“Uh, huh. And you, Mrs. Martin. Did you steal that horse?”

  Beatrice tried not to laugh “No, your honor. I did not steal that horse.”

  Judge Edwards examined the two women. Then he turned his eye on the tranquil deputy and the squinting Nathan Pratt. Then back to Mr. Jennings. Something fishy was going on, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. But his biggest priority at the moment was to establish the indispensable criteria for cases that got brought into his court.

  “Here is the problem, Counselor. The most basic and essential requirement of any trial is that the perpetrator be identified. If we don’t have a single credible eyewitness . . .”

  Mr. Jennings flinched. He knew what was coming. So did Avery.

  “I don’t see how this trial can proceed. Case dismissed.”

  And while the judge’s last bang of the gavel had commanded silence, with this one, the room erupted into chaos. Ajax could hardly contain himself, though he absolutely had to. There was nothing he wanted more than to hold Molly tightly, but this was not the time to make a public wedding announcement. Folks would find out soon enough.

  Molly was having the stuffing squeezed out of her by Miss Mabel, then by Beatrice, Lydia, and Virginia.

  Avery couldn’t help himself from sidling up to Mr. Jennings.

  “You sent him to the jail so that he would be able to identify her in court. That’s against the rules, Mr. Jennings, and ill-advised. Still, all’s well that ends well.”

  Mr. Jennings glared at him. The crowd poured out into the streets. Molly Reynolds Harper ran out with them—a free woman. Miss Mabel grabbed her by the hand.

  “So, we’s family now. Let me take you back home so you can wait for your husband and celebrate proper.”

  Beatrice lingered in the courtroom to give her husband a big hug.

  “I guess I can get this dress back to Molly now. I was so worried that day when Mr. Pratt came in. You’re going to have to admit now that it was a very good thing that I switched places with her in jail.”

  “If you do it again, I will lock you out of our house and never let you back in.”

  “You’ll be happy to hear I have no intentions of incarcerating myself ever again.”

  They embraced tightly, so happy about saving Molly that they were nearly drained with exhaustion.

  *****

  Ajax was finally able to dispatch his duties and hurry over to the boarding house, where his aunt was cooking up a big feast in the kitchen.

  “She’s up in your room. Now you two have yourselves a nice little celebration, but you be sure to come down for dinner. I invited everyone over, so everyone can let her know how happy we are. And I got a special little surprise for ya. A weddin’ present. Git on now.”

  Ajax flew up the stairs to find Molly reclining gleefully on his bed. It was a sight that took his breath away.

  “I never thought this day would come,” Molly admitted. “Not really. I couldn’t see it. It was too much happiness to believe in. Just having one week of being with you, I always felt that it was going to be all there was.”

  Ajax stayed near the door, pacing back and forth. “I know. I knew even when I asked you to marry me that I didn’t have enough to offer to expect a girl like you would want to spend her entire life with me. But I might do, if all the time you had left was a couple of weeks. And I knew it’d be easier for you to say yes, ’cause you didn’t have to worry ’bout whether I was good enough for the long haul.

  “It would be wrong of me to hold you to it, to force you to stick with a decision that you made with death hanging over your head. You’re a free woman now. You can think about what you want to do, and whether bein’ married to me is somethin’ that still makes sense to you. I got no rights here. I sure ain’t gonna force myself on you.”

  Molly sprang off the bed and pulled Ajax down onto it with a hard tug.

  “Maybe I was so lonely and desperate and scared that I would have married just about anyone. I didn’t think too much of myself and didn’t think I deserved anything great. But I was wrong. I’m a good person. I have been as decent and thoughtful and kind as I know how. People say that eventually, you’ll be rewarded for leading a good life, and I finally have been. You are my reward for being a good person. You are the joy in life that was once only a dream for me. Don’t ever think otherwise.”

  Ajax sighed. “I must have led a pretty good life too, ’cause look at my reward.”

  They kissed ecstatically. They were free, they were in love, they were husband and wife, and they had their whole lives ahead of them.

