Free WM02 - Texas Princess by Jodi Thomas Page A

he noticed a camp-re’s smoke drifting up from wel into the woods. Tobin walked his horse toward it. By the time he was close enough to see a campsite, he’d blended even his shadow into the brush and wrapped the bridle so that his horse didn’t make a sound. He guessed he was stil on Mayeld land, and it looked as if the senator had uninvited guests.
    Tobin would have assumed any camp this close to town was simply travelers, but the senator’s fear of trouble coming today made Tobin check. From the road Buchanan and his men wouldn’t have spotted the smoke. Whoever camped either was harmless or they thought they were far enough off any path to be noticed.
    The men around a dying re were rough with the markings of a band of Gypsies. But something didn’t sit right with Tobin. He’d seen Gypsies before, even al owed some of them to camp next to the bridge on McMurray land. But these men were different.
    He noticed the horses rst. Not old broken-down wagon horses, but fast mounts with good lines. Except for a pot of coffee near the re, there were no signs that the band had cooked or kil ed their meat. Gypsies lived off the land as they moved around. The campsite was far too organized to have been new. What kind of men build a camp and then don’t use it?
    There were no women about, or any signs of them. Gypsies always traveled in families.
    The last thing Tobin noticed were the ries stacked military-style. These men would not welcome a stranger. Tobin knew better than to walk into their camp alone. Whatever they were doing, they had chosen a site far from the road. They wanted no visitors.
    He marked the way to their camp with an old Indian sign his grandfather taught him as he backtracked to the road. No traveler would notice the marking, but Tobin could nd it easily when he returned.
    He kicked his horse, and rode toward town. A few minutes later he took the window seat at the boardinghouse café and watched people moving about a town just coming to life with business for the day.
    He’d almost nished his second breakfast of the morning when he noticed the captain riding in. Tobin wondered how he could have arrived ahead of Buchanan when they traveled the same road. Obviously Buchanan had stopped. Somewhere along the way.
    Somewhere off the road.
    Tobin relaxed and nished his meal. Buchanan must have been checking out the strangers as wel . Maybe they were some of his troops, out of uniform so they could guard the perimeter of the ranch.
    Watching the captain, Tobin crossed the street to the mercantile. Buchanan seemed nervous, strung tighter than drying rawhide. He not only had to guard one of the most powerful men in Texas, but the captain had to do it during a public wedding—his own.
    After buying a fresh shirt and a foot of ribbon, Tobin headed back to the ranch. One day, he thought. One day and he’d be out of this place and on his way home. He’d heard Stel a say that everyone in the wedding party would be moving to the hotels in town tonight. After that he could forget the second promise he’d made the senator.
    Both the senator and Liberty would be surrounded by every Texas Ranger, marshal, and sheriff in the area.
    Tobin could go back to Whispering Mountain and forget about them al .

chapter 7
    Y
    liberty smiled all the way back to the house.
    She’d done it—or at least she’d begun. Somehow she’d managed to climb on a horse and stay there long enough to learn something. Tobin McMurray had been bossy most of the time, but his touch had reassured her again and again. It was almost as if they were communicating on two levels at the same time. There was such caring in his touch and such formality in his speech. She sensed that talking was harder for him than the contact. Growing up in politics, it was unusual to meet a man who preferred silence to talk.
    She couldn’t make up her mind if she liked the man or not. Half their conversations seemed to be arguments. But when he