Ingrid (Walker Creek Brides Book 2) Read online

  Her faint smile warmed him, though Ingrid quickly sobered.

  “Bring him back to us soon.”

  Joshua nodded, undeniably missing the warm pressure of her fingers when she let go of his hand to pick up the reins.

  Missing pretty much everything about her, he couldn’t deny that either, as the carriage rolled away.

  Joshua frowned and turned back to the limestone jailhouse that adjoined his office.

  It seemed the more determined he was to steer clear of Ingrid and her unsettling effect upon him, the more their paths crossed. Maybe he should have a deputy accompany Andreas when it came time to release him. Why had Joshua said he would bring her brother home?

  Ingrid paced the front porch, twilight fading into night and still no sign of Andreas.

  She was tempted to call for the carriage and head back to the jail, but all she had to do was think of those unshaven and unkempt prisoners to resign herself to waiting for him at the house.

  Ingrid shuddered. The lust in those men’s eyes was difficult to forget, and Anita had been so upset by the experience that she’d gone upstairs early to bed.

  Ingrid hated to think that Andreas might still be subjected to their rough company, but she was grateful at least that his cell wasn’t adjacent to Joshua’s other prisoners. What could they have said to her brother to make him take them all on? Why had Andreas gone to the Red Dog Saloon in the first place?

  Ingrid heaved a sigh and sat down in a rocking chair, the night sounds of insects seeming to mock her impatience.

  At eighteen, Andreas was a grown man, she reminded herself. Strapping, generally good-natured, hardworking, and resembling their father, Arne, so much with his handsome looks and thick, white-blond hair that Ingrid felt a sudden pang. She’d never known him to care for the taste of whiskey, though perhaps it simply made sense that he would seek out the camaraderie of other men after a long day’s work rather than sitting at home with his sisters.

  Once again, Ingrid was gripped by the realization of how much their lives had changed since their mother, Lara, had died and they had arrived in Texas.

  Kari happily married.

  Herself, finally a schoolteacher.

  Andreas soon to have his own blacksmith shop.

  Anita determined to become the world’s greatest actress.

  In her deepest heart, Ingrid doubted any of them would return to Minnesota, Walker Creek fast becoming their home. One day she would marry here, and have children, Ingrid suddenly thinking of the firm pressure of Joshua’s hand upon her arm as he’d escorted her and Anita from the jailhouse.

  His stride strong and determined, Joshua drawing her close to him as if protecting her, which made her face grow warm at the thought.

  His hand had felt so sure and strong, too, when he’d helped her into the carriage. Ingrid flushed even more deeply that she’d kept hold of him, wondering what he must have thought to have her clasping his hand for so long. She’d been so worried about Andreas—

  “Ingrid?”

  She gasped at the sight of Andreas slowly climbing the porch steps, astonished that she hadn’t seen him approach the house. She jumped up and ran to him, and enveloped him in a hug, though he uttered a groan when she squeezed him.

  “Oh, Andreas, I’m sorry! Is it your ribs?”

  “Yes, but Doc Davis said nothing was broken when he checked me out this afternoon. Just some bruises. He said I’d be sore for a couple days.”

  Ingrid nodded, Andreas looking weary in the light emanating from the screened door, though she was grateful to see his left eye wasn’t as swollen. She glanced beyond him into the darkened street.

  “Sheriff Logan’s not here,” Andreas said with weariness tinging his voice now, too. “I told him I was fine with walking home. I knew he wanted to go visit his son so I didn’t want to delay him. Let’s talk tomorrow, Ingrid. I just want to get some rest.”

  “Yes, of course you’re tired,” she murmured, disappointment rippling through her as she held open the screened door for Andreas and accompanied him inside. She must have looked anxious because he squeezed her hand and gave her a half-hearted grin, and then left her to go upstairs.

  She watched him silently, imagining he must have taken a few good punches to feel so sore. Yet at least he was home, thank God.

  Sighing softly, she went to the door and looked outside, hoping that David was feeling better and that he’d be going home soon with Joshua.

  She couldn’t deny she would have liked to see him tonight, more than she would have imagined—but in the next instant Ingrid chided herself, knowing such feelings were folly.

