In a Cowboy’s Arms

by Janette Kenny

  “I couldn’t decide if marrying Lester was the right thing to do,” Daisy said, and avoided meeting his eyes. “By the time I knew what I wanted, winter hit and snowed me in.”

  That sounded fine on the surface, for he’d been stranded here as well. She’d gone back to wherever she’d called home, thought things over, and then returned to marry her beau. But Lester was dead, shot down by a young outlaw who was trigger-happy.

  He reckoned it was better it happened now than after they’d married, leaving Daisy a young widow, perhaps with a baby. Yet Daisy didn’t seem all that brokenhearted over Lester’s death. In fact, she appeared more worried than anything.

  “You never did say where you were raised,” Dade said to break the awful silence.

  Daisy fidgeted just enough to make him think she was uncomfortable talking about that. “A mining town west of the divide.”

  “This town have a name?” he asked.

  She looked away. Swallowed. “Burland.”

  He’d heard of it. A couple of men had swindled claimsout of many a miner, ending up rich while the rest of the miners went broke. Considering the way she was dressed, he had a feeling she’d been raised in one of the rich households.

  So why marry a poor small town sheriff when she could likely have her pick of gentlemen? Now that Lester Emery was gone, why stay here with a brother she didn’t remember?

  “Will you return to Burland now?” Mrs. Gant asked.

  Daisy’s narrow shoulders went stiff. “There’s nothing left for me there.”

  Mrs. Gant tsked. “Then you should stay right here with your brother. That’ll give you both time to get to know each other again.”

  “Thank you,” Daisy said, her smile as thin as Dade’s waning patience.

  He ground his teeth. She wasn’t sticking around because she wanted to get close to her brother again. Nope, she had nowhere else to go. That wasn’t a kick in the shins but it came damned close.

  His little sister had been a delicate, fragile child who’d clung to him. She’d been unbelievably shy and prone to tears. But the Daisy before him seemed to have developed the grit to take off on her own across the Great Divide.

  She also possessed an alluring womanly charm that called to some need deep inside him. Hell, if he wasn’t her brother he’d have been drawn to her.

  He shook off those disquieting thoughts and focused on the problem at hand. He still didn’t know what type of folks had taken in his sister and raised her.

  Not that it mattered. She had him to protect her now, just like he’d sworn he’d do twenty odd years ago.

  If she’d let him. Right now that didn’t seem too likely.

  Dade blew out a weary breath. For damn sure he had his work cut out for him gaining her trust.

  Maggie Sutten read the determination in Dade Logan’s brown eyes and knew with a sinking heart that she had landed smack dab between a rock and a hard place.

  She’d had no idea that Daisy had a brother. A brother who was waiting here in Placid for her to return. A brother who’d spent years trying to find his sister.

  Heavens to Betsy! Now he believed he’d done just that. Could things get any worse?

  They surely would if Whit Ramsey found her.

  However, for now she’d do well to play along with Dade Logan. That was the best way she could hide from Whit until she decided what to do next.

  Yes, Whit would turn over every rock in Colorado looking for Maggie Sutten. He’d never dream she’d assumed another name and be living with a man.

  And there was the advantage that Dade was a lawman. Though in truth she didn’t think that would stop Whit from taking her.

  A chill passed through her at the thought.

  “Are you cold, dear?” Mrs. Gant asked.

  “Just a case of nerves,” she said. “It’s a lot to take in at once.”

  Dade tucked his hands under his armpits and eyed her, and for an instant she feared he could look clean through her and see she was spinning a mile-long yarn. “You end up with a good family?”

  Painful memories of the first family who’d taken her in threatened to torment her, so she blocked them from her mind and focused on the Nowells instead. “They treated me well enough, though it was clear I was just the companion to their crippled daughter.”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized Mrs. Gant had put two and two together. “I had no idea that Eloisa Reynard was your foster sister.”

  Maggie forced a smile, for nobody here knew that Eloisa was in fact Caroline Nowell, the “Silver King’s” daughter. “We thought of ourselves as best friends.”

