Chapter 18
A cool hand against his woke him, and Ben groggily straightened up. “What time is it?” he mumbled as he scrubbed the sleepy sand from weary eyes.
“I’m not sure,” Roseanna whispered. “But there’s been a lot of movement upstairs.”
The terror of Friday’s ambush still lingered in the young woman and her children’s eyes, but Ben admired the girl’s pluck. “I’ll check on things.”
“Thank you. I’ll put a new pot of coffee on for the men standing guard.”
He paused at the bottom of the stairs and glanced at the front door. If he had to guess, he figured it was near morning, if the darkness was anything to go by. But he paused and waited, watching the shadows move across the boardwalk through the barred window.
The attack on Oswold Jenkins, along with the attempted jailbreak a day and a half earlier, had everyone in Roses Briar on edge. But the search for Simon Rassbach continued as Ben worked to tie all the pieces together. In the meantime, his jail cells were standing room only.
“What’s going on up here?” he asked, shining his lantern into the darkness.
“We got someone swinging from the rafters,” one of the troublemakers growled.
Unwilling to take any chances, Ben took one step forward and cast the light toward the first jail cell. “Well, get him down.”
“We ain’t touchin’ no dead bodies. That’s yer job,” Butch Cardwell snarled. “Just get him outta here so we got a little more room.”
“Nothing doing,” Ben answered. “At least not until daylight.”
“It ain’t right to leave him hanging up there like that,” another of the miscreants yelped.
“Then get him down,” Ben snapped. “If he needs help, I’ll get the doc. Otherwise, I’m not opening that cage until daylight.”
There was movement and a bit of cussing, but someone finally called. “He’s dead alright. Think it’s Buchanan.”
“I’ll round up some men in the morning to get him out of there. In the meantime, settle down, or you’ll get nothing but bread and water tomorrow.”
“You better plan on keeping me in this cage forever, Sheriff. ‘Cause when I get outta here . . .”
“If Oswold Jenkins dies, Cardwell, the only place you’re going is to the gallows. Otherwise, you’ll be mining limestone down at the state prison in Waupun for the rest of your days. Now shut up and go to sleep,” Ben growled before returning to his desk.
“Everything okay?” Roseanna asked, peeking around the doorway into the office.
“No, but it will wait until morning. Go on back to bed,” Ben advised.
Drifting into the room, Roseanna stopped to warm her hands near the potbelly stove.
“Trouble sleeping,” the lawman guessed, still astounded by the young woman’s courage on the day of the jailbreak.
“A little,” she admitted, drawing the borrowed shawl more tightly around her shoulders. “But it’s not what you think,” Roseanna sighed.
“No?”
Lifting her braid and pulling it over her shoulder, the young woman began to absently stroke the ends of her pale blonde hair. “I’m not sure what to do now,” she tentatively began. “You’ve been kind enough to let us occupy your quarters these past two weeks, but we can’t expect you to keep sleeping on that cot.”
Ben waved away the lady’s worry. “I’ve been sleeping on that cot since my folks came to the area with the railroad crew.”
“You have family here?”
“My Ma and siblings live between here and Clear Water Falls – just up the other side of the hill from the mill.”
“Oh! I remember passing several pretty little farms,” Roseanna recalled.
“My brother took over the farming after Pa was killed, and I moved back to the railroad camp. Spent a couple of years following Arnold Danbury around before he made me his unofficial deputy.”
“Unofficial?”
“Wasn’t any call for official law enforcement until about three years ago. Up until then, Roses Briar was a railroad camp. But as more folks showed up, the Great Valley Railway decided to platt the town. They’re the ones that built all these buildings,” Ben said, waving to his office.
“I wondered about that,” Roseanna replied as she moved closer. “It seems like all the buildings between here and the church are set up the same.”
Nodding, Ben answered, “Yup. All four quadrants have the same style building. It’s what Rassbach calls the ‘town square.’ Although I think he’s a bit mixed up about what that means.”
Taking a seat across the desk from the bleary-eyed Sheriff, Roseanna agreed before taking a sip of her coffee. “Isn’t it strange for a town this size to be cramped together like that?”
“Not sure I can say. But I do know Rassbach wanted to keep a tight rein on the expenses when he put these buildings up.
“I think he originally intended for the whole town to be constructed to his blueprints. But the lumber barons who put up the money for the railroad had no interest in building a whole town out here. The hub at Roses Briar was only meant to be a supply depot,” Ben finished with a wide yawn.
“Sorry for keeping you up,” Roseanna apologized as she stood to go.
“No, wait,” the conflicted man said as he moved around the desk to join her. “I’ve got a piece to say before I lose my gumption.”
Pausing, the young mother waited.
Ben cleared his throat and smoothed his wrinkled shirt before he reached for Roseanna’s hand. “Arnold Danbury was a good man, and the best friend I ever had. He must have thought highly of you and your father to make you his wife,” Ben admitted. “And he’d be mighty het-up if he knew you were left without a man to protect you from that sidewinder who is trying to steal your boys.”
Gently tugging her hand free, Roseanna clasped both palms together and dropped them to her waist. “My Pa wanted to make things right. They just didn’t work out that way.”
“Well, maybe not the way he expected. But . . . I um, I ah . . .” he stammered before changing tactics. Ben huffed out a breath before continuing, “My Ma always said there was nothing prettier than a Christmas bride, and tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent.”
“I, um, guess so,” Roseanna agreed. “I haven’t been to many weddings, and I can’t recall one at Yuletide. But I’ll take your word for it.”
Ben wanted to let the matter go, but he knew the judge would be arriving sometime on Monday. And he’d promised the other man that he’d protect the little family, whatever the cost. So, the skittish fellow shored up his nerve and blurted. “We’ll get married tomorrow after service. That way, you can stop worrying about that Matthews fellow.”
Dumbfounded, Roseanna felt her mouth drop open. “Good heavens! Have you gone mad?” she stuttered.
“Caleb likes me,” Ben pointed out in a small voice.
A chuckle erupted from the back of the puzzled girl’s throat.
“That’s not very kind.”
“Oh, Sheriff. I am sorry,” Roseanna giggled. “But Caleb likes everybody,” she laughed.
Feeling defensive, Ben scowled. “He already calls me ‘Pa.’”
Swallowing back her mirth, Roseanna agreed, saying, “There is that.”
“Alright then. We’ll make it official after services tomorrow.”
Swallowing hard, Roseanna choked back her fears and nodded her consent. “I . . .”
“What?”
“Sebastian. He’s only two weeks old,” she stammered. “It’s . . . well, it’s too soon for . . .”
Oblivious, Ben blinked owlishly and demanded, “What? Too soon for what?”
“Intimacy,” Roseanna whispered.
His face went hot. His hands went clammy. And his heart began to thunder like a runaway locomotive. Intimacy! Good Lord, what am I going to do? his inner voice squeaked.