Chapter Thirty-One
Six weeks later, Rose, Morgan and Granny were relaxing on the front porch after dinner when Murph reined in.
“How’s things at the farm?” Morgan had sent Murph and two men to the farm to start cleaning it up to rebuild the house.
“It’s going good, but I found something in the stable you need to see.” Murph tossed a saddlebag to Morgan.
“What’s this?”
“I reckon it belongs to Stevie, but you need to look inside,” Murph said.
Morgan glanced at Granny. “Is it Stevie’s?”
“Yes, that’s his saddlebag.”
Morgan started to hand the saddlebag to her, but Granny said, “You look inside.”
He opened the flap, peered inside and his eyes widened. He looked up at Murph, and said, “What’s this?”
Murph threw his hands in the air and shrugged.
Rose looked from her husband to Murph. “What is it?”
Morgan held the saddlebag so Rose and Granny could see the contents.
“Oh, my! Where would Stevie get that kind of money?” Granny asked.
Quickly putting together the pieces of the puzzle that had long been evading Morgan, he realized he had the answer. “From that stagecoach holdup.” He told them what he knew of the holdup, and how he’d happened on Stevie and Reuben on the trail. “I knew Stevie was lying to me that day. He knew the man in the buggy. Then, the day I went to Denver, I found out the man in that buggy worked at the bank there.” Morgan had initially eliminated Stevie as the holdup man when he saw the man riding the palomino in Denver, tailing Reuben. Now that they had proof in their hands, he figured Stevie and Reuben planned the holdup together.
“I guess Stevie had already followed in Frankie’s footsteps and we were just too blind to see,” Rose said.
“We didn’t want to believe he could be like Frank,” Granny said.
They heard another horse riding toward the house. Morgan looked up and said, “It’s Jack.”
“Hello, Jack,” Morgan said when Jack reined in at the porch.
“Evening.” Jack tipped his hat to Granny and Rose. “How’s everyone feeling?”
“Good,” Morgan said. “Would you like a cup of coffee? We have something to show you.”
“If you have some made, I would be grateful,” Jack said.
“Why don’t you all come in the kitchen? We were going to have some pie,” Granny said.
“Granny, you know the way to my heart,” Jack said.
Jack dismounted, and as they walked to the kitchen, Morgan handed Jack the saddlebag and told him the story.
“So you think those two planned that robbery?” Jack said.
“I’d bet that Reuben was the brains and did the planning, while Stevie carried it out,” Morgan replied.
“I’ll take the money back to Denver in the morning and tell them what we know.”
Rose poured the coffee while Granny served the pie. They talked about the stagecoach robbery while they ate.
Morgan figured Jack hadn’t come out for a social call. “When did you get back, Jack?”
“Last night.” Jack had come to the ranch to deliver the news in person because he knew they would be worried. “Frank made it to Las Vegas. We tracked them to Mexico, but that’s where the trail went cold. They aren’t too helpful to the law down there.”
Morgan’s eyes slid to Rose, and just as expected, she looked worried.
“He’ll come back here.” Rose was heartbroken Jack did not have Frankie in jail.
“I agree with Rose. If Frank finds out he didn’t kill Morgan, he will definitely come back,” Granny said.
Morgan couldn’t deny he agreed with them, but he refused to worry about something he had no control over. “We can’t live our lives worried about what Frank might do.”
“Morgan’s right, Rose,” Granny said.
Jack told them he would let them know if he heard anything about Frank’s whereabouts. “Morgan, I just remembered something. That Denver bank was robbed over a month ago.”
“I hadn’t heard. Did they catch them?”
“No. Apparently, the robbers showed up at the clerk’s home on Sunday morning and made him go to the bank and open the safe. The clerk was shot, but not killed.”
“Was this before Stevie died?” Morgan asked.
“Yes, why do you ask?”
“I wonder if Stevie planned that robbery with the clerk.”
“I guess it’s possible,” Jack replied.
“The day I was in Denver I saw a man watching the clerk. I noticed him because he’d been in Whispering Pines one day when I took Rose and Granny to town. He was riding a palomino, and that’s how I recognized him in Denver. It’s possible he was involved.”
Rose remembered the man Morgan was talking about. “Perhaps it was a man in Frankie’s gang.”
“I don’t know, but I doubt all of this is a coincidence,” Morgan said.
“The sheriff in Denver said two men robbed the bank. The clerk couldn’t identify them because they wore masks,” Jack said.
Morgan had a feeling one or both of the Langtry men were involved with the robbery, though they might never know the truth of what happened.
Jack pulled a letter out of his pocket. “Granny, I almost forgot, I have a letter for you.”
Granny looked at the writing on the envelope. “It’s from Adelaide.” She quickly read the letter and smiled when she finished. “She’s coming home in a few weeks. She’s bringing some children with her.”
“Children?” Jack asked.
“Three orphans. She’s planning on opening an orphanage here.”
“Oh, I can’t wait!” Rose said. “It will be so wonderful to have her home again.”
“It’s a shame the house burned down. It would have been a perfect place for the children,” Granny said.
“Granny, that’s why I have Murph and the men working over there cleaning it up. We thought you might like to have the house rebuilt. If we don’t have it finished before they arrive, they can stay at the ranch,” Morgan said.
