In a Cowboy’s Arms

by Janette Kenny

  “My wife has family in Santa Fe,” Dade said. “We plan to catch the train in Dodge City.”

  The lie wouldn’t fool the bounty hunter for long, but it might give Dade and Maggie enough time in Dodge to find out who’d adopted Daisy. After that they could disappear.

  “Guess you plan to leave early in the morning then,” the liveryman said.

  That had been Dade’s intent, but he was worried about Maggie’s condition. “Depends on how my wife feels. The journey has been hard on her.”

  “Where’d you come from?”

  Again, Dade didn’t dare tell the truth. “We had a small place in Nebraska.”

  “Times are hard everywhere.”

  Dade nodded, and let the man think what he would. He knew as time went on, the story would become embellished.

  “Just send word down in the morning, and I’ll have your horses ready,” the liveryman said.

  He’d do just that if Maggie was up for the ride.

  He gave the town another cautious glance and returned to the hotel. Maggie should’ve finished her bath by now.

  His gut grumbled in protest of the small meal he’d had today. Didn’t help that the most appetizing smells were wafting from the hotel dining room. He was tempted to escort Maggie down here for the evening meal, but fear that the bounty hunter would walk in on them changed his mind.

  He’d have their meals brought up to their room, he decided as he entered the hotel. The owner was most obliging.

  “I’ll have trays sent up in an hour,” she said.

  Dade thanked her for her trouble and doled out what he owed. “Any chance you have a bathing chamber downstairs?”

  “We certainly do,” she said. “Many of the men folk partake of it while their ladies are indisposed.”

  She led him to a small room just off the kitchen. “There might not be much hot water left by now.”

  “That’s fine.” He was used to taking a dip in a creek when the need arose.

  Half an hour later, he bounded up the stairs in his same duds that had most of the dust beaten out of them. The sound of feminine laughter inside his room brought him up short. One woman was Maggie, but the other was a stranger.

  “Do tell me more, Maggie,” a woman asked.

  He set his teeth, annoyed with his traveling companion. After all the fuss of coming up with a new identity for her, she went and told some woman her real name.

  His knuckles wrapped the door a bit more loudly than necessary, and the laughter inside instantly died. Talk about feeling like a killjoy. But damn, what if the bounty hunter had overheard them instead of him?

  “It’s me,” he said.

  To his relief, Maggie replied, “Come in. You won’t believe who I ran into.”

  Someone she knew? Is that why the other woman called her by name?

  It seemed impossible, but as he stepped into the room it was obvious that the two women knew each other by the relaxed way they were with each other. It was just as clear that Maggie trusted the other woman.

  “Afternoon,” he said.

  The welcoming smile and fitted dress Maggie wore caught him off guard. A vagrant thought crossed his mind that she’d greet him this way every time he came home.

  As for the other woman, he’d seen her in the dining room when they’d first arrived. He doubted she worked here since she was great with child.

  “Maggie and I have been catching up on old times,” the woman said.

  “You won’t believe this,” Maggie told him, eyes bright with excitement, “but Rita was on the orphan train with me and Daisy. Just last year she married Faron Owens, the hotel owner’s son.”

  Well now he damn sure hadn’t expected Maggie to meet another soul from that train here. More than anyone, Dade understood the bond of orphans. But he had learned the hard way that trust among brothers could be shattered by betrayal.

  “Small world,” he said.

  “You’ll wish that were so after you hear this,” Maggie said, her expression serious as she turned to Rita. “Tell him about Daisy.”

  The woman’s smile faded. That’s all it took to drive a prod in his worry, because that look told him that whatever she knew about Daisy was bad.

  “The McCray’s–that’s the family that adopted me–were visiting family in Hays when the orphan train passed through. But they lived in Dodge City,” she said. “I came down sick on the way back there, and they took me to the doctor. There were maybe a half dozen rough looking cowboys outside on horses. Two of them were inside with a little girl. That’s when I realized she was Daisy.”

