“Are they that close?” Caroline asked. “I thought he was a Fraser cousin.”
“He is, but Rico saved her life a couple of times, so she’s very partial toward him.”
“It’s not hard to favor him,” Becky said. “He’s a real sweetheart.”
“And almost as handsome as Colt,” Cassie interjected.
“Who’s almost as handsome as Clay,” Becky added with a delightful giggle.
“And I can’t believe any of them is as handsome as that cake, Becky,” said Caroline. “It’s beautiful. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay all of you for making this such a special day for Jed and me…and Garrett. Speaking of him, I better go see what he’s up to.”
The clearing was deserted, so she went to the wine building and found Jed and Clay.
“Jed, where’s Garrett?” she asked, after the morning greetings and Clay’s reference to the big day.
“I thought he went back inside. He wanted to wake you, but I told him you needed your sleep.”
“I’ll check with my father; he may have gone there.”
“I’ll go with you,” Jed said.
They hadn’t taken more than a few steps when they saw Nathan coming down the road.
“Sir, have you seen Garrett?” Jed shouted.
“Not this morning,” Nathan yelled back.
“What about you, Garth?” Jed asked, when Garth rode up and dismounted.
“No, I haven’t seen him. He’s not in the grape fields; I was just there. Did you try the barn?”
“We were about to.”
Colt was mucking out the horse stalls when they entered and asked him.
“I saw him walking away about fifteen minutes ago. The two dogs were with him.”
Caroline began to feel the tightening in her chest she always experienced whenever she worried about Garrett’s safety.
“Which direction was he going, Colt?” Jed asked.
“East, toward the river.”
“The river? How good a swimmer is he, Caroline?” Garth asked.
“He can’t swim at all!” She hadn’t missed the worried glances between Colt and Garth.
At that moment, Garth’s dog Saddle came barking and racing up to him. Then the dog turned around and started to run back in the direction he’d just come from.
“Something’s wrong.” Garth jumped onto his horse and rode off, pursuing the dog.
Colt shouted to Clay, then ran into the barn. He put a bit and reins on a horse, then jumped on the animal’s bare back. He goaded the animal to a gallop and they leaped a nearby fence in pursuit of Garth.
Jed mounted the horse he’d swiftly saddled, and Clay tossed him a rifle. “Here, you might need this.” He shoved it into the rifle sling attached to the saddle. An ex-cavalry man himself, Clay had his own horse saddled before Jed was out of the barn, and they followed the dust of the other two riders.
Cassie and Becky hurried outside, and Rory joined them. “What’s going on?” Becky asked.
Caroline spoke in stuttering gasps. “Garrett’s missing…Garth’s dog came back. The men all rode off.”
“Which direction did they go?”
“Toward the river. Garrett can’t swim.”
The two women exchanged alarmed glances. “The river has a swift and treacherous current. Even the men don’t swim in it,” Cassie said.
“Oh, dear God!” Caroline cried.
Nathan had reached them and put an arm around her quivering shoulders. “Honey, he may not have gone near the river.”
“Something serious has happened; I can feel it. Buffer didn’t come back here with Saddle. That means he stayed with Garrett and might even have been killed if they were attacked by a wild animal.”
“We don’t see too many wild animals, Caroline. The area’s pretty populated, and the animals have moved on,” Becky said. “Let’s go inside and sit down. There’s nothing we can do until the men return.”
“What happened?” Lissy asked, as she and Stephen joined them, accompanied by the Garson family. “Howard said he saw the men ride off in a hurry.”
Cassie told them what had happened.
“Let’s follow them,” Stephen Berg suggested. “We can hitch up the buckboard.”
“We’d never catch them now, especially with a buckboard,” Tom said.
“I can’t stay here just waiting,” Caroline said. “Stephen, will you take me to the river?” she pleaded.
“You bet.”
T
hey followed the barking dogs that raced along the riverbank and led them to Garrett, clinging to the limb of a rotting tree caught in the river’s current. Years of erosion had gouged away the earth, and the riverbank now rose several yards above the flowing water.
“Hold on, Garrett! We’ll get you out of there,” Garth shouted to the boy as Colt rode up and joined him.
