Love Inspired Historical March 2014 Bundle: Winning Over the Wrangler\Wolf Creek Homecoming\A Bride for the Baron\The Guardian's Promise (29 page)

Her eyes widened. The simple request, one she'd done countless times for other patients, caught her off guard. Taking care of their needs was her duty as a physician and caretaker, but she didn't want to do any more for Gabe Gentry than was absolutely necessary.

As soon as the thought entered her mind, she felt a familiar wave of shame wash over her. Where was her compassion for this man who might well have died if Simon hadn't found him when he had? Where was her Christian charity? She was a good doctor who had never backed away from a challenge or shirked her responsibilities.

Without a word, she picked up the basin of cooling water, placed it on the floor and knelt beside it, going about her task with quick efficiency and reminding herself that serving his needs while he was injured was not only her duty as a physician; it was her duty as a Christian.

As she worked, the story of Jesus, sinless, perfect, washing His apostles' feet slipped into her mind. She concentrated on her task so that Gabe wouldn't see how near she was to tears.

By nature she was a caring person. She knew she couldn't continue to harbor this soul-destroying resentment, but she seemed unable to free herself from it. Could she find a way to set aside the hostility that had taken hold of her the day he'd destroyed her love with his callous dismissal?

She sighed as she pulled a heavy pair of woolen socks onto his feet. She didn't know. But she knew that if she was ever to be the person the Lord expected her to be she had to try a lot harder.

* * *

Gabe heard the sigh and watched as she stood and picked up the basin of water to set it on the shaving stand.

“I'll bring you some breakfast a bit later,” she told him, gathering the soiled laundry. “Danny will want to open his gifts first.”

“That's fine. I'll just rest until then.”

He started to lower himself in gradual increments, using his workable arm and clenching his teeth against the pain. Rachel was beside him in an instant, her arms around his shoulders to help ease him to the pillows. She was strong, he thought, as she lifted his legs to the bed and spread a double layer of quilts over him. Stronger than she looked. He didn't know why that should be such a surprise, but it was.

Gabe waited for the screaming pain in his ribs to subside to a dull, throbbing ache. Many things about Rachel surprised him. She was older, but no less beautiful than he remembered. She'd gained some much-needed weight, which only added to the femininity she tried to hide beneath her tailored, no-nonsense wardrobe. The intriguing scent of magnolia blossoms still clung to her.

What surprised him most was that she was no longer the shy woman who'd had trouble carrying on a conversation unless it was a topic she felt passionately about. Her worshipful eyes no longer followed his every move and she certainly didn't hang on to every word he spoke, as she once had.

She was a woman, not a girl. She was a devoted daughter. She was a mother. She was a professional with long-standing ties to the community, successfully crossing the threshold of a field most women were afraid to enter. That alone made her exceptional.

“You must be in terrible pain after moving around so much. Would you like a bit of medication now?”

Was that actual compassion he heard in her voice? He clenched his teeth together and met her gaze steadily. “No, thank you. I've seen too many people get addicted to it. I'll just tough it out.”

“I'm only giving you small doses, and I don't think you're in jeopardy of addiction at this point. Toughing it out isn't really a good idea.”

Somehow he managed a derisive smile. “A lot of things I've done haven't been good ideas, but that never stopped me, did it?”

Rachel stared at him for several seconds then scooped up the laundry and left him without another word. Let him hurt. It wasn't her problem. Except, of course, that it was. The very thought of the pain he must be suffering went against everything she stood for and left her feeling undeserving of her calling. Unfortunately, some people had to learn the hard way.

* * *

As planned, Rachel and Danny went to Caleb and Abby's at midmorning so that Danny could play with the Gentry children and Rachel could help Mary, Caleb's former mother-in-law, with the last-minute meal preparations, since Abby was still confined to bed.

Rachel made the visit double duty, examining mother and baby and concluding they were both fine, at which Abby declared she was able to get up long enough to eat her Christmas meal with the family. Like Gabe, she would not be deterred.

Abby loved the little signs Danny had made. Caleb tied the leather cords to the end of the crib while Danny watched with pride. The other children, too, were happy with their name signs, and Caleb promised to hang them at the heads of their beds before nightfall. Though he had no talent for building things from wood, he did dabble with whittling and had fashioned a stunning replica of a Colt pistol for his children to give to Danny. Each of them had taken turns putting a coat of shellac on it.

