In a Cowboy’s Arms (20 page)

“Toss in that straw hat with the blue band and wrap it up good,” Dade said, pointing to it so there’d be no mistake which one he had his eye on. “What do I owe you?”

“A dollar for the garden hat.” The old man lifted the fancy hat off the peg and whistled. “Tag here says it costs three bucks, but don’t seem right to pay so much for this circle of straw and hank of ribbon.”

“Reckon there’s a good reason why it costs more.” Dade dug bills from his pocket, but had to dig deeper to come up with the cost for both hats.

“This one’s been here a spell,” the old man said. “Give me two bucks for the pair, and we’ll call it even.”

Dade eyed him. “You sure about that?”

“It’s my store, ain’t it? I set the price, and I say these two hats are worth two bucks.”

He wasn’t about to argue, not when he needed every cent he could scrape up to pay for provisions along the way. He handed over the money, then waited while the merchant wrapped the fancy hat in brown paper.

Dade stopped him before he did the same to the garden hat. “I’ll take that one as is.”

Maggie needed to wear it today. The other... Well, he’d give it to her later on, and she could don it whenever it damned well suited her.

He took the garden hat and the parcel and headed back to the livery. She was still standing there, only this time she was alone.

As always, a swift punch of awareness of her as a desirable woman jabbed him square in the gut. She looked neither afraid nor confident, just anxious.

That was something they shared. He had a month of Maggie’s help to find Daisy. Four weeks of just the two of them traveling together.

The whole while they’d worry about the bounty hunter tracking them. What the hell had she done to Harlan Nowell?

It had to be more than stealing money and a broach that was hers to begin with. There was more to it than that, but Maggie was still hiding the whole truth.

He doubted Carson knew any more than that she was a thief he’d been hired to bring back. He suspected Doc knew part of it, but he had refused to divulge the particulars to him, saying it was up to Maggie to tell him why she’d fled Harlan Nowell’s mansion.

Dade hated to speculate because the two reasons that came to mind fired his rage. Orphans weren’t supposed to be taken in as indentured servants, yet he wouldn’t put it past Nowell to have wrangled a contract from her.

Orphans weren’t supposed to be abused either, but Dade had heard of rich men taking advantage of their young charges. He’d worried for years that such a fate had befallen Daisy.

He didn’t want to think Maggie had been the victim of such a horrific fate either. Though she kissed like an innocent, Harlan still could have had his way with her.

The crack of fine straw penetrated Dade’s rage. He eased his punishing hold on the farmer’s hat, annoyed with himself for bending the brim on it.

The shame of it all would keep Maggie from divulging such a dark secret. But if he found out Harlan had abused her, he’d be tempted to go after him.

Yep, he could see her reasons for keeping her past secret. He understood her reluctance to put much confidence in a stranger.

Sooner or later Maggie was going to have to confide in him. He’d have to know what he was up against if he was to keep her safe and see her to that nursing school in St. Louis.

After that, he’d likely never see her again.

He’d come back west, hopefully with his sister, and settle down to farm. Maybe in Kansas. Maybe somewhere he passed through that called to him to stay a while. A place he could call home.

Once again he thought about heading back to Wyoming, but there was nothing there for him now. The Crown Seven was sold.

He had no home. No family other than Daisy and two foster brothers who had drifted apart. Everything he owned was packed in a pannier or stuffed in his saddlebags.

Maggie offered him a smile when he drew near, and for a heartbeat he pictured her doing that when they were both old and gray. That’d never happen, not if they both followed their dreams.

“I started to worry when you didn’t arrive on time,” she said.

That admission warmed the constant chill that lived deep in him.
Don’t go reading more into what she said.

She had every right to be worried that he wouldn’t show up, but it wasn’t because of tender feelings for him. Nope, she was thinking of the hell she’d endure if Allis Carson caught her.

“It took longer than expected, thanks to Payne’s interference.” He handed her the wide brimmed garden hat. “That hat you’re wearing won’t protect you from the sun, so I bought this one.”

“Oh!” She took it, looking as excited as a kid just given a bag of penny candy.

