Chapter 16

"Being unpredictable is the right idea. Good work."

The two of them rode horseback out of the same livery stable where Beth had bought horses and a cart to haul an unconscious Seb a year and a half earlier.

"And now we go to the boardinghouse the livery stable owner recommended. If someone is following us, they're very good. I haven't seen anyone. If they are that good, we've got bigger problems than where to find food and a roof."

The livery man said the innkeeper had a barn out back and would supply food and a stall if her renters cleaned the stall and cared for the horses.

Kat led Seb to the alley where he'd been lying shot that spring day long ago.

"I was in there?" Seb stepped into the narrow alley, which was little more than a pace between two buildings.

"Yes, you called out ‘Help me.' Ginny went rushing right in. Beth looked horrified. I went along more cautiously, but I did go. I saw you clutching your belly. You tried to thrust that packet into my hands and said something about dying. I soon cleared that nonsense out of your head."

"This is miles from my laboratory. I have no memory of getting here or getting off that freight wagon, assuming I'd been carried here in one." Seb, a few steps in front of her, turned and smiled. "You decided you could save me, huh?"

"Yes, I knew I could," Kat said. "The bullet wound in your side, it was bleeding terribly, yet the bullet hadn't hit any internal organs. It was more of a flesh wound. I told Beth to give me something to use as a bandage. She handed over what I now know was her only spare dress. Then I ordered her to go get the horses and told her to find a cart and a spare horse." She paused and shook her head. "It was odd. I was so quiet and willing to work at anything to stay out of that asylum. But then I saw you wounded, and I started snapping out orders—to you, to Ginny, to poor Beth. I had more nerve than I should have."

"And there I was, taken into the care of a Good Samaritan." Seb took her arm and led her out of the dark alley. "Thank you, Kat. I would probably have survived my wounds and staggered out into the open and gotten shot again. You three generous ladies saved my life."

"Well worth it, husband." She grinned, and the sass made him chuckle. "Let's go find that boardinghouse."

They followed the stableman's directions away from the docks until they reached a decent-looking neighborhood and a house with a sign out front that said, Aunt Vivian's Inn. A good-sized white house with a second story and a front porch. An elderly woman sat on the porch, rocking away. Aunt Vivian perhaps?

"This is a good distance from both my house and my laboratory. No reason anyone watching those places would spot me here."

They dismounted, tied their horses to a hitching post out front, and went through a gate in a white picket fence to approach a gray-haired woman, who kept on rocking as she watched them. She was small, thin, and had a genial smile.

"Are you looking for a room?" She rose from her chair and came to the top of her porch steps. She had a fine way about her. A bit prim, her words very clear, like maybe a woman who'd been a teacher in her earlier years.

"We are, ma'am." Seb drew his hat off his head. "And a place for our horses. We're not sure how long we'll stay. If you have room, we'd be obliged."

"I do indeed have a room. I'm Vivian Wayne. Come in, come in. You can get settled in your room and then come back out to put up your horses." She waved them up the four steps to the broad front porch. She had the door open, but Seb took it from her. "Go on ahead. I'll hold the door, Mrs. Wayne."

See, he did have manners.

"Call me Aunt Vivian. Anyone who stays here is required to do so." She had a friendly twinkle in her eyes.

They were soon checked into a room under the names of Joe and Ann Williams. Dinner was four hours away.

Seb couldn't settle down. "Do you think I dare go to my house? I'd like to see how things are."

"I thought you wanted to be unpredictable." Kat removed the neat little bonnet she'd bought along with the dress. It was straw and had a green ribbon around it to match her dress. She laid it on a round table by the window. She sat in one of two chairs at that table and studied him like maybe he was a failed experiment.

"If we're careful, and no one sees us, then we get back here without being followed—we'd be back to unpredictable. But there are things in my house I'd like to see to."

"And your laboratory? Do you want to see that?"

Seb shrugged a bit sheepishly because he would like to see how it had held up after being abandoned for a year. "I've some notes hidden away at home. If Lloyd and Deacon were telling the truth and there was no sign of the house being searched, even if someone went through it, they might not have found my notes. I'd like to get a few things to take back to Cheyenne with me. I had one patent in those notes ready for me to apply. I'd like to get the process started."

