The Lawman's Bride. Cheryl St.John
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perfume or fragrant bushes outside the window? She struggled to make the elusive memory clear, but it wavered and vanished.
All that was good and safe had changed along the westward trail when a Sioux war party had attacked their wagon train, and killed her father and her brothers. She and her mother had been taken captive. The chief had taken Sophie, adopted her and treated her well. Her mother had been given to a brave and had conformed to her life as a captive. She had advised Sophie to do the same. “You’re a brave girl, Sophie,” her mother had whispered. “Do whatever you must to stay alive.” Sophie had been following that advice all the years since.
They’d been in the Sioux camp five winters when her mother caught the typhus and died. In mourning her mother’s death, pain over the loss of her father and brothers surfaced, pain she’d avoided facing before. Acute loneliness had become her constant companion. To comfort her, the old chief had given Sophie her mother’s possessions, among them her mother’s gold wedding ring. Tek Garrett had taken the ring for safekeeping, that loss becoming the one regret she had in running away from him. She hadn’t dared tried to find it and suspected he kept it on him.
Sophie barely remembered family, scarcely remembered feeling loved. Her memories were distorted by time and anger. Getting up, she padded to the open window, drew aside the gingham curtain and peered into the night. The doctor’s house was one of the tallest in the neighborhood and afforded an expansive view of the neighboring rooftops.
The sky to the north was still hazy with smoke. Had the marshal bought her story? How crazy would it make him, wondering how that prisoner had been freed? The keys still hung in the lock, and the iron doors would be standing there when the marshals looked the place over tomorrow.
Damned sloppy job of making herself invisible.
Chapter Four
The next morning Ellie brought Sophie a pitcher of water and clothing. “You’re taller than I am, so I looked for the longest skirt I could find. Fortunately you’ll only be wearing it until you get to your dormitory.”
“It’s fine, thank you. Can I help you with anything this morning?”
“Just come down to breakfast. Everything will be ready in a few minutes.”
A short time later, dressed in Ellie’s fresh-smelling clothing and with her hair braided over one shoulder, Sophie found her way to the kitchen by listening to the chatter and following her nose.
The chairs around the table were nearly filled, and Ellie was carrying full plates from the stove. The enticing smells of sausage and coffee made her stomach rumble.
Ellie greeted her with a wide smile. “There you are.”
“Good morning, Miss Hollis,” the doctor said, standing.
The young men followed his lead and stood until she was seated.
Ellie rested her hand on a tall slender young man’s shoulder. “Sophie, this is my brother Benjamin.”
“How do, miss.” He was probably about seventeen, tall with bright blue eyes and fair hair.
“Benjamin.”
“And my youngest brother, Flynn,” Ellie added.
Flynn was dark complected, with brown eyes and a bashful, dimpled smile. “I’m having a birthday soon. I’m gonna be eleven!”
“Well, happy birthday,” Sophie told him.
“This little man is Nate.” The toddler hid a bashful smile in Ellie’s white apron. “And that’s David.”
The baby Ellie had carried from the room the night before was awake and sitting in a wooden high chair. He paused in drawing one stubby finger through a puddle of oatmeal on the scarred tray to give her a toothless smile.
“You have a lovely family.”
The doctor and his wife shared a smile.
Ellie handed her husband a plate of eggs; he helped himself to a couple and passed it. “After school Benjamin works with my husband. He’s going to go to medical school.”
“That’s an admirable goal,” Sophie told him.
“I been thinkin’, Ellie,” Benjamin said.
“What about?” She set a stack of pancakes on the table and Flynn immediately stabbed two.
“Guests first, little brother,” she scolded him.
“Oh. Sorry.”
“I been thinkin’ about studying to be a veterinarian,” Benjamin went on. “Instead of medical school.”
His sister paused with a tray of sausage.
“It’s an animal doctor.”
Ellie smiled and handed him the tray. “I know what a veterinarian is, Ben. I think you’ll be good at whatever you set your mind to.” She touched his hair in a loving gesture, and his lean cheeks tinged pink.
He leaned away. “C’mon, Ellie.”
“I’m sure Miss Hollis isn’t shocked. She probably has brothers and sisters of her own. Don’t you, Miss Hollis?”
Sophie set down the fork she’d picked up, keeping her expression placid. “Of course I do. I have a whole family back in Pennsylvania.”
“What’s in Pennsylvania?” Flynn asked.
“Boys a lot like you,” she replied with a practiced smile.
The rasp of a cranked doorbell sounded.
“I’ll get it!” Flynn shouted and jumped up to run for the front hall.
He returned moments later with Marshal Connor.
Clay toyed with the brim of the hat he held. “Mornin’.”
“Good morning, Marshal.” Ellie rose to grab a cup. “Join us for breakfast.”
“Oh, no thank you, ma’am. Just came for Miss Hollis.”
The impact of those particular words zigzagged an alarm inside Sophie’s skull. He’d come for her? Had he learned something? Sophie studied the lawman standing in the Chaneys’ kitchen. One moment she’d been swept into the family atmosphere and the next, familiar tension crept into her muscles.
“She’s having her breakfast,” Ellie said easily. “Have you already eaten?”
He glanced at the table, his attention clearly on the food now. Sophie relaxed a degree. He’d come to escort her to the Arcade, not to jail.
The doctor got up and scooted Flynn’s chair and the baby to make more room, then reached for Clay’s hat. “Make yourself comfortable.”
“Looks good,” he agreed and took a seat.
Ellie fried a few more eggs and poured him coffee.
“All the men are accounted for,” he told them.
“That’s good news,” Caleb said.
“That it is.” The marshal took a sip of his coffee. “But it sure leaves me wonderin’ how that prisoner got away. Keys were left in the cell door.”
“Do you have any idea how the fire started?” Ellie asked.
“No, ma’am. If the man had an accomplice, it would make sense that someone broke in and let him out. Someone might’ve started a fire thinkin’ there was a marshal inside and that the fire would distract him. But anyone halfway smart would’ve watched the jail and known where all my men were. Still, can’t quite picture DeWeise with a partner though. He didn’t seem the type. Just a freeloader, travelin’ from one place to the next.”
Sophie had never heard him string so many words together all at once. “Is it common practice to leave the jail unattended