Mountain Wild (Harlequin Historical Series) (23 page)

Have I told you that I have eight nieces? They’ve taken great pride in teaching their uncle the finer points of tea parties and needlepoint.

Tears threatened at the memory.

“Maggie?”

Her gaze snapped up to Chance still waiting at the open door. Reluctantly she stepped inside to a welcoming warmth and the scent of baked chicken.

“What’s happened?” Chance asked.

“It’s Garret,” she said, glancing briefly at Garret’s nephew standing beside him. Surely she couldn’t say what needed to be said before a roomful of young children.

Skylar stepped through a doorway on the far side of the dining room.
“Maggie?”
She seemed to see her distress. Lifting the hem of her full skirt she hurried toward them. “Girls, finish up,” she said as she passed the table.

“Who’s Maggie, Mama?” one of them asked.

“A friend of Uncle Garret’s.” She offered a slight smile. “Is everything all right?” she asked softly, looking from Chance to her.

Maggie could only shake her head.

“Joshua, run down to Zeke’s house and tell Mr. Patterson our guest has arrived and he’s to come at once.”

“Yes, Mama.” The boy darted past her and out the door.

Chance put a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s go have a seat in the front room.”

He stayed beside her as they moved into the room on the left. Fire crackled in a stone fireplace covering the high wall at the end of the great room. Chance motioned to one of the leather-padded chairs and sat in the one beside her.

“What’s going on?” Tucker asked, his boots coming into view first as he descended from the top of the stairs.

“Maggie’s just arrived,” said Skylar.

As Tucker stepped beside his wife, Cora came in from the dining room, wiping her hands on her apron. Unlike the first time she’d met Chance’s wife when she’d been in tatters and on the run, her auburn hair was swept up in a tidy bun, her burgundy dress spotless.

“Maggie,” she said. “Is everything all right?”

“Garret’s been arrested.” She glanced at all four of their shocked expressions, noting that whereas Chance and Tucker were truly identical, their wives didn’t share a single similar feature. Cora was short and rounded, her skin pale against her dark auburn hair. Skylar, tall and thin, had a tanned complexion and light hair. “He told me to come here, to tell you.”

“Arrested for what?” demanded Tucker. “By who?”

“For cattle rustling and murder most likely.
It’s my fault,
” she said. All the trouble that had befallen him was because of her. “He followed me to Nathan’s ranch last night.”

“Nathan Strafford?” asked Chance.

“He’s my brother. I meant to kill him.”

“Did you?”

She shook her head. She’d let him distract her with memories of the past. “Garret showed up and he shot the two men trying to hold me. When we got back to his ranch this evening Nathan was waiting with the sheriff. Garret wouldn’t let me go with him. He said to come here and tell you.”

“Who all rode out with Garret?” asked Chance.

“Everyone on the ranch, as well as Nathan and six of his men.”

Skylar turned her wide eyes on Tucker.

“I’ll go pack my saddlebag and head out now,” he said. “Chance, you’ll stay and see what Patterson has to say about all this?”

“We’ll meet you in Bitterroot,” he agreed.

Skylar followed her husband up the stairs.

“Don’t worry,” Chance said to Maggie. “His crew will stay with him.”

“I’ll put the girls to bed,” said Cora. “Maggie, can I get you some tea or coffee?”

“Tea. Thank you.”

Cora hurried back to the noisy dining room. “Everyone into the kitchen,” she said. “One cookie before bed.”

The chatter of happy children rose up and then faded as they moved into the other room. Maggie looked at Chance who watched her silently from the chair beside her. Her gaze strayed to his infant son cradled in his arms and the ache in her chest became unbearable.

“I’m sorry to have interrupted your supper,” she said, struggling to maintain some composure.

“You haven’t. We were expecting Garret and fed the
children early so that he could have a quiet meeting with Patterson.”

She couldn’t look away from the sleeping baby, his rosy cheeks and soft tufts of blond hair…so tiny and perfect. She didn’t know the first thing about tending babies.

“Callie Mae,” Cora’s voice called from upstairs, “you get back into this room.”

The patter of footsteps and giggles filtered down from the stairwell.

“You certainly have a brood.”

Chance laughed. “Yeah. You won’t find a quiet moment in this house until bedtime—and even then we have our share of noisy moments. How are you doing, Maggie?”

“I’m worried.”

The front door opened. Joshua stepped inside followed by a man in a dark suit. His face lit with a smile at the sight of her.

“Miss Strafford!” He rushed toward her, extending his hand.

