by Jodi Thomas
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
EPILOGUE
Teaser chapter
Praise for
THE LONE TEXAN
“A real page-turner . . . I haven’t had a chance to read the first two books in this current series, but I enjoyed The Lone Texan so much that I intend to remedy this oversight as soon as possible.”
—The Romance Reader
“To say I enjoyed Jodi Thomas’s The Lone Texan would be an understatement. No one writes better Westerns than she.”
—TwoLips Reviews
“Jodi Thomas has woven an interesting tale with characters that are intelligent and passionate about what they think. The Lone Texan flows smoothly from beginning to the end.”
—Night Owl Romance
“The Queen of Texas romance does it again, sweeping readers back to Whispering Mountain for another tale rife with drama, action, and passion. No one makes Texas seem more exciting, romantic, and alive than Thomas. Here’s a surefire hit for Western fans to savor.”
—Romantic Times (★★★★★)
TALL, DARK, AND TEXAN
“A gripping, emotional read . . . [I] was left wondering why I haven’t read more historical romances set in the American West.”
—All About Romance
“Wonderfully written, romantic, and delightful.”
—The Romance Reader
“An enjoyable read from start to finish. I read the book over the holidays and found myself stealing away at odd moments from the family in order to sneak in a chapter or two.”
—Reading Romance Books
“I loved these characters. I cared about them throughout their hardships, and cheered for them when they found their happiness. Her descriptive passages are silky smooth, her dialogue is believable, and she puts the reader right in the middle of the open plains of Texas so you can almost hear the grass rustle in the wind.”
—Ezine Articles
Praise for the novels of
JODI THOMAS
“One of my favorites.”
—Debbie Macomber
“Packs a powerful emotional punch . . . [Thomas’s] latest Western historical romance highlights the author’s talent for creating genuinely real characters . . . Exceptional.”
—Booklist
“Jodi Thomas is a masterful storyteller. She grabs your attention on the first page, captures your heart, and then makes you sad when it is time to bid her wonderful characters farewell. You can count on Jodi Thomas to give you a satisfying and memorable read.”
—Catherine Anderson
“Fantastic . . . A keeper! . . . A beautiful story about unexpected love. An exceptional storyteller, Thomas has found the perfect venue for her talent, which is as big—and as awe-inspiring—as Texas. Her emotionally moving stories are the kind you want to go on forever.”
—Romantic Times
“Jodi Thomas’s Whispering Mountain Series is the perfect blend of rough and tumble cowboys, and women who command their respect and love. The reader has only to turn a page to find themselves in waist-high grass with a gentle breeze, and a majestic view of the mountains that surround the ranch. I am ready to saddle up and take a ride!”
—Coffee Time Romance
“A fun read.”
—Fresh Fiction
Titles by Jodi Thomas
SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY
WELCOME TO HARMONY
REWRITING MONDAY
TWISTED CREEK
TEXAS BLUE
THE LONE TEXAN
TALL, DARK, AND TEXAN
TEXAS PRINCESS
TEXAS RAIN
THE TEXAN’S REWARD
A TEXAN’S LUCK
WHEN A TEXAN GAMBLES
THE TEXAN’S WAGER
TO WED IN TEXAS
TO KISS A TEXAN
THE TENDER TEXAN
PRAIRIE SONG
THE TEXAN AND THE LADY
TO TAME A TEXAN’S HEART
FOREVER IN TEXAS
TEXAS LOVE SONG
TWO TEXAS HEARTS
THE TEXAN’S TOUCH
TWILIGHT IN TEXAS
THE TEXAN’S DREAM
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TEXAS BLUE
A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the author
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Berkley mass-market edition / April 2011
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CHAPTER 1
No
vember 19, 1875
South of Austin, Texas
DUST CIRCLED LIKE TINY WHIRLWINDS IN THE SHADOWY barn as a dozen Texas Rangers saddled horses and prepared to ride.
Lewton Paterson, dressed in his best white suit, moved among them, a stranger amid these heroes. As always, he felt alone no matter how many surrounded him, but tonight his solitude was almost suffocating. He told himself he was never brave and had no desire to risk his life for any cause, yet the excitement around him seemed contagious.