When the dishes were done, Rachel and Mary Emerson put the little ones down for naps. The men went to the parlor, where Rachel suspected there might be as much afternoon dozing as dominoes and conversation. The older children played with their new toys while Mary Emerson supervised, giving Rachel and Abby time for some uninterrupted “woman talk.”

Rachel cut two pieces of pumpkin pie, poured two mugs of coffee and went to Abby's bedroom, to find her once again propped up in bed.

“Thank you,” she said, as Rachel handed her the pie and set the mug of coffee on a bedside table. “It's been a lovely day, hasn't it?”

“It has,” Rachel agreed. “And you got the best Christmas present of all, albeit a couple of days early.”

“I did, didn't I?” Abby said with a smile, glancing at the baby all snug in his cradle. She took a bite of pie and washed it down with a sip of coffee.

“What does Caleb think of Eli now that he's here and you're both well?” Rachel asked.

Since Caleb's first wife had died in childbirth the previous winter, Caleb had been terrified when Abby told him she was expecting his child.

“He's beside himself with happiness—and pride,” she said with a satisfied grin.

“Well, his fear was certainly understandable,” Rachel said.

“I agree.”

“You're happy, aren't you, Abby?” Rachel asked, unaware of the wistful note in her voice.

“I am.” There was no denying her contentment. “I loved William, but what I felt for him pales in comparison to what I feel for Caleb.”

“I'm really happy for you.”

Abby reached out a hand to her friend. “Don't look so sad. There's someone out there for you. Don't ever doubt that.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I know so.” Abby's eyes brightened at a sudden thought. “What about Gabe?”

“What about Gabe?” she asked with a lift of her dark eyebrows.

“As a potential husband, goose! If you married him we'd be sisters-in-law.”

Rachel felt the color drain from her face, felt the stiffness in her cheeks as she forced a smile. “Thank you but no thank you,” she said. “Gabriel Gentry is not the marrying type.”

“You sound very sure of that.”

“Haven't you heard the gossip?”

Abby nodded. “Caleb's told me everything about Gabe, but people do change. Caleb is proof of that.”

Not everything.

“It must have been hard for both of them growing up,” Abby mused. “Caleb told me that until he married Emily, Christmas was just another day.”

Rachel registered her friend's comment with a bit of a shock. With the Gentry money, she would have thought Lucas would have seen to it his boys had anything they wanted. What kind of man would deprive children of a bit of happiness once a year?

“Well, Lucas didn't pretend to be anything but who he was,” she said. “I don't imagine he was too interested in conforming to society's expectations. Dad says that for all his unreasonableness, Lucas had a reputation for being hardworking. At least he passed that on to Caleb.”

“But not Gabe, from what I hear.”

“No. Not Gabe.”

“Did you know him?” Abby queried, taking another forkful of pie.

“Yes,” Rachel said, concentrating on the steam rising from her mug. “Gabe was two years younger than I, though, and we didn't share the same circle of friends.”

“Caleb said he was...spoiled.” Abby said the word almost apologetically.

“To put it mildly,” Rachel said, struggling to suppress the sarcasm in her voice.

“I've heard he's very handsome.”

“He's also wild, dangerous and has no sense of decency...from what I hear,” Rachel tacked on.

Abby wondered why her friend was so irritated by the topic of Gabriel Gentry. “So I've heard from Caleb. As I said, people do change. I suppose only time will tell if Gabe has.”

Rachel took a sip of coffee before answering. “He did tell me he came back to try to make amends.”

“That's promising, but I'm here to say that Caleb is struggling with the idea that Gabe is even back after so long. There's been a lot of bad blood between them.”

Rachel nodded. “I certainly understand how he feels.” Perhaps more than Caleb.

* * *

That conversation stayed with Rachel as she drove the buggy back to town. Like Caleb, she was having a hard time accepting Gabe's return.
Because he broke your heart and trampled your woman's pride beneath his fancy handmade boots.

True enough. That aside, surely she was mature enough to put the past into perspective. As terrible as it had been, she
had
learned from the experience. She was a better person. Stronger and more tolerant of others' mistakes. So why not Gabe's?

No doubt about it, she thought, giving her head a shake. She was a terrible, terrible person! Not forgiving wasn't an option to a Christian, but like Caleb's, her forgiveness of Gabe would come hard.

She prayed he would heal and move on soon. If he chose to stay, she wasn't sure how she would deal with seeing him on a regular basis.
Stop borrowing trouble, Rachel Stone.
No one had any idea what he would do once his injuries healed. Still, there was the remote possibility that he would stay in the area, which meant her father had a point. She had to tell Danny and pray he understood.

But not today.