Maggie surged up.

Chance stepped forward, intercepting his exuberant greeting. “Patterson. Why don’t you have a seat?
Over there.
” He motioned to a sofa on the other side of a low table.

“Oh. Yes, of course,” he said.

Maggie sat down as Patterson sat across from them.

“I had hoped to have a chance to speak with you, Miss Strafford.”

“Call me Maggie.”

“Maggie,” he corrected. “Is Mr. Daines here?”

“He’s been arrested,” said Chance, and proceeded to fill him in on all that Maggie had told them. By the time he’d finished and Patterson had shuffled through some folders, Cora and Skylar had joined them. Cora took her infant to a chair near the fire while Skylar sat on the sofa beside Garret’s attorney.

“Do you know who exactly arrested him?” Patterson asked.

“Garret called him Sheriff Bartley,” Maggie said, sipping a strong, bland tea.

“Sheriff of Bitterroot Springs,” Chance confirmed.

“That is unfortunate. Any proceedings held in Bitterroot will most certainly be slighted to Nathan Strafford’s favor.”

“You can’t help him?” Maggie asked.

“I’ll do all I can. Knowing that Nathan Strafford is working outside the law makes that job more difficult. Especially when I can’t find any evidence to use against him.”

“I know where he’s grazing his stolen stock. Is that evidence?”

Patterson smiled. “It is. Though I’m not sure the good it can do. If his judge is working for Nathan it may not be enough. He can order those claims be verified and stock can be moved. What could help us the most would be to tear down the credibility of Mayor Strafford’s character. Presently he’s being hailed a Good Samaritan of the people, a man victimized who overcame tragedy after his family was brutally murdered by savages.”

“Lies,”
she said. “Nathan is the savage! He killed our father and then found out his will was not written as he’d assumed. My father had made provisions for me and rather than carry out those provisions Nathan tried to kill me. He would have if I hadn’t been rescued by Ira Danvers.”

“That’s how you came to be with Ira?” Chance asked. “I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t know. It’s not your business. I didn’t come here to talk about my past. I came here to
help Garret.
”

“I believe it is your past that can be of most use to him,” said Patterson. “Would you be willing to repeat what you just told us in a courtroom?”

“Hold on.” Chance leaned forward, splaying his hands wide. “She’s not going into Bitterroot.”

“She is the best option we have for destroying Strafford’s credibility.”

“We take her into town and Garret will have our heads. They have a five-hundred-dollar bounty on her,
dead or alive.
”

“I’ll go,” she said. “Whatever it takes to clear Garret’s name.”

“I won’t mislead you. With Nathan Strafford controlling the justice system in that town, we aren’t up against the best odds.”

“Do we even know that the charges will go to trial?” asked Skylar.

“I was in Bitterroot Springs earlier this week,” said Patterson. “Those folks are anxious to set their new judge to work. If word spreads that Garret Daines has been apprehended as the cattle rustler who’s been plaguing their ranchers, they’ll want to see some quick justice.”

“Then they should hang Nathan,” Maggie snapped.

“If we can’t count on a fair judge, we might be able to convince the people. If we get a big enough crowd, they can oftentimes sway the verdict.”

A big enough crowd?
A chill snaked through her at the thought of going before any size crowd. Townsfolk tended to greet her with apprehension and scorn. She hadn’t forgotten the angry rumble of the mob filling the alleyway on her last visit to Bitterroot—or Garret standing between them, shielding her, a woman he didn’t know beyond the rumors of Mad Mag. Her heart broke when she thought of all the hardship he’d endured all because he had dared to defend her.

“It’s settled,” she said. “I’ll go.”

“Garret wouldn’t want us to put her at such risk,” Chance insisted. “She can tell me the location of the cattle and I’ll testify.”

Patterson shook his head. “Maggie is the evidence we need to prove Strafford is a murderer as well as a thief. Our best defense is going to be destroying his character.”

“And what if they don’t believe her? It will be her word against his. He’s the town hero and Maggie’s…not known for her sweet and gentle nature.”

She nearly grinned, his description far too kind for what folks really thought of her. “I’ll take that chance,” she said.

“Garret sent her here to keep her out of this, not thrust her on center stage!”

“He said we’d find a solution together. I’m not afraid to face Nathan. I’m afraid of what could happen if I don’t.”

“They’ll arrest you the moment you step foot in that town,” Chance argued. “They’ve got wanted posters for Mad Mag on every street corner.”

