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The door to the sheriff’s office opened and they all turned to look. Betsey saw a man walk into the room, her heart leaping when she saw what he was holding. “Samuel!” She ran across the room, snatched him from the stranger’s hands and was cryinguncontrollably as she clung to him. How long had it been since she’d held him?
Aaron pulled them both into his embrace and the conversation around them was drowned out when Samuel started crying. She soothed him, kissed his face repeatedly and looked up at Aaron through tear-filled eyes. “I want to go home. Please?” She buried her face against his chest, taking in his scent. “Let him go, Aaron. I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to. I just want to go home.”
It took a lot of convincing and a few outright threats, but in the end, they walked away, leaving Harrison to his fate. Deep down Betsey knew she should have let Aaron have his way and stayed to make sure Harrison spent a few years in jail but with the money Harrison had, she was sure the lengthy stay would have been for nothing anyway. One way or another, he would have come out smelling like a rose. Men like him always did.
They left the jail and started down the street under a sky filled with stars. “When can we leave?”
Aaron laughed. “Not tonight. We have something to do before the long trip home.”
“Like what?”
He only smiled and said, “you’ll see,” before leading her into the heart of the city. When he stopped at a small church, lights still blazing in all the windows, he banged on the door. An older woman opened it, bleary-eyed and obviously annoyed. Aaron asked for the preacher and only smiled when the old woman ushered them inside the small building and told them to sit.
Betsey gave the interior of the church a thorough look before turning her attention to Aaron. “Have you been staying here?”
“No. We have a room at a boarding house not far from here.”
Betsey looked at Ben.
He smiled and shrugged one shoulder. “Don’t look at me. I don’t know why we’re here either.”
The preacher came through the same door the old womanhad disappeared into a few moments before and headed their way. He was thin, his clothes wrinkled, and his white hair stood straight up on top of his head. He looked kindly at them, unlike the old woman who now stood at the back of the church with that permanent scowl still on her face.
The preacher nodded at them in greeting when he reached them. “Evening,” he said. “What can I do for you?”
Aaron stood and shook the preacher’s hand, then turned to look at her. “We’d like to get married.”
It wasn’tthe big fancy wedding she deserved but there was time for that when they got back home. Right now, he wasn’t leaving San Francisco until Betsey’s last name matched his own.
Aaron stood at the front of the church with Betsey, the preacher thumbing through his bible for the verse he wanted to read, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
Ben stood by his side holding Samuel, the cranky old woman who’d let them in standing a few feet away from Betsey. The preacher’s wife, they’d been told, still looked annoyed and he was surprised she hadn’t tried harder to throw them out.
The preacher had only smiled at his request. Seems Betsey favored the preacher’s late daughter and he agreed to marry them just so he could look at her for a few minutes.
Aaron heard his name and repeated his vows when told to. He threw in a few extra and felt his heart thump in his chest at the teary smile Betsey gave him. They didn’t have rings but he’d fix that as soon as he got back home and when the preacher pronounced them man and wife, telling him he could kiss his bride, Aaron pulled her to him and took his time tasting her lips and didn’t pull away until someone cleared their throat.
Betsey was blushing three shades of red and he grinned when she ducked her head. “I love you.”
She looked up, her cheeks still pink. “Say it again.”
“I love you.” He leaned his forehead against her own. “And there isn’t anything I want more than you and Samuel and if it takes me a lifetime, I’ll make up for all the heartache I caused you. I’ll love you so thoroughly all the bad things will be overshadowed until you won’t even remember them and I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure you know every single day how lucky you are to have such a handsome husband.”
Betsey snorted a laugh and shook her head. “And full of it, too.”
“Too bad we won’t have any privacy until we get back to Willow Creek or you’d be full of me too.”
“Aaron,” she scolded and looked to where the others stood talking.
He laughed, gave her another small kiss and said, “What’s say we get out of here, Mrs. Hilam. Since my money transfer to Harrison never happened, we have a piece of land to buy and the sooner we get home, the sooner we can start the rest of our lives—together.”
“That sounds like a fine plan to me.”
Epilogue
The sun shiningin her eyes woke her. Betsey pulled the blankets up over her head only to have them jerked away a moment later.
“Good morning, Mrs. Hilam.”
