Outlaw Wife

Together they managed to get him to the outhouse and back again, but the trip convinced Simon that Cissy had been right, as usual. There was no way he’d be riding for at least a couple of days. Fortunately he’d finished his business in Laramie quickly, not liking to be away from home for long these days. His father wouldn’t start looking for him until the end of the week.

“So what did you find out about the bunch who waylaid me?” he asked as the sheriff helped him settle back into bed.

“Sounds like the Davis gang. Old Seth Davis has been keeping himself and his boys one step ahead of the law for years now.”

“Seth!” In his haze yesterday, Simon had forgotten that he’d heard a couple of the outlaws’ names. “They called the leader of the group Seth. And there was another man named Jake.”

“That’d be Jake Patton. A real mean sidewinder from down South somewheres. Has a reputation for being fast with guns and charming with women.”

“Somehow I missed the charming part.”

“Is he the one who kicked you?”

Simon nodded.

John’s eyes went from Simon’s mangled face to his bandaged ribs. “We’re going to get them, Simon,” he said grimly.

“I thought you said you were too old for chasing criminals.”

“I am. But we’re going to get them just the same.”

He looked out the window at the sound of a commotion out on the street. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

“What is it?” Simon knew better than to try turning his head that far.

“If my eyes weren’t too old to depend on, I’d say that looks an awful lot like Marshal Torrance.”

“Did you send him a wire?”

John ignored the question. “And the horse with him looks an awful lot like your Rain Cloud.”

Simon rolled over on to his hands to boost himself up enough to see out the window. Sure enough. A man he didn’t know was tying Rain Cloud to the hitching rail out front. She looked none the worse for wear, he saw with relief.

“And I think they’ve got at least some of your outlaws,” the sheriff continued jubilantly. He raced to the door, flung it open and disappeared out into the street.

Simon groaned as he heaved his legs over the side of the bed and straightened up. His side screamed in protest, but he ignored it as he swiftly calculated the number of steps it would take him to reach the door. Six. Seven, maybe. He could do that. And then another two across the sidewalk to Rain Cloud.

He held one hand tightly against his bandage and put the other out to balance himself. He didn’t even want to think about how much it would hurt to fall. As it turned out, they were more shuffles than steps, and it took about ten. Finally he reached the door and leaned heavily against one side of the frame.

When he looked outside, the first sight to greet him was Rain Cloud, lifting her head with a soft nicker of recognition. Then he turned his head and saw her. His vision. The heavenly features and glorious hair. She was real. And John Walker had the barrel of his revolver pressed tight against her head.

“She kicked me,” he explained as he saw Simon’s expression.

“She’s a hellion, all right,” agreed the man standing next to John. He had a double-holstered gun belt on and a tin badge displayed prominently on his black shirt. Simon supposed that he must be Marshal Torrance.

The scrawny outlaw he had thought was a boy was a girl dressed in male clothing. But she didn’t look like a hellion to Simon. She looked young and scared. “Just keep your hands off me,” the girl muttered into her oversize neckerchief. Simon shook his head. He must have been half-asleep not to have seen it. Even in jeans and a heavy wool jacket she was obviously female. The jeans molded around legs that were long and slender. The jacket filled out at just the right places. And then there was that face. He’d been blind not to have realized.

He tore his gaze away from her and held on to the door frame for support as John and the marshal ushered their prisoners past him into the jail.

“I’d rather keep this as quiet as possible,” Marshal Torrance was saying. “The rest of the gang’s still out there, and they might decide to spring these two.”

His back pressed against the door, Simon surveyed the scene. The other man with the marshal was evidently a deputy. They’d caught only two of the outlaws—the old man and the girl. That left the four most dangerous still on the loose. He leaned out the door to look up and down the street. Everything seemed normal.

“They probably think we’re heading back to the territorial jail in Cheyenne,” the marshal continued. “Which is exactly where we’ll have to take them after Tom and I have had some sleep.” He nodded at his companion. “This is Tom Sneed. Deputy marshal.”

John was opening the cell with a big iron key. “We’ll keep them safe for you, Marshal. You and Mr. Sneed can get yourselves a nice rest over at the hotel. Take your time.”

