Outlaw Hunter

“We were to be married, be gone for only a day, he’d promised. We were to return and spring the grand and romantic news on my parents. I was so full of the dreams he’d spun I didn’t give anyone else’s feelings a thought. I left my folks without a word or a kiss, only a note that I later found among Ram’s things.

“I was wretched to them when all they had ever been to me was devoted. Until Ram, the three of us had been each other’s world.”

“Girls do grow up.” Way too fast. He thought about the little ones who hugged his thighs whenever he visited his sister. His heart twisted.

“Most not so thoughtlessly,” she answered, staring at the flames. “I’ve told the children my folks will welcome me back, and them, as well. I only hope that’s true.”

“Would you welcome Flynn or Seth in the same situation?”

“I see your point, Reeve, but for all I know they might think I’m dead.”

Reeve. Every time she said his name it sounded special. He gave himself a mental shake. It was time to wrangle his thoughts back to business.

“They’ll be that much more relieved to see you, then. So, are you saying you weren’t kidnapped?”

“Oh, I was...” She looked away from the fire and straight at him. “Half a day out of Cottonwood Grove we rode right past the Justice of the Peace where we were to be married. I told Ram that I’d changed my mind. I wanted to go home, to be married with my parents by my side. That gave him a good laugh and me a good cry.

“We kept on riding, avoiding towns so I couldn’t tell anyone that he was taking me against my will, because by then he was. I tried to escape once and he tied me to the saddle until we got to the Badlands, where I wouldn’t dare try to run. Once we reached the Broken Brand, Pappy Travers married us. I had to say I do. They were going to punish Libby if I didn’t.”

“I wonder if your marriage was legal?”

“I signed a license that looked real. They say Pappy Travers became ordained, just so he could perform weddings at the ranch.”

Another crime came to mind. One he had to ask about, but damn, he didn’t want to.

“I’m asking this as a lawman, because I have to.” He took a breath. Questioning a criminal was a hell of a lot easier than questioning a witness. “Before you got to the Broken Brand, did Trav—”

“No.” Silence stretched for a moment, broken by Seth’s contented sighs. “It wasn’t allowed. Pappy Travers had decreed—and what Pappy Travers decreed was law—that the men had to wait until the vows were spoken and the paper signed. They broke every other kind of law. I don’t know why they drew the line at rape.

“After Pappy pronounced a marriage binding, that was another thing. It didn’t matter if the bride was unwilling, she was now her husband’s property, to be treated as he saw fit.”

He nodded, clasped his hands around his knees and tried very hard not to erupt into anger. There were two more things he needed to ask, one much harder than the other.

“Were there others like you?”

She was silent for a long moment, and then she nodded.

“I’ve heard the stories of how some adapted, became no better than their husbands. Some didn’t. Joe’s mother died giving birth to him. His daddy is in jail—no one remembers where, though. Libby and Pansy’s mother went crazy. She walked away one day. That happened the year before I came, and Pansy was an infant. Libby said they looked for her, but not for long.”

“It’s hard to accept that they got away with it as long as they did.”

“The ranch is remote...and not all of the Traverses got away. Some got caught, some shot. Ram and his brother were both killed robbing a bank. They were buried where they committed their crime.” She looked at him straight on again, her eyes welling with moisture. “I’d like to say that I grieved the loss, but when word came...well, my tears weren’t sorrowful ones. All I could think of was that he wouldn’t be a poisonous influence on Flynn or the coming baby.”

As much as he’d told her that his questions were not personal, only what he was required to ask, her answers cut him to the quick. The few Traverses out there walking free wouldn’t be for long.

This brought him to the final question, the one he dreaded asking more than the others.

“Will you testify against the ones we have in custody when it comes to the trial?”

She bowed her head, closed her eyes. He thought she was not going to answer, but she nodded her head.

“Yes, Reeve,” she whispered. “As long as you’ll be there.”

“I’ll be there.”

It was his job to be there. Even if it weren’t, he’d be there. Somewhere during this conversation, he had changed from lawman to friend.

