Suddenly she remembered a set of knives she had bought and stored in the pantry, but her hopes fell just as quickly. The knives couldn’t turn the right angle either. If there were just some way to remove the door jamb. The knives! Maybe she could pry the door jamb loose with the knives. Carrie felt around in the dark until she found the box. She opened it and carefully felt for one of the knives. The blades were thin and not very strong and she didn’t know if they would work. She inserted one knife between the door jamb and the frame and pulled. Nothing happened, so she pulled harder. The knife blade snapped. The sound was lost in the noise of the rifle shots, and Carrie shoved the second knife into the slot, but it, too, broke when she applied pressure.
Carrie tried not to lose her head. She had only one more knife, and she had to make this one work. The first two knives had made a thin slot in the door jamb, and she pushed the knife in all the way up to the hilt. She was sure the blade must be showing outside the door and hoped neither Baca or Staples would turn around. Gradually she applied pressure, keeping the pressure on the thick part of the knife and the knife handle. Carrie felt a sudden snap and thought the last knife had broken, but she was relieved to discover that the wood had parted from the frame and she would work her knife up under the latch.
In seconds she had the door open, but what should she do next? The knife was still in her hands, but she didn’t think she could use it. Just the thought of driving it into living flesh made her queasy. She felt about in the closet and her hands closed around one of the Smithfieid hams she had brought with her. It was hard as a rock. If she could just sneak up behind Staples, she might be able to hit him hard enough to knock him out. She didn’t know what she would do about Baca Riggins, but she would think about that when she had to.
Carrie eased open the door, and the first thing that came into her line of vision was one of the windows at the back of the station; what she saw at that window literally took her breath away. Lucas had raised the window and was climbing into the room. And he had a gun pointed at the backs of the two men at the front windows.
For a moment Carrie was too weak with relief to move. Lucas was safe! Lucas was here! He had come after her. Then she realized he was trying to capture two men separated by about twelve feet, each of them armed and each of them willing to shoot to kill. She must take out one of the men, and Jason was the one nearest her.
Praying the hinges would not squeak, Carrie threw open the pantry door to attract Lucas’s attention. It worked, and for a split second Carrie thought Lucas was going to shoot her, but he recognized her in time to release the pressure on the trigger. Pausing only a second to recover her wits and her strength—seeing the gun swing in her direction had left her as weak as water—she motioned toward Jason and raised the ham over her head to indicate what she meant to do. Lucas understood at once, and together they each approached their victim, each of them painfully aware that if either of the outlaws turned around too soon, someone was likely to die.
Oddly enough, it was Baca who sensed that something was wrong and turned to see the pantry door ajar and Carrie approaching Jason with the raised ham. He swung his rifle around and opened his mouth to call to Jason at the same time, but a blast from the barrel of Lucas’s gun sent a bullet deep into his shoulder. Baca’s rifle fell from his grasp, but even as he screamed with pain, he reached for it again.
Jason Staples whirled at the sound of Baca’s scream. Unfortunately for him, the direction of his turn brought him directly into the path of Carrie’s Smithfield ham, and she sent him sprawling. Carrie saw Jason reach for the gun in his holster even as he fell, and then she saw Lucas dive on top of the outlaw leader. Fearful for Lucas’s safety, she picked up Jason’s dropped rifle, aimed a shot at Baca’s rifle, which sent it spinning out of reach, and then turned her weapon on Baca himself.
“I’m a little upset right now. I don’t know much about a rifle and my nerves aren’t too steady, so if you don’t want a bullet in your heart, you won’t move an inch.”
Carrie couldn’t keep her eyes off the two men rolling on the floor, especially since she saw that Jason had somehow gotten a knife in his hands. Lucas didn’t weigh as much as the outlaw and Jason was using his weight to his advantage, but Lucas was stronger and more agile, and after a terrific struggle, he was able to knock the knife from Jason’s hand. It slid in Baca’s direction, and he was unwise enough to reach for it. A blast from Carrie’s rifle put a bullet into the floor next to the knife and raised a shower of splinters that embedded memselves into the soft flesh of Baca’s palm. His hand looked like the back of a porcupine.
