Lane had managed to pick up the gang’s trail just out of town, and for the next day and a half, he stayed after them as they headed for the Circle D Ranch. Based on what Dolly had told him, he’d assumed they would ride to the ranch together, and then Cooper and the other men would move on while Seth settled in and took over running the place. So Lane was surprised and troubled when on the afternoon of his second day of tracking them, their trails split up. One lone rider continued on toward the ranch while the rest of the gang headed north.
The discovery left him deeply troubled. Lane knew he was on the right trail. He knew he could follow Seth and easily catch up with the outlaw before he reached the ranch. Then he could wait at the ranch for the rest of the gang to show up. But he also knew he was only a day or so behind the main body of the gang. He was close to catching the killer Dan Cooper and the rest of his men, and if he could bring them in…
Lane stared off after Seth’s trail for a long moment, trying to decide what to do. He wanted to arrest them all, but he couldn’t be in two places at once. Since they had gone in different directions, Lane thought it likely that the gang might be getting ready to hold up another stage or rob another bank, which meant more innocent people might be killed.
That final realization made the decision for Lane, and he forgot about tracking down Seth.
Lane went after Dan Cooper and his gunmen.
It wouldn’t be easy bringing down the four outlaws on his own, but Lane was confident he could find a way. Once he’d taken care of them, he would go after Seth Rawlins.
Lane followed the gang’s trail until dark and then was up before dawn the next day, eager to close in on them. He was convinced that nothing was going to stop him from catching up with Cooper. Then, around mid-morning, he saw black, roiling storm clouds coming in from the northwest. The storm was going to be a bad one, and Lane grew angry. He urged his horse to an even faster pace, hoping he could spot the gang in the distance, but his luck had run out. The storm struck swiftly and savagely. The harsh, torrential rains lasted for several hours and scoured the land. When, at last, the rain stopped, Lane rode out again, but he could find no trace of the gang’s trail.
Frustration filled him. He wanted to keep searching in hopes that he might find some clue to the direction they were headed, but after several hours, he gave up. There was only one thing left for him to do—he was going after Seth Rawlins, and he would be ready and waiting at the Circle D when Cooper and his men showed up.
Seth was feeling real good as he stretched out next to his small campfire and took a deep drink from the flask of whiskey he carried with him. After parting from Dan, he’d slowed his pace and had taken his time. He’d wanted to relax for a while and enjoy not having anything to do for a few days before showing up at the Circle D. Now, though, he was getting close, and after one more day of travel he’d be at ‘his’ ranch.
Seth couldn’t help chuckling as he took another drink. Living the ranching life was going to be a lot different from what he was used to, but he wasn’t sorry for the change. The law had been closing in on the gang lately, so he believed Dan had been right to come up with this plan. Everything was going to work out just fine as long as he made sure from the very beginning that his ranch hands knew not to cross their new boss. If any of them gave him any trouble, well, he’d make sure they paid the price.
Up until that night, Seth hadn’t given much thought to the mail-order bride he’d sent for right before leaving Black Rock. Now as he lay alone in the night, he let himself consider that soon he was going to be a married man. He grinned at the thought. He wasn’t sure just how long it would take the woman to show up, but he knew he was going to enjoy having a willing female around whenever he was in the mood. And not having to pay for his pleasure anymore was going to be mighty nice.
Seth’s only concern was that his soon-to-be bride might be ugly. Even as he thought about it, though, he knew he could always turn out the lamp in the bedroom before he took her, and he could stay away from her during the day, working stock, so he wouldn’t have to look at her. And even if she did turn out to be homely, her cooking had to be better than what he’d been living with these last years. All in all, he was actually looking forward to starting up his new life on the Circle D.
Again he chuckled, thinking of himself as a married man getting a home-cooked meal every night.
It was then that a deep, harsh voice resounded through the night.
“You’re laughing, Rawlins. Do you think something’s funny?”
Seth was shocked. He hadn’t heard anyone ride up on him! He started to draw his gun, but a shot rang out, kicking up dirt right next to where he was lying. He froze.
