Free The Cowboy's Reluctant Bride by Debra Cowan Page B

hesitation, Gideon shook it. He glanced at Ivy. “Did you tell him?”
    “I was getting ready to.”
    “Tell me what?”
    “Someone tried to hurt her earlier,” Gideon said flatly.
    Josh’s gaze sliced to Ivy. “Hurt how?”
    “By setting an animal trap,” Gideon answered. “The thing could have taken off her foot.”
    “Oh, my,” Meg said.
    Josh’s jaw tightened. “How do you know it was for Ivy?”
    “It was placed in her path, a spot where she would step down from the back porch.”
    “Anyone could step off there.”
    “True, but today is Friday. Laundry day. Anyone who’s been watching the house would know that.”
    Josh looked at Ivy. “Do you do laundry the same day every week?”
    “Yes. I have to keep clean linens for the stage passengers, so I work around the stage schedule.”
    Gideon scrubbed a hand down his face. “The trap wasn’t there yesterday.”
    Alarm crossed Meg’s gamine features as she turned to Ivy. “What exactly do these drawings show?”
    “They’re detailed illustrations of the house, front view only.”
    “Except for one,” Gideon said, his deep voice prodding her.
    Josh’s brows snapped together.
    “That one was a view of my bedroom,” Ivy explained.
    “Oh!” Meg squeezed Ivy’s hand.
    The sheriff stiffened. “How long has this been going on?”
    “A few months.”
    “A few months!” Josh exclaimed. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
    “Until four days ago, I didn’t feel threatened.”
    “What happened four days ago?”
    Gideon answered in a tight voice. “One of the stage line’s horses was killed. With a knife.”
    Meg gasped.
    Ivy blinked back tears. “So was Tug.”
    “No,” the other woman said softly. “I’m so sorry.”
    Josh’s features went stone-hard. “Someone killed your dog?”
    “Gideon and I found him a couple of days ago.”
    “Knife wound, just like the horse,” he said.
    “I want a look,” Josh demanded.
    Ivy nodded. “Tug’s buried, but the horse is in a gully on the back side of the west pasture. I’ll show you.”
    “I’ll do it,” Gideon said quietly to her. “The stench will be even worse than it was the other day.”
    After her close call this morning, Ivy wasn’t sure she had the stomach to see the dead animal again. “All right.”
    Meg looped her arm through Ivy’s. “Let’s go inside and talk.”
    Ivy didn’t want to talk about nearly getting her foot snapped off. Nor did she want to talk about Gideon, she decided as she saw her friend slide a sideways look at the big man next to Josh.
    As Gideon started around her, Ivy touched his arm. “Thanks.”
    “Sure.”
    * * *
    Gideon’s arm burned where she’d put her hand. That same sizzle beneath the skin. The way he’d felt all over when he held her earlier. Realizing he was standing there like a half-wit, he turned to Josh. “The trap’s in the barn. We’ll stop there first.”
    The lawman nodded, keeping pace with Gideon as they strode across the thick grass toward the barn.
    As he walked into the barn with the sheriff, Gideon recounted the story of where they’d found Ivy’s missing dog and the pup he had protected with his own body. He gestured to the whelp sleeping beside Gideon’s bunk in a crate. Ivy had switched the hay for fabric scraps.
    Josh shook his head. “It’s a real shame about Tug. I bet his death hit Ivy hard. She and Tom raised that mutt from a baby.”
    “That’s what she said.” Gideon wanted to ask more about Ivy’s husband, but he kept quiet. He didn’t need to know anything so personal. It was none of his business.
    Moving past the row of stalls and toward the opposite set of doors, Gideon led the sheriff to the wall where the tack was kept. Bridles, harnesses and bits hung neatly from nails along one wide section.
    Josh halted in front of the trap, his eyes widening. He touched the wicked metal teeth of the trap. “Hell, that thing could take down a bear.”
    “Yeah.” Gideon clenched his fists then unclenched