One-Click Buy: September 2010 Harlequin Blaze

by Lori Wilde

  She had been the one who kept looking for delays. Her mother and father were buried here and she couldn’t imagine life anywhere else.

  But now was time to give back. Archie needed her. So did Mac. He was no longer safe here. Maybe never had been. Maybe one of his old outlaw friends had gotten drunk and said something. Or, more likely, he’d been recognized while in Denver. If only the marshal hadn’t kept the hunt alive. Maybe then everyone would have forgotten about Mac.

  She remembered his long strides when he returned from a trip, the way he took steps two at a time to see her mother. She’d seen the joy on her mother’s face when he arrived after a long absence, but she also remembered the arguments they’d had when she was a child. He wouldn’t marry her because of the price on his head. When her mother died of pneumonia, he and Archie and Reese had sworn to take care of her. Mac, though, had been the one closest to her. He was the one who wiped her tears, taught her to ride and protected her.

  Then, months ago, Reese had suggested Montana as a possibility to give Sam “more opportunities.” He’d been there years earlier and talked grandly about the land. It didn’t hurt that there were numerous mining communities to be picked, as well. But until recently, the Sioux and Blackfeet had both been active in the territory. Now that the army was conducting a major campaign against them, he felt this was the time to go. Land was available under the Homestead Act, and it could be supplemented by open range to graze cattle.

  Sam didn’t care about the kind of “opportunities” her godfathers were considering. Marriage was what they meant, and she wasn’t sure that’s what she wanted. Surely a husband would expect her to be like other wives. He would frown on her riding astride and helping Archie doctor folks. She wasn’t reassured by any marriages she’d seen in Gideon’s Hope. Worn women who looked decades older than their real ages waited at home with multiple children while their husbands drank and gambled what little money they had. Hadn’t her mother done just fine on her own after Sam’s father died?

  But maybe, just maybe, Sam could learn more about medicine. The farther Mac was from Colorado, the safer he would be.

  She had dropped her objections then, and they made plans. Reese would take one last round of the mining camps to raise money. She would can the early vegetables they’d grown in the garden. Mac would bring in game and they would smoke it, and Archie would take what gold they’d panned to Denver and get cash for it. They would need it to buy cattle along the way.

  But Archie was beset with rheumatism, and Mac had become restless. He didn’t think anyone would recognize him. He’d grown a beard, and the trip to Denver would be in and out.

  Someone did recognize him, though, and now the marshal threatened everyone she loved. Mac. Archie. Even Reese, who’d been harboring Mac all these years.

  She led the marshal’s roan into the stall. Burley fetched a bucket of water from the well in back, and together they gave him fresh hay.

  “I’ll unsaddle and rub him down,” Burley said, eager to make amends.

  She took the marshal’s saddlebags and bedroll, then stood back. Maybe there would be some clothes in them. She didn’t want to keep seeing his nakedness. It was bad enough that the image lingered in her thoughts. She didn’t like the heat that drove through her when it did.

  Nor the churning in her stomach when he looked at her with those cool, dark blue eyes.

  HAD HE IMAGINED a gentle hand touching him? Even caressing him?

  Cool. It had been a brief moment of relief in his fevered world. Soothing.

  Sarah? He’d thought that for a moment, then remembered. Sarah was gone. Had been gone for years.

  Jared slipped in and out of consciousness. He preferred the darkness to the fire racing through his leg. When he was conscious, he tried to think of anything but the pain.

  The woman. Think of the woman! Must have been her hands he’d felt. He had to learn more about her, and her relationship to the man she called Mac.

  His life depended on it. Maybe she hadn’t intended to kill him, but from everything he’d heard about MacDonald, he couldn’t count on the same from the outlaw.

  He tried to remember what she and the old man said about MacDonald, but the words slipped in and out of his memory. Nothing he’d heard, though, fit the image of the man he was hunting.

  The poster had been in his pocket. Probably a bloody mess now, but he’d been tracking the man on and off for nearly ten years. The man she called MacDonald had been named Thornton when he took part in the stagecoach robbery. Jared had confirmed that when he caught one of the men who’d robbed the coach. The man claimed Thornton was the one who’d shot and killed Emma. He’d hung anyway.

