The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,52

he struggled for an answer she would be willing to hear. Would she accept the truth of what was in his heart, or should he simply lie and let her go when they returned to Mudhen Crossing? The latter thought didn’t bear consideration. This small person had become fixed in his heart.

He looked up. “You never told me your name.”

Caitie rolled her eyes and tucked her buckskin tunic a little tighter around her knees. “Yer not about askin’ me to believe ye’ve came all this way, fightin’ outlaws and Indians just to be askin’ me name.”

Joe hid a grin. “I might.”

Caitie frowned. “I’ll be wantin’ the truth.”

“You might not be wantin’ to hear it,” Joe said, mimicking her mode of speech to perfection.

Her nose tilted upward just the tiniest bit. “The truth is best, even if it’s sometimes painful.”

“Then hear this,” Joe said. “At first I came after you because I felt I owed it to you. But I kept looking because I didn’t want to lose you, girl.”

“My name is Caitlin O’Shea. My family called me Caitie.”

“I didn’t want to lose you, Caitie O’Shea.”

Her heart thumped twice in rapid succession. This sounded awfully like a declaration of love.

“And why would that be?”

He looked away. If she said no, it would kill him.

She wouldn’t be swayed. “I’m waitin’, I am.”

He stood and Caitie resisted the urge to run. He was so terribly big and intimidating.

“I had in mind that you and I… that maybe we could—”

She jumped to her feet. With nothing between them but a small campfire, she doubled her fists.

“Ye’ll be comin’ no further, Joe Redhawk. I’m not about sleepin’ with a man unless we’re wed.”

Joe grinned. The perfect opening.

“Then, Caitie O’Shea, I wonder if you’d consider coming with me to Lizard Flats.”

“Why? What’ll there be in Lizard Flats that’s not in Mudhen Crossing?”

“A preacher. A real one from back East. I thought if you were a mind to, maybe we could get hitched.”

Caitie gasped. This man was offering her his hand in marriage. It was an enticing, yet frightening thought.

“Horses are hitched. It’s people who be gettin’ wed,” she muttered.

Joe scooped her up into his arms. “Oh hell, girl. Anyway you say it, it still comes out the same. Will you be my wife?”

Caitie grinned. “I’ll be givin’ ye many fine sons,” she offered, mimicking the demand of her weak-eyed captor.

Joe Redhawk laughed.

The next day, they struck out for Lizard Flats.

Eulis was standing at the end of the bar near the back wall, watching for the odd customer who left without finishing a drink. It was his job to clear the tables. He considered it his right to finish off the liquor before Will the Bartender wiped out the glasses, and the way business was booming tonight, he had started hoarding the dregs in a jar in the back which he could drink later after he’d swept up the floor. No sense making Will angry by passing out before he’d done his job. Will might cut him off from his three free drinks, and then what would he do on the nights when business was slow?

A tall, scrawny man was sitting at the far table with his back to the wall. Eulis watched as the man suddenly laid down the hand of cards he was holding. He rolled the unlit cigar in his mouth from one corner to the other, then leaned forward and raked the coins on the table toward him.

As far as Eulis knew, the man had been at that table for almost thirty-six hours. Except for the times when he’d gotten up to relieve himself, he hadn’t budged. And he hadn’t seem him lose. Either the man was the best card player to come to Lizard Flats, or he was a damned good cheat. Eulis thought about telling him what had happened to the last gambler who’d come into town, then decided to mind his own business.

Suddenly, one of the men at the table jumped up with a shout and threw down the cards in his hand.

“You cheatin’ bastard! You couldn’t have a full house. Not unless this deck has five kings.”

Before anyone could think what might come next, the man standing had a gun in his hand and put a bullet between the gambler’s eyes.

Eulis flinched.

“God all mighty,” he muttered, and made a run for the back room as the place erupted.

Upstairs, Letty was in the act of pocketing her dollar from the last man she’d pleasured when she heard the shot. The