Lucille's Lawman

By Beth Williamson

More than the law will be tested when a marshal meets a feisty widow.

Sean Reilly had the bad luck to be assigned the blue marble – the “cursed” marble shunned by the four other marshals in the Arizona Territory. He’s sent to take care of a land dispute for a widow named Lucille Quinn. He has no idea just how his life will change because of the dang blue marble.

Lucille Quinn needs help to settle the matter of some missing cattle. The marshal that arrives is unexpected as he is good-looking – he’s also the man who left her five years earlier. Beneath the anger lies an attraction that never died, it simply smoldered until flaring back to life the moment she saw him.

The meeting is by pure chance, the result is pure magic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beth Williamson
• Release date: Jun 26, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452480428

Beth Williamson

Beth has never been able to escape her imagination and it led her to the craft of writing romance novels. She’s passionate about purple, books, and her family (not to mention long cruises). She works full-time and writes romance novels evening, weekends, early mornings and whenever there is a break in the madness.She is compassionate, funny, a bit reserved at times, tenacious and a little quirky. Her cowboys and western romances speak of a bygone era, bringing her readers to an age where men were honest, hard and packing heat.For a change of pace, she also dives into some smokin’ hot contemporaries, bringing you heat, romance and snappy dialogue.Beth is a Career Achievement Award Nominee in Erotic Romance by Romantic Times Magazine, in both 2009 and 2010.

Book preview

Arizona Territory, 1851

That blue marble is cursed.

Sean Reilly glanced at the older man who obviously believed in curses. What makes you say that?

The marshal who had it before you, well, his family got killed by Injuns, then he quit. I heard he disappeared on the way to San Francisco. Ramsay wasn’t ever the same after he got that marble. Forrest nodded his head vigorously enough to make his salt and pepper hair jiggle.

Sean rolled the cool marble between his fingers and tried to think of a nice way to tell Forrest he was loco, not something a smart man did with a U.S. Marshal. As the newest member of the team of five in their territory, he had to walk softly. He had only met one of the five marshals in his territory. Benson was the one who met his train and brought him to Ramsay’s territory. The other three he’d never laid eyes on until today. They were an interesting lot and all very different kind of men.

The way Benson told it, once a year they gathered together in Rosie’s Saloon in the middle of their thousand square mile territory. Each man had a different colored marble and they put the marbles in a sack. Rosie, a dame who was as tough as she was smart, pulled the marbles one by one to assign that man to one of the five two hundred square mile chunks of land. It seemed like a fair way to divide up such a large territory.

It’s true, you know. Rafael was the dark-eyed, dark-haired quiet one. He made Reilly want to sit on the other side of the room.

I’ll take my chances. Reilly tried not to smile. Foolish men and their curses. He was a lawman from the day he’d been born and no curse would prevent him from doing his duty.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Cameron lit a cheroot, pushing his hat back to expose his baby blue eyes and blond hair.

Warning taken. Reilly spotted Benson coming down the stairs, Rosie behind him. The sandy-haired lawman liked women, and obviously this redhead liked him. They both had sated smiles on their faces.

We about ready to do this? Rafael sounded as impatient as Reilly felt.

If the fair lady Rosie is ready. Benson bowed to the madam as if she were the Queen of England. He kissed her hand and the woman giggled.

Reilly waited patiently, unlike the other three marshals. They all made noises as if they were about ready to open fire. Benson must’ve either wanted to get on with it, or he thought perhaps one of them really would shoot him.

Rosie smiled as she laid out the map on the bar, then held out a small blue sack. Everyone put their marbles in the sack, Reilly was last. She shook up the bag and reached in for the first marble. The green one belonged to Forrest and she put it straight on the eastern most block of land.

Thank ya kindly, Rosie. I needed to get out of the rough terrain for a while. Forrest appeared to be mighty glad to have the grassy country for the next year. Who wouldn’t?

The second marble was yellow, which was Cameron’s. He puffed on the cheroot as she placed his marble on the next block of land. Reilly had a general idea what the rest of the territory was like, but he had been in that particular block of land the last three months. It had some hilly spots and dense forests, which he’d gotten used to. Cameron was a lucky man.

Third was Rafael’s black marble, smack dab in the middle where the land grew a bit more