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“You’d better answer me, lady.”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll give these nice folks a show they won’t soon forget.”

“You think so? If you touch me, I’ll put a bullet between your eyes.”

“Tell me,” he thundered.

“Miss, why won’t you tell him?” the lady asked. There wasn’t a doubt among any present that the man was close to violence.

“Because I hate him,” she said simply, calmly and added a spiteful smile.

The preacher smiled as he glanced at his lady, obviously remembering some happening, something that was perhaps better left unsaid, while the lady’s cheeks grew in color.

Linc’s gaze narrowed threateningly. “Little brat.”

Abby laughed for the first time since she’d boarded the train last night.

“I feel sorry for the man who marries you.”

“As long as it’s not you, what do you care?”

“It won’t be my brother, either.”

“You don’t think so?”

“So you are marrying him?”

“I never said I was.”

“Why are you traveling alone?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but my companion took suddenly ill. She couldn’t come with me. And there was no one else. I couldn’t miss the wedding, now could I?”

Linc looked ready to murder her. His glare only caused her smile to brighten. Abby couldn’t remember a time when she felt half so happy.

Chapter Four

Arizona City, at last. The stage rolled to a stop. Finally, she’d be free of this detestable man. Abby didn’t think she could bear his company for another minute and never knew how she managed these last eight hours. Not that he’d spoken; not that she had, either. Still it was uncomfortable to be sure to sit next to a man and feel the animosity they both knew.

Abby was happy to be done with it. After being helped from the coach, she asked for her mother’s boarding house. “Excuse me, sir. Could you point out Miss Lilly Willingham’s boarding house?”

“Miss Lilly’s place is down the road a bit. Last house on the left.”

Abby with her one bag in hand, hesitated for a moment, before moving off toward her mother’s home.

Even as she did, she listened as the aggravating beast inquired as to his brother and the coming nuptials. Exactly who was his brother marrying? It was with a gleam of satisfaction in her eyes that she laughed and watched him follow her over the uneven sidewalk to the last house on the left.

Just outside the front door, the two stopped for just a moment. Linc grumbled, “I owe you for that.”

She laughed in defiance. “Oh, I promise there’s no need to thank me,” she said purposely misinterpreting his comment. “Indeed, I owed you.”

The front door opened, and Abby grinned at the sight of her mother. Her eyes wide with happiness, she asked, “Weren’t you going to come in?”

Abby laughed as she stepped into her mother’s arms and returned her hug.

“God, it’s been so long.”

“I know, mother. Too long.”

“So are you finished?”

Abby nodded. “Finished.”

“Did you decide yet where you’ll teach?”

Abby thought she’d stay on at the school in New York and teach there. Only she knew her mother wouldn’t be happy with the notion. Abby was sure that bit of news would truly upset her mother.

Of course, there was Bradley, her fiancé, to consider, but Bradley had offices everywhere and could easily take care of business wherever he went as long as telegraph service was close at hand.

Abby thought she might broach the subject of where she’d like to teach at a later date and shook her head. “Not yet. I thought I’d take my time about that.”

“Jeb,” Lilly called out. “Abby is here.”

Jeb walked to the front foyer and grinned. “I see she’s not alone. Where the hell you been keepin’ yourself, boy?”

“Still a big, ugly bully, I see.”

Lilly’s gaze widened with surprise. “You look just like your brother.”

She had her arm around her daughter’s waist, while Jeb had his around his brother’s shoulders, when he asked, “Were you traveling together?”

Abby said, “No,” at the exact same time that Linc said, “Yes.”

Jeb grinned. “Meaning you were, but she wished you weren’t. What did you do to her, boy?”

Abby smiled, thanking God and all the saints that she somehow managed to keep a blush at bay. “Do you think you could show me my room, mother? I need to freshen up some.”

“Of course,” Lilly said even as her gaze took on a knowing inference.

“It’s not what you think, mother,” she said as they mounted the last step and moved toward the bedroom that Abby would use during her time spent here. “We did travel together for a time, but I find him to be inappropriate at the very least.”

“Why? What happened?”

“Nothing happened,” she said with a bit too much emphasis. And then realizing her tone, she lowered it as she finished with, “I just don’t care for that type of man. He’s too cocky and overconfident for my tastes.”

Lilly grinned. “Is that right?”

“Don’t make something out of this that’s not there, mother.”

“I’m sure I wouldn’t think of it.” She smiled as she placed her daughter’s bag at the bottom of the bed.

