Lawless

Easily said, she mused, when the wood was still hundreds of miles away. “You might finish building the pen Jake started. I intend to inquire about buying some piglets while I’m in town.”

“Yes’m.” He spit. He’d build the cursed pen, but he’d be damned if he’d tend pigs. “Miss Sarah, I’m getting a mite low on tobacco.”

Whiskey and tobacco, Sarah thought, rolling her eyes heavenward. What would Mother Superior have said? “I’ll see to it. You look in on Alice regularly, Lucius. See that she has a bit of that broth and rests.” She heard him grumble about being a nursemaid and snagged her lip to keep it from curving. “I’ll be back by three. I’m going to fix a very special meal tonight.” She gave him a final glance. “You’ll want to change your shirt.” She cracked the reins and headed out before she allowed herself to laugh.

Life was glorious. Life was, she thought as she let the horses prance, magnificent. Perhaps she was rich, as Jake had said, but the gold no longer mattered. So many things that had seemed so important only-a short time before really meant nothing at all.

She was in love, beautifully, wildly, in love, and all the gold in the world couldn’t buy what she was feeling. She would make him happy. It would take some time, some care and more than a little patience, but she would make Jake Redman see that together they could have everything two people could want. A home, children, roots, a lifetime.

What they had brought to each other had changed them both. She was not the same woman who had boarded the train in Philadelphia. How far she’d come, Sarah reflected as she sca

And she had changed him. She could see it in the way he looked at her, in the way he reached for her as he slept, just to hold her, to keep her close. Perhaps the words were difficult for him to say. She could wait.

Now that she had found him, nothing and no one would keep her from being with him.

She saw the rider coming, and for an instant her smile bloomed. But it wasn’t Jake. Sarah watched Jim Carlson slow his horse to a trot as he crossed the road in front of her. She intended to ride by with a brief nod of greeting, but he blocked her way.

“Morning, ma’am.” He shifted in his saddle to lean toward her. The stink of whiskey colored his words. “All alone?”

“Good morning, Mr. Carlson. I’m on my way to town, and I’m afraid I’m a bit pressed for time.” “That so?” It was going to be easier than he’d thought. He wouldn’t have to go through Lucius to get to her. “Now that’s a shame, since I was just riding out to see you.”

“Oh?” She didn’t care for the look in his eyes, and the smell of whiskey on his breath didn’t seem harmless, as it did with Lucius. “Is there something I can do for you, Mr. Carlson?”

“There sure is.” Slowly, his eyes on hers, he drew his gun. “Step on out of the wagon.”

“You must be mad.” She’d frozen at the first sight of the barrel, but now, instinctively, her fingers inched toward her rifle.

“I wouldn’t touch that rifle, ma’am. It’d be a shame for me to put a hole in that pretty white hand of yours. Now, I said get out of the wagon.”

“Jake will kill you if you touch me.”

He’d already thought that one through. That was the reason he was altering Carlotta’s plan to suit himself. He wasn’t going to kill Sarah here and now, unless she did something stupid. “Oh, I got plans for Redman, honey, don’t you worry. You just step out of that wagon before I have to put a bullet in your horses.” She didn’t doubt he would, or that he would shoot her in the back should she try to run. Trapped, she stepped down and stood stiffly beside the wagon. “God Almighty, you got looks, Sarah. That’s why Sam took to you.” With his gun still in his hand, Jim slid out of the saddle. “You got those fine lady looks like our mama did. You saw her picture at the house. Sam, he’s mighty fond of pictures.” He gri

That’s the word he uses. Crazy was what she was, so that the old man would lock her up sometimes for days. One day when he opened up the door he found her hanging dead with a pretty pink silk scarf around her neck.”

Horror leaped into her eyes and warred with fear.

“Let me go. If Samuel finds out what you’ve done, he’ll-”

“You think I run scared of Sam?” Laughing, Jim forced Sarah’s face back to his. “Maybe you figure he’s smoother than me, got more brains. But we’re blood.” His fingers bit into her skin. “Don’t forget it. You ever let him get this close, let him do what he wanted? Or did you save yourself for that breed?” She slapped him with all the force of her fear and rage. Then she was clawing at him, blindly, with some mad hope of getting to his horse. She felt the barrel of the gun press into the soft underside of her jaw and heard the click of the hammer.

“Try that again and I’ll leave what’s left of you here for the buzzards, gold or no gold. Your pa tried to get away, too.” The stu

“Interesting reading.” Barker squinted down at Matt’s journal while he fa

“Fine or not, it’s plain enough.” Jake fidgeted at the window, a

“It’s plain that Matt thought he’d found gold.”

“He’d found it. Lucius dug through to where Matt was working. It’s there, just the way Matt wrote.” Thoughtful, Barker closed the book and leaned back in his chair. “Poor old Matt. Finally makes the big strike, then gets caught in a cave-in.”

“He was. dead before those beams gave way.”

Taking his time, Barker pushed a cozy plug of tobacco in his cheek. “Well, now, maybe you think so, and maybe I’m doing some pondering on it, but this here journal isn’t proof. It’s not going to be easy to ride out to the Carlson ranch and talk to Sam about murder with no more than a book in my hand. Now hold on,” he added when Jake snatched the book from the desk. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going out, I just said it wasn’t going to be easy.” Still fa

“Got a question for you, Jake. Why’d you bring me that journal instead of riding on out and putting a hole in the Carlson brothers?”

Jake skimmed his eyes over Barker’s comfortable paunch. “My deep and abiding respect for the law.” After a bark of laughter, the sheriff spit a stream of tobacco juice into the spittoon. “I once knew a woman-before Mrs. Barker-who lied as smooth as that. Couldn’t help but admire her.” With a sigh, he perched his hat on his head. “Whatever your reason, you brought it, so I’m duty-bound to do something about it. Got to tell you, nothing’s more tiring than duty.” He reached unenthusiastically for his gunbelt as the door burst open.