Wild Sweet Love by Beverly Jenkins
Chapter 19
That morning, Madison and Teresa were sleeping soundly after their night of loving when they were awakened by pounding on the door.
Teresa said sleepily, “It’s just my brothers. Ignore them.”
But the thundering continued, accompanied by Neil shouting Madison’s name.
Teresa swore. Throwing back the sheet covering them, she got up and stuck her arms into her robe. “You go back to sleep. I’ll take care of them.”
Half asleep, she stumbled through the suite and snatched open the door. “What!”
“Molly’s missing,” Neil said grimly.
“What? What do you mean, missing? Come on in.” She turned and called out, “Madison!”
He appeared a moment later and asked sleepily, “What’s the matter?”
“Your mother is missing?”
His eyes widened.
Neil said, “You two get dressed and I’ll tell you on the way. Sumner Booth has her.”
“Dammit!” Madison swore angrily. He and Teresa hurried away to get dressed, and as they left the suite, Neil told them the story.
According to Neil, after Teresa and Madison left the dance, the celebrants also began leaving. Molly had volunteered to help with the clean up, and Diego stayed with her to escort her home. Once the major things were done, Molly sent the rest of the women home and stayed behind to take down the decorations. She put everything in a crate, and Diego took the crate outside to put it in the buggy, but he never got the chance to go back inside because he was ambushed.
By the time Neil related the story, he, Madison, and Teresa were halfway to the sheriff’s office.
“Is Diego okay?” Madison asked, though he was more worried about his mother.
“Yeah. Booth hit him over the head with something. Knocked him out cold. He came to this morning tied up in the town hall privy.”
Teresa shook her head at the troubling turn of events. “How do you know it was Booth?”
“He left a note on Diego’s lap.”
Madison cursed.
Jefferson, the remaining brothers, and a tight-jawed Olivia were in the sheriff’s office.
Diego, looking furious, said to Madison, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know Booth was hanging around.”
“No one did,” Madison replied. “We’ll get her back. May I see the note?”
Jefferson handed it over. The hastily scrawled words asked for seven hundred dollars and said to bring it to a place called Red Cloud.
“Where’s Red Cloud?” Madison asked.
“About a two-day ride north,” the sheriff told him. “It’s on the other side of the Nebraska border.”
Teresa said, “He has family there. We holed up there a few times when I rode with him.”
Jefferson said, “I’ve wired the county sheriff, but he only has one deputy, so I’m going to swear you all in. In the meantime—”
“In the meantime,” Diego interrupted, “deputize us now so we can ride. I’ll pay the ransom because it’s my fault she got snatched. After we get her back, I get first dibs on kicking Booth’s ass.”
Jefferson agreed to deputize the July brothers and Madison, and the posse set out. Teresa rode Cloud, and Madison was given one of Handy’s best mounts.
Madison had no problem keeping up. He was as angry as he was concerned. What kind of place was this, where people took out their revenge on innocent old women? Diego was going to have to stand in line, he vowed to himself, because he wanted a piece of Booth first.
They rode hard most of the morning, stopping only to water the horses, and then pushed on. By evening their mounts were tired and so were they, so they made camp. No one wanted to stop, but without fresh horses, going on was impossible. As they ate beans around the fire, Madison reflected on the day and worried about his mother.
Teresa was seated at his side. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay. Worried, though.”
“Booth has no idea what he’s in for. He’s as stupid as he is ugly if he thinks we’re going to take this lying down. His beef is with me, not Molly.” She added, “I’m sorry she got mixed up in this.”
“So am I.”
The terse reply tightened Teresa’s jaw.
He said, “And you want to raise our child here? No.”
“Let’s get Molly back first, and then we’ll fight, okay?”
“Agreed.”
Teresa knew his mood was tied to his concern for his mother, but bickering was not going to be helpful. She wanted to shoot Booth for what he was doing to Madison and for impacting her day-old marriage.
The next morning, they headed out at dawn. Still riding north, they crossed the Kansas-Nebraska border around noon, and turned toward Red Cloud. Madison hadn’t had much to say to Teresa since their short conversation the previous evening, but she didn’t take it personally. She loved him and knew that underneath his apprehension and anger, he loved her as well. She was sure that once they found Molly, things would be better.
Red Cloud was a tiny little plains town that made Henry Adams look like Philadelphia. The Julys and Madison rode slowly abreast down the main street, ignoring the alarm on the faces of the people staring on. They looked like the gang of outlaws they once were.
A man standing in the doorway of a storefront with a sign showing it to be the undertaker’s office seemed to agree. He called out, “We ain’t got no bank!”
Teresa called back, “Does Hank Booth still live nearby?”
“Ten miles east.”
She touched her hat in thanks, and the grim-faced riders sent their horses into a gallop.
Madison felt as if time had slowed because the ten miles seemed to take forever. He looked over at Teresa riding beside him on her big stallion. He owed her an apology for having been so unapproachable since last night, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t know if his mother were alive or dead. Molly Nance was a kind Christian woman from Philadelphia; she didn’t know anything about life out here on the plains. He remembered how excited she’d been while talking of moving out here, but after this, she probably never wanted to leave the safe city confines of Philadelphia again, and he wouldn’t blame her.
A soddie appeared up ahead.
“That’s it,” Teresa called out.
They reined their mounts to a halt. The soddie was out in the middle of nowhere. There wasn’t a tree or a place to conceal themselves from view for as far as their eyes could see.
Madison stared at the soddie. “Is it made out of grass?”
Teresa nodded. “Pretty common in these parts. No trees.”
