The Gunslinger's Untamed Bride

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She shrugged off the weight of his arm. “You are wasting time. You’re intentionally allowing them to get farther away.”

He tucked her right back against his side as they turned a corner. “If Frank had anything other than a general direction to give me, he’d have said so. Don’t suppose you noticed the local blacksmith had his shop locked up tight when we rode through town?”

No, she hadn’t. Nor had he offered any insight to his plans or observations!

“If that lock box was opened,” he continued, “I truly doubt Calvin would have left without giving a cut to his sister. With any luck, Emma will know where they were headed, and we’ll start rounding up any prematurely distributed payroll.”

“Prematurely distributed? You say that as though no crimes have been committed!”

“If no crimes had been committed,” he said, his tone low and biting, “you’d already be up at camp packing your gear. You have no idea how badly this community needs that payroll. Do you really think I’d allow them to steal from the citizens I’ve sworn to protect?”

Judging by the reactions of the townspeople to Juniper’s arrival, they were terrified of him. His barbaric treatment of her thus far confirmed his use of tyranny and intimidation.

“Must you drag me along as though I’m your captive?”

“Like the rest of these citizens, you’re under my protection.”

She stopped beside a yard with a white picket fence and pulled away from him. “I do believe I fired you, Mr. Barns. I prefer to seek the assistance of another sheriff.”

His slow smile nettled at her frayed nerves.

“Sorry, darlin’, you’re stuck with me. I don’t work for you down here. You’re in my territory now. Down here I am the law.”

A manipulator of the law was more like it. A common outlaw posing as a sheriff. Utter madness.

He turned away from her and walked through the open gate of the picket fence, heading for the tiny white house at the center of a small yard.

“Where are you going?”

“Exactly where I said I’d be going. To see Emma Donnelly.”

He shuffled up the steps and rapped on the door, forcing Lily to hurry after him or stand in the street like a vagabond. The door opened as she reached his side.

A tall and rather attractive woman greeted them, her dark eyes flaring wide at the sight of Juniper. Looking up at Mrs. Donnelly’s sweeping honey-wheat hair tucked into a neat bun and her modest black dress, Lily became startlingly aware of her own tattered appearance. Her hair trailed down her back in a mass of tangles, the torn waistcoat revealing her white chemise and a flash of pale skin.

Mrs. Donnelly glanced cautiously at Lily before looking back at Juniper. “Sheriff Barns,” she said, her smile clearly forced. “It’s … good to see you.”

“Hello, Emma,” Juniper said, smiling gently.

The flutter in Lily’s stomach made her wonder if he intended to charm the information out of the pretty widow.

“I’m afraid this isn’t a good time,” she said. “I’m in the middle of preparing supper and have the baby to feed soon, so if—”

“I won’t stay long,” he said, sliding a boot over the threshold. “We had a problem on the mountain today.”

The frown already pressing into her brow deepened. “Oh?”

“Mrs. Donnelly?” Lily said, budging Juniper’s shoulder out of her way. “I’m—”

“This is Miss Lily Palmer,” Juniper interrupted, all but scooping her into the tiny house as he stepped inside. “She’s with the reform committee and is here to help straighten out the back wages.”

A partial truth, she thought. Her gaze landed on a rug at the center of the room. Multicolored braided rags made into coils created a large oval on the wood floor. Very similar to a rug her own mother had owned. Beyond the few furnishings in the front room, four wide-eyed children sat motionless at a kitchen table covered with flour, pie plates and other baking dishes. The sight put an ache in her chest, reminding her of a warm kitchen, conversation, her mother’s laughter.

A boy around the age of nine or ten held a potato and a paring knife. His three sisters appeared to be between the ages of seven and three, the youngest with a smudge of flour on her chin and nose.

“Hi, Juniper,” chirped the little flour-smudged girl. She beamed a bright smile at him.

Lily glanced at the man beside her, failing to see the benefit of hiding her true identity from this woman and her children.

“Hello, Calley,” he said. “I see you’re all helping your mama with supper.”

The girls smiled. Their older brother remained stiff and stoic, his concerned gaze moving between Lily and his mother.

“Who wants a peppermint stick?” Juniper asked, holding up a coin.

“I do!” the girls shouted in unison. All three abandoned their tasks, surging up from their chairs.

“Kersey,” said Juniper, “would you walk your sisters down to the store?”

The boy looked to his mother.

“Do as Sheriff Barns asks,” she said.

“I just need to talk with your mama for a moment.” Juniper offered one of his warm, hypnotic smiles as he held the boy’s wary gaze.

“All right.” Kersey pushed back from the table. His worried expression didn’t change as he took the hand of his youngest sister.

“That’s a good man,” Juniper said, thumping the boy on his shoulder as he led his excited siblings to the door. He tucked the coin into Kersey’s hand.

The boy’s lips twitched with a grin. “Thanks, Juniper,” he said softly, and followed his sisters outside.

Masterfully done, thought Lily. Juniper Barns wasn’t short on cunning.

The door slammed shut, initiating a bleating cry from the cradle just beyond the sofa.

“What’s all this about?” Mrs. Donnelly asked rather sternly as she bent over the cradle. Lily caught a glimpse of the plump, pink-cheeked infant wrapped in the blue blanket before the widow hugged him to her bosom, rocking him gently the way mothers did, instantly silencing his cry.

“We need your help, Emma. A guard was killed today and money stolen.”

Mrs. Donnelly gasped, her arms tightening around her baby. “Killed? They didn’t sa—” Her words cut off as though realizing she was about to say something she shouldn’t. “I didn’t know.”

“I know you didn’t,” Juniper said, his tone soothing. “I’m sure Calvin didn’t want to worry you. He did come to see you today, didn’t he?”

Tears welled into the woman’s brown eyes. “They’re good men, Juniper, trying to fend for their families.”

“I know that. As long as the money’s recovered and everyone cooperates, the only men facing charges will be the gunman who killed the guard and the man who assaulted Miss Palmer.”

Lily could hardly believe his audacity, to make such assumptions. They would all be facing charges!

“Oh, my gracious.” Mrs. Donnelly’s wide gaze landed on Lily’s skirt. The state of her attire left little doubt that she had indeed been assaulted. Her initial attacker stood beside her, posing as a sheriff.

“Are you all right?” the woman asked.

“Quite well,” Lily assured her. “Thank you. As Sheriff Barns has said, we need to recover the stolen funds.”

“They just want what was owed to them.”

“And we have every intention of distributing the wages, which are now missing.”

“This whole town is waiting on their pay, Emma,” said Juniper. “Everyone will get their wages. But it has to be done properly. We have to get that money back.”

Tears spilled across Emma’s cheeks, twisting the ache in Juniper’s heart. He hated having to press her for information. This family had been through so much heartache in the past few months.

“Did they say where they were headed?”

She nodded, sniffing back more tears.

Juniper knew how much it cost her to implicate her brother.

“A man was with him,” she said. “Calvin called him Chandler.”

“You didn’t recognize him?”

“No. He wasn’t a pleasant fellow. He kept shouting at Calvin and scaring the children.”