* * *

To her dismay, she and Danny found Edward and Gabe sitting at the kitchen table playing a game of chess. Gabe sat ramrod straight in the chair. He looked awful. He was far too pale, and there was no masking the pain shadowing his sapphire-hued eyes or the challenge in them as he looked at her. He expected her to rail at him for being out of bed, but she was too weary for another battle and kept silent.

“Can I play, Pops?” Danny wheedled, shoving his small body beneath Edward's arm so he could get a better look at the board.

Intent on the game pieces, Edward gave the boy a distracted hug. “Not this game, Danny.”

“No one ever wants to play with me,” he said, his shoulders slumping.

“That isn't true,” Rachel told him, hanging her coat by the door. She turned and took two plates out of the basket she'd carried in. “Pops plays with you all the time.”

“Supper?” Edward asked, spying the plates.

“Turkey and all the trimmings,” she replied. “I'll stick them in the oven for a bit,” she said, doing just that. “They'll be hot in no time.”

Finally reaching a decision, Edward moved a piece and then gave his attention to his daughter. “Makes my mouth water just thinking about Mary's dressing.”

“I wasn't sure if you liked turkey or not, so I brought ham, too,” she said to Gabe. Even as she spoke the words, she regretted showing any concern for his likes or dislikes.

“Either is fine, thank you. And I'll play a game with you sometime, Danny, but I think I'd best get back to bed after I eat.”

The unexpected thanks and offer to Danny took Rachel by surprise, though it shouldn't have. Gabe Gentry epitomized charm and grace and friendliness.

What he lacked was integrity and common decency.

Chapter Three

B
y the time a new year rolled around, the snow was nothing but a pleasant memory, leaving behind a dingy mush that froze at night and thawed during the day. The old year had ended with a rash of croup that kept Rachel running all over town. She had treated no less than seven people on New Year's Eve.

Gabe was still in considerable pain if he moved the wrong way, but his injuries and his strength were improving in slow increments. Despite the sometimes excruciating agony, he was determined to leave the Stone house—and the intolerable tension between him and Rachel—as soon as humanly possible. For both their sakes, he had no desire to prolong the misery.

When he finished shaving shortly after breakfast on New Year's Day, he saw that the gash on his face was healing nicely, though it would leave an ugly scar. He thought about that for a moment and shrugged. There wasn't much he could do about it. Thanks to Simon and Rachel, he was alive.

His once dislocated shoulder was not so tender and his hand was much steadier; he'd only nicked himself in two places. He was congratulating himself on the progress when a knock sounded on his door.

“Come in,” he called, glancing up and seeing Danny's reflection in the mirror. He stood in the doorway, staring at Gabe with unconcealed curiosity. “Not too pretty to look at, is it?” Gabe said.

“Must hurt.”

“Not much, but the ribs...that's another thing.”

When the boy continued to watch him and made no move to say anything, Gabe prompted, “What can I do for you, Danny?”

“Pops said to tell you that Mr. Gentry—Caleb—is here to see you.”

Gabe smiled, the action pulling at the stitches closing the wound on his cheek. “Thanks, son.”

Danny's eyes widened. He smiled, a smile so bright and wide that Gabe resisted the urge to chuckle.

“Do you need anything?” Danny asked, a look of hope in his eyes. “I can get whatever you want. I'm not doing anything.”

“I'm fine, thanks. You can send Caleb in.”

“Would you like to play a game of Chinese checkers after he goes?”

The past week, they'd fallen into a habit of playing a game or two in the afternoons. Though Gabe would have preferred to play chess with Edward, he got a lot of satisfaction at how much Danny seemed to enjoy the time they spent together. He also recalled how he'd wished his father was the kind of man who wanted to play with his boys.

“We'll see. I'll probably be ready for a good rest by the time Caleb leaves. Why don't you go get him?”

“Oh. Okay.”

Gabe wondered if Danny was as disappointed as he looked. He'd be sure to try to play a game or two with him sometime during the afternoon.

When Caleb came into the bedroom, it was the first time the two brothers had faced each other on a more or less equal footing since Gabe left. Caleb had stopped by on other occasions, but knowing Gabe was still in a lot of pain, they'd postponed any serious discussions.

Though Gabe had wanted this chance to try to make things right and had mentally rehearsed their meeting dozens of times, now that the opportunity was here, he had no idea where to begin.

“How are you feeling?” Caleb asked, taking a chair next to the fireplace. The question was his usual conversational opening. Gabe wiped the shaving soap from his face and eased down into the chair's mate.

