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“Meg.” Fear snaked down her spine. She twisted around, straining to see through the impossible dark. “We can’t leave her.”
“Don’t worry.” Ben pulled the wagon off the road and set the brake. “If there’s any trouble, you go on without me.”
Ben jumped down, took out his revolver, and ran. Anna sat in the wagon for what felt like hours, fearing the worst. Dalton wouldn’t hurt Meg, would he?
Finally Ben returned. Meg had feigned innocence and told Dalton and his men that Anna had headed south toward Wyoming. They had believed her, believed Anna had said nothing about Dalton’s dual identity. Meg’s lie would buy them enough time to reach Rubydale and the morning’s stage. If their luck held.
“Mrs. Bauer?”
His voice came low and gentle, but Anna bolted away from the window. A man towered in the threshold, nothing but shadows and powerful male steel and strength.
“I couldn’t find your daughter’s storybook.” The sheriff lifted one shoulder in an apologetic shrug.
“Thank you for looking.”
“It was no problem.” He strolled closer, his boots resounding on the floorboards. “But I didn’t want to come here empty-handed, so I brought my daughter’s book. It will have to be a loan, I’m afraid. But you keep it as long as your little one needs to hear stories.”
Anna’s throat tightened. “I can’t tell you how—” Tears stung her eyes. “This means a lot.”
“Is there anything I can get you?” He offered her the book gripped by big, blunt-tipped fingers. Very male. Very capable.
“You’ve done so much already.” Anna took the well-worn volume that looked lovingly opened and read across many years. “It’s late. You should be home with your family, and yet you’re here.”
“I’m on my way home. I just felt sorry for your little one. I’m partly responsible. If my men and I had arrived earlier, we might have prevented this.” He knuckled back his hat, and she could see the shine of sincerity, of strength. “Good night, Mrs. Bauer. I’ll check back with you tomorrow morning. If your daughter is improving, I’ll need to ask you some questions.”
“Questions? What kind of questions?”
“About the outlaws.” His voice was calm. “You saw the men up close. I would like to write up a report on what happened. I keep m contact with other lawmen in the county. We need to work together to catch those outlaws, and you can help.”
“I see.” She thought about that. This sheriff was in contact with other lawmen in the area. Dalton Jennings was also a lawman just a few counties away. “I didn’t get a very good look at the robbers. They wore bandannas.”
“Think on it. I’ll check back tomorrow.” His voice soothed. Or maybe it was his strength, his competence that radiated like heat from a summer sun.
“The book will make a difference, Sheriff,” she called him back, unable to let him go, still touched by his generosity. “I will return it as soon as I can.”
“Cooper, remember?” His smile was warm, and then he was gone.
She wasn’t used to calling men by their given names. But the warmth in her chest put there by his smile and thoughtfulness didn’t fade with his departure. He’d brought his own daughter’s book. She couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe a perfect stranger would be so kind.
Mandy still slept, her breathing shallow and uneven. Anna turned up the wick and smoothed open the book.
On the inside cover was a mark, a child’s handwritten scrawl. Anna peered close to look at it, to make out the careful, badly formed and somehow familiar letters. Katie Braddock, it said.
The sheriffs daughter. Cooper’s daughter.
The book fell from her fingers, clattered to the floor. The sound reverberated through the room, but it wasn’t as loud as the pounding of her heart.
That handsome, wonderful man who’d rescued her daughter, who’d taken care of them both. Was he truly Cooper Braddock? The man she’d come to marry?
Chapter Three
“Katie, don’t slurp your oatmeal.” Cooper reached for the sugar jar. “It’s not ladylike.”
“I’m in a hurry. Davy and me are ridin’ ponies.”
“Did I say you could do something so foolish?” He spooned sugar into his steaming cup of coffee and struggled to keep a straight face.
“Ridin’ ponies ain’t foolish, Papa. It’s fun.”
He clinked the lid down on the jar. “It’s not something a polite little girl does with her time.”
“Papa,” little Maisie chimed in, “Katie ain’t never polite.”
