The Law and Miss Penny by Sharon Ihle Read Free Book Online

stay throughout the entire summer and a good part of the fall.
    Moving at their usual snail's pace, the family still had a two-day journey ahead of them before they would reach Pagosa Springs, some twenty-five miles north of where they'd spent the night. There they would put on their first really "big" show of the season, and Mariah hoped to work Cain into the act.
    So far, she hadn't had much of an opportunity to train him. Her new cousin had gotten dizzy, and then passed out again shortly after learning about his role as Brother Law. When he'd finally awakened the following morning, he'd been sick to his stomach, and his memory of even the previous twenty-four hours had been sketchy at best. Zack and Mariah had insisted that the injured man remain in her bed until his brain had a chance to heal itself. And there he'd stayed, lying on the mattress in the medicine wagon for the past five days as the troupe moved north, Daisy lying on the floor beside him—little traitor that she'd become.
    Except for her dog's odd and very irritating behavior, this arrangement had worked out fine for Mariah. She'd begun her cousin's medical "therapy" immediately, sick stomach and all. Leaving him with a bottle of love potion she'd labeled #20, she'd instructed him to swallow one teaspoon upon awakening and another each night after supper. Now, a week later, he had just under half a bottle left, but she still had no idea if the potion was working. Perhaps, Mariah thought, she ought to double the dosage. Either that, or make the next bottle "double strength." He certainly seemed physically strong enough to handle more medicine.
    This morning, Mariah thought Cain had awakened especially full of vigor and energy, bright-eyed and confident of his physical condition, if not his mental abilities. He was, for all purposes, a clean slate just waiting for her to inscribe the missing information. She planned to begin filling it the moment the medicine show pulled out of camp.
    The troupe, including Cain, decided to split the mules from here on out, leaving one to draw the medicine wagon with Zack and Oda aboard, and the other to haul the supply cart. Cain had assured everyone that he was more than able to handle the second rig, and Mariah decided that it would serve two purposes if she were to ride beside him. First, she'd be there to take control of the cart if Cain should fall dizzy again. Second, and even more important, it was way past time for Brother Law's lessons to begin.
    While Zack and Oda packed the tent, Mariah put the pots and pans they'd used for the breakfast meal into a storage slot at the back of the supply wagon, and then wandered down the gently sloping hillside to the river, where Cain was putting himself together for the journey. She found him at water's edge, wearing nothing but a clean pair of snug-fitting jeans and his boots. His back was to her, his hands busy adjusting the small mirror he'd propped between the branches of a young pine. On a lower, thicker branch, he'd set a tin cup filled with shaving foam.
    Mariah continued to approach him from behind, gliding through the sweet spring grass on her moccasined feet as if she were nothing more than a gentle breeze. When she'd gotten as close to Cain as she dared without him catching her reflection in his mirror, she paused and watched while he lathered his face. His beard had grown thick and full over the past week, and if not for its deep rust color, she probably wouldn't have noticed that his hair was auburn, not dark brown as she'd first thought. It was particularly nice hair, coarse and wavy, a little longer, she thought, than he'd have worn it as a lawman, but not nearly long enough for his role as Brother Law. No, for that dramatic part, he would need to let those thick waves grow until they skimmed the tops of his shoulders, at the least.
    Cain dipped the shaving brush back into the tin cup and swirled it vigorously, drawing her attention to his magnificent, broad