The Brides Of Tombstone 01 Mail Order Outlaw (5 page)

“When is his birthday?”

Lizzie jumped when Mal asked the question and quit fingering the bolt of yellow silk she liked. “It’s next month.”

“We’ll take the lot, Sally. You might order some more books of this type if you can find any. And we’ll take enough of that material Lizzie is admiring so much to make a couple of dresses.”

Sally chuckled. “Yes sir. I like a man who pays attention.”

“No, Mal, I—” She smiled, excited about the material and hopeful that Atina could make her a dress right away. She suddenly felt she’d like to be thought of as a woman, by Mal.

“You need pretty things like every woman and besides I’d like to see you in a dress made out of that material. How much do I owe you Sally?”

“Well, with twelve yards of that silk, it comes to forty-eight dollars and twenty-five cents.”

Mal pulled the wad of bills out of his pocket and handed Sally three twenties. “Here you go. Oh, I forgot. I need some clothes, too. This is the only set I’ve got to work in, and I shrunk my suit. And, of course, a new hat. Got to look good for my best girl.”

Sally went and grabbed a tape measure from next to the cash register. “Let’s measure you and see what size you need.”

She quickly measured him and then pulled two pairs of denim pants off one shelf, two shirts, one plaid and one solid blue, off of another. “Do you need socks and drawers, too?”

Lizzie watched him blush at the mention of men’s under-clothes and couldn’t help but smile.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yes, ma’am, I do.”

“Here you go. Now I’ve got your measurements and can order you a Sunday suit. I don’t have one this big in stock here.”

“That would be great. I need one to wear at our wedding.” He looked over at Lizzie. “Maybe a dress of yellow silk will be your wedding dress.”

Lizzie shook her head. “You keep getting way ahead of yourself, mister. Better slow on down.”

Mal grinned. “We’re getting married Lizzie. The sooner the better as far as I’m concerned.”

“I’m not sure I’m going to marry at all, much less you. Don’t push me. You’ll be sorry, because I will push back.”

“Noted.” His voice was cold.

Lizzie didn’t care. She was tired of being told what she was going to do. She’d been making her own decisions too long, to let someone else start making them now.

“Don’t forget the hat,” she said to Sally.

“Heaven’s no. Come with me,” she walked over to a shelf full of hats. There were top hats, bowlers, caps and Stetsons.

Mal reached for one of the black wide brimmed hats. It was a little small. He grabbed another and it fit correctly.

“What do you think?” he asked Lizzie.

She nodded her head. “Much better. You’ll be happier too without a sunburned neck.”

Lizzie tried to let it go, but she couldn’t. “Don’t be telling everyone we’re getting married. I agreed to call you my fiancé so there’d be a reason for you to live in the house, but I won’t be pushed into a marriage. We have a lot of getting to know each other to do. You understand?”

“I understand.” He grumbled and wasn’t happy, but that was fine with her. He needed to be taken down a peg or two.

* * *

When they came into town, Ed was on guard. He expected to see Harvey around every corner. He’d only been in Tombstone for a few days, but he’d been gone from the gang for more than a week. Harvey had to know he wasn’t coming back by now.

If Ed knew Harvey he’d be looking for Ed until he found him, just so he’d have the pleasure of killing Ed himself. Cautious, he needed to remain cautious. If Harvey found him, found out about the money, or that he cared about Lizzie, everything and everyone would be in danger.

CHAPTER 4

Ed was thankful once again to Mal Brandon. His death had brought forth new life—Ed’s new life—and he was thrilled with it.

Once they got back to the ranch, Lizzie had Jamie and Atina meet them in the kitchen.

“Mal has something he wants to say.”

Ed put the packages on the table. “Atina and Jamie, I want to thank you for allowing me to court your daughter and your sister, respectively. These gifts are a token of my thankfulness for your welcome.”

“That’s a lot of words just to say ‘thank you’,” Atina said as she opened the first of the packages, which happened to be the heavy ceramic cookie jar in the shape of a rooster. She looked up at Ed, eyes shining. “Thank you. I’ve wanted this for a long time.”

