Tomorrow's Shining Dream

by Naomi Rawlings

  He frowned. Why would Anna Mae be at a ranger camp?

  He found her three tents down, her short form blocked by the tents surrounding her. Men milled around a fire with a coffee kettle dangling above it, and the remains of a roasted javelina on a spit was propped against a barrel.

  His sister stood in the middle of it all, a pan filled with some sort of pastry in her hands.

  “What are you doing?” he growled.

  Her gaze shot up to meet his, and she straightened, raising her chin just enough to appear defiant. “What does it look like I’m doing?”

  Getting herself into trouble, that’s what. The rangers had fallen silent, each one of them watching the interchange.

  “She was bringing the men a treat, Sheriff.” Cain came up beside him, thumb hooked in his gun belt and his long blond hair hanging free about laidback shoulders that said he hadn’t a care in the world. “No need to worry.”

  Oh, there was plenty of reason to worry, and it was written across the faces of every man present—except for Cain.

  “A respectable, unmarried woman has no business being in a camp filled with men.”

  He meant the words for Cain alone, but he must not have spoken quietly enough, because one of the men standing nearby said, “Then maybe one of us should marry her and we’ll keep her around. She’d be right respectable that-a-way, and she can bake us food every day.”

  The group of men let out whoops.

  “And do our laundry!” another of the men shouted.

  More whoops and laughter followed, but Anna Mae had grown stiff. He could see it in the jerky way she handed the pan of sweets to the man closest to her.

  “Please divvy up the rest of the apple dumplings and send the pan back with my brother.” She turned and made a beeline for her horse.

  Groans rang out from the group.

  “But the food will taste better if you serve it,” someone called.

  “Don’t let them scare you off, darlin’. We’ll treat you nice and respectful-like while you’re here.”

  “That’s enough.” Cain’s voice rose over the others. “She needs to get back to town, and each and every one of you should be telling her thank you, not complaining about her leaving.”

  Anna Mae stopped beside her appaloosa and looked over her shoulder at Cain. A silent message passed between them, though Daniel didn’t have the first clue what she was trying to say. She didn’t utter a single word as she climbed into her sidesaddle and rode out of camp.

  “This way.” Cain turned to Daniel and gave his head a little jerk in the direction of his tent, then started walking, not bothering to see if he followed. “Anna Mae didn’t mean anything inappropriate by coming out here. She just wanted to bake up some sweets for the men after getting back from the trail two days ago.”

  “I know she didn’t mean anything by it. But half your men probably saw something in her actions that isn’t there.”

  “She’s too innocent by half. Too beautiful.” Cain had a grim set to his jaw as he spoke, as though he considered her innocence and beauty more of a curse than a blessing.

  There’d been times before where Daniel had wondered if her looks were, indeed, a curse. “I always thought she’d marry young, but she never found someone that suited, I suppose.” He didn’t know why he admitted such a thing to Cain. Maybe because he was the first man in five years to meet Anna Mae and not seem interested in her.

  Daniel followed Cain into the dark interior of the tent, where the scents of canvas and earth and leather greeted him. “I have to admit, in all the years I’ve been looking out for her, there’s never been a man who’s come through Twin Rivers that I thought was right for her. We get men of all stripes, but finding one that would make Anna Mae a good husband…”

  “You got your work cut out for you.” Cain tossed his hat onto his bedroll, leaving his hair free down his back. “It was right sweet of her to bring those treats, and I sure won’t complain if she brings some again tomorrow, but next time, it would be best if someone else came with her. And I don’t mean Charlotte Westin or another single woman. Sometimes my men go weeks without seeing women, and then when they’re around ladies again… Well, I don’t suppose you’d call the women working at the establishments they frequent ladies.”

  “I remember—from the last time you were here.” Daniel plopped himself into the small wooden chair next to the table that had been created by setting a board on the top of a barrel and tying it down.

  “You might find this hard to believe, but I don’t do so much of that anymore.”

