by Annie Boone
Tess raised an eyebrow at that. She hadn’t thought the sheriff might be the gambling sort. Her estimation of him sank a little. He seemed such a sensible young man and had sounded most serious when she’d overheard him and Bill earlier talking about ridding the town of those characters who’d caused the town trouble.
He reached out and took her chin between his thumb and index finger, making sure she held his gaze. She shivered, feeling a shiver pulse through her at his touch. She tried to shake free, not sure anymore if she could trust her judgment of this man, after all. She’d never met anyone who could make her feel so safe yet so utterly nervous all at the same time. She’d certainly never felt such an uncontrollable pull toward a man in her life.
“I need to know what I’m up against,” he whispered, leaning over the bar, his lips so close to her cheek that he could have brushed a kiss to her skin. He leaned back, grinning. Of course, Tess thought, her whole body trembling at how close he’d been. That made far more sense than that he was some kind of reprobate.
He was playing a role—as much as she was, as Tommy was—and he knew exactly what he was doing. She just hoped he’d remember what he’d said earlier that morning about making sure that she was safe. Tommy would not like the sheriff flirting with her, of that she was certain.
Pushing his hand away, Tess tried to look affronted by his behavior, keeping to her role as Tommy’s faithful partner. “Don’t touch me,” she said loudly enough for the entire bar to hear. “I’m not one of those kind.” She nodded to the saloon girls sat upon the laps of some of the grizzled old ranchers and gathered around the piano flirting with the lonely souls they hoped to lure upstairs for a good time.
“I know you aren’t,” he said as Tess added the extra glass he had requested. “And someday soon, I’d like to know exactly what kind of a girl you are. And mostly, I’d like to know more about how a lady like you ended up in a place like this, but those are conversations for another day, Miss Bonner.” He bowed, picked up the tray before she could protest, and made his way over to the card game.
Tess could feel the heat in her cheeks and hoped she was far enough away from Tommy that he wouldn’t see how flushed and discomfited she was by the idea of there being further conversations with the handsome sheriff.
As her heart stopped pounding against her ribs and Tess managed to regain some composure, she realized Tommy would be furious that she’d not done his bidding. Any plans he had for tonight’s game would be thwarted by Sheriff Maitland’s presence at the table. She just prayed that she’d be able to convince Roper that she’d flirted with the sheriff for his sake, and not her own.
For much of the rest of the night, she rehearsed in her head what she might say to Tommy once they were alone, but everything she came up with sounded hollow, and a half-truth at best, which of course was exactly what any of her protestations would be. She’d enjoyed Sheriff Maitland’s attentions, and she desperately wanted that conversation he’d promised to take place very soon.
The clock chimed midnight. “Go home, get some rest,” Mr. Langdon said to her, as he brought a crate of whiskey up from the storeroom.
“Are you sure?” she asked. “It looks like the game will go on for some time.” She looked over to the table full of poker players and watched as Tommy exasperatedly threw his cards into the middle of the table.
“I’m sure. Without your beau to keep ’em to it, they’ll soon go home to their wives,” Mr. Langdon said.
Tommy rose from the table and made his excuses to leave. He moved to where Tess and Mr. Langdon stood and put his arm possessively around Tess’s waist. She wanted to pull away but knew he’d be even angrier if she did so. A few leering looks and ribald comments followed them out the door.
Tess glanced back at the table and saw Sheriff Maitland’s face cloud over. She wondered why he was so angry. He clenched his fists and unclenched them, as if he wanted to hit out at the men around him for the comments they were making. But Tess could do nothing to reassure him that their words were nothing to her. She was used to their lewd comments and uncouth ways. She was far more worried about what faced her as soon as she and Tommy were out of sight.
“Well, you messed that up for me, didn’t you?” Tommy hissed, dragging her at pace along the street.
“What could I have done differently?” she asked him, struggling to keep up as her skirts tangled around her ankles, almost tripping her. Tommy yanked her forward.
“You had one task. To be pretty and keep the alcohol coming.”
“Which I did, all night.”
“You should have distracted him better, kept him away from the table. It stopped everything,” Tommy mused.
“Who? Distract who?” Pretending to not know who he was talking about made Tommy get sidetracked for a moment.
“The sheriff, you cow. Who else would I not want at that poker table?”
“What, was I supposed to wrestle a man to the ground to prevent him from interfering? It would have looked even more suspicious if I had tried to convince Sheriff Maitland to do anything other than what he wanted. Everyone thinks I’m your girl. What kind of a message would that have given out if I’d suddenly started flirting with another man, with you standing right there? If you don’t want him to suspect you of anything, then doing nothing was the best way to not raise his suspicions.”
“And you’d know all about it, Missy? You’ve flirted and distracted so many lawmen in your time?” Roper drawled. “Even with him there I could have made my play. He’d not have noticed if you’d got him drunk enough. He’s clearly besotted with you, I doubt he’d even notice if you slipped his wallet from his pants.”
“If you think that, then you’re the biggest fool,” Tess said. “He’s clever. You need to be careful, Tommy.”
