Snowbound With the Sheriff (4 page)

Chapter Six

It was another full day before the storm let up, and Violet found herself sitting in a wagon outfitted with sleigh runners and being pulled by two huge draft horses with jingle bells attached to their harnesses and sprigs of greenery tied in their manes. If not for the heaviness in her chest, she might have enjoyed how festive the stable owner had made the horses.

Though thankful she and Chayston had formed an agreement, it hadn’t taken away her memory of the kiss. They’d been civil to each other the past two days, but that somehow made her yearnings stronger, and the stain of it all had her about to jump right out of her skin. Maybe she was a jezebel. If so, marrying the General would help, wouldn’t it?

She had no idea, and that frightened her. She couldn’t let John down. Could not. Not after all he’d done for her. And she still wanted a family. A husband.

Eleanor had hated her and her mother for encroaching on John’s attention, and she couldn’t help but fear how Chayston would eventually look upon her once she married his father. Why was everything so complicated? All she wanted was people who accepted her love. They didn’t even have to love her in return. Eleanor sure hadn’t, yet Violet still thought of her as family—and always would.

She doubted, though, that she’d be able to think of Chayston as her stepson. That was almost absurd. She’d never be able to forget him though.

How could she? She’d be married to his father.

“There it is,” Chayston said.

Violet let her gaze wander toward several black dots amongst the snow in a valley below them. “Your father’s ranch?”

“Yes,” he said, “my father’s ranch. The Big Basin.”

The almost-despondent tone in his voice had her rubbing both arms as a shiver raced through her system. The eerie sensations that shiver began grew stronger a short time later as they glided into the ranch, where men emerged from every building.

Even without the fact he stood on the front porch of the huge house, Violet would have known her soon-to-be husband was the General. The man was simply an older version of Chayston.

At one time she’d hoped that. Now she wondered if it would make her marriage that much more difficult.

He descended the steps and made his way to the wagon by a shoveled path, even before the horses came to a complete stop. “Violet,” he said with a voice that was as close to Chayston’s as one could get. “You’re even lovelier than John insisted.” He reached up and encompassed her waist with two huge hands and lifted her right out of the wagon, not so unlike his son in that manner, too. Glancing over her head as he set her feet on the ground, he said, “I thought you’d wait until the roads were clear, son.”

His tone wasn’t gruff, but Chayston’s was when he replied, “I figured I better get her here as soon as possible.”

The General grinned as he lowered his gaze to her again. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “Welcome to the Big Basin.”

Her tongue was thick, yet feeling inclined to speak, Violet willed her voice not to crack. “Thank you, General Williams.”

“Call me Ralston,” he said. “Or just General, like everyone else.” Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, he turned her toward the house. “Come inside.”

Violet wanted to turn around to see where Chayston was, but feared that wouldn’t help her nerves at all. Instead, she walked beside the General, squeaking out answers as he asked about her journey. When he questioned how her hotel accommodations in Spring Valley had been, a fresh wave of the jitters assaulted her. “The hotel was full, sir.”

“Full?” he asked, opening the front door and ushering her inside.

“Yes, sir,”

“Where did you stay?”

The room before her spun slightly and Violet closed her eyes. She feared her answer might upset him, and
that
she didn’t want. Not because of herself, but of Chayston. Coming between the two of them made her wish she’d never left Ohio.

“She stayed at the sheriff’s office.”

Violet flinched at Chayston’s answer. The General, though, merely cast a friendly smile toward her before gesturing across the room.

“This is Anita,” he said, introducing the older woman standing near a swooping staircase. “She’s my housekeeper, cook and the wife of my foreman. You follow her upstairs, and she’ll help you get settled.”

Violet had no chance to respond before he started speaking again. “Chayston, see her things are hauled upstairs and meet me in my office.”

Chayston had known that was coming, and even welcomed it. Having already instructed men to carry her luggage, he turned and followed his father down the hall and into his office.

“The hotel in Spring Valley is never full.” The General moved straight to his desk, where he dropped his hat.

Chayston closed the door and removed his gloves but didn’t bother unbuttoning; he wouldn’t be staying that long. “I know, but Gertrude Guldbrandson wasn’t about to let Violet stay there. Seems your decision has the women in town a bit flustered.” Anticipating what his father would ask next, Chayston added, “Gertrude insisted I not try Ruth Sutton, either.”

