The Lawman's Redemption (Leadville, Co. Book 2)

by Danica Favorite

  Almost as if Rachel could predict the future, Will chose that moment to break free from the crowd and head in their direction.

  “See?” Rachel looked mighty puffed up over her proclamation. “It’s a good thing I already have my heart set on someone else. Otherwise, I might not forgive you for stealing the heart of one of the few worthwhile eligible bachelors in town.”

  Mary frowned. “But I’m not—”

  “Oh, no. Don’t try to argue. We all noticed how he monopolized you on the ride over.”

  So much for trying not to draw too much attention to herself. More specifically, to her and Will.

  Rachel continued, “What I don’t understand, though, is last night, when mother came home from helping serve the meal to the miners, she said your fiancé arrived. It was quite the to-do, from how she tells it. Such a dashing man, and yet here you are, having secured the interest of another.”

  Wasn’t it Sir Walter Scott who said, “What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive?” So much of her world was mixed up all because of a secret romance gone awry.

  “It’s a long story,” Mary told her. “The truth is that I broke off my engagement some time ago. And Will is not my beau. He’s—”

  One more thing she couldn’t explain. Apparently, he wanted to bring her former fiancé to justice. But at what cost? Would her aid in proving Ben’s guilt also put her behind bars? Will looked so determined in his desire to see Ben punished. What would he do if he knew her involvement?

  “Well, I don’t know what he is,” Mary finally said. “I met him on the street yesterday when he saved me from being accosted by a group of drunken miners. Since then, our paths keep crossing, and I—”

  She what? Was growing to like him more at every moment? And with that like, growing to fear his reaction when he knew the truth? Mary tried not to sigh, but she simply couldn’t help it.

  Fortunately, her sigh was all Rachel needed. “It sounds so romantic.”

  Only if one thought a hangman’s noose was romantic. Did they hang accomplices to thieves? Or was Will a thief himself?

  Will was almost upon them. “I see you two have already been drinking the water. Is it as good as everyone claims?”

  “Here you go.” Rachel thrust her cup into Will’s hands. “You two enjoy. I need to finish getting the rest of the picnic things ready.”

  Before Mary could argue, Rachel was off, leaving her alone with Will.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said.

  “I’m not.” Will bent down and filled his cup. “It gives us a few moments alone to finish our conversation from the wagon.”

  Precisely what she didn’t want. Will had a point in his observation about Ben being enticed by her fortune. He was probably even right that he’d stop at nothing to marry her. If he was willing to rob good people of their money, ruining someone like her wouldn’t be beneath him.

  If she wasn’t already ruined.

  “You don’t understand the position I’m in,” she said by way of explanation.

  “Then help me understand.”

  His face was filled with such kindness that she was reminded of Frank and how he cared for those around him. Though she knew the pastor cared for the worst of the population and encouraged them to minister to the fallen women in their community, she wasn’t so sure that he’d be able to forgive her actions. If the pastor couldn’t forgive her, how could a man as ordinary as Will?

  “With my brother on his honeymoon, I’m responsible for caring for my siblings. They need me. I can’t get caught up in some scheme to take down a man who’s as wily as they come. If something happened to me...”

  Mary shook her head, then drained her cup. “I know you think it’s the way out, but I’ll find another. Even if it means ruining my reputation so that no one else will marry me. The important thing is to make sure my brother and sisters are cared for.”

  Perhaps that was the price she’d pay for her vanity—remaining a spinster her whole life. None of the men had ever paid her a bit of attention, before Ben. That should have been her warning that Ben wasn’t on the up-and-up. Amazing what a little flattery could get. And how disastrous the results could be.

  Mary started back to where they’d spread the picnic blankets, cognizant of the voices headed their way. She’d go back to the group and follow her original plan of getting to know her contemporaries.

  “Don’t go,” Will said, catching up to her. “The others are almost here. I know you wanted to spend time with them, and here I am, monopolizing you with things you don’t want to talk about.”

  Pausing to look toward the group heading for the spring, then back at Will, Mary knew there was no easy escape. Could Will’s olive branch be genuine?

  A dark lock of hair had fallen over his forehead, giving him an innocence that made her want to trust him.

  “Come on, Mary. We’ll call it a truce for now, and I promise, I won’t speak of Ben for the rest of the outing.” He held his hand out to her as though he were making a solemn business deal. She’d learned that such promises mattered none to Ben, but with Will, well, he was different.

  She accepted his handshake, noting the firm grip of his fingers around hers. He treated her as an equal, and in his eyes shone trust and respect. It hit her again how stupid she must’ve been to trust in Ben. He’d been a selfish fop, something evident in his too-eager smiles, lazy posture and glib tongue. Will, on the other hand, was everything a man should be.

  When he released her hand, it tingled from the absence of his strong presence.

  “It’s settled, then,” he said. “Friends.”

  The warmth of the word made her insides churn as though she’d drunk a whole gallon of the soda water.

  “Hello, lovebirds!” Jasper’s booming voice jolted her. “Sneaking away for a little private time?”