“I’ll turn myself in before I’ll see Garret hang!”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Cora’s voice drew everyone’s gaze to the rocking chair closest to the fireplace. She stared at Maggie as she patted the bundle on her shoulder. “You said
Mad Mag
is wanted, right?”

“Yeah,” said Chance.

“Well, we’re not talking about Mad Mag. We’re talking about Margaret Strafford.”

“What do you mean?” asked Maggie.

“I don’t like it.” Chance shook his head.

“I think it’s brilliant.” Skylar’s eyes sparkled as she smiled. “Folks in Bitterroot Springs have never met Margaret Grace Strafford.”

“I believe it’s time they did,” Cora said as she stood.

Both women stalked toward her, and Maggie suddenly felt like an animal caught in a snare.

“L
et’s go, Daines.” Sheriff Bartley stood on the other side of the cell door, handcuffs in hand. He didn’t look eager to open the cell. “Clint, you better stand down.”

Sitting on a cot against the wall, Garret’s foreman gave the sheriff a puzzled glance. “The glare off that badge must be blinding you. I haven’t moved.” The night before he’d blackened the sheriff’s eye for accusing his crew of being rustlers, earning himself the neighboring cot. “Stupid and blind as you’ve become, it’s a good thing you don’t work on the Lazy J no more. I’d have fired your sorry hide.”

“Put your gun on him,” Bartley said to his deputy.

Garret laughed and got to his feet as Clint shook his head in disgust.

“Stick your hands through the bars,” he instructed as Garret stepped up to the door.

“Damn, Bartley,” he said, holding out his wrists so he could slap the metal bands on them. “Why in hell are you acting like I’m some crazed criminal?”

“’Cause he’s stupid and blind,” Clint said from behind him.

“You murdered two men,” said Bartley.

“While defending my woman!”

“You and Mad Mag? Hell, Garret. Even I don’t believe that. Even if she
was
Strafford’s sister. You bes’ come up with a better story ’fore you go in front of that judge.”

Bartley ushered him toward the door leading to the main room of the sheriff’s office.

“Where are we going?”

“Judge is ready to see you.”

Garret stopped just before the door. “They can’t make me go to trial before my attorney arrives.”

“They sure can. Lucky for you, your fancy attorney rode in a short while ago. Don’t know the good it will do ya. Heard the judge sayin’ that a man who needs a lawyer has somethin’ to hide.”

“Whose side are you on?” The moment he stepped into the office he got his answer. Strafford and two of his men stood among eight of Garret’s ranch hands.

“Mayor Strafford,” Bartley said in a cheerful tone.

Kuhana and Mitch stood at the center of the room as though they’d been blocking Strafford’s advance.

“Sheriff Bartley, once you clear out this garbage, I want a posse assembled to hunt down Mad Mag. She’s a danger to my good citizens.”

“Yes, sir, Mayor Strafford,” Bartley said.

“Unless Mr. Daines would be so kind as to reveal her location right now. If he’s innocent of rustling, he should be willing to turn in Mad Mag.”

“I don’t know a woman by any such name,” he said. “Maybe I should ask your
sister.
”

“We all know who Mad Mag is,” Bartley snapped impatiently.

“You feel it, don’t you, Strafford?” Garret said as he stepped beside him. “The sins of your past catching up with you?”

“You’re going to hang,” Strafford said with dark certainty. “With any luck you’ll live just long enough for me to find her.”

“Mayor Strafford, if you’ll kindly step aside, we’re on our way out.”

“Certainly. I’ll see you in the courthouse.” Strafford and his cronies walked outside and Garret glared at Bartley.

“So that’s how it is? I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.”

“See what?”

“The imprint of Strafford’s back pocket across your face.”

“I’m just doin’ my job.”

“The hell you are. It ain’t a wonder you haven’t caught any rustlers. Take me to my attorney so we can get this over with.”

“You hear that?” Everett said when they stepped outside. Sounded like a swarm of bees. The steady buzz grew louder as they walked along the boardwalk. Reaching the end of the block, Bartley swore beneath his breath.

It looked as though every citizen of Bitterroot Springs swarmed around the small courthouse, making the white building look more like a circus big top. As they caught sight of them the hum of conversation became angry shouts.

“There he is!”

“The cattle rustler!”

“Traitor!”

The deputies and ranch hands closed in around Garret and pushed into the scrum of people.

“Let us through,” Bartley shouted. “Courthouse won’t open until one o’clock.”

Shouts and jeers followed them up the steps.

“This is not good,” Kuhana said from behind him.

Bartley banged on one of the double doors. “It’s the sheriff. Let us in.”

