Authors: Sheriff McBride
This morning he was willing to forgo the law and travel south of the border to live with her, so why did the thought of moving to Ohio tug at his heart? Adam bent down to devour her lips, thinking a kiss would give him time to think. He was wrong. As soon as their lips merged, his mind began to swirl with thoughts of how tempting her body was, how he wanted to do more than kiss her. So much more.
When the kiss ended, he still didn’t have an answer to her question. Instead he said, “I’ll stop and ask Margaret Sommers to come down to the house.”
Hannah clung to his frame. He’d never felt anything as delightful as her touch. “Who?” she murmured.
“Margaret Sommers,” he repeated. “She owns the dress shop, and I’m sure she has a ready made dress that will make a perfect wedding gown.”
She jolted backward, pressed both hands to her cheeks. “Oh, thank you.” She turned to glance around the parlor. “I’ll have to run across the street to pick a few flowers from the town garden. And I’ll have to bake a cake and make some other refreshments for the guests.” Glassy eyed, she twirled around. “There will be guests, won’t there?”
Happier than imaginable, he laughed. “Yes, there will be guests. But I wouldn’t worry about the cake or refreshments, I’m sure Birdie’s been cooking all morning.”
From the doorway Birdie agreed, “Yes, I have. The guests have already been invited and Margaret should be here anytime now.”
Hannah’s face scrunched into a perplexed frown.
He chuckled again. “I kind of told Birdie to plan a wedding for tonight when I came to see you this morning.”
“More like he shouted it over the gate as he leaped on his horse to take out after you,” Birdie said as she walked into the room. “Now, young man, you get out of here. Go get your self all duded up.”
Adam kissed Hannah one more time before he left the boarding house. A serious kiss that said he’d soon be back for more. His steps light, his heart full, he strolled down the boardwalk of Blue Spring. A nagging thought tugged at his mind, saying he wouldn’t be happy living any where else, but he ignored it, told himself he’d be happy anywhere, as long as Hannah was with him.
An eerie feeling chased all thoughts from his mind, the good and the bad ones, as he walked into his office. The space seemed empty. Too empty. He swung around, stared at the jail bars.
An open door and empty cell stared back at him. “Damn it!” He quickly scanned the area, looking for any clues that would tell him the whereabouts of Nathaniel Kingston.
His gaze stopped on the front door. Abigail Christenson stood in the open area. His temples began to pound.
“Yoo-hoo, Sheriff,” she said with a nervous quiver.
“I don’t have time for your nonsense right now, Abigail.” He glanced back to the cell. “I have an escaped prisoner to search down.”
She stepped into the room. “Well, about that…”
A river of shivers rippled his body. “Do you know something about that, Abigail?” He didn’t even attempt to hide the contempt from his voice.
“Well, Sheriff. He is a millionaire. You can’t put a rich man in jail.”
He gritted his teeth. “Rich or poor, a criminal is a criminal.” His fingers itched to throttle the woman. “Do you know where he is?”
“Well,” she twisted her hands together. “When I let him out—”
“When you let him out?” His head was ready to explode.
She took a step back.
He searched his pockets, clearly remembering he took the keys to the cell with him. After pulling the ring from his pocket, he wiggled them before her eyes, made the metal slap together to play a ringing sound.
She puckered her lips. “Like half the town doesn’t know there is an extra key in that notch in the bottom of your desk drawer?”
Throttling wouldn’t be enough. He’d have to hang her. “Where is he?”
“Well, now that’s hard to say,” she admitted.
“Try!”
“When I let him out he said he needed to send a telegraph to Ohio. He swore it would clear his name and settle the misunderstanding.”
“So, is he’s at the telegraph office?”
She shook her head.
He could almost see the rope around her skinny neck. “Then where is he?”
She sucked in a deep breath before she let it out while mewing, “I really don’t know.”
“How long has he been gone?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “A couple of hours?”
“Damn it, Abigail!”
“Well, it’s not all my fault. If you weren’t so stubborn and had a deputy to help you, then he would have been here and this would never have happened. I think I shall have to petition the city council, insist they hire a deputy.”
Dumbfounded, he stared at the woman for a split second. “You know what Abigail? I think that is the first sensible thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
A smile formed on her face.