Rangers were just normal men, he reminded himself. They didn’t even wear a uniform, only the dusty weathered clothes of men born to the wilderness. Lewton matched their height and probably most of their skills, but he wasn’t one of them. He never would be.
For Lewt knew his heart. He had never been, nor would ever be, daring. In twenty-eight years he’d seen nothing worth risking his life for, nothing he loved worth dying to protect. If he hadn’t found it by now, he never would. For him, life was a game and the man leaving the table with the most chips won.
“Lewt!” Duncan McMurray yelled from ten feet away. His half-wild horse stomped around the ranger and snorted as Duncan saddled the mount as casually as if they were dancing. “You decide to give up gambling and join us on our quest?”
Lewt slipped between two horses and joined his friend. “Compared to rangering, gambling seems like a peaceful profession. Where are you men headed tonight?”
“The border.” Duncan pulled the cinch tight across the mare’s belly before he added, “Chasing cattle rustlers. Captain McNelly says we’ll cross the river tracking them down even if the army won’t. Ranches have lost enough cattle to cowards who run across the border to hide.”
Lewt shook his head. He’d met the tall, bone-thin Leander McNelly. He was just crazy enough to follow outlaws straight into hell, and these men—including Duncan—would ride right beside him. Duncan McMurray was a successful lawyer, like his father, by trade, but a wild kid ran in his blood. “Maybe you should sit this one out, Duncan. You’re due to leave at dawn with that load of potential husbands for your cousins. No one expects you to ride with the rangers every time.”
Duncan frowned as he strapped on his gear, and Lewt sensed he’d already had this argument with himself. “There’s been a change of plans. The ‘suitors’ will have to handle matters without me. I’m needed here. One ranger less in this fight might swing the balance. Besides, I sent all three men the train tickets and reserved rooms for them at Crystal’s place across from the station if they need a room tonight. If they’re too dumb to figure out that they need to get off at Anderson Glen tomorrow night, hire a buggy, and drive out to Whispering Mountain, they’re sure too dumb to marry my cousins. The three men coming to court the girls can consider getting there their first test.”
Lewt laughed. “You don’t fool me, Duncan, you hate playing matchmaker. You’re running out on the job! I’ve always had the feeling you’re half afraid of those girls.”
Duncan opened his mouth to argue, then shrugged. “I grew up with them pestering me. They made my life hell wanting me to play with them, or worse, wash more than once a week. There’s not a man in the state good enough for any one. My dad, being a former ranger, will understand why I have to ride tonight, but my uncle Teagen’s bound to throw a fit. I could send out royalty and he’d still find fault in any man thinking of marrying his little girls.” Duncan swore. “Only they’re not little girls anymore. All three are well on their way to being old maids.”
“How about letting me go along?” Lewt teased his friend. “I wouldn’t mind a chance to marry into one of the finest families in Texas.”
Duncan swung into the saddle laughing. “No offense, friend, but if I sent out someone like you to the ranch, my father and uncles would take turns shooting me and they wouldn’t waste but one bullet. They’d shoot me, dig it out, load up, and shoot me again.”
“Come on, Duck.” Lewt used Duncan’s nickname as he grinned.
“Forget it, Lewt. You’d be the last man in Texas I’d send home to meet my cousins.” Duncan looked down at the gambler. “One look at you and the girls would have you run off the ranch. They may be home alone without any of the McMurray men around, but don’t think they’re helpless.”
Lewt looked down at his tailored white suit, his colorful vest, his diamond ring. He dressed exactly like what he was, a successful gambler. He knew most of the powerful men in the state capital by their first names and they trusted him to arrange high-stakes games for them where the dealing would be honest, but not one of these rich and powerful men would take him home to meet their daughters or sisters. Duncan wouldn’t even let him meet his cousins. The young McMurray women, heirs to one of the biggest, richest ranches in Texas, probably wouldn’t speak to him anyway. Most of the good folks in this state thought the government should pay a bounty on gambler pelts.
