A Bride to Melt the Sheriff’s Iron Heart

by Melynda Carlyle

  As he watched the man straighten the lapels of his suit and then boldly walk up the slight slope that led up to the school building, Peter felt a sting of jealousy. Johnny Carrington was a man who had vied for the position he now held, and Peter knew that Johnny had always resented him for it. Johnny came from money, and he thought there wasn’t a single thing in the world that couldn’t be bought.

  Maybe Johnny needs to have an eye kept on him for a while too. Can’t rule out the possibility that he might somehow be behind all of it. But with his kind of money to play with, the men I can gather might not be enough.

  Chapter 9

  Melanie was having the most wonderful time. Now that Iris had seen that she was capable and quick on the uptake, the pregnant woman surprised her at dinner with an announcement. “I think that I am going to start letting you teach the classes on your own, Melanie.”

  Melanie was swallowing a bite of the savory meat pie that Iris had prepared for them with John’s help. She had to take a moment to prevent herself from choking, grinning stupidly the whole while. “Do you really think that you can trust me to handle it all on my own, Iris?”

  “I don’t see why not. You have my lesson plans and a basic understanding of the letters and numbers that we should be teaching them. You have plenty of life lessons and experience under your belt despite your youth, so I know there is plenty you could teach the children. Bringing in baked goods now and then won’t hurt either,” Iris added, hiding her mouth behind her hand as she giggled.

  “I will do everything that I can to live up to your expectations, Iris,” Melanie promised, noting the approving nod that John gave her. He had ended up being like the brother she never had. He was the kind of man that her father had told her good men should aspire to be, and the devotion he had toward his wife was the kind she hoped for herself one day.

  “I know that you will, Melanie. You’ve already exceeded my expectations,” Iris replied flatteringly, causing Melanie’s cheeks to flush pink. “Oh, look at her, John! As pink as the early morning sunrise,” the pregnant woman added, giggling all the while.

  “Don’t pick on her too much now, Iris,” John replied sagely, a playful smile tugging at his lips. “Melanie here is just a bright young woman is all. This much is to be expected of someone so capable. We shouldn’t act like this has come as a big shock. Though, I am certainly relieved that things are going so well. That can put my mind at ease for a while.”

  “I did want to bring up my living here,” Melanie said gently, fidgeting slightly. “The headmistress mentioned they would make a house for me, so when they finish building it, I imagine I'll move in there shortly afterward.” She felt sadness at the thought of no longer living with the cheerful couple. It was such a welcome change from having spent her time locked up in her bedroom sulking. At least now, she was in her stride.

  When the next day came and Melanie went to the school building early to greet everyone as they arrived, she saw Peter making his way toward her with Darwin in tow. The young boy looked far better groomed than he had the previous time, and when she greeted him, Darwin returned it shyly but politely. Peter gave her a grateful look, tipped his hat, and went on his way. Melanie found herself briefly watching his back retreat into the distance, smiling faintly.

  It was so infuriating to her that her mind seemed to drift to thoughts of him. When she was talking to John and Iris the night before and watching the two of them interact, she realized that she wasn’t as opposed to the idea of settling down as she had originally thought. The only reason she ran away from her aunt and her onslaught of suitors was that none of them had really resonated with her. If she could find the right man, though, she was willing to live the home life. She wouldn’t be a submissive little flower, but her husband would find himself well taken care of.

  Why was she even thinking about these things? Melanie shook her head angrily and forced herself to focus on the task at hand. The last of the children were making their way into the school building now, and that meant that it would be time for instruction to begin.

  “Okay, children, I thought we would do a getting-to-know-you-better exercise. This is when we all go around the room, reintroduce ourselves, and tell everyone something that we like to do in our free time. This will help me get to know you all a little better, and will help me arrange some of the extra lessons that I have planned for you all,” Melanie said cheerfully, noting the slight groans from some of the children. She laughed softly. “I promise that the lessons will be fun and engaging.”

  “How do you know that we will find it fun?” Darwin replied rudely, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He had chosen a chair as far away from her as possible, but she assumed that was just how he was with everyone starting out.

  “Because it will be things that you and your classmates have already told me you found enjoyable,” Melanie answered swiftly, keeping her tone even and pleasant.

  He didn’t seem to have a retort, so Melanie smiled and pointed to the young brown-haired girl who sat on the front left side of the class. “Why don’t you go ahead and start us off, sweetling?”

  “My name is Rebecca Wilmers, and I like to listen to my mommy and daddy tell me stories about Indians! Sometimes, my daddy takes these little dolls that he made way back when I was younger, and he uses them to put on shows for me,” the young girl said delightedly.

  “What a wonderfully imaginative thing for your daddy to do!” Melanie said, slightly awed. “It sounds like your parents care about you quite a bit,” Melanie said, watching the girl nod her head eagerly and feeling a slight lump forming in her throat.

