“Now, Tully, don’t go blaming poor Dugan,” Thane Jordan said, slapping Tully on the back as they hurried into the heart of town. “Obviously, your presence is needed back at your office or he wouldn’t have bothered you.”
Deputy Dugan Durfey tossed Thane a grateful nod. “That’s right, boss. I’d rather do just about anything than make you leave Maggie and Ian’s reception. But there’s a woman fresh off the train who um…” Dugan struggled to find the right words to say. “She’s um…”
“Go on, Dugan. She’s what?” Tully stopped and waited for his deputy to speak.
“She’s about as worked up as I’ve ever seen a female and you know I’ve seen more than my share in this line of work. She demanded I bring you to the office. Her exact words were, ‘I insist on speaking to the imbecile in charge of maintaining law and order in this horrid, reprehensible, backwater town.’” Aggrieved, Dugan shook his head. “Believe me, Tully, I tried to speak with her, but she plopped herself down at your desk and refused to move. Then that other couple came in asking after Thane, so I thought it best to fetch you both.”
“It’s okay, Dugan,” Thane said, offering the haggard deputy an encouraging look. “Tully’s pouting because he might miss out on a few dances with some of the sweet young things who constantly vie for his attentions. His absence might give the young bucks in town a chance to win their affections.”
Tully glowered at his best friend as they resumed their walk to the jail. Dugan opened the door and held it as Tully and Thane preceded him inside.
Five voices combined in a discordant symphony as they stepped into the office and looked around.
A woman did indeed sit at Tully’s desk, arguing with the other deputy. An older couple engaged in a lively exchange with one of the grocers, discussing the finer points of lettuce versus cabbage.
Engrossed in their conversations, the occupants of the sheriff’s office failed to notice the three men staring at them from just inside the doorway.
Tully whistled loud enough to crack glass, drawing their attention. “What in thunderation is going on in here?” His rich baritone voice boomed off the walls as silence descended over the room.
Sooner than anyone could offer an explanation, Thane stepped forward and pumped the hand of the older man standing near the grocer. “Greenfield! What in the heck are you doing here?” He lifted the man’s plump wife in an enthusiastic hug and kissed her cheek. “Jemma and the kids will be so happy to see you.”
“Righty ho, my good man.” Edwin Greenfield smiled and put an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “Hattie and I missed Jemma and the youngsters so intensely that we decided to pay a visit. I realize our arrival comes as a shock, but we hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. You’re just in time to enjoy some delicious cake and punch. Our friends wed this afternoon, but the celebration hasn’t quite wound down. They’ll be thrilled to meet you.” Thane motioned toward the door. “Do you have trunks that need to be picked up from the depot?”
Edwin nodded. “We do have several trunks, but they’re safe in the ticket office for the moment.”
As though he suddenly remembered the others in the office, Thane turned to the sheriff. “Tully, this is Edwin and Hattie Greenfield. They were the butler and cook back at Jemma’s cottage in England. In truth, they were the glue that kept everything together and they made my stay in Bolton very enjoyable.”
“And here I thought it was your beautiful wife that made you reluctant to return home to America,” Tully teased, tipping his hat to the couple. “I’m Sheriff Tully Barrett. It’s a pleasure to meet you both. Thane and Jemma have spoken highly of you. Welcome to Baker City.”
“Thank you, sir,” Edwin said, politely bowing as Hattie dipped into a well-practiced curtsey.
Thane took Hattie’s elbow in his hand and escorted the couple to the door. “Let’s go. Jemma will be beside herself to see you. Lily will beg you to make her some decent marmalade. And wait until you hear Jack’s western twang.”
Tully watched as they left, pleased Jemma and the children were in for a grand surprise. He could almost hear little Lily’s squeals of excitement when she saw her beloved friends from England.
Intent on ignoring the woman at his desk as she shot furious daggers at him with her unsettling blue eyes, he turned to the grocer. “Is there something I can do for you, Irwin?”
