The Halsey Brothers Series

by Paty Jager

Jeremy watched her with a puzzled expression, but she ignored him. She didn’t want to answer any of his hundred questions. She figured Zeke would like to have someone less vocal for the remainder of the trip.

  “I’ll ride with you this time,” she said, walking over to where Zeke saddled his horse.

  “Big brother get too randy with you?” he asked and was rewarded with a canteen hitting his back. “Ouch! I know better than that. You’re too nice to hit on your brother’s intended.” He waggled his eyebrows and grabbed her around the waist, setting her in the saddle. He swung up behind her, putting his arms around her and his chin on her head.

  “There, now you can see where we’re going.” His breath whispered through her hair.

  She pinched his arm.

  “Ouch! What did you do that for?”

  “If I’m sitting in front, I’m holding onto the reins, so get your arms back there where you’re sitting.” She took the reins and urged the horse forward. “I thought you were after some school teacher.”

  “I am, but that don’t mean I can’t see just how much you scratch and hiss.”

  Darcy chuckled in spite of herself. And she thought Gil was full of mischief.

  “Tell me about your school teacher.”

  “Not much to tell. I’m interested. She ain’t.” She heard him sigh, making it easy to take pity on his situation.

  “Maybe you’re going about it all wrong. What have you done so far?” This was her chance to see someone else as happy as Gil made her.

  “I’ve asked her to dance at the socials and asked her out to dinner.” His voice lowered. “I even bought her a pretty hat.” She felt him looking around. “But don’t tell my brothers. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “Why?”

  “’Cuz, they’ll think I have to buy her affections. I tell you I ain’t never run up against such a stubborn woman.”

  “Why haven’t you given up, if she’s so against giving you her affections?” Darcy could almost feel his shoulders sag.

  “Her hair’s the color of a raven’s wing. Her skin’s as smooth as glass and white as cream. She’s got clear blue eyes that deepen with her moods and a mouth that’s just made for kissing.”

  Darcy turned in the saddle and looked into the dreamy gaze of Zeke. He was smitten. She didn’t want to stand next to this goddess if Gil were around. It sounded like the woman would out-dazzle any other female.

  “Okay, let’s figure out what she doesn’t like about you. You’re not hard to look at. So it can’t be that. You speak well. Can’t be that.” She sniffed. “Could use a bath, but so could I right about now.” She shrugged. “I give up what is it she doesn’t like about you?”

  “I’m a miner.”

  “That’s it? All you gotta do is quit mining.” Darcy glanced at him over her shoulder, giving him a look that said he was an idiot.

  “I told her I’d quit, but she had a daddy that was always looking for the big strike. He died in a mine, and she’s just now pulled herself up out of bad times. She’s afraid I’d get the itch after we’re married, and she’d be a widow or in the poorhouse again.” He shook his head. “I can’t seem to convince her otherwise.”

  Darcy mulled this over in her head as they rounded a corner. The Halsey cabin stood in the clearing all lit up by the bright early afternoon sun.

  “It’s about time you got back.” Ethan dropped the ax he’d been using to chop wood. He crossed to the horse and lifted Darcy off like she weighed no more than a saddlebag. When her feet were on the ground, Ethan turned.

  “Where’s Gil?” he looked from one brother to the next. Finally his gaze landed on Darcy. “Where’d you leave my brother?”

  “It’s a long story, and I’m thirsty and hungry. Can I tell you while we eat?” Darcy cringed as he turned an angry face to the others.

  “Why haven’t you fed this girl? Why are you all looking like mauled chickens?”

  “Like Darcy said, we need some food, and we’ll tell you all about it,” Clay wrapped his reins around a tree limb and headed into the cabin.

  Darcy’s mouth started to water from the smell of fresh bread and roasted meat. They made sandwiches of the bread and meat while they all told pieces of what had happened.

  “So Gil’s out there by himself against three men?” Ethan ran a hand through his hair. “He’s more of a fool than I gave him credit for.”

