Come the Spring (23 page)

Cole wouldn't hear of it. “Jessie, everyone here knows who Caleb belongs to, and it would be easy to get him away from Tilly. She's an old woman. I don't want to leave him in Rockford Falls.”

“Why would anyone want to take him?” she asked.

“Holding your son hostage is a good way to make you keep silent during the trial.”

“Oh, God.”

“Jessica, the couple I've thought of will take good care of him. Let me tell you about them. They're older … like grandparents …”

He spent a good fifteen minutes telling her everything he knew about Tom and Josey Norton. He went into great detail about Tom's background, stressing the fact that he had quite a reputation with a gun and that he was now a lawman, but he didn't mention Josey's lack of skills in the kitchen. When he had run out of things to tell her, Jessica didn't seem to be quite as resistant to the idea.

“You said they always wanted children?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered.

“If you had a son, would you leave him with the Nortons?”

“Yes,” he said again.

“I'll have to meet them before I decide. If I don't like them and I don't feel that they'll take good care of Caleb, I'm not leaving him with them.”

She was determined to go with him, and nothing he could say would make her budge on that issue.

“When do we leave?” she asked. “To go north with Caleb?”

“Ah, Jessie, don't start crying again. It's going to be all right. You want to know that he's safe, don't you?”

“Yes, yes, of course I do. It's just that I don't know the Nortons, and I…”

He started for the door. “Pack light, Jessica. One bag for you and one for Caleb.”

“I have to talk to Grace before I go anywhere.”

“It's out of the question.”

“Will we be coming back to Rockford Falls after we take Caleb?”

“No, we're going directly to Texas.”

“What about my things? Everything I own is packed in Grace's wagon.”

“I'll have it taken over to the livery stable. The owner can keep an eye on it. You can ride a horse, can't you?”

“Yes,” she said, though she didn't add the fact that she couldn't ride well. “I'd like to purchase a gun
before we leave, and I'd like you to teach me how to use it. I want to be accurate.”

He didn't like hearing that she wanted a weapon. “Just aim and shoot,” he said. “That's all there is to it. You don't need to carry a gun anyway.”

“Yes, I do,” she argued. “Will you teach me how to use it?”

“You already shot York's gun.”

“I want to be accurate,” she insisted.

He didn't waste time debating the point. “We'll leave as soon as Caleb wakes up. Now what?” he asked when she shook her head at him.

“He has to eat first.”

“Fine,” he said. “After he eats, we'll leave. You might want to pack some food he likes,” he thought to add.

“How long will it take us to get to the Nortons' home?”

“Not long,” he promised. “And, Jessie, I don't want you to tell anyone where we're taking Caleb. Don't even say Norton's name again, because someone might overhear. All right?”

“Yes.”

He was walking out the doorway when she called out to him. “Cole?”

“Yes?”

“Promise me you won't let anything happen to my son.”

“I promise.”

Part Three
 

And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,

Twenty-Three
 

Rebecca sat on the stone bench in the small garden in the back of the hotel. Her packed valises were on the ground beside her. It was safe and quiet, and very secluded this time of day, for none of the other guests wanted to venture out into the hot afternoon sun. The garden was surrounded on all sides by a high brick wall and thick pruned evergreens. Spencer and Cobb stood guard by the door leading out from the atrium, while their superior, Marshal Cooper, paced in agitation. Impatient to get going, he was waiting for the private coach they'd ordered to arrive.

She was concerned that Grace and Jessica would see her leave.

After checking the time, she glanced at the doorway. “I feel terrible not saying good-bye to Jessica and Grace, but I don't want them to know I'm going to Texas to look at the man they're holding. They'll worry about me,” she added. “I hope we don't run into them when we leave the hotel.”

“You don't have to worry about that,” Cooper said. “Neither lady will see you leave.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Grace has been ordered to stay in bed until tomorrow, and Marshal Ryan has a guard posted at her door. He isn't going to let her out, and he isn't going to let her have visitors.”

“What about Jessica?”

“She left with Marshal Clayborne a couple of hours ago.”

“What do you mean, she left? Where did she go?” Rebecca cried out. “Did she have an errand to do? Will she be back today?”

“No.”

“Where is she?”

“She's in good hands,” Cooper said. “You shouldn't worry about her.”

“How long ago did she leave? Did you say a couple of hours?”

“Yes,” he answered. “We should have left then too, but finding a decent coach has taken time. You're certain you won't ride a horse to the train station?”

“I'm certain. I was raised in the city, Marshal, and as I explained before, I have absolutely no experience riding. I'd break my neck.”

