Outlaw Bride (Lawmen and Outlaws) (4 page)

“Sort things out? Whatever is going on, Mister, well, Redd?”

He leaned as close as he dared, her being a nun and him not wanting to be sacrilegious, but he didn’t want even a whisper of his words to travel on the wind.

“Someone tried to kill her, Sister. Tried to strangle her. Those big boots? She was trying to leave a false trail when she passed out from lack of water. Shock too, I reckon.”

The nun’s mouth opened but no word came out for a while. Then she breathed out hard and noisy. “Well then, thank the Lord you came upon her and not her foes. So why don’t you fetch a lawman? Surely Pioneer Meadows has a sheriff.”

“Nope.” He snuck a peek at the girl. She was busy driving the wagon toward the ramshackle barn. “It’s best, keeping her whereabouts secret. The law tends to side with a man’s attempts at keeping his woman in line. My ma died at the hands of her second man when the law scoffed at her complaints.”

His voice trailed off. The words hurt just to say them. Something like a tear tickled the back of his throat, and he kept his eyes wide so the tragic memory didn’t relive behind his lids.

“I am so sorry, Redd.” Sister Adelaide Eugene’s face grew whiter yet, but she nodded. “What should we do?”

“Just what I said. Nurse her yourself. We can’t risk identifying her to some doctor, neither. Not till I find out who her foes are. Likely when her voice box heals, she’ll talk.”

Just like a regular woman, Sister Adelaide Eugene chewed on a fingernail, then turned nun again quick and stuck her hands inside her robes.

“I fear you may be right, Redd,” she said. “But as soon as you find out the truth, you must fetch her immediately. And alert the law. I’m certain her loved ones are missing her.”

Loved ones? In spite of Tawana, Redd didn’t like the sound of someone else loving her. He grabbed for her hand inside the sleeve. “Her loved ones just might be the ones after her. You get that, right?”

“If it’s true, this can only be a
very
temporary arrangement.” Sister Adelaide Eugene used a stern voice he remembered from his school days. Pulling her right hand free, she walked him farther away across the pebbles and dust. “I cannot bring any suspicion or danger to my postulants.”

“Don’t get you, Sister.” Redd swallowed his impatience. His ma had taught him to respect women and this one was a nun on top of it. “I think this girl is in trouble, not bringing it. Don’t y’all offer safe haven or some such to folks needing aid?”

For a long while, the nun stared where her feet hid underneath her long dusty hem, her cheek twisting with teeth picking at the inside of her mouth. Redd reckoned she was making up her mind about something. Finally she blew out a long sigh.

“Mister Redd, Padre Cardeñas trusts you, so I believe you to be a man of conviction. What I say next is told to you in complete confidence. Mister Redd, have I your word that you will keep it so?”

She stared at him like it was the Judgment and held out her hand, using
mister
. Twice. His heart hammered, same way it had whenever his captain called a charge, for he didn’t know what was coming. “You got my word of honor, ma’am,” he said, shaking her hand hard. “Forever and ever.” He hesitated. “Amen.”

“You’ve been right, calling my colleagues the ‘almost-nuns,’ she said in a tone soft and hard both. “In truth, those three young women have no religious calling, sir. Nor do I.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not a nun, Mister Redd, and ‘Padre’ is a U.S. Marshal. We’re incognito, but we are living our roles as accurate as we can. That way, folks might offer us respect, maybe even confession and trust. He and I are God-fearing folks who believe the truth will set you free. I am a trained schoolmarm who also nursed the sick and wounded during the War of Northern Aggression. Now I’m a widow-woman trying to find the outlaw who killed my daughter back in Butter Creek, Texas. And the ‘postulants?’ They’re all innocent women in trouble, running for their lives. No one knows their truths but me.’

She looked around the desolate mission like her neck had a wheel. “Such as it is, my ‘order’ is giving them sanctuary.”

Chapter Three

Jessy Belle harrumphed and hopped herself out of the wagon, Renegade right behind. She knew very well Cleeland Redd and that nun were discussing her and leaving her plumb out of it.

The nun’s forehead wrinkled with more than the sun in her eyes. Right now, they were striking some unholy bargain and shaking hands on it.

So to spite him, she drove the wagon close as she could to what looked like a barn and set to unhitching the mules. She might as well earn her keep. Show him she wasn’t some prissy-faced weakling. So far, all the pitiful buildings seemed made from thick bricks of mud. Likely whoever had set up this place had good reason to leave.

