The Unexpected Champion

by Mary Connealy

  Wild abandon?

  “I was kidnapped, but we both—”

  “Hang him, Conrad.”

  “I’ll go fetch the rope, Pa.” The older boy ran out as if he’d done it a hundred times before, and maybe he had. John had heard the family was new to Dismal, but maybe the Walterses had done sheriffing all across the West. A chill rushed down John’s spine.

  “Nevada is a state now,” John said. He sounded so reasonable. Definitely not like a ravening beast of any kind. He wasn’t sure what a ravening beast was, but it sounded mighty bad. “A sheriff can’t just go around hanging people. There is law now. Judges and juries.”

  “Ma, a man and woman off alone is no big deal,” one of the young twins said. “You and Pa go out into the barn some nights, and I’ve heard something of a rumpus.”

  The sheriff gave John a look that was as good as measuring him for a noose. “I’m the justice of the peace, besides being the sheriff.”

  Mayme Belle piped up, bless her heart. “And I can get a few men from the saloon to act as a jury. We can settle this within the hour.”

  Methodists weren’t that much different from Lutherans. Maybe an Anabaptist, then? He’d heard they were a caution.

  “Besides,” the sheriff added, “the law is murky on such crimes as this where the woman denies she’s been abused.”

  “The law is not murky.” John talked slowly, trying to be calm. There was that boy back with a rope. “The woman denies I abused her because I didn’t. That’s crystal clear.”

  “That’s an admission the two of you have been living happily together for over a week,” Mayme Belle said, sounding triumphant.

  “It wasn’t a week, and we weren’t that happy.” That was the wrong thing to say, as it turned out.

  CHAPTER

  9

  Penny’s head was spinning when the sheriff poked McCall hard in the chest with his six-gun to prod out the response, “I do.”

  It helped to keep things moving to have the sheriff’s son standing by McCall’s side—best man maybe? The boy kept whacking the noose he held in one hand into the palm of the other.

  Mayme Belle was Penny’s matron of honor. Penny knew for a plain fact that the woman had not been asked to act as such.

  And a whole family full of witnesses. They’d be good ones, because no one could ever forget this mess.

  How could the man, in good conscience, perform a wedding ceremony while holding a fire iron? Well, God sure had different rules for these folks than He did for Penny, who was a simple God-fearin’ frontierswoman.

  Penny didn’t say I do. Those words were not coming out of her mouth. She might’ve growled, and the sheriff-turned-justice-of-the-peace continued on with the ceremony.

  Then he did his pronouncing, and Penny stepped out of the jailhouse a married woman.

  Her brother galloped into town at that very moment. Miserably late.

  “Penny, you’re alive!” Cam reined the horse back so hard it reared, and Cam threw himself off before its front feet were back on the ground. He grabbed Penny in his arms. She saw a puff of dust come off her and was surprised. She thought Mayme Belle had gotten all of it.

  “I’ve been so worried.” He pulled back, both of his hands on her shoulders. He studied her for a second, then turned and slammed a fist into her new husband’s face.

  McCall went down hard, flat on his back on the dirt street, arms flung wide to the sides. And he just stayed there, though his eyes were open. Maybe he was just tired and figured as long as he was down there, he could use the rest.

  Speaking to God, or maybe just to the sky, McCall said, “This is turning out to be about exactly the kind of marriage I’d’ve expected had I planned to marry you, Penny.”

  Cam reached down for McCall and heaved him upward. “I’ll teach you to kidnap my sister, you—” He straightened and dropped John back to the ground.

  Cam looked at Penny, his eyes wide as a hoot owl’s. “Did he say ‘marriage’?”

  “Yes, marriage,” Penny stated in her most practical tone. “The sheriff just forced us to get married. He was going to hang McCall for kidnapping and murdering me.”

  Cam looked past Penny to the jail, then scratched the back of his neck.

  “I guess I’ll drag my husband back to my homestead and try to teach him how to raise cattle. He doesn’t have much sense when it comes to surviving on the frontier, but he seems to be of at least average wits. I reckon he can learn.”

