Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
W as this really happening to her? Was Jackson proposing marriage?
His ruggedly handsome face was only inches from hers, and his gray-blue eyes held hers with his usual intensity.
She let her fingers drift from his lip to his chin, relishing the thick coarse hair and the hardness of his jaw.
“Have you considered when you might like to get married?” Pastor Abe spoke again, his tone hinting at humor.
“Soon.” Jackson spoke the word bluntly. “If Sage is agreeable…to marriage, that is.”
“I’m agreeable.” Her voice had a breathless quality, and she focused on his shirt. “And soon is fine with me.”
“Soon it is,” Pastor Abe said.
“Very soon,” Jackson added.
“How about now?” As the question tumbled out, she began to scramble backward. “No, that’s absurd. I shouldn’t have said it. It’s just that we have a reverend, and it would solve the problem of needing a chaperone, and?—”
“I concur.” Jackson tugged her back, giving her no choice but to sit down on his lap again. “Now is perfect.”
She pressed her hands to her cheeks to cool them. “Perhaps we’re being hasty and need time to think more about it.”
“I shan’t need more time to think on it.”
She released a short breath of relief. “Then neither do I.”
“I love you.” His words were low and rumbly. “I know I just said it, but I cannot stop myself from saying it again.”
She couldn’t contain a smile. “I’ll never tire of hearing it.”
“Good. Because you’ll likely hear it a great deal.” His lips curved up into a rare smile.
At the sight of it, her breath hitched. The smile transformed his face, taking him from handsome to devastatingly gorgeous. It revealed his nice teeth, defined the curves of his mouth, and made the sharpness of his chin more prominent.
She had her new mission in life—make Jackson smile more often.
“I don’t have my prayer book,” Pastor Abe said as he reached a hand toward her to assist her to her feet. “But I do mostly have the ceremony memorized and can lead you through it.”
She took the reverend’s help. As she stood, she remained as far away from the road’s ledge as possible. Her legs were still trembling, but she managed to brush her hand over her skirt and release the dirt and gravel sticking to the material.
Those last seconds before her fall came rushing back. She’d been methodically assessing each inch of both sides of the road. Somehow she must have stepped too close to the edge. She’d felt her feet slipping and the ground giving way beneath her. She’d frantically turned around and grasped at the road, the earth, anything she could get her hands on. She still didn’t know how she’d been able to grasp the tree root, but it had saved her life.
No, Jackson had saved her life.
He was standing beside her and brushing the dust and dirt off his suit. He’d lost his hat, and the morning sunshine bathed his head, turning the strands to a silky black.
Feeling her gaze upon him, he halted, and his eyes seemed to ask her if she was okay.
She was now. “I love you.”
His eyes lit.
“I know I just said it,” she said as she repeated his words back to him, “but I can’t stop myself from saying it again.”
His smile made another appearance, and it sent her heart into a dizzying spin. He started to reach for her, his gaze falling to her lips.
“Whoa, now.” With a chuckle, Pastor Abe patted Jackson’s chest firmly and positioned him beside her. “We’ll never get the two of you married at this rate.”
Jackson nodded. “Forgive me, Reverend.”
Pastor Abe closed his eyes. “Let’s pray.”
Jackson’s hand slipped into hers, and he laced their fingers together.
She loved the strength of his hand, the ripple of tension in his fingers, even the possessiveness of his hold. She loved him. She wanted to blurt it again, but she bit back the words, knowing she would have plenty of time later—the rest of her life—to tell him and show him how much she loved him.
As she stood beside Jackson on the high mountain road, the morning sun warmed her back. It was high enough in the sky now that it turned the mountainside into a golden cathedral. The tall evergreens standing on one side acted as their witnesses. The bridge ahead became their altar and the rushing river below their music.
Pastor Abe led them through the order of the marriage service with a reverence that seemed only fitting under the widest and bluest sky she’d ever seen. Jackson must have sensed the reverence too, because his voice was low and filled with awe as he spoke his vows. Hers were hardly above a whisper as she said hers in return.
As they finished, Pastor Abe smiled. “Now may God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless, preserve, and keep you. May the Lord mercifully with his favor look upon you and so fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace, that you may live together in this life and that in the world to come, you may have life everlasting. Amen.”
“Amen,” she whispered, half expecting to wake up and discover she was just dreaming.
But Jackson’s fingers still laced with hers were too solid. His arm pressing into hers was too real. The intensity radiating from his body was all-encompassing.
“If only I had a ring.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her ring finger.
His lips were gentle but sent a shudder of desire through her that was anything but gentle. She had the sudden need to press against him and feel the length of his body. It was a wanton thought, and it warmed her cheeks.
Thankfully, he wasn’t aware of the power of just a kiss on her fingers. He was too busy scanning the landscape. “There has to be something we can use as a temporary ring.”