Lewt waved farewell to Duncan McMurray and the other rangers, realizing no one thought he was good enough to be in any family. If they knew his roots, they’d be positive. His pedigree was so bad he was surprised the dogcatcher didn’t try to cage him. Still, it would be interesting to get an inside look at a real family.
As the rangers rode south, Lewt walked back toward Crystal’s place. It was probably too late to get in on a high-stakes game, but he didn’t feel sleepy. Duncan might not want to take him home to meet the family, but they were still good friends and Lewt would worry about him until he saw the dust-covered ranger step back into the bar and demand beer.
He smiled and lifted his hand to wave at the trail of vanishing riders. Some would say the backstreets of any Texas small town were as dangerous as fighting outlaws, but for Lewt, this was home. The drunks and the beggars were as much his family as the gamblers and the dealers.
If he had been allowed to go home to meet the ladies, Duncan might have been surprised. One or more of them might have found him more than tolerable. After all, he wasn’t as bad a choice as Duncan seemed to think. He’d never hit a woman. A few of the ladies at Crystal’s claimed he was a grand lover, and he had money stashed in half the banks in Texas. Every saloon girl he’d ever met had mooned over him, so he couldn’t be bad looking.
Lewt grinned. He wouldn’t have cared if Duncan’s cousin was homely as sin and toothless, he might have married her just so he could have a good family; he’d just insist the lights go out when he came home at night.
A family, he laughed. There was no use dreaming. It wasn’t something that he’d ever have, and marrying a woman just in the hopes of getting one would be cruel.
CHAPTER 2
LEWT PATERSON WALKED INTO CRYSTAL’S NOT INTERESTED in gambling tonight, or drinking. He needed to think, and a noisy bar felt more like home than anywhere on earth. He ordered a beer and looked around for an empty table near the back. Duncan had gotten him dreaming about getting married and living a respectable life. He needed to wash such thoughts out of his head and accept reality. Wives and children didn’t belong in his world, and he had no idea how to step out of it into another.
His gaze came to rest on a stranger dressed in black, sitting alone at a table with fine leather luggage piled around him. A tall man about Lewt’s size with glasses perched on a nose that must have taken generations of money to breed. His clothes were expensive, but conservatively tailored, his pale skin Boston light. Boredom seemed permanently tattooed across his face.
Lewt knew without a doubt that he was looking at one of Duncan’s picks to go north at dawn and court his cousins. The stranger might as well have had old money pinned all over his chest.
Lewt ordered a second beer and wound his way toward the potential bridegroom for the cousins. Duncan had said he’d picked only from the finest families and insisted they all be well educated.
The man didn’t look up from his book as Lewt neared—an easterner’s mistake in any western bar. Lewt only hoped the stranger would live long enough to learn.
“Pardon me, mister, but I was supposed to meet a Dunc
an McMurray tonight and he doesn’t seem to be around. He said he would be with a gentleman in his late twenties, and you’re the only man in the bar who might fit the description he gave me.”
The stranger looked up. “What description was that?” he said in a bored tone.
“Tall, distinguished, obviously from a good family.” Lewt smiled. Flattery worked every time. “Any chance you are a friend of Mr. McMurray?”
“I know him, but I’ll not call him a friend.”
The stranger had just made his second mistake. Never admit anything to any man until you knew you could trust him.
The stranger moved his book as Lewt set the drinks on the table. “McMurray never said anything about my meeting anyone tonight. In fact, I hadn’t planned to set foot in this place.” His pale eyes studied Lewt from flashy clothes to fancy hand-tooled boots.
Lewt had no doubt the stranger found him lacking, but he didn’t care. “You did get the train ticket and the instructions?”
His question caught the man off-guard.
“Yes,” he stuttered slightly. “And the room key, but I wish to inform Mr. McMurray that the room was not at all satisfactory. I’d rather sit up for the night than be subjected to such filth.”
“Crystal’s rooms are some of the best around, I’ve heard.” Lewt took a seat, acting interested in the complainer’s problems. He served the beer without expecting a thank-you.
