A Woman Worth Marrying Chapter 2

Annabella stared at the three men around the campfire and wondered what their intentions were. The one who had taken off his shirt for her was now sitting by himself and sharpening his knife. His shirt was still on her and when they arrived at the camp, he had pulled another one out of his bag and put it on. There were only three bedrolls and she was wondering where she was going to sleep. She was exhausted as hell and could not believe her luck. When she ran off from the sheriff’s office, she ended up lost and before she knew it, she’d been captured by those men. They’d poked fun at her all night long each one fondling her for no longer than a moment before going off to do something else. But when night fell and the cool wind took place of the warmth of the sun, she saw the hunger in their eyes and it was the hunger that killed her. But someone must have been looking out for her because she was saved. She looked through the flames at the man who had saved her and saw that his eyes held an ember as bright as the flames that burned. He was handsome with a face unlike any she’d ever seen before and when she saw his body, she’d melted inside. She never knew a man’s body could look like that. Did Ty’s body look like that? Her thoughts were cut off when he looked up and met her gaze. She blushed and looked away. But then she heard him walking toward her and she tried to hide her face by snuggling deep into his shirt.

“Here,” he said as he handed her a bag of jerky. “You must be starving.”

“I’m not hungry,” she said. At that moment, her stomach rumbled loudly.

He laughed. “Try telling that to your stomach, lady.”

She shot him a dark glare. “My name is Annabella so you can stop calling me lady.”

“Well, Annabella, eat the jerky.”

She didn’t take it.

He knelt down and sighed deeply. “Take it and eat it or I will feed you like the infant you are.” “I’m not an infant!”

“You’re acting like one. Now if I wanted you, I would have taken you when I had the chance. But you can relax because me and my men don’t take women against their will. When a woman climbs into my bed, she does it because she wants me just as much. So eat and then rest.”

“Rest? Where am I supposed to sleep? There are only three bedrolls.”

Jedidiah laughed. “I guess you’ll be in my bed then.”

She lifted her chin up. “I thought you said you don’t take women against their will?”

“Who said I would be taking you? I’m offering you my bed, that’s all.”

She blushed as she realized he was right. She reached out and took the jerky from his hand. He was still kneeling there staring at her so she took a bite and began chewing. Satisfied, he moved back to his place.

“Get in,” Jedidiah said a few moments later as he pointed to his bedroll.

Annabella stared at it and wanted to argue, but her eyes were near closing and she felt as if she’d been run over by a car. She got in and he slipped in beside her with the blanket on top of them. But as she got comfortable, his arm slipped around her waist. She shot up and stared at him.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

“I’m just trying to keep you warm. I’m not going to get any sleep if your teeth chatter.”

She gasped at him. “My teeth do not chatter!”

He laughed a deep throaty laugh. “Sweetheart, you’re lying through your teeth.”

She pushed his hands away and sat up. “You’re not sleeping here if you intend on holding me.”

He sat up and stared at her. “Tonight is a very cold night. I’m here to offer warmth so don’t get too excited.”

Blushing, she flopped back down on the ground without looking at him. She heard him lay down again and once more, his arm slipped around her waist. She swallowed hard and lay as still as death listening to the fire crackle. The wind blew and she shuddered feeling her teeth chatter.

“Told you you’re teeth chatter,” he said.

“Fine, you win. Are you happy now?”

“No.”

“You never told me your name.”

“Jedidiah Caine. That’s Bruce and Sam over there. Hunter is out on watch. You’ll meet him later. You care to tell me why you were in Band Fork messing with the sheriff?”

Annabella shut her eyes and the thought of herself in that cell brought out tears. She opened her eyes and took in a deep breath. She felt as if something was dying inside her and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep it alive. He must have thought she’d dozed off because he whispered her name softly. She turned a bit and found him staring down at her with those dark eyes of his.

“Why do you want to know?” she asked.

“I’m curious, that’s all. You’re a woman of fragility it seems. How you came about him and those men are a serious of questions that have led me dancing in a circle of dizziness.”

She turned away from him. “I was on my way to Houston to meet my fiancée. There was an ambush and my carriage was shot to shreds. When the sheriff arrived, he assumed I was part of it and took me to jail. It took me four days to learn he took me because he wanted to make money off of me.”

