The Kansas Lawman's Proposal

by Carol Finch

  “I hope she can concoct a miracle cure,” Nate mumbled while he and Ludy rearranged the supplies so they could stack up the extra pallets to make a padded bedroll for Doc. Though why they bothered Nate didn’t know. Doc was completely oblivious to the world around him.

  Rachel cursed herself up one side and down the other while she stitched up Doc’s wound, then bandaged his head. She applied the poultice her grandmother used to treat abrasions to Doc’s face and chest. The deep bruise beneath his shoulder blade and the one by his rib cage worried her. If Doc suffered internal hemorrhaging, she had nothing more than Cheyenne chants to the Indian spirits to offer.

  Suddenly Rachel understood the enormous burden Doc had carried after the death of his beloved wife. If Doc had suffered a deathblow because of her, Rachel would never forgive herself. Damn it, not only was her life cursed by loving the wrong man but she was a curse to other people’s lives. Doc was seriously injured because of her. Nate felt obligated because of her. She had left Jennifer Grantham high and dry when she fled from town unexpectedly. Adolph Turner might be dead because of her—even if he did deserve it, she added silently.

  She didn’t seem to have a positive influence on anyone in white society. She should have stayed with Singing Bird and the Cheyenne tribe in Colorado. Her natural complexion was close enough in color that she didn’t stand out among the members of her grandmother’s people.

  Perhaps she would rejoin her grandmother and follow in her footsteps to become a medicine woman and healer. She could draw upon the knowledge Doc had taught her. She could combine the best medications from the white and Indian worlds, she mused as she gently removed Doc’s boots.

  When Ludy and Nate returned to carry Doc to the wagon, Rachel hesitated, wondering if this might be her last opportunity to escape. Her speculative gaze collided with Nate’s. His don’t-you-dare stare made her smile. She really could do him a great favor by vanishing into the night while he transported Doc to Dodge City. After all, that had been Nate’s original destination before Adolph’s henchmen set upon him. He didn’t need her tagging along. Especially when he discovered she was a wanted criminal. He’d thank his lucky stars that he hadn’t married her out of obligation.

  “Hitch up the horses, angel face,” Nate requested, still staring steadily at her. “I’ll be over to help you in a minute.”

  During her brisk walk to fetch the horses she debated about telling Nate who she really was and what had happened in Dodge City that had left her running for her life. For certain, he needed to know about the three men lurking around the area.

  “You’d leave Doc, not knowing how bad off he is?” Nate startled her by saying from so close behind her that she nearly jumped out of her skin.

  “Stop sneaking up on me,” she muttered crankily. “You’re worse than a stalking Indian warrior. Every time I turn around there you are.”

  “Where else would I be? This morning you said I was the love of your life, or something to that effect,” he mocked.

  “I was being facetious.” She unfastened the horses and led them toward the wagon. “Knowing how I feel about my father’s shortcomings and his habit of twisting the rules to suit his needs, do you really think I’d marry a lawman and risk the possibility of history repeating itself?”

  “I am not your father,” he reminded her deliberately and emphatically. He grabbed Ludy’s horse and saddle. “My feelings toward you are not the least bit fatherly, either.”

  “How would you know for certain? You might still be suffering aftereffects from my potion,” she sassed him.

  “Damn it, Rachel—”

  He shut up when they came within earshot of Ludy. Thank goodness, thought Rachel.

  You have to tell him about Max, Bob and Warren, said the voice in her head. He needs to know for his own protection.

  Later, she decided. She needed time to rehearse what she wanted to say. She’d tell him, then she’d leave him behind.

  Leave without knowing what became of Doc? she asked herself pensively. He had saved her. He had given her a job and a place to stay, and he had befriended her. Plus, she’d nearly gotten him killed tonight. Could she walk away from Doc and never look back? Could she leave Nate when she loved the infuriating, appealing man more than life itself?

