The Rancher (16 page)

darkness of the stormy day.

Lightning illuminated the now open doorway outside the chapel.  The closely following roar of thunder incited Cole to action.  He bent down to retrieve the nail

ring, jumped over the railing of the elevated platform at the front of the church, and raced toward the exit.  As he ran down the aisle, the blond man Abby had called Jeremiah Carson stepped out in front of him, blocking his way.

“Let her be.  This marriage charade of yours will not last,” Jeremiah mocked.

“You had your chance, Carson.  Get out of my way.”  Cole moved to get past him.

“This isn’t over, Redbourne.”

“Yes, it is.”

Cole paused only long enough to introduce his fist to the unsuspecting

man’s face, sending him sprawling to the floor.  Stepping over his fallen form Cole did not look back, his eyes affixed to the place where his bride had left the church.

Greeted by another crack of lightning, a dark figure appeared in the doorway. Cole tried to move around him, but the man stood firm, as immoveable as a stone

statue.

“You the groom?”   the man asked a growingly impatient Cole.

“Yes.  Now, if you wi—“

Cole had been unprepared for the fist that connected with his jaw.  Stumbling, he caught himself on the back of the last pew and in moments Raine was by his side, fists raised, daring the man to strike again.

“What is with the people in this town?”

Cole muttered under his breath, havingbeen hit for the third time today.   Hestraightened, wiping the blood from thecorner of his mouth. His neck felt hot, hiscollar stifling.   Unaccustomed to beingblindsided, he wanted answers, but theywould have to wait.   He shook Raine

away from his arm and took, what he hoped would be, an intimidating step forward.

“If you will excuse me,” he spoke through clenched teeth to the ominous man blocking his way.  His mind raced.  Abby was now his wife and he had to find her.

Storms were dangerous, especially withthe amount of lightning that cracked thesky.

“Did you really think I would be happyabout my daughter marrying some fortune

hunting stranger, a blackguard at best?”  Undeterred, the man took a step toward him and Raine.  “You may be married in name, but I’ll see to it that your sham of a marriage is annulled without so much as a simple kiss.”

“Too late.”

The man growled deep in his throat.

Cole was ready to push through the manwith as much force as necessary, butstopped cold as grim realization hit.  Thisman was Clayton McCallister and Abbywas his daughter.  Gingerly caressing hisswollen jaw, he tried to take another stepforward, but Raine held him back andstepped up in his place. Cole’s eyesnarrowed. Was this the man responsiblefor Alaric’s death?

“Until that blasted lawyer of ours gets

back into town, you’ll be stayin’ at my ranch all right and earning your keep just like the rest.  My new ranch foreman is a real workhorse by reputation.”  He eyed Cole in particular, with disdain.

“This
foreman
 
of yours, you say he has

a
 
reputation
 
for being a real workhorse? Have you never met him?”  Raine asked curiously.

“Sure is.  And he comes from a very respected family--just the kind of person my daughter should have married.  And no, I don’t need to meet him to know Cole Redbourne is a man of caliber.”

A smirk crossed Raine’s face and heextended his hand as he always did.  “Mr. McCallister, I am Raine Redbourne andthis,” he said moving aside and pointingbehind him, “is my little brother. Cole.”

Clay McCallister looked from Raine to Cole and back again.   Seeming torecognize his obvious mistake, he reachedreluctantly toward Raine’s extended hand,his face scarlet.

“Call me, Clay,” he said to Raine with a firm grip.   Then, turning to Cole, he announced, “You’re fired.”

Chapter Eight

Cole stopped short just outside thechurch as a wagon trekked past him,splashing in its wake.  He watched as thewould-be tracks quickly vanished in theprofusion of water that had fallen withinsuch a short time.  He glanced up, lookingin every direction.   He was unfamiliarwith this town and had no idea which Abby may have gone.

With water trickling off the edge of hiswide brimmed hat, he looked up into thesky.   “Nice, Redbourne.   You’d betterhope she’s not gone far,” he chastisedunder his breath.

At the pressure on his arm, Cole turned

to   find  Abby’s   raven-haired   friend standing behind him, accompanied by Raine. A handful of onlookers gathered together behind them, huddled beneath the wooden awning that extended from the church.

“Abby’s gone, Mr. Redbourne.”  Lily spoke in rushed and breathless tones.  She blinked away the turrets of rain that slashed at her face.

“What do you mean, she’s gone?”  Cole demanded.

“She said she needed to be alone.” Her voice got louder as she competed with the increasing strength of the storm.  “I think she may have gone to the old tree at the bend in Silver Creek.”

The name sounded familiar.

Lowering her head, Lily walked closer

and motioned for him to lean down so she could whisper something in his ear. When he complied, she lifted herself onto her toes for better reach. Her words, though spoken softly, cut him.

