Texas Brides Collection (74 page)

“Actually, I’m grateful for how things turned out.” Lydia looked past him to where Caleb stood. When she smiled, his heart nearly turned over. “At least I think I am. Caleb was in the middle of an important question earlier, and he never did finish asking it.”

“Reverend Bertrand, I’d like to do this right and proper. Would you do me the honor of allowing me to marry up with your daughter? I’ll see she never wants for a thing as long as I draw a breath.”

“Is this what you want, daughter?”

When Lydia nodded, Caleb dropped to his knee again. “Will you marry me, Lydia Bertrand, and not in June but as soon as your papa’s willing to perform the ceremony?”

Lydia looked down at the man who’d stolen her heart and smiled. Tears began to fall, and she didn’t care who saw them.

“I’d be honored to become your wife.”

Caleb rose to embrace her, then kissed her quickly before shaking hands with her father. Only one thing kept the moment from being perfect.

“Papa, where’s Mama?”

Her father smiled. “She’s out in the coach. She was afraid to come in until I checked things out. For some reason she thought you might be a bit miffed at her. It was her idea we make this trip.”

“It was?” A thought occurred to her. “Papa, were you offered the position in New York?”

He nodded. “I was, but I turned it down.”

“You did?”

Papa smiled. “I had a better offer, but I’ll let your mother tell you about it.”

He stepped out and returned with Mama, who cried and professed love and apologies all in the same breath. “There’s nothing to forgive, Mama,” Lydia said. “Meet Caleb Wilson, the man I intend to marry.”

Her handsome husband-to-be charmed Mama in no time flat. She knew Mama approved when she looked over toward Lydia and nodded.

Mrs. Sykes called from the kitchen that coffee and a hot meal awaited the travelers. The portly former sheriff headed off, but Mama and Papa lingered behind.

“So what’s this about a new assignment?” Lydia asked.

Mama smiled. “Yes, your father has taken a prestigious assignment with an up-and-coming church. I’m so very proud. He will be the first pastor to preach in their new building.”

Lydia turned to her father. “Where is it?”

“Right here in Dime Box, dear. Mr. Thompson was very kind to allow me to break the news. You see, Lydia, I’ve been plotting this ever since I returned from New York. Rather, your mother has been. Isn’t that right, dear?”

Mama kissed Papa, then nodded.

Caleb shook Papa’s hand. “Welcome to Dime Box, sir.” He gathered Lydia into an embrace, then kissed the top of her head. “I know from experience that when you’re where the Lord wants you to be, there’s not a better feeling.”

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows
,
is God in his holy dwelling
.
P
SALM
68:5
NIV

Denmark, Texas—Summer 1882

A
nother round for the boys, Pearl.” Balancing his chair on its back legs, a sober Benjamin Wilson kept his facial expression unreadable and studied the playing cards he held.

“I already knew what you were thinking, darlin’.” With an oval-shaped fingernail, Pearl tapped the half-empty bottle. She batted her eyelashes and swayed her hips in Benjamin’s direction, motions that always left him wishing he could be alone with her instead of sitting at a card table surrounded by cowpokes, whiskey, and tobacco smoke.

Benjamin winked at her. Though Pearl said she loved him, she spurned his advances beyond an occasional kiss. But at the moment, Pearl winked back at him as she tipped the bottle toward the dry glass of a young self-proclaimed cattle rustler, a man they knew only by the name of Owen.

“No more for me.” Owen looked up at Pearl and placed his flat hand over the top of his glass. “Or cards, either. I’ll hold ’em.” He pulled on his mustache.

“Are you sure you don’t want another round, Owen?” Pearl tilted the bottle, hovering it over the empty glass. “There’s plenty.”

Benjamin didn’t take his gaze off the cards. “Plenty” was a code word. His hand was better than Owen’s. With seventeen dollars on the table, Benjamin didn’t want to lose this round. Pearl lived up to her name, all right. She was a jewel.

Another habitual card player, Cyrus, threw his cards on the table. “I’m out.”

Benjamin held back a smile.
If I can just hold on, I’ll get a good take
.

He caught Sadie studying him from her perch on a settee near the front door. No doubt her silent observations went something along the lines of how foolish his companions were to fall for his tricks—again. Blue-eyed and baby-faced, with dark blond stubble that matched longish blond hair, Benjamin knew his innocent-looking demeanor misled many players into thinking they could beat him at the card games he had long since mastered.

