Marrying Miss Marshal

by Lacy Williams

Please, God, don’t let him do this.

  Slowly, feeling as if she was swimming through molasses, she reached out and touched Chas’s arm.

  And he let her push it down until his weapon pointed at the floor.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  They rode into town to a hero’s welcome, with the three surviving outlaws strapped to the saddles of three horses.

  Rob’s men had made all the difference. They were experienced operators, and had caught up to and captured O’Rourke and Big Tim, who’d made a run for it, with no trouble. If Danna had had men like them to help her, she wouldn’t have lost her job in the first place.

  And the best part was, Rob’s cowhands had agreed to go with her to track down the last outlaw, the one the kid had admitted was probably guarding the rustled cattle. The kid had wanted to talk—apparently tired of a life of crime—and had even given them the location. Before they could go after the cattle, they had to get the outlaws they’d already captured locked up in the jail.

  The kid had also mentioned that the outlaws had taken it upon themselves to get rid of the marshal when they’d seen her riding alone in the ravines outside of Calvin. They’d scared the cattle with whoops and gunshots and caused the stampede that had nearly killed Chas and Danna.

  The worst moment for Danna earlier in the day had been realizing that O’Rourke’s horse created a crescent-shaped hoofmark. She’d been riding behind the animal when she’d noticed it. Her husband had been killed by a man who’d sworn to uphold the law. She would do her best to prove it to the judge when he came to town, and to see O’Rourke receive what he was due—the noose.

  To her surprise, people lined the streets and clapped as they walked their mounts through town to the jail. Several people called out to her, and one child even cheered for “the marshal.”

  It sounded like they respected her, or at least the job she’d done, bringing down the bank robbers. Was there a chance they would give her badge back?

  Castlerock waited with Albert Hyer, one of the other town council members, on the steps of the jailhouse.

  “Where’s my money?” he demanded, even before she’d reined in.

  She wanted to tell him off. So badly that she had to grit her teeth to keep the words inside.

  “The marshal’s brother has custody of it,” Chas said, pulling his mount to a halt next to her and jerking his head to indicate Rob, who rode midway in the pack of riders. “Kindly thank the marshal, and you can take your cash right over to your bank.” His voice brooked no argument.

  Why did he keep calling her that? She hadn’t gone after the robbers to reclaim her job, and it wasn’t likely the council would agree to give it back to her. She hadn’t been able to do the job alone, after all.

  Castlerock looked a mite green, but he uttered the words, though it was obvious by his demeanor he didn’t want to. “Thank you, Miz Carpenter.”

  His words were a sharp reminder that her marriage was about over. They’d survived the chase, captured the rustlers and robbers—who’d turned out to be the same men—and Chas’s job was over. He’d be leaving soon. They’d get an annulment.

  And she would be alone again.

  But not totally alone. She waved over to Katy, in the back of the pack of riders, pointed to her—their rooms above the jail. Danna had offered to let the girl stay with her as long as such an arrangement was needed. She remembered the girl’s questions the one night they’d shared her rooms before. Danna also remembered how Fred had taken care of a similar teen who was lost and alone…and she determined that she would make Katy her family, like a little sister.

  Rob rode up and tied off his mount at the hitching post across the street from the jail. She needed to talk to him, as well—find out why he’d come for her. Maybe she’d get her brother back, too.

  But she wanted a husband…a particular one: Chas O’Grady.

  Will joined their group in front of the jail, but he ignored the group of businessmen. She warmed at his loyalty. “I’ll take your mounts over to the livery, Marshal.”

  She dismounted and handed the reins over to him, but didn’t let him leave without an impulsive hug. Without his help, Chas and Rob might not have reached her in time.

  Hyer cleared his throat and stepped forward to the edge of the boardwalk. “Mrs. O’Grady, we’d like to reinstate you as marshal. We made a mistake in firing you.”

  Her heart began to thud in her ears. It seemed too good to be true.

  “Where’s Parrott? And Shipley? Did they agree to this, too?”