Simon’s eyes were fastened once again on the girl. She saw him looking at her and turned away. “What about the others?” he asked the marshal.

“I don’t know. It was pure dumb luck that we got these two. I’d just gotten Walker’s wire at the stage depot in Prescott when they rode up trying to sell your pinto. We rode most of the night to get here so’s you could identify them. I’ve been trying to get something pinned on Seth Davis for a good long time.” His voice was rich with satisfaction.

The old outlaw shook his head. “Most danged fool thing I ever done,” he said. He looked from the marshal to the girl. “I guess I kind of knew that I’d just about run my course. But my daughter had nothing to do with any of it.”

“Daughter!” Simon and the sheriff exclaimed in unison.

Seth Davis nodded and wagged a bony finger at the papers covering the sheriff’s desk. “Just write down there that it was co-er-shun or whatever fancy legal terms you need. She’s no outlaw.”

The marshal tiredly wiped the back of his hands across his eyes. “The last three robberies attributed to the Davis gang have reported six outlaws, not five. And Simon Grant here can testify that your daughter was riding with them at the time that he was robbed and beaten.”

The old outlaw and his daughter both turned toward Simon. Her eyes were blue and enormous. “Well, I…” he began.

“So, as far as I’m concerned,” the marshal continued, “I’m taking her in. We’ll leave it up to the courts after that.”

“You heard the marshal,” John said. His gaze was also on the girl, and Simon recognized a hint of sympathy in his expression. But when neither outlaw made a move toward the cell, the sheriff took her arm and pushed her inside.

Deputy Sneed shoved the tip of his gun barrel into the old man’s back. “Get on in there, Davis,” he barked. He waited while the outlaw went in the cell, then shut the iron door with a clang.

“We’ll take you up on your offer, Sheriff,” the marshal said, holstering his gun. “I don’t think they can give you any trouble locked away like that. Just be sure you don’t get too close to that spitfire.” He nodded toward the girl, who stood stiffly just behind the bars, her eyes down, arms folded.

“How about grub?” the sheriff asked. “Have they been fed?”

“Nope. But I wouldn’t worry about it much. It won’t hurt them to go hungry for a while.” The marshal craned his neck tiredly. “Do whatever you like. I’m heading for bed.”

Without another word he turned and went out the door, his deputy following closely behind.

Willow Davis watched the men leave and gave a little shudder of relief. She wasn’t concerned for herself. The deputy had had no compunction about putting his hands all over her when he’d searched her for a weapon, but spending time among outlaws, she was used to men’s rude ways. Her concern was for her father. Seth Davis had prided himself on never being arrested. And she was sure that if it hadn’t been for her presence, he would have shot his way out of it this time. She still expected him to try something foolish any minute, and the marshal didn’t look like a man who would think twice about shooting an escaping prisoner in cold blood.

“Are you two hungry?” the sheriff was asking. He looked much easier to handle than the marshal and the deputy. His weathered skin was crisscrossed with smile lines and his snowy white hair made him look like a kindly grandfather rather than a lawman.

Seth Davis approached the bars. “I reckon we could stand something to eat, Sheriff, but I want to ask you again to release my daughter. She hasn’t done anything.”

The sheriff shrugged. “It’s not in my hands. I’m just holding on to you for the marshal. And it sounds to me like he’s pretty determined to take both of you in.”

Willow could swear that there was almost an apology in his expression as he glanced at her, in spite of the fact that she had kicked him with the solid toe of her boot. It puzzled her.

“I’ll take some food, Sheriff,” she said, relaxing her tense stance.

“I reckon you look like you could use it,” the sheriff replied. “Though you kick hard enough for a scrawny thing.”

Willow hesitated. “I’m sorry,” she said finally. “I’ve been having a bad day.”

For the first time she smiled, and Simon felt as if the air had been sucked out of his gut. While it was true that she was almost too slender, she was anything but “scrawny.” And when she smiled, her face lit up like daybreak on a hazy summer morning. He hardly heard the sheriff’s question.

“Will you be all right while I go arrange some food?”

“Excuse me?” He tore his eyes away from the girl and turned toward John.

