for several minutes until she had calmed down. He couldn't help but
notice how good she felt in his arms.
She couldn't stop thinking about the danger Caleb had been in when that
monster had killed her guard. Her son could have been killed too.
The Nortons would keep him safe. In her heart she knew that to be
true.
She suddenly pulled away- from Cole. "None of this is your fault.
You're only doing your job. You're right too. Caleb should stay out
of harm's way." She straightened her shoulders, turned around, and
walked back inside.
Josey was waiting at the kitchen table. She wanted to tell Jessica
that Caleb had gone right to sleep, but when she saw the heartache on
the poor mother's face, she got up and went to her. "I'm going to take
good care of your boy. I promise you, Jessica. Tom and I will treat
him like he was our own son."
"I want to thank you for agreeing to watch him, and I know I don't have
the right to ask . . . " "You can ask anything you want to ask. If I
can do it, I will."
"If I don't come back . . . " "Don't talk like that, " Josey
interrupted. "You're coming back, " Cole said from behind.
Jessica ignored both protests. "If I don't come back, Josey, will you
raise my son? " Josey looked over Jessica's head at Cole. He gave a
quick nod. "Yes, Tom and I will raise him. You've got my word. "
"Thank you, " Jessica said, her voice flat. "I would also like you to
change his name legally so that he won't feel like an outsider. I want
him to belong to a family."
"Jessica, for God's sake, stop talking like that. Nothing's going to
happen to you."
"I have to make arrangements just in case. I owe it to Caleb." Josey
understood.
"We'll make it legal, " she promised. "I give you my word." Jessica
grabbed hold of her hand. "One last promise, Josey, and I'll be able
to go. Please, don't ever leave him." Xaniel was torn between
responsibilities. His primary obligation was to escort Grace to Texas,
and he was doing exactly that, but he also wanted to head over to the
small town of Clarkston, where the latest robbery had occurred, to look
for evidence that might help him in his investigation.
He couldn't send Cooper to the bank in his place, as he was with
Rebecca, making certain she got to Texas alive and unharmed. The two
of them had left for the depot an hour ago, but not before Cooper had
dispatched his two young and inexperienced deputies to Clarkston to
help the sheriff there. Rebecca had insisted on sending a telegram to
the hotel in Salt Lake City to cancel the reservation she'd made the
day before and to alert her friends that her plans had been changed,
and as soon as she came out of the telegraph office, she was put in a
coach with Cooper and sent on her way.
Cooper had suggested that he and Rebecca wait until Grace could travel
so that he could take both women with him and Daniel could go to
Clarkston, but Daniel refused. Each of the women believed herself to