Chapter Nineteen
THE LARGE HAT HALE had given Carter Sutcliffe to wear on the train looked downright comical. But it did its job—hiding the hair that would make him a target for anyone who might be looking for him.
Carter rubbed a hand over the top of his leg, grimacing as he did so. While he could hide his hair, there was no hiding the limp he’d obtained from a gunshot wound. He’d told Hale all about the shoot-out the night before. Hale frowned as the other man’s face contorted in pain.
“Are you certain that’s healed?” He’d never met Carter before, but he felt an unexpected sort of protective instinct toward him, simply for being Isabella’s brother.
“The doc said it was.” Carter leaned back in his seat across from Hale, stretching out the afflicted leg as he did so. “He was on the verge of releasing me, after all.”
Hale nodded, not sure he trusted that doctor.
Carter had told him last night that the wound was in a bad place, and that he’d nearly died before the law in Roebuck had finally taken him to the hospital in Cheyenne.
It had taken months—and a few threats of amputation—but by some miracle, it had healed.
He’d been due to be transferred to the prison the next day, so he’d taken his chances and run off in the dead of night instead.
“Do you suppose they’ve left Canon City yet?” Carter asked, his eyes on the passing scenery.
Hale consulted his pocket watch. “Yes, unless they’ve encountered some difficulty.” What he wouldn’t give for a delayed train or for that bounty hunter to have contracted some terrible illness. He tapped his finger against the watch, willing time to speed up.
“Well, let me know when you settle on a plan.” Carter pulled the enormous hat further down as he closed his eyes.
How the man could sleep when he knew lawmen were looking for him—and when they were headed back to the one place he ought to avoid—was beyond Hale. But he took advantage of the lack of conversation and the soothing click-clack of the rails to think.
When Carter had caught him outside the boardinghouse last night, Hale at first thought he was someone who wished to take a room for the evening. It had been dark, after all, and he was distracted.
“I’m looking for Izzy Sutcliffe,” Carter had said in a low, urgent voice. “She’s married to the boardinghouse owner.”
He immediately took Carter for another bounty hunter. “You’re too late,” he said the most unwelcome voice possible. “Your friend already got her.”
“My friend?”
“Sampson. Surely all you bounty hunters know each other. If you’ll excuse me.”
He started to push past Carter when the other man stumbled and grabbed onto his shirt sleeve. Hale yanked himself out of Carter’s grasp and fixed him with a glare.
Carter righted himself and held up both hands. “I don’t mean her any harm. I’m not a bounty hunter.”
Hale was running out of patience. He needed to get inside, talk to Tansy, and make a plan. “Then who are you to be asking about my wife?”
“You’re the boardinghouse owner.” Carter looked years younger as relief shifted his features. “I’m Izzy’s brother. Carter Sutcliffe.”
Hale stared at him. Then, after giving a quick glance around to ensure no one else was in the vicinity, he nodded quickly at the door. “Come inside.”
Tansy gave him a worried look as he led Carter down the hallway to his office. He’d have to fill her in later, but for now, it was best if he spoke to Isabella’s brother alone. He locked the office door behind him, and Carter sank awkwardly into a chair.
Hale was too worked up to sit, so instead, he stood against the wall opposite Carter. The younger man was stretching out his leg as if it pained him.
“You’re the one who was shot,” Hale said. “Isabella worried about you.”
“I wish I could have let her know I was healing,” Carter said.
“First things first, how did you get here?” Hale asked.
Carter told him of escaping from the hospital, of the painful climb aboard a southbound train, of hiding during the day and traveling at night, and of nearly passing out while riding a horse to Crest Stone.
“It was risky, going to a livery like that,” Hale said.
“I didn’t go to a livery.” Carter gave him a rueful look.
“Right.” He would think through the morality of all of this later, after she was safe. “What made you come here?”
“I heard the nurses talking about how there had been a letter from Izzy sent to the prison for our father. It had come from a post office in Crest Stone, Colorado. They couldn’t get over the fact that the boy the law was looking for was actually a girl, and that she’d managed to get herself married. ”
Hale dropped his head. Isabella had sent her father a letter without telling him. He could have warned her. And now it was too late.
“I admit that despite the situation, it gave me a laugh, thinking of my little sister as someone’s wife. She spent most of her time in men’s britches and never once said anything about wanting to settle down.” Carter grinned.
Hale crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. While he had Carter here, he might as well confirm everything he believed to be true. “She told me all she did was watch the horses.”
The other man nodded, frowning as he flexed his leg. “Held the horses and kept an eye out for the law. Truthfully, I never liked it. She ought to have stayed home, but our pa said we needed her, and when he asked her, she agreed to help.”
Because she believed his lies, Hale thought. “What about the money?” he asked. “What happened to the money you took?”
Carter’s shoulders drooped. “Pa always said it was for the poor. I went along with it. I wanted to believe him, I suppose, but I was the oldest. Honestly, I think I knew better, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it.
I didn’t want to confront him. After losing our mother .
. .” His brow crinkled as he looked up at Hale.
“I guess I didn’t want to lose him too.”
Hale nodded at Carter’s honesty.
“One of the nurses told me that they’d found a bank account, full of money Pa had deposited over time.
I knew it was true, the second she’d said it.
” He shook his head. “I hated myself then. I knew better, but I’d been too cowardly to confront him.
And I let Henry and Izzy believe it. If I could go back .
. .” Carter started to push himself up to stand.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to get my sister.” He paused as he stood, closing his eyes as he caught his breath.
“I don’t care if it kills me, I’m not letting her go to prison because of our father’s greed.
Maybe I’m just as guilty as he is. Maybe Henry is too, even if he believed it. But Izzy never once stole anything.”
“You can’t do anything about it tonight.” Hale wanted to make the man sit down again. His face was pale, and he held onto the back of the chair to stay upright. “You need rest, or you won’t be good to help anyone. There’s no train out until tomorrow, and I plan to be on it.”
Carter stood there a moment, seemingly thinking through Hale’s words. “I’m coming too.”
Hale found the man a room for the night, filled Tansy in on everything that happened, and the next day—with Carter’s hair hidden under that giant hat—they boarded the train out to Canon City.
All he needed now was a plan.