Mail-Order Groom (20 page)

Just as he turned again, the mercantile owner, Jedediah Hofer, stepped up. He silenced the crowd with a piercing whistle. He waved his arms. Then, in his thick accent, he said, “Hurry! We must go to the sheriff's office and get help.”

Adam paused. He shook his head. “That won't work. I already spoke with the sheriff. He won't even round up a posse.”

The lumber mill owner, Marcus Copeland, stepped forward next. The partygoers moved aside to make room, as befit his stature in Morrow Creek. “If Sheriff Caffey won't assemble a posse,” Copeland said, “I'd suggest we bring the posse to him.”

The crowd of partygoers cheered—foolishly, Adam thought.

“He still wants proof,” he argued. “I'm going alone.”

He'd already wasted too much time here as it was.
Savannah
…

“Proof?” Fiona Crabtree asked. “What kind of proof?”

“Proof like this, I'd guess.” Mose lifted his arm. In his grasp, two heavy items swung from side to side—items Adam hadn't noticed until now. “Maybe these will help. If we hurry.”

To his surprise, Adam recognized the items in Mose's hand.

Incredibly they were
his
old saddlebags. The saddlebags filled with his official agency credentials—and with all his assembled proof of the Bedell brothers' crimes. The saddlebags he'd thought he'd lost when he'd confronted Roy Bedell…and had wound up shot and left for dead outside Savannah's station.

Unapologetically Mose caught his eye. “You didn't think I'd let you be around Savannah without checking who you
were first, did you? I might not have found your horse—I reckon those Bedell boys stole it—but I did find these and everything that's in them. I was about to take them down to the sheriff. But since you're here.” He shoved the bags in Adam's hands. “Let's go save Savannah instead.”

W
ith her mouth agape, Savannah listened as Mariana and Linus described an incredible story—a story about a foolish and naive woman who'd accidentally struck up a correspondence over the telegraph wires with a deadly confidence man…and in doing so had managed to bring that man west with the intimation of a “cash-money” windfall that would be his if he married her.

That woman couldn't have known, Savannah realized as she heard the story unfold, that the sharper in question ran a gang with his four devious brothers and one recently added female companion. She couldn't have known that he was a bad man who'd never intended to marry anyone at all, or that he'd successfully pulled off this scheme with at least a half dozen unfortunate women already…and had the ill-gotten profits to prove it.

She couldn't have known, Savannah learned to her growing consternation, that a certain strong-minded detective had pursued that same confidence man across several states and territories so far…but with limited success. She couldn't
have known that the detective's unstoppable determination had riled up the confidence man so much that he'd stolen the detective's name and used it when arranging for his latest sham “marriage.”

She couldn't have known any of that until tonight.

All she could have known, Savannah realized, was that a woman like her—desperate, distracted and eager to move on from bad situations in both New York City and Ledgerville—had been easy pickings for a man like Roy Bedell. But she hadn't realized any of that until it was too late. Much,
much
too late.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Linus said, peering anxiously at her undoubtedly stricken face, “that detective of yours did get in a few whacks on Roy afore he went down. Roy's been laid up awhile now, on account of the fight they had.”

“Fight?” Still feeling shocked, Savannah glanced up. “What fight? I thought you said Adam had never caught up with Roy.”

Roy.
Upon using that name, she almost shuddered. All this time,
he
had been the one she'd been corresponding with, making plans with, exchanging flirtatious telegraph messages with. In trusting him, she'd behaved beyond imprudently. Now she was paying for her actions—probably, later tonight, quite literally. If she were fortunate, all she would lose would be her savings.

Only those… Not her life.
If
she were lucky.

Understanding for the first time exactly how dangerous this situation was, Savannah clutched her shawl.
I'm leery of entrusting my savings to any bank or institution,
she'd written. But what about entrusting
herself
—and her heart—to an unknown man? At the memory of her supposed former “caution,” she felt her lips give a bitter quirk. If only she'd known the truth…

And Adam! He'd pretended to be her mail-order groom readily enough. He'd romanced her and kissed her.
He'd married her!

And for what reason? To set a trap for Roy Bedell, Savannah reasoned unhappily. Because that had been his job—to catch the confidence man he'd been chasing. As a detective, Adam had known full well he wasn't the fiancé she'd been waiting for, but he'd stepped into that duplicitous man's shoes all the same.

And she'd believed him.

It had taken a while. But in the end, she'd believed him.

