CHAPTER 11
Gasping, Adele quickly pulled the child behind her. “How’d you get loose? We left you tied in the barn. And how did you get by Cookie? We sent Charley to town, but that still left Cookie.”
“First, you left me with a knife in my boot. That’s all I needed to get free. As to your man…an old man, right? Well, he was easy enough to sneak up on and bash on the head with the butt of my pistol.”
“You’ve signed your death warrant. Edward won’t have any choice but to kill you now.”
“He doesn’t know I’m here anymore than you did. Now, first you’ll get me something to press on this wound. It’s not as terrible as I let on, but the injury is bad enough.”
“Lissa, go get a clean kitchen towel. Don’t talk to anyone or answer anyone.” Adele turned her back to Richard so she could talk to Lissa. “Hurry now.”
Once the child had run down the hall toward the kitchen, Adele turned around.
“You’re taking some risks, turning your back on me like that.” He waved the gun at her. “Come over here and don’t even think about reaching into your dress pocket.”
She lifted her chin. “You don’t have to worry. I didn’t put the derringer in my dress pocket when I came in.”
Lissa returned with the kitchen towel and handed it to Adele.
As Adele walked to him, he said, “Remember I’ve got the brat in my sights now.”
“Don’t call my daughter a brat. I’ve told you that. I won’t tell you again.”
“What are you going to do? I’m the one with the gun.”
She walked up to him and put the cloth to the wound in his side. Then she pressed hard and removed the material, replacing it with her hand, her finger pressing in the injury. “And I’m the one with my finger in your wound. How much pain you want to be in, will be determined by your next actions. First, lower the gun to the floor. Gently, I don’t want any accidents. Second,” she turned to Lissa. “Honey, go to the kitchen and send Ruama for your daddy.”
Lissa, her eyes as wide as saucers, ran down the hall toward the kitchen.
Last, you’re going to walk, slowly toward the kitchen, the same way Lissa ran.” She wiggled her finger, revolted by the sticky feeling of his blood and the feeling of being inside his flesh. “Now, move.”
Adele kept pressure on her finger, and his wound, so Richard couldn’t push her away and go for his gun.
Edward came in the front door and fell behind them on their trek to the kitchen.
Adele didn’t look back. “Hello, my love. Look who I found in our living room. He came in while most of the men were still at breakfast. Unfortunately, he injured Cookie.”
“Looks like I’m taking the wagon to Angel Creek,” said Edward.
Cookie exited the kitchen, his gun in one hand, touching the back of his head with the other.
Edward held his gun on Richard. “You can put away your weapon, Cookie. We’ve got things under control now. Get me some rope, please.”
“Yes, sir. You gonna tie that varmint up, then shoot him?”
Edward chuckled.
Adele put her clean fingers over her mouth to stifle her laughter.
“No, Cookie, I’m just tying him up to put him in the wagon. I want you to come with me and keep a gun aimed on him.”
“Yes sir, Boss.” The older man replied. “Can I shoot him if he moves?”
“Not this time. I’m not giving him the benefit of the doubt. I’m taking him to Doc Walkers and then to Sheriff Cassidy. Quinn will know just what to do with him and I guarantee he won’t be returning to New York.” He turned to face Richard. “You didn’t want her, anyway and proved it by your treatment of her.”
“That’s not the first thing I’ve been wrong about lately.” Richard huffed. “I should have just let Adele go.”
Edward nodded. “Yes, you should have.”
Richard lifted his chin. “You would never have known the truth if I hadn’t come here. You should be thanking me.”
Edward shrugged but his gun remained on Richard. “Perhaps. But I believe Adele would have told me eventually. You’re starting to look pale, Richard. I think you’ve been bleeding more than you thought.”
Richard leaned to one side and stumbled.
Adele automatically stepped forward to catch him.
Edward grabbed her arm and held tight.
She smiled up at him. “Thank you. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Richard righted himself. “It was worth a shot.”
