Emily Carmichael - How To Lasso A Cowboy

Now Nat and Gabe were dead. He didn’t know about Quin.

He leaned against the wall and waited.

Twenty minutes later, Abe slipped inside with a bottle and two glasses. “Hate to tell you, boy, but you smell.”

“I know,” Seth admitted. “I wanted to get home and didn’t stop for the niceties.”

“Hell, we thought you was dead.”

“I almost was. Got some damn fever at Elmira Prison in New York. It took me over a month after the war to recuperate. Took me the rest of the time to get back.”

“The twins?”

“Died next to each other.”

“Damn, I’m sorry to hear that. Nearly every family around here has lost sons.”

“What in the hell has happened? I stopped by the ranch. Some woman accosted me with a rifle. Said her father owned it.”

“McGuire,” Abe said, spitting into a spittoon located near the table.

“I saw my father’s grave,” Seth said flatly.

“I’m sorry about that,” Abe said. “Sorry as I can be. I admired the Major.”

“What happened?”

“All of Texas is under military rule. This area is under a Major Delaney, crooked as they come. His men steal cattle and ride over crops, then when people can’t pay taxes, he has stooges ready to buy land at practically nothing.

“Happened to the Major and he didn’t take it well,” Abe continued. “He and Dillon weren’t ready to go. He resisted and a Union sergeant shot him. Shot your brother, too, but he was able to get away. He’s wanted.”

“My sister?”

“Little Marilee? McGuire’s daughter took her in after Trini got sick a few months back.”

“Trini? Is she all right?”

Abe shook his head. “McGuire let her stay there in return for keeping his house. She sickened about three months ago, died of some fever. I think it was just plain heartbreak. You know how much she and Luis loved your pa.”

“You mean Marilee’s at the ranch?”

Abe nodded. “You didn’t see her?”

Anger coiled in Seth’s gut. The woman said nothing about his sister being there.

“Hell no, or she would be with me now.” He took a deep breath. “My brother left Marilee with squatters?”

“He had no choice. There’s a thousanddollar reward on his head. He couldn’t drag a sevenyearold along with him.”

“One of the neighbors…”

“Most of them are gone, chased out just like your father. Those still here have all they can do to hold on to their land.”

Shock caused words to wedge in his throat. He couldn’t imagine a neighboring family refusing to give shelter to a child in trouble. And why in the hell had the woman not admitted that his sister was in the house?

It obviously wasn’t enough to be a party to murder and the theft of land. They felt they could take a child as well. He swore under his breath.

“The law? Is Nolan still sheriff?”

“Nope. He was dismissed by Delaney now that the town’s under Union occupation.”

“I saw a man with a badge outside.”

“That’s Tom Evans. U.S. marshal. This is part of his territory, though the army pretty well controls things. He stops in occasionally. Keeping up with business, he says.”

Seth filed that in his mind. “What happened to the Flynns and Hopewells?”

“Ed Flynn shot himself when he heard his boy was killed. Mrs. Flynn went to stay with a sister in Missouri. Hopewell’s daughter was raped by a Union soldier. The family pulled out two months ago.”

He and Vince Flynn had gone to school together. So many gone.

The need to see his sister grew stronger.

“I’m going to go get her,” he said, his anger becoming a fiery torch in his gut.

“You might talk to Dillon first,” Abe said. “Common wisdom is that your sister is doing fine where she is. She attends church with Miss McGuire here in town, and she looks well tended.”

“Do you know where I can find him?”

“No, but I think he’s nearby. There’s been a lot of cattle rustling lately. Delaney swears it’s your brother and some other locals.”

“Is it?”

Abe shrugged. “Mebbe. Mebbe no.”

“And the men in the saloon?”

“Delaney’s henchmen. One is a socalled civil administrator appointed by Delaney. Does whatever he’s told. I hate serving them, but I don’t have any choice. They would close me down, and the Belle is all I have.”

Seth nodded. “They know your sympathies?”

“They probably suspect, but I’m the only saloon in town. Right now we live and let live. Now, about Marilee…are you sure you can take care of her? Mebbe you should wait…”

Seth impaled the man with his eyes.

“I appreciate your concern, Abe, but she’s my sister and I’m not waiting.”

“And then?”

“I don’t know. I’ll find someplace we can stay.”

“And Dillon?”

