Texas Lawman Read online

  “This is fun,” he said one evening, closing his arithmetic book as he finished the last long division problem. “I never used to like homework, but now we do it together like a real family.”

  “We are a real family,” Sarah said quietly. “We’re a mother and dad and a son, and that’s all it takes to be a family. In fact, just a mom and dad can be a family. It’s just more fun when there’s a boy around to make it complete.”

  “Like me?” Stephen asked, his blue eyes hopeful.

  “Just like you,” Brace told him. “You’re about as fine a boy as anyone could ask for.”

  “What if you and Aunt Sarah have babies of your own?” he asked.

  “What if we do?” Brace returned. “They won’t be any more precious to us than you are, son. And remember, you were here first. That makes you special.”

  “Wow. I never thought about it that way.” Stephen’s face glowed with pleasure as he considered that theory. “I think I like being special.”

  “Well, it’s past time for special people to go to bed,” Sarah told him. “You won’t like it in the morning when I get you out of bed before breakfast, and you’re still sleepy.”

  “I’ll get up as soon as you rap on my door,” he told her. “If you cook pancakes, I’ll even fix the fire in the stove for you.”

  “That’s a deal I can’t refuse,” she said, laughing at his offer.

  They climbed the stairs together, Sarah’s arm circling Stephen’s shoulders, Brace a step behind. And none of them was aware of the figure on the porch—a man who peered with a malevolent glare through the long glass window beside the door.

  “They’re all snuggled up like three bugs in a rug.” LeRoy’s face held a sneer that mocked the words he spoke, and Lester glared at his brother as the man reported what he had seen. “The woman looks like she’s got both of them eatin’ out of her hand,” LeRoy said, and Lester nodded, obviously agreeing with the theory.

  “She’s a fancy one, that Sarah,” Lester said, his voice lingering on her name. “I’ve been wanting to get my hands on her for a long time. Just thinking about that blamed Sheriff Caulfield gettin’ all the goodies she’s got to offer makes me sick.”

  “You want Sarah?” LeRoy asked, his jaw agape as he looked at Lester. “I thought you were causin’ all this fuss to get custody of your boy. And if you’ve got any sense at all, that’s where you’ll be putting your efforts, brother of mine.”

  “What are you talkin’ about?” Lester asked. “I’ve been doing my best to keep Stephen with me. I was trying to bring him home to meet the family. You know how big Pa is on family. I figured he’d be pleased as punch to see a real live grandson come riding up to his door. It might even be of benefit to me. He’s got all that land and cattle, making money for him hand over fist. There’s no reason why he can’t share a little of it with the three of us. We need to make a deal.”

  “Yeah, well, the first thing is to make things right with Pa,” Shorty, the second brother, told him. “You left home with hard feelings and Pa hasn’t got over it yet.”

  “What are you saying? That I should go home and leave Stephen hanging here, without me seeing him?”

  “Just long enough to skedaddle home for a short visit and set things right there,” Shorty said. “Let Pa know you’re going to bring home a young’un, sorta wet his whistle, let him think about having a grandson. You know he’s been sick, Les. This might be the last chance you’ve got to play cozy with him.”

  “I’ll have to think about it,” Lester said, ruminating over the idea of leaving town for the trip west. It could be done in ten days or so, he figured. And might be worth the effort. He’d have to make a decision right soon if he expected to make the best use of Stephen. If his pa died without knowing of a grandson in the picture, going to all this trouble over the brat would be in vain. For the first time he had a strong reason to go home to see the ornery old coot.

  And Stephen ought to be of some use this way. Maybe he could even persuade Sarah to go along. She was mighty attached to the boy, and Les felt the urge to spend his lust on Sierra’s sister. It’d be almost like having his woman back if he laid claim to her twin. Not for the first time, he regretted Sierra’s death. His damn temper had gotten the best of him.

  The atmosphere in Brace’s office was rife with tension, most of it coming from the man who watched Stephen with barely concealed anger. “So, you’re havin’ a good time parking your carcass with the sheriff and your aunt Sarah, are you?” Lester asked. “And I suppose you’re planning on living with her from now on.”