  If Joshua had wanted to see her, too, he would have brought Andreas home just as he’d said he would do. She was nothing more than a regular citizen of the town to him, not special at all, Joshua just doing his duty by her—and certainly no more in the market for a wife than she was for a husband!

  “Good night, Sheriff Logan, wherever you are,” she said through the wire mesh of the screen, the street so dark now that she couldn’t see much further than the plank sidewalk. Oddly, she thought she heard the low nickering of a horse, which made her shiver after the lewd looks she’d seen from Joshua’s prisoners earlier that day.

  With such ruffians frequenting the town’s saloon, it wasn’t wise to take any chances. She quickly shut the front door and secured the bolt, saying a prayer for Joshua and his deputies’ safety as they patrolled the streets.

  “Good girl,” Joshua murmured to himself as he nudged Blaze into a walk past Ingrid’s house. He’d followed Andreas at a distance, wanting to make sure he got home safely, and the infirmary was only a couple streets over anyway. Yet when Ingrid had lingered in the doorway, her slender figure silhouetted in the lamplight from inside the house, he’d sat there wondering if he would have to make his presence known after all to get her to shut the front door.

  He didn’t anticipate any trouble, his prisoners still locked up in their cells and a bit less surly now that their stomachs were filled with grilled steak and all the fixings. Nothing like gnawing bellies to make men sign a confession, Andreas cleared from any wrongdoing even though he’d admitted to Joshua that he’d swung first.

  He was an outsider here and would be treated like one for a while until folks got to know him better, no matter Caleb Walker was his family’s benefactor. Yet the Sutherland brothers and their men taunting him for being a dumb Northerner and for his size had gone beyond the pale, the pounding they’d gotten well-deserved.

  Paying for the damages to the saloon, though, wouldn’t make the third brother, Cormac, the eldest and meanest Sutherland, very happy. Joshua didn’t expect a visit from him tonight, but he would come looking for his brothers soon when they didn’t show back up at their rundown ranch some thirty miles away. Considering Joshua intended to keep them locked up in jail for two weeks to dissuade them from picking more fights…

  “Good night to you, too, Ingrid Hagen,” he murmured, her house behind him now as he turned onto a side street. He’d heard the pique in her voice, which had made him wonder if she’d been displeased that he hadn’t accompanied her brother home. Either that, or maybe she simply would have liked to see him—

  “Don’t go there, Logan,” Joshua said under his breath. He tried to turn his thoughts to Davy, but he couldn’t get the image of Ingrid standing at the door with her long blond hair shining in the lamplight out of his mind.

  Chapter 5

  “Ingrid, why do you keep looking behind you?” whispered Kari, making Ingrid blush with chagrin.

  As the Sunday service’s final hymn rang from the church rafters, she had reassured herself again that Joshua and his daughter, Emily, still sat near the back, Ingrid anxious to speak to him. Yet she hadn’t realized her quick glances had been so obvious—and to all people, her inquisitive sister.

  “It’s nothing, truly,” Ingrid whispered back, though Kari, seated between her husband, Seth, and Ingrid, glanced over her shoulder, too.

 
“He’s getting up, yes, there he goes!”

  Ingrid’s soft gasp made Kari cover her smile with her hand, and Ingrid realized then as her face grew even warmer that her sister was teasing her.

  One glance told her that Joshua and Emily remained seated in their pew. Grateful when the hymn ended, everyone rising for the benediction, Ingrid closed her eyes and tried to calm herself.

  It was a small thing, really, and no reason for her heart to be beating so fast.

  All she wanted to do was tell Joshua that she intended to visit David after school each day to catch him up on his lessons, not wanting him to get too far behind while he convalesced at home. She hadn’t seen Joshua since the jailhouse four days ago, and she had no intention of going back there. How else was she to make him aware of her plan?

  “Don’t worry, he won’t leave before you get to see him,” Kari whispered again as their snowy-haired minister, Reverend James Thomas, walked down the center aisle, the service ended. “Your knight in shining armor knows that everyone files out starting with the first pew to the last.”