Where Melody Dawson was concerned, things were no longer strictly business.

* * *

“I can’t believe it,” Reeve heard Libby exclaim while she and Melody sat on the back of the buckboard with their legs dangling over the edge. “Your name is really Melody Irene? Why did you tell us it was Hattie?”

Reeve drove the wagon team while Joe took turns giving Pansy and Flynn rides on his horse. He didn’t worry about his mount. The horse was good with children, having been exposed to his sister’s brood.

“I just... I guess I wanted to keep that bit of me for myself.” Melody’s voice drifted toward him on the wood seat. “Ram took everything I loved away... I didn’t want to give him my name.”

“How is it he didn’t learn your name that first day, when you met him in front of the general store?”

“Libby, I hope you are never as foolish as I was. Meeting Ram began as a romantic lark. I thought it would be fun to pretend I was someone else.”

“You aren’t foolish. You are the best person I know. I can’t think of how we would have gotten by without you.”

“Still, I was very foolish.”

For a moment, the only noise was the sound of the wheels crunching over the road and the creak of the leather tack.

“I only hope that bringing you all home will help heal my folks’ grief.”

Reeve turned his head to look back. Libby slipped her arms around Melody’s waist, and Melody put her arm over Libby’s shoulders. They leaned together, blond head meeting red head.

“I hope they take to us,” Libby said, the worry in her voice apparent all the way to the front of the wagon. “We look like riffraff that the cat dragged in.”

Their clothing did look ragged, and that was a fact. It would be important for them to make a respectable impression. Melody’s folks might be happy enough that they wouldn’t notice what their daughter or the others had on but other folks in town would be looking, and looking hard.

Adjusting to town ways would not be easy on the children, especially Joe and Libby. They’d have a stigma to overcome, having been raised by outlaws.

Looking their best might make a difference.

“We’ll be coming to a town tomorrow.” Reeve looked over his shoulder again.

Melody and Libby glanced up at him at the same time. Libby would grow to be a beauty, once she got some food in her and her blue eyes lost their slightly haunted look.

“It’s the last one before we reach Cottonwood Grove. We’ll do some shopping. We could all use something clean to wear.”

Melody let go of Libby then crawled across the back of the wagon, pausing for an instant to check on Seth, asleep in a wood crate. She climbed over the seat back, then settled beside him.

“We might just as well go around the town,” she whispered. “What we have on will do.”

It wouldn’t do. Neither would the flush of embarrassment tinting her face. He should have realized that they didn’t have any money before he spoke up.

“There’s a fund. A victims’ fund.” There wasn’t, but he hoped that she believed him. “The government sets aside money for people in situations like yours. Just to see that you get off to a fair start.”

Melody frowned down at her worn skirt. She grabbed a fistful of fabric in her lap. When she glanced up, there was moisture warming her dark amber eyes.

“I’ve hated this thing for a very long time. I’ll pay the government back every cent. For what it spends on the children, too.”

He believed that she would.

There were women in the world who would not have made it through the kidnapping and the captivity. Like Libby and Pansy’s mother, they would have simply walked away. He admired the fact that life’s struggles had made Melody stronger rather than weaker.

He’d seen her strength from the first moment, but ever since she emerged from the hot spring, she had taken on a new radiance.

Not only was he impressed with her poise and her grit, but her sunny beauty, as well, even though she was a mite thin.

Just now, he wanted to kiss her, to pull her tight against him and taste her. He wanted it more than he’d wanted anything in a long time.

Chances were this warm feeling for Melody Dawson would stay with him for a long time after he left her safely in Cottonwood Grove.

* * *

It was hard to believe that she was walking down the boardwalk of a real town—a town less than a day’s ride from home.

Melody recalled coming here with her parents once, but the memories were dim.

To her right was a bakery with its door open to the cloudy afternoon. Out of it trailed the scents of vanilla and cinnamon.

The aroma went straight to her heart. It felt as if she had landed in Heaven instead of Tawberry, Texas.

Next door to the bakery was a milliner. Hats with pretty ribbons and bows decorated the window. The whirl of textures and colors made her want to weep out loud. Life had been dull for so long.

