Emmy (Gold Rush Brides Book 2) (20 page)

She waited until his gaze crept up to meet hers, the smirk freezing on his lips at the fire in her eyes. As coolly and casually as she could manage, she said, “I helped hunt down and kill a gang of five murdering highwaymen. One of them fell under my knife. Apparently, I’m quite skilled, you see. The express company and the sheriff of Nevada County were very appreciative. I’m certain they wouldn’t have entrusted such a large sum to me if they weren’t supremely confident in my abilities to safeguard it.”

She waited a beat for all of the information to sink into his feeble brain. His jaw fell open and wariness replaced the predatory look in his eyes.
 

“Any more observations?” she finally asked, tucking the bag in a pocket buried in her skirts.

Instead of answering, he burrowed himself as deep as he could into the corner of the coach and turned his gaze outside, his jaw clenching at being bested by a woman. The other passengers smiled at her bravery, one man even throwing her a wink. A blush was coloring her skin so she, too, turned to watch the beautiful green hills of Nevada County roll by, never once thinking about Mason.

Nope, not once.

Emmy was startled awake from a dream about Mason by the sudden slowing of the coach, and the driver shouting, “Ho there!” Outside she spotted three riders in front of the coach, forcing it to slow down.

“Highwaymen!” shouted the man who’d winked at her, eliciting a scream of dismay from the woman sitting next to her.
 

Not again
, she thought irritably. How could this be happening?! Hadn’t she suffered enough already? She prayed that these men would at least leave everyone unharmed.
 

“I reckon we’ll get to see your knife skills in action now, won’t we?” sneered the man across from her. If she had a knife, she would have been sorely tempted to plunge it right into his hateful face. “Might as well take this time to say goodbye to that reward money for good.”

Then he laughed. She couldn’t believe her ears. They were about to be robbed, possibly killed, and this spiteful beast was laughing about it!
 

“Hey, maybe if we throw them the gold now, they’ll let us continue on our way,” he said, an evil glint in his eye. “Give it to me!”

He reached across and fumbled in her skirts, where she’d tucked the bag. “No! Get your hands off me!” she shouted. He didn’t pay any mind, and the other passengers were paying more attention to the riders outside than to what was happening next to them.

Emmy slapped his hands away but he persisted. The greed in his eyes sent her over the edge. He didn’t want to throw the money to the robbers, he wanted it for himself.
 

Remembering everything Fred taught her during one of their lessons, she balled one small hand into a fist, carefully placing her thumb on the outside as he instructed, pulled back and punched man square in the nose.

He flew back in surprise, his hands flying to where blood was now freely flowing down his face. Tears of pain welled in his eyes as he blinked at her. “Why d’you do dant?” he whined.

She wouldn’t give the man the satisfaction of knowing that his obnoxious nose had hurt her tender knuckles and simply smirked at him. “You’re lucky I didn’t pull out my knife!”
 

He clamped his mouth shut as the coach came to a lurching halt. Emmy’s heart started pounding as three dark figures approached the coach, the sun behind them. She’d had enough guns pointed at her over the last week to last her a lifetime.
 

“What happened here?” asked the biggest of them, his deep voice resonating throughout her body. Unbelieving, she looked up into the deepest brown eyes she’d ever seen and her heart skipped a beat…or three.
 

“Mason?”
 

“Yes, my darling, it’s me. Why don’t you come on out of there? It looks like it’s getting a bit…
messy
in there.” She couldn’t help but smile at his amusement of the man bleeding across from her. What was he doing here? Was that Jake and David behind him? Did he just call her ‘darling’?

She stepped down from the coach and was immediately scooped into his warm embrace. She couldn’t believe he was really here, holding her, and she never wanted him to stop.

“Don’t let go, Mason,” she whispered, half-afraid this was all a dream and she was about to fall into a nightmare.

“Never again, my love. Never.”
 

The blood drained from her face and instantly filled it again with a bright flush. “You…
love
me?”

A tender smile pulled at his lips as he nodded. “From the moment I laid eyes on you until the day I die, hopefully as a very old man, holding your loving hand, if you’re willing.”

