Texas Brides Collection (55 page)

Charlotte saw Reuben leaving the sheriff ’s office before Momma and Pa did. “He’s coming out!” She picked up the hem of her skirt and ran for him. “What happened?”

He smiled at her, his green eyes alight in a way she hadn’t seen in years. “It was James all along. Seems he had a hankering for a new buggy and other things. Figured a few dollars here and there would help. When I came to town, he started getting greedier.”

“So that explains it. I wondered how he got that buggy.” She shook her head. Reuben offered her his arm, and they walked along to her parents’ wagon.

“He looked squeaky clean around me.” Reuben shrugged. “Get enough rumors flying, people will look the other way at what’s under their noses. Howard Woodward didn’t quite suspect me, though. But he had an idea something was up when Mrs. Booth mentioned me being out of town on the same day James said he saw me on the street passing by the newspaper office.”

Charlotte laughed. “Thank you, Mrs. Booth, for sharing information! I never thought I’d say that.”

Reuben’s chuckle made her go all warm inside. “Yes, and thank You, Lord.”

“What about Colt? How is he?”

“About as well as you can expect in prison. I offered him a place here with me one day, but he’s got somewhere else in mind. He showed me something, even though he didn’t want to listen about God changing him.” Reuben stopped and took Charlotte’s hands in his. “He showed me I was wrong, thinking I could earn my forgiveness. Like if I did enough good, it would cancel out the bad. It’s hard sometimes, still, thinking about what I’ve done, but I’m ready to start looking forward.”

Charlotte smiled. “Me, too. And one day I’d love to see Colt and thank him.”

“You two going to talk each other to death?” Pa’s voice carried over the wind that held the hint of early spring. “In case you didn’t know, it’s freezing out here.”

Reuben tied a knot in his necktie. He could never get used to feeling gussied up, but when a fellow proposed marriage, he couldn’t take a chance at appearing in less than his best. Sam had told him to make sure he joined them for supper. Maybe he was a tad overdressed for a Wednesday night supper, but he figured he wouldn’t be comfortable even in his everyday work clothes.

He crossed the yard to the main house where the scent of supper drifted from the kitchen door. Charlotte’s and her ma’s laughter joined the smells that made his stomach growl louder. After a week of jerky and stale bread, a supper of beef and potatoes would go down well.
Thank You, Lord, for true freedom
.

“There you are!” Charlotte stood in the doorway and drew him inside with her hand. Her smile made him feel warm to his toes. She squeezed his hand, and he raised her hand to his lips. The blush that swept over her face reminded him of the days in summer when they’d tear around on horseback and she’d leave her sunbonnet at home.

Sam entered the kitchen and surveyed the table laden with food. “Son, I almost feel like sending you away again so we can eat like this every night.”

“Now, Sam,” his wife chided. But she beamed, as well, when he tugged on her apron strings.

Sam asked the blessing once they were all seated around the table. “Lord, thank You for this food. Bless it to our bodies and our lives for Your service. We thank You for delivering Reuben from the snare of the wicked today. Thank You, as well, for bringing him home again. Amen.” At that Reuben tightened his grip around Charlotte’s hand.

“Sir,” he ventured once they filled their plates, “I must talk to you about something important, before I lose my nerve and before I eat and lose my supper at the idea of speaking to you.”

Charlotte’s father set his fork down next to his plate. “Well, if it’s all that important, I’d like to hear it before I eat.”

“Two things.” Reuben tugged at his necktie. “First, I love your daughter. I always have, and I always will.” He could feel her face glowing from where she sat opposite him. “I haven’t been a Christian man for many years, but I’m learning. Once I can provide for her properly, I want to marry her, and I’d like your blessing.” His throat hurt after the long speech.

Sam nodded. “I appreciate you asking me first. I see Charlotte’s answer on her face.”

Reuben reached for Charlotte’s hand. “I love you, Charlie Jeffers, till the stars die. I was stupid and selfish many years ago, but I promise you I’ll never leave our love behind again. We were only children, but even then I knew…”

“I did, too.” A tear slid down Charlotte’s cheek, and she grinned as she dashed it away with her free hand.

“Now.” Sam punctuated his sentence by slamming his palm on the table so hard his coffee cup jumped. “How do you propose to provide for my daughter?”

Reuben cleared his throat. “That’s the second thing I’d like to talk to you about. I want to buy back the land my family used to own. I don’t have enough money yet to make you a good offer, but I’m working on that.”

Sam picked up his fork and stabbed a bite of meat on his plate. He swirled it in some gravy and popped it in his mouth. Reuben could almost see the man’s mind working as he ate.