“Our best bet is to get downstream.” Garth grabbed the rope from his saddle. “I’ll string a lifeline at the river bend. The river’s narrowest there, and we can catch him as he passes.” Garth rode off.
Jed and Clay rode up, and Colt told them, “Garth’s going to string a lifeline at the river bend. We’ll catch him there.”
“How far is that?” Jed said.
“About three-quarters of a mile.” Colt rode after Garth.
Jed dismounted and began to pull off his boots. “God only knows how long he can hold on. I’m going to try and reach him.”
“Jed, that current’s too swift to get to him,” Clay said. “He’ll be past before you can even reach him.”
“I’m a good swimmer, and I’ve swam in a lot worse places than this. Just have that rope strung by the time we get there.” He dove into the water.
The current grabbed him, and Jed realized Clay had not exaggerated its force. The effort of fighting the river’s attempt to drag him under slowed him down, and when he finally reached midstream, the tree trunk had passed. The current now aided his effort as it carried him faster downstream to catch the floating tree.
A few hard strokes enabled him to grab a limb of the trunk, and he got one arm around Garrett’s waist.
The boy clutched him around the neck in panic, sending both their heads underwater, but Jed was able to hold on to the limb and resurface.
“Garrett, stop struggling,” Jed yelled.
Coughing up river water, the boy was too frightened to know what he was doing and continued to thrash about.
Jed finally managed to get a firm grasp under the boy’s arms to keep the youngster’s head above water. Ahead, he could see the lifeline his brothers had made. Now it depended on muscle and timing.
Every second was critical by the time Garth and Colt reached the bend in the river, where the embankment was just a couple of feet above the water.
Garth tied one end of the rope around the saddle horn on his horse, then handed the other to Colt, who wrapped it several times around the trunk of a tree and knotted it firmly.
“I’m going to head for that tree over there,” Garth said, pointing to a big willow across the river. He tossed aside his hat and led the horse to the water’s edge.
“Good luck, Garth,” Colt called out.
“Well, Boots, it’s not the first time we’ve crossed a river,” Garth said, patting the horse. “So let’s give it a try.”
The current caught them immediately, but the powerful horse didn’t falter. Near midstream, Boots lost his footing and began to swim. Garth slid out of the saddle into the water and held on to the stirrup, paddling alongside it as the horse pulled him along. As soon as Boots touched bottom again, Garth swung back into the saddle.
Up on the bank, he stretched the rope until it was taut and wrapped it around the tree. Then grasping the rope as a guideline, he stepped back into the water.
Seeing Garrett and Jed approaching rapidly, Colt and Clay stepped into the water and worked their way along the rope. Just as the trunk hit the rope, Jed let go of the limb and grabbed the hand reaching out to him, while other hands snatched Garrett from his grasp. Jed quickly grabbed the rope with his now free hand and held on.
The driving force of the tree trunk snapped the taut rope in half, and one end of the rope fanned out to the opposite side with Garth clinging to it, while the other end swung toward shore with Colt and Clay each holding a hand of Garrett, and Jed clinging to the shirred end.
They had Garrett on his stomach and were pumping out the water from his lungs by the time Garth crossed back to them on Boots.
“He okay?” Garth asked, dismounting.
“He’ll be fine. He was full of river water, but I think we got most of it out of him now,” Colt said.
“He looks pretty pale,” Garth said and walked over to Jed, who was sitting nearby, exhausted. “How are you doing, Brother Jed?”
“At this moment, I never want to see even a puddle of water again,” Jed declared.
“I never expected to hear that from you,” Clay said. “I think the ambulance has arrived.” He nodded toward the buckboard rumbling toward them, with Howard Garson driving and Caroline and Stephen Berg seated beside him.
Caroline jumped off the buckboard as soon as it reached them and rushed over to Garrett, who was throwing up into the river.
When he sat up again, she hugged him fiercely. “Do you feel better now?”
“Kinda.”
“Whatever were you doing in that water, Garrett?”
“Me, Buffer, and Saddle were just walking along the bank, skimming stones into the water.”