  As she let the kids go around the room, Melanie made sure to pay attention to both their names and faces. She wanted to get to the point where she had everyone’s names and habits memorized like Iris seemed to, even if it would take time to do so. Darwin managed to surprise her by saying that he enjoyed reading in his spare time. If he was serious about that, then Melanie would need to nurture that particular habit of his. Perhaps it could be the key to helping ease him out of his trouble-making ways, and to their bonding.

  There was a blond-haired gentleman who sat himself in the back of the classroom at some point. Iris seemed to know him as she popped over to him, and the two conversed quietly for a while. He had the same kind of aura about him as Edward; he obviously came from old money. He sat perfectly straight-backed with his right leg lounging on top of his left. His fingers were laced together over his stomach, careful not to wrinkle the suit he wore. She had assumed for a moment that he was a parent, but he kept his eyes on her the entire time.

  Moving on with her lesson in which she explained the differences between certain poisonous and non-poisonous plants, Darwin proved to be relatively knowledgeable on the subject already. To her surprise, he had mason jars in his backpack with different plants. They all looked freshly picked, which only added to Melanie’s puzzlement. She didn’t think that most of these plants were native to New Mexico, and definitely wouldn’t still look this vibrant.

  “I’m friends with the town apothecary,” Darwin offered, gesturing to his collection of jars. “I told him that I was studying various plants in case I ever got lost in the wild, and he gave me these. I have to take them back to him when school lets out, though. He said he could only afford to be parted with them for a short while.”

  “I’ll have to go and thank him for the service he’s done me today. Thank you for bringing these in today, Darwin. You’ve been a big help.” Melanie beamed at him.

  “It wasn’t that special,” Darwin replied, doing his best not to look pleased with himself and failing miserably. “I do this kind of stuff for myself all of the time.”

  When the school day ended and the grandfather clock that stood in the corner of the room began to chime, Melanie and Iris walked the majority of students to the front of the school building to say their goodbyes. Darwin was soon collected by Peter, the sheriff taking a few minutes to allow Melanie to brief him on how the
day went. He seemed genuinely surprised that Darwin hadn’t tried to skip class, but Melanie wasn’t going to jinx herself. So long as she could figure out a way to keep him interested in coming every day, her job would be half done.

  “That was a wonderful display today, Miss Thompson. You have assuaged my fears about your lack of credentials in one fell swoop. I’m sorry for ever doubting you,” the blond-haired man said, slowly striding up from behind the two of them. He lifted his hand to his chest as he bowed at the waist, drawing Melanie’s gaze to the white gloves that covered his hands. “If you ever need an esteemed escort to show you around the town, please do not hesitate to call upon me. I am prepared to be at your disposal, should you desire it. I would be infinitely delighted to host someone with such exotic beauty.”

  “I’m sorry. You seem to know me, but I don’t know you,” Melanie said uneasily, something about the man causing the hairs on her arms to stand on end under her dress sleeves.

  “Where are my manners? My name is Johnny Carrington. I am hoping that the two of us are going to be seeing a lot more of one another in the future,” he said, offering Melanie a final nod before walking past them to where a carriage waited at the street below the hill.

  “That’s Johnny Carrington. He’s one of the wealthiest men in Santa Fe. Relatively popular and generous from what I hear. Might be a good man to try and pursue,” Iris said teasingly.

  “Popular, wealthy socialite, huh? I’m familiar with the type,” Melanie said, memories of Edward flashing through her mind. “Can’t say I’m an admirer.”

  “That sounds like you have some things to say on the matter,” Iris replied seriously.

  “Nothing to be said, really. I knew some men like him who turned out to be questionable, so I keep my distance from them. Call me crazy, but I have my reasons. Now I don’t wish to talk about him anymore. We should discuss those changes to the schoolhouse that you mentioned to me earlier,” Melanie retorted, desperate for a chance to move away from the subject.

  Iris looked like she wanted to ask more, but Melanie had turned away from her and walked back into the school before she had a chance to. She knew that the changes to the school would all amount to small repairs that any of the menfolk in town could finish in about a day’s work, but they served as a perfect distraction. The feelings that she had bubbling up inside her were not entirely pleasant, and a lot of the anxiousness from Kansas that she thought she’d escaped was slowly starting to return.

  It seemed that no matter what she did, she wouldn’t be able to escape social politics. Perhaps this was just her curse for having been born a beautiful woman.

  Chapter 10

  “Come on, Sheriff! You can’t do it without me,” Darwin hollered, kicking his feet in protest as Peter attempted to drag the boy to school. It was the date that the stagecoach robbery was supposed to take place, but Darwin had managed to discover what was happening when Chris let it slip to him in conversation. “I promise that I won’t get in the way!”