She set the jar down and came over to give Ed a hug.

The top of her head reached his chest and he patted her on the back.

Jamie ripped the brown wrapping paper from his gifts. “Woohoo!! Thank you, Mal.” He launched himself at Ed and wrapped his arms around his waist. “Thank you so much. I’ve wanted new books.”

Ed felt more content than he had in all of his adult life. Doing something nice for these people was also doing something nice for him. His old life was getting farther and farther away. And that’s the way he liked it. The farther, the better.

Jamie hugged his books to his chest. “What did you get, Lizzie?”

Lizzie’s eyes got wide and she smiled. “He got me that yellow silk material I’ve been wanting. Mama, can you help me sew it?”

“Don’t you mean, ‘Mama would you make me a dress’?”

“Of course, that’s what I mean.” She grinned. “But I didn’t want to say it that way.”

“Hmpft.” Atina carried her treasures to the sink, pumped water into a metal bucket, and put it on the stove to heat. After the water was hot she carefully washed the canisters and put them in a row on the counter next to the ice box. She put the rooster cookie jar on the end, just waiting to be filled with fresh cookies.

Ed, Lizzie and Jamie had milk and molasses cookies while Atina dealt with her gifts. When she was done, she joined them at the table and grabbed herself a cookie or two. There wouldn’t be any of those cookies left to put in the new container.

“I think this deserves a celebration dinner. I still have the back strap of that deer Lizzie killed last week. I’ll fry it up along with some potatoes and serve it with those green beans I canned last year. What do you say to that?”

Jamie whooped with delight.

“That sounds wonderful, Mama.”

“I haven’t had deer before.” Ed figured Mal being from the city wouldn’t have had that particular meat and thought now was a good time to remind Lizzie who he was.

“That’s right.” Atina studied him. “But how you got that big without the goodness of deer meat, I’ll never know.”

“Ah, now, Atina,” Ed leaned back in his chair. “You just say that because you’re so little.”

“I was tall for my family, but even so, my children both take after their father. He was a big man like you.”

Ed could see that Lizzie had but he didn’t know about Jamie. Of course, the boy was only ten, so he had a lot of growing to do and he was already almost as tall as his mother.

“You should see my brother.” He stopped when Lizzie looked at him quizzically. Then he remembered her sending her sympathy to Mal for his brother’s death. “Sometimes, I forget he’s dead. Anyway, he was taller and bigger than me.”

Brows pinched together, Lizzie reached over and took his hand. “I’m sorry, Mal. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost Jamie.”

He shook his head and swallowed hard, like he was holding back tears. “Enough of this talk. This is a celebration, remember?”

Lizzie ruffled Jamie’s hair. “That’s right. Why don’t you help Mama peel potatoes while Mal and I go do chores? Mal will do yours today.”

“Sure thing, I’d rather peel potatoes than muck stalls.” Jamie gathered his books to take them to his room.

“I bet Mal would, too. Ever mucked a horse’s stall before?”

“You know I haven’t, but mucking doesn’t sound like a chore I’ll like much.”

“I don’t know.” Lizzie shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d like branding either, but you didn’t mind it.”

“I admit branding isn’t my favorite chore to do on this ranch, but I also know it has to be done or we can’t identify our cows.” He didn’t tell them he’d rustled a few cows in his previous life. That wouldn’t have gone over well.

Moments later, they got to the barn and Lizzie pulled two pitchforks from the tools hanging on one of the walls.

“Here you go, get one of those wheelbarrows and start loading it.”

“Loading it with what? The straw?”

“Yes, the straw and all the manure in it.”

“Oh,what a smell. Now I know why Jamie would rather peel potatoes. So would I.” But he began pitching the straw and waste from the stall into the wheelbarrow until it was heaping. “What do I do with it now?”

“Take it outside and tip over in the manure pile. You filled it kind of full, so be careful not to tip it over before you get there or you’ll have to clean it up again.”

“Now you tell me.” Rather than take the chance of having to clean it up twice, Ed removed some of the straw back into the pen. “What do I do after I get all the straw out of the stall?”

