Josie: Bride of New Mexico (American Mail-Order Bride 47) (16 page)

“I’m the physician hired to look after your men. Didn’t stop to wonder why I live outside of camp?” Forsberg batted Adam’s hold away, pulled up the offending shirt and when he found Adam’s Union Suit in the way, seemed to assess how much blood had come through the fabirc.

The old man— a doctor!— moved out of his light source. “No bullet hole. You say you’ve had sutures. Could’ve opened it up. Let me see.”

Apparently the fellow wouldn’t give Adam an answer of any sort until he did his show and tell. He unbuttoned the top two buttons, loosened his cuffs, and pulled his shirt over his head. Next, unbuttoned the union suit and peeled it down.

Josie stayed out of the way of his flailing elbows but the moment he stilled, she’d clutched onto his trousers again. She rested her cheek against his back, and her nearness and the brush of her breath against his bare skin felt delicious.

Soothing in a way having a doctor on hand could possibly do.

“That’s sewing thread,” Forsberg noted. “Who did this?”

“My wife.”

“Already on the lam by then. Hmm.” Forsberg grunted— apparently permission for Adam to pull his clothes back on. “Well, Mrs. Taylor, you did a fine job of sewing your man back together. The stitches held, despite all you’ve no doubt been through. By the looks of your trousers and shirt, I’d say you took a nasty fall, kicked around in the dirt awhile.”

“I told you this was nothing.”

“I bet it bled like a stuck pig.”

“When fresh.”

Forsberg grunted. “And that three-quarter mile run through the tunnel didn’t help.”

“
Why
a tunnel? What’s that all about?”

“Know much about Mormons, Taylor?”

“Enough.” With his primary residence in Ogden City, he’d known and worked with plenty. Most of them were good men and fine neighbors… if a little standoffish. But he understood why they kept to themselves. He would, too, if he lived differently than everyone else.

“Well, I am one. My wife Gertie lives in that adobe place at the other end. I use the tunnel when I need to make a hasty escape, evade the law a time or two, myself.”

Josie leaned around, to get a look at David Forsberg, he guessed. “You’re a polygamist? I’ve never seen a polygamist before.”

“Now did I
admit
to unlawful cohabitation? I did not.” But Forsberg winked. “My first wife lives in the house next to this barn.”

“How many wives do you have?” A kind of awe flavored Josie’s voice.

Adam glared at Forsberg. “If you two wouldn’t mind having this conversation later, I suggest we take care of the bigger issues at hand.”

“No problem, Boss.” Forsberg chuckled. He opened the doorway into the barn, dark and heavy with the odors of animals, leather, hay and straw. He stood stock still, listening apparently, and using whatever senses he had at his disposal. A man who knew how to avoid capture and prison time evidently knew a thing or two.

He picked up the lantern. “Follow me, you two.”

Adam clasped Josie’s hand and followed the doctor. He supposed the old man could be part of the problem at Silver Queen, but his gut told him that was unlikely.

“We’re going for a ride.” He opened a false bottom on his wagon, revealing enough space for a man to lie flat— or a man and a small woman. “Get in.”

Adam balked. He couldn’t imagine spending five minutes lying flat in an enclosed space. Like a coffin.

“You want to get out this alive? Less than a mile from here, you’ve got a mob of nearly a hundred angry miners. They’re madder than a dropped hornet’s nest and every bit as mean. Gertie told me they called you out, Mr. Adam Taylor, so I suggest if you and your bride want to live to see morning, you’ll do as I say.”

A beat passed and Adam held his breath.

“You know how many times I rode in that compartment? Plenty. Air holes, too. Now get in.”

Adam turned to Josie. This decision included them both. He needed to consider what she wanted and her safety, too.

Josie climbed into the back and dropped inside.

“When we get to wherever we’re going, David Forsberg, I want some answers.”

Chapter Twenty

They rumbled across a bumpy road, squished and uncomfortable in the hidden compartment in the wagon bed. Josie’s light weight and warmth pressed to his side, kept him sane.

It was a tight fit, cramped, awkward, and they were jostled about, never knowing which way they’d be thrown. But it certainly gave Adam plenty of time to think.

His beautiful bride lay beside him. This is not what he’d planned for their honeymoon. Hiding, cowering, placing her in danger.

She couldn’t be too impressed.

Remorse and anger vied for dominance. Outrage won out. In fact, his temper rose by the moment. His own men trying to kill him? To murder his tiny, sweet wife?

Josie clung to him. She’d been wonderful throughout. The only bright spot in his life since they’d left Utah.

He thumped a fist against the wood. “Where are you taking us?” he called out to the doctor.

“Quiet. We don’t want anyone to know you’re back there. I’m taking you somewhere safe.”

Adam gritted his teeth. Somewhere else he could hide out from his own men?

Maybe it was time he came up with his own plan. “Josie. I’m truly sorry about this.”

