Chapter 14: Jake’s Story (Continued)

~If you can wait, and not be tired of waiting, or being lied about, don’t deal in lies. Or being hated, don’t give way to hating… ~—Rudyard Kipling

It got very quiet in the cave. Dannie reached over and placed her hand over Jake’s.

“Did Calhoon react somehow?” she asked softly.

Jake snorted. “Of course the man reacted. We all knew he would. He was mad as hell at me, not only for taking Rachel, but for wounding him in the process. I had hoped the whole escapade would help in catchin’ him, but he somehow got off that train before the authorities could grab a hold of him.

“I knew he would come back to the farm. Somehow, I had to keep Daniel safe and out of this. I was gonna leave, after all, but my stubborn brother was refusing to budge. I don’t know what magic that little plot of land worked over him, but now that he had his hands on it, he refused to give it up. He wanted to settle down there, get married, and raise a family.

“So, to make sure Calhoon didn’t come after him, I made it clear that I was the one who had come up with the plan to get rid of Rachel, and I told Daniel that if Calhoon ever showed up, to put all the blame on me.

“I was the one who went after her, after all. I got her off that train, and I was the only one who could say anythin’ about it. Everyone around knew that Daniel and I didn’t get along, so I hoped it would help convince Calhoon that I hadn’t included my brother in this scheme.

“It was still a gamble, but Daniel was stupid enough to risk it. Of course, since I was going to take the blame, I wasn’t going to hang around Texas. I left one night without tellin’ Daniel where I was going. It would be safer for him, as well, if he didn’t know where I was.

“All this happened four years ago. I haven’t written my brother once in all this time. If Calhoon somehow got a whiff that we were in correspondence, he would decide that Daniel is conspiring with me about Rachel. And that is why,” Jake glumly concluded. “I don’t communicate with any of the members of my family.”

“You mean that Calhoon is still somewhere out there? After all these years, you think he is still looking for your sister?” Dannie felt a chill go down her spine.

“Yup, they still can’t catch that scoundrel, and he’s still lookin’ for Rachel. I don’t know if it’s because he actually fell in love with her, or just because he wants to prove that he always wins. Either way, he’s been houndin’ me for quite some time.

“We met up once as I was travelin’ through Texas, and he tried to get her whereabouts out of me.”

“Tried?” Dannie asked, eyes wide. “How?”

“You don’t want to know, trust me. I told him the honest truth—that I didn’t know—but, of course, he didn’t believe me. He threatened he wouldn’t leave me alone until I gave Rachel up.

“I got lucky that time and managed to get away, alive and more or less in one piece.”

“Pretty soon after that, I joined a cattle drive and traveled to Wichita. It was there that I met Bessie. She was a right pretty girl, the prettiest I had ever seen in my life—and I’ll admit, I was smitten right from the start.” Jake’s voice grew rather strained, and he fought to keep his cool.

“We began seein’ a lot of each other. Bessie was friendly and sympathetic. After all I had been through, it was nice to have someone to talk to. I still wasn’t sure exactly where I was going to go to start building my future life, but I knew that, wherever it was, I would want to build it with her.

“There was one thing about her, however, that should have gotten me suspicious—but I was too in love with her to notice it. Love makes us blind, and sometimes it makes us blind to the wrong things.

“She was always askin’ about my family and seemed keenly interested in what happened to Rachel. Whenever we would get to talkin’ about just anythin’, one way or another the conversation would somehow lead to Rachel. As I mentioned earlier, at first, I hardly even noticed. I was too busy building plans for the future.”

”Why did she want to know where Rachel was?” Dannie had, of course, already guessed the answer, but she felt it would be better if she asked.

“Because she was working for Calhoon,” Jake said hotly, his face growing angry. “She was one of his gang. The little female that he used to seduce men to get information out of them. I was just one of the many fish she was baiting to catch.

