Free Outlaw Bride (Lawmen and Outlaws) by Tanya Hanson

discomposed him, his hand ached with emptiness. While her chair peeped like a chick when she sat down, his groaned against his strength and weight. He sat careful of moving too much on the decrepit furniture. Sure enough, that reward money from turning in Ahab Perkins would come in handy for this good nun and her establishment. Surely Jessy Belle would see the sense.
    Especially since she’d told him she’d turned respectable now. If he loved her, he had to believe her. And he was fast thinking he did both.
    “Child, it seems you have things to say.” Sister Adelaide took her own chair behind a long table, old but polished and carved with flower buds up the legs. After she poured water from a pitcher, Jessy Belle spent some time drinking. Redd shook his head at the refreshment.
    “Indeed, she does, Sister,” he said instead, but Adelaide waved her hand to shut him up. Like nuns in school had when he’d spoken out of turn. His cheekbones burned.
    “Jessy Belle, Redd has explained how he found you and why you were in such desperate circumstances. How you managed to survive. I am grateful you still have life, God be praised.” Adelaide waggled her fingers, looked Jessy Belle straight on. “But the fact is, we now know your true identity. And you are wanted by the law.”
    “Oh, no, Sister. I’ve changed. I truly have changed. Mister Redd will tell you. I came clean.”
    “But only after he found you out. Did you come to me, to us, with false pretences?”
    Jessy Bell’s pretty forehead wrinkled like a lakebed fried from drought, cheeks fired bright as dawn. “I did. I wasn’t addle-pated at all. But I was scared. I....” She breathed hard, stared at her toes. Redd’s righteous urge to protect flared up again. “The thing is. Ahab has collaborators and fanatics everywhere. After those fool dime novels, some folks admire him. I...had to make sure. And I knew I’d be safe here.”
    Sister Adelaide’s gaze upon Jessy Belle’s worried face was kind. “It is true. We give sanctuary to those in need. But Jessy Belle...”
    “Oh, I know what you think, Sister. But Perkinses didn’t kill your niece. I swear it, I promise it. I vow it with whatever’s left of my soul.”
    “My niece?” Sister Adelaide’s face swiveled in question from Jessy Belle to Redd.
    “The girl you raised as your daughter,” Redd said, smoothing things along. Needing Sister to know he hadn’t blabbed her secrets. “Nuns not having kids and all.”
    “Oh, yes.” Real grief crinkled Sister’s eyes, and Redd almost wished Perkins were the killer, to alleviate his good friend’s pain. But he believed Jessy Belle. She had lied to him yesterday, but as a scout, he’d told his own lies from time to time in order to preserve his life and safekeeping. And that’s all she’d done.
    Hadn’t come easy, him walking in somebody else’s boots, and he’d never tried it concerning outlaws. But Jessy Belle deserved the chance. She loved him.
    “Jessy Belle,” Sister Adelaide folded her hands like a prayer. “If you’ve changed your heart, why, that’s a wonderful thing. But I’ve had Pinkertons on the case. I don’t doubt your gang killed my...Elena. She deserves justice.”
    “And I don’t blame you one whit. Pioneer Meadows wanted justice. All they got was me. But the gang didn’t kill a single soul. Never been our way. Well, their way.”
    “Well.” Sister Adelaide closed her eyes during a long drink of the cold water.
    Redd’s tongue turned dry. He believed Jessy Belle, didn’t he? But the Pinkertons...they were a group masterful at deduction. But Jessy Belle, didn’t she sound sincere?
    “Tell me your tale, Jessy Belle.” Sister Adelaide set down her cup. “The leader is your brother, yes? Are you well enough to speak?”
    “Yes, ma’am. If I go soft.”
    “How came you to be an outlaw?”
    Sister’s question amazed Redd, why she wondered. Why it might matter.
    Jessy Belle leaned back, the chair squawking loud this