Here Comes the Bride (22 page)

Thoroughbreds both, the stallion and mare were the results of her grandfather’s life as a breeder of champion racing stock. Surely, such speed and noble lines would be appreciated in California. And with luck and hard work, she intended to build another stable of purebred horses, one that no spendthrift husband would ever wrest away from her.

She hurried through breakfast, paid for her accommodations. Pausing for a moment on the uneven wooden walkway outside of the boardinghouse, she swung the saddlebags over one shoulder and looked carefully around.

Except for a farmer leading a workhorse into the smithy and a boy washing the window in front of a dry goods store, the muddy street was nearly deserted. A block down, she could see someone raking the dirt in front of the livery stable where she’d left Fancy and Dancer for the night.

It had rained sometime after midnight. Tamsin remembered hearing the rhythmic downpour against the tin roof Yesterday’s choking dust was gone, replaced with brisk, fresh air. Fingers of fog hung over the town, but the golden rays piercing the clouds promised a fair day.

Then, to her left, she heard the creak of saddle leather. She glanced at the tall rider coming around the corner and quickly looked away when their eyes met.

“Morning, ma’am,” the big man said. He shifted his rifle to his other arm and touched his hat with one gloved finger.

Tamsin gasped as she took in the stranger and the two horses trailing behind him. Each animal carried a gruesome cargo, a dead man slung over the bloodstained saddle.

Muffling a cry of distress, she seized the doorknob, preparing to rush back into the boardinghouse. The quick glimpse she’d had of the ruffian was enough to convince her she didn’t wish to be on the same street with him.

A wide-brimmed hat had shaded stark features bronzed by sun and wind. His sensual mouth was a thin line, his sharply chiseled jawline unshaven. The broad shoulders, long legs, hard-muscled arms were barely concealed by the black calf-length leather coat.

Tamsin had seen her share of desperate men since she started traveling west. This one reminded her of Jack Cannon. The polished rifle, and the gun belt visible where the stranger’s duster hung open, didn’t belong to a cowhand who had innocently stumbled upon two bodies.

The boardinghouse door opened and the widow Fremont peered into Tamsin’s face suspiciously. “You forget something?”

“No, no,” Tamsin assured her. “I just …” She motioned toward the horseman. “That man—He’s … He has two dead—”

“More business for the undertaker?” The widow sniffed. “Best you steer clear of him, Mrs. MacGreggor.” She emphasized the word
Mrs
. in an irritating manner. “That’s Ash Morgan. He’s a bounty hunter, a pistolero. If he’s bringing in dead men, like as not he made them that way. Morgan hunts outlaws for a living. He’s not to be trifled with.”

Tamsin suppressed a shiver, hoping California would prove more civilized than Nebraska and Colorado. “I assure you, Mrs. Fremont, I have no intention of trifling with this gun shark or any other gentleman in Sweetwater. I was startled by … by the bodies. I thought perhaps he might be a desperado.”

Mrs. Fremont sniffed again. “He claims to be on the side of law and order, but I’m not the judge of that.” She frowned. “Decent women don’t associate with his kind. Be seen with Ash Morgan and people will think you’re one of Maudine’s fancy pieces.”

“I wasn’t with him,” Tamsin replied. “I was standing on your boardwalk when he rode by and spoke to me. I don’t know him. I don’t care to know him. As I explained, I’m leaving town this morning.”

“Just as well. I run a decent place here. You be sure and tell any travelers you meet that I serve good grub and my beds are free of vermin.”

“I will certainly do that.” Seeing that the bounty hunter had turned off at the next corner, Tamsin lifted her skirts ankle high and stepped off the walk into the oozing wagon ruts. She was still unnerved by the terrible sight, but she’d not be deterred from her departure by a man like Morgan. Detouring around livestock droppings and mud puddles, she made it safely to the far side of the street.

The widow Fremont did provide excellent room and board for the cost, but her superior Philadelphia airs were infuriating. Mrs. Fremont might pass herself off as a lady here on the frontier, but she was obviously an uneducated, ill-bred woman. What made her assume that Tamsin intended to make the acquaintance of a gunfighter when she’d obviously been entering the boardinghouse to avoid him?

A small black terrier yipped loudly and ran behind an olive-skinned boy raking soiled straw away from the livery door. Tamsin smiled and bid the lad a good morning.

