Carriages rattled by the Wabash hotel that Nate had chosen for their belated honeymoon. Lucy stood in the window and stared down at the people hurrying by on the street below. She checked the watch pinned to her bodice. “She’s late.”
“Patience, love. It’s only ten after.” Nate’s gaze went to the tiny swell of her belly. “You’ll get young Stanton riled, and she’ll be demanding more pickles.”
She put her hand on the small bump and felt the baby kick. “He’s already kicking me.”
“She,” he corrected.
It was a familiar argument. Nate swore he wanted a girl, and she wanted a boy. But they would be happy with whatever they had. She stepped into his arms and nestled her head against his chest. “I just want this meeting to be over.”
“Soon.”
She listened to the beat of his heart against her ear. He was a good man, and she was so blessed. Every time she thought about her uncle’s reaction when Nate had freely given him the land, her eyes welled. The stoic man had broken down and actually sobbed. He’d asked Nate to forgive him for trying to burn down his barn and wanted to go to the sheriff and confess, but Nate had told him it was all in the past—that together they would move forward and be a family.
The last few months had been sheer bliss. Family was everywhere Lucy looked, and she had never felt so loved.
The knock they’d been waiting on came. Nate left her and opened the door. Resplendent in a blue satin dress, Catherine stood in the hall. “Come in.”
Her gaze sharpened when she looked past Nate and saw Lucy. “I didn’t expect to see you too.” She entered the room and glanced around. “Rather posh surroundings for you, Lucy. Where are my children?”
“Home,” Nate said.
Catherine smiled. “Then you’ve agreed to my terms. You brought the coins?”
“I have them,” Lucy said, struggling to keep disdain from her voice. “Did you bring the document agreeing to turn over full custody to us?”
“I have it here.” Catherine touched her beaded bag. “Let me see the coins.”
Lucy wanted to scream at the woman, but she forced herself to get the bag containing the coins and hand it to Catherine. The woman loosened the drawstring top and stared greedily at the shimmering silver dollars inside.
“The agreement.” Lucy held out her hand.
“I didn’t want the brats anyway.” Catherine withdrew the paper from her bag and signed it with a flourish, then handed it to Lucy. “Good riddance.”
She turned to go to the door, but before she’d taken two steps, the door behind them opened. A man with a big nose held another man by the arm. Yet another man was in cuffs and was guarded by an officer. Lucy immediately recognized the prisoner with the big nose as the man who had broken into the house. The man with the strong hair tonic.
Lucy held her breath as the policeman pointed at Catherine.
“That the woman who hired you?”
Both prisoners nodded. “That’s her,” the man who had broken into the house said.
Catherine’s face paled. “What’s this all about?” Her gaze darted to the door, but Nate stepped in front of it.
The officer approached her. “Mrs. Marsh, you’re under arrest for the murder of your husband.”
Catherine held her hands up. “No! You have no proof.”
“Jed remembered what happened,” Lucy said.
Catherine whirled to run for the door, but Nate grabbed her as she approached. The detective wrestled the bag of coins from her hand. She made a grab for them. “Those are mine!”
“They belong to Mordecai Mitchell in Detroit,” the detective said. “He’s in the lobby to receive his property back.”
Catherine sobbed as they took her away, but Lucy felt no pity. Only a deep sadness that a woman who had sworn to love her father had killed him instead. When the door closed, Lucy buried her face in Nate’s chest. Tears finally came, but they were mostly for Jed who would never forget what his mother had done.
“Shh, it’s over,” Nate whispered in her hair. “We can put this behind us.”
She lifted her head and looked into his gray eyes. “So much pain. And all for money.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “You brought sanity to all of us, Lucy. Your heart, your spirit, your generosity. We’re free from the taint of greed now. It died with Pa.”
It hurt her to see the pain in his eyes when he mentioned his father. But she would do her best to make him forget the past and look only to the future.
He turned her gently toward the door. “Let’s go feed you. I hear the café down the street has the best pickles in town.”