He shook his head. “I do need a deputy—to keep idiots like you out of my office.”
“Well, I never.” She stomped her foot, twisted about to run up the street.
He followed her out the door, looking for the first available male figure. “Kent!” he hollered at the man walking down the boardwalk. “Tell Evan I need him, and then go tell Jake as well as any other man who’s willing to ride posse.”
“Right away, Sheriff!” the man answered as he picked up his steps, belittling the fact he was well past the age of sixty.
****
Hannah wore little more than her shift when she heard the roaring sound of thundering hoofs. She brushed aside Margaret’s measuring tape and rushed to the window. A large group of men galloped down the street. Adam rode the lead horse. She stuck her head out the window.
“Hey McBride, where are you going?”
He waved the rest of the group to continue forward and reined his horse to a stop. Her heart hit the floor.
A person never forgets the sight of a posse
. She pulled her head in, and without bothering to grab a wrap, ran to the door then down the stairs.
Adam met her at the bottom step. A worried frown covered his face.
“Adam?” she questioned.
He took her hands as his eyes roamed her scantly covered body. “I have to ride posse. But don’t fear. Nothing will keep me from attending the wedding.”
“Ride posse?”
“Yes, I’m afraid we had a prison escape.”
Her throat grew tight. “Nathaniel?”
He nodded.
“Oh, Adam.” She wrapped both arms around his torso.
“Don’t fret now.” He hugged her for the briefest of moments before his hands moved to pat her back. “Promise me you’ll stay in the house. I don’t believe he’s still in town, but I don’t want you to take any chances.”
It was hard, but she managed to give him a slight nod.
“I’ve commissioned a couple of men to stand guard at the front and back doors. So don’t be frightened if you see them.”
She tried to nod again, held the sob burning her throat. He bent and covered her mouth with a hard, hot kiss, and then in a blink of an eye, he was gone. She stood still, listening to the fading clops of his galloping horse. Is this what it will be like being married to a lawman? Listening to him ride into danger on a daily basis? Pressing a trembling hand to her thudding chest, she sank to the bottom step of the stairway.
****
Picking up Kingston’s trail was easy, the man stayed on the main road, pushed his mount hard. Adam set the pace for the posse, riding their horses steady, but easy, so not to wind them. It wasn’t long before they came upon a dead horse.
“That was one of my best mounts!” Fred Alfreds, the livery owner, said as he climbed down to investigate the carcass. An appalled look filled his face as he looked up. “He rode it to death, Adam.”
“He can’t be much further,” Adam said, glancing around. Brown, flat ground stretched out in every direction until it met the cloud dotted sky. The Kansas prairie provided little to no shelter or hiding spots. But you never know where there might be a small gulley amongst the high grasses. “Keep your eyes peeled.”
The dozen men with him nodded then spread out a little further, covering more of the area as they heeled their horses forward. He wasn’t too afraid of an ambush. Kingston didn’t seem to be too smart in that sense, but he was wily, the information Evan had gathered had proven that.
A mile or so up the road they reined the horses in at Juan Perez’s place. Juan and his wife stepped off the porch before the dirt settled. “Sheriff, man stole Sebastian,” Juan said in broken English.
Adam knew Sebastian was the Perez’s prime stallion. “When?”
Juan shrugged, glanced to his wife, Lupe. “I not here.”
“Which way did he go?”
Lupe pointed north.
Adam swung his gelding around and spurred it into a gallop. Kingston wasn’t the smartest—he still traveled on the main road.
They were no more than half a mile from the Perez place when Sebastian came thundering down the road. The horse was rider-less and making a beeline for home. The posse separated, let the animal pass without disruption.
“Spread out,” he waved both hands to the posse. “Watch the tall grass, he’s not far away.”
A short time later a shot rang out. Men all around him drew their guns. “Hold up!” Adam shouted and scanned where the shot had come from. He blinked against disbelief. The man was an imbecile.
Covered from head to toe in dust and holding a small derringer, Nathaniel Kingston stepped onto the road in front of them. Did the man really think he could hold off a posse with a derringer? The gun didn’t project a bullet more than eight feet. “Put it down, Kingston!” he shouted for good measure.
“I demand you give me one of your horses!” Kinston waved the little gun about. “Then wait right here until I’m out of sight!”