“Nosey old bats.” The General cracked a grin as he crossed the room to gaze out the window. “So you took her to the jail.”

“I couldn’t leave her standing in the middle of the street.” Chayston ignored the jolt that shot through him. Violet hadn’t stood in the street. She’d been in his arms. The exact spot he wouldn’t mind finding her again. No matter how hard he tried, his desire for her grew and grew. The last two days had him coiled tighter than a new spring, and just as bouncy.

His father glanced his way. “I’m thinking a Christmas Day wedding. How’s that sound to you?”

Shitty.

Chayston bucked up in order to ask, “Do you think two weeks is enough time to get to know someone well enough to marry them?”

His father laughed. “I knew I’d marry your mother in the blink of an eye.” He leaned one hand against the window frame. “I was leading a troop through Charleston when I saw her sitting on a porch swing and stopped the march right there to ride my horse across her front lawn.”

Chayston had heard the story before, but chose not to interrupt, hoping memories might change his father’s mind.

“There were five of them, women close to Violet’s age, on that porch, and your mother shoved the rest aside to tell me to get out of her flower bed. She was so damn adorable, all flustered and snippety. I told her I’d move, but that I’d be back and she best be ready for a wedding when I returned.” With a smile that said he was remembering things fondly, the General continued, “Two months later we were married, and I took her North, and when the war ended, I brought her out here, where the Mason-Dixon line didn’t exist.”

The invisible land marker that had mattered to some had never come between his parents despite the number of times his father claimed he was from the North and Chayston’s mother the South. What did matter to Chayston was the invisible line that would forever keep him and Violet apart. It had created a battle inside him and left him on the losing side. “Well, if you like snippety, you’ll like Violet.”

The General chuckled. “She got on your nerves, did she?”

“I’d rather have been snowed in with a rabid dog.”

The General nodded then asked, “Any word when Roy’s returning? It’s been lonesome out here without you.”

“No,” Chayston said. “I’m assuming it’s still the first of February or so.” Though his gut clenched, he added, “You won’t be lonesome anymore. Not with Violet here.”

“She tell you who her father is?”

“Was,” Chayston corrected. “He died.”

After a respectful head bow, the General continued, “You remember John, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Chayston admitted. Unable not to voice it, he said, “Don’t you think she’s a bit young for you?”

His father’s expression grew serious. “John Lassiter saved your life when you were a baby. During an Indian uprising, a brave thought it would be acoup to steal my son. John rescued you and had you back at the fort before I returned from the battle. From that moment on, your mother thought the sun rose and set on John’s head, and I considered him the best friend I’d ever have.”

Chayston hadn’t known that, but had known a strong bond existed between his parents and John.

Opening a desk drawer, his father pulled out several letters and laid them on the desk. “John wrote to me a couple of months ago. Told me he was dying, and that he’d found a husband for his daughter, Eleanor, which in his own words, hadn’t been easy. He wasn’t worried about her, though, not like he was Violet. She, he said, was tender and loving, and he feared what might happen to her once he was gone. It seemed Eleanor’s husband had eyes for Violet. John wanted her out of Ohio, and I told him to send her here. From his letters I understood it wasn’t just the husband, it was Eleanor’s hatred John feared. I told him to go in peace, that Violet would be welcomed at the Big Basin and protected from anyone who might try to harm her for the rest of her life.”

Having already assumed it was something along those lines, Chayston said, “I still don’t see why you agreed to marry her.”

“Read the letters,” his father said.

“No, thanks,” Chayston said, tugging on his gloves and heading for the door.

Chapter Seven

It had been over a week since Violet had stood at her bedroom window and watched Chayston drive away. Although she hadn’t seen him since, she thought about him nonstop. Couldn’t help it. Besides resembling his son in looks and actions, the General talked about Chayston a lot. The stories were endless, some funny and sweet, and others full of the mischievousness she believed still lived inside Chayston. Her stepfather was included in some of the storytelling, including how John had rescued Chayston as an infant.

That particular story allowed her to understand why the General had agreed to marry her—as repayment. One child’s rescue for another. In a way, it made her more beholden to fulfill her promise to John.

