Page 11 of Come the Spring (Claybornes' Brides (Rose Hill) 5)

  The two women exchanged a look before complying with the request.

  Cole then took over the questioning. “Grace, you’re planning to leave Rockford Falls tomorrow, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, I am,” she answered. She folded her hands on the tabletop and tried to look composed. “How did you know I was leaving?”

  “Just a hunch,” he answered dryly. “Where are you headed?”

  “Colorado.”

  “Jessica told us she was also headed to Colorado,” Daniel interjected.

  “Yes, that’s right,” Grace said. “We’re going to be traveling together.”

  “Did you come to Rockford Falls together?” Cole asked.

  Grace smiled. “Good heavens, no. I came from London, England, several months ago. I stopped in Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas before I came here. I was looking for property,” she thought to add.

  “Property?” Cole asked.

  “I’m hoping to start a ranching business,” she explained. “I’m looking for good grazing land…”

  “For the cattle she’s going to purchase,” Jessica interjected.

  “Yes, for the cattle,” Grace agreed.

  “But then Mr. Wells’s family decided not to sell the property,” Jessica said.

  “Who is Mr. Wells?” Cole asked.

  “The gentleman I corresponded with from London,” Grace said. “I had heard through friends who knew him that he wanted to sell his land and that it was just what I was looking for.”

  “But it wasn’t?” Cole asked.

  “Oh, it was,” Grace answered. “Acres and acres of lush green land. It was as perfect as my friends had claimed. I had already made an offer sight unseen from London, but when I arrived in Kentucky to sign the official papers, I found out that poor Mr. Wells had passed on. His son refused to honor his father’s promise.”

  “Grace saw an advertisement in the Rockford Falls Gazette for available land near Denver, and we’re going there together to look at it.”

  “Do you know anything about raising cattle?” Daniel asked.

  “No, but I plan to hire men who do know how,” Grace answered. “And I will learn how. I know it’s going to be hard work, but I’m not afraid of it.”

  Cole was trying not to let Grace see how appalled he was. “Ma’am, running cattle is a backbreaking business.” He was diplomatic in his caution.

  Daniel was blunt. “Are you nuts? You can’t run a cattle ranch.”

  Grace’s spine stiffened. “No, I’m not crazy, and I assure you I will achieve my goal. I may not have the experience, but I’m determined.”

  Daniel was too incredulous to argue. Cole shook his head. “How can you leave tomorrow?” he asked. “The coach doesn’t come through here until the day after.”

  “We aren’t taking the coach,” Jessica explained.

  “We’re going by wagon,” Grace said. “It’s in the field behind the house. Surely you noticed it on your way here.”

  “We should put our suitcases in it tonight,” Jessica said.

  Grace agreed. “And get an early start in the morning. That’s a good idea.”

  “Who’s driving the team?” Cole wanted to know.

  “We are,” Grace answered. The look on her face indicated she couldn’t imagine why he would ask such a question.

  Cole was staring at Jessica’s hands. He reached over and took hold of one and turned the palm up. “Your hands are soft.”

  It sounded like an accusation, and she pulled her hand back. “I’ll wear gloves.”

  “Have you ever driven a team before?” Daniel asked.

  “Not exactly,” she admitted.

  Astonished by their impossible plans, Daniel looked at Cole, hoping he would be able to talk some sense into them.

  Cole was just as astounded, but he tried to be diplomatic. “The two of you … and the baby are going to set off on your own across some of the most rugged and dangerous terrain in the country. Have I got that straight?”

  Both Grace and Jessica nodded.

  Cole lost his patience. “Are you ladies out of your minds?”

  Since he was looking at Jessica, she assumed he expected her to answer his rude question. “No, we aren’t out of our minds. We’ve thought it all out, and I assure you we know what we’re doing.”

  Grace nodded. “Yes, we do,” she agreed. She turned to Daniel and added, “We won’t be traveling alone. We’re going to join a wagon train.”