“I’m sorry, Annabella. We’ve been trying to take James out for the longest time. As you can see we’ve failed each time. He’s got rich bankers on his sides that are willing to threaten all citizens into voting him to sheriff each year.”

“I want to go home. Ty will be worried.”

“Ty?”

“My fiancée.”

He laughed. “Oh yes, your fiancée. Why didn’t he pick you up himself? Why make a woman travel all the way out to Houston?”

A good question, she thought. Obviously Jedidiah had a good head on his shoulders. She didn’t answer him because truthfully she had no answer. She didn’t want to paint Ty as a bad man or a man without manners, but in the end, he was that man. She’d questioned herself a thousand times why he didn’t come for her. But she was left dancing in circles as Jedidiah had put it.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked after a moment.

“No.”

“You got very quiet. I hope what I said didn’t make you angry.”

“No, you were right in everything you said. In fact, I was wondering myself.”

“Do you have a place to stay?”

“No, I don’t. But I don’t intend on staying. Come morning and I’ll be gone. I need to catch the next train out of here.”

“I hate to break it to you, but trains don’t come out this far north. You’d either have to rent a carriage or have someone take you there. And this area, men don’t rent carriages to single women. You either have to be married or have a man traveling with you.”

She turned around and glared at him again. “Are you serious? How am I supposed to get home then? If I can’t get a carriage or rent one or find a train, how do I get home?”

“My suggestion is that come morning you go with us to town and wire him a telegram, telling him where you are. He can come for you.”

“And where do you suppose I stay for the time being?”

 He laughed. “Why, you can stay right where you are.”

 

 

The morning sun peeked through the leaves and Jedidiah groaned as his entire body ached. He yawned and stretched when he felt her next to him. She was curled up like a kitten against his body with her brown hair tangled up in a mess on top of her head. In the light, he saw how beautiful she truly was. Her skin was so clear so perfect, it seemed unreal; her fingers were slender and long that led to perfectly trimmed nails. The swell of her breasts were firm and her body wasn’t small at all. In fact, it was filled with curves and dips that made a man ache. The tingling feeling returned and he smacked his face with his hand. He got up and ran a hand through his hair before standing up. He looked up as Hunter came from the river bend freshly shaved.

“Looks like you had one hell of a good night,” Hunter said as he stared at Annabella.

“I doubt it,” Jedidiah said. “I’m going to go freshen up. You keep watch on her.”

Hunter smiled. “Don’t mind if I do.”

Jedidiah shook his head and walked off to the river bend. He bent down and scooped up a handful of water to splash his face. He let the water slide down his face refreshing him as he stared at the view before him. The green mountaintops were high and filled with a slight fog from the cold. The sky was a color he couldn’t name and the river seemed to be flowing with a life force he’d never seen before. He washed his mouth and took a drink of water before returning to find Annabella up and staring at him with her big blue eyes. The ache in the pit of his stomach grew and he pushed the thought away.

“You want to wash up?” he asked.

She didn’t answer him as she headed down to the same place he’d come from. Jedidiah bent down and picked out some jerky from his saddle bag when the sound of horse hooves was heard. All four of them jerked their heads up when Sheriff James Boone rode in with a posse of men behind him. Jedidiah would never acknowledge James as his sheriff. The man was a murderer and a rapist and if God would grant him a chance, he’d put James in his grave. The man was an ugly man with hair the color of dried mud and eyes like coal. He wore stripped vests with jeans so tight, Jedididah wondered how the man got on and off his horse without ripping a seam.

“If it isn’t the Devil’s Own Rangers,” James said as he spit into the ground. “What are you guys doing out here?”

“We could ask you the same thing. You’re trespassing on our grounds,” Hunter said.

James laughed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m looking for someone. A woman, a very pretty woman. She ran out on me yesterday. She’s not from around here so you’d well to recognize her if you saw her.”

Jedidiah saw recognition in the others’ eyes. He knew exactly who the sheriff was talking about. He only hoped Annabella wouldn’t return from the river yet. “No, sir, we haven’t seen her.”

But as Jedidiah said that, Annabella came up from the river and stopped short of the sheriff. James laughed as she jumped back from fright. Jedidiah came to her and she immediately grabbed his arms, her nails digging into his skin.

