Texanna continued to sob. Royce forced her to turn around. “Listen, love. Hear that loud wail? That’s our nephew making his presence known.”
She stopped sobbing, but her body continued to shake. She moved closer to the bed to peer at the infant.
Matthew stood and held out his arms. Texanna walked into them, and her cries of joy were muffled by his shoulder.
When she turned toward Royce, her smile warmed his heart. She took two steps, stopped, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
Royce placed Texanna on the bed in his old room and lay down beside her. His heart hammered against his chest. She’d saved the infant’s life. He was still astounded and looked at Texanna with awe and tenderness. She’d been terrified, but her strength stepped in and let her tend to the babe.
Doc waved smelling salts under her nose and she jerked away from the noxious smell. “Make her rest, Royce. When she’s asleep, come downstairs. We need to talk.”
Royce nodded. Doc left the room and shut the door behind him. Texanna turned toward him, her face against his chest. He stroked her back, and his hand moved under her hair to caress the nape of her neck. “Sleep, sweetheart, sleep.”
When she slept soundly, Royce forced himself to pull away from her. He longed to stay on the bed and hold her, listen to her breathing, and feel her chest expand and fall. A feeling of unease filled him. He couldn’t ignore the facts any longer. He didn’t want to believe she was from the future, that she wasn’t his wife. Texanna’s actions today left little room for doubt in his mind. Maybe she’d learned the technique she’d used today wherever it was she’d been the last four years, but he didn’t think so. He brushed a kiss on the side of her mouth.
How many times can a heart be broken before it shatters?
He went downstairs.
Doc and Jason sat at the kitchen table, each staring into a glass of whiskey. Jason jumped up when he entered the room. Royce grabbed his arm.
“Where’re you going in such a hurry?”
“Matthew said to come get him when you came down.”
Doc looked at Royce, his eyes searching. “What the hell happened in that room upstairs, son?”
Chapter Thirteen
Royce propped his elbows on the table and dropped his head into his hands. “Wait ‘til Matthew and Jason get here.” He didn’t want to have to repeat himself. Once would be hard enough.
Doc poured whiskey into a glass and shoved it toward Royce. “Drink it. You look like death.”
Hell, he felt like he was dying. Texanna was telling the truth, and she would be leaving him. He lifted the glass, tossed the liquid down, and pushed the glass toward Doc for a refill. Doc raised an eyebrow but didn’t question him.
The sound of Matthew and Jason’s boots on the stairs echoed through the house. They came through the kitchen door like a gust of fresh air—Matthew so happy and Jason laughing at the grin on his big brother’s face.
Royce stood and clasped his brother in a bear hug. “Congratulations, Papa.”
Matthew’s grin turned sober. “If it hadn’t been for Texanna, we’d be planning a funeral.” He and Jason sat down, and all three men turned to look at Royce.
Doc was the first to speak. “What happened in that room, Royce?”
“Hell, I don’t know. Well, I might know, but it doesn’t make a lick of sense.” He searched Doc’s and his brothers’ eyes. “You remember what Texanna said that first day when she got off the train?”
Jason spoke, “Sure do. She said, ‘My name’s not Pearl. It’s Texanna, and I’m sure as hell not your wife.’”
“That’s right. Later she told me, ‘The only reason I know you is because you were married to my elderly neighbor in 2008.’”
Jason sputtered, “That’s impossible.”
Royce nodded. “That’s what I thought, but I’m beginning to think she’s telling the truth.” He took a deep breath and continued. “She has a history book that was printed in 1962 and swears she’s from the year 2008.”
Jason and Matthew laughed then sobered when they saw the expression on Doc’s face. Doc poured Royce another drink. “Go on. What else has she said?”
Royce’s chest hurt, and he rubbed it trying to soothe the ache. “That my wife Pearl boarded the train in 1876, but when she got off the train in San Antonio, it was 1936.” Royce ran his fingers through his hair. “She rode the train to Waco as often as she could, trying to get back to me and Garrett. In 1940, she gave up and married, but never had any other children.
“The woman upstairs is Texanna Keith—Pearl’s next door neighbor. As a child, Texanna formed an attachment for Pearl and spent many hours in her home learning to paint. It’s uncanny that she also closely resembles Pearl.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Everything she’s told me echoes what was written in the two letters. Supposedly Pearl wrote one in 1940 and the other in 2008.”
