Lady Outlaw (31 page)

“How?”

“I detailed the charges against him and said if he didn’t leave town right then, that I’d turn him over to the law. I also let him know I didn’t ever want to hear his name associated with stage robbing again.” Caleb let out the breath he’d been holding. “I knew it was the right thing to do, but I also hoped it would prevent you from dealing with anymore stage thieves yourself or winding up in jail, if Nathan implicated you.”

Jennie squeezed his hand. When he looked at her, she reached up to touch his cheek. “Thank you. For telling me and for being merciful to Nathan. No wonder he wasn’t around this morning when I went to the boardinghouse to tell him not to help me.” She snuggled back under Caleb’s arm.

Relieved to have this last confession off his chest, he stroked her hair, liking the softness slipping through his fingers.

Jennie yawned. “Aren’t you sleepy?”

“Not after a day like this one.” He smiled down at her. “How do Will and Grandma Jones feel about you selling the ranch?”

“I haven’t told them yet. I figured they’ve heard an earful already today. They knew we were going to lose the ranch anyway.” She shut her eyes. “I’ll tell them tomorrow. Along with the news that we’re engaged. Maybe that will make things easier.”

“I already told Will.”

“What did he say about it?”

“His exact words were ‘about time.’”

Jennie released a soft laugh. “I imagine Grandma Jones will say something similar. Should I tell them we’ll be heading north with you after the sale of the ranch?”

Caleb pulled her closer to his side. “I’m not going anywhere, Jennie, not without you.”

“What will your parents say when you show up with three extra mouths to feed?”

“They’ll love you, just like I do.”

She cracked open her eyes, tenderness shining in their brown depths. “When do you think we should marry?”

“Yesterday,” he said, grinning. “But since that didn’t work out, how about in a month?”

“Sounds good, cowboy,” she murmured as she shut her eyes again.

Caleb pressed a kiss to her forehead, soliciting a murmur of contentment from Jennie. He understood the feeling. Despite the events of the day, he felt joy and hope for the future. Soon he’d be returning home, with more than he could’ve hoped for when he’d left three years before.

Another lump formed in his throat as he gazed down at his sleeping bride-to-be.
That’s the second time I’ve almost cried in less than an hour.
To cover his own embarrassment, he let his mind fill with plans.

Tomorrow he’d write his parents and tell them about Jennie and her family. He was glad she would be living near them during his absences with his freight business. Eventually he could have others do the traveling for him, but to begin, he would have to make the treks southward himself. The thought of being away from Jennie so much brought a tangible ache.

Would she adapt to life up north without her ranch? Caleb couldn’t picture her wearing a dress and apron every day like his mother or sisters. She needed her men’s breeches and old hat, a rope in one hand.

He stared down at her sleeping form again, her beautiful features soft and relaxed. Out of love for him, Jennie would become a freighter’s wife, with some land to farm to get them by. But he knew instinctively how much she’d miss this place. The ranch had been her lifeblood.

Tears formed in his eyes, and Caleb let them leak out as he tightened his arm around her shoulders. He couldn’t give Jennie back her ranch, but he had an idea of what he could do to keep that vibrant light in her eyes.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Four weeks later

J
ennie woke to semidarkness outside her window. Sitting up in bed, she stretched and wondered what her grandmother was making for breakfast. Then she remembered. She wasn’t at the ranch; she and Will and Grandma Jones were now living with Caleb’s family. And today she would become Mrs. Caleb Johnson.

The one day I was told I should sleep in,
she thought, shaking her head with amusement,
and I’m up at dawn as usual.

Hugging her knees to her chest, Jennie smiled as a tremor of excitement ran up her spine. Her life had changed so much in the past four weeks that her memories of the ranch felt as hazy as if months had gone by instead of days.

Of course she’d been too busy to dwell for long on saying goodbye to her home. Gunner had come with the money as promised, and Jennie managed to keep her tears in check as she relinquished the key to the house. By then, she’d learned of the man’s daring visit to warn Caleb about Mr. King’s plot. In gratitude, she told him to take two of her best heifers to start his own herd before she sold the rest.

The trip northward had been long, but thankfully, uneventful. The morning after they stopped in Fillmore—the very day her loan was due—Jennie had insisted on going inside the bank alone to present her money to Mr. Dixon. The man’s balding head and clean-shaven face had paled as he’d listened to Jennie explain about the robberies and the sale of her ranch.

“There’s enough money here to absolve my full debt and repay what was stolen.” She slid the overstuffed bag of money across the tidy desk. “I have a note here outlining the dates of the various robberies and amounts. I also have a letter from the sheriff in Beaver, requesting your help in seeing that this money is returned to its rightful owners.” She handed him both papers. “The sheriff and I agreed this would be a suitable way to redeem yourself, Mr. Dixon, for becoming involved with Mr. King.”

Mr. Dixon wiped away the sweat glistening on his head with a handkerchief, his face turning from white to red. “I...uh...don’t know what to say, Miss Jones. Other than I appreciate your willingness to work with me.” He swallowed, and Jennie couldn’t help a smile.

“It’s all right, Mr. Dixon.” She rose and tugged her hat more securely on her head. She hadn’t bothered to change out of her breeches. “As someone recently informed me, we all have our secrets.”

The bank president was still sputtering for a response as Jennie left the bank, chin held high with real victory this time.

They’d pulled into the Salt Lake Valley a week later, sore and tired. Jennie, Will and Grandma Jones were immediately taken in by the Johnson family with as much warmth and kindness as if they’d known each other for years.

