“I’m sorry, Miss. We don’t want to go off half-cocked, and it’ll take time to muster up enough men. You just go home and rest, let us take care of it.” He stood, and Colleen understood that there was nothing she could do to convince him to ride off with a posse now.
She got up, too, and thanked the deputy.
“Do you have any relatives in town you can stay with, Miss?”
She met his gaze. Jack was in danger, and this deputy was taking time to worry whether she had somewhere to go? He was kind, she decided. Just young and inexperienced. And not nearly as concerned about the survival of one pig-headed bounty hunter as she was.
“No,” she said and turned around to walk down the stairs.
Mrs. Rowan called out from the carriage as Colleen emerged from the sheriff’s office. Even though she was a total stranger, the woman had waited for her? The kindness brought tears to Colleen’s eyes as she approached the carriage.
“You can stay with us,” Mary insisted. “Until you get everything sorted out.”
Sorted out. If Jack died, would anything else be worth sorting out?
Chapter 9
“Robin is fast as a whirlwind. Sue can’t keep up with him, but she’s a good horse. She follows Robin around everywhere he goes. I hope they’ll have a foal some day.”
Colleen could barely focus on the conversation with Mrs. Rowan’s oldest son, Edwin. Where was Jack at this very moment? Was he in danger? Maybe the thieves had captured him and were torturing him. Maybe he was dead. No. He couldn’t be. She couldn’t stand that.
Edwin continued, unaware that she struggled to follow what he said.
“But I want to wait a little. In the meantime, my friend Charles has a mare that…”
She smiled and nodded at him, feeling her eyes glaze over. Her stomach was full, her borrowed dress—and pantaloons—were clean, and her head only ached a little. But all she could think about was the fact that Jack was, at best, tired and hungry right now.
“I don’t know what I would be doing with my days if I didn’t have those horses.”
She couldn’t take it any more. She had to find Jack. And she knew just how she would do it.
“It sounds like you really enjoy riding.” She smiled at Edwin and fluttered her eyelashes.
He flushed and smiled back. “Oh, yes, very much.”
“I’ve never ridden a horse,” she lied. “Would you teach me how?”
Edwin beamed and began to saddle up the smaller horse. With a side-saddle. He chattered not-stop, apparently not caring if she was listening.
Colleen waited until the young man’s back was turned before she slowly, quietly opened the other stall door. The stallion inside snorted, but it didn’t protest her presence. Good Robin. The bridle jingled faintly as she guided it over the horse’s head and fastened it.
Robin tossed his head and looked at her as if to say, “What are you waiting for?”
Nothing.
She bent down, ripped the side seams of her skirt with two quick motions, and vaulted up onto the stall wall so she could mount Robin bareback.
“Excuse me, are you all r—what are you doing?” Edwin demanded.
“Rescuing Jack,” she said, digging her heels into Robin’s flanks.
The stallion bolted out of his stall and through the stable door. Colleen clung for her life. It had been years since those wild childhood rides on her neighbor’s horse. Apparently, it was one of those things one never forgot.
“I’m sorry,” she yelled as the horse broke into a gallop. She didn’t dare look behind her for fear of losing her balance, but she could imagine Edwin’s reaction to her trickery. She felt sorry for taking advantage of his kindness. But she couldn’t let Jack die while she waited around for the sheriff to act. It was like she had much of a reputation left, so it didn’t bother her to add ‘horse thief’ to the list of things people called her.
And besides, she would bring Robin back. She was really just a horse borrower.
Luckily, she remembered the way back to the sheriff’s office. She arrived there a few minutes later.
A group of men on horseback gathered outside. The sheriff must have returned earlier than expected. This had to be the posse that was going after Jack.
So, technically, she could return Robin to Edwin and apologize for being a horse borrower.
No. She couldn’t do anything else until she knew if Jack was safe.