  Rachel decided she was residing in her own personal hell on earth. If she stuck around long enough for Nate to discover who she was and what she had done, it would break her heart if he were the one who arrested her. She couldn’t bear to see anger and disappointment claim his handsome features. Not to mention how humiliated she’d be when he put her in handcuffs and marched her to jail.

  No, she mused as she inhaled a calming breath. Nothing good could come of returning to Dodge City. She knew Doc would have the best of care while he recuperated in Dr. Yeager’s infirmary. The older physician had treated sundry injuries during his long years of practice.

  Determined to escape before the wagon arrived in Dodge, Rachel took her seat beside Nate and bided her time.

  “Well?” Adolph Turner didn’t bother with pleasantries when he opened the door to the supply room to see his hired men hovering on the threshold. “Did you find her?”

  Max Rother shook his shaggy brown head as he strode into the storeroom. “We made another sweep of small towns in the area, like you said.”

  “We checked every boutique and dry-goods store, just like you said, too,” Bob Hanes spoke up as he lumbered inside.

  “Rachel never applied for work at any of those places,” Warren Lamont added on his way in the door. “It’s like she dropped off the face of the earth.”

  “Maybe she died,” Max suggested. “A woman alone might have a rough time of it in these parts. Especially one as attractive as that feisty chit.”

  “Hell, she might have been desperate enough to sell herself to some man she met along the way, if he agreed to take her with him. Happens all the time,” Bob insisted. “That’s how my brother took up with the woman he married.”

  Adolph clamped his hands behind his back and paced from wall to wall. “I suppose it’s possible that she caught a train or stagecoach.” After all, she had confiscated money from his wallet before she’d left so he knew she hadn’t been traveling penniless.

  He had refused to pass around posters and get the law involved because he wanted to choose his personal brand of punishment when he caught her. But if this unsuccessful search continued much longer he would be forced to file a formal complaint against Rachel, in hopes of getting results.

  No matter what, his pride refused to let her get away from him unscathed. The deliciously wicked thought of making Rachel his slave until he tired of her still held vindictive appeal.

  “Now what, boss?” Warren asked. “We’ve scoured the countryside south, east and west of town.”

  “Now you’ll try the communities to the north,” Adolph decided. “Four more days. If you can’t locate her by then, I’ll have the city marshal post a reward for her.”

  He bore down on his men with fierce determination. “You will swear that you saw her attack me in the storeroom and that she raced off while you were making sure I didn’t suffer serious injury. I will claim that she took five thousand dollars from my safe and you are going to back me up. Understood?”

  “Got it.” Max lurched toward the back door. “We’ll leave in the morning.”

  Bob thrust out his meaty hand, palm up. “But first we’ll need more traveling money.”

  Scowling at the expense of sending his henchmen all over creation to locate Rachel, Adolph dug into his pockets. He made a mental note to extract a pound of Rachel’s silky flesh to compensate. “As much as I’d like for you to be on your way immediately, I have a job for you. A local rancher has been lax in paying his loans. He needs to be reminded that payment comes due when I say it is.”

  After he slapped the money in each waiting hand, the scraggly trio tramped out. Dealing with those foul-smelling thugs made him wish for the perfumed skin of his new mi
stress. She would satisfy his lust and his need for revenge until he got hold of that dark-eyed hellion who had escaped him.

  The twinge in his shoulder was an ever-present reminder that Rachel St. Raimes had gotten the best of him. He reaffirmed his vow to make her dreadfully sorry she had dared to cross him.

  The closer Rachel came to Dodge City the more apprehensive she became. They had driven through the night and she had checked on Doc constantly. He hadn’t regained consciousness. He just lay there without moving, his face so pale that she feared the worst. Rachel still wasn’t sure if his peaked skin was the result of too much tonic or too serious an injury.

  “I’m sorry, Doc,” she whispered as she brushed her hand over his pallid cheek, then inched toward the wagon seat to rejoin Nate.

  “How is he?” Nate kept the team of horses moving along at a slow but steady pace that would inflict the least amount of discomfort on Doc.

