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But not today.
* * *
To her dismay, she and Danny found Edward and Gabe sitting at the kitchen table playing a game of chess. Gabe sat ramrod straight in the chair. He looked awful. He was far too pale, and there was no masking the pain shadowing his sapphire-hued eyes or the challenge in them as he looked at her. He expected her to rail at him for being out of bed, but she was too weary for another battle and kept silent.
“Can I play, Pops?” Danny wheedled, shoving his small body beneath Edward’s arm so he could get a better look at the board.
Intent on the game pieces, Edward gave the boy a distracted hug. “Not this game, Danny.”
“No one ever wants to play with me,” he said, his shoulders slumping.
“That isn’t true,” Rachel told him, hanging her coat by the door. She turned and took two plates out of the basket she’d carried in. “Pops plays with you all the time.”
“Supper?” Edward asked, spying the plates.
“Turkey and all the trimmings,” she replied. “I’ll stick them in the oven for a bit,” she said, doing just that. “They’ll be hot in no time.”
Finally reaching a decision, Edward moved a piece and then gave his attention to his daughter. “Makes my mouth water just thinking about Mary’s dressing.”
“I wasn’t sure if you liked turkey or not, so I brought ham, too,” she said to Gabe. Even as she spoke the words, she regretted showing any concern for his likes or dislikes.
“Either is fine, thank you. And I’ll play a game with you sometime, Danny, but I think I’d best get back to bed after I eat.”
The unexpected thanks and offer to Danny took Rachel by surprise, though it shouldn’t have. Gabe Gentry epitomized charm and grace and friendliness.
What he lacked was integrity and common decency.
Chapter Three
By the time a new year rolled around, the snow was nothing but a pleasant memory, leaving behind a dingy mush that froze at night and thawed during the day. The old year had ended with a rash of croup that kept Rachel running all over town. She had treated no less than seven people on New Year’s Eve.
Gabe was still in considerable pain if he moved the wrong way, but his injuries and his strength were improving in slow increments. Despite the sometimes excruciating agony, he was determined to leave the Stone house—and the intolerable tension between him and Rachel—as soon as humanly possible. For both their sakes, he had no desire to prolong the misery.
When he finished shaving shortly after breakfast on New Year’s Day, he saw that the gash on his face was healing nicely, though it would leave an ugly scar. He thought about that for a moment and shrugged. There wasn’t much he could do about it. Thanks to Simon and Rachel, he was alive.
His once dislocated shoulder was not so tender and his hand was much steadier; he’d only nicked himself in two places. He was congratulating himself on the progress when a knock sounded on his door.
“Come in,” he called, glancing up and seeing Danny’s reflection in the mirror. He stood in the doorway, staring at Gabe with unconcealed curiosity. “Not too pretty to look at, is it?” Gabe said.
“Must hurt.”
“Not much, but the ribs...that’s another thing.”
When the boy continued to watch him and made no move to say anything, Gabe prompted, “What can I do for you, Danny?”
“Pops said to tell you that Mr. Gentry—Caleb—is here to see you.”
Gabe smiled, the action pulling at the stitches closing the wound on his cheek. “Thanks, son.”
Danny’s eyes widened. He smiled, a smile so bright and wide that Gabe resisted the urge to chuckle.
“Do you need anything?” Danny asked, a look of hope in his eyes. “I can get whatever you want. I’m not doing anything.”
“I’m fine, thanks. You can send Caleb in.”
“Would you like to play a game of Chinese checkers after he goes?”
The past week, they’d fallen into a habit of playing a game or two in the afternoons. Though Gabe would have preferred to play chess with Edward, he got a lot of satisfaction at how much Danny seemed to enjoy the time they spent together. He also recalled how he’d wished his father was the kind of man who wanted to play with his boys.
“We’ll see. I’ll probably be ready for a good rest by the time Caleb leaves. Why don’t you go get him?”
“Oh. Okay.”
Gabe wondered if Danny was as disappointed as he looked. He’d be sure to try to play a game or two with him sometime during the afternoon.