“True.” He laughed at his littlest, wishing he could spend more time with his daughters this morning. Thinking of the Bauer girl who may not survive, he knew he ought to carve out the time. But his work—and his sworn duty—called. “Katie, I want you to obey Mrs. Potts today.”
“You know I try real hard, Papa.” Katie wiped off her milk mustache with a practiced swipe of her sleeve.
“Try harder.” Making a little lady out of his firstborn could prove impossible. “I heard all about the trouble you caused yesterday from Laura. I’m none too pleased with you.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Katie bowed her chin.
“But I didn’t cause no trouble, Papa.” Maisie was all golden curls and big blue eyes. “I was a good girl.”
“I already knew that.” He kissed both girls on the forehead and took the coffee cup with him. “Katie, I want you to do something for me.”
“I don’t gotta embroider, do I?”
Shouldn’t a little girl want to embroider? “Gather up a few of Maisie’s dresses and nighties she’s outgrown, bundle them up, and take them over to the doc’s. There’s a little girl who was hurt in the stage accident yesterday, and she lost nearly all of her belongings.”
Maisie gasped. “Even her bunny?”
He saw the stuffed animal on the floor beneath his littlest one’s chair. “Yes, even her bunny.”
“How does she sleep?”
“Only babies need a bunny.” Katie dropped her spoon with a clatter. “Papa, you want me to do it now?”
“Yes, before you go play with Davy. Promise me.”
Katie thought about it, obviously torn at the sad idea of a hurt little girl and tempted by a wild morning racing ponies. “I promise, Papa. I’ll do it right away.”
“That’s my girl.” Despite her spiritedness, she was a good child. “Take the clothes over to the clinic and ask for Mrs. Bauer.”
“Mrs. Bauer?” Katie froze stiff as an icicle.
“That’s what I said. She’s a real nice lady, so don’t scare her with any matchmaking schemes. She has enough worries on her mind.”
“Uh, what does she look like, Papa?”
“Don’t worry, you’ll find her.” His daughter wasn’t shy with strangers, especially pretty women. Cooper didn’t know how else to interpret Katie’s behavior. “If you have any problems, just ask the doc. He’ll help you.”
Leaving his daughter to nod in answer, Cooper stopped in the kitchen to praise Mrs. Potts for showing up this morning and for providing a good breakfast, despite yesterday’s salamander incident.
Too wise, the plump woman managed a sour comment and asked about a raise. He had no choice but to agree.
Not a good way to start the day. As long as the militant housekeeper didn’t quit. Troubled, he stepped out into the morning. Pine and fresh mountain rain scented the air. He headed down the street toward work, hoping for a quiet day. Just one quiet day. It wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
“You must eat,” the doc said as he stepped into the sick room. “You haven’t touched your tray.”
“I know. And after your wife went to the trouble of fixing me a meal.” Anna rubbed her brow. In truth, she wasn’t just exhausted. She felt sick and dizzy. Her arm hurt something terrible from a wound she’d sustained. She could barely move her hand this morning.
Yet every time she thought about showing the doctor the ragged tear through flesh and muscle, he was hovering over Mandy. With his stethoscope to the girl’s chest, he listened to her punctured lung. And as always, concern lined his face. There were other people also seriously wounded from the stage robbery. She could not take the doctor’s attention from any of them, not for something as small as her tiny little injury.
He frowned. “You’re terribly flushed. How you are feeling?”
“I’m fine.” She said it, hoping to make it true.
A cool hand touched her brow. “You’re burning up.”
“No. I’m just tired.”
Understanding warmed those eyes. “I know you’re concerned about your daughter. You have every right. But don’t forget Mandy needs a healthy mother to depend on.”
“She needs me now. Right here.” Anna patted the open book in her lap.
“I’m not going to argue with you. For now.” The doc stood. “Anna, if you feel worse, you must tell me.”
“Agreed.” Her eyes filled, and she looked away. The doctor left to check on the other patients. She rubbed her forehead. She really wasn’t feeling very well at all.
“Are you Anna? Anna Bauer?”
“Yes, I am.” Anna turned, surprised to see a spindly brown-haired girl, maybe nine, maybe ten years old, leaning against the threshold, hugging a bundle in her skinny arms. Mud spattered the hem of her dress, crooked above scabbed knees.
