The Shepherd's Voice (8 page)

“Why’s that?”

Before answering, Akira sank to the ground, ignoring the dew clinging to the grass.

Gabe followed suit.

“Mother hoped I would become a proper lady.” She drew her knees toward her chest and hugged them with her arms. “She certainly did everything in her power to mold and shape me. But I failed her miserably.”

I disagree.

Akira looked at him as if he’d spoken the words aloud. Her smile was as soft as the morning light, as sweet as the song of the meadowlark.

Sweet. So sweet.

He didn’t belong near her. Brodie Lachlan was right about that.

Akira turned her face toward the sky. “I tried to be what she wanted, but my efforts only frustrated us both. Then I realized I’m supposed to be who God made me to be. The Bible says, ‘Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why didst Thou make me thus?’ Now I’m content to follow His plan for me and not someone else’s.”

Why didst Thou make me thus?

Gabe closed his eyes, swallowing hard as he fought the rising sense of despair.

Why didst Thou make me thus?

Wasn’t that what he’d asked God for years?

“Gabriel …”

He kept his eyes closed.

“Don’t run from the One who loves you most.”

“It isn’t that simple, Miss Macauley.” “You’re mistaken. It’s even more simple than it sounds.” He stood. “I turned my back on God years ago.” She stood too. “But He never turned His back on you. He’s waiting with open arms.”

Gabe saw the childlike trust in her eyes, and it angered him. There was a part of him that wanted to shake her belief at its foundation. There was a part of him that wanted to make her see the evil lurking in his soul.

Instead, he turned on his heel and strode away.

Jane Sebastian pulled a bolt from the shelf, then unrolled a length of the diagonally striped cotton fabric on the shop counter. It was exactly the shade of blue she’d had in mind for a new dress.

“There Talmadge goes in his fancy new Duesenberg.”

“I heard he paid over ten thousand dollars for it.”

“Ten
thousand
dollars? No!”

“Yes. Can you imagine such a thing? And my Henry’s working only two days a week at the mill. That’s the best Talmadge says he can do in these hard times.” She snorted. “Hard times for who, I’d like to know. Not him.”

Jane didn’t have to look to recognize the voices of the two women who stood gossiping near the front window of Ransom Dry Goods. She’d known them both for the better part of the last ten years. Irene Hirsch was the widow of the town’s physician, who’d died the previous year. Dr. Otto Hirsch’s passing had left a hole in the community that wasn’t apt to be filled anytime soon. The other woman—Henry’s wife—was Lilybet Teague.

“Did you know his son’s returned?” Irene asked, her tone of voice indicating the importance of this juicy tidbit.

“No. You don’t say.”

“I do, indeed. He was seen earlier this week at the mill.”

“But I never heard a word about it.”

“Lilybet, have you known me to be wrong about such things? I’m telling you, he was there, and his father threw him out.”

Jane ground her teeth. She had no tolerance for rumor-mongers.

“Wouldn’t you do the same?” In a hushed voice, Lilybet added, “After all, he’s a murderer.”

“That’s not true!” Jane exclaimed, unable to keep silent. She spun around to face the two women, trying hard to tamp her anger, doing her best to remember that a soft answer turned away wrath. “Gabriel didn’t murder his brother. Max’s death was an accident. A tragic accident.”

Irene Hirsch’s cheeks flushed with indignation. “He was found guilty by the jury.”

“He was found guilty by his father,” Jane retorted. “The jury did as they were told.”

Lilybet Teague sputtered something unintelligible, then walked to the door, pulled it open, and left the store. Irene followed right behind.

How Jane wished she could throttle those two troublemakers! They hadn’t a charitable bone in their bodies.

“Don’t let them get under your skin,” Dorothea Baker said into the ensuing silence.

Ashamed of her thoughts, Jane turned to look at the woman who managed the dry-goods store.

Dorothea moved to the opposite side of the counter. “You’ve never changed your mind, have you? About Gabe’s innocence.”

“Never.” She shook her head. “He loved his brother.”

“But he admitted his guilt.”

“Strange how no one remembers what really happened that night.” Jane rolled the fabric back onto the bolt, then returned it to the shelf. “Not even Gabe.”

Heavy-hearted, she left the store, her desire for a new dress forgotten.

Macauley sheep had been following the same trail to summer pastures for many years, although normally this portion of the trek was taken in late May or early June.