“I am engaged, remember?”

“I remember. I thought Bradley would come with you. Isn’t he coming?”

“He is, but he couldn’t leave when I did. I expect him within a day or so.”

Lilly nodded. “That’s fine. Vinnie and Jack won’t be back from San Francisco for a bit. You need help unpacking?”

“No. Thank you. I’m fine.”

“Hungry?”

Abby nodded. “I’ll be down in a few minutes. Just let me wash up.”

Lilly smiled as she closed the door behind her.

* * * *

Two nights later, Abby sat at her mother’s kitchen table and blinked her pretty, dark eyes behind her spectacles. “Who won?”

“I did, sweetie,” her mother said as she gathered both the cards and the money at the center of her table toward her.

“I thought the sayin’ goes something like, ‘unlucky at cards, lucky at love’?”

Lilly flashed Jeb a smile. “Seems I’m lucky at both.”

“Are we finished?” Abby asked.

“Not unless you want to stop,” Jeb returned.

“Oh no. I think this is great fun.”

“I’m afraid I have to get up early so this will probably be my last hand,” Mr. Blake, the gentleman who rented one of Lilly’s rooms said.

“Oh please, Mr. Blake. Don’t go yet. I’m having such a good time,” Abby pleaded.

The cards were gathered together, shuffled and handed to Abby. “Oh, I think I’d better not deal. I’m not sure I could. Would you deal for me?” she asked Linc.

“Sure.”

The cards were dealt, bets laid and each party asked for two or three until it was Abby’s turn. She simply asked, “I’m sorry to be such a pain, but I keep forgetting. If I have a king, queen, jack, ten and a nine. Is that any good?”

All those around the table muttered groans of one sort or another as they threw their cards into the center, and to Abby’s delight, she was told she won.

They played a few more hands. Abby won three in a row. It was the last hand when she asked, “Is it a good thing if all the cards have that same little diamond shape at the edge? Is that called a full house?” Everyone, again with groans of despair, threw their cards into the center of the table.

Abby grinned and took the money. But before her cards were slipped back into the deck, Linc took them and frowned. “You could get shot for cheating at cards, you know.”

“Me?” She blinked and asked in all innocence. “When did I cheat?” She took the cards and suddenly, with nimble fingers, was able to shuffle them better than any dealer he’d ever seen, before laying them out in a smooth, perfect semi-circle near the center of the table.

Linc’s dark gaze narrowed threateningly. “You said you had a flush.”

Abby shook her head and grinned as she counted her winnings and, in exaggerated innocence, returned, “If I remember correctly, what I said was, ‘if all the cards have that little diamond thing, is that called a full house’?”

Jeb was laughing so hard he had to wipe his eyes with the backs of his hands, while Lilly grinned.

“I knew I didn’t make a mistake sending you off to school,” she told Abby.

Linc’s gaze narrowed threateningly. “I owe you for that.”

“Yeah?” she turned to sneer in his direction. “Why don’t you try and collect it, mister.”

* * * *

An hour later Jeb and Linc sat alone at the table discussing the ranchers and their problems. “It don’t take no genius to see someone wants them out. The question is why. What they hell is there to gain by it?”

Linc shook his head. “Something must be on the land or under it. Keep an eye out for any strangers, will you?”

Arizona City was a crossing point over the Colorado River for wagon trains heading into California. Immigrants by the hundreds came regularly through the town. Jeb shook his head. “People come and go all the time. That won’t be easy.”

“You’re right. We’ll just have to keep watching.”

“What’s with you and the little lady?”

“She thinks she hates me.”

Jeb grinned. “Does she? Now, why would a sweet little thing like that think she hates you?”

He shrugged. “’Cause a lady don’t admit to some things, I guess.”

“What kind a things?”

“Mind your own business.”

“She’s gonna be my step-daughter. Her momma ain’t gonna be happy to see her hurt.”

“You asking what my intentions are?”

“Mostly I try to stay out of things that ain’t none of my business. And I would this time, ‘cept for her Momma.”

“I’m gonna marry her.”

“Damn, boy!” Jeb said a bit louder than either had expected. His shock was obvious. “So what’s she so upset about?”

“She doesn’t know it yet.”

* * * *

Abby was tired. That man was so aggravating. He’d totally ruined this visit for her. All she wanted was to leave this small town and head back to New York. If she never saw him again she’d be the happiest woman alive. Only, she couldn’t leave. Not until the wedding. Abby wished her cousin, Vinnie, would hurry back.