Finally, as dawn
was rising, the fire began to burn itself out. It had taken the bunkhouse, and
several acres of the vineyard – it would be a while before they could ascertain
the full extent of the damage - but due to some of the men digging a ditch
running the length of the house, and filling it with water, it had stopped
short the porch. Smoke still billowed in the air, but it was thick and damp,
more like fog.
Bella sat down
on the steps of the porch, and Vance sat next to her. Shen and the other
workers sat on the ground, passing around canteens of water, part drinking them
and part pouring them over their heads. Ike Peterson, Mr Grant and their people
had waved them goodbye and returned home a few minutes earlier.
“All that work,”
said Bella. “Up in smoke.” Her eyes stung, but she did not know if they were
tears of sadness or the effects of the smoke. Her emotions were so mixed up, it
could be either. One thing she had realised, during the long night’s work, was
that she could never leave this place. It had taken nearly losing it to teach
her how much she loved her home.
“It’ll grow
again,” said Vance.
May came from
around the corner of the house, where she had been tending Bill, as far away
from the fire as possible. Bella looked up, a question in her eyes. May shook
her head and sat on the bottom step.
“I’m so sorry,
dearest,” said Bella, reaching down and putting a hand on May’s shoulder.
“I’m not,” said
May. “We coulda died because of him. You shouldn’t have risked your own life
trying to save him, honey. He meant to kill us in our beds, Bella. And me his
kin.”
“You wouldn’t
have left him there,” said Bella. “You’re a better person than that.”
“No, honey, you
are. And we all love you for it.” May got up. “I’m gonna go take a bath, then
cook us all up some breakfast. We need to find somewhere for Shen and the boys
to sleep.”
“They can sleep
in the spare rooms, May. We’ll get some wood and build a new bunkhouse. It’ll
be bigger and better.”
“Does this mean
you’re not going back to England?” asked May.
“Yes. I suppose
it does.”
“You were going
to go home?” said Vance, when May had gone into the house.
“Yes. But not
now. Thank you for your help last night. How did you know about the vineyard
being on fire?”
“I was on my way
up here when I saw the flames.”
“Coming here? At
three in the morning? Is there something wrong in Milton?”
“Yep.”
“Oh no. What is
it, this time?”
He turned and
looked at her. His face was smudged with smoke, yet she could have still, as
May said, eaten him up like a plate of pancakes and syrup.
“You’re not
there.”
“Oh.” Bella
shifted her gaze downwards. “But Gloria is, I suppose. She came back with you,
didn’t she?”
Shen, who was
watching the scene, muttered something to the other workers and they began to
walk away.
“Where are you
going?” asked Bella. “You should get some rest.”
“We are going to
wash in the creek, Miss Bella. Then we will come and get some food. You and the
marshal have your talk.” Shen smiled, knowingly. Bella blushed as they walked
away.
“You were saying
about Gloria?” said Vance.
“That you
brought her with you.”
“What made you
think I was going to do that?”
“Because I
thought that’s why you went. To bring her back to Milton. Didn’t you?”
Vance leaned
back onto the step and stretched out his long legs. “I need to explain to you
about Gloria.”
“You don’t have
to explain anything. I know you are engaged to be married. I knew that when we
… I’ve always known.”
“You really
think I’d have kissed you the way I did, if I was in love with another woman?”
“But you must
have been in love with her. To want to marry her.”
“Bella, I’m
sorry if I ever misled you over Gloria. We decided to marry because she wanted
to please her father and I wanted to get back in with mine. They spent so much
of our childhood expecting us to grow up and marry, we thought they’d be
delighted. And they were. But we were never in love. It was a union that suited
us both because at the time neither of us was in love with anyone else. Despite
that, she still deserved to be treated with respect, so I went to see her to
ask her to release me from my promise.” He sat up again and pulled Bella
towards him. “I told her all about you.”
“You did? What
did you tell her?”
“About how I felt
about you. That I fell in love with you the moment I saw you.”
Bella jumped up
off the step.
“What?” Vance
stood up and took her arm. “I’m sorry, I’ve obviously got things wrong.”
“Oh, you got it
very wrong,” said Bella.
“I see, you like
me but you’d never marry a man like me, is that it?”
“I might have if
you thought to ask me instead of going and telling another woman what you
should be telling me first.”
“I asked you if
you would marry me. Over at the Petersons.”
“You were
speaking hypothetically.”
“Bella, a man
never speaks hypothetically about such things. If he did, he’d end up like one
of those Mormons over in Utah, with six or seven wives.”
“You told Gloria
how you felt about me before you even told me.”
“Damn it, I
wanted to tell you, Bella, but after Andrew died you wouldn’t let me, or anyone
else, close. You shut yourself off from everybody who cares about you. I was
afraid that if I asked you then, you’d say no, because you were so angry with
me for not preventing Andrew’s death.”
“No…that’s not
true, Vance. I told you, it was my fault.”
He gently took
her by the shoulders. “It wasn’t your fault. It was Andrew’s fault. He was a
grown man. An intelligent man, but also naïve in many ways. He underestimated
Griffiths, because he was used to the English culture of fair play. I tried to
warn him when he was in jail that night that it doesn’t work like that out
here, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I even tried to tell him he was putting
your life at risk, but he still ignored me. He thought he had it all under
control. Andrew is not your fault, darling. He was damaged when he came here.
This big old country just magnified the problems he already had.”
