Western Duets - Volume Three: Western Duets, #3

By Paty Jager

Two western historical romance stories in one novella.
The Outlaw's Wife
Ever since Sarah Lynn Star's outlaw husband died from a gunshot, she's been on the move to keep her ex-brother-in-law from finding her.  Now that she's found a place to call home and is falling for the local marshal, her past has come back with a vengeance.
Charity's Desire
Alone and left to raise her twin niece and nephew, Charity Bowen, finds solace and work with a troupe of traveling prostitutes when a high-and-mighty local woman talks the school counsel into not hiring her.
Duke Jamison has political aspirations and is the son of the woman who refused to hire Charity. When he discovers her washing clothes at the prostitutes' camp, he wants to get to know her better and prove his mother wrong. However, offering her money to talk to her only raises her hackles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Windtree Press
• Release date: May 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781940064819

Paty Jager

Paty Jager is an award-winning author of 51 novels, 8 novellas, and numerous anthologies of murder mystery and western romance. All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Paty and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. Riding horses and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.

Book preview

Western Duets – Volume Three

The Outlaw’s Wife

&

Charity’s Desire

By

Paty Jager

This is a work of fiction, Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

WESTERN DUETS – VOLUME THREE

Copyright © 2014 Patricia Jager

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or Name of Press except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Windtree Press

Beaverton, Oregon

Visit us at http://windtreepress.com

Cover Art by Christina Keerins

Published in the United States of America

ISBN 9781940064819

The Outlaw's Wife

Tygh Valley, Oregon 1896

It had been years since Sara Lynn blushed.

Finding the one man she wanted and could never have standing next to the waterhole where she liked to cool off on hot days flared heat to her cheeks and stuck her tongue to the roof of her mouth.

She’d stepped out from behind the bushes in nothing but her shift and found the handsome marshal of Tygh Valley standing at the water’s edge.

What are you doing out here, Mrs. Star? Marshal Shaw DeRai asked, his gaze taking its time wandering down her scantily-clad body to her bare toes and back up to her face.

The only other times he’d spoken to her had been while busting up rowdies on Saturday night in the saloon attached to her hotel. The deep timbre and amusement in his voice tickled her insides.

Taking a dip in this waterhole. It’s miserably hot today. She scanned the area to make sure he was alone. How come you’re so far from town?

My horse threw a shoe. We stopped for a drink. It is a hot day.

His dark brown gaze raked over her, again, and she could have sworn his tanned faced took on a rosy hue under the gray Stetson and blond curls.

The sound of pounding hooves and shouts tore through the stillness.

Marshal DeRai shoved Sara Lynn behind him and drew his six-shooter as three rough looking men barreled into sight.

She studied the three.

Her chest squeezed.

No, not now, not when she was finally feeling free and making a good living.

If they recognized her, she’d have to pick up and leave, again. Sara Lynn clenched the back of the marshal’s shirt and buried her head against his spine. She’d moved six times the last two years to avoid coming across her dead husband’s band of outlaws. And here they were nearly running her and the marshal over.

Shaw DeRai shot his pistol in the air. Mrs. Star jerked his shirt at the sound. He liked the way she burrowed into his back hiding behind him. Her actions proved she trusted him. Ever since she’d bought the hotel and he’d got his first glimpse of her at a town meeting, he’d wanted to get to know her better. Her copper colored hair, deep green eyes and porcelain skin filled many of his lonely evenings as he daydreamed about courting her.

The horses dropped onto their haunches ten feet from him and Mrs. Star, coating them with dust.

She coughed.

His instinct was to pat her on the back, by the looks of the men peering down at them, he felt inclined to keep his pistol handy and his attention on the three men.

What’cha hidin’ behind your back? the man closest to him asked, waving his already drawn pistol.

Mrs. Star clutched his shirt tighter.

Shaw reached up and tugged on the collar so he could talk without being strangled. It doesn’t matter what’s behind me. You three best be mosin’ on along.

One of the men, sporting a dark beard, had been sitting back listening and watching under the brim of a cavalry hat that had seen better days. He urged his horse forward and spat tobacco juice on the ground barely missing Shaw’s boot.

We don’t take orders from no lawman. He drew his pistol and clicked the hammer. I’m close enough I could blow your head off and find out.

Mrs. Star squeaked and stepped out from behind him.

Ma’am, you don’t— He reached out to move her back behind him. Her state of undress wasn’t something he wanted the likes of these men seeing.

It’s all right, Marshal. I don’t want you killed on my account.

The bearded man in the cavalry hat hit the ground and strode forward. Sara Lynn? We’ve been huntin’ all over this territory looking for you.

Shaw moved to step back in front of her even as his mind was trying to figure out how these outlaws knew Mrs. Star, and by her first name.

The man shoved him to the side and picked her up in a big hug. Damn woman, I thought I’d never lay eyes on you. When Chet died and you disappeared, I tore that town apart looking for you.

Put me down. There was a reason you couldn’t find me. She beat on the man’s arms.

Shaw cocked his pistol and held it to the side of the man’s head. The lady says she wants down.

The man’s cold gaze raked over Sara Lynn in her chemise, and then he shot a lethal glare at Shaw.

You sparkin’ with this marshal? The man shook Sara Lynn like a rag doll.

That snapped Shaw’s limitations. He slammed the butt of his pistol into the man’s head.

Sara Lynn dropped and the man crumpled to the ground.

The click of two pistols rang in Shaw’s head seconds before he felt the bullets rip through him.

The last thing he remembered was Sara Lynn screeching before he passed out.

~*~

No! screamed Sara Lynn, dropping to her knees beside Shaw.

Blood seeped from his left shoulder and