  He’d tracked the man for six months, then lost the trail, although Thornton had never been far from his thoughts. Occasionally over the years he would get a lead, but it never panned out. Someone had thought he’d seen Thornton in a mining town in central Colorado, but that was years ago. Then he’d heard that Thornton had changed his name to MacDonald. Finally, a week ago, a young would-be gun hand heard someone say a wanted outlaw was spotted in Denver. He gathered two friends and went after him. Only one of the three returned.

  It was enough to give Jared a head start. He’d heard that the young gun hand’s father was hiring men to avenge his son’s death. He didn’t think the others knew exactly where Thornton was hiding, but they would figure it out.

  Now he was damned close to the man and couldn’t do a blasted thing about it. Not at the moment anyway.

  Why was a woman living in a nearly deserted ghost town some seventy miles away from the nearest civilization? Young and…intriguing, even in a man’s garb. Had to be Thornton’s mistress. An outlaw’s mistress. A killer’s woman. Or was she simply an outlaw herself? Part of Thornton’s band?

  Sam raised herself. The old man had used his words sparingly.

  But now she was full grown. Without the coat, it was obvious that she’d reached womanhood. Her breasts pressed against her shirt, and there was a long-legged grace in her movements. And her eyes. God, they were remarkable. He wondered how she would look in a dress.

  He tried not to think about the jolt of awareness that had shot between them in the street despite his pain. Nor did he wish to think about the gentleness of her fingers when she was assisting the old man. Efficient but gentle. It was obvious that she had tended wounds before.

  An odd combination for an outlaw. Or an outlaw’s woman.

  He moved slightly. The pain was so excruciating that he wanted to sink back into oblivion. He looked down at his bandaged thigh. The wound felt hot and angry and burned like the furies from hell. The barest movement sent fresh frissons of agony through him.

  He tried to ignore it. He glanced around the small room. The door was closed. His gun? Neither it nor his holster was in sight. A bowl sat on the table, along with a pitcher and cup. Nothing else.

  His throat was parched. He reached for the water, but it was beyond him. With a massive effort he tried to move his legs from the bed to the floor, and the room started to swim. Will. All it would take was will.

  He lowered his legs to the floor, his teeth clenched to keep from crying out. He was so damned weak. A step. Just a step. Water.

  He stood, wavered, then crashed down, his body hitting the bed and knocking over the table. Then everything went black again.

  SAM LEFT Burley unsaddling the horse and carried the marshal’s possessions to the saloon. She thought about opening the door and checking on him, but she hadn’t been gone that long and she wasn’t sure she was up to another encounter with him. She didn’t fear him, but she was wary of the way she reacted to him.

  Instead, she put the saddlebags and bedroll on a table and opened the bedroll first. She wasn’t spying, she assured herself. He needed some clean clothes after all.

  A heavy jacket fell out, along with a rain slicker. Then she looked through the saddlebags. A pair of leg and wrist manacles. They felt hard and cold and ugly in her hands. She car
efully placed them on the table and continued looking. There was a pair of pants, an extra shirt, socks and one set of clean underwear. A container of matches wrapped in oilskin. Then she found a well-worn book by someone named Victor Hugo.

  Books were precious to her. She looked at the title. Reese had never mentioned this one. She put it down and continued her search. Some hardtack and coffee. No photographs or miniatures. No other personal items.

  She folded the clothes and put the manacles back in the saddlebags. They might just need the latter.

  Archie would be up with Mac, just as he had been these past few days. The two usually argued constantly, but they were close friends, and she knew Mac probably would have died had Archie not pushed him into living. And kept pushing.

  She sat down at the table and closed her eyes. Everything hit her then. She had nearly killed a man. If the marshal died of blood poisoning, she would have succeeded. Now she knew what Mac meant about killing. A target was one thing, but a man…that was something else.

  What if he died?

