The fingers squeezing Nettie’s windpipe unclenched slightly. Though he didn’t release her, it was enough for Nettie to breathe once again and she wheezed and gasped on shuddering indrawn breaths.
“She lives as long as you agree to come with us, quiet like,” the other man warned as he moved slowly toward her.
“Why are you doing this?” Coral asked, inching sideways. “What do you want?”
“Us? All we want is the double eagle yer pa promised us if we bring ya to ‘im.”
Her stomach clenched. Of course, her father would be behind this. She knew he wouldn’t give up so easily after sending Harvey all this way to fetch her back. But this, using foolish gold prospectors who hadn’t seen a bar of soap or a proper meal in weeks, maybe months, and were clearly so desperate that they’d do anything for the reward her papa promised, even go so far as to threaten a woman and use her life as a bargaining chip made her sick.
“You’d choke an innocent woman for twenty dollars in gold?” She nearly spat the words such was her disgust. “Have you no conscience?”
The man holding Nettie smirked. “We’d a done it for a quarter eagle. You woulda too if’n you were starvin’.”
“Let her go now, and I’ll do as you say.”
“No fightin’ or screamin’,” the other man warned. “Don’t want the rest of the whores raisin’ a ruckus and alertin’ the sheriff.”
“Or her husband,” Merl added. “I’ve seen him, Earl. He’s as big and strong as an ox.”
Nettie was looking at her with sad eyes. “Don’t do it, Miss Coral—” Her raspy words were cut off short by hard fingers squeezing her throat again.
“Stop it! Please, don’t hurt her anymore.” Tears were flowing down Coral’s cheeks when he finally eased off and let her breathe again. He let her go this time and she fell to the floor, gasping. Coral started forward to help her, but Earl rushed forward and caught her by the arm, immediately pulling her toward the back door.
Outside, behind the saloon, two horses stood waiting. As she struggled to get free, Earl dug in his saddlebags and withdrew a length of rope, which he used to tie her hands behind her back.
Her mind raced for a way out of this fix. Since they didn’t have a conscience, Coral decided to appeal to their sense of greed. “I’ll double what he’s paying you.”
Earl paused. “You got that kind of money?”
“My husband does.” A spark of hope ignited in her chest. “He’s the town blacksmith and owns the livery stable. I could—”
“Don’t listen to her, Earl,” Merl said as he came out the back door. “We get her to Shady Springs, get enough money to get us back to San Francisco, and forget about prospecting for good, as we agreed.”
“Her man might give us more to have her back. She’s a pretty thing.” He reached up and tugged on a curl. “Was always partial to redheaded women.”
His fingers didn’t stop as the lock of hair sprung free, continuing to smooth down over her chest and the upper curve of her breast. Coral flinched, afraid of what other sort of payment might be required of her. The irony was too much. The whole time as a Red Petticoat girl she’d stayed chaste, only to come back innocently as a bride for cooking lessons and be kidnapped, and possibly raped.
“We stick with the plan, brother. As agreed.” Merl, clearly the leader of the two, knocked Earl’s hand away. He put his own hands on her waist next, ready to lift her into the saddle.
“No, wait! My husband will pay—” Her words were cut off by the rag Earl stuffed in her mouth right before his partner draped her face down over his saddle.
* * *
As he plunged the glowing red length of pounded metal into the cooling bath, Bo looked up from his forge through the waves of heat to the wide flung doors scanning for a sign of her. He’d begun looking forward to her midday visit, not only because he got to see her pretty face and steal some kisses in the grassy meadow behind the stable, but also because she brought samples of whatever she’d whipped up with Nettie that morning. All of it had been tasty so far; she was turning into quite a cook. But it was all right with him if she never learned how to boil water. Coral made up for her lack of domestic skills in many delightful ways that were pleasing to other parts of his body, none of which included his stomach.
