Claiming the Cowboy's Heart Page 21

  Mercy and Sybil took Jayne under their wings and helped her change into a clean dress. They demanded all the details of what happened.

  Sybil tenderly washed Jayne’s neck. “It’s only a nick.”

  “You really shot him?” Mercy asked again.

  “I had no choice. He meant to kill Seth.”

  “You’re a very brave woman,” Sybil said.

  “And a good shot.” Mercy’s voice was filled with awe.

  Her strength returned. She could finally look at the situation fully. “I’m not a good shot. I meant to shoot him in the head but somehow managed to hit his hand.”

  Mercy and Sybil stared at her. Mercy started to laugh. Then Sybil joined her.

  Jayne stared at them both. “I might have hit Seth.”

  “You already did once and he survived,” Mercy managed to gasp out.

  “But at least you did what you could.” Sybil choked out the words in between laughter.

  Poor Seth. She truly might have injured him again.

  What must he think? He’d taught her all he knew and she still couldn’t hit what she aimed at.

  A tickle began beneath her ribs and raced upward to escape as a burst of laughter.

  The three of them fell on her bed and laughed out their tension and fear and relief.

  After a moment, Jayne sobered. “I hope the knife wound isn’t too serious. Let’s see if Linette is done yet.” If she was and Seth felt up to being on his feet, Jayne meant to have a talk with him.

  The three returned to the kitchen where Eddie waited for her. “Sit down. Tell me what happened.”

  Mercy and Sybil sat beside her. Before she began, Linette returned. “I want to hear. too.”

  “So do I.” A deep, familiar voice drew her attention to Seth.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’ve been hurt worse. I was shot once, you know.” His grin said he meant it to be teasing.

  “I’m sorry. Somehow I feel I am to blame for this time, too.”

  Mercy moved over and made room for him at Jayne’s side.

  “You likely saved our lives.”

  She nodded. He’d said it before. All she had to do was believe it.

  She turned to her brother and began her account of the day’s events. “Harry Simms is his name. He was never arrested.” She told how Harry had set up some poor man to appear to be him.

  She told every detail. “He wants a key that I don’t have.” She ended by relating how she’d missed her target.

  “I meant to shoot him in the head.”

  Her friends muffled a laugh but Eddie smiled at her. “My little sister can take care of herself.”

  “She sure can,” Seth answered.

  Their praise gave her food for thought. She had taken action rather than cowered in fear. She’d missed her intended target but nevertheless had disarmed the man.

  Yes, she could take care of herself.

  But she’d learned a second, equally valuable lesson.

  Taking care of herself could be a lonely business unless she had a partner.

  Why had Seth come back?

  Chapter Nineteen

  Jayne hoped she and Seth would get a chance to talk but Linette had supper ready and after the meal, everyone continued to hang about.

  Mercy and Sybil didn’t leave her side, as if afraid she would disappear again.

  “You aren’t leaving again in the morning?” Jayne managed to ask Seth as they all clustered about the table, reading the newspapers brought back from town. It grew increasingly obvious that no one intended to leave Seth and Jayne alone. Whether intentional or not, she couldn’t say.

  He shook his head. His eyes promised they would talk. And with that she had to be content.

  Around the table Sybil covered a yawn and Linette’s head bobbed.

  “We’ve kept you up long enough.” Sybil patted Linette’s arm.

  Jayne’s sister-in-law had weary lines about her eyes, from hard work and her pregnancy. Jayne sprang to her feet. How selfish to be thinking only of getting a chance to talk to Seth. “Yes, it’s time for bed.”

  Mercy rose and the three friends headed down the hall to their bedrooms.

  Jayne paused just before she ducked out of sight and called “Good night.” She meant it for all of them but her gaze went only to Seth who stood in the hallway that went in the other direction.

  His smile blessed her as he lifted a hand in a tiny wave.