Bella turned
away and looked at the fire damaged vineyard. “I know.” Everything Vance said
was right. It was something she had known from the moment they set foot in
America, far away in New York, after he found a card game within an hour of
them disembarking. Andrew’s problems were too deep, too entrenched for him to
ever escape them. She spun back around. “But that doesn’t alter the fact that
you chose to tell Gloria…”
Before she could
say another word, Vance had her in his arms, kissing her. Five seconds into the
kiss, she realised that it did not matter about Gloria. Because Vance had come
back to her just when she needed him most. “I love you,” she said, when he
reluctantly pulled away. “I love you, and I would be honoured to be your wife,
Marshal Eagleson.”
She felt
something brush her leg, and looked down. “It’s Hector!” She picked the rabbit
up, and held him close. “He’s survived, Vance.” When her tears finally began to
fall, Vance was there to hold her close.
Chapter Ten
Bella thought
that if there were any greater pleasure than standing on the porch watching a
shirtless Vance helping Shen and the workers rebuild the bunkhouse, she had yet
to find it. It had been a week since the vineyard fire, and despite the hard
work ahead of her, Bella felt happier than she had ever been. The darkness
seemed to have lifted, simply because Vance was back and he loved her. The only
cloud, and one that seemed very far away, given her current joy, was Griffiths.
“I must admit,”
said May, coming out onto the porch, and nodding over towards Vance, “that if I
was ever gonna choose a man, he’d be it.”
“Hands off,”
said Bella, smiling. “He’s mine.”
“I told you,
honey, it ain’t over till it’s over.” May winked. “Nah, don’t you worry. He
adores you. At least I think that’s the reason I have to force him to go home
to Milton every night.”
“That won’t
always be so,” said Bella, blushing. May had done a good job of protecting
Bella’s honour, or so she thought, but soon she and Vance would be married, and
he would never have to leave again.
She became more
serious. “It is over, isn’t it, May?”
“Well, young Tom
was last seen on a stagecoach heading east. We won’t see him ever again. And
Griffiths is up country, making life miserable for some other poor varmints.”
“But we know he
was behind this. I can’t help wondering what he has in store for us next. I
don’t believe he’d give up this easily.”
“Well, maybe he
won’t. But he ain’t gonna come sniffing around here when you and Vance are
married. He knew your brother was weak, and he probably thought you would be,
being a woman all on your own. But he knows Vance isn’t. I don’t think he’ll
try to take your man on.”
“He tried to
have him killed.”
“Yes, but things
are different now. Unlike those other two no-good marshals, Vance has the
respect of the community. The people who were scared of Griffiths before aren’t
as scared of him anymore. They’re not going to stand by and see their marshal
killed.”
Bella wondered
if that were true. In their private moments together, she knew that Vance still
thought he was only in Milton on sufferance.
“I worry about
you too,” he had told her the night before. Bella was sitting on his knee in
the parlour, running her fingers through his hair, whilst his hands playfully
caressed the bodice of her dress. May bustled around noisily in the kitchen so
that they would know she was listening out for any impropriety.
“Me? Why,
darling?” She leaned in and kissed his lips tenderly.
“I was thinking
about my great-grandmother, and how she cut and run.”
“I’m not the cut
and running type,” said Bella.
“You were going
to go home to England.”
“Only because I
thought you were in love with someone else. Vance, my love, I’ll never leave
you.”
“What about when
we have children?” His hands slid up her bodice, as the merest suggestion that
the mention of children had put other thoughts into his mind. “You know when my
father said we should be proud of our heritage, I don’t think he realised what
it would cost us. Cost me. I grew up being called a half-breed. Despite that
not being technically correct. I don’t want that for my kids.”
“Are you saying
you’ve changed your mind?” asked Bella, feeling panic rising in her throat.
“No. I love you,
and I don’t ever want to let you go.” He pulled her closer still. “But I don’t
want to lose you either, when we have children and they have to suffer the same
insults I did.”
“I’m not going
anywhere, darling. We’re going to have wonderful children and bring them up to
know they’re as good as everyone else. All children are made fun of at school
for something or other. What matters is that they’ve got parents at home who
love them and help them through it. That’s what we’ll do. Together.”
She kissed him
again, their kiss becoming deeper and hotter. “I want you so much,” he
whispered to her. “I don’t know how much longer I can wait for you, Bella. I
need to be able to touch you. To finish what we started in the cave that
morning.”
“I know,
darling. I feel the same way.”
“Tomorrow we’ll
go to Milton and arrange the wedding. The sooner the better.”
“Yes, but … “
Bella dropped her voice a little lower, “tonight, after May sends you home, I
could come out and meet you at in the vineyard.”
“You’re a wanton
woman, Isabella Tennyson,” he said, smiling dreamily.
“That’s how
being with you makes me feel.” She slipped her fingers inside his shirt, and
rested her head on his shoulder. “So?”
“I told you that
the next time you touched a man like that you’d better be willing to deal with
the consequences.”
“I … know,”
murmured Bella, brushing her mouth against his between words. “I … remember …
every … single … word … and … there … are …no …deputies … for … miles.”
“What are you
smiling at?” asked May as they stood on the porch the next morning.
“Oh nothing,”
said Bella. “Vance! I’m ready when you are.”
“It’s a funny
thing,” said May as Vance put on his shirt and started walking towards them.
“But last night I thought I heard a prowler again.”
“Did you?”
“Yes, but when I
looked out I thought I saw you.”
“Oh.”
“You were
probably sleepwalking.”
“Yes, that’s
probably it,” said Bella.