  She shouldn’t care. But hell’s blazes, she did. He had grit for sure. Any other man would have been screaming when Archie poked around for the bullet, then pressed the white-hot knife against the wound.

  And something…something had passed between them for the briefest second as she was cleaning the wound, when his gaze met hers. An awareness that had nothing to do with the fact she’d shot him. It had been like a lightning bolt—and a remnant still burned inside her.

  Dawg came over, rested his big head in her lap and whined in sympathy. She leaned down and put her arms around him, soaking in the comfort he was offering.

  A crash jerked her back to the moment. Dawg’s ears pricked and he ran to the back room.

  She hurried after him and opened the door. She hadn’t locked it, thinking the marshal was far too weak to move. Anyone else would still be unconscious.

  He lay sprawled on the floor. It was obvious he’d tried to stand. Darn fool. His leg was bleeding again. Blood spread across the bandage.

  She heard a noise behind her and spun around. Archie was in the doorway.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “He must have tried to get up.”

  “More trouble than he’s worth,” Archie mumbled.

  She couldn’t have agreed more. Yet there was something about the man—the uncompromising set of his mouth, the hank of dark hair that fell over his forehead.

  He was unconscious. And naked except for a scrap of bloody long johns.

  Archie took one of his arms and she took the other. Together they got him back on the bed. She quickly pulled the sheet over his near-nakedness.

  She averted her eyes, but she couldn’t stop the warmth creeping up her neck. And other places. It’s just the summer heat. It had been warm all day and was particularly so in the small, windowless room.

  “Maybe he needed water,” she said.

  “Damn fool shoulda waited.”

  Archie unwrapped the bandage from his leg and frowned. The burn looked wicked and blood seeped around it. He muttered about wasted effort and damn fools.

  “I’ll make a poultice,” Sam said.

  Archie rewrapped the marshal’s leg.

  He signaled her to go outside. He followed and closed the door behind him. “Best make it two,” he said.

  “Is Mac worse?” she asked.

  “He ain’t no better. He’s having those nightmares again. Some one has to be with him all the time or he might start thrashing about and hurting hisself again. I don’t even want to be gone now, but I heard the crash. You gonna have to see to the marshal yourself.” He paused and looked at the saddlebags on the table. “Anything in ’em?”

  “A shirt and a pair of trousers. Undershirt. Wrist and leg irons. A book.”

  “Get that shirt on ’im. And keep him covered with that sheet. Don’t like him being so naked.”

  “I’ve seen men before,” she said. “You let me help you doctor them.”

  “Mebbe so, but that was then and this is now,” he said grumpily, and looked at Dawg, who was at her heels. “And take Dawg with you. Hound ain’t good for nothing ’cept looking after you.”

  She nodded. She didn’t tell Archie that Dawg had already made an overture to the marshal. It wouldn’t sit well at all.

  “Manacles may come in handy,” Archie continued. “He ain’t going no place now, but we might need them later. He seems like a mighty determined man.” His frown deepened. “I don’t like leaving you with him but Mac needs me. You watch out for yourself.” He took a step toward the stairs, then turned back. “You don’t tell him nothing,” he said. “Nothing at all. If he lives through this, I don’t want him to be able to find us.”

  She nodded, a chill settling in her. She was an outlaw now, too, and she’d made Archie one, as well. She’d shot a marshal and was holding him captive. She swallowed hard. “I’ll let you know if he worsens.”

  Archie gave her a long, measured look. “You might want to put a drop or so of laudanum in the whiskey.”

  She stared at him in surprise. She knew they were running low.

  “It will keep him quiet,” Archie said. “That’s what he needs, and what we need.” She nodded.

  He gave her a sharp look. “We shouldn’t have kept you here, girl.”

  She made a face. “You didn’t keep me. My decision, remember.”

  “Mac should have insisted you go off to one of them fancy schools in Denver,” he grumbled.

  But Mac hadn’t, not when she threatened to jump off the train and come back. She’d gotten all the schooling she needed from Reese and Mac.

  “They would have tried to turn me into a lady.”

