Free Mail-Order Groom by Lisa Plumley Page A

as the door swung shut. Its hinges whined.
    Footsteps crunched across the gravelly ground.
    But they weren’t coming in his direction. That meant he hadn’t been spotted. Feeling immeasurably relieved, Linus sank against the rough split-log wall behind him. From the other side of that wall, the familiar sounds of the telegraph machine could be heard. But Linus didn’t care about that.All he cared about was that big colored fella—the one who was always hanging around the station, keepin’ company with Roy’s new “fiancée.”
    Releasing a pent-up breath, Linus shifted. He felt hot, tired and bored to tears with snooping on his brother’s latest mark. He felt a mite sorry for the ladies his brother romanced and stole from. But, as Roy had explained, those women were just dumb. They went for his scams willingly. He never forced them. That’s what made all the difference. At least that’s what Roy said, and Roy usually knew best. That’s why Linus stuck by him.
    Well, that and the fact that they were brothers, of course. Brothers watched out for one another. Especially the Bedell brothers. If they’d had a motto, that surely would have been it.
    Well, that, Linus considered, or else “shoot first, steal second, skedaddle third.” Feeling clever for having thought up that witticism, he chuckled. But he sobered quickly. Roy was laid up. He’d been hurt bad in his tussle with that do-gooder detective who’d been trailing them. They’d all been forced to hole up in a Morrow Creek boardinghouse until he got better.
    Because of that, Roy had appointed Linus as his second-in-command on this operation. That meant Linus had to buckle down. He knew his brother was depending on him. He couldn’t let Roy down. Now, thanks to what he’d just overheard, he wouldn’t.
    That big man’s footsteps grew fainter. That was a good sign. Shuffling sideways as silently as he could in his oversize stolen boots, Linus sneaked a glance around the corner of the station. The big man was all the way across the yard now, headed for the fenced corral and makeshift barn. Linus had already searched that whole area. He’d found no sign of the station lady’s nest egg. Now he smelled like cow patties,to boot. That just went to show—it wasn’t all wanted posters and high livin’, being part of the Bedell gang, no matter what anybody thought.
    Linus wished folks would recognize that. He and his brothers were just tryin’ to get by as best they could. They didn’t want to hurt nobody. But so long as chowderheaded ladies kept on fallin’ for Roy’s sweet-talkin’ ways and signing up for his marriage schemes, those swindles were going to continue.
    It was just like Roy had explained to him and the rest of his brothers: if they didn’t fleece those ladies, someone else would come along and do it for them. Sure as shootin’. So why shouldn’t the Bedell brothers reap the benefits themselves? Free enterprise was the American way, after all. Roy always said so.
    Newly reminded of his reason for being at the station, Linus cocked his ear toward the window. He held his breath. But all he heard was the telegraph machine. That meant the woman was still busy. And with that big man of hers off at the barn, this might be Linus’s best chance to get inside and look for the nest-egg money he was supposed to be getting.
    Don’t come back without the money, Roy had ordered in that stern, scare-the-pants-off-a-man voice of his. That woman’s sitting on a tidy sum, and I ain’t leaving without it.
    Ordinarily Linus didn’t like to disobey his brother’s orders. The whole reason they’d done so well in their business endeavors was because of Roy’s brainpower and good leadership skills. Until Roy had taken over, the Bedells had been truly down and out, with scarcely a sparerib to share between them.
    Now each of