Nowhere did she see the bright soaring church she’d expected, with arched doors and windows that made pictures with bits of shining glass. There was a steeple and a cross atop a little shack-like thing, but that didn’t ease her disappointment one single bit.

She turned back for a quick peek at Cleeland Redd, then reminded herself that ladies didn’t stare. Still, the looks of him made her mood better even if he made her mad.

“How can I help you, ma’am?”

The voice just about scared the rest of her wits from her.

A boy who might be just as handsome as Cleeland Redd when he grew up all the way came out of the worn-out barn. He was likely a smidge younger than herself

Then she remembered she couldn’t talk enough to answer him. Where was that slate? What was a dagnabbed person of the male persuasion doing here in a houseful of nuns? His dark hair and skin sure made him pretty. His black eyes looked her over, but in that way Renegade did, like it didn’t matter how she looked or what she’d done.

It sure wasn’t at the impure way Ahab’s compadre Rolly Gitts had done since joining the gang two years ago. However, Rolly’s membership had expired last July when a lightning strike killed both him and his horse.

Jessy Belle missed the horse. Crude and lewd, Rolly had asked for her body a thousand times and never once for her hand.

Right now the young boy stood there, ogling in a nice way and saying nothing. Likely she ought to let this child know she intended to be a nun.

From behind him, she saw some females inside the barn. One milked a cow, the other looped rope on a small hook. They looked up at her approach. Renegade spied a cat and ran off.

They both wore ugly gray dresses, with white kerchiefs over their hair that sat flat at their necks. Nothing like the black batwings that hid the main nun’s hair completely from eyeshot.

A brown-haired one came over. “Why, welcome. I’m Sister Avery, and that’s Sister Veronica.” She pointed to the cow milker who had yellow hair like Jessy Belle’s and a big smile on her face. “And this…” Sister Avery smiled at the boy, who stood staring when he should be stacking sacks. “This is Guillermo Fernandez. He’s doing handy work until we get all set up. But-” She stopped, shy for a bit. “We’re all hoping he’ll stay on and enroll in our school.”

He frowned. “Ain’t no schoolboy, Sister. I’m a man.” His voice sounded hard now, but he turned to Jessy Belle with something of a smile. “I’m sixteen. Got no family or home, so help out folks when I can. Call me Will,” he said, holding out his hand.

Jessy Belle placed hers into his, mannerly as she could. But he didn’t do a handshake. Instead, he raised her hand to his mouth in a most gallant way. His lips tickled, not at all like the nasty flick of Rolly Gitts’ hot sour tongue when he’d tried to steal a kiss.

Jessy Belle smiled at Will’s gentlemanliness, knowing Cleeland Redd was watching. But her skin crawled when she recalled Ahab having allies everywhere. Worry fluttered in her heart. She’d known many young boys like this, no kith or kin or learning, and nowhere to go but follow an outlaw’s easy path.

To busy her thoughts, she turned from Will and set to work on the animals. When Will moved to do it, she shook her head. She couldn’t let him, not with her needing to prove to Cleeland Redd, and the Sister too, that she knew how to be useful.

Then he was behind her. She knew it even though she hadn’t heard his footsteps. Already she seemed to feel him deep in her bones.

“This is Sister Mary,” Cleeland Redd announced. “She’ll be joining your order.”

It sounded so official Will groaned like he’d heard bad news and stalked off.

“Good morning, Mister Redd,” greeted Sister Avery, tossing Jessy Belle a lovely smile. “That is most blessed news. We will make her welcome.”

“Make her healthy, too, if you’d be so kind. She’s mute. And more than a bit addled,” he said, gruff, like Jessy Belle didn’t have ears of her own. “Can’t remember a thing.”

Sister Avery nodded. Although Cleeland Redd had Jessy Bell sound helpless and foolish to her new friends, relief washed over her. Up to know, she hadn’t known if the nuns would turn her away.

Or worse. Turn her in to the law.

She could play mute and muddled for a while yet while she plotted her next move. Maybe she found herself in the right place for once. Maybe there was a God after all and He was watching over her. If she could talk, she’d ask these girls to thank Him for her. But likely being a nun now, she’d learn to pray all by herself.