  Stephen looked up at his father with eyes that held a spark of fear. “I love Aunt Sarah. You know that, Pa. She’s always been nice to me, and she’s good to me, just like my mother used to be.”

  Lester laughed, an ugly sound. “I suppose she is. Two of a kind, they were. In fact, your ma would still be alive and kicking if she’d tried harder not to follow Sarah’s lead.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” Stephen said slowly. “But it sounds like you don’t like Aunt Sarah any better than you liked my mother.”

  “I liked your mother just fine,” Lester blustered.

  “Then how come you were always hitting her and being mean?”

  “Just when she had it coming.” Lester’s self-assurance was repulsive, his words those of a bully, and Brace had all he could do not to slam the man against the wall. That any husband should be so uncaring about his wife was foreign to him. The thought of harm coming to Sarah sent chills down his spine, and the realization that this brute of a man would think nothing of striking his sister-in-law, or even worse, made him all the more determined to be vigilant.

  “Who was the judge of that?” Brace asked, aware that his voice was cold and threatening.

  “Who better than her husband?” Lester asked with a grin. “She was my property, after all. Law says so.”

  “Not my law,” Brace said. “Every human being has rights, man or woman. And nothing gives a man the right to hurt another person, especially one he’s promised to cherish.”

  “Pretty fancy words from a man who’s been married for just a couple of weeks,” Lester said. “Wait till you get a taste of Sarah’s lying mouth and deceitful ways. You’ll change your tune in a hurry.”

  “Some things never change, Lester. The laws of right and wrong are set in stone so far as I’m concerned.”

  “Listen to the dreamer,” Lester scoffed. “I hope you come up with your head on straight, Stephen. You’ll find out one day that women aren’t to be trusted.”

  “I don’t believe that,” the boy argued, dodging the open-handed slap aimed in his direction. He looked at Brace. “Have I spent enough time with him yet?”

  “Yeah, I’d say so,” Brace said. “The judge didn’t set any length of visitation. This seems like a good time to call a halt for today.”

  “I’m writing notes on how long you’re allowing me to see my son,” Lester blustered. “This isn’t what he had in mind, I’ll warrant.”

  “Well, we’ll just have to ask him when he returns, won’t we?” Brace asked. “And that won’t be too long, Lester. I expect him back in two weeks.”

  “Then we’ll see just who is in charge of things here,” Lester said, shooting a glare of warning at Stephen. “You’ll find out who’s boss then, boy.”

  Now he turned to Brace, and his voice held a whining quality that made Brace wince. “There’s a family emergency come up,” Lester began. “That’s why my brothers are in town right now. My pa is real sick. His heart isn’t ticking away like it should, and the doctor is worried that he might not make it much longer. I need to go see him before anything happens. I suppose you’re gonna give me a hassle over that, ain’t you?”

  “I suspect the judge will understand that,” Brace told him. “How long will you be gone?”

  “Probably less than two weeks,” Lester said, his approach more accommodating now that Brace was willing to make the way clear for Lester’s trip.


  “You should be back before the judge arrives, then. But I’ll warn him. I’ll wire the man and tell him. Will you be leaving right away?”

  “Yeah. I figured on heading out tomorrow if you let the judge know.”

  “I can do that,” Brace said, thinking that Sarah would be happier with Stephen’s father out of the picture for a while.

  “Just don’t think this makes a difference in my seeing my boy, Sheriff. I’ll be back, and I’m planning on getting my son back. Family’s important to my kin. And a father has the right to raise his son the way he pleases.”

  Stephen watched from fearful eyes as his father left the office, slamming his way out the door and into the street. Lester made his way to the hotel, disappearing between the wide doors, and Stephen breathed deeply.

  “I’m sure glad he’s gone,” he said. “I wish I didn’t have to ever see him again.”

  “I feel the same way,” Brace assured him. “But we have to do as the judge ordered, son. Just one more visit should do it. And that visit won’t be for another two weeks. We’ll wire him and let him know about your dad’s heading home for a short while. Then if the judge comes in on Monday or Tuesday two weeks from now, you’ll have the last session then, and hopefully that will be the end of it.”