That part of him made its presence known by rumbling loudly, which told him it was past noon and she should have been here long ago. He stepped outside and stared down the street for a moment. Not seeing a glimpse of her coppery hair glinting golden in the sunlight, his worry grew. Glancing up to the sky and the position of the sun, he guessed it past one o’clock. Usually coming at noon, escorted by Gabe or Charlie, and once by the sheriff whose horse had picked up a stone and was coming over to have him re-shooed anyway, today she was much later than she’d ever been. A nagging sense of unease settled into his gut, quickly quashing his hunger.
“Ben,” he called as he walked back in, removing his heavy apron and gloves as he did so. “I’m heading over to the saloon to check on Coral.”
“A bit late today, isn’t she, boss?”
“More than a bit, I’m afraid. I’ll be back.” Clapping his wide brimmed black hat on his head, he was out the double doors, his long strides carrying him quickly to the corner where he turned onto Elm Street. It was a quick jog, then a left on Main, and the saloon came into sight. Seeing the crowd gathered outside, he started to run.
He came alongside Jebidiah who was also rushing that way.
The sheriff glanced at him in surprise. “What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Coral is late.”
“You suspect she’s part of this trouble?”
“I hope not,” Bo replied, “but my gut tells me something is very wrong.”
The tall men moved faster, shouldering their way through the onlookers gathered in front of the saloon.
“Out of the way, please,” Jeb ordered politely as he made his way to the front door. Bo wasn’t nearly as cordial, grunting and pushing his way through.
Amy was amidst the first of the saloon workers he saw when he made it inside the wide swinging doors. There were tears tracking down her face, worry clear in her drawn features.
“What’s happening? Where is Coral?”
She rushed to him. “Oh, Bo, she’s been taken.”
“Taken?” He repeated as dread knifed into his chest. “What do you mean she’s been taken? Who took her?”
In disbelief, he scanned the room, seeing only a sea of blondes, a few brunettes and one or two women with jet-black hair. Another pang gripped his heart when there were no burnished red curls or smiling pink lips to greet him. When Amy didn’t immediately answer, he frowned down at her impatiently.
“Bo!”
Instantly, he looked up searching for who had called him and saw Gabriel motioning him over. Jeb was beside him as he moved that way. He followed the saloon owner down the hall and into the kitchen. Nettie, surrounded by Jewel, Doc Norwood and several of the gems, glanced up when he entered.
“Mister Bo,” she cried hoarsely as she clamped a hand to her throat. Despite being in obvious pain, she jumped to her feet.
“Here now,” the doctor admonished. “You’ll do yourself more injury.”
“What’s happened to Coral?” Bo roared, having lost all patience with half answers.
“Her daddy paid two men to fetch her,” Nettie explained tearfully.
“After nearly choking poor Nettie to death, they left her gagged, as well as tied hand and foot. She said they went out the side door to the alley, and took Coral with them.” Jewel added this information as she assisted the beleaguered cook into her chair.
“Who were they?”
“They called each other Merl and Earl,” the injured woman managed to rasp.
“That must be the Cartwright brothers,” Jeb surmised. “Prospectors from back east whose claim hasn’t panned out. I’ve had to haul them in for the night a time or too for being drunk and disorderly. Nothing as
bad as kidnapping before. They must be desperate for the reward her pa offered.”
“How long ago?” Bo demanded. He needed to know how much of a head start they had.
“Best we can figure, thirty minutes, maybe a little more,” Gabe answered.
“She went with them when they threatened to kill me, though I begged her not to, poor child,” Nettie moaned, thoroughly distraught. He felt bad for the woman, yet he needed to know if she had more information to help him find Coral.
“Do you have any idea what direction they took?”
She rubbed her forehead, as if thinking.
“She needs to rest,” Doc said.
Rather than following doctor’s orders, Nettie jumped up again, shaking off their comforting hands. “Shady Springs!” she exclaimed. “I heard ‘em say they’d get paid when they took her to Shady Springs!”
Bo nodded and turned, rushing back down the hall. Jeb and Gabe were right on his heels.
“I’d appreciate your assistance in helping me find her,” he said without slowing or turning as he shoved through the crowded saloon and back out the front doors.