  Daniel stared at him. He did find it hard to believe. But he also had to admit there was something different about the Cain Ramos who’d ridden out of Twin Rivers seven years ago, and the Cain Whitelaw who stood before him now. Oh, Cain was still hard, some might even call him callous. But the angry defiance he’d carried through his growing up years was gone, replaced by a certain type of careless attitude. It almost seemed as though he’d worked all his anger out in the years between and then realized life had nothing left to offer him.

  Cain sat in the rickety chair across the table from him. “If Anna Mae does happen to mosey back out here by herself, I’ll look out for her. You have nothing to fear from me.” Cain met his gaze without the least bit of taunting or condescension.

  “I didn’t come here about Anna Mae.” Though had he known she was here by herself, he certainly would have. “I just got back from Closed Canyon, wanted you to know what I found.”

  He told Cain about the hideout and how well it was hidden, but he’d searched the place for over an hour, and he hadn’t been able to find another way in or out.

  “You say there’s no sign of livestock?” Cain studied him. “Not even horses?”

  “None at all.”

  “I sent men there yesterday like we talked about. They came back with nothing. Maybe I’ll ride out again after lunch, have myself a look around.”

  “Be careful. If too many of us go out there, whoever’s using it might be able to tell.”

  Cain raised his shoulders in a lazy half shrug. “I have so few clues as to where the rustlers are or what they’re planning next that I can’t afford to ignore a potential hideout.”

  The unmistakable sound of hoofbeats on the desert grew near the tent, and Cain rose from his chair and lifted the flap. A shaft of sunlight speared through the gloom inside.

  “It’s Sam and Wes.” He disappeared outside.

  Daniel rose and stepped through the flap. Sure enough, his two friends were pulling their horses to a stop.

  “Was that Anna Mae we passed on the way here?” Sam swung off his horse.

  Daniel stiffened, but only for a second. Sam would be the last person to see a problem with Anna Mae baking food for the camp. He just hoped no one else from Twin Rivers had noticed she’d come here. “Probably. She baked the rangers some apple dumplings and came out to drop them off.”

  “Well fancy that. I’ve got a pile of doughnuts from Ellie. Looks like half the ladies in town have a mind to feed the rangers while they’re here.” Sam pulled a cloth sack out of his saddlebag.

  “That’s what brought you out here? Doughnuts?” Cain spoke in that long, drawn out way that made his words sound more like a taunt than a question.

  “Spotted new horse tracks on the trail over on Sam’s property.” Wes looked in the direction of the Bofecillos Mountains. “They start at the river and veer off before they hit my land, but we wanted to let you know. Didn’t follow them too far.”

  “New tracks?” Daniel scratched beneath his hat. If the rustlers had been the ones to leave the tracks, then maybe the hideout he’d found in Closed Canyon had nothing to do with the band of outlaws. The two were ten miles apart or better.

  “Sorry about the settlement, by the way.” Wes slapped him on the back. “Can’t say that I’m surprised after what happened last time, but thinking about it makes my blood run hot.”

  “Settlement?” Daniel blinked at Wes. �
�What are you talking about?”

  “The plea agreement for Rutherford. Maybe one of these days he’ll get what’s coming to him, but looks like it won’t be this time around.”

  Buzzing sounded in his ears. “There’s no plea agreement with Rutherford. The commissioners would have to meet to agree on a settlement.”

  “It’s all over town.” Sam jabbed his thumb in the direction of Twin Rivers. “Rutherford’s paying a fine, and the charges are going to be dropped.”

  No, no, no, no, no. The world around him slowed, even the breeze off the desert seemed to die for a moment. He and Rutherford were going to court tomorrow. The commissioners wouldn’t hold a meeting and change something at the last minute, would they? Especially without telling him?

  “I best get back to town.” He strode toward his horse and swung into the saddle, then dug his heels into Blaze’s side. “Giddy up!”

