Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by Melynda Carlyle
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Table of Contents
Copyright
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Table of Contents
The Path to Tame a Wild Heart
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
The Extended Epilogue
A Bride to Melt the Sheriff’s Iron Heart – Preview
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
A Thank You Note to Starfall Publications
About Melynda Carlyle
The Path to Tame a Wild Heart
Chapter 1
Evelyn got herself ready for her day working at Pop’s Hardware Store, the place in town that her father used to run. Not anymore. He hadn’t worked there since... Evelyn couldn’t remember when. No, it was her responsibility now. Evelyn woke with the birds and, once she was ready, she made sure her father was well looked after. She started cooking one of the few recipes she remembered her mother cooking before she died. She got out the skillet and made sure the fire was nice and hot, before cracking a few eggs she’d picked up from the general store into it. They sizzled and filled the house with a sound she associated with her mother, a sound she associated with home.
She whipped together some batter and got started on some pancakes too, keeping the eggs warm over the fire as she cooked. Once she got started on the coffee, that became the overpowering scent in the house. It woke her father up and pulled him into the kitchen to see what she was up to.
He looked at her carefully, taking a moment to work out what was happening. Her father was a little slower in the mornings but once he got there, his face burst into a smile.
“That smells delicious,” he said slowly. “Shall I wait in the…in the…?”
He couldn’t find the words for it. Evelyn took a steadying breath and smiled at him. “Set yourself up at the dining table, I’ll bring it right over,” she said.
She got him ready for his day, set him up with some breakfast and coffee, and she left, taking her usual walk along the dusty streets of Kecheetah.
As Evelyn Pierce walked from her house that morning, the hem of her dress kicking up the dust on the ground, the heat of the day was already unbearable. She could feel it penetrating her black, curly hair, and beads of sweat formed on her brow. She fanned herself as she walked, but there was only so much a fan could do. She was pretty sure it was just making her feel hotter.
Once she made it to the edge of town, marked by the sheriff's office on the corner and the large general store across the way, she felt eyes on her. She took a breath and steeled herself for what she got every day as she walked through town. She dodged horses and carts, trying to keep herself out of sight as much as possible, but it didn’t stop people from whispering about her. Unfortunately, her reputation preceded her, the reputation of her and that of her fiancé-to-be, Willard Lane.
Evelyn Pierce was not the kind of girl this town wanted. For as long as she had been with Willard, there had been whispers behind her back, people saying things about her and Willard that ranged from outright lies to…well… some pretty rotten stuff that she couldn’t deny was true.
But she wasn’t about to let it get to her. She dealt with it every day.
“So long as we’ve got each other, that’s all that matters, love,” Willard had said the first time she had really noticed it, when one of the old women in the town had called her awful enough names that it broke through her thick skin. “It don’t matter what those people say. It’s just you and me against the world.”
So, she grew a thicker skin, got tougher, and was determined not to be pushed around by anybody. She locked eyes with anyone who dared look at her; she stared down anybody who dared to keep her gaze. More often than not, they would be the ones to look away first and, as far as Evelyn was concerned, that meant she had won.
Some days it was easier than others to put up with their staring and the awful things they were saying. Days like this, where the heat was oppressive and the townspeople even more so, Evelyn found it pretty easy to throw a harsh glance at somebody, to curl her lip, to look a lady up and down so she might understand how it felt.
Try that on for size, why don’t ya? she thought as a lady turned her head away from Evelyn. That would teach her.
She kept walking, nodding to some of the men standing outside Kecheetah’s saloon, the local watering hole.
She may have been a pariah to some, but it didn’t stop her from being beautiful. Men, more often than not, couldn’t take their eyes off her. But she only had eyes for Willard, and that was all that mattered.
“Have you heard what’s been happening this morning? Isn’t it just terrible!” a voice from the general store floated over to Evelyn on the breeze. She decided to ignore it, no doubt someone just spreading pointless gossip.
“I always knew it,” another lady shouted from outside the general store. Evelyn turned her head this time. She knew that voice. A woman with bright red hair wearing a dress that was far too tight was leaning on the balustrade, her hands gripping tight, her nails sharp like claws. “We all knew it.”
Evelyn took a breath and kept on walking. She can say what she likes, she thought. She doesn’t know a thing about me.
