West (History Interrupted Book 1) Read online

  I froze. By his face, he didn’t mean I’d end up in the well, but I wasn’t able to stop the chill that went through me.

  As if realizing what he’d said, he sighed. “My apologies, Josie. I didn’t mean ... well, not dead. I meant …” It was the first time I’d ever seen him flummoxed.

  “It’s okay,” I murmured. “I understood.” My phone buzzed. I tugged at the cuffs. “Philip won’t be happy.”

  “Him I look forward to handling,” came the hard response. Taylor picked up his hat. “Stay here, ma’am. I’m going to verify this is genuine.” With a glint of humor in his gorgeous eyes, he left.

  I faced the cell I was chained to, mind racing. I picked up the memories of the snoring man but nothing from Taylor. The handcuffs were much thicker than the ones from my time, and I gave up pulling at them quickly.

  I had no alternative but to stay where I was and wait.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The sheriff returned less than an hour later, accompanied by Nell and an elderly stranger with a beard that reached mid-chest.

  Taylor released me. Nell gave him a long, indecipherable look, while I debated what to say since we weren’t alone to discuss this mess.

  “Miss Jackson,” the bearded man held out his hand. “I’m Judge Cromwell. I am finalizing your wedding papers.” He unfolded a set of documents with different sized papers. “If you can make your mark here.” He pointed. “It’s acknowledgment that you are aware of the changes to your status and your inheritance.”

  I hesitated too long, wanting to stall, to talk to the sheriff outside before I committed to anything.

  “Ah. I had thought you knew how to write,” the judge said. “Understandable that you do not. Your husband-to-be can –”

  Taylor started forward.

  “Oh, I can write,” I said. Not that this will matter in a week, I reminded myself.

  The chant was becoming harder for me to believe when I had no control over this world. I took the fountain pen from the judge and signed my name. John’s signature, along with Taylor’s scrawled name, were already present. “Is that it?”

  “It is. I’ll file these immediately. Congratulations to both of you.”

  He was the only one smiling. Oblivious to the moods of those around him, he replaced his hat on top of his head and left.

  “We need to talk,” I said to Taylor.

  “At a later time, Miss Josie,” he replied politely.

  “Come, Miss Josie. We need to return to your father,” Nell said. “But not before I have a word with the sheriff.”

  I wanted to object but sighed and left instead. The sheriff appeared as happy as Nell about the situation. My desperation to change history and leave was growing. I pulled out my phone and shielded it from public view behind a hand fan to read Carter’s latest message.

  It only malfunctions with one person? He had written. In that case, it’s not the chip. Whoever this person is, he doesn’t – or shouldn’t – exist. Who is it? I can do some research.

  I paused mid-step and reread the message. Turning to face the sheriff’s office, I frowned and studied him. He was in the doorway, quietly talking to Nell.

  He definitely existed. I had felt the solid heat of his frame against mine last night. He had a full history with the townspeople and Native Americans. Everyone knew him and that he’d been raised here.

  And fell from the sky.

  I had no idea what to think. Turning my focus back to the cell, I texted then hastily stashed it in a pocket before Nell saw it.

  “I respect your father, but I do not like this arrangement,” Nell said as she approached.

  “You’re not the one who has to get married,” I returned.

  “I’d rather see you wed Philip, a man of good stature and some respectability.”

  I rolled my eyes. I’d take the sheriff over Philip any day. In fact, I’d take the sheriff over every other man on the list. He was sexy, enigmatic and not above riding out in a rainstorm to find me. He might make good boyfriend material, assuming his secrets weren’t as daunting as Fighting Badger’s.

  Unable to figure out the man, I dwelt on how the hell I was going to change history when I was dogged every step by Nell. I had spoken to Running Bear without any satisfaction he had the motivation to do something Saturday that changed history. In four days, the event happened, and I had to identify what it was beforehand as well as which twin to stop.