His dark, liquid eyes widened in surprise. For an instant, an odd expression flashed across his thin face. Then he darted away, followed by the still-barking dog.

Tamsin stepped inside the stable, taking a minute to let her eyes grow accustomed to the semidarkness. The air was heavy with the pungent scent of animals, fresh manure, and hay. Most women, she supposed, found such a place offensive. But she’d always felt at home amid the earthy smells and the familiar sounds of horses and the men who cared for them.

“Mr. Edwards,” she called. “I’ve come for—” She broke off in midsentence as she saw the empty stall where she’d tied Fancy and Dancer the night before.

Hope of heaven! Her stomach turned over as she went suddenly cold. Where were her animals? She ran to the box stall and stared at it as if she expected them to magically reappear.

“Mr. Edwards!” she shouted. “Where are my horses?”

She paced the length of the barn looking into each space. Where could they be? She’d given distinct orders that no one was to approach her animals. Fancy was sweet-natured enough, but Dancer—Dancer had nearly killed a groom who tried to put a saddle on him.

“Miz MacGreggor?”

Tamsin turned to face the stable owner. Edwards was bull-necked, shorter than she was, and heavily bearded. A middle-aged man wearing a battered star on his vest strode shoulder to shoulder beside Edwards.

“Where are my animals?” Tamsin demanded.

Edwards grimaced and shook his head. “Gone.” He shrugged and scratched his unwashed neck. “No idee where they could have got to,” he drawled. “Hoped maybe you’d come in early and picked them up.”

“Stolen?” She swallowed hard. “My horses have been stolen?” She glanced at the second man, noting his shoulder-length white-blond hair and handlebar mustache. “Are you the county sheriff? I need to—”

“That would be me,” he answered. “Sheriff Roy Walker.”

His pale eyes were bloodshot and slightly crossed, hardly a recommendation for an upholder of justice. Neither he nor Edwards smelled as though they had bathed in the last month. She barely conquered an urge to back away from them. Instead, she held her ground and tried to keep her emotions in check. “You’ve got to find my horses, Sheriff,” she urged. “They’re worth a fortune.”

Walker rocked back on his heels and peered down his long nose at her as if she were a suspicious character. “Not so fast, Miss MacGreggor. Got some questions of my own. You want to come down to the office and fill out a report?”

Tamsin drew herself up to her full height. “No, I do not. I want you to start looking for my animals. A bay thoroughbred stallion with black points, sixteen and a half hands, a chestnut mare with a white star on her forehead and one white stocking. She’s a thoroughbred as well, and she’s sixteen hands high. How many horses can there be that match that description?” She paused for breath and added, “It’s Mrs. MacGreggor, sir, not miss.”

“Mr. MacGreggor with you, is he?”

“No. He’s not What of it?” She’d not tell them that Atwood was dead, drowned in a drunken stupor in four inches of water behind a house of ill repute.

The sheriff spat a wad of tobacco into the straw near her foot. “Not usual for a
lady
of means to be traveling these parts alone. ’Specially not with horses like you claim you lost.”

Tamsin knotted her gloved hands into fists and tried to hold her temper. “Not lost, Sheriff, stolen. Stolen from that stall—” She pointed. “Late last night or early this morning. And I want them back. It’s your job to—”

“Don’t be telling me my job, lady. You say you been robbed; there’s procedure to be followed. Things got to be done proper like. Don’t know how things is back where you come from but—”

“While you’re wasting time interrogating me, Sheriff, you’re letting the thief get farther and farther away.” Dismissing him with a withering glare, Tamsin turned her ire on Edwards. “As for you—I hold you responsible for this theft.”

The stableman shifted from one foot to the other and twisted his battered hat in his hand.

“Is this common?” she continued. “Do animals in your care regularly vanish?”

“Matter o’ fact, this ain’t the first time it happened,” Edwards admitted.

“No need to take on so,” the sheriff said. “You mind your manners and leave me to get to the bottom of this.”

She glanced from one to the other as a bad feeling washed through her. Something was wrong here, dreadfully wrong. Was it possible that Edwards and Walker had conspired to steal her horses? “Please,” she said, no longer caring what they thought of her. “I’ve got to get those animals back.”