“Get back down on that bed, Simon. You look as if you’re about to keel over.”

Simon moved over to the cot and sat down heavily. “I need to see to Rain Cloud.”

“I’ll take care of Rain Cloud. You lie back down and behave yourself or I’m going to get Cissy over here again to start in on you.”

Simon smiled. It would be no hardship, he decided, to sit here a spell and feast his eyes on the young outlaw girl. Though it was a pity to think that anything so pretty was on the wrong side of the law. “I appreciate that, John. And I’ll keep a close watch on your prisoners here while you’re gone.”

John followed Simon’s gaze over toward the cell, where the girl had taken off her hat, letting loose a cloud of thick reddish gold hair. “I expect you will. On one of them anyway,” he muttered, turning toward the door.

When he’d left, Simon looked back over at the cell. The old man was sitting on one of the cell’s two cots. The girl was ruefully examining the other. “Was it you?” Simon asked softly. “Were you the one who untied me and left me water?”

Seth Davis’s head came up.

The girl continued her examination of the bed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Simon settled back against the wall. His chest would feel better if he were lying down, but then he wouldn’t be able to watch her. “I think I remember seeing you.”

“You couldn’t have seen her.” The old outlaw spoke sharply. “She wasn’t there. I’m trying to tell you that my daughter isn’t guilty of anything.”

Simon shook his head slowly. “It was you, wasn’t it? You probably saved my life, you know.”

The girl evidently decided that the dirty blanket of the cot was a better alternative than the cold floor and she sank down on it, curling her long legs up underneath her like a child. “You heard my father. I wasn’t there. So I couldn’t very well have saved your life, could I?”

Simon was fascinated. Her voice was low and remarkably controlled for one so young. “How old are you?” he asked, without even considering the question.

“She’s fourteen,” the old man said promptly. “A baby. And she doesn’t belong in a jail.”

“I’m nineteen,” the girl said calmly, throwing her father an affectionate smile. “I’m old enough, I reckon. But that doesn’t make me an outlaw.”

“Plenty old enough to untie the ropes of an unconscious man,” Simon replied.

“If I’d been there.”

Simon gave a nod. He wasn’t going to press the point. What he’d said had been the truth. The girl had undoubtedly saved his life. First by her mere presence at the scene, and then by loosening his bonds. He had no desire to be the one to send her to prison.

“I was a danged fool to let you live,” Seth said bitterly.

Simon looked from the outlaw to his daughter. The girl might have saved him, but he wasn’t about to forget that her father had sat by and let one of his men nearly kill him. He had no sympathy whatsoever for Seth Davis. The two men’s eyes locked. “I reckon you were,” Simon said grimly.

Chapter Two

After their brief exchange, the three occupants of the sheriffs office had settled down in silence, each busy with their own thoughts. Willow’s had been gloomy. She was thinking back over the past several months, trying to decide exactly where her life had begun to spin out of control.

She could now appreciate the lengths to which her father had gone to protect her from his lawless world. Growing up, she’d resented it. Resented his absences. Resented the fact that she’d had to live with Aunt Maud on a tiny ranch in the middle of the endless bare plains of Nebraska, never seeing anyone. Never visiting a neighbor or being visited by one. When Aunt Maud had died last year, she’d been almost glad because it had forced her father to take her away from the desolation of that place.

Now she finally realized what he had been shielding her from.

She looked around at the jail cell. It had two cots, which were the only furnishings. A chamber pot stood in one corner, without so much as a screen for modesty. Would she have to use it—in plain view of everyone? Would she have to sleep here, watched by strange men? She rubbed her hand along the blanket. It was old and greasy. She swallowed down rising tears.

“They can’t hold you in here, darlin’,” her father told her softly from across the cell, reading her dismay.

She looked out at the man on the bed—the one she’d watched Jake stomp so savagely yesterday that she’d almost lost her breakfast. Simon Grant, the marshall had called him. He appeared to be sleeping. Turning back to her father, she said, “But I was there, Pa. And I did ride with you on those last few jobs.”

“They can’t prove that, Willow. Swear to me that you’ll deny everything if they ask you.”

She glanced again beyond the bars to the injured man. “He said he saw me there.”

