Rimfire Bride (37 page)

To Frank he wrote three words:
I FOUND HER
.

At Dickinson, he tipped the telegrapher generously to make certain the two dispatches took precedence over everything else. The rest of the trip seemed like an eternity for Drew until, finally, the train stopped at the newly built depot in Medora.

“Howdy, Boss,” Devlin said as he stepped up to shake Drew’s hand. “Quite an improvement over the last time you were here. Look at what the marquis
has done.” Devlin swept his hand around, showing all the construction that had been done since March.

On an ordinary day, Drew would have been impressed, but that was not the case today. “I’m going back on the eastbound train. I’ve got to check to see what time they expect it. Is Clem still the stationmaster or is he across the river?”

“He’s here, but why are you going back so soon? You won’t have time to even ride out to Rimfire.”

“Get it ready for a wedding. I’m bringing Jana and a few of her friends from Bismarck, and we’ll be back in a week.”

“A wedding? Hot damn, boss, didn’t that come up sort of quick?”

“Devlin, if you only knew.”

Clem Pittman checked
the wires and told Drew the eastbound would be in Medora in a little less than two hours, so Drew felt honorbound to call on de Morès. Devlin drove him up the hill to de Morès’s “cabin,” which was finished and almost completely furnished. That was a major accomplishment because the cabin, or the château, as Devlin called it, had twenty-six rooms.

When Drew arrived, de Morès was the consummate host, providing cheese and fresh fruit along with French wine for their lunch. After Drew was satisfied that the marquis’s incident with the local ruffians was under control, Drew briefly told him about Jana.

With de Morès, Drew did not express the same bravado that he had shown in either the telegram
to Walter Watson or even his words to Devlin. He thought he could convince Jana to marry him, but what if after all he had said, she had changed her mind?

De Morès sensed the kernel of doubt in Drew’s plans. “This woman. Do you love her?”

“I do.”

“But do I gather you have not seen her since you left here in March?”

“This is true.”

“My friend, a lot can happen in a short time. With my beautiful wife it was a
coup de foudre
, or, as you say, love at first sight. We knew one another less than six weeks when we were wed. Has it occurred to you that your Jana may have wed another?”

Drew’s face paled. That thought had never occurred to him, but was that why she had kept her whereabouts from him when she was only thirty miles from Bismarck?

“I can see that this thought troubles you, but I have a suggestion. Come with me.”

De Morès rose and led Drew down to the stable that stood at the bottom of the hill. He threw open the door, and standing in a bay were a beautiful pair of Shire horses at least sixteen hands tall, their black coats shining.

“My God, Antoine, what beautiful animals, but why on earth do you have these?”

“To pull Napoléon’s coach.” De Morès directed Drew to an oversize wagon with six wheels. It had a covering much like a Conestoga wagon, but with grommets laced with rope that when pulled would
allow the covering to be withdrawn. “And for you, my friend, it can be a love wagon.”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“We must hurry. We have less than an hour to get them to the train.”

“What?”

De Morès clapped his hands, and at once several grooms appeared. “Hitch up Nate and Bob. They’re going for a train ride. And make the coach ready for a week’s journey with an overabundance of champagne and the finest food on board. My friend needs to ply his lady.”

Just before three
on the afternoon of June 2, 1883, Drew Malone was on the eastbound Pacific Express with two horses that were worth thousands of dollars and a coach that was a one-of-a-kind replica of the hunting wagon Napoléon used during his campaign against the Russians. De Morès had explained that if Jana agreed to the marriage, the trip back to Medora could be a veritable paradise, as Jana and Drew traveled as many or as few miles a day as they chose, and if she refused, Drew would have the solace of the many bottles of champagne to drown his sorrow.

As the miles flew by, and the hours ticked along, Drew’s stomach began to churn. He tried to take deep breaths to calm himself, but the closer he got to Jana, the faster his heart beat. He checked his watch against the conductor’s, and when it had been nearly six hours, he rose to make certain the conductor knew to stop at New Salem.

