“I know. I wish I hadn’t had to pursue it. But it’s part of my job, Ben. It’s part of the law I swore to uphold. And, if we’re ever gonna get this mess straightened out for your brother, here, then we haveta get information and give information. We gotta clear his name.”
The purported outlaw, who had been thoughtfully plucking at a loose thread on the thigh of his woolen trousers, looked up with an unreadable expression. “Then you believe what I told you?”
“You’re Ben Forrester’s brother,” Paul studiously and calmly pointed out. “If nothin’ else than for his sake alone, I’d believe what you told me.”
“I know what kinda man you are,” was Ben’s simple response. “I would never doubt anything you said.”
“We all take you at your word, son,” Gabe chimed in, just for good measure.
No one could miss the inhalation and deep exhalation. “I’m mighty relieved by that, and I thank you for your trust in me. I’d also be mighty relieved to get the bounty hunters off my back.”
The other three men nodded slowly, almost simultaneously. That would be anyone’s express wish. Not just the fear of a bullet in the back, from some unnamed source. But Reese had plans. He wanted to get on with his life.
And that meant bringing him from darkness into light.
Chapter Sixteen
HE FOUND HER, NOT RESIDING at the boarding house, nor visiting with Camellia, nor even working in the doctor’s medical office, cutting and winding strips of gauze and rolling pills for his satchel.
No. Searching while urgently trying not to appear he was searching, Reese traveled up hill and down dale. He finally discovered the love of his life seated in a swing that had been installed at a corner of the rather overgrown patch that Gabriel fondly called his back yard.
Occasionally Reese had heard the phrase about one’s heart being caught in his throat. He had never dreamed that he might fall victim to that particular condition. Until now. As he stood in the late afternoon shadows just near the rear verandah and watched her, he thought she had never looked so beautiful. Or so poignantly, woefully sad.
She might have been a wood nymph, or a castled maiden come out of her turret down to earth. Not only in her sunshine-yellow dress with low-cut bodice, full loose sleeves shortened to the elbow, and trailing striped skirt that held, surprisingly, neither bustle nor hoop; but also in the few late-blooming, blood-red roses she had twined into her curly hair. This was an enchanted princess, waiting for her prince.
With both hands wrapped around the chains, she was pushing herself slowly back and forth—a little way forward, a little way back. Her gaze had absently fixed upon the towering bushes—something with a small fragrant pink flower; honeysuckle?—that rimmed the fence, shutting out observation from any passerby, offering privacy.
Letitia was so lost in her own thoughts that she became aware of his presence only when he appeared out of the blue behind her, clasping his hands over hers to stop the movement.
Immediately she sprang erect and out of the swing, whirling to face him. Her moonstone blue eyes, charmingly fringed, were dilated; her agitated bosom was lifting and swelling under the soft fabric of her gown. But she spoke not a word.
“Tish,” he said quietly. “Tish, darlin’.”
“No. That ploy won’t work any longer.” It would, and it did, but she refused to let him see her vulnerability. She refused to be
so susceptible to his wiles, ever again. Well. Maybe.
“Will you listen to me?”
Letty’s chin rose in the old imperious way. “You mean you actually have something to say?”
Involuntarily, Reese’s mouth quirked. “Well, I’ve got lots to say, now that I’ve spent a few hours unburdenin’ myself to the law. Feel like I’ve been skinned alive and hung out to dry.”
“And now you’ve come so I can help nurse you back to health?”
“Not so much. I’ve come so you can help me get back my soul.”
He had managed to breach the moat of her defenses, and climb an impregnable wall to reach her. Helpless tears gathered on her lashes, quivering like a butterfly’s wing, but did not yet fall. “Oh, Reese,” she whispered.
“Tish, sweetheart.”
Stepping out from behind the swing, he slowly lifted both arms, spread wide in invitation. She stared at him. Her tears overflowed, and her lips trembled. And then, with a soft little cry, she flung herself into his embrace.
For untold minutes they simply stood there, holding each other, in the waning afternoon light, with birdsong tweeting from the trees around them and a slight breeze wafting autumn fragrance through the air. Weeping in fluttery little gasps, Letitia grabbed onto his substantial frame as if she couldn’t get enough of the man she’d been afraid she’d lost. Laughing in relieved little gasps, Reese wrapped up her curves and laces like a beribboned gift box and held on tight.
One long, intoxicating kiss of passion and longing that stopped the breath and hurtled the heartbeat; then a hundred more, snatched frantically here and there, as if they had been separated for agonizing years instead of mere agitated days.
Finally, the senses ceased whirling and the stars stopped spinning, and they could share a moonstruck gaze, even while smiling a trifle sheepishly.