Chapter Twenty-Two

"Pa!" Kaitlyn exclaimed when she opened the door and found her pa standing on the porch. "What are you doing here?"

Marston pulled off his hat. "I thought you said I was welcome here anytime."

Kaitlyn laughed and hugged him tight. "Of course you are." Marston patted her back awkwardly and Kaitlyn had mercy on him and pulled away. "I thought maybe you'd forgotten where I lived," she added.

"I know damned well where you live," he grumbled. "I just don't want to stop by here in the middle of the day and find you and that husband of yours.... You know.."

Kaitlyn giggled behind her hand when Marston flushed a bit and stopped talking. "Hey there, Marston! What brings you by today?" Pete asked as he stepped up behind Kaitlyn, oblivious to his father-in-laws discomfort.

"Actually it's about Rose. She's sick," Marston admitted.

Kaitlyn stepped back and motioned him into the sitting room. "What's wrong with her?" Kaitlyn asked, seeing the tense set of her pa's jaw and the fatigue around his eyes.

He plopped his hat back on his head and sighed. "She seems convinced it's the stomach sickness that's been going around. I told her I'd stop in here and see if you had anything to help her."

Kaitlyn shook her head. "No, pa, I really don't. There's not much a person with the stomach sickness can do other than tough it out. Ginger tea might help her a bit though."

"I guess I'll be picking some up at the mercantile," Marston said.

"Marston, you look exhausted," Pete noted. "Why don't you sit down for a while and take a load off?"

Marston nodded and flopped down in the armchair. "I'm wore out," he muttered. "We just got done harvesting the crops. I haven't had more than five minutes to sit all summer. Being a farmer is hard and it makes me real tempted to go back to my outlaw ways. I just wish Langley would get his ass home so Rose could stop worrying."

"And you could too," Kaitlyn said gently.

Marston nodded and closed his eyes. "Yeah, I could too."

"Marston, while you're here why don't you take a look at this revolver I took off a man last week. It's not working right and I'm hoping you can do something with it."

Pete held out the gun and Kaitlyn threw up her hands. "Pete, he's tired!"

Marston just chuckled and took the revolver. "I knew there had to be some reason the boy wanted me to stay."

Marston studied the gun a while and nodded. "I'll take it down to the shop, Pete, and get it working good. I'll bring it back when it's done."

Kaitlyn walked her pa to the door and hugged him once again. "Do you have laudanum for mama's headaches?" she asked. "I have some you can take with you if you need it."

"She doesn't have headaches," Marston countered.

Kaitlyn frowned and scratched at her arm. "Are you sure? That's one of the main symptoms of this stomach sickness."

Pete came up behind Kaitlyn and squeezed her shoulders while Marston picked at a tear in his sleeve. "I'm sure. If she had headaches I'd know about them."

"What exactly are her other symptoms?" Kaitlyn asked, her suspicion building.

"Hell, I don't know. She seems more tired lately and she's been getting lightheaded. She gets nauseous every morning and every time she cooks....." Marston's voice trailed off as his eyes widened.

Kaitlyn smiled. "Pa, is there any chance mama could be......"

***

"With child?!" Rose exclaimed as she sat down hard on the edge of the bed.

Marston finished lighting the lamp on the bedside table and kneeled in front of her, resting his arms on her legs. "Yeah love."

"But I thought it was the sickness..." Rose whispered.

"You're with child, Rose," Marston assured her.

Rose sat there in shock and thought back on her cycles. When had she had her last bleeding? Marston saw the color drain from her face and he nodded. "It's been a good three months," he informed her. "I can't believe we didn't notice before now. We've just been so busy with the garden and the harvest and we've been worried about Langley. I guess it didn't dawn on us."

"No wonder I've been sick." Rose stared out the window into the darkness. "I got sick like this with Langley and with Lucy."

Marston tilted his head and studied her. "You don't seem happy."

Rose shook her head. "I just don't understand how this happened."

Marston grinned. "Do I really need to explain it to you?"

He chuckled when her gaze went skyward. "No. I know how it happened, I just... Well, we've never done anything to prevent getting with child since having Lucy and it never happened. I suppose I just thought it never would."

Marston frowned. "Are you wishing it hadn't?"

Rose looked into his eyes for the first time and saw the worry in their golden depths. "No!" she assured him, laying her hands on his cheeks and pressing her brow to his. "I am thrilled, honored and proud to be carrying another piece of us inside me. It just caught me off guard! I can't believe I didn't realize I was with child before now."

"Like you said, you gave up hope that it would happen. I had too to be honest. But I always prayed that maybe it would."

"We're gonna have another baby," Rose gasped, tears filling her eyes.

Marston nodded, his chest swelling with pure love and happiness as he swiped at her tears with his thumbs. "Yes we are. Another one for me to spoil rotten."

Rose sighed with exasperation and leaned into his touch. "I won't even try to argue this time. I've learned there's no point."

"I love you, Rose," Marston said, smoothing her red curls from her face.

"I love you too," she whispered.

Marston growled before scooping her up and laying her down gently upon the bed. He braced his body over hers and laid tender kisses along her neck.

"Marston? I'm already with child," she reminded him while clinging to his arms.

Marston grinned. "I'm an overachiever."

***

"We've been here for two days, in the morning we'll have to be moving on," Jessie announced as she lounged on her back in the sunlight and soaked up the peace and quiet.

"Whatever you say," Langley mumbled distractedly.

Jessie glanced his way and realized he had his nose buried in a book. The man was almost always reading something! Jessie failed to see how a dusty old book could be more entertaining than she was.

