The Ruination of Essie Sparks (Wild Western Rogues Series, Book 2) (34 page)

At the back of the crowd, he saw a rider and a wagon full of men pull to a stop. For a moment, he didn't recognize the man shoving through the crowd toward him. He was older than he'd been the last time they'd locked eyes on one another. That last day he'd called him his son. But time had not diminished Tom Newcastle one bit. And as he moved through the crowd, his eyes met Cade's with a mixture of dread and hope.

He'd brought half his ranch with him and all of them were armed to the teeth. In the wagon with them was a blond-haired woman he didn't recognize who was standing and waving her arms at him in apparent solidarity.

Cade threw a look at Essie and put two and two together. She'd gone to his father. This couldn't have happened any other way.

Tom Newcastle barged through the morass of men and stepped up beside him. He strong-armed Cade from the two men holding him and kicked them off the stoop like naughty children. Two of his armed men joined him on the stoop and the others pointed their guns at the crowd along with Essie. "Now you've all had your say. But this is my boy. My son. And nobody's gonna hang him. You two," he said to his men, "get Cade inside. And help the sheriff inside, too. Who's the damned fool that shot him?"

The damned fool had apparently vanished in the thick crowd, but several men up front claimed it had been accidental.

"This whole thing's accidental," he said, reaching out to take the rifle from Essie's hands. She relinquished it reluctantly. "One big accidental mess. You'd better hope that man is all right, or I'll come looking for you personally." He stared at the crowd, picking out faces he recognized. "You all know me. We've been friends for years. But today, I'm ashamed to call you that. I expected more from you than turning into a thug-mob against my son. When my boy's name is cleared—and it will be cleared—I expect each and every one of you fools to come to my home and apologize to his face. And to this young lady who stood up for him at her own peril. Now get! All of you! Go home to your family, if you're lucky enough to have one. Or say a prayer to the Maker that one day you'll be lucky enough to have a son like mine."

Shamed, they did as he asked, but more than a few of them had words for both Reverend Dooley and Mitchell Laddner. But all that was out of Cade's earshot as his father's men helped him back inside the jail.

The others helped Sheriff Sampson into his chair. His wound was not serious, a through and through bullet to his upper shoulder, and someone sent for Doc Watley again.

Essie hurried to Cade's side as he was helped into a chair opposite Sampson. Her eyes were filled with tears and she just shook her head at him, unable to speak as one of the men with his father undid the cuffs on his hands.

"Cade? You okay?" the man asked. "I'm an old friend of your father's. Name's Reese Donovan. I sure am glad that mob didn't have their way with you."

Cade nodded, taking a mental inventory of his working parts. "Thanks. I'm grateful to you all for saving my neck."

"This one did the saving," Reese told him, gesturing at Essie. "We were just the back-up plan."

His father came in beside the woman he'd seen standing in the wagon. She went immediately to Essie and put an arm around her. "There, now," she told her. "You just bawl your eyes out if you want, Essie. It's over now."

"I—" She dropped her face in her hands and to his surprise, did just that.

He reached out for her and pulled her up against him. "Shh. It's all right."

She nodded, looked up at him with moisture brimming in her eyes. "I thought they would kill you."

From his chair, the sheriff said, "I got nothin' to hold you on, Cade. I should've let you go last night, but that was my mistake." He gripped his bloody shoulder with one hand and looked up at Cade's father. "But as sheriff, it's my call. Tom, I'm releasing him to you. Since Mrs. Sparks is backing up his story and since that missin' horse showed up in town, clearly not by Cade's doing, the charges are hereby dropped. There will be no trial. He's free and clear. And when I get back on my feet, I'll make sure you get every one of those apologies you asked for out there. And Reverend Dooley and Laddner will have to answer for what's going on out at that school. I think we can make sure he isn't allowed to take out his bigotry on any more of the Cheyenne's children."

As Tom thanked the sheriff, Cade shielded his eyes one-handed in relief. That it was actually over was almost too much for him to take in. Pulling himself together, he released Essie with a squeeze, got to his feet and stood before his father.

Tom Newcastle had always been an imposing figure and that hadn't changed. But the man standing before him now looked nothing like the one who had taken that girl's side against him, all those years ago. He looked... nervous.

"Son?" Tom said. He put his hand out for Cade to shake.

Cade took it, and Tom clasped it in both of his, then pulled Cade into his arms. It was a feeling so foreign to him that he froze for an instant before allowing it, before wrapping his arms around his old man as well. Tom buried his face in Cade's shoulder momentarily, then, with a self-conscious clap on his back, he bracketed his son by the shoulders, and pulled back to look at him. He took in the long hair, the broken cheek, the bloody clothes that had taken him down that mountain, and the man's eyes filled with tears.

"You all right now, son? You look like hell. And the best thing I've seen in a long time."

Cade nodded. "I'll live. Thank you... for coming and... for what you did out there."

"You can thank your girl, Essie, for that. She came to me and told me what had happened. You should hang onto that one, Cade. She's... a pearl."

He couldn't have agreed more. But his father wasn't finished talking.

He cleared his throat. "I... I should've come to you long ago. Mended the broken thing between us. I tried to find you a few times, but you didn't seem to want to be found. I should've tried harder. I don't know what the hell got in my way. Stubbornness, I guess. My pride. I suppose I just kept hoping you'd realize you'd misunderstood what happened between us all those years ago. Or forgive my damned temper for getting in the way when you needed me most. So I'm here, asking you to forgive me. To finally put that behind us? Dammit, I hope we can, Cade."

