Tempting the Marshal: (A Western Historical Romance) (Dodge City Brides Series Book 2) (32 page)

Laughing quietly, then wincing from the pain it caused, Fletcher squeezed Jo’s hand. “Now they can call
you
The Bruiser. It’s time I retired the title anyway.”

“Retired it,” she repeated, not quite understanding his meaning.

A knock sounded at the door and Deputy Anderson walked in. “Marshal Collins, glad to see you’re awake.”

“Thanks,” Fletcher replied. “What’s up?”

Anderson removed his hat and turned it over in his hands a few times. “That’s what I came here to find out. Mrs. O’Malley sent for me.”

Fletcher gazed up at Jo, his eyes filling with concern. She squeezed his hand one more time, then stood up from the chair, feeling nervous butterflies invade her belly. “I called Deputy Anderson here so that I could confess my crime.”

Fletcher tried to lean up on his elbows. “Jo, you don’t have to—”

“Yes, I do. I need to tell him this, or I won’t be able to live with myself. It’s the right thing to do.”

Fully prepared to be handcuffed and dragged off to jail, Jo turned to face Deputy Anderson.

Fletcher tried to protest one more time. “Jo, please, don’t—”

“I’m Six-Shooter Hank,” she said quickly. “I was the one who broke into Zeb’s store that night. Only I wasn’t there to rob him. I was there to shoot him.”

Anderson gaped at Fletcher, as if he were searching for directions about what to say. Fletcher shook his head back and forth on the pillow. “Jo, you shouldn’t have done that.”

“Yes, I should have. I can’t let you keep my secret. You’ll hate yourself for it, and I care about you too much to let you live with that.”

Fletcher blinked a few times, a hint of a smile grazing his colorless lips. “I haven’t told her yet,” he said to Anderson.

Jo whirled around. “Told me what?”

His sleepy eyes glimmered in the lantern light. “While you were on the train to Newton, I got a wire from a lawman friend of mine in Chicago. Zeb’s real name is Jack Curtis. Stone and Greer were only two of the names he’s used. We’re looking into the rest.” Fletcher wet his lips and paused for a break. His voice was raspy with fatigue. He had to speak slowly.

“Zeb’s been wanted in Illinois and in three other states for murder and theft among other things, and with the evidence I found in his house, he’ll be convicted for a lot more than that. There was a one thousand-dollar reward out for his capture.”

“A reward? Are you telling me that—”

“Yes, ma’am,” Anderson interrupted. “He was wanted dead or alive, so you won’t be going to jail, even if you had shot him that night. The way things stand now, you’ll be collecting a thousand dollars, seeing as it was you who cuffed him and dragged him all the way back to town. And that couldn’t have been easy. He ain’t no lightweight.”

Jo collapsed onto the chair, too shocked to believe it. “I had no idea.”

Anderson replaced his hat on his head. “Is that all you wanted me for, ma’am? To tell me about what you did that night?”

“Yes, and to thank you, of course.”

Anderson smiled and tipped his hat. “My pleasure, ma’am. Take care, now.” He turned and left the room.

Overwhelmed, Jo held Fletcher’s hand. “What will Elizabeth do?”

“My sister’s a tough lady,” he replied. “She’ll start over. We both will.”

Jo struggled with a painful yearning that was squeezing around her heart, a yearning that would stay with her and plague her forever, she was certain. She loved this man so much, she would have given her life for him tonight. How would she survive if he decided to pack up and leave Dodge?

“Will you take Elizabeth away from here?” she asked.

Fletcher tried to move but winced with pain. His face had no color. His eyes were underlined with dark circles. Jo felt suddenly guilty for being so selfish right now, for wanting to know what he planned to do with his future, and whether or not that future would involve her and Leo.

“Can I do anything for you?” she offered, rearranging his pillow under his head.

He touched her cheek. “You already have. You’ve helped me. I…I feel like I understand things better now.”

“What things?” she asked.

He wet his dry lips. “I’m not a lawman, Jo. It’s just something I’ve been doing to make up for what my father did, to prove I’m not the same as him. But I
am
like him. I know that now. I’m his son and I’m darn proud
of
it, because he was a good man. It’s time I acknowledged that. I’m not saying that what he did was right—there were probably other ways he could have handled it, and the outcome might have been different. But at least he was honest about everything. And he let those men go free because he loved us so much, he was afraid of something bad happening to us. I understand it now, because it’s just like how I feel about
you.”

Jo squeezed Fletcher’s hand. “Can you forgive him?”

“I already have. I did a lot of thinking after you left, and now…I just miss him. I wish he was here. I wish he could have met you.”

Hearing him speak those perfect words only made her love Fletcher more, but that didn’t make this any easier, not if he still planned to take his sister away, and leave Dodge City for good.

“Since you’re handing out forgiveness today,” Jo said, “do you think you could forgive
me,
too? I know I went against everything you believed in and I even asked you to break the law to set me free, but I’m sorry for that. I just want you to know that.”

He pulled her closer to cup her cheek in his hand. “God, Jo, how can you even ask that? You thought you wanted to kill Zeb, but you didn’t, and I know you never would have been able to. You even dragged him back here to save his wretched life. You were willing to confess everything just now, to go to prison because you felt it was the right thing to do. I don’t know anyone with more integrity than that. There’s nothing to forgive.”

She laid her cheek on his chest and closed her eyes with gratitude. Everything she had feared so deeply—that she was a killer…that Fletcher would never be able to forgive her—it was all gone now. There was only the warmth of the man holding her in his arms, and a feeling in her heart that was so sweet, so complete, it was almost painful.

