The Outlaw Bride Page 22

  “Honored guests, my wife, Mabel. Please join us for refreshments.”

  On his command, the doors to the veranda were opened to reveal several candlelit tables covered with crisp white linen and mountains of food. Servants hovered beyond, ready to assist the guests who bore down on the abundant fare.

  Josie stared, mesmerized, as the Perrymans walked toward her—for there, pinned on a strip of ribbon tied around Mabel Perrymans neck, was the cameo. She knew without a doubt that she had just found her evidence. The money must be nearby.

  “What is it?” Ellie asked. “You look like a dying woman who’s just spotted heaven’s gate.”

  “I have. Come with me.”

  “Now? I’m hungry.”

  “And I’m about to get ambushed by the grandfathers. Hurry!”

  Ellie saw them, too, and she allowed Josie to pull her behind the drapes beside the doors leading to the veranda. “I know you’re going to do something you shouldn’t, Josie, and I promised your grandfathers I’d keep you out of trouble.”

  Josie laughed. “I think you might need to protect someone else tonight. Unless I’m mistaken, Papa Miller is wearing a pistol and Grandfather Sinclair is hiding a shotgun in the flowerpot. What or who do you think they’re hunting?”

  “That’s not hard to answer—you.”

  “Well, they’re are not going to find me. Be still and let them pass.” Moments later she whispered, “Now, come with me.”

  Ellie groaned. “I wish Will were here.”

  “And I wish Callahan were here. But they aren’t, and we are. So come on.”

  Josie took Ellie’s arm and pulled her down the corridor to the opposite wing of the house. “We’re looking for Perryman’s office,” she said. “We have to get inside.”

  “I don’t!” Ellie said.

  “Then you’ll keep watch for me. Just stand here in the hallway and let me know if anyone comes. Can you whistle?”

  “I used to.”

  “Then if anyone comes, whistle and run.”

  “What should I whistle?” she asked sharply.

  “I don’t know—‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic’!” Josie snapped, and opened the first door.

  She backed away. “This looks like Mabel’s sitting room,” she said, and moved to the next door. “No, this isn’t it either. Where is it? I know this monstrosity of a house has an office the size of Perryman’s ego.”

  “There’s a room at the other end of the corridor,” Ellie said.

  Josie pulled at the neckline of her dress and headed down the dark hallway. The location made sense. He’d deliberately left that part of the hallway dark so no one would notice it.

  The door was locked. Josie pulled a hairpin from her hair and went to work.

  “Josie, don’t you dare open that door. Your mother and father are right out there. Suppose—”

  “Shush! Don’t talk, Ellie. Just whistle, if you need to.”

  “Where in tarnation is she, Sinclair?”

  Roylston Sinclair stood on the third stair step and studied the veranda, where the guests had taken seats at small tables. “I don’t see her anywhere. Here comes Dan. Maybe he knows.”

  “Mr. Sinclair,” Dan said, then nodded to his father. “I thought you two had decided not to come.”

  “Don’t be foolish, son, of course we’ve come. Where’s Josie? Have you seen her?”

  Dan frowned. “She’s around here somewhere. She was dancing with Perryman earlier.”

  Sinclair gave Teddy a questioning look, to which Teddy nodded.

  Dan sensed that they were worried and frowned. “Well, let’s split up and look for her. Mr. Sinclair, you check the upstairs.”

  “I’ll look around in here,” Teddy volunteered.

  Dan nodded. “Then I’ll go outside and mingle with the guests.”

  Roylston watched Dan speak to Annie out on the veranda, but any mingling on his part was thwarted by Perryman, whose hardy voice carried inside the house to where the two grandfathers were standing.

  “Dan, come and try Mabel’s iced dessert. I had the ice brought down from Canada.”

  “Maybe later,” Dan said, trying to escape his host. “Have you seen Josie?”

  “Not since she honored me with a dance.” Perryman frowned. “Maybe she’s in the garden. It’s a bit stuffy in here.”

  Dan hesitated, then made his way off the veranda and into the rose garden beyond. Josie had never been one to admire flowers, but she could have other reasons for leaving the house.

