Heart of Eden by Caroline Fyffe

Author:Caroline Fyffe [Fyffe, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542048323
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Published: 2018-01-23T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Blake was at the livery, a wooden box of horseshoes hefted in his arms, when the tolling of the church bell brought him up short. Shoving the container over the open tailgate of the buckboard, he looked across the vacant field and picnic grounds to the church. A small boy was hauling up and down on the bell rope.

Maverick Daves, the smithy, stepped to his side. He wiped his smudged hands on a towel looped through his thick leather belt. His bare arms were moist from his work over the forge. Rings of sweat stained his shirt. “I wonder what that’s about.”

Several townspeople had already gathered around.

Blake pondered the same thing. The Brinkman girls? Naw, couldn’t be. But I won’t get a lick of work done until I know.

“I’ll go see,” he called over his shoulder, already on his way.

“What’s this about?” Blake called out as soon as he was close enough.

The boy stopped ringing. “Sheriff had me sound the alarm. Seems a girl’s gone missing. John Brinkman’s youngest. Her sisters think she’s in trouble.”

Blake cut his gaze up the road. “Where are they?”

“Don’t know.”

Confound it! He should have left one of the hands with them at all times, just until they were familiar with the town and with what they could and couldn’t do alone. If they weren’t so shorthanded, he’d have escorted them himself.

He ran back to the livery, informed Maverick what was going on, then veered behind the building, cutting through the paddocks. May as well begin with the older, rougher part of town, he thought, taking the footpath to the Old Spanish Trail.

Scents wafted over from Mrs. Gonzales’s food stand. The old woman was hard at work over her comal. The flat cast-iron pan appeared plenty hot as she fried a large white tortilla over an open fire.

“Buenos días, senor Harding,” she said as she watched him approach, sweeping her leathery arm over her offerings of tortillas, black beans, and rice. She hadn’t yet started her beef strips, but when she did, the aroma would pervade the whole town. The small shed with a long, colorful Mexican blanket hanging over the door was her office, and gave her a bit of shade to work in. In less than an hour there would be a line ten men long, waiting patiently for a midmorning meal. “Why the bell? Trouble?”

“I’m looking for a young woman.” He put out his hands and mimed a pretty shape.

Her creased bow crinkled.

“A niña. Gringo. Pretty. You see this day?”

She took a moment to flip the tortilla, which was browning nicely around the edges. “No.”

“No?”

She shook her head.

“All right. Have you seen anyone leaving town?”

“Vendedor ambulante,” she said, pointing to the trail leading past the Spanish Trail Cantina toward Santa Fe.

“A peddler’s wagon?” he mumbled to himself. On its way out of town. Surely Katie would know better than to engage with a stranger. “How long?”

Her brow wrinkled again, and then she held up her hands, placing one finger over the other.

Half hour.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.