“I’ve about lost patience with your stupidity,” Carrie said to Baca, who stared at her in stunned surprise. “Next time I’ll shoot you instead of the floor.” Baca had had sufficient proof of Carrie’s marksmanship and nerve, and he sank back against the wall.
Meanwhile, Lucas had succeeded in getting atop Jason and he was able to rap his head sharply against the floor. Lucas drove his fist into the jaw of the momentarily dazed outlaw, and before Jason could recover himself, Carrie placed the barrel end of her rifle against his forehead.
“Don’t move,” Carrie said, anger flooding over her now that Lucas was no longer in danger. “After what you’ve done to my station and my people, I just might kill you.”
“I wouldn’t think of it,” Jason said, accepting his defeat with amazing calmness. “I always thought you were more of a man than Baca.”
“Listen!” Lucas said, and Carrie realized that it was quiet outside. “The fighting’s stopped.” The door burst open, and Sam Butler and Bill Cody rushed in, guns drawn ready to fire.
“I should have known it,” Sam said when he saw Jason Staples lying at Carrie’s feet. “If she could beat a whole posse to flinders, I don’t know why I thought she would have any trouble with one no-account outlaw.”
“You two all right?” Bill asked Lucas. “This place looks a wreck.” Carrie hadn’t had time to notice, but the cans of fruit, the spilled coffee, flour, and Baca’s blood along with fallen chairs and shattered windowpanes and tattered curtains had turned the model dining room into a total disaster.
“We’re okay,” Carrie assured him with a smile. “This place will fix up a lot easier than either of us would.”
“Get to your feet, both of you,” Lucas ordered. “You’ve got a long ride ahead.”
“Baca, you should have taken your beating and run,” Sam Butler said to the sullen ex-station manager. “When you joined up with Jason Staples, you bought into his troubles. But then you always were a stupid man.”
Jason and Baca were herded out into the station yard, and Carrie saw men converging on the station from several points around the property, several of them with captured outlaws walking before them. She heaved a great sigh of relief when she saw Katie and Jake emerge from the barn, but her relief was short-lived. Jake was wounded and leaning on Katie and Found for support.
Most surprising of all, the stage was still moving. The reins had been tied so that the horses had to always turn to the right, and it had been going in a huge circle about the yard all during the fight.
That was a right neat trick” Sam said, noticing the direction of her glance. ‘As long as the stage kept moving, none of the outlaws had a chance to jump aboard, and your men yonder had themselves a shot at every outlaw each time that stage went around. You got yourself some crew here.”
“It’s Lucas’s crew. I can’t take any credit for anyone but Katie and Jake.”
“And yourself,” Lucas said, unable to conceal his pride. “You’re not a bad player to have on one’s side.”
“I can tell you she’s a damned fierce customer as an enemy,” Sam observed. “I heard you was fixing to marry her.”
“You heard correctly,” Lucas said, putting his arm around Carrie and pulling her to him. “Just as soon as we can get these men into town. I’m told there’s a preacher in Fort Malone with lots of time on his hands, and I intend to claim a few minutes of
it.”
“You’d better not get itchy feet. That’s the wrong woman to step out on.”
“I know gold when I see it” Lucas said, “and I can assure you this is the real thing.”
Carrie turned her head away, embarrassed by the compliments in front of so many people and saw Bap’s head slowly come into view at one of the stage windows.
“Is anybody going to stop those fool horses, or do I have to risk my neck climbing up to the box?”
“You just hold on,” Jake said, suddenly acting a lot less decrepit. “You might fall off, and I wouldn’t want the stage to run over you.” When Bap’s features took on an air of self-importance, he added, “One of the horses might break a leg, and it would be a shame to lose a good animal.”