“What else would I do?” Jeb replied, sounding slightly offended. “Not only would I do it as part of my job, but for a friend, how could I not?”
“That’s not why I’m going,” Gabriel said, keeping pace.
He spared him a questioning glance without slowing his stride.
“I’m going to make sure you don’t kill her pa.”
Jeb on his other side also put in, “Good idea. It would put a damper on your honeymoon if you were rotting in my jail awaiting trial for murder.”
Bo couldn’t disagree. He’d already imagined his hands around the man’s throat and following that, using his fists to beat Harvey, who likely had a hand in this too, to a bloody pulp.
“Obliged,” he muttered. As he cleared the crowd milling around front, he started running. Shady Springs was an hour ride, with a thirty-minute head start, if her father was waiting and prepared to leave, they could be well on their way to Sacramento, or beyond to San Francisco. He had to get to her before that happened. The city having grown so big with the gold boom, it would be much more difficult to find her. And if they got on a ship… He shook himself mentally, not allowing his dour thoughts to continue in that direction.
* * *
Glaring at her father, Coral watched as he moved around the room shoving his remaining belongings into his valise. She was wasting her breath trying to reason with him. Irritated that he had to sail halfway around the world to fetch her himself, her pleas to let her decide her own life fell on deaf ears.
A loud knock on the door, preceded it opening without a by your leave.
“We need to go now,” Harvey insisted. “Magnusson will be on our heels as it is.”
“I’m ready,” her father said as he hauled her up by the arm. “You get my bag and I’ll bring Coral.”
“If she’s to be my bride, I’ll see to her.”
Her papa shook his head. “There’s a matter of an annulment first, my friend. See to the bag.”
Noting Harvey’s scowl, Coral hoped their argument would deteriorate into a full-blown shouting match, buying more time for Bo to come after her. But Harvey only grumbled under his breath and hefted the large suitcase off the bed, dragging it as he followed them out the door and down the hall.
They were clattering down the narrow stairs to the foyer when Coral glanced up and saw a familiar smirking face. She stopped in her tracks, her father wrenching her arm and pulling her off balance as he continued to move. Her fingers curled around the balustrade for support. Behind her, Harvey skidded to a halt with a curse.
“This bag isn’t filled with feathers, girl. Keep moving.”
Ignoring them both, her eyes locked onto the woman staring up at her. Coral hissed at Millicent Crankshaw in accusation. “You had a hand in this!”
“As did I,” said another female voice from below her. Coral’s gaze darted across the entryway and was doubly surprised when she found the pretty brunette who had been flirting with Bo outside the mercantile a few weeks ago smugly staring up at her from the wide door to what looked like a parlor.
“Why would you help them?” she asked, truly perplexed. “I don’t even know you.”
“Hardly an oversight,” Millicent said curtly. “This is Elizabeth, my daughter. She doesn’t associate with known harlots.”
“Here now!” her papa protested, but Coral barely noticed the slur as she tried to piece together what was going on.
“Don’t strain your feeble mind, girl.” The older woman’s tone was rich with condescension. “Can’t you see? You’ve been a thorn in our side since the black day you came to Culpepper Cove. You and all your bawdy friends at that disgusting saloon. It is up to good people like me and my sweet Elizabeth, to see you are closed down even if we have to do it by removing one whore at a time from our presence.”
“Yes, and if we can exact a little revenge, an eye for an eye as the good book says,” Millicent’s pretty face twisted into a rather unbecoming smirk as she went on, “then we’ve accomplished two tasks in one fell swoop.”
“Revenge against me? All I did was bump into your mother on the street. For which I apologized and she, who was very unchristian-like, threw my regrets back in my face.”
Millicent visibly bristled, while Elizabeth explained. “My revenge wasn’t aimed at you, but against Bo Magnusson.”
“Whatever did my husband do to you?”
“He led her on!” Millicent screeched. “Smiling his winsome smile, seeking her out whenever we were in town. He came calling a few months back, then you came to town and distracted him with your, your…” She waved her hand at Coral’s chest as she continued. “Your vulgar and overblown charms. After you flaunted your wares and lured him between your thighs, he changed towards my sweet Beth, the bounder!”