Seb lifted his eyes to meet hers. "And I guess, well, I guess I'd like you to see it. Is that foolish? It's my boyhood home. Maybe you'd feel like you knew me a little better once you see where I grew up. It's a nice house. My father was a successful man. Not wealthy by any means, but a man who'd taken good care of us."

Seb rose and moved to the chair across from Kat and reached for her hand. "I feel like we have shared little of ourselves from before we met."

"Seb, you know more about me than anyone in the world. Well, not counting Uncle Patrick, and he doesn't know me lately."

Seb gave her a sad smile. "Same for you. I've told you a lot about myself. But as I sit here talking, I realize even with you knowing the most, you still don't know much. It's time we got to know each other better, Kat. We can check out the house from a park nearby. If we think it's safe, we'll go inside."

"Is four hours enough time? I'd hate to miss Aunt Vivian's supper."

"More than enough."

"Let's leave the horses. It's easier to sneak around without them."

"But slower if we have to run for our lives."

Beth's eyes dropped to the gun Seb now wore in a holster strapped around his waist. Bullets filled every loop on his belt. "I should probably buy a smaller gun, besides the one in my pocket. I could carry it in my reticule."

"Let's do that first. We're not nearly dangerous enough, and I say that even knowing you shot a man a few days ago."

Kat gave him a bleak smile. "Yes, I did."

"An accident, Kat."

"I hope God considers all the gray areas." Her shoulders squared. She was sure He did. Yes, God would forgive even a broken commandment if a sinner came to Him asking forgiveness.

"And now I'm thinking we need to arm ourselves even more." Kat frowned at Seb. "I feel incredibly guilty about that. ‘Thou shall not kill,' and yet I want to be prepared for just that."

He took her hand. "We're not going out looking for someone to kill. We're going out ready for trouble if someone brings it to us."

"And that's enough? I still feel guilty."

Seb shook his hand. "Hard questions, Kat. But I think, under the circumstances, I'd rather fight someone who attacked us than just stand there helpless. Let's pray about it while we walk over to my house."

"That is a very nice house. I have to reassess just how much money I married. You don't have any scheming uncles, do you?"

"I don't have anyone." His heart pounded to think of how alone he was in the world. Then he turned to Kat. Their eyes met.

"I don't have anyone either." She drew a trembling breath.

He saw so much there. So much loneliness. The death of her husband. The death of her parents. The misery of her year in the asylum. The wild escape with Ginny, and the run across the country with strangers. It was all there.

But it wasn't true anymore. "We have each other, Kat."

Her eyes held. They looked deep. Maybe seeing in him the same things she held inside herself. "Do we have each other, Seb?"

He nodded, just a bit at first, then with more assurance. "Yes, Katherine Jones. We have each other. We have and hold and will as long as our lives last. And I'm glad of it."

She kissed him on the cheek. "It's good to have someone. I'm glad of it, too."

The moment stretched, full of sweetness. But with their constant danger and worries, it couldn't last for long. They both turned to look at Seb's house.

It was a part of town with big yards and old trees. The house had two full stories. Gabled roofs faced the front of the house, and Seb knew there were two matching gables on the back. A porch wrapped around the whole house, and it shone white because Ma had seen to it that it was always freshly painted. They stood looking at the south side with the big front door up a flight of ten steps. There were picture windows on both sides of the door, but the one to the left was boarded over. Seb wished Lloyd had chosen a smaller window to break.

"I can't take credit for the house. It belonged to my parents. Pa was a successful schoolmaster. He earned good money as the lead teacher for the older students in the Independence school. And he'd spent it wisely, as did Ma. She made it a comfortable home for us. She loved her pretty doilies and overstuffed chairs. Lots of flowery fabric and comfort. That was Ma. I didn't care to have flowers all around, so after she died I banished them from my room. She had screens put on the doors to let in the breeze on a sticky summer night and keep out the mosquitoes."

Seb stared at the house. In some ways, it had an abandoned and neglected look about it. "I know Ma missed my older brothers and sisters. She said losing them to the West and to war was the way of the world and a hard way. But she believed life was about more than keeping a family close. She was a woman of strong faith, and she had great hopes that her children, wherever they were, in this life or the next, were people of faith and that was what was important. But I realize now I stayed close in part because of how much she missed them."

