Free Steel Heart (Historical Western Romance) (Longren Family series #2, Chloe and Matthew's story) by Amelia Rose Page B

street, couldn't see past the wagons and boards and horses and people and a carriage was coming.  Ow, Matthew." 
                  He'd squeezed my hand quite hard. 
                  "Someone pulled me back, some older man who was visiting his daughter, a caretaker from a ranch down in the valley.  He didn't see who pushed me, but he saw me lurch in front of the carriage and he pulled me back."
                  "You're not hurt?"  He almost made it a statement.
                  "No, I'm not," I agreed.  "But angry."  I met his eyes.  "The carriage belonged to Mrs. Hastings.  I came to Virginia City today to talk to Maggie.  I thought maybe—"
                  He shook his head.  "That Violet's mother wanted to run you down?"
                  "Or that Violet pushed me.  When the carriage stopped, I didn't see her in it but Mrs. Hastings didn't bother to get out and then, when the carriage went on, after their retainer replaced my parcels, she was there."  I spread my hands, waiting for him to see my logic.
                  "Violet is assured of her own beauty," Matthew said, despite the fact I hissed at him.  "And she is quite beautiful.  Stop that.  She is.  You know she is.  She likes to campaign for the unobtainable."
                  I stared.
                  "I don't think Violet Hastings ever really thought I was going to choose her.  I think, if she had thought it, she'd have run a mile to avoid it."
                  That was an image.  Violet was dainty, the type of girl who never had a hair out of place.  I couldn't imagine her running across the room to welcome her husband, let alone a mile.
                  "When I told her I was going to ask you to be my wife, she was completely willing to offer advice."  He met my eyes.  "I can't imagine she'd try to harm you.  And the burning—"
                  "—The burning came before I was hit," I said.  "Though, perhaps…"
                  "Perhaps, nothing.  Let's not imagine there are so many girls pining for me and willing    to—” He’d started lightly but ended somber.  "Willing to hurt the one I love."
     
                  In the interlude, before Maggie and Hutch came back, before we realized we needed to find Sheriff Gannon and tell him what we suspected, what I now remembered seeing and the face that was falling into place, in that interlude we made the most of our time together in the empty kitchen, hands and mouths and eyes, touches and kisses and whispered plans.  We'd marry in spring.  We'd marry in summer.  We'd marry the next day and, in the meantime, as long as we were going to marry, why didn't we—
                  "You were the one who went away last night," I reminded him.
                  "Sometimes, I have no sense," he admitted.
                  "May I get that in writing?"
                  "Wench."

Chapter 6
     
                  Sheriff Rick Gannon was actually in his office when we went there sometime later.  The potbelly stove put off a welcome heat.
                  "Is the Queen on fire again?" he asked when we came through the door.
                  "Not yet," Matthew said.  "And maybe not again."
                  Rick Gannon looked from Matthew to me.  "Did you remember something?"
                  "I know who hit me," I said.  There was nowhere to sit in the Sheriff's Office and I felt like a schoolgirl, called upon to recite.  My hands automatically laced in front of me.  "And why I couldn't place the face.  She was dressed like a man."
                  The Sheriff started, moving forward in his chair but not quite coming to his feet.  " She ?"
                  "It's Elizabeth Seth, Sheriff," I