To Tempt a Rogue

by Connie Mason

  “Not if we can help it,” Pierce retorted. “We spoke to the marshal last night, but he wouldn’t let us see you until this morning. Pringle is convinced you were involved with the Bartons. He says there is no solid proof that you never joined the gang in any of their robberies.”

  “And he says,” Chad added, “that you’ve already been tried and convicted. Nothing short of a governor’s pardon will help you.”

  Ryan gave a bitter laugh. “So where does that leave me?”

  “I wired the mayor of Dry Gulch this morning and asked him to wire the marshal a testimonial to your good character,” Pierce confided.

  “We’re also going to look into the possibility of breaking you out of here if all else fails. Take heart, brother, we’re not going to let you die,” Chad said, sending him a cocky grin.

  “We’re going to try to find the judge first,” Pierce said. “We need to get you a new trial, and only the judge can decide that. It might take us a couple of days, but we’ll be back in plenty of time to concoct another plan should the judge deny you a new trial.”

  Ryan hated to see them leave, but he knew that if they didn’t find the judge he had virtually no hope of living beyond the ten days left till his hanging.

  “Good luck!” Ryan called as they strode away.

  God, it was good to see them, Ryan thought as he clung to the bars and listened to the sound of their retreating footsteps. For the first time since this mess began, he felt something besides total dejection. He felt hope. Hope that he might live, hope that he could make Kitty his wife, and that he would have the same loving relationship his brothers enjoyed with their wives.

  Ryan’s attention sharpened when he heard the marshal’s distinctive footsteps approaching. “Here’s your lunch,” Pringle said, balancing a tray in one hand. “Step back, Delaney. I’m going to open the door and hand the tray through to you.”

  Ryan backed up a step, hands clenched at his sides, aching to jump the marshal and hightail it away from here as fast as he could. But the pair of six-shooters riding low on the marshal’s hips were powerful deterrents. Perhaps, he mused, he would contemplate escape if his brothers failed to free him through legal means.

  Pringle set the tray on the floor, opened the door, and slid the tray to Ryan. Then he backed away, never taking his eyes off Ryan. Once the cell door was slammed shut and locked, Pringle seemed in the mood for conversation.

  “I had a long talk with your brothers, Delaney,” he began. “They seem like decent men. You must be the bad apple in the crate. Too bad they had to come all this way to see you hang.”

  “I’m not an outlaw,” Ryan said through clenched teeth.

  “Yeah, that’s what they all say. Thought you’d like to know a gallows is being erected in the town square. Should be done in plenty of time for the hangings. By the way,” he added in parting, “those brothers of yours seem determined to set you free, so I’m deputizing four extra men. Two to take turns guarding the jailhouse and two to follow your brothers just in case they get ideas.”

  What else could go wrong? Ryan wondered as he sank down onto the bunk. If he didn’t have bad luck he wouldn’t have any luck at all. Now his brothers were going to be put under surveillance, making escape, if it came to that, virtually impossible. God, why had he ever come to Arizona? he silently lamented. But that thought ended as quickly as it was born. If he hadn’t come to Arizona he would never have met Kitty.

  If he hadn’t met Kitty, he would have never known love.

  The excitement must have been too much for Bert, for he slept through the night and into the following day. When he finally awoke and ate a meager breakfast, he asked Rosita to fetch Kitty and Teresa.

  Kitty entered Bert’s room, her heart in her mouth, afraid to see his condition. To her relief, Bert was sitting up in bed and seemed no worse after the shock he’d received. Teresa arrived moments later.

  Bert motioned for Teresa to move closer. “I waited to confront you until after my temper cooled,” Bert said to Teresa. “What have you got to say for yourself? And don’t tell me you told the truth in court, for I know differently. Have you no conscience? No honor? Your testimony condemned an innocent man to death.”

  “I doubt if my testimony made a difference one way or the other,” Teresa contended. “Ask Kitty if you don’t believe me.”

  “That’s besides the point,” Bert charged. “What you did was morally wrong. Were you driven by jealousy? I knew you’d set your cap for Ryan but I also know Ryan wasn’t interested in you. It’s Kitty he wants. It’s always been Kitty.”

