Felton shook his head. “His bed at the jail wasn't slept in.”
Eden turned and looked all around her at the snowswept plains, an eerie sight in the moonlight. He could be anywhere out there. “I warned him the weather wasn't fit for traveling. Do you suppose he's still out there somewhere?”
“Maybe. Could be he'll turn up when there's a thaw. Or he might show up as a bunch of stripped bones in the spring.”
“He was not a nice man,” Miss Devlin admitted. “He frightened me. What'll happen to Doanie and Hogg?” she asked the sheriff.
“They'll have to stand trial for rustling. Most likely, if they survive their wounds, they'll hang.”
“You don't have any proof they were the rustlers, do you?” Miss Devlin said.
Felton exchanged glances with Kerrigan. Kerrigan shrugged and shook his head. “Not without Kerrigan's testimony, we don't,” Felton said tentatively.
“Maybe you could find jobs for them instead.”
Felton stared at Miss Devlin. “I can what?”
“I am convinced that if Doanie and Hogg were given a chance to do honest work, they could both become good citizens.”
Felton rolled his eyes. He had spent enough time with Darcie to know there was no arguing with a woman when her mind was made up. “I'll do what I can,” he conceded.
“I appreciate that, Felton. I really do,” Miss Devlin said.
When they reached Doc Harper's place, Kerrigan helped Felton carry the two wounded men inside and then came back out, leaving Eden to arrange matters with the doctor, including care for the litter of kittens.
“Where are you headed now?” Kerrigan asked Felton.
“I gotta hire someone at the livery to go out tomorrow and pick up those bodies we left behind and bring them to town for burial. Then I'm gonna hire a rig to drive Darcie over to Canyon Creek. By noon tomorrow—” He looked up at a sky that was already turning pink with the dawn and amended, “—noon today, I'm going to be a happian.”
Kerrigan shook hands with Felton, and bid him good luck and Godspeed, envious of the excitement he saw in Felton's eyes as he looked forward to his wedding. “Are you and Darcie going to live in Sweetwater?” Kerrigan asked.
“It'll depend on what Darcie wants to do,” Felton said. “I'd like to. Good grass for cattle and plenty of water. Man could have a good life here.”
“Yeah, if he had the right woman by his side, keeping his house, raising his kids, it could be heaven on earth,” Kerrigan said as Eden came out of Doc Harper's office to join them.
“Hmmph!” she said, marching past Kerrigan without stopping. “I should have expected to hear such an expedient circumscription of the wife's role from someone as glib-tongued as you!”
Felton turned to Kerrigan and muttered, “Circumscription?”
Miss Devlin kept on walking but raised her voice to recite, “To constrict the range or activity of; to draw a line around; to surround by a boundary.”
Kerrigan grinned.
Felton rolled his eyes, tipped his hat at Kerrigan, and headed for the livery.
Kerrigan hop-skipped to catch up with Eden. “Where are you headed?” he asked, striding along beside her.
Eden stopped dead. She closed her eyes then opened them again, and turned to look up at Kerrigan. “I guess I was running away.”
“How about running toward me instead,” he said, his heart in his throat.
“I . . . I think maybe it's time we talked. Take me home, Kerrigan.”
Chapter 22
If she says “no,” you haven't asked
the right question—or the question right.
A NEW DAY WAS DAWNING AS KERRIGAN HELPED Eden back into the spring wagon, made sure the lead rope by which Paint was tied to the rear of the wagon was secure, and climbed up beside her for the ride back home. The wind had stopped blowing—a unique phenomenon in Wyoming—and the sun rose toward a sky that was a clear blue as far as the eye could see.
There wasn't much room on the wagon seat, and Eden had to make a real effort to keep her thigh from brushing against Kerrigan's. She held herself rigid, refusing to give an inch. She had intended to wait until she was home before confronting the gunslinger, but after a very few minutes of poignant silence, she asked, “Is it true, what I heard?
Kerrigan knew that what he said now would make the difference between whether Eden forgave him, or gave him up. “What did you hear?” he replied in a deceptively calm voice.
“That you were paid to seduce me.”
The poignant silence returned.
“I don't know what to say to you, Eden . . . how to explain . . .”
Miss Devlin felt her stomach knot. It was true. Otherwise he would have denied it. “Why?” she whispered.
Kerrigan tried to meet her eyes, but she wouldn't look at him. Her hands were clenched together in her lap so tightly, the knuckles were white.
“It didn't seem so awful at the time,” he said.
Eden moaned.
He hurried to explain, “I had just met you once, and you were so full of spunk and vinegar . . . I wanted you from the moment I laid eyes on you, and I knew I had no business messing with the spinster schoolteacher. I guess I grabbed at the first excuse somebody gave me to see you again. I don't have any better excuse than that. I'm not proud of what I did. I'd give anything to go back and do things differently.”
She felt Kerrigan's eyes on her, demanding, compelling. At last she met his gaze. She searched his dark eyes, looking for something. She wasn't sure what. She saw pain. And confusion. And fear. And hope. “What kind of man are you?”