“Well, you lied to me, boys. You not only have seen her, but there she is in the flesh. I’m gonna need her back. She’s a criminal who needs to be brought to justice,” James said.

“You lying wimp!” Annabella cried.

Hunter, Sam, and Bruce laughed as James’ men chuckled behind him. One brute order from James and his men stopped laughing. Jedidiah watched as James got off his horse and strolled toward them with his gun out and ready to shoot if needed.

“I don’t want to hurt anyone. But she’s mine and I intend to take her with me come hell or high water,” James said. “So either you hand her over nicely or I’ll have to shoot you.”

Jedidiah crossed his arms. “Why do you want her so bad? It seems to me she’s got herself a fiancée waiting for her arrival. The only thing she’s done is made him worried about her whereabouts. Shouldn’t you as an upstanding lawman make sure she arrives at her destination without any more tragic accidents?”

James laughed and brought his gun up to waist level. “I see she got to you too, didn’t she? She’s this minx who makes all good men forget their duties. She tried to seduce me with her body.”

“You liar!” Annabella barked from behind Jedidiah.

Jedidiah smiled as he stepped forward. “Do you really expect me to believe that? She’s not much, but I do know that she’d never lower herself to the likes of you.”

James laughed. “You already got under her spell, Caine. Beware.”

“She’s not leaving with you. You can turn around and leave the same way you came.”

“I’m not leaving without her.”

“I’d hoped for nothing less,” Sam said.

Before James had a chance to blink, Sam fired off four rounds and the men who had come along with James took off running in the other direction. It left James standing there like a fool whose pants were pulled down. Jedidiah stepped forward and withdrew his gun from his holster.

“You’ve got two options. One, you leave and you go alive. Or two, you leave, but you leave dead. What’s your decision?”

“She’s not yours to keep, Caine. She’s not yours to be had.”

“And she’s yours? She’s got a man waiting for her in Houston.”

James laughed and shook his head. “There is no man.”

Annabella stepped forward with a frown on her face. She hadn’t heard him right. “What did you say?”

 “There is no man waiting for you, sweetheart. You’re our property.”

Fear struck Jedidiah deep in the heart. “What are you talking about?”

“Ty is a businessman and I work for him. He ordered me to kidnap her and jail her to be bought. Even if you kill me, he’ll come after her and he will. He doesn’t let anything of his go free. She was his from the beginning and she will be his at the end. Ty wants her and he’ll get her. She’s a beautiful woman and pure. A pure beautiful woman will get him a nice price.”

“You’re lying!” Annabella shouted. “You’re lying! He would never do that to me!”

“Did you honestly think he loved you? A man like Ty doesn’t know how to love unless that woman can give him good money. Based on your looks, you’d make him rich, very rich. Now hand her over and you’ll live, rangers.”

 “You’re without an army, so I suggest you take it down a notch,” Bruce said.

Laughing, James replied, “And you think that scares me?”

Jedidiah fired off two rounds at his feet, which had him dancing. “Get out of here, Boone, before I take away your nuts.”

“You won’t get away with this.”

“So you say. If Ty wants her, he’ll have to come for her.”

James got on his horse and galloped away. As soon as he was out of sight, Jedidiah turned around to find a pale sickened faced Annabella. He walked to her and steadied her. She looked up at her with those big eyes and it was all he could do to keep himself from hugging her. She sobbed and turned away from him as she made her way to the river. Jedidiah followed and found her sitting by the river crying. He walked over, knelt down, and touched her shoulder. She flinched and moved away from his touch.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Are you? Now you can get rid of me easier,” she sniffed.

“Sweetheart, did you really think this was how I wanted things to play out? I’m not a big fan of Boone to begin with and now I think I hate his guts even more if that were possible.”

“I don’t understand. Ty seemed so caring when I met him. I had no idea he had this evil plan all along. Where do I go from here? Where am I supposed to go? I can’t return home because there is nothing there. I sold everything for this trip.”

“If you want, we can take you with us and you can decide then what it is you want to do.”

She turned to him, eyes red from crying. “And then what? What am I supposed to do afterwards? I have nowhere to go and I have no family.”

“We can figure things out as we go along.”