Come the Spring (26 page)

“You could still have children. How old are you?”

It was a bold question, but Josey didn't seem to mind. “I'm too old to start having babies. Why, I'm going to be forty-seven next month. It seems kind of odd for you to be asking me such a question.”

“It was rude,” Jessica said. “And I apologize if I seem a bit abrupt. It's just that there's so little time to decide, and I…”

She couldn't go on. She'd start crying if she tried to explain. She took several deep breaths in an effort to control her emotions before she started questioning Josey once again.

Josey was watching her closely. She noticed how pale Jessica was and how sad her eyes looked. She wanted to ask her if she was in trouble and if so, if there was anything that she and Tom could do to help, but Jessica spoke before she could get the words out.

“Do you consider yourself patient?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Are you patient?”

“Tom seems to think I am,” she answered.

“What do you do when you get angry?”

Josey leaned back in her chair. She was thoroughly perplexed by her guest's peculiar questions.

“I clean.”

“I'm sorry?” Jessica asked, not understanding.

“I clean,” Josey repeated. “When I get into a lather about something or other, I scrub my floors and wash my walls and do whatever else I need to do until I've gotten rid of my anger. Then I talk it out with Tom. Are you going to tell me why you're asking me these questions?”

Tears sprang into Jessica's eyes. “Yes, I'll explain just as soon as Cole finishes talking to your husband. Do you keep lye under your counter?”

“Do I what?”

“Keep lye under your counter.”

“Good heavens, no,” Josey answered. “Like I told you before, I'm used to watching my nieces and nephews. A couple of them are about your baby's age. They can walk and get into mischief, but they don't have a lick of sense yet. Lye could kill them, so I keep
it up where they can't get to it. You're in trouble, aren't you, Jessica?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I'm sorry I've been so … suspicious, but I needed to know.”

“Know what?” Josey asked.

“Cole will explain,” she replied. “But I promise I won't hound you with any more questions.”

Josey reached over to pat Jessica's hand. “You're with a good, strong man to help you through this trouble.”

“Cole's a marshal and he's part of my problem. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be on my way to Texas.”

Josey's frown deepened. “I guess I'm just gonna have to wait until Tom tells me what's going on, then. That baby's been trying to get to his cookie for a good five minutes now,” she added, deliberately changing the subject because Jessica looked on the verge of tears again. “Why don't you lessen your grip on him and let him have one. Can he drink out of a glass yet?”

Jessica turned her attention to her son. She moved the glass toward him and told him to show Josey how he could manage a glass. She was bragging about his ability when he spilled the milk.

Josey chuckled. “It's usually my Tom who does that,” she commented. She mopped up the milk with a dishcloth and then held Jessica's glass while Caleb took a drink.

Caleb was finally ready to get down and explore the kitchen. Jessica followed him and held the drawers closed so he couldn't empty them.

“Sit back down and let him play,” Josey suggested.

“He'll destroy your kitchen,” she warned. “Caleb's a very curious child.”

Josey opened the doors under the counters. “My nieces and nephews like to play with my pots and pans. That's the way,” she said when Caleb squatted down and reached for one of the wooden spoons.

Jessica sat down next to Josey once again, and while
they got to know one another, Caleb made a fine mess banging on the pots and pans. Within ten minutes he had warmed up to Josey enough to let her pick him up and kiss him.

Cole and Tom came back into the kitchen then, and Cole gave Jessica a quick nod.

“Josey, you and I are going to be keeping this little boy a spell,” Tom announced.

Josey patted the baby and looked at Jessica. “No wonder you were asking those questions. I'll be proud to watch him for you,” she added. “And Tom and I won't let anything happen to him.”

“Jessica's a witness, and she's got to go to Texas to testify,” Tom said. “Cole doesn't think it's a good idea to take the baby with them.”

“When do you think you'll be back?” Josey asked Cole.

“I don't know,” he answered. “Maybe two weeks … or longer.”

“He won't remember me.”

Everyone turned to Jessica.

“Of course he'll remember you,” Josey said. “We won't let him forget.”

Tom suggested Jessica and Cole spend the night with them so that the adjustment for Caleb would be easier on him. Jessica let Josey bathe Caleb but hovered over her like a mother hen. Josey did know her way around babies. She filled a basin in the sink and let Caleb splash water everywhere while she lathered him up.

“You're very good with him,” Jessica told her.

She followed Josey up the stairs to the guest room. Caleb, wrapped in a thick towel, was peeking at his mother over Josey's shoulder.

“He always sleeps with a rag doll. It's in his valise,” Jessica said. “Oh, and he hates carrots. He'll spit them out if you try to force them on him.”

“I wouldn't do that,” Josey said. “I hate carrots too.
I know you're gonna worry, no matter what assurances I give you, but I promise you I'm gonna love this boy like he was my own. Why don't you go on downstairs for a bit and let Caleb get used to me. I'll call out if I need help.”

“Yes, that's a good idea,” Jessica said. It was also a test. Putting Caleb to bed required stamina and patience. Every once in a while, if he was overly tired, Caleb would throw a tantrum. The baby was all wound up now, and that was a sure indication that trouble was coming. Jessica left the valise on the bed and closed the door behind her.

When she came downstairs, she found Cole in the living room standing by the window, looking out. She glared at him before turning her back on him.

“What was that all about?”

She began to pace. “This is all your fault,” she whispered. “Can't you see that this is breaking my heart?”

