“That won’t be necessary. Stone and I are going to take first watch and I’ll stay up with Jed. You ladies need the rest.”
* * *
Stone and Thorpe were alone on the first watch and Stone decided to ask some of the questions that had been on his mind for days. “Who is the father of that babe Isabelle’s carrying?”
Thorpe arched a brow at him. He knew Isabelle wore her coat day and night, trying to hide her condition.
Stone chuckled. “Don’t look so surprised. She has that coat on all the time, and some days it’s been downright warm. But even I can see she’s starting to fill it out and can barely button the darn thing. And she rarely fills her plate, so she isn’t gaining weight from eating too much.”
Knowing Isabelle couldn’t keep the secret for long, Thorpe figured he might as well answer Stone’s question. “I’m not the father, if that’s what you are thinking. I told you I met up with them on the trail.” If Stone wanted more details about the father, he’d have to get answers from Isabelle.
Stone grinned. “I didn’t think you were the father. I guess that explains why they need to get to Fort Steele before Christmas. I’m guessing the father must be a soldier. He should be mighty pleased to have a babe coming into the world. Isabelle is a sweet little thing and I’m thinking that soldier is a lucky man.”
Thorpe remained silent.
Stone glanced at Thorpe. “I see. The soldier doesn’t know about the babe, does he?”
“It’s not my place to discuss Isabelle’s circumstances.”
He admired Thorpe for keeping confidences to himself; he liked that about him. “Thorpe, you’d make a first-rate marshal. You’ve got integrity and a clear way of thinking through problems.”
Thorpe smiled at his compliment. “I was just about to tell you that you’d make a fine rancher if you ever get tired of wearing that badge. You’re good with animals, and we have a lot of land in Wyoming Territory that needs filling with cattle and decent men brave enough to strike out on their own.”
Stone didn’t think Thorpe knew how close he was to the mark. “I’ve been thinking it’s time I settled down. I worked ranches before I became a lawman. It might be time for me to stay in one place, maybe take a wife and have some sons.”
Great! Now I’ve done it. Isabelle was going to be married, and Stone didn’t seem to like Dora. But he sure looked at Lily like he wanted to know her better. And Lily seemed to like him. She sure as heck talked to Stone a lot more than she talked to him lately. “If you’ve thoughts of taking a bride, not many women would take to the winters in Wyoming.” He thought of Evelyn and how much she hated Wyoming. He wondered if the winters got to her.
“You’re looking at it the wrong way. I see it as an opportunity to keep a woman nice and warm. Heck, she might even look forward to the cold.”
“You mean, if you have the time to keep her warm. Running a ranch is a full-time job. You can go days without seeing a bed, particularly in the winter,” Thorpe countered.
“You make it sound downright romantic spending all that time with cattle.”
“Yeah, it’s real romantic. Though we do get an occasional Saturday night to release a little steam at the saloon.”
Lily walked to the fire to take her watch with Jed; instead, she found Thorpe and Stone conversing.
“Go on back to bed. Stone and I are just getting comfortable,” Thorpe said.
“I’m fine. You get some rest.” She picked up a cup and poured herself some coffee.
He wasn’t going to argue; if she wanted to spend time with Stone, that was fine by him. He told himself he didn’t care. Instead of walking to the wagon, he leaned back and pulled his hat over his face. “I’ll just rest right here.” He’d just listen for a while and see what they had to talk about every night. That was the last thing he remembered until Jed was shaking him.
“Mr. Thorpe, wake up!”
Groggy and disoriented, Thorpe tried to get his bearings as he struggled to a sitting position.
“What is it?”
“Miss Lily is gone!”
Thorpe jumped to his feet. “Gone? What do you mean? Gone where?”
“I don’t know. She said she was going to check on the horses, but she’d been gone so long, I got worried. I went to look for her and I saw Blaze was gone.”
Thorpe ran to the corral and threw his saddle on Smoke with Jed right behind him. “How long ago?”
“About thirty minutes,” Jed said.
