Julie Garwood - Come the Spring

gentlemanly gesture and hesitantly took hold of him.

"You aren't going to bother Jessica and Grace tonight, are you? It's

already well after eight, " she said. "They were both so weary this

afternoon. Neither one of them is feeling well, " she added. "You

should let them get a good night's sleep before you hound them with

questions.

Good night, gentlemen." They watched her walk away. Each was lost in

his own thoughts until she paused in the doorway and looked at them

again. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Because she had been as cool

as ice during the questioning, the emotional display surprised them.

"Are you ever going to catch those horrible men? Do you have any leads

at all? The sheriff told me you didn't, but I was hoping he was

wrong.

" Ryan's shoulders slumped. "No, we don't have any leads now, but that

could change."

"One thing's certain, " Cole interjected. "We will catch ihem. It's

only a matter of time. You can count on it."

"Yes, of course you'll catch them, " she said. "If you think of any

other questions, I'll be here." Once she was inside, Cole muttered an

imprecation. "I don't like being a marshal. It's depressing."

"You know what's really bothering you? You feel sorry for all three of

the women, don't you? " "Yeah, I do. Thanks to Sloan's incompetence,

those ladies have been thrown into the middle of a boiling pot. They

shouldn't have to be afraid. Besides, it's pretty certain none of them

was in the bank during the robbery, but now everyone in town thinks one

of them was. Folks around here don't think things through, do they? I

guess I hated seeing Rebecca so scared."

"I can't blame her for being afraid, " Ryan said. "She knows what the

Blackwater gang can do."

"Do you think any of them will come back to Rockford Falls? Would they

go to such an extreme because of a rumor?

" "People believe what they read in the paper. It would be a lucky

break for us if they did come back. Stop glaring at me, Cole. I'm

only being honest. It would be a break, and God knows we're due for

one. We can protect the women.

Come on, let's go talk to Jessica Summers and Grace Winthrop."

"It seems kind of pointless, " Cole said. "They didn't see anything.

" "We have to go through the motions, " Ryan stubbornly insisted. "And

by the way, you're supposed to take notes during the interviews. "

"You take them. I hate paperwork. Besides, I can remember what

everyone said."

"Maybe now you can, but later, after one or two more robberies, all the

names and dates start blending together."

"Then I guess we better catch the bastards before they rob again."

Hungry and weary, he grudgingly followed Ryan down the steps. "Rebecca

told us that Jessica and Grace were exhausted. Remember? Maybe we

ought to wait until tomorrow to talk to them."

"No, I want to talk to them now." Cole gave up trying to argue with

him. He found the job of marshal incredibly frustrating thus far. He

wanted to act. Sorting through the mire of paperwork and talking to

potential witnesses was like putting an intricate puzzle together. One

had to be patient, and Cole hadn't quite learned how to accomplish that

feat.

The days dividing lover and lover, The light that loses, the night that

wij illy MacGuire's boardinghouse was at the end of Elm Street, a

winding road lined with hundred-year-old trees. The front door of the

hotel where Rebecca was staying actually faced the front door of the

house, but because of the meandering road and the trees, it wasn't

possible to see one building from the other.

The old homestead had just been treated to a fresh coat of white

paint.

The trim of the window shutters and the doors was a dark burgundy

red.

The color matched the lounging chairs scattered about the porch. The

pristine house sat back from the white picket fence that surrounded the

property, and while that too had recently been painted, tenacious spurs

of ivy were already working their way back up the slats.

Both the house and the rambling lawn in front were shaded by a cluster

of ancient walnut trees on either side of the porch. The leafy giant

sentinels stood guard over the occupants inside. A faint breeze moved

unnoticed through the massive limbs that arched out to one another over

the gabled roof.

Tilly MacGuire's home was a charming, idyllic place to raise a brood of

children, and she had done just that. The spry sixty-five-year-old

woman had married at age fourteen, produced eight offspringţall

girlsţbut after her youngest had married and moved away and her third

husband had passed on, she converted her six-bedroom home to a boarding

facility.