“Once you have all the dirty stuff out, you put new bedding in. The straw is in the end stall.” She pointed toward the stall on the left at the back of the barn. “Make sure it’s thick and even. The idea is to provide a cushion for the horse when they lay down, and also to absorb their urine so it doesn’t soak into the dirt. If that happens then we have to shovel out the dirt and replace it before replacing the straw. So you can see why the layer of straw needs to be nice and thick.”

“Okay. I got it.” Ed went back to cleaning the stalls. Lizzie was faster and had done three to his two before they stopped for a break.

She put her pitchfork against the hay in one of the stalls and then sat on a bale. “You still think you want to run a ranch?”

“A little hard work won’t change my mind. I like working with my hands and body. It sure beats the dry goods business and wearing a suit every day.” Ed didn’t know anything about the dry goods business. He’d been in a fancy store once in Tucson and the man there had worn a suit, so he figured maybe Malcolm had, too.

“Yeah, I guess it would. I wouldn’t want to wear a dress every day either.”

He ran his gaze over her. “You look good in those pants but I’d still like to see you in a dress.”

Lizzie picked at the hay next to her until she got out a long piece. “About the only time I wear one is to go to church. During branding season, like we’ve been doing for the last month, I don’t attend services. We’ll go next Sunday, and then you’ll see me in my dress. Trust me, it’s not all that spectacular.”

“Dress? As in you only have one?”

She shrugged. “Only ever needed one. But having a second one will be nice. So I have a choice. That yellow silk sure is pretty and I do thank you for buying it for me.” She popped one end of the piece of hay into her mouth.

Ed did the same thing and chewed. It was an earthy flavor, not unpleasant.

“Well, we’ve still got three more stalls to do, and then we can move on to rounding up some of the strays. I sent the boys out to the south range where most of the cattle are. You and I will go north in case any went that way. I don’t expect to find any but you never know.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Do you know how to use that six-shooter you have on your hip?”

“Yes.”
I answered too quickly. I’m supposed to be a green horn
. “I…um…learned as a hobby. Have to do something for fun. And when I decided to come out here I thought shooting a gun would be a useful skill to know, especially if I ever got the chance to own a ranch.”

“You’re right about that. You need one in this country. Never know when you’ll see a sidewinder.”

Ed pretended not to know what it was. “Sidewinder?”

“It’s a rattlesnake. It’s a varmint you don’t want to mess with.”

He nodded. “I’ve read about rattlesnakes. Dangerous critters.”

She flashed her gaze to him and furrowed her eyebrows. “You say some strange things for a green horn, city slicker.”

He realized he’d made a mistake saying critters. That wasn’t a word Malcolm would use. He tried to smooth it over. “What other kinds of
creatures
should I be wary of?”

Lizzie didn’t say anything else about his mistake, just answered his question, but he knew he’d have to be more careful.

“We’ve got gila monsters which are a lizard with a poisonous bite and tarantulas, big poisonous spiders, puma—”

“Do you have any animal that isn’t poisonous?”

“Pumas aren’t. They’re a big cat, but can be very dangerous if you come upon them. They’ll try and ambush you, too,” she gestured with her arms, like a cat jumping on him from above. “So you need to be aware of your surroundings, especially if you’re out in the mountains, like the ones you crossed coming from Tucson.”

“I’ll remember to pay attention.” He wasn’t likely to forget since he’d been bitten by a tarantula before and was sick as a dog for a week.

“For now, I’ll be with you when you go out, but regardless you still need to stay aware.”

He nodded. “Understood.”

Ed thought he was doing all right. He seemed to have distracted Lizzie from his mistake of using critters. He had to remember how Malcolm would have talked. Carrying off this new role would be a lot easier if he had the letters Malcolm wrote to Lizzie, but that wasn’t possible…or was it? What if Lizzie had kept Mal’s letters just like he’d kept hers? Could he find them? Even if he did, could he take them without being found out or would it just draw more attention to him? Make Lizzie suspicious, if she wasn’t already. It might be worth the danger.