“He said he thought he saw you. He was too far gone to know what he saw.”

“I was foolish. I should have kept my neckerchief in place.”

“You were damned foolish to go back to him in the first place. I should have suspected you weren’t off all that time on ‘feminine business’ as you so sweetly put it.”

“He would have died.”

“And we would have sold his blasted horse and been three counties from here by now.”

Willow looked down at her lap. “I’m sorry, Pa.”

Seth hoisted himself up off the bed and went to sit beside his daughter, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Not much use in frettin’ over it now.” He lifted her chin. “You’re not going to turn all Weepy Willow, now are you?”

It had been one of his pet names for her when she was a child, crying to see him ride off yet again for who knew how many months. “Don’t you get Weepy Willow on me,” he’d say teasingly, then he’d take her in his arms and gently wipe away the tears.

“What’s to become of us?” she asked.

“I reckon it depends on that young feller lying over there. They’ve already got about a mountain of things to pin on me. If they can add his testimony, it should be enough to put me at the end of a rope.”

Willow stiffened. The stark words sent a chill right through her middle. They might actually hang her father? It was unthinkable. She looked out again at the stranger who held such power over their fate. “What if he doesn’t testify?” she asked softly.

Seth shrugged. “Not much hope in that. You see what Jake’s boots did to him. Wouldn’t you testify if you were him?”

Her spell of self-pity over, Willow felt her mind beginning to work again. This battle was not lost. As he himself had pointed out, she’d saved their victim’s life. And there’d been a look in his eyes when he’d said it. She’d come to know that look in the year she’d been riding with the band. It meant that a man was interested, as her aunt Maud used to say. She’d never been the least bit interested in return, and she wasn’t now. But if keeping Mr. Grant interested would mean he wouldn’t testify against her and her father, she’d be willing to give it a try.

“Now what’s going through that busy little head of yours?” her father asked.

“Maybe we can convince him not to testify against us.”

Her father pulled his arm away from her. “You can stop that line of thinking right now, Winifred Lou Davis. You just keep your mouth shut and don’t admit anything. It’ll be fine. They can’t keep a young girl locked up like a hardened criminal.”

“Mmm.” She leaned over and planted a kiss on his leathery cheek. Not even Aunt Maud had ever called her by her real name. She’d been Willow since she was a baby, and the only time her father ever called her Winifred Lou was when he was angry or very, very serious.

Seth Davis shook his head and stood. “I’m going to get some shut-eye myself. I can’t even think straight. If the sheriff ever gets back here with that food he promised, wake me up.”

He went over to the other cot and lay down.

Within seconds, Willow could hear his light snores. A life on the run had taught Seth Davis to sleep when he could—anytime, anywhere. But even though they’d been up all night, Willow was wide-awake. She was going over again the brief conversation she and her father had had with the man whose testimony could cost her father his life. She was more and more certain that she hadn’t been mistaken about the way he’d looked at her. Now all she had to do was figure out a way to take advantage of it.

Simon felt as if he’d slept through another entire day, but it couldn’t have been long at all. John was just walking in the door of his office with a tray heaped with food. For the first time since his beating, Simon was hungry. His stomach rumbled in anticipation.

He sat up, feeling almost normal. His horse was back. The marshal had recovered his money belt with almost the entire bankroll intact. He could move again without wanting to puke. Things weren’t so bad after all.

He looked over at the cell. The old outlaw had evidently been sleeping, but he sat up as John walked into the room. The girl was still on the other cot, leaning back against the wall. Her eyes were fixed on him. He ventured a smile.

She smiled back. Lord, she was a beauty. Grimy male clothes and all.

“Sorry it took me so long,” John said, placing the heavy tray on his desk. “Mrs. Harris insisted that I sit myself down for a hot meal before I came back. Land sakes, but the woman’s a pain in the posterior.”

“And you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself if you didn’t have her yappin’ at you,” Simon agreed with a grin that didn’t even hurt.

“How’ve my prisoners been behaving?” John asked, ignoring his friend’s comment.

“I’m afraid I’m not such a good watchman, John. I fell sound asleep again. Sorry. I feel like a tuckeredout two-year-old.”