  Mary’s collar suddenly felt tight around her neck, preventing her from any speech. Her face warmed, and she tried desperately to think of ice and snow and cold, anything to keep herself from betraying the disquiet inside her.

  “Not at all. We just wanted to get some of this famous natural soda water before my gluttonous friend took it all.” Will gave a fake punch at Jasper, who dodged.

  “I see we’ll have to go to one of the boxing matches at the Tabor Opera House one of these days. Sparring with you has always been a challenge, but wait until you see what the real pros can do.”

  The other girls filed around them, giggling, she supposed, at the manly demonstration between Jasper and Will.

  “Goodness,” Polly said, linking her arm with Mary’s. “You and Will seem awfully cozy for someone who denies that he’s her beau.”

  Mary blew out a breath, wishing that she hadn’t made such a muck of her life that she could confide in her friend. Of all people, Polly might be the one who would possibly understand what it was like to fall for a man who was nothing but trouble. Polly’s former beau had turned out to be one of the thugs who’d kidnapped Mary’s sister and sister-in-law.

  “For someone sworn to never give her heart away again, you sure have a lot of interest in my love life.”

  They found their way to a grassy spot near the edge of the spring. “So, how about you let it drop, and let’s enjoy the water.”

  Polly ignored the cup Mary held out to her. “I’m not very fond of the water. It has a strange aftertaste I’ve never gotten used to.”

  The intense look Polly gave her indicated that she had no intention of letting the subject drop. Would that it were as simple as telling Polly that Ben was a bad man and Will determined to bring him to justice, the questions would cease. Polly would understand. But Polly would ask questions and want Mary to talk to the authorities. Authorities who would more likely than not arrest her.

  “It just seems strange,” Polly said
finally, “that you have so many men interested in you, yet you claim complete indifference. I may have sworn off having a beau for myself, but I admit to being completely fascinated by your having so many.”

  It was on the tip of Mary’s tongue to offer one of her unwanted beaus to Polly, but she wouldn’t wish Ben on anyone. Will, on the other hand...

  She turned to glance at him just as he threw back his head and laughed. A warm laugh that invited everyone with him to join him, not the kind that was at anyone’s expense. The automatic comparison to Ben started to pop into her mind, but she willed it away. There was no reason for her to compare him to Ben at all. Absolutely none. Except that traitorous voice deep inside her reminded her that she might be uncomfortable in offering him up to Polly for very different reasons.

  * * *

  Will had not enjoyed himself more thoroughly in a long time. He’d forgotten what great company Jasper had been. Work had kept him too busy to notice Jasper’s absence when the Jackson family had moved to Leadville.

  The girls giggled at something Jasper said, and Jasper gave him a look that seemed to say What can you do? Silly girls, that was what the whole lot of them were. While he’d been amused by Jasper’s antics and stories, he was about sick to death of the constant prattling about dances and fashions and hats coming from the women. Mary was a much more sensible girl, and while most of their conversation had been about his case, he appreciated that she wasn’t afraid to spar with him. She took him on directly and didn’t hide behind giggles and frantic playing with her fan.

  Just then, he caught a glimpse of her looking at him. Those bright eyes were hot enough to melt a man’s soul.

  “What’s the story with you and Miss Stone?” Jasper gave him a playful nudge, then walked away from the crowd, indicating he should follow him.

  Now, that was a complication he wasn’t sure he could answer fully. “I wish I could tell you. She’s...”

  He’d liked to have said that she was just a case, but that would have made him a liar. Why couldn’t Mary have a hooked nose, bad teeth and an equally sour disposition?

  “Is it part of a case you’re working on?”

  At least in that he could be frank with his old friend. “Yes, but it’s becoming more complicated than that.”

  Looming above them was a hillside littered with the remains of trees that had been taken for the mines and town. “Come on. You’re going to love the view.”

  They climbed for a while, and Will appreciated the silence amid the scrape of their boots against rock, the occasional heavy breath blown out at the exertion and the twittering of the ladies below.

  Will paused to rest. “You realize that we’re putting on an exhibition for them, don’t you?”

  Jasper’s only response was a wide grin. He climbed a bit higher, until he’d reached the crest of the hill. It took several more minutes for Will to catch up before they were both seated at the top.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” Jasper gestured at the expanse of the valley before them.

  At this spot, they could see the sprawl of the town. Some said that nearly thirty thousand people lived there, rivaling the size of Denver. From this vantage point, Will would have to agree. Though the smokestacks from the smelters nearest them billowed thick, dark clouds, Leadville was indeed an impressive sight.

  To the south lay some lakes, barely visible from this spot, but Will had seen it from other places along the way. The mountainside east of them was bare save for the skeletal images of mine shaft after mine shaft, the source of the town’s riches.

  The contrast of beauty with the booming town and mines reminded Will of Mary. How could someone as wonderful as she get mixed up with someone like Ben?

  He looked to the base of the hill, chuckling at the irony of calling something at such a high elevation a hill, and noted that while many of the girls waited at the bottom, not one had ventured up. He scanned the crowd for Mary, but didn’t see her among Jasper’s admirers.