"Would you like to try to find your family? I'm not sure how, but we could search for them. You said your sisters got married and went west. You probably have nieces and nephews you don't know about. A letter can race across the country now with the train. Once we find them, you could stay in touch. We could even visit."

Seb looked away from the house. "It's been so long, Kat, and I was so young when they left. I don't feel like I'd even know them."

"We could look for pictures. Maybe we could find your sisters' married names. Maybe your Ma wrote down where they were headed, or even got a letter from them telling her where they'd settled."

Seb nodded silently, thinking about it. "It would be worth a look. But maybe I'll put that off for now. Today I'd like to just get in there, find my papers, and leave. I'd like to see if there are any pictures or letters, though. I've never thought of that before. Inventing took all my attention. When I got home from college, Ma had passed. Pa was struggling to keep the house as nice as it had always been. Moving in with him was the most natural thing in the world. I helped care for it inside and out. I always mowed the grass." He smiled. "I'd seen a lawn mower at college and came home and built one of my own. Even invented a basket to catch the clippings."

"You built a lawnmower? I don't know if I've ever even seen one. I can't remember for sure ever hearing of one. I think in Chicago, the grass was scythed or sheep were let out to do the mowing."

"It's a fairly simple machine, but it was already patented. I just built it for my own use because they were expensive and hard to find. But mine worked. I kept the walkways graveled and tidy. The bushes clipped. Now there are weeds coming up everywhere. The grass has gone to seed."

The bushes he once trimmed were now overgrown. There was a vine growing over his porch. The house had faded patches in the paint.

"There are trees in the park and trees in my yard." He swallowed hard. "Plenty of places to hide. How do we know if it's being watched?"

"Someone was watching you last spring, and then they found us in Cheyenne. If word has reached them that you're back, someone with ill intentions almost certainly will have found out. Even if they'd given up before, they certainly would think to watch it now."

"But Lloyd and Deacon said they had to break in." He saw the window beside the front door was boarded over. They'd fixed it, but not well. "So, since it was weeks after I'd been shot before they broke in, no one else had done that. At least they'd left no sign of breaking in and searching the house. Maybe my would-be killer believed I was dead." Then he remembered something and snapped his fingers. "Lloyd said they'd talked to a neighbor who hadn't seen me in weeks."

Seb rested a hand on Kat's shoulder and turned her toward the west. A house was visible behind the trees. "Mrs. Gundersen is a sweet old lady who gave me cake or cookies now and then when Pa was failing, and she kept at it after he died. I'd stop in for coffee and fix anything she had that needed repairs. Little things like a wobbly chair leg or a creaking front step. I used the lawnmower to cut her grass when I did mine. She was a kind woman. I really liked her. In fact, because all I did was work in my lab, then come home to sleep, visiting her made her about the only friend I had."

Kat sounded sharp when she said, "Except for your lawyers who now may be trying to kill you."

"Yep, except for them. She'd lived in the house next door for years. They both back up to a wild land and the river. Far enough away to avoid the spring flooding, but they're the closest houses to the water. She was good friends with my ma their whole lives, but she was also lonely and spent a good amount of time looking out for the neighborhood. She'll know if anyone's been around."

Seb drew Kat back behind a grove of trees in the park across the street just south of his house. He walked behind the trees with her and stayed hidden as they made their way to Mrs. Gundersen's back door and knocked.

She was a slow-moving woman, but Seb heard her coming. When she opened the door, she beamed. "Sebastian Jones! My boy!" She threw her arms wide.

Kat was a step behind him, and a good thing or she'd've had to move fast to get out of Mrs. Gundersen's way. Seb was engulfed. He glanced back and saw a genuine smile on Kat's face as she watched the elderly lady.

"I've worried so about you. I've not heard a word." Mrs. Gundersen's voice broke. Then she inhaled slowly to steady herself. She was a plump woman, fond of her own good cooking it seemed. But spry and probably not as old as Seb had always figured. His folks were close to seventy when they died. She was most likely the same, though he'd always considered her grandmotherly.

