The Kissing Stars (32 page)

He laughed again, the wild sound of it sending shivers through Tess. Darkness was falling fast now, and the light in Robards’s eyes glowed like something unholy. Which it probably was. “Don’t take another step, Montana. Not before you make your choice.”

“My choice?”

“I have one bullet left. Who gets it, the boy or the woman?”

“Robards, you can’t…”

“Now, Montana. Who lives and who dies with me?”

“Me,” he said. “Shoot me.”

“No. Dying’s too easy. You have to suffer. Pick now and I’ll kill ‘em quick. Make me choose and I’ll gut shoot ‘em like they did me. What’s it gonna be?”

Horror twisted Gabe’s features. “Dammit man, think of your soul.”

“My soul? I gave it to the devil years ago. Last chance, Montana. I’m shooting on the count of three. One…two…”

One bullet. I can’t bear to lose either one of them. Me, it must be me
. Tess chose for her husband by pushing their son off the cliff.

“Mama!” Will cried as he went over the edge.

“He can barely swim, Gabe. Go after him. Save our son!”

“Three!” hollered Robards.

Gabe, aided by a shove from his wife, sailed off the bluff and jumped into the roaring Rio Grande.

Tess couldn’t see them in the deepening darkness, but she kept her gaze on the water, her back to Lionel Robards just the same. Waiting for the bullet, she prayed for her husband and her son to survive the fell and the flooded river.

“You are something else, Tess,” Robards said. ‘“I always did admire a woman with courage. The game is yours.”

The gun fired. She expected pain, but it never came. The bullet never hit.

Tess finally turned around. This time, Lionel Robards was well and truly dead.

A man stood at the entrance of the cave, smoke still rising from the gun in his hand. He looked vaguely familiar, but in her present state, Tess couldn’t put it all together. “What…who…?”

“Reckon it’s past time we’re introduced, ma’am.” He tipped his hat. “Your husband and I are partners. My name is Mack Hunter.”

GABE COULDN’T see.

Cold water foamed and thundered around him, sweeping him downriver. With the high rock walls blocking what light remained in the sky, it might as well have been midnight as sundown. “Will!” he called out. “Will, can you hear me?”

The river bubbled and gushed. Perched on the canyon wall, a bird trilled and whistled.

Then, finally, above the rush of the river came the beautiful answering cry. “Help! Please. Help me!”

Sound echoed off the damn canyon walls, distorting the direction.
I need to see him, dammit. Dear God, help me see him
. “Will! Will! Where are you!”

“Here! He—” A gurgle cut off the word and chilled Gabe all the way to the bone.

The water slowed and Gabe realized they’d been swept beyond the canyon. But by now, full darkness had fallen and he still couldn’t see.
He can’t swim. Tess said he can’t swim
.

Gabe shut his mind to thoughts of her. He couldn’t deal with that now. He had to think of the boy. He had to save the boy.
Their son
.

Love for the boy warmed him, gave him strength to fight the water. He kicked his feet, boosting his shoulders out of the water, staring hard into the blackness.

But then it wasn’t so black any longer. Light from the sky bounced off the water, lit it, and revealed his son’s head right before it dipped beneath the inky surface. Strong strokes propelled him forward toward the spot where Will had disappeared. Gabe reached, searched the water. Found nothing but a rock to bang his hand against.

Now the water speed picked up as the Rio narrowed to flow into another canyon. But the light didn’t die. The canyon walls stayed visible, the water surface visible.

There. Five feet ahead and off to the right, his son clung to a floating branch.
Smart boy
. Gabe reached, brushed his shirt. Grabbed and found. He spit out a mouthful of water and said, “Will?”

“Daddy, I knew you’d come. I just knew it.”

Gabe thought his heart might just explode right there in the big middle of the Rio Grande. “I’ve got you, son. Now, let go of the branch and I’m going to turn you on your back. Don’t be afraid, and don’t fight me. I won’t let you go. I won’t ever let you go. All right?”

The boy nodded and let go the lifesaving cotton- wood branch. Gabe hooked his arm around Will and, supporting his head, struck out toward the bank. It was only then that he happened to glance up into the sky and spied the light that had guided him.
Well, twirl my spurs
.

The Kissing Stars.

It was the Kissing Stars that had appeared and hovered over the river, allowing him to find his son. The Kissing Stars. Thank heavens he’d been able to see them. Thank Tess.