Perhaps now, she could live with letting him go.

“Still, I’m sorry that all this had to happen,” she said, wiping a tear from her cheek. “I’m sorry that you were shot, and that you had to arrest your brother-in-law, and that things didn’t work out for Elizabeth.”

“I’m not sorry,” Fletcher replied. “Zeb was cruel to her. Now she has an excuse to be rid of him. And as for you and me…” He raised her chin with a finger. “I don’t think I ever told you that I loved you.”

She stared blankly at him, numb with shock, until a cry of joy broke from her lips. “You do?”

He nodded. “Oh, yes.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered with laughter. “More than I ever thought I could love any man. I didn’t even know feelings like this were possible.”

Fletcher raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. “When I saw you in that noose, Jo, I thought I’d lost you forever. Then, I thought I was dying, and all I could think about was how I’d been wasting my life doing something that just wasn’t me, and how you’re everything that I want, and you make me see everything I want to be. I don’t want to lose you, Jo.”

Jo sat back, almost afraid to believe this could be happening, that he could be saying these things to her. “I don’t want to lose you either.”

“Is that a promise?”

“Yes.” She kissed his hand, again and again.

“But there’s only one thing that still bothers me about all this,” Fletcher said, frowning. “Actually, about you.”

At his words, Jo’s heart flinched a little, but she forced herself to speak. “What is that?”

He stared at her for a moment, looking reluctant to tell her. “Well…if you really want to know…it’s your name.”

“Josephine? You don’t like it?”

“Oh, I like Josephine fine. It’s the Mrs. O’Malley part that I’m gonna have a problem with. You see, I was kind of hoping you’d change it—to Mrs. Collins.”

Jo’s heart swelled with happiness as Fletcher grasped her hand in his and brought it to his lips.

“Will you?” he asked. “Will you marry me, Josephine? For
real
?”

Laughing and crying at the same time, Jo flung herself at Fletcher and planted her mouth on his.

“Ow! My side!” he groaned, peeling her off him and laughing. “Have pity on an injured man. I take it that’s a yes?”

“Yes,” Jo sputtered, still wiping at the tears that flowed freely down her cheeks as Fletcher reached up to kiss her.

“I can’t wait to tell Leo” she said. “He’ll be so pleased, because you know he thinks the world of you, Fletcher. As do I.”

Their lips met, and her mind spun with joy.

“Hey,” Fletcher said softly, gazing into her eyes with a love she never imagined she would ever know. Not in this lifetime. “I guess that old saying is true after all.”

“About what?”

He tilted his head and smiled. “A rose by any other name does smell as sweet.”

Jo grinned and leaned closer to touch her lips to his. “Everything smells sweeter with you in my life.”

And with that, he drew her into his arms, and the future, like the wide-open prairie, felt absolutely dazzling and full of promise.

Author’s Note

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed book two in my
Dodge City Brides Series
. If you haven’t read book one yet, please continue on for more information about MAIL ORDER PRAIRIE BRIDE. You’ll also find an excerpt for the third book in the trilogy, TAKEN BY THE COWBOY, which provides an interesting twist on the Dodge City setting, because we see it through the eyes of a modern twentieth-century woman who inadvertently stumbles across a portal through time. It’s quite an adventure!

If you enjoyed this romance novel, I’d love for you to check out my Highland romances as well, which feature rugged alpha male heroes in a Scottish setting. For more information about those books, please visit my website at
www.juliannemaclean.com
, and while you’re there, don’t forget to sign up for my
email newsletter
if you would like to be notified about future new releases and my monthly autographed book giveaway, which is available to my newsletter subscribers.

And if you would like to know when an ebook edition from my backlist goes on sale for 99 cents (or is occasionally offered for free!), please go to my
author profile on BookBub
and click the blue “follow” button. You’ll be sent an email whenever there’s a flash sale.

Thanks again for reading one of my books, and as always, happy reading!

Julianne

OTHER BOOKS IN THE DODGE CITY BRIDES SERIES:

Dodge City Brides:
USA Today bestselling author Julianne MacLean delivers three breathtaking and passionate full-length novels featuring rugged, alpha-male heroes of the West, all sworn to protect the women they love…

MAIL ORDER PRAIRIE BRIDE

(Dodge City Brides – Book One)

A loveless marriage of convenience on the Kansas prairie turns out to be far more than she bargained for…

HE’S PART OF THE WEST

Briggs Brigman has been burned once before, and the last thing he needs is a beautiful wife who will spend hours in front of the mirror, primping herself. He knows how hard the prairie can be on a woman, and all he wants is a stalwart bride who won’t complain about hauling water from the creek….

SHE’S A CITY GIRL WITH NO IDEA WHAT SHE’S IN FOR…

All Sarah MacFarland wants is to escape her fearful life in Boston and start fresh with a new identity. Answering an advertisement for a mail order bride seems like the perfect solution, until she meets her soon-to-be husband—a ruggedly handsome, strapping farmer who leaves her breathless on their wedding night. But is it possible that two tormented souls can find happiness, when all they know is betrayal, and when trust is the only way out of a tumultuous past that simply won’t stay buried?

(Originally published under the title PRAIRIE BRIDE in 2000)

“You can always count on Julianne MacLean to deliver ravishing romance that will keep you turning pages until the wee hours of the morning.” —Teresa Medeiros