“What about Blue?” Stone asked.
“He’s in the wagon.”
“Blue!” Thorpe shouted.
Instantly, Blue was at his side. “Let’s go, boy.” He looked back at Jed. “Wake Stone and get everything ready to leave. I’ll be back with her soon.”
He told himself Lily was a sensible woman. For the life of him he couldn’t figure out why she would take off by herself knowing that killers were near, not to mention the Indians could still be around. Blaze’s tracks were leading right in the direction of the gang. He hadn’t told her how close the killers were to the camp.
It didn’t take long for Thorpe to figure out Lily was tracking two men, and he was incensed that she was being so careless. She knew darn well what she was doing. What was she thinking? His anger, not to mention, his fear for her increased the longer he followed her tracks. An hour later he thought steam was probably coming out of his ears. He was so furious that he didn’t notice when Blue stopped moving. He felt Smoke slow and that caught his attention. He looked back and saw Blue staring into the thicket. “What is it, boy?” Just as the words left his mouth, Smoke’s ears twitched and turned to the brush. Thorpe glanced down at the tracks and he saw Blaze’s hoofprints were veering off in that direction. Quickly dismounting, Thorpe and Blue slowly moved through the trees.
After he tied Smoke off to a tree out of sight, he darted quietly through the scrub. He surveyed the area and spotted what he thought was the crown of Lily’s hat between two boulders on the crest of a rocky ledge. It was very hard to see unless you were looking carefully. She was one smart woman. She’d picked the best spot to watch someone in the basin below without their knowledge. Crouching down, he removed his hat and slipped toward the rocks. Reaching the first boulder, he was surprised he’d been able to sneak up on her. She didn’t even turn around. But when he moved closer to the rocks, he saw her hat was placed on top of a stout limb holding it in the air and not her head. “Well, I’ll be,” he muttered, snatching her hat from the limb.
“Why are you following me?” Lily asked softly, moving from another outcrop of rocks with her rifle in her hands.
“Why am I following you? Just what in heaven’s name do you think you are doing?” Thorpe ground out as quietly as he could muster under the circumstances.
She used her rifle to point to the men below. “I heard a noise at camp, and when I checked it out, I heard horses riding away.”
She sounded so calm while his heart was about to pound out of his chest. Thorpe thought the men were far enough away that they wouldn’t hear him yell. Good. He wanted to yell. Wisely, he didn’t, but his voice was gruff. “Couldn’t you have awakened me before you did something so harebrained?”
“Why are you so angry?” She didn’t know what had him so upset. She snatched her hat from his fingers and slammed it on her head.
“I can’t believe you would ride off like that without a word to anyone. What if something happened to you?” It made him even angrier to see that her long blond hair was down. She hadn’t even tried to conceal the fact she was a woman. Now wouldn’t that be just perfect if those men saw her. Or what if those Indians were still lurking about? She’d be in a fine fix then out here all alone. They would have her well away from the area before he could spit.
She gave him a puzzled look. “It’s not anything I haven’t done before. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“That may be, but there were never killers around before.”
She did
n’t think now was the time to remind him of the braves that were trying to kill him. “Those men are following us,” she said.
“Yeah, I know. I meant to tell you last night, but you were in the wagon. Isabelle said you didn’t feel well. Then when you came to take watch . . .” He forgot to tell her because he was aggravated when she made it so obvious she wanted to take watch with Stone and not him. She might not have said those exact words, but the meaning was clear all the same when she told him to get some rest. He shook his head as if he couldn’t understand why he was giving the explanation when it should have been her explaining. “But that’s beside the point. You shouldn’t be out here alone.”
“They didn’t know I was behind them.”
Dang it all! Isabelle was right; she was hardheaded. “That’s beside the point. Again. It’s plain stupid to check things out by yourself!”
She couldn’t believe he’d just called her stupid. “If I didn’t check things out, you might be wearing a few arrows in your grave!”