A gray-haired man looked out, then opened the door for them. The men at the back of their group were quick to shut out the noise and mayhem.

“It’s crazy out there,” said one of the deputies.

“First trial in the new courthouse,” the older man said.

Everett stepped beside Garret. “Looks like a church, don’t it?”

Rows of chairs on each side of the room led up to what did look to be an oversize pulpit. The room reeked of fresh paint.

“Sure does,” he agreed.

Bartley and his deputies led them to the room to the left of the judge’s podium. He opened the door so Garret could pass through and said, “The rest of you can wait out here.”

“You can wait out there, as well,” Patterson said, greeting them in the doorway. “I need time to confer with my client.”

“I’ll be right outside the door.”

Garret moved into the small office and spotted his sister in her Sunday best beside Tucker. Chance held the arm of a woman bound in a shiny royal-blue gown and topped with a fancy black-feathered hat. Half Cora’s size, she wasn’t his wife.

“Lucky for us they kept him handcuffed,” said Chance.

Garret tensed. The woman in blue pushed back the black mesh on her hat, and Garret stopped breathing.

Maggie.

“Get her out of here!”

“Calm down,” said Skylar.

“I told you,” Chance muttered.

“I trusted you!” he shouted at Chance.

“This was your attorney’s idea!”

Garret turned his glare on Patterson.
“You’re fired.”

“Garret, we’ve—”

“Strafford just told Bartley to assemble a posse to hunt her down and you
bring her here!
”

“I’m here of my own volition,” Maggie said as she stormed toward him.

“He’s in the next building.”

“We just walked right past him and he didn’t recognize her,” said Skylar.

Holy hell.

“Everyone thinks she’s my wife,” Chance informed him. “Cora Mae’s never been to Bitterroot Springs.”

“I’m here to help you,” Maggie said.

“I won’t risk your life.”

“I won’t have one without you!”

“She’s not going into that courtroom,” he shouted to his attorney.

Maggie’s hands on his chest stopped his protest. The sheen in her eyes took the fight out of him. Her gloved fingers fisted his shirt, tugging him toward her.

“I’m glad to see you,” she whispered.

He lifted his cuffed hands and she stepped close, banding her arms around his waist as his arms encircled her. Holding her didn’t ease the panic raging inside him.

“I don’t want you to become part of this trial.”

“Lots of things happen in life we don’t want,” she said, looking up at him. “You told me we’d face Nathan
together.
That’s what we’re going to do.”

He looked to the men standing behind her, frantic for backup.

“Don’t look at me,” said Chance. “I was up against three strong-minded women and your slick-talking attorney.”

“She has every right to be here,” said Patterson. “And we need you on board with our defense.”

“I’m paying
you
to defend me.”

“I
am
defending you. But I’m not a magician! You’ve admitted to going onto Mayor Strafford’s ranch and shooting his men. You say Maggie was in danger, they say she’s your accomplice. He says you were trying to steal his cattle and this town is eager to hang a cattle thief. Were we merely talking about missing cattle, Maggie’s testimony wouldn’t do more than earn a double hanging. This is why our defense is not to defend your actions, but to expose the truth behind Nathan Strafford’s and that lies in your lady’s testimony.”

His lady wasn’t fond of crowds and she hadn’t eased her
hold on his waist. Her tight embrace told him she was terrified, a fear that didn’t show through the determination burning in her eyes.

“I’m doing this, Garret. I want them to see him for what he really is.”

“If he recognizes you—”

“Haven’t you noticed?
I’m wearing a dress.
”

Despite the tension eating a hole through his spine, he grinned. “I noticed. You look beautiful.” He touched his lips to hers. “You look beautiful no matter what you wear.”

She leaned up, whispering into his ear. “I didn’t tell them I’m wearing buckskins and a blade underneath.”

He laughed and pulled her closer. “That’s my girl.”

The door thumped behind Tucker, jostling his shoulders as he reclined against it.

“Hey!” Sheriff Bartley shouted from the other side.

“Best release her,” Chance said in a low voice. “We got ’em convinced she’s Cora Mae.”

“Are you sure about this?”

She tugged him back to her lips. “You’re worth the risk,” she whispered, giving him a quick, hard kiss.

Any other time he’d have been elated by such a confession.

She stepped back and he reluctantly lifted his arms.

“If anything goes wrong,” Chance said as Bartley pounded on the door, “we’ll get her out.”

“Not unless I’m dragging you with me,” Maggie said to Garret.