  Darcy felt her face flush with indignation. “He was trying to save me and Jeremy. If I don’t take the gold back to Galena, my face will be on wanted posters.” She looked at him through tear-blurred eyes. “I’d have done the same for him given the chance.”

  Ethan slapped a hand down on the table. “I’m not blaming anyone. We have to figure out where they could be and go help.”

  “That’s the problem. They could be anywhere.” Clay took a sip of the whiskey Zeke poured for everyone but Jeremy.

  “Let’s help Jeremy and Darcy get the gold back to Galena, then we can spread out different directions and look for Gil and the robbers.” Zeke downed his whiskey in one gulp and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He grinned and winked at Darcy.

  “Let’s see you do that,” he teased, eyeballing the full glass sitting in front of her.

  Darcy didn’t know what he was up to, but she wasn’t going to be dared and not go through with it. She grabbed the glass, and Jeremy squirmed beside her.

  “That’s not a good idea, Darce,” he warned.

  She threw him a disgusted look and swallowed the entire contents. Her throat burned, and her eyes filled with tears as the liquid burned all the way to her stomach and smoldered.

  “It really isn’t a good idea,” Jeremy counseled the grown men sitting around the table grinning from ear to ear.

  “Why not?” Zeke asked, filling her glass and narrowing his eyes. “Bet you can’t do that again.”

  Darcy narrowed her blurry eyes and scowled. “Watch me.”

  “Darce, No!” Jeremy grabbed her arm, spilling the contents all over her torn bodice.

  “Jeremy! Look what you did. You ruined my dress.” She looked down at the low-cut neckline, Levis, and kid slippers. The sight made tears burn in her eyes. She looked like a harlot, and she was sitting at a table with men drinking like a lush. What had happened to her? Where had she gone so far astray?

  Hot salty tears rolled down her face and into the corners of her mouth. She couldn’t stop them. Didn’t even care to stop them. She let loose with her second good cry since Ma and Pa died.

  When they lost their parents, she hadn’t given herself the satisfaction of showing any emotion. Jeremy had to be looked after and she was the only one left to do it. Darcy studied her brother. He was a bit blurry. Her heart swelled with pride at the man he was becoming. She reached out, pulling him into her arms. She held him tight and cried.

  “I told you,” he said, patting her head and looking around the table at the men staring at her. “She does this every time she drinks anything harder than sarsaparilla.”

  Did she really? How did Jeremy know that? She wiped at the tears, but they wouldn’t stop. “How, hic, do you, hic, know that?” she asked, leaning back to look at him.

  “Once when Ma and Pa were still alive you found a bottle in the barn and drank some. They couldn’t figure out what you were crying about when they found you. I found you first and put the bottle back. They never knew.”

  “Thank you Jeremy. Hic. You should be the older child. I’m no, hic, good at it.”

  He hugged her fiercely. “Darce, you’re the best sister in the world.”

  She smiled and sniffed. A chair scraped the floor and feet shuffled. “Where’re you going?” she asked, prying Jeremy’s arms from around her.

  “Get fresh horses so we can go get that gold and get your face off the wanted posters. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get after Gil,” Ethan turned to walk out. He stopped and turned back to the room. “We’ll find him, and we’ll take care of those that messed with him.
”

  Darcy shivered. She didn’t want to be Charles and his group when Ethan found them.

  *****

  Several hours later they had the gold dug up and stored among the saddlebags. Darcy’s stomach roiled and nearly spit the whiskey and food back up.

  “I don’t feel so good,” she muttered and ran into the bushes. Bending over, she vomited on the base of a fir tree. She leaned her head against the tree, breathing in the clean scent. She willed the world to stop spinning and the sounds to stop ringing in her ears. When her stomach settled and the world no longer spun, she turned to head back to the group.

  The men stood by the horses waiting. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught something moving slow through the trees to her right.

  Before she could let out a warning cry, a hand clamped over her mouth and a pudgy arm pulled her against a round belly. If the body hadn’t given him away the stench of cigar would have.

  Darcy stomped and kicked her feet trying to break free. His grip tightened, and his voice hissed in her ear.

  “Don’t fight me and your beau will live.”

