The Anonymous Bride by Vickie Mcdonough Page A

if Luke had any money to his name after being in the cavalry for so long; and even if he did, it wasn’t a cousin’s place to advertise such information.
     
    What else?
     
    A woman’s looks were important to most men, but character went a long way, too.
     
    Town marshal, 6'2", with dark brown hair and eyes, wants pretty wife who can cook. Must be willing to move to Texas.
     
    Garrett smiled. “That should do it.”
     
    Now he just had to decide where to place the ad.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 7
    Southern Kansas
     
    Carly Payton’s stomach swirled so badly she thought for sure she’d retch any moment. Her mount trailed a few yards behind the two horses carrying her brother, Tyson, and Emmett, a member of her brother’s outlaw gang. They slowly rode into a mid-sized Kansas town whose name she didn’t even know. She scanned the rugged wooden and brick buildings for the bank and found it toward the end of the street.
     
    She studied the town again, as Ty had taught her. Knowing the layout could well save their lives later on. Several horses stood tied to rails outside the saloon and the doctor’s office, while a wagon sat in front of the only general store. Few people ambled down the boardwalks of the sleepy town in the heat of the noonday sun. Carly swiped at a trickle of sweat running down her temple.
     
    A woman dressed in calico and wearing a straw hat held the hand of her daughter as they jogged across the dirt road in front of the riders. What would it feel like to walk so freely down the street of a town without concern that someone might recognize her brother as the leader of the Payton gang?
     
    She shook her head. What a hoot to think she could ever be a lady. Why, she didn’t even like wearing dresses anymore.
     
    Ty swung around in the saddle and glared at her as if he thought she’d tuck tail and run. She’d tried that once, and Ty’s threats to either shoot her or hand her over to the gang made her too afraid to run again. Sometimes she wondered if she’d have been better off if he hadn’t come for her after Ma died. At least she didn’t have an aching back from bending over a washtub all day like her ma had done—or cracked, reddened hands from hot water and lye soap, or blisters from chopping wood to heat the water.
     
    “Quit hangin’ back, Carly.”
     
    “I’m not.” She kicked her horse into a trot and caught up. She wiped sweaty palms on her pants, wishing she were back at camp, cooking up a rabbit stew. If Clay hadn’t gotten shot and killed last month, she might well be. But a man short, Ty expected her to take his place.
     
    They passed the sheriff’s office, and she yanked her gaze away, but not before she noticed half a dozen wanted posters tacked on the outside wall. Was there one on her yet? Or had folks even figured out that the Payton gang had a woman in it? She worked hard to disguise her feminine attributes during the two train robberies and the other bank heist Ty had forced her to participate in. From under her hat, she peeked back at the posters. She might end up famous with a bounty on her head like Jesse James or Belle Starr. How much would she be worth on her wanted poster? Fifty dollars? One hundred?
     
    As much as she dreaded the robberies, there was a strange excitement to them. Yet afterward, guilt ate at her so badly she could hardly eat or sleep. Her brother said there weren’t nothin’ wrong taking from other folks that had so much. Even their pa had been an outlaw before U.S. Marshals had gunned him down.
     
    They dismounted in unison, and Emmett held the reins. He hobbled between two of the horses and stooped down as if pretending to be checking its leg for injury. Getting shot in the foot two weeks ago made him too slow to go in the bank, so he was stuck tending the horses. “Make it fast,” Emmett said. “I don’t want anyone getting suspicious of me out here.”
     
    Ty glanced at her. His dark blue eyes looked cold as dusk in