Longarm and the Missing Husband by Tabor Evans Read Free Book Online Page A

paying. He knew she had a limited amount of money and might not receive any more. Still, it was something that seemed important to her.
    â€œNow what?” she asked as they were leaving the café.
    â€œNow we go over to the railroad depot.”
    â€œThere isn’t—”
    â€œNo, there isn’t a train where we’re going. I want t’ leave my bag with the stationmaster. It’d be awkward to take with us.”
    Half an hour later Longarm led the way to the BARNES AND JOHNSON LIVERY, FEED AND HAY AVAILABLE . He’d spotted the sign the day before.
    The hostler gave Beth a skeptical look.
    â€œTwo saddle horses,” Longarm said. “Make sure one o’ them is good an’ gentle.”
    â€œYou can have your pick of what I got,” the man responded. “Ain’t none of them partic’ly gentle, though.”
    â€œDo the best you can, please. You know your animals so we’ll trust your judgment,” Longarm told him.
    The man eyed Beth again, standing there in her dress, and said, “Don’t have no sidesaddles. I got a buggy for rent, though.”
    â€œSaddle horses,” Longarm said. “Two of them. And a burro for a pack animal, I think.”
    â€œWhatever you say, mister. You’re the one paying the bill.”
    â€œI like that one,” Beth said, pointing to a tall roan.
    â€œThat one has some spirit,” the hostler said.
    â€œHe’s the one I want,” she insisted.
    â€œAll right, lady. It’s your funeral.” He stopped speaking and began to flush red in the face. “I didn’t mean . . .”
    â€œIt’s all right,” she said. “But I do want that horse.”
    â€œYes, ma’am.”
    Twenty minutes later they were ready to ride out. “We’ll stop at a mercantile and provision for two weeks,” Longarm said. “Then, well, then we will see what we can see up north.”

Chapter 23
    â€œDo you have any idea where we are going?” Beth asked the next afternoon. They had been riding steadily for the better part of two days and had not yet gotten out of the desert.
    Longarm shrugged, not really in the mood for conversation.
    â€œI didn’t even know that Wyoming has deserts,” she said, ignoring or perhaps not even noticing his lack of interest in talk.
    â€œNow you do,” Longarm said tersely. His nose was out of joint because the two of them had been thrown together night after night and Beth had gotten more and more casual about covering her body. Yet what she had was for display purposes only.
    She had that magnificent ass. Cute tits. A peaches-and-cream complexion that this dry desert air was surely doing no good.
    But a woman’s pussy was something that could be given away as often as she liked without diminishing it or its charm.
    Longarm was becoming thoroughly frustrated, to the point that he was seriously considering whacking off. Or asking Beth to do it for him.
    He wondered what her reaction would be if he asked her to jack him off. One thing was for sure—he needed some relief. He simply was not built for celibacy. He didn’t know how priests did it year in and year out. Young, vigorous men, too, some of them. Probably, he thought, they pulled their own pud.
    But as for him? No, thank you. Definitely not his cup of tea.
    â€œWe’ll stop for the night up here,” he said.
    â€œWhat makes this place better than any other?” Beth asked.
    â€œNot a damn thing,” Longarm told her, “’cept we happen t’ be here an’ not any other place.”
    He pulled their little caravan to a halt and helped Beth down off the leggy roan, then stripped the saddles from the horses and the packs from the burro.
    He poured some of their dwindling supply of water into his hat, watering first the horses and then the tough little burro.
    â€œLeave that be,” Longarm told Beth when she reached for the water