“I need to report a theft. Deputy Harter started to write a report, but we kept getting interrupted.” The grocer subtly tipped his head to the irate woman. “I set a few small baskets of strawberries along with early garden peas and potatoes that came in this morning in front of my store. I placed them where I could keep my eye on them, to let people know they were available. Right before the train arrived, I glanced outside and they were all gone.”
Tully thought the grocer was just tempting someone to steal his produce by leaving it outside unattended, but managed to refrain from voicing his opinions. “You didn’t see anyone running off with the berries or potatoes?”
The grocer frowned. “No sir. There was nary a body in sight when I rushed outside. It was as if my produce disappeared into thin air. One minute the baskets were there. I rang up a few things for Mrs. Palmer, and when I glanced back outside, the baskets were gone.”
“We’ll see what we can find out, Irwin. Go on back to your store and we’ll let you know if anything turns up.” Tully settled a hand on the grocer’s shoulder and walked him out the door.
As soon as the man left, he turned and settled the weight of his gaze on the woman. If she hadn’t been scowling so fiercely, she might have been extremely pretty.
Tendrils of golden brown hair escaped the confines of her fashionable upswept hairdo, topped with a pale gray boater bedecked with enough ribbons, silk flowers and plumes to decorate three hats. A dark blue traveling suit appeared as richly embellished as her hat, dripping with beading and expensive trims. Smooth, creamy skin and blue eyes full of fire might have drawn his interest if she hadn’t been so irate and clearly unreasonable.
Her angry countenance prodded his bad humor.
For the most part, Tully was an easy-going, jovial tease. However, once someone stirred his temper, it was generally something to behold and impossible to harness until it had run its course.
“What was so all-fired important you felt the need to demand an audience with me?” he asked, moving to stand next to the chair she occupied. When she rose to her feet, he towered over her by nearly a foot.
Deliberately, he widened his stance and crossed his arms across his muscled chest. The move had intimidated hundreds of people over the years. He hoped it would send the woman running out the door in fright.
Instead, she continued to glower at him in silence.
Incensed by her attempt to control the situation, he stared back at her. “I reckon you didn’t have any problem speaking your mind before I walked in here, so say your piece. What do you need?”
The woman tipped back her head and blinked at him twice, as though she gauged whether he was worthy of her time.
Out of patience, he leaned toward her. The faint hint of something soft and floral tickled his nose, further infuriating him. “Spit it out, woman! I haven’t got all day.”
Both deputies stared at him, taken aback by his gruff demeanor. Under normal circumstances, Tully would have used his most charming smile on the woman, teased her into a good mood, and finagled a meal with her if she was single and unattached.
Nonetheless, nothing about the afternoon’s circumstances had been even remotely close to typical.
When the woman finally spoke, fury laced her tone. “I’ll thank you, Sheriff, to maintain civilities, even in this barbaric town. Why, I wouldn’t be surprised to see cavedwellers dragging their women through the streets, considering the impudence I’ve experienced since setting foot off that filthy train.”
Tully sighed in frustration. “Get to the point, ma’am. I’ve got better things to do than stand around and
listen to you slander my home.”
“It’s not slander when the words are true,” she said, raising her nose in the air with a disdainful sniff. “While I spoke with the peevish ticket agent at the train station, some despicable purloiner stole my bag. It is of the utmost importance that you find it.”
A snort burst out of Tully before he could stop it. “Sorry, your highness, but the probability of your bag turning up is slim to none. I’d have to assume you brought several trunks along, so I’m sure you won’t miss whatever was in it.”
The woman’s anger rolled over him in a palpable wave that nearly threw him off balance. Indignant, she huffed, setting the plumes on her hat to bobbing. Tully lifted his chin to keep one of the pink feathers from batting him in the face.
“I assure you, I have only one trunk and my bag. The trunk is with the ticket agent, but the bag is essential to my future livelihood. I must insist you do everything in your power to retrieve it.”
“Fine. File a report and we’ll investigate the theft.” Tully started to turn away but a small, gloved hand on his arm tugged his gaze back to the woman. Brief as the contact was, her touch left him ill at ease and even more on edge.
