“Watch out!” Katie Jo cried, pointing.

  Harry whirled and smashed his fist into her uncle’s jaw. Uncle Cole dropped like a sack of flour that had been left out in the rain. She couldn’t help the cheer that bubbled up.

  “Yes!”

  Harry’s swagger had never been more evident as he returned to the horse. He swung himself up in front of her. “Let’s get you home, darlin’.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and leaned her cheek against his back. With Harry, she was already home.

  ***

  Harry turned his face to Heaven and offered his thanks. For a moment, he hadn’t been sure he could help her escape without someone getting hurt. As it was, he could only hope Drew and the others would talk some sense into her uncle. He didn’t want her to have to look over her shoulder for the rest of her life.

  “You all right?” he asked as he let the horse amble toward the lake.

  She snuggled into his back like it was a feather pillow. “I’ll be fine.” Then she stiffened, and cool air rushed between them. “How’s Zeke? Your boss said Catherine was treating him.”

  Harry covered her joined hands at his waist with one of his own. “He was in rough shape, walking all the way from the claim to the Landing. But he ate a good dinner and slept through the night.”

  “And she knows to speak loud and clear?” she pressed.

  “She knows. He’s in good hands.”

  She leaned against him again. “So am I. Thank you for coming for me, Harry.”

  “I’ll always come for you. I meant what I said. I love you, Katie Jo.”

  “I bet you say that to all the pretty gals,” she said, but he could hear the teasing tone in her voice.

  Harry squeezed her hands. “No, I don’t. I haven’t ever said it to any of the ladies I’ve courted. I don’t think I loved them. I was fond of them, but it was like you said. They fit a picture in my head. You’re so much more than that.”

  She nuzzled his back. “You know just what to say to turn a gal up sweet, Harry.”

  He chuckled. “I’m kind of glad that isn’t true. I might have settled for filling out that picture, if it wasn’t for you. Now, I have a chance for real happiness.”

  She sighed. He thought it was a pleased sound. He clucked to the horse to pick up its paces as Lancelot trotted out onto the path down to the Landing.

  “What happens now?” she asked, as if she sensed their moment of privacy was growing short.

  “Now, I get you back to the Landing, and you see about Zeke. I’ll talk to Ciara. Maybe she’ll let Jesse and me live at the inn for a time, so you and your brother can have our cabin.”

  She straightened away from him again. “What about the cabin on your claim?”

  “It needs a bit more work,” Harry said. “That storm the other night did some damage.”

  “We’ll help you set it to rights,” she promised. “Me and Zeke. We’re used to doing for a claim.”

  “I’m not bringing you to the Landing so you can work,” Harry protested. “Leastwise, not work for me. You know Ciara will welcome you if you want to work more for her.”

  “I might,” she said. “Funny. I’ve been thinking about this day for years, the day Zeke and I left the claim to strike out on our own. I can hardly believe it’s here. I have a lot of arrangements to make: where we’ll live, how we’ll make a living.”

  “I have a suggestion,” Harry said.

  “What?” she asked.

  He reined in the horse, then slid from the saddle. Going down on one knee on the fir needle-strewn trail, he gazed up at her. “Katie Jo McAllister, you taught me how it should be between a husband and a wife, how they should share in the dreaming and the doing. You have the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met. I would be the luckiest man alive if you agreed to be my bride. Would you marry me?”

  Her lips trembled. “Get me down.”

  He wasn’t sure whether that was a joyous yes or a demanding no, but he lifted his arms and set her down beside him. She threw her arms about him and hugged him so tight the breath left his lungs.

  “Yes, Harry,” she murmured. “Yes, I will marry you and dream and do right beside you.” She let go, then lifted her chin to press her lips against his. The kiss was certain, sweet, a promise of a life ahead of them.

  As she pulled back, Harry caressed her cheek with one hand. Then he lifted her back onto the saddle with a feeling of pride and reverence. “Guess you know what you’ll be doing, then.”

  “And Zeke?” she asked as he swung up in front of her.

  “Zeke’s welcome in our home as long as he wants.”