“All right then,” he said. “It shouldn't be much longer before the coach gets here. We'll just wait.”

“You still haven't told me where Jessica has gone.” Cooper braced himself before looking directly at Rebecca. He didn't want her to know the effect she was having on him, but, Lord, it was difficult to keep himself from staring. She was an incredibly beautiful woman, and with the sun beating down on her golden hair, she looked as though she were wearing a halo. The first sight of her angelic face had all but knocked the legs out from under him. Daniel really should have warned him, he decided, so that he could have prepared himself.

Spencer and Cobb were openly besotted with all three women. Since meeting them, they had behaved like boys who had just discovered the opposite sex. It was damned disgusting.

Slowly lowering his gaze, he asked Rebecca to repeat her question.

“I want to know where Jessica and Cole have gone.”

“I don't know their destination.”

“North,” Spencer blurted out.

Cooper gave the deputy a look that suggested he not say another word. “Cole and Jessica took the baby to a friend's house.”

“Was it one of Cole's friends?” she asked. “It must be,” she added. “Jessica's friends are in Chicago … except for Grace and me. We're her dear friends. Why did she need to take Caleb away? And why won't you tell me where she's gone? You're a marshal, for heaven's sake. You should know.”

“Sorry, but I don't know,” he said.

“I just worry about her.”

“The three of you have become close, haven't you?”

“Tragic circumstances forced us together, and we found we had quite a lot in common.”

Cooper felt sorry for Rebecca. She sounded so forlorn and looked so damned vulnerable.

“You're going to see both of your friends real soon,” he promised.

“I will?” she asked eagerly. “When?”

“Jessica and Cole and Grace and Daniel will all catch up with us.”

She frowned in confusion. “I don't understand. Are you telling me that Grace and Jessica are going to Texas too?”

“Yes.”

“But why? I'm the witness.”

“I realize that,” he replied. “However, we have to keep the other women safe until after the trial. Once
you've testified, the ordeal will be over. Until then, all of you need guards. Besides, Judge Rafferty wants all three of you.”

“How soon will I see them?”

“They're meeting us in Red Arrow,” he answered. “We'll probably get there before Cole and Jessica, but they might surprise us and meet our train.”

“Red Arrow's the last stop then? Does that mean I have to ride a horse to Blackwater?”

Her worry made him smile. “You can ride with me, or I'll find a buggy somewhere.”

She stared down at her hands and whispered, “This is all wrong. If I had come forward sooner, Grace and Jessica wouldn't be living in fear.”

“Why didn't you tell the truth in the beginning? Was it fear?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Ma'am, you can get into serious trouble lying to an officer of the law,” Deputy Cobb called out. His friend Spencer nodded his agreement.

“You could go to jail for that offense,” Spencer added.

“What does it matter?” Rebecca asked. “I'm already in trouble. I'm going to be hunted by those criminals, and it will be a miracle if I survive. I don't understand why they haven't tried yet. What are they waiting for? Why haven't they tried to silence me?”

“They've been busy, that's why.” Daniel answered her question from the doorway.

He came down the stairs and handed Cooper a telegram. “Another bank's been robbed,” he said. “Sixty miles southeast of here.”

Cooper swore. “Was it clean?”

Daniel looked grim. “No.”

“What did you mean when you asked Daniel if it was clean?” Rebecca asked.

Daniel turned to answer her. “He was asking me if there were any casualties.”

Rebecca paled. “How many were killed?”

“Three men,” Daniel answered. “All of them were employees of the bank.”

“Those poor men,” she whispered.

Daniel had motioned to Cooper to follow him to the corner of the garden. In a low voice he said, “There was something different about this one.”

“What?” Cooper asked.

“Every desk inside the bank was overturned, and a copy of the
Rockford Gazette
was nailed to the wall. There was blood all over it.”

“They're telling us they know we have a witness.” Daniel nodded. “Let's get the hell out of here.”

Twenty-Four
 

Traveling with a toddler wasn't difficult; it was a nightmare. The baby didn't know how to be quiet. Most of what he said didn't make any sense, but he still expected and demanded an answer anyway, and Cole was pretty certain he chattered nonstop just to hear the sound of his voice echoing through the forest. His favorite word was still
no.
He whispered it, shouted it, whined it, and sang it, and by the time they stopped for the night, Cole was sure he'd said the word at least two hundred times.

It was almost sunset when they finally made camp in a secluded area by a small horseshoe-shaped lake. Jagged rock ledges, some as high as fifty feet, jutted out over the water in spots and offered protection from the rain and wind. More important, no one could sneak up on them during the night. There was only one way into camp, and that was on the path that bordered one side of the lake.