An Agent for Ulyssa Read online

  Ulyssa could hear Sam breathing behind her, and she shuddered with disgust. She could name at least three men that she may not have minded teaming up with. But Sam was well below her standards. She doubted if she spent ten years, she could train him in the proper ways of a Pinkerton agent.

  ***

  Sam stared at the back of her head. Probably made out of stone as hard as it was. He got the message loud and clear. She wanted nothing to do with him. As for him, he wanted to prove himself a good agent for Evangeline and Mark.

  They’d stuck their neck out for him in more ways than one. Sam knew he hadn’t deserved it. At all. That his sister had saved him from the noose at her own risk gave him a new way to look at life.

  Grace, it had changed him. Some anyway. That’s what the preacher had said. Undeserved favor. Sam owed it to Evangeline to be the best man he could be.

  The train chugged to a stop and hissed out a blast of steam. “Colorado Springs.” The conductor marched down the aisle, hurrying people from their seats.

  Sam stood and waited for Ulyssa.

  She gathered her things and, without a backward glance, strode for the door.

  Hesitating at her aloof manner and the uncaring way she left him, Sam figured he better follow her like the well-behaved puppy she wanted. He’d at least see what her plan was to encourage the rancher’s daughter to give up on Cade Monroe.

  Sam wondered what kind of man, Cade was. Then figured, he and Cade probably had a lot in common. They might even become best friends.

  He looked up and decided he better walk faster so as not to lose Ulyssa. She’d love the excuse to get him fired and off the case.

  With his satchel in hand, he followed her to the end of the platform. She’d stopped and was waiting for him. Her face a picture of disgust and frustration.

  “You could hurry a little. I was afraid you’d get left on the train.” Ulyssa whirled from him before he could answer and walked down the steps.

  If she’d waited a moment, he’d have taken her larger bag and carried it, but the way she acted, he’d let her flex her own muscles.

  Ulyssa stopped abruptly and faced him. “Let’s get the horses first.”

  “Lead the way.” Sam was intrigued by the woman and couldn’t wait to see what kind of horse she picked out. He looked down the street. “I think it’s the other way. The stable is usually near the train depot.”

  She shook her head as if he were a bee stuck in her hair. “I say it is down this way.”

  Sam shrugged. He could make out the sign a few blocks from the depot opposite the direction she had pointed. “Is that from the map you memorized?”

  Glaring at him, she took off the wrong direction.

  Not sure if he should follow, he considered his options. One is that he could go the right direction and pick out his horse, or he could do as she suggested. With a grin, he followed her.

  After nearing the end of the block, she stopped and asked an older gentleman where the livery was located. With a toothless smile on a white-whiskered face, the old man pointed the opposite direction. “All the way back down the street, Miss.”

  The old man snickered and stared at Sam. “You just following her and not saying a thing. I bet you knew it was the other way all along. You lovers having a spat?”

  With a gasp, Ulyssa turned and faced Sam, nearly knocking the old man over with her bag. “Did you know?”

  Sam shrugged. “I thought I saw the sign in the other direction. But I thought it proper to follow the lead agent.”

  With a huff, she started down the street.

  The old man looked at him. “She’s a might persnickety, I’d say. How did you get yourself hitched to that gal?”

  “I didn’t. She’s my boss.”

  Shaking his head, the old man pointed at her retreating figure. “I’d run the other way, son. She’s got meanness in her eyes.”

  “Thanks for the warning.” Sam smiled at the old man and walked after Ulyssa. From behind, she was a shapely woman. Her hair was pretty brown when the sun shone on it. Sam wondered why she was single.

  Then again, her personality was closer to that of part dragon and part bear than that of a woman a man would want to marry. Ulyssa was not welcoming. At all. In fact, she put off warning feelings much like a porcupine. Spiny mean she was. Sam laughed. It was more of a wonder that she hadn’t been put away to protect the rest of the world.

  Finally, they reached the livery. Less than a five-minute walk from the depot if you went the correct direction, but Sam kept his mouth shut as to that fact. Ulyssa looked mad enough to scare rattlesnakes back into their dens.

  She set her bag down. “Watch my things.” She walked into the office and came out with a man that looked like the twin to the old man down the street.

  Ulyssa pointed to the corral. “Two horses. Sturdy and able to run all day.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The old man went into the barn and came out with two horses.

  Sam folded his arms and waited to see what Miss-know-it-all would do.

  She went to the horses and felt their legs and looked at their teeth. “The sorrel isn’t bad, but the bay is at least fifteen and worn out.”

  Nodding, the old man took the bay back into the barn and came out with a skittish black. “This one’s green broke.”

  Ulyssa shook her head. “I don’t like—”

  Sam stepped forward. “I’ll take the black. He’s got spirit.”

  The old man smiled. “Yes, sir. And the sorrel.”

  Sam grinned at the old man. “I’m sure you can find a better one back in the barn.”

  With a nod, he took the sorrel and disappeared in the barn. After a few minutes, he returned with black and white paint. “She’s a good horse. Most don’t want her because she’s an Indian pony, but she can run most horses into the dust.”

  Sam shook his head. “The sorrel will do.”