  Hyer shook his head. Castlerock looked away. It was Hyer who spoke.

  “After yer husband made such a passionate plea for deputies, several people came forward and admitted they’d been threatened not to help ya do your job. Parrott and Shipley ran outta town pretty quick. A coupla fellas went after ’em. We didn’t have no part of their plan, and we want ya back as marshal.”

  She looked to Castlerock, who nodded his agreement with the mayor’s statement. He still looked green, but his mouth was set and he didn’t argue.

  “You’ve got some loyal friends. They made quite a case for you yesterday evening,” said Hyer.

  She shot a look to Chas and mouthed they? But he shook his head like he didn’t know either.

  “We’ve got three men who’ve agreed to work as your deputies—” he named off three of the men who’d previously worked for Fred “—and a possible fourth, as well. We’ve agreed to pay them a salary—not much, mind you—and they’ll answer to you.”

  That was new. And it would make her life a whole lot easier. She wouldn’t have to be in charge of the whole town, all day and all night. She’d have some help, men she knew she could trust.

  Chas touched her shoulder, moved next to her, forming a wall of solidarity. “You should take the job back,” he said quietly. “You deserve it. You’ll do a good job.”

  She looked up at him, her hat brim shading her eyes and hopefully hiding them from the watchful gazes of her bosses. She could read the truth on his face, that he wanted her to take the job, but that he also couldn’t stay.

  Not with a wife who had such a dangerous job.

  They needed to have a serious conversation, but this wasn’t the place or the time. She looked at the men who made up the town council and nodded her consent. “Calvin is my home, and I’m proud to protect it.”

  She shook the men’s hands in turn, and they left. Rob’s men were already untying the outlaws. She went to the jail to get their cells ready, leaving her temporary husband behind.

  Chas meandered down the boardwalk, vaguely heading toward the hotel, his saddlebags over one shoulder.

  He’d tried to follow Danna into the jail and help as she locked up the three healthy outlaws plus Hank Lewis. She wasn’t willing to take the chance of putting Lewis at the doc’s office, not after what had happened with O’Rourke springing the kid—but she hadn’t needed him, not with her new deputies jumping at her beck and call, and the other men who seemed anxious to make things up to her by helping out.

  Plus, she’d looked exhausted. He hadn’t wanted to add to her strain by trying to have a serious discussion when she hadn’t slept and had been working all day.

  So he’d slipped back out of the jail, figuring she wouldn’t even notice he was missing.

  What was he supposed to do now?

  When he’d become a deputy, the arrangement had been beneficial to both himself and Danna. He’d needed her help conquering the Wyoming terrain; she’d needed his support.

  Now that she had all these other men to help her out, and now that his case was wrapping up, he was free to go.

  But he didn’t want to.

  The realization hit him hard in the stomach, almost worse than when he’d realized he loved Danna last night. But it couldn’t be. He enjoyed larger cities like St. Louis, even Chicago….

  Shaking his head, he knew there was no way to deny what was in his heart. He loved his wife, and he didn’t want to leave Calvin.
/>   But how to convince Danna not to go through with the annulment? He knew she’d fancied him at one time. And when they’d kissed before, there had been a certain spark….

  All of a sudden, he remembered her face as she’d held Corrine’s baby boy the day after his arrival. Danna wanted a family.

  But…could she even love someone who wasn’t reconciled to the God she loved so much, trusted so much?

  He’d settled things in his mind with Hank Lewis in that cave. He’d given up on taking his revenge, even though he could have killed the man.

  Perhaps it was time to settle things with his Lord?

  “You did a good job today, Miss Marshal,” Rob said, borrowing Chas’s nickname for his sister. He finished the last of his coffee and placed the mug back on the table.

  Danna waved off his compliment, but he touched her hand, his face serious. “I was proud to ride with you.”

  “I wish you could stay longer,” Danna told her brother, startled to realize that it was true. Rob was leaving at first light, headed back to his ranch.

