Love Finds You in Lonesome Prairie, Montana (31 page)

Jim and Mabelina tromped out of the woods with a dead fox and big grins on their faces.

“They always have that grin when they come back. I think they’re doin’ some smoochin’ while they’re out there.” Lefty let out a nervous chuckle.

“Smoochin’?” Buck cursed under his breath. “This is not a fancy hotel, and you’re not their butler. It’s high time they realize the seriousness of the situation. A man is dead. Justice will be served.”

Isaac wanted to chide the man. Who was he to talk about justice? He doubted Buck had ever met Milo and assumed the gruff vigilante was in it only for the bounty. But Isaac rubbed his jaw and kept his lips pressed tight. In these parts, knowing when to shut one’s mouth was just as important as knowing what to say when the time was right.

He eyed Buck as Jim and Mabelina approached. Then he turned to his friends, hoping his calm demeanor would remind them to act the same.

Jim’s and Mabelina’s footsteps slowed as they realized another visitor had joined their camp. Jim placed a protective arm around Mabelina’s shoulders, and she looked at him as if understanding that the next few minutes could change everything.

“So since you’re here, I guess that means the judge is in town and ready for a trial?” Isaac asked.

Buck ogled the fox, and a rumble gurgled from his stomach. Then he returned his gaze to the group. “Nope, that’s not it.” He wound up his lips and let a long line of tobacco juice trail onto the dirt. “We got word that the judge was in Great Falls tending to some big trial over there. Well, the trial’s going on for another week or so. Boss sent a telegram telling him about this here murderer, and so the judge’ll take the train back soon as it’s done—on the Fourth of July.”

Jim and Mabelina looked at each other and grinned, seeming to accept their extended sentence as a prolonged honeymoon.

“That’s fine with me,” Lefty said, scratching his head underneath his hat. “I sorta wanted to get started on finding a good woman to be my wife—like the Good Lord commanded—but I s’pose that can wait a couple weeks. Maybe I could write a love poem. Y’know, the more I think about it, that there Petunia Vincent, she’s a mighty purdy one. Maybe I should set my hat for her—”

“What you talkin’ about, boy?” Buck sneered at the hopeful youth. “You’re not stayin’ here. You let these weasels wander all over the countryside, they’ll take off and the boss’ll be scorchin’ mad. Nope, you’re going back to the boss, and I’m stayin’ with these outlaws.”

Lefty’s shoulders drooped, but then he perked up. “All right. I’ll do it. Then I can call on that Petunia.”

“Wait a minute.” Isaac gazed at the weak-chinned man. How could he wait another two weeks to talk to Julia? His heart pulsed faster. “Warren can’t expect us to stay here that long. It’s unreasonable. He should let us go about our business and we’ll show up when Judge Booker arrives—where’s he arriving anyway?”

“Lodge Pole.”

“Fine. We’ve proven that we’re trustworthy. We could’ve escaped a hundred times a day.”

Buck let out a low breath and shook his head. “You can go, Parson. Tain’t no reason you need to stay, and the man, too, I s’pose. But that lady’s got a price on her head. She ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Jim edged in front of Mabelina. “If she’s stayin’, I’m stayin’.”

Isaac knew he couldn’t leave them. He spotted the flask gleaming from Buck’s pocket and figured the lackey to be a drinking man. A drunk, an isolated cabin, a long waiting spell—the combination would most certainly lead to harm. Jim could handle any man who tried to confront him, but Isaac didn’t want to risk it. The odds were better if another man was here.

Plus, he needed to be close at hand for the trial. If he left, Warren might figure out a way to change the trial date to exclude him. With a preacher at the proceedings vouching for Mabelina’s character as well as testifying as a witness, she had a chance. Without him, the judge’d probably see nothing more than a lady of easy virtue who shot a man in a jealous rage.

Isaac nodded his agreement. “Well, I guess you have us. Two more weeks it is.”

With that, Buck ordered Lefty to pack up and head out.

“I’ll see ya, Parson, Missus, Jim,” Lefty said, after grabbing his belongings. “Thanks for—well, just makin’ this a pleasant occasion.”

“Get outta here,” Buck snarled, and Lefty trekked down the hill and out of sight.

