Mail Order Cowboy (Harlequin American Romance) (3 page)

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Authors: Pamela BAUER

BOOK: Mail Order Cowboy (Harlequin American Romance)
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He had been tried and found guilty without ever going to court. As he had sat on his horse he had prayed for a miracle. Now it seemed one had occurred. Not only was he still alive, but it appeared that his sister had not ridden off with the outlaws.
“Ma’am, where is Hannah?” he asked anxiously.
“She’s in town, but she should be back shortly,” the old woman answered.
“She lives here?”
Gabby frowned. “The sun really has gotten to you, hasn’t it? She’s the reason you came here. You haven’t forgotten that, have you?”
He shook his head. Wood could hardly believe his luck. First he had escaped the lynch mob; now he had found Hannah.
As they rounded a row of pines, they came upon one of the biggest houses he had ever seen. It was two stories tall with a huge verandah on three sides. It reminded him of the grand houses he had seen in St. Louis and was nothing like the log cabin he had stayed in at the Nelsons’.
If Hannah were renting a room here, did that mean she had split from her outlaw boyfriend? Or she was waiting here for him while he pulled a bank job. He hoped it was the former, but judging by what the leader of the lynch mob had said, it could very easily be the latter. The Jesse James gang had robbed the bank of Northfield, which wasn’t all that far from Stanleyville. Two of the gang had been killed during the robbery, but so had two of the townsfolk, which was why the vigilante group had been so ready to lynch him. When George and Mary Nelson were found dead at their homestead, Wood had become the victim of guilt by association. After all, he had stayed with them the previous night and had been asking questions about the James gang.
Right now, however, he didn’t feel much like asking questions. Not that it mattered. Gabby and Jeremy didn’t make much sense when they talked, anyway. What was important was that for the first time in weeks, Wood could cling to the hope that he had finally found his sister.
“Let’s take him to the bunkhouse,” Gabby directed Jeremy.
“There aren’t any sheets on the beds,” Jeremy reminded her.
“We can fix that.”
At this point Wood didn’t care about linens. With every step he weakened, and the world around him began to spin out of control.
“Get the door.”
“Yuck! There’s spider webs all over.”
“Watch his head.”
“It stinks in here.”
“We’ll open the windows.”
Their words floated all around Wood. He was tired. He felt sick. He needed sleep. Whatever had happened to him during the lynching, it had drained every ounce of his strength.
“You need to rest,” Gabby said helping him to a cot.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to make sense of the last twenty-four hours. He couldn’t. Nothing that had happened since that noose had been slung around his neck made any sense. Maybe he was dead. Startled, he opened his eyes.
“I’m not dead, am I?”
Gabby laughed. “Oh, good heavens, no. You’re just a little confused, Alfred, but you’re going to be just fine.”
Again she called him Alfred. If she knew he was Hannah’s brother, why did she think he was this Alfred person? He rubbed his temples. If he could only figure out if she knew about the lynching. It wasn’t in his nature to be dishonest, but telling her his true identity was a risk he couldn’t take. At least until he figured out how he’d landed in a strange cornfield. Right now he felt weak and helpless. His eyelids were heavy, his body boneless. As much as he wanted to get out of the bunk and ride far away from Minnesota, he knew he needed to get his strength back if he were to talk his sister into going home with him.
“I have to talk to Hannah soon,” he murmured.
“You will,” Gabby assured him. She patted his hand as if he were a small child needing comfort. “But first you must sleep. I’ll get you some linens for the cot.”
“This will suit me just fine, ma’am.” He stretched out on the bare mattress.
“Very well. After you rest, you can wash up and then you can meet Hannah.”
“You won’t tell her I’m here just yet, will you?” He lifted his head in supplication. “I don’t want her to see me like this. In my weakened state.”
“Don’t worry, Alfred, I won’t mention that you’re here just yet.” Then she turned to Jeremy and said, “That goes for you, too, young man. Not a word to your mother until I say so. Understand?”
Jeremy nodded.
Then Gabby turned back to Wood. “Everything will work out just fine. It might take a little time, but Hannah will come around. You’ll see.”
Wood eased his head back on the cot. “I have to convince her I have her best interests at heart.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what you need to do,” Gabby agreed.
“She’s not going to get rid of me.” Wood tried to sound confident, but his voice was weak.
“No, I don’t believe she will,” Gabby responded smugly as Wood closed his eyes. She turned to Jeremy and said, “He’s asleep. We’ll get him a basin so he can wash when he wakes up. You know, I think once he shaves he’ll be rather handsome.”
“Mom’s not going to think so,” Jeremy warned her. “She’s going to have a fit when she sees him. She doesn’t want anyone using this place.”
“We agreed we’re not going to tell her he’s here until he’s feeling better.” Gabby steered Jeremy toward the door.
“Who is he, anyway?”
Gabby chewed on her lower lip, contemplating how much she should tell her nephew. “Can you keep a secret?”
“Sure.”
“You know how your great-grandfather left your mother all that money that she can’t touch unless she marries?”
“You mean the prison money?”
Gabby clicked her tongue. “Marriage isn’t a prison, and I wish your mother wouldn’t refer to it as that. Anyway, your mother’s thirtieth birthday is coming soon, which means she’ll lose her inheritance if something isn’t done.”
Jeremy wrinkled his nose. “I don’t get it. What’s he got to do with that?”
“I arranged for him to come and marry your mother,” Gabby said directly.
Jeremy’s eyes widened. “No way! Mom won’t marry him!”
“Not looking the way he does now, but once she gets to know him and sees what a good help he can be around the farm, she might.” She gave him her gravest look.
“But she doesn’t even know him!”
“Your great-great-grandfather married someone he didn’t know. He had a mail-order bride. Sent for her through an ad in the newspaper and it lasted nearly forty years. Sometimes those marriages work the best” She could see she hadn’t convinced him. “Jeremy, you don’t want to lose the farm, do you?”
“No, but Mom says she’ll find a way to keep it.”
“Not if she has another bad harvest. Can we take that risk?”
He looked again at the sleeping man and wrinkled his nose. “He looks awfully weird.”
“Appearances can be deceptive,” she said as much to herself as to Jeremy. “You’re willing to give him a chance, aren’t you?”
He was silent for several seconds before finally saying, “I am. But Mom’s going to be really mad when she finds out.”
 
