Sage: A Sweet Western Historical Romance (Walker Creek Brides Book 5) Page 6

  Andreas felt her sway beside him as if she’d been struck, her face had grown so pale that he became alarmed.

  “Sage, we don’t have to do this now,” he sought to reassure her, though her gaze was fixed upon the middle cell where Beatrice rose from a cot and hastened toward the iron bars.

  Dressed from head to foot in scarlet silk, the middle-aged woman with flame-red hair looked every inch the madam of a brothel. Andreas had seen the gilt-framed portrait of her that had once hung in the Red Dog Saloon, and no one could have denied that she’d been a true beauty in her younger days.

  Now she had a look of dissipation about her that he didn’t remember from when she’d flounce through the saloon with a new girl in tow, and he guessed that the past months since leaving Walker Creek must have been hard for her. Yet he felt no pity. His stomach turned at the cruel twist of her red lips when she thrust her arm through the bars to point toward Sage.

  “There you are, you blasted liar! It’s your fault I’ve been dragged back here like some common prisoner! How dare you spew your slurs about me? You know as well as I do that you were as eager as a filly in heat to jump into bed with my customer!”

  “No…no…” came Sage’s shocked whisper, which made Andreas draw her against him.

  “Joshua, do we have to stand here and listen to this filth? Sage is innocent, we both know that! For God’s sake, man, she’s going to be my wife!”

  “Wife, is it?” shrieked Beatrice, throwing her head back with shrill laughter. “Oh, isn’t that rich! You’re a fool, Andreas Hagen, to take a harlot as your bride—but then again, I suppose some men don’t mind plowing where others have gone before—”

  “That’s enough, Beatrice, enough!”

  Andreas glanced behind him to see Caleb Walker standing in the doorway, his face darkened with anger. He had known no man before who could make a room feel small from the sheer force of his presence, and Andreas quickly pulled Sage aside with him as Caleb strode past them.

  “Look, it’s the high and mighty Mr. Walker come to call,” Beatrice bit off, her tone as scornful as her expression. “A married man, too, I’ve heard tell, but I was shunted out of town and missed your wedding—what a pity! I’m sure your precious Lily would have loved to hear the tales I had to tell of our years together.”

  “I’ve kept nothing from her, Beatrice. She knows my history and I know hers, neither of us with a lily-white record. So spare yourself any illusions that whatever you might say would shock her. Thank God, we’re not the good, but the forgiven—”

  “Oh, so you’ve found religion now, too? From one of the biggest sinners I’ve ever known to this fine upright gentleman standing in front of me—but spare me any Bible verses or your sermonizing, Caleb. You’re a liar, through and through, just like her”—Beatrice pointed her finger at Sage—“with her strapping husband-to-be, no less. Andreas, did you tell her that you frequented the saloon as much as any of the ranch hands coming into town?”

  “That’s a lie,” he muttered, feeling Sage stiffen against him. “A beer once a week or so was the most you ever saw me.”

  “Perhaps, but just think! If you’d finally overcome your chaste reluctance and ventured upstairs, you might have run into her already and spared yourself the cost of a wedding! I always thought it a waste, a fine-looking young man like you. I would have bedded you myself for free!”

  “Andreas, please take me out of here,” came Sage’s small voice as she trembled beside him. “It’s no use…she’ll never admit what she did to me…never.”

  “Yes, Andreas, take her back to the infirmary,” Caleb said tightly while Beatrice gave a sharp, hollow-sounding laugh.

  “I know what comes next, Caleb Walker, you don’t fool me! You’re going to try and buy me off with your money, but it won’t work. I’ll never take a penny from you! You cast me aside without a thought. You closed my business and ran me out of town, and all because you found someone else to warm your bed. Did you tell your precious Lily that you said you loved me—not once or twice—but a dozen times since I’ve known you?”

  “Go on, Andreas, take Miss Larsen out of here,” Caleb commanded, gesturing for Joshua and Sheriff Braun, who stood nearby, to leave the jailhouse, too. “All of you, go!”