He put his hands on his hips and glared at her. Unable to find an acceptable retort that didn’t include a string of cuss words, he turned and stalked back to his horse. By the time he mounted, she was beside him on top of Blaze and leading a horse.
He eyed the horse and glanced back at her. “Are you a horse thief now?”
“I found him wandering around. Look at him. He’s in bad shape. I’m not going to leave him here.”
When Thorpe didn’t respond, she thought she would be as irrational as he was being. “Do you want me to ride down there and ask those outlaws if he belongs to them?”
“I’m surprised you didn’t already do that.” He turned Smoke around as if there was nothing else to be said. “And put that hair under your hat. If you can’t keep it that way on this trip, then cut it off!” He couldn’t believe he’d said that. What if she did cut it off? Her hair was beautiful and he’d hate to see her do something stupid like that. Sometimes his temper just got the best of him.
“I don’t know why you are so upset.” She removed her hat and twisted her hair on top of her head.
“And I can’t believe you don’t understand how dangerous it is for you to be out here alone.”
“I was alone when I shot those Indians chasing you!” She galloped Blaze in front of him.
“Why didn’t you at least take Blue with you?”
Lily turned in the saddle and gave him a look that clearly stated she thought he’d lost his mind. “I don’t want him to get hurt.”
If that didn’t beat all, he didn’t know what did. She worried about Blue, but not about her own hide. “And you’re not even wearing a coat. It’s freezing out here. We won’t stop if you get sick.”
“And I wouldn’t ask you to stop if I did get sick.” She wasn’t an idiot and she wasn’t going to allow Thorpe Turlow to treat her like one. She ignored him the rest of the way.
Thorpe muttered to himself all the way back to camp about women being the bane of his existence. He didn’t even offer her his coat. If she got sick, then it would be her own darn fault.
Chapter Eleven
“What’s going on?” Harlow asked Dora as she was collecting the blankets around the campfire.
“Lily left and Thorpe went to find her. Stone and Jed are getting ready to hitch the teams and Isabelle is putting the pans away.” She ignored the warning about staying away from Harlow. Harlow made it clear he found her attractive and she liked his attention.
“Come over here, honey. We can talk now.”
Dora walked over to him. “What do you want to talk to me about?”
“I like talking to a beautiful woman, Dora. Did I hear you say you worked in a saloon?” While he thought Dora was a pretty woman, she wasn’t as lovely as Lily. But he didn’t think he’d stand a chance with a real lady.
“Yeah, I worked in a couple of saloons.”
“Sit down here beside me,” Harlow urged.
Dora sat close to him. “We don’t have long, Harlow. They will be ready to hitch the teams in a minute.”
“Honey, call me Bryce. Where did you work?”
“Kansas City.”
“Did Lily and Isabelle work in the saloon with you?”
Dora laughed. “Those goody-goodies? No way.”
Harlow realized he’d heard of the pretty soiled dove from Kansas City. “Are you Dora Love?”
“Yes. Have we met before?” Dora didn’t think she had met him; she had a reliable memory, especially for patrons as handsome as Harlow.
“No, darlin’. If I’d met you before, I would’ve taken you with me. What I don’t understand is why are you going to Wyoming? I bet you had a booming business going in Kansas City.”
“I want to get married. I hear there are plenty of men who are looking for women out west.”
“You won’t like that life, honey. A woman as pretty as you would get bored in no time tucked away on a ranch.”
Dora had thought the same thing, but she knew what was in store for her if she stayed in a saloon as she aged. “I got tired of the saloon. I want more out of life.”
“Why don’t you go to Mexico with me, darlin’?”
Dora looked into his unusual gray eyes. Too bad, she thought, it was a waste to hang such a handsome man. If he wasn’t going to hang, she’d gladly go with him to Mexico. “I don’t think you will make it to Mexico. You killed those people and Stone is going to make sure you hang.”
“I didn’t kill those folks. One of the other guys did it, but I was there, and they are going to pin it on me and hang me if they can.”
“Is that the truth, Bryce? You really didn’t kill that mother and her little girl?”