“Nah.” Linus shook his head. “What I said was that detective never
caught
Roy. But sure as shootin', Roy caught up with that detective, all right. He laid a trap for him but good, right outside your station. By the time me and my brothers got there and all the shootin' started—”

“Outside my station?” Shaking her head over the many bewildering details she'd heard tonight, Savannah stared at him. “Your brother met up with Adam outside my station? When?”

“When they both got shot up, that's when.” Sourly, Mariana rose. She paced, her dingy skirts swinging above what appeared to be a scuffed pair of men's boots. “I thought for sure that Corwin was finally killed. But I guess he's got nine lives or somethin', 'cause it weren't long before Linus showed up with the news that
you
was nursin' that detective back to health.”

“Yes.” Savannah raised her head. “If you're expecting me to apologize for that, you'll have a long wait ahead of you.”

“Humph.” Mariana gave her a shrewd look, then shook her head in apparent consternation. “You really are dim
witted, aren't you? If a man ever done to
me
what Corwin did to you—”

“I'll thank you not to discuss my husband that way.”

Savannah's response drew a hooting laugh. “Standin' by him, are you? I should have guessed as much. Dumb as a post.”

Savannah shrugged. “You wouldn't understand.”

Neither did she, in that moment. Her feelings
were
hurt. She definitely felt confused by all this. She was downright afraid at the dire situation she was in. But she was in no way ready to throw Adam to the wolves—or to the criminal element. She needed to hear from him before making any hasty judgments about what he'd done or—more importantly—why he'd done it.

“Nope, I guess I wouldn't understand.” Mariana waved, still pacing. “But that's fine. You go on and be all prissy, if you want to. You look the type. But that detective of yours…” She wheeled around and eyed Savannah. “He lied to you. He used you like bait to capture my Roy. If you ever smarten up, you'll see—that ain't no way to treat a lady. A lady deserves better.”

Coming from a woman who'd voluntarily joined up with a gang of admitted thieves, Mariana's advice should have been laughable. But to Savannah's dismay, those words held a smidgeon of truth. A lady
did
deserve better.

If Adam had deceived her for the sake of protecting her…Well, that she could almost understand. But if instead he'd coolly taken advantage of her, the way Mariana made it sound…

Well, if
that
were true, then Adam wasn't much different from Roy Bedell or Warren Scarne or any other man who'd misled her in the past, not caring about her feelings or her well-being.

Unwilling to admit even the possibility of that, Savannah
compressed her lips. Defiantly she addressed Mariana again.

“What makes you think
you'll
get any better treatment from Roy?” she asked her. “How do you know he won't take advantage of you the same way he was planning to take advantage of me?”

With her back to Savannah, Mariana gazed out the window at the darkened night, probably looking for signs of the Bedell brothers approaching. “‘
Was
planning to take advantage' of you? Ha. Unless you're sittin' on a big old wad of cash instead of a bustle under that dress of yours, missy, I'd say you're deluding yourself. You're not getting out of this so easy.”

“'Specially if this here turns out like Kansas City,” Linus added in a doleful tone. “
That
weren't easy. Not for nobody.”

Afraid to ask what had happened in Kansas City—but knowing she should—Savannah turned to face him. She opened her mouth.

But Linus kept right on speaking, having ducked his head to fiddle with his firearm, not noticing her tentative expression.

“What's worse,” he said, “is after Roy's done with you, I'm bettin' he'll be goin' after Corwin next. He'll be wantin' to finish the job what he started. Plus, now Roy is awful annoyed about having been laid up. His leg was broke! That would make anybody a mite peevish, if their leg was broke.”

“It was only a little broke, right by his ankle,” Mariana argued. “He got plenty of pampering and whiskey for it, too.”

Linus went on yammering, making his case for “a whole broke leg,” but Savannah couldn't listen. All she kept hear
ing, over and over in her head, were those first few words he'd said.

After Roy's done with you, I'm bettin' he'll be goin' after Corwin next. He'll be wantin' to finish the job what he started.

Linus meant that Roy would
kill
Adam, she realized. That's likely what he'd been trying to do outside her station, when he—or someone in his gang—had shot Adam in the back and left him for dead. He'd almost succeeded that time. She doubted he'd be so careless as to take the job's completion for granted twice.

Next time, Roy Bedell would make certain Adam was dead.

If that were true, Savannah's situation was even more grave than she'd first realized. Because as soon as Adam—or heaven forbid,
Mose
—noticed that she was gone from the Finneys' party, one or both of them would come looking for her.

If they found
her
… They would find Roy Bedell and his brothers, too, waiting to get rid of the detective on their tail.