  He knew something about Gil. She stopped struggling and nodded her head. He removed his hand from her mouth, but before she could ask a question he shoved a handkerchief in and pulled her arms behind her back. Pain shot through her shoulders as he bound her wrists.

  “Now we’re going to quietly leave these men to their duties.” Craven pulled her away from the scene as gunfire rang out. She struggled to look back to make sure Jeremy wasn’t in the middle of things, but the man yanked her through the underbrush.

  The sound of terrified horses and gun shots buckled her knees. Nothing could happen to the Halsey brothers. It would be her fault. She’d brought all this on them by masquerading as a marshal. And Jeremy. Please, let him live.

  Craven threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and continued through the trees. She didn’t care what happened to her. She deserved whatever fate for having so selfishly drawn good people into her catastrophic life.

  The man could barely breathe when he reached a horse tied to a tree. He dropped her to her feet and held onto the stirrup as he wheezed and gasped for air.

  “Girl, you are more trouble than any female I’ve ever come across, but I’ll have my due. I’m taking you back to Galena. I’ll tell the town folk all about you being the leader of the gang that robbed them of their life savings, and they’ll be building the first ever gallows in Galena. I guarantee you that.”

  He draped her over the neck of his horse and climbed into the saddle, settling her across his legs. The thought of being hanged didn’t set well with her. It was as unsavory as being flopped across Craven’s lap. Surely the good people of Galena would know she wasn’t a leader of a group of robbers. Nor would she steal from them.

  Her only chance was if someone in town spoke up for her. She was sure Mrs. Danforth would, but would the respectable men of Galena believe a woman who ran a brothel? Blazes, if she wasn’t stuck in a corner this time.

  Where was Gil?

  And please, Lord, keep Jeremy from harm where ever he is.

  *****

  Gil lost Craven’s tracks and headed straight toward the sound of gunfire and the clearing where Craven had stashed the gold. Following Craven, he’d crisscrossed three other sets of tracks. Hopefully, they weren’t the robber’s tracks or Craven just ran into an ambush.

  Circling the area where Craven buried the gold, Gil listened to the shots and hoped it was the outlaws and Craven shooting it up and not Darcy and Jeremy. Given the time since he’d tossed the two off the train, the gold should have been recovered and the siblings headed to Galena.

  He poked his head out between bushes. Ethan, Zeke, Clay, and Jeremy hid behind trees while three of Pete’s gang wasted bullets. Why weren’t they shooting back?

  Gil stepped out behind the men on horseback and shot into the air three times. The horses jumped forward, unseating one robber and catching the attention of the others.

  “What are you doing shooting at my brothers?” Gil asked, walking over to the man on the ground. He placed his foot in the middle of the man’s back, holding him on the ground as he held his gun on the man with big ears.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” The man looked around. “Where’s Pete?”

  “He’s on his way to jail, just like you’re going to be.” Gil kept his gaze on the robbers as out of the corner of his eye, he watched his brother’s sneak up behind the befuddled outlaws.

  “Hey!” the big-eared man exclaimed as Ethan and Clay pulled the men off their horses. Gil grinned as they wrenched the robber’s arms behind their backs and Zeke and Jeremy tied their hands.

  “Where’s Darcy?” Gil asked, looking back at the trees where his brothers came from.

  “You didn’t see her?” Ethan scowled and looked around the area.

  Fear catapulted from the pit of Gil’s stomach to his throat. He hadn’t seen anything but Craven’s tracks. And the greedy man now knew Darcy had duped him more than once.

  “Darce! Darcy!” Jeremy called, running out through the trees.

  “Why didn’t you keep a closer eye on her?” Gil took his anger out on the man on the ground, yanking his arms behind him, paying no attention to the pain he caused.

  “Take it easy.” Clay pushed Gil away from the robber and finished the job.

  “We put the last of the gold on the horses, and she hightailed it into the trees as pale as a new moon.” Ethan put a hand on his shoulder. “She’s probably under a tree sleeping.”

  “With all this noise?” Gil looked at his brother. There was something they weren’t telling him. Why would she run off all white and then sleep through a gun fight?