Abe was patting his pockets, as though he was looking for a stray object they could use.
“It’s all right—” she started.
Before she could finish assuring Jackson that she didn’t need a ring for the marriage to be official, he stiffened, then broke away from her. With his eyes on something ahead, he stalked down the trail toward the bridge.
She tried to locate what he’d noticed in the morning sunshine. But she didn’t see anything new or different. Of course, she hadn’t gotten as far as the bridge when she’d been looking for clues from Augusta.
After the conversation with Pastor Abe earlier, she’d still been working up the courage to approach Jackson. She hadn’t been willing to give up on their relationship yet, had decided to be patient and do what she could to continue building connections. But at that point, she’d been content to search along the trail and let Pastor Abe explore closer to the bridge.
Jackson didn’t stop until he reached the part of the road that led onto the bridge—or what remained of the bridge. He stooped and pushed aside a tuft of grass. The sunlight glinted off what appeared to be a piece of metal.
Had he found something to use as a ring after all?
She wouldn’t be surprised. He was ingenious and would probably be able to fashion a ring out of anything.
As he rose, he twisted the object, examining it before he shifted and lifted it so that she could see what he’d found. “It’s a fork.”
She started toward him, still wary of getting too close to the edge of the road.
Jackson was staring at the silver object again. “It was stuck into the ground with the prongs facing upward.”
Pastor Abe was at Jackson’s side already and looking at the item. “Do you think it’s the clue from your sister that you’ve been searching for?”
As Sage joined the two at the edge of the bridge, she scanned the wreckage that stretched out a short way over the river. The stones and beams hung in disarray.
“I’m flabbergasted why she would leave us a fork as a clue.” Jackson held the fork out to her. “Do you have any ideas?”
She took it and studied it. “It’s one from your home.”
“Is it?” He sounded surprised.
For such a smart man, he didn’t always see the details, probably got too caught up in his mind and his projects to pay attention to things that didn’t really matter. However, in this case, it did matter. But how?
“Clearly Augusta brought it with her.” Sage dusted the dirt off the end that had been stuck in the ground.
Something about the clues and the methodical nature of Augusta’s placement of them didn’t make sense. It seemed too planned and too thought-out for someone who’d been kidnapped and whisked out of the house against her will.
Jackson’s features creased with a scowl. “The big question at the moment is what is Augusta trying to tell us with a fork?”
The charm bracelet with the word hope and the picture of the bridge had both been fairly easy to decipher. But a fork?
Sage rubbed off more of the dirt. “Is there an eating establishment—a dining room, pub, or hotel that she might be leading us to?”
The three of them fell silent as they stared at the fork. A loud cak-cak-cak echoed above them as a hawk with gray wings and a light pink chest circled overhead.
“A fork.” Jackson spoke the word slowly, as if in doing so he could unravel Augusta’s clue.
She started a list. “Silverware. Eating utensils. Spoons. Knives. Forks.”
Pastor Abe snapped his fingers and met Jackson’s gaze. “Forks.”
“Forks?” Jackson’s voice still held confusion.
“The Forks.” Pastor Abe nodded up the river. “The Great Forks.”
“Yes.” Jackson’s face took on an animated light. “That is it.”
“What is it?” she asked.
“The town of Lytton to the north of here used to be known as Forks or Great Forks, because that’s where the Thompson and Fraser Rivers meet.”
So Augusta had placed a fork near the bridge to let them know that their next destination was the Forks, also known as Lytton. “How far away are we?”
Jackson seemed to be calculating the distance in his head. But Pastor Abe spoke before Jackson could. “It’s a full day’s ride.”
“Can we make it by tonight?” she asked.
Pastor Abe looked at the position of the sun. “Maybe. If we leave now and ride hard.”
“Then let’s go.” Excitement shimmered through Sage. If—when—they finally located Augusta, what would she say when she learned about the wedding?
Sage pressed a hand to her chest to still the sudden rapid beat of her heart. Should she have waited and gained permission first? Obviously, she couldn’t change what she’d done now. But maybe she would have to explain to Jackson that they needed to wait to make their marriage real until after they found Augusta and had her approval.
She’d seemed open to Sage liking Jackson, and she hadn’t been opposed to them spending time together. But that didn’t mean she’d welcome Sage into her family as a sister. What if Augusta didn’t give them her blessing? Would they get an annulment?
Protest rose inside Sage at the prospect. But she had come to the colonies first and foremost to be a lady’s maid. She couldn’t abandon Augusta. At the same time, she doubted Jackson would support her continuing in that role now that she was his wife.
Regardless of the dilemma, they had to leave right away and continue the search. Augusta’s life might depend on them. And they couldn’t waste another moment.