Shrugging, Daniel leveled the gun at Seth’s chest, prepared to kill him in cold blood. With the sound of gunfire exploding in the room, Lily screamed as she waited to see the blood spread across the chest of her husband, but it never came. Instead, a bright pool of blood quickly spread across the back of Daniel’s shirt. Smoke curled from the pistol held tightly Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.
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in Jarod's fist as he stood near the door. Daniel turned around with a surprised look in his eyes before he fell to the floor in silence, still holding the gun.
Lily ran to her husband as he made his way to his feet and wrapped her arms around him. “I was so scared.” She buried her head against his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
“I know, sweetheart. It’s over now,” Seth whispered, kissing her hair.
Lily heard the boys drop their guns before they ran to their parents' side and wrapped their little arms around them. A few moments later Lily heard the thunder of horse hooves in the distance. Afraid it was the rest of the gang of robbers returning, Seth pull himself from the grip of his family and quickly closed the door to the cabin.
They heard the horses stop in front of the cabin, and several pairs of boots stepped onto the porch.
“Seth? Lily?”
Seth opened the door to the grim faces of several of the men from town, including the mayor and the doctor. They had obviously come to help, even if it was a little late.
The doctor moved into the room, and, seeing the body lying in a pool of blood, he bent to examine him. “He’s dead,” the doctor said, rising to his feet and turning the man over.
“Daniel Roberts? Want to tell me what happened here, Seth?” the mayor asked, stunned when he saw who now lay dead on the floor.
Lily moved Seth to a chair nearby, to sit for a few minutes, when she noticed the paleness of his face and the fresh blood that stained the bandage on his head.
Seth explained how he had learned Daniel was behind the robberies. He told the mayor how Jarod had been giving the criminals information about posting the guards on the train, and he added that Jarod had been involved in Lily’s kidnapping.
“This is serious, Seth. That boy was helping them break the law.”
“Harland, I think I should handle the situation with Jarod at home. I realize he was helping them, but he was also the one who saved all of us by shooting Daniel before he could kill me.” Seth pulled his son to his side.
“He shot Daniel?” the doctor and the mayor said together.
“Yes, he did, and I couldn’t be more proud of him.”
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“Well, seeing how he saved all of your lives and also helped rid the town of the train robbers or of their leader, anyway, I guess we can overlook this.”
“Thanks, Harland. I’m sure we can handle this at home.” Seth tried to stand again so they could leave the dreadful place, and Lily braced him with her own body until they walked out the door. When they reached the porch, they were completely surprised at the number of people who had come from town to help. There must have been twenty men sitting on their horses or meandering around the yard.
“Thanks, gentlemen, for coming to our aid. It’s nice to know you have friends,” Seth said, addressing the group.
“I wish you would have waited, Seth. We would have been here to help,” one man said as the horse shifted under him.
“You know me, Zeke, I’m not very patient, especially when it comes to my wife,” Seth said, pulling Lily even closer.
“Yeah, we know,” another said, and the men laughed under their breath.
Seth shot the snickering men a furious look and then his face relaxed.
“The horses are over there by those rocks. Maybe one of you men could retrieve them for us.”
“Sure, Seth,” Zeke said, before he headed toward where the horses were tied.
“What are we going to tell Madge?” Lily asked as they waited for the man to bring the horses down.
“The truth. Daniel was her pride and joy, but she needs to know the truth.”
“I suppose you’re right, but she’s not going to like it.” Lily pulled her dress up between her legs and tucked it in her waistband, enabling her to ride astride the horse. Wolf whistles from the men around them echoed through the clearing.
“Look all you want, gentlemen, but just remember, she’s mine,” Seth said, with a mocking, furious look in their direction before turning the horses in the direction of the ranch. “Let’s go home.”
Later that afternoon they headed into town to talk to Madge. When they rode up in front of her place, she came out the front door, wiping her hands on her apron.
“Well hello, you two. I’m surprised to see you.”
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“We need to tell you something, Madge. Can we go inside?” Seth asked, attempting to take her elbow and guide her into the house.
“Of course, Seth.” They went in and sat down in the front parlor. “Now what’s going on? I don’t like the look on your faces.”
“Madge,” Lily said softly, taking her hands in her own, “Daniel is dead.”
“No! That can’t be! I just saw him this morning before he rode out. He said he was going to be gone a few days. That’s all,” Madge pulled her hands from Lily’s grasp and began to pace the room.
“It’s true, Madge," Seth began. "There are some things we need to tell you that you aren’t going to like, I’m sure, but you need to know. You see, Daniel has been the one behind the robberies, and he kidnapped Lily yesterday. He and the others were holding her in a cabin in the canyon beyond town, I guess until he could move her without anyone seeing them.
He was responsible for me being shot yesterday, too.” Seth recounted the events leading to Daniel’s death.
“It’s just not possible,” Madge whispered, sinking back onto the sofa next to Lily.
“I know you loved him like he was your own son, Madge, but he was keeping all this from you. I wouldn’t have thought him capable of this either, had I not seen it with my own eyes,” Lily said, trying to comfort the woman.
“Who shot him? Did you, Seth?”
“No, he was going to kill me after we had gotten into a fist fight in the cabin, but Jarod shot him from behind.”
“Jarod? How did he get involved?”
“Johnny was with Lily yesterday when they kidnapped her, but we found out later Jarod had been helping Daniel by giving him information on my movements. Unfortunately, or fortunately, whichever way you want to look at it, Daniel didn’t know I was on the train yesterday, so they attempted to rob it.”