Her hand clenched on his chest as her slight weight allowed her to curl up beside him. “It’s not your fault.”

“I had planned to spoil you, to woo you, to win you. Some courtship, isn’t it?” He could hear the bitterness in his voice. “You probably wish you’d never left Lawrence.”

“Well, you certainly know how to show a girl an exciting time.”

He tried not to chuckle. Their situation was dire and he found himself biting back a grin. This girl did things to him, to his emotions, his heart.

“I think it’s pretty obvious somebody doesn’t want you to arrive at the silver mine,” her soft voice worried. “Why do you suppose that is?”

“I don’t know, but that’s a really good question. It would have to be someone who knew we were coming. But I suppose word gets around fast.”

“Or, conversely, perhaps someone wanted to lure you out.”

“By killing innocent men?”

She smoothed his shirt. “Either way, if you were dead, who gains the most?”

“Financially?”

He felt her nod.

“Well, you would.”

She giggled. “Really? Oh dear, my evil plan is discovered.”

He grinned. “I would suspect you, but you’ve been in danger beside me the entire time.”

“Perhaps it’s part of my plan?”

He couldn’t help it, he chuckled that time.

“Quiet back there.”

“Just quit patching me up,” he whispered. “Then you’ll be a rich widow.”

“I really didn’t think this through, did I?”

He smothered another laugh. Wished there was enough room to kiss her.

“Back to the subject at hand. Who would inherit if we both died?”

“It would stay in the family.”

“Could anyone in your family want to kill you?”

“No. Richard and I were trained to take over because there was no one else. My father surely isn’t interested.”

“What about Richard? Could he be trying to kill you? For an inheritance?”

He huffed out a breath. “No. The idea is ludicrous. Anyway, it wouldn’t go to him. It would go to my family. And trust me when I say they are completely uninterested in running the business. They just like getting the monthly stipend my grandfather set up. No one is hurting for funds.”

“All right. So if it’s not for profit, do you think you have a flat-out killer on your hands? We had one in Lawrence a few years back. Everyone was afraid and there were a lot of deaths before the man was caught. The public wanted to know why, but we never received a satisfactory answer. It seemed he just liked to kill.”

“A psychopath? That doesn’t feel quite right, but it’s certainly something to look into.”

“If not that, could it be about revenge?”

The thought electrified him and the hair on the back of his neck rose. “It’s a possibility. Men die every year working the mines. We do our best to ensure safety, but accidents happen. Mistakes are made.”

And it actually fit, didn’t it? Certainly better than someone running around murdering miners a dozen or more at a time for pleasure.

“What about the Utah mine? The one where ten men lost their lives? Do you think that was simply an accident? Or could they be related? Do you suspect sabotage?”

He was slow to answer as he thought it out. “If sabotage is taking place at other sites, how many men would have to communicate? And if they did correspond, it would have to be by telegraph.”

She shifted beside him. “Aren’t mines pretty isolated?”

“Yes, they are. Which is why we have telegraphs at every mining site.”

But his men didn’t have access for the most part. He considered the fact he was headed to a safe house to hide. He sincerely doubted those men roamed the countryside trying to find him. In the middle of the night, someone must have riled them up, and they’d gone for blood. But at this moment? He had no doubt they worked the mine, earning their living.

A living, made possible by his family’s business. Maybe even rethinking what they’d done last night. The question was, who riled them? He certainly wasn’t going to find out while sitting in a safe house and hoping that the doctor would glean some information. A lot had happened. Someone tried to stick a knife in his back, attempted to blow them up with dynamite, and then endeavored to burn them inside a house.

He was one of the owners of the blasted company and he was hiding in the back of a wagon! And his wife watched the whole damn thing.

He ought to go to the mine and fire the lot of them. Or better yet, have them arrested. He might be young, but he wasn’t inexperienced. What must his wife be thinking of him at this moment? Hiding in the back of the wagon? And headed to a new place to hide.

His jaw clenched. He needed to be proactive, and it needed to be now. While he still retained his self-respect.

With the side of his fist he pounded on the wood of the hidden door. “Doctor— let us out of here.
Now
.”

Hours later, two towns over, he’d sent out a telegram of his own.

Hours after that, he received a response. Apparently, New Mexico’s territorial governor, LeBaron Bradford Prince, agreed with Adam.

Men trying to kill off the tax-paying owners of large companies needed a bit of a reprimand.

Chapter Twenty-One

Two days after that, and many telegrams later, he interrupted his honeymoon to be escorted into his own damn mining company by the Army.

Blast the whole thing into the ground!

He’d wanted to leave Josie behind, but she wouldn’t stay. She’d claimed she’d follow if he tried to leave, and he finally decided he wanted her by his side, anyway. After all they’d been through, she had a right to see this to its conclusion.

Plus, he didn’t want her out of his sight. He still didn’t have the culprits in hand, and wanted her safe.