But when the train stopped and Drew stepped off, not a structure was in sight.

“What the hell! Where are we? Didn’t I tell you to stop in New Salem?” Drew yelled, his nerves now almost shot.

“Hold your fire, partner,” the conductor said. “This is the Bluegrass Siding. The engineer thought it might be a bit easier to unload that monstrosity the marquis is shipping on the flat instead of on a grade. New Salem’s only another couple of miles down the track.”

Drew smiled sheepishly. “Sorry. I’m a little anxious, and I want to make sure I get there before dark.”

“Mister, are you new to these parts? You know you got more’n fifteen hours of daylight this time of year. Surely you can get that rig two miles before the sun goes down.”

Drew chuckled. “I deserved that.”

Drew sat in
the coach watching the train until the caboose was out of sight and the smoke was but a thin wisp drawn across a bright blue sky. This was the moment. In less than fifteen minutes, he would know if he was either the happiest man alive, or . . . he refused to think of the opposite.

“Come on Nate, Bob, let’s get going,” Drew said, then he laughed out loud. Couldn’t a man whose name was Antoine-Amédée-Marie-Vincent Manca de Vallombrosa, Marquis de Morès, come up with better names for horses than Nate and Bob?

But the laughter was good for him. All his tension
was gone. He was going to see his Jana as soon as he crested the hill.

Jana was exhausted.
The day had been hot, and two of the younger women had gone off with their husbands to spend the day on the prairie. She realized that they needed privacy to “couple” as they called it, but that could be done at night. She had taken over their bread duties, in addition to her own job of keeping the coals hot on the Dutch ovens for most of the day, because Johan had taken one of the horses to the vein to gather more coal.

Even though the water supply was low, Johan had brought two pails of water to the tent to warm during the heat of the day, and Jana had washed her hair and her body as best she could. Now she was sitting outside the tent brushing out her hair.

She had not seen Johan for most of the day. He was a good man, and a hard worker, who would make a dependable husband for some woman someday.

It is Drew Malone’s fault,
she thought, and she thought about him often. Did he come back to Bismarck? Did he get the kids back? Did he ever really love . . . ? She closed her eyes. She would not allow that thought to surface.

Just then, she looked up to a bit of a commotion. Most of the men who still lived in the boxcar were shielding their eyes from the sun, which was now low in the western sky. Something was coming, and at this hour that was unusual. Few people traveled this way except on the train, and it only
stopped when the water car was exchanged. Occasionally, a Sioux Indian would wander into the colony, but they were friendly now, so there was seldom any activity.

When Jana stood up, she thought she saw an unusual coach that probably belonged to a drummer hawking his wares to the homesteaders. She had made it a habit to stay out of sight when any stranger was in the colony. But why? No one had tried to find her. Nonetheless, she stepped into the tent and lowered the flap.

She lay back on her pallet and closed her eyes, but in a minute she heard voices. At first they seemed to be far away, but then they came closer to her tent. She sat up, grabbing her flannel wrapper.

And then she heard it.

“Hester Prynne? Are you in there?” The voice was laced with humor, but she would recognize that voice anywhere. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.”

“Drew!” she yelled as she dropped her wrapper and pulled back the flap of the tent, almost falling as her foot caught on the center pole.

He was standing not ten feet from her.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to apologize. I didn’t even give you a chance to tell your side. I don’t know what to say.”

“All you have to do, Drew, is say you are sorry.”

“I have no right to ask for your forgiveness, my dear Jana, but . . .”

“All you have to do, Drew, is say—”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“That’s all it takes.” Jana bounded into his arms and he lifted her off her feet, kissing her as only he could kiss her.

She wound her arms around him and returned the kiss with all the pent-up passion she had felt for these many weeks.

Then she heard a clearing of a throat. Beside Drew stood Johan. “I take it this is not a consanguineous relationship,” he said, a smile crossing his face.