“Yeah, keep on walking!” the lady called. “Keep walking until you get to the other side of town. Even then, just keep on walking Evelyn Pierce!”
Evelyn stopped in her tracks, her boots crunching on the dirty ground. A little dust kicked up, a breeze whipping by and tugging at her hair.
She turned back to the general store, to the woman who had now returned to holding court with the other patrons of the store that morning. She was cackling about something or other and it made Evelyn’s blood boil.
“Hey!” Evelyn shouted, stomping over to her. “I don’t know what it is you think you know, but I suggest you keep that big ugly nose out of other people’s business, unless you want somebody to fix it for you.”
“Well that’s big talk comin’ from you.” The lady turned around, leaning over the balustrade, enjoying the height advantage she had over E
velyn. “What are you goin’ to do, huh? Set that animal of a fiancé on me?”
“Mind your own business, that’s all I’m sayin’.”
“How about I start minding my own business when you and that Willard boy stop causin’ trouble around these parts?” The woman grimaced like she had eaten a slice of lemon, looking down on Evelyn like she was better than her. “Wild girls like you give all the rest of us a bad name.”
“I don’t remember asking your opinion, Miss Sylvia,” she said, stepping up onto the same level as her. Their heights were equal now and Miss Sylvia looked a little scared, like she wasn’t sure what Evelyn was going to do. That was the thing about being called “wild”. It made everyone think she would fly off the handle at any second, and nobody would be able to stop her. “Have a good day now.”
Evelyn started away from the general store, her heart hammering in her chest, her entire body a little jittery from the encounter. But she kept walking, her head held up high. Enough people had seen it to know she wasn’t to be messed with today, so she carried on her walk to Pop’s Hardware Store. If her day continued like that, it looked like she was going to have a good one.
But sometimes things are just a little too good to be true.
A gunshot fired. The people around her froze instantly, a horse whinnied, and a woman screamed.
Another gunshot fired and she froze. There was a moment where she swore her heart stopped, and the shot had been meant for her, but her rational mind told her it was too far away for that. She turned back to the women standing outside the general store, but they were no longer paying her any mind, they had rushed inside in a panic. She couldn’t exactly blame them.
There was shouting up ahead, a commotion that made her blood run cold. It was near the store. What on earth could be happening near the store?
She broke into a run, only to find that the commotion was coming from inside the bank. There were people around, crowding outside stores, watching everything unfold. Where was the sheriff at a time like this? They needed help and they needed it now; what if someone were to get hurt?
Then she saw him.
Willard stumbled out the door of the bank, a bag slung over his shoulder, his black hat pulled low over his tanned face, everything about him looking unkempt and dirty, not the Willard that she knew. He hit the dirt, but quickly got to his feet, running as fast as he could, until he saw Evelyn.
In the back of her mind she knew it wouldn’t be something good, it was Willard Lane after all, but she hadn’t thought it would be this. Something in her own town, something on her own doorstep. People’s eyes were on her now, on both of them as they stood in the middle of the town square. She wanted to shake him, she wanted to hit him, she just wanted to scream.
“What on Earth have you done?” she managed to let out, her voice shaking. “Willard, you’ve gone too far this time.”
“Don’t be like that, Evie, this is for us,” he gestured to the bag slung over his shoulder. There was a wild look in his bright green eyes; the kind of wildness that had made Evelyn fall for him in the first place, that spark that told her he was different from everybody else in Kecheetah. But she hated it right now. She hated everything about it. “We can get away from here. This is it, our chance, Evelyn.”
“Get my name out of your mouth, Willard Lane,” she snapped.
“Evie—”
“You’ve robbed a bank, Willard,” she groaned. “How could you?”
“I d-d-d-did what I-I had t-t-t-to do,” Willard said, stumbling over the words a little. It was only now she could smell the alcohol on his breath. He was drunk. He was robbing a bank and he was drunk, a gun in one hand, a bag of stolen money in the other.
“You’re out of your mind.
He leaned forward, moving as if he were about to grab hold of her, but she took a step back. She could see in his face that it surprised him. He grinned at her, his teeth yellow and crooked. “I’ll come back for you,” he croaked.
“Don’t bother!” she snapped, pushing him away from her. He stumbled dramatically, almost falling over his own feet. She wanted him to hit the dirt.