Why, just watching her quickly remove her hat and don this new one filled him with a sense of pure pleasure. He’d never imagined something so simple could make him feel so good.

“I know it is vanity, but I will admit to being concerned about the sun,” she said, adjusting the wide brim just so and casting her pretty face in shadow.

His finger lightly brushed her flushed cheek, and he stayed the urge to trail it across the lips he ached to taste again. “It would burn your fair soft skin to a turn.”

Her lips parted, and her eyes went wide, but instead of leaning into him like he wanted, she stepped back.

He let his hand drop and stared at her while silence thundered around them. Damn, now why did he say and do that?

Talk about an awkward moment. He should be trying to gain her confidence, not fill her with doubt about what he’d do when they were off on a trail alone.

Just thinking of them being cozy made the hunger to explore Maggie Sutten’s hidden secrets more intense. But she had warned him not to steal another kiss, and her pulling away now made it clear she didn’t want to get cozy with him.

“Let me give you a leg-up so we can get going.” He strode to her mare, already saddled and waiting for them, and made a stirrup with his fingers, hoping to hell she wouldn’t back out.

Her cheeks darkened to a dusty rose, and she looked away, as if debating what to do. To his relief she turned to the horse and accepted his help gaining the saddle.

He gave her a boost up and drew her sweet flowery scent into his lungs. “You’re likely to attract bees with that perfume.” She was surely attracting him with it.

“It’s not perfume,” she said and blushed a deeper red. “It’s just lavender soap.”

He didn’t need to know that; he was tormented by the image of her running a sudsy cloth over her body. He swung into the saddle and hooked the lead line for her mare to his saddle horn. A good hard ride would drag his thoughts above his belt again.

The packhorse line was secured to her saddle, keeping her black mare in the middle. Her horse would be less likely to bolt in a trail line.

“Ready?” he asked, glancing back at her.

She nodded, her kid gloves strained from her tight grip on the saddle horn. “Ready.”

Dade started them off slowly through town. A few folks came out to wave good-bye. Some wished them luck.

Even Doc Franklin had stepped outside his house to watch them leave. He read the concern in the older man’s eyes and nodded in silent understanding.

They were riding into the unknown, with no clear sense of where they were going. Didn’t help they’d have a bounty hunter on their trail.

Even if he kept his hands to himself, this jaunt would surely taint Maggie’s reputation if anyone found out she’d taken off alone with a man. Yep, she’d do well to pass herself off as his sister. Or as his wife?

That notion held a whole lot more appeal than it should. Dammit, he was supposed to protect her from the bounty hunter and other men who’d lust after her–himself included.

But the memory of that kiss threatened to erode his good intentions.

Yep, this promised to be a long month.

Maggie’s back felt as if it would break in two any second. She’d tried to do as Dade had instructed and move with the horse instead of against the little black mare. She really had tried hard, and it had worked for the first hour.

But after they left the main road for this path that wound through the wooded, jagged terrain, her endurance began to lag. By the third hour of steady riding, her muscles began protesting from sitting astride for so long.

Now her legs were growing numb. The last thing she was prepared to do was sit the trot again, but the moment they emerged from the foothills they did just that.

The mountains were to her back now, and she caught glimpses of the railroad tracks that snaked east. She needed to get off this horse and rest, but Dade didn’t seem ready to stop yet, and she surely didn’t want to complain.

After all she’d assured him she could travel this way, and she would even if it killed her. Right now that was a strong possibility.

“When will we stop for the night?” she asked when Dade slowed the horses from the backbreaking trot they’d been doing for the longest time.

He thumbed his hat back and frowned at the sky.

“Another hour will put us on the other side of Walsenburg. I hope to make it and find cover before that storm moves in.”

She peered up at the sky and saw nothing but blue–until she glanced back in the direction they’d come. She cringed at the dark clouds creeping over the mountains. Dade was right. The storm would hit in an hour or so.

She faced east and scanned the undulating plains. Ahead of them she saw the watery shapes of a town hugging the horizon. But another grueling hour passed before she was sure that this wasn’t a mirage.

