'Rein in, damn you!' Longarm shouted. 'Rein in!'
But Lucy wasn't about to rein in. She tried to hit him in the nose again, but she was off balance and swinging back over her shoulder, so there was no power in her punches. For his own part, Longarm had had about enough. Lucy Ortega had embarrassed the hell out of him before half of the citizens of Denver, probably broken his nose, and forced him to steal another man's horse.
'That's it!' Longarm stormed as his patience snapped and he dragged Lucy off the back of her running horse.
She hit hard and bounced a good two feet, then rolled over and over. When Longarm finally got the horses stopped, he dismounted and hurried back, sure that maybe the witch had broken her fool neck in the fall.
'Get up,' he ordered, not taking any chances with her.
'I can't,' she moaned, 'I think I broke my back.'
When she whimpered and attempted but failed to get up, Longarm's anger turned to concern. He bent down to help her, but the wildcat jumped up and made a grab for his sidearm. Longarm knocked her hand away and pushed her face down into the dirt. He climbed onto her back, wiped his bloody nose, and hissed, 'You have tried the limits of my considerable patience! I'm not giving you an inch of slack between here and Yuma.'
Lucy struggled for a moment under his weight, and when it became apparent that she could not budge, she relaxed. 'Get off of me, you big, bloody lummox.'
Longarm climbed off. He drew his handkerchief from a back pocket and covered, then squeezed his nose.
'Dammit, I think you might have broken it,' he snorted.
'You should have let me go,' Lucy said. 'I'll be nothing but trouble. I didn't kill my husband and I'll be damned if I'm going to rot in some territorial prison.'
Longarm blew his nose free of blood. He had a canteen tied to his saddle and he used that to wash his face. 'Let's go,' he ordered. 'We're taking that horse back to town and then we're on our way to Arizona.'
'I wonder,' she said, helping herself up into the saddle, 'what terrible wrong you committed to be picked for this job.'
Longarm mounted his horse and gathered the reins of the animal he'd commandeered. 'I was told that this would be a plum of an assignment.'
'You can't be serious!'
'I am,' he insisted. 'My boss, Marshal Billy Vail, painted a pretty rosy picture of you. He said you were young, beautiful, and a lady.'
'Well, I'm sorry!'
'Don't be,' Longarm said, deciding that his nose wasn't broken after all. 'Two out of three isn't bad.'
Lucy stared at him with his bulbous red nose, and then she actually smiled. 'Even with a big red nose you are sort of good-looking. What's your name again?'
'Custis. Deputy Marshal Custis Long.'
'Well, Custis. I'm an innocent woman.'
'Sure.'
'I am!' she protested. 'But then, I'm certain that everyone claims to be innocent.'
'Nearly,' he admitted.
'Do you have any idea why we're going to Yuma by way of Prescott?'
Longarm scowled. 'No.'
'I've got enemies in Prescott who want to make sure that I never go to trial so that I can prove my innocence.'
'You mean they want to kill you?'
'Exactly.'
'I don't know about any of that. All I know for sure is that they say you shot and killed your husband.'
'That's not true!'
'You can tell your story to the judge, lady. I'm just a poorly paid deputy marshal doing my job.'
'Poorly paid I can believe. But you weren't selected as my escort because you are the boss's favorite.'
'What is that supposed to mean?'
'Just that you'd better watch out,' she said. 'I'm giving you fair warning that I'll try to escape any way I can.'
'You can't.'
'And,' she continued, ignoring him, 'be aware that, if we actually reach the Arizona Territory, there are people who will stop at nothing to see me dead.'
'Why?'
'Because,' Lucy said, 'my poor husband was a very rich man without any heirs except myself. And, if I'm judged guilty in a court of law, they'll strip away my inheritance. The ranch as well as all my husband's other assets will go to his thieving shirttail cousins and uncles. But I won't be judged guilty. And that's why they'll want to kill me.'