Roy Walker tucked another plug of tobacco under his lip. “Do what we can for you,” he offered. “Soon as you fill out them papers.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Edwards said. “If they was stole, likely the horse thief is to hell and gone from here by now. Some bad hombres around, that’s certain, and old Roy here …” The livery owner gestured toward the sheriff. “He don’t have the greatest record for catching ’em.”

Studying the sorry pair, Tamsin’s intuition told her that this sheriff wasn’t to be trusted any more than Edwards. It was obvious that waiting for them to do something was a waste of time. If she was going to recover her horses, she’d have to find them herself.

Tamsin stepped back, lowered her eyes, and tried to look flustered. “Forgive me,” she said. “It’s just the shock of finding my mare and stallion gone. Naturally, I’ll cooperate in any way I can. Could I meet you in your office? Say, in an hour? I need to go back to the boardinghouse and …” She fumbled for some excuse. “I’m feeling a little faint, sir. I think I’d best lie down.”

“Good idee,” Edwards agreed.

Sheriff Walker nodded. “An hour, little lady. I’ll look over your bill of sale on them animals, and we’ll see what we can do for you.”

“I have every faith that you will,” she murmured. Lying son of a goat! If Walker wasn’t in on the thieving, she’d swallow his sack of chewing tobacco whole. With a small sound of distress and a foolish simper, she backed out of the stable.

Once out of the men’s sight, she shouldered her saddlebags and followed the alley to the back of the barn. As she’d hoped, the boy was there, leaning against a rail fence. He looked up warily as she approached him.

“My horses have been stolen,” she said.

He pretended not to hear. Instead, he crouched down and tossed a stick to the dog.

Tamsin fumbled in her skirt pocket and came up with a ten-dollar gold piece. She tilted the coin so that it gleamed in the sunlight. “You can have this if you tell me where they are.”

He ruffled the fur on the terrier’s back.

“I won’t say anything,” she promised. “Please help me.”

He reached for the money with a dirty hand. “Sam Steele trades in horses,” he whispered. “Some people say he don’t care whose.”

“Where?”

Sweat ran down the boy’s pockmarked face. “They’ll kill me if they find out I told.”

She held the coin just out of reach. “Where?” she repeated. “You can trust me.”

“ ’Bout four mile out of town. The Lazy S, first place on the right. You kin see the house from the road. But—” He licked his lower lip and glanced over his shoulder nervously. “Sam Steele’s a brother to Judge Henry Steele. Best you forget yer hosses and get away from here, ma’am. Worse kin happen to ya than get yer cayuses stole.”

She tucked the ten dollars into his hand. “Thank you.”

“Yeah,” he said, flashing ebony eyes that seemed far too old for his face. “But I ain’t done you no favors, lady.”

Maybe not, she thought as he dashed away. She hoped he’d told the truth. If he hadn’t, she wouldn’t know where to start looking.

She retraced her steps to the front of the stable and was relieved to hear the murmur of voices inside. She couldn’t tell what they were saying, but she recognized Walker’s voice.

She’d told them she meant to return to the boardinghouse. Now she did just that. But when she reached the side street that the building was on, she kept going, circling around until she was once more behind the livery. The muddy ground was covered with horse tracks, far too many to make sense of until she saw one perfect impression.

In Nebraska, Tamsin had paid a smith to fit both animals with special shoes, studded to give them better footing on rocky ground. This print wasn’t large enough to belong to Dancer. It had to be Fancy’s trail. And where the mare went, the stud followed. Someone might have been tough enough to get him out of the barn, but they couldn’t stop him from going after his mate—not without killing him.

Tamsin took a deep breath and started down the road. Her belongings were heavy, but she had no intentions of leaving them behind. Once she got Fancy and Dancer back, she’d put Sweetwater behind her.

Tamsin guessed that she’d been walking for more than an hour when she reached the wooden gate with an oxbow suspended overhead. A large letter S, not upright but turned on its back, was burned into the weathered wood. Beneath the brand were the words
SAMUEL STEELE, LAZY S.

Not certain of what she would find or what she would do if these people did have her missing animals, she backtracked a few hundred yards and hid her saddlebags in the bushes just off the road.

She was halfway up the lane to the sprawling log ranch house when a grizzled cowboy loped toward her on a black-and-white horse.

The man pulled in his mount, touching the brim of his slouch hat with a forefinger in greeting, but he didn’t smile. What she could see of his hair was sandy, streaked with gray. One cheek was covered with a purple birthmark. It was not a face to inspire confidence.