“Try that again and you’re a dead man,” the voice stated coldly.
Seth was shaking as he stared into the darkness in the direction of the man’s voice. As he watched, a man holding his gun on him stepped forward, and in the low light of the campfire, he could see the glint of the Texas Ranger’s badge pinned on the stranger’s shirt.
Lane kept his gun trained on the outlaw as he stared down at him. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”
Seth knew he was in big trouble, and he knew he had to make a break for it. There was no way he could let this Ranger capture him. “What can I do for you, Ranger?”
“I’m taking you in, Rawlins.”
“Like hell you are!” Seth erupted. In a frenzied move, he threw his whiskey flask at the Ranger, hoping to distract him so he could go for his gun.
Lane had known the man wouldn’t give himself up easily. He had been expecting trouble, and he was ready when Rawlins threw the flask. Lane dodged it and dove for cover, returning fire just as Rawlins got off a shot. Lane watched as the gunman collapsed and lay unmoving on the ground beside the campfire.
Lane got up and approached warily. He kicked the outlaw’s gun aside before turning him over to check his wound. He’d known the gunman wouldn’t go down without a fight, but he’d hoped to take him alive so he could learn more about the gang’s plans.
The fight hadn’t played out that way, though.
His shot had proven true. Seth Rawlins wouldn’t be riding with Dan Cooper’s gang anymore.
It wasn’t often Lane regretted being such a good shot, but tonight he did.
After burying Rawlins in an unmarked grave near the campsite, Lane took the time to go through the outlaw’s gear. He’d hoped to find something that would give him a clue as to what Cooper’s plans were, but he came up with nothing. The only thing he did find was a hefty stash of money. He didn’t know where the cash had come from, but he knew it would help him with what he had to do next. The folks on the Circle D were expecting their new owner to show up, so he was going to take Seth’s place and be ready and waiting for Cooper and his gang of killers when they rode in.
As dawn brightened the eastern sky, Lane took off his Ranger badge and hid it safely in his saddlebags. He was thankful now that no one on the ranch had met Seth before, and he hoped he would be able to make this work.
Lane put out the fire and then turned Seth’s horse loose. He mounted up and rode out, hoping to make it to the ranch some time late that afternoon.
Lane’s mood was tense as he faced the challenge that awaited him. It wasn’t going to be easy, pretending to be the other man while he waited for the day when the rest of the gunmen showed up, but, then, there wasn’t much about being a Ranger that was easy.
At that thought, Lane managed a half-smile.
These next few weeks were going to be interesting.
That was for sure.
“Well, Rebecca, aren’t you excited that we’re finally on our way to Texas?” middle-aged spinster Gertrude McAllister asked Rebecca Lawrence, the young mailorder bride sitting beside her on the train during this first leg of their journey to Texas. She was Rebecca’s official chaperone and escort to the town of Bluff Springs, Texas, where Rebecca’s future husband, Seth Rawlins, was waiting.
“Oh, yes, ma’am. I’m very excited.” Destiny smiled at the older woman.
Destiny hoped she sounded convincing, for ‘excited’ was hardly the word she would have used to describe the truth of her emotions at that moment. Fear filled her, but she couldn’t let it show.
No one could know that she wasn’t the mail-order bride Rebecca Lawrence.
No one could know that she had taken the place of the real Rebecca, an acquaintance of Sylvia’s who had gotten cold feet the day before she was scheduled to travel to Texas to marry a complete stranger.
No one could know that she was running away from the terror that her real life had become.
So far, she’d managed to be convincing in her new role. She just hoped she could keep it up. She’d never thought of herself as an actress, but she knew her very survival depended upon it now.
“I’m sure this future husband of yours, this—” Gertrude quickly pulled the paperwork out of her small traveling bag and checked the man’s name again. “This Seth Rawlins is going to be thrilled to see you. It’s just a shame that it’s going to take us so long to get to Bluff Springs. The next two weeks of travel are going to be hard, but I’m sure it will all be worth it once we get there. Why, you’re going to be a rancher’s wife when all is said and done.”
“I know, and I’m going to have a lot to learn,” Destiny said.