  “You were fortunate,” Dade said.

  If only he knew the truth! But that was a secret she had to keep. Just like she had to keep up the pretense of being Daisy Logan.

  “Eloisa was a delight, and that made living there enjoyable,” she said, and that was the honest-to-God truth.

  The hell didn’t come into play until her foster father had to pay up what he owed, and Whit Ramsey refused to honor the agreement of taking Harlan Nowell’s crippled daughter’s hand in marriage.

  According to him, Whit Ramsey wanted Maggie.

  If Whit had been a decent man and courted her, she might have considered his suit. But he was an overbearing snob and a lothario to boot.

  She refused to marry him, but Harlan Nowell informed her she had no choice. She owed him for taking her in.

  Maggie detested Nowell, and she didn’t have much more regard for his wife. But she loved her foster sister and had hesitated over abandoning her.

  “You can’t marry him,” Caroline had said after the last argument Maggie had had with Harlan Nowell. “Leave. Go far from here and never look back.”

  “I’m afraid what will happen to you,” Maggie had said.

  Caroline had laughed. “I’ll grow old alone. No man wants to get saddled with a cripple.”

  “Never say never.”

  The long winter had proved true Maggie’s suspicions about Whit Ramsey. He came to visit often though he usually ended up secluded in the library with Nowell, but even on those rare occasions when he stayed for supper hepaid Caroline no attention at all. In fact, he’d often make some excuse and leave the room when she entered in her wheelchair.

  So Maggie and Caroline planned out what she should do. Which, given the fact she’d told Lester she’d return to Placid, pretty much set the stage.

  In the meantime, she went along with Harlan Nowell’s plans for a big wedding this spring and suffered Whit’s attentions.

  The second the weather cleared and she found a chance, she ran away–ran here to Lester. Even then she’d backtracked and paid a painted lady to use her real name and take the train west. For if Whit got wind that Maggie Sutten was here, he’d come after her.

  “You said there was nothing left for you in Burland,” Dade said, bracing a shoulder against the doorjamb. He gave the impression that he was relaxing and exchanging idle chitchat, but Maggie wasn’t fooled.

  He was fishing.

  “That’s right,” she said, and summoned up a sniffle.

  “What happened to your foster family?” Dade asked.

  “They came down sick with a fever over the winter,” Maggie said, thinking that was the easiest way to keep her lies from getting too tangled. “Father survived it. Mother didn’t.”

  Mrs. Gant made appropriate sounds of distress. “Did dear Eloisa pass over too?”

  “No!” The thought of Caroline dying made Maggie sick, though as it had turned out she’d lost the only friend she’d had anyway. “No, her father sent her east to live with an aunt and receive treatment at a hospital.”

  Another lie, but again it’d divert attention away from Burland, the Nowells, and Whit Ramsey.

  Mrs. Gant embraced her in a smothering hug again, and Maggie was just too weary to resist. “You poor dear, losing most of your foster family and your beau.”

  “It’s been a trial,” she said, and felt tears sting her e
yes over Lester’s death.

  She’d genuinely liked him. But on the train ride here she’d finally decided she couldn’t marry a man she didn’t love. Not Lester Emery. And surely not Whit Ramsey.

  “Now then I’m going upstairs and get your old room ready.” Mrs. Gant smiled at them, and Maggie noted the moisture in the older woman’s eyes. “For the first time in years this house will have a real family living in it.”

  Maggie forced a smile and hated that she lied to this kind woman who seemed hungry for family. As for Dade … Well, if lying sent a person to hell she was halfway there.

  “I’d about given up hope of finding you,” Dade said after Mrs. Gant took herself off, his voice going rough with emotion.

  Maggie squirmed, truly bitten by guilt. “I’m sorry I don’t remember you.”

  Sorry she didn’t know what had happened to Daisy. And sorry that she was going to destroy his dream of a family without any explanation. But she couldn’t keep up this charade.

  She couldn’t get too close to Dade Logan either.