  “We must be in Gramby by Monday at the latest,” Jessica said.

  Daniel was staring intently at Grace. More than anything she longed to tell him to stop it. It was rude, and it was also driving her to distraction. She had the feeling he was trying to see into her mind, which was absurd, she told herself. He couldn’t possibly read her thoughts.

  “Why are you asking us so many personal questions?” she demanded.

  “We haven’t done anything wrong,” Jessica insisted.

  “Are you finished questioning us about the bank?” Grace asked. “We both have work to do.”

  Daniel’s anger was evident in his expression and voice when he said, “If one of you has information about the robbery and isn’t telling, that’s called obstruction. It’s a punishable crime, ladies.”

  “Are you trying to intimidate us?” Jessica asked. Both marshals ignored the question. Daniel turned to Grace. “I’ve only got one more question for you. Did you happen to run into Jessica when you were at the bank?”

  She looked at Jessica before she answered. “Yes, I passed her on my way out of the bank. She was going inside.”

  “What about Rebecca?” Cole asked. “Did you bump into her too?”

  The men’s anger sizzled in the air between them. It had been simmering, Grace realized, all the while they were questioning her. Something she had said must have set them off. She bowed her head when she answered. “Rebecca was just leaving the bank when I went inside.”

  Jessica also could feel the hostility and was convinced that she had said something that triggered the marshals’ anger. She was exhausted from the strain of guarding every word and knew that if she said anything more, she would only make it worse. She decided to show the marshals out as quickly as possible. Pushing her chair back, she stood up and headed for the door.

  Daniel stopped her with his command. “Both of you are going to be staying in town tomorrow.”

  She whirled around and bumped into Cole. She neither apologized nor stepped back.

  “Why must we stay?” she asked.

  “You can’t make us stay here, can you?” Grace asked. “I’m not familiar with the laws in this country, but making someone do something she doesn’t wish to do is wrong … isn’t it?”

  “Yes, it is,” Jessica said. “Cole, you can’t…”

  He interrupted her. “Yes, I can make you stay. We’re using the office in the front of the jail. You ladies know where it is. Why don’t you both plan on being there at eight o’clock. Rebecca will be joining you.”

  Jessica and Grace seemed to wilt. They meekly followed the lawmen to the front of the house.

  “This isn’t right,” Grace whispered.

  Daniel heard her and turned back in the doorway. “No, it sure as hell isn’t right, but we’re going to figure it all out tomorrow, aren’t we, Grace?”

  Cole turned to address Jessica. “I don’t know what kind of a game you ladies are playing, but it ends now. Do I make myself clear?”

  He didn’t wait for an answer. Jessica was shaking from head to toe as she shut the door and bolted the lock. She turned around and fell back against it.

  Tears sprang into Grace’s eyes. “Oh, God … they know.”

  Sixteen

  The twisted turn of events left Cole and Daniel feeling bewildered and irritated.

  “All three of them rehearsed what they were going to say to us when they were in the cell together,” Cole remarked on the way back to the hotel.

  “Hell, yes, they rehearsed. Now tell me why.”

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  “They’re scared, I guess. That’s all I can come up with.”

  “They were all real edgy. Rebecca did the best job of concealing it from us, but I could see it in her eyes.”

  “And her hands,” Cole said. “She was gripping them.”

  “Yeah, she was,” Daniel remembered. He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, trying to work the knots of tension out.

  “I sure was wrong,” Cole said. “I thought it was going to be a waste of time talking to Jessica and Grace. What the hell kind of a game are they playing?”

  “I don’t know,” Daniel replied. “I was pretty sure it was going to be a waste, too. I was just following procedure, hoping one of them might have noticed something unusual. It sure as hell got complicated, didn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it did,” Cole agreed. “And it doesn’t make any sense. They’ve got to know they were seen in the bank earlier that afternoon. They all stood in line with men who would remember them. Why did they go to all the trouble of rehearsing what they were going to say?”

  “No, it doesn’t make any sense. Which one of them is lying?”