  Knight in shining armor? Wholly flustered now, Ingrid didn’t have a chance to whisper a retort as Caleb led the way out of the front pew, followed by Anita and Andreas, then Seth and Kari and herself. She ducked her head and hurried after her family, Ingrid almost to the back of the church when she finally looked up.

  Straight into Joshua’s steel gray eyes, her heart in her throat as he nodded in greeting.

  “Good morning, Miss Hagen,” piped up Emily, holding onto her father’s hand and smiling brightly, both of them dressed in their Sunday best. “Davy’s coming home today!”

  “That’s wonderful, Emily,” Ingrid said with all sincerity as she paused at their pew, amazed that she’d found her voice to speak. Whatever was the matter with her? It had only been four days—and why did Joshua have to look so handsome? “I’ll see you in school tomorrow, yes?”

  Emily bobbed her head, and then let go of her father’s hand to dart through the people filing past them and run outside. Only then did Ingrid realize her family had gone on without her, and that she blocked part of the aisle, parishioners looking at her curiously.

  “Oh, dear, pardon me—”

  “Maybe it’s best we follow Emily,” Joshua suggested, not waiting for Ingrid to answer but looping his arm through hers. Then they were walking together outside into the brilliant sunshine, Joshua stopping with her first to greet Reverend Thomas and then steering her toward where her family had gathered near a line of carriages and buckboard wagons.

  “There you are, Ingrid!” Her blue eyes sparkling, Kari smiled as Seth extended his hand to shake Joshua’s, while Caleb came over and shook his hand, too.

  “We’re heading over to the Frederick Hotel for lunch, Joshua. Why don’t you and Emily join us? You’ve been the hero of my family this week, let me tell you. First helping out Ingrid and then Andreas, even with a night spent in jail. It’s the least I can do to thank you.”

  “I appreciate the invitation, but I planned to pick up Davy from the infirmary right after church,” Joshua said as he glanced from Caleb to Ingrid, wondering how she could look any lovelier in a blue dress that matched her eyes. He had to admit that four days without seeing her hadn’t made him less inclined to think about her, but more! “Another time, perhaps.”

  “Nonsense! Fetch your son and bring him along. Tell Molly and Charles to join us, too. They’ve been hovering over your boy like nursemaids and could use an outing, don’t you agree?”

  Still unused to Caleb’s new congeniality after years of dealing with his explosive temper, Joshua nodded. The man had appointed him as sheriff, after all, so there would be no steering clear of Ingrid today. He couldn’t deny he’d felt regret to say no, the disappointment he had glimpsed in her eyes gone now as she smiled as if truly pleased.

  He stared dumbstruck, never having seen her look at him like that before, no, not once. Yet all too quickly she lowered her head, blushing.

  “Joshua, I believe Ingrid was eager to see you about something.” Kari pushed Ingrid gently toward him. “Would you mind if she rode along with you and Emily? That way you’ll have a chance to visit.”

  As Ingrid stared wide-eyed at her sister, Joshua knew she’d been taken by surprise, just like him. “Yes—I mean, no, I don’t mind at all. It shouldn’t take us long to fetch Davy. We’ll see you at the hotel.”

  “Good, then everything’s settled,” Caleb said with a glance at Kari, Joshua not missing the wink he gave her.

  As everyone moved to their carriages, Joshua searched the churchyard for his own daughter and called out for her. At once Emily came running, her brown pigtails flying, from where she’d been playing with some other children.

  “Time to fetch Davy, Papa?”

  “Yes, and Miss Hagen is going with us.”

  “Good. I think Davy will like that. He said you woke him the other night from a bad dream and were ever so nice to him, Miss Hagen.”

  Joshua saw Ingrid blink as if startled by what Emily said, and her face seemed to pale, which made him add, “Yes, I’ve wanted to thank you for that.” He tucked his hand beneath Ingrid’s elbow and guided her toward a buckboard while Emily skipped ahead. “You did a very kind thing for my son.”

  “I…I was glad to help,” she murmured, her hand trembling a bit as he assisted her into the front seat.