Emmy pulled away from him. It was as difficult as pulling off her own arm, but she needed some answers before she could allow herself to surrender her heart.
 

“What happened? Why now? Why didn’t you say any of this back in Nevada City?”

Mason examined the toes of his boots and scratched the back of his neck, trying to find the words. “I— I didn’t think you wanted someone like me. You seemed so happy at the idea of living in San Francisco, and we didn’t get along all that well in the beginning. I thought you felt sorry for me, is all. Never occurred to me that you might feel the same.”

He paused, trying to find the words, and she waited. “I fell in love with you on the trail, Emmy, but once we were home, it was too hard being with you, thinking you weren’t keen on me, so I stayed away. I was gonna send that reward money with Jake but I couldn’t let you leave without saying goodbye. Letting you go was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”

Love swelled inside her, filling her to bursting. “You could have asked, you know.”

“Now ya tell me,” he laughed, winking at her. “But honestly, I had another worry. The wife of a lawman ain’t the easiest life. I figured it was best if I forged ahead on my own.”

“Better for who?” she whispered.

“You, of course. Look at the trouble you got into cuz of me. Look at what happened cuz I couldn’t protect Marie. I couldn’t live with myself if that happened to you, too.” His voice cracked at the end, and she rushed back into his arms.

“Oh, Mason, don’t you see?” she murmured into his chest. “None of that was your fault. It was dumb luck that Roy stopped Marie’s and my coaches. It had nothing to do with you personally. And, if you’ll recall, I was the one who insisted on tagging along with your posse. You have to forgive yourself, Mason.”

“That’s what Fred told me today at the station. Told me what an ‘idjit’ I was being and how you deserved better than me if I didn’t see how fond you were of me and a few other less savory things. I realized he was right — you, too — and couldn’t let another day pass without telling you how much I love you.”

They held each other for a long moment, then something occurred to her. Pulling back, she asked, “Did you say ‘wife of a lawman’?”

Mason smiled and dropped to one dusty knee, whipping his hat off and holding it over his chest. Her heart nearly stopped and she could barely draw a breath. Was this really happening?

“Emmy Gibson, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

It took several moments for her to catch her breath enough to answer.
 

“Yes, yes, yes! I will marry you Mason Wilder! I love you so much!” She threw her arms around him, nodding and sobbing into his broad shoulder.
 

His hands clutched at her and it was his turn to bury his face in her neck. Not once for the rest of her life did she tell a soul about the solitary sob he let out in that moment. That was hers alone to savor forever.

THE END

(almost…)

EPILOGUE

“Delilah Dalton! Aren’t you a sight for these sore ol’ eyes?!”
 

Millie St. James was like a second mother to Dell. Not long after she was deserted on San Francisco’s mangy wharf, penniless and with nowhere to go, by her good-for-nothing husband-to-be, Dell Price had been blessed to meet two of the city’s most wonderful, loving and generous souls — Sam Arbuckle, a boarding house owner who gave her a place to stay in exchange for housework, and Millie, the local postmistress. They took her under their wings and encouraged her to launch her matchmaking newspaper,
The Nuptial News.

They’d also helped fan the first fragile flames of love between her and Jack Dalton. Now happily married, she and Jack ran the paper together, helping lonely men out west find women eager for marriage and adventure, and vice versa.

“How’s that strapping husband of yours and why haven’t I seen him in so long?”

Dell laughed at Millie’s gruff tone, knowing it was all for show. Millie harbored a not-so-secret crush on Jack and he could do no wrong in her eyes.

“Things have picked up at the paper, Millie. We’re getting more ads and responses than ever. I never in my wildest dreams thought we’d be so successful!”

“Don’t I know it, seeing’s how I’m the one who processes all those sacks of mail for you each week. Still,” Millie said, pouting a little, “it wouldn’t hurt for him to drop in every now n’ again. Old gals like me need all the attention they can get from handsome young men.”

“Mmm hmmm… Speaking of attention from handsome men, when’s the last time Sam came for a visit.”

“Oh, pish!” Millie waved away Dell’s pointed comment. The whole town knew that Sam was sweet on Millie, and they’d be so perfect together, but she kept pushing him away. That didn’t stop Dell from trying to make her see the light, and one day Millie would come around, she just had to.