  Again, that followed from what Maggie and Miss Jennean had said about his sister being out of sorts after her fall. But his gut clenched with fear that Daisy had worsened enough to need a doctor’s help.

  “At least if she was ailing, Mrs. Jarrett got help for her,” he said, remembering the name of the family who’d taken in Daisy only to give her up shortly after.

  Rita shook her head. “But that’s just it. There wasn’t any woman there except Mrs. McCray.”

  He had a real bad feeling he knew the answer, but he asked anyway. “Who the hell brought in Daisy?”

  “The cowboys, or rather the one who seemed to be in charge,” Rita said and shivered, leaving him to wonder if that reaction was born out of revulsion or fear or a combination of the two. “He was so tall and big and gruff that he scared the dickens out of me. And Daisy... Poor girl just stood beside him with tears streaming down her cheeks.”

  Dade flung his hat on the bed and drove his fingers through his hair. Pacing was a waste of shoe leather, and he lacked Trey’s explosive temper that would have had him driving a fist through a wall. He hadn’t inherited his pa’s inclination to shoot somebody just for the hell of it either.

  But dammit all he sure had the urge to do something to vent the anger boiling inside him.

  “You have any idea what was wrong with her?” he asked.

  Rita’s eyes held a world of apology. “Not really, though afterward my mama, Mrs. McCray that is, said that the child was suffering from headaches.”

  “You’re sure she didn’t know who she was?” Maggie asked, her blue eyes swimming with moisture.

  “Positive. She didn’t remember me either,” Rita said, and in a small voice added, “She didn’t even know her own name.”

  That was a gut punch he hadn’t braced himself for. Never mind that it followed with what Maggie and Miss Jennean had said all along. A part of him had hoped that they were embellishing the facts.

  Hell, maybe they all were. Could he trust that Rita was telling him the truth? Was she backing up a friend’s story?

  “You sure that Daisy was with these cowboys?”

  She bobbed her head. “Without a doubt. When they left, they took her with them.”

  Half a dozen men and one little girl who didn’t know her name. He didn’t like the direction his thoughts were taking him on this one damned little bit.

  “Any idea who this big cowboy was?” he asked.

  “None,” Rita said. “But after they left, I recall Mama and the doctor expressing concern about a child being in the company of cowboys for so long.”

  That sounded like they were planning a longer trip. He hoped it was to a good family.

  “Can you describe him?”

  She did, and the description matched half the cowpokes he’d met in his life save one thing.

  “I’ve never seen a man that big before. And his voice.” Rita hugged herself. “He spoke softly and with a deep drawl, but there was thunder in his tone.”

  Sounded like he was a man to be reckoned with. A man’s man by most standards. So why was he taking on the care of a little girl?

  He wanted to believe the cowboy was a family man. A rancher maybe who took in a pretty little girl out of the goodness of his heart. God knew the idea of his sister being handed over to cowboys, especially in a rough town like Dodge City that saw hundreds of men pass through each season, didn’t set well with
him.

  He strode to the window and stared out at the quiet street. Though Maggie saw no harm in drawing a childhood friend into their confidence, he wasn’t so quick to trust.

  From his own experience, women tended to gossip. Men said only what needed to be said, and even then the truth had to be pried out of them.

  He faced Rita again and caught the worried look that passed between her and Maggie. “This doctor who treated you and Daisy. You recall his name?”

  “Of course. Dr. Pike,” Rita said, brightening a bit at being able to supply that. “I haven’t seen him since I married last year and moved to Ravanna, but I know he’s still in Dodge City.”

  It was more than he had known before setting out from the Crossroads. If Mrs. Jarrett couldn’t or wouldn’t tell him who’d taken Daisy, maybe this doctor would recall treating his sister.

  And if he hit a dead end?

  Dade didn’t want to think on that. “Thank you for telling us about my sister, ma’am.”

  “I wish there was more I could do to help,” she said.