Buck took a seat on Lefty’s stump and leaned back, a brooding look on his face. “You gonna fix up that fox or let it rot?” he growled to Mabelina.

Isaac tried to take in the idea of two weeks with the man. But more than that, a twinge of anxiety hit him. The judge was coming on the train from Great Falls to Lodge Pole for the trial. The next stop after Lodge Pole was Big Sandy, and the last he’d heard, Julia was planning to depart Big Sandy on that train.

His heart raced. If he was stuck up here, how would he reach her before she boarded the train back to New York? He jolted to his feet and ran after Lefty. Catching up with him, he pulled him aside. “Please, Lefty, if you can, you’ve got to get a message to…” His shoulders slumped as a tinge of embarrassment grabbed him.

Lefty grinned knowingly. “To your little filly?”

Isaac chuckled. “Yeah. She lives at Lonesome Prairie. At the Lafuze Ranch. If you can, just tell her to please not leave town until I talk to her.”

Lefty eyeballed Isaac skeptically. “You’d better tell her more than that.”

“Well, I want to tell her the rest myself.”

“All right then. But a girl needs to know when a man’s in love.”

“Believe me, I understand. I’ll tell her. You just make sure she’s not halfway to New York before I get the chance.”

Julia breathed in the sweet mid-June air as she, Miriam, Elizabeth, and the children trudged down the side of Lonesome Lake Coulee with a supply of picnic goodies. Elizabeth strolled in front of her with Bea in her arms. A ladybug landed on Bea’s back, and Julia trotted closer to let the insect climb onto her hand. Then she placed it near Bea’s hand and helped it to crawl onto the girl’s chubby finger.

“Wadybug, Mama.” She held it up for Elizabeth to see.

As they strode down the shrub-lined, dusty coulee’s walls, Julia pondered how glad she was to have another week behind her. Only two more weeks left of burying her feelings, forcing herself to be cheerful, and employing any activity she could think of to distract her thoughts. As much as she loved and appreciated Miriam and Elizabeth, she longed for the struggle to end. Longed to go home.

She glanced up at the rolls of clouds gliding across the sprawling sky, like lambs moving through a field of blue. Julia cracked a stick from a shrub along the path. Once she got established in her new life in New York, the ache would fade—she was sure it would.

“I don’t think I ever saw a man look so surprised as Horace Whitbaum.” Miriam laughed as she straggled at the end of the queue.

“You two have been giggling about that ever since you got back from your shopping trip to town a week ago.” Elizabeth pursed her lips. “You better tell me and the youngsters what that’s all about.”

Shelby and Johannah sidled up on either side of Julia. Their share of the supplies swung from baskets on their arms as they clomped down the hard-packed trail.

“Yeah, what happened?” Shelby asked. “Did the old guy try to marry you again?”

Julia smiled teasingly, refreshed by the diversion from her gloomy thoughts. “Well, of course he tried. He always does that. The funny part is how we escaped him.”

“What happened?” Johannah asked.

“First of all,” Miriam started, as she walked a few steps behind, “that Sarah Mack helped with our getaway. She showed up just as we were leaving. Did you see the way she laughed at his odd humor?”

“Yes. When she stayed the night back when I was first here, she talked about all his virtues. I mean, did she honestly think she could talk me into falling in love with him?”

“That’s not it.” Miriam cocked an eyebrow. “She’s not trying to talk you into anything. I think Sarah is honestly fond of Horace. I’ve watched closely, and I’m pretty sure I saw her blush when he leaned forward and took that twig out of her hair.”

“You’re saying Sarah has eyes for Horace?” Julia mocked jealousy. “That her heart grows all aflutter over my husband?” Then her shoulders slumped. “I guess that’s not really funny, is it?” Julia pouted. “Maybe I should just tell Horace to chase Sarah instead. Heaven knows I jump at the slightest noise. I’m just certain that one of these days he’s going to grow tired of waiting and snatch me away to his lovely home—shack—in the hills.” Julia shuddered. “I sure hope I’m wrong.”

“Don’t worry.” Elizabeth ran her free hand over Julia’s shoulder. “We’ll get it worked out.”

