Authors: Madeline Baker
“I see. That’s an honest answer, if not a wise one.”
Creed took a deep breath. “If it’s all the same to you, Judge, I’d just as soon be hanged as sent back to prison.”
“No!” Jassy surged to her feet, her hand at her heart. “No.”
“Please, be seated, Mrs. Maddigan.”
Jassy sat down, her face pale as she clutched the baby to her breast.
Parker leaned forward, his gaze steady on Creed’s face. “And if I don’t hang you, and don’t send you back to prison, just what do you intend to do with your life?”
“I’ve got some money I earned working in Frisco,” Creed said, his hands clenched. “I own a few acres outside of town. I’d like to build a house there, settle down, make a home for my wife and my daughter. Maybe raise a few head of cattle.”
“Do you think you could do that? Settle down, I mean.”
“Yessir.”
Parker glanced at Jassy and the baby, then looked back at Creed. “I’m going to suspend your sentence, Mr. Maddigan. I’m going to give you one year to prove yourself. At the end of that time, I’ll re-evaluate your case. Any questions?”
“No, sir.”
“Very well. Until that time, I’m putting you in the custody of your wife and child.”
Creed stared at the judge, unable to believe his ears. He was free. He stood there, jubilant, unable to absorb the full meaning of the judge’s words, while Harrington removed the handcuffs. And then Jassy was running toward him, tears streaming down her cheeks as she hugged him close, careful not to crush the baby between them.
Creed’s arms closed around his wife and daughter. “Thanks, Judge,” he said, blinking back the tears in his eyes. “I…thanks.”
“Don’t make me regret my decision, Mr. Maddigan.”
“I won’t. I swear it.”
Judge Parker smiled. “I believe you, sir.” Coming out from behind his desk, he offered Creed his hand. “Good day to you.”
Creed shook Parker’s hand. “Thanks, again.”
Jassy smiled at Creed through her tears. “I told you everything would be all right,” she said tremulously.
“Yes, ma’am, you did.” He gazed down at her, his heart filled to overflowing as she placed his daughter in his arms. “Hi, sweetheart,” he murmured.
Jassy smiled at the sight, and then she frowned. “I didn’t know you owned land around here. Where is it?”
“That valley you like so much,” Creed said. “It’s mine.”
“You never told me that!”
“I never thought we’d have a life together, Jassy, especially not here.”
“We’re going to have a wonderful life,” she said. “Just wait and see.”
Taking Jassy by the hand, Creed walked out of the judge’s office.
The sky was still cloudy, but as they walked toward the hotel, the sun came out and a rainbow stretched across the sky.
Five years later
Jassy stood on the porch, her heart pounding with excitement as she watched Creed work the kinks out of one of the horses.
Rose jumped up and down, hands clapping, as the horse began to buck. Standing beside her, her three-year old brother, Clay, hollered encouragement.
She smiled as she watched Creed cling to the horse’s back with the tenacity of a cocklebur. Her husband had blossomed in the last five years, she thought, although blossomed hardly seemed an appropriate word for a man. Still, he had lost that hard edge that had been so much a part of him. He smiled more, laughed often. In spite of all his doubts about being a father, she couldn’t have asked for a better father for her children, a better husband for herself.
He had built her the house she had once dreamed of, with a big picture window overlooking the lake. They had started off with a small herd of cattle, a herd that had grown steadily each year.
To Creed’s surprise, the town had gradually come to accept them both. People no longer remembered that Jassy’s mother had been a whore, or that Creed had once earned his living with his gun.
Walking down the stairs, she made her way toward the corral. The battle was over, and Creed had won. Rose and Clay had ducked under the rails and now they were both chattering a mile a minute, asking what he was going to name the horse, pestering him to let them ride.
“Let’s ask your mama what we should call him,” Creed suggested as Jassy approached the corral.
“I want to call him Thunder,” Clay said.
“And I want to call him Rainbow,” Rose said.
“How about if we call him Storm?” Jassy suggested.
“Storm? Why?” Rose asked with a frown.
“Well, when it storms, there’s thunder, and then there’s a rainbow.”
Clay and Rose looked at each other, and then nodded. “Storm,” they said in unison, and began to giggle.
“Supper’s ready,” Jassy said. Pulling a hanky from her apron pocket, she wiped the perspiration from Creed’s forehead.
“I love you, Mr. Maddigan.”
“And I love you, Mrs. Maddigan.”
Rose frowned at Clay. “I love you, Clay,” she said, imitating Jassy’s voice.
Clay grimaced. “I love Storm,” he said, ducking when Rose made as if to hit him. “He’s prettier than you!”
Creed grinned as he watched his daughter chase her brother toward the house. “See what you started with all that love stuff,” he teased.
“Yes, indeed,” Jassy said. She looked out over the valley, at their house bathed in the golden glow of the sun, at her two children, now happily tussling in the grass like puppies, at the tall, handsome man at her side. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
“Me, either,” Creed said. Drawing her into his arms, he kissed her, loving the way she leaned into him, the way she always smiled when she saw him. Truly, he had found the treasure at the end of the rainbow the day Jassy McCloud came into his life. And he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
The End
Madeline Baker started writing simply for the fun of it. Now she is the award-winning author of more than thirty historical romance books and one of the most popular writers of Native American romance. She lives in California, where she was born and raised.
Lakota Renegade Copyright © 1995, 2014, 2016 Madeline Baker
Published by Butterfly Kisses Press
Cover design by Cindy Lucas