Tess. Up there alone with Robards.
Oh, God
.

His feet dragged the sand and he stood. “Here, Will. Dry land.” Helping his son find his feet, Gabe never saw the big log that hit him in the head and knocked him flat.

HE CAME to lying on his back in the sand. Something was lapping at his face. The events of the day came rushing back into his brain.
Must be the river. I never got out of the Rio Grande
.

It lapped again and this time he realized the wetness was rough. And it stank. This river smelled like a pigsty. It smelled like a…

Gabe lifted his head. “Rosie?”

The pig stuck her snout square in his face and licked him right on the mouth. “Bleah!” he said, rearing up on all fours.

The laughter started then, sounding sweet as sugarcane syrup. And Gabe became fully aware of his surroundings.

Monty. His father. He sat beside him on his right, his face wreathed in a smile, his torso wrapped in a bandage. On his left sat Will, looking a little like a drowned puppy, but a happy drowned puppy, with one arm draped around his best friend, Rosie. And at his head…Gabe breathed a sigh of relief…at his head sat the most beautiful, courageous, infuriating woman on earth. Tess.
I’m going to make you pay for the stunt you pulled, pushing our boy into the water
.

Milling behind Tess he saw Twinkle and the colonel. And, to his surprise, Andrew and Mack. Hell, even Pollux and Castor were in attendance.

And that wasn’t all. Above them, pulsing and glowing and burning in balls of gold and blue and green and purple and red—every damned color in the spectrum—above them shined the Kissing Stars.

Joy filled Gabe and he wanted to laugh and sing and shout out the love he felt for these people.
For his family
.

Instead, he climbed to his feet and dusted off his pants. Addressing the crowd in general, he said, “So, folks. What do y’all say. Think it’s time we take home the bacon?”

EPILOGUE

Aurora Springs

December 1889

THE STAR PARTY WAS scheduled for six o’clock that evening up on Lookout Peak. The wedding party would begin at two down in the valley.

At quarter to one, Gabe ran a hand over his wife’s naked buttock. “You’re making a mistake. Rosie will steal the show.”

“Well thank you very much.” Tess nipped him on the shoulder. “That is just the sort of thing a bride loves to hear.”

He laughed and when she punched him in the stomach, he laughed some more. He felt so damned good. “Now, Venus, don’t get in a snit. Any woman who chooses to include a porcine princess as a bridesmaid at her wedding must anticipate sharing the limelight.”

Tess giggled and stretched sensuously against him. “The veil is darling on her. Wait ‘til you see it.”

Gabe rose up on one elbow and stared down at his wife. “I’ll only be looking at you, my love. Only at you.”

Her sweet smile beckoned, and he lowered his mouth to hers for one more kiss. One kiss turned into a third bout of lovemaking for the morning that lasted until Twinkle banged on the bedroom door in protest. “Gabe-dear, I know you’re in there even though it’s the big middle of the day and you have a list of chores to do before the wedding.”

With a devilish grin, he called out, “I’m working on the chores, Twinkle. I promise.”

He returned to the business at hand, massaging his wife’s nipples to hard, turgid peaks, until Twinkle interrupted again with a snort of disgust loud enough to impress Rosie. “Ten minutes, young man. That’s all you get before I send Will in to get you. I don’t imagine you want that, so hurry up. Tess needs a little time to prepare for the wedding.”

“Will?” Gabe grimaced. “She wouldn’t do that, would she?”

Tess shrugged.

Gabe focused all his efforts on finishing his “chore” in a timely manner. Eight and a half minutes later, pants and shirt buttoned but feet still bare, he exited their bedroom.

Tess indulged in a few more minutes abed. Deliriously sated, a smug smile of satisfaction stretched across her face, she simply felt too good to move.

Closing her eyes, she basked in these few minutes of pleasurable peace. They were likely to be the last such moments of the day. Invitations to a wedding and a star party had gone out to every person in a three-county area, and the Aurorians expected a crowd.

Tess had protested calling this repetition of their vows a wedding because she and Gabe had already had one of those and she had fine memories of the event—her father’s shotgun notwithstanding. Gabe had overridden her arguments, saying he wanted to marry her again and that was that and she needed to stop whining about it.

She’d figured out part of the reason once Gabe suggested Doc give her away during the ceremony. Gabe obviously appreciated the symbolism.