The others in the room pretended to be looking elsewhere as they spoke, but none were unaffected by Tom's obvious emotion, standing with his son again after so many years.

As he'd watched that crowd come for him, Cade had thought about his father, too. Thought about how his own stubborn will had gotten in the way all those lost years, too, and how pointless it had been to blame him for all that had gone wrong in his life. To get the chance to make it right now, Cade decided, was a gift. One he wasn't about to waste twice.

"We're both stubborn as cedar," Cade said, letting out a deep breath. "And it was as much my fault as yours. But yes. If we could, I'd like that. Very much."

Relief lightened Tom's expression. A big smile broke out on his face. "Get your things. We're all going back to our place."

Cade looked up suddenly. "But Little Wolf... what about—"

"We got him, Cade," Ollie said. "He's safe and back at my place. Along with a little bonus. I'll tell you about that later."

He swallowed with relief. "Thank God."

Tom said, "You come, too, Ollie. And, of course, Mrs. Sparks. I'd be honored if you'd come and stay at my place while you sort things out."

She hesitated, glancing at Cade. "I—"

"We need a minute," he told his father, who nodded and ushered everyone outside save the sheriff and Ollie who was tending his shoulder now.

Cade took her back to the open cell and pulled her inside. "This isn't the place where I should say what I'm about to say, but I don't want any misunderstandings between us—"

"Cade," she interrupted, "you don't have to say anything. I don't want you to feel obligated to say anything. What I did, I did because... well, because I had to. I thought the worst would be that I'd be ruined, like you said. That I'd be shunned by all those people out there. But that wasn't the worst. In fact, it didn't even matter to me. The worst would have been losing you. And I'm so glad it all worked out this way. But I already know how you feel. So please, don't say anything in the heat of the moment, feeling obliged to me or anything like that. I really... really couldn't bear it if you did."

"Are you done?"

She shook her head, but answered, "Yes."

"Good. Because now I'm going say what I'm going to say because I want to. Not because I have to, or because I'm obliged to you for saving my life, which I am. But here it is. I don't know what I did to deserve someone like you in my life. Someone as brave and fearless and beautiful as you,
Mo'onahe
. But I'm done being too foolish and stubborn to see how lucky I just got. I feel like I have a second chance and I don't want to waste it. So you would be doing me a great favor if you'd forget all I said to you last night about getting out of town on that train and going as far away from me as you can. Because if you did that, I'll just have to come and find you. And then we'd waste all that time."

She let out a breath of laughter. "Really?"

"I want you to stay. Stay and let me take back all that that happened between us at the beginning and prove I'm worthy of you."

"You don't have to prove anything to me, Cade. I know who you are. And I wouldn't take back a moment. Well," she quibbled, "falling in the river, maybe, and... the bear. And, oh,
shoes
." She grinned up at him.

He brushed the curls from her eyes with one finger. "I want you with me for the rest of my life, Essie. I want to sleep with you every night with my arms around you and wake up to you every morning. But I want to do it right. I'll never be like the other choices you might have. I'm half Cheyenne and I'll never deny that part of me."

"I would never ask you to."

He nodded. "I know. But if that means waiting for a while until you're sure you feel the same, then we'll take our time."

"Yes," she said, touching his cheek with the palm of her hand. "Let's take our time. In fact, let's take the rest of our lives. I don't care about what anyone else thinks. Only what's good for us. I've been married before, Cade. I wasn't looking for that. In fact, I never wanted it again. I was holding onto something that could never be again, but I finally let that go. I never thought... I never expected
you
. You're what I didn't even know I was looking for. Just you. So... yes. I'll stay. I'll stay. Because I've... I've fallen in love you, Cade." Her eyes glistened in the dim light of the jail cell and he brushed her cheek with his finger. "But you have to promise me one thing."

"Anything."

"No more grizzly bears. They are definitely off my list of things I ever want to see again."

"You have my word,
Mo'onahe
."

"Oh," she added with a sniff, touching the tender side of his face with a brush of her finger. "And call me that whenever you want."

He smiled back at her. "Until the grasses no longer grow on the prairies,
Mo'onahe
," he murmured, then dropped his mouth on hers and kissed her, deeply and true. And the kiss hurt his bruised mouth, but he didn't care. As he folded her in his arms, he gave up a silent prayer of thanks to the Great Spirit for sending her to him and for having the wisdom to steal her that day. But he guessed it was the other way around. She was the one who'd done the stealing and now he knew his heart would never be the same.

In the silence of that kiss, he heard the answer his grandfather told him he would if he only listened.
This is right
, the Earth whispered.
This is honorable. This is true
.

Epilogue

They told him it was because of him that they'd met and that today, three months later, on this cold November evening, they would be married.

Little Wolf watched with a secret smile from beside a fragrant, ribbon-tied evergreen bough as Essie and Black Thorn—Cade, as she always called him—exchanged their vows in the decorated great room of Tom Newcastle's home. His chest tightened as they smiled at one another in the candlelight that spilled from the antler chandelier above them.

He supposed each of them might have chosen a more peaceful way to begin a life together, but the Great Spirit had reasons of His own for sucking them down a whirlpool as discarded fragments only to spit them back up as a whole family: him and Shyen Zu, Essie and Cade.