“He’s the fool, and don’t you forget it. Same as all these small-town sheriffs. He’s not a problem for me or my plans as long as you remember your place and do as you’re told.”
There was no arguing with Tommy Roper, especially once he had a snout full of whiskey. Tess sighed. He would drag them both to ruin, because he thought himself cleverer than everyone else.
Well, she had done what she could to warn him that Sheriff Maitland was already onto him. She wouldn’t do anything further. He could learn from his own foolishness just as Tess had done in trusting that Roper cared about her. He’d only cared about what he believed he could steal from her and what he’d be able to get her to do for him.
She went straight up to her room when they reached the boarding house. She pulled the small handful of coins she had received as tips from the customers that night and put them away carefully in her jewel box. She locked it and then buried it in the very bottom of her trunk.
She gave Tommy her wages, or rather he demanded them, as soon as Mr. Langdon paid her each Friday. This small stash of coins, her necklaces, and her mama’s wedding ring were all the wealth she possessed. She prayed that one day they’d finally be enough for her to escape this life with Roper, once and for all.
Sinking into her bed, Tess let her tired muscles relax, but her mind would not stop replaying the moment in the bar when Sheriff Maitland had been so close to her that she could smell the scent of him. The warmth of his breath on her skin had felt like an intimate kiss.
She’d never felt so unsettled and so disconcerted by encounters with a man before. He was undoubtedly a very fine-looking man, tall and strong with broad shoulders. But she’d known handsome men before. What was it about Zach Maitland that made her insides go all soft?
“Zachery,” she whispered, as if tasting his name, as if it were some utterly decadent morsel of food that she couldn’t get enough of.
She undressed and got into bed and had just blown out her candle when Tommy burst through the door. “Get up,” he growled, looking half-wild with a broad strap of leather doubled over in his fist. “You won’t mess this up for me. I’m gonna teach you just what happens when you defy me, little Miss Bonner.”
“We don’t go to church,” he said, lurching toward the bed. “You don’t go to church.”
“I did go to church, and I will go again. Don’t confuse me with some foolish child who’ll do your bidding,” Tess said boldly and wasn’t surprised when he raised the hand carrying the belt as if to strike her. “Go ahead. You make sure everyone in town sees just what a big and powerful man you are. Powerful enough to beat a woman to make her fall in line.”
Tommy lowered his hand. Cursing under his breath, he backed out of the room. Tess waited until she heard his footsteps disappear inside his room and the slam of his door before she got up to close her own door and turn the key. Knowing the locked door wouldn’t keep him out if he was determined to get in, it still made her feel a bit more secure.
She felt shaky and anxious, but somehow she’d managed to face Tommy down. Feeling proud of herself, and now aware that he didn’t know how to handle her when she didn’t meekly do as she was told, Tess wondered if she’d finally found a way to make this terrible situation better.
She moved to the window and gazed down on the street. Emotions coursed through her body, making it impossible to lie back down and sleep. A figure stepped out of the shadows, tipped his hat, then disappeared into the night.
Tess smiled and hugged herself. Sheriff Zachery Maitland had followed her home. He must have known that Roper would be mad and had made sure he was around to protect her if she’d needed it. It didn’t mean he cared about her the way she was beginning to care for him, but it did mean he must like her, at least a little bit.
Tess crawled into bed again and held that snip of knowledge in her heart. At least there was one person in this lonely and frightening world who worried after her.
Four
Zach kicked off his boots and sank down into the chair behind his desk. He hadn’t learned much, other than that he was starting to care too much about Miss Tess Bonner.
Tommy Roper was a slippery kind of man. A seedy gambler with an inflated sense of his own intelligence, the man was potentially dangerous. He had to suppose there was something good about him for Tess to be with him.
However, it was possible that like Tommy Roper, she was skilled at playing a part, too. For all Zachery knew, her innocent and sweet nature could be make believe. Maybe she was the clever one and Roper merely her stooge. It would be easy for her to gain trust and have people feel sorry for her. No one would ever think her capable of fleecing them in so many crafty ways.
But Zach prided himself on being a good judge of character, and his intuitive nature had served him well time and again. He was sure that Tess was not anything other than what she seemed—a frightened young woman in need of being rescued from the clutches of a man who didn’t deserve her. At best, Roper was using her for some nefarious purpose. At worst, she was a victim with no choice but to stick by Roper and do whatever she was told because she was in fear for her life.
He pulled out a sheet of paper, a quill, and some ink and began to write a letter to a friend of his in the sheriff’s office in Fort Worth. If there was anything to know about either of the newcomers to town, Zachery wanted to know all about it.
He put his feet up on the desk and leaned back in his chair. Pulling his hat down over his eyes, he sank into a fitful sleep. His slumber was punctuated with dreams of Tess. At first, her face was all he could see, her long, copper tresses trailing over his face as she covered his face in kisses.
He smiled as he slumbered, but his happiness turned to anguish as his dream moved onto an image of her falling over a cliff’s edge. Her floral gown billowed out around her, and her mouth hung open in a silent scream as she fell. He awoke sweating.