  Andreas did, sweeping Sage into his arms and carrying her outside, Joshua and Luke right behind him.

  “I’m sorry, Andreas,” Joshua said, following after him as he settled Sage into the carriage and tucked a blanket around her legs. “I thought if Beatrice saw Sage, she might relent and change her story. I doubt now that even Caleb will sway her—”

  “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” Andreas cut him off, Sage’s ashen pallor truly worrying him. “I’ve got to get her back.”

  Joshua nodded, Luke’s expression grim from where he stood just outside the jailhouse door, while inside, Andreas had no clue as to what might be transpiring.

  Through a barred window he could see Caleb standing ominously still in front of Beatrice’s cell, clearly saying something to her that couldn’t carry through the thick limestone walls. For a fleeting instant, Andreas imagined he saw Beatrice’s face blanch white, but then he turned and once again focused upon Sage.

  “Are you warm enough?”

  She barely gave him a nod, the sorrow in her beautiful eyes cutting him to the quick.

  Without another word, he climbed in beside her, the young deputy who had driven them there flicking the reins to set the carriage into motion.

  “Here, you must drink this hot tea.”

  Sage gave a slow shake of her head, but Molly clearly wasn’t going to give up so easily. She leaned forward in the chair pulled close to the bed and held out the steaming mug in front of her.

  “I insist, it will help to warm you. I don’t want to see you shivering again like you were when Andreas brought you back to us. When he returns, he’ll feel even more terrible if he finds you in a worse state. Please, Sage…”

  “He shouldn’t come back,” Sage said softly, taking the mug Molly offered her, though she made no move to drink. She had never felt so desolate, those terrible moments at the jailhouse with Beatrice playing over and over in her mind. “I’ll always be tainted. He deserves better…so much better—”

  “I agree that if Miss Dubois refuses to admit the truth, the two of you will have a harder time of it, but Andreas loves you, that’s plain to see. He’s not going to rest until your name is cleared. Why do you think he left so abruptly to head back to the jail? I’m sure he went to try and reason with the woman himself. You love him, don’t you?”

  Sage met Molly’s gaze and quickly nodded. “Yes, yes, more than I can say!”

  “Then have some faith that everything will work out. You’re not married yet, but there will always be obstacles that can drive a husband and wife apart. You must both be determined to weather whatever comes, side by side, firmly holding hands—even if right now, things couldn’t appear bleaker.” Molly sighed and glanced out the window, a faraway look in her eyes. “Charles and I so badly wanted to have children, but I couldn’t conceive. The grief of those early years in our marriage consumed me, and if not for my husband’s steadfast love—”

  “But you have Seth.”

  Molly smiled softly as she turned back to Sage. “Yes, we have Seth, our adopted son. We found him nestled in a basket on our front porch…Lily, Caleb’s wife, left him there. Seth was terribly sick and she didn’t have money to care for him, she was only seventeen. She left town on the next train—I can’t imagine how hard that must have been for her. He’s my brother, you know. Caleb.”

  Sage nodded, Mary Levinson having filled her in on the town’s citizens, though Sage had never imagined meeting them, let alone being engaged to one of Walker Creek’s most eligible bachelors! Feeling heartened in spite of the memory of Beatrice glaring at her with such enmity from her cell, Sage took a few small sips of tea as Molly watched with approval.

  “Taste’s good, doesn’t it? I added a spr
inkle of cinnamon to spice it up a bit. Now I’m going downstairs to see how Charles is faring in the infirmary. Promise me you’ll stay nice and snug under those covers?”

  “Yes, I promise.” Sage took another sip as Molly rose briskly and left the room, though without her reassuring presence the dark thoughts began to assail Sage again. She lowered the cup to her lap and leaned her head against the pillows plumped behind her.

  How could one day swing from such overwhelming joy to such sorrow? Molly’s words had comforted her, but Sage still couldn’t shake the niggling fear that her unmerited reputation would only drag Andreas down into an abyss that he didn’t deserve.

