Chapter 3

Neelie’s heart pounded her chest. Placing her hands on the cantle, she pushed herself up and sprang backward over the horse’s rump. She landed on both feet behind the palomino. “Caleb?” She blinked feverishly. “But you’re dead!”

The man with a startling resemblance to her brother let his shovel fall to the ground. “Do I know you?”

The voice was unmistakable. She opened her mouth to reply but couldn’t push so much as one word past the sudden lump of emotion clogging her throat.

He held out his hand. “Caleb Reger.”

Her knees threatened to buckle. Her brother was alive? How was it possible? “You let us believe you were dead.” She yanked the sombrero from her head.

He jerked backward as if she’d struck him. “Neelie?”

“Yes, it’s me.” Though she bore little resemblance to the Cornelia Rose he’d left at their parents’ home in Nashville. Tears stung her eyes.

“Where’s Archibald?” He studied her. “I don’t understand. What are you—”

“Doing out here on someone else’s horse? Wearing a sombrero and trousers? It’s a long story.” One she couldn’t tell him. She blinked away the tears. “I have a few questions of my own. For instance, when did you come back to life?”

“I didn’t die.” A shadow darkened his eyes. “I was the only one in the regiment who didn’t.”

“But a letter came from the War Department. Said you’d been killed in an ambush at Centralia. Mama and Daddy were never the same after that. Neither was I.”

“I’m so sorry.” His warm breath brushed her cheek, awakening a memory of their last good-bye when she saw him off to war in one of the many regiments sent from Nashville.

Had she known she still had her brother’s love, would she have remained with the new Archie and allowed him to push her into his schemes?

“I should’ve gone home, but I couldn’t face—”

“Do they know?”

Caleb nodded. “They should by now. I wrote a letter to Mama and Pops. Mailed it at Fort Kearney.” He tugged his shirtsleeves straight. “Do they know where you are?”

“No. I haven’t been in touch with them since I sent the telegraph when I first arrived in—” She stopped short of saying Santa Fe. If she wasn’t careful, she’d say too much.

“Caleb!” The female voice turned Neelie’s head. A young woman dashed toward them, pinching her skirts at her side, and practically skidded to a stop beside Caleb. Panting, she pressed her hand to her chest just above the eyelet neckline on her red plaid dress. “What is going on here?”

In a poor attempt to suppress a grin, Caleb captured the woman’s hand. “Anna, I’d like you to meet my sister, Neelie Reger Finch.”

Anna’s mouth dropped open.

“It’s Neelie Shott now. Fits better with my profession as a shootist.”

Caleb blinked then smiled. “Neelie, this is my wife, Anna Goben Reger.”

“Your sister?” Anna’s chin nearly hit her chest.

“Wife? Not only are you alive and out here in the middle of the prairie, but you’re married?”

Anna studied Neelie. “I thought you said your sister was a—”

“A southern belle?” Neelie regretted the sarcasm the moment it slipped out. Why would Caleb have thought anything different of her? The sister he’d parted from wore embroidered gowns, her long hair swept up and held in place with pearled combs.

“Yes, my sister.” Caleb returned his attention to Neelie. “Things have obviously changed. A lot. For all of us.”

“For the better.” A warm smile brightened Anna’s eyes. “The more family, the happier.”

“Thank you, Anna.” Neelie turned to her brother. “To answer your question, Archie is dead.”

“I’m sorry.” Caleb and Anna spoke in unison.

“Thank you.” She wasn’t sorry her husband was out of her life, but the way he died still kept her awake some nights.

“That explains why you’re alone.” Caleb ground the toe of his boot into the loamy soil. “But not why you’re out here. You were with the folks in Nashville when I left for the war.”

“I stayed there for a while.” He didn’t need to know any of the details. They would soon go their separate ways and weren’t likely to cross paths again. Not if she wanted to protect her secrets.

“You’re just in time for supper. My grandfather is traveling with us, and it’s his night to cook.” Neelie’s newfound sister-in-law snatched her hand and pulled her toward a covered farm wagon.