  “My pa’s real mean,” Stephen said quietly. “I sure hope he never gets a chance to hurt Aunt Sarah. I dream sometimes that he’s hurting her, the way he used to hurt my mama.”

  “Hitting her?” Brace asked, his every sense standing at attention at the boy’s words.

  “Not just that,” Stephen said, almost in a whisper. “Sometimes at night I heard her crying, and I knew he was being mean to her.”

  And just what that particular bit of behavior consisted of wasn’t too hard to figure out, Brace decided. The woman had not had an easy life, on any level.

  The trip home from his office was short—Brace on horseback, Stephen astride in front of him. The boy was thrilled with his twice-weekly ride on Brace’s black gelding, and had all but coaxed the promise of a horse of his own.

  “We’ll see what they have to offer at the livery stable,” Brace told him. “And maybe Nicholas has a three-year-old ready for a saddle. I’ll ask him when he comes to town.”

  “He’s got a pretty horse at his place,” Stephen said, obviously recalling his last visit to Nick Garvey’s farm.

  “Several of them,” Brace agreed. “But that little palomino takes the cake. I doubt we can afford to get that one for you, but Nick can probably find us something. He knows a lot of horsemen.”

  “Can we go there?” Stephen asked, looking over his shoulder at the man who held him securely.

  “Not today,” Brace replied, “but maybe tomorrow. I’ll see if Jamie can keep an eye on things for me, and we’ll all go out to see Lin and Nicholas and the children.”

  It was not surprising to see Stephen run pell-mell to the back door when Brace lifted him from the saddle, his feet kicking up dust as he burst through the entry.

  “Brace says we might go to visit the Garveys’ place. Maybe tomorrow,” he said, the importance of his news giving him unlimited energy. He danced around the kitchen, waving his hat in one hand, as if he carried a flag of victory.

  Sarah laughed aloud. “You are one excited little boy,” she said, reaching to corral him as he paused in one corner of the kitchen. Her arms encircled him and she bent to kiss his cheek. “That will be worth getting up for in the morning, won’t it?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Stephen said readily.

  “Where’s Brace?” Sarah asked, looking toward the door.

  “He went to put his horse out back,” Stephen said.

  “He didn’t take him to the livery stable?” she asked.

  “No. Said he wanted him close, in case he had to go somewhere in a hurry.” Stephen turned as the door opened and Brace appeared, his gaze touching Sarah as she placed a platter in the warming oven.

  Stephen grinned at him and made a statement of intent. “I think it’s right nice that we have a corral here and a barn for horses. It’ll make it handy when I get a horse of my own. I’ll be able to walk right out the door and pet him and brush him and everything.”

  “Don’t forget the part about cleaning his stall,” Brace said with a laugh. “There’s more to it than just riding the animal.”

  “I know,” Stephen said with an air of superiority. “I have to learn how to put on his saddle and bridle, and we’ll have to find a box tall enough for me to climb up on, so I can get up on his back.”

  “Well, you’ve got that right,” Brace told him. “But first we have to build another stall in the shed, maybe even think about a barn. As it is, there’s just about enough room for one more, along with the extra space it’ll take for feed. Hay takes up a lot of room.”

  “I’d say you’ve got a real education coming,” Sarah told the boy. And then she looked up at Brace. “Why don’t we make a lean-to on the side of the shed for your buggy? Seems like it would make sense to have it here.”

  “I don’t use my gelding to pull the buggy,” he said. “I usually rent a horse from the livery stable when I drive it. And I don’t use it enough to warrant keeping it here. I wouldn’t bother having my horse out back, but I’d like to know he’s handy if I need him in a hurry. A barn would probably be a good idea, now that I think about it.”

  “When is this big building project going to take place?” Sarah asked.

  “Well, not tomorrow, for sure,” Brace told her, shooting a look in Stephen’s direction that branded the two of them as coconspirators. “We’ve got some negotiating to do out at the Garvey place. It may not bear results for a while, but Stephen is about due for a horse of his own, and Nick will know the best place to find one.”

