The Bride Takes A Cowboy by Maren Smith

Author:Maren Smith [Smith, Maren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-21T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

The wagon wheels ground against the sunbaked earth, making the buckboard springs squeak and the lantern dangling out ahead of the horses bounce. It barely lit the road, but if someone was watching the property, as he suspected they might be, then it was sure to be seen. Hurley lived much further out of town than Millie did, but still he gave it less than forty minutes for news to travel back and for new plans to be thrown into action. Personally, Gage hoped Hurley would err on the side of arrogance. If he thought Millie was finally giving in, then come the morning Hurley was likely to send someone round with another packet of freshly-drawn up papers to sign. He might even give them extra time, and with that in mind, he’d left Millie’s aunts with instructions to start loading the porch as if they were packing the house. Load up crates. Load up barrels. Load up all the burlap bags they could find and stack it all in a neat, orderly, bullet-stopping barricade everywhere that they might need to crouch, just in case it came in handy before he brought this all to an end.

Because Gage would bring it to an end. Maybe Hurley had known about the cattle he’d brought through that flash flood without losing a single one, but there were things about him he knew for sure Hurley didn’t know. What two of Gage’s brothers did for a living absolutely made the top of that list. No man, no matter how powerful he thought himself, would knowingly hire on the brother of two US Marshals while simultaneously strong-arming a woman out of all she owned.

Well, there was a telegraph office in Harmony and it was located right inside the waystation. He’d seen it earlier that morning when he first arrived. That would be their first stop, in case someone in town noticed them and reported back to Hurley. Let everyone think Millie was checking ticket prices to leave. Their second stop would be the church, where Reverend Goodnight lived in a quiet set of rooms in back.

“I’ve known him since I was a little girl,” Millie had told him when he’d asked if she thought he was as deep into Hurley’s pockets as the sheriff and his deputies. “He was going to marry John and I, even though he knew Hurley wouldn’t like it. I don’t know if Hurley threatened him or not, but I don’t think so.”

“When a man rules a place, he can get away with a lot more if he leaves certain people alone,” Gage told her. “Men of God are one of them.”

It wasn’t the most comforting thing he could have said, and he knew she must be fretting when the ride immediately fell into silence after that.

Millie was a fantastic fretter. She never showed it once. In fact, Gage had to look close and notice things that would have made his lawmen brothers proud before he knew for certain she was doing anything but enjoying the peace and quiet.

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.