“We’ll find that treasure someday,” Jack assured her. “But somehow it just doesn’t seem very important right now.”
“You’re right. Nothing is important enough to make me live in the past.”
“It took you long enough to figure that out,” he grumbled.
“You have to understand I didn’t expect to meet someone like you—someone who wouldn’t be scared off by my fears.”
A tinge of red ran beneath his skin and he said, “Your fears didn’t scare me. What scared me was that you wouldn’t be willing to overcome them. That’s why I…”
She pulled back, studying the uncomfortable look on his face. “You what?”
“I planted the map in the window seat.”
“You what?”
He released her and stepped back, holding up his hands. “Now really, didn’t it occur to you that it was a little too much of a coincidence that we found that map the night after you told me you had the journal?”
“The map isn’t genuine?”
“Yes, it’s genuine. George Early gave it to my grandfather—”
“Who gave it to your mother, who gave it to you.”
“Yeah, but it never made much sense. I thought it might with the notations in the journal, but no one ever knew what had happened to George’s journal.”
“So when you found out I had it, you decided to plant the map and get me interested so you could get your hands on the journal?”
“Hell, no. I just wanted to get my hands on you. Or at least to get you alone so we could work things out. Then Charlie showed up, then you seemed so intent on the treasure, and—”
“And I almost blew it.” She crossed her arms and gave him a resigned look. “I should be angry with you.” She shook her head. “There you were, pretending to study that map like you’d never seen it before…I really ought to be angry with you!”
His eyes sparked with deviltry. “But how can you? You love me.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her again. “Marry me, Mallory. Marriage to me won’t be a trap like your marriage to Charles.”
“I know.” She had never been more sure of anything in her life.
“Let’s end the Clanton/Earp feud forever, shall we?”
She smiled. “At least our version of it.”
He grinned. “A Clanton marrying an Earp. What would Wyatt, Virgil and Ike think?”
She smiled into his eyes. “They would think I’m the luckiest girl in the world.”
Their wedding was held one month later in a small church in Tombstone. Only close family and friends attended. T.C. was best man and Sammi was maid of honor. Mallory’s parents flew in from Africa for the wedding, taken aback by the sudden changes in both their daughters’ lives.
The reception was open to all their family and friends, but Jack and Mallory were surprised by several uninvited guests—a number of reporters had shown up.
“Did you invite these people?” Mallory asked as Jack swept her into his arms for their first dance as husband and wife.
“No.” He looked over her head as they twirled around the floor. Several photographers darted in and out among the crowd, trying to get good shots of the new Mr. and Mrs. Clanton. “Suppose I should have Fred and Jim Jackman help me throw them out?”
She lifted an eyebrow at him. “That would be the height of rudeness, even for you. What do you think they want?”
He grinned at her. “Are you kidding? They represent the Tombstone paper, the Bisbee paper, both major Arizona papers and two tabloids. They’re getting the story of the year—the year 1881. An Earp marrying a Clanton.”
He twirled her into an intricate series of steps and Mallory had to pause and gather up the train of her long white gown. “I can’t believe that that many people would be interested in this.”
“Honey, you’d be surprised.” He scooped her into his arms again and looked down at her, the familiar devilish gleam in his eye. “It would probably blow their whole story if I told them the truth.”
“The truth about what?”
He leaned close and whispered in her ear. “My family name’s not really Clanton.”
“What?”
“My father’s father came over from Germany. His real name was Klinkmann. He wanted an American name, so he changed it to Clanton. Just picked it out of the phone book one day.”
Mallory stared at him, then burst out laughing. “You’re not even really related to Ike and Billy and that whole notorious bunch?”
“Not by so much as a drop of blood. It was just pure luck that my dad traveled through this area, liked it, and then married somebody with roots here.”
She burst out laughing again as he twirled her around the floor. “You’re a rat, do you know that?”
“I know.”
“I think that’s probably why you love me.”
“I guess you’re right.”
Laughing together, they sailed through the dance, secure in their love and in their future.
Tombstone, Arizona was a good place for a wedding.
eISBN 978-14592-7706-9
CLANTON’S WOMAN
First North American Publication 1996.
Copyright © 1996 by Patricla Knoll.
All rights reserved. Except for use In any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work In whole or In part In any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, Including xerography, photocopying and recording, or In any Information storage or retrieval system, Is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills. Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters In this book have no existence outside the Imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all Incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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Printed in U.S.A.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Excerpt
Dear Reader
Title Page
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
Copyright
Clanton's Woman Page 15