  “Look,” Teddy said, “Perryman is coming this way. Quick, up the stairs.”

  Scampering out of sight, they waited, watching as Perryman headed purposefully into the other wing of the house.

  “After him,” Sinclair said. “I don’t know where he’s going, but I’ll bet he leads us right to Josie.”

  Will moved through the garden toward the house. Perryman’s carriage was there. The driver had confirmed bringing Josie and Ellie to the party, but said he hadn’t seen them since.

  At the sound of footsteps, Will paused. Someone was walking furtively toward him. He pulled out his revolver and waited until the shadow of a man came near.

  “Hold it,” Will said.

  “Will?”

  “Dan? What are you doing out here?”

  “Looking for Josie. She’s not with the other guests. What are you doing?”

  “Trying to keep her from getting killed. Let’s go the other way. Maybe Callahan’s seen her.”

  “Callahan’s out of jail? How?”

  “I let him out. I’m beginning to think that Josie is right. He didn’t steal that money. But she’s got some wild idea that she has to prove it tonight. Callahan’s worried.”

  “So am I. What could she be looking for? Of course … Perryman’s safe,” Dan said. “Let’s go.”

  Callahan made his way around the other side of the house, looking for an open door and a room that wasn’t lit up like a Fourth of July fireworks display. He had to get inside unnoticed. Finally, he spotted a darkened room with French doors.

  He reached for the doorknob and saw the reflection of a dim light through the glass, then movement. Someone was there. He paused, waiting for the person to be revealed.

  It was Josie. She lifted a candle and held it close to the wall, at the open door of a safe. Reaching inside, she pulled out a leather bag. Callahan opened the door and stepped inside. “Josie, what in hell are you doing?”

  “Callahan, you almost scared me to death! Come look at this. I think I found the saddlebag with the money.”

  Suddenly the shrill sound of a whistle pierced the silence.

  “Damn!” he said, stumbling over the corner of a chair. It skidded toward the desk.

  Josie blew out the candle.

  The whistling grew louder. The study door opened and Ellie dashed inside. “Didn’t you hear me, Josie? Perryman’s coming. You have to run.”

  “Ellie, find Will.” Callahan grabbed Ellie and shoved her out the veranda door. “Let’s get out of here, Josie.”

  “No. You don’t understand. I’ve got it, Callahan, the saddlebag. There’s money in here,” she said, rifling through it. “And I feel at least one strand of pearls and a ring. I think we have all the evidence you need.”

  Perryman burst into the room, holding a lamp in one hand and a pistol in the other. He aimed it straight at Callahan. “Well, well. What have we here? I think you’d better give that bag to me, Miss Miller, unless you’d like me to shoot your fiancé.” He set the lamp on a table and held out his hand.

  “Forget it, Perryman. It’s all over,” Callahan said. “Ben’s been found. We have the money, and he didn’t take it. There are too many people who know the truth now.”

  Josie gasped. “Ben’s been found?”

  “I don’t think that’s going to matter,” Perryman said as he gripped the gun desperately. “I own this town and everybody in it. They know which side their bread is buttered on. The only thing they know is that
Josie Miller fell in love with an outlaw and that the two of them were caught red-handed trying to rob my bank. Now she’s broken into my personal safe.”

  “Put the gun down,” Callahan said, working his way across the room toward Josie. “We’ve seen the saddlebag. You’ll have to kill us both. By the time you get off the second shot, Will Spencer will be in here.”

  “I don’t think so. The bag will be gone and I’ll regret that you and Miss Miller were killed, but it was dark and I was unable to see who the intruders were.”

  “Mr. Perryman,” Josie said softly, “so far you’re guilty only of larcenous intent. A good lawyer will be able to get you off with nothing more than assault charges if you return the money and forgive the ranchers’ loans as a show of good faith. But if you use that gun, you’ll spend some time in the new prison they’re building over in Rawlings. I don’t think you’ll like that.”

  There was a sound in the hallway. “Mr. Perryman? What are you doing in here?” Mabel Perryman wandered into the room, carrying a lamp.

  “Go back to the party, Mabel,” Perryman snapped.