  “I’m sorry, Papa Bert,” Teresa said. “I… I was wrong. I know that now. What are you going to do to me?”

  “I’ve sent one of the hands for my lawyer. I’d already made arrangements to settle a generous sum on you after I’m gone, but I want you to have it now, before I die. You’ll be able to live quite comfortably with your mother’s sister in San Francisco until you find a husband.”

  “You’re sending me away?” Teresa gasped. “I was like a daughter to you. More of a daughter than Kitty.”

  “I’m aware of that,” Bert acknowledged. “That’s why I’m being generous with you. It’s not as if I’ve raised you from a child, for I didn’t even know you until shortly before your mother’s death six years ago. It was your decision to stay on at the ranch to look after me. It makes me wonder,” he mused, “if you only came because you thought you might inherit after my death.”

  He paused to catch his breath and take a sip of water. “I know you’ve hired a lawyer to prove that Kitty is an imposter,” Bert continued. “I may be tied to this bed but I’m aware of what’s going on. My lawyer learned of your intentions and informed me. I’ve taken precautions to make sure you get no more than what I’ve set aside for you.”

  “Papa Bert! You know how fond I am of you. Don’t send me away.”

  “Don’t send Teresa away on my account,” Kitty injected, feeling as if she’d just broken up a family. That had not been her intention at all. Still and all, Teresa deserved some sort of punishment for her deceitful machinations.

  “Teresa will be much happier in San Francisco,” Bert insisted. “She has always preferred the excitement of city life to the isolation out here, haven’t you, Teresa?”

  “Well, yes, but I would have been happy living here with Ryan.”

  “For how long?” Bert queried.

  “Forever,” Teresa claimed.

  “I don’t buy it, Teresa,” Bert said sadly. “Pack your things. My lawyer will be here soon with your money. You can leave with him. He’ll take you and your belongings to town and purchase a train ticket for you. Leave me now, I’m in need of rest.”

  “Papa Bert…”

  “Please, Teresa, just go,” Kitty urged, frightened by Bert’s sudden pallor. “Bert is being more than generous with you. I wouldn’t have been so lenient had your punishment been left to me. You know what I intended for you.”

  “You’ve won,” Teresa hissed. “You have Ryan and you’ll have everything that should have been mine. From the moment you walked into this house I knew you were trouble. I’m going, but you’ll always have my hatred.” Having had the last word, she flounced off.

  “Are you sure you want Teresa to leave?” Kitty asked once Teresa had left the room. “Don’t do it on my account.”

  “Very sure, honey. Teresa would have been welcome here for as long as she wished to stay had she not destroyed my trust in her. Don’t worry, she’ll be just fine. Her aunt in San Francisco dotes on her. That’s why she never cared to move to the ranch after her mother and I married. Save your concern for Ryan. You do love him, don’t you?”

  “With all my heart,” Kitty said.

  “I thought as much. Go on into town to visit him. Tell Ryan I’m counting on him to make an honest woman of you.”

  Bright red stained Kitty’s cheeks. “Father!”

  “I’m not as incapacitated as you think,” he said with a chuckle.


  Too embarrassed to speak, Kitty kissed his forehead and let herself out of the room. A half hour later she left the house without having encountered Teresa, which she counted as a blessing, and she aimed her horse toward town. When she reached the outskirts of town she noticed a little mission church she hadn’t paid much attention to before. The squat adobe building sat on a sandy plot of ground supporting a meager growth of sagebrush and cactus. The cracked walls and crumbling steeple looked in desperate need of repair, and Kitty passed by without giving it a second thought.

  Kitty reined in at the jailhouse and found the marshal sitting on the porch, gazing idly down the dusty street. He rose to greet her as she dismounted and approached the jailhouse. “I reckon you want to see the prisoner. Delaney is mighty popular these days. Those two brothers of his were here to see him earlier. I hope they’re not hatching some plan because I’ve hired extra men to watch them and to patrol the jail just in case they have ideas of breaking him out.”

  “Ryan’s brothers wouldn’t break the law,” Kitty contended. “They’ll use legal methods to free him.”

