A Journey of the Heart Collection (7 page)

“Sarah.”

She jumped at the sudden sound. She had been
so lost in thought she hadn't heard the knock on the door. Ben had walked into her home as if nothing were amiss. “How dare you come here after what you've done! How could you do such a thing to me—to Rand's family?”

“Rand, always Rand! Don't you care about my feelings at all?” He reached out and swept a vase from the table. His gaze snapped to her bare left hand. “Where's your ring?” He grasped her shoulders and squeezed.

Sarah stared at him. “You think I would marry you after all you've done?” His grip hurt her arms. “After you lied and tricked me? You're not the man I thought you were at all.”

Ben ignored her retort. “Where—is—your—ring?” He punctuated every word with a shake, and her hair tumbled out of the pins and down her back.

“I threw it into the woods,” she said with a defiant toss of her head.

His fingers bit deeper into the soft flesh of her arms, and she winced. “Do you have any idea how much that ring cost?” he shouted.

“Is money all you care about? Don't you care about the pain you've caused?” She couldn't believe how quickly his tender, well-mannered facade crumbled.

He seized her elbow and yanked her toward the door.

“What are you doing?” Panicked, Sarah tried to free herself. “Let go of me!” The fabric ripped under her elbow as she tried to wrench her arm out of his grip.

“You're mine, Sarah, and no one else's. You're coming with me.” He hauled her struggling form through the door and hoisted her up beside Labe, waiting in the buckboard, the brim of his hat pulled low to shield his face from the misty rain just beginning to fall.

Labe's face was pale, and his mouth worked soundlessly. “I'm sorry, Sarah,” he finally whispered as he tied her hands together with a piece of rough rope. “I tried to talk him out of this, but there was no stopping him.”

“Shut up,” his brother snarled as he crawled up beside Sarah. “Everything arranged?”

Labe nodded uncertainly. “Bedrolls are in the back, along with everything else you said.”

The glint in Ben's eyes made her gut twist. Was he insane? With renewed fear, she lunged backward, intending to crawl over the bedrolls and out the back, but Ben was too quick for her.

He sat her back in the seat with a bone-jarring thump. “If you don't sit still, I'll truss you up like a chicken.”

And he would too. She could see it in his eyes. Shivering from the cold needles of rain that pelted down in earnest now, she huddled in the seat and tried to think of how to get out of this mess.

“You don't need to tie her, Ben.” Labe touched her arm, then untied the ropes. “She won't cause no trouble, will you, Sarah?”

She shook her head but couldn't bring herself to lie. She'd jump off this buckboard the moment she could.

Ben picked up the reins, but before he could slap them against the horse's flank, two riders came around the curve of the lane. He squinted in the near darkness. Then his eyes widened.

“Rand!” Sarah cried in relief. She started to clamber over Labe, but Ben grabbed her arm.

“Let go of her, Ben. This is between you and me.” Rain dripping from the broad brim of his army hat, Rand slid to the ground and walked toward the buckboard, skirting the widening mud puddles. Jacob followed close behind.

The click as Ben drew back on the hammer of his revolver was muffled in the pattering rain. “Don't come any closer, Campbell.”

Rand stopped. “Why'd you do it, Ben? Why lie to everyone?”

Ben's face twisted. “Don't talk to me about lies. You're the biggest liar there ever was.” He scoffed. “What a fake. My pa thought the sun rose and set with you. No-account drunk that he was, always getting into scrapes when the liquor got the best of him. I bet you don't even remember the time you stopped and helped him mend our fence and round up the escaped cattle. Like I couldn't have done that if he'd have just asked me. But no, it was always, ‘Ben, why can't you be like that Campbell boy?' ”

He aimed the gun at Rand. “And then there was Sarah. She mooned over you for years, but did you pay her any notice? No. Even though she was the prettiest girl in Wabash. But just as soon as she took a notice of me, you had to have her.
My
girl.”

“I was never your girl!” Sarah's gaze never left his gun.

Ben continued as if he didn't hear her. “When I got back from the war and they all thought you were dead, I knew fate was finally smiling on me. Sarah would be mine. But you had to come back early and spoil everything, just like you always have. Well,
you're not going to ruin things for me ever again.” He brought the revolver up with sudden determination and fired.

Just as he pulled the trigger, Sarah leaned against him with all her might, and the shot went wild. “Run, Rand!”

But instead of running, Rand launched himself at Ben and dragged him off the buckboard seat. The two men thrashed in the mud and the muck. Rand threw a hard right swing that connected solidly with Ben's cheek. Ben reeled back and hit his head on the wheel of the buckboard as he fell.

Rand pushed his hair out of his eyes and stepped away from Ben. “Is he dead?”

Sarah stared at Ben's pale face and saw him draw a ragged breath. “No.” Shivering and soaked to the skin, she climbed awkwardly out of the buckboard on rubbery legs and almost fell as she reached toward Rand. “Thank God you're all right!”

“What were you doing with Ben, Sarah?”

She looked at the scene: a carriage packed as if ready for a journey. She imagined how it must seem to Rand, who'd just learned he'd been deceived on what should have been a happy day of reunion. She stared at him in dismay. Surely he didn't think she was running off with Ben willingly?