When Caleb came into the bedroom, it was the first time the two brothers had faced each other on a more or less equal footing since Gabe left. Caleb had stopped by on other occasions, but knowing Gabe was still in a lot of pain, they’d postponed any serious discussions.
Though Gabe had wanted this chance to try to make things right and had mentally rehearsed their meeting dozens of times, now that the opportunity was here, he had no idea where to begin.
“How are you feeling?” Caleb asked, taking a chair next to the fireplace. The question was his usual conversational opening. Gabe wiped the shaving soap from his face and eased down into the chair’s mate.
“Far from well, but better.”
“That’s good.”
An uncomfortable silence stretched between them. “Rachel mentioned that you got married again last year,” Gabe said, hoping to fill the growing silence left by his habitually reticent brother. That hadn’t changed.
Caleb nodded. “My first wife, Emily, died during childbirth. I married Abby Carter, a newly widowed woman Rachel suggested I hire for my daughter’s wet nurse.”
Gabe raised his eyebrows. “That’s a bit unconventional, isn’t it? Not to mention extreme.”
“More than a bit,” Caleb agreed. “But we didn’t have much choice when Sarah VanSickle started spreading rumors about us, even though I was staying in the bunkhouse with Frank and Leo.”
“So Sarah’s still doling out misery, is she?” Gabe asked, recalling more than one occasion when she’d caused unnecessary suffering.
“Yep. I keep thinking she’ll get her comeuppance, but so far, she just goes along, giving everyone a hard time along the way.” There was more silence.
“So tell me about your...Abby. How are things working out?” Gabe asked, in an attempt to keep the struggling conversation going.
“Very well. She’s a wonderful person and a great mother.”
Gabe saw a gleam in his brother’s eyes he’d never seen before. Happiness.
“I love her very much,” Caleb added, almost, Gabe thought, as if his brother expected him to make some sort of snide comment about the situation. “We had a son born two days before Christmas.”
“A son! You have a son and a daughter?” Caleb nodded and Gabe smiled, unexpectedly pleased for the brother who had borne the brunt of their father’s domineering personality. “I envy you.”
Caleb looked up to meet Gabe’s smiling gaze. “You do?”
“Even I had to grow up eventually, Caleb,” Gabe said, poking a bit of fun at himself. He knew what most people thought of him.
“Why have you come back, Gabriel?” Caleb asked, done with idle chitchat.
He shrugged. “I’m not sure I can explain. A while back, I realized that I’d done just about everything and seen all the places I wanted to see, and Lucas Gentry’s shadow was still hanging over me. I was as miserable away from Wolf Creek as I had been here.
“Believe it or not, I’ve given our childhood a lot of thought the past several months, and I came up with some reasons why I felt that way. A few months back, I got the notion to come and see if there was any way for us to make sense of our past. I even hoped that maybe I could make up for the things I’ve done.”
Caleb’s eyes reflected his impatience. “Words are fine, Gabe. You were always good with them, but actions speak a lot louder. It’s easy to come home when you’re down-and-out. It’s easy to claim regret and say you’re sorry and then saddle up and leave again, convinced you did all you could or should to fix things.”
For the first time, Gabe realized just how deep the chasm was between him and his brother. “I know what you’re saying is true, and that I’ve given you plenty of reason to feel the way you do, but I have no intention of leaving.”
“What!”
Gabe met his brother’s astonished gaze. “I’m staying in Wolf Creek. I’m twenty-nine years old. Wouldn’t you say it’s time I found a good woman and settled down?”
“What will you do? How will you live with no money?” Caleb asked, unable to hide his shock.
“You’re the one who said I was down-and-out, not me. I have a bit stuck by. As for what I’ll do, I have no idea.” He managed a wry smile. “It’ll be a while before I’m able to do much of anything, but when the time is right, something will come along.”
Another silence ensued. Finally, Gabe gave a heavy sigh, grimaced in pain and curved his arm around his battered ribs as if to protect them.
“Look, Caleb. I’m truly sorry for the way I acted when we were kids. I think I was trying to get Lucas to notice me, to acknowledge I was alive. If it took acting up to do it, so be it. I’m sorry my behavior left most of the work and responsibility on you. In a strange sort of way, though, I think you actually benefited.”