  “Maybe all three of them are. They’re obviously hell-bent on protecting one another.”

  “Or…”

  “Or what?”

  “They’re protecting someone else, someone we don’t know about yet.”

  “How do we find out the truth?”

  “They’re going to tell us,” Daniel said. “Tomorrow, one way or another, Jessica and Grace and Rebecca are going to tell us what they know.”

  “And if they don’t?”

  “No one’s going to get in my way, man or woman.” Daniel’s voice shook with emotion. “If I have to lock them up, by God, I will.”

  “Don’t do anything crazy.”

  Cole saw the irony in his remark and let out a harsh laugh. “I think this badge is changing me. I’m usually the one doing crazy things, and now I’m cautioning you. I know how bad you want those men. Hell, I’d feel the same way, but you’ve got to keep it legal.”

  Daniel disagreed. “I’m going to get them any way that I can. I don’t care if it’s legal or not. Are you going to help me?”

  “I already told you I’d help.”

  The conversation ended when they reached the hotel and went up to their rooms. Cole threw open his window to get rid of the musty smell, then stripped out of his clothes, washed, and fell into bed. Stacking his hands behind his head, he thought about the women’s answers to their questions. One thought led to another, and he was suddenly thinking about Jessica. Damn but she was a tempting woman.

  He fell asleep hoping to God she hadn’t been hiding under that desk.

  Daniel didn’t go to sleep right away. He spent a good hour pacing around his shoe box of a room, feeling like a caged animal. He tried to concentrate on the investigation, but Grace Winthrop kept getting in his way.

  He’d been stunned by the impact she’d made on him, and honest to God, he didn’t know how to handle it. Until tonight, he hadn’t so much as glanced at another woman, and he sure as certain hadn’t physically wanted any of them. Grace had gotten to him, though, and it seemed so damned disloyal of him to have such unbridled thoughts about her.

  He couldn’t figure out why he was attracted to her. Granted, she was pretty and her face was about the loveliest he’d seen in a long, long time. She had a nice shape too. No doubt about it, she was well put together, but she still wasn’t anything like his sweet Kathleen. No other woman could ever measure up to her. The unspoiled daughter of a farmer, his wife had simple tastes and a passionate zest for life. He’d been drawn to her robust laugh and her generous nature, and he had immediately and completely fallen head over heels in love with her. How he had marveled at the great gift God had given him, and he often would quietly observe her as she went about her daily chores. Her strong, sturdy hands worked tirelessly through the day, but at night they were gentle and soft as they stroked his brow.

  Grace was a dainty, petite woman. The top of her head barely reached his shoulders. She came from wealth and status and had obviously moved about in a world that was totally foreign to him. Yet there was a naiveté and gentleness in her that made him want to move close.

  But she wasn’t Kathleen. Oh, God, how he missed his wife. He ached to take her into his arms and make love to her once again. He longed to listen to her sing a lullaby to their little girl, to hear their laughter, to touch…

  He forced himself to stop thinking about the past. His life had ended when his wife and baby were taken from him, gunned down like animals, but he had to keep going … had to keep pushing and searching until he had gotten every one of the demons responsible. Only then could he stop.

  With a weary sigh, he got ready for bed and methodically went through his notes again. He wanted to find something he’d missed before, but that didn’t happen. In frustration, he hurled the notepad across the room and fell back against the pillows.

  Oh, Kathleen, if one of us had to die, why couldn’t it have been me?

  He fell asleep thinking about his wife, but he dreamed about Grace.

  Seventeen

  One didn’t know what had awakened him. One second he was sound asleep, roping cattle, and the next he was wide awake and as tense as a bow. He was a light sleeper even when he was home at Rosehill in his own bed, and he always heard every little sound. He didn’t hear anything unusual, but he still reached for his gun and went to the door.

  As he expected, there wasn’t anyone lurking in the hallway. He shut the door and crossed to the window to look down at the street, thinking that someone who had had too much to drink had made a racket. The street was deserted.