She backed away a little. Far enough to be able to watch the posse, but out of sight. She would follow them at a safe distance, until it was too late for them to object to her presence.
“Let’s go.” Somebody had given the order. It didn’t sound like the deputy’s voice, so it was most likely the sheriff. As they moved off, Colleen followed, hanging back as much as she dared without losing them. As she rode, she thought about her options. Say she found Jack alive and well. Then what? Maybe she could always pretend to be a widow from back East and find a position as a schoolteacher or a private tutor. More likely, she’d end up working as maid or a washerwoman.
Anything would be better than going back home and working in a garment factory like her mother.
The posse rode at a steady pace, out of the city and up into the hills. By the time they got passed the hill where Colleen and Jack had slept, it was dark. It got harder to follow them as they entered the forest that she and Jack had fled through. When she thought she heard rushing water, she kicked Robin gently to increase its speed so she could catch up with the men. It was too late for them to send her back now. She thought they might be farther upriver than the spot that she and Jack and jumped off Butch’s boat, but it was hard to be sure in the dark.
The posse stopped up ahead. Colleen watched a man turn around and stare at her. He said something to the others that she couldn’t hear. She sighed. Might as well join them.
“Turn around and go back, Miss.” The man who’d stared at her didn’t exactly sound welcoming. She recognized him as the deputy who’d spoken with her earlier.
There was no way he could convince her to leave. She was just about to tell him so, when there was a gunshot.
Somewhere close.
“Stay right here, no matter what,” the deputy ordered, then rode off toward the gunshots with the rest of the posse.
Colleen had no intention of obeying. She thanked Robin for being so well-behaved as she slid to the ground and tied his reins to a low-hanging pine branch. Then she snuck into the woods in the direction of the sound.
Please, dear God, please. Don’t let that be Jack getting shot.
She tiptoed through the trees, doing her best to avoid dry branches that might reveal her approach. Her heart raced; her mouth was dry. If only she could walk faster. But the woods were filled with small branches and dry leaves.
Soon she heard voices. She stopped, straining to listen over the sounds of the forest. Her heart jumped when she recognized Jack’s voice among the others. She moved closer.
There he was.
Jack stood with his back to a tree, holding one of the robbers at gunpoint. It was Shorty.
She was just about to step forward when she heard the crackle of dry leaves behind her. Before she could bolt, somebody grabbed her and dragged her forward.
Butch!
“Let my man go or your girl gets it.” Butch stressed his words by pressing a pistol to Colleen’s side.
No. She couldn’t let Jack do it.
“Shoot him, Jack,” she said. “I’m not worth it.”
Jack raised an eyebrow, sighed, and put his gun down on the ground. Then he stepped back with his hands in the air.
Where were those deputies? Had they ridden farther upriver? Or were the waiting for something?
Shorty crouched down and picked up the gun that Jack had surrendered.
Butch shoved the small of Colleen’s back. Unprepared, she stumbled, trying in vain to stop her forward momentum. As she fell, she saw Jack leap for Butch.
Two guns went off.
Colleen suppressed a scream as she hit the ground hard, then scrambled forward. Someone grabbed her ankle. Shorty. She kicked hard with her free leg. Caught him right in the nose with her heel. He yelped and dropped her ankle. Her fingers closed over a rock and she threw it at him. Hit in him the shoulder. He dropped to his knees, cursing.
A few feet away, Jack wrestled with Butch, fighting for control of the gun they both gripped. Jack planted a knee to the ground and slammed Butch onto his back. Butch lost his grip on the gun.
Shorty stood, pistol in hand. He had a clear shot at Jack’s back.
There was no time to warn him. Launched herself at Shorty, tackling his legs the way she used to attack her brothers when they were fighting over a toy. Her shoulder slammed it into the side of the Shorty’s knee. As he dropped, his shot went way over Jack’s head.
The shot echoed in Colleen’s ears. Shorty brought the gun around, pointing it right at her forehead. “Got you, bitch.”