  Ulyssa’s eyes narrowed. “I want the paint mare.” She dished out the money. “We need saddles, too.”

  Sam started to say something, but she quieted him with a sharp glare.

  The old man nodded. “I don’t have any sidesaddle. Can you ride astride?”

  “Yes.” She whirled away. “I’ll go buy the supplies. Bring the horses to the general store.”

  Sam nodded. “Which one?”

  “The one we passed on the other side of the depot.” She said it with a sneer.

  With a grin, Sam nodded. “All right. Pick me up some tobacco.”

  “Pinkertons don’t smoke.”

  “Beef jerky then.” He grinned. He didn’t smoke either. A nasty habit that he’d given up when he was arrested.

  “I know what to get.” She stomped off, leaving her bag with him.

  The old man watched her leave. “She’s got an attitude, doesn’t she?”

  Sam watched Ulyssa stomp her way up the street. “Yes, sir. I hope that little paint can make her happy.”

  “She’s a good mare. Make sure she treats the horse right.”

  Sam smiled at the old man. “I’ll see that she does. Although, I haven’t heard of her mistreating an animal, just men.”

  In no time, he had both horses saddled and was riding down the street to the store. His black was a little skittish and shied at the bag tied to the back of the saddle. “Easy boy. We got a lot of miles to get acquainted.”

  The old man called the horse Outlaw. Sam thought that a bit coincidental. The paint mare was Daisy, and she seemed like a gentle enough horse.

  Sam stopped, dismounted, and was about to enter the store when Ulyssa came out. “Lets put the things in the saddlebags.”

  Sam obliged her, and soon they were full. “Do you need everything in your bag?”

  “Yes, I do. I packed appropriately.”

  He shrugged. “All right. Want to go ask the sheriff how to get to Allred’s ranch?”

  She shook her head. “We know the general direction.”

  Sam stared at her. “That’s big, rough coun
try out there. If there’s a pass to go through the mountains, we need to know where it is.”

  “I told you, I had the map memorized.” She mounted the paint mare. “Let’s go.”

  Sam followed. He was uneasy at the idea that she could remember the map. He’d known scouts to get lost in these mountains and never be seen again. There was no assurance that the map had even been right.

  Chapter 3

  When Ulyssa had come out of the store, she’d been surprised to see Sam in front with the horses. She’d expected him to run off. She’d heard his reputation was terribly black. An outlaw, one of the agents, had let on. “Well, Sam, I’ll be watching you.”

  He packed the supplies and then mounted with an impatient look on his face. “Ready?”

  Ulyssa snapped. “I was born ready. You just try and keep up with me.” She tapped the paint mare, Daisy, Sam had called her, and was pleased with the smart way the horse took off.

  Secretly, she hoped the big black horse would dislodge his rider, but she figured by the way Sam sat the horse that he knew what he was doing. She laughed when he’d said his horse’s name was Outlaw.

  Ulyssa glared at him. “Appropriate, I would think. Although you won’t know if I’m calling for you or your horse.”

  Sam glared at her. “Funny. You’re just a barrel of laughs, aren’t you?” He called out to her. “Must be how you win friends at every stop.”

  She ignored his insults. Although, she had to admit they’d been in response to hers. This was going to be one testy case. It was possible that Rusty would see them together and come to her own senses about men.

  Then again, young women could be stubborn about the men they believed they loved and who loved them. Ulyssa had fallen for that a couple of times. Never again.

  Robert Campbell. He’d swept her off her feet. She’d only been seventeen. Promises. She’d fallen fast for his slick talk. He’d take care of her. Make sure she never did without. Marry her within the month.

  Ulyssa shook her head. Sam reminded her of him. Handsome, quick on his feet, and with his words, he could have been Robert’s twin if he’d had darker hair and eyes. She reined Daisy around a wagon and stole a look back to see that Sam was following.

  Just like a puppy, he was behind her.

  Robert had promised her a night on the town, and then Ulyssa had seen him with that other woman. Lucille, she thought, was the name. A woman of the gambling palace and a soiled dove. Robert saw Ulyssa enter the room, but he just smiled and went up the stairs with Lucille.

  Ulyssa left town that day. She never heard from Robert again. It had been a mistake from the start. The hard lessons she’d endured had proven her suspicions about life were correct. Trust and care about no one, or she’d regret it.

  As providence would have it, she’d stumbled into a Pinkerton case, and her career was born. She didn’t regret losing Robert. Yet sometimes, somedays, mostly nights, she wondered how it would be to have a man who really loved her.

  She glared back at Sam. Not him. Not anyone like him. No. He was what she despised in men. Happy-go-lucky, he lived as if he didn’t care about anyone else. Brash, arrogant, and rude. Sam had the worst qualities in men.

  More than likely, this Cade Monroe would be more of the same. If so, she could tell Rusty Allred why she needed to be rid of the man. Ulyssa shook her head. Why the Pinkertons thought she needed a partner on this trip was beyond her.

  One thing she should be able to do is to convince a young woman how men were bad. She knew all the types of undesirables and had yet to find one she thought worthy of marriage. Ulyssa thought back to the map. “It said we go somewhere around the red rocks and then west.”