  “The same.” Rachel sank down beside him. “I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Maybe I gave him too much sedative. Maybe I didn’t mix the right amount of each ingredient—” Her voice fizzled out when Ludy trotted up beside them.

  “I was thinking of going on ahead to locate the physician and to rent our rooms,” Ludy announced.

  Nate cast Ludy a pointed glance. “That’s fine, if that’s all you’re going to do.”

  Ludy puffed up with indignation. “It’s not what you’re thinking, but I’m also going to seek out the justice of the peace so you two lovebirds can get hitched as soon as possible.”

  Rachel resisted the urge to squirm on the seat. There wasn’t going to be a wedding, especially after Nate learned that she was a fugitive.

  When she felt Nate’s steady gaze on her, she forced a smile. “Can’t wait. It’ll be the happiest day of my life.”

  “Mine, too,” Nate replied, never taking his eyes off her. “I’ll be jumping for joy.”

  His voice was so unenthused that she inwardly winced.

  Ludy gestured west. “I swung out to see what caused those dancing lights that I noticed in the valley. It was a drover’s camp lit up with lanterns. I talked to the night guard who said his Texas outfit is bringing a large herd into Dodge this morning. There’s another big herd of longhorns two miles west and three miles south of the nearby camp. Looks like Dodge will be overrun with cattle and cowboys for the next few days.”

  “Too bad there isn’t a U.S. marshal on hand to quell any disturbance that might arise,” Rachel remarked, wondering how long Nate could keep his identity a secret if hell broke loose in Dodge.

  Then she wondered how long it would be before Nate knew her secret. The unsettling thought caused her to tense on the seat, wishing she could leap off and run for her life. Doc would be in capable hands soon, she reassured herself for the umpteenth time. Dr. Yeager might be getting on in years but he had earned a respected reputation with his patients. He had patched up hundreds of rowdy cowboys who’d been beaten or shot in brawls that constantly erupted on South Side.

  After Rachel gave Ludy money to rent hotel rooms, he trotted off. Inhaling a steady breath, Rachel marshaled her composure then half turned on the wagon seat to stare at Nate. “There is something you need to know before you reach Dodge…”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “What is it?” Nate questioned caustically. “That you don’t plan to hang around much longer? You probably won’t believe this, but there actually are a few women who would leap at the chance to marry me.”

  “Then by all means, let them leap,” she countered flippantly. “One would-be wife is as good as another if your intention is to put an end to your father’s prearranged engagements.”

  “You are planning to sneak off again, aren’t you?” he asked directly. “If you think you can leave Doc in good hands, you’ll be gone.”

  She waved him off without answering his question. “This is about the three men who mauled and robbed you.”

  That got his attention. She figured it would.

  “Go on.”

  She inhaled a deep breath, blew it out and said hurriedly, “Their names are Max Rother, Bob Hanes and Warren Lamont.”

  His eyes widened and his dark brows shot up his forehead in surprise.

  “Max is fortyish with a noticeable gap in his teeth and a tall, lean build. Bob is the stocky ruffian with dark, reptilian eyes. He’s about your age. Warren is somewhere around twenty-five. He has stringy brown hair and a beanpole physique. They work for a man named Adolph Turner who manages the Dodge City Freight Company.”

  She braced herself, knowing what Nate was going to ask before he posed the question.

  “Mind telling me how you know all of this and why you’re just now telling me?” he muttered angrily. “Damn it, Rachel! What the hell is going on?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” she assured him as she turned to face straight ahead on the wagon seat.

  He clutched her arm, dragging her so close that his lips were only a hairbreadth from hers. “I absolutely hate surprises,” he growled. “I want answers and I want them now!”

  “The lawman in you is bursting at the seams again,” she muttered at his forceful tone.

  “Get used to it. Now answer the damn question!”

  She preferred to kiss him into silence because she figured this would be the last time he’d want her close to him. Once he found out about her fiasco with Adolph and the subsequent thievery, he would toss her in jail.