“Hands up!” Shorty’s expression turned from exultant to dour as one of the sheriff’s deputies stepped out from behind a tree with a shotgun. But the robber lowered his weapon.
“Miss.” Another deputy offered Colleen a hand up. “Are you all right?”
“I am,” she said.
Then he frowned. “Do you realize how dangerous it was that you followed us while we were hunting outlaws? You could have been killed.”
Jack approached them with a huge grin, looking disheveled but unharmed. “Don’t you worry about my girl Colleen. She’s built sturdy.”
He smiled at her, and she blushed harder than she’d ever blushed before.
Jack turned towards the deputy. “The rest of the gang is waiting for Butch to come back. They’re about a quarter of a mile up the river, with the loot.”
The deputy let go of Colleen’s arm. “We’ll find them. You’d better take this wildcat back to the city.”
He jumped on his horse, and the posse rode off to arrest the rest of the robbers.
Jack grabbed her hands. He looked exhausted, but happy to see her. “He’s right, you know. It was extremely foolish of you to follow an armed posse. Not just because of the bandits. What if they’d shot you by accident?”
“Are you mad at me?”
He blew out a long breath before he answered. “Let’s just say that next time you’re thinking of doing something that dangerous, I’d like you to consult me first.”
“I was so worried—I wasn’t sure if—” How could she explain to him without sounding like an idiot? Now that the gang was caught, she would never see him again. What would he think if she confessed her feelings for him after only knowing him for a couple of days?
He’d think she was crazy, that’s what.
“Let’s go.” He offered her his arm. “Unless you were planning to help that posse round up the rest of the gang?”
Colleen didn’t take his arm. “You lied to me.”
“I did not. I never said I was going to Austin with you. I said I’d make sure you got there.”
“I was afraid you were dead.” Her lower lip trembled. She fought to keep it still.
“I had a job to do.” He took her hand and placed it on his forearm, as if he planned to take her to a dance rather than escort her through a forest at night.
“Now that you’ve caught your bounty, now what?”
Jack smiled. “I told you, I’m settling down. I’m going to be a small-town sheriff’s deputy. Then I’m going to get married. And have a pack of kids. With you.”
She blinked, elation warring with fear in hear heart.
“Have you forgotten that I’m a ruined woman?”
“Have you forgotten I’m the one who ruined you?”
Colleen bit her lip. What could she say?
Jack leaned closer. “I don’t care what people think, Colleen. That’s between them and God. I just care what you think.”
What did she think?
I think I love him.
“You were coming to Texas to marry that rich coward, and I ruined your plans. I’d understand if you hated me.”
“No. You saved me from a lifetime of misery.”
“Then save me from a lifetime of loneliness, Colleen. Come to Salvation and be my wife.”
Colleen looked up into his eyes. Hair disheveled, face covered in stubble and smudged with dirt—with the moonlight dancing in his eyes, he looked more gorgeous than ever.
Her Mr. Handsome.
And he wanted to marry her?
“Yes,” she said.
He kissed her—a kiss she hadn’t even realized she’d been longing for. It was sweeter than anything she’d ever tasted. She closed her eyes and leaned against his strong chest when he released her.
“No more stalling, my sturdy Colleen.” Jack kissed her again, affectionately this time, on the top of her head. “We ride for Salvation tomorrow.”
Wife of a small-town sheriff’s deputy. Passel of kids. The rest of her life with Jack. What would that be like?
She could hardly wait to find out.
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The Mail-Order Brides of Salvation series
Winning the Deputy’s Heart
Winning the Rancher’s Heart
Winning the Doctor’s Heart
Winning the Bounty Hunter’s Heart
Winning the Homesteader’s Heart (coming in November 2015)
Winning the Wrangler’s Heart (coming in December 2015)
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Faith
Winning The Bounty Hunter's Heart (Mail-Order Brides of Salvation 4) Page 5