“When you gave her Alaric’s ring, she felt his rejection more strongly than if he’d said it to her face. She said Jeremiah Carson was right about everything he said to her this morning, that she wasn’t lady enough for even Alaric to want her. To love her.” Lily’s heels dropped back to the ground and she took one small step away from him.   “Do you understand?” she practically screamed against the wind.

Cole’s jaw tightened. He hadn’t thought about that particular reaction and he had a mind to march back into the church and

punch Jeremiah Carson in the face once

more for good measure.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Redbourne, but—“

“It’s Cole,” he ground out angrily, which he immediately regretted. “The name is Cole.” He ran his fingers through his hair with quick, abrupt movements. For the first time in a long time Cole wanted to be there for someone.   He’d screwed up.  He had to find her.

“Cole.” Raine held a warning in his voice.

“Excuse me, ma’am.” Cole nodded his head in apology. “The bend at Silver Creek, just where is that?” Action was the only way to stop the onslaught of sadness, fear, guilt, and anger that now plagued him.

“Cole—“

“The creek?” Cole asked again, not

wanting to waste another moment while Abby was out in this storm.

“The old oak is just north of the old Johansson barn. I can take you there,” Lily volunteered.

“I know the place.”  He looked away from Lily and met Raine’s eyes. “If I’m not back by dusk...”

Raine moved to his side and rested a

reassuring hand on Cole’s shoulder. He nodded in silent understanding.

Cole took one step forward and then turned back again, meeting Raine’s eyes once more. “The herd needs to be

delivered today.”

“Go!” Raine commanded.

Cole ran to the livery where he’d takenhis sleek black-brown stallion to give hima good brushing and some fresh water

before the ceremony.   He mounted the horse inside his stall and rubbed his neck

encouragingly. “Come on Mav, we’ve got a wife to roundup.”   Following a high whistle both rider and horse whisked past the open doors and disappeared into the tempestuous darkness.

With the fierce wind whipping her longwet tresses into her face, Abby soonregretted her hasty retreat.  All she’d beenable to think of when she saw that ringwas Alaric and all the time it had taken tostop hoping and get on with her life.  He’dpromised, but it had been years.   Too

many.  It was irrational.  No one in town, besides Lily, even knew about the ring.  But she knew, and her heart was

breaking.  Even as the rain slashed at her face, blurring her vision, she could only focus on the tree where childhood dreams had been born and a new love created.

She pushed herself forward as theintensity of the storm increased.   Shewould not cry.  She’d done enough of thatover the last couple of years.

“Come on, girl.  It’s not much farther.” She prodded her mother’s horse forward.

A bolt of lightning danced across thesky and Bella reared.  ‘Whoa, girl.  It’sokay.”  The horse only took a moment tosettle with the soft caresses and gentlecoaxing from her mistress, but theelectricity in the air remained menacing.  When Abby looked up, she saw the oldtree, outlined in the night, beckoning her,calling her, offering her shelter from the

storm.  Wearily she dismounted.

Her  eyes   closed  for  a  moment,remembering her way to the tree down thefamiliar pathway she’d used many times inthe past.  Their tree.  The path, well-wornand wet, stood as yet another monument ofmemories of her youth.  As she walkedtoward the enormous trunk, Abby wascareful to avoid the banks of the creek that

would now be slick with mud from the

overflow of the small stream.

When she reached the old oak, she ranher hand over the familiar words carved

so long ago, now channeling rivulets of water.  “Two hearts as one,” she read the words aloud.   The linked hearts were

fading as the tree grew, but the memories

attached to them were not.

Abby allowed herself to reminisce as

she looked up into the towering gnarled branches and spotted the same crook in which she and Alaric had spent many a summer afternoon building the platform and tree house.

Exhausted and shivering, she removedthe wire frame molding her dress infashion.  Setting it aside, she painstakinglypulled herself up through the tree limbs,settling  herself  into   the   auspicious

groove.  It was surprisingly dry and she looked upward remembering the hours it had taken them to build the little wooden

lookout platform and tree house.  She gave a silent prayer of thanks it would offer her some shelter now.

Abby closed her eyes trying to shun thefeelings of embarrassment and regret andinstead embrace understanding.

Why didn’t he come?

The image of Alaric at the blacksmithshop in town, bending that nail into a ring,was embedded into her mind as vividly asthe day it had happened.   Knowing thehours he must have spent trying to carvethe words into the metal of something sosmall brought a smile to her lips.  Abbygirl.  That had been Alaric’s name for her.

He’d been her first and only love.  Now, she was married to a stranger, buthandsome   as   he  was,   she  wanted

answers.

“Papa was right,” she spoke aloud to herself. “I am too impetuous and now I’m stuck.”

Not as perfect as I’d hoped.
 
“He maynot have lied outright, but he hid thetruth.”
 
Why? What could he possibly

want from me?

She tried to rid her mind of the deep voice that even now penetrated her thoughts. She remembered the looks on the faces of everyone at their wedding when Cole came bounding back into the church covered in mud.