  Until tomorrow, she promised herself as she went to her room. He had come back. Surely that meant good news for her.

  She didn’t have the strength to think of other reasons he might have returned.

  The girls had made her put on the dress she’d worn when Seth had taken them to the waterfall up the mountain. When she’d taken it off she hadn’t planned to wear it ever again. It reminded her of his announcement that he meant to leave. He’d given her no reason to hope he’d come back or that he cared for her in the slightest.

  Now she willingly hoped and believed he’d changed his mind.

  She lifted the skirt to her nose and breathed deeply of the memories. The cool dampness of the spray of water, the sweet pine scent. She touched her fingertips to her lips, recalling the warmth of his kiss. How she’d thought it so full of promise.

  Perhaps there would yet be a promise. She jammed her hand into the pocket. Her fingers encountered something hard. She dug deep and pulled out a little stone.

  Her heart swelled with hope as she cupped it in her palm. Smooth and heart shaped, it had lain hidden in her pocket, forgotten until now.

  A tremble filled her heart. The promise of that day had disappeared as Seth rode away. But now he had returned.

  Hope danced across her nerves.

  Clutching the rock, she went to her trunk and dug through the contents until she found her little treasure box. In it were items of sentimental value. She set it on her bed. A smile caught her lips as she opened it and lifted out a tiny gold locket. Mother and Father had given it to her when she was six years old. Perhaps one day she could pass it on to a daughter. Her throat tightened, as she pictured a tiny girl with hazel eyes like Seth’s and a smile that turned her heart to liquid honey.

  She set aside the locket and picked up a valentine card her sisters, Bess and Anne, had made for her. For days they had labored over their secret. Bess was only about twelve years old and Anne nine at the time. The card they’d crafted was a little uneven in places but every time Jayne looked at it she remembered the way they had smiled as they presented it to her.

  Next were four picture cards from the trip when Father had taken them to Paris. She sat back on her heels. Life had seemed so simple then. She would never have believed so much tragedy would hit her in a few short years.

  She put the cards on the bed beside the other things and put her heart-shaped rock on the bottom of the box. Right beside the locket Oliver had given her. She touched the heart and key. Stirred them across the bottom.

  The key didn’t match the heart for proportions. It was too large and heavy. Oliver had said she needed a big key because he had a big heart. At the time she’d put it down to Oliver’s likeness for doing things in a large way.

  Where’s the key? Harry had been sure she had it. Insisted he’d seen it. Was this what he meant? Could this be the key he sought?

  A key to what? She studied it for a long time, searching her mind for a clue. What had Oliver said when he gave it to her? Nothing that seemed to indicate anything unusual. But several times he’d caught the charms as they hung from her neck and then said something cryptic. You have the key to my heart and so much more.

  Another conversation surfaced in her mind.

  “Of course.” Now it all made sense.

  She returned to the kitchen. It was dark. But she saw light in the hall. She found Eddie in the library, entering figures into a ledger.

  He set aside the pen as she entered. “How are you doing?”

  She shrugged. “Fine. I found thi
s. Oliver gave it to me on a chain with a locket.”

  Eddie examined it carefully. “It seems rather large to hang on a chain about your neck.”

  She nodded. “I thought so, too, but it seemed sweet of Oliver to give it to me.” And then Oliver had died and she couldn’t bear anything that made her remember the details of his death so she’d put it in her treasure box and forgotten it as she tried to forget about Oliver’s murder.

  “Oliver used to joke about a box he’d asked to store in a garden shed on our property. Said he didn’t think his parents would value it as they should and might even destroy it. He said someone had given it to him. He valued it for some reason, though he never said why.” She’d never thought to ask him. Or if she had, she’d quickly dismissed her curiosity. Oliver did not like her to ask too many questions. “I asked the gardener if he minded and of course he didn’t. I think this is what Harry was after.”

  “I think you’re right. I’ll send the key to Father to check out.”