“How do you figure that?” Caleb snapped. “I was the slave who worked and you were the spoiled brat who got by with everything and did next to nothing.” His lips tightened with the stubbornness he was known for. “I’ve hated you for that.”
“I can’t say that I blame you,” Gabe said. He understood Caleb’s feelings, but just as Rachel’s disgust had been hard to swallow, Caleb’s words hurt, far more than Gabe had expected.
“Just think about it a minute. You were the one learning how to work, how to become a productive citizen, while I learned nothing except how to goof off and finagle others into doing my chores. I thought it was funny then, but not now. I cheated myself out of a lot of lessons.”
Caleb stared at Gabe as if he’d never seen him before.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, and I’ll understand if you say no, but I’d like to ask your forgiveness. I’d like the opportunity to get to know you and your family. Believe it or not, I want to be an uncle, and I’d really like it if you and I could find some common ground to build a relationship on.”
* * *
Rachel returned from a visit with one of her patients just before noon. She found her father sitting at the kitchen table in his wheelchair, slicing a skillet of corn bread into wedges.
“Hey, Pops!” she said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “How is everything?”
“Just dandy. How is little Jimmy doing?”
“As well as can be expected.”
“Good. Food’s ready,” he said, indicating a pot of pinto beans and salt pork Rachel had set on the back of the woodstove before she left earlier in that morning. “Will you get Danny and Gabe while I finish up here?”
“Of course.”
“Rachel,” he said, his voice stopping her.
“Yes?” she said, turning.
“Caleb came to see Gabe this morning. I have no idea what they talked about, but I thought you’d like to know.”
“Yes,” she said, nodding. “Thank you.”
Thoughts of what might have transpired between the brothers filled her mind as she went to fetch Danny. She found him reading one of the books he’d received for Christmas and more than ready to eat, since there were cookies to be had afterward.
Rachel went to Gabe’s room, knocked on the door and opened it at his summons.
“Pops has dinner ready,” she said, noticing that he was dressed in the extra clothes she’d found in his carpetbag instead of Edward’s castoffs. She couldn’t help noticing how well they fit his lean, broad-shouldered body. No doubt they’d been tailor-made for him.
“Thank you,” he said. “I’ve been waiting to talk to you.”
“Oh?”
He nodded. “I wanted to tell you that I’ll be leaving after we eat.”
“Leaving?” she echoed, disbelief in her voice. “You’re in no condition to be on a horse.”
“I don’t plan to be. I’m not leaving town, just checking into the boardinghouse. I think I’m well enough to take care of myself if I don’t do anything stupid.”
Though she’d wished him gone a hundred times, now that he planned to go she was filled with something that felt far too much like disappointment for her peace of mind.
“And how do you propose to pay for it?” she said, her voice sharper than she’d intended as the nebulous distress vanished in the face of her irritation.
“I had some money stuck in my boot the thieves didn’t find,” he explained. “It will see me through for a while. Besides, I think you’d agree that I’ve disrupted your life enough.”
Indeed he had, she thought, though she would never admit it. “You have not disrupted my life.”
His smile mocked. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Embarrassment flushed her cheeks. “Caring for people is what I do.”
“And I’ll be the first one to attest to the fact that you’re a fine doctor,” he said in a gentle voice. “But let’s be honest here.”
“By all means. If that’s possible,” she said, unable to mask the sarcasm in her voice.
“Touché.” Meeting her irate gaze was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. “Again, I know I treated you badly in St. Louis, and I should have said goodbye in person instead of leaving you that note.”
Rachel began to laugh, a terrible parody of the sound. “You think I’m angry at you because you left me a note?” she cried.
“Weren’t you?”
“Angry?” She shook her head. “No. Try furious. Or hurt. Or better yet, devastated.” She took a deep breath, and feelings and words that had festered far too long erupted from her lips.
“Silly, naive me! I was bound to fall for your smooth-talking ways. I believed everything you told me, and it was all lies. Every single word of it! So tell me, Gabe, where was your honesty back then?”
The vitriol in her voice caused all the color to drain from his face. “I have no excuse, except...”