“Calhoon tracked me down and had her try to get the information out of me. She kept pesterin’ an’ pesterin’ me about it until finally I began to grow a little suspicious. I didn’t want to think anythin’ bad of her. After all, I was very much in love with her. But I made up my mind that I would watch her carefully.

“I was hopin’ that my suspicions would prove to be nothing more than somethin’ I had made up. I so desperately wanted to believe that it was just me overreactin’.

“But one night I caught her talkin’ with Calhoon. He was all upset that this was takin’ forever. He said Bessie had better pull the strings in quick because he was startin’ to lose his patience. I didn’t hear the entire conversation, but I heard enough to make me understand that Bessie wasn’t in love with me at all. She was just doing her job.

“What was more, I found out that she was actually the lover of another one of his gang, and the man was getting real upset that the whole thing with me was taking so long.

“Needless to say, when I found all this out, I was quite heartbroken. But I knew I needed to keep my head about me. That night I stole away without tellin’ anyone.

“I came here to Arizona, and pretty soon I met up with Clayton Walkers, who was looking to start a ranch. We teamed up, and the Cora Belle came to life.

“I’ve been workin’ there for about three and a half years, and so far Calhoon hasn’t been able to find me. Of course, it’s all just a matter of time. I know he’s still out there. One day, he’ll find me and come to settle the score. He won’t lose. He can’t lose. He has to win.

“When he does come, it will be me or him. One of us is gonna to have to go.”

“Why didn’t you change your name, try to hide your identity?” Dannie shuddered, almost expecting Calhoon to suddenly appear from the growing darkness.

“I’m no coward,” Jake replied. “I’ll lay low while I can, but if he wants to find me so badly, then let him find me. Even if he does kill me, at least he’ll know that I was perhaps the only person who stood up to him, who defied him, who wasn’t afraid of him.

“Let him come and face me like a man, not have his little trollop do things for him.”

Jake cut off abruptly and stared out into the pouring rain. Dannie bit her lip, trying to think of something to say. Unfortunately, nothing was coming to mind.

“So there ya have it,” Jake spoke up again. “That’s the story of how my family broke up—and all because Rachel couldn’t keep her head about her, couldn’t keep her emotions in check.”

Jake shook his head in disgust. Dannie looked at him sympathetically and gently squeezed his large, calloused hand.

“She was only sixteen, Jake. Girls tend to let their emotions get the better of them when they are that age. I first met Paul when I was sixteen and, well, we both know how that ended.”

Dannie let out a sigh. “Seeing as her father wasn’t very affectionate toward her, and I’m guessing both you and Daniel were busy sorting out your own lives, she was probably pretty lonely.

“Then some man comes along and finally gives her all the attention she has been craving. He showers her with pretty words and makes her feel like she is the most important person in the world. I’m not surprised she fell for him.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not condoning what she did or how she behaved,” Dannie added quickly, seeing the fire starting to burn in Jake’s eyes. “I’m just saying that, given her age and the circumstances, I understand why it happened the way it did.”

“And I also want you to know that I am truly sorry it turned out like this. I’m also really sorry about the way it was with Bessie. I’m guessing she is the reason you find it hard to trust any woman.”

Jake slowly nodded his head. “One of the reasons, at least. Amy helped out, and Rachel gave her generous contribution. I guess I’m just not lucky when it comes to women.”

There was a pause before Dannie spoke again, her voice filled with regret. “Jake, believe I owe you an apology.”

“For what?” Jake looked at her in surprise.

“For judging you. I didn’t know anything about you, but came to conclusions just the same, without bothering to try and understand why you were the way you were. Papa would have been ashamed of me. He taught me never to judge a person, but I’m afraid I was never good at following that particular set of teachings.”

“Well, I wasn’t exactly nice to you either. So I’ll apologize too, and we’ll call it even.”

Dannie smiled. “Now that we’ve got it all settled, how about some dinner?”

“Sounds good to me.” Jake grinned and went to the wagon to try and find something to eat, while Dannie cleared the sleeping space and arranged the bedrolls for when they would need them.

They would not be getting to Hopewing today.