  Wondering at her subdued demeanor, Joshua decided she must be embarrassed by her family so obviously thrusting them together, though he didn’t believe Ingrid had any hand in it. She had looked too startled by Kari’s suggestion. He swung Emily into the back and then climbed onto the buckboard beside Ingrid.

  He wasn’t thickheaded. He was a widower and she was unmarried. Why wouldn’t Kari and Caleb think they might be a suitable match for each other? Except he wasn’t suitable and would never marry again, which he fully intended to make clear to Ingrid.

  But not now, with his daughter giggling behind them as he flicked the reins to Big Pete, their draft horse, the buckboard rolling into motion.

  “Goodbye! See you tomorrow!” Emily called out to her young friends, waving. Then turning to Ingrid, she said, “I’m glad you’re feeling better so we can go to school again, Miss Hagen. You look so pretty today.”

  “Thank you, Emily, so do you in your yellow dress.”

  “It’s the same one I wore to your sister’s wedding to Mr. Davis,” Emily chattered on, swinging her legs. “I love yellow, it’s my favorite color. What’s your favorite color, Miss Hagen?”

  “Hmm, I think I love blue the best.”

  “Oh, yes, you look very pretty in blue. Your hair is so blond, Miss Hagen. Did you know you look just like an angel? Ha! You’re an angel and your sister is a fairy princess. I told her so, too, at the wedding and she was so pleased, she gave me a pink rose from her bouquet! I still have the petals in a box beside my bed—”

  “Emily, why don’t you see if you spy any baby chicks on the way to fetch Davy,” Joshua interrupted gently, glad that Ingrid seemed to have relaxed and smiled over her shoulder at his daughter.

  “She’s so sweet, Joshua, I don’t mind. I love to listen to what children have to say. They’re so honest and straightforward.”

  Struck by the warmth in Ingrid’s voice, he found himself staring at her as she laughed softly at Emily prattling on about how she loved baby chicks and kittens and puppies and baby birds—until a sudden bump made him remind himself that he should be watching the road. They were only a couple blocks now from the Davises’ house, which reminded him, too, that Kari had said Ingrid wanted to see him for some reason.

  “Did you wish to speak to me about something?” he asked her, finally managing to get a word in edgewise when Emily was distracted by retying her bonnet. “Your sister mentioned it at the church.”

  “Yes, I’d like to bring lessons over to David—Davy, after school if it’s all right with you. I won’t stay long, just enough time to show him what we studied so he does
n’t get too far behind while his leg is healing.”

  Joshua fell silent, knowing it was a good idea, but if he agreed he might be seeing Ingrid almost every day…and in his home, too. He kept his gaze fixed upon the road, knowing she awaited his answer, but none came as he wrestled with himself.

  Seeing Ingrid’s genuine delight in his daughter, her skirt brushing innocently against his leg, the faint scent of lilac enveloping her, enveloping him…made him yearn so powerfully for something he had sworn he would deny himself. To have her visiting his home would be torture, he knew that with certainty now, just as he knew something had awakened inside him from the first moment he’d swept her onto his saddle—

  “Papa, look, baby chicks!”

  Joshua followed his daughter’s wild pointing to a yard where speckled chickens and fuzzy yellow chicks pecked in the grass, while Ingrid smiled, too, oblivious to his inner struggle.

  Her lovely face alight, her lips sweetly curved and rose pink, the breeze stirring tendrils of her hair beneath the frilled edges of her bonnet in so mesmerizing a fashion that once again he found himself gazing at her rather than watching the road.

  She stared at him now, too, while Emily counted aloud the number of chicks, Joshua finally nodding at Ingrid. “Yes, come by the house for as long as you need to. I don’t want Davy getting behind on his lessons, either. I’m usually home in the afternoons to spend time with my children. We eat supper early and you’re welcome to join us.”

  There, it was said, Joshua thought as a rosy blush touched Ingrid’s cheeks and she nodded, too.

  Just the schoolteacher bringing lessons home to his son, nothing more, he reminded himself, though his breath seemed to still at her soft smile.

  Deep down he knew he was treading on unsteady ground when it came to Ingrid Hagen, the walls he’d constructed around his heart fast crumbling.