  Showing no interest in getting up, McCall said from the ground, “I am picking up your nephew and going home. I live in Philadelphia.”

  Penny and Cam glared at McCall, who didn’t pay them much mind.

  “Are you just resting?”

  “No, I figure I might as well stay down here. Sure as you’re born, Cam is going to have some excuse to punch me again, even though I don’t see how the mighty pathfinder here”—he flung one hand at Penny—“who couldn’t find her way out of the wilderness, can blame me for any of this.”

  “No one blames you for the kidnapping, McCall.”

  “Excluding the sheriff, his wife, seven children, and, apparently, the entire legal system of the state of Nevada.”

  “Yes, excluding them. But we do blame you for wanting to take Ronnie. In a way, you’re really nuthin’ but a dirty kidnapper, just like the sheriff and his wife said.”

  “I could go for some clean clothes, a meal, a bath, and some rest. Any chance of getting any of that in this town . . . without any money?”

  “You can’t take Ronnie,” Cam said. “Promise you won’t try and grab him and run, and I’ll buy you a meal. Then we’ll go back home and discuss this, and we’ll help you understand why you can’t give that boy to those low-down Chiltons.”

  “I promise. Didn’t I admit what I was here for? I didn’t try and sneak around, snatch him, and run. I had no plans to do that.”

  Cam nodded silently for a little too long, then he reached his hand down. McCall caught it, and Cam yanked him to his feet.

  “There’s a diner over there.” Cam tipped his head at one of the run-down buildings. This one had EETS painted on the door. The building was unpainted and weather-worn until it was gray. The word EETS was white and looked to’ve been painted in about two minutes about ten years ago . . . by a man who couldn’t spell. Unless it was possible that his name was Eets.

  John led the way. Penny fell in beside Cam.

  “Now tell me how in tarnation you two ended up married.”

  “Before we do, let me tell you how we ended up kidnapped by someone who, I think, would’ve killed us if we hadn’t escaped. Someone with a lot of questions about Raddo.”

  Cam stopped so fast he skidded, then he grabbed Penny’s arm so she faced him. “Raddo?”

  “Yep. I’ll tell you how McCall saved my life.”

  “She was about to save herself, but I got there first.” John hoped being humble endeared him to his new brother-in-law. His jaw hurt enough for one day.

  “And how they searched for us.” Penny headed for the diner again. Cam let her drag him along. “And we ran over a cliff, and went down a waterfall, and hid in the densest woods I’ve seen this side of Montana. Then we got caught in the meanest lightning storm I’ve ever seen and any hope of finding a trail was washed out. We’ve been trying to find a house or town or any sign of a person ever since. I’ve never been so lost in my life. I made a fool of myself out there.”

  “It’s a big wilderness.” John reached the bottom of a two-step up to the front door of EETS.

  He turned to Penny. “You kept us fed and pushed until we found our way out. You saved me just as surely as I saved you. The difference is, you were almost loose from the ropes and would’ve gotten away fine. But I don’t know if I’d’ve made it out of there without you. You’re right, I’m no frontiersman. I might have wandered around out there for the rest of my life. I’m not fit for this life, and I don’t want to be. I’m a Pinkerton, and I’ve no interest in changing car
eers or being married.”

  Cam crossed his arms. “Can we get the wedding annulled? We could find out what papers need to be filed and just do that and forget the whole thing.”

  Penny nodded. “I reckon we could. Not sure how, though. Best to do it quick before anyone finds out about it.”

  A man emerged from the diner, still chewing. He stopped right in the doorway and stared. Then he said over his shoulder, “This is that couple what run away and lived in sin for months.”

  “Months?” Penny plunked her fists on her hips.

  Mayme Belle was heading down the sorry excuse for a street with her herd of children. She shouted over, “They’re married now! Finally done the right thing!”

  “They was out all winter, I heered.” Another man came up behind the first one. “You two got hitched? Seems like we’ve been sending out search parties since the spring thaw, ever since your brother reported that this man had kidnapped you, but now you’re married so you must’ve been willing to go off with him.”