  “If the box is full of money as Harry said, who does it belong to?”

  “I really don’t know. I guess Father will have to get his lawyer to sort things out. I don’t think you need to worry about it, though.” He leaned back and studied her. “I guess that solves the mystery surrounding Harry.”

  “Now I can rest in peace. Not that I think he’ll ever be a threat to me again.”

  “What about Seth?”

  She blinked. “Seth was never a threat to me.”

  “Not physically. But I think emotionally he can hurt you very badly. Did he say why he came back?”

  “We haven’t had a chance to discuss it.” She tipped her chin in a gesture of determination. “We will in the morning.”

  He laughed at her little show of firmness. “Let me know how it goes.”

  She rose, bent to kiss him on the forehead and pat his shoulder. “I’ll tell you what you need to know.”

  He grinned. “Getting real independent, are you?”

  She smiled down at him. “Not so independent I don’t need friends and family.” And a husband.

  He opened his mouth, likely to add the same words she’d added silently.

  She patted his shoulder again, not giving him a chance. “Good night, big brother.”

  “Good night, little sister. Though not so little as you used to be.”

  Nor so weak or fearful, she added silently.

  * * *

  Seth’s injured side did not pose a hindrance to his sleep. But his thoughts did. He still didn’t know what he meant to say to Jayne.

  Not that her friends and family had allowed him a chance to talk to her. Maybe they purposely prevented it. After all, he had left her. And they’d all seen her hurt.

  But he would speak to her alone and he’d do his best to find the words to explain why he’d returned.

  He rose early the next morning and made his way to the kitchen. Jayne was there preparing a bottle for Thor as he’d hoped.

  “I’ll help you feed him.” Did she understand he wouldn’t accept any excuses to avoid him?

  She nodded. “Come along, then.”

  They traipsed down the hill toward the barn. Out of habit, he reached out to pull her to his side but the danger of a murderer watching her was over. And he didn’t want to cloud his mind with the joy of her pressed close. He dropped his arm and allowed a few inches between them.

  Thor greeted them and bunted against Jayne in his eagerness for the bottle.

  He didn’t say what his heart felt as the fawn sucked. It was too easy to be distracted by Thor’s playfulness.

  “I found the key,” she said. She must have noticed his confusion. “The one Harry wanted.”

  “I thought you didn’t know anything about it.” His blood thundered against the top of his head. Had she put them both in mortal danger for a lie?

  “It was a key Oliver had given me with a heart-shaped locket. I’d forgotten all about it. I found it last night when I was poking through my stuff.” She ducked her head as if to check on the fawn but maybe also to hide her face from him. Did she regret his return? Maybe she’d been relieved to have him leave.

  No. He would not entertain doubt. He would explain his reason for coming back and let her respond.

  The fawn finished and turned to play with Smokey.

  Jayne faced him, her eyes dark, allowing him to read nothing. “Seth, why did you come back?”

  “I came to ask you to go with me.”

  Her mouth dropped open. She closed it and swallowed hard. “Why?”

  “Because I have to take care of my pa.”

  “You don’t need me for that.”

  He wasn’t explaining himself well. “On my ride south I started to recall things my pa said to me. Hard things.”

  She nodded.

  “He blamed me for Frank’s death. He had taught us to watch out for each other and I failed.”

  “You didn’t fail.” She brushed her hand along his arm. “You tried to stop them. The choice was theirs.”

  “I know that but I still feel Pa’s accusation.” He found strength in the look she gave him. “He said I would likely fail to take care of my parents, too.”

  She squeezed his arm.

  “There’s more.” His throat tightened so his voice cracked. “Pa told me I could never take care of a wife. I guess I believed him.”

  She waited, a curtain closing her thoughts to him.

  “Until yesterday.”

  Her eyes looked hopeful and guarded at the same time.

  He hated that he was responsible for the latter emotion. “Yesterday I stopped and thought of all that Pa said. I realized that just ‘cause he said it didn’t make it true.”

