Deputy Joe's Christmas Saddle: A Wyldhaven Series Christmas Romance Novella by Lynnette Bonner

Author:Lynnette Bonner [Bonner, Lynnette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Serene Lake Publishing
Published: 2019-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Liora felt her curiosity rise. What was Kin doing here?

He swiped his boots on the mat but didn’t enter. He tilted his head toward the yard. “Got some other men who might be able to shed some light on the situation.”

Reagan and Joe exchanged a look, and then were the first to follow Kin as he stepped off the porch.

Everyone else crowded to follow.

Kin stepped over to a man draped over a horse. “I need some help to get him down. And it would probably be good if Aidan rode for Doc.”

Susan Kastain hoisted her skirts and turned for the house. “I’ll fix a bed. Aidan—”

“I know. I know.” The boy groused before she could get another word out. “I’ll fetch the doc.” He stepped off the porch and dragged himself toward the barn. “I always miss out on all the fun!”

Liora and Aurora stepped to one side of the porch as Reagan, Joe and the parson moved to help Kin, and the Carver siblings gathered on the other side of the porch.

A second man sat with his hands lashed to the saddle of a nearby horse, but Liora noted that Kin had tied his mount off to the hitching rail.

“Who are these men?” Joe asked as they helped the wounded and moaning man down. Reagan and Kin had the man drape his arms around their necks and then they lifted him, each carrying one leg.

“This one is named Shade,” Kin puffed as they shuffled toward the porch.

Reagan gave the man a second look. “Any relation to Bobby Shade?”

After they’d seated him on the porch steps with his busted leg stretched out before him, Shade folded his arms. “Bobby is my cousin. My given name is Dorian. But just because he’s an outlaw that doesn’t make me one.”

Kin rolled his eyes and launched into his tale of how he’d waited, and how the men had tried to ambush him.

“We weren’t going to shoot at you until you made a run for it,” Shade groused, rubbing a hand over his face.

Kin pointed at the man on the horse. “That man is Ab Saunders. He claims he’s Ruby’s husband. He took something from her and it’s in his coat pocket.”

Reagan gave Joe a nod, then shucked his pistol and held it on the man as Joe strode over and cut Ab’s bonds.

Moving slowly, the man dismounted.

Joe motioned for him to lift his hands. “No funny business. I’m going to check your pockets.”

Ab sighed. “It’s a locket. I gave it to her on our wedding day.”

Joe extracted and held up a chain with an oval locket on it, just as the man had said.

Joe opened it, then lifted his gaze to Reagan’s. “Picture of him on one side, and her on the other.”

Ab turned his palms to the sky. “I wanted it as a memento, is all.”

Kin folded his arms and narrowed his eyes on the man. “You loved her enough to want a memento, but were just going to leave her

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