Like everyone else, she referred to him as the General, and had discovered Ralston Williams was a remarkable man. Generous and kind. A man she could easily love.

But not in the way a wife should love her husband, and that frightened her.

A knock sounded on her door and she turned from the window, where she’d watched wagons pulling in for the holiday celebration the General had planned. “Come in.”

The General’s tender smile made her heart hurt. “The house is filling up,” he said. “Are you ready?”

Holding in her stomach, she pressed a hand to the butterflies.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, sweetheart,” he said, folding an arm around her shoulders.

“I’m just nervous, I guess,” she said.

“Of what?”

Seeing your son
. She’d been caught between a father and his child once before and feared being there again. Biting her lip, she shrugged.

He chuckled and gave her shoulders a solid squeeze. “You’ll soon be Mrs. Williams, the matriarch of this entire valley.”

“Those are awfully big shoes,” she said, “and I have small feet.”

His laugh was heartier this time, and as they moved down the hallway, he said, “That was a nasty trick your stepsister played on you.”

“One of many over the years,” she said. A letter, along with a surprising sum of cash, had been delivered to the ranch. It had been from the railroad, explaining how Eleanor had paid each porter to pass a note onto the very last one, who was promised a fair sum if he’d steal Violet’s luggage, shoes and money so she’d arrive in Spring Valley a forlorn burden to her new husband. The man said he’d been tempted, but once he’d taken her boots and money, couldn’t go through with the ruse and placed them in her luggage at the last moment. The letter had also expressed thanks to Sheriff Williams for his investigation.

The General insisted Chayston had wanted to prove her innocence, but Violet wasn’t so sure about that.

Voices wafted up the stairs and she clutched the banister.

“It’s just a few people,” the General said, “to celebrate the festive season.”

No, it wasn’t. It was the entire countryside coming to meet his bride-to-be—and they’d probably all be back next week for the wedding.

“By the way, Violet, the house looks wonderful. You did an outstanding job decorating it. I’m quite proud to show it off, and you.”

The house was beautiful, and she had worked hard, strategically placing bows and containers of pinecones and stringing garland. She wanted to please the General, truly did, yet, swallowing against the dread threatening to overcome her, Violet had a great desire to run back to her room.

“Here we go,” he said, coaxing her onto the staircase. “One step at a time.”

A short time later, Violet admitted things weren’t as scary as she’d imagined. The General had a way of commanding people and though everyone held very curious glances, no one asked probing questions.

She found the ability to relax a bit, and the courage to smile, until the door opened once again. Her heart clawed its way into her throat, where it blocked her entire airway.

Still at her side, the General patted her back, which was enough to get her breathing again. But when he proudly announced, “There’s my son,” her lungs locked tight again.

That’s when it hit her. The true reason she was so distraught. She was in love with the son—wanted him as her husband, not his father. But Chayston’s cold glare slicing her in two said he liked her about as much as Eleanor did.

Having thought of little else except her the past week, Chayston couldn’t pull his eyes off Violet. She was more beautiful than he remembered, and the desire leaping to life forced him to admit he had to get it over with—the reason he’d come. As painful as it was, he turned to his father. “Could I see you alone?”

Without a hint of surprise, his father agreed, “Certainly, son.” He then bowed to Violet and whispered something.

Every muscle went stiff as Chayston watched her nod and offer him a feeble smile. His father then motioned for Anita, who gestured for Violet to join her near the stairs.

Chayston led the way to his father’s office, and closed the door firmly behind them. “Roy will be back by mid-January,” he said.

“Good,” his father answered, taking a seat behind his desk. “It’ll be good for things to get back to normal.”

Nothing would ever be normal again. He was giving up what he wanted most. “I’ve accepted a position as deputy sheriff in Cedar Grove.”

The General leaned back. “Oh?”

Chayston crossed the room to gaze out the window. “Yes, I’ve decided not to return to the Big Basin.”

“What about Violet?”

Chayston refrained from answering. Seeing her again had him questioning his decision. He’d fallen in love with his father’s bride. Deeper and harder than he’d ever imagined possible. In a matter of mere days. But there was no way for them to be together. Ever. Though he could fight his father, he wouldn’t. Violet deserved the family she wanted, and the General would see she got it and the happiness she sought.

