An Unexpected Treasure (Hero Hearts; Marrying A Marshall Book 1) Read online

  An Unexpected Treasure

  Marrying a Marshal Book One

  Natalie Dean

  Eveline Hart

  Hero Hearts

  Kenzo Publishing

  © Copyright 2018 by Kenzo Publishing - All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document by either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited, and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  Dedication

  I’d like to dedicate this book to YOU! The readers of my books. Without your interest in reading these heartwarming stories of love on the frontier, I wouldn’t have made it this far. So thank you so much for taking the time to read any and hopefully all of my books.

  And I can’t leave out my wonderful mother, son, sister, and Auntie. I love you all, and thank you for helping me make this happen.

  Most of all, I thank God for blessing me on this endeavor.

  * * *

  Find out how to get TWO EXCLUSIVE Natalie Dean and Eveline Hart books in the “Exclusive books by Natalie Dean & Eveline Hart” section of this book.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  If you enjoyed this story…

  Exclusive Books By Natalie Dean & Eveline Hart

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  Sneak Peek: A Soldier’s Love, Brides & Twins Book One

  Beginnings

  Chapter 1

  About Author - Natalie Dean

  Chapter 1

  1885 Western District of Texas | Cypress Creek, Texas near the Guadalupe River

  Louise Settelmeyer squinted against the bright sunlight streaming in from outside the jolting stagecoach. She’d be happy when this leg of her trip was over, and even happier still when she was married and on her way to her own house, the thought of managing her own household making her smile ever so slightly.

  The next jolt of the coach wiped the grin from her lips, and she gasped in surprise. The other occupant of the coach, a well-dressed banker with glinting silver spectacles, readjusted his hold on the briefcase on his lap. He paid her no attention, instead focusing his gaze on some unfixed point on the horizon.

  The warm wind flowing in from the open windows did little to help the rising heat inside the coach, but Louise was thankful for the air regardless. It was early spring, but already Texas acted as if summer had arrived. She preferred the cooler weather of her East Coast home in Richmond, Virginia. With regret, she realized that it was likely she’d never see Richmond again.

  But so was the way of a mail order bride. She’d escaped the taunts and jeers to establish herself a new life. For that, she could let go of her home, her parents who were more focused on her younger brothers and sisters, and the life she’d known for the last nineteen years. It was a small sacrifice for a better life, or so she told herself.

  The coach suddenly jerked to the left, throwing Louise against the side. She reached out and grasped the open window ledge at the same time her subconscious mind realized they were coming to a stop.

  Louise’s heart pounded in her chest. Had they lost a wheel? But as she took in her surroundings, it became clear that they were still level. So if it wasn’t a wheel, what was—?

  Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud pounding on the opposite door followed by, “Open up!” The gruff voice left no room for argument.

  Louise could just make out the brim of a dark, sweat-stained Stetson through the open window. It was lowered, so she couldn’t make out the face. What was going on? Had they stopped to pick up another passenger in the middle of nowhere? It was unlikely.

  The banker’s hand shook as he reached out to open the door. Before he did, he looked up at her with fear in his eyes. Why was he afraid?

  The next instant the door flung open and a man, half his face covered by a dusty bandana, peered in. “Lookie here, boss,” he said, a glint of madness in his eyes, “we’ve got company.”

  Only then did Louise register the gun in his hand and the men behind him, all carrying guns and rifles. They were holding up the coach.

  “Bring ‘em out,” another man said, standing a few paces back with a rifle pointed up at where Louise guessed the driver still sat. “And keep those hands up.”

  Louise looked back at her valise sitting on the floor of the coach. It contained what little money she’d been able to amass before she’d left for the West. Without it, she was penniless and equally hopeless. Then again, without her life, she wouldn’t need the money.

  The banker went out first, his hands up, abandoning his brief case to the coach seat. He stuttered for them not to hurt him, and the man with the wild eyes pushed him to the ground once he was out of the coach. He laughed, and Louise’s blood ran cold.

  “You next little lady,” he began. Then a shot fired.

  Louise ducked instinctively, sending up a prayer for safety for them all, and then reached for her valise. Shouts outside followed the ensuing chaos with more shots fired and shouted instructions for the bandits to put down their firearms.

  Finally, silence reigned outside of the coach, and Louise dared to lift her head. As she did so, she came face to face with the most brilliant blue eyes she’d ever beheld.

  She blinked, her mouth going dry.

  “Howdy,” said the man who owned the eyes. A matching and equally brilliant smile accompanied his greeting, and he extended a hand her way. “Deputy U.S. Marshal Andy Fulton at your service, ma’am.”

  His explanation seemed to deepen his grin, and she was struck by the depth of the laugh lines at the corners of his eyes. Those eyes. They held her captive for another moment longer, even though she knew now that she was safe and that he had come to help her.