  Blaze’s hooves trampled the grass by the river bank as they raced up the small incline toward the trail that led to town. He didn’t bother to slow Blaze when they reached Reilly Street, the main road where all the businesses and the sheriff’s office were located. People stopped to stare at him, and he couldn’t really blame them. It wasn’t too often that the sheriff raced pell-mell through the center of town. He rode Blaze straight past his office, keeping his gaze fixed on the old wooden barn where Soames did his blacksmithing.

  Swinging off his horse, Daniel spent only a few seconds tethering Blaze to the hitching post. Then he rolled the sliding barn door aside and strode in. “I heard a rumor about Rutherford.”

  Soames wasn’t at his forge, which was barely putting out any heat. Instead he sat at a table with two of the other four members of the County Commissioners’ Court, Edgar Cunningham and Thurston Jennings. Thomas Mattherson and Agamemnon Westin were missing, but the three members of them still made up enough for a quorum.

  “You had a meeting without me.” Daniel clenched his jaw so hard he could barely manage to get his words out.

  Cunningham, who owned the general store, stood from the table, his hands raised. “Rutherford asked to meet with us before the court hearing tomorrow, and he specifically asked you not be present.”

  “Of course he did. Because he wanted to talk you out of pressing charges.”

  A creak sounded near the door, and Daniel glanced over his shoulder to see Cain standing just inside the opening.

  Why had Cain followed him? This had nothing to do with the rustlers.

  “The county still pressed charges.” A man seated at the back of the table stood. “As part of Mr. Rutherford’s plea deal, his charges were reduced from kidnapping and attempted murder to disorderly conduct.”

  “That’s a misdemeanor!” Daniel glared at the lanky stranger with a baby-smooth face who appeared caught somewhere between boyhood and manhood. “Why are you here? I don’t even know who you are.”

  “He’s the county’s lawyer for this case.” Thurston Jennings, the man who owned the county’s two banks, jabbed a thumb at the man.

  “Walter Boreman.” The lawyer stepped around the table and approached Daniel, his hand extended for a shake.

  Daniel eyed his hand but didn’t take it. “You old enough be a lawyer, Walt?”

  He huffed—much like a woman would—and dropped his hand.

  “Walter here just took on the prosecuting attorney job for Brewster County,” the banker said, referring to the county to their east. “Figured I’d bring him over so we could settle this business with Rutherford.”

  He should have figured Jennings would be the one who wanted a lawyer present. The banker lived in a small settlement right on the county line and spent most of his time at that bank, though he also had a second bank in Twin Rivers.

  “I could have settled everything with Rutherford fine on my own. Tomorrow. In court.” Since Twin Rivers County didn’t have a prosecutor, Daniel or one of his deputies usually argued the criminal cases brought before the judge.

  “Oh, don’t worry,” a rough, masculine voice sounded from behind him. “You’ll still get to go to court tomorrow.”

  Daniel whirled to find Rutherford and his lawyer standing inside the door near Cain. They must have seen him go storming by earlier, but that didn’t mean they were welcome.

  “My complaint is to be heard at nine-thirty, correct?” Rutherford glanced at Mr. Adams.

  Mr. Adams stuck his thumbs in his suspenders, an action that only made his already large stomach look larger. “That’s correct.”

  “Wait, you mean Rutherford’s lawsuit still stands? You couldn’t have gotten him to drop his charge about an unlawful search of his property while you were making a deal with him?” Daniel turned back to the scrawny lawyer who still looked far too young to step foot in a courtroom in an official capacity.

  The lawyer scratched the back of his head, causing a tuft of blond hair to stick up from the back. “Well, you see, Mr. Rutherford was insistent that if he dropped his own lawsuit against you, the county would need to considerably cut back the fine it wanted to impose for the kidnapping charges, and—”

  “And money makes the world go round, Sheriff,” Rutherford drawled.

  Daniel clenched his hands into fists. The man deserved a hard knock to the jaw. But if he threw the first punch, Mr. Adams would be sure to bring it up at court tomorrow. Daniel could almost imagine the highfalutin’ words Adams would use too. Something about “preconceived guilt” and “abuse of power.”