Diego said, “Come on, Madison. Me, you, and Teri will go see what’s what.”
Neil and the others took out their rifles. “We’ll cover you.”
The three of them moved their horses forward at a walk. Madison was tense. Teresa looked at her husband. The worry on his face broke her heart. “Just a few moments more and we’ll have her back.” Teresa hated the idea of paying Booth even a dime, but with Molly’s safety on the line there was no other choice.
When they got within fifty yards, Booth stepped outside. From behind a raised rifle he yelled, “Hold it right there!”
They stopped.
“You got the money?”
Diego held up a leather pouch. “Gold!”
They saw the smile split Booth’s bearded face.
Madison snarled, “Let me see my mother!”
Booth turned, said something, and Molly walked out.
“Here she is!” he said, facing them again.
Molly looked tired, but her anger was plain. Also plain was the large cast iron skillet that she brought out from behind her skirt and crashed down on Booth’s head. He keeled over like a tree, out cold before he hit the ground.
A wide-eyed Teresa met Madison’s equally wide eyes and they began to laugh. An ecstatic Diego threw his head back and yelled the Seminole victory cry, while the rest of the brothers came riding up to find out what had happened.
More proud than he’d ever been in his life, Madison watched Molly toss the skillet aside, step over Booth’s prone body, and walk out to meet them. Madison dismounted and ran to her. Snatching her up, he held her tight. “God, are you all right?”
She was crying happy tears. “I’m fine, son. I’m fine.”
By then they were surrounded by the smiling Julys. Once Madison turned her loose, it became Teresa’s turn, and she hugged her mother-in-law as tightly as Madison had. “Did he hurt you?”
“No. In fact he was very respectful. Kept apologizing and saying if you had paid him, he wouldn’t have taken me.”
Teresa rolled her eyes.
Molly said, “I know, dear.” She looked at Diego. “Are you okay? I figured he must have done something to you when you didn’t return and he walked into the hall.”
Diego said, “I’m so sorry I didn’t protect you.”
She waved him off. “This was so exciting! When Booth stepped outside and left me alone for that moment, I grabbed that skillet.”
Two Shafts chuckled. “I’m liking her a lot too.”
“Me too,” Harper said.
Neil asked, “So you’re all right?”
“Yes, Neil, I am. I’m a July now. It’ll take more than a varmint like Booth to put a scare in me.”
They all fell out laughing.
Madison laughed too, all the while staring at her as if he’d never seen her before. “Mother?”
“Oh, Madison. I don’t care what you and Teresa decide. I’m moving here. I’ve never felt so alive. And wait until I get home and tell Rebecca I was taken hostage and held for ransom. She is going to be so jealous!”
Teresa laughed so hard she had to sit on the ground.
Afterward, the brothers took a moment to tie up Booth, who was still out cold, and cuff his hands behind his back. They also put a gag in his mouth, because no one wanted to hear him complaining on the ride back when he woke up. Two Shafts found two horses grazing in back of the soddie and threw Booth over the saddle of one. They put Molly on the other and headed back to Henry Adams.
Their return was greeted by a happy Olivia and a pleased Sheriff Jefferson, who took the angry but still gagged Booth into custody.
Two Shafts told him, “You really should let us play with him before you lock him up.”
Jefferson, chuckling, shook his head. “Oh no, that’s going to be the judge’s job.”
So, Chase pushed Booth toward his office and the Julys went on their way.
That evening, while Molly slept off her adventure in her bed, Teresa and Madison were out on the blue sofa enjoying both the solitude and having Molly back safe and sound.
“Your mother’s quite a woman,” she said. “Booth had a knot on his head big as my fist.”
“And well deserved, I might add.”
“When she knocked him over the head, I almost hurt myself laughing.”
Madison was certain he’d take the memory of the incident to his grave. “Amazing.”
Teresa looked up into the eyes of the man she loved so very much and said, “Well?”
He turned her way and stroked her cheek. “Well, what?”
“We have one last issue to take care of. Where are we going to live?”
He smiled. “Here.”
Her eyes widened. “Truly?”
He nodded. “Between you and my mother, I’m not going to win. And besides, if my sixty-two-year-old mother can take care of herself out here on the plains, our children will be able to do so too.”
Teresa threw her arms around him and began kissing him all over his handsome face. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
“You’re welcome,” he said, laughing. “We’ll have to go back to Philadelphia and sell the houses and see if Emma wants to come out, but after that, Henry Adams will be home.”
Teresa worked her way onto his lap, and he held her close. He asked, “Remember that land we were looking at?”
“The one with the trees and water?”
“Yep. Think I’ll buy it and build us a house. Now that I own a twenty percent interest in a Yukon gold mine, I can afford it.”
Teresa leaned back. “A twenty percent interest in a gold mine?”
“Yep. Won it from Diego playing poker the night before we got married.”
She placed her head on his chest and laughed. “You are something,” she told him.
“So are you.”
Teresa met his gaze and said softly and with feeling, “I love you, Madison Nance.”
“I love you too, Teresa. As much as I love breathing.”
A gleam of mischief sparkled in her eyes. “You know, Molly’s probably going to be sleeping for a while. “Do we have any marmalade left?”
He grinned. “I think so.”
Her voice sultry and playful, she said, “Shall we step across the hall?”
“Thought you’d never ask.”
In the spring of 1896, Olivia and Neil welcomed their first child into the world. Teresa and Madison’s baby was born later that summer and drew its first breath in the bedroom of its parents’ new home. True to their pact, the sisters-in-law gave birth to beautiful baby girls.