Chapter Seventy Seven

Heath lay beside Grete several hours wide awake while she slept. The sun was starting to creep through the curtains as he dreaded the inevitable. Her lush blonde curls were splayed across his chest as they slept after their passionate coupling. He had taken her twice during the night—-they still were newly married and he was missing her from his trip to Merced and overcome with emotions about Jehu's disappearance. Both times she surprised him with the level of passion she responded to his need. He counted himself very blessed after all the years of grumbling he heard in barber shops and saloons of cold wives. He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head. She let out a little mew and began to stretch.

"Is it morning already min elskede?" she whispered still with her eyes closed.

He smiled, "Keep sleeping my love. Not quite yet." He had asked one night and she told him it meant my beloved.

She would often revert to Danish terms of endearment or anger when she was plussed. He wondered what words she would revert to when he told her he was a suspect in Brother Jehu's disappearance.

Finally an arc of light was shining in the room and he couldn't delay the inevitable any longer. She awoke and stretched and kissed him on the cheek. She reached for her robe and he stopped her.

"Again?" she responded with an amused smile.

"I wish. We need to talk. I wasn't ready last night because I —-just wanted to be in your arms." It was the truth but he hoped it didn't sound lame when he spilled the story out.

She put her robe on and sat back down on the bed. She ran her fingers through his hair, "Yah?"

"When I got back to town last night, the sheriff was waiting for me—-with my brothers. Seems Jehu is missing. Some meeting, he called. Been missing about three days, I guess today is four i'ffn they haven't found him yet."

"Why you, husband?" biting her lip.

"Cuz I rode out there before I left town. Wanted to set him straight about stopping the witch talk. At the town square."

"Did you talk to him? Uh?" afraid of his answer thinking of the earlier punch on the board walk.

"Nope. He wasn't there. Hadn't been there all night. Everything was cold. Hadn't been lit up or stoked or anything."

"Did the sheriff believe you?."

"Yes. Told him all I knew. But i'ffn Jehu doesn't turn up soon, there will be more questions from his townspeople."

"Did people see you?"

"At least three folks on the way out there."

She began to cry and he pulled her back onto his chest, "Now honey, don't fret. I didn't do anything wrong and they will find him. Probably went on one of his vision treks again. Maybe he has already shown his fool self up."

"Heath, he scares me and all those people who believe him and Kai will have to go to school with them in September."

"I know honey I know. Let's keep doing the right thing and helping Kai walk straight again without the crutch and do his lessons with Henry. It will be fine. Mother is right. People will find something else to talk about in the fall."

"I just don't know," and her tears fell on his bare chest."

—-&—-

Jarrod woke up with a ray of early sun straight into his eyes on the short trundle. He moved and a pain shot through his neck. His six foot frame was covered with a quilt as he remembered by his Mother at midnight. He sat up gingerly and rubbed the crick in his neck. The pain was eased by the scene he saw asleep on the bed. At some point Henry had joined his mother and was sleeping in the crook of her arm. They both were peacefully sleeping with smiles on their faces. He pulled the askew covers over them and took a quick glance at her stomach tightly covered by her nightclothes.

"Only a few more days—-" he worried. He kissed Lisette and Henry on their foreheads and padded down the hall towards his room for a few more hours of sleep.

—&—-

Nick headed out early before daybreak to get ahead of the day's chores. He didn't wait on his little brother knowing he was just home with bad news to his newlywed wife.

"Hope she took it well. Heath looked like he got kicked in the gut when the sheriff told him Jehu was missing. We all knew what it looked like but we know Heath. He's not a killer. AIn't no way nobody is going to convict him. Plus he ain't stupid. I know without a doubt, he didn't do it but if he did, he's too smart to be talking to people on the road."

His worries about Heath soon turned into distracting himself with more pleasant thoughts, the upcoming wedding in two weeks.

The Devereaux family was due on July 1st after their cross-country train ride from Massachusetts. Her two brothers and their wives, her sister and husband and four nieces and nephews booked their passage to see their baby sister married to him. He had corresponded to them several times and her eldest brother sent her five hundred dollars set aside for the wedding. Nick had told Anna to put it in the bank for something she really wanted. His family had taken care of the wedding. Victoria had gotten them the best rooms at The Cattleman's and they had planned several events for the wedding week.

They planned a dance and barbecue at the ranch; a covered wagon picnic and the Stockton Fourth of July parade and festival. A trail ride through the mountains and several family dinners to give the Devereaux's a family feel of Anna's new life. After the wedding on the sixth, they would head to San Francisco and Monterey before they headed back to the Atlantic coast. Nick had promised by letter to bring Anna east within a year to visit. He could tell by the letters back and forth they were a very close family. He had a strong desire to make sure they knew their Anna was in safe hands with the Barkley's.

He smiled thinking of the late night before. He had cuddled with Anna on his balcony as usual after the rest of the family.

"Two more weeks and that little lady and I aren't parting for a long time, at least til I am eighty and can't do nothing about it. Knowin' me, probably ninety or so. Stallion won't leave me easily."

He laughed aloud at his own joke.

—-&—

"Are you sure boy?" Fred asked his youngest deputy.

"Yep, the cleaning lady girl at Big Annie's said she heard a Mexican worker of the Barkleys saying Heath buried Jehu in the pond. Said they seen him kill him with his gun. Said they were instructed to fill it in with water."

"Heath? Did that? Huh?" he answered incredulously.

"Yep, supposedly to his men. Good luck questioning them—-only a couple speak English."

"I will take Carlos out there. You too. Get a couple of more men. Let's go check it out. Would like to put this rumor to death before the whole blasted town spreads it. That girl is daft."

"Yes sir."