Bea touched Julia, too, mimicking her mother.

“I know,” Julia answered as she gave Bea a smile. “If nothing else, I’ll be gone soon. I don’t think he’s going to chase me all the way to New York.”

“Anyway,” Miriam continued, “I think it would be wonderful for both Sarah and Horace. She could clean him up a bit, and he’d keep her company, be a father to her boy.”

Julia nodded, relief flooding over her. “I suppose stranger things have happened. And he does have a sweet heart.”

Brushing a hair from her eyes as they reached the bottom of the trail, Julia found a level spot of dirt beside the stream and spread out a few blankets. Julia and Elizabeth sat on the blanket while top-heavy Miriam opened a chair that Jefferson had made for her, which folded in half.

“Hope you don’t mind,” she said as she fixed it in a sturdy spot in the gravelly dirt. “If I squatted down on the blanket like you girls, I’d never get back up.”

Elizabeth laughed. “Oh sure you would. You’d just have to hoist yourself over to your knees like a stuck heifer.”

Miriam whacked her sister on the back then plunked down into her chair. “I never.”

Johannah and Shelby lounged with the women, and the other children soaked their feet in the water.

Bea, who’d been digging her hands in the dirt, bopped over to the ladies. “I swim?” she piped up, pulling her dress over her head.

“Well, the water’s pretty low.” Elizabeth helped with the last tug of her dress, revealing a miniature girl in bloomers. “So it should be fine. But just your feet for now, all right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said and splashed into the knee-deep water.

As Bea played, an adoring smile dawned on Elizabeth’s face.

Julia leaned back and eyed the young woman. “You’re a wonderful mother. I couldn’t have asked for a better place for my girls.” Julia’s heart tugged as she sensed the loss she’d feel when she said goodbye in a couple weeks, but not the cutting pain that she’d felt before. Knowing Elizabeth and Abe’s characters and knowing they already loved Shelby and Bea lessened the ache.

Elizabeth tilted her head. “Thank you.” Her eyes filled with gratitude. “When they first came, I didn’t know how to be a mother. I still don’t, of course!” She shook her head, and loose strands of her golden blond hair draped over her shoulder. “But I’m trying, and I really do love both of them.” She rubbed Shelby’s shoulder, tugging her into an embrace.

Shelby eyed her mother and smiled, and Julia said a silent prayer of gratitude.

“So do you still want to know what happened with old Horace?” Julia sat up tall. “You can imagine my shock when he walked into the store. I thought he was going to take me away at that very moment.”

“I thought so, too.” Miriam leaned forward. “Especially when he said he would if we didn’t invite him to dinner.”

Elizabeth slapped Julia’s leg playfully. “He said that?”

Julia nodded. “Yep. He did, and then he grabbed my arm.” She gazed at Elizabeth, Shelby, and Johannah, who sat with their eyes glued to her.

“I don’t think I told you,” Miriam inserted, “but when I saw that grimy prospector’s face all stern and serious, I thought you were done for. I thought,
I don’t know where Isaac is, and he’s the only one Horace’ll listen to.
I started planning how I could get ahold of him and Jefferson and Abe to rescue you.”

A slight sting of sorrow struck Julia at the mention of Isaac’s name, but she continued. “So Horace had his hand on my arm, and then some young men came in, just a little older than Christopher. Teenaged, I think. Horace was standing directly in the doorway, preparing to haul me away, and the boys accidentally bumped him. I don’t think they meant to. Do you, Miriam?”

“No, they were just trying to get by.”

“Well, for some reason—”

“Probably because he was so worked up about taking you.”

Julia laughed. “For some reason this set Horace off. He ripped into them with a holy anger. ‘You hooligans don’t know how to treat no one with no respek.’”

Shelby jumped up. “Oh, I can just see it.” She spread her feet in a Horace-like stance and pointed a finger at Johannah, who also stood and pretended to be one of the boys. “You better watch yourself, or you’ll be in a heap o’ trouble before you turn sixteen.” Shelby eyed Julia inquisitively. “Is that about right?”

Julia nodded. “Yeah, but he was much worse. He called them crow eaters and dirty varmints. They were pretty mad when they left.”