The Brides Of Tombstone 01 Mail Order Outlaw (2 page)

This time, he’d leave. He had the knowledge and ability to take over another man’s life. His brother wouldn’t know where he’d gone and there was no one in the gang who could track worth beans.

Finally Ed could begin a new life. A good life as a good man and leave the gang and all those memories behind.

He was ready.

Harvey came over to him as usual. Ed was playing solitaire on one of the blankets. “Come on, little brother. Let’s go into town. Have a few drinks and screw some women.”

“Ya’ll go on. I’m staying in camp.”

“You need to let off some steam, just like the rest of us.” Harvey laid his hand on Ed’s shoulder and squeezed. “Come on. Let’s go.”

Ed shrugged off his hand. “I don’t want to. Leave me be.”

Harvey looked at him, gaze narrowed.

Sweat beaded under his collar. Ed wondered if he would force him to go. But finally Harvey shrugged. “If that’s what you want, so be it. Let’s go men. We’ve got drinkin’ to do and women to fuck.”

Ed waited for two hours after his brother and the other men rode out before he took the valise and headed the opposite direction from Tucson. South seventy miles to Tombstone. Toward a new life. One he couldn’t wait to start.

The ride took him three days, taking care to go easy on his horse across the mountains and desert. He skirted the way stations, not wanting anyone to see him. He did stop at several smaller watering holes along the way that were off the beaten path. When he got outside of Tombstone, he made camp, changed into the clothes out of the valise and shaved off his beard. The clothes were small and a little short, but not enough to make a difference…he hoped. He was trying his best to put a new foot forward and put Ed Talbot behind him in another life.

* * *

Lizzie drove into town in the buckboard. Saturday was when she picked up supplies for the week. Her spread was just two miles from Tombstone, but she never seemed to make there more than once a week. When she was writing to Mal, she sometimes came in to mail a letter in the middle of the week, but that wasn’t very often.

First she stopped at the feed store. The five hundred pounds of grain needed to be on the bottom of the wagon and her groceries on the top.

Her mother wanted supplies for baking, so this trip she was getting tinned fruit, whatever kind was available, as well as flour, sugar, molasses and cinnamon. The spice would be the most expensive of her supplies. They were almost out and her mother wanted to make pies from the apples off their tree, too.

She was watching the loading the last of the bags of grain when a tall, very tall, dark-haired man approached.

“Elizabeth Cobb?”

His deep baritone voice appealed to her and she tilted her head so she could see him. “Who wants to know?” She shouted over the sounds of music from the saloons and the rumble of wagons coming to and from the mines.

“I’m Malcolm Brandon. We’ve been corresponding since June of last year. As a matter of fact we were supposed to be married.”

Lizzie straightened and pushed her hat back off her head so it hung from the leather ties, on top of the long braid down her back. “Malcolm?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“What are you doing here?” Her body stiffened and she looked around. “I cancelled our contract. Didn’t you get notified by Mrs. Black?”

“Yes, but I came to try and convince you to change your mind.”

The man was a definite dandy from the look of his clothes. He wore a black suit with white, or mostly white, shirt and black tie, with a black bowler hat and walking stick completing his outfit. He was dusty, but that wasn’t unusual for anyone in Tombstone, due to the wind off the desert.

“What about your dry goods business in San Francisco?”

“I…uh…I sold it.”

He took off his hat and slapped his thigh with it. Dust flew from his pants. “I haven’t seen so much dust in my life and what is that thumping? I’ve been hearing it since coming into town.”

“You get used to the dust and the thumping is from the stamp mills of the mines. They run all day and all night. You’ll get used to that, too if you come to town very often.”

“I suppose so. At least I hope so.”

“Malcolm…Mal…I’m not leaving the ranch to get married. I thought I’d be able to but I can’t.” She shook her head and planted her hands on her hips. “I love ranching, I love my life and I’m not giving it up. That’s why I terminated out contract.”

“I’m not asking you to. I came here to you. I still want to get married, Lizzie. I want a new life and I believe I can have that with you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why would you do that? You don’t know me.”

“I know you very well. I’ve read all your letters again and again. I almost have them memorized. I recognized you from the description you gave me. Six feet tall with dark brown hair and brown eyes.” He shrugged. “As soon I saw you come out of the feed store, I knew.”

She realized all that he said made sense. Lizzie looked him up and down. “What happened to your clothes?”

He looked down. “Why? Don’t I look all right?”

“Your clothes look a little tight. Did you fall in a creek somewhere?”

“What?” His eyebrows shot high and his mouth gaped for a second. “Oh, no. I…uh…tried to wash my suit. It was so dirty from the trip here and I did want to make a good impression. I guess it shrunk some.”

That would do it. She couldn’t fault him for wanting to make a good impression.

“So what do you expect from me, Mal? Our contract is cancelled.” She thought for a minute. “I do need a husband though. That’s why I was becoming a mail order bride. I never really intended to leave the ranch. I need someone to help me run it until my little brother grows up and can run it himself. I hoped to talk whoever I married into doing that. Looks like that’s what you intended as well.”

“Yes.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I, um, thought I’d come here to marry you rather than accept the cancellation of the contract. Didn’t, uh, Mrs. Black contact you with my intentions?”

Lizzie shook her head. “No. She didn’t.” She took a deep breath and eyed Mal. He sure was handsome. She didn’t remember his picture being so handsome, but it hadn’t been a good picture. He’d apparently moved because the photograph was blurry.

“I’d like to learn about your ranch, how it runs, how to do the work. I intend to court you Lizzie Cobb and to do that I need to know more about you.”

