The Devil's Daughter (32 page)

Lucy frowned. Why did Jed seem so unnerved?

“There’s nothing to tell,” he said, his voice flat. “She married my brother.”

 “You were not the first woman your beloved human proposed to,” Deacon began. “Unless I’m mistaken, his dear sister-in-law is his first love.”

Jed’s eyes squeezed shut for a moment, before he blinked down at her.

“Jed?” Lucy stepped back a bit.

“That’s not all, is it, Jedidiah?” Deacon’s taunting voice echoed through Lucy’s heart. “His brother hadn’t been gone but a few days before he proposed a second time.”

“You sonuvabitch,” Jed ground out. “That’s not how it was.”

Deacon snorted. “No? Are you saying you didn’t propose to her? And not just once, but twice?”

Jed’s dark eyes gazed desperately at Lucy. His only answer was a brief nod.

A sharp sob ripped out of Lucy’s throat.

“It was before I knew you,” he said, reaching for her hands. “I never loved her.”

“But--”

“No.” He shook his head and sighed heavily. “I thought she would make a good wife, a sensible one who’d work hard and not question me at every turn. And even though she refused to believe Sam was gone, I knew it. I could feel it in my gut, and I knew Sam would want his wife and child taken care of.”

Lucy’s heart began to soften again. The Jed Caine she’d first met, the one at the auction, had been looking for the same thing in a wife.

 “I never loved her,” he repeated quietly, then choked on his next breath. “I’ve only ever loved you.”

A low growl started in Deacon’s throat. His anger was a double-edged sword. Good, because it meant Jed wasn’t going along with what Deacon wanted; bad because his anger made him stronger, which would make it more difficult for Jed to defend himself.

Lucy dashed her arm across her eyes.

“And I’ve only ever loved you,” she said, pouring everything she had into the touch of their hands. “Hold on to that.”

She leaned up and kissed his mouth, soft and slow. Tears ran over her lips and when she looked up, it nearly killed her to see wet streaks down Jed’s cheeks. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I hope someday you can forgive me.”

She stepped back from him and started toward Deacon.

 o0o

“No.” Jed’s voice thundered across the yard. “Lucy stays with me.”

Lucy took a long time to face him. “I can’t.”

The pain in her eyes matched that in his heart. She was scared, too. Terrified.

But Jed wasn’t. Not anymore. He’d gone way beyond scared and moved right on to burning anger.

Fury.

“Yes, you can.” He stood straight, kept his voice calm and held out his hand for her to take.

“Humans.” Deacon’s laughter chilled the air. “You have no idea what you’re up against.”

Jed snorted. “You think I’m scared of you – a cowardly little rat who hides behind his fear?”

“Jed.” Lucy gasped his name.

“Careful, human,” Deacon said, his voice rising. “Lucille warned you about my powers. I can just as easily take you, too.”

“So do it.”

Lucy gasped again.

“He won’t.” Jed kept his eyes focused on Deacon. “He can’t.”

“Jed, please.”

“Best listen to your wife, human,” Deacon warned. “I can hurt you in ways you can’t even imagine.”

“Go ahead.” He stepped closer to Deacon, daring him with each breath. “I’ll still love Lucy. And she’ll still love me.”

Deacon’s features darkened, his eyes bulged, and for a second, Jed wondered if he’d sprout horns. “She was willing to whore herself to get your soul.”

Though Lucy remained upright, Jed felt a tiny part of her slip away.

“That’s right,” Deacon went on, curling his lips into an evil smile at Lucy. “A lying whore. That’s all she was. That’s all she’ll ever be.”

She slipped again. Deacon’s smile widened. What the hell was going on?

“You’re wrong.” Jed fought to remain strong. He couldn’t let Deacon’s words hurt him or Lucy. He had to hold on. But to what?“The baby’s coming!” Berta’s cry froze everyone where they stood.

Reverend Conroy’s voice grew louder, stronger. “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.”

Every muscle in Maggie’s body contracted at the same time. Jed and Lucy stepped closer, but Deacon remained back, his growing fury almost palpable.

“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help--”

“Bear down, Maggie.” Berta’s soft, calm voice spoke over the reverend’s. Kneeling between Maggie’s legs, Berta kept one hand on her contracting belly and the other on the baby’s crowning head. “Good. Do it again.”

Jed stared in awe at everything going on around him. If Lucy was lying to him still, this baby would soon be ripped from its family. And that would no doubt be Maggie’s undoing.

“Then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Lucy was struggling to unbutton her dress. What the hell. . .?

“Help me.” She backed toward Jed, who took over undoing the buttons, but why he had no idea. When he was done, she pulled her arms out of the dress and struggled to keep it up. She turned to Jed. “Hold this.”

He did as instructed, and while he held her dress up, she managed to somehow wiggle out of her chemise, slip her arms back in the sleeves, and jerked her thumb at the buttons. As if in a trance, his fingers skittered over each button, fumbling to find its matching hole.

Deacon’s fuming grew louder, and though Jed didn’t look at him, he wouldn’t have been surprised to see flames coming out Deacon’s ears. If the baby was safe, as Lucy said, why was Deacon still there? He could have taken Lucy and Jed at any time, so what was he waiting for?

Lucy knelt next to Berta, her chemise draped over her arms, waiting for the child.

There was a collective gasp as Maggie pushed the wailing baby out and into Lucy’s waiting hands.

“No,” Maggie sobbed. “Give me my baby!”

Reverend Conroy fumbled beneath his trouser leg and pulled a small knife from inside his sock. With a guilty shrug, he handed it to Berta.

“No!” Maggie continued to wail. “Don’t hurt my baby!”

