Outlaw Wife

But when he’d gotten back to the sheriff’s office once again, the door had been open, and waiting inside were Cissy, Judge Abercrombie, John and a transformed Willow.

With some of that mysterious feminine magic, Cissy had cleaned her up, swept her cloud of hair into some kind of chignon that finally made her look her nineteen years and more, and dressed her in one of Cissy’s own pink gowns. The coloring was not right with the reddish hair and tanned face, and the dress hung loose on Willow’s slender frame, but at least he hadn’t had to get married to someone wearing trousers.

As if reading his thoughts, Willow spoke for the first time since they’d left town. “What happened to my clothes?”

“Cissy packed them in here,” he answered, indicating the carpetbag that was tied to the pommel of his saddle.

“What made her do all this for me?”

Simon shrugged. “She’s a good person. She cares about people.”

“The way it looks to me, she cares about you, Mr. Grant.”

Simon rode along in thought for a couple minutes, then finally said only, “I reckon she does.”

Willow sat up straight in her saddle and twisted toward him. She was utterly comfortable, even on a strange mount, Simon noted. “Well, hell’s bells! How come she was pushing to marry you off to me, then?”

Simon kept his eyes on the road ahead. “I’ll ask you to watch your language when we get out to the ranch,” he said stiffly.

Willow’s chin went up. “Why? Have you got a mother there who’ll be horrified that her son has taken up with an outlaw girl like me?”

“My mother died when I was twelve. But I’ve got a father, and he’s not in good health.”

“Oh. Well, Mr. Grant, you’ll just have to remember that I’ve been riding with outlaws for the past year. I’ll do the best I can, but I’m not making any promises.” They rode for another couple minutes, then she asked, “Are you going to tell him the truth about me?”

“If you swear like a shantyboy, I won’t have any choice. But I’d rather not. He had a stroke last spring, and I try to keep him from hearing things that are likely to upset him.”

“Which would be me.”

“Which would be the fact that his son has just married a girl whom. he’s known for a grand total of three days and who is a fugitive from the law, wanted for armed robbery.”

He looked over at her, and for the first time all day, she smiled. “I see your point,” she said.

“Good.” Reluctantly he smiled back. They were both in this thing now, for better or worse, as the judge had said. It made sense to keep the arrangement as friendly as possible.

“But you didn’t answer my question. About the sheriff’s daughter,” she prompted.

“Cissy and I kept company for a while. But that ended some time ago.”

“How long a while?”

“Hmm?”

“How long did you and she keep company?”

“I don’t know…. A couple of years, I suppose.”

Willow let the air rush through her teeth. “Whew. A couple of years is a long time.”

“Yup.” She appeared to be expecting further explanation, but Simon wasn’t about to go into the details of his and Cissy’s relationship with someone he’d barely met. Especially a woman. He’d never even discussed Cissy with his father.

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