  He muttered something inaudible, then sighed heavily. “If he tries anything…”

  She nodded. She was probably safer than Archie would be with the marshal. Archie had never been good with a gun. He could use a whip like it was part of his arm, but he’d never liked guns. He wasn’t a fast draw or, with his fading sight, a good shot.

  “And keep the door locked when you ain’t there. Leave the key under the sack of coffee beans. We don’t want anyone wandering into town and finding him.”

  “Not likely,” she replied.

  “He found his way here,” Archie retorted. “Might be others comin’ behind him.”

  Sam watched him as he moved slowly up the stairs. She found a tin cup and followed him up. He poured several drops of laudanum into it, then she left, hurrying down to the kitchen. She added a little whiskey to disguise the laudanum, then filled the cup with water from the pump.

  The marshal was still unconscious, or seemed to be. She used some water in the pitcher to dampen a cloth, then sat in the chair and wiped the sweat from his face.

  He groaned. His eyes flickered, then opened, and he stared at Sam. A muscle moved at the edge of his throat.

  She studied him for a long moment, noting again the dark, taut skin stretched over high cheekbones, the thick eyebrows framing midnight-blue eyes.

  A hard face with hard eyes. A face that looked as if he didn’t smile much. Or laugh. A sudden empathy filled her, and she had the most ridiculous need to see him smile.

  Remember Mac. Remember why this man came here.

  Their gazes caught, and again she felt something new and powerful spark a response in her body.

  She felt rooted to the floor, though her legs were trembling.

  He tried to move, and a muscle tightened in his neck as he fell back. “I was trying to get some water….”

  “You were on the floor,” she said. “You must have fallen.”

  “Did you get me up…by yourself?”

  “Archie and me.”

  “Where is he?”

  She tried to fight off the intimacy that unexpectedly heated the room. “He had better things to do than nursemaid you.”

  He didn’t reply, but suddenly his body tensed. She knew pain had struck again.

  She offered him a drink f
rom the tin cup. “I put a little whiskey in it,” she said. He took it in his two hands, but they were unsteady and he spilled some despite what seemed to be an intense concentration. She leaned over and steadied his grip. He drank the cup dry.

  She felt his forehead. Hot. He was too hot.

  “Trying to get up was a damn fool thing to do,” she said.

  “Not as foolish…as shooting a marshal,” he shot back.

  “Brave words in your position,” she replied. “I can always finish what I started.”

  He tried to move again and succeeded this time, but only a few inches. He sank back against the pillow and closed his eyes as if he was too tired to keep them open. The attempt to stand had taken everything left in him.

  His breathing was ragged, then calmed. The whiskey was getting to him, or maybe that drop of laudanum.

  She pulled up a chair and sat down. She would wait until she was sure he was asleep. Then she had much to do. They had to be ready to leave as soon as Mac could travel.

  But all she could focus on was the figure in the bed, the face tight with pain even in the drugged sleep. She wondered whether those midnight eyes would haunt her forever.

  5

  TWO DAYS WENT BY in a blur.

  On the third day, Sam woke and looked out the window to see pouring rain. At least it should lower the abnormally high temperatures that had tormented both injured men.

  She stretched. She’d spent all her time lately caring for the marshal and making preparations to leave Gideon’s Hope as soon as Mac was well enough to ride. That meant cutting what meat they had into long strips and smoking it. She also used much of their remaining flour to make hardtack, a laborious process that produced a tasteless cracker. But hardtack didn’t spoil and lasted forever. It was perfect for a long journey where fuel for the body was more important than taste.

  She also started a stew from a venison roast, using carrots and potatoes and a number of herbs.

  But uppermost in her mind were the two injured men. Archie stayed with Mac and, except for brief inspections and help with the chamber pot, he left the marshal’s care up to her. The marshal was still weak from loss of blood and still in a great deal of pain. The laudanum she’d been slipping him helped him sleep, but he had a fever that worried her. Several times, she’d heard him call for someone named Sarah. She wondered if that was the name he’d called that first night. She couldn’t help but wonder who Sarah was.