She wasn't only here as a means to give over her nest-egg money, Savannah realized in horror. She was also, providentially for Roy Bedell, here to function as bait to lure Adam nearer.

He's not running. No man would. Any man worth being called a man would stay and fight, if he had the chance,
she remembered Adam saying.
I would lay down my life for you, Savannah
.

No matter what else occurred, she couldn't let that happen. Not to Adam, not to Mose…not to anyone. Not on account of her.

“I'll give you my money!” she blurted, startling Mariana and Linus alike. “I'll give you all of it! We don't even have
to wait for Roy.” As casually as she could, Savannah arched her brows at Linus. “You could surprise him. You could present the whole thing as a fait accompli. You'd like that, right, Linus?”

“A fate what?” Linus gulped, then shook his head. “I dunno what that is, but I don't like it. Roy don't cotton to surprises of any kind, 'specially when he don't see them comin'.”

“But you said
you
never get the credit you deserve,” Savannah cajoled. “You said your brothers always steal it from you. Yet
you're
the one who found me. You're the one who's been watching over me all night. Shouldn't
you
get some credit?”

Mariana gazed suspiciously at her. But Linus appeared to consider Savannah's words closely as he polished his gun barrel. “I
would
like it if Roy thought I done good,” he admitted.

“See there?” Feeling encouraged, Savannah stepped closer. “I don't mind helping you. You've been very kind to me.”

Mariana scoffed. “Kind how? By lookin' at you like a dog with a big juicy bone he ain't 'et yet? That's a laugh.”

Gawkily Linus jerked his head. He buffed his pistol across his trouser leg with agitated vigor. “Shut up, Mariana.”

She laughed. “It's true. You wouldn't know what to do with a woman if you got a hold of one. Ain't that right?”

“Maybe I don't want to get a hold of this one.” Linus pointed his gun belligerently at Savannah, as though it were a harmless toy. “Maybe I just wanted to meet her. Maybe…”

Confused by his timid tone, Savannah waited. “Maybe…?”

“Maybe see her dance a little for me, too,” Linus finished
in a rush. He looked up, his red-cheeked face a study in mingled hopefulness and discomfiture. “I seen your posters, back in the city. Back when you looked all sparkly and pretty. If you would maybe dance a little dance for me, as The Seductive Sensation—”

Mariana snorted, putting her hands on her hips.

“—then maybe I'd go along with you and take your money from you. You know, like you said.” Optimistically he showed her his teeth in a grayish smile. “Then we'd have ourselves a deal.”

“That is a doltish idea,” Mariana said. “If you think Little Miss Priss is gonna dance for the likes of you, Linus—”

But all Savannah could do was nod. If this was the only way to give over her money and skedaddle before Roy got here, she'd dance as though her life depended on it. Because it did.

Mustering her best actress's smile, she held out her hand. “Why, that's very gentlemanly of you, Linus! I accept.”

He beamed, showing her even more of his discolored teeth.

“I'll dance for you,” she specified as they shook hands on their agreement, “and then you'll come with me to get my money, so we can give it to Roy.” Linus's nod—and his eager, glazed-eyed stare—partially reassured her. “But you won't need
that
at my show.” She gestured for his firearm. “Before I start, you'll have to surrender that, please, or I simply can't begin.”

 

By the time Adam reached the saloon, he was trailing a retinue of at least a dozen concerned Morrow Creek residents. Casting a backward glance at them as he pushed through the batwing doors into the noise and aromas and raucous piano music of Jack Murphy's popular watering hole, he shook his head.

“These people are
loco,
” he told Mose in the Spanish vernacular of the region. “Will you tell them to go on home?”

“Do it yourself,” Mose rumbled. He lifted his head to peer over the assembled drinkers' heads, then nodded. “I think maybe it won't hurt if someone's watching our backs tonight.”

“It might hurt, if that ‘someone' is a pack of well-meaning farmers and innocent townfolk,” Adam pointed out. He aimed his chin at the assembly of men who trooped dutifully behind him into the saloon. “You should all go home! I can manage from here! If you want to collect the sheriff, that's fine, but—”

He came to a stop as Grace Murphy led the womenfolk into the saloon, too. Unblushing and determined, the whole pack of them strode past the men and headed for the bar. Behind it, the barkeep slung a towel over his shoulder, then crossed his arms.

Mose lifted his eyebrow. “
That's
why I'm not telling anybody anything.” Dubiously he pointed at the uppity women. “Now that they're involved, we'd spend all night jawing instead of finding Savannah, if we tried to make them quit.”