style="font-size:15px;"> From the far side of the door a mule brayed.
“That will be Weaver, my mount. As to what I’m doing here, isn’t it obvious?”
“Can’t see that it is,” Boone said.
“I made a promise to bring Miss Winston home, safe and sound.” Stanley said. “I’m beginning to regret that vow but I did make it.”
“Stanley, I’m sure my husband is equal to the task.”
The little lawyer chuckled under his breath while shaking his head.
“Well, I’m for my bed,” Judge Mathers declared.
“Not quite, sir,” Smythe said. “I’ll see the signed papers granting my client his freedom.”
“I’ll gladly sign them, just as soon as the job is finished.”
“I’ll have that written in pen and ink. What is there to say that you will not re-arrest him once things are wrapped up?”
“What’s to say he won’t take his freedom and head for the hills?”
“I say he won’t,” Melinda declared. “I vouch for him.”
Why? She didn’t know beans about him.
“And I bear witness that Mathers has agreed to sign the document,” Spears added.
It seemed, with the details arranged and the vouching finished, it was time to leave the warmth of the livery.
Spears hitched the team then strode to the livery door. He opened it and stuck his head out. “Billbro! You finished with that pee?”
Seconds later an animal nosed his way into the livery.
“My word,” Melinda exclaimed and scuttled closer to Boone. “Is that a wolf?”
“As far as anyone knows, Deputy Billbro is only half wolf.” Judge Mathers petted the canine between the ears. “You’ll be glad he’s along once you get used to him.”
There were a lot of things that Boone was going to have to get used to. The dog probably being the least of them.
For one thing, his wife was clinging to his arm, seeking protection.
He’d never been responsible for anyone but himself. All of a sudden there was a woman, a town and very likely a lawyer who needed to be watched over.
He’d better start getting used to the dog-wolf, since he was going to need all the help he could get.
* * *
Sometime during the wee hours of their first night on the trail, Melinda sat up suddenly from her bedroll. She gazed past the embers of the dying fire feeling uneasy.
One difference between Melinda and her husband of a day was clear already.
He looked quite comfortable sleeping under the stars while she preferred peering out at the night from behind a window in a bed piled high with feather blankets.
Darkness throbbed beyond the shrinking glow of the campfire. She could nearly imagine that nothing existed in that blackness...or that everything did. What was there to say that a wolf or even a bear wasn’t lurking behind a tree? A cougar poised on the limb over her head?
She would feel better if the deputy was awake. The great hairy dog-wolf lay at her feet snoring, but not as loudly as Stanley was.
The lawyer dozed between her and Boone; a human buffer. Surely the noise he made alerted every predator within a mile. Another log on the fire might help ward them off.
She hadn’t even made it to her knees to get a log before the dog lifted his snout and Boone cracked open an eye.
“What’s the trouble?” he asked, propping up on an elbow.
“It’s too dark to sleep.”
“I reckon it’s not the dark keeping you awake.” He nodded toward Stanley.
The dog stood, stretched, sniffed the air then resettled his large gray body alongside her leg. He plopped his heavy head on her lap, seeming so content that she would believe he had gone back to sleep if it wasn’t for his nose twitching this way and that.
“It’s always darkest and coldest about now,” Boone said. “But it’ll be sunup soon.”
“I guess you’ve slept in the open many times.”
He nodded. “A body becomes accustomed to the fresh air and freedom. I’ll admit, those nights in prison were hell on earth. I’d take a wild beast over some of those inmates any time.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“It wasn’t anything I didn’t deserve.” He gazed up at the stars, silent for a moment before looking back at her. “Melinda, thank you for what you did. I should have said so earlier but with all the travel there wasn’t time to talk.”
She laughed softly. “And my guardian did keep us apart as much as he could.”
“Dedicated of him.” His smile twitched up on one side. This was not Lantree’s smile. Mischief lurked in the turn of Boone’s lips.
“Well intentioned, I suppose, but he hasn’t even given us a moment of privacy so that I can tell you about your brother.”
Boone blew out a low whistle. “There’s a part of me that’s afraid to know. He’s got a baby and a wife, though, so I reckon he must have turned out all right.”
“He’s all right now, but he did go through hard times.”
“Because of me, do you mean?”
“Oh, he worried about you, certainly. But his hard times weren’t to do with you, Boone.” She petted the dog’s head, curled her fingers into his warm fur. “Before Lantree married my cousin, Rebecca, he was engaged to another woman. At that time your brother was a doctor, a very good one, too. Well, there was an epidemic, a lot of folks died under his care, his fiancé’s family among them. She blamed him—he blamed himself. She ended the engagement, and very bitterly.
“Poor Lantree ran away, from his career and himself. He was in a hard way when Rebecca’s grandfather found him and gave him a new career as foreman of his ranch. I believe that Grandfather Moreland—he’s not really my grandfather but that’s how I feel about him so that’s what I call him—gave your brother much more than a job. What he gave him was a new life. Lantree found healing at Moreland Ranch. Now he’s a cowboy and a doctor.”
“And a proud father?”
“He couldn’t be otherwise. Baby Caroline is the sweetest little thing you could ever hope to see. She’s only five months old, but already she looks just like her daddy...and you.”
“I’ll be damned.” Boone looked pleased, smiling in a way she hadn’t seen until now.
“You’ll