Rose smiled at her husband’s generosity. She wasn’t surprised at his offer; he would do anything for Granny.
“I’m pretty handy with a hammer,” Jack said.
“I’m sure we can get Clay out here to help us,” Morgan said.
Granny was excited at the thought of having children at the farm again. “That would be wonderful. Just think, we could help so many children. Adelaide said the orphanage back East was terrible.”
“Anything would be better than some of the orphanages I’ve seen,” Jack said.
Morgan was surprised by Jack’s statement. He’d rarely heard him speak of his childhood. “Maybe they will have a better life here.”
“I know Adelaide well enough to know that she will be so attached to those children she will not want to part with them if some family decides to adopt them,” Rose said.
Granny agreed. “It would be difficult to let go when the time comes.”
“It may take a while to find families willing to adopt, especially if the children are older. Not many people want to adopt older kids. They all want babies.” Jack remembered all too well how it felt not to be selected for adoption. It was a feeling he’d never forgotten.
Jack stood to leave. “Morgan, if you are ready to start on that house tomorrow, I’ll bring my hammer after work. I’ll bring Clay with me.”
“Murph, are we ready to start building tomorrow?”
“It’s ready.”
“We’ll pick up supplies in the morning. Come on by here and have dinner with us, and then we’ll go to the farm,” Morgan replied.
They walked Jack to the porch, and when he rode away, Granny stood on her tiptoes and kissed Morgan on the cheek. “Thank you. You are the best son a mother could have.”
Morgan smiled at her. “I’m just buttering you up so you’ll never stop making me pies.”
“You never have to worry about that.” Granny said good night and walked inside to go to bed.
Morgan and Rose followed her inside and turned down the lamps in the front room. Once all the lights were extinguished, Rose reached for Morgan’s hand. “Are you ready for bed?”
“Yes, ma’am.” If she thought he would say no to an offer like that, then she didn’t know him. He leaned over and picked her up and carried her up the stairs.
“You shouldn’t be carrying me. It might hurt your back,” Rose said.
“I’m fine, and you are light as a feather.” He took the stairs two at a time.
“I may not be much longer,” Rose replied.
Morgan was in such a hurry to get to their bedroom, he almost missed her meaning. He walked into the bedroom, closed the door with his boot, and looked down at her. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve been sick a few mornings, and I’ve wanted some foods I’ve never liked.”
“What have you been eating that you don’t like?” Morgan asked. He hadn’t seen a change in her eating habits.
“The crust on my bread,” Rose said. “I’ve never eaten it before.”
“Why haven’t you told me you weren’t feeling well?”
She smiled at him. “It’s nothing serious, just a little nausea some mornings.”
He gently placed her on her feet. “Have you told Granny?”
“No. I think I know what it is.”
Morgan stared at her. “Are you saying what I think you are saying?”
“Don’t get your hopes up, but I believe I am.”
He pulled her in his arms. “Are you sure it’s possible?”
She gave him a mischievous smile. “I don’t know about you, but I think we’ve done everything right.”
He leaned over and kissed her. “I’d say we’ve done everything more than right. If you are with child, it will be the second best thing that ever happened to me.”
“What was the first?”
Morgan cupped her face tenderly as he looked into her beautiful green eyes. “The day you married me.”
Rose started unbuttoning his shirt. “Why don’t we see if we can do it better?”
The lady didn’t have to ask him twice. “I’ve always heard practice makes perfect.”
When she finished unbuttoning his shirt, he stripped out of it, and kissed her as she ran her hands over his shoulders.
“Would you unbutton my dress?”
Morgan arched his brow at her. He thought of their wedding night. “It’d be my pleasure.” When he saw the long row of buttons down her back, he said, “But I’ve been meaning to talk to you about the buttons on your dresses. Why are there always so many?”
Rose turned to look at him. “To torment you.”
Morgan wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. “It works. I thought I’d never get you out of your wedding dress.”
Rose remembered how she trembled under his touch that night, and nothing had changed. She knew she would tremble under his touch fifty years from now. “Hurry up, husband, I want to go to bed.”
He liked the sound of that. “Yes, ma’am.” As soon as he unfastened the last button on her dress, he started yanking off his boots and finished stripping out of his clothes. He hurried to open the window, and when he turned around, Rose was already in the center of the large bed waiting for him, watching his every move. He slowly approached the bed, lowered the flame on the bedside table lamp so it cast a soft light over the room. He wanted to see his beautiful wife. He pulled the covers back, and smiled. His eyes conveying his every thought as he crawled in beside her.
* * *
Much later, Morgan was lying on his back, with Rose’s head resting on his chest. They were listening to the wind rustling through the pines, and an owl hooting in the distance.
“I’ve never asked what you hear when you go through the pines,” Rose said.
Morgan had never told anyone other than Joseph what he heard in the pines. “To me, it always sounds like angels singing. What do you hear?”
Rose looked up and smiled at him. Over five years ago she’d told Joseph Longbow when she met a boy who heard the same sounds in the pines that she heard, she’d marry him when she grew up. She’d done exactly that. “I hear angels singing.”