It was the next establishment, though, that made her gasp and Libby spin about in alarm. The name on the frosted glass door read E. M. Probst, MD.

Each night of her captivity she had gone to sleep thanking the Good Lord that her children remained healthy for another day. Way out on the Broken Brand, illness could be a death sentence. There were several small graves on that cursed land.

Somehow, she managed to regain her composure by the time they reached their destination, Henry’s General Store.

A splat of moisture hit her bare head, cold and stinging as though it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to be rain or snow.

She hugged Seth tight to her chest. Beside her, Libby shivered. Tonight she would offer thanks that they would be sleeping in the hotel, that the children would not catch a chill by staying out in the elements.

Government money would pay for the cost, Reeve had assured her—just like the cost of the new clothes they were about to purchase.

She didn’t believe that, not for a moment. If she had to work all hours of the day and night she would pay Reeve Prentis back.

But Libby was right. They did look like riffraff that the cat had dragged in. Well, not all of them.

Reeve looked perfectly wonderful, walking ahead of her on the boardwalk. He carried Flynn in one arm and Pansy in the other.

He had left his gun belt in his saddle pack so that it would be safer to tote her little wild man about.

The marshal strode straight and tall. Even without the weapon he had the bearing of a man of authority. Yes, he spoke to the children and made them laugh, but all the while he glanced about, scanning dim alleys and watching folks as they passed by.

It must be habit for him, looking out for trouble.

Once again, emotion pressed tears to the backs of her eyes. Because of Reeve, she felt safe for the first time in a long while.

He carried Flynn and Pansy into the store. Joe followed.

Needing a moment and a deep breath to once again compose herself, Melody stood outside while Libby went in before her.

Libby screeched.

Melody rushed inside to see the girl frozen in place with one hand over her mouth and her finger wagging at the counter where a display of jars containing hard candy shimmered in a rainbow of colors.

The store clerk, very clearly, did not share her joy. His eyes narrowed. He swung his head back and forth, taking in each person’s disreputable appearance.

“Is there something I can help you with?” he asked with an arrogant arch of his brows.

“That’s candy!” Joe exclaimed.

He and Libby approached the counter, shoulder to shoulder, their eyes as wide as their grins.

“Those are peppermint sticks,” Joe said. “I recall one time that Uncle Cyrus brought some home from a raid.”

“He didn’t share them,” Libby said. “But they sure smelled good.”

On the right side of the counter was a basket of hair ribbons. Libby turned, reaching toward the ribbons. Her fingers stroked the air over them.

“I reckon the shiny ones are satin,” she said in an almost-reverent tone. “And those others, are they velvet, Melody?”

“Don’t you touch those, young woman,” the counter man ordered. “And you, boy, keep those dirty fingers off the candy jars.”

Poor Libby, her cheeks flamed.

“I wouldn’t take one, I swear,” she said.

Reeve set Flynn and Pansy on the floor. He approached the basket, patted Libby’s shoulder then scooped up all the ribbons in his big fist.

“I’ll take these and whatever else the young lady wants.” Reeve shrugged off his coat, exposing his badge. “Give me all the peppermint in the jar and the licorice, to go with it.”

The skinny man gulped, sending his Adam’s apple sliding up and down his throat.

“Yes, sir, Marshal.”

“Mind your manners, mister, and help these good folks with whatever they need. If you don’t have it, find someone who does and have it brought here. Be sure to pack everything up in nice, neat packages and have them delivered to the hotel.”

The counter clerk bobbed his half-bald head.

“I’ll be back to settle up in half an hour.”

“Yes, sir, Marshal.” The man blinked pale green eyes that were a size too large for his face. “It’ll be just as you say.”

“See that it is.”

Reeve turned to Melody, then took her by the elbow and led her to stand by the big potbellied stove that heated the store.

“Buy whatever you need. The government’s got more money in the fund than it knows what to do with. I’ve got to pay a visit to the town marshal, but I’ll be back shortly. We can all walk over to the hotel together.”