Reuben followed Sam’s lead and popped a piece of meat into his mouth although his appetite had fled. He swallowed it without even noticing that it was so tender it melted in his mouth. Then he paused and smiled at Charlotte. They had so many things to talk about.

At last Sam broke the silence. “I can’t sell you that land.”

Reuben felt his shoulders sag, but he refused to let Sam see the dreams crumbling inside him. “I…I see.”

“I’m going to give it to you.”

“Sir—” Reuben’s throat tied itself in a knot to match his necktie.

Sam raised his hand. “No. Cut that out. I know what you’re goin’ to say. You don’t deserve that. Maybe not. But this is what we’ll do.” He took another bite.

“What’s that?”

“I’m going to give you the pick of the spring calves this year, seein’ as how you’re going to help me with the calving. You raise those and add to the small herd I know you can buy.” Sam sipped his coffee. “Then, for the next three years, all the female calves your herd bears will be mine.”

The room seemed to spin around him. “You’d do that?”

“We both want the same thing. I want my little girl cared for. I want you and Charlotte to work that parcel…together.”

“Oh, Pa. It’s a dream come true.” Charlotte squeezed Reuben’s hand.

Sam smiled, a rare sight Reuben hadn’t recalled since working for the man. “That it is.”

C
harlotte and Reuben rode out to their future home. The March breeze spoke of living things and new chances. The Wilsons’ soddy would be snug until Reuben had completed repairs on the main wood-frame house, abandoned for years. Charlotte could hardly wait to make the place their own.

“Think we’ll be courting for long?”

“I don’t know,” Reuben replied. “I think your pa knows we spent many years apart. I think a summer wedding is fine. Except I’d marry you tomorrow if I could.”

“My dress isn’t finished.” Charlotte studied his expression. “I know you’re wanting a short walk to the altar, but I’m not getting married in my Sunday dress. I’ve waited too long for you to take shortcuts now.”

“I know.” He smiled that Wilson smile she loved so well.

They halted the horses, and Charlotte swung off her horse. Reuben did the same, and Checkers and Belle strolled on long reins as they munched the new grass.

Reuben took Charlotte’s hand. “I need to be getting back soon, but I wanted to have a few minutes of quiet. Promise me one thing?”

“Of course.”

“Help me keep looking for Caleb and Benjamin.”

“You can count on me.” She would sprout wings and scout the land for the two men if she could.

“It doesn’t matter if they don’t want to come home. I want to know they’re safe and well, and if they need help, I want them to know I’m here.” Reuben blinked, and Charlotte thought she saw a few unshed tears.

“We’ll find them together.” She squeezed his hand tighter.

“That’s how I always want it to be.” He pulled her into his arms. “You and me, together.”

“Till the stars die,” Charlotte whispered just before Reuben kissed her.

Texas 1880

W
hen Anne Langley became a widow, she vowed her children would know Jesus and never go hungry. She’d accomplished those things and more. Standing on the back porch of her white-stone home that faced east, she sipped from a mug of strong coffee and watched the sun slowly expand the horizon in shades of purple, orange, and pink. She inhaled the beauty around her—the kind of beauty that only God could paint. Morning had come to life with color and promise for the day. Heaven’s beams gently illuminated the hundreds of acres Anne called the Double L.

All this gives me a reason to go on. Thank You for Your love and those mercies that are new every morning, just like Your book says
.

The door squeaked open behind her, and the sound of boots tapping against the wooden porch revealed her visitor.

“Mornin’, honey,” Anne said without turning to greet her daughter.

“Another pretty one, isn’t it?” Fourteen-year-old Sammie Jo leaned in close to her mother.

“I believe you’re right.” Anne wrapped her arm around the girl’s shoulder. This winter Sammie Jo had shot up like a weed after spring rain, and her body had begun to look more like a young woman. Anne wasn’t ready for that. In a few years, she’d be shooing away the young cowboys like flies on…on what comes natural.

“We’re leaving right after breakfast?” Sammie Jo lifted a mug of coffee to her lips. She drank it black like her mother. The steam rolled off the top in a mystic dance before disappearing into the air.

“And not a minute later. Your sister doing all right?”

Sammie Jo nodded. “She hates not going. Says she feels better.”

Anne chuckled. “Nancy should have thought about what those green dewberries would do to her stomach before she ate so many.”

“Mama, those had to taste terrible, and she got so sick.”

Anne shook her head. “Curiosity gets the best of Nancy. Reminds me of your daddy.”

“Ever wish we were boys?”