  Josie turned to Callahan. “Mrs. Perryman is wearing a very unusual cameo tonight.”

  “She certainly is,” Callahan added. “I’ll bet your husband gave it to you, didn’t he?”

  She seemed pleased. “Why, yes.”

  “I’ll bet you’ve already told everyone here what a generous man he is for having done so, haven’t you?” Josie asked.

  Perryman moved slowly forward, set his own lamp on the table, and waved his pistol between the two captives. “You can’t prove anything,” he said.

  “Mr. Perryman, is that a gun?” Mabel asked in astonishment.

  “So it is, my dear.” He held out his hand to Josie. “Give me the saddlebag, please. Or Callahan is a dead man.”

  “Of course.” Josie feigned defeat, but then she startled Perryman by swinging the saddlebag toward him. A shot rang out. It went wide, missing Callahan’s head and breaking a pane in the French doors.

  Mabel screamed.

  The bag landed in a clatter at Perryman’s feet.

  A few seconds later the music stopped.

  “Give me the gun, Perryman,” Callahan said. “Its over. Everyone heard the gunshot.”

  Perryman drew back the hammer again. Another shot rang out, then another as Josie dove toward Callahan, knocked him down, and fell on top of him.

  Teddy Miller and Roylston Sinclair appeared in the doorway, stumbling over each other to come to the rescue. Will, followed by Ellie, charged in from the veranda and grabbed the banker.

  Callahan lay on the floor, holding Josie against his chest, his hand cradling the back of her head.

  “How’d you get out of jail?” Josie asked, touching his ear and cheek with her fingers.

  “Your grandfathers broke me out.”

  Josie gazed at the face of the man she loved, and she smiled. “Aren’t they something? Guess we’re really a couple of outlaws now.”

  “Not this time,” Judge McSparren said, stepping in from the veranda. “I came up just as you pitched Miss Ellie out the door. Started to help, but decided you were doing fine. I saw the whole thing. Is everybody all right?”

  “I don’t think so,” Josie said, her voice fading. “I think you’d better call my mama. I’ve been shot.”

  “Dr. Annie!” Callahan let out a roar. He looked down at his bloody hand. “Josie’s wounded.”

  Moments later the study was cleared of everyone but Josie, Dr. Annie, and Callahan, who refused to budge. Will reassured Ellie and the grandfathers, who’d been sent to the library, where they morosely shared a bottle of whiskey with the judge.

  “All right, Callahan, let me have a look at her.” Callahan let go of Josie and moved behind the sofa.

  Annie felt Josie’s head, parting her hair to examine the wound. It was only a surface abrasion, as if the bullet had creased her and moved on—bloody, but not fatal.

  “She’s only fainted. Open your eyes, Josie!” Dr. Annie ordered. “Now!”

  As if she were lifting a heavy curtain, Josie slowly opened her lids. “Mother, stop giving me orders.”

  “I heard three shots. Were you hurt anywhere else?”

  Josie put her hand on her back. “The first shot missed. The second one hit my head, and the third one got me back here, I think.”

  Josie was rolled forward so that her nose was pressed against Annies shoulder. She ran her fingers across Josie’s back, then she started to laugh. “What on earth are you wearing, a suit of armor?”

  “A corset. I had to. There was no other way. I couldn’t fit into this dress.”

  “What’s it made of?”

  “Ellie said it’s made of whalebone and steel.”

  “Well, the bullet must have hit the bone and bounced off. The only reason you fainted is because your corset’s too tight. It saved your life—and probably this big outlaws life as well.”

  “I think we’re lucky that Perryman is the worst shot in Wyoming,” Callahan said.

  “Callahan?” Josie shoved her mother aside and sat up. “Are you all right?” She reached for his hand and pulled him down beside her.

  “Thanks to you taking charge of the situation, as usual. What were you doing, diving in front of me? Do you realize that the bullet you took was meant for me? I should be dead.”

  “You should have been dead the last time you got shot. I saved you then, too.”

  “Just how many times do you think I’m going to let you do that?”

  “I’m your attorney; it’s my job. I’ll save you any way I can.”

  “I told you, you’re fired.”