“I’ll find him, too.” But bitterness seeped deeper in his soul. All his dreams and hopes had centered around the ranch and building it with his brother and father. He’d thought about it during the long months he’d spent in prison. The ranch was not large, nor had it been particularly successful. Cattle was plentiful in Texas and getting them to market difficult if not impossible.

Yet he knew that after the war, people would flock west and with them would come an expansion of railroads.

His father could have tried to grow cotton, but the Major had hated slavery and there was no economical way to raise cotton without it.

But a father and two sons-along with a few hands- could well handle a herd of cattle. He had thought that he and other ranchers could join their herds and drive them north.

Now he had no home, no money, no cattle, no land.

But by God, he had remnants of a family left, and he intended to see them together. And on Sinclair land.

He thrust his hand out. “Thanks, Abe.”

“Wish I could have done more,” Abe said, taking his hand. Then he eyed Seth sadly. “Don’t go out to the ranch. Delaney has an eye on the McGuire woman. He’s warned off several men who wanted to court her.”

“I’ve been officially pardoned,” Seth said. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“That doesn’t mean anything in Canaan. And when Delaney discovers you’ve returned from the dead, he’ll try to use you to get to Dillon.”

“Then I won’t lead him to Dillon.”

Abe hesitated, then shrugged. “If you’re determined to get Marilee, the old Keller place is empty. I bought the land a few weeks ago. Managed to do it before Delaney got his hands on it. He particularly wanted Keller’s place because a stream runs through it.”

“Where’s Keller?”

“Found dead. The new sheriff said it was renegades. I have different ideas. But I knew something Delaney didn’t. Keller has a daughter in Dallas. I contacted her and made an offer. She accepted. Delaney’s mad as hell, but I have friends, too. Anyway, you and Marilee can stay there until you find something else. There’s water. Some furniture’s been stolen but there’s probably enough.”

“I owe you.”

“No, you don’t. I’ve been here thirty years and what’s going on turns my stomach.”

Seth turned and left the room. He paused outside the door, grateful to Abe. The man had been afraid, that much was obvious, yet he had given his advice. A warning. And, more importantly, a place to stay.

Seth decided to leave the back way. He had no desire to see those uniforms again. Nor a marshal. He wanted no confrontations. Not until he fetched his sister.

ELIZABETH READ TO Marilee as she waited for her father to return from town. Elizabeth hugged Marilee closer and settled the storybook in her lap. She hoped the story would relieve some of the child’s terror.

Marilee had heard the shots but she had stayed in her room as instructed by Elizabeth. It wasn’t the first time threats had been made, or guns fired.

Elizabeth had found her huddled on her bed, her face pale. She had watched her father die and her brother wounded. Only Trini had kept her from running after her brother, Dillon, as he’d been dragged away by Union soldiers. Three nights later, friends had broken him out of jail.

For weeks, Union soldiers had surrounded the ranch, hoping that he would return. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that they had left, detailed instead to hunt Dillon Sinclair in the hills.

Elizabeth had worried about his return, that he would try to take an already shaken young girl, and about what would happen to the child if he succeeded. Marilee was fragile, more than fragile, and haunted by a cough. What would happen if she accompanied a fugitive?

The newest Sinclair looked no better. He’d looked desperate and dangerous. Not only that, he wore the remnants of a uniform.

The men who had killed Marilee’s father wore uniforms. I have no right. Marilee is not mine. In my heart, she is.

If only her father and Howie returned. Then they could ride for help.

Howie and the other four hands were out searching for cattle, though she was sure they had been rustled. Her father had gone into town to complain to the federal authorities about the latest theft and to ask for help.

It had taken more than an hour to soothe Marilee after the intrusion. “It was just a stranger who needed water,” she said, hoping she wouldn’t be struck dead for what she was leaving out.

“I heard shots,” Marilee said.

“A stranger. I just didn’t want him near the house,” Elizabeth said. “He took his water and left. Everything is fine now.”

“I want Dillon,” Marilee said suddenly.

“He’s gone, sweetpea,” she said.

“I don’t care. I want him.”

“I don’t know where he is.”

“He’s not dead?” Marilee sought reassurance.

“No.”

“Then why doesn’t he come to see me?”

“I don’t think he can,” Elizabeth replied. For two months after she and her father arrived, Marilee hadn’t said a word. Then she gradually started to speak. The nightmares were rarer, but she still woke up screaming.