Shotgun Groom (9 page)

If Joel real y wanted, he could take his horse on out of there.

A casual observation of the property indicated that if he

wound his way around the drifts, he could make it to town.

So why didn’t he? Why did he choose to stay? The air

wasn’t that cold, was it?

Her fingers tapped the broom handle. It’d been on the tip of

her tongue to ask him why he hadn’t left that morning. She

had the perfect chance to do so after breakfast. If she

thought he’d give her a straight answer, she would have

asked for it. But who knew? Maybe he did want to fix up the

house. One thing was for sure, he knew what he was doing.

Sep was so young that he was stil learning, but Joel had

experience and it showed. Until a couple days ago, she

had no idea who he was, but she’d heard of the Larsons.

Whether the family knew it or not, they had a reputation of

being the kind of people who dealt honestly with others. On

one occasion, her pa bought a horse from one of them and

commented on the good quality of the horses they bred.

But it didn’t explain why Joel was staying. She sighed and

shook her head. Whatever the reason, she’d take it. She

wasn’t in the position to question her good luck. If he was

staying for any reason, then he couldn’t be that opposed to

the marriage, no matter how much he bel yached about it.

As she turned to go back into the house, the railing on the

porch steps caught her eye. Frowning, she stepped toward

it and saw the bloodied handprint on it. Her breath caught in

her throat. It had to be Lou’s! Her gaze went back to the

barn. Did Sep see it? Sep didn’t say anything about

wounding Lou, and Sep had no blood on him. Too bad the

wound wasn’t fatal, but if Sep got him, maybe Lou would

think twice about coming back. Just as she began to be

hopeful about this turn of events, another thought came to

her, a morbid one that made a chil go up her spine. Or

maybe—just maybe—Lou wouldn’t mind returning the favor

when he did come back out.

Tightening her grip on the broom handle, she returned to

the house and closed the door behind her. No. Lou wouldn’t

hurt Sep, and he wouldn’t touch her again. She took a deep

breath to steady her nerves. Joel was stil here, and that

meant her task of getting him to marry her would be easier.

She put the broom away before she grabbed some paint to

hide the blood. Every time she saw the blood, she’d

remember Lou and how his filthy hands had been al over

her body. Shivering, she finished painting the smal section

of the railing and hurried back into the house. There. She

might not be able to do anything about the bul et holes in

the kitchen table leg or wal , but she didn’t need the blood

to be there.

Forcing the thoughts aside, she returned to her housework.

A half hour later, Joel and Sep came into the house. While

they took off their coats and hung them by the door, she

poured them a cup of coffee. Sep stil held the gun, but Joel

didn’t seem to notice. She handed them their cups. Sep sat

down at the table, but Joel took it and headed for the parlor.

Pretending she didn’t notice the way he avoided eye

contact with her, she cal ed out, “I even put a bit of honey in

it,” in the sweetest tone she could muster, and sat across

from Sep with her own cup.

“What did you two do out there?” she asked.

“He didn’t think I did a good enough job repairing the

damage he did to the barn yesterday, so he redid it.” Sep

rol ed his eyes and lifted the cup to his lips.

Unable to avoid grinning at his sarcastic tone, she said, “To

be fair, he did the damage. It’s his due to fix it.”

He took a drink and set the cup down. “I did it just fine. He

doesn’t think I can do my job around here. I’m not a little

kid.”

“No, you’re not.” In the two years she’d been married to

Harvey, Sep had to grow up fast. Sometimes she forgot he

was fourteen. “He’l learn you can hold your own.”

“The sooner he does, the better.”

She lowered her voice. “You don’t like him, do you?”

“I don’t like being treated like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“That’s understandable.”

A moment’s silence passed before he spoke. “Do you like

him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s good with Nora. I don’t

know many men who have a soft spot for children.”

“No. I guess there aren’t many.”

She took a drink of her coffee and set the cup on the table.

Brushing her thumb along the rim of the cup, she asked,

“So when should we get the preacher involved?”

“It’s too cold today. If it’s warmer tomorrow, then we’l have

to do it. He can’t go anywhere today.”

Deciding not to argue that if Joel real y wanted to leave, he

would, she cleared her throat and tucked a stray strand of

hair behind her ear. “Do you think the preacher wil perform

a marriage Joel doesn’t want?”

“Joel wil do it as long as there’s a gun pointed at him.”

“We can’t hold a gun to him with a preacher in the room.”

“Why not?”

“Because the preacher is a man of God. He won’t tolerate

a man being forced into a marriage.”

“He wil if the story is right.”

It took her a moment to figure out what he meant. She

gasped and whispered, “No. We can’t do that, Sep.”

“Who’d know any different? It’d be Joel’s word against

ours, and the preacher wil believe you since you’re a

woman.”

“No. It’s wrong. Joel’s nothing like Harvey or Lou. He

wouldn’t take advantage of the situation. I can’t sul y his

reputation like that.”

Sep leaned forward and kept his gaze focused on hers.

“Sul y his reputation? You are aware that it’d be your

reputation we’d be sul ying, right? No one thought anything

of Harvey catting around, but if it’d been you—”

“Yes, it would sul y his reputation. And it’s important his

reputation remains clean. He assists the doctor. People

need to think of him as a healer, not a…a…”

Before she could think of the right word, Sep shook his

head. “I didn’t think you were so naïve. After al you’ve been

through, you honestly think people care if a man fools

around?”

