Free Adventures of Cash Laramie and Gideon Miles (Cash Laramie & Gideon Miles Series) by Edward A. Grainger

hadn't found him. But that would make her aunt mad.
    "I see you, Clem Stewart." Miss Emma dashed to the pump, stopping short. "What are you doing laying on the ground?" She edged forward. "C'mon we don't have time. I just wanted to tell you to meet me later. Clem?" She tapped the bottom of his boot with her toe of her shoe.
    "
Clem!
"
    Melanie jumped at Miss Emma's screams that brought the night to life. Even neighbors from across the creek responded. Aunt Flossy bounded past Melanie, who had crept forward to get a better look at Clem's prone figure. His tongue hung to the side and a thick rope scored his neck. Flossy screeched and hurtled herself at Emma, both tumbled backward in a clump of hair, arms, and scratching fingers.
    Melanie began to weep. She slumped to the ground, clutching her doll in one hand and gripping at the dirt with the other when her finger sliced on something sharp. She peered at the bloody object, and, as she tightened her grasp on it, she cried more.
    * * *
    Melanie and Aunt Flossy sat a few rows back from the judge's table when Marshal Laramie strode in with Miss Lenora at his side. Lenora took a seat in the front while Cash approached the judge, and then raised his right hand to be sworn in.
    Not a muscle twitched as he testified about the run-in he'd had with Clem.
    When the marshal finished his statement, the judge thanked him for shedding light on Clem Stewart's character and dismissed him.
    As Cash and Lenora walked passed Melanie on their way out, he tipped his hat at the little girl and Lenora leaned in, giving Melanie a hug. Flossy rolled her eyes but remained silent.
    * * *
    Melanie sat on the floor playing with her doll as Aunt Flossy griped to a couple of neighbors about how the judge had found "insufficient evidence" for a trial. When the conversation turned to idle gossip, the girl's ears perked up.
    "I know it was that fiancé of Emma's who did it after he caught her with Clem." Anger seared her words. She glared over at Melanie, realizing the girl had been listening in. "You little wretch, it's past your bedtime. Go ...
now!
"
    Melanie picked up her doll and trudged off to her broom-closet of a room. Though the beatings and other violations at the hand of Uncle Clem were no more, the verbal abuse from Aunt Flossy continued, and Melanie didn't want to raise her aunt's ire this night.
    In the quiet of her room, she took out her red Bible from the bottom dresser drawer, and then reached behind her clothes for the object she found on the evening her uncle was killed.
    As Melanie finished the Lord's Prayer, she squeezed the Indian arrowhead tighter and thanked her savior.

UNDER THE SUN
with Sandra Seamans
     
     
    Delilah Murphy had been hanging laundry on the line when she spotted two riders on horseback galloping down the hill toward her. She dropped her clothes back into the basket and walked briskly inside the house, grabbing the Winchester waiting behind the door. She knew it was already loaded, but checked none-the-less, and then took a deep lungful of air. She lifted her head, exhaling, and walked out onto the porch. Delilah stood behind a support beam with the rifle resting at a forty-five degree angle in the direction of the on-comers. She knew it couldn't be Uncle Charlie because he always rode in alone and it was too soon for him to be bringing supplies anyway.
    Her muscles tensed, her teeth clenched as she squinted to get a better look at the men.
    Sunlight glinted off the metal stars pinned to the men's vests.
    Delilah sighed and placed the rifle against the porch railing. She straightened her tall, slender figure and toiled with the wisps of long blonde hair escaping from the braided bun pinned high on her head like a coronet. Delilah clasped her hands together to hold them steady from the shaking that hadn't yet ebbed.
    "Hello, ma'am, my name is Cash Laramie and my partner here is Gideon Miles. You must be Mrs. Murphy?"
    "Yes, but how did you—"
    The square jaw, blue-eyed