Short-Straw Bride (31 page)

T
ravis guided Bexar through the muddy terrain left from yesterday's storm, methodically working his way back to the ranch. Jim had been none too happy to see the gate down and had given him an earful about how it didn't make sense to reduce security around the house until things with Mitchell were settled. And though Travis still believed that taking down the gate was what God had called him to do, hearing his own doubts voiced aloud left him uneasy.

I'm trying to trust you, Lord. But I feel like I'm fighting against nature. Common sense tells me to lock down, not open up. To protect those I love with every tool at my disposal.

What if he had misunderstood God's intention? What if his actions today were putting his family in danger?

“Is it too late to lay out a fleece?” Travis quipped, tilting an eye toward heaven. “A little confirmation would sure be appreciated.”

The more he thought about that fleece, though, the more he remembered what the Lord had demanded of the man who'd laid it out. He'd demanded trust beyond what common sense dictated. God whittled Gideon's army from three thousand men to three hundred, then sent him into battle against an enemy whose troops were too vast to be counted. Gideon purposely made himself vulnerable, ignored his instincts, and put the welfare of his people into the hands of another. And the Lord rewarded him by granting him victory.

Travis squinted into the distance, sighting in on the trail of woodsmoke that marked the location of the ranch house. Was God calling him to do the same?

Bexar ambled into a clearing as Travis pondered. Then from out of the quiet, two muted cracks—gunfire—set both man and horse on alert.

Meri!

Travis kicked Bexar into a run. The animal leapt to his command, his hooves eating up the damp earth as they raced forward. The frantic pace made them reckless, but Travis drove on, his mind focused on only one thing—getting to his wife.

I trusted her to you!
his soul cried as trees blurred past.

Shoring up his faith, he held on to the knowledge that she had to be relatively safe in order to fire the signal shots. But even that did little to calm the anxiety raging within. He needed to see her, touch her. Only then would he be able to breathe.

The barn came into view. Travis slowed Bexar with a touch of the reins and yanked his rifle free of the scabbard. His gaze scoured the trees, searching for the threat. Meredith didn't spook easily. She wouldn't have fired those shots without reason.

When he found nothing suspicious behind the barn, he used his knees to steer Bexar into the main yard. That's when he spotted her. Sitting on the porch rocker, the shotgun near but not gripped across her lap, Sadie lying at her feet. She looked safe. Beautiful.

Something wound tight inside him uncoiled a bit.

He could tell the moment she noticed him. She pushed slowly to her feet, as if needing to verify his identity before taking any deliberate action. Once she did, she scrambled down the steps, picked up her skirts, and ran toward him, her limp exacerbated by her hurry.

Travis couldn't yet see her face clearly, but there was a desperation to her movement that twisted his gut. She wasn't just relieved to see him. Something was wrong. Urging Bexar forward, he crossed half the yard in the time it took her to get to the corral. Once he was close enough, he slid from the horse's back and rushed to meet her.

His hands gripped her arms when he reached her, and his gaze roved over her, searching for proof that she was indeed unharmed. “What happened, Meri? Are you all right?”

“It's not me, Travis.” Meredith bent her arms and grabbed hold of his elbows, her fingers pressing through the thickness of his coat. “It's Cassie.”

He looked over at the house. “Your cousin's here? Jim said he left her in town.”

“She's not here. She's at the old homestead. About to marry Roy Mitchell.”

His attention snapped back to her face. “What?” Jim was going to be livid. “I thought your uncle gave his word not to force the union.”

“Aunt Noreen must've interfered somehow. She hates to be thwarted, and in her mind, Cassie's marriage to Roy is the best way to preserve their livelihood.” Meredith was rambling so fast, Travis struggled to keep pace. “She must've warned Roy of Uncle Everett's change of heart, not realizing what measures he would take to ensure he didn't lose the land he'd been promised.”

Meri's vivid eyes locked with his. “I think he kidnapped her, Travis. It's the only thing that makes any sense. Mr. Wheeler tried to make it sound like everything was amicable. But I know Cassie, and she'd never—”

“Wait a minute.” Travis's eyes narrowed. “Wheeler was here?” That was the man who'd tried to convince him to sell out, and no doubt one of the riders responsible for setting fire to his barn. He'd been here? Talking to Meri?

She nodded. “Roy sent him to deliver the invitation.”

“Did he touch you?” Travis shoved the words past clenched teeth. If that snake had so much as laid a finger on her . . .

“He didn't even get off his horse.” A gleam shone in Meredith's eyes. “Between Sadie's growls and my shotgun, we managed to welcome him in true Archer style.”

Travis grinned. Here he'd torn down gates and disposed of warning signs—things his wife had encouraged him to do—and now she was the one welcoming strangers at gunpoint.

Sadie barked, and for the first time, Travis noticed the dog standing a pace behind Meri. He reached down and stroked her behind her ears. “Sounds like my girls had things well in hand.” The old bird dog barked again in appreciation of his approval.

When he straightened, Meredith's eyes were scanning the woods beyond the barn. “Do you think the others heard the shots? Jim will want to know about Cassie. We'll need to strategize, and we don't have much time.”