  She loved him so completely, her heart aching from missing him, yet how could she allow such an injustice to happen to him? He was so wonderful, so caring, so honorable, and so worthy of a marriage he could be proud of.

  You’re a fool, Andreas Hagen, to take a harlot as your bride.

  Sage swallowed hard, her heartache at his absence becoming one of anguish that he might suffer because of her.

  What if the townsfolk of Walker Creek never saw her as anything else but a scarlet woman? She didn’t imagine for a moment that Mrs. Winchell and those other ladies had given up their quest to drive Sage out of town. How could anyone alter the vitriol that Beatrice had spewed and make her ever admit the truth?

  And all because Caleb Walker had broken her heart, pity welled inside Sage, too.

  She’d heard the telling crack in Beatrice’s voice when the woman had spoken of him saying he had loved her.

  Sage had heard as well what Andreas said to Joshua after he’d lifted her into the carriage… hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. God help them, hell was crashing in upon her and Andreas, and there didn’t seem to be any way to stop it!

  She sighed and turned her face to the window, plucking absently at the sleeve of her soft nightgown that Molly had helped her to change into so quickly that her head had spun.

  Would Andreas join the others tonight and sleep outside again to help protect her? Beatrice now occupied a jail cell, but she could still have ordered someone unknown to do her harm—

  “Sage!”

  She shrieked in surprise and pulled the covers to her chin as Andreas bounded inside the door, his voice sounding as exuberant as the broad smile he gave her.

  “Sage, it’s over! Beatrice has confessed her guilt! She told me to send you her deepest apologies and to wish us well in our marriage. Can you believe it?”

  Sage didn’t know what to think as Andreas paced the room as if he couldn’t contain his excitement, and clearly he couldn’t after bounding up the back stairs to her room in what must have been three strides.

  “It was all said and done by the time I got back to the jail. I don’t know what Caleb told her, but it worked! She signed a sworn statement that she hadn’t asked anyone to do you harm and then he accompanied her to meet the next train north. All I know is, Beatrice didn’t look like the same embittered woman we saw earlier. Something had changed, her demeanor, her tone, everything! She wasn’t smiling, and I swear it looked like she’d been crying, but Caleb was treating her very kindly as he escorted her from the jail to the carriage.”

  “Maybe he told her that he was sorry for breaking her heart,” Sage murmured, which made Andreas stop his pacing and immediately take the chair beside her bed to reach for her hand.

  “Leave it to an angel to speak with such compassion about a woman who treated you so cruelly.” He brought Sage’s fingers to his lips to kiss them, and then clasped her hand in his. “It makes sense, though. Caleb looked contrite, too, as if he’d had the wind knocked from his sails a bit. Maybe his asking her for forgiveness was what they both needed—considering how fast he’d cleared Beatrice out of a business she’d held for years. Whatever happened between them, she’s not going to trouble you anymore, Sage.”

  Andreas looked at her with such love that she found it difficult to speak, so she simply sat there with him, letting the wondrous news sink in as he gently caressed her fingers.

  Beatrice wasn’t going to trouble her anymore.

  Beatrice wasn’t going to trouble her anymore! Another miracle among so many to be thankful for.

  First, being allowed to stay in Walker Creek when there had been no reason, really, for Mayor Logan to agree. The warm kindness of the Levinsons…and then nearly running into Andreas on the street, her beloved Andreas, truly the most miraculous event of all.

  “It must have been an angel…” she said softly as Andreas looked at her with a curious expression she’d seen before. “You may think I’m one, but I wasn’t talking about me. So many blessings raining down from heaven as if to right a wrong. How could it be otherwise?”

  She hadn’t really spoken to him, but more pondered in amazement out loud, though his fingers suddenly tightened gently around hers.