He took a step toward the front door, but she touched his arm, halting him. The supple leather of his shirt felt warm and his muscles firm under her fingertips.

“This is the first time any of the children have been inside a store. Thank you for not allowing the clerk to disrespect them.”

He answered with a nod, then went out the door, closing it on an increasingly angry-looking storm.

She went to the window and pulled aside the curtain to watch him dash across the earthen street. He was a big man walking in long powerful strides. His shoulders, hunched against a sudden downpour, looked as if they could carry the world.

Chapter Three

Melody stood in the center of the hotel room wearing her clean, new shift. She clenched her toes against the smooth wood floor, listening to the storm that howled under the eaves.

Unlike Libby, Pansy and Flynn, curled in a cozy tangle in one of the beds, she could not sleep. Even a simple doze was beyond her reach tonight.

Sleet hit the window with a quiet splat. She checked on Seth tucked into his crate. With his little belly full, he ought to be asleep for a few hours.

Quiet breathing, heavy in sleep, sighed through the room. There would be none of that for her tonight.

Nothing, it seemed, could ease the anxiety she felt over finally going home tomorrow. She wanted it, as much as her next heartbeat, but she dreaded it, too.

How would her parents receive her? And not only her parents, what about the rest of the town? Some might see her as a victim, but others might believe that as an outlaw’s wife, she was tainted.

Perhaps she was. She was certainly not the carefree girl who had run away with Ram, her hopes and dreams as fresh as sunrise.

Life had hardened her, and yet motherhood had made her more compassionate.

She hated to think it, but her parents might not even recognize their little girl. They would love her, still. She knew that. Maybe once she fell into their embrace, something of that carefree girl would return.

In the end, all of the hoping in the world was not going to allow her to sleep. Nerves jittered inside her until all she could do was pace from the window to the door, from the door to the window.

It was late, eleven o’clock. The clerk downstairs had told her that they kept a fire going in the lobby all night for restless guests and folks coming in at odd hours.

She paused in front of the hook on the wall where her new dress hung. She took it down and put it on. It smelled fresh. She doubted the day would come when fresh-smelling clothes would go unappreciated.

Not feeling like making a fuss over her hair, she combed her fingers through it and let it fall loose about her shoulders. She put on her new shoes then bent over Seth’s crate to make sure his breathing remained deep and slow.

Good, it would be safe to go downstairs for a short time.

She closed the door behind her with a quiet click then walked down the hall to the stair landing.

From where she stood she could see most of the lobby. The scene was cozy with stuffed chairs placed in a half circle about the fireplace. Lamps on side tables were turned low for the night. They cast the parlor in a pretty amber glow.

She heard the ticktock of a grandfather clock but couldn’t see it.

At the foot of the stairs, she paused, faced with a pleasant decision. Should she pass these quiet moments in front of the fire, or sit beside the window and watch the storm blow by?

It had been an age since she felt this secure.

It occurred to her that she didn’t have to make a choice. She could do both.

She would start with the window.

All of a sudden the front door opened, blowing in a gust of sleet and Reeve Prentis.

“Evening, Melody.” He removed his slush-dampened hat and coat then hung them on the hall tree beside the door. “I wondered if you’d get any sleep tonight.”

Lamplight and fire glow certainly flattered Reeve. The warm light cast his eyes a deeper shade of green. A shadow brushed the cleft in his chin and highlighted the curve of his smile.

If she were a different person, at a different place in her life, she would reach out and touch his cold, ruddy-looking cheek.

“I tried but...” She shrugged. “What are you doing out so late and in this weather?”

“Town marshal’s down with a fever. I told him I’d make his rounds.”

“That was kind of you.”

“Just part of the job.”

“That was dedicated of you, then.”

The smile he flashed gave her heart a skip. That would not do. Last time her heart gave a skip... Well, she did have her boys.

“Would you care to sit for a while?” he asked.

“By the fire or the window?”

“Window. We can enjoy the storm and keep warm at the same time.”

He enjoyed storms? So did she. There was something so snug about sheltering inside while everything raged outside.