  “Too late for that, little lady,” Pringle said. “We did everything by the book. Delaney had a fair trial. It’s going to take a governor’s pardon to free him, and that’s not likely to happen.”

  Kitty followed the marshal inside, received permission to enter the cell area and hurried down the corridor.

  Ryan must have heard her coming, for he was clutching the bars, waiting for her. “I know your footsteps,” he said, reaching for her and bringing her close so he could kiss her. “Ummm,” he said, licking her lips, “you taste good.”

  “Are you all right?” Kitty asked, searching his face.

  “Just fine, now that my brothers are here.”

  “What are they going to do?”

  “I don’t know yet, maybe nothing. Marshal Pringle said he deputized extra men to watch my brothers and to patrol the jailhouse. I think he suspects a jail-break.”

  “I know, he told me the same thing. Bert knows what’s going on. Your brothers arrived at the ranch while I was gone and questioned Bert about the trouble you were in. I had to tell Bert everything.”

  “I know. My brothers told me. How is he taking it?”

  “He’s still weak, that hasn’t changed. But there is something else you should know. Bert wasn’t pleased to learn that Teresa testified against you. He settled a sum on her and asked her to leave. He’s sending her to San Francisco to live with her aunt.”

  “It’s probably best for everyone,” Ryan said.

  Kitty clutched his shoulders through the bars, wanting to hold him forever and never let him go. Things had never looked so bleak. With men watching their every move, Pierce and Chad’s hands were literally tied. There was little they could do to free Ryan. That thought served only to firm Kitty’s resolve to do something on her own. Since Ryan’s brothers were powerless to help him, it fell to her to see that Ryan didn’t die.

  “What are you thinking?” Ryan asked. “I’ve seen that look before. I hope you’re not thinking of placing your own life in jeopardy because I won’t allow it. Let my brothers handle this, they’re better equipped than you are.”

  “Is that so?” Kitty retorted. “If you recall, Kit was a capable lad. I haven’t changed that much in a few short months. I’ve got to go now, Ryan. I’ll come back tomorrow.”

  “Kitty! Wait!” Ryan cried on a note of panic. “What are you planning? Come back! Don’t you dare leave without telling me what is in that cunning little mind of yours.”

  Kitty didn’t turn back. She didn’t want to listen to Ryan’s logic, or let him talk her out of anything. She had no idea what she was going to do, but she knew beyond a doubt that she wasn’t going to sit back and let Ryan hang.

  “Hey, lady, how come you don’t visit me?” Durango called as she whizzed past his cell. “I could use a little comforting.”

  “Go to hell,” Kitty threw over her shoulder. Moments later she walked past the marshal and out of the office into the sunshine.

  Kitty had one foot in the stirrups when she saw Ryan’s brothers crossing the street from the hotel. She waved to them and waited for them to approach.

  “You been to see Ryan?” Pierce asked. Kitty nodded. “How is he doing?”

  “Despair is his worst enemy,” Kitty revealed. “I think he’s lost all hope of being set free.”

  “Dammit, this is so frustrating,” Chad ground out. “The marshal says he can’t free a prisoner already tried and found guilty no matter how many letters of reference he receives. And only the judge can declare a new trial.”

  “Then you have to find the judge,” Kitty said firmly.

  “He’s in Nogales,” Pierce explained. “We’re going to leave within the hour. We should be back in a couple of days. If that doesn’t work, we’ll still have time to figure out something else.”

  “Look behind you,” Kitty warned in a hushed voice. “Those two men watching you are deputies. They’re not to let you out of their sight. They’ll probably follow you to Nogales.”

  “Shit!” Chad spit out. “Don’t worry, Kitty, they can follow us to hell and back if they want to.”

  Kitty’s eyes narrowed. Perhaps the absence of the deputies would work in her favor. She tucked the knowledge in the back of her mind.

  “You must love Ryan a great deal,” Pierce probed. His intent perusal sent a flush of red to Kitty’s cheeks.

  “With all my heart,” Kitty admitted. “I’ll do anything to keep him from hanging.”