“Oh, Tess! No, Tess!” a female voice yelled, full of an odd-sounding glee. “Who’s Tess, Sheriff Maitland? You got yourself a pretty little lady?”
“You all right, Sheriff?” a male voice added. “You having nightmares? Anything we can help with?” A spate of evil-sounding laughter echoed through the sheriff’s office. For a moment, Zachery thought he must still be asleep. He rubbed his eyes and pinched his forearm. Nope, that hurt so he was definitely awake.
He stood up and made his way through to the cells. The robbers he’d brought in that morning sat hunched up against the back wall of their cells. “You should be asleep,” he said to them, leaning wearily against the bars.
“And you shouldn’t be calling out women’s names in your sleep. Pretty is she, your young lady?” He leered in a manner that made even Zach uncomfortable. The man glanced at his own wife or lady friend—whichever she was—and she gave him a toothless grin.
“Tess, eh?” she asked. “I’ll bet she’s a sweet innocent little thing. You look like the type to want a docile woman waiting at home ready to do your bidding.”
“Quiet, both of you,” Zachery said impatiently. “You’ve got an important date with the magistrate in just a few hours. You’d think you’d have enough to think about with this untidy mess you’ve gotten yourselves into.”
“Given you caught us red-handed, so to speak, I figure we’re done, anyway. Ain’t nobody gonna believe any excuse we come up with. Might as well enjoy our last hours.”
Zach looked at her and shook his head in disgust. “You may be right, but even if you don’t want to sleep, I need to. So, keep it quiet in here, or I might see fit to deny you any chance at justice.”
He left them alone in the dark and considered locking up and heading for home. But he knew he couldn’t. If the pair locked up in the cells somehow managed to escape because he wasn’t here to keep watch, he’d never live it down. He’d never forgive himself, either. Not only did he love Mama Mae, but everyone else in town did, too. Nobody would ever get over it if the people who did her wrong got away from their deserved punishment.
Figuring he’d never get any sleep now, he decided to go through the bags of stolen goods they’d found in the cabin in the woods to see if he could find any clues as to who they might belong to. If he could get some of the property returned to its rightful owner, that’d be upright and proper.
He worked methodically, cataloging each item carefully. A few pieces of silverware and some of the jewelry had inscriptions, which helped him to pinpoint a number of places that the couple had robbed. He quickly wrote notes to each of the families they belonged to and laid them out ready on his desk to be delivered back to their rightful owners.
Dawn began to break as he finished sorting the items into piles ready to be identified and collected by their owners. Zachery was almost certain he’d identified all but two of the robbers’ victims. He had a range of items that had no obvious markings to help him establish their ownership. They could be owned by the families he had identified, but not being sure, he put these items in a separate pile. He grabbed the notes from his desk and headed out the door.
“Hey, David,” he called out to a young boy crossing the street in front of the office. David was ten years old. He lived with his father, Harold Wingate, the town blacksmith. The two of them were always up and about earlier than anyone else in Springville. Every day they fired up the forge to get it hot for the day’s work. David was a very earnest lad and could be relied upon to undertake all manner of errands.
“Sheriff Maitland,” the boy said, running toward him and beaming. “Did you want me to run some messages?”
“I do, indeed. I need you to take these immediately.” Zachery handed over the notes. “Tell them they need to be at the courthouse at half past nine this morning.”
“I will, sir,” David said, tucking them into his pocket and running off before Zachery could hand him a little something for his trouble. He’d make s
ure he dropped by the smithy shop later that day to pay the lad. Zach liked to be sure his debts were always paid.
The front porch of the sheriff’s office was a good place to watch Springville wake up. Most days Zachery settled into his rocker, smiling as Bert appeared on Main Street, getting his loaves and pastries ready for his store to open at nine o’clock on the dot. The storekeepers would arrive slowly, some setting out their wares outside, others just disappearing inside their shops. Many wouldn’t be seen again until six o’clock that night when they locked the doors once more and departed for home.
But Zachery was really only looking out for one person today.
Tess always walked to the saloon at eight o’clock, so Zachery was surprised when she did not appear, and neither had anyone else. Zachery shook his head as he remembered. It was Sunday. The town would be quiet until just before half past ten, when the minister would arrive from Wilson Creek to deliver the weekly service in the town’s tiny chapel.
The church bell chimed nine. He went inside, pulled on his boots, and buckled his holster around his waist. He picked up the ring of keys and went into the cells, hauling his prisoners to their feet and ratcheting on handcuffs. He pushed them out the back door of his office and led them across the yard to the rear entrance of the courthouse next door.
Martin was already waiting, sitting in his grand leather chair at the front of the courtroom. A small group of men and women were in the seats in front of him, looking puzzled as to why they were there. Zachery smiled at Mae, who blew him a kiss.
“The facts, please, Sheriff Maitland? These good people want to know why they’re here.” Martin looked at Zach and then down at the papers in front of him.
Zachery gave an account of his actions the day before, and then Martin called Mae to stand. She gave a clear account of what she’d found when she woke up the day before. Martin nodded and made notes carefully.