  “Don’t worry. They won’t follow. They’re too intent on keeping their dresses fresh.” Jasper’s trademark grin lit up his face. “A man’s got to escape his admirers every once and a while.”

  Will couldn’t help his belly laugh. Good old Jasper.

  Jasper walked over to a rock and sat on it. “Those women make me crazy. Sure, it’s nice to be so flattered, and my family has more dinner invitations than we know what to do with, but it’d be even nicer to have a real conversation with a person that didn’t involve money.”

  The conspiratorial look Jasper gave him was all too familiar.

  “And your plan is?”

  A hummingbird whizzed by them. The sound of its wings against the air echoed the imaginary whirling of Jasper’s mind.

  “Tell me about the case. Let me help.”

  Will had been the one to teach Jasper how to fire a gun. To defend himself against others in a fight. Jasper had thrived on the energy of it all. Had he not been his father’s only child and counted on to carry on the family business, Jasper would have followed him into law enforcement, Will was sure.

  “Your father would kill me.”

  “He doesn’t have to know.”

  The smooth tone to Jasper’s voice made Will shake his head. “How many ladies have you kissed with that line?”

  Jasper grinned. “Enough to know it works.”

  Unfortunately for Jasper, Will was no lady. “Father or no, I can’t have you a part of this.”

  “Why?” Jasper jumped down from the rock. “Because you lost your badge? I don’t have a badge, either. That’s what makes this perfect.”

  The air whooshed from Will’s lungs. “You knew? But you’ve been so...”

  Jasper picked up a rock and chucked it down the hillside as if he was skipping it across a lake. “You had to have been set up. I figure, whatever you’re up to here in Leadville, it’s about clearing your name. And I aim to do what it takes to help you.”

  He hadn’t expected such ease of acceptance, not when everyone in Century City treated him like a criminal himself. The breeze picked up, and Will turned to see dark clouds moving in behind them.

  “They still want to charge me. Still might, if George Bishop has anything to say about it. The robbers got away with several thousand dollars. He’s out for blood, and if mine’s all he can get, then he’ll take it.”

  His friend fell in beside him, his voice taking on a more serious tone. “All the more reason to help you. I know you, Will. There’s not a dishonest bone in your body. You did all you could, and more.”

  He wished it were that simple. “You weren’t there. The truth is, I made a mistake. I trusted the wrong person, and because of it, a bank was robbed, I was shot, and the culprits got away.”

  At least his words would serve to kill the hero worship that shone in Jasper’s voice when he spoke of Will. He wasn’t deserving of such high praise, so maybe now, all of Jasper’s exaggerated stories would cease.

  Only Jasper didn’t see it that way. “You’re not perfect. Doesn’t mean that you deserve to be punished for what happened. In fact, it makes me even more determined to help clear your name.”

  The earnestness in Jasper’s voice eased the ache in Will’s gut that had plagued him for so long.

  Since pursuing Mary had been nothing but a dead end, maybe Jasper would be able to give him a new perspective that would finally break the case open.

  Will took a deep breath, then spilled the details of the case to his friend. From meeting Daisy and believing her to be in danger from Ben’s abuse and trying to help her, to that fateful day when he acted on the information she fed him about wanting to meet him outside town to escape Ben—only to be shot by her as she fled the scene of the bank robbery.

  He left no detail out, even the humiliating part about believing himself in love with the gi
rl. The hardest part, though, was telling him about Mary and the letters he’d found in Ben’s things. Maybe Jasper, whose heart wasn’t getting entangled, would be able to sift through the information to be able to tell him whether Mary was lying or not.

  As soon as he finished relaying his tale, the distant rumble of thunder and a few stray raindrops prevented him from gaining the benefit of Jasper’s opinion.

  “We need to make haste,” Jasper said, scurrying toward the base of the hill. “The ladies aren’t going to like getting caught in the storm.”

  As wordlessly as they had made their way to the top of the hill, they made it back down, and in half the time. Below, the women were carrying on and dithering about the rain.

  Except Mary.

  Even before his feet touched the bottom of the mountainside, he could see her standing about, giving directions to the others for gathering their belongings and loading the wagons. By the time Will and Jasper arrived back at the wagons, almost everything was loaded and ready to go, save for a crate that Mary and a couple of the other girls were struggling with.

  “Let me help,” he said, grabbing one of the ends of the crate. Together, they lifted the heavy wood into the wagon.

  The rest of the party filed into their respective wagons, just as the sky opened up completely, sending a deluge of water over them all. Will glanced at Mary, her chest heaving from the exertion, water pouring down her ruined bonnet and dress.

  Was it wrong of him to think her the absolute most beautiful creature he’d ever laid eyes upon?

  As he helped her into the wagon, Jasper passed by and tossed a blanket at them.

  “You’re a goner,” he whispered.

  If it weren’t for the rain and the now-shivering woman beside him, Will would have thrown the blanket right back at his friend. So much for getting sage advice.

  Chapter Seven

  The finale of the picnic was, without question, an unmitigated disaster. Mary huddled in the blanket Will had wrapped around her as the wagon lumbered back toward town. Though the trip to the spring had taken less than an hour, as the rain poured down, they made significantly slower progress toward home.