Daisies In The Wind Read Online Free Page B

lightening suddenly. “Maybe I should.”
    Rebeccah gritted her teeth.
Deputy? Over
my dead body.
    Again his gaze burned a hole through her.
“Would you like a badge, ma’am?” he drawled with a slow, lazy grin
that would have melted her heart if Rebeccah had let it. Instead
she steeled herself with every ounce of determination she
possessed.
    “All I want is my reward, Sheriff,” she
managed to bite out.
    He threw a quick glance at the dead man atop
the coach, pulled himself up for a better look, and then nodded
grimly to Slim and Raidy. It was Parmalee all right.
    Wolf jumped back down and ran a quick glance
over the other passengers, who were waiting as if for permission to
go on their way. “Anyone hurt?” he inquired.
    “Only that awful bandit, Sheriff,” the woman
in black bombazine piped up. “This young lady saved our lives.”
    Wolf touched the tip of his hat. “Then I
reckon she ought to get her reward,” he said. He took Rebeccah’s
arm. “My office is down the street. Come sign some papers, answer
some questions, and this business will be all wrapped up.”
    “Don’t worry, miss, I’ll set your bags inside
the hotel till you’re ready to fetch ‘em,” Slim called after her as
Wolf Bodine drew her along the boardwalk. “All you folks continuing
on to Silver Bluff—we’ll take supper and head out in an hour’s
time,” he announced, and turned toward the saloon.
    Ernest Duke’s distressed wail stopped both
Slim and Wolf Bodine in their tracks.
    “H ... o ... ld on! Slim, you can’t go yet.
Surely there must be more passengers. Where in blazes is she?”
Ernest demanded, his black eyes nearly popping out of his head.
    “Where’s who, mayor?”
    “Miss Kellum—the new schoolteacher!” Myrtle
Lee snapped.
    The driver snorted. “Oh, that one. Why, she
caused me more trouble’n a pack of coyotes. She turned tail and ran
after the holdup and shootin’ and all. Kicked up such a dust like
you never did see. Had hysterics till I agreed to take her straight
back to Helena. Reckon she’s headed back east where she come
from.”
    “But ...” Myrtle sputtered. “That can’t be!
We have a contract. Don’t we, Ernest?”
    The mayor scowled, thinking of the timid
little wren of a schoolmarm he had interviewed a month ago in
Philadelphia. She’d had such excellent credentials—too bad backbone
wasn’t one of them. “What good is a contract without the damned
teacher?” he grumbled in reply, and Waylon Pritchard threw his hat
on the ground in fury and stomped on it.
    “Tarnation. Do you mean I wasted my entire
afternoon as part of a welcoming committee for a teacher who ain’t
comin’? If that don’t beat all!”
    “Sheriff, what’re we going to do now?” Mayor
Duke demanded, as always turning to the one person he could count
on to think clearly in a crisis.
    Bodine returned to the little group,
regarding Ernest, Myrtle, and Waylon thoughtfully. The dark-haired
young woman who’d shot Scoop Parmalee hung back, though she
appeared to be listening intently.
    “It seems to me that if your Miss Kellum
didn’t have the gumption to stick it out until she reached Powder
Creek, she most likely wouldn’t have been much good for our
youngsters anyway. We need someone with a little starch to them, as
Caitlin always says.” A rueful smile touched Wolf’s lips. He shook
his head. “I reckon we’ll have to start all over again until we
find someone else. Maybe we could take out an advertisement in a
newspaper.”
    “That’ll take time—meanwhiles we’ll have
another winter with no schoolin’ for our young ‘uns,” Myrtle Lee
snapped.
    Wolf fixed his cool gaze on her flushed,
scowling face. “You could always teach ‘em yourself, Myrtle,” he
suggested, another flash of humor lighting his eyes.
    “Me?” She shook a stubby finger in his face.
“That’ll be the day. I raised six children and I don’t mind telling
you I’ve had it up to here with every one of ‘em. No, thank