“I'm human. Sometimes I make the wrong choices. I swear to you, by everything that means anything to me, that when I made love to you, I wasn't thinking about anything except us. You and me. Nothing else. And I never let on to anyone that anything happened between us. As far as anyone in Sweetwater knows, I never laid a hand on you.”
Miss Devlin heaved a sigh of relief. She hadn't realized it mattered so much to her that he hadn't bragged about his conquest.
“I'm asking you to forgive me, Eden,” he said. “I meant the things I said about wanting you for my wife. About wanting to start a new life here in Sweetwater. About wanting to settle down and have kids with you.”
Miss Devlin blinked her eyes to keep the tears at bay. “I . . .” She gritted her teeth to keep her chin from quivering. “I want to believe you're sincere about giving up your gun and settling down. But I wonder if you can really do it.”
“I can. You have to believe I can.”
When Kerrigan still saw doubt in her eyes, he knew he needed some way other than words to convince her he meant what he said. He took Sundance's gun out of the holster and set it in Eden's lap. “Here. This belongs to you. I won't be needing it anymore
Eden stared down at the gun her father had used to kill so many men, then looked back up into Kerrigan's dark eyes, searching for the truth. Because she loved Kerrigan, she wanted to believe he no longer needed it. She wanted to stop running away from happiness and embrace it wholeheartedly. But the fear of losing him to a bullet was still very real. Very frightening. “Kerrigan, I don't—”
He could see he was going to lose her. “I promise you—I swear to you—that if you marry me I will—”
The instant Kerrigan saw the flash of sunlight off steel from within the copse of pine, instincts honed from years of living on the edge of danger came to the fore. He shoved Eden down below the floorboard of the wagon, out of the line of fire, and did a diving roll off the wagon seat into the underbrush beside the road. Seconds later several bullets thudded into the tufted seat, tearing jagged holes where their bodies had been.
Eden was stunned by how quickly Kerrigan had reacted. Still in shock, she stared at the gun in her hand, then looked over
to where he was heading into the copse of trees from which the shot had been fired.
“Kerrigan, you forgot—” She bit her lip on the rest of her sentence. She didn't need to tell him he didn't have a gun. She was sure he'd already realized that fact. Yelling it out to him was only going to apprise whoever had attacked them that Kerrigan was armed with only his wits.
Kerrigan realized his mistake the same moment he took the flying leap from the wagon. Since his gun was always in his holster it hadn't occurred to him until he was in the air that he had put it in Eden's lap. When he finished his tumbling roll, he came up running on a diagonal toward the copse of pines where the bushwhacker was hiding. A bullet whined past his ear just as he reached the cover of the trees.
Kerrigan swore. It was obvious he couldn't get back to the wagon without coming under fire. And he was now too far away for Eden to safely throw him his weapon. He had the derringer in his boot, but that was only good up close. Eden was going to get her wish. He had no choice except to resolve the situation without a Colt. As long as his options were limited, he might as well give talking a try.
“Hey, Deputy Joe,” he shouted. “Is that you?”
“Yeah.”
“We thought you froze to death.”
“Nearly did. Got rescued by a drifting peddler. Damn fellow had bells on his wagon. Thought I was going crazy. Funny how things work out, ain't it?”
“How'd you know to wait here for me?”
“I went to the line shack and saw what you done to them boys. Figured you'd have to bring the schoolteacher home sooner or later.”
“It's all over, Joe. Too many people kn about you. You'll have a better chance of living if you give yourself up.”
“This is all your fault, Kerrigan. You gotta pay.”
Kerrigan kept Deputy Joe talking, all the time working his way closer, using the deputy's voice to try to locate him. He didn't have a plan, exactly, but if he could work his way in behind the man . . .
Every time Kerrigan thought he had Joe cornered, the deputy escaped his trap. It was a dangerous game of cat and mouse, and Kerrigan kept his eye out for a mousehole he could use if things fell apart and the cat took a swipe at him with its claws.
Eden was terrified. She had wanted Kerrigan to lay down his gun, but not like this. She didn't see how he was going to capture Deputy Joe without getting himself killed. She heard them talking to each other, their voices moving farther into the pines. She kept imagining Deputy Joe cornering Kerrigan, sighting down his gun barrel and firing his gun. She saw the red blossom growing on Kerrigan's chest, a mortal wound.
Eden's whole body trembled with fear. What she had really wanted, when she asked Kerrigan to lay down his gun, was a guarantee that his life would never be in danger again. If they lived in a perfect world, a civilized world, maybe she could have had her wish. In such a world, guns would be unnecessary. But this was not a perfect world.
Certainly Kerrigan would live longer if he made his living as a rancher rather than as a gunslinger. That much she could, and would, ask of him. Even then, there were bandits and rustlers and outlaws of even worse ilk roaming the Wyoming frontier. On the frontier, a gun was sometimes necessary for survival. She couldn't ask Kerrigan never to carry a gun again. That would likely get him killed someday when he needed a gun and didn't have one—like right now.