“Yes, they do. Good, honest people care, Sep. Our problem

is that we’ve been far removed from that type of people.

We haven’t even gone to church since Pa died. It’s just

been us.”

“Those people knew about Harvey and didn’t bother

warning us before you married him,” he replied in a bitter

tone that surprised her. “Why should we go to church?

Those good and honest people, as you cal them, didn’t

speak up when they should have.”

“That’s not fair.” She lowered her hands into her lap,

shoulders slumped. “Most of them didn’t know. And the

others… Wel , I suppose they believed he changed for the

better.”

“You’re too trusting of people, April. Even now you believe

the best in everyone you come across. You think Joel

wouldn’t take advantage of the situation if you invited him

into your room?”

Her cheeks warmed. “I wouldn’t do such a thing, and if he

real y wanted it, he wouldn’t wait for an invitation. One thing I

do know about men is that they don’t ask; they take what

they want, even if the woman says no. Joel’s a decent man.

And that’s why I won’t lie to the preacher.”

Not looking convinced, Sep asked, “So what are you going

to tel the preacher?”

“The truth. Harvey’s brother wants to hurt us and we need a

man who can protect us.”

“Good luck on getting the preacher to care.”

With a sigh, she stood up and went to the sink where she

dumped out the rest of her coffee. Even if there was a

teaspoon of honey in it, she didn’t feel like drinking it. It

seemed that nothing could get rid of the bitter taste in her

mouth whenever she thought of Harvey and Lou.

“I’m going to tel the preacher whatever I have to if it means

Joel’s staying,” Sep quietly said. “I don’t care if you back

me up or not.”

Putting her cup aside, she returned to the table and leaned

over her brother. “It won’t come to that.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I just am.”

“That makes no sense.”

She took a deep breath and shrugged. “It doesn’t have to.

Cal it women’s intuition if you want.”

He let out an exasperated sigh, but Nora cried from her crib

upstairs so April figured that was God tel ing her to leave

the matter alone. She hurried down the hal way and saw

that Joel was inspecting the area he’d repaired by the

window earlier that day. She turned and went up the stairs.

Things were bound to be rough as they al adjusted to each

other, but she hoped, given time, they might at least get

along wel enough where they could sit around the kitchen

table and have a pleasant conversation.
One day at a time.

Just take it one day at a time, April.

Chapter Eight

The next morning, April’s stomach was a mass of knots.

She pul ed back the curtain in the parlor and watched as

Sep entered the barn. This was it. He’d be bringing out the

horses and sleigh so they could go to the preacher’s house.

The day was warm enough where the snow was starting to

melt. There would be little keeping Joel here if he got bored

of fixing things around the house. She could only hope the

preacher would sympathize with her plight and marry her

and Joel in case Joel protested it.

From beside her, Nora tugged on her bonnet. Letting go of

the curtain, she turned to her daughter and tightened the

bonnet around her head. “Stop trying to pul it off,” April

whispered. “Your ears wil get cold, sweetie.”

Nora gave a cry of protest but kept the bonnet on her head.

“It won’t be much longer now. We’l be back in an hour.”

She glanced at the hal way which was empty. Picking up

Nora so she’d stop fussing, she waited until she could

determine where Joel was in the house. She heard

footsteps in Sep’s room and breathed a sigh of relief.

Good. He was stil working on the hole in the wal .

Thankful y, he didn’t ask how that hole got there, but she

wondered if he noticed it was the size of a man’s fist. She

shivered and turned her attention back to the window.

Harvey was no longer a threat, and in a matter of an hour,

Lou wouldn’t be either.

Sep left the barn with two horses and an old sleigh. Maybe

she should have felt better now that the marriage was final y

going to happen, but her stomach was twisting into an awful

assortment of knots. She closed her eyes and took a deep

breath in hopes of calming her racing heart but it was no

use. This was one of the toughest things she ever had to do

in her entire life. She opened her eyes and waited for Sep

to pul up to the front of the house before she opened the

door.

He stomped his feet on the porch and entered the house. “I

see you and Nora are ready. I figure it’s time to get the

groom ready, too.”

As he went to the corner of the parlor to grab the rifle, she

noticed a rider coming onto their land. Stil holding the door

open, she hugged Nora closer to her and glanced at her

brother. “Someone’s coming.”

He grabbed the gun and hurried over to her. “Who is it?”

“I don’t know.”

She carried Nora to the rug by the couch and gave her the

toy blocks to play with. “Stay put, sweetie,” she whispered.

She returned to Sep who waited for the stranger at the

open door. As the rider approached, she tried to get a

good look at him, but it was hard to do from a distance.

Glancing at Sep who placed the gun against the coat tree,

she wondered if this was going to be good or bad. Sep

looked back at her, his expression as uncertain as she was

sure hers was. They turned their gazes to the rider who

stopped in front of the porch and tied his horse’s reins to

the post.

The blond man appeared to be in his late twenties or early

thirties. He bore a striking resemblance to Joel, and that

worried her. She and Sep might manage to get Joel to a

preacher if he was alone, but if one of his brothers came to

get him, then there was no way she and Sep would

succeed.

Thankful y, Joel was stil upstairs fixing that hole in the wal .

Maybe they could deny Joel was even there. It might get

Joel’s kin to back off long enough for her to get married,