Chapter One

      October 1884

      Esperanza, Colorado

      The Denver & Rio Grande train pulled out of the Esperanza station, sending last night’s dusting of early snow into small flurries. They rose up to meet the white smoke streaming from the engine and leaving behind the smell of burning coal. As Deputy Grace Eberly watched the departure, she swiped away an unexpected tear and then glanced around. It wouldn’t do to have folks see their deputy sheriff crying like some silly girl. Fortunately, the only person left on the platform was good ol’ Reverend Thomas, who really wasn’t all that old, just friendly. He smiled and touched the wide brim of his well-worn black Stetson.

      “You’re going to miss your sister, aren’t you?”

      She stepped over to him and gave him her best deputy scowl. “You’d better not tell anybody you saw me cry.” Tall as she was, she could stare down on most men but stood eye to eye with the reverend when she wore her boots.

      “You? Cry?” He grinned in that annoying way of his that showed he wasn’t in the least bit intimidated by her badge, her gun or her height. “Not at all. I assumed you had some grit in your eyes.”

      She chuckled. He could always be counted on to cover for folks, especially her. Of all the people in town who might want to condemn her for being a trouser-wearing female peace officer, this man of God would seem the most likely. Instead, he appeared to understand her abiding need to hold outlaws accountable for their evil activities. When her next-younger sister, Beryl, had been shot by that no-account Dathan Hardison and his slimy partner, Deke Smith, the minister had been a great source of comfort to the family. Never once did he condemn Grace for crippling Deke with a well-aimed bullet. She could almost allow that his prayers above all others had kept Beryl from dying.

      Thoughts of her closest sister brought another annoying swell of emotion. Beryl had survived the shooting, went off to boarding school for a spell and then came home only to fall in love with an English dandy who’d come to town for a holiday. Now she and Percy lived in England, and the family would probably never see them again.

      To make matters worse, Grace’s next-to-youngest sister, Laurie, now rode on the train speeding eastward along the tracks. Once it crossed La Veta Pass through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, it would head north, taking her back to music school in Denver. Her short visit home had ended far too soon. Grace would miss her something terrible.

      With Maisie, the oldest of the five sisters, busy with her doctor husband and their new baby boy, Grace considered looking to their youngest sister for companionship. But Georgia walked around with her head in the clouds reading books all the time. Grace didn’t care much for books. Besides, at fifteen, Georgia was a bit young to depend on for a close, womanly friendship. With Beryl and Laurie gone, Grace had never felt so alone in all of her twenty-three years.

      Sure as shooting, none of the other unattached younger women in the area wanted to pal around with her. And, like Maisie, her married friends had husbands and children to tend to. But, also sure as shooting, Grace never expected to marry. What man wanted a wife who stood half a head taller than he did and could likely outride and outshoot him?

      Grace had watched the dainty behavior of her friends Susanna and Marybeth, who’d married the two oldest Northam brothers and lived at the next ranch over. She’d admired the gals’ fancy manners and pretty speech. Even Grace’s younger sisters had begun to copy those female ways, although they still worked the family ranch like men, as all of them had since childhood. But Grace couldn’t bring herself to act all silly and helpless around men. The cowhands on their family ranch would laugh themselves blue in the face if a giant of a woman like her ever put on such airs.

      Being tall and broad-shouldered did give her some advantages on her days off when she did her share of helping her folks keep the ranch going. She could buck hay bales all day long and had never seen a mustang she couldn’t wrangle, another reason men steered clear of her. What did she care? Weren’t a single one she cared to take up with.

      “Grace.” The minister still stood by the yellow clapboard train station. He’d been mighty nice to join the family in seeing Laurie off, but for some reason he’d hung around. Maybe waiting for a telegram. She could hear the clickety-click of Charlie Williams’s telegraph just inside the open window.

      “Yeah? You need something, Rev?”

      “Indeed, I do.” His waved a hand toward Main Street. “Mrs. Winsted’s daughter-in-law opened that new ice cream parlor last week. Have you been there?”

      “Nope, sure haven’t. Seems sort of disloyal to Miss Pam.” Never mind that Grace loved ice cream. She’d keep taking her noon meals at Williams’s Café.

      “Not at all.” His Southern drawl rolled out pleasantly on his baritone voice, just like when he preached his heartwarming sermons every Sunday. “In fact, Miss Pam can’t say enough nice things about Nelly Winsted’s desserts.”

      “That a fact?” She pondered the idea for a moment. “You don’t think it’s too cold for ice cream?” The October wind hadn’t picked up for the day, but there was still a bite in the air.

      “It’s never too cold for ice cream.” He chuckled in that kindly way of his, and her heart felt an odd little kick. Oh, no. She would not let herself grow feelings for the unmarried preacher. Every unattached girl for miles around wanted to lasso this handsome man and drag him to the altar. She would not line up and make a fool of herself like the rest of them did. Nothing would ruin her reputation as a competent, dependable, levelheaded deputy faster than her acting like a moon-eyed heifer.

      “Would you like to give it a try?” From the way he asked the question, Grace guessed the minister was looking for companionship, too, if only for this morning. Safe companionship, with no worries she’d try to hogtie him. She’d proved that to him ever since that time several years ago when he’d bought her box dinner during the church fund-raiser, disappointing a whole passel of girls who’d hoped he’d choose theirs.

      While