  “We have a guardian angel here in Walker Creek, Sage—though I’ve never seen her. My sisters call her Tante Kari, a tiny woman in a simple brown dress and bonnet, with silvery hair, and a lilting accent like she came straight from Norway. I didn’t believe them at first, but too much has happened that it could be otherwise, just as you said. She helped bring Kari and Seth together, and Ingrid and Joshua—and she’s spoken to Anita, too, something about being content as a big fish in a little pond. She even helped my sisters’ dear friend, Pearl, who I’m sure you’ll meet in church tomorrow, and the man she married who used to be a drifter, Daniel Grant—”

  “Did you say church?” Sage’s thoughts were already spinning at what Andreas had shared with her, but now she stared at him in disbelief as he nodded.

  “I already spilled the news of our engagement at the jail, but now that Beatrice has cleared your name, I thought the Sunday service would be the perfect time for an announcement to be made—”

  “Oh, Andreas…” Sage blinked back tears, and for an instant Andreas looked as if he feared he’d upset her somehow, until she leaned forward and flung her arms around his neck.

  He crushed her against him, too, both of them holding each other as if they would never let go, while she heard Andreas say hoarsely against her ear, “Tante Kari, if you’re here with us, thank you. Thank you!”

  Chapter Eight

  “Oh, my.” Sage hung back in the small narthex of the church, even though Andreas kept his arm firmly looped through hers to reassure her.

  Everyone—everyone!—in the congregation had turned to look at them the moment they walked in together, but she and Andreas weren’t alone, thank goodness. Anita took the opportunity to proceed down the center aisle before them, nodding right and left as if she were a royal princess greeting her subjects, while Joshua and Ingrid and their two children brought up the rear.

  “Everything’s fine, I’m right here with you,” Andreas whispered, giving her arm a squeeze. “If they hadn’t heard before church this morning about Beatrice’s confession, you can bet they’re talking about it now.”

  Indeed, furtive whisperings seemed to be erupting like wildfire all around them. Sage somehow swallowed her apprehension and walked with Andreas toward the two front pews on the left where the rest of his extended family and friends were gathered.

  Caleb and Lily, the actress more beautiful than Sage could have ever imagined in her lavender ensemble as she smiled warmly, the kindness in her dark blue eyes matching that of the others standing there.

  Caleb smiled with sincere warmth, too. Sage knew that he thought of Andreas like a son ever since his daughter, Kari, had burst like a ray of sunshine into his life. With his expertly tailored suit and goldish-brown hair tinged with gray, he looked from head to toe the most influential citizen of Walker Creek.

  And there was Kari, with her honey-gold tresses, standing between Caleb and her handsome husband with eyes the same shade as Lily’s, Seth, as tall as Kari was petite—well, except for her rounded stomach that her lovely blue cape couldn’t hide.

  Never in a hundred years would Sage have imagined walkin
g into this clapboard church toward them, let alone soon to be seated in the same pew. She was so caught up in the extraordinary moment that she almost didn’t notice the low buzz of voices with her every step—almost.

  She didn’t dare to glance around her for fear she might see Mrs. Winchell or her ladies, all of whom she would most likely recognize from peeking out of the back room at the mercantile.

  Andreas had assured her that Caleb had made it a point to personally apprise Gladys Winchell of what had transpired at the jail, but Sage still kept her gaze fixed upon the front pews all the same. She couldn’t help smiling at Anita, who beckoned with excitement for Sage to take the place right beside her.

  “Go on, I’m right behind you,” Andreas murmured as Sage gathered her cape so she could move more easily into the pew. Beneath it, she wore a beautiful violet-colored dress that had appeared as if by magic on her bed this morning, and she glanced with thankfulness at Molly and Charles in the second pew.

  Samuel and Mary Levinson stood next to them, not sharing the same faith but warmly invited by Andreas to join them on this special day. Sage took a brief moment to hug them both, Samuel’s eyes brimming as much as Mary’s. Sage knew that she owed these two kind souls a great debt, indeed, for providing her employment and a place to stay when she’d had nowhere else to go.

  “We’re so happy for you, child,” murmured Mary, dabbing at her eyes with a lace hanky. “Ya, we always knew you were an innocent, though you didn’t dare to say a word.”

  Touched more than she could say, Sage gave her another quick hug as a lovely young woman in the same pew, with long red hair and stunning green eyes, smiled at Sage.