Pearl’s coded talk interrupted his musings. “There’s plenty more here for you, too, W.C.”

With a nod, W.C., a man whose wealth derived itself from suspicious origins, accepted the drink. “I’ll raise you.” He tossed some coins in the pot.

Since W.C.’s hand also lacked the cards to win, Benjamin kept the game going. “I’ll see you and raise you.”

A look from Pearl told him he’d done the right thing—according to the rules of a cheating gambler. But in the world beyond Sadie’s, Benjamin was doing wrong, according to what they said at church. That’s why he seldom attended worship.

If the preacher had his way, he’d take away whiskey, cards, and tobacco and even shut down Sadie’s business. While whiskey and tobacco didn’t impress Benjamin, he realized those threats didn’t touch his penchant for cheating. But he let the boys win once in a while so they had their fun. Just often enough so the local gamblers and out-of-towners passing through wouldn’t catch on to Benjamin’s guile. He knew he should feel guilty, but he couldn’t. He’d been cheated in life when his brothers dumped him off at Sadie’s at the age of six. Why shouldn’t he be rewarded now?

Benjamin had begged to go along with his older outlaw brothers, but they would have none of it. The last remembrance he harbored was watching them ride out of town. Only Reuben looked back at him. Having been thrust unceremoniously into manhood, he never whimpered or complained after that, but the hole his brothers left in his heart had never healed. He tried to fix the hurt by gambling, but no amount of money soothed his wounds.

At least on this night he’d get a temporary lift from winning. According to Pearl’s signals, Benjamin had the best hand at the table. He held out until the call, showed his hand, and watched as his gaming companions threw down their cards in defeat, snorting and frowning.

“I’m gonna be in a right nice fix with my wife tonight. That was her egg money.” Luke, a young farmer with a wild streak, rose from his seat.

Benjamin resisted the urge to sympathize. No one had forced Luke to join the game. Every man who played knew the chances of losing were greater than those of winning. As for Luke, well, he’d spent over three quarters of his wife’s egg money on whiskey before he even sat down at the table.

“You know,” W.C. said with a menacing tone that gave Benjamin pause, “you seem to have a powerful lot of good luck at cards.”

“His luck will run out soon. I’ll be here next week to win my money back.” Wagging his finger, Owen seemed more cheerful, his mood no doubt brought on by one shot too many of libations.

“Sure, we’ll play next week. I’m not that hard to find.” Benjamin looked around, but he didn’t see Pearl. Wisely, she had disappeared from view. He smiled to himself. Pearl wasn’t that hard to find, either.

Pearl drew two silk frocks from the narrow oak wardrobe occupying the small room she had called home for the past year. Colorful dresses, fashioned to flatter, were part of the allure that first brought her to Denmark, Texas. But fancy clothes couldn’t compensate for disappointment. Life at Sadie’s hadn’t been glamorous or exciting, as she imagined when she first left Pa’s ranch in a misguided attempt to earn easy money. Why she had listened to grand promises from the loose girls back home, she never knew. Their advice had proven dismally wrong.

Pearl should have known earning money was never easy, but back then she wanted to try. Pa had died and, with him, Ma’s dreams of making the ranch go. Most of the livestock were sold off, and only the garden crop, one cow, two pigs, and some chickens remained. Pearl’s fantasies were grander. She wanted to make the ranch a going concern. Not only that, but she dreamed of sending money to her favorite sister, a young widow with five small children, living in Abilene. Both efforts required money.

She thought back to her entrance at Sadie’s only a few short months before. When Pearl eyed Benjamin, she thought herself fortunate. But not all the men were like gentle and handsome Benjamin, and on that first evening there, she hadn’t been talking to one of the cowpokes ten minutes when she realized what she had done. She ran upstairs to the shelter of her room, crying. Sadie demanded that Pearl pack her bags and leave. But when Benjamin offered her a chance to help him win at cards, she took it. She knew cheating was wrong, but the alternatives—including returning home in defeat—seemed worse.

Returning to the present moment, she remembered the letter she had tucked away in a little box where she kept correspondence from home. In the box was a missive from her sister Rachel letting her know that Ma needed Pearl, and so she had to go back to the ranch. Pearl was ready to return. If only she didn’t have to leave Benjamin.

A tear dropped down her cheek. She let it flow.