Jed held his breath. This was Lucy’s chance to save herself. This was what she’d come for, and everyone’s lives rested in what she did next. And now it made sense; this is what Deacon was waiting for.

Would Lucy give him the child?

With deft hands, Berta knotted the umbilical cord and used the preacher’s knife to cut it. Lucy snuggled the wriggling infant deeper into her embrace and gently tucked the edges of her chemise over its head and around its tiny body.

“Lucille.” Deacon’s voice wavered slightly. “Give it to me.”

Tears coursed down her cheeks as she leaned closer and pressed a soft kiss to the baby’s forehead. Then, smiling brilliantly, she shuffled forward and leaned down to Maggie. “You have a beautiful baby girl.”

Maggie struggled to sit up while reaching for her child at the same time. Lucy waited until the baby was secure in Maggie’s arms before completely releasing her, and stepping away.

“No!” Deacon’s fury bounced off the tree and echoed off into the distance. “Lucille!”

Lucy
. Jed watched in horror as she began to back away from Maggie, past where Jed stood, and closer to Deacon. It was as though everything was happening in slow motion. He reached toward her, but missed; she slipped past, shaking her head and smiling back at him through her tears.

“Jed.” Berta’s one word, like a distant echo in his mind, shocked him back to his senses.

Lucy was going to leave him. Worse than that, Deacon was going to take her back to. . .

The hell with that.

“Lucy.” He grasped her by the shoulders, glanced behind him at Maggie’s baby, then focused everything he had on Lucy. His wife. “Why did you do that?”

Lucy dashed away her tears and gazed lovingly at the baby now curled up to its mother’s breast.

“Look at that, Jed,” she murmured. “It’s a miracle.”

He didn’t need to follow her gaze to understand. “Yes,” he nodded. “It is.”

After a long moment, she sighed and turned back to him. The ache he saw in her eyes ripped a hole a mile wide across his heart.

“You’re my miracle,” she said quietly, her hands pressed flat against his chest. “Because of you I know what love is. And I’ll carry that with me for the rest of my life.”

She made to pull out of Jed’s hold, but he tightened his grip. “Lucy.”

“I love you,” she sniffed. “I’m so sorry.”

Berta’s voice beckoned. “Jed, we need to get Maggie some proper care. We can’t leave her out here like this.”

“Go to Maggie,” Lucy whispered. “She needs you.”

“Perhaps one of us should walk back to town,” Reverend Conroy suggested hesitantly.

“You’re not going anywhere, Reverend,” Berta snapped. “I’ll go.”

But nobody moved. Not a foot step sounded behind Jed. He hadn’t taken his eyes off Lucy through any of it. Even through her ocean of tears, he felt her strength, felt the love she had for not only him, but his family. Her family.

“Go,” she whispered again. “It’s the right thing.”

Deacon moved forward to take her by the arm, but Jed was quicker. “She stays.”

“Lucille.” Deacon’s voice grew tighter, lower.

Jed’s heart swelled. Deacon couldn’t hurt them. They loved each other, and that was the one thing the devil couldn’t win against; love.

Just as a smile began to work its way across his mouth, Lucy moved. Jed’s smile faded as one began to spread across Deacon’s face.

“Lucy?”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t let him hurt you, Jed.”

“He can’t!”

“You don’t understand--”

“I understand he’s a spineless coward.”

Lucy sucked in a breath.

“Careful, human,” Deacon growled.

“You can’t do anything to us,” Jed said, surprised at the strength in his own voice. “You can’t make me love her any less.”

“She came to take your soul.”

“And she did,” Jed replied. “Whether she’s here with me or not, my heart and soul belong to her.”

Deacon’s lips squeezed white against the burning red fury of his face.

“I won’t let you take her,” Jed said calmly.

Deacon laughed without humor. “You won’t
let
me? Try to stop me, human.”

Jed ignored him, speaking directly to Lucy. “You saved the baby, Lucy. Let me save you.”

She kept her eyes cast down as she shook her head.

“Then take me with you.”

“No!” Her head whipped up, her eyes huge, and she lunged toward Jed. “No.”

Berta and Maggie cried out behind him, but Deacon’s smile widened. “Yes.” He tightened his grip on Lucy’s arm, while he focused all his energy on Jed.

Jed would not live here without Lucy, and if it meant giving up everything to be with her, then so be it. Deacon coiled again, his face contorted with an angry sneer. A deafening rumble crashed through the air, shaking the ground beneath them and sending branches flying from the tree.

Maggie and Berta screamed above Reverend Conroy’s booming prayers, but the rumble continued, growing in strength and intensity.

With his left hand wrapped around Lucy’s arm, Deacon raised his right hand above his head and swung it down again, pointing his fingers directly at Jed’s heart.

“No!” Lucy ripped free of Deacon’s grip and threw herself at Jed, her body the only thing standing between the two men. Jed’s arms folded around her just as Deacon’s strike hit, slamming her in the back, and sending both her and Jed tumbling to the ground.

She gasped hard, a sound echoed by Deacon, and then silence.

“Lucy.” Jed pushed her off, staring down at her tear-stained face, searching for. . .what? Whatever pain Deacon had meant for Jed, it hit Lucy square in the back. He moved his hands over every inch of her arms, neck, head and back, but could find nothing.

Nothing. She was alive, she was breathing, and she was. . .smiling.

Her green eyes sparkled behind her dark lashes.

“Are you. . .?”

“I’m fine,” she smiled back at him. “I’m. . .Deacon!”

They spun around to see Deacon collapse to the ground in a grunting heap.

“L-Lucille,” he sputtered. “How. . .?”

“What happened?” She scrambled over to him, followed closely by Jed. There wasn’t a hope in hell of him letting her go anywhere near Deacon by herself. Not after that – whatever
that
was.