Outlaw Hearts(171)
“He just loved me, Father,” she wept, lying back down. “And I love him. I can’t marry David Vogel.”
“You have no choice. You have to do what’s right for that baby. Lloyd is going to be a very confused young man for a long time. He’s better off never knowing about the baby. Once you’re married to David, you’ve got to never say a word to anyone about the real father, never see Lloyd again.”
“What will he think,” she sobbed, “finding out I married someone else so quickly?”
“He’ll probably think I pushed the marriage to keep you away from him. Let him think whatever he wants. You’ll be in Chicago, away from it all.”
Away from it all? “Don’t send me away alone married to a man I hardly know,” she begged.
Parker moved to sit on the edge of her bed and took hold of her hands. “I trusted you, Beth. You’re my beautiful, precious, only child, and I know you think this is cruel, but I’m doing it because I love you and am trying to salvage what we can from this. I want to save your reputation and my grandchild’s name. If it will make you feel better, Aunt Trudy will go to Chicago and stay with you for a while. Would you like that?”
Lloyd! He would be shattered. He would hate her. He would never understand this. So much of his trust in life and those he loved was surely already destroyed. The worst part was, she knew her father was right. She had to think about the baby, give Lloyd’s son or daughter a good home, never let him suffer the ugly names people called babies sired out of wedlock.
“Yes, I’d like Aunt Trudy to come along,” she answered in resignation. She turned away from her father. “I need to sleep. I wish I could just sleep forever, or wake up and find out none of this is true.”
Her father touched her shoulder. “I wish it too, darling. And I’m not deserting you. As soon as possible, I’ll come to Chicago and spend some time with you, and I’ll come and stay a while when the baby is born.”
Her throat ached with a need to cry again. “Will you love it, Father?”
He sighed, rising and leaning over to kiss her cheek. “Of course I will. I may not approve of the father, but my daughter is the mother, and that’s all that matters. That baby has my blood too.”
The man turned and left, furious with himself for not seeing what was going on with his daughter and Lloyd Hayes. If the boy were here now, he’d kill him! He’d do everything in his power to keep him away from Beth from now on, which meant forcing Miranda Harkner off Parker land. She would have to find a new home. He hated to do that to the woman. He actually thought her quite remarkable, but she knew the risks she was taking when she married Jake Harkner. She would just have to suffer the consequences, as would Lloyd. Beth came first.
Twenty-seven
Jake looked up as two deputies led Lloyd to his cell.
“That the young one?” a prisoner across the way spoke up. “Sure looks like his pa. Hey, boy, you’ve got a pretty famous pa there, famous here in Missouri, anyway. ’Course it ain’t the nicest things in the world he’s famous for. What’s that other word? Infamous?”
The man laughed, as Jake slowly rose, keeping his eyes on Lloyd. He supposed that if God wanted to punish him for his sins, He had found the perfect torture. He had let him get close to this son of his, love him, nurture him, feel his love in return, only to have it all be destroyed. What he had feared more than death was in Lloyd’s eyes: shame, humiliation, hatred…yes, the hatred was there too. How well he knew what the boy was feeling, and he wished he had done something to cause Gentry to shoot him dead so he wouldn’t have to see that look in Lloyd’s eyes.
One of the deputies unlocked the cell door while another held a shotgun on both men. “No funny business,” the first man said, letting Lloyd inside the cell. He closed and locked the door, and the prisoner across the way began his teasing remarks again.
“Shut up, Collier, or you’ll get no damn supper tonight!” one of the deputies warned him. “You know I mean it!”
Collier just chuckled and went back to his cot, curling up with his back to Jake’s cell.
“Have you seen your mother?” Jake asked. “She’s worried sick about you.”
Lloyd swallowed. Could this be the same man he had loved and trusted all these years, had shared his dreams with over campfires? They should be back in Colorado, riding the line, laughing together. Jake Hayes didn’t belong in a prison cell, possibly to be executed. But then this wasn’t Jake Hayes. He was Jake Harkner, the outlaw.
“I haven’t seen her or Evie. I didn’t know where to look,” he said, trying to keep his anger in check. “I went straight to the courthouse and found out where they were keeping you.”