John busied himself with the tray of food, filling three plates with sausages and beans. “That would be the laudanum. I laced your coffee this morning.”

“The hell you did.”

John shrugged. “Cissy’s orders.” And that was that.

Simon let in enough air to qualify as a sigh. He had to admit that whatever John had given him had eased the pain. But it seemed…cowardly, somehow. His father had never allowed himself to be medicated, no matter what he was suffering. He glanced at the cell. The girl was still watching him. “A shot of whiskey would’ve worked just as well,” he said under his breath.

John didn’t appear the least affected by Simon’s grumbling. “Help yourself,” he said indifferently. “It’s in the desk drawer.” He reached over and thrust a plate at Simon. “I’d eat something first, though.”

Simon took the food and watched as the sheriff picked up the other two plates. “Do you want me to…ah…cover you while you hand that in to them?” he asked, glancing uncertainly toward the two prisoners.

John chuckled. “I think I can handle it, son. They don’t look that fierce.”

In fact, at the moment, the pair in the cell looked rather forlorn. The old man was rubbing the sleep from his eyes, his chest moving rhythmically in a silent cough. The daughter sat with her arms clutching her hunched knees. She had shifted her gaze from Simon to her father, and her eyes had clouded with worry.

“Ready for some lunch?” John asked, balancing the two plates on one arm as he turned the key in the cell door.

The girl unfurled herself and stood. She moved with the grace of a mountain cat. Simon felt a rumble in his stomach that did not come from the odor of Francine Harris’s baked beans. He watched as she crossed the cell and took the plates from John. “Thank you, Sheriff,” she said. “I can tell that, unlike the marshal and that awful deputy, you are a real gentleman. And I am sorry I kicked you.”

Simon couldn’t tell if the well-modulated tone of her voice and her shy smile were calculated. If so, her calculations were right on the mark as far as Simon was concerned. If he’d been John, he’d have flung open the cell door and let her walk right on out of there. John, it appeared, was made of sterner stuff.

“Well, I’m sorry you kicked me, too, miss. I’ll carry that mark awhile, I reckon. Now, if you’d just move back out of the way, I’ll be locking this door up again.”

The girl’s mouth gave a little twist of annoyance. But then she smiled again and stepped back. “Whatever you say, Sheriff.” Her eyes went once again to Simon, and her smile was not quite so shy.

Seth Davis stood to take his plate from his daughter. “We aren’t about to give you any trouble, Sheriff,” he said. “But I can’t say as much for the rest of my men if they find out you’re holding us here.”

John went to sit heavily in his chair. “We’ll just have to hope they won’t find out then, won’t we?”

“Myself, I wouldn’t mind meeting up with them again, as long as the odds are slightly better than the last time,” Simon put in. He set his plate alongside him on the cot and held a hand against his sore side as he settled into a comfortable position against the wall.

“Right,” John snorted. “You look like you’re in great shape for a showdown with a pack of gunmen.”

“I’d rather it wouldn’t be today,” Simon agreed with a faint smile.

“If you’d let us go, there would be no showdown,” the girl interrupted. “My father would take his men and ride clear out of the territory. I’d see to it.”

John leaned back and swiveled back and forth in his new chair. He chuckled. “I don’t mean any insult, miss, but it’s a little hard to picture you ordering around the likes of Jake Patton.”

“Jake’ll do anything I tell him to.” There was absolute conviction in her voice.

“Is Jake your man or something?” John asked.

Simon felt himself holding a breath on the girl’s answer. It was none of his business, but the thought of the man who had kicked him with such viciousness being involved with this girl, putting his hands on her, made him want to toss back the greasy sausage that had just slid down his throat.

She gave a chilly smile. “I don’t have a man. Don’t intend to, either. Not ever.”

There was a finality to the way she said it that seemed just a little sad to Simon. Of course, he’d said the same thing himself about not intending to hitch himself up with a woman, but his circumstances were far different from this outlaw daughter. He had a ranch to run and an invalid father to care for. That was all the future he needed. But what did this girl have ahead of her? Prison, perhaps. Then back to a life on the run. Would she end up after all with some unscrupulous bastard like Patton?