Still, Dade headed them north so they skirted the town and the few farms nestled in the valley. They crossed the railroad tracks, and he picked up their pace again. Beyond her she saw nothing but dwarfed trees and scrub covering the high plains.

“What kind of shelter do you hope to find out there?” she asked.

“See that line of trees off in the distance?”

“Barely,” she said.

“Don’t see that many trees grouped together unless there’s a stream nearby. Since this was all open range years back, I’d bet there’s a line shack around there.”

And if he was wrong? Maggie gave the darkening sky behind her another look. More riding held no appeal to her and riding hard sounded like torture. But she didn’t want to get caught out here in a downpour either.

“Then I suggest we get there as quickly as possible,” she said, earning her a quick grin from Dade.

“Hold on, Maggie.”

She did, though her back screamed from the jostling and she couldn’t feel her extremities. Rest. She dreamed of rest.

Unfortunately she supposed that wouldn’t be the comfort she needed either. She held no illusions that the shelter he sought would have a soft bed, if it had one at all.

There was a bedroll behind Dade’s saddle and another behind her own. That would have to suffice as a bed.

And if he didn’t find shelter?

She grimaced at the thought as the horses galloped toward the crop of trees. Without a doubt this was the longest trek yet, made more stressful by the distant thunder and lightning that zigzagged from the ground to the dark clouds.

The storm was moving fast. Faster than they were.

“There it is,” Dade shouted.

She scanned the plains for a cabin but only saw a small shack tucked amongst the trees. Surely he didn’t mean that.

But as he continued to head straight toward it, she realized he hadn’t been exaggerating when he called it a shack.

Even that might be a generous description. Why the gardening shed at Nowell’s mansion was twice this size.

The memory of being trapped in there with Whit made her heart race, and not in a good way. She swallowed hard and pushed that memory from her mind.

This was Dade, not Whit. Never mind that both had stolen a kiss from her. She’d felt dominance and anger in Whit’s touch. But with Dade, her entire body had hummed with pleasure.

As they neared the shack, those amorous feelings faded. At one time she would have called this shelter cozy. Intimate.

Two words she didn’t want to associate with any man just yet, especially with Dade Logan. She surely didn’t fear what he’d do. He was a gentleman at heart. No, in truth she doubted her own ability to keep a respectable distance from him.

He reined up before the shack and swung from the saddle, looking no worse for the wear. She made a feeble attempt to get off the horse, but couldn’t make her left foot support her weight.

“I’ll give you a hand down then see to the horses,” he said, matching words to deed.

Maggie held onto his shoulders as he set her on her feet, but when he let go of her, her legs refused to hold her up. “I’m sorry,” she said, clinging to him so she wouldn’t fall.

He swung her into his arms and strode to the shack. “I’m the one that’s sorry. You’re not used to the hard riding we did today.”

She wanted to hate being held so tightly, but the sensations that arced through her cracked like lightning on the plains. Just like when he’d kissed her, she didn’t want this moment to end. She wanted more.

Dade kicked the door open and strode into the shack. He gave it a quick scan and headed toward a makeshift stool.

It didn’t look sturdy enough to support her, but the only other choice was a bunk nailed to the wall.

She didn’t care to sit on what served as a filthy bed.

Dade released her, and she found her balance by grabbing on to the bunk post. “I’ll be back as soon as I get the horses settled.”

Then he was gone, and she could draw a deep breath again.

Maggie cradled her face in her hands, more frightened over these feelings toward Dade than she was about being alone with him. It wasn’t terribly difficult to pretend she was Dade’s sister in public. But all pretenses fell away when they were alone.

But her situation demanded that they avoid people as much as possible. That meant they’d remain together day in and day out until they found Daisy, or until her month was up and she could find sanctuary in the nursing school.

Her only other choice was to strike out on her own. But the thought of being on the run and alone sent a chill through her that had nothing to do with the drop in temperature. Even if she used a false name, there was a chance the bounty hunter would figure out where she’d gone and come after her.