Lizzie cocked her eyebrow and took a deep breath. She did need a husband. “I guess you’d better come home with me. You can stay in the bunkhouse with the rest of the men. I would like to get to know you more and if we’re to continue our association, there’s no better way than if you work with me. Besides that you need to meet my mother. She’ll say yay or nay on our marriage, so you better get on her good side.” At least he’ll think Mama has the last say. That would give her an excuse if she changed her mind about the arrangement.

Lizzie walked around the back of the wagon and Mal followed her.

“You’re a beautiful woman, Lizzie. Why did you become a mail order bride? You never said why in your letters, just that you were and then you weren’t.”

“I’m part Indian. No man around these parts wants a half-breed wife.”

“I don’t care.”

“That’s what I like about you, Mal. Even in your letters, you came across as having an open mind…for a city fella. Get your horse and tie him here.” She pointed at a metal ring on the wagon’s back gate.

Mal did as she said. She liked to watch him. All his muscles worked when he moved and his clothes being just a little tight showed every movement.

“You’ll need some work clothes.”

“I brought my old clothes for rough work with me, but I didn’t want to meet you in them.” He grinned. “Trying to make a good impression. Did it work?”

“Well, I’m taking you home ain’t I?”

He continued smiling and darned if she didn’t smile back.

CHAPTER 2

Well, that went well.
Ed tied his horse to the back of the buckboard, and then climbed up onto the seat next to Lizzie.

“Giddy up.” She slapped the reins on the horse’s butts to get them moving.

They rode in silence until they were out of town.

“I don’t normally pick up strangers in town and take them home, but you don’t seem like a stranger.”

“I’m not.” For some reason the air smelled sweeter today. He grinned at her. “I’m the man you’re marrying, Lizzie, whether you believe it or not.”

“Don’t be getting ahead of yourself, Mal. We still got lots of things to work out.”

“We” he gestured back and forth between them, “were getting married knowing a lot less about each other than we will now. Why are you fighting us getting married now?”

“Because I got used to the notion of not being married. Ever. I would run the ranch by myself and get it ready for Jamie.”

“Then what will you do?” He sat easily on the wagon bench, holding the side of it for stability. “You can’t mean to stay on is some lesser position while your brother takes over. I have enough money from the sale of the store to buy our own ranch, or maybe buy this one from your brother and send him to college instead.”

She turned to look at him. “How much money do you got?”

“Thirty-five thousand dollars.” He jutted out his chin. He’d found the money sewn into the lining of the valise. If Ed had shared about all that money with Harvey, and then left with it, Ed wouldn’t be long for this world.

“Holy cow.” Lizzie grabbed onto the seat and jerked the reins making the horses jump and the whole wagon shutter for a moment. “Why’d you come here? You could do whatever you want. Marry whoever you want with that kind of money.”

“I wanted to learn ranching and I wanted to be with you. Your letters made a great difference in my life.” He angled his body so he could look at her profile and said quietly. “I care for you, Lizzie.”

Ed wasn’t lying. Lizzie’s letters to Malcolm were what convinced him to try and leave the gang and come here. To become another, and a better, man. He wanted to learn everything he could from her. And maybe there were some things he could teach her, too.

“Well,” she said after a minute. “I don’t mind teaching you what I know.”

“Uh, Lizzie?” His stomach turned over.

“Yes.”

“How will I court you? Won’t the rest of your men be jealous?”

“I’m telling them you’re my fiancé and to help you any way they can. That way you’ll learn from them and they won’t think anything about it when you take me on an outing or come to supper some nights. Most of the time we all eat together but on special occasions, like when Daddy would be home for a few weeks, we’d have a few special dinners and suppers for just the family.”

She slapped the reins on the horses again.

“Your father traveled a lot. Why was that when he had such a big ranch?”

“That’s just it. It was so big he traveled to make contracts and buy stock and arrange sales. It seemed he traveled more than he was home.”

“Will you and I have to travel like that?”

“No. I do most of our contracts by mail unless they change. We’ve had the same buyers now for a few years. The army mostly. I can’t travel like Daddy did. I don’t want to. I can’t be away from my family that long. I
won’t
be away from them that long.”

“It’ll be a change for me, having a family.”

“Yeah, I forgot that you just lost your mother last year. I’m sorry.”

He shrugged.
I’ve got to study those letters again. I don’t remember her mentioning condolences for my mother, Mal’s mother’s, death.
“Don’t worry about it. She’s gone now and I’m used to that fact. I’ll never stop missing her though.”

“I feel the same way about Daddy. As accustomed to his long absences as I was, I always knew he was coming back. I know he’s not anymore and it hurts.”

She turned her head away.

Not before Ed saw a tear roll down her cheek. They were sitting close enough he could put his arm around her, so he did, trying to give her comfort.

Lizzie turned toward him, her brown eyes wide with anguish.

He thought maybe she would push him off the buckboard, but instead, she simply buried her face in his chest and cried.

After a few minutes, she leaned back and sniffled. Her eyes were red-rimmed and swollen.

“If you ever tell any of the men I cried…” Her brown eyes flashed with anger. “I’ll shoot you.”

Ed raised one hand and then crossed his heart. “I wouldn’t think of it. Any secret you have is safe with me.”

She nodded her head. “See it stays that way.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

They pulled onto a side road and he could see a bunch of buildings at the end of the drive. As they got closer he saw a large two-story, white-washed house and an even larger red barn. There was a mix of other buildings that were also painted white, and a chicken coop that wasn’t painted at all.

A porch went around the three walls of the house he could see.

Lizzie pulled alongside the house and set the brake before jumping down.