Louise M. - Cowboy Lawman's Christmas Reunion

“Manners, Gerard.” She spoke sweetly but gave her son a tight smile.

Gerard scowled at her. Justice appeared about to correct the boy, but Nate beat him to it.

“Son, your mother reminded you about your manners. You say ‘yes, ma’am’ and do what she says.”

As she’d feared, Gerard slammed down his fork and sat back, arms folded over his slender chest. “Make me.” Although he was only ten years old, his growl sounded horribly similar to Lucius’s when he’d been angry, which was often.

Nate questioned Evangeline with one raised eyebrow, perhaps asking permission to correct her son, but Justice took action. He leaned his considerable height over Gerard and gave him a menacing look that made Evangeline shudder. Any criminal would tremble at that look.

“Son, your mother reminded you about your manners.” He repeated Nate’s words in a cool tone. “You say ‘yes, ma’am’ and do what she says.” He spared Evangeline a glance before going on. “In this town, we don’t tolerate recalcitrant conduct among our young folks. Believe me, you don’t want to know how we deal with any boy who disrupts the peace around here.”

Gerard blinked a few times, and his jaw dropped. He glanced at Justice then at Nate, looking trapped. Evangeline could almost laugh at Justice’s choice of a grown-up word like recalcitrant if her son’s recent behavior weren’t one of her biggest heartaches.

“What do you say?” Justice moved an inch closer to Gerard.

Eyes wide, her son stared up at him. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Say it to your mother.”

Gerard gulped and looked at Evangeline. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good.” Justice sat back and cut into his thick, juicy steak as though nothing had happened.

Nate and Susanna also resumed eating and chatting. But Evangeline saw the rebellion, perhaps even hatred, returning to Gerard’s eyes as he glared at Justice. She could never figure out what was behind those angry eyes, and her son certainly never told her what he was thinking.

“Evie, I’m so thrilled to have you here.” Susanna appeared determined to keep the conversation pleasant. “Once you settle in, I’m going to put you to work on my latest project for the community.”

For the first time since seeing Justice at the train depot, Evangeline felt a spark of hope. “Well, aren’t you the clever one. Do tell, what is your project?”

Susanna smiled at Nate. “We’ve recently finished building a lending library. That is, we constructed the building and the shelves, and we already have several boxes of books donated. What with harvest and roundup and all going on in the fall, nobody’s had time to organize them.” She gave Evangeline a sly smile. “You can be our librarian. What do you think?”

Her pulse racing, Evangeline considered the possibilities. She and Susanna both loved books and had spent many a summer day reading together. Yet she’d been forced to sneak away from New Orleans, not able to keep a single book from Lucius’s vast library he’d inherited from his father but never used. As she tried to visualize working in the Esperanza library, another thought leaped to mind.

“What will I do with the children?” Isabelle would be a big help in the library, but Gerard might prove an insurmountable problem.

“Why, school, of course,” Susanna said. “We have an excellent grammar school. Over the weekend, we’ll let them catch their breath from their long trip, but we’ll enroll them on Monday.”

“Yes, of course.” Evangeline hadn’t thought that far ahead. Escape had been her sole focus when she’d fled her home city.

“And of course you’ll receive a salary.” Susanna gave her a smug smile, pleased with her own plan.

Evangeline was pleased with it, too. Now she wouldn’t have to burden her cousin financially. And what a lovely way to spend her days, far better than anything she could hope for. “Then I would be delighted to accept the post.”

At the other end of the table, Justice and Nate spoke quietly, their faces serious. Were they talking about her? No, she mustn’t assume she was the topic of private conversations, as often was the case among her supposed friends back home. Once Lucius went broke and fell from society’s good opinion and then died at the hands of a fellow gambler, once their lavish home and furnishings—including his books—went on the auction block, everyone had turned away from her. No one believed her innocent or unaware of Lucius’s shady business dealings. No one believed she hadn’t run up those debts with various merchants. When at last the house had been sold and she and the children moved into a tiny shack, where creditors came to hound her for the staggering debts, society entirely cut her off. Those who knew nothing of her husband’s gambling and licentious lifestyle assumed she’d spent her husband into poverty and ruin.

“You’ll have to excuse me.” Justice stood, his sudden movement and awe-inspiring height startling Evangeline from her musings. “My paperwork won’t finish itself.”

“Sit down, Justice.” Susanna waved him down. “I’m not finished.”

A pained look on his face, he obeyed her. “Yes, ma’am. How can I help you?”

Instead of answering, Susanna looked at her husband. “Nate, I’m sure these little ones would like to visit our town’s ice-cream parlor. Why don’t you take them down the street?”

Nate chuckled. “Yes, ma’am.” His knowing smile indicated he understood why his wife made the request.

Once he and the children left—even Gerard couldn’t resist ice cream—Susanna gleefully began her explanation. “Evie, Justice has been working on a special project.”

Justice shook his head and exhaled through pursed lips. “Susanna—”

“Now, Justice, you can’t build that entire Christmas village all by yourself. Evie is a brilliant artist. She can help you.”

Evangeline stared at her cousin. “What on earth are you talking about?” The last thing she wanted was to work with Justice. “What Christmas village?”

Susanna appeared more than pleased with herself. “Every year we have a big Christmas pageant at the church, with a party for the children afterward. Every child receives a toy, usually a carved soldier or doll, which our talented cowboys make. This year, we’re adding another special gift for the whole community, but especially the children. Justice is making a miniature village with a church, houses, trees and all sorts of things.” She shot Justice a smile, which he did not return. “Because there’s so much traffic at the jailhouse, he can’t work on it there because it’s supposed to be a surprise for everyone. That’s why he’s working on it in the library’s locked back room, where no one can see it.” She sat back, grinning. “So that’s settled. You’ll work on it together.”

Her heart dropping, Evangeline could only stare at Justice to see his reaction. He looked trapped, the same way she felt.

Once again, he stood. “You ladies will have to excuse me. I still need to—”

“Yes, of course.” Susanna gave him a gracious nod. “Don’t forget we’re expecting you for Sunday dinner.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” He gave her another pained look and nod of resignation, and then bowed to Evangeline. “Ma’am.”

While his unsmiling face sent her heart plunging, the woman within couldn’t keep from admiring his masculine form as he strode from the dining room. Why? From everything she’d seen so far, he wasn’t the least bit happy she would be living in his town. And he certainly wasn’t any more pleased than she was to have Susanna manipulate them into working together on the Christmas village.

Which shouldn’t bother her as much as it did. After all, she’d come here to save her children from the shame and poverty, or even worse, brought on by their father’s evil deeds. To save herself from a lifetime of repaying close to four thousand dollars to an unscrupulous man whose only claim to the money came from beating and probably cheating Lucius at card games, and whose only evidence was his bank’s IOUs supposedly signed in her husband’s shaky hand. Hugo hounded her for the money, which threw her life into torment. But when he threatened to have her declared incompetent so he could take guardianship of her children, she knew she must escape.