  He grabbed Zeke by the shirt front. “What did you do to Darcy?” His brother’s eyes sparkled with mischief. The crooked grin was a sure sign they’d been up to something and it worried Gil.

  “Nothin’. We was just sitting around the table discussing how you were bound to show up, even though that girl was thinking the worst had happened to you. We told her you always come back.”

  “Why would she run into the woods? A gunfight wouldn’t scare her.” Gil looked at Clay. He was always the most straight-forward of all the brothers.

  “She was feelin’ a little puny.” Clay turned from Gil, nodding his head toward Ethan.

  Gil looked at his oldest brother as Jeremy continued to call for Darcy. “What is going on?”

  “We gave Darcy some whiskey to calm her nerves, only it made her shed so many tears we about drown. Then after the ride here, she didn’t look too good and ducked into the trees. I bet she just got sick and then lay down to sleep it off.”

  Gil’s fist shot through the air, before he even thought about who it was aimed at. It didn’t matter it was his brother. He shouldn’t have let Darcy go into the woods alone.

  “She might be contrary, but she’s not as tough as she tries to put on.” Gil rubbed his knuckles as he looked down at Ethan sitting on his backside on the ground. “Since I can’t depend on you to take care of the woman I love, then I’ll do it myself.” He strode away from the three startled men and mounted his horse. “Take these men back to Galena. I’m going to find Darcy.”

  Chapter 23

  Darcy watched the town folk gather as Craven unceremoniously dumped her on her feet in the middle of town. Her legs nearly folded from lack of use. She leaned against the animal, grasping anything to keep her steady. Pain stung her arms like small needles. She winced and tried to catch hold of the stirrup to keep from falling face down in the dusty street. The merchant moved to help her, but Craven waved him back.

  “You don’t know how this woman made fun of us.” Craven dismounted and tipped her head up for the gathering crowd to see.

  Gasps as the people recognized her bolstered Darcy’s confidence. If he’d just take the disgusting handkerchief out of her mouth she could tell them all he’d done to the town. He wouldn’t though. He didn’t want
her spilling everything she knew about him. No one in town liked the mayor and would believe her over him.

  Since she couldn’t spew the truth, she glared at Craven.

  “Yes, this is the person we thought was a young man. A young man who courageously shot a bank robber.”

  Darcy nodded her head. Yes, she did pretend to be a young man, and she did courageously shoot the robber. Well, sort of.

  “It was all a set-up. She wounded one of her own men, to make an impression on all you good people of Galena.” The muttering in the crowd didn’t instill confidence in her. They were swarming to Craven’s lies like bees to honey. Only, she was the one about to be stung.

  Where were the Halsey brothers? Surely they’d bested the fumbling robbers. And what about Gil? If Craven was alive and so were the robbers… Her heart lurched. Gil couldn’t have made it off the train alive. Craven only threw out his comment to make her cooperate, she should have known better.

  How could Gil be alive when it was three to one? The realization he was dead hit harder than her parents’ death whom she’d loved for thirteen years. She’d known their end was coming. It showed in their eyes. But this… he was too young, too virile, and… Blazes. He’d captured her heart.

  “This woman has made a mockery of your town. I believe we should make an example of her.” Craven threw his hands in the air. “This woman should be hung!”

  “No!” The shout shook Darcy from her path of self-pity. She’d known Mrs. Danforth would stand up for her.

  The crowd mumbled and shuffled as the woman floated through them and straight up to Darcy. She pulled the dusty cloth from Darcy’s mouth all the while glaring at Craven.

  “What have you done to this woman?” she demanded, motioning for him to remove the rope.

  “Nothing she doesn’t deserve.” Craven stuck a finger out as if to poke Mrs. Danforth’s chest then dropped his hand like his finger caught on fire.

  “What are the charges?” Mrs. Danforth crossed her arms and stared at the man. Darcy’s fighting spirit swelled with the woman on her side.

  “He doesn’t have any charges, because I haven’t done anything wrong. He’s the one who should be thrown in jail.”