Page 4 of May I Kiss the Bride
“We’re going to be robbed?” she whispered.
“We don’t know for sure,” Rey said. “The governor received threats and has ordered lawmen on all trains heading into Wyoming this week. We might be lucky. Seems that the governor refused to let one of their friends out of jail, so this group of thieves have threatened revenge.”
Viola drew in a slow breath, neatly folded the telegram, and handed it over. She didn’t move, didn’t speak for a long moment. It was a strange thing for this woman to be sitting so closeto him. They somehow breathed in tandem, or maybe Rey was just aware of her every inhale, exhale, and the way her fingers interlocked as they sat upon her lap.
“What’s your prediction, Rey?”
“Truth?”
“Truth.”
“This train has a first-class car, which means more wealth packed into suitcases.” He paused and glanced down at her. Viola kept her gaze straightforward. “There’s a high chance this train will be robbed tomorrow morning by dawn.”
Her intake of breath was sharp, but still, she didn’t move. “And you’re going to stop it how?”
“By shooting first.”
She turned to look at him then, her chin lifting, her gray eyes flickering to his. “You think you can hold off a posse of train robbers by yourself?”
“I don’t have a choice. Unless you want to take over one of my pistols. Would you shoot a man, Viola?”
VIOLA HADN’T PLANNED ON SLEEPING; in fact, she’d highly doubted she’d be able to manage it, but somehow she opened her eyes in the middle of the night. The sleeping cabin was pitch-black—save for the swath of stars through the window. She’d purposely kept the curtains open since she wanted to see the train robbers if they happened to be riding horses alongside the train.
She had to know when to duck.
Which is what the sheriff had told her to do. When she’d confirmed that, no, she didn’t know how to shoot a pistol, and, no, she wasn’t willing to kill a man, he’d told her that she should plan on hiding beneath her sleeping bunk if the train was forced to stop. At the very least, stay below all windows if shooting started.
Well. It was quite a wonder that she fell asleep at all.
The train hadn’t slowed, and the steady chugging of the wheels upon steel rails hadn’t changed. So what had awakened her?
Pulling her robe about her dress, she climbed off the sleeping bunk and stepped up to the window. She had decided not tochange into her night clothes. If she were going to be robbed, it wouldn’t be in her nightgown.
The stars raced by and the moon seemed to bobble a bit.
Were they in Wyoming territory yet?
She looked toward her closed door and wondered about the sheriff. Was he awake, watching and waiting like he said he’d be? What if he’d fallen asleep and didn’t see the train robbers until it was too late? What was his plan? To stick his arm out a window and start shooting? Again her mind returned to the possibility of him falling asleep and then all havoc breaking loose.
There was only one thing to do.
Find him and make sure he was ready for his job.
Viola tied her sash about her robe, securing it closed, then she opened the compartment door. All of the other doors in the sleeping car were closed, and everything seemed quiet and peaceful.
She moved along the corridor, the floor rumbling beneath her. Once she reached the dining car, she scanned the place, only to find it empty. She headed toward the lounge with the benches where she’d first met Rey. The gaslights had been turned off, so it took her a minute to adjust to the darkened interior.
Rey sat in the same location she’d left him. He wasn’t stretched out though, with his hat pulled low. No, he was leaning forward, elbows on knees, as he studied the window. Through the window, the sky had lightened from a deep black to a murky gray. She guessed it would be some time before the sun rose, but the landscape was taking shape and form.
“You’re safer in your sleeping cabin, Miss Delany,” Rey’s voice rumbled in the near darkness.
She shouldn’t be surprised he’d heard her come in, but she flinched all the same at the sound of his voice. She walked to the bench and sat across from him. “See anything?”
He shifted his gaze to her, but she couldn’t see much of his expression on his shadowed face.
“Nothing yet, but that doesn’t mean nothing’s out there.”
His words sent a cool chill through her. He’d shed his rawhide jacket, and it sat on the bench next to him. This allowed her to see the two pistols in a holster strapped to his hips.