Half of the posse broke out in laughter.
Adam sent them a scowl. When they controlled their mirth, he leaned forward, crossed one arm over his saddle horn. “No one is going to give you a horse, Kingston. Put the gun down.”
“You have no reason to be pursing me, Sheriff, I did nothing wrong. Even as we speak there is a lawyer traveling from Ohio to set everything straight.” Nathaniel pointed the weapon directly at Adam.
He didn’t even flinch. “I’m afraid your wrong, Kingston. I can now add horse theft to your list of crimes.”
“I bought that horse, fair and square, ask that man.” Kingston pointed at Fred Alfords.
Adam glanced toward the man.
Fred nodded, a disgruntled frown twisted his wide jaw. “He did pay for the horse.”
Adam rolled his eyes to the sky. “Maybe the first one, but I know Juan didn’t sell Sebastian.”
“If you are referring to that devil that threw me, you can’t prove anything. The horse is no longer in my possession.”
Adam shook his head, wondering how a man so stupid ever lived past twenty. “I have all the proof I need, now put the gun down.”
“Never! I’ll go down in a blaze of glory first!” Kingston shouted.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Adam muttered. Years of practice gave him the skill to draw his gun and fire before another second clicked by. The derringer flew out of Kingston’s hand, leaving the man staring at his empty fingers.
Chapter Nine
Dressed from head to toe in cream-colored silk that was softer than a baby chick, Hannah exited her room. The sun was just starting to set, highlighting the fact it would soon be evening. Trying to keep her frazzled nerves in check, she pressed a hand to her churning stomach and walked down the stairs. At the bottom, she turned toward the parlor.
The boys, Tom and Joe, sat on the small divan. Most people couldn’t tell one from the other. Their dark hair, brown eyes, and gangly bodies were very similar, but she had always been able to tell them apart. Even though they were identical twins, she could see the slight differences in their features and in the twenty-one years they had been confusing people, they’d never fooled her. She tried to pull her lips up in a smile as they stood and waited for her to enter the room. Drawing in a deep breath, she moved forward. “Hello.”
“Hannah, is it true? Are you really marrying the Sheriff?” Tom asked before she was even through the doorway.
“Does he know about you? About us?” Joe glanced about the room as if he was expecting to be arrested at any moment.
“Sit down, boys. There are some things I need to tell you about.”
“Our bossman said you’re marrying his brother, the sheriff. Is it true?” Tom asked again.
She waited until she had sat down on the chair then nodded while motioning for them to be seated again. “Yes, it’s true.”
“Hannah!” Joe exclaimed.
“He knows about us. He knows everything.” She tried to sound reassuring.
They both groaned.
“Don’t worry; he’s going to see the charges against all of us are dropped.”
Their heads snapped up. “How?” they asked in unison.
“It’s a long story.”
“Then talk fast,” Joe suggested.
At that she did want to smile—would have if she wasn’t worried sick over the fact Adam and the posse hadn’t returned to town yet. Her mind tried to conjure up a million terrible thoughts of what might have happened to him, but she refused to let them come through. Refused to believe he could be injured. “All right, I’ll talk fast,” she answered. “Adam arrested Nathaniel—”
“Kingston’s here too? Holy shit!” Tom removed his hat, slapped it against his bent knee.
“He arrested Kingston?” Joe’s eyes were as wide as sausages.
“I think you need to talk faster,” Tom said.
“I would if you two would shush up and let me.” She glanced from one to the other.
They both shrugged, Tom motioned for her to go on.
“Well, like I started to say, he arrested Nathaniel and in the process found out that Buford is Nathaniel’s cousin. So is Sheriff Acer.”
“No!” Joe gasped.
“Yup. And it turns out my grandmother on my mother’s side left a will that say’s I inherit all of her holdings when I get married. So that’s why Nathaniel wanted to marry me so badly.”
“Figures it would be on your mother’s side, since we are on your father’s side,” Tom said.
“I always said there was something more going on with Kingston.” Joe slapped his knee, and then turned red as he said, “Not that you aren’t a right fine gal, cuz. Everyone always said you were the prettiest thing in Paradise.” He slapped Tom’s arm. “We were always having to fight the boys off you, weren’t we Tom?”