No one spoke as they mulled over what he’d said. “Do you believe her?” asked Jason.
“I didn’t at first, but she has a picture of an older woman, and I’d almost swear the blue eyes of the woman are Pearl’s.” He scratched his head. “Doc, Matthew, you saw what happened upstairs. It was a miracle.” He studied their expressions, trying to determine if they believed him.
“Doc, she said doctors can tell the sex of a baby before it’s born and take pictures.” Doc’s eyes hadn’t left Royce’s face. He felt like a bug under a magnifying glass. “Guns in her time can shoot ten bullets in rapid succession after cocking it once. She called it a nine milli something.”
Jason’s face lit. “That’d be something to see.”
“She told me Molly was having twins before we left home today and that one would die.” He grasped Jason’s arms. “Said your great-grandson had your journal that told about it, among other things.”
All three men looked at him as if he’d sprouted horns. Should he tell them about the French underwear? Might as well make his lunacy complete. He cleared his throat. “Do you remember how she was dressed when she got off the train?”
Grinning, Jason nodded and started to whistle. Royce slapped him on the head.
“Ouch! I’m just trying to lighten the mood around here.” Royce cocked an eyebrow, and Jason muttered. “Okay, I’ll shut up.”
“The clothes were bad enough, but you won’t believe what she had on underneath.” Three men leaned forward in anticipation. Royce debated whether to tell them or not. Ah, hell, he’d come this far, he might as well finish. He glared at them. “I better never hear what I’m about to tell you repeated.”
Both of his brothers reached out and squeezed his arm. “You know better, Royce. We’re family, and what goes on in this family stays with us,” said Matthew.
Jason, face sober, nodded in agreement.
Royce turned to Doc.
“You have my word. I took an oath, and I’ve never broken it.”
Royce felt the heat rise to his face, and he groaned. “French underwear. Bloomers no more than a scrap of cloth and couldn’t cover...” He looked up and cleared his throat. “I can’t even describe what she had for a chemise. I was afraid she’d been working in a bordello.
“When I asked her if she had worked in a brothel, she got all puffed up and said, ‘That would be interesting—a virgin working in a whorehouse.”‘
Doc scratched his chin and then studied his hands. Matthew and Jason watched Doc, waiting for him to ask. “Well, was she a virgin?”
“How the hell do I know? She won’t let me touch her.” He finished off his whiskey. “And since I had doubts all along that she was Pearl...”
Matthew cleared his throat and nodded. “Sounds reasonable. She’s had decent upbringing.” Royce was tempted to tell them about the lack of prostitution in the twenty-first century, and what men did when they needed a woman.
Matthew swirled the whiskey around in his glass. “Royce, this doesn’t make sense. If time-travel were possible, why would she want to come back here, knowing she’s not your wife?”
“Her reason for being here is a promise she made to the older woman, her beloved Pearl as she called her though they’re not related. Texanna came to tell me why my wife didn’t return and to protect me and Garrett.”
“Protect you and Garrett from what?” Jason asked.
“To keep me from dying in a bank robbery on August eighth. She has a history book with my picture stating when and how I died.” Pain clutched his heart. “And one of Garrett. The book said he died in 1890 while robbing a train.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Matthew’s face reddened. “Garrett wouldn’t do something like that.”
Royce shrugged. “Supposedly after losing his mother and then his father, he turned bad. Became wild.” His hands clenched around his glass. “After the robbery, when she knows I’m safe, she’ll get on that train and travel to San Antonio and her time.”
“And how does she bring about this time-travel?” asked Doc. “Seems to me if such could happen, folks would be traipsing back and forth all the time.”
Royce looked at his brothers. “You remember back when Pa gave me that piece of turquoise. I was sixteen at the time, and both of you resented the fact that he’d given it to me.”
Matthew spoke up. “Did for the longest. I was the oldest. It should have come to me.” He clapped Royce on the shoulder. “But, I don’t any longer.”
Jason just shrugged. “Didn’t seem like such a big deal to me. Just a piece of pretty stone.”
Royce cleared his throat. “Do you remember how he told me to always protect the turquoise, that it was part of our heritage—the Indian side?”
“Yeah, I remember,” said Matthew as he finished off his whiskey.
