Read Online Gunpowder Tea (The Brides Of Last Chance Ranch Series) by Margaret Brownley - Free Book Online Page B

was her foreman, she moved her hand away from the pain medication and barked, “Come in!”
    The door opened and the woman named Annie stuck her head through the crack. “Someone here to see you. A Mr. Stackman.”
    Robert Stackman was Eleanor’s banker and friend—and would be so much more if she would let him. At the moment, he was the last person she wanted to see.
    “Tell him I’m occupied,” she said.
    Robert’s voice drifted from beyond the door. “You can tell me that yourself.” He walked into the room and bowed to Annie. “Thank you. I’ll take it from here.”
    Even in his sixties, Robert cut an impressive figure with his silver hair as neatly trimmed as his mustache and goatee. Eleanor never saw him when he wasn’t impeccably groomed in dark trousers, white dress shirt, vest, bow tie, and polished oxfords. Robert had been after her for years to sell the ranch and marry him. A bad idea on many counts.
    He closed the door and stooped to pick up the clock. “I see time’s trying to get away from you,” he said, grinning. He set the clock on the bedside table. It was a little after 11:00 a.m.
    He picked the bell off the floor and set it next to the timepiece. “I see you have a leg up. Trust you to be ahead of the competition.”
    “I’m in no mood for your jokes,” Eleanor snapped. “What did you come here for? To gloat?”
    “I heard you had a nasty fall and I came to see how you are. It might surprise you to know that’s what friends do.”
    “If you are truly a friend, I trust you won’t say ‘I told you so.’”
    “I wouldn’t think of it.” He lifted a chair and moved it to the sideof the bed. He then sat, pulled off his straw hat, and balanced it on his knee. “I see you have another heiress.”
    “Yes, and I plan to get rid of her as soon as possible.” If she had her druthers, she would have ordered Annie out of the house that very morning. “Not only is the woman a menace, she’s as stubborn as a cornered rattler.”
    Robert arched his brow. “Then you two should get along quite famously.”
    Eleanor made a face. “She gave me boiled eggs and weak tea for breakfast. Now, I ask you, does that sound like someone who can be trusted around cattle?”
    Robert chuckled before growing serious. “Actually, this isn’t entirely a social call.”
    “I should have known.” It wasn’t like him to travel to the ranch during bank hours just to be friendly.
    “I hesitate to mention this while you’re . . . indisposed, but I suspect there’ll be all hell to pay if you found out I kept something from you.”
    “Oh dear.” She brushed aside a strand of hair. “This sounds ominous.”
    “I’m afraid it is. I don’t know if you heard but the Phantom gang struck again. The train and bank were robbed yesterday.” Resting his elbow on his crossed arm, he stroked his goatee. “It’s odd that two robberies occurred on the same day, don’t you think?”
    “Odd, but not too surprising.” Arizona Territory had gone through many changes since her family settled in the area more than forty years earlier during the ’50s. But one thing that never changed was the criminal element. As a ranch owner, she’d battled her fair share of renegade Apaches, cattle rustlers, fence cutters, and water snipers.
    She placed her hand on her forehead. She felt groggy and so unlike herself that she had difficulty concentrating. “That annoying girl mentioned something about a train robbery.” Or at least Eleanor thought she did. Or maybe it was the doctor. “But the bank too?”
    “The marshal apprehended some, but by no means all, of the men responsible.”
    “Hmm.” She studied him. “So how does this affect me?”
    Robert glanced at her suspended leg and hesitated.
    “Speak up,” she snapped. “I will not be treated like an invalid.”
    “And I wouldn’t think of treating you like one.” He coughed and cleared his voice. “I don’t want to upset you.”
    “Then stop beating around