The girl dragged her feet forward nearly lost behind the ball of what looked like an old sheet. “Papa said to bring this. On account of your little girl gettin’ hurt.”
Anna’s heart twisted. She accepted the offered bundle. “Who is your papa?”
“The sheriff.”
“I met him just yesterday.” Anna began working the knot in the sheet. “He brought me your storybook so I could read to Mandy.”
Katie’s dark gaze slid to the bed then flicked back nervously. “Did you know it’s all my fault?”
“What is?” The knot came loose. “The book really helped. Thank you for loaning it to me.”
“It’s my fault she’s hurt.” Big tears began pooling, but they didn’t fall. That stubborn chin jutted upward. “I didn’t think anyone would get hurt.”
“The stage accident isn’t your fault.”
What a thoughtful, sensitive child. This was the sheriff’s daughter. Cooper’s daughter. The Katie mentioned in those wonderful letters. Letters that fed her hopes and dreams for Mandy’s future. How Anna wished she could reach out and comfort the girl with a touch, maybe a hug. Heaven knows she looked as if she could use a woman’s care. Maybe a mother’s love.
“Why, you brought Mandy some clothes.” Anna unfolded an adorable pink gingham frock with a little sunbonnet to match. Starched clean drawers, a pretty flowered nightgown and cap, a little sweater with embroidered strawberries to go with a strawberry print dress.
“We don’t want your little hurt girl to go naked when she wakes up.” That lower lip trembled. “Is she gonna die?”
“Don’t you worry. Mandy is going to be just fine.” Anna carefully folded the beautiful clothes, throat aching. It was hard not to reach out and comfort Katie, who looked as if she needed it so desperately. “Tell your papa thank you for the clothes.”
“I will.” The girl kicked the toe of her shoe against the floor. “My name’s Katie. Maybe you know me.”
“I sure do.” Anna set the clothes and sheet aside. “Your father wrote all about you and Maisie.”
“That’s why you’re here, right?” Katie tilted her head, scattering dark wisps that had escaped her twin braids. “Can I ask you somethin’?”
Anna took one look into those curious dark eyes just like Cooper’s, carefully hiding so many emotions. The idea of a new stepmother must be worrisome for a child. That she could understand. Anna rose, held out her hand. “I’ll answer any questions you want. Let’s go out into the hallway so we don’t wake Mandy.”
“I know you already met Papa.” The girl hurried out of the room. “Do you think he’s handsome?”
“Who wouldn’t?” Anna took one look at the girl and shook her head. And that made her a little dizzy, so she leaned against the wall to rest a bit.
“Maisie needs a new mother, you know, because she ain’t rugged like me.”
“Maisie is your little sister,” Anna remembered.
“Yep. Papa hasn’t married anyone since our mama left. So that’s why I did it. I used my own money I earned looking for gold dust with Davy Muldune for the advertisement—”
“Advertisement?” Her brain felt a little fuzzy. Really, she needed to sit down before the doctor caught her swaying in the corridor.
“You’re awful pretty,” Katie added in a rush. “And you got a little girl, too. I seen her in that bed. She sorta matches us.”
“Katie, I—”
“That’s why I had you come, and not just for Maisie. My poor lonely papa needs a wife.”
“Poor lonely papa?” a man’s voice boomed.
Head spinning, Anna looked up into a lean, handsome face. His gaze, dark as midnight, sparkled with what could only be humor. Her pulse thudded in her ears. She felt hot, then cold all over.
He must have known since last night who she was, that she was the woman he’d proposed to just last month. And yet he’d waited to talk to her about it. Maybe out of respect for Mandy’s condition.
Her head spun. Her knees wobbled. Cooper’s iron hard arms encircled her, held her tight against his chest. She tried to tell him she was fine.
But the world faded, and all went black.
She opened her eyes and saw him, Cooper, sitting at her bedside, a dark shank of hair falling over his forehead. His dark gaze brushed hers, bold as a touch.
“You gave us a scare for a minute there.”
Anna tried to sit up, but the blood rushed from her head. She landed back on the pillow.