Eden knew now why her mother had stayed with Sundance despite the pain she must have known would come some day. Lillian had known that living without the man you love is no life at all. Now that she understood that, the choice became simple for Eden.
She climbed down from the wagon, anxious to get Sundance's Colt to Kerrigan. Voices reached her, Kerrigan's and then the deputy's, taunting each other. Moving as quietly as she could, she made her way through the pines.
Kerrigan had found his quarry. Deputy Joe was walking right toward the spot where Kerrigan was hidden behind twin pines, his gun held outstretched before him. All Kerrigan had to do was let the deputy walk past and relieve him of his weapon.
The crackling of underbrush off to the left startled them both. Kerrigan watched Joe swing his gun toward the sound. An instant later Eden stepped through the undergrowth holding Sundance's gun in her hand.
Kerrigan saw Joe taking aim and knew he had to do something fast. He stepped out from behind the pines and said, “You looking for me, Joe?”
Joe swung his gun around to aim it at Kerrigan. At the same time Eden realized the danger and quickly Sundance's gun, aiming it at Joe.
“Hold your fire,” she said. “Or I'll shoot.”
Joe was in a quandary. He could see Kerrigan was unarmed. But if he shot Kerrigan, Miss Devlin had threatened to shoot him. If he turned and fired at Miss Devlin, Kerrigan was liable to jump him before he could get off another shot. His best bet was to kill Kerrigan first and take the chance Miss Devlin would either not shoot at all, or miss on the first shot.
“Give it up, Joe. You haven't got a chance,” Kerrigan said in the same calming voice he had used on the boys in Eden's schoolroom.
“Everyone knows how Miss Devlin feels about guns. She ain't going to shoot me. You're a dead man, Kerrigan.” Joe cocked his .45.
“You're wrong about me, Deputy Joe,” Eden said, trying to keep her voice as calm as Kerrigan's and only half succeeding. “I'll kill you if I have to.”
Joe turned and sneered at her. “Don't make me laugh.”
“You've heard of a gunslinger named Sundance, haven't you, Joe?” Kerrigan asked.
Joe's head whirled back around to hear about this new threat. “Sundance? What does he have to do with anything?”
“Sundance was Miss Devlin's father.”
“Sheeeit. You're just saying that,” Deputy Joe said. But a sweat broke out on his forehead, and his eyes shifted back to Miss Devlin even though he kept the gun on Kerrigan. “He's makin' that up. He's gotta be makin' that up.”
“He's telling you the truth,” Eden said. “Sundance was my father. He taught me everything I know about guns.”
“Sheeeit. I don't figure to get myself shot by some gunslinger's kid, even if she is a woman.” Deputy Joe looked nervously from Miss Devlin to Kerrigan and back. “'Specially when you got no proof I did anything wrong. I'm gonna drop my gun, you hear? Don't you go gettin' trigger-happy.”
The instant Deputy Joe dropped the gun, Kerrigan was there. He stuck the deputy's gun in his belt and used his bandanna to tie Deputy Joe's hands behind him. He wasn't gentle.
Once he was done, Kerrigan grabbed the deputy by the elbow and hauled him over to where Eden was still standing with Sundance's gun in her hand, which was now hanging at her side.
“Eden?” he said. “Are you all right?” He took the gun out of her hand and discovered she was shivering. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her, all the while holding a gun on Joe to keep him from making a run for it. “It's all right, love,” he crooned. “It's all over now. You're all
“Sheeeit,” Deputy Joe said. “You were never gonna fire that gun at me, were you?”
Eden surprised both men when she levered herself away from Kerrigan and answered, “I would have if I'd had to. You see, a wise man taught me that although violence isn't always the answer, sometimes it's the only answer when dealing with a sanguinary primate.”
“A what?”
“A bloodthirsty man.”
Eden turned and met Kerrigan's dark eyes as he said, “You're one smart lady, Miss Devlin.”
“I was wondering when you would notice, Mr. Kerrigan,” she said with a grin.
When their eyes locked, Deputy Joe saw his chance and took off at a run. He hadn't gone two steps before Kerrigan stuck out a foot and tripped him. The deputy lost his balan
ce and fell. His head hit a rotted tree trunk as he went down, knocking him out cold.
“Some people never learn,” Eden said, shaking her head at the sight of the unconscious man.
Kerrigan walked purposefully back to her. “We have some business to settle.”
Eden's chin went up. “The answer is yes.”
“I haven't asked the question yet,” he said with a rueful grin.
“Then ask!”
“I'm asking for the third and last time. Will you marry me, Miss Devlin?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!”
They both laughed as he lifted her in his arms and hugged her tight. Her arms wrapped eagerly around him and she showered him with kisses on his face and neck and eyes, murmuring, “I love you, Burke Kerrigan. Love you more than life itself.”
Sweetwater Seduction Page 37