"I was sure you wouldn't just leave without a word, which meant it must have been something bad." Her gray hair, always in a tidy bun at the base of her neck, seemed to quiver with her excitement at seeing him.

She wore gold-framed glasses and a pink calico housedress that seemed like the same one she'd always worn. But it wasn't faded, so it might be a new one.

Seb hugged her tightly and reconsidered his whole life. Yes, he'd been alone in the world after his parents died, but not completely. Not as long as this neighbor loved him. Hugging her, he said, "I had trouble and had to run, Mrs. Gundersen. I finally was able to get back."

She straightened away, her eyes damp with tears, her smile as bright as the break of dawn. "Trouble, was it? I suspected something happened."

"I should have written, but I ended up on a wagon train heading west and thought it best if I vanished for a time."

"A wagon train west? But now you're back?"

Seb slipped gently from her grasp and turned to extend a hand to Kat, whose eyes looked a bit too bright. "Meet my wife, Mrs. Gundersen. This is Kat Jones. I met her on the wagon train. I was hurt, someone ... attacked me, I think to steal my inventions. Kat nursed me back to health, and when we both decided to come back east, I convinced her to marry me."

Kat blushed and shook her head. "I wasn't that hard to convince."

"Married. Well, and about time." Mrs. Gundersen let him go and gave Kat almost as big a hug as she'd given him.

Seb looked on and smiled. Neither he nor Kat had had a mother for a long time. Mrs. Gundersen's hugs felt wonderful.

"Come in! I'll put coffee on, and we'll catch up."

"I would like nothing better, but the trouble that drove me away from Independence might still be near."

The smile vanished instantly. "How can I help?"

Seb hugged her again. "I love you, Mrs. Gundersen. Thank you. When I tried to think of whether it was safe to get into my house, in the event it was being watched by the men who attacked me before, I thought of you."

Kat asked, "Have there been people around his house? Have you noticed anything either back when he was attacked or more recently?"

Nodding, her eyes sharply intelligent, she said, "I watched those friends of yours break in. They'd been here to ask if I'd seen you before they broke your window. I was worried sick. They had the police with them, so I decided not to object. At first, another man came around. He asked if I'd seen you, but I hadn't, so he left me alone. I didn't like the look in his eyes. Later, I saw him hiding in the shrubs behind your house. Before your friends came. I kept an eye on him. All I could think was that he was watching for you. I hoped that meant you were alive. If he'd killed you, why would he wait and watch in secret? And then a few days ago, I saw someone again."

"Not those friends?"

"Nope, the lawyers, right? They said their names, but I've forgotten them. I've never seen them again. I wasn't sure if they were trustworthy or not, but just like the first man, I didn't have to lie because I didn't know anything, except I hadn't seen you. They certainly seemed concerned and acted like they wanted to find you for your own safety. But how can a woman be sure? I never saw them again, and even when I was near expired from curiosity, I didn't go to them and ask if they knew what had become of you."

"Show me the shrubs where that man hid." Seb held Kat's hand and slid the other arm around Mrs. Gundersen's waist. She guided him to her front window. Seb peered out and noticed she had a clear view of his house. Since she liked to sit in this front room and do needlework and look out the window, she wouldn't miss much.

"I haven't seen him for days. He always hid in the same place." She pointed to where he'd been.

Seb looked at Kat. "You stay here with Mrs. G. I'll go look around the house for—"

"No. I'm going with you. If you have to run, then I'll run with you. If you have to fight, then I'll fight with you."

Mrs. Gundersen gave Kat an approving look. "You've picked a fine wife for yourself, Sebastian. I think it would be best if neither of you went over. But whatever you do, you need to stick together."

Seb looked at those bushes again, studied them for a long time, then said, "Let's go." He took out his door key and made sure Mrs. Gundersen was looking right at him. "Be careful. The men looking for me are dangerous."

She nodded and yet looked upset. "You'll come back and see me, won't you, Sebastian? When all your troubles are settled?"

"I will." He glanced at Kat. "If we can figure things out, I'd like to go back to living in that house."

Kat nodded but didn't reply. And now wasn't the time for such a talk.

Seb gave Mrs. Gundersen a hug, then took Kat's hand. They walked quickly across the lawn and down the gravel street that separated his house from Mrs. Gundersen's.