Trail of Kisses (26 page)

“
What’s going on?” he asked, tone
grim, as he hopped into the wagon behind her. “Lynne?”

She scooted to the hope chest and lifted the
top.

“
I found this when I was looking
for my purse.”

It was all the explanation she needed to give.
Cade crawled to the chest and looked in. When he saw the doll, its
head lolling to the side where Lynne had put it back in the pretend
bedroll, he growled.

“
That’s it,” he said. “I am
through with letting whoever this is toy with us.”

“
He’s trying to scare me again,
but it won’t work this time,” Lynne said. She knew her voice
betrayed her. “It won’t,” she insisted.

Cade circled an arm around her back. “I know
it won’t, but this has got to stop. I’m getting Pete so he can take
a look at this.”

He kissed her forehead, then scooted toward
the open back of the wagon.

“
Wait, Cade. Don’t.” She stopped
him.

Cade frowned. “What do you mean,
don’t?”

“
Don’t tell Mr. Evans. Don’t tell
anyone else at all.” Her heart raced as ideas began to flood her
head, and with them more and more fear. “Mr. Evans has done all he
can to help us, and besides, he’s heading on to Oregon with the
other half of the wagon train whenever we set out again. His
assistants just think we’re trouble.”

“
You don’t know that,” Cade
argued. “They’re good men.”

“
Good men with a lot of trouble on
their hands. The miners are coming with us, remember.”

His frown darkened. “I remember.” He shifted
to sit in the wagon bed, and Lynne sat with him. He rubbed his
chin. “You think we should go after whoever this is ourselves,
don’t you?”

“
It’s the only thing we can do,”
she said. It was. The truth had been sneaking up on her, just like
her would-be killer, just like her fear. “We could set up a trap
and catch him. I won’t let him think he’s bested me.”

“
Finding a killer is a job for law
enforcement,” he said. It wasn’t an argument. Lynne could already
see the fire of determination in Cade’s eyes.

“
You said yourself there is no law
on the trail as long as the war is still going on back East. We
have to rely on ourselves.”

He stopped rubbing his chin and glanced up at
her. Behind his determination was admiration. It gave her
strength.

“
I’m tired of doing nothing but
sitting and waiting. I want you to give me a gun again, no matter
what Mr. Evans said,” she added when Cade opened his mouth to
protest. “If he says there’s nothing he can do, then there has to
be something we can do. Someone has to have seen something the
night my throat was cut. I don’t believe that the killer went
unnoticed. He has to be here somewhere.”

“
He is, I know he is,” Cade
agreed. “So what do we do about it?”

Lynne straightened her shoulders and tilted
her chin up. “We find him before he finds me again.”

Chapter Fourteen

Helping the other wagons disembark from the
ferry and talking to their drivers was an excellent way for Cade to
ask if anyone had seen anything suspicious in regards to Lynne’s
would-be killer. The only problem was that every time he asked if a
farmer or tradesman had seen anyone suspicious around the wagons,
he got the same answer.

“
Those miners,” they all told him.
“They’re as shifty as a skittish pony on a box full of
sand.”

“
I wouldn’t trust them with a dog
I didn’t like,” another added.

Cade could sympathize with them, commiserate
with them, and even laugh at their jokes, but none of it helped him
at all. Whoever the Briscoe Boy in their wagon train was, he was
keeping well hidden.

The wagons finished crossing late in the day.
By that point it was too late to do more than organize them into
two lines and let the families who owned them straighten out the
contents and dry off. Pete didn’t say anything about Lynne’s wagon
sitting aside from the others, but Cade could tell by the man’s
scowl that he wasn’t pleased. As long as he didn’t tell Cade to
move it, it would stay right where it was.

That night, to Cade’s immense surprise, Lynne
let him climb up into the wagon to sleep instead of banishing one
or both of them to the damp ground around the river.

“
Keep to your own side of the
wagon, though,” she told him with an arch of her
eyebrow.

That expression was enough to tempt him to do
anything
but
keep to his side, but he could see that Lynne
was tired, and he wasn’t in the mood for cuddling anyhow. He rested
with his back against one side of the wagon near the open covering,
staring out at the stars and wondering how a killer could go for so
long without detection. He watched Lynne as she slept. He would
have to do better. His reputation was on the line, and Lynne’s life
was at stake.

The next day dawned cloudy with a threat of
rain heavy in the air. Cade had drifted off to sleep for a few
minutes here and there in the night, but by the time the gray light
settled on their split camp, he was still groggy and working on a
headache. That didn’t stop him from hopping down from the wagon to
try to start a fire and make some much-needed coffee.

When Lynne awoke and climbed down from the
back of the wagon in fresh clothes, her hair done up in a pretty
but serviceable style, the sun came out for him in
earnest.

“
You look awfully pretty for
someone who just crossed a river and had her life threatened,” he
said.

Lynne laughed. The sound filled him with a
peace and confidence he’d lost somewhere in the frustrating
night.

“
One should always meet danger
looking their best,” she replied with a sweet smile.

Cade was no fool, though. He could see the
worry behind her eyes, the tightness in the lines around her mouth
as she tried to make light of her situation. The bandage around her
neck may have been tied to look fashionable, but it was still a
bandage. The urge to protect her was as strong as ever, to do more
than just protect her.

They were halfway through preparing their
breakfast when Mrs. Weingarten approached their camp.

“
Mrs. Weingarten.” Lynne stood
with a polite smile. The way she shifted from bold and ready to
hunt down a dangerous man to a perfect lady who would be at home in
a drawing room sent a deeper longing through Cade. “What brings you
to our camp this morning?”

Mrs. Weingarten returned her greeting with a
smile filled with joy and knowing. “I’m loathe to disturb the two
of you, but I’ve come to invite you to a tea party.”