* * *
An hour later, the stage had been sent on its way to Denver. Brian had staggered in with the body of the dead outlaw, and Lucas’s men had taken him and the whole Staples gang and headed toward Fort Malone. Everyone else was seated around the table in the station. Jake’s wound had proved not to be serious, and he was enjoying coffee and a second piece of pie. Katie was scolding him and fussing over Found while Carrie refilled everyone’s coffee cup.
“After today I should think you would be ready to move to Denver,” Sam said to Carrie. Things have been a mite busy around here, even for a regular little spitfire like you.”
Lucas struggled hard to throttle the jealousy and angry words that threatened to rise out of his throat. For the last thirty minutes he had been forced to sit by and watch Sam stare at Carrie in open-mouthed admiration, showering her with extravagant compliments all the while, and he didn’t know how much more he could stand. He had never thought of himself as a jealous man, but after the way he reacted to Duncan’s compliments and now Sam, he knew he had misjudged himself. Where Carrie was concerned, he was wildly jealous and unlikely to be able to do anything about it.
“Don’t say that,” Lucas said, attempting to achieve a light tone. “She’s liable to take it as a challenge, and I’ll never get her to agree to move to Denver. I’d have to sell my company and be her wrangler for the rest of my life.”
“Would you do that for me?” Carrie asked, men cursed herself for asking Lucas such an impossible question in front of all these people.
“Yes, I think I would,” he said reluctantly. “I would hate it, and I’d cuss your stubbornness every day of my life, but I’d rather do that than live without you.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m planning to go with you to Denver,” she said self-consciously, trying to cover her emotion at his answer. “I couldn’t have the children growing up listening to all that profanity. The girls would never be taken for ladies.”
“Ma’am, any daughter of yours couldn’t be anything but a lady,” Sam said reverently.
“Damnit, that’s enough,” Lucas swore, bringing his palm down on the table and turning wrathfully on Sam. “I can’t have you, or any other man, giving my wife compliments faster than I can think of them myself.”
“Mr. Barrow, I admire Mrs. Simpson more than I can say. She’s the first woman I ever met who made me think marrying might not be a worse punishment than hellfire.”
“I agree with every word you’ve said” Lucas said, keeping a tight rein on his temper, “but I’m the only one who can say it. You just get to think it.”
“That don’t hardly seem fair,” Sam said, beginning to scowl himself.
“If you was engaged to a woman as good-looking as Mrs. Simpson, would you want some scurvy rascal to come oiling up to her, mouthing pretty phrases and generally making a pest of himself?” Jake asked before Lucas could think of a diplomatic way to say the same thing.
“Hell no,” Sam said, bringing his hand down on the table. “I’d fill his hide so full of holes they could use it for a sieve.”
“There you have it,” Jake said, settling back with satisfaction.
“We’ve got to decide what to do about Found,” Carrie said, glad to have a reason to interrupt this conversation.
“His name’s Jonathan Blake, the second,” Lucas said. “He told me that McCoy was only his stepfather.”
“All the same, I think we should adopt him. Would you like to go with us to Denver, Found, I mean Jonathan?” Carrie corrected herself. She was a little disappointed when he didn’t immediately accept her offer with enthusiasm. “Don’t you want to live with me any longer?”
“It’s not that, ma’am,” Found muttered, staring at the floor and trying to find words. “It’s just, well, you see, “I’m …”
“I think he’s trying to say he’d be more comfortable staying here with us,” Katie said.
“Us?” Carrie echoed, turning her startled gaze on a blushing Katie.
“Jake and me. He’s asked me to marry him.”
“Couldn’t do much else after she sewed me up twice,” Jake said, turning almost as red as Katie. “This gal can be right handy.”
“You two wouldn’t be wanting to take over Carrie’s contract, would you?” Lucas asked, and the guilty looks in their faces caused Lucas and Carrie to go off into shouts of laughter.