  “Chad and I want to thank you for proving to Ryan that love can be a grand experience. We despaired of our little brother ever finding a special woman and we’re glad you’re the one who finally conquered his stubborn heart.”

  Though Pierce’s words made Kitty’s heart soar, they still didn’t solve Ryan’s problems.

  Chapter 17

  After the Delaney brothers left, Kitty turned back to contemplate the jailhouse, her expression thoughtful. It was growing dark and she should be getting on back to the ranch, but something prevented her from leaving. Her patience was rewarded when she saw Marshal Pringle leave the jailhouse and walk across the street to the restaurant to have his supper. A deputy met him in the street, and she heard Pringle tell him to sit in the office until he returned in a couple of hours. Kitty didn’t know why, but she tucked the information away for future consideration as she mounted and rode away.

  When Kitty passed the small mission chapel on the outskirts of town, something made her turn her horse into the dusty churchyard. Indulging the unaccountable urge to go inside the chapel and present her problems to God, Kitty dismounted and looped her horse’s reins through the hitching post. Praying didn’t come easy for Kitty. She’d been raised without religion and knew few formal prayers. But she hoped God wouldn’t think it amiss if she just sat quietly in the chapel and spoke from the heart.

  The church and small adobe building next to it looked deserted, but Kitty was not deterred as she pulled open the heavy chapel door and peered inside. Dust motes danced upon the dying rays of daylight, instilling in Kitty a sense of peace and tranquility. The altar stood stark and abandoned against a backdrop of lifelike statues, lending the small chapel an air of quiet reverence.

  Kitty walked down the aisle and slid into the front pew. She ran her hand over the wood, strangely comforted by the well-worn patina that had been lovingly polished. She knelt on the wooden kneeler and concentrated on the face of Jesus looking so compassionately down on her from the cross. Then she started to pray, uttering informal words beneath her breath that poured forth from her heart. She knelt there for a very long time, her eyes closed, seeking answers to questions she feared had no solution.

  “You seem troubled, daughter. How can I help you?”

  Kitty gave a yelp of surprise when a stout, brown-robed priest appeared beside her. Of medium height and bald as an egg, the priest had the kindest eyes Kitty had ever seen. “I… I didn’t hear you,” Kitty
said, willing her heart to settle down. The priest had frightened her nearly out of her wits.

  “You were lost in prayer,” the priest said. “I am Padre Enrico. This is my mission.”

  “I didn’t mean to intrude,” Kitty apologized.

  “One can never intrude upon God, daughter. You seem troubled. Would it make you feel better to tell me about it?”

  Kitty thought about it and decided that the padre was probably the only person she could confide in. “I… yes, I’d like to tell you, Padre, if you have time to listen. I’m not of your faith, but God is my last hope.”

  “No, child, God is your first hope.” He slid into the pew beside her. “Tell me what is troubling you. Perhaps it is not as bad as it seems.”

  “It’s worse, Padre,” Kitty said with a sob. “An innocent man is going to die very soon, and no one can help him.”

  “So you’ve turned to God,” Padre Enrico said, nodding his approval. “It is a beginning, child. Who is going to die and why?”

  Feeling that she could trust this man of God, Kitty launched into her tale of woe. The further she got into the story, the rounder the good padre’s eyes became. Her throat was parched and raw by the time she finished.

  “Ah, so you are Senor Lowry’s missing daughter. It is good that he has found you. Are you certain Ryan Delaney is innocent, Senorita Kitty?” Padre Enrico asked when Kitty fell silent.

  “As sure as I am that I love him with all my heart,” Kitty answered honestly. “I told you why Ryan became involved with outlaws. He was doing a dying man a favor and look how God rewarded him,” Kitty said bitterly. “What am I to do, Padre? Ryan’s brothers are worried sick about him, and so am I.”

  “Where are his brothers now?”

  “They’ve gone off to look for Judge McFee. Even if they find him I doubt they can get him to grant another trial.”

  “I came to this lawless territory hoping my presence would make a difference,” Padre Enrico mused, “but justice has been lax despite my best efforts to preach reform. Outlaws still rob and kill and juries still convict innocent men.” He heaved a weary sigh. “I wish I could be of some help to you.”