  Someone from inside the diner hollered with a rolling Scottish accent, “Aye, and I’ll be reckonin’ there’s a bairn on the way. Oftentimes that brings the reckless folks around to proper behavin’. Come on in ta EETS. I’ll spot you a meal for a weddin’ present. Why, we’ve had half the town out huntin’ you.”

  Penny muttered, “That’d be about six people.”

  “The lot of us’ve been takin’ shifts. Mighty sorry we couldn’t get to it last fall but word just reached us.”

  “It’s only been a week,” Cam snarled. “I’m the one who reported it. Just a week ago.”

  “That’s how I heard it, you came in to report soon as the spring thaw let you loose. A week and already she’s got a young’un on the way? Not likely. It’s high time you two was married. Us folks don’t have any use for ones what carry on so without there being some vows. Sheriff Walters fixed you up right and proper, though. Good man.”

  “Well, nobody outside this tiny town knows we were off alone,” Penny said, sounding a little desperate.

  “We sent Harold, Dismal’s chandler, all the way to Carson City as soon as your brother brought word. Puttin’ it in the newspaper, and telegraphing every town in the state.”

  Penny punched Cam in the shoulder.

  “Ouch.” He rubbed his arm and looked at John. “The annulment’s off.”

  John hadn’t held out much hope for that anyway. He looked at Penny and did a way better job of whispering than Mayme Belle. “I’m going back to Pennsylvania.”

  “Fine with me, sidewinder. Want me to take a likeness of our baby now and again and mail you a picture?”

  His laugh slipped out, and Penny rolled her eyes and grinned for just a second.

  “Harold is spreading the word that you’re missing.” The town crier here just kept giving them unwanted news. “He figured you for dead so they’re looking for your body, and he might be swearing out a warrant that’ll include bringing you in dead or alive.” The man shrugged. “Sorry about that. Harold always was a man to see the dark side of things. There’ll be a hoopla about the murder until the truth comes out. Hope you can keep this from the baby. Hard thing for a child to be born in sin like this.”

  John grimly accepted that when he went back east, he was going to have a trouser-wearing wife in tow. Well, good. She could watch over Ronnie.

  They didn’t even try to talk about the kidnapping, or their fight for life. The roast venison was too good. Whoever owned this diner couldn’t spell, but he could sure as certain cook. Anyway, too many people kept them company to have a talk with Cam.

  It was fascinating to hear the made-up details about where John and Penny had been, what they’d done, and how their lives were going to be.

  There was a fond wish that the child be a boy.

  John ate fast.

  CHAPTER

  10

  “I need to get you two home.”

  John had bad news for Cam. He wasn’t going to anyplace in Nevada and calling it home. He’d’ve told him so, but he wanted his black eye to heal a little before he made Cam mad.

  “The family is frantic. I looked all over, spread the word about your disappearance, and said McCall kidnapped you ’cuz that’s the only thing that made some kind of sense. When you didn’t follow Trace back, we came riding into town after you. The two of you just vanished with your horses left standing there. The sheriff was mad as a wet she-cat about everyone leaving. We followed the trail of the wagon that carried you off and found where it’d stopped in the woods. I figured John here had some partners.”

  “I’m an honest man. It doesn’t sit right with me to be accused all over Nevada of kidnapping and murder.”

  “Well, we only met you the day you helped get Raddo, and then within hours you’d disappeared with my sister. And coming for Ronnie the way you did makes you little more than a kidnapper in my mind. It was easy to believe you were up to no good.

  “Once we saw all those tracks, including Penny and one other man running for the woods, we started to hope you were working together. We went after you two—led us in circles after you went down that cliff. The three men pursuing you gave up and rode away from there.”

  “Three men?” John asked.

  Penny said, “Not four?”

  “Nope. Trace and I split up at that point. I went after you two, and he went back to where the wagon had been to go after that fourth man. I hadn’t gotten too far when that rainstorm hit. I’m hoping Trace is at home, and we can find out what he’s uncovered.”