  The man was simply too big and too discerning for her peace of mind. And if she was honest, he stirred feelings in her that were best left sleeping. Feelings a woman would never feel for her brother. Feelings that would surely give her lie away.

  No, she didn’t dare get too close or too comfortable around Dade Logan.

  As much as she wished otherwise, she couldn’t remain here long either. Harlan Nowell would come looking forher, and he might do worse than drag her back to Burland and marry her to Whit Ramsey.

  A chill tripped down her spine at the thought of being sold off like cattle. There had to be a trustworthy man she could confide in, a man who’d help her escape Whit Ramsey for good.

  Her gaze flicked to the tall imposing man beside her. Dade Logan?

  Those clear brown eyes of his had seen a world of trouble. According to Mrs. Gant’s tale, he knew how to use that gun strapped low on his hip.

  Yes, he was the type of man who’d risk his life to save his sister. But she wasn’t his kin. She couldn’t intentionally make him a target for Harlan Nowell’s wrath.

  For a few days she’d be safe here in Mrs. Gant’s boardinghouse. She could plan what to do. After she’d gained Dade Logan’s trust and he let down his guard, she’d make her escape.

  It was the only way. She knew Harlan Nowell was in a bind. He needed her to satisfy a debt, and he’d move heaven and hell to bring her back.

  Or silence her.

  Chapter 2

  Dade sat at his desk, crossed boots stacked on the edge and fingers twined at his nape. He’d left the boarding-house an hour ago so Daisy could settle in and he could make his rounds. Now he had nothing to do but watch time crawl by, hope trouble didn’t gallop into town, and think about Daisy.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose and heaved a groan. Finding his sister should’ve eased the worry that had nagged him for years. Instead, he was more restless than before.

  The door swung open, and his gaze shot to the door. Damn, he’d been so lost in thought he hadn’t heard footsteps on the boardwalk.

  Nor would he have, he realized as the former U.S. Army scout stepped inside the jail and closed the door without making a sound. Dade still couldn’t believe Duane Tenfeather could move like smoke and catch him by surprise every time.

  “How is your sister?” Duane asked, likely having heard about Daisy’s arrival from Raymond.

  “She doesn’t remember me.”

  Duane straddled a chair and crossed his arms on the back. “You told me she was very young when she was taken away.”

  He snorted. “I can remember back that far.” And he wished to hell he didn’t, for that brought to life dark memories of his pa abusing his ma that he’d just as soon forget.

  “So she will come to know you in time, and maybe then her memory will return.”

  “Maybe.” But he wasn’t holding out much hope that Daisy would mellow toward him anytime soon.

  “You will stay here as sheriff then?” Duane asked.

  Dade shrugged. “Reckon so.”

  He didn’t have the money to buy a farm. Didn’t have a home to take Daisy to anymore, thanks to his foster brother selling him and Trey out.

  “What about that ranch in Wyoming?” Duane asked.

  He rolled his shoulders where the old tension tended to pull tighter than bowstrings. “I’ve no claim on it now.”

  If he’d gone to the Crown Seven before last Christmas, he could’ve claimed his rightful shares and had it out with Reid Barclay once and for all. But he’d stayed here too long waiting for Daisy to arrive and ended up snowed in.

  “You could fight for your shares,” Duane said.

  His mouth quirked to one side. “It’d be that all right.”

  But he wasn’t about to drag Daisy along with him, and he wasn’t willing to leave her here while he headed off to Wyoming.

  It wasn’t that he thought she needed protecting. But she had that jumpy look about her like she was running from something.

  Yep, if he left her to her wiles now, he feared she’d skedaddle and he’d have the Devil’s time finding her again. It was just dumb luck that he’d stayed put long enough for her path to cross his this time.

  “You are going to give up on it then?” Duane asked, his one good eye fixed on him.

  Dade rocked forward, boots hitting the floor and forearms slapping the desktop. “You trying to get rid of me?”

  Duane smiled, his teeth stark white against his dark copper skin. “I know you don’t want to be the sheriff.”

  “And you do?”

  Duane rolled his muscular shoulders. “It beats working in my father’s livery.”