“Try something like that again and it will be the last thing you do.” Edward stared Richard in the eyes. “Understand?”
“Yes.” Richard lifted his chin.
Just like a spoiled child. Adele gazed up and down at her former keeper. “I guess since he’s not too badly wounded after all. He won’t be going to see Dr. Walker. He can go straight to Quinn’s jail. Nick can treat him there.”
Edward nodded. “My thoughts exactly. But I still don’t want his blood all over the buggy. The wagon is good enough for him.”
*****
Edward returned from Angel Creek just after dinner.
Adele ran to meet him in the barn. “Well, how did it go?”
Standing at the horse’s head, he looked at her and frowned. “What’s the matter with you, woman? Coming out here without a coat. Don’t you know this is almost December in Montana Territory?”
“I’m fine. Tell me what happened.” She rubbed her arms and noticed her teeth were chattering.
Edward took off his coat. “Here. Put this on.”
“I’m fine. What about you?”
“I’m not carrying our child. You will not catch your death of pneumonia as long as I live.”
She grinned and put on the coat. The arms hung a good six inches too long and the rest of the coat was huge on her as well. “You just care about this baby.” Her smile never faltered.
He pulled her to him by the lapels. “Not true and you know it.” He kissed her hard and put an arm around her shoulders and started walking. “I’ll come back for the wagon. You need to get inside, and I don’t see that happening until I tell you everything.”
She raised her chin and nodded. “That’s right. E
verything.”
“Let’s go inside so I only have to say this once.”
He steered her into the kitchen.
Adele took off his coat and hung it on a peg by the back door. “So tell me. What happened?”
“Well, I need a cup of coffee for this telling.”
She widened her eyes. “Is it that long?”
One side of his mouth tilted up. “No, I’m that cold and thirsty.”
“Fine.”
Ruama got him a cup of coffee and then sat at the table.
Lissa was already seated, her chin propped on her hands, elbows on the table.
“Now.” Adele put her hands on her hips. “Will you tell us what happened?”
Edward laughed. “Oh, all right. First, I hit every bump, rock and hole the road had to offer. I wanted him good and bruised by the time I reached town. Then I took him to Doc Walker, despite what I said I’d do. Turns out the bullet grazed his side. It left a bit of a gouge, which is why the wound was bleeding so much. Anyway, when the doc sewed him up, I wouldn’t let him give Richard anything for the pain. He deserved every bit of hurt Doc caused after the bruises he gave Lissa.”
The child covered her neck with her hands.
Edward lifted a brow, dropped his chin and narrowed his eyes as he looked at his daughter. “Thought I didn’t notice, didn’t you?”
Lissa nodded.
He smiled at his daughter. “Well, I did and he’s luckier than he knows that I didn’t end his miserable life for giving my sweet girl those marks. Anyway, after Doc Walker was done, I took him to the sheriff. Quinn was happy to have him. His jail was empty and so no reason to have a deputy but he didn’t want to fire Roscoe Brown. This way Roscoe’ll keep his job.”
Adele reached out and clasped Edward’s hand. “I’m so glad some good came out of this situation.”
“So am I. Once I’m done telling the judge exactly what happened here, Richard’ll be spending many years in prison.”
“As he should.” Somewhere deep in her heart may have been a smattering of feeling for Richard, but when she looked at Lissa and saw the marks on her neck from his hand, any tender feeling she had was gone. She wanted him to pay for what he did to her daughter and for what he did to her. Adele wasn’t so naïve that she believed Richard would take her back to New York. No, he would take her and dump her body somewhere, so no other man could have her…ever.
That night, after they read Lissa a story, Edward leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.
Adele blew her a kiss as was their usual goodnight routine.
“Mama, would you kiss my forehead like Daddy does?”
Adele turned to the little girl. “M…m…mama?” Her eyes filled with tears.
