Eden Springs

By Ada Maria Soto

In the boomtown of Eden Springs, someone is spilling the blood of children. Desperate, the sheriff calls in ex-Union scout Aaron Byrne to stop them. For the lawman for hire, it's just another job-until he meets Jonah Mann, the town's Oxford-trained astronomer-cum-schoolteacher. Aaron never stays in one place for long, but a few stolen glances from the eccentric professor begin to test his resolve to move along once the job is done. Now a telescope, a whorehouse bathtub, and a cup of Chinese tea could change Aaron's own stars forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rookery Publishing
• Release date: Feb 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9780473510008

Book preview

Eden Springs

Eden Springs

Ada Maria Soto

Rookery Publishing

Eden Springs © Ada Maria Soto 2012

First Printing Dreamspinner Press 2012

---

 Second Printing Rookery Publishing 2020

PO Box 300280

Albany

Auckland, New Zealand

0752

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

Cover art by Anna Sikorska 

This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law.

ISBN 978-0-473-50999-6 [Paperback]

ISBN 978-0-473-51000-8 [Epub]

ISBN 978-0-473-51001-5 [Kindle]

ISBN 978-0-473-51002-2 [iBook]

Contents

Author Notes

Warnings

Eden Springs

About the Author

Also by Ada Maria Soto

Author Notes

About eight years ago (or fifty in romance writer years) I decided it was time to become a Professional Author. Cooper West was almost certainly to blame for this decision. Not sure how but I’m sure she is. For reasons that are no longer clear I decided to start with a Nerd/Jock!Law Enforcement!Western. I sat down at my horrible night job and in probably not too much time wrote just under 20,000 words then completely chickened out. What if I wrote a Whole Novel and it was REJECTED!!!!!

Look, 2011 wasn’t a good year for me. I added 64 filler words to bring this up to a perfect 20k then submitted it as a novella. A few people read it, a few people liked it. There were some requests for sequels since it was apparently pretty obvious that this should have been a full novel. I still have ideas for sequels but bigger, meaner, plot bunnies, pushed their way to the front of the line.

When I got the rights back to Eden Springs I took out the 64 filler words, added a little more poetry here and there, fixed some typos that somehow got missed the first time around and in general just made it a little better. It’s still mostly a time capsule of my head circa 2011, but for an early work I like to think it holds up reasonably well

Warnings

There is off page violence towards women and children including sexual and domestic violence. On page discussion of said violence. On page discussion of off page suicide. On page violence between the Good Guys and Bad Guys because Western. And sex.

Eden Springs

Aaron tipped up the brim of his hat and squinted into the late-afternoon sun. He could just make out a mess of buildings huddled between a few rugged hills and the mountains. Around him the grasshoppers screamed in the heat and flung themselves into the air. He gave Dancer a nudge to follow the deep wheel ruts winding toward the little mining town, but he didn’t push her for any speed. The day was far too hot for that.

The shadows had stretched to near breaking, and he could see a thunderhead in the distance. He rode past a couple of pieces of scrap wood nailed together and shoved into the earth. Someone had carved the words Eden Springs into them.

There was nothing impressive about the town before him. Just one more dusty-shithole boomtown, which would dry up and blow away the second the surrounding hills stopped spitting out silver. He could only assume someone was being ironic when they named it. He paid it all little mind, as it could have been the same town he’d left a week earlier.

He walked Dancer up the main street, which was, surprisingly, cobbled, until he spotted a yellow star, roughly painted on the side of a building and already fading. A man was leaning by the door. His clothes were the same color as the dust in the air and the sun-cracked wood behind him. His body was still as whipcord thin as Aaron remembered.

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

Aaron grinned. I’m long out of the war business, Connor, but it seems you’ve gotten yourself into the law business.

Connor nodded. Yes I have, and it’s damned good to see you.

Aaron dismounted and tossed Dancer’s reins over the hitching rail. He had met Mathew Connor in Virginia about halfway through the war. He’d been scouting behind lines when he found a young Lieutenant Connor half dead with fever, huddled next to a bloated cavalry horse. His accent didn’t match his uniform, but he swore he was with the 2nd Massachusetts Cavalry. Aaron had figured Connor would never survive the trip back over the line and was tempted to just leave him, but some better grace prevailed, and he carried Connor to the first Union camp he could find. Connor survived, much to everyone’s surprise, and their paths crossed several more times before the business was done.

He hadn’t even been completely surprised to get Connor’s telegram. The West seemed to be a good place for men like them, soldiers who no longer had a war, and law was as good a profession as any.

Connor shook his hand. I have to say I was looking for you to put in an appearance about a week ago.

Had another job to finish up. Came as fast as I could; might have come faster if your message was a little less vague.

Had to pay by the letter. Come inside and I’ll try to clear things up for you.

The office was mercifully cool, and dark, just like a hundred others spread across the territories. A couple of desks, wanted posters, and a few maps filled most of the space, with two iron cages taking up one corner.

I’ve got a sick little band of brothers: Elijah, Ascah, and Caleb Buckley. Connor slapped down three wanted posters. "They got sacked from the mine about six months back for being drunk, lazy, foul-tempered