“Later he took me aside and told me the stone had magical qualities. He didn’t know what they were, but his father impressed upon him the importance of protecting the stone. It had been passed down from son to son for almost a hundred years.”
“But why you and not one of us? Asked Jason.
“I don’t know, he just said I was the chosen one.”
The room was silent, each man alone with his thoughts. Jason was the first to break the silence. “So, you still haven’t told us how she
supposedly time-travels.”
“The turquoise is the key.” He raised a hand to halt their questions. “Don’t ask me how it works, because I don’t understand it. When Pearl tried to come back from 1936, she couldn’t because the turquoise was missing. She’d had to hock the locket.”
Doc’s eyes bored into his. “And you really believe she’s not Pearl, that she’s telling the truth?”
“At first I thought she’d just lost her memory, but things started adding up, and now this—this thing she did to bring that baby back to life. Hell, I’m so confused I don’t know what to believe, but I do know she’s not Pearl.”
Matthew’s face was pinched with worry. “What about this bank robbery? Did she give you anything to go on?”
“The Bass gang will rob the First National sometime around noon on August eighth of this year. Texanna said I was shot in the back.”
“Shot in the back?” Jason slammed his fist on the table. “That’s ridiculous.” His eyes narrowed. “There’s only one way that could happen.”
Doc spoke up. “Yeah, someone besides one of the bank robbers fired the shot.”
“You need to meet with your deputies so they can be prepared,” said Matthew.
Jason shook his head. “No, brother. We’ve got to keep it quiet. Only the four of us need to know. And Texanna, of course.”
Royce studied his younger brother and grinned. “I think we just might make a good deputy out of you after all.”
“What do you mean? I’m a good one already.”
Royce looked up to see Doc twisting his hands. “Ahem, I hate to bring this up, but if Texanna isn’t your wife, she shouldn’t be living in your house.”
“She can live here with Molly and me.”
Anger choked Royce, but he swallowed it. “Texanna isn’t going anywhere. She’s staying with me.” Nobody had to know she wasn’t his wife. He needed her with him for as long as she’d be here.
Doc peered over the top of his glasses. “Son, if folks find out, her reputation will be ruined. You don’t want that to happen.”
“She’s staying with me and Garrett, and that’s final.”
“Okay. You can dry her tears when folks start snubbing her.” The older man shoved his chair back and stood.
Royce flinched at Doc’s words. No one would ever know she wasn’t his wife. “I won’t allow that to happen.”
“Suit yourself.” Doc clapped Matthew on the shoulder. “Keep those babies in the house until they’ve fattened up. And keep as many people away from here as you can. Don’t want ‘um catching something at this age.”
“Thanks, Doc, I will.” Matthew walked out with the older man.
Royce mulled over Doc’s words in his mind. He didn’t want to hurt or shame Texanna, but he couldn’t let her go right now. She’d be leaving anyway so it wouldn’t matter if the town’s people snubbed her. They’d never know the truth.
Jason clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m heading upstairs to bed. You and Texanna spending the night?”
It was almost ten o’clock, and he didn’t want to wake Texanna. “Yeah. You working tomorrow?”
“Yeah, me, Pete, and Ross. Don’t know who else is coming in. Relax and enjoy your day off tomorrow.” He grinned. “Hope it’ll be less exciting. Having babies is hard work.”
Royce couldn’t help but laugh. The kid was so full of bull. He hadn’t arrived until after the babies were born. “Isn’t it past your bedtime, runt?”
Jason grabbed Royce around the neck.
“No horseplay in the house, you two.” Matthew said from the kitchen door. “Whoever wakes those babies has to change their diapers.”
Jason threw up his hands. “Okay, okay, I’m going,” he said and started up the stairs. Royce started to follow. He was bushed. Matthew laid a hand on his arm.
“Stay awhile longer. I want to talk to you.”
Matthew could talk all he wanted to, but Texanna was staying in his house with him and Garrett. He joined his brother at the table.
“Royce, since you know for a fact the Texanna upstairs isn’t your wife, do you love her with the passion you had for your wife?” Matthew asked.
The question took Royce by surprise. Even though he couldn’t make love to her, she added joy and excitement to his life. He looked forward to teasing her, getting her dander up.
His voice was thick. “Yeah, I do.” He dropped his head into his hands. “God help me, I love her even more than I did Pearl. I’m not sure I’ll survive when she leaves.”