  There was, if she’d do it. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone we’d passed through here.”

  “Oh. Of course,” Rita said.

  But Dade wondered if the woman could keep that promise. Hell, he and Maggie might as well wear bells, for it wouldn’t be hard for Carson to find out where they were headed. They’d be easy pickings.

  “It seems logical that this big cowboy must live near Dodge City.” Maggie fidgeted with a handkerchief, folding it up a smidgen then ironing it out with her hand. “He surely wouldn’t assume the care of a child over a long journey, especially one who was ailing.”

  Dade wished that were so. “A cowboy views miles a damn sight differently than most folks. I doubt this cowboy gave a second thought to heading out with Daisy, be it twenty miles or two hundred.”

  Hell, that was likely the reason he’d sought the advice of a doctor–to see that Daisy was trail worthy. They could’ve ridden in any direction from Dodge City.

  The pain of loss sank into him again. Unless he could find somebody who knew where the man was headed, he could wander in circles looking for his sister for years. He could be within miles of her and not know it.

  She could be lost to him forever.

  Chapter 20

  Maggie saw worry dim the hope in Dade’s eyes, and her heart went out to him. Since the first day she’d met him he’d projected an aura of confidence that he’d find his sister. He had been so sure that she would recognize Daisy when his own memory failed him.

  But for the first time she saw his assurance falter.

  She allowed that Rita’s memory of that day in the doctor’s office might not be entirely clear. For one thing, she couldn’t see a doctor standing by and letting a couple of rough cowboys ride off with a terrified little girl who didn’t even know her own name.

  Daisy had needed care, not jostling around on a horse. Thanks to her own recent painful experience, she knew how such a journey taxed a person. She didn’t want to think how horrible it would’ve been for Daisy to endure.

  “This cowboy must have been a rancher in the area,” Maggie said, drawing Dade’s and Rita’s attention. “Maybe he owned a ranch in the next county.”

  “It’s possible,” Dade said, though his flat tone screamed doubt. “Just as likely he drove cattle up from Texas or Indian territory.”

  She hated that he was right. But then she’d never thought finding Daisy would be easy.

  Knowing what she did now made it harder to remain positive. Dark thoughts of why those men had taken Daisy eroded her peace.

  Their only chance of finding the man’s identity was to visit the doctor and hope his memory was clear. Surely he’d remember a little girl in the company of cowboys.

  “Do you think her memory ever returned?” Rita asked, her soft inquiry shattering the tense quiet.

  Maggie didn’t have to think about that answer. Daisy had lost her memory shortly before Maggie met her, and she had been relearning who she was and where she was in the months they were together in the foundling home. The fall Daisy had taken at the Crossroads erased all she’d learned and then some.

  But one thing Maggie was certain of now. Daisy had to have been as devoted to her brother as Dade was to her.

  “I doubt it,” Maggie said. “If Daisy’s memory came back to her, she’d have tried to find Dade.”

  “She might not have been able to,” he said, and she hated the terrible reasons that sprang to mind.

  To her dismay, his expression remained remote. It was like he’d shut down a part of himself and had ceased to feel.

  Two hard raps hit the door, and she jumped. “Got your supper.”

  “Coming.” Dade moved to the door.

  Maggie supposed it wasn’t so much his clipped tone but the hard glint in his eyes that startled her friend.

  Dade opened the door a crack with his left hand while his right rested on the butt of his revolver. He visibly relaxed and threw the door open.

  “Thank you for your trouble,” he said.

  “Not a problem.” The older man strode in bearing a large tray and set it down on a side table that Rita had rushed to clear.

  The enticing aroma of a home-cooked meal filled the room. Sadly Maggie’s appetite had deserted her.

  “Faron just got back and is looking for you,” the old man said to Rita.

  A warm glow spread over Rita’s face, leaving Maggie to believe her friend loved her husband Faron with all her heart. She couldn’t imagine being that devoted to someone.

