“So you’re the one”? “Then they’ve been here and gone?”
“Told me they still had too much to do for the wedding tomorrow to stick around for a late stage. Some never arrived at all and several you’ve missed, according to Tadpole. Oh, sorry, that’s what I call your niece, Ollie. She’s my fishing partner. Guess you can understand the sense of their thinking.”
Relief and frustration washed through Willow as she brushed back her hair. She hadn’t missed the wedding as she’d feared but the man knew from dealing with stage arrivals and her niece that Daisy had expected her long before now. Some first impression she’d made on Bear.
“I’m supposed to tell ya they’ll check back around three to see if the stage made it or not.”
They meant if I made it or not. Willow wished she didn’t always disappoint them. That was something she really meant to work on while she was here. Though both loved her deeply, she wanted them to be proud of her, to see that she could improve and to have faith in her when it counted most. She didn’t want to fail them or herself anymore.
Willow exhaled a long breath, setting her shoulders to the two-and-a-half-hour wait, wishing that was all the time it would take to improve herself and give her an idea how best to get started learning fact from fiction. She’d considered different ways to go about satisfying her editor’s request in the time she’d be here watching the children. After all, who knew better about Texas than Texans?
Bear took her baggage to the livery and set it just inside the door. “We’ll keep these here until your sisters turn up. You can go about your business for a while and your bags will be waiting for ya.”
When she didn’t move, he motioned to his quarters next to the livery. “My wife’s taken ill or I’d invite ya in. Are you a Miss McMurtry or a Mrs. Somebody?”
She realized she hadn’t given him her name. “Miss Willow McMurtry. I’m the youngest of the three.”
“If you’ll give me some time to help Gus get the team changed and the stage on its way, Miss McMurtry, I’ll see what I can do about getting ya some tea.” He motioned across the road. “Of course, you could always wait over at the diner. I can let your sisters know where you are when I see them. You must be hungrier than a polecat if you’ve been traveling all morning.”
Though she would have loved to go inside, Willow shook her head, which served only to loosen her top knot of curls. “Not hungry at all, and I don’t want to put you to any trouble, especially with your wife sick. I’ll wait until I’m at Daisy’s.”
The last thing she wanted was to make her first public appearance in a crowd looking this side of insane. It was embarrassing enough that Bear had seen her this way. Visiting the diner was out of the question. “Mind if I just wait out here?”
She explained that she wanted to put her best foot forward, so to speak. Even though she hadn’t, in fact.
“No problem.” Bear glanced up at the overhanging clouds and started backing up. “I’ve got to get that mail in and sorted before it gets wet. Feel free to take shelter inside the livery. I always keep a couple of fresh blankets on the shelf, if ya get chilled. There’s a lantern or a stove, if you need it. Like I said, I’ll let the ladies know you’re here if they don’t spot ya right off.”
“I appreciate it, and I hope I get to meet Mrs. Bear when she’s...” Willow could tell he was eager to be about his business. She’d learned that people tended to back up from her when she kept prattling and they really wanted to be on their way.
The driver said something to the smithy and Bear took the opportunity to dash away to grab the mailbags.
Maybe she ought to make a list of all the don’t-dos she needed to remember. One: don’t get too chatty, she chastised herself, even if the Texan is chatty himself. She’d always been told Texans were known to be the strong silent types. She’d have to revise that old belief. They liked their women less talkative than themselves.
Her eyes focused on the town again, and she thought it might be best to take this time to familiarize herself with what she remembered about High Plains. She didn’t want to leave the livery yard. That way her sisters could easily spot her, and she preferred not to be by herself in the livery. She hated being alone. At least out here, she could watch people milling around.
It was then she saw him.
A dark-haired stranger standing in the alley between the boarding house and the mercantile, leaning against one of the outer walls. Tall and lean, he wore a long black duster that hung to the top of his spurs, and his boots stretched clear to his knees. The duster was pulled back over a pistol-filled holster that rode low on his right thigh. His right hand remained gloveless, making anyone aware he was proficient at shooting from that side. Her gaze swept past his broad chest, and she noted he favored a scruff of a beard and mustache. A hat shaded his eyes. Though she couldn’t determine their color, the force of their intensity touched her even this far away as she sensed him staring at her.
A chill of recognition ran up her spine, yet she’d never met the man. A handsome stranger who’d suddenly stepped out of her imagination? A hero? A villain?
Whoever he was, he looked exactly as she’d pictured Will Ketchum in her mind. Like the kind of man who would have ridden with her grandfather in his days of ranging. Her fictional character had sprung to life as a flesh-and-blood man right in front of her.
Would he talk like Ketchum?
If the stranger proved to be on the right side of the law, he just might be an answer to her prayer.
She started pacing, wondering how she could gain a proper introduction to him. Maybe she needed to practice saying “howdy” a little better.
* * *
The stage had come and gone. Still, the slender reddish-blond-haired woman remained in front of the livery talking to herself. Gage Newcomb thumbed up his hat brim and admired her persistence, if nothing else. How long would she wait for whoever was supposed to have met her there?
He’d made it his business to check out and make himself familiar with every new male or female who landed in High Plains these past few weeks, learning early on that Stanton Hodge knew no remorse in enlisting anyone to help him escape the long arm of justice. Lady, gent or fresh-out-of-short-britches lad could be party to Hodge’s plans, so it wouldn’t surprise Gage at all if this shapely newcomer had come to town to lend the outlaw aid.
But Hodge hadn’t shown yet. Maybe the sidewinder was waiting for the weather to blow over.
Wherever the elusive horse thief might be holed up at this point, Gage meant to find him and turn him in or die trying. After that, he’d ride off into the Davis Mountains downstate and live his life alone, far away from so-called civilization. Far away from pity. Far enough to make sure he became a burden to no one.
That was the only way he could deal with accepting a future he’d wish on no soul.
He had tracked his longtime adversary here, ready to put an end to their six-month cat-and-mouse game before he gave his notice that this was his last manhunt as a Texas Ranger. He’d always brought in his man before. He didn’t plan to fail his captain this time either.
Hodge had managed to stay out of sight so far. Gage suspected the viper was playing it slippery until things settled down from the recent bank robbery and town-burning