  Rob leaned back in Fred’s old chair, his lean form stretched out, legs turned toward the center of the room, instead of the small kitchen table in the corner.

  “That’s saying something, coming from someone who didn’t want to see me for years.”

  A flush stole up her cheeks, embarrassment flaring. “I wanted to see you. I just…I thought…”

  “That I’d gotten so mad I stopped loving my own sister?”

  She looked down at her hands clasped on the table. “I heard you and Fred that night—I think you must’ve thought I was out from the pain or exposure, I don’t know. You said…”

  “I said that Fred could have you and good luck. I didn’t mean it.”

  “No?”

  “No. And the only reason I let you marry him was because I knew how crazy he was about you.”

  Her face hot once again, Danna scratched at a scar in the tabletop. “I miss him, but…”

  “But you’ve fallen in love with your deputy.”

  She nodded miserably. “The marriage was only to appease the town council—we’d already planned to have it annulled on the grounds that we were coerced into it. He’s…he’s still in love with someone else.”

  “You sure about that? The man was sure fired up to come to your rescue.”

  She closed her eyes briefly, so he wouldn’t see the hope that unfurled in her heart. “There’s something else I wanted to ask you. Chas said Fred had made notes about O’Rourke’s involvement in his journal. Would you read it to me? I want to know if there are any more clues as to why Parrott and Shipley would pay off the men in town.”

  Late into the night, Rob closed the journal and placed it on the table. Danna wiped tears from her eyes, knowing Fred had given his life for this little town she loved so much.

  Rob stood to go and surprised her with an embrace.

  “We won’t go so long without seeing each other again,” he said. “You and that one.” He nodded to Katy, asleep in Danna’s bed and softly snoring. “Come for Christmas. You’ve got enough help now to take a few days off.” He paused for a moment, his eyes scrutinizing her face. “And bring your husband, too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The timid knock came soon after Danna had descended from her rooms to the jail, leaving a sleeping Katy upstairs. Braced to face her husband, Danna was surprised when the door swung open to admit several women.

  “Well…good morning, Mrs. Kendrick. Mrs. Stoll, how are you? And Anna! What are you doing in town so early?”

  “It’s Martha, dear.”

  “Marianne.”

  Several more women crowded into the jail behind the others, although all of them stayed a careful distance away from the cells and the rough-looking outlaws within.

  “What—what are you all doing here?”

  “We brought you some breakfast.” One of the women held up a cloth-covered basket.

  “And jam.” Someone else pressed two jars of ruby-red preserves into Danna’s hands.

  Their smiles surrounded her, warming her. But… “Why?”

  Martha Stoll stepped forward. “Young lady, I know I’ve complained about your dog, but you’ve done a fine job as marshal, and you should know it.”

  “We want to thank you, Marshal,” came a voice from the back. “For sticking with the job, even when our men weren’t a bit of help to you.”

  “Umm…” Danna didn’t know what to say. This was unexpected—she’d thought the women had never liked her, but this outpouring of goodwill said just the opposite.

  A second soft knock came and the door opened to reveal Corrine, who froze in the open portal, a bundle of baby in her arms. The women closest to her turned their heads away; one even went so far as to sniff and put her nose in the air.

  “Oh,” Corrine said quietly, her eyes widening and a flush creeping into her cheeks. “I’ll go—”

  “Corrine!” Danna moved through the throng of women and grasped her friend’s forearm, pulling her aside. “I was going to come see you this morning. I found out—you’ll never believe it, but Brent was working with Fred on the rustler case. Actually, Chas found out. It was all in the journal.”

  A whisper rustled through the women, Danna winced. She had kept her voice down when sharing Corrine’s private news, but maybe it was best that they’d all heard. She couldn’t bear for her friend to be slighted, when her husband had actually done something good for a change.

  Corrine’s eyes filled with tears. “Was?”