  Rita paused to give Maggie a hug before hurrying from the room. “If I don’t see you before you leave in the morning, have a safe and productive journey. Write a letter if you have the time.”

  “I will.”

  Maggie watched her friend all but run from the room. The old man shuffled out after her, leaving Maggie and Dade alone.

  An uneasy silence crackled in the air, similar to the tension she’d sensed the first day she’d met Dade. She wasn’t sure what to say, for they’d pretty much expressed their concerns earlier.

  “Let’s eat,” he said and dropped onto one of the chairs.

  “Go on. I’m not that hungry.”

  He slid her that dubious look that she was beginning to hate. “Eat anyway. We have a long day ahead of us.”

  At least he wasn’t planning to leave her behind. She took the other chair and made a show of picking up her utensils.

  The sliced beef, roasted potatoes, and snap beans looked and smelled luscious. But her stomach simply refused to tolerate a heavy meal.

  She played at eating while Dade finished off his supper. The only thing more nerve-wracking than what lay in store for them was the distance she felt growing between her and Dade.

  “What time will we leave in the morning?” she asked, draping her napkin over her nearly full plate.

  “Before dawn. The liveryman will bring the horses around so we can head right out.”

  Just as she’d thought. “Who do you plan to question first?”

  He snorted and leaned back in his chair, cradling his cup of coffee. “It’s a toss up between calling on Mrs. Jarrett or going straight to Dr. Pike. I know you have an opinion.”

  Oddly enough that remark eased some of the tension arcing between them. “I think you’ll learn more from the doctor. He’ll be impartial and just may want to help us.”

  He sipped his coffee, his expression thoughtful. Seeing him like this reminded her of just how handsome he was. If he’d only relax more often.

  “You’re right,” he said. “But I still aim to call on Mrs. Jarrett.”

  “Let me guess why. You want her to tell you why she turned out your sister.”

  “Damn right I do.” He rocked forward and rested his arms on the table, but she barely noticed anything besides the heat of anger in his eyes. “She was sick, Maggie. My sister had lost her memory and God knows what else was wrong with her. Yet that woman tos
sed her out like garbage and her husband let her do it.”

  She had nothing to say to that, for the same anger over the injustice of it all burned in her soul as well. She doubted if the Jarretts had considered Daisy’s feelings when they rejected her.

  The orphan girl was just a commodity to them. But Maggie knew firsthand the hurt of being passed over by people looking for a child to adopt and the pain of being taken into a family’s home, only to have them change their minds.

  But then she’d done something unforgivable, while Daisy had simply needed someone to care for her while she was recuperating from her accident.

  He got to his feet and stretched, and she caught herself staring at the play of muscles across his body.

  Maggie rose and crossed to the window, surprised it was dusk already. It would be totally dark in an hour.

  They’d need to get much needed sleep soon, and with only one bed–

  She chaffed her arms, certain Dade would make love with her again tonight. Though she was still tender from their journey today, she longed to lie in his arms and feel the thunder of his heart beneath her ear. She wanted to relive that special excitement that surged through her when their lovemaking reached its zenith.

  The muffled thump on the door had her whirling around. Dade was in the process of spreading his bedroll against the wall.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “Getting ready for bed.” He tugged one boot off then the other and set them neatly to one side.

  Unlike last night, he seemed in no hurry to undress. He didn’t even look at her.

  “Surely you don’t intend to sleep on the floor,” she said when he rolled up a blanket and carefully positioned it at one end of the bedroll to serve as a pillow.

  “You need your rest and so do I.”

  That was certainly true, and she was grateful he didn’t mention that she was too tender from sitting a saddle all day. But just because they weren’t going to indulge in passion didn’t mean they couldn’t share the bed. They were adults, capable of controlling their urges for one night.

  Never mind that her body was humming with the promise of his touch, his kiss. She’d actually looked forward to cuddling with him, to feeling his solid weight beside her in the bed. She wanted to know she wasn’t alone.