“You seem like a very smart young woman. You’ll do just fine.”
“I hope so.”
“If you’re brave enough to travel all this way to marry a man you’ve never met, I think learning how to live on a ranch will prove very simple for you.” Gertrude understood why so many young women were going West to find husbands these days. She’d heard not too long ago that the men outnumbered the women twelve to one in a lot of the towns. It was no wonder some of the men sent back East for wives. A number of companies matching prospective grooms with mail-order brides had sprung up. The one Gertrude worked for even provided chaperones for the women traveling west.
“It will be different, that’s for sure.” Destiny looked out the window at the passing lush, green countryside and found herself wondering what the Texas landscape would look like.
“You’ll be happy. Judging from the telegram your Seth sent, he seems like a hardworking man who’s looking forward to marrying you and settling down. You’ll have a good life together.”
Destiny fell silent, wondering about her future. She had lost her mother and been betrayed by her stepfather. In St. Louis, she’d had Sylvia to help her, but now that she’d run away from the danger Raymond and Bryce presented, she was truly on her own.
Destiny told herself she could do this. She had taken on Rebecca Lawrence’s identity as a mail-order bride in order to escape St. Louis. But she wouldn’t jump from the frying pan into the fire. If her husband-to-be wasn’t a decent, honorable man, she would refuse to marry him. She’d find some other way to make a new life for herself in Texas.
She just hoped her past never caught up with her.
The ranch hands at the Circle D had not been happy when they’d gotten the message from Chuck that he’d lost the ranch in a card game and that the new owner, Seth Rawlins, would be showing up soon to take over running the place. Chuck owed them back wages, and they were wondering if Rawlins was going to make good on their pay. A few of the men decided to just move on and had ridden out shortly after they’d learned what had happened, but most of the hands were loyal to the spread and had remained, hoping things would get better. They couldn’t get too much worse. Chuck had not been the smartest rancher around, and he obviously wasn’t a very good gambler, either.
Steve Barker, the foreman, was just coming out of the stable when he heard one of the other men call out that there was a rider coming in. Steve went out to meet the man to see what business he had at the ranch.
“Afternoon,” Steve said as the tall, lean stranger reined in before him. “Welcome to the Circle D. What can I do for you?”
“My name’s Rawlins,” Lane replied as he swung down from the saddle and turned to speak with the tall, heavyset man. “Seth Rawlins. I’m the new owner of the Circle D.”
“I suspected as much.” Steve nodded to him.
“Heard of me, have you?” Lane asked with an easy grin.
“Chuck sent us word. It’s good to meet you. Me and the boys have been wondering how soon you’d show up. I’m Steve Barker, the foreman here on the Circle D.”
They shook hands, sizing each other up.
Lane liked the way Steve looked him straight in the eye. He could see no deceit there and was glad. He needed to know he had reliable men around him that he could trust.
“How have things been going around here?” Lane asked, looking around at the ranch house and out buildings.
“We’ve had better times,” Steve replied honestly. “Some of the men quit and rode out when we got word that Chuck had lost the ranch in a card game.”
“Did Chuck owe you any back wages?” Lane had known there might be some difficulties taking over the Circle D, and he was ready to face them straight up.
“He did,” the foreman answered.
“All right. Let me see what I can work out.”
Steve was impressed that the new owner had even brought up the subject of wages. “How about I show you around?”
“Sounds good.” Lane had realized as he’d ridden in that the Circle D had fallen on hard times. The house and out buildings were definitely in need of work.
Lane tied his horse up to the hitching rail and walked with the foreman down to the stable, where several of the other hands were standing around watching them.
“Boys, this is Seth Rawlins, our new boss. He’s here, and he’s ready to take over running things,” Steve said, introducing him to the three men.
Lane shook hands with them.
“The rest of the hands are out working stock, but they should all be back in by tomorrow,” Steve told him.
Lane spoke with the ranch hands for a while, wanting to learn all he could about the Circle D. His own years of ranching experience showed as they talked business, and the men were glad. They could tell right off that the new owner was a whole lot smarter than their previous boss had been.