Lissa clutched the covers to her chest. “If you don’t mind. I heard Daddy say he didn’t know why I missed my other mama so much, since she never wanted me. And how I should want the person who wants me. You want me, don’t you, Adele?”
She rushed to Lissa’s bedside and gathered the child into her arms. “Oh, sweet girl, I want you more than anything. I love you so much, and I would be honored if you called me Mama.”
*****
Christmas, 1870
Adele sat in the living room and sipped her morning coffee. The chores were done by Cookie as a Christmas present. She gazed out the window at the blanket of white laid down by the Christmas Eve snowstorm sparkling like diamonds in the bright sunshine.
Edward opened his present from Lissa.
She giggled and looked at Adele.
He lifted the handkerchief with his initials carefully embroidered on two corners. “Why, Lissa, this is beautiful. Did you embroider it yourself?”
She climbed up on her daddy’s lap. “Yup. Mama taught me when she was still Adele. She didn’t even mind helping me redo it when I messed up.”
Adele smiled at her. “You hardly ever messed up. You learned very quickly how to make this gift for your father.”
Adele handed Lissa a large box. “From me.”
Lissa carefully untied the string that held the cloth covering closed and her eyes got very wide. “Is she mine? Really my baby?”
“Yes.” Adele chuckled. “She is yours. Your daddy and I have another present for you.”
She looked around but no presents remained under the tree. “What present?”
Edward took Adele’s hand in his. “Your mama and I and you are having a baby who should arrive around the end of July.”
“A baby brother or sister, for me?” Lissa bounced on both of her feet while singing, “A baby for me. A baby for me.”
“Yes, for you.” Adele laughed at her daughter’s antics thinking she looked a little like a bunny.
Edward reached out and took Lissa’s hand in his. “Lissa and I have something special for you, too.”
“How sweet, but you didn’t have to.”
Lissa nodded hard. “Yes, we do.”
Edward knelt on one knee in front of Adele.
Lissa knelt on one knee beside him.
“Adele Wharton,” said Edward. “We would like for you to marry us, Lissa and me, and promise you’ll always be our wife,” he looked down at his daughter.
Lissa grinned wide. “And Mama, forever.”
Tears rolled in torrents down her face as Adele slipped from her chair to kneel in front of her family. “I am the happiest woman in the world, and I would love to marry both of you.”
“That’s good because I’ve asked Flint Carroll if he’d perform the ceremony tomorrow.”
Adele pressed a hand to her belly and laughed. “If they hadn’t already had baby James, that would have sent Ginger into labor. She’d be so tickled that you and I found love, like she and Flint did.”
Edward hugged her close. “Now, that you have accepted, do you think we can get off our knees?”
Laughing, the three of them stood.
Edward relaxed on the sofa with his pipe and tobacco. He filled his pipe, tamped it down and lit it.
Adele loved the smell of pipe tobacco. She sat next to him, with his arm around her shoulders.
And Lissa played with her new baby doll.
He turned to Adele. “Are you truly happy, my love?”
She kissed him deeply. Her heart was filled to overflowing. “I never knew I could be so happy. I’ve got everything I ever wished for, a family who loves me and who I love more than anything.”
Edward used a single knuckle under her chin to lift her face.
He tilted his head and covered her lips with his.
The kiss she received was one of the most searing kisses she’d ever received.
“I love you, Edward. With almost all my heart. The rest of my heart is given to Lissa and our new baby, when he gets here.”
He ran his knuckle along her cheek. “You are so soft and yet so strong. I love you, too. Thank you for bringing me back to life. Ginger said to thank you, too. She said she’d about given up on me.”
“At times I almost gave up, but I couldn’t, I just loved you too much.”
“Now we’re together, the three of us, almost the four of us. Forever.”
Adele’s thoughts ran back to leaving her parents, being sold by her father, Richard, when she’d thought she was in love with him, leaving to travel to Montana. Nothing could have prepared her for the change her life would take. Nothing could have prepared her for the love and family she found in Angel Creek.