  *****

  It was a party that spilled into every corner of the boarding house, from the kitchen to the large dining room and out into the parlor. It was a celebration of freedom and a wedding party all in one. All the tenants were there, the large Cooper family were there in their entirety, the Carlyles with baby Felicity, and the Martins.

  Sheriff Johnson was there as well. “I ain’t gonna ask for the particulars. You wouldn’t be the first couple got married in a jailhouse. That’s a leap of faith, that’s for sure. I’m happy for you, boy. I surely am.”

  Ajax surprised the sheriff with a gentle hug, careful not to touch his bandaged side. The sheriff was the closest thing he’d had to a father in a long time. In fact, everywhere he looked, he saw family, in one face after another. It warmed his heart to see how so many people had taken Molly into their hearts. It was everything she had wanted and everything that he wanted to give her.

  “I got an announcement to make. Well, it’s a gift for the happy couple, really,” Miss Mabel said loudly.

  Everyone quieted down as she handed a thick envelope to Ajax. He opened it up and let out a long whistle.

  “You been robbin’ banks, Aunt Mabel? ’Cause I have to warn you, I am still the deputy.”

  Molly leaned over and gasped at the thick wad of cash in Ajax’s hand.

  “Don’t be a ninny. It’s two years’ room and board that you paid. I never spent a cent of it. I just put it all together, savin’ it, knowin’ how young men like you cain’t set aside for the future to save their lives. No, I wasn’t chargin’ my own kin to stay with me. I hoped you’d have need for it, with a wife and family. And now you do. This is to buy your own house.”

  All their friends burst into happy applause. Ajax grabbed his aunt and wrapped his arms around her, ignoring her loud protests. Molly felt happy tears sliding down her face.

  “All right now. Everybody eat, drink. Have yourselves a good time.”

  Avery raised a glass in the air. “To Mrs. Harper. May she stay out of trouble to the end of her days.”

  “To Mrs. Harper,” everyone yelled in unison, including Ajax.

  Ajax squeezed his wife close.

  “Ajax! We can’t do that here.”

  “’Course we can. Everyone wants to see us do it, too. This is like our wedding day for them.” He bent down for a whisper. “And tonight will be wedding night seven or eight. I’m losin’ count.”

  “I think that everyone is supposed to eventually lose count,” she whispered back. “And it’s nine.”

  *****

  The next month flew by. There was some serious house hunting to do, but not for Molly and Ajax—rather for Beatrice and Avery. They had waited till the end of the trial to announce they were expecting their first child. Now, while their house was plenty large enough to accommodate a couple of new additions, Avery ‘s political ambitions and Beatrice’s growing leadership amongst Cheyenne’s women’s groups necessitated a bit more entertainment and meeting space.

  As soon as the Martins announced they would be leaving their first home, Molly pounced on the opportunity. She loved their house. It was the homiest, most comforting place she had ever been in.

  The Martins found a lovely place they were excited to take over. They moved their things out in just a couple of weeks and left the Harpers with the happy task of filling up their new home.

  Ajax left his wife at the fabric store while he went to pick up supplies at the wood shop. They would meet in the middle for lunch. His destination was just off the corner of Main Street. Just as he rounded the corner, he heard a loud gunshot and felt the strangest stabbing sensation in his chest. He looked down to see a blood stain spreading swiftly across the front of his shirt. Ajax staggered into the street and fell down, fighting to hang onto consciousness and losing.

  From about thirty yards behind Ajax, Roy Butler chortled and congratulated himself on a fine shot. The deputy’s lifeless body saved him the trouble of having to go over and finish the job. That would draw a little too much attention to himself, not that there was much law left in this town to retaliate. A dead deputy and an old, hobbling sheriff. Now, time to find his bride.

  He had been keeping an eye on the Harpers that morning. He knew exactly where to find Molly. As he stood in the entrance of the fabric shop, he couldn’t wait for her to notice his presence.

  “Well if it ain’t my sweet bride, gettin’ together the curtains and doilies like a good homemaker.”

  Molly’s blood ran cold. “What are you doing here? I thought you were long gone.”