“Please, Sheriff? Would you see to the recovery of my belongings yourself? Not that I don’t trust your deputies.” She glanced at the two men as they leaned against a desk across the room and offered them a coquettish smile. “Nevertheless, this matter requires your expertise and supreme discretion.”
Tully cocked an eyebrow and rocked back on one hip. “What’s in that bag of yours? What, exactly, requires the utmost discretion, as you put it?”
“It’s a delicate topic that should be handled with prudence and care.”
Another sigh rolled out of his broad chest and he sank onto the chair at his desk. He opened a drawer and pulled out a form, slapping it on top of the scarred wooden surface of the desk. The tip of his tongue moistened the end of the pencil he picked up then held poised above the paper, prepared to write.
“What’s your name, darlin’?”
She stiffened. “It most certainly isn’t darlin’ or darling. Must you address me with such familiarity and improper speech?”
Summoning the last bit of patience he possessed, Tully tamped down the urge to snatch the woman’s hat off her self-righteous head and stomp it beneath his boots. “Your name, please. I need your name for my report, Mrs.…?”
“It’s miss. Miss Dumont.”
Tully wrote her last name on the report than glanced at her again. “First name?”
“Surely that is unnecessary for your report. You certainly won’t be referring to me by my first name. Miss Dumont will suffice.”
“Have it your way.” Tully scribbled something on the paper. “What does your bag look like?” He refused to acknowledge the woman as she settled herself into the straight-back chair on the other side of his desk.
“Brown leather. It’s fairly new. It’s about this size.” Miss Dumont held her hands out in front of her, indicating a large bag. “The clasp and buckles are brass and it has the initials G. A. D. on the front.”
“Gad? What’s that stand for?” Tully looked up at her and caught a glimmer of tears in those intriguing blue eyes before she chased the emotion away.
“My father’s initials.”
Tully nodded, writing the information on the form. “Is there anything attached to the bag or inside it with your name or address?”
“Yes. There are a few letters from my father’s mine partner.”
“Mine partner?” Tully pinned her with a glare. “Your father has a mine partner in the area?”
“Yes. That’s why I’m here. I came to check on his holdings. Once I’ve concluded the business affairs are in order, I will eagerly leave this town.” Warily avoiding his gaze, she fussed with her gloves.
The woman was withholding information, of that he was certain. Tully didn’t trust her any further than he could throw an angry bull. “What’s the partner’s name? I know most of the miners around these parts.”
“Mr. Clive Fisher. He and my father have been business associates for three years.”
Chuckles he hadn’t meant to release escaped, incurring the woman’s wrathful glower.
“What, precisely, is so amusing to you, Sheriff?”
“Oh, nothing at all, ma’am.” Tully wished he could be there to see the look on prissy Miss Dumont’s face the moment she encountered the grizzled old miner. The only thing Clive Fisher hated more than taking a bath was women. “Let’s get back to your report. I need a detailed list of the contents of the bag.”
Much to his astonishment, Miss Dumont’s cheeks turned pink and she dropped her gaze to her lap again. “You see, um… that’s to say, the contents are of a nature that one does not…”
“Either you tell me what’s in that bag, or I wad this paper up and stuff it in the stove.” Tully pointed to a pot-bellied stove in a corner of the room. Although the heat of the day prohibited a fire burning in it, the threat sounded good.
She nodded, causing the plumes on her hat to attempt an escape by flapping away. “In addition to the letters I mentioned from Mr. Fisher, you’ll find a family Bible, and a copy of Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott. The bag also contained a hair brush and hand mirror, my toothbrush and a tin of tooth powder, a bottle of French perfume, and a nightdress.”
Miss Dumont folded her hands on her lap and sat so straight, Tully wondered how she could maintain such a formal posture. He leaned back in the chair and tapped the pencil on his desk. “So your future livelihood depends on keeping your teeth clean, or is it finishing that book you were reading?”