They all attended church together that first Sunday in the valley, with Jennie clutching tightly to Caleb’s hand. After a while she relaxed and even spoke with a few of the neighbors when the services ended. She still feared being accepted into the church community, but she wouldn’t quit going. She knew the price she and her family had paid during their years of absence, and she was determined never to repeat that mistake again. She needed God, and as Caleb kept reminding her, He needed her, too.

A knock on the door scattered Jennie’s thoughts. “Come in.” She pulled the covers up to her chin, though no one could see much of her in the unlit room.

Caleb stuck his head around the door, a lamp in his hand. “I thought you might be up.”

Jennie pretended to scowl at him. “Isn’t it bad luck to see the bride before the wedding?”

He lifted the lamp and scrutinized her. “I think that only applies to seeing your wedding dress. How fast can you get ready?”

She blinked at him. The most important day of their lives and he wanted her to rush? “I didn’t think we had to go for another couple hours. I still need to iron my new dress, and your sisters are coming over to do my hair...” She let her voice fade out when he shook his head.

“No. I meant how quickly can you dress for an outing?”

“An outing? Where are we going?”

He wouldn’t answer her question, and Jennie imagined the playful glint in his eyes. “Ma put together some breakfast for us to take along. Get dressed, and I’ll go hitch up the wagon.”

“All right. Give me five minutes.”

He set the lamp on the bureau and shut the door behind him. Throwing off the covers, Jennie jumped out of bed. She quickly scrubbed her face with the ice-cold water in the washbasin, put on one of her old dresses and pulled a brush through her hair. Though it was now June, the mornings could be cool, so she threw a shawl over her shoulders and blew out the lamp. The house stood quiet around her as she hurried down the stairs.

As she made her way down the hall, she heard Caleb and his mother, Rachel, in conversation. She didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but their words floated easily through the quiet house.

“You think she’ll like it?” Rachel asked.
What could she mean?
Jennie wondered, pausing just outside the door in hopes of unearthing the secret behind Caleb’s outing.

“I know she will.”

Jennie heard the rustle of a skirt. “I’m so proud of you, Caleb. Your decisions these last two months have made us so happy. We worried about you when you left here three years ago. We still loved you then and understood your grief, but it pleases me so much to see you finally at peace.”

“You really are proud?” Jennie heard the hope and relief in Caleb’s voice.

“Very much so. Jennie is so good for you and I think you’ll be good for her.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” Footsteps headed for the back door. “I’m gonna hitch up the wagon.”

Jennie remained where she stood a moment more, resisting the urge to run after him and kiss him soundly in front of his mother. The knowledge that she could be a help to him as he had so many times to her made her heart nearly burst with love.

She smoothed the front of her dress and stepped into the kitchen. Warm air wrapped itself around her.

Rachel glanced up and smiled before returning to her task of kneading dough in the light of another lamp. “Your breakfast is in that basket by the door.”

Jennie thanked her as she crossed the room and picked up the basket. With her hand on the doorknob, she turned back to Rachel. “Is this improper, an outing with the bride before the wedding?”

The older woman laughed, reminding Jennie so much of Caleb. “For other grooms perhaps, but not for my Caleb.”

Jennie slipped out the door. She waited as Caleb hooked up the team of horses to the wagon. When he finished, he helped her onto the seat and placed a blanket over her lap. He stowed the breakfast basket beneath their seat.

“Ready?” he asked.

“I suppose,” she said with a laugh.

They drove away from the rising sun, toward the dark sky in the west. Jennie could see a few stars still twinkling above them. Caleb put his arm around her, and she snuggled into his warmth, completely content. They spoke quietly of their plans for the day, and Jennie successfully thwarted Caleb’s attempts to wiggle information out of her about her dress or how she planned to do her hair.

“I have to maintain some surprise,” she teased.

Before long, the sky began to lighten, and soon the chain of western mountains stood out more clearly. Fewer farms occupied this side of the valley.

“Where are we going?”

“This is it,” Caleb said, pulling on the reins. “We’re here.”

Jennie glanced more closely at the landscape. Sagebrush and wild grass swayed in the breeze, and from a stand of nearby trees, some birds chirped their morning calls. “What is this place?”

Instead of answering, Caleb jumped to the ground and hurried around the wagon to help her down. He kept her hand in his and led her a few yards from the horses. “This,” he said, sweeping his arm in an arc in front of them, “will be our new home.”

“Oh, Caleb, it’s perfect.”
This is where we will live and raise our family.
She went up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek.

“I bought it two days ago, but I wanted you to see it before the wedding.”

Jennie smiled, the love she felt for him washing over her anew. “We’ll still need to purchase a place in town for your freighting office.”

Caleb led her around, pointing in different directions as they walked. “Here is where I thought we’d build the house, so we’d have a nice view of the mountains to the east and a place for a vegetable garden.”

Jennie found herself growing more excited as he voiced his plans.

“Over there, we can build the barn and an icehouse one day.” Caleb drew her farther away from the wagon. “The property goes all the way to the foothills, so we can plant a few crops and then the rest of the land will be for the cattle.”

She’d been nodding as he inventoried the possibilities, but when she heard him say “cattle,” she stopped bobbing her head. “We won’t need so much space for a milk cow or two.”

“I didn’t say they’d be milk cows.”

“But what kind—”

“I figure if we’re going to have a ranch we better have a lot of range for our cattle.”

“You mean...” She grasped his arm, afraid she hadn’t heard him right. “You mean, you’re not going to be a freighter? We’re going to have a ranch instead?”

At his nod, a lump formed in Jennie’s throat, making any more words impossible. Caleb pulled her into his embrace, and she rested her head against his shirt.

“What is it they say?” he whispered into her ear. “You can take the woman from the ranch, but you can’t take the ranch from the woman?”