  With the sheriff close … There was a better chance of doing what I needed to and convincing him to help, assuming he wasn’t a bad guy in disguise like Carter seemed to think he was. If John insisted on me marrying – however barbaric I considered forcing a woman into a relationship – I could think of many worse fates than to be stuck with Taylor Hansen.

  We returned to the carriage and left town. The package Nell had gone to pick up sat at my feet wrapped in brown paper and twine. It was squishable and felt like clothing. I nudged it a couple of times.

  “Miss Josie, we must discuss a wife’s duty on her wedding night.” Nell was hushed despite the fact we were completely alone on the road leading from town back to John’s. “Since your mother is long passed, the duty falls to me.”

  I almost laughed. Nell was dead serious, so I stifled my humor and the urge to tell my nanny that I was already well aware of what happened between a man and woman in private.

  I let Nell talk until the large ranch house came into sight before it hit me. “Wait. You’re saying I have to sleep with the sheriff?”

  “When you are wed, it’s a wifely duty.”

  I started to smile, stopped, and shook my head. “Bizarre.” Like I imagined every woman in college who enjoyed the party scene, I had had sex with multiple boyfriends over the years and even three one-night stands. Sex with Taylor wasn’t out of the question, and the thought made my insides warm.

  And … it might make him more amenable to helping me. Not to mention, I’d probably enjoy teasing him. Asking him to take off his shirt had made him blush; what would me showing up naked in his room on our wedding night do?

  Laughing out loud at the image in my head, I realized Nell was staring at me.

  “Have you not been listening?” she asked.

  “Sorry. I have. It just hit me you were telling me this for a particular reason.”

  Nell pursed her lips. “I don’t care for this either.”

  “Yeah. I mean, he’s a total stranger and according to your tradition, I have to not only marry him but sleep with him.”

  Nell eyed me.

  “It doesn’t strike you as a strange custom?” I prodded.

  “Not at all. The bloodline and inheritance must be passed to someone. Legitimate children are the best way to ensure a family’s legacy.”

  “So you don’t think love should trump a legacy?”

  “Maybe among those with nothing to pass down.”

  I laughed at the inadvertently saucy response. I looked around at the hills of blonde grasses, not quite processing how serious my situation was. I was itching to text Carter again.

  “Oh.” Nell’s gasp was followed by her wrenching the horses to a halt before we reached the barn.

  I caught myself against the front of the wagon. Nell bolted out of the carriage and up the stairs to join a frowning servant I had seen around the house. She was waving frantically at me.

  “Miss Josie, come now!” Nell shouted over her shoulder and hurried inside.

  Not John. A similar sense of urgency hit me, and I dropped any attempt to be graceful and sprinted, passing Nell before she reached the top of the stairs. My pace slowed when I slid to a halt in front of John’s door.

  The doctor was present, hands clasped and expression grave. John’s rattling breathing reached me at the door. He appeared even frailer than earlier, his pallor that of the near dead.

  “Father,” I said, entering.

  His eyes fluttered open. They were glazed, unfocused. White film covered them. “J… Josie?” He reached out towards
the sound of my voice.

  I dropped onto the bed beside him. “I’m here, Father.”

  He offered a faint smile and closed his eyes.

  “Miss Josephine, he will not survive the night,” Doctor Green said quietly.

  “He has to,” I replied. “He has to see me get married. Right, Father?”

  John tried to chuckle.

  Nell entered, wringing her hands.

  I shifted to breathe better after my sprint only to realize my chest was in a vise brought on by emotion. It wasn’t the corset choking me this time.

  “Nell … we must see my … Josie wed tonight,” John wheezed.

  “Father, don’t worry about that right now,” I urged. “Your health is far more important.”

  “He’s right,” the doctor said. “If you are to keep your inheritance, a husband will need to be in place before John’s death.”

  “I don’t care about my inheritance!” I snapped, amazed they thought of money at a time like this. “I care about my father surviving the night. What sense does it make to have a wedding when he needs me by his side?”