  “You and I both know that your big mouth is not suited to ambush or stealth work of any kind,” Peter replied through his gritted teeth. “Now stop fighting me and get your rear into that darn schoolhouse. I’m not going to let you put yourself in harm's way just because you have misguided notions on what it means to be a hero.”

  Darwin craned his neck to look up at him. “What do you know about being a hero? In case you forgot, you used to be a criminal too, Sheriff Matherson. Don’t think I haven’t heard some of the stories. They talk openly about you when they sit in the saloon and the eatery.”

  “I don’t care what you think you know about me, boy,” Peter snarled, spinning the boy around so that he was gazing up into Peter’s face. “I am the law, and if there is one thing in this world you better learn, it is that you respect the law.”

  They met Melanie at the front door. Darwin immediately seemed to straighten himself up in front of the schoolteacher. As she greeted him, he immediately brightened. When Peter tried to offer his own greeting to her, however, Melanie seemed to ignore him outright.

  Resisting the urge to call out to her and force her to speak with him, Peter chose to retrieve a horse from the nearby stable and ride around the town. Together with Chris and some of his other deputies, they made their way to the base of Atalaya Mountain. Rumor around town was that a group of bandits had taken up residence in the area, camping out of sight and using their position to rob unsuspecting travelers.

  “Alright, men, so here is what I am thinking. We are going to spread out to different vantage points around the area. I want everyone keeping a constant view of everything in their immediate surroundings. I don’t need anyone being snuck up on by these bandits, and we want to try and catch them while they are in the act and occupied. Preferably with their hands full of the loot they are trying to take so they can’t put up as much of a fight,” Peter said, speaking just loudly enough that the assembled men could each hear him.

  “Where are you going to station?” Chris asked, craning his neck to take a look at the rocky crags that surrounded them. “This doesn’t exactly look like the most advantageous spot to mount an attack. Are you sure we got the right place? Did we read the map upside down or something?”

  “I did not read the cockamamie map upside down,” Peter snapped, pulling his lever-action revolver from where it had sat holstered in his saddle, holding the firearm up so he could test the sights. “Someone could easily use the limitations caused by the crag formation here and be planning to use that to their advantage. They could wait right at either end of this place and waylay coaches before they have a chance to come through. We are going to make it so that we are at either entrance instead.”

  “Do you really think that this could turn into a firefight, Sheriff? I agree that we need to put a stop to the robberies but can’t we do it without violence?” asked one of the men. He was the town’s tailor, a man in his early thirties with a walrus mustache. He was dressed surprisingly simply, with a white cotton tunic and a pair of brown pants. On his feet, a pair of brown shoes gleamed under a layer of fresh polish.

  “I am hoping that it does not come to that, Frank,” Peter replied. “However, we don’t know if these men know us or not. I’d like to try and capture as many of them alive as possible, but I know that’s not always possible.”

  “Wow, that is pretty brutal, even for you,” Chris said with a laugh, the other men joining in shortly afterward. “It almost sounds like you are taking this personally.”

  “It is a fine line that keeps the world in order, Chris. There is the rule of law, and there is lawlessness. I used to play on the other side of the fence, so I know all about the so-called joys that it brings. I know all the motivations for it because those motivations were once mine. Whatever the reason, it is our job to show them that what they are doing isn’t right. That there are consequences for stepping over the law,” Peter said, his eyes moving to each of his volunteers one by one.

  He was grateful for them being there. These were the men in town that he trusted without question, and ones who he was certain would have his back in a confrontation. Chris might be a little green, but he was dependable when it counted. Maybe they didn’t track down the number of men he’d hoped for, but the quality of men he was faced with was a good close second.

  He heard a hawk cry out, glancing up just in time to see the winged creature duck out of sight. While it wasn’t unusual for a hawk to be flying around in these parts, he found the timing peculiar. He’d heard plenty of stories about men training hawks to spy for them. How they did it, he didn’t exactly know, but he wasn’t taking a chance either way.

  “You all need to get into appropriate hiding places. Someplace you can’t be seen from above,” he said with a pause, giving the surrounding terrain another glance. It wasn’t exactly ideal, but it could provide just enough coverage for their purposes.

  Pulling out his pocketwatch, Peter clicked it open to check the time. “We will try to do this with
as little bloodshed as possible, but if someone points a gun at you, I won’t hold you responsible for defending yourselves.”

  As the men slowly spread out to seek out their hiding spots, Peter pulled his collapsible spyglass from his pocket once more and used it to take a look around, seeing a faint cloud of dust being kicked up in the distance. He guessed that was either the stagecoach or the bandits. Either way, it would be no good for them to be caught with their pants down. Letting out a single high-pitched whistle, Peter made his way to his chosen hiding spot and crouched down in wait. If his hunch was correct, that dust would be a scout coming to investigate the cause of the hawk’s cry.

  I really hope that Melanie managed to keep Darwin away. Knowing that stupid kid, he’s going to try and sneak away from the school at any moment.