Cowboy Lawman's Christmas Reunion. Louise Gouge M.

Chapter Thirteen

       Chapter Fourteen

       Chapter Fifteen

       Extract

       Copyright

       Chapter One

      Friday, October 14, 1887

      Esperanza, Colorado

      Sheriff Justice Gareau ducked around the corner of the Esperanza train depot, hoping he hadn’t been spotted by the woman who’d stepped off the train. He felt downright foolish. Usually people hid from him if they’d done something wrong, and he sure hadn’t done anything wrong. No, it was that woman who’d done wrong by him and ruined his life. Well, ruined was perhaps too harsh a word, because he had a pretty good life these days. But she’d sure broken his heart. A heart he was determined never to give to a woman ever again.

      What was Evangeline Benoit doing in this remote Colorado town anyway? And why did her sudden appearance turn him into a bumbling chump? Because once, long ago back in New Orleans, she’d been his childhood sweetheart and, eventually, his fiancée. Only she’d broken their engagement to marry a wealthy older man the very day Justice needed her most.

      He wondered if she’d come looking for him. Perhaps Lucius Benoit wasn’t supporting her in the style she’d chosen over what Justice could have given her as the son of a bankrupt businessman.

      “Howdy, Sheriff.” Charlie Williams, the telegraph operator, walked toward him, carrying some of his wife Pam’s wild gooseberry pie. Pam ran the Williams’s Café, where Justice ate most of his meals, unless somebody took pity on his bachelor status and invited him to dinner. How he kept from getting fat and lazy on her fine cooking was a mystery to him. “You waiting for me?”

      “Nope. Just holding up this wall.” Justice leaned one hand against the yellow clapboard siding and gave Charlie a practiced easy grin, one he’d learned from his mentor in the Texas Rangers, where he’d served for four years before coming to Colorado. “Seemed a little wobbly after all that wind yesterday.”

      Charlie chuckled. “You let me know if you need anything.” He entered the building and closed the door.

      Justice pulled his tan Stetson lower over his eyes and stuck his head around the corner to see which direction Mrs. Benoit—he couldn’t allow himself to call her Evangeline, since she was another man’s wife—had gone. To his disappointment, or so he told himself, she still stood on the platform and was now enfolded in the arms of Mrs. Susanna Northam.

      “Hey, Sheriff.” Nate Northam clapped Justice on the shoulder, nearly startling him out of his wits. “What’re you doing? Holding up that wall?”

      Once again, Justice managed an indifferent shrug. “Just meeting the morning train, as usual.” Which didn’t make sense even to him, seeing as how he was hiding around the corner from said train.

      Not fooled at all, Nate laughed, and his green eyes lit up with humor. As the eldest son of town founder Colonel Frank Northam, he ran Four Stones Ranch with his brother Rand, while their youngest brother, Bartholomew, owned the law office next to the jailhouse.

      “Come meet my wife’s cousin.” Nate took hold of Justice’s arm, as only a close friend would do to a lawman, and urged him forward.

      Susanna’s cousin. Justice’s feet refused to move toward her, while his mind raced wildly in the other direction. In all of the Lord’s beautiful creation, couldn’t He have sent Justice some other place than one where he’d eventually be forced to meet up with Evangeline...Mrs. Benoit?

      “Now, come on, before Susanna scolds me for being late.” Nate gave Justice a little shove. “Besides, you know my sweet wife will be trying to find a husband for her widowed cousin, so you may as well be first in line so you can beat out all the cowboys in these parts.”

      “Uh, no.” Justice dug the heels of his boots into the boardwalk and tried to twist away. “I’m not planning to get married anytime soon.” So Evangeline was a widow. What happened to the wily old rascal who’d turned her head and stolen her heart with his riches?

      Nate laughed again. “That’s what we all said, all of us used-to-be confirmed bachelors.” Somehow he managed to force Justice’s feet forward. “Come on. Let’s get this over with. I’ll try to make it as painless as possible for you.”

      No matter what Nate said, seeing Evangeline again could only bring pain. He had no choice though, what with a man nearly as tall and every bit as brawny as he pushing him toward his doom. He tugged his hat down farther in the futile hope she wouldn’t recognize him. After all, eleven years was a long time. He’d added a few inches in height and considerably more in shoulder width. Maybe—

      “We’re here, Susanna.” Releasing Justice, Nate bent down to give his pretty little wife a peck on the cheek before turning to Evangeline. “And you must be our cousin from New Orleans.” Yankee though he was, he bowed over her offered hand with the grace of a Southern gentleman. “We’re mighty pleased to have you come to stay with us.”

      “Thank you, Nathaniel.” Her musical voice generated bittersweet memories for Justice.

      While the others traded the usual pleasantries, Justice peeked out from under the brim of his hat. Up close like this, she appeared much more womanly than the seventeen-year-old girl who’d jilted him, but every bit as beautiful, maybe even more so. Her blond hair, swept up in a fancy do and topped with a stylish brown hat, still looked like spun honey. Her once bright blue eyes, however, wore a tired look that bespoke more than travel weariness. Behind her, a flaxen-haired girl and a sandy-haired boy watched her anxiously. Her children? Only one way to find out. Justice nudged Nate, who grinned, obviously misunderstanding his intent. He was concerned about an old friend, nothing more.

      “Cousin Evangeline, I’d like to present Sheriff Justice Gareau, one of our town’s most eligible bachelors.”

      “Nate!” Susanna smacked his arm and laughed. “For shame. If you’re trying to help me with my matchmaking, at least be a little subtler.”

      While she spoke, Evangeline’s ivory complexion grew even paler, those blue eyes widened and, before Justice could catch her, she dropped in a heap on the wooden platform.

      * * *

      Even in her hazy awareness, Evangeline understood at last why she’d come to Esperanza. The Lord hadn’t sent her to Susanna to escape justice, but to encounter Justice. But how had he known where she was? How had he arrived here before her? What irony. Her creditors had sent the only man she’d ever loved to arrest her. And from the stern look she’d seen on his face before she fainted, he felt no pity for her, despite his youthful declarations of love. She couldn’t blame him. Papa had forbidden her to see him, had broken their engagement himself so she’d had no chance to explain herself to Justice. Nor had Justice come to rescue her, despite her plea through his father, proving his love for her had turned cold. Ah, yes, my dear. The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Or so Lucius had often told her as he’d traipsed off to enjoy his many vices.

      The sound of sobbing reached her ears. Her poor children. Evangeline forced herself to awaken even as heat flooded her face. She’d fainted few times in her life and then only because Lucius had... She would not think about those frightening times. Lucius was gone forever, and now she must face the cruel future he’d laid out before her. At least her children would have a home with their cousin after Justice arrested her.

      “Evie. Evie, dear.” Susanna’s plaintive voice cut through Evangeline’s muddled musings. “Oh, Nate, do something.”

      But