  “A horse of his own?” Sarah’s tone suggested horror. “Is he old enough? Big enough to ride?”

  “If I didn’t think so, I wouldn’t have mentioned it,” Brace said calmly. “He’s a sensible boy, and it’s time to learn responsibility. He can’t do better than learning to care for a horse.”

  “Maybe a dog?” Sarah asked, her voice breaking. “I’d think feeding and training a dog would be a good introduction to responsibility.”

  “We may just add a dog to the mix,” Brace said easily. “I’ve been thinking it might be a good idea, anyway.”

  “A dog? A dog for me?” Stephen’s joy knew no bounds as he burst from Sarah’s embrace and headed for Brace. “You really mean it, Pa?”

  Brace smiled and seemed almost to grow visibly, his shoulders seeming wider, his height increasing as he looked at the boy. “You make me feel like a million dollars, boy. I know we talked about being a family, but you’ve never called me that before.”

  “You mean, when I called you Pa?” Stephen asked, a grin splitting his features.

  “Yeah, that’s what I mean,” Brace said, his hand reaching out to smooth back the boy’s dark hair. And then, as if he had second thoughts, he reached with both arms for the child and pulled him into a warm embrace. His lips rested on the boy’s head and he glanced up when Sarah coughed and then drew her hankie from her pocket to wipe her eyes.

  “I like being a family,” Brace said with emphasis. “I’ve gotten used to it real quick, and having Stephen around is a big part of it.”

  “Thank you,” Sarah breathed. “You’ve ended this day with a good dose of happiness for all of us, I think.”

  “Nothing could make me more contented than eating our usual supper with my family,” Brace said, “unless it’s eating the fried chicken you fixed for tonight. Sitting down at the table with the pair of you suits me just fine.”

  “You cheated,” Stephen said, looking toward the stove where pale gravy bubbled in the iron skillet. “You saw Aunt Sarah put the platter in the warming oven when you came in the door.”

  “So I did,” Brace agreed. “And I noticed that it held a lot of fried chicken.” He turned toward the stove. “Unless I miss my guess, this pan has potatoes in it,
all mashed up with butter and milk, and this—” he lifted another lid “—this one holds a nice batch of green beans, cooked up with bacon and onions. I smelled it when I came in the door.”

  “You could tell by smelling it?” Stephen asked, sniffing the air as if he would sort out the delicious aromas of the supper Sarah had cooked.

  “Sure could,” Brace said with confidence. “I know good food when I get close enough to sample it.”

  “Sample?” Sarah asked, lifting a brow as she picked up three plates and placed them on the table.

  “Well, maybe a bit more than sample,” Brace admitted. “I intend to eat my share of it. That’s the benefit of having a wife who knows how to cook.”

  “I’m glad I measure up to your standards, sir,” Sarah said pertly.

  “More than you know,” her husband said, sliding his arm around her waist.

  “Yeah, she’s sure a good cook,” Stephen said agreeably, washing his hands at the sink.

  “Among other things,” Brace commented, dropping a quick kiss on Sarah’s cheek. “I’d say she’s just all around perfect.”

  “We had this conversation already,” Sarah reminded him.

  “Yeah, we did,” he said, smiling with satisfaction. “And I haven’t changed my mind one iota since. You’re as close to perfect as a woman can get.”

  “I’ve got some news for you,” Brace said quietly, stripping off his clothing, watching Sarah as she turned down the sheet on the bed.

  “Something I’ll enjoy hearing, I hope,” she said, fluffing the pillows and sitting on the edge of the mattress.

  “Probably not,” Brace told her. “Lester’s brothers came here to get him. Seems his father is pretty sick. I’m thinking Lester has ideas about feathering his nest. If there’s a chance of sweet-talking his pa a little, maybe finding out the financial ins and outs of the ownership of the ranch the family owns out there, he’s gonna take advantage of it.”

  “I think he had ideas about taking Stephen there in order to get in good with his father, in the first place, when he took him from us in Big Rapids.”