“No, no. This is him. This is the man I was going to marry.”

Drew stopped her as he put her feet back on the ground. “You’ve made a mistake, miss. I’m not the man you were
going
to marry.”

Jana looked at him, confused.

Drew smiled broadly. “I am the man you
will
marry, one week from tomorrow at Rimfire Ranch, assuming, of course, that the answer is yes.”

“Oh, yes, Drew, yes! You’ve made me the happiest woman in the world.”

Rimfire Ranch—One week later

Jana stood on the porch that stretched across the front of the house watching Greta, wearing a peacock-blue dress and a hat trimmed with feathers, move slowly toward the wedding guests. Jana had to smile. Her little sister, no more a frail child, was radiant. If only her mother could see her now.

A lump lodged in Jana’s throat as she thought back to the night when their mother had sent
them out to steal a ride in a pig wagon to catch a train to the unknown. She recalled the cacophonous noise of the bawling livestock, coupled with the stench of the Yard where Greta had nearly died from the burning hell that was Chicago. And from that despair the dear girl had brought home the pamphlet that had led them to this place and this time.

The Dakota Territory. Who would have thought that a place called the Badlands could be the source of such unbelievable happiness?

“Are you ready?”

Jana looked toward her dear friend. “Oh, Hank, am I doing the right thing?”

“Of course you are, darlin’. If I was your blood daddy, I’d say the same thing. No man has suffered as much as Drew—losin’ Addie the way he did—and then thinkin’ he lost you. Just look at him, standin’ there watchin’ your ever’ move. I know he loves you, but the question you have to answer is, do you love him?”

Jana kissed Hank on the cheek. “Yes, I love him. With all my heart.”

“Then let’s not keep him waiting.”

Just then there was a commotion as a wagon pulled into the yard and two people jumped out and hurried toward the small group.

Jana clasped her hand to her mouth as she let out a gasp.

“Do you know those folks?”

“It’s Mama! Johan brought my mama to my wedding!”

“I’m happy for you girl, and if I don’t miss my bet, it was Drew who made it happen. Now, we’d better get going ’fore that orchestra has to play the ‘Wedding March’ again.”

As Drew watched
Jana and Hank coming down the path toward him, he thought his bride was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her dress was all white satin and lace, while the orange blossoms that held her hair in place scented the spring air. Just as Jana approached the gathering, two little boys rose from their seats and went running to her. In spite of the billowing dress, both grabbed her legs and buried their heads in the folds of satin.

“We thought you had left and weren’t coming back,” Sam said as both boys held her so tightly that she couldn’t move.

Jana leaned down to embrace them, smothering each boy with kisses.

Father Cotes, who was to celebrate the marriage, spoke up then. “Folks, I know we’ve set up the altar and flowers here, but it seems that there are a couple of young boys who have their own ideas. Drew, shall we move this marriage rite to your family?”

“Yes, sir,” Drew said as he went swiftly to Jana’s side.

“Daddy, can we marry Jana, too?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know why not,” Drew replied with a smile.

The guests, who had been facing the river, now turned toward the priest and the wedding party.
Father Cotes began the service. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God, and in the face of this company, to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony.”

As the priest intoned the marriage rites, Jana could barely hear the words, so overcome was she with happiness. Then she heard him ask, “Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,” Drew said.

“Me, too,” Benji said.

“So do I,” Sam added.

Tears of happiness streamed down Jana’s face. “And I take all three of thee,” she said. She had a family.

S
ARA
L
UCK
is the author of three previous romantic novels of the American West:
Susanna’s Choice, Claiming the Heart,
and
Tallie’s Hero
. For six years, she taught school in Alaska, spending much of that time in Point Hope, two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle. Married to a retired Army officer who is also a novelist, Sara and her husband live on the beach in Alabama with a Jack Russell terrier named Charley.

Visit
www.saraluck.com
or contact the author at
[email protected]
.