  Putting an arm around her friend’s shoulders, Danna led her to the desk chair. “Yes. I’m so sorry, Corrine. The kid—one of the outlaws—told us he’d been killed. Helping Fred. Two of my new deputies went out to recover his body early this morning.”

  Corrine began to sniffle, but not the sobs Danna had expected when she planned to give her friend the news of Brent’s death. A hand pushed a lacy handkerchief at Corrine and she accepted it without looking up.

  “Honey.” A buttercup-yellow skirt swished around Danna’s desk, and Mrs. Burnett, the preacher’s wife, put a comforting arm around Corrine’s shoulder. “That man tried his best for you. He really did.” Danna wasn’t so sure about that, but the other woman was still talking. “You should be proud he died helping Marshal Fred.”

  Corrine nodded, still pressing the handkerchief to her eyes with one hand, while cradling the baby with the other. Suddenly she looked up with her teary eyes, right at Danna. “Danna—I forgot! I came in here to tell you that I saw your deputy—er—your husband at the train station, buying a ticket.”

  Danna’s face flamed. “We’re not—not really married. It was all a show for the town council. We’re getting an annulment.”

  “But you love him, don’t you?” one of the women— Danna thought it was Marianne—asked.

  “Yes,” she said, because she couldn’t deny it anymore. Not to herself or anyone else.

  “Then you should fight for him,” Corrine put in, her hand on Danna’s arm. “Do whatever you have to—make him want to stay married to you.”

  Danna looked around at the expectant faces around her. She took a deep breath. “I’m going to need your help.”

  “All of us?”

  “All of you.”

  Shaking with nerves, the skirts of her mama’s blue dress swirling around her feet, Danna made her way down the boardwalk.

  She felt foolish with this dress on, and her hair put up, as if she were attending a fancy ball. Was it too late to run back to her room above the jail?

  “Miss Marshal, Miss Marshal!” Young Cody Billings ran up to her on the boardwalk, waving both arms. “Them depities brought back those dirty council members. They’re comin’ to th’ jail now.”

  She moved down the street to meet them, grateful for any reprieve from having to face Chas like this. She wanted to convince him to stay in Calvin, and trying to be feminine had seemed like a good idea, until she’d seen the stranger in the looking g
lass. But with a roomful of expectant women behind her, she couldn’t back out of the plan.

  Now, walking down the boardwalk, she was getting lots of stares.

  The lead deputy reined in his horse, eyes wide as if he didn’t recognize her. He tipped his hat to her, then seemed to change his mind and took it off. “M-Miss Marshal. We got ’em.” He waved to Shipley and Parrott, riding with bound hands between two other deputies.

  “Good job. I’ve taken to carrying the jail keys with me, but I’ll turn it over to you for a bit.” She took a deep breath. “I have to go over to the train station and settle some business.”

  She’d stepped around his horse and was headed across the street, when Shipley dropped down and his bound hands came around her in a chokehold.

  They scrabbled as she tried to break free, but with the element of surprise, his wrists were already around her neck, cutting off her air.

  The deputies jumped from their horses, pistols coming out, but she couldn’t breathe.

  Danna swung her elbow back, catching Shipley in the midsection. She heard the distinct sound of fabric ripping.

  Chas’s heart raced as he hopped off the train station platform and headed toward the jail and a much-needed talk with his wife.

  He stopped a moment to breathe deeply of the crisp Wyoming air. He did love it here.

  Loved the weathered buildings. The bustling activity on the streets. Even the crooked boardwalk that took him over to the jailhouse. Except, there was something different about Calvin since he’d headed into the mountains yesterday. There was a peace in the air, a sense that the town was safe, wholesome.

  He was halfway to the jail when he came upon the scuffle. And a woman in a pretty blue gown was right in the middle of it. Danna!

  He moved to help, not surprised she was holding her own in a struggle against the larger man, even wearing a dress.

  Before Chas reached the melee, the one remaining man on horseback—Parrott—pulled something from his boot.

  A derringer. The man had a gun and was using his rope-bound hands to point it straight at Danna.