“I promised her father she’d live at the ranch,” the General said. “If you’d read the letters, you’d know John felt the only way Eleanor would allow Violet to leave was for everyone to
believe
Violet would be marrying a much older man.”

Chayston’s heart flipped, and he frowned, not sure why.

“I told him I had to meet her before I’d completely agree.”

“Agree to marry her?” Chayston asked.

“No, before I’d agree to our children marrying.”

Chayston whirled around. “Your children?”

His father nodded. “You and Violet.”

Stunned, although it was what he wanted more than anything, Chayston couldn’t quite believe it could be this easy.

“I wouldn’t have considered it,” his father said, turning to watch him pace, “but ever since that Becca girl married Seth instead of you—”

“You knew about that?”

“Of course I knew. I’m your father.” He folded his arms. “No one else does though.”

Becca and Seth had become the least of Chayston’s worries. He’d never gotten around to courting Becca properly because he hadn’t loved her, not like he did Violet. His heart rate increased significantly, but a splattering of caution held him from rushing for the door. “What does Violet think of that?”

“She doesn’t know,” his father said. “But she’s been mooning at the window ever since you drove away.” With a shrug, the General added, “Of course, if you don’t want to marry her, I’ll find someone suitable, or maybe marry her myself.”

“Like hell you will,” Chayston said.

Laughter echoed in his wake as he tore out of the room. “She’ll be upstairs in her room, son. The one right next to yours.”

That’s where Chayston found her, jumping off the bed with a startled expression when he threw open the door. She said his name, but that was all the time he gave her before grasping her upper arms and pulling her into an embrace that included a deep, rather chaotic and frantic kiss.

She responded instantly, clinging to him, kissing him with as much desperation as he felt. Being separated from her the past week had been miserable, and though he wanted nothing more than to go on kissing, he stopped.

Gasping, she covered her mouth with one hand as she stumbled backward when he released his hold.

“Oh, no,” she muttered, turning beet red.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” He reached back and closed the door with a solid thud before approaching her with slow steps. “Don’t be turning all shy and timid on me now, Violet Ritter.”

Her hands flew to her hips as her mouth opened and closed. She seemed to collect her senses then because she stomped forward. “Shy and timid? Is that what you think I am? Well, I’m not,” she insisted. “Appalled is what I am. How dare you—”

“Will you marry me?” he asked, getting straight to the point. This time around, he wasn’t wasting time.

Her mouth opened and closed again before she asked, “What?”

“It’s a simple question,” he said, smiling. “Will you marry me? Yes or no?”

Light rose in her eyes like a sunrise coming over the mountain, and her lips twitched as if they didn’t know if they could smile or not.

It was the question he’d imagined never being able to ask her, and in the moment it took her smile to fully form, he felt utterly vulnerable, as if stripped down to nothing. Much as he’d felt the last week.

“Yes.” Tears trickled down her cheeks as she nodded. “Oh, Chayston, yes, yes.”

He lifted her off the floor by her waist, pulling her into his arms again, and kissed her until neither of them could breathe, and then he kissed her some more.

It was only when he knew for certain what would happen if he didn’t stop that Chayston forced himself to back off. Taking her hand, he led her to the doorway.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To announce our engagement.”

“Oh, goodness,” she muttered, “what is this town going to think of me?” Grabbing the doorway as she had the frame of the stage the first time they’d met, she brought them both to a complete stop. “What is your father going to think?”

“My father,” Chayston said, “despite being sadistic, is the smartest man I know.”

He kissed the point where her brows were knit together. “He invited you out here to marry me, not him.”

“He did?”

“Yes, he did.” Chayston kissed her again. “Someday, perhaps when we learn we’re expecting our first child, you and I will have the opportunity to return his favor.”

She tilted her head sideways. “By naming a child after him?”

Running both hands over her slender, perfect waist, he answered, “Maybe, but first we’ll play a dirty, downright nasty trick on him. I just can’t think what it will be right now.”

When she frowned again, he laughed. “You best get used to it, that’s what we do in this family.”

“Play tricks on each other?”

“Sometimes,” he said. “But mostly we love one another.” Growing serious, he whispered, “I love you, Violet.”

“I love you, too, Chayston. I truly do.”