Neelie surprised herself and allowed it. For a number of years now, no woman had bothered to give her the time of day. Unless it involved tittle-tattle whispers. To have another woman eager for her company was nice for a change.

Within thirty minutes, Neelie sat on a wood-slat chair with a tin plate balanced on her lap. Caleb and his wife shared a bench. Anna’s grandfather, Otto Goben, a beanpole of a man, perched on a stool. Neelie stabbed another crusty bite of meat and lifted the fork to her mouth. “What did you say this was?”

“Wiener Schnitzel. It’s a German favorite. We bread veal when pork isn’t available.”

“It’s quite good. Thank you.” Neelie drizzled honey on her second biscuit and bit into it. It wasn’t roots or rabbit, so the meal had a leg up right there. She scooped up another forkful of the potato salad.

“My Anna said your husband died.” The accent was thick, but the softness in Mr. Goben’s voice matched the tenderness in his gray-blue eyes. “My grandson—Anna’s brother—died in battle.” His shoulders slouching, he sighed. “The war claimed so many good men.”

Nearly choking on the potato salad, Neelie reached for her coffee cup. She’d thought Archie was a good man. That was why she’d married him. Nobody needed to know how he’d really died, or why. He might not have died during the war, but it changed him. Got him killed just the same.

Chatter drew Neelie’s attention to the front of the wagon as a horde of children rounded the tongue and stopped mere feet from her chair.

Angus led the pack. “I apologize for interruptin’ your meal, mem, but I been telling about you. About your gun and your shootin’ the rabbit with only one shot.”

Not about the stampede that one shot had caused?

“We wanted to meet you.” The comment came from a little girl no taller than the hub of a wagon wheel.

Angus rested his hand on the girl’s shoulder. “This here’s my baby sister, Maisie.”

“I’m almost four.” Maisie’s hair had more twists in it than a bean vine. She clutched a fabric bunny. “Can you really shoot as good as Angus says?”

Caleb cleared his throat and rose to his feet. “Children, my sister has had a busy day. Do you think you could save the introductions for another time?”

“Sure, Preacher. Sorry.” Angus turned to leave then looked over his shoulder at Neelie. “We’d surely like to see your shootin’ another day, mem.”

Preacher? Her brother was alive, married, and he was a preacher? “We’ll see.” Even if she had her own horse, putting on a show for the caravan no longer seemed appropriate with her brother—the preacher—in the mix. Doubtful he’d smile on gambling. Anyway, taking advantage of bumpkins wasn’t quite as safe when your own kin were in the crowd.

“Angus. Maisie. Duff.” The familiar voice drew Neelie’s attention to broad shoulders and intense eyes. “It’s suppertime.”

Mr. Kamden’s three children waved at her and rounded the Conestoga to the right, while the other children dispersed in various directions.

The Scotsman doffed his cap. “I apologize for the intrusion, Preacher. I don’t have enough eyes or legs to keep track of them all.” He glanced at the plate on Neelie’s lap. “I best go and see about serving my rabbit stew.” His mouth tipped in a grin.

“Figured it was payment for your trouble.” She wasn’t going to go hungry around Caleb and his family. “We’re straight then?”

“We are, mem.” Ian brushed the brim of his woolen cap. “Have a good evening, folks.”

After he walked away, Neelie busied herself with the last bites of veal and biscuit. A brother who was alive and well. A sister-in-law who was clearly shocked by her appearance but not repulsed. A widowed stranger who helped her to safety in a tree even when she’d been the one to put his life in danger. She was grateful for all of it. Rolling out of her bedroll that morning, she never would’ve imagined eating supper with Caleb that night. Sitting around the campfire was the best she’d felt in years.

But she doubted Caleb and Anna would welcome her so freely if they knew the truth. Neelie swallowed hard. She had her future to think about, that job with Buckskin Joe’s Wild West Show in San Francisco, and she couldn’t allow the reunion with her brother and any entanglements with his new family to stand in her way.