The Jewel of His Heart by Maggie Brendan

felt when he’d left his family in Colorado, though it was his own choice.
    Eventually, he drifted off to sleep with the image of Juliana’s shining blue eyes floating through his thoughts.

8
    “Juliana, I’d like you to attend the Lewistown Ladies Social Club meeting this afternoon at two o’clock, and try your hand at writing an article for tomorrow’s edition.” Albert hunched over his cluttered desk, trying to decide what his headline would be. “I’ve been thinking you may be capable of more than just running errands and filing. Think you can handle that?” He paused in his work as she hung her coat and bonnet on the rack near the door.
    “I certainly would like to try. What is this about?”
    “That’s what I want you to find out. It’s a small group of busybodies, mostly made up of the town’s most influential wives. I try to give them a small column occasionally in the paper, mainly to publish what their next project for the town will be. It makes them feel good and puffed up with humanitarianism. But I’m thinking they need a female point of view for the column.” Albert’s eyebrows made a furrow in his forehead above his spectacles. “We want to keep them happy.”
    “We do?” Juliana detected a hint of truth to his humor.
    “Indeed we do. There’s nothing like a pack of women breathing down your neck. I think they’re up to something.”
    Juliana bent her head down, trying to hide her smile.
    “Where do they hold their meetings?”
    “At the church three blocks down on the left.”
    “That should be interesting. I look forward to it. Are you sure you don’t want to sit in on their meeting?” She giggled under her breath, walked over to the potbellied stove, and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Would you like more coffee?”
    “Wouldn’t mind if you’d pour me a fresh cup. I got busy, and this one is cold. The missus makes coffee, but since she brings it to me before I’m out of bed, I don’t have the heart to tell her that it’s weak.”
    Juliana envisioned a devoted couple from the few remarks he’d made to her, but she’d yet to meet his wife, Sally. Juliana and Albert had quickly become friends, and she was grateful to be able to work for him. She placed the chipped enamel cup before him and proceeded to her desk with her coffee.
    Suddenly shots rang out, making her jump and splatter her coffee across the desktop.
    Albert sprang from his desk and jerked open the front door, and Juliana was right on his heels. “What—?”
    A horse flew past them and disappeared in a cloud of dust, its rider hunkered down low over the horse’s back. Shopkeepers suddenly appeared on the sidewalks outside their storefronts.
    “The bank’s been robbed!” Glenn, the barber next door, shouted.
    Albert and Juliana hurried down the sidewalk to the bank, where a crowd was beginning to form. “Anyone hurt?” Albert asked.
    Glenn made his way through the bank’s front door. Juliana could see past him to the banker, who was lying on the hard floor, blood oozing from his side. “Someone go fetch the doctor, and hurry before this man bleeds to death!” Someone in the crowd ran to do his bidding.
    “Mac, can you hear me?” Albert knelt down next to the bleeding man. A moan was his only answer. “Do you know who did this to you?”
    “I saw the man.” A scared and white-faced man peeked out from behind the teller window. “Where’s the sheriff?”
    “On his way. You can give him your description.” Albert nodded to Juliana. “Get a piece of paper off that desk there and take down any information you hear.”
    She hurriedly found pen and paper just as Dr. Barnum hurried through the door carrying his black satchel. He nodded in her direction. Pounding up the wooden steps behind him was the town sheriff, slightly out of breath, his silver badge displayed on his leather vest.
    “Take it easy, Mac.” Dr. Barnum knelt beside the man and ripped his shirt open to reveal a bullet wound in his