Cleeland Redd nodded polite-like to the others, but it was mostly dismissal. They started unloading the wagon while Will lit up a cheroot over by a wobbly fence, attempting to be manly. Cleeland Redd took her hand and led her off a ways.

Her skin tickled at his touch. The yard was rutted with old wagon tracks, and she stumbled into one, which plopped her against his side. Feeling his heat, her breath hitched tight against her sore throat.

“I’m glad Renegade and I found you in the nick of time,” he said, stopping finally at a clump of snakeweed, “I’m glad to see you pert and hale. And…” His eyebrows rose up like he was surprised, “...glad you know how to tend animals. You can be downright useful around here, and take care of Renegade for me, too. Til I get back.”

Her eyes questioned him, and he went on. “Soon’s Sister gets a noon meal down me, I’m off to retrieve a few more possibles she’ll require. My errand might also give me a chance to investigate your circumstance.”

She couldn’t help tasting fear.

“Now, now, don’t you fret.” Cleeland Redd’s feet shuffled in the dust. “Even if I find out significant things, I will not reveal your whereabouts. Leastways, not til I come back here and discuss it with you. Honest and truly, Sister Mary. Or whatever might be your true name. You have my word.”

Honest and truly, she believed him and relaxed a bit. Right then he gave her a sweet crooked smile that set her heart tumbling all the way to her toes. Then it beat way too fast. He might mean all of that now.

But not if he discovered she was Jessy Belle Perkins who had a price on her head, him being a man who needed cash to fix up his ranch.

Swallowing hard, glad it didn’t hurt so much this time, she nodded and set to brushing Snapper. He was a fine horse, something that would make Ahab take unholy risks. Likely by now he and his crew were far off and running, though. Mostly they hightailed out of a place when they’d left someone behind.

No, she hadn’t been the first. And she wouldn’t be the last.

But once again she recalled the pearls. Shaking the thought away, she felt Cleeland Redd’s gaze on her and liked it.

“You will do me that favor, won’t you?” he asked suddenly. “Take care of my mutt while I’m gone? Figure to be back in two, three days give or take. He needs to rest up.” He gave that grin again. “I’ll slow down some on the way back to my ranch, but ’Gade will be on foot. Won’t get any spoiling then.”

She nodded, wishing the dog could stay forever. Cleeland Redd, too, for that matter. It made her sad, him so soon off to his home. Then her mood darkened. Likely a wife to boot.

Then and there, she made up her mind. She wasn’t any nun yet, and likely a man who talked to a dog like it was people didn’t have anybody back home to talk to.

She deserved this. Grabbing his forearms first, she planted her arms up around his neck and pulled him close. He gasped in surprise but didn’t pull away.

It was to be a good-bye kiss, nothing more. ’Less of course he wanted things different. She’d never kissed a man for real before and didn’t count for a single second Rolly Gitts’ attempts to plunder her reluctant mouth. At this moment, it was hard to remember his unclean breath, for Cleeland Redd’s lips were firm and fragrant. Just as fine as a respectable woman could imagine.

For a flash, his arms drew her close, front-ways this time, but otherwise like they had last night in the wagon, and his lips closed gently over hers.

“Good-bye,” he muttered, breaking the kiss for a second, then going down for more.

Truth to tell, her mouth liked it just fine and opened up a bit. But other parts of her started longing for his lips upon them, too. Her bosoms swelled and her body clenched tight inside her drawers, feeling empty.

****

“
Nag, nag, nag
.”

The word hopped around Redd’s brain, making him madder with each of Snapper’s hoof beats. He’d like to speak worse, but cussing about a nun, even a pretend one, seemed something that might send him to hell sooner than he expected.

But he’d had to put up with Sister Adelaide’s pestering else he’d be on his way with a powerfully empty stomach.

“I cannot believe I witnessed you mauling my new ‘postulant,’” Sister had chided over noonday dinner, just the two of them. Sounded just like those real nuns of schooldays long past. “And now you claim I need guns? We are in disguise as the Society of Peace. And I will keep the peace.”

“Didn’t maul nobody.” Redd grumbled over a decent meal of spiced beef and tortillas. “She was saying thanks for her rescue. Besides…” He gave her a bit of a smirk. “You said yourself nobody around here’s a real nun anyway.”

“Nonetheless,
Mister
Redd. We strive for authenticity. And nun or not, I’m a devout, God-fearing woman.”