The Wicked West by Victoria Dahl Read Free Book Online

With the lamps burning.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “And the curtains closed.”
    Her mouth curved into a sweet smile. “All right.”
    “Sleep well, Lily.” He left her, his heart still torn between anxiety and satisfaction, but this time, he knew he’d be back.

CHAPTER FIVE
    He hadn’t come.
    Lily sighed wearily and folded a towel over the plate of warm corn bread.
    She trusted that he’d meant to visit, but there’d been another shooting on a ranch in a distant corner of the county. Everyone in town knew he’d been called away yesterday afternoon. The shootings had been the only topic of conversation in town for the past few days.
    So she’d known he would not come to her bedroom the night before, but she’d still dressed as he’d ordered and waited in the hopes that he’d arrive back home unexpectedly.
    But it was dusk again, and he still hadn’t returned.
    “Let him be safe,” she prayed. She did not mean this to be a permanent relationship, but she had so much admiration for him. Sheriff Hale’s physical needs were the only cruel thing about him. He cared for people and looked after the residents of the county as if they were his family. He treated the ranch owners the same as he treated the lowest hands. It was a way of thinking she’d never seen in England, and it only drew her closer to him.
    How confident a man must be to treat his lessers with such easy respect. Then again, few people in America seemed to consider themselves lesser. Another thing she loved about this place.
    Lily glanced out the kitchen window, noting that it had grown too dark to see the outhouse at the back of her small yard. Hale still wasn’t back, and she didn’t know what that meant. Either success or disaster could have held him up, and no one would think to tell her a thing either way.
    She touched her hand to the pan that held the lamb pie Jenny had prepared. Still hot. If Hale did arrive tonight, she meant to take him a serving. But he might not arrive, and there was nothing more to be done.
    After wiping her hands on her apron, Lily tossed it aside and headed toward the small front room that faced the parlor. When she opened the door and lit the lamp, a smile sprang to her lips. The carpenter had agreed to begin work in two days. Then all the books she’d so carefully organized on the floor of the room would have a home, and she could open her little library.
    For a fee of twenty-five cents a year, anyone in town would be welcome to borrow books from her library. She hadn’t meant to charge at all, but the bank manager had convinced her that the townspeople were apt to see a free service as an act of charity. So she’d charge a fee for her lending library, and feel as if she were contributing a small thing to this community.
    The plan had only come to her a week before. If she’d known she’d need a library’s worth of books, she’d have brought more. But her four crates would have to do until the new order arrived. Children’s books, she thought happily. She needed more children’s books.
    Just as she’d settled into her chair to continue working on the ledger system she’d devised, Lily heard shouting in the distance. She sprang to her feet so quickly that her papers spilled to the floor, spreading out like water.
    The shouting died down. Two male voices passed on the street, the words too low to hear. Lily eased the curtain open and peered desperately down the street. Was Sheriff Hale back? Was he injured?
    He’d felt so strong when he’d put his calloused hands on her, so impervious. But he was only human, and a pistol would kill him just as surely as any other man.
    She thought she heard steps on the porch of his house but had no view of his door from here. Though she rushed upstairs to look, no light emanated from his bedroom. Likely, he was fine, only getting washed up after two days on the trail. But what if he’d been carried home? What if the doctor was washing blood from his skin?
    Lily paced. It