“How did you end up in the water?” Clay asked.
“There was a mud slide, kinda like the one Granddad has at the sawmill—”
“Good Lord, Garrett! You didn’t try to slide down it, did you?”
“Sure did. But it wasn’t long like Granddad’s. It was just a little one. I slid right into the water and couldn’t get up. Then I started to float away and this big tree came along and almost banged me in the head. I grabbed a branch and held on ’til Jed swam out and got me.”
Caroline glanced up at Jed in surprise. “That’s the third time you’ve saved Garrett’s life, Jed.”
“So the little rascal’s down to six more remaining.”
“This is no joking matter, Jed,” Caroline said. “I’m indebted to you.”
“All my brothers helped.”
Caroline looked around for the first time and saw their sodden clothing.
“Thank you. Thank you all. I’m eternally grateful to you men.”
“We couldn’t have done it without the dogs,” Garth said. “That dog of yours stayed with the boy, which made it easy for us to locate him. Then Saddle went for help.”
“See, Mama, dogs
do
talk to each other.”
“I guess they do, sweetheart.”
Jed lifted Garrett into the bed of the buckboard, and Caroline climbed up to the seat. The two dogs jumped up and joined Garrett in the bed. Then the other men mounted their horses.
As soon as they returned, the buckboard became surrounded by the relieved people who had remained behind. Caroline noticed a minister’s collar among them. The men all went to their homes to get out of their wet clothing, but Garrett remained behind to relate his harrowing experience until Caroline insisted he come into the house to clean up and change.
With the morning excitement behind them, the residents of Fraser Keep returned their attention to the anticipated event of the day.
With everyone’s attention concentrated on the wedding preparations, only the two dogs noticed the rider approaching the house. They got up and wandered out to investigate.
Rory was in the middle of a sentence when she saw the rider. “Rico!” she shouted.
He waved and dismounted. “
iHola, mis primos y primas hermosas!
”
They all broke into wide smiles and gathered around him. Caroline stood back with Garrett, observing the family’s welcome of the cousin they never knew existed until two years ago.
With his back to her, he was hard to distinguish from the other Fraser men; like them, he was long-legged, broad-shouldered, and slim-hipped.
When he turned toward her, Caroline saw that a dark mustache curved down below his lower lip. She thought he looked menacing, until she looked into the warmth of the most beautiful brown eyes she had ever seen on a man, tipped with long dark lashes that any woman would envy.
When he removed his hat, his straight dark hair hung almost to his shoulders.
“Rico, this is Caroline, who’s about to become Mrs. Jed Fraser, and her son, Garrett,” Rory said.
Rico’s teeth glistened against the dark bronze of his Spanish ancestry. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Caroline,” he said in perfect English. “And the same to you, Garrett. I know you will come to love this family as much as I have.”
Rory said, “Rico not only saved me from being mauled by a bear but later prevented us from being murdered by a band of outlaws on that
Montaña del Diablo
. Mountain of the Devil!” she said dramatically.
“Mountain of the Devil!” Caroline shuddered. “Sounds frightening. I definitely want to hear that story.”
Rico laughed. “I suggest you hear it from someone other than Rory. She tends to embellish it each time she repeats it.”
“Well, I was there, darlin’,” Paddy O’Grady said to Caroline. “And the lass is not exaggeratin’. We’d all have been killed up on that devil mountain had it not been for this lad.” Paddy slapped him on the shoulder. “If you don’t have a taste for the wine, laddie, I’ve a bit of Irish at me place.” He winked at Rico, then sashayed away.
“I think Pop’s been sampling that ‘bit of Irish’ already,” Rory said.
Rico chuckled. “He’s just having a good time. You know how much he enjoys it when the family gets together.”
“Hey, Rico, come on over and join us,” Garth called to him. “We’re about to have a toast before Jed gives up his free life as a bachelor.”
“Excuse me, Caroline; I’ve been summoned.”
“He seems very nice,” Caroline said when Rico left.