  “No such a thing. I stopped down in Denver ’cause I talked my brother into takin’ care of my claim just a little while longer. And I couldn’t stand the thought of goin’ home without a bride. That was the whole point of me leavin’. So I holed up in Denver for a while. Sent my ad out again. You know what happened? I had three different papers that said that they had heard of me and they didn’t want my business. One of them, I had full changed my name, but they still knew it was me. That was all your doin’, wasn’t it? You tryin’ to ruin my chances to get a new bride?”

  “I was trying to save anyone else from being lied to and having her life ruined by you.”

  “Now you owe me a marriage. What say we mosey over to the city clerk’s office and make it official?”

  Molly scoffed. “I am already married. So you can’t marry me. That’s the end of that.”

  “Oh, but you’re available again. I just made you a widow. Never did like that deputy much. And I really didn’t like him after I found out he was sleepin’ with my woman.”

  Molly’s heart stopped. “You’re lying. You’re a liar.”

  “Oh, I see you’re gonna be needin’ to see it with your own eyes. Well, come along. I’ll show you where he is.”

  Shaking, eyes filling with tears, Molly followed him, terrified of what she might be about to see. A large crowd had gathered around Ajax.

  An older woman spotted Molly. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Harper. Someone went for the doctor. They’ll be here any minute.”

  That was not what Roy wanted to hear. He pulled out his gun and waved it about.

  “Clear out of here. All of you. Back away, ya hear me? Back away.”

  The wary crowd quickly complied, and there Ajax lay, weakly awake, lying a small pool of blood.

  “You is hard to kill. I was just telling your widow, and my soon to be wife, that I had just put an end to you. It’s what you have comin’, after messin’ around with the woman who was meant for me. The woman I sent for. You know, I’m glad you stayed around long enough to see that I’m gonna be steppin’ into your place after you’re gone.”

  Molly looked around frantically. The crowd looked on tensely, but no one was doing a thing.

  “Help him!” she cried.

  “Aw, shoot. They know better than to mess with Roy Butler. I’m gonna finish him off and you know what? There ain’t gonna be a single witness. Not if they know what’s good for them.”

  Molly shrieked and ran toward the crowd.

  “Don’t you go too far. I know where to find you.” He turned back to Ajax. “It’s a pretty thought, ain’t it? Me and your wife. I hear I got you to thank for getting her out of prison for me.”

  “What do you think you’re doin’?” A man yelled from the front of the crowd.

  Roy turned his gun on the man. “You got somethin’ to say to me?”

  “No. I wasn’t talkin’ to you,” the man said, shaking.

  “Who was you talkin’ to then?” Roy sneered, and then froze and dropped his gun. He barely had time to look at the bullet blast through his heart before he dropped to the ground, stone cold dead.

  The man he had been talking to looked at Molly, who had grabbed the gun right out of his holster and still had it aimed in Roy’s direction.

  “I was talkin’ to her,” he said, to no one in particular.

  Molly ran to Ajax’s side, keeping the gun on Roy till it was clear that he was never going to move again. She lay the gun on the ground and cradled Ajax’s head without lifting it from the ground. The doctor appeared.

  “Step away. Let me have a look,” he ordered.

  Molly quickly complied. Time was clearly of the essence. The timid man came up to them and apologetically reached for his gun. “I’m gonna be needin’ my gun back.”

  Molly glared at him—he certainly hadn’t put it to good use when help was needed.

  “Bullet went clean through. If you gotta be shot in the chest, this was the best spot. I’ll close it up. Gotta replenish his blood. A healthy young body will do the rest,” the doctor pronounced.

  Molly was almost overcome by a flood of relief. Ajax reached out to her weakly.

  “Mrs. Harper. Did you steal that gun?”

  Molly couldn’t suppress the tiniest giggle. Clearly, he was going to be fine. “I did not steal that gun.”

  She cradled his face again and covered it with kisses.

  The doctor looked at the wound, which had already stopped bleeding. “Lucky,” he said.

