Rose paid out the reins to their limit and let the horse move back, soothing him with her voice while keeping a firm hold on his reins. As she expected, he soon lost his fear and settled down. He finally allowed Rose to come close enough to pat him on the neck, and then she turned her attention to Jake.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

Jake sat up on the grass and brushed himself off. “I’m okay.
That’s a waste of a perfectly good shirt, but my head is intact. That’s the important thing.”

“You didn’t injure your ankle any further, did you?” Rose asked.

Jake shook his head. “It’s the same. But now I’ve got to get back on the horse, and we don’t have Iris to help us.”

“I think I can manage. Here, lean on me.” She propped herself under one of his armpits and hoisted him up so he balanced on his good foot. “Now, hop over and I’ll give you a boost up into the saddle the way I did before.”

Jake followed her instructions, but when he hopped over next to Paddy, the horse shied away again and refused to stand still.

“Blasted horse!” Jake cursed under his breath.

“Settle down,” Rose told him. “I’ll handle him.”

“Settle down!” Jake spat. “Don’t talk to me the way you talk to that animal. I’m not your pet.”

Rose’s eyes flew open is surprise. Then she laughed in his face. “You’re my precious pet, darling.” She patted him on the shoulder. “Now, come here. Hold onto this branch and balance
yourself while I tie him up.”

Jake grumbled, “Blasted horse!”
But he did as she said.

Rose laughed again. “There’s no point getting mad at him.
He’s just an animal. He’s had a bad scare, and he doesn’t understand what’s going on. Give him a break.”

Jake shot her a quick look and shook his head.

“What?” she asked.

“You,” he said.

“What?” she asked again. “What about me?”

“Just you.”
He waved his hand toward her. “The way you’re talking. The way you’re acting. The way you handled that horse just now. I wouldn’t have recognized you. I bet your own sisters wouldn’t recognize you now.”

Rose stopped and thought. “You’re right. I’m more than I thought I was.” She threw back her head and laughed in pure exuberance at the vital energy pulsing through her. She raised her arms to the sky. “I love this! I never thought it would be like this.”

Jake chuckled at her and shook his head.

Rose tied Paddy by the reins to a tree and swung his body around so his flank touched the trunk. Then she supported Jake while he hopped over. This time, when he approached, Paddy
couldn’t back away and Jake grasped the saddle horn.

But instead
of waiting for her to boost him up into the saddle, he snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her against him.

She gasped aloud. “Hey? What are you doing?”

“Are you still mine?” he breathed.

She tried to laugh him off. “
Whose else would I be? You’ve only been gone a day.”

He leaned closer and brushed his moustache against her cheek. “You haven’t decided to sell me down the river to the Sheriff?”

“Sell you down the river!” Rose guffawed. “How could I do that? Oh, how you do go on! I’m bringing you back to the ranch so I can marry you. Remember?”

Jake ignored her. “Rose?”

Rose sighed, and her body relaxed against him. His fingertips dug into the hollow under her ribs and a rain of sparks crackled down the backs of her legs. Her knees almost buckled underneath her.

“Rose?” Jake growled, but his voice
didn’t want any answer.

Her eyelids slid closed, and her head lolled back under the pressure of his bristled upper lip on her cheek. Her breath caught in her throat as his lips slid down over her jaw line to her neck.

Then her knees really did fail. She would have toppled onto the grass if he hadn’t held her around the back.

“Rose,” Jake rumbled, sliding down to her
collar bone.

He let his legs buckle under him, and he fell on top of her on the soft grass, but she
didn’t notice. She only knew they were merging into each other, falling through the center of the earth and out the other side into heavenly ether.

His hands tugged at her dress and roamed around her waist to the front of her ribs. Rose struggled to breathe, and her body dissolved into nectar. Jake sipped the pearls of nectar from behind her ear and under her chin.

He said something, but she didn’t hear him. Flashes of light blinded her eyes, and the explosions blocked her ears.

“Rose?” he asked.

“What are you doing to me?” she panted.

“We’re in the middle of the trail, you know,” he pointed out.