Free Emmy (Gold Rush Brides Book 2) by Cassie Hayes

didn’t want his name added to that list.
    “Mornin’, ma’am. I’m Sheriff Mason Wilder from Nevada City. Me and my deputies here are on the trail of a known murderer and we were hoping you might have seen him and maybe his crew ride through this way.”
    The woman squinted at him. “You got a badge or something?”  
    “Yes, ma’am, I do. It’s right here in my pocket.”  
    He reached slowly into the pocket of his cowhide coat and just as slowly pulled out his shiny new star. A glint of light reflected on her face and she nodded.  
    “Well, welcome to the Dalton farm. C’mon, then. You don’t got no time to waste and you’re probably needing a bit o’ lunch right about now. You can water your horses over yonder.”
    She tromped back into the house, leaving the door open. Not wanting to put his deputies in jeopardy, he entered first to make sure she wasn’t going to pick them off one at a time, but she’d set her gun by the door and was busy at the stove, stirring a pot of something that smelled delicious.
    “Thank you kindly for the offer of lunch, Mrs. Dalton, but there’s four…I mean, five of us and we couldn’t put that kind of burden on you.”
    She waved her hand. “Nonsense. And call me Lill. My husband got a nice deer the other day so there’s plenty to go around. ‘Sides, it’s the least we can do if you’re aiming to catch that band of thieves.”
    Jake and David filed in behind him. He presumed Fred was taking care of the horses, and he tried not to care where Emmy was. He’d already wasted too much energy worrying about her when he had more important things to focus on.  
    “So you have seen them then?”
    “Oh, yes, I seen ‘em,” Lill said, plopping bowls of venison stew in front of the men. “They rode through here late last night when we was sleepin’. Ralph heard the chickens squawking like mad and thought it was a coyote or panther, so he took his shotgun with him to check on ‘em. Danged if a scraggly bunch of bandits wasn’t in there trying to nab dinner.”
    “What happened?” Jake asked through a mouthful of stew.
    “Didn’t your mama teach you never to talk with a full mouth?” David chided him, his own mouth full of food.  
    “No, but let me tell you what your mama taught me—” Jake shot back.
    Lill interrupted the boys’ banter by setting a plate of biscuits in front of them. “They pulled guns on Ralph so there weren’t much he could do. They took three of our fattest hens and skedaddled. I was peeking through the window the whole time, and I tell ya, those fellas looked as likely to shoot him as let him go. Kinda thought I was about to be a widow — or worse.”
    “How many were there, Mrs. Dalton?” Mason asked.
    “Told ya to call me Lill. I counted four, but it was dark out so who knows. The leader — the one who did all the talkin’? — was a fine lookin’ chap, all dudded up fancy, I could see that much. Had a big yeller mustache, couldn’t miss it. Then there was a tall one, taller than the leader but skinny. The other two were sorta normal lookin’, I reckon. That’s about all I got for ya.”
    “When they lit out, which way did they head?”
    “Pretty sure it was south. I didn’t see their horses, but I heard ‘em, and it sounded like they went south. Prolly don’t help ya much.”
    Lill set three tin cups full of water in front of them and they drank it greedily. Mason always forgot how thirsty he got on hard rides. It made him think about how thirsty the horses got, and was glad Fred had tended to them promptly.
    As the thought entered his mind, Fred ambled through the door followed by Emmy, who looked as miserable as anyone he’d ever seen. He could tell by her twitching fingers that it was taking all her will not to scratch herself bloody. He’d had poison oak before and he wouldn’t wish it on anyone. He moved to give up his seat to her.
    And then she opened her mouth.
    ~ * ~ * ~
    “Shouldn’t you be out hunting a