  A faint breeze brushed his face. He let out a loud yawn and thought about going back to sleep, but then he saw the faint orange glow in the distance and realized it was already dawn. The sun was slowly making its way up into the black sky. Damn, but morning had come quick. He was still sleepy, and it seemed to him that he had only just closed his eyes.

  He was getting old, he supposed. He stretched his arms and went to get a drink of water before he got dressed. Because it was still dark in the room, he lit the kerosene lamp. His pocket watch was on the dresser next to his compass, and it wasn’t until he happened to glance at the time that he realized it was still the middle of the night.

  “What the hell?” he muttered.

  He turned toward the streaks of amber light once again … and then he started running.

  He was pulling his shirt on and trying to button his pants as he ran into the hallway.

  “Wake up, Daniel. We’ve got trouble.”

  The door opened a second later. Daniel rushed into the hallway brandishing his gun. He was half dressed and half asleep. “What is it?”

  “Fire.”

  “Where?” Daniel demanded as he turned and ran back into his room to get dressed.

  “Could be as far away as the mountains, but I don’t think so … the light’s too close. Could be down the street… Ah, God, the boardinghouse … You don’t think…” Cole shouted as he raced down the stairs.

  Daniel was right behind him. The night manager was sound asleep in his chair behind the front desk, with his head and arms resting on the countertop, when Daniel leapt over the railing and shouted to him to ring the fire bell. Startled by the abrupt noise, the manager struck his head on a lamp and overturned his chair when he jumped to his feet.

  “What … What did you say?” he cried out.

  “The fire bell,” Daniel roared as he crossed the lobby and burst through the door in Cole’s wake. “Ring the fire bell.”

  He caught up with Cole at the corner. Side-by-side the two men ran, the only sounds the pounding of their boots against the ground and their harsh breathing as each pushed himself to his limit. They were halfway down the block when they smelled smoke. Running as though the fire were licking at their heels, they sprinted around the curve in the road and saw the flames. The first floor of the house was a b

lazing inferno. Glowing red embers, like demon eyes, spewed out the open windows and floated up into the night sky. Tattered remnants of lace curtains, blackened with soot, billowed outward with each burst of dense smoke, and the freshly painted white wood blistered and boiled from the intensity of the heat.

  No one was outside.

  Cole and Daniel leapt over the fence at the same time and raced across the lawn. Daniel headed for the back of the house, hoping he could find a way inside through the flames, while Cole circled around the opposite side.

  The front door crashed open, and they saw Jessica slowly backing out. She was bent at the waist, dragging Grace to safety.

  Her friend wasn’t moving. Daniel reached the porch before Cole did and lifted the unconscious woman into his arms. In the firelight, he could see the blood trickling down her left temple. Something had struck her hard, and considering the amount of swelling, he thought she was damned lucky to be alive. He held her close against his chest and ran down the steps and out into the yard, where he gently laid her in the grass.

  Jessica followed him down the steps, then stopped. Screaming Caleb’s name, she was turning in a circle, frantically searching for the baby and for Tilly, when Cole dove from the porch railing and tackled her to the ground.

  He landed hard and knocked the breath out of her. She was thrown backward in the grass. She couldn’t catch her breath and didn’t understand what was happening, or why. All she could think about was Caleb and getting to him in time. Where was he?

  Jessica tried to roll to her side so she could get up and search for her baby, but Cole was suddenly pinning her down. Then he started pounding at her legs with the palms of his hands, shouting to Daniel to help him. She cried out and renewed her struggles to push him off her.

  Flames were greedily eating the hem of her robe. Cole was trying to put the fire out and get the robe off her before she was burned. By the time he had rolled her onto her stomach, Daniel was at his side, helping.

  The two men were tearing at her clothes. Screaming Caleb’s name over and over again she struggled to get up, but they wouldn’t let her move until Cole had ripped her robe off her shoulders and Daniel had pulled it free.