  John squeezed my hand. “It will give me great pleasure to know you are cared for before I go, my Josephine.”

  His words deflated my resistance. Only a few more days, I reminded myself. This wasn’t my mission. Whether or not John died made no difference in what I was dropped into the past to do.

  But sitting next to him, running my fingers over the bulging blue veins and knobby knuckles of his hand, listening to him wheeze …

  He was too real. In my time, John had been dead for almost two hundred years. The disconnect between a name I might’ve seen on a tombstone and the man it belonged to dying before my eyes made me dizzy once more, as if fighting my presence in the past shorted out my brain.

  “Miss Josie!” Nell took my shoulders. The doctor was bent over in front of me, peering into my face. I blinked him into focus.

  I straightened. I was sagging on the bed, close to passing out once more. “I’m okay,” I said. “Just a little distressed.”

  “I’ll send for the sheriff,” Nell said and scurried away.

  “I’m already here.” The man I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to see stepped into the room, hat in his hands. “I had hoped to have a moment with …” His eyes went to John.

  The dying man was sleeping, his breathing harsh and shallow.

  “Did you follow us here?” I asked with a quick glance at John. If my pretend-father saw him, he’d insist on an immediate wedding, which was the last thing I wanted.

  “No, ma’am. I left after speaking to the judge again. Do you have a minute?”

  I left John’s side and went to the door, joining Taylor in the hallway. “You should probably not be here,” I told him, distracted by the fear John might awaken and reach out for me again.

  “Didn’t he want me here for the wedding?”

  I gave an exasperated sigh. “If you aren’t here, there can’t be one!”

  The sheriff smiled faintly. “Ma’am, I came to tell him I changed my mind about marrying you.”

  “You did?” I focused on him, surprised. “Why?”

  “Why? This isn’t … right.”

  “You’re the first man with any sense around here.” His expression mirrored what I felt. I smiled in puzzled curiosity. “Then why did you agree at first?”

  “How better to help you, if I’m with you every day?”

  My phone buzzed with Carter’s response. I didn’t understand why Taylor thought he was supposed to help me or why the other girls before me had sought him out – and then ended up at the bottom of a well. I knew nothing about the man before me. His simple past, that he was raised by the natives, explained nothing about who he was or how he was always around when I needed rescuing.

  “Miss Josie! Your father! Is he dead?”

  Omigod, asshole. I faced Philip, who dashed up the last two steps of the stairwell down the hall. “He’s not dead!” I exclaimed. “Give him some peace, Philip!”

  “He wished you wed before he died, and the house servant told me he was nearly gone. I see no other suitors around, cousin,” Philip snapped in response without even glancing at the sheriff. He offered a smug smile and strode into John’s room.

  “How do you do that?” I asked Taylor, watching the jackass of a cousin go to John’s bed.

  “Do what, ma’am?”

  “You’re always in the right place and right time.” My own words rang in my head, and another possibility trickled into my thoughts. Was the sheriff like me? A time traveler? Someone with special knowledge or a crazy chip in his head that told him things he shouldn’t know? The sense was back. Something about him was almost familiar or …

  … empathic memory. It had been teasing me, never fully forming but present nonetheless, like a dream that escaped as one woke from a deep sleep. Failing to capture it, I sighed.

  If Taylor was anything, he wasn’t easy to read. Either he played his part here with zealous devotion or I was grasping at straws. It almost made sense he was a time traveler, but I didn’t know why he was sent.

  “I’m fetching the preacher!” Nell whipped by us.

  “Preacher? Why for?” Philip demanded, trailing her.

  I grimaced and resisted the urge to smack him. His pinched features were the last thing I wanted in my life at the moment. His thoughts were not good; he already had a plan to marry me and lock me away permanently in a basement while he enjoyed John’s money.

  Unable to tolerate the way he thought of John, I spoke without thinking. “Do you not love your uncle for being kind, cousin, instead of for his money?”