"I've never met an outlaw who reads so damn much," she muttered.

His blue eyes met hers over the top of the pages. "I've told you that I'm not an outlaw, I'm a gunsmith. Gunsmiths like to read."

Jessie rolled her eyes with amusement. "Really? Is that a general rule about gunsmiths?"

Langley winked. "Yes it is." Then his attention went right back to his book.

Jessie glared at him. She didn't like not having his attention. Call her spoiled if need be but she had gotten used to being doted on by over the last couple of months. To suddenly have him not paying attention to her was like having a bee in her bonnet—or would have been if she wore bonnets.

Jessie sat up and pulled her knees into her chest. Noticing a pebble by her foot, Jessie smiled mischievously, picked it up and tossed it at Langley. The pebble bounced off his arm and he sighed and lowered the book.

"Are you five?" he teased. "Because right about now you're reminding me of my little sister."

"Pay attention to me..." she whined.

"I do pay attention to you," Langley assured her as he slipped the book into the chest pocket of his brown leather vest. "I love you and almost every thought that I have is about you but every once in a while even Leonardo De Vinci had to take a break from the Mona Lisa."

Jessie frowned. "The who took a break from the what?"

Langley stood up and walked to her. He towered over her as she sat on the grass and the setting sun behind him had his face cloaked in shadow. "Leonardo De Vinci was a painter and The Mona Lisa was one of his greatest masterpieces."

"I don't like it." Jessie scowled. "You're odd and you make me feel real dumb sometimes."

"I confess my love for you and you call me odd?" Langley teased.

"You know how much I love you," Jessie assured him. She began to stand to let him know with a kiss how much but his hand suddenly shot out and shoved her back down into the grass.

Jessie was about to ask him what the hell his problem was but then she saw the fear on his face. "Stay down!" he ordered.

Jessie turned just in time to see the flash of a rifle and hear the echoing gunshot. Langley grunted and Jessie screamed out his name when the bullet struck his chest, his body spun and he fell face down upon the ground, his head striking a rock with a thud that shook her to the core.

"Langley!" She screamed again.

In that moment, Jessie's entire world stopped spinning. All thoughts of fighting back or defending herself against whatever threat was coming were forgotten. Langley had been shot in the heart. Langley was gone. Her entire world was gone.

Jessie simply sat there and stared at his motionless body. She didn't even attempt to see who was grabbing her by the arm and jerking her to her feet. Jessie simply prayed that Langley would move. That she had been wrong about the bullet hitting him. That he was only pretending.

She wanted to see some sign that he hadn't truly left her all alone.

"Nice to see you again, Jessie Burke."

Jessie recognized Benjamin's voice but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered. All that had mattered was lying dead in the grass. She had lost it all in less than a heartbeat.

"What's the matter with you?" Benjamin sneered. "You weren't in love with him, were you?"

Jessie felt someone removing her gun belt and knife. "She has a derringer in her boot," Benjamin warned.

Jessie nearly toppled sideways when her foot was suddenly lifted and her boot jerked off. "She acts kinda stupid, boss," a second voice said.

Benjamin shook his head. "She's usually full of fire. I'm not sure what's gotten into her."

Jessie looked up for the first time and stared into the cold eyes of the man who had killed her pa. "I hear you've been looking for me, Jessie. It seems you wanted revenge on me for killing your worthless pa. Guess what?" Benjamin smiled and held out his rifle. He pointed it toward Langley's body. "I killed him too."

Jessie wanted to scream. She wanted to yell and kick and claw his eyes out. But she didn't have the strength to do any of that. Benjamin reached out and grabbed her chin roughly. "What's the matter with you, girl? You aren't broken, are you?"

Jessie hissed and spit at his bearded face which caused him to chuckle. "Good. I'm glad you're still in there."

"What are we doing with him, boss?" a young, skinny man asked as he pointed toward Langley.

"Just leave him. The vultures and ants will make short work of the body." Benjamin shook his head. "The great Marston Jacob would be embarrassed to know his son had been killed so easily. That's what happens to most men, it would seem. The second they get distracted by a pretty woman, they die."

Benjamin released his hold on Jessie and then smacked her roughly across the face. She showed no sign that it stung. It was her fault that Langley was dead. He was no outlaw, he was a gunsmith. But she was an outlaw. She never should have let her guard down enough that these men could sneak in. Jessie should have kept Langley safe and she hadn't.

"Tie her on the extra mare, boys!" Benjamin called out. "We'll cover a bit of distance before we camp tonight."

"Hey, can I have that black gelding?" the skinny man asked, eyeing Langley's horse.

"No you can't!" Jessie snapped.

Benjamin laughed. "Well she does remember how to speak! Sure, Cam, you can have the horse. It looks like a damn nice one."

Jessie watched the skinny man walk to Langley's horse but as soon as he unhooked the halter from the tree branch it had been looped around, the gelding reared back, jerked out of the skinny man's hold and made a run for it.

"Dammit!" skinny man exclaimed, jerking off his hat and stomping the ground.

A fat man patted the skinny one on the back. "Better luck next time."

"Let's move out, men!" Benjamin called. "I'm eager to get this one back to the house."

Jessie was placed on a mare with her arms tied. The mare was then secured to Benjamin's horse. The men surrounded her on each side to take away any thought she might have of running.

Jessie's eyes kept straying to Langley as they rode out. She stared at his body until it was no longer visible simply hoping she'd see some sign he wasn't truly dead.

There was none.

Jessie felt as if a gaping hole had suddenly been torn through her chest. Jessie knew she would never be fixed.