“He’s wonderful,” Rory said. “His mother is the same way—beautiful inside and out. We all adore her. Her brother is a priest, and Father Chavez married us. I wore Aunt Elena’s wedding gown.” Rory held out her hand to show Caroline her small gold wedding band. “Uncle Henry made the ring himself. Aunt Elena said she knew he would want it to be passed down in the family, so she gave it to Garth for us to pass on to our children.”
“How thoughtful,” Caroline said. “Is she still alive?”
“Oh, yes. So is Father Chavez. They live in Hope. Actually, the proper name of the town is
Tierra de Esperanza
—Land of Hope. But everyone just calls it Hope. Father Chavez runs a mission there, and married Garth and me there. That’s also where Uncle Henry is buried.
“Listen, honey, I could talk about this all day, but aren’t you supposed to get dressed for your wedding? That husband of mine has been pouring wine down Pastor Renfrew for the last couple of hours. He’ll end up as tipsy as Pop if we don’t get this wedding started.”
“Hey, when is this wedding taking place?” Cassie asked, joining them. “Somebody’s going to have to hold up Jed if his scheming brothers don’t stop refilling his wineglass.”
“That’s all we need, a drunken groom,” Becky declared, coming over in a snit. “So help me, I’ll kick Clay out of the house tonight if he pops the cork on another bottle.”
Lissy came hurrying over to them. “Girls, don’t you think we should start the wedding? I’m getting worried; the men are trying to get Jed drunk. Let’s get you dressed, Caroline, and fast.”
“Garrett,” Becky said, “I’m putting you in charge of telling everybody to get inside and sit down. The wedding will be starting in ten minutes. Lissy, start playing the piano; that will attract their attention.”
“What should I play?”
“How about a lively version of ‘Dixie’?” Becky said. “That bunch of Johnny Rebs will snap to attention when they hear that.”
“Or start crying in their beer,” Cassie said with a droll glance.
“Now, let’s get you dressed, Miss Caroline,” Becky declared.
Within minutes, the three women had stripped off Caroline’s gown and camisole, redressed her in clean undergarments, and pulled her blue gown over her head. Becky pinned Caroline’s hair to the top of her head, and Rory tucked in several sprigs of lilies of the valley at the back of her head, then crowned it with a strip of white lace.
“We need something borrowed,” Cassie said. “Becky, how about the string of pearls Clay bought you in San Francisco?”
“Perfect!” Becky raced out of the room and came back seconds later carrying a string of pearls.
Cassie gave Caroline a small nosegay of red poppies and white lilies of the valley, trimmed in the same lace as that on her head.
“You look gorgeous, honey,” Rory said.
“Now, as soon as Lissy starts the wedding march, you come out of this room,” Becky instructed.
They kissed her on the cheek, then left to take seats next to their husbands.
At a nod from Becky, Lissy struck the chord and Caroline walked into the room.
She wanted to turn and run back when she became aware they were all staring at her, including Jed, who was standing up in front with the preacher. When she looked at her son, sitting next to her father, Garrett was grinning from ear to ear.
I’m doing this for your sake, sweetheart.
That thought gave her the strength to take the remaining steps to Jed’s side.
Lissy finished the song, sat down next to her husband, and the preacher began to speak.
Caroline found it hard to concentrate on what Pastor Renfrew was saying. Was she actually getting married?
Wake up, Caroline. This is not a dream.
“Who giveth this woman to this man?” Pastor Renfrew asked.
Her father and Garrett stood up. “We do,” they said in unison.
“Well then, who giveth this man to this woman?” the pastor asked, the question no doubt suggested by one of the partly inebriated Fraser men.
“We do,” Jed’s brothers called out from all sections of the room and followed it up with whistles, hoots, and applause. Caroline was certain she heard some women’s voices, too.
At the proper time, Jed slipped a gold band on her finger with a tiny pearl inlaid on each side of a larger pearl in the center.
Surprised, she glanced up at him, and he said softly, “I bought it in Sacramento.”
The preacher said, “And now, by the power invested in me, I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
And Jed had had enough to drink to do just that. It was long, it was passionate—and it curled her toes.
By the time he broke the kiss, her legs were trembling. Amid another round of whistles, hoots, and applause, he grinned as she stared at him in astonishment.