“Far from well, but better.”

“That's good.”

An uncomfortable silence stretched between them. “Rachel mentioned that you got married again last year,” Gabe said, hoping to fill the growing silence left by his habitually reticent brother. That hadn't changed.

Caleb nodded. “My first wife, Emily, died during childbirth. I married Abby Carter, a newly widowed woman Rachel suggested I hire for my daughter's wet nurse.”

Gabe raised his eyebrows. “That's a bit unconventional, isn't it? Not to mention extreme.”

“More than a bit,” Caleb agreed. “But we didn't have much choice when Sarah VanSickle started spreading rumors about us, even though I was staying in the bunkhouse with Frank and Leo.”

“So Sarah's still doling out misery, is she?” Gabe asked, recalling more than one occasion when she'd caused unnecessary suffering.

“Yep. I keep thinking she'll get her comeuppance, but so far, she just goes along, giving everyone a hard time along the way.” There was more silence.

“So tell me about your...Abby. How are things working out?” Gabe asked, in an attempt to keep the struggling conversation going.

“Very well. She's a wonderful person and a great mother.”

Gabe saw a gleam in his brother's eyes he'd never seen before. Happiness.

“I love her very much,” Caleb added, almost, Gabe thought, as if his brother expected him to make some sort of snide comment about the situation. “We had a son born two days before Christmas.”

“A son! You have a son and a daughter?” Caleb nodded and Gabe smiled, unexpectedly pleased for the brother who had borne the brunt of their father's domineering personality. “I envy you.”

Caleb looked up to meet Gabe's smiling gaze. “You do?”

“Even I had to grow up eventually, Caleb,” Gabe said, poking a bit of fun at himself. He knew what most people thought of him.

“Why have you come back, Gabriel?” Caleb asked, done with idle chitchat.

He shrugged. “I'm not sure I can explain. A while back, I realized that I'd done just about everything and seen all the places I wanted to see, and Lucas Gentry's shadow was still hanging over me. I was as miserable away from Wolf Creek as I had been here.

“Believe it or not, I've given our childhood a lot of thought the past several months, and I came up with some reasons why I felt that way. A few months back, I got the notion to come and see if there was any way for us to make sense of our past. I even hoped that maybe I could make up for the things I've done.”

Caleb's eyes reflected his impatience. “Words are fine, Gabe. You were always good with them, but actions speak a lot louder. It's easy to come home when you're down-and-out. It's easy to claim regret and say you're sorry and then saddle up and leave again, convinced you did all you could or should to fix things.”

For the first time, Gabe realized just how deep the chasm was between him and his brother. “I know what you're saying is true, and that I've given you plenty of reason to feel the way you do, but I have no intention of leaving.”

“What!”

Gabe met his brother's astonished gaze. “I'm staying in Wolf Creek. I'm twenty-nine years old. Wouldn't you say it's time I found a good woman and settled down?”

“What will you do? How will you live with no money?” Caleb asked, unable to hide his shock.

“You're the one who said I was down-and-out, not me. I have a bit stuck by. As for what I'll do, I have no idea.” He managed a wry smile. “It'll be a while before I'm able to do much of anything, but when the time is right, something will come along.”

Another silence ensued. Finally, Gabe gave a heavy sigh, grimaced in pain and curved his arm around his battered ribs as if to protect them.

“Look, Caleb. I'm truly sorry for the way I acted when we were kids. I think I was trying to get Lucas to notice me, to acknowledge I was alive. If it took acting up to do it, so be it. I'm sorry my behavior left most of the work and responsibility on you. In a strange sort of way, though, I think you actually benefited.”

“How do you figure that?” Caleb snapped. “I was the slave who worked and you were the spoiled brat who got by with everything and did next to nothing.” His lips tightened with the stubbornness he was known for. “I've hated you for that.”

“I can't say that I blame you,” Gabe said. He understood Caleb's feelings, but just as Rachel's disgust had been hard to swallow, Caleb's words hurt, far more than Gabe had expected.

“Just think about it a minute. You were the one learning how to work, how to become a productive citizen, while I learned nothing except how to goof off and finagle others into doing my chores. I thought it was funny then, but not now. I cheated myself out of a lot of lessons.”

Caleb stared at Gabe as if he'd never seen him before.

“I know it's a lot to ask, and I'll understand if you say no, but I'd like to ask your forgiveness. I'd like the opportunity to get to know you and your family. Believe it or not, I want to be an uncle, and I'd really like it if you and I could find some common ground to build a relationship on.”