  “Callahan, shut up and kiss me.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and did. Not once, but twice. When Annie backed out of Perryman’s office, Callahan was still kissing Josie. “I don’t want her moved tonight, Callahan, but I want someone to stay with her,” Annie said.

  “I’ll look after her,” he said. “I promise.”

  Annie smiled and closed the door. All in all, she was satisfied that Josie had found as good a man as she had—a little rough around the edges, perhaps, but strong enough to handle a stubborn woman. Annie glanced at Laura, who waited quietly in the corridor. If Laura could grow up to be half the woman Josie had become, she and Dan Miller would be very lucky. And so would Wyoming.

  21

  Two days later, the Miller entourage, which now included Callahan, was back in Laramie. They left Perryman occupying the stable, while Will waited for instructions from the governor about where the trial would be held. Josie had made it plain that she wouldn’t be representing the ruined banker. Before she boarded the Union Pacific headed back to Chicago to stay with her father, Mabel returned the cameo to Callahan. Ellie was already making plans to move into a house in Laramie where she would start a dressmaking business.

  Callahan wired the fort, saying that he would come for Ben as soon as he made arrangements to drive the cattle from Laramie to Sharpsburg.

  “What puzzles me,” Josie said to Callahan as they sat in the courtyard under Lubinas watchful eye, “is the woman who claimed the reward money. Who is she?”

  “That puzzles me, too. Ben was never a fighter, but he must be in bad shape for a woman to hog-tie him and take him prisoner.”

  Josie stood and walked across the courtyard and into the trees. The river gurgled in the distance. She’d always found peace here, but tonight she felt as if she were standing in a bog of boiling mud searching for solid land. “Isn’t that about what I did to you—take you prisoner?”

  Callahan stood and followed her. He’d known this would be a hard good-bye. He’d been right. “Only because I was wounded,” he said.

  “Miss Josie,” Lubina called out, “the señora won’t like es for you two to be out there by yourselves. When she and Mr. Dan left, they said I was to stay with you.”

  Josie stopped and drew in a deep breath. “Lubina, do you remember the night Callahan came? You saw the bl
ack-and-white stallion on the ridge. You thought it meant that someone would be taken away.”

  “Es what that Indian say.”

  “Well, Bear Claw was right. And if I were you, I wouldn’t push my luck. He could still come back.”

  Lubina left her bench in the corner of the garden and headed toward the house. “Es time for prayers,” she said, and disappeared through the archway.

  “You know, I like Lubina,” Callahan said with a chuckle. “She’s a woman who knows when to give up.”

  Josie walked deeper into the trees. For once in her life she didn’t know what to do. She was head-over-her-whalebone-corset in love with Callahan, and he was going to leave her, unless she could find a way to stop him. “When are you going?”

  “Tomorrow. I’m catching the morning train. I don’t know what kind of shape Ben is in, so I wired the fort commander to hold onto him until I get there.”

  “You’re not leaving me behind. I’ve decided to go with you.”

  “Josie. I’ve spent some hard hours thinking about what you were going to say when I left. You’re an attorney, an educated woman who has a real future in the Wyoming Territory. I’ll always be an outlaw with a criminal record. Those two things don’t match.”

  “Says who?”

  Callahan turned her to him, his eyes dark and threatening. “Don’t do this, Josie. I have nothing to offer you. I don’t intend to let you pay our mortgage, and I refuse to bury you on a ranch with a passel of children. You’re meant for better things. When I get back with Ben, we’ll go straight to the ranch.”

  He meant it. He was going without her. There was no place in his life for her when Ben got home. She wanted to hurt him, to make him feel what she was feeling. Callahan wasn’t the only one who’d changed. She’d fallen in love. Tears brimmed her eyes. She was an attorney, yes, perhaps even a better doctor than most of the sawbones in the west, but she was a woman too, a woman in love. And the thing Dr. Annie had taught her was that a woman could have it all.

  “Like you said, I’m a stubborn woman, Sims Callahan. There’s no reason I can’t be an attorney—even a judge—and still be your wife. But if I have to choose, I’ll give up the law. Either you let me go with you, or I follow you. It’s your choice.”