  She nodded. “That’s so.”

  “But even if it isn’t true, marriage is a risk. So many bad things can happen.”

  “And so many good things.”

  “Yes. I made a decision to trust God with the future and enjoy the present.”

  “I’m glad.” Her voice was quiet, overly controlled.

  “I want you to come with me. Meet Pa. I will have to stay and care for him. It’s my duty and I would never neglect him.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to.”

  “Will you come?”

  She lowered her head so he couldn’t see her eyes or read her expression.

  “I can’t bear to leave you behind.”

  “It wouldn’t be proper for me to go with you. An unmarried woman.” She shook her head.

  “But what if we’re married?”

  Her head came up. Her eyes widened. “Married? What are you talking about?”

  He furrowed his brow. “Isn’t it obvious? I love you and want you to come with me.”

  “Whoa, there, cowboy. Back up a minute. What did you say?”

  He slapped his forehead. He’d forgotten the most important thing he meant to say. He tipped Jayne’s chin up and studied her eyes, her beautiful skin, her firm little chin.

  He jerked his thoughts back to the words he wanted to get just right. “Jayne Gardiner, I love you with my whole heart. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, sharing the good times and the bad. Growing old and gray. I want to hold you next to my heart.” He patted his shoulder. “Right here where you belong. Jayne, will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the world?”

  Her eyes filled with such warmth and joy he could hardly meet her gaze. “Yes.” She laughed. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

  He caught her to him and kissed her. When her arms pressed into his back he sighed. He’d come home where he belonged.

  He ended the kiss and smiled into her welcoming gaze. “Does that mean you love me?”

  “Seth Collins, I love you so much I wonder my heart doesn’t explode.”

  “Is that good?” he teased.

  “Oh, it’s very good.” She tilted her head to the side. “How long have you known you loved me?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I knew it when you stood in my
arms, insisting you would learn to shoot even though you were scared to death of guns.”

  “It took you long enough to say it.”

  He nodded. “I had learned to shut my heart to love and focus only on responsibilities.”

  “I’m sorry your father said such unkind things. I expect he spoke out of his own grief and pain.” She pressed her palm to his cheek and he turned to kiss it.

  He nodded. “I guess so. But if I ever say anything that hurtful please remind me of the power words have.”

  “You mean like this? Seth, I loved you when you pulled that wad of money from your boot so intent on caring for your pa you would have bled to death trying to get to him. I loved you when you made sure I knew how to shoot. I especially loved you when you held my hand steady when I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I knew then that you were the kind of man who would walk at my side, helping me and supporting me.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “I thank God He brought us together.”

  “About God. I have stopped shutting Him out, too. I prayed when you disappeared. I believe God led me to you and helped us escape.” He laughed. “Though you shooting Harry’s hand certainly made it possible.”

  She shuddered. “I dare not think how close I came to shooting you.”

  He shook his head. “I was never in danger. You’re a better shot than you know. Jayne, what about coming with me to see Pa?”

  She pressed her head to his shoulder. “That’s something we need to discuss. It takes time to plan a wedding and make arrangements.”

  “Time is something I don’t have. Pa has been alone for days. I don’t know if he’s being taken care of or not. I have to do my duty.” Not that it was duty alone that drove him. He had always planned to take care of Pa. That hadn’t changed.

  She clutched his shirtfront. “I know. I can’t bear to let you go. But waiting for me will only delay you longer.”

  He did something he hadn’t done in a very long time. “Jayne, let’s pray about it and trust God to provide a way.” He took her hands, pressed them to his chest and bowed his head until it touched hers. “Our Father in heaven. First of all, I want to thank You for Jayne. For bringing us together and for making her strong and brave. I don’t want to leave her but my pa needs me. Could You bless our love by providing a way for us to stay together? Amen.” It was the longest prayer he’d ever prayed and the most sincere and urgent.