Blessing. Deborah Bedford

She knew she had to start up Old Croppy and ride him right by those two lovebirds on the street.

      She kicked the mule once, and he bolted forward. She sat as straight as a new nail on his back, her knees locked around his bloated stomach, her hat pulled low over eyes that didn’t look anywhere except straight down her nose.

      The old mule walked right past Elizabeth and Aaron, his hooves sinking into the mud from the melted snow. Uley adjusted the seat of her britches in the saddle, knowing full well that she was covered with mud and mine dust. Would Aaron Brown stop her? Would he offer a kind word? Assuredly not. But still, for some absurd reason, her heart pounded as hard as a miner’s hammer.

      Old Croppy threw his head back, exposed most of his green teeth and brayed.

      She’d give anything if Hall and Hord hadn’t asked her to come back into town just now.

      Just as she expected, Aaron Brown gave her no sign of recognition. She stopped the mule in front of Campbell, Stahl & Company and climbed off. She didn’t have to worry about looping the reins over the hitching rail. There wasn’t much of anything that would make Old Croppy move. She knew he’d be standing in exactly the same position, right where she left him, when she came out of the supply store.

      Out of the corner of one eye, she saw Elizabeth Calderwood and Aaron Brown strolling toward her. She didn’t dare glance that way. She kept her eyes straight ahead, shooting in exactly the same direction as her hat brim.

      Men!

      She decided right then it was easier to just be one than it was to try to figure one out.

      * * *

      The first thing Aaron wanted to do when he saw Uley riding by on that mule was holler at her and run to her out in the street. But he couldn’t very well say the things he wanted to say with Beth standing at his side. He’d made Uley Kirkland a promise, after all.

      He didn’t like keeping secrets.

      He made a vow, right then and there, that he’d go after Uley just as soon as he got time to himself. He needed to offer his thanks when they were alone and bars didn’t separate them. She’d posted the letter that had brought Elizabeth to his aid. He wanted her to know he didn’t take lightly the things she’d been willing to do. Doesn’t matter whether I blackmailed her or not, he thought.

      All the while Beth chattered to him, outlining the plans for his defense, Aaron kept his eyes on Uley, watching as she swung one leg over that dilapidated excuse for a mule and tramped into Campbell, Stahl & Company. Now that he knew that a young woman was hidden beneath those nubby breeches and that shapeless sweater and all that mud, he could easily see her womanly features. Uley wasn’t all blustery and big around the middle like the fellows in this camp. When he watched her walk away, she looked all small and round and full of punch—like a fawn that leaped out of nowhere, turned its tail and bounded off into the forest. A gal, no doubt about it.

      Every soul walking along the street tipped a hat and spoke to Elizabeth.

      No one paid any attention to Uley, whatsoever.

      It made for slow going. At this rate, they’d be lucky if they walked two blocks before Otto Violet’s office closed at sundown. Aaron wondered how much of a turmoil Uley would create if she stepped out wearing skirts one morning? Skirts...on top of the silhouette he’d seen as she’d alighted from the pack mule.

      It was quite a thing for a gentleman to ponder—if you could call somebody on trial for murder a gentleman. Aaron decided right then and there that he’d like to see Uley Kirkland wearing yellow muslin. Yes, yellow it would be. The color would look just perfect with that red-honey hair of hers.

      Hair he’d only really seen once.

      Hair he’d been dreaming of, he realized.

      Before he and Elizabeth were able to move even a few yards up the street, here came Uley again, tramping out of the supply store, her miner’s boots covered with dirt, her arms full of trowels and buckets and little orange boxes of square-headed nails. She started shoving things into the leather packs on the mule’s back, shifting the weight around, pausing once or twice to eye the load and make sure it wasn’t listing to one side.

      She took up the rope and began working on the diamond hitch, working the hemp around and across and over so that the leather pouches wouldn’t slip sideways. She got up almost underneath that animal and started tying knots. When she did, she glanced up, and before he could look away, she caught him staring at her, as unable to draw his eyes away from hers as a moth was unable to draw its wings from molasses.

      Goodness, he should say something. But what?

      Hey, Uley. You’re doing a fine job of packing that mule.

      Nope. He could do nothing with Elizabeth still beside him. Elizabeth, who was nodding her head every which way, as if she were a queen acknowledging her subjects.

      He placed his hand on Beth’s elbow and did the only thing he knew to do. He met Uley’s gaze again. He grinned. And he winked at her.

      Aaron wasn’t used to winking at women. Just as soon as he did it, he felt himself go red in the face.

      She sure didn’t wink back. She glared out at him from between the mule’s legs, her gray-green eyes pinpointing him. She looked like a wolverine that was just about to attack.

      He figured he’d been crazy to picture her in a dress. With Elizabeth beside him, there did seem to be a big difference between a lady in a dress and a mud-covered young girl who didn’t want anyone to see who she really was.

      Father, came the prayer from his heart. You look upon hearts and not on the outsides. Would that You didn’t know the hatred for Olney that’s in my heart. Even in the middle of my punishment for it, I cannot make it go away.

      Chapter Five

      “I don’t care what I told you earlier, Miss Calderwood.” Otto Violet stared across the desk at both of them, little round spectacles perched precariously on a monstrous nose that looked as if it might pitch them off at any second. He pointed to the dusty red book on his desk. “I cannot find any defense in my law records for you, Mr. Brown. You have committed an actionable offense, and I believe you should be punished for it.”

      “But I’ve given you a retainer,” Elizabeth reminded him.

      “That you have,” he said. “So now I’m giving it back.” He slid the money she’d given him just this morning across the desk at her. “I won’t defend Mr. Brown. You went after our town marshal, sir. That is a case of public hanging, to be certain.” He thumped the book for good measure and sent whorls of dust into the air. “I’ve been thinking of it all day. I don’t like to lose cases. It mars my reputation. Therefore, I will not take this case at all.”

      “But you promised.” Beth hadn’t touched the money on his desk.

      “I don’t want you to worry yourself with this any longer. Come on.” Aaron squeezed her shoulders. “We’ve other lawyers in this town to choose from. I’d rather argue on my own behalf than trust someone with my life who doesn’t trust me.”

      She gathered the money into her reticule, and together they returned to the street. But Violet’s refusal to represent them had been a blow to her. “There are only two others to choose from.” She dabbed at her eyes with a perfectly folded linen handkerchief. “And of the three, Otto Violet is the best.”

      “I wonder,” Aaron said speculatively, “if Harris Olney is passing his own money around in this town.”

      For all intents and purposes, Aaron might have been a different man when he and Elizabeth marched into Seth Wood’s esteemed law office an hour later. He’d had his first bath in three weeks. He’d shaved, too. And he’d splashed himself with bay rum and had put on his very best Sunday suit. He hoped the physical improvements would make him look more defendable.

      He held the door open for Beth as the bell tinkled