“You’ll have to talk it over with Duncan, but if my recommendation will help, you’ve got it.”
“And mine, too,” added Carrie. “I can’t think of anybody I’d rather turn it over to.”
“And Found?”
“You can stay here if you like,” Carrie said, turning back to the boy. “But we’d be proud to have you come live with us.”
“If it won’t hurt your feelings, ma’am, I think I’d like to stay here. You’ve been nicer to me than my own ma,” Found hurried on, upset by the injured look in Carrie’s eyes, “but I’m not like you. Mr. Lucas made me see that after I ran away.” Carrie threw a startled and inquiring look at Lucas. “I know I’m saying it all wrong, ma’am, but I like it here in the mountains, and I like it around horses.”
“You don’t have to apologize anymore,” Carrie said, giving him a big hug. “I understand, and my feelings aren’t hurt. But you will come visit us sometime, won’t you? I’d like to see you once in a while before you grow to be as tall as Lucas.” Found fidgeted and shifted his weight from foot to foot at the thought of anything as wonderful as growing up to be like Lucas.
“Seems to me you have an opening for a wrangler around here,” Sam said. “Mind if I try my hand at it for a while?”
“You!” Katie exclaimed.
“Yes, me. Even scurvy rascals get the urge to settle down once in a while. I thought I might try something like wrangling. I can still take off after horses, but it’d give me enough sitting time to find out if I like it.”
“I’ll leave you four to work things out among you,” Lucas said, rising to his feet. “Carrie and I have a lot to talk about, and I don’t want any of you rushing out to ask me foolish questions,” he said unashamedly pulling Carrie along with him. “I plan to be busy for quite some time.”
“Lucas Barrow, how dare you say a thing like that,” Carrie demanded as they walked arm and arm toward his cabin. “You practically told them you were taking me to your cabin and didn’t want to be disturbed.”
“Well, do you want to be disturbed?”
“Of course not, but—”
“No buts. I’ve had enough of kindhearted outlaws, adorable orphan boys, and dewy-eyed lovers. I want to go someplace where there’s nobody but you and me, and I want to hold you in my arms and kiss you until you forget there’s anyone else in the whole world.”
“What a terribly selfish attitude.”
“Isn’t it though, and I’m not the least bit ashamed. Now tell me, do you want to spend the rest of the evening listening to Katie and Jake decide what they’re going to do with your station, or would you rather spend it with me?”
“Do I have to answer that question?”
“Yes, and you have to answer it with a yes,” Lucas said, dropping a kiss on the end of her nose. Carrie sighed contentedly and leaned against his strong body
as they climbed through the trees to the cabin.
“Would you really have sold your company for me?” she asked, wondering if his answer would change now that they were alone.
“I would have if it were the absolute only way I could get you, but I would have hated it. After having a taste of running the whole company, it would be difficult to work for the manager of a single station.”
“How fortunate these last days of posses and outlaws and stage robberies have convinced me I wasn’t meant for frontier living.”
“Is that the only reason?” Lucas asked.
“No. I decided a while back I would be willing to give up everything here for you. It wasn’t worth what I would lose in you. Besides, there must be something I can do in Denver.”
Lucas gave a shout of laughter. “Poor Denver, you’ll never know what might have been. From now on you’ll simply be told what will be.”
They stopped along the path where they could see Lucas’s cabin and look back at the station below. “No regrets?” Lucas asked.
“Oh no,” Carrie answered quickly. “No matter what, I’ll never regret choosing you.”
Lucas dropped his head toward her upturned face until their lips just touched and they exchanged several feather-light kisses. Then locking their arms about each other’s waist, they turned and walked toward the cabin.
About the Author
Leigh Greenwood is the award-winning author of over fifty books, many of which have appeared on the USA Today bestseller list. Leigh lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Please visit his website at http://www.leigh-greenwood.com/.
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