“Don't worry. They'll come barrelin' out of those trees any minute.” Especially Jim. The man was already edgier than a new razor. “But for now, I think you better start at the beginning and tell me exactly what Wheeler said.”

“There isn't that much to tell.” Meredith shivered slightly and rubbed her arms. Her shawl must have slipped off when she left the porch. Funny how she hadn't noticed the cold until that moment.

Travis shrugged out of his work coat and settled the heavy garment on her shoulders. Tenderness softened his face for a moment as he fidgeted with the collar. But when he finished, the hard lines returned. “What did he say?”

“He said that Roy and Cassie were on their way to my father's old property along with my aunt and uncle and a handful of guests. Knowing how close Cassie and I are, Roy asked Wheeler to ride ahead and extend a personal invitation to us. For Cassandra's sake, he asked that we set aside any hard feelings over previous misunderstandings and attend the wedding. It's supposed to be in the cabin at five o'clock tonight.”

Travis's eyes widened. “Tonight? That can't be more than a couple hours from now.”

“I found that pretty suspicious, too.” Meredith pushed her arms through the sleeves of her husband's coat and crossed them over her belly. “I told Mr. Wheeler that when I saw Cassie yesterday morning, she'd had no intention of wedding Mr. Mitchell. He just smiled and said she'd changed her mind.”

Meredith searched Travis's face for some clue as to what he was thinking, but his stoic mask gave nothing away. She'd expected outrage or a promise to mount a rescue effort or something. Yet all he did was scowl and stare into the empty space between her and the corral.

“We
are
going to help her, right?” Meredith tried to claim Travis's gaze by searching out his eyes. “I know Cass. She'd never willingly marry that man. Roy must be threatening or manipulating her somehow.”

“Of course he's manipulating,” Travis growled. “And not only your cousin. He's attempting to manipulate me, as well. Which is why we can't rush off without thinking things through.”

Travis twisted his neck back toward the woods. Only then did Meredith hear the sound of riders coming in.

“Mitchell needs both our properties to solidify things with his investors,” Travis said, turning back to her. “If we play into his hand, we risk giving him exactly what he wants. We need time to figure out what game he's playing before we can hope to beat him at it.”

“But—”

“We'll talk about it more when the boys get here.”

Travis strode away from her to signal his brothers, and Meredith couldn't help but feel a little abandoned. Her mind insisted that anticipating Roy's machinations was the wise course, but her heart wanted a take-charge hero ready to ride to the rescue.

Forty-five minutes later, all the Archers stood in the center of the barn, still arguing over the best plan of action.

“What if you're wrong, Travis? I won't take that risk.” Jim refused to back down, and Meredith, for one, was glad.

“We don't even know for sure that Mitchell has her,” Travis insisted. “More likely it's a ploy to lure us away and leave the ranch open to attack. Only this time, they'll raze everything, not just the barn. It's the only hope he has of driving us off the land. Either that or he has an army of men waiting to ambush us at the cabin. Dead men can't protest an illegal sale, after all.”

Crockett pushed away from the post he'd been slouching against. “You did say Cassie was fine when you left her this morning. Right, Jim? Wheeler arrived barely an hour after you did. Mitchell would've had to abduct Cassie and her family, find a minister willing to perform a forced ceremony, and set out for Meredith's cabin in that same time frame. I find it hard to believe that he could pull that off in under an hour with no advance warning.”

“He could if he had help.” All eyes turned to Meredith. “You forget that Jim saw my aunt leaving the house before he left. She wants this union. She believes it's her family's financial salvation. In her eyes, Roy Mitchell is a saint. I imagine she went directly to his office this morning and probably even aided the man in kidnapping her daughter.”

Jim stalked up to Travis and growled in his ear. “If Mitchell had Meredith, you'd go after her. You know you would.”

She could tell by the way the two eyed each other in challenge, that Jim's statement hadn't been intended for her ears, but she couldn't stop herself from hoping it would be persuasive. Cassie was in peril. It was time to send in the cavalry.

Jim finally stepped away and let Travis mull over all that'd been said. The quiet ate away at Meredith, but she held her tongue, praying that the Lord would give her husband the wisdom necessary to make the right decision.

“Before Pa died, he made me swear to protect our family and our land. I won't leave the ranch unguarded or let the three of you walk into an ambush without proof that Cassie is truly in danger.”

Jim made to protest, but Travis stopped him with a look. And in that moment, something shriveled inside Meredith. The land always came first with Travis. The land and his brothers.

“However,” Travis continued, “I agree that we cannot risk Cassie's life, either.”

Meredith inhaled a shaky breath.
Please, Travis. Please let us help her.

“Therefore, I think the best course of action is to let Jim scout out the cabin. The rest of us will stay here in case Mitchell attacks. One man will be harder to spot, but you'll also have no one to watch your back.”

Jim nodded, obviously eager to take on the task despite the risk.

“Once Jim determines if Cassandra is in fact at the cabin, he'll return and alert us to the situation—how many men Mitchell has, where they're holding her, and so forth. If she's there, we'll go after her. If not, we'll stay here and elude Mitchell's trap.”

It wasn't exactly the cavalry charge she'd been hoping for, but at least it left the door open for a later one.