Bristling, the woman looked as though she’d dearly love to reach across the desk and slap him.
He’d like to see her try. “What else is in the bag, Miss Dumont?”
A long moment passed before she nodded once in resignation. When she opened her mouth to speak, Tully leaned forward with a threatening glare.
“No more of your nonsense about tooth powder and books. Either you tell me the truth, or I’ll toss you out the door.”
She held his gaze, her own cool and affronted. “You, sir, are no gentleman.”
Snickers from the deputies made Tully grin. “I never once claimed to be. Now what is in the confounded bag?”
Miss Dumont cast the deputies a guarded glance before turning back to Tully. “I’d prefer that information remain confidential.”
“If you want our help in finding your bag, we all need to know what we’re looking for.” Agitated, Tully tapped the pencil again.
He didn’t know what it was about the woman that rubbed him the wrong direction, but he’d taken a healthy dislike to her the moment he set foot inside his office. Generally, he liked most everyone. A good judge of character, he could easily sift the liars and thieves from folks who were good-hearted.
Within a few seconds of meeting her, he’d pegged the woman as someone who had secrets and planned to keep them. “What’d you do? Rob a bank? Steal priceless jewels? Hide a murder weapon in your spare bloomers?”
Miss Dumont sucked in such a large gulp of air that she choked and coughed into a scented handkerchief. Dugan hurried to pour her a cup of water while Seth stepped beside her, waiting to see if he needed to whack her on the back.
She took the cup from Dugan and sipped the tepid drink then wiped moisture from her eyes.
Tully didn’t show the slightest hint of sympathy or remorse. “Come on, princess. What else is in that bag?”
“Corsets,” she whispered.
“What’d you say?” Tully leaned closer to her again, looking at his two deputies. They’d resumed their post at the desk on the far side of the room, removing the possibility of hearing her whisper.
Red suffused not only her cheeks, but also her entire face as she forced her gaze to meet Tully’s. “Corsets.”
For the length of several heartbeats, he stared at her then smiled, revealing the dimples in his cheeks. “If corset
s are the thing essential to your livelihood, then I’ll point you in the direction of the Gilded Spur. It’s the nicest brothel in town. Zed’s fair to his girls and he’ll take good care of you. Why didn’t you…”
“My word!” The woman jumped to her feet and shook a finger in Tully’s face. “How dare you utter such… such… I’ve never been so insulted in my entire life. Do I look like a woman who would… the kind of person that…”
Tully stood, mostly to keep her from poking his eye with her flailing finger. “Now, ma’am, just settle down. I didn’t mean to imply anything, but you came in here ranting about needing some secretive item from your stolen bag and finally fess up that the item in question is your corset. What other conclusion am I supposed to come to?”
Slightly mollified by his explanation, she returned to her seat. “The corsets aren’t of exceeding value, but you said you needed a complete list of the contents of the bag. It isn’t proper to speak of such things and that is the reason I hesitated to mention their inclusion in the list of stolen property. There are three corsets in my bag and, um… other personal items such as one might need for a change of clothes.”
“Bloomers and petticoats I understand, but three corsets? What in tarnation do you need with three corsets?” Tully’s hazel eyes traveled over her with an intense, penetrating perusal. “Appears to me you’ve got one on right now.”
“Indeed, Sheriff.” Crimson highlights continued to stain her cheeks under his scrutiny. “However, the last item for your list is the five hundred dollars I had hidden in the false bottom of the bag.”
Softly, Tully whistled then looked at her as if she had rocks rolling around in her head instead of brains. “Don’t you know you shouldn’t carry that kind of cash around with you? Especially in a bag anyone might steal.”
“Yes, well, I realize now it would have been fortuitous to have carried it on my person, but that is neither here nor there. The money is gone and I’d very much like for it to be retrieved. At the very least, I’d appreciate the return of my belongings. A few items, such as my family Bible, are priceless to me and can’t be replaced.”
Thimbles And Thistles (Baker City Brides Book 2) Page 23
