A Little Time in Texas by Joan Johnston Read Free Book Online Page A

Dallas did. “There’s an opening up there,” she said.
    “It appears so,” he replied. “Be careful. Don’t get in a hurry. That’s how accidents happen.”
    Angel crowded him, but he refused to go any faster. He wasn’t at all sure what he would find out there. Not that he believed it was going to be 1864, but who was to say whether those cowboys might not still be hanging around.
    “Wait here,” he said with they reached the opening. “I’ll go first and make sure it’s safe.”
    Dallas had been a lawman for a long time. He moved slowly and easily on his feet. His eyes narrowed as he searched the terrain. He listened. All his senses were attuned to any sign of movement. There was no threat to either of them that he could discern.
    “All right. Come on out,” he called to Angel.
    Angel’s heart was pounding as she steppedover the darkened threshold into the light. She caught her breath when she saw the landscape. It didn’t look familiar. But it didn’t look strange, either. “I can’t tell whether it’s 1864, or not. Can you?”
    Dallas was edgy. As much as he told himself he didn’t believe Angel could have been telling the truth, he didn’t like the look of the terrain. He told himself there weren’t any spring flowers here because there wasn’t as much shade on this side of the hill. He told himself the grass was probably dry because it hadn’t gotten as much rain. Everyone in Texas knew the weather was so fickle it could rain on one side of a road and not the other. But he didn’t like it.
    “Any suggestions?” Dallas asked.
    “We could start walking,” Angel said, “until we come upon something that tells us for sure where we are. I mean, whether it’s 1992 or 1864.”
    “I don’t know, Angel. What if—” He’d been about to say, “What if we are in the past? I don’t want to get stuck here.” But he had told her time and again he didn’t believe her story. So what was there to be afraid of? He could surely retrace their trail and find his way back here again. “All right,” he agreed. “We’ll walk.”
    This time it was Dallas who asked the questions.
    “What would a woman like you do for a living…back then?”
    Angel shrugged. “Most women I knew took care of their husbands and kids.”
    “But you never married?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “There was a boy I loved, but…” Angel felt the heaviness of heart that arose whenever she thought of Stephen. “He was killed last summer at the Battle of Gettysburg.”
    “Is that the Civil War you’re talking about?” Dallas asked incredulously.
    Angel nodded. “There isn’t much honest work for a single woman during a war. But I managed.”
    “Are you suggesting you did dishonest work?”
    Angel eyed him cautiously. “I might have stolen a steer or two.”
    “You were a cattle rustler? ”
    “Most recently.”
    “What did you do before that?” Dallas asked, almost afraid to hear her answer.
    “Picked a few pockets in El Paso, played some poker with marked cards in saloons in Galveston.Mostly I stayed out of the way of the war.” She paused a moment and asked, “Who won?”
    “The North.”
    She clucked her tongue. “It figures. All the signs were there. Did the Union take the South back?”
    “It did. And grew some. There are fifty states now.” But he didn’t want to talk about the Civil War. He had more important things he wanted to know. “Are you planning to go back to the outlaw life?”
    She shrugged. “Not much opportunity for a woman alone to make an honest living.” Her features hardened. “And I’d rather steal than make a living on my back.”
    Dallas stopped in the small circle of shade provided by a mesquite and turned to confront Angel. “Why on earth do you want to go back if the life is so hard? Why not stay here in the future?”
    “Is it any better for a woman in 1992?”
    “A woman can do most anything a man can nowadays.”
    “Are there any woman Texas Rangers?” she