  “Ma’am?”

  She took in a deep breath and reminded herself that she had come on this coach to meet her husband-to-be and that this man had just rescued her from certain death. Or, at least she assumed it would have been certain.

  She also reminded herself that she was a strong woman who had made it this far without a helping hand from a deputy marshal, who obviously thought too highly of himself. That fact was evidenced by his cocky confidence.

  “What happened?” she said, sidestepping him and ignoring his hand.

  “I, uh,” he shuffled back. “All right then. Welcome to Texas.”

  She frowned. “I already knew I was in Texas.”

  “By the incredible scenery and handsome men?” he said with a cheeky grin. His buddies, busy with the captured, would-be bandits, ignored him, and she had half a mind to do so as well.

  “No. By the fact that only a god-forsaken place like this would be so hot in March.” She stood straighter. “Now, if you don’t mind, Deputy Marshal, what happened here?”

  * * *

  In all of Andy Fulton’s twenty-three years, he’d never known a rescued woman to swoon less than the woman in front of him. Not even a batting of the eyelashes or a candid smile graced the lovely features of the petite woman who stood toe to toe with him now. Though he’d never admit it, her questioning stare was more intimidating than his superiors’.

  “I, uh, well.” He realized he was babbling and heard his mother’s voice in his head telling him to ‘spit it ou
t, boy’. “We apprehended thieves who were in the process of stealing the mail right out from under you.” He grinned, but it slipped from his face as quickly as it had appeared. She was not amused.

  “I can see that they are thieves. What took you so long to get here?”

  Took so long? He felt this temperature rise. They had made good timing—no, great timing—from the moment they got the tip from an informant that Robert Jeffers was going to rob the two thirty coach just outside of town.

  “I’d say we were just in time.” He was losing his good humor, something that took a lot to make him do.

  “I see. What happens now?”

  He noticed that she clutched a small valise in front of her, and while she was doing everything to show that she was fine, when she reached a hand up to push a strand of hair behind her ear, he saw the tremor there. So, she was scared.

  “Listen, ma’am,” he began.

  “Please, call me anything but ma’am. My name is Miss Louise Settelmeyer.”

  His grin was back. “Sure thing, ma’am.” Her eyes narrowed, and he corrected himself for her benefit. “Miss Settelmeyer.” He would have preferred Louise, but he had a feeling she wouldn’t.

  “Thank you. Now, you were saying?”

  “We’re going to take these here criminals off to jail, like the good U.S. marshals that we are, and you’ll be on your way to town just like normal.”

  “’Cept you’re going with them, Andy.” The voice of Hank Fulton, Andy’s brother and superior, spoke behind him.

  “What?”

  “Need to make sure they make it on time and safely. Ma’am,” he said, tipping his hat to Louise.

  Andy smiled at her grimace from his brother’s use of ma’am, but she didn’t correct him.

  “Good. I shall like to be on my way shortly. I’m meeting someone.”

  He narrowed his gaze at her and took in her appearance again. Her rich auburn hair was pulled back into a somewhat fancy style, and her dress was of good quality. Her gloves were worn though, and she had a look about her that, while it didn’t speak of money, also didn’t speak of poverty. He wondered what her story was. And whom she was meeting. And why she was traveling alone.

  “Right. If you’ll just sit tight—”

  She shot him a look of incredulity, and he almost laughed out loud. My, wasn’t she a firecracker!

  “We’re ready,” called out his friend and riding partner, Deputy U.S. Marshal Simon Brown.

  “See you back in town.”

  Simon nodded, and Andy watched as Simon, his brother Hank, and a few other marshals rode off with their criminals in toe.

  “Well?” Louise said from inside the coach, where she’d already reclaimed her seat. The nervous man sitting across from her seemed only too happy to stay out of the logistics.

  “Right,” Andy said, his tone flat. “Let’s get on then.”

  “It’s about time,” she murmured, sitting back in her seat and away from his view.

  Biting back a reply that would point out the fact that they had saved her and she should show some gratitude, he rode on ahead of the coach. He kept his eyes on the road in front of, next to, and behind them as his training dictated. You never knew when someone might come up from a blind spot near to you.

  He also pulled his thoughts back from the beautiful woman in the coach. She didn’t deserve his second thought, or the third one either. She was obviously ungrateful, stubborn, beautiful—

  Andy ground his teeth together as Cypress Creek came into view, buffeting the Guadalupe River. So what if she were pretty? He wasn’t going down that path for a myriad of reasons, the chief one being Beatrice. The mere thought of his former fiancée felt like he’d been stabbed in the back with a knife, but he didn’t stop the thoughts. Instead, he let them rest there, as a solid, piercing reminder of what happened when a man cared for a woman in the West. It never ended well.