  Despite her apprehension, the impulse to kiss him overwhelmed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed wantonly against him. She needed to feel the pleasure and excitement that he alone aroused in her. She needed one last taste of him before she flitted away to save him and herself from legal complications and personal embarrassment.

  “This better not be your goodbye kiss, angel face,” he mumbled huskily, then angled her across his lap to kiss her with so much hungry passion that it made her head spin.

  “Don’t read so much into it,” she murmured evasively. “I happen to like the taste, feel and scent of you. Is there something wrong with that?”

  He traced her high cheekbones with his forefinger. “No, because the feeling is mutual.” He smiled wryly. “Even without the effects of your special potion.”

  “You don’t need a potion for lust,” she insisted, then held her breath, wishing he’d tell her that what he felt for her was something deeper and long lasting. She would have liked to know that he cared before he discovered she was a fugitive whom he’d have to arrest eventually.

  “I’m still waiting,” he prompted.

  “For another kiss? Gladly.” She put everything she had into the kiss and felt the pulsating hum of desire vibrating through her.

  “Mmm…” he rasped. “You are very distracting, but keep in mind that this conversation is far from over. Just postponed…”

  He took her lips with the ardent impatience that always assailed him when he was with Rachel. He glided his arm around her waist, then lifted her so that she was straddling his hips. He wanted her to feel what she did to him, wanted to have her legs wrapped around him, even if this wasn’t the time or place to let the hot passion prowling through him run its course.

  Groaning in torment, he pressed against her, wanting what he couldn’t have. He held the reins in one hand and caressed Rachel’s curvaceous body with the other. Desperation tried to overtake him because he was hounded by the unshakable feeling that she was going to leave him. He didn’t want her to go. He wanted to know why she was apprehensive and on edge. He wanted to know how she knew the men who had attacked him. Why did she know them by name? Damn it, what else wasn’t she telling him?

  The questions buzzed through his mind like angry wasps but they couldn’t drown out the aching demands of his body. With a growl of frustration, he brushed his cheek over the turgid peaks of her breasts, wishing the fabric of their clothes would dissolve so he could be flesh-to-flesh and heart-to-heart with her.

  He suckled her nipple
s through her shirt and heard her quiet moan. When she arched seductively against him, seeking the ultimate intimacy with him, he growled with barely restrained need.

  Damn, this mysterious, alluring woman was driving him a dozen kinds of crazy. He wanted her like hell blazing, but also he wanted to know what she was hiding from him and why she refused to trust him with the truth—

  His conflicting thoughts scattered like buckshot when she stroked his erection through the fabric of his breeches. When her hand folded around him, he knew she could feel him throbbing with desire for her.

  “I want you desperately,” he whispered as he dipped his hand beneath the waistband of her breeches to find her hot, wet and welcoming.

  When he slid his fingers inside her, caressing her gently she whispered, “I want you, too. I always have.”

  She kissed him as if she were dying and he was her last breath. Then she freed him from the placket of his breeches to caress him repeatedly and he swore he was going to black out.

  “We need to find a room…and quickly,” he said raggedly.

  “As soon as Dr. Yeager checks on Doc,” she agreed.

  Nate’s head came up quickly. He heard Rachel mutter a curse as she climbed off his lap to readjust her clothing. He fastened himself into his breeches and swore profusely.

  “You’ve been here before.” He glared at her, daring her to deny it. “You’ve lived here, haven’t you, Rachel?”

  She refused to meet his probing gaze. “Everyone knows about Dr. Yeager. He’s been here since the fort was established and he was there the day Dodge City was founded—”

  “Rachel…” he snapped authoritatively. “What the hell are you hiding?”

  “Stop hounding me.” She scooted as far away from him as the wagon seat allowed. She crossed her arms over her breasts and thrust out her chin in that stubbornly defiant manner that amused him and exasperated him all at once.