“Yeah, it’s the truth. One of my partners looks a lot like me. That stagecoach driver got us confused. I might be an outlaw, but I don’t have no reason to lie to you, honey.” He leaned over and kissed her neck. “I don’t want to talk about that now. I want to kiss you, Dora.”
Dora didn’t move away, and when he kissed her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.
“I wish I didn’t have my hands tied so I could really enjoy our kisses,” Harlow said when he pulled back. “We could have a lot of fun together. I know how to make you happy and you’d be a rich woman.”
A man who kissed like he did would definitely know how to please a woman. Men rarely kissed her when they paid for her time, and the ones who did were nowhere near as handsome as Harlow. “You might know how to make a woman happy, but why would I be rich?”
“I hid that money from the holdup. My partners don’t know where to look. If you help me out, I will take you anywhere you want to go. We could get married if that’s what you want.”
“How much money did you take?”
Harlow arched his brow at her. He knew he had her attention now. Obviously, money was more important to her than finding a husband. “I didn’t take time to count it all, but I’d say there’s over thirty thousand dollars. If I hang around here until my men come for me, then it’ll be split ten ways. And your friends will be dead. You don’t want that to happen, do you?” With his hands tied, he reached up and stroked her cheek with the back of one hand. “I don’t want you to be killed, Dora. I want to be with you. The two of us could share that money.”
Dora could hardly believe her ears. Even if she worked in a saloon the rest of her life, she’d never see that much money, not even half. “There couldn’t be that much money!”
“Shhh . . . they’ll hear you.” He gripped her chin and kissed her again.
Hearing Jed’s voice, Dora jumped up and grabbed the blankets on the ground.
“Let me know if you’re interested, honey. Remember what I said about showing you a good time. With that kind of money we could have anything we wanted in Mexico,” Harlow whispered.
* * *
“I was just about to go look for you,” Stone said when Thorpe and Lily rode into camp. Thorpe didn’t respond, and Stone glanced at Lily. Seeing the horse sh
e was leading, he rushed to her. “Where did you find him?”
“Contrary to what Thorpe thinks, the horse was on the loose.” She turned and gave Thorpe a frosty glare. “I didn’t steal him.”
Stone stroked the horse’s neck. “This is my horse, Captain.”
The horse was so excited to see Stone that he nearly knocked him over. Lily couldn’t tell who was the happiest—man or horse. “He’s not injured, but he hasn’t been cared for.”
“Thanks for bringing him back, Lily. I knew he would get away if he could. He’s a smart animal.”
Lily was pleased that the horse belonged to Stone. “I’m glad he’s where he’s supposed to be.”
When Lily walked away, Stone looked at Thorpe and said, “You didn’t really think Lily stole him?”
Thorpe looked frustrated. “It’s a long story. There’s no hurry to leave, so take care of your horse.”
“I guess you saw the gang again,” Stone said.
“Yeah, they know we’re here. Lily was following two of them. For whatever reason, they are waiting to make their move.” Thorpe’s head was pounding, probably as a result of getting so angry at Lily for being a dang fool woman. “I’m going to make some coffee.”
Dora was near the supply wagon when Thorpe pulled out the coffeepot. “Thorpe, I’ll make coffee for you. Would you like me to warm the biscuits?”
“Thanks, Dora. I could use some breakfast.”
“I’ll have it ready in no time.” Dora pulled out the supplies and went to ask Jed to start the fire again.
Lily overheard the conversation between Thorpe and Dora. He was certainly pleasant enough with her, and Dora was more than willing to see to his comfort. She walked over to the wagon to pull out a cup for herself, and Dora surprised her when she said, “The coffee will be ready in a few minutes, Lily. I’ll bring you a cup.”
“Thanks. I’m going to the wagon to get my coat.” She was shivering, but she didn’t want Thorpe to notice.
“I think it’s going to be colder today than it has been,” Dora said.
“Do you think I could have some more coffee?” Harlow asked Dora after Lily walked away.
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