  John stopped in the middle of Main Street. “Did you bring our horses with you?”

  Cam shook his head. “No, but I can buy a couple more at the livery.”

  “I can only imagine the horseflesh available in this town.”

  “We only need to get horses good enough to get you two home.” Cam set out walking toward a shabby barn at the end of the very small town.

  “And I don’t have any money. I had some with me, but they stole it and took my pistol.”

  “I have money.” Penny patted her trusty bag.

  “Those men were sure foolish to not search you better. You’ve kept us going with all the things they left.” He needed to break the news to her. He felt a little guilty leaving her behind, but he didn’t see as he had much choice.

  “I’ll buy the horses,” Cam said. “Think of it like a wedding present.”

  John looked at Cam. The man’s face was straight, his eyes serious. But John could’ve sworn the man was fighting not to laugh.

  “I appreciate the horse. Penny, I’m going to need your gun, and some money to buy supplies.”

  “So you’re heading back east right now?” Penny didn’t seem overly upset by that assumption.

  “No, I’m going to hunt down those men who kidnapped us, arrest them, and investigate them until I can prove they were in cahoots with Raddo.”

  Penny stopped so short she stumbled. “How will you find them?”

  “I’m a Pinkerton agent. Finding people is what I do. I found Ronnie, didn’t I? Living miles from the town noted in Deb’s letter, and in a house that didn’t even exist when the letter was written. I’ll find them.” And he had an advantage that Whisper Man didn’t know about. “When I find them, they’ll all hang.”

  “You have a mean streak I’ve never noticed before.” Penny smiled. “Glad to know it. I think that black eye forming from Cam’s fist makes the mean streak seem worse than it is.”

  “Nope, it’s bad. I’ve just been busy running for my life, then clawing my way out of the darkest woods I’ve ever seen. No time for being mean until now.”

  “How will you find him? We were blindfolded, and he even whispered to disguise his voice.”

  “Because of his questions, we know Whisper Man was involved with Raddo. He was worried Raddo had left behind evidence. Whisper Man had a cold-blooded way about him that tells me he’s not afraid to kill. If we hadn’t escaped, I doubt we’d have survived the kidnapping.”


  Penny came up beside him. “Do you think he’ll come after us?”

  John shook his head hard, twice. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going after him to protect myself. I’m a lawman. I’m not about to witness a crime and ignore it.”

  “You can’t find him in the wilderness.”

  John went on without reacting to that. “Sheriff Walters may be satisfied that everything is cleared up, but we all know better.”

  Penny caught hold of his arm.

  He talked right over whatever she was going to say. “No group of outlaws is going to kidnap me and assault me and expect to walk away untouched. You add in the rough way they grabbed you, Penny, and kept you tied up. Whisper Man broke the law. What’s more, those men with him were hired help. Hiring men to kidnap someone breaks another law. He’s a criminal, and he needs to be stopped.”

  “I’d like to catch the polecat, too. But how?”

  Cam said, “We start by asking Trace about the trail he followed after that sidewinder.”

  “And we have one more advantage.” John’s jaw formed a single hard line, and satisfaction flared out of eyes that had gone as cold as blue ice.

  “What’s that?”

  “You said we didn’t see anything, but that’s not true. I pretended to be unconscious because I hoped it would give me an edge. I managed to see a few things. Not his face, though I’m sure he was masked. But his legs, his boots. He was a man dressed in fine, expensive boots, unusual boots, and I know something about it that’ll help. We aren’t looking for another like Raddo. This is a rich man. There can’t be too many of those around.”

  “We live in the shadow of the Comstock Lode,” Cam said. “Every fourth man is a millionaire.”

  John’s shoulders sagged. “That’ll slow me down some, but on the other hand we just eliminated three-fourths of all the suspects.”

  Penny sighed and said, “We do need to go after him, I reckon.”

  “Not we, Penny. Me. I’m going after him. We’ll go on home with Cam and find out from Trace where the other trail led. Then I’ll go after this crook. All I need is for you to hand over your gun, your money, and my horse.”