  They pulled to a stop in front of the stagecoach office, and Andy dismounted. He turned in time to see the nervous man slip from the coach like it was on fire. The next instant Louise’s gaze collided with his as she stepped from the coach, valise still clutched in her hand. She broke eye contact with him and looked first to the left then the right, no doubt orienting herself to the small town.

  Seemingly satisfied with what she saw, she stood up straight and walked purposefully toward him.

  “Excuse me, sir,” she said, as if they hadn’t met less than an hour before.

  “Please, call me anything but ‘sir’,” he said, repeating her own words back to her. “My name’s Andy Fulton.”

  “Mr. Fulton,” she said, not allowing any hint of humor to grace her pretty features. “I’m looking for someone. My…” She cleared her throat, and he thought he saw a hint of pink heat her cheeks. “My husband-to-be.”

  So that’s why she was coming to Cypress Creek. She was a mail order bride. “I see,” was all he said.

  “Can you please direct me to where I can find a Mr. Robert Jeffers?”

  It took Andy a moment too long to realize what she’d said and then even longer still before he could school his reaction of shock. “Did you just say Robert Jeffers?”

  “Yes,” she said, her expression hardening in earnest. “Where might I find him?”

  “Well,” Andy swallowed, his mouth dry again. He had a feeling this bold woman wasn’t going to like his answer, but he had no better one to give. “You’ll find him in the county jail. In fact, there he goes now.” They turned to watch as his brother and the other marshals took the coach robbers into the jail. “He was the one holding a gun on you.”

  Chapter 2

  Louise found herself to be a resourceful woman. Even while facing unfounded rumors in Richmond she’d managed to hold her ground without losing her self-dignity. But this…this news about her intended was almost more than she could bare.

  “I—excuse me,” she closed her eyes for the briefest of moments. “Did you mean to say he is one of the robbers?”

  “That I did. Bit of bad luck there,” the marshal said, looking as if he felt sorry for her.

  “I see.” She kept her shoulders pulled back, head held high, but inside she was quickly crumpling, like a piece of paper tossed into the fire. This couldn’t be happening. How had she been exchanging letters with a criminal?

  “I’d suggest you hop back on the coach and head back to wherever it is you came from,” the marshal said. What had he said his name was? Andy?

  Andy didn’t know the half of it.

  “I can’t do that.” She didn’t elaborate, and she had a feeling he wouldn’t ask her to, though he did look curious.

  “Then the hotel is that way,” he pointed across the street and down several buildings. “But,” he looked uncomfortable now, as if whatever he was going to say next wasn’t something he’d enjoy admitting. “I’d really suggest you go home. The West is no place for a lady. Especially one alone.”

  She’d heard as much from several men along the route of her trip. They were right, as was evidenced by her near run-in with death on the stagecoach ride, but what they didn’t realize was that she had nothing to go back to.

  “Thank you for the suggestion.” She picked up her skirts and took a step in the direction of the hotel.

  “Ma’am—Miss Settelmeyer,” he said, halting her forward momentum.

  She stopped and turned back to look up into his blue eyes. They reminded her of the color of the sky on the clearest of days, and she was distracted by a pleasant memory from when she was a child. Of laying in the middle of a grassy field and looking up into the sky.

  The feeling of freedom quickly slipped from her grasp as he continued, “If you need anything, let me know. I work over there.” He pointed across the street to a small building next to the jailhouse.

  It took Louise a moment to realize what he was offering her. Help. But unless he could prove that Robert Jeffers wasn’t a criminal—unlikely—or could give her another man to marry, he wouldn’t be ab
le to help her. She blushed at the thought of marriage as she looked up at him, but quickly regained her composure.

  “Thank you, Deputy Marshal,” she said.

  “Any time, ma’am.”

  She saw the glint of humor on his handsome features, and before she could respond in kind, she spun on her heel and headed toward the hotel.

  The feeling of his gaze on her back burned with each step she took, but she forced herself not to look back. He was a kind man and a lawman at that, but nothing more. She was the woman who had come to the West with nothing more than a stack of letters and a proposal of marriage that would never come to be.

  She was all right not marrying Robert. While he’d seemed normal enough in their letters, there had always been something missing. A spark. Though she had often chided herself for wanting that. There were more important things than feeling something for the man you were going to marry.

  But now she wondered if what she’d felt, or the lack of what she felt, was due to his profession. Shame flooded her cheeks as she approached the front of the hotel. Her intended had held a gun to her. Would he have done that had he known who she was?

  It didn’t matter. She would get a room and then sit and think for a while. She’d pray that God would give her an answer and then see what happened. For the moment, it was all she could think to do.

  Pausing at the entrance to the hotel, Louise allowed herself to look back across the street. To her surprise, Deputy Marshal Andy Fulton was still standing there, looking right at her.