  “You watch your mouth, cousin. When your father is gone, I will teach you some respect the only way a woman understands it.” He hissed for my ears only. His attention slid to the sheriff for the first time. “Sheriff? What are you doing here? This is a family affair. No one has broken the law.”

  “My apologies for bothering you all,” Taylor said and slid his hat off. “I’ll leave you to family business.”

  Whatever I thought about Taylor, I’d take a chance with him over Philip any day. “He’s here because we’re engaged,” I grabbed Taylor’s hand as he headed towards the stairs.

  “Betrothed?” Philip looked at me blankly. “You? To him?”

  “Father wished it.”

  Philip turned red and marched into the bedroom.

  “You’re marrying me,” I told Taylor.

  He gazed down at me, taking in my features. My heart flip-flopped once more at the direct look. “It’s what you want?”

  “John chose you. So … I’m just a woman. What choice do I have?” I asked.

  “I don’t believe that for one minute.” He folded his arms across his lean chest. “I warned you, ma’am. There’d come a time when you needed a favor from me.”

  I stared at him. “How … I mean, did you know this was going to happen?”

  “That ain’t possible, Miss Josie.”

  Yet the glimmer in his eyes told me it was. “Fine. What do you want?”

  “The truth for one.”

  “Ugh.”

  “For two …” he glanced around. “I’d like to retire here with you.”

  “Wait. You want to be with me?” I asked, startled.

  “What’s not to want?”

  The option of being stuck here had never crossed my mind. With his quiet strength, chiseled body and face, ability to see through a lie and protective instinct, he was the perfect package, a man who would keep my secrets and support me without question. I had felt relatively safe with him since we met, with the exception of the details surrounding the night he found me.

  Was I attracted? Definitely. Did I think I might be able to trust him? Probably. But if he thought I’d stay here with him forever, he was flat out wrong.

  He doesn’t have to know that. Except I was a horrible liar. “Look, Taylor …” Meeting his gaze, I paused, grappling with how to say what I wanted to. “We
’re connected somehow already. I’ve always felt this. I don’t know how or why. I think you could be someone I trust, but … retire? Here?”

  This time, I was the one talking around the truth.

  “Assume by some miracle, you end up staying here,” Taylor said, amusement glittering in his eyes. “You could be worse off.”

  “Yeah. I didn’t mean …” I flushed at his intent consideration. My gaze strayed to the bedroom, where Philip had succeeded in waking John and appeared to be speaking urgently to him.

  “I can’t let him have you,” Taylor added more softly, following my gaze. “You do need someone looking out for you, whatever you decide.”

  It’s not the time for a rant about feminism. I nodded instead of speaking. “Who better than the sheriff?” I agreed.

  “You’ll tell me the truth.”

  I opened my mouth to speak.

  “Not now.” He held up his hand. “Later. The kind of secret that stays between a man and wife.”

  The sense this might mean more to him than me tickled my mind. I had been drawn to him since we met. No part of me, however, considered staying here permanently an option.

  I wasn’t leaving the house with John in the throes of death, and I wasn’t going to remain here without being married off to someone. Whether it was the abusive Philip or mysterious Taylor, I had to choose a husband for the next four days. Carter was going to pull me out when I finished my mission. In the meantime, the sheriff could help me stay alive.

  If I had to be stuck with someone, Taylor was my obvious choice.

  “Okay,” I said finally. “Truth.”

  Taylor’s gaze lifted. He moved past me into the bedroom and approached Philip. I watched in surprise as he took the arm of the man clearly protesting John’s choice of son-in-law and escorted him outside the room, down the stairs and to the main floor.

  John appeared restless.

  I entered once more and sat by his side. “I’m here, Father,” I said.

  He sighed, a flicker of his previous joy in his eyes.

  The sight of it destroyed me. I didn’t deserve the look or emotion. Tears I didn’t think I should feel pricked my eyes. I had never known my own father and was losing the father of real-Josie, a man I shouldn’t have ever met. One whose love for his daughter was completely selfless, unconditional and pure.