  She sighed and leaned against him. “Oh, Harry. I’m so happy.”

  He swore one of the buttons popped off his shirt as his chest swelled. “I’ll do all I can to make sure you’re always happy, darlin’.”

  “No one’s always happy,” she said as they set off for the Landing again. “But as long as we’re together, every day will be a good day.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The rain began to fall, pattering down on the firs above them and dripping onto the path. Katie Jo didn’t care. Even another windstorm couldn’t have dampened her joy.

  Harry Yeager loved her, and they were going to be married. The entire clearing of Wallin Landing seemed to glow as they rode in.

  Ciara must have been watching from the inn, for she hurried out onto the back porch. “Katie Jo! Are you all right?”

  “I’m better than all right,” she said, as Harry reined in and swung down. He held up his arms, and she slid into his embrace. That smile said she never had to leave.

  “Then your uncle let you go, for good?” Ciara pressed.

  She made herself glance at the porch. “Yep. He knows I’m leaving, and I don’t intend to come back. So, I’m all yours, if you want me.”

  Ciara clapped her hands. “You know I do! With you here, I can open for business six days a week sooner than I’d thought!”

  “You’ll have to get in line,” Harry said, slipping one arm about her waist as he led her up under the shelter of the porch. “Katie Jo has agreed to marry me. She’ll be a little busy helping me set up our home, just the way she wants it.”

  “Just the way we want it,” Katie Jo corrected him, even as Ciara squealed and enveloped her in a hug.

  “All this celebration comes at a price,” Harry warned Ciara as they disengaged. “Katie Jo and Zeke need someplace to stay until we marry. I’d like to put them in Beth’s old cabin. That means Jesse and I need somewhere to stay too. Can we bunk in the inn again for a short time?”

  Ciara nodded. “I don’t expect too many travelers as winter comes closer. You should be fine for a few weeks.”

  “Less than that,” Harry said. “I’ll talk with Levi this afternoon about holding the ceremony within the week. For now, we need to see how Zeke’s fairing.”

  They found her brother still in the dispensary. Surrounded by all the bottles and boxes and bandages on the shelving, he still looked a little pale to her, but he was sitting on a chair next to Catherine’s desk, and the pages in the nurse’s book were full of tightly written notes.

  “Katie Jo!” her brother greeted as they walked through the door. His green eyes brightened. “I knew Harry would rescue you.”

  “She rescued herself,” Harry said with a wink to Katie Jo. “I just came along for the ride.”

  Zeke’s smile flagged. “Then Uncle Cole will be coming after us?”

  “No.” The answer came from the door, where Drew now stood. He nodded to Harry and Katie Jo before crossing the room and bending to press a kiss to his wife’s cheek. She smiled up at him.

  Drew straightened and turned to Katie Jo and Zeke. “Your uncle has decided he’d be wiser to head north to the gold fields. Especially as three or four prospectors and loggers in the area also seem to think they paid to marry Katie Jo. We explained she had other plans for her life, and none seemed disposed to argue with her.”

  Or at least to argue with Drew and his brothers.

  “Thank you,” Katie Jo said. “Thank you all.”

  “You’re family,” Drew said. “Family helps family.” He nodded to Zeke. “Feeling better?”

  “Yes, sir,” Zeke said. “Good enough to join your logging crew.”

  Katie Jo stared at him.

  Drew chuckled. “I’ll see what I can do.” He nodded around and left.

  “Logging crew?” Katie Jo asked her brother.

  “I want to do something no one else can do,” he said, “but I’ll settle for logging for now.”

  “After you’re completely well,” Catherine said firmly.

  Katie Jo swallowed the lump that rose in her throat. “Will he get completely well?”

  Catherine’s face softened. “There’s nothing to be done about his hearing, I’m afraid. The loss likely came from fevers when he was younger.”

  “He had a lot of those,” Katie Jo remembered, giving her brother a commiserating look.

  Catherine cocked her head. “I imagine he broke a few bones as well.”

  Katie Jo sighed. “Pert near every time he fell. Why, does that have something to do with his hearing too?”