* * *

Rachel returned from a visit with one of her patients just before noon. She found her father sitting at the kitchen table in his wheelchair, slicing a skillet of corn bread into wedges.

“Hey, Pops!” she said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “How is everything?”

“Just dandy. How is little Jimmy doing?”

“As well as can be expected.”

“Good. Food's ready,” he said, indicating a pot of pinto beans and salt pork Rachel had set on the back of the woodstove before she left earlier in that morning. “Will you get Danny and Gabe while I finish up here?”

“Of course.”

“Rachel,” he said, his voice stopping her.

“Yes?” she said, turning.

“Caleb came to see Gabe this morning. I have no idea what they talked about, but I thought you'd like to know.”

“Yes,” she said, nodding. “Thank you.”

Thoughts of what might have transpired between the brothers filled her mind as she went to fetch Danny. She found him reading one of the books he'd received for Christmas and more than ready to eat, since there were cookies to be had afterward.

Rachel went to Gabe's room, knocked on the door and opened it at his summons.

“Pops has dinner ready,” she said, noticing that he was dressed in the extra clothes she'd found in his carpetbag instead of Edward's castoffs. She couldn't help noticing how well they fit his lean, broad-shouldered body. No doubt they'd been tailor-made for him.

“Thank you,” he said. “I've been waiting to talk to you.”

“Oh?”

He nodded. “I wanted to tell you that I'll be leaving after we eat.”

“Leaving?” she echoed, disbelief in her voice. “You're in no condition to be on a horse.”

“I don't plan to be. I'm not leaving town, just checking into the boardinghouse. I think I'm well enough to take care of myself if I don't do anything stupid.”

Though she'd wished him gone a hundred times, now that he planned to go she was filled with something that felt far too much like disappointment for her peace of mind.

“And how do you propose to pay for it?” she said, her voice sharper than she'd intended as the nebulous distress vanished in the face of her irritation.

“I had some money stuck in my boot the thieves didn't find,” he explained. “It will see me through for a while. Besides, I think you'd agree that I've disrupted your life enough.”

Indeed he had, she thought, though she would never admit it. “You have not disrupted my life.”

His smile mocked. “Could've fooled me.”

Embarrassment flushed her cheeks. “Caring for people is what I do.”

“And I'll be the first one to attest to the fact that you're a fine doctor,” he said in a gentle voice. “But let's be honest here.”

“By all means. If that's possible,” she said, unable to mask the sarcasm in her voice.

“Touché.” Meeting her irate gaze was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. “Again, I know I treated you badly in St. Louis, and I should have said goodbye in person instead of leaving you that note.”

Rachel began to laugh, a terrible parody of the sound. “You think I'm angry at you because you left me a
note?
” she cried.

“Weren't you?”

“Angry?” She shook her head. “No. Try furious. Or hurt. Or better yet,
devastated.
” She took a deep breath, and feelings and words that had festered far too long erupted from her lips.

“Silly, naive me! I was bound to fall for your smooth-talking ways. I believed everything you told me, and it was all lies. Every single word of it! So tell me, Gabe, where was your honesty back then?”

The vitriol in her voice caused all the color to drain from his face. “I have no excuse, except...”

She made a slashing movement through the air to silence him. “You're right. You have no excuse. Lucky, lucky me! Handsome, worldly Gabe Gentry, the boy every girl in Wolf Creek longed to snare, looked me up.”

She gave a bitter laugh. “I can't believe I was so gullible. I actually scoffed at the tales I'd heard about you, because you seemed so kind, and my memories of you were good. So I listened to your lies and fell for your pretty words. I gave you everything I had, Gabe.
Everything.
My love, my—” her voice faltered “—my entire being. You played me for a fool, and when you got what you wanted, you left without a backward glance, off to the next place of interest, the next easy mark.”

“I never thought you were an easy—” He tried to interrupt, but again she held up her palm for silence and drew in several deep, steadying breaths. As quickly as it had come, her anger disappeared. He almost wished it hadn't. The anguish in her eyes was almost his undoing.

“Do you have any idea what you did to me?” she said, her voice breaking. “Do you have any idea how ugly and discarded and
used
I felt?”

Truthfully, he'd never considered that. For the first time he realized how badly his casual treatment had wounded her. There had been other girls, other times, and never once had he considered how his cavalier dismissal might have made them feel. He'd always assumed that they expected no more or less than he was willing to offer. He'd used his God-given looks and charm with utter disregard for anyone's feelings but his own. All his life it had been about him. About what he felt, what he wanted.