  “Is this what you had in mind to do when you mustered out of the cavalry?”

  “Yes.” He downed his head. “I’d lost an eye in battle and the desire to keep fighting my own people. I wanted to come home to heal. Find a good woman and raise children.”

  Dade wanted the same someday, but that dream just kept getting pushed farther away for him. A good woman wouldn’t want to hitch her wagon to a man who didn’t have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of. A man whose kin were notorious outlaws.

  Staying in this sleepy town was his best bet right now. Daisy and he could live comfortably in Mrs. Gant’s boardinghouse. He could remain on as sheriff, watching over the town and his sister. And if Daisy refused to stay here?

  Well, he just might follow her because there was nothing to hold him here but his promise to protect this town. Duane could take over the job. If he could still handle a gun.

  “How’s your aim?” he asked.

  “I haven’t tested myself since I was wounded,” Duane said.

  “Let’s make a point to do that one day,” he said, and Duane gave him a broader smile and a nod in answer.

  Duane got to his feet and towered over the room. “Give your sister time to get used to having a brother, and don’t be too bossy with her. Siblings don’t like it.”

  “I’ll bear that in mind.”

  The door swung open and a wooly haired boy poked his head inside. “Sheriff Logan! I bought a bag of penny candy–” The boy gaped at his big brother. “Duane, I didn’t know you were here.”

  “I was just fixing to leave,” he said. “How did you afford candy?”

  Raymond gulped. “The sheriff gave me a reward for finding the pretty lady named Daisy.”

  “Well, now, that’s good work, little brother.”

  Raymond smiled nervously as he moved toward Duane. “Are you going to tell pa?”

  He ruffled Raymond’s mop of curly hair and dredged a smile from the boy. “Nope. That’s for you to do. Don’t bother Dade too long now, you hear?” Duane said as he headed out the door.

  “I won’t stay long,” Raymond promised, and Dade knew he’d be good to his word.

  Raymond took a few shuffling steps toward his desk, his gaze fixed on Dade. “She’s sure a pretty lady.”

 
; “That she is.”

  “You sweet on her?”

  “Not like you’re thinking,” Dade said, refusing to acknowledge that odd pull he’d felt for Daisy when he first saw her. “She’s my sister.”

  Raymond’s eyes went wide. “She is?”

  “Yep.”

  The boy leaned on Dade’s desk and stared up at him. “I got a sister too. And a brother. You got a brother?”

  He hid a wince. “Two of them.”

  “Are they with your ma and pa?”

  Dade shook his head, not wanting to go into the details of his sorry life with the boy, but looking into those wide dark eyes told him he’d have to say something. “Our ma died when Daisy was a baby.”

  The boy frowned like he was deep in thought. “Did you cry?”

  “Yeah.” Dade scrubbed his knuckles along his jaw, having admitted that to two people in his life–Reid and Trey.

  “I would’ve too. I can’t imagine not having Ma around,” Raymond said.

  Neither had Dade been able to imagine it. In fact, the world he’d known ended the day his ma died.

  Not long after his pa had brought a woman into the house to tend to Daisy and him–their new ma, his pa had told him. But she hadn’t taken care of the house or them like his ma had. Pa started spending less time on the farm chores and more time alone with the woman.

  Dade never knew if they’d tied the knot, but she held sway over his pa all the same. He’d never forget the day he overheard the woman suggest that his pa get rid of the brats and head out west.

  Lying in the loft on his cot, Dade hadn’t believed his pa would do such a thing. But he had without batting an eye.

  “What about your pa?” Raymond asked.

  He flicked a quick glance at the wanted posters and felt that old slow burn in his gut flare to life. “Don’t rightly know what happened to him.” Didn’t rightly care either.

  At the time, Dade had hated his pa for putting him in the orphanage, and hated those in charge for taking Daisy away. But he had fared better in the long run.

  Reid, Trey, and he had formed a bond tighter than brothers. But the saving grace came to their lives when Kirby Morris took them in and made men out of them. He’d been a good father figure. He’d made them a family.