  “Not his hearing, but the weakness, body aches, and lack of appetite, certainly.” She reached up and pulled down a slender volume. “According to Mrs. Child, your brother’s symptoms closely match rickets.”

  Zeke grimaced. “What’s that? Did something bite me, and I didn’t know it?”

  “No,” Catherine said with a shake of her head. “It’s brought on by lack of nourishment and want of fresh air.”

  Zeke glanced at Katie Jo. “My sister always fed me fine. I just didn’t have the stomach to eat it.”

  “But you didn’t have a lot of fresh air,” Katie Jo countered. “Uncle thought it best you stay in bed when you were little. I suppose I just kept doing the same as you grew.”

  Catherine reached out a hand and patted hers. “You couldn’t know. Many families fall prey to rickets. Thankfully, we know that exercise and the right foods can help put things to rights.” She tapped the book on the desk. “Mrs. Child has some suggestions, but my father, who was a physician, recommended cod liver oil. Two doses a day to start, I should think.”

  Zeke grimaced again.

  Katie Jo grabbed her brother’s hand and squeezed. “That’s easy, then. You’ll be better in no time. Best news I’ve heard all day.”

  Harry coughed into his hand.

  “Well, except for Harry saying he loved me and asking me to marry him,” she said, cheeks heating.

  That called for more congratulations and hugs all around.

  “We’ll need to make you a wedding dress,” Catherine said, closing her journal as if she had discovered something more important to tend to. “Decorate the hall and the church. Bake for the reception.”

  Harry’s eyes widened.

  Katie Jo held up her hand. “I don’t need any of that. Harry’s fixing to talk to Pastor Wallin later today so we can be married as soon as possible. Harry loves me, just as I am.”

  He bent and kissed her cheek. “You know it, darlin’.”

  She could have lost herself in that tender look. Or found herself again.

  “Well,” Catherine said, smile hinting, “we can make you a veil at the very least. James has some lovely lace down at the mercantile. Harry or no Harry, every lady deserves something special on her wedding day.”

  ***

  Harry marveled at how quickly things changed at Wallin Landing over the next few days. Levi readily agreed to hold their wedding ceremony in the church in a week. In the meantime, Jesse packed up his and Harry’s things and ported them back to the inn so Katie Jo and Zeke could set up in the old cabin along the trail. Catherine asked that Zeke eat at the inn for a time and coached Ciara and Katie Jo on the food he needed to grow stronger.

  Every Wallin brother, Kit, Jesse, and Logan Bradshaw pitched in to help Harry and Katie Jo finish his cabin so she would be able to move in right after they wed. Working with Katie Jo, Nora even sewed curtains for the windows, and Catherine donated linens and a quilt from Mother Wallin for the bed.

  No one had seen hide nor hair of Cole McAllister, which was all to the good. Katie Jo asked Harry to take her out to the claim later in the week with the wagon and a crate so she could fetch more things, including the chickens and a chest that had belonged to her mother. Harry had to chop through the fallen log first to clear the way.

  “I suppose we’ll just have to let the place lie empty,” she told him as they loaded the last of the furnishings into the wagon to the squawk of confused chickens. “Zeke says he doesn’t want it.”

  “You might be able to sell the claim,” Harry ventured. “Folks are bound to move out this way sooner or later.”

  The other big change came on Wednesday, when Wallin Landing learned the results of its first school board election, which had been held the day before. Everyone had come to the schoolhouse to cast their votes during the day, and Rina and Dottie had counted them that evening.

  “Catherine, John, and Kit are no surprise,” Ciara said when Harry and Katie Jo arrived for dinner Wednesday night. Zeke had come over earlier to help Ciara with the extra work now that she was feeding eight instead of the four she’d originally planned. “But Mr. Bradshaw and Gladys Volland!”

  Harry settled himself on the bench beside Katie Jo, leaving his former seat at the end of the table for her brother. “Should make for some interesting meetings.”

  Katie Jo glanced around. “Where’s Alice? I’d like to hear what she thinks of this new board.”