Fathers and sons
. What a complex, complicated relationship that. Gabe and Will seemed to be finding their way just fine. Over the past weeks the two of them had grown close enough to share a button hole. Her husband and his father, on the other hand, weren’t finding it quite so easy. They had come a long way during the past month since the events down in the Big Bend, but their relationship still had a little ways to go before anyone could call it fixed.

Twinkle knocked on her door, reminding her of the time. Quickly, Tess bathed and dressed. Sitting at her vanity table pinning her hair, she reflected on how her own relationship with her father-in-law had needed a little doctoring, too. She felt terrible that she’d doubted him, and even though he’d said all the right things when she apologized, she could tell she had hurt him. He hadn’t quite managed to hide his pout. Gabe had done them both a favor when he stepped in and took them through the lies during their trip home from the Big Bend.

“Robards was a player, a strategist,” her husband had said along the trail toward Eagle Gulch. “To win this particular game, he probably had three flags to capture, so to speak. One, he wanted Colonel Wilhoit’s gold. Two, he wanted to own or at least control the Aurora Springs valley. And last but certainly not least, he wanted my wife. So, because he enjoyed the game as much as the victory, he concocted an elaborate strategy that didn’t quite go like he had planned.”

Doc added, “Don’t forget he wanted me to end my pictograph studies. He didn’t want me finding his cache.”

“True. That’s why he set you up to take the fall as the railroad vandal to begin with. Then when I showed up on the scene, he elaborated on the plan.”

“Bodine,” Tess said.

“Yep. Bodine. Robards intended for Bodine to kill me and threaten either you or Will or my father. Then he’d jump in and kill Bodine to protect his secret, but do it in a flashy save-the-day way and look like a hero. He undoubtedly figured you’d fall for him out of gratitude.”

“Idiot.” Tess sniffed with disdain.

“In some ways, yes, but all the evidence he planted against my father was inspired. He must have worn a disguise to look like Doc, and he made certain people saw him both when he set the rail shed fire and when he broke Bodine out of prison. He befriended both Will and my father, going so far as to take Will tracking through the mountains to make the boy think later that his grandfather had the opportunity to travel to Huntsville and back. And I’ll bet if we looked close at that wanted poster he showed us, we’d find that the date of the breakout had been changed.”

“He might not have even worried about the date,” Doc confessed. “Everyone knows I lose track of time when I’m working. I know Will was gone for a two week period, but I couldn’t tell you the dates of those two weeks to save my life.”

“Maybe it did save your life,” Tess observed. “If Lionel thought you paid closer attention to dates, he might have had you meet with an ‘accident.’”

“You have a point,” Doc said. “The man certainly tied up all his loose ends. Why, all that evidence might have made me wonder if I was guilty or not myself.”

With that, all had been forgiven and the rest of the trip home had been made in happy company. At least, everyone had been happy until they reached Eagle Gulch and picked up Jack and Amy. Those two hadn’t been at all happy to learn they’d missed out on all the excitement and Amy had demanded they make it up to her by throwing a wedding party the likes of which West Texas had never seen. Tess only vaguely saw the connection between a marriage reception and a life-and-death adventure, but she wasn’t about to argue the point with Amy. Timid little Amy had disappeared. Empowered by her pregnancy, Amy made everyone think twice before saying her nay. Jack had taken to calling her Amazon Amy—in a loving way, of course.

A knock sounded on her door, jerking Tess back to the moment at hand “Honey, are you ready?” Doc asked.

She took one last look in the bedroom mirror, pinched her cheeks and brushed a non-existent piece of lint from the shoulder of the white satin wedding gown imported from Fortune’s Design in Fort Worth, and replied, “Yes, I’m coming.”

She opened her bedroom door to find her parlor filled with Aurorians. Her friends, her family. Each of them holding a gift.

Colonel Wilhoit offered his first. “It’s just a little bag of gold, Tess. I had hopes to hand you diamonds, but the mine is still evading me. Perhaps by the birth of your next child.”

“My next child?” Tess repeated. How did he know? She hadn’t even told Gabe.

He shrugged. “Amy said she could sense it. One mother to another.”

Tess turned a look on Amy and Jack. He grinned sheepishly. Amy shot a look that dared her to deny it. When Tess settled for rolling her eyes, the younger woman smiled and brought a package out from behind her back. “This is Jack’s and my gift. It’s for now, not later.”