“Would you like some tea, Reeve? Maybe I can find some in the kitchen.”

“I’d be grateful.”

Those long fingers of his looked as if they needed to be wrapped around something warm. For an instant, she imagined being that something.

What, she wondered, would those big calloused fingers feel like, touching the curve of her...? That was a thought she would not indulge in. Someday she might be able to think of a man that way, but not yet.

She hurried away, hoping that he hadn’t noticed the blush heating her face.

* * *

After ten minutes, Melody walked into the parlor carrying two cups of fragrant, steaming tea. Reeve was almost sorry that the blush had faded from her cheeks. She looked pretty with that high coloring.

He took the cup Melody offered. She sat down on the chair across from him.

A mixture of rain and snow dripped down the window. Wind whistled and moaned.

“I wonder if the weather will keep us from leaving the hotel in the morning,” she said with a sidelong glance outside.

“Would you want it to?” He studied the delicate pucker of her brow, wondering about the troubles that had to be churning her mind. It would only be natural for her to worry about what would happen tomorrow.

“No!” She looked out the window again. “Well, maybe...”

“Things might not go easy at first.”

“I’m used to hard, Reeve.” She snapped her gaze back to him. “I can handle that for myself. But my babies, and the other children... I want things to go easy for them. Libby and Joe have only known hard.”

“I reckon your folks will need some time to adjust. That’s only reasonable, but they’ll come around.”

“I hope so.” Her mouth firmed into a look of conviction. “I believe so.”

“So do I.” He took a gulp of his tea then smiled at her. “Thanks for this.”

“You don’t need to thank me for anything, Reeve.” She reached over and squeezed his hand. Something in her eyes told him that the gesture did not come easily. “I can never pay you back for all you’ve done for me. And don’t tell me it’s just your job. I won’t hear it.”

“You’re welcome, Melody. You and the children have been refreshing traveling companions. It’s criminals that I normally escort.”

Not one single person that he’d escorted had ever touched his hand in friendship.

“It must be lonely, spending so much time away from your kin.”

Lonely and necessary.

“I see them when I can...holidays and such.”

“That doesn’t seem like enough. You speak so fondly of your nieces.”

Being away so much wasn’t right. He knew it. But he had a living to earn for his mother and his youngest sister—and a sin to atone for while he did it.

“You’re right. It isn’t enough.”

“Surely you could take more time off.”

Did he want to confide in her about his past? The night seemed right for private talk, with the storm wailing like a forlorn ghost and the two of them safe behind the glass. So late at night, it seemed that they were the only people alive with just the tick of the clock and their voices to fill up the night.

What had happened, what he had done to his family, was no secret, but he rarely spoke of it and they never did.

After tomorrow, it was unlikely that he would ever see Melody Dawson again. Sometimes, it was easier to talk to someone just passing through your life than it was to your own kin. At this time of year the guilt gnawed at him hard.

“I can’t take the time off for a pair of reasons.” He set down his tea, leaned back then folded his arms across his chest. If anyone could understand his sin, it would be Melody. “I’m the sole support of my crippled mother and my youngest sister. The reason that I am is that I trusted someone and it ended up getting my father killed. It put my mother in a wheelchair.”

If she was revolted by his confession, it didn’t show. Her gaze softened and she set down her tea. She leaned forward in her chair, resting her elbows on her knees and her chin on her folded hands.

Melody Dawson was an exceptionally becoming woman, with her golden-blond hair falling softly over her shoulders and her warm, caring eyes looking at him with understanding.

“I’m so sorry, Reeve. Would you like to talk about it?”

He didn’t want to talk, but somehow he needed to unburden himself. Given her own past mistakes, she might be the one person to understand.

“Growing up, I was the oldest. I told you about my three sisters. The girls were always up to mischief. Ma and Pa were busy making a living. My folks were jewelers and had a shop in town so they were gone much of the time. It fell to me to keep the girls in line.

“But I was eighteen and didn’t want to stay in line, myself. One day I met a couple of fellows who were my age and full of the dickens. I admired them because they were free to do the things I could not.”