“Maggie, promise me—”

“Don’t even ask,” she said, the steel in her voice telling him she wouldn’t be swayed on leaving him.

Tucker stepped aside as the sheriff gave a hard shove and stumbled inside. The murmur of folks packed into a crowded courtroom followed him. His narrowed gaze whipped around the room. “Time’s up. Judge wants everyone in the courtroom.”

Chance slid his arm around Maggie’s shoulders. “Time to take our seat,
darlin’,
” he said, and tugged down the veil of her hat to hide her face.

“Don’t get pushy,” she warned, her gloved hands lifting the hem of her blue skirt.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, dearest,” he said, ushering her out the door behind Skylar and Tucker. He glanced back at Garret, his hard gaze telling him he’d fight her tooth and nail to get her to a safe place should all hell break loose.

Sheriff Bartley stepped up to him. “You find a better alibi?” he asked.

Even worse.
His alibi, dressed in royal-blue, had found him.

The heat and stagnant air were nearly unbearable. Maggie tried not to fidget beneath the constricting mass of blue taffeta and bulky petticoats. Wedged between the broad shoulders of the Morgans, she felt all but invisible in the massive crowd of nearly a hundred onlookers who’d met Nathan’s attorney’s depiction of Garret as the mysterious cattle bandit of Bitterroot Springs with an outpour of applause. They had since been fairly silent.

At the front of the room Judge Thornton reclined in his chair, his thick gray eyebrows pinched in a scowl. His threats to issue fines and clear the courtroom upon further interruptions had been taken seriously.

“How can you claim his innocence when he admits to shooting both men dead?” asked the judge.

“Self-defense,” said Patterson.

Maggie watched as he looked at Garret.

“They were about to kill an unarmed woman,” Garret told him.

“So you claim,” the judge replied, his expression unmoved. “The infamous Mad Mag?”

Garret glanced at Patterson who gave a nod. “No, sir,”
Garret answered. “Her name is Margaret Grace Strafford, the mayor’s own sister.”

Gasps ricocheted through the room followed by an eruption of conversation.

“I won’t have him insulting my family!” Nathan shouted. “You know my sister died years ago,” he said to the judge.

The Morgans leaned in, as though to hold her in her seat. She wasn’t anxious to stand, and hadn’t forgotten Patterson’s instructions to wait until he’d called her.

“Quiet down!” Judge Thornton rapped his gavel and waited for the room to settle to a hush of soft whispers. “Mr. Patterson, you’d best confer with your client because I will not tolerate such lies in this courtroom.”

“He’s not lying,” Patterson answered directly.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull,” he said, looking at Garret, “but I can attest to the passing of Margaret Strafford. I was a frequent guest in the Strafford household and I attended her funeral.”

“You were misled,” said Patterson. “We’d like to call our first witness. Margaret Strafford.”

Patterson’s request was met by a charged silence. Maggie knew Nathan must be searching the room, but she kept her gaze on Judge Thornton. Shocked that he’d attended her funeral, she wondered if she should recognize him? Her father had many guests to the house, both local and from back East. She glanced at the nameplate on his desk, William P. Thornton.

“You ready?” Chance whispered beside her.

She stood, as did both of the Morgans.

“This is an outrage!” Nathan shouted. “Putting that woman in a dress does not make her my sister. Arrest her!”

Chance and Tucker stayed at her sides as she moved into the center aisle. Maggie glanced at Garret as she reached the attorneys’ tables. His gaze didn’t waver from her brother sitting on the other side.

“Young lady.” Judge Thornton’s voice boomed over Nathan’s protests. “Do you understand that lying in this courtroom is a punishable crime?”

“Yes.”

His eyes narrowed as he stared at her.

“Come here.”

She stepped forward, the Morgans moving with her.

“Just the lady,” the judge instructed.

“Your Honor,” said Patterson, “we have obvious concerns for her safety.”

“Sheriff, escort the lady to the bench.”

Bartley rushed forward, his eyes wide with disbelief as he held his arm out to her.

“I won’t stand for this,” Nathan raged.

“Mayor Strafford,” the judge shouted, “you will sit down.”

“That woman is not my sister. Arrest her or I will!”

Ignoring his threat, Judge Thornton leaned forward as she approached him. “What is your name? I’ll warn you to think hard on that. I had supper at the Strafford table many times.”

William.
That was what her father called him. The passing years had aged the dark-haired man she now remembered as a friend of her father’s. “I do recall,” she said softly. “I believe I ruined one of your white shirts with a slice of cherry pie.”