He started toward her, but she put her hand out to keep him at bay. “I can't leave him. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. He'll be lost without me, and he'll be afraid and he'll be miserable and …”

As if to mock her, Caleb's peal of laughter echoed down the stairs. Cole shook his head. “He sure doesn't sound miserable.”

“I'm not going to go through with this. My mind's made up,” she whispered.

She turned to go back up the stairs, but Cole grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her up against him.

“Tom?” he called out. “Jessica and I are going for a walk.”

The way he was squeezing her hand told her not to argue. She let him drag her out the back door and into the yard. He didn't stop pulling her along until he reached a cluster of trees that shielded them from the street and gave them privacy.

“Now you listen to me—” he began.

She cut him off. “Don't you dare take that tone of voice with me. I will not leave my baby with strangers. I'm sorry, Cole, but that's the way it's going to be.”

She tried to jerk her hand away, but he tightened his hold and pulled her close until she was pressed against his chest. His face was inches away from hers. He was going to give her a hard lecture because she was being so stubborn, but then he saw her tears and relented. Now wasn't the time to lecture.

“I know how hard this is…”

“No, you don't know. You aren't a mother.”

“No, I'm not,” he agreed. “You're going to have to be sensible. I know Tom Norton, and I'm telling you he's trustworthy. When Luke MacFarland and his wife were killed, Tom and Josey wanted to raise their children.”

“Why didn't they?”

“Luke's relatives wouldn't let them. They farmed the children out among them.”

“They separated brothers?” she whispered.

“Yes, but Tom tried to keep them all together. I'm telling you he's a good man. So is his wife. Josey took care of me when I got sick. I was a stranger to her, but she still nursed me back to health. The Nortons aren't going to let anything bad happen to your baby. They'll love him, Jessie, and we can't take Caleb with us. You know that, don't you?”

“I'm not going to go to Texas.”

“Must you be so stubborn about this? It's out of your hands. You have to go, and Caleb has to stay.”

“I hate this,” she cried out.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. “I know you do.”

“I'm beginning to hate you too, Cole Clayborne. This is all your fault.”

“All right. It's all my fault,” he whispered. His chin dropped down on top of her head, and he continued
to hold her and stroke her back for several minutes until she had calmed down. He couldn't help but notice how good she felt in his arms.

She couldn't stop thinking about the danger Caleb had been in when that monster had killed her guard. Her son could have been killed too.

The Nortons would keep him safe. In her heart she knew that to be true. She suddenly pulled away from Cole. “None of this is your fault. You're only doing your job. You're right too. Caleb should stay out of harm's way.”

She straightened her shoulders, turned around, and walked back inside.

Josey was waiting at the kitchen table. She wanted to tell Jessica that Caleb had gone right to sleep, but when she saw the heartache on the poor mother's face, she got up and went to her. “I'm going to take good care of your boy. I promise you, Jessica. Tom and I will treat him like he was our own son.”

“I want to thank you for agreeing to watch him, and I know I don't have the right to ask…”

“You can ask anything you want to ask. If I can do it, I will.”

“If I don't come back…”

“Don't talk like that,” Josey interrupted.

“You're coming back,” Cole said from behind. Jessica ignored both protests. “If I don't come back, Josey, will you raise my son?”

Josey looked over Jessica's head at Cole. He gave a quick nod. “Yes, Tom and I will raise him. You've got my word.”

“Thank you,” Jessica said, her voice flat. “I would also like you to change his name legally so that he won't feel like an outsider. I want him to belong to a family.”

“Jessica, for God's sake, stop talking like that. Nothing's going to happen to you.”

“I have to make arrangements just in case. I owe it to Caleb.”

Josey understood. “We'll make it legal,” she promised. “I give you my word.”

Jessica grabbed hold of her hand. “One last promise, Josey, and I'll be able to go. Please, don't ever leave him.”

Twenty-Six
 

Daniel was torn between responsibilities. His primary obligation was to escort Grace to Texas, and he was doing exactly that, but he also wanted to head over to the small town of Clarkston, where the latest robbery had occurred, to look for evidence that might help him in his investigation.

He couldn't send Cooper to the bank in his place, as he was with Rebecca, making certain she got to Texas alive and unharmed. The two of them had left for the depot an hour ago, but not before Cooper had dispatched his two young and inexperienced deputies to Clarkston to help the sheriff there. Rebecca had insisted on sending a telegram to the hotel in Salt Lake City to cancel the reservation she'd made the day before and to alert her friends that her plans had been changed, and as soon as she came out of the telegraph office, she was put in a coach with Cooper and sent on her way.

Cooper had suggested that he and Rebecca wait until Grace could travel so that he could take both
women with him and Daniel could go to Clarkston, but Daniel refused. Each of the women believed herself to be the only one claiming to have witnessed the robbery, and he was determined to keep all three of them separated on the trip to Red Arrow because he didn't want them making any more joint plans. Although he personally believed that Rebecca was the real witness—she had given descriptions and details to prove she had been there—he would let the judge in Blackwater decide for himself which one of the three was telling the truth.

He hadn't seen Cole before he left town with Jessica and Caleb. They had taken off an hour or so after the gunman had tried to kill her. Daniel still didn't know the name of the dead man, but he was certain he was one of the Blackwater gang. Past reports told him that there were seven men in the gang. One was in jail in Blackwater, another was dead now, thanks to Cole's expertise, and five were still out there somewhere … waiting for an opportunity, Daniel believed, to silence all three women.