Akira helped with the drive for the first couple of hours, loving the legion of sounds and the seeming chaos that accompanied the start of the journey—the tinkling bells on the lead sheep, the doleful cries of lost lambs seeking their mothers, the ewes bleating in reply, the dogs barking at stragglers, and the piercing whistles of the shepherds.

Her grandfather used to say Akira liked all new beginnings. She supposed he’d been right about that.

She also took pleasure in the way Charlie and Mark were proving themselves to be capable shepherds. Mark was adept with the dogs, and Charlie got along well with Brodie, a true blessing given the crusty nature of the Scotsman.

Now if she could only get Brodie to quit fretting over Gabe Talmadge, everything would be just about perfect.

“Ye’re too trusting, Akira,” he grumbled for the umpteenth time.

Riding her horse next to the sheepherder’s wagon, she pretended she couldn’t hear him.

He wasn’t fooled. “Ye heard me, lass.”

She grinned, still not looking at him.

“Ye’re twenty-six years old, Akira, and ye’re acquainted with the things of nature, with the making of new life. Ye ken what I’m sayin’, lass? Ye must know how it is between men and women. Isn’t right for ye to be alone with the likes o’ him. Isn’t safe. He’s a dangerous man.”

She drew back on the reins, stopping her horse. Brodie did likewise.

“You’re wrong about him. He’s not dangerous. Don’t ask me how I know. I simply know.”

“Ye weren’t here when it happened. Ye weren’t here for the trial.”

“No, thank God.”

Brodie shook his head. “Yer grandfather would —”

“He would do precisely what I’m doing,” she interrupted. “He would give the man a chance for a new start. Guilty or not, he wouldn’t hold the past against Gabe.”

The Scotsman—his face flushed and his eyes dark with frustration—looked as if he were about to burst a blood vessel. To save him from such a fate, Akira chose a hasty retreat, waving to Brodie as she rode away.

“See you in a few weeks,” she called over her shoulder.

As the sounds faded into the distance, Akira let her thoughts drift to that morning, to those few minutes when she and Gabe had sat in the grass and talked. Or rather, she’d talked. He’d said very little—as usual.

Lord
,
why are You
,
me
,
and Jane Sebastian the only ones who believe in him? Why only the three of us?

She worried her lower lip between her teeth.

Sometimes I think just looking at him could break my heart.

SIX

Hudson sank deep into the leather-upholstered chair. Smoke from his cigar coiled upward, joining the bluish haze that filled the wood-paneled room of the club. He didn’t speak. He let his frown tell the senator’s man exactly what he thought of the information imparted to him.

Keith Delaney cleared his throat in obvious discomfort. “Senator Fortier hasn’t given up of course.”

“Of course.”

“He’s working hard to make this happen.”

Hudson puffed on his cigar.

“I assure you, Mr. Talmadge, the senator
is
doing everything he can legally do.”

Hudson clenched his teeth to remain silent, but inside he seethed. By heavens! He hadn’t contributed all that money to Quincey Fortier’s election coffers only to be told the man couldn’t help because something wasn’t
legal.

“Well.” Delaney cleared his throat again, then stood. “I look forward to seeing you at the ball, sir.”

Hudson nodded in response, not bothering to rise or speak as the senator’s harbinger of bad news set his hat on his head, turned, and walked away. But once Keith Delaney was gone, Hudson
muttered a string of curses beneath his breath, wishing he could bellow them instead, wanting to give full vent to the rage that stormed inside him. But he wouldn’t. Not here, surrounded by important men of business and industry. He would never be so foolish. He hadn’t built his fortune by careless behavior, no matter what the provocation.

Provocation. He certainly had plenty of
that
! Beginning with Pauline, who had nearly bought out the stores in Boise in one week’s time, and ending with Gabe’s unexpected return to Ransom.

And of all people, it had to be Akira Macauley who took him in. Were the fates mocking him?

He needed to own the Macauley lands if his plans for the valley were to succeed. But she’d refused to sell Dundreggan, no matter the price he offered. For more than two years, she’d stubbornly turned him down. Even his less-than-subtle threats hadn’t swayed her.

Hudson blew smoke rings toward the ceiling, imagining Gabe on that sheep ranch.

Was it possible to make use of this turn of events?
Akira Macauley had taken an interest in Gabe. Whether it was an act of charity or something else didn’t concern him at the moment. What mattered was that Gabe was living there and possibly could glean information that Hudson couldn’t.

Hmm.

Yes, he would definitely have to give this matter more thought.