“Hold it right there, Willard!” Tommy Hawker had his gun pointed at Willard as he shouted. His shirt was dripping, such was the heat of the morning, his gray eyes drilling into Willard, even at this distance. His sheriff badge was glinting in the morning sunlight. He was done for now, absolutely done for. “Put the bag down, son, we don’t want this to get ugly.”
Willard didn’t hesitate, spinning on his heel, and firing a shot into Sherriff Hawker’s leg. The man dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, crying out in agony.
“What on Earth?!” Evelyn cried.
Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, just when she thought her reputation in Kecheetah couldn’t be more in tatters because of him.
He robbed a bank and said it was for me, she thought. He’s shot the sheriff and, no doubt, thinks that he’s doing it for me too. He’s out of his mind.
It threatened to drive her insane. She hated to even think for a second that the women outside the general store had been right, but he was trouble. He was nothing but trouble and she was associated with him. Her reputation was already in pieces. What would she do now? How was anybody supposed to trust her?
She didn’t say anything. She turned around and started walking toward her father’s shop. She was already late to open up, no point in keeping anybody waiting, if anybody even came by today after everything that had happened. The bank managers would be down soon to get whatever they needed to fix up Willard’s mess. She would need to be there to provide supplies. Maybe she would offer them for free, maybe that would make people like her a little more, if she tried to make amends. She had to do something.
“Evelyn!” Willard called after her. “Evelyn, wait!”
She could hear him running after her, his boots scraping on the ground. Even at this distance she could hear the sheriff groaning. Maybe she should be helping Sheriff Hawker, maybe that would be the right thing to do?
“Evelyn!” Willard grabbed hold of her arm, spinning her round to face him. He still looked wild, completely out of control. There was nothing she could do to help him, nothing at all now, that much she could see. “Come with me,” he breathed. “Let’s get out of here, let’s start a new life and—”
“Get off of me, Willard,” she shouted, yanking her arm out of his grip.
“Evie—”
“If you ever come near me again, I swear to God, I will snap, do you hear me?” she barked. “If I ever have to so much as look at your face again, I will make sure it is the last time you ever lay eyes on anything or anyone.”
“Evie—”
“I won’t be held responsible for what I do to you Willard Lane, now get out of here!” she screamed, turning her back on him, and slamming the door to the store. If she never saw him again, it would still be one day too soon.
Chapter 2
Lonnie Steele arrived in Kecheetah with a point to prove. He’d moved from California just a couple of weeks before, after the sheriff, Tommy Hawker, was shot in the leg during a robbery. It made Kecheetah sound pretty dangerous, not really the place for anybody to be.
“You won’t make it out there, Lon,” his father had said to him before he left. “I know. I’ve heard nothing but terrible things about that place, bandits walking about the streets, and now a shootout near a bank? Come on. You’re too… relaxed.”
Even thinking about it now, Lonnie could feel the words burning his soul. That’s all his father really thought of him, that he was some layabout who would never amount to anything. So what else could he do but leave to prove him wrong? His father was a sheriff, just like his father had been before him, so it was all he had ever known, all he had ever wanted to do. Kecheetah was a town in need. Maybe it could be his town one day. He just had to prove himself worthy.
“Good morning, Officer Steele!” A woman with vibrant red hair cascading over her shoulders sto
od out in front of the general store. She was making eyes at him, as many women often did, and offering him a wave. “Such a pleasure to have you in our little town.”
He tipped his hat to her, and there was the briefest moment where she looked like she was about to fall to the ground right there. He seemed to have that effect on people, women particularly.
Town was quiet this morning. He’d been here for a couple of days now, and he hadn’t seen a lot of trouble. He’d heard an awful lot of rumblings of things happening just outside of town, of wild Willard Lane and what he was planning to do next, but nothing had come to pass yet.
“Good morning, Officer Steele.” Albert waved from outside the tavern. There were a few horses drinking from the troughs out front, messily sloshing water onto the dusty ground. Albert was harmless, the owner of the old establishment for as long as anybody around here could remember. His gray hair was slicked back on his head, his shirt already a little messy from whatever he had been up to that morning. “Anything to report?”
Lonnie wandered over, allowing his usual easy smile to pass across his face. He liked Albert. He was a decent guy, never really up to any trouble. Of course, because he worked at the tavern, Lonnie had been in to have a drink and occasionally to diffuse any tension between people who were drinking there, but mostly it had been social.
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