“Is THERE A REASON the windows are open in the bunkhouse?” Hannah asked, the moment she stepped into the kitchen. Ever since her grandfather’s death, the bunkhouse had been empty. She saw no reason to use the building that at one time had been home to the extra farm hands. She could no longer afford live-in help. Besides, there were memories in that building she would just as soon forget.
“I’m airing it out.” Gabby turned her back to her niece, busying herself at the stove where she had several pots on the burners.
“I thought we were in agreement that it wouldn’t be used.”
Just then Jeremy burst into the kitchen. “Hey, Mom. Did you get the bedding for the chickens?”
“Yes, it’s in the back of the pickup,” Hannah answered. “What did you do after school today?” she asked as he reached for a handful of grapes.
Jeremy looked at his great-aunt before he answered. “I helped Gabby.”
“Do what?”
He shrugged. “Stuff.”
Hannah didn’t miss the guarded glances that passed between Gabby and Jeremy. “Like what stuff?”
Gabby avoided answering by saying, “Oooh. I like what Marlis did with your hair! Turn around and let me see the back.”
Hannah did as she was told. “She layered it. She said it would have more bounce.” She chuckled softly. “As if I need bouncy hair.”
“It looks nice, Mom.”
Hannah eyed her son suspiciously. In all of his ten years he had yet to comment on her hairstyle.
“I’m glad you didn’t cut it short,” Gabby added.
“Marlis wouldn’t. She said most women spend hours getting curls like mine and she wasn’t going to watch them go to waste on the floor.” Hannah ran her fingers through the blond layers.
“We’d better eat. The food’s ready!” Gabby announced, fluttering about with her hot pads flapping in the air.
Hannah helped Gabby cany the serving dishes to the table. “Are you feeling okay? You look a little flushed.”
She heaved a sigh before she said, “I think I did too much walking today.”
“Walking?”
Gabby took her place at the head of the table. “I went with Jeremy to help him find Outlaw.”
“He was out during the storm, and I thought he might have been hurt,” Jeremy explained, turning his attention to the soup in front of him.
Hannah looked at Gabby. “What storm?”
“It was only a brief shower,” her aunt insisted.
“It sure had a lot of lightning,” Jeremy exclaimed. “You know that big oak out in the Nelson forty? It got hit by lightning and split right down the middle.”
“What were you doing out at the Nelson forty anyway?”
“I told you. Looking for Outlaw.” Jeremy reached for a slice of bread.
Hannah looked at Gabby. “No wonder you’re feeling the heat. You shouldn’t have walked all the way out there.”
“I was worried,” she said, lowering her eyes.
Hannah looked at her quizzically. “And then you came back here and cleaned out the bunkhouse?”
“We didn’t exactly clean it. We swept it out and opened the windows,” Gabby told her. She exchanged another guarded glance with Jeremy.
Hannah didn’t know what the looks passing between her aunt and her son meant, but she had a hunch they shared a secret and it had something to do with the bunkhouse.
She set down her fork with a clang. “All right. What’s going on?”
Both shot her looks that were as innocent as a baby’s. “Nothing,” they echoed in unison.
“Jeremy, do you want to have a sleep-over? Is that why you had Gabby help you clean it?”
Gabby giggled nervously. “She caught us red-handed, Jeremy. We better ’fess up.”
Jeremy didn’t look as if he wanted to confess anything.
“I told Jeremy to ask you if it would be okay to use the bunkhouse for guests, but he was worried that you’d be upset. You know why.” She gave Hannah a knowing look.
“You get a really sad look on your face whenever you go by there.” Jeremy added.
Hannah knew what he said was true. Just walking by the bunkhouse created a dull ache in her heart. What Jeremy didn’t realize was that the old building held memories she wanted to forget. It was there that she had met Jeremy’s father, a young man who had come to help her grandfather on the farm. He had given her the best summer of her life, promised her the moon, then left without even saying goodbye. He and all the other men in her life who followed him had proved one thing—men don’t stay. But she couldn’t tell that to Jeremy.
“Have you two forgotten that there’s no bathroom in the bunkhouse?”
Jeremy’s eyes met Gabby’s. “Oh-oh. I guess that means if a person sleeps out there, he’ll just have to come inside to go to the bathroom.”
“No,” Hannah said firmly. “If we have any guests, they’ll sleep in the house. I don’t want anyone using the bunkhouse.”
That ended the discussion, and the rest of the dinner talk centered on harvest preparations. Gabby had just brought the apple strudel to the table when Outlaw began to bark.
“What’s with Outlaw?” Hannah asked.
“I’ll go check.” Jeremy’s chair scraped the floor as he stood, but Hannah stopped him.
“Finish your dinner. I’ll look.”
When Hannah gazed out the screen door, the sun was setting, creating shadows and limiting her range of vision. What she could see, however, was Outlaw’s tail wagging like crazy beside a large oak tree.
“He must have a squirrel cornered.” Hannah’s statement produced audible sighs from her aunt and son.
“Jeremy, why don’t you bring him inside,” Gabby suggested nervously.

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