“And a good thing too, now that we know,” Elizabeth sniffed in disdain as she agreed with her mother.
“Now that you know what?”
“I’ll fill you in on the stage, daughter,” her papa said urging her down the rest of the stairs. “It leaves in twenty minutes and we can’t be late. The driver I’m told won’t delay a minute past time for it to pull out.”
He bowed stiffly to Millicent and her daughter. “Your hospitality and assistance in getting Carissa back were invaluable.”
“No offense, Mr. Fulwiler,” the woman said between her persistently pinched lips, “but its good riddance to bad rubbish as far as your daughter is concerned.”
Harvey stomped by them carrying the large valise and muttered under his breath, “If you’ll get the door, Evan. I’m anxious to get out of this den of vipers, before they strike and leave us for dead.”
“Agreed,” her father replied. “Come, Carissa.”
He swung open the door, then skidded to a halt when he encountered an angry wall of muscle beneath a pair of blazing blue eyes set in a thunderous expression.
“You’ll not be going anywhere with my wife,” Bo said, his tone near scalding in his fury.
“Bo, thank heavens,” she cried, struggling against her father’s grip, wanting nothing more than to rush into his arms. “Let me go, Papa. I’m going home with my husband.”
“He’s not your husband. The marriage is invalid.”
“Like hell!” Bo exclaimed angrily as he stepped inside, crowding her father as he towered over him with his intimidating frame. “I don’t know what cards you think you have to play, Fulwiler, but Coral is of age and we were wed legally by a minister in front of a roomful of witnesses. The sheriff can vouch for that.”
She hadn’t noticed until then that Jebidiah Justice stood behind Bo, and beside him Mister Gabriel. The sheriff had his hand clamped around the arm of Myron Crankshaw. The short thin man, who looked decidedly uneasy by the drama playing out in his foyer, was shifting restlessly from foot to foot.
“Stop calling her by that gaudy name,” her father d
emanded sharply. “She is Carissa Anne Fulwiler and will remain such until I say otherwise. In fact, I’d like to see this marriage certificate. If she used that hideous alias, I’ll have it nullified in two shakes.”
“I used my legal name, Papa. You have to let this go.”
He turned to her. “I can’t, girl, it’s for your own good.”
“You’ve been telling me that since I was little. But in case you didn’t notice, I’m not a child anymore. I know my own mind and I can make my own decisions. And I decided to marry Bo.” Her hand clamped onto his forearm. “Please, Papa. If you get to know him, you’ll see he’s a good man, well respected in our town, and a businessman, like you. He loves me and it’s his job to see to my protection now.”
He grunted at the comparison and again at the word protection. “He let two reprehensible men snatch you from under his nose in broad daylight, daughter. How is that protecting you? No, you’re coming home with me and marrying Harvey. That way I can keep an eye on you as I promised your mother. You like Harvey, I don’t know why you’ve made all this fuss about it.”
“He’s older than you are, Papa!” As Coral’s eyes shifted to the man they were talking about as though he wasn’t there.
He scowled, his tone clipped and thoroughly annoyed when he announced, “If we keep arguing the same points ad nauseum, we’ll miss our stage.”
“I think that is happening, regardless,” Sheriff Justice put in. “Let’s move this discussion inside where we can do so privately.” He squeezed by Bo who hadn’t moved an inch from his position of threat before Evan. Jeb nodded at Millicent and Elizabeth before tilting his head to the front room. “If you don’t mind?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Millicent said, sounding almost cheerful, her lips quirking into some semblance of a smile. Coral doubted she did that much and watched expectantly for her face to crack at any moment. It faded as soon as the other man, who had a gold star pinned to his chest like Jeb’s, entered the crowded foyer. “I don’t see why your presence is needed, Millie, or yours, Lizzie.”
“Don’t call me that, Uncle Milford, you know I despise that childish nickname.”
Claiming Coral (The Red Petticoat Saloon) Page 16