She didn't need the money, she needed the companionship. She was a

discriminating landlord and chose aKs boarders only those ladies for

whom she felt a kinship. She boasted of being a stickler for rules.

Men weren't allowed above the first floor, no matter what the reason,

her ladies had to be home by ten o'clock every night, including

Saturday, they must attend church with her on Sunday morning, and none

of them could miss supper. Her houseguests put up with the regulations

for the simple reason that as long as they followed the rules, they

were gloriously pampered. The food was always delicious and plentiful,

the bedrooms were spacious and beautifully adorned, and the linens were

changed every other day. More important than the luxuries, though, was

Tilly herself. She was a sweet-hearted woman who treated her selected

guests like long-lost family members.

If the truth were known, Tilly was also a real softy under her tough,

no-nonsense exterior. She had already broken one of her ironclad rules

by allowing Jessica and her son to stay with her. Since her own

children were grown, Tilly didn't allow babies or children because of

the mess they made, but little Caleb turned out to be her one

exception. The toddler, a pistol if ever there was one, stole her

heart when he batted his big brown eyes and stuck his tongue out at

her.

She was laughing at the baby's antics when the marshals knocked on her

screen door. Tilly was a little acorn of a woman with sparkling eyes

and deep-set wrinkles. She was smiling until she spotted their

badges.

Latching on to Caleb's hand, she slowly walked to the door.

"You're here to question my girls, aren't you? " "Yes, ma'am, we are,

" Ryan answered.

Her frown intensified. "They're both worried and scared, and only just

getting over a hard bout of influenza. Poor Jessica was almost well

and then suffered a setback. She was throwing up most of Wednesday

evening. It's a shame those girls have got to be scared too.

You might as well come on inside. They're both in the kitchen doing my

dishes. I don't regularly allow houseguests to set foot in the back of

my house, but my hired girls are both home sick, and I'm feeling a

little puny myself tonight, so I'm breaking my own rule. I can do

that, " she hastily added, "because this is my home. Do you want to

talk to both of them together? I'll let you sit at my kitchen table if

you do." The freshly scrubbed baby was clutching a rag doll by its

hair and looking up at Cole. He pulled his hand free from Tilly's

grasp and put his thumb in his mouth.

"We'd prefer to talk to each one separately, " Ryan said. "If you

wouldn't mind asking Jessica Summers to come out on the porch, we'll

wait here."

"Go find your mama, boy, " she ordered the child.

The baby pulled his thumb out of his mouth long enough to shout, "No, "

then turned around and went running toward the back of the house.

Tilly grinned." No' is that baby's favorite word. He must say it a

good hundred times a day. He isn't sassy or slow-witted, though, just

stubborn." She glanced behind her to make certain the baby was out of

earshot before she spoke again. "Like I was saying, Jessica and Grace

are scared as rabbits, and it's all because of that rumor someone

started, saying one of them was a witness to the murders. It was even

written down in the paper. Now, my girls didn't see anything because

they would have told me if they had. I don't want to be hearing you

marshals browbeat them with your questions either. You hear me? "

"Yes, ma'am, we hear you, " Cole replied.

"I'll go get Jessica, " she said. "Then I'm going upstairs with a pot

of tea Grace is kindly brewing for me, but I'll be back down to lock my

doors at ten o'clock on the dot. You expect to be finished by then,

don't you? " "Yes, ma'am, we do, " Ryan answered.

Tilly wasn't quite ready to leave. She had something more to say to

the marshals, and whenever she wanted to speak her mind, she did

exactly that, believing that time was too precious to waste dancing

around a sensitive topic.

"It's a crying shame the way this town is acting. Just because my

girls haven't been here long, they're fair targets for every rumor. I

feel sorry for poor Rebecca James too. She was feeling just as poorly

as my girls. Have you hounded her with questions yet? " Ryan didn't

answer. "When did you happen to meet Rebecca? " "At church Sunday

last, " she answered. "We had us a nice talk after services, and she

told me she was considering moving into my house because her hotel room