“I will, I promise. But there are perks to the job while we’re here in 1882. For instance, I could shoot Fallon Yancy dead without any provocation and it would be completely justifiable.”
“It would be justifiable anyway. He would kill us as soon as look at us. And we both know he’ll come looking, sooner or later. We can’t stay here.”
“I know. And I’ll think about that first thing tomorrow, I swear.” Marshall uttered a soft groan, knuckling his eyes. “No matter what, I’d shoot the bastard without a second thought. But it doesn’t hurt that way out here there’s no one looking over my shoulder. Shit, I was sworn in by a judge passing through the Territory late last autumn. No background check, just Grant’s recommendation. All I had to do this past winter was ride into Howardsville once every few weeks and check in with the deputy sheriff. I could have lived in that little cabin behind the jail, but I would have gone crazy there.”
“I’m so glad you didn’t have to be alone,” I whispered, nuzzling his chest hair, which smelled pleasantly musky; I stroked my fingers through the soft, thick mass because it was an intimacy I particularly loved and because I’d gone so many nights without being able.
Marshall cupped my face, letting his fingertips play over my chin and jawline. The room around us was shaded as though by strokes of a charcoal pencil, a study in variations of gray, from ash to pewter. His long nose cast a shadow on the right side of his face; his breath held a trace of whiskey as he whispered, “I was more alone than I’d ever been, without you.”
I rested both palms on his chest. “When I saw you riding across the prairie…”
“Holy God, I was dying that day. We knew Ax was in the convent as the gardener’s replacement, and that you and Patricia were there, but not that he’d spoken with you. I wanted to storm the walls of that place so fucking bad Malcolm nearly tied me to a fencepost. But I knew if I saw you, if we saw each other, there’d be no way we could control ourselves. I knew it would blow the cover we’d worked so damn hard to establish. But I was dying, angel, knowing you were so close to me after all that time.”
“If I’d known you were out there…Ax was right not to let me know…”
“Seeing you running toward me was the happiest moment of my life, to that point. And every day since has been the newest happiest moment. Especially this morning.” His teeth flashed in a grin, his long hair falling around his neck and inviting my touch. “Can you believe we’re having a baby?”
I slowly shook my head. “We shouldn’t be surprised! I’m ashamed to admit it didn’t even occur to me we should be using protection. I’ve just been so happy to be with you, it’s overwhelmed everything else in my mind. If only…” I didn’t finish the sentence; were too many if onlys in our future right now, too many what ifs. I’d been about to say, If only we were safely home. If only we were secure in the knowledge that we would remain stationary in time – either here or in the future – from this point onward. But, as in all of life, there were no guarantees.
“If only you had your ring,” Marshall supplied, attempting to elicit a smile, I knew. He lifted my left hand and kissed the spot where he’d once placed the lovely engagement band custom-made for me, an heirloom diamond from his mother’s side of the family, set with garnets, my birthstone. “I miss seeing it on your hand, angel. What do you suppose happened to it?”
I rubbed my thumb across the base of my third finger; it felt unduly bare without the familiar presence of the ring and all it represented, the promise of our future as husband and wife. I whispered, “I don’t know. I didn’t take it off the night I left Jalesville. I would have been wearing it when I arrived in 1881.” Stolen right off my finger, maybe? But when? I had no memory of any such event.
“I’ll get you a new ring, angel, don’t you worry. And there’s a preacher on circuit, Grant was telling me.” Marshall shifted position, bringing my palm to his cheek. “I would love for us to have a church service but I have to say I already feel married to you, in every way that counts. You have my heart, my soul, my baby inside of you. I cherish your every breath. I think of you as mine, Ruthie, in every possible way. And I am just as completely yours.”
Tears wet my face and I entwined our fingers. “I keep thinking of the night when we ate at that little diner off the interstate, remember?”
“Of course I remember, sweetheart.”
“It was the first time I actually stumbled onto the fact that you liked me.”
Marshall snorted, shaking his head. “You had no idea? Not even a little? And here I figured I was about as subtle as a strobe light. Which, by the way, really sucks when you’re onstage. One time at the Coyote’s Den they had one and it just about blinded us out.” He laughed at the memory; our conversations always shifted between present and future.
“I figured you were just teasing me because I got so flustered,” I admitted, gliding my palms over his lean belly. “But that evening, sitting there