“
A tea party?” Lynne glanced to
Cade with a look that said she would fly to the moon and back for
the chance to attend. “Here? On the trail?”

“
Our group is setting out for
Oregon and yours is heading on to Denver City. A few of us women
have decided that we need to say goodbye to each other before we
go,” Mrs. Weingarten explained.

“
And Pete’s okay with this?” Cade
asked.

Mrs. Weingarten laughed. “Mr. Evans is
delighted to have one more day of rest and something to improve the
morale of the people he will be taking on to Oregon.”

“
That’s awfully nice of him,” Cade
said. He wondered how hard Pete’s arm had to be twisted to give in
to such a feminine scheme. Still, it would be a good way for Lynne
to say her last goodbyes.

“
The tea will be early this
afternoon,” Mrs. Weingarten explained. “I was hoping Lynne would
join us in setting up, though.”

Cade opened his mouth to thank Mrs. Weingarten
for her consideration but to refuse when Lynne brightened and said,
“I would love to help.”

She caught his frown and smiled even more
brightly at him.

“
Excellent,” Mrs. Weingarten said
and stepped close enough to pat Lynne on the arm. “I would invite
you to help set up as well, Mr. Lawson, but I understand that
you’re quite a busy man and that you’re looking for
someone.”

Cade bristled with caution. “I have a job to
do,” he said, but nothing else. He didn’t know Mrs. Weingarten as
well as he should have. She seemed a good sort, but these days he
didn’t trust anyone.

“
Good.” Mrs. Weingarten nodded.
She squeezed Lynne’s arm once more before letting go and stepping
back. “I will see you at the tea party then, Mr. Lawson. And now,
you two young lovebirds keep out of trouble.” She winked and then
turned to go.

An awkward heat made its way up Cade’s neck.
“Lovebirds,” he mumbled. He never thought he’d see the
day.

“
I’m sure she means well,” Lynne
said. Her face had gone pink as well, but a flash of mischief lit
her eyes. He should probably be worried.

He was uneasy about letting Lynne out of his
sight to help with the tea party, but with so many people hovering
around Mrs. Weingarten’s wagon where a tent was being set up, he
figured she was as safe as she was going to be. Mrs. Weingarten was
right about him being able to get a lot of work done while they
were busy. Since so many of the women had left their wagons to set
up for the party, Cade was able to speak frankly to the men who
were left behind.

“
And you’re sure you didn’t see
anyone around Miss Tremaine’s wagon that night?” he asked the
blacksmith who’d been fixing people’s wagons and shoeing horses
along the trail. “No one who shouldn’t be there?”

The grizzled man shook his head and itched his
beard. “No one. I never saw anything out of the ordinary. You folks
have been keeping pretty much to yourselves, although I can’t say I
blame you,” he added with a wink. “That Miss Tremaine is something
else.”

“
She is.” Cade tried to smile in
spite of that wink. He moved on with a bad taste in his
mouth.

“
I rarely see anyone but you and
Miss Tremaine and that boy of yours near your wagon,” a young and
eager farmer told him. “At first I thought maybe he was your
son.”

“
Who, Ben?” Cade asked.

“
Yeah, but he’s too old and you
and Miss Tremaine are too young.” The farmer had the good grace to
look sheepish as he said, “I coulda sworn you and Miss Tremaine was
married good and long. Kind of surprised to find out she’s still a
miss.”

There was a question in the young farmer’s
tone that made Cade itch with guilt. Everyone seemed to notice that
he and Lynne were sweet on each other far more than any of them
noticed anything amiss.

“
Don’t see how no one could get
close to that fiery, fine woman with you so close to her,” Kyle,
the miner who had tried to rob John Rye’s wagon told him. Cade
stopped him as they passed each other on the wagon line. He hadn’t
intended to speak to any of the miners, but they could have seen
things that others didn’t. “She’s a peach, that one. I bet you’ve
taken a big, juicy bite out of her. Ha!”

“
Miss Tremaine is a lady and
deserving of your respect,” Cade scolded the man.

“
Sure she is.” Kyle continued to
laugh as he walked away.

Cade scrubbed his face to wipe away the
frustration. His questions were getting him nowhere. The only thing
he’d learned from the others in the wagon train was that he and
Lynne were considered to be an item and her reputation had suffered
because of it. He let out a weary breath and stared across the line
of wagons to where Lynne was scurrying around inside of the tent
that had been put up, setting places with someone’s fine
china.

In spite of everything, he smiled. She would
make a fine hostess at a real tea party. She would run a perfect
house as well. A man could do a lot worse than to protect a woman’s
reputation by offering for her. The sooner the better if everything
he was hearing from the rest of the wagon train was right. He may
not have had Great-Aunt Elizabeth’s ring with him right there on
the trail, but surely he could find something to take its
place.

With an awkward smile, still not believing he
was going to do what he was planning to do, he headed across the
gloomy riverbank to Lynne’s wagon. The skies had darkened and rain
was already spitting down from the clouds. In the distance, Cade
could see it raining harder. The tea party would get rained on one
way or another. At least they had that tent.

He reached the back of the wagon and was about
to hop up into it when he caught Ben leaning over Lynne’s hope
chest. As soon as Ben saw him, he jumped and whirled around to face
him fully. The lid of the hope chest slammed shut.

“
What are you doing?” Cade
demanded.

“
I… uh….” Ben scrambled to his
feet, although he had to hunch in the covered wagon. “I was lookin’
for something.”

“
What were you looking for in Miss
Tremaine’s things?” Cold suspicion wound its way through his gut.
He flexed his hands, moving one closer to the revolver in his
belt.

“
I….” Ben let out a breath and
hung his head, face red. “I wanted to look at the doll,” he
said.