The Coyote Tracker Read Online Free Page A

Pearl was accustomed to, but from all matters of form, Pearl had indicated that she was finished with the trappings of high society, with the demands her mother and the important women of Austin had placed on her previously. She relished her newfound freedom, or at least said she did.
    Maybe
, Josiah thought to himself before answering Pearl’s question,
she was rethinking her position on being a common woman, courted by a common man
.
    After all, he was not a proper gentleman. He never had been, and had never indicated that he had the desire to behave in any manner that was less than comfortable to him. Perhaps she was embarrassed by him, dressed in his finest clothes, though far from the likes of Rory Farnsworth in his neat black bowler, with his fancy Dickens chain and gold watch and tailored black suit.
    â€œI think you are a fine investment, Pearl. How could you think otherwise?”
    Pearl’s cornflower blue eyes grew glassy, and she looked away from Josiah. “This is going to be harder than I thought.” It was almost a whisper.
    Josiah ushered Pearl to a bench in front of the shoemaker’s shop. The smell of wet leather wafted out of the door.
    They sat down, and Josiah took Pearl’s hand into his. If she was uncomfortable, Josiah was ten times more so. He drew his own looks from those who passed by and knew that anyone with regular reading skills who kept up with social pages knew that Pearl Fikes had fallen out of grace right along with him. And then there was the suspicion, seemingly fortified by the public show of affection between the two of them, that Josiah had actually killed Pete Feders because of his love and desire for her.
    Josiah being concerned about his image, or what the public thought, was like a coyote giving up hunting and becoming a domesticated dog. It was an impossible act, and any wild creature could never be considered trustworthy anyway. What other people thought had never mattered to Josiah, and there had been few consequences of that attitude out on the trail alone or with the company of a few men. But that had all changed somehow once he moved to Austin.
    â€œYou’re not in this alone, Pearl.” Josiah had lowered his voice, too.
    â€œI know. But my burdens are not something you should have to consider. My family’s financial troubles are not yours to carry—or assume. You have your own problems.”
    â€œMy troubles are not what I’m concerned about at the moment,” Josiah said, cupping her face in his hands, the consciousness of the city falling away from his worry. “I don’t want to be anywhere but here with you, and I will shoulder what comes from that with a deep sense of good fortune. I’m happy you’re in my life, Pearl. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the way I do.”
    â€œI know.” Pearl nodded. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”
    Josiah had made sure that Pearl was mostly aware of his past, of his life before he moved to Austin from East Texas, of being married to Lily. Pearl also knew the sadness of the time with Lily, the loss Josiah had endured when his three daughters died from the flu, and Lily, too, leaving him to raise a newborn son with the help of a Mexican wet nurse who had come to Austin with him.
    Josiah knew, too, of Pearl’s past.
    Neither of them was without scars. Pearl had been married before, to a man much like her father and Josiah, a veteran of the War Between the States who came home a different man, then went on to be a lawman, of sorts, whether with the State Police or locally. Her husband had been killed by a stray bullet outside a saloon about the same time Josiah’s wife had died. They both had been alone for the same length of time, their grief and longing similar, but different. Josiah had loved his wife, while Pearl had told Josiah that her marriage was more of a way to appease her mother; she liked the man but was unsure if it was