  Ciara tipped her head toward the window. Outside on the porch, Alice and Jesse were in deep conversation. The little schoolteacher only reached to his collarbone, and Jesse had bent as if to drink in every word.

  “Planning our trip to Seattle,” Ciara said, laying a pan of biscuits down on the table. “We’re going in tomorrow morning to fetch supplies and purchase some items for the school. You all are eating me out of house and home!”

  “Not much longer,” Harry promised, taking Katie Jo’s hand and pressing a kiss against her fingers. Color climbed in her cheeks, and she gave him such a smile he could only bend closer and brush her lips with his as well.

  Ciara sighed. “Just like Cinderella.”

  Katie Jo pulled back. “Cinder-who?”

  “It’s an old story,” Ciara explained, “about a common girl who ended up marrying a prince.”

  Harry chuckled. “Then it doesn’t apply to Katie Jo. If I’m a prince, it’s only because I’m marrying a princess.”

  Ciara beamed. “And that’s the way every groom should feel. Well done, Harry.” She bustled back into the kitchen to help Zeke bring in the rest of the food.

  “I’m not a princess,” Katie Jo murmured in the moment of quiet. “But you make me feel like a queen, Harry Yeager.”

  He kissed her fingers again. “Then let’s go conquer a kingdom together, darlin’.”

  ******

  Thanks for reading Katie Jo and Harry’s story. Harry followed a difficult road to find his true love, but I knew it was going to be Katie Jo long before he did. If you missed any of the Frontier Matches stories, or the stories about the Wallin clan, visit my website for the full list.

  Jesse Willets may have decided Alice Dennison is far beyond his reach, but a storm and a night in the woods may have something to say about the matter. Turn the page for a sneak peek of the next book in the Frontier Matches series, The Schoolmarm’s Convenient Marriage.

  Sneak Peek: The Schoolmarm’s Convenient Marriage, Book 4 in the Frontier Matches Series by Regina Scott

  Seattle, Washington Territory

  October 1876

  Must a lady travel to the ends of the Earth to gain command over her own future?

  Apparently so, for Alice Dennison could only shake her head at the telegram gripped in her gloved hand.

  “I hope it isn’t bad news,” her friend, Ciara Weatherly, said as they stood outside the telegraph office along the wharves. The shouts of the sailors offloading goods punctuated the whir of machinery at the nearby sawmill. Tar and cedar and brine mixed for a potent aroma under skies that hovered lower and darker every moment. Or maybe it was the words she’d read that had darkened her spirit.

  THIS IS UNNECESSARY RETURN AT ONCE

  “Nothing that requires a reply,” Alice said. “I’m sorry we delayed our visit to check.”

  “We always check when we come in for the mail.” The voice rumbled from behind her, and she forced herself not to stiffen. Mr. Jesse Willets, who had driven them in to town, was a giant of a fellow, towering over everyone except Mr. Drew Wallin, who was apparently famous in the territory. Mr. Willets was also a man of few words. She had yet to determine whether it was because he had an economy of speech or because he simply knew few words.

  “Then we have done our duty,” she said. As they started forward, she crumpled the note and shoved it into her reticule to be summarily burned in the fire when they reached Wallin Landing.

  That is, if she could remember how to rekindle the fire.

  They had all been so patient with her, from Mrs. Rina Wallin, who was the lead teacher at the Lake Union School, to Alice’s darling students, who ranged in age from four to seven. Rina had explained the expectations of Alice’s role as schoolteacher, she had shown Alice how to clean and trim the lamps that lit her side of the two-room schoolhouse at the back of the village nestled along the shores of the lake, and she or one of the local gentlemen had repeatedly shown her how to lay the wood they brought her into the grate to keep the school warm as the autumn weather grew more brisk. She was the one who couldn’t seem to get the wretched fire to stay lit!

  She should have expected it would be a challenge to find her footing so far away from everything she’d once known, from everyone with whom she’d once thought to share her life. But she was more than ready to meet that challenge. Wallin Landing was her home now. She would do her best to be a good citizen, a good teacher, and a good friend. No more would she allow others to direct the course of her life, even if that meant remaining a spinster to the end of her days.