Ignoring Dell’s comment, Millie rummaged around the piles of mail behind the counter and pulled out letter. “You got a personal note today, Dell. I sent one o’ the boys out to deliver your regular sacks of ads ’n such. I ever tell ya that the boys draw straws for who has to deliver to ya each week?”

Dell rolled her eyes at Millie’s age-worn complaint about the quantity of mail they receive each week. “You know as well as I do that Jack and Aidan tip those boys very handsomely, so they’re probably drawing straws to see who
gets
to deliver our mail!”

Millie pretended to be shocked. “As an employee of the United States Postal Service, I am horrified that my employees accept such gratuities.” Then she grinned. “But as their boss, I think it’s just grand. How is that partner of yours? He hasn’t lost that charming Irish accent yet, has he?”

“Oh no, it’s as thick as ever and he works as hard as ever. I tell you, I’m a little worried about him, Millie. If he’s not working, he’s wasting his life at the saloons. Jack’s tried to talk some sense into him, to show him how satisfying married life can be, but he’s convinced no good woman would want a man who was ‘lame’. I hate when he says that, because he gets around fine. So what if he has a bit of a limp?”

Millie shook her head. “Tsk tsk, tis a shame, that is. If I was twenty years younger…Well, we’ll have to do something to remedy that.”

Dell stepped off to the side to read her letter while Millie helped locate a package for a particularly ripe prospector who’d travelled three days to retrieve his mail from home. She’d grown so accustomed to the malodorous state of California’s gold miners that she barely noticed it anymore.

“Oh! Millie, I must go read this to Jack. It’s an update from one of our brides.”

“You take good care of y’self, Dell, and make sure you bring that husband of yours next time.”

“I swear it,” Dell said as she hurried out the door. “And next time you see Sam, give him a big hug for me!”

She laughed all the way down Clay Street at the shocked gasp Millie gave. When would that headstrong woman see the light and allow Sam to court her properly? Aidan wasn’t the only one that needed some prodding.

When she walked in through the door of their office, Jack and Aidan popped their heads up from behind their new printing machine. It was all the rage back east, and had cost a small fortune to ship out, but it would make their life so much easier — once they figured out how to run it. She wasn’t worried though. Aidan was a mechanical genius. He would tame ‘Da Beast’, as he called it.

“My love! What are you doing here?” Jack grinned and came out to sweep her up in his arms, twirling her in a circle. It was their ritual, and though she’d been shy about it at first, she’d grown to look forward to it in the months since their wedding.

“I’m so sorry to bother you when you’re working on The Beast, but we received a letter from Emmy Gibson. Do you remember her?”

“Emmy…Emmy…Of course! Pretty little blonde number who didn’t know a hammer from a mop? Went up to Nevada City, if memory serves.”

“Indeed she did, and good riddance” Aidan mumbled as he tinkered with The Beast. “Y’know what me ol’ duffer said, dontchya? Better good manners den good looks.”

“Oh, Aidan, don’t be so sour,” Dell chided. “Besides, it seems she’s done a bit of growing up in the few weeks since she left. She’s getting married next month!”

Jack and Aidan exchanged glances. “Um, my darling, isn’t that why she came here in the first place? To marry that chap up there?”

Dell laughed. “Oh, not him! He was…I’ll read you the letter over dinner. The long and short of it is that she went on quite an adventure and found true love along the way. He even bought her a horse as a wedding present. Blaze, she calls it, and she seems quite taken with the animal. Now does that sound like the Emmy we knew?”

The men looked as surprised as she felt. Finally Aidan shook his head and shuffled back to The Beast. “Well, tis a long road dat has no turnin’.”

Jack enfolded her in his strong arms, which always made her feel so loved and protected. “That’s jolly good news, darlin’. I know you like hearing from your ladies, and I couldn’t be happier for her —
and
her lucky fella.”

“That’s not all,” Dell whispered into his chest. “They’re going to start a family right away. Isn’t that wonderful, Jack?”

“Sure is, my love. I wish ‘em better luck than we’re having at it. Seems like we been trying and trying — and I’m not complainin’ none, mind ya!”