Madge shook her head and stared at the floor for a moment before she said, “Wait, I have something I need to show you.” She left the room and came back a few minutes later. “I don’t know if this has anything to do with anything, but I found this on your floor, Lily, at the house here in town, after Ebook piracy is stealing. It is a federal offense.
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those men attacked you. It looks like a map, but I didn’t know of what.” She handed the map to Seth. “What do you think it means?”
Seth opened the paper and showed it to Lily and was surprised to see that the map indicated the cabin where they had found Lily. It was a pretty detailed map of the surrounding area, with obvious escape routes, should the need arise for them to leave quickly. “I wish you’d shown this to me earlier, Madge. We might have been able to prevent this whole thing,” Seth whispered, and Lily felt him shiver.
“I’m sorry, Seth. I didn’t think it was that important, until now. I’m just glad everyone is safe,” Madge said, and a tear slipped down her cheek.
“It’s over, and thankfully, no one else was hurt or killed. We just have to move on and try to forget the terror of the last couple of days,” Lily said.
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. It’s just going to be very quiet around here, now that Daniel is gone,” Madge said sadly. “He was the only family I had.”
“You have us, Madge. Isn’t that right, Seth?” Lily said, and their eyes met over Madge’s head.
“Of course. You had nothing to do with what Daniel was up to. We won’t hold his behavior against you.”
“I think we should be going, Seth. We still need to address Jarod’s involvement with him,” Lily said.
“Yes, we do,” Seth said, rising from his place. They walked arm and arm to the front door, with Madge close behind.
“Will you come out for supper on Sunday?” they asked.
“That would be nice,” Madge said.
“You can ride back with us when we come in for church, all right?”
Seth helped Lily into the wagon seat before he went around and jumped into the driver’s seat.
“That’s perfect,” Madge replied and waved.
When Seth and Lily reached the house, he helped her down and began to unhitch the team so they could be stabled for the night. Lily walked inside to find all of the children sitting quietly in the front room with Carmen, waiting for their return.
She turned to the children she had grown to love with all of her heart over the year that she and Seth had been together, and she said, “Johnny, Anne, can you leave us for a while? Your poppa and I need to talk to Jarod alone.”
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“Sure, come on, Anne. You can show me those new kittens in the barn,”
Johnny said, taking his sister’s hand as they headed for the barn.
Lily saw Seth come in a few minutes later as she and Jarod sat in the living room, and she waved for him to join them. He entered the room and sat down next to his wife, and together they faced their son.
“You’ve told me what you did to help Daniel, but what I want to know, son, is why?”
When Jarod lifted his head, the sadness Lily saw there was so similar to what she remembered in Seth’s eyes, the first time they had met on the train, it hurt her heart. The boy hurt, deep in his heart, for the love of his mother.
Victoria was taken from him before he was ready. Lily knew the only way for this little boy to get past this was for Seth to tell him the truth of how she was killed.
Jarod told them how he didn’t want Lily to take Victoria’s place, and when she had given birth to the babies, he was afraid Seth loved them more than he loved Johnny, Anne, and himself.
“Sweetie, I don’t want to take your mother’s place in your heart. I love your poppa, and he loves me. We just want to be happy and raise all of you together until you are grown enough to have a family of your own. Your love for your mother will always be in your heart, and no one can take that away from you.”
“That’s right, son. I love Lily, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t love your mother.”
“Seth, I know you are against telling the children the truth of Victoria’s death, but I think, in this case, he needs to know,” Lily said as she braced for his fury.
“You’re right, sweetheart. He needs to know. There have already been way too many secrets.”
The words flowed from Seth's mouth. The whole story was laid out to his son, about how Victoria had been riding that day to meet Daniel. She'd come upon the squatters, who, in turn, shot her because she had questioned their presence.
“What did Mr. Roberts mean when he said Johnny and me were his sons? That you had taken everything from him, including us?”
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“You see, son, it appears that you and Johnny were fathered by him. I mean that he is your real father, not me.” Seth tried to explain to an eight year-old boy the way things were between a man and a woman.
“Does that mean you are sending us away?”
“No, son. I would never send you away. I will always be your pop, no matter what.” Lily saw Seth move to his son’s side and pull him to his chest.
She sat in the chair, watching the exchange between father and son, knowing that her family was now complete. No matter who had fathered the boys, they were their children.
That night when they lay next to each other, fully sated from their lovemaking, Lily snuggled next to her husband and stroked his chest as he pulled her close.
“I wish I had been able to stop Daniel before this got so out of control,”
Seth whispered as she kissed his chest. “If I had been able to keep him from robbing the trains all those times, maybe no one would have been killed in the process.”
“True, but then again, we might not have met if he hadn’t robbed it the first time. What were you doing on the train that day, anyway?”
“I had just made a trip into Houston to sell some cattle, so I was on my way back home. I knew the new schoolteacher was due any day, but I never pictured you as her when I saw you on the train. I thought you might be visiting family or something, but I was definitely curious when you kept peeking at me.” He continued lazily to stroke her arm with his fingers, sending goose bumps across the surface.
“Peeking? I wasn’t peeking at you,” she said, surprised he had noticed her looking at him.
“Yes, you were,” he said, with a sexy smile. “I could see you.”
“How could you see me? You were sleeping.”
“No, I wasn’t! You just thought I was,” he said before he laughed at her expression of shock.
“You are rotten, Seth Sanford, do you know that?”
“No, I’m not. I’m as sweet as a sugar cookie on your tongue,” he whispered before he rolled her over and started trailing kisses down her chest. She moaned beneath him.
Lifting his head, he said, “You’ve shown me love can conquer all fears, revenge and anger, and I’ve finally surrendered to love.”