  “Your case is ridiculous.” Daniel stalked toward Rutherford. “The judge will toss it out of court after five minutes.”

  Rutherford straightened, smoothing the lapels of his coat down in front of him. “You searched my trading post without my permission, and you’re going to pay.”

  “I was investigating a potential crime.”

  “This country has protections against unreasonable search and seizure, Sheriff Harding.” Mr. Adams shoved his spectacles higher onto his nose.

  Somehow Daniel didn’t think that unreasonable search and seizure part was intended to protect criminals who were harming others, or absolve those criminals from being held accountable for their crimes. There was no doubt in his mind that he’d saved Estrada’s life when he’d found him.

  “Seems to me the best place to work this all out is in court.” Cain leaned a shoulder against the smithy’s wall, one ankle crossed over the other as though he could care less about the entire situation. “After all, isn’t that the point of filing a lawsuit against the fine Sheriff of Twin Rivers County?”

  Daniel glared at Cain, but nothing in the ranger’s expression indicated he was mocking Daniel. If anything, his eyes burned with a lethal seriousness.

  “Yes, I agree with Captain Whitelaw.” Cunningham stepped forward. “This will all be settled in court tomorrow and is best left until then. Mr. Rutherford, Mr. Adams, is there anything more the commissioner’s court can do for you, gentlemen?”

  Gentlemen. Daniel nearly gagged. Nothing about that word applied to Rutherford or his buffoon of a lawyer.

  “No. We’ll see you tomorrow.” Rutherford spun on his heel and stalked past Cain and out the door.

  “Thank you for your time.” Adams tipped his hat toward them before turning his wide girth and scrambling after Rutherford.

  As soon as they were gone, Daniel whirled back to the table full of men. “You never should have made a settlement with him. You realize that he’ll just go and repeat what he did all over again if it serves his purposes? He hasn’t learned a thing.”

  “I told you to make this problem go away and you didn’t.” Soames rose from the table, his arms rippling with the large muscles his profession required. “Don’t be mad at us for handling it.”

  “It’s not my fault he stuck Estrada in that prison room, and I’m not about to apologize for pressing charges.”

  “Nor should you.” Cunningham slapped him on the shoulder. “The county’s bank account just doubled in size. That’s money we never would have
had if you hadn’t discovered what Rutherford had done. The new funds mean we can start building that water reservoir. You did good work.”

  Daniel bit back a growl. “Rutherford should serve time for what happened.”

  “We appreciate your sense of justice, Sheriff. Truly.” Jennings stood, his fancy three-piece suit making the banker look sorely out of place against the backdrop of blacksmith tools hanging on the wall. “It’s right honorable that you want a man like Rutherford to pay for his crimes the same as everyone else. But it’s simply not practical. Throwing Rutherford into a prison cell would do nothing but get him mad. He’d spend enough money on fancy lawyers he’d get out early, and once he was free, he’d set about making things miserable for the county. This is the easier way to go about things. Now our coffers are full, the town can get its water reservoir, and Rutherford’s only mad at you.”

  “So you’ll let his frivolous lawsuit stand and allow him go after me? What happens if he wins his lawsuit and the judge orders the county to pay a fine to Rutherford on account of my ‘unreasonable search’ of his home.”

  The lawyer turned pale, and the other men exchanged glances, as though none of them had thought of that possibility.

  “Rest assured, the lot of us will be at court tomorrow to support you, Sheriff Harding.” Edgar Cunningham said.

  Oh, he just bet they would. “I dissent to the plea agreement. Make sure that gets written down somewhere that the judge can see it tomorrow. The lot of you might not mind betraying your sense of justice for a large enough banknote, but I do.”

  He turned and stalked out the door.

  13

  Charlotte paused in front of the door to her father’s office, then glanced down at the telegram Wes had given her when he’d gotten back from town. It appeared as though Andrew and his father had already left El Paso for Twin Rivers, which meant they’d moved up their arrival date yet again.

  She drew in a breath, gave a brisk knock, then opened the thick wood without waiting for an answer.