It felt so good to be in Jackson’s arms that Thea could almost forget the pain in her feet. This was where she belonged, her head resting against his chest, her arms wrapped around his neck as he carried her away from that horrible woman.
She was blessed, so very blessed. Not only was she still alive, but God had answered her prayers and given her another chance to tell Jackson she loved him. She knew he’d read her lips when she’d mouthed the words, but that wasn’t enough. She needed to say it aloud—once, twice, a million times—as many times as it took so he never doubted how she felt. There would be time for that. First, she had to tell him what she’d remembered.
“I think I know where the gold is.”
As he strode across the yard, Jackson looked down at her, his expression one of astonishment. “You are the most incredible woman I’ve ever met. You were almost killed; your feet must hurt like the dickens; and yet you’re talking about gold.”
“It’s important.” Jackson might deny it, but Thea knew otherwise. The gold was more than a fortune that needed to be returned to its rightful owners. For him, retrieving the gold would be the culmination of his career, a way to ensure that Micah’s death and Leander’s injuries had not been in vain. “You need to find it so you can close this case.”
He nodded, accepting the truth of her words. “You can tell me about it while we get your feet bandaged, but I’ll say it again, you’re an incredible woman.”
Thea didn’t feel incredible. She felt exhausted and yet exhilarated. While the time with Charity had drained her physically, the revelations that had come to her when she’d faced the woman’s madness had buoyed her emotionally, filling her with peace. Though Thea had known it had not been her intent, the outlaw had confirmed what Jackson had suspected, that Daniel’s love for Thea had been true. Charity may have bound Thea’s hands and feet, but she had set her spirit free, and that, Thea knew, was a gift from God.
Trying to ignore the pain that radiated from the soles of her feet up her legs, Thea smiled at Jackson. “It’s almost over. You’ve got Charity, and I think the other two are at the Silver Spur.”
Jackson shook his head. “They were. I saw them there—that’s how I knew she was here—but I suspect they’re currently warming the bench in Cimarron Creek’s jail. They won’t be hurting anyone ever again.”
“That’s good.” As horrible as the night had been, it was ending well.
When Thea and Jackson reached the porch, they found Angus sitting up, rubbing his head and looking confused.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice less belligerent than normal.
It was Jackson who answered. “It appears that a woman knocked you out.”
Sputtering, Angus pushed himself to his feet, obviously appalled by the thought of having been bested by a woman. Though he kept one hand on the lump that was forming on the top of his head, his expression betrayed outrage. “This one?” He pointed toward Thea. “She ain’t big enough to do that.”
Jackson shook his head. “Not Mrs. Michener. The woman’s name is Charity James. She’s part of a gang that’s been robbing stagecoaches and trains, and she’s dangerous. I know for a fact that she’s killed at least two people, maybe more.”
When Angus seemed to doubt that a woman could do all that plus attack him, Jackson continued. “She’s almost as tall as a man, and I suspect she’s almost as strong.”
Angus straightened his shoulders at the realization that his foe had been formidable. If the situation hadn’t been so serious, Thea might have smiled at the way he preened like a rooster.
His expression sobered a second later. “What happened to my dogs? They shoulda barked.”
Jackson pointed toward two still forms that Thea hadn’t noticed before. “The woman who hit you killed them. Sliced their throats.”
As Thea shuddered at the further evidence of Charity’s cruelty, the anguished cry that Angus let loose confirmed what his wife had claimed: he was deeply attached to the dogs.
“Where is she?” he demanded. “She’s gonna pay for that!” Angus looked around, his wide-eyed gaze making Thea suspect he was searching for his shotgun.
Jackson kept his eyes focused on the rancher, perhaps because he feared what the angry man might do. “She’s tied up in your barn now.”
Angus started to move, but Jackson blocked the way. “No matter how you feel, you can’t kill her. A jury’d string you up for that. You can help me, though. Mrs. Michener has been injured. There’s a reward in it for you if you watch over the bandit while I take care of Mrs. Michener.”
The moonlight was bright enough to see the way avarice blended with Angus’s thoughts of revenge. “I’ll make durn sure she don’t escape.” He turned toward the barn, still holding his head, but stopped when a baby’s cry rent the evening air. “What’s that?”
This time Thea did smile. “Your son.” No matter what else had happened tonight, she had the satisfaction of knowing that she’d brought a life into this world.
The new father was clearly torn between his desire for the money Jackson had promised and the need to see his son. “Wait one minute. I gotta tell Ethel about the reward.”
As he raced into the house, Thea turned her head to look up at Jackson. “This is the first I’ve heard about a reward.”
“That’s because there wasn’t one until a minute ago. I need to be sure Charity doesn’t escape—she’s a wily one—”
“And Angus is just the one to watch her.” Thea finished Jackson’s sentence, noticing that he’d positioned himself so that he could see the barn door. “His pride was bruised by the idea that he’d been knocked out by a woman, no matter how tall or strong she might be.”
Jackson nodded. “He’ll forget that part, but he’ll stand a little taller when he tells his friends he helped bring a dangerous criminal to justice.”
Seconds later, Angus emerged from the house, his shotgun in hand. “You kin stop worryin’ now. I’ll keep that bandit safe,” he announced as he sprinted toward the barn.
Jackson nodded again and carried Thea inside. “Let’s get your feet bandaged.” He looked around the small house, then strode into the kitchen, placing Thea on one of the chairs and propping her feet on a second.