She raised her chin. “Ben saw that I'd taken off his ring and dragged me out to the carriage. He'd have kidnapped me if you and Jacob hadn't shown up.”

“Is that so?”

She caught his arm again. “Rand, surely you don't believe—”

His eyes hooded, he turned away.

Jacob nudged Ben with his boot. “I think one of us had better ride after Doc Seth. Ben doesn't look too good.”

“I'll go.” Rand shook off Sarah's restraining hand and mounted his horse. “You keep an eye on Croftner.”

She stood looking after him. He had to listen to her eventually. He just had to.

SIX

R
and sensed Sarah's gaze on his back as she stood beside Doc Seth, but he resisted looking at her. The rain had soaked through every scrap of his clothing, and he shivered as a buggy came sloshing around the corner. When it stopped, a slight, frail figure slowly clambered down.

“William?”

Sarah's father turned as Rand stepped out from the shadows. Tears started to fill William's eyes as he
opened his arms and drew Rand into an embrace. “My dear boy, I heard the news in town. What a happy day this is for all of us.”

William had always been frail but vibrant in spite of it all. Rand didn't recognize him in this stoop-shouldered man with deep lines of pain around his mouth. The older man's fragility reminded him of a dying baby bird he'd found once, its bones thin and brittle.

“It-it's good to see you, sir,” he stammered, trying to hide his dismay.

“You too, son. You too.” William drew back and wiped his eyes shakily with his handkerchief. “What's going on here?”

“I gather that Ben was trying to force Sarah to go off with him.” Rand explained Ben's deception.

“This is all so much to take in. When the war ended, it seemed the horrors would at last come to an end. Now it seems they're piling up even in times of peace.” William shook his head.

Doc Seth straightened and stepped over to Rand and William. “He'll live, but he's sure going to wake up with a sore head. Labe can take him home and put him to bed, and I'll look in on him tomorrow.” He
thrust out a hand to Rand. “Good to have you home, young Campbell. Amelia told me the news.”

Rand shook his hand. “Tell her I'll stop by and see her soon.” He broke off, and they all turned as another horse and buggy cantered into the yard.

Wade slid down from his buggy, his face florid. “What's going on here?” He didn't bother to help his wife down but stomped over to where his father stood.

Joel slid down from the buggy and bounded into Rand's arms. “Rand! Oh, Rand!”

Rand laughed and hugged him tightly. He loved Sarah's little brother as much as his own. “How you doing, half-pint?”

“Great! I've missed you so much. When can we go fishing?”

Rand grinned at the familiar question. He'd always felt sorry for the lad. William's health prevented much of the usual father-son relationship, and Wade wasn't much of a fisherman. He'd started taking Joel fishing when he was two. “Soon.”

He pulled a hand free and thrust it out for Sarah's older brother. “Good to see you, Wade.” It wasn't really, but he could at least make an attempt at civility.

Wade ignored the outstretched hand. “You beat up my sister's fiancé and think you can just sit on our porch like an old friend? Why aren't you in jail?”

Rand lowered his hand and put it back in his pocket. What was there to say in the face of such animosity? Wade always saw things his own way.

“That's enough!” William's voice boomed out in a sudden surge of strength. “Your treatment of a guest in our home is unacceptable, Wade. You have no idea of the wrong that's been done to him over the past few months.”

Wade glared at his father, his massive hands clenched. “So he was a prisoner of war. Lots of men were. He can't just show up here as if we're all going to bow and scrape and give up all we've worked for to accommodate him. Sarah, get inside. We have a wedding to prepare for.”

His father lifted a brow. “You know as well as I do that Sarah would never marry Ben now.”

Wade's color deepened. “How do you know her feelings haven't changed? Ben would make a much better husband than Campbell.”

“Why, because he's rich? A man who could deceive her the way Ben has isn't worthy of my daughter.”
William directed a slight smile Sarah's way. “Besides, she loves Rand. Always has, always will. Right, honey?”

Sarah nodded.

The muscles in Wade's jaw pulsed as he clenched his teeth. “But what about the land?”

“Is that all you care about? More land, more money?” William shook his head wearily. “I'm telling you right now, if you do anything to hurt Sarah or Rand, you won't have
this
land or house.”

Wade stared at his father. “You'd cut me out of your will?”

“In a minute. Now get in the house until you can get a civil tongue in your head.”

Wade shot a glance at Sarah, then swung his blistering gaze toward Rand before stomping into the house. He let the screen door slam shut behind him. Rachel sighed and followed him.

“Good for you, Papa.” Sarah slipped her small hand into his.

“Wade's had it coming. I should never have let him get away with his arrogance for so long.” William took his hat off and rubbed his forehead. The confrontation had drained him. “Come in out of the rain, sweetheart. You and Rand can have the parlor. I'm just
going to have a bite to eat and go to bed.” He shook Rand's hand. “Stop by tomorrow and we'll talk. I'm just as eager as Joel to hear the full story.” He walked into the house, his shoulders stooped.

Sarah watched her father stumble up the steps and into the house. An order from Pa wouldn't stop Wade for long. Why did he hate Rand so? She shook her head. Ever since she could remember there had been antagonism between them. And Rand had tried. But every overture he'd made had been ignored or ridiculed.

She pushed the disturbing puzzle out of her mind and turned back to Rand. “Can we talk?”