  “Yes, I am,” Ajax whispered.

  “Yes, we are,” his wife agreed.

  EPILOGUE

  Ajax was in bed for two weeks, gathering his strength back. But even so, both Molly and Sheriff Johnson objected to him rushing back to work. But Molly made the request in a way he couldn’t refuse. She wanted a honeymoon—a real one. And there was nothing Ajax wanted more than to fill his wife’s life with a multitude of exciting new experiences to compensate for all those early unfulfilled dreams.

  And so they departed on a month-long trip. First stop, Denver. Molly could see why Ajax enjoyed it. It had so many entertaining amenities for a Western city. They both wondered if Cheyenne was ever going to get that big. Next, the long trip to New York City. What a dazzling, confusing city. Concerts, dances, places of historical interest . . . all in all, Molly was able to tick many “firsts” off her list. And finally, a brief stop in Philadelphia. Why not, when they were so relatively close? For Molly, it was like Boston without the ocean or the bad memories.

  Her thirst to see new places had been very satisfyingly quenched. Ajax enjoyed himself more than he had ever thought possible. But being with Molly was likely to make the most mundane of life’s experiences a joy. It was also, he had to admit, very conducive to completing his full recovery. By the time their train rolled back into Cheyenne, he was fit as a fiddle.

  They got a warm reception, not only from their friends and loved ones—the entire town was particularly inclined to feel kindly toward the Harpers. Molly had impressed them all. Thank goodness she had killed that terrible Roy Butler.

  How appropriate for the wife of a lawman to help rid their town of such a despicable man. Everyone had known that Roy Butler was destined to kill someone sooner or later. He had just had that look about him. He walked and talked like a man with no conscience. But the deputy sheriff’s wife had put a bullet in him, and there was no telling who she had saved from Roy Butler’s evil path. For that, they were grateful to Molly and she received a hearty welcome wherever she was recognized.

  In addition, the editorial written about her provided quite a bit of discussion about violent men and their unfortunate wives. It was hard enough to encourage women to come out west. It hurt the future of the town to have bad men monopolize and ruin the precious resource of Western women.

  Molly was approached on the streets one day by Helen Anderson, a desperate young woman who had gotten herself tied down to a man who sounded almost as bad as Roy Butler.

  “I know you don’t know me, and I don’t have any right to ask you for help. But I heard you were in the same spot yourself, engaged to a brute of a man. So was I. Well, you were smarter than I was. I married mine.”

  “And I killed mine,” Molly said. “I’m afraid I can’t, in good conscience, advise you to do the same, however he may deserve it.”

  “So . . . I just have to go back to him,” Helen said tearfully.

  “In good conscience, I definitely cannot advise that. Let’s go see my husband.”

  Ajax had many thoughts on what should be done about Helen’s husband. But he and Molly finally decided on the best course of action, inspired by Molly’s own recent experiences. Helen’s husband was thrown into jail for four days on a charge of drunk and disorderly conduct. By the time he got out and went home, his young wife and all her valuables had disappeared without a trace. And there wasn’t a thing he could do to find her.

  Molly developed something of a reputation in town for being the one to go to if a woman was being knocked around by her husband. Between her and that deputy sheriff husband of hers, the Harpers had no patience for bullies and were not to be trifled with.

  But typically, Molly and Ajax were much more happily occupied as they filled their empty new home with furniture and decorations (including a delightful sketch from Julian Beasley) and memories. Molly relished every new experience and treasured the recurring marvels of her life. Ajax’s friends had become her friends as well, and she looked forward with great enjoyment to the prospect of an evening at the Cooper ranch, or an afternoon tea with the charming Virginia Carlyle, inviting Sheriff Johnson over for dinner, or an outing with Beatrice and Avery Martin, with whom the Harpers would always have an especially tight bond.

  She also delighted in the company of Ajax’s aunt, Miss Mabel. What a wonderful thing to have real family here. She came over a couple of times a week for lunch and to give Molly some pointers on cooking. Ajax usually joined them, and on this specific day, he was particularly excited to see his aunt.

 

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