“My bag is in the bedroom,” Thea told him. Now that the euphoria of her rescue and the revelation of the gold’s location had faded, she was once again aware that her feet were throbbing with pain. When Jackson had first untied her, she had done a cursory examination of her soles and had discovered that the bleeding had almost stopped, but she would be grateful for the soothing salve and bandages.
“Ethel isn’t happy about being alone,” Jackson said as he returned with the bag.
“I’m not surprised. She’s the most demanding patient I’ve ever had.”
“But you’re the patient now.” Jackson lifted Thea’s feet, settled himself on the chair, and placed them in his lap.
“I can do this,” Thea protested as he examined each foot carefully.
“Of course you can,” he agreed, “but it’ll be easier if you let me do it. Will you let me help you?”
Knowing he was asking about more than simply bandaging her feet, Thea nodded and retrieved the jar of salve from her bag. When the time was right, she would tell Jackson all that was in her heart. “You need to clean the wounds, then spread this on them.”
Jackson rose and placed her feet carefully back on the chair while he filled a pan with cool water and found a soft cloth. Then he resumed his seat and began to wash her feet. Thea caught her breath, not at the stinging the water induced but at the thought of what an intimate act this was. No wonder mothers admonished their daughters to never reveal their bare feet to men who weren’t their husbands.
“You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” she asked, trying to keep her mind focused on the skill with which he cleansed her lacerations.
Jackson looked up at her, his green eyes bright with emotion. “I’ve cleaned and bandaged more wounds than I can count. I rarely had salve, though,” he said as he opened the jar and began to smooth it over her soles. When Thea winced, he drew back for a second, then said, “Tell me about the gold. Where do you think it is?”
Thea appreciated his attempt to deflect her attention from the pain. “In a well at the orphanage. I’d forgotten all about it until Charity kept saying ‘well.’ She wasn’t talking about a real well. That was just the way she started most of her sentences.”
Thea pursed her lips, trying to hold the pain at bay, before she continued her story. “Daniel once mentioned that a couple boys at the orphanage decided to teach him a lesson about something and dumped him into an old well. He claimed they intended to let him die there, but the sides were rougher than anyone realized, with some of the stones protruding, so he managed to climb out. Apparently, that impressed the boys so much that they accepted him into their group.”
“I wonder if that’s how he and the Michener boys got together.”
“I don’t know. Daniel never mentioned any names. In fact, that was one of the few times he talked about the orphanage at all. I remember him saying something like ‘We all hated that place and swore we’d never go back.’”
Thea winced. No matter how careful Jackson was trying to be, simply having her feet touched was painful. She looked up at him, focusing on his face rather than her wounds.
“At the time, I didn’t ask Daniel who the ‘we’ were, but when I heard Charity say ‘well’ so often, it struck me that since the orphanage was abandoned, that would be a good hiding place.”
Jackson took the bandage Thea handed him and began to wrap it around her foot. “You’re probably right. I’ll head over there tomorrow morning, once the whole Gang is locked up.” He explained how he’d found Will and Rob in the saloon and that he’d asked Faith to alert Travis.
“I’m not worried about them,” Jackson said when he finished wrapping Thea’s feet, “but much as I hate to leave you here, I want to get Charity into a cell tonight. I don’t trust that woman one bit. From everything I can tell, she was the leader, not Daniel.”
Though Thea shared Jackson’s reluctance for them to be separated, she knew he needed to do his job, and so did she. Ethel and her son still needed Thea. While she wouldn’t be doing much walking, she would continue to monitor their condition.
“You’re right about Charity,” she told Jackson. “She’s an evil woman, and she had every intention of killing me. I knew it was only a matter of time unless something brought you back here before morning.”
Thea glanced at the clock that hung on one wall, amazed that less than an hour had passed since Charity had dragged her to the barn.
“I kept praying for you to come, and while I did, I kept her talking as much as I could. It was a stalling technique. I think Charity knew that as much as I did, but she couldn’t stop gloating about all that she’d accomplished and how they eluded capture for so long.”
Jackson’s expression said that he wasn’t concerned about that right now. “Later. There’ll be time for that later. Right now, there’s only one thing I want to do.” He fixed his gaze on her lips. “The problem is, I made a promise, and my parents taught me never to break my word.”
For a moment, Thea had no idea what Jackson meant. Then she remembered the day he had said he would not kiss her again unless she asked him to. Her sister would tell her it was unseemly, that a lady did not ask for a kiss, at least not in words, but Thea didn’t care. Like Jackson, there was only one thing she wanted to do.
She looked up at him and smiled. “I think we both want the same thing. Will you kiss me, Jackson? Please.”
His smile turned into a grin. “With pleasure.” Still smiling, Jackson reached forward, drawing Thea onto his lap, and pressed his lips to hers.
It was wonderful, simply wonderful. Their first kiss had been unforgettable, but it paled compared to this. While Jackson’s lips were on hers, nothing else mattered. She was safe; she was loved; she was cherished. Her fears were forgotten, and the pain in her feet subsided.
Thea didn’t know how long the kiss lasted. Seconds, minutes, hours—she lost all sense of time. All she knew was that while he held her in his arms and kissed her so sweetly, there was no one in the world except her and Jackson, nothing but this kiss.
When at length they pulled apart, Thea smiled again, knowing that the last barrier between them had been demolished.
“I love you, Jackson.”
Pure joy illuminated his face. “And I love you.”