The label on the box said Fortune’s Design. “Not another wedding gown, I hope,” she joked.

“No,” Amy replied, her eyes twinkling. “It’s a wedding nightgown.”

Tess peeked inside, saw filmy emerald green silk and quickly shut the box again as the warmth of a blush stole into her cheeks.

Andrew laughed at her reaction and handed her a gaily wrapped package. It was a carving of a horse, a white horse. “Oh, Andrew, thank you. This means so much. Why, you know I love Regulus almost as much as you.” The white stallion’s strength that awful day had helped pull an unconscious Gabe up the bluff to safety after he’d saved Will from drowning. Tess had been feeding the horse an apple a day ever since. “I will treasure this always.”

Next came Twinkle. Her gift was a small, twelve-inch by twelve-inch watercolor painting of the Kissing Stars. “Just in case you get homesick while you’re living in Austin.”

“Six months,” Tess said, tears in her eyes as she hugged her dear, dear friend. “Gabe promised we’ll be back in six months no matter what.”

Doc appeared to have a tear or two in his eyes, also, as he watched from the doorway. Catching Tess’s attention, he stepped forward and handed her a book. “A gift doesn’t exist that’s as valuable as the present you’ve given me, Tess. You’ve given me my son back, and for that I’m eternally grateful.” He gestured toward the book and added, “I can’t make up for those years with his son that your father and I stole from him, but this might help a little. I thought you’d like it, too. In my own way, I’m trying to do that for Gabe. It’s a daily journal I’ve kept about Will since he was born. Tells a little of what the boy did each day.”

Speechless, Tess could only hug him tight. When he hugged her back, she knew then that all had been forgiven. “I love you, daughter.”

“I love you, too.”

“Let’s get on with the wedding then,” Twinkle chimed in, her eyes bright. “The bridesmaid is already in the parlor waiting to ham it up going down the aisle.”

The Aurorians offered good wishes and a few more kisses before filing from her home. A few minutes later, a French horn sounded the processional. Tess turned to Doc and asked, “Did you see the fellas? They’re out there and ready?”

Doc nodded. “The groom is keeping an eye on the best man and Mack Hunter. Seems Gabe overheard his buddy tell his son something about whiskey and weddings and appropriate behavior for a young man when his parents are getting married.”

“Oh, that Mack Hunter. Just between you and me, I’ll be glad when he goes home. He is a bad influence on my men.”

Doc laughed and held out his elbow. “Let’s go rescue them then, shall we?”

They stepped out onto the front porch. “Oh, my,” Tess said in surprise. What must have been a hundred people filled chairs, benches, and blankets on each side of a ribbon-marked aisle that led to a newly constructed gazebo with a beautiful view of Paintbrush Mountain.

Nervousness fluttered in Tess’s stomach at the sight of all the people, but the butterflies disappeared the moment she got her first look at Gabe. He was so handsome standing before the preacher in his new black suit—a larger version of the one their almost- as-handsome-as-his-father son wore—that he took her breath away. And when he turned to look at her, love, fierce and forever, arced between them. In that moment, Tess was filled with joy. This was her dream. Her family.

“Get along there, Rosie,” Doc said softly.

Wearing a poofed veil of yellow netting, a yellow ribbon around her neck, and an ingeniously designed and beautifully embroidered saddlebag contraption draped over her back, Rosie started down the aisle. Rose petals spilled from the bags with her every waddle, their fragrance blending with that of her rose-scented soap to perfume the air. She took her place before the preacher, plopping down on the feet of both groom and best man, and emitting a loud
oink
.

The titters of the crowd turned to sighs as the bride followed the bacon down the aisle.

Tess held her husband’s gaze and smiled.
Oh, Gabe. I do love you so
.

I love you too, darlin’
, he told her with a wink.

Tess barely heard the preacher’s words as he began the service. Not until the time arrived to repeat their vows did she focus her entire attention on the moment. She stood before God, her friends, and family and repeated the vows she’d sworn to this man what felt like a lifetime ago.

Then it was Gabe’s turn. He squeezed her hands and said, “I, Gabe Cameron, take you Tess Cameron, to be my wife.”

Cameron. Gabe Cameron.

Tess’s heart overflowed.