  Sam frowned. “Red rocks? Yeah, haven’t seen any of those. Unless you count those oddities.” He pointed to long, rugged rocks that rose out of the ground like monuments to some long lost tribe.

  She pointed. “That has to be them.”

  “I’d say so. The road snakes around the far one.” He pointed and grinned slyly.

  He was right. Well, Uylssa was proud of her memory. A gift one woman had told her. A curse another had proclaimed. Uylssa wasn’t sure which one was correct, but she could still see the map clearly in her mind.

  Ulyssa ignored him. “We go on that road until we come to a creekbed. There should be an old fence post next to the road as it crosses the creek.”

  Sam frowned. “You remembered all that?”

  “I can see it in my mind like a picture.”

  He shrugged but didn’t argue.

  Ulyssa stared at the odd red formations. They were magnificent and yet looked so out of place. She pointed to them. “Have you ever seen anything like that before?”

  “No, I haven’t,” Sam admitted.

  “So, they don’t impress you at all?”

  Sam rode up beside her. “I’m not easily impressed.”

  “I see. Why because you’ve been too busy running from the law to appreciate beauty?”

  He grinned that brash grin of his. “You might say that is exactly why I haven’t noticed things.”

  Ulyssa skewered him with one of her judgmental glares. “Were you terrorizing this part of the country?”

  “No, I was north of Denver into Wyoming. I’ve given all that up. I’m following the straight and narrow, now.” Sam was getting tired of her interrogation.

  “That so.” She stopped and reined her horse to one peculiar formation. “It looks almost like it has been sculpted. So red. And odd.”

  He followed her. “I’ll admit, the whole place is odd. Pretty in its own way.”

  “I’m glad you can at least appreciate it somewhat.”

  He rested his arm over the saddle horn. “Frankly. I’m amazed that you noticed them.”

  Ulyssa swept her gaze from him. Apparently, he disliked her as much as she did him. Hurt. Strangely, she was aware of it. Not that she cared at all what Sam thought about anything. Yet, his words had stung.

  She put aside the blow to her ego and looked away from him. “I notice everything.”

  “I bet you do. And keep it in your memory. That must get a little crowded in your head.” Sam’s voice was low and edged.

  She glared at him. “You have no idea.” If she could erase things from her mind, she would start with Sam. “I just wanted to stop and examine the formation.”

  Sam’s face softened, and his mocking grin disappeared. “They are amazing. I’m glad you stopped.”

  That caught her off guard. So surprised that she didn’t have words to say. “We better move on. Archie sent them a wire that we’d arrive tomorrow.”

  “He was optimistic. We have no idea what lies between us and that ranch. This is wild country. Indians, animals, weather, any one of those can take you out.”

  “You left out outlaws.”

  Sam grinned. “Yes, I did. But you’re right. Outlaws. This area is full of prospectors. An easy target for the man who goes against the law.”

  “And they are easy targets?” She stared at him. The dislike was back in her eyes and face.

  Sam shook his head. “Not really. They’re tough and just as likely to go after each other. You have your gun loaded?”

  “Of course. An unloaded gun isn’t much use.”

  Sam checked his pistol and then his rifle. “I’d say after we get past these rocks, things might take a turn for the worse. Be on guard.”

  “Noted.” Ulyssa checked her derringer and then her rifle. She was an expert shot. Although, she could see that Sam didn’t think she knew the first thing about guns. She reined Daisy around the last red rock and up the steep road. She’d be on the lookout for trouble ahead and behind her.

  ***

  Rusty, Trucilla, Allred put up her horse and ran inside the ranch house. She loved her home. Father had built it long and with tall ceilings to keep it cool in the summer. Roy Allred had the biggest ranch in southern Colorado.

  And someday, it would be hers. That is unless Father went through with his threat
to disown her if she didn’t give up Cade. She sighed and put the dilemma from her mind. Today, she’d seen five Hereford calves on the range.

  “Pedro, where is Father?”

  The old man who had worked for her father for thirty years pointed. “In the study.”

  She thanked him, grabbed an apple from the kitchen, and went to tell her father. She did love him, but he was wrong about Cade Monroe. She ran down the hall and slid into the room.

  “You’ll never guess what I saw on the west pasture.”

  Big Roy Allred looked up and grinned. “What would that be, my wild daughter?”

  “Five little Herefords.”

  “Great! I couldn’t be more pleased. That means that Champ did his job on at least a few heifers before the wolves got him.” He smiled, looking pleased with himself. “They are the stock that is going to build this ranch into the best yet.

  “When I was riding the west range, I saw old Mossback roaming that way. I think you should send Jackson and boys to head him back to the north.”

  “Good idea, girl. You’re a natural at running a ranch.” He stopped and stared at her. She knew he wanted to go on and tell her to stay clear of Cade, but he didn’t. “I’ll send them out today.”

  “Father, don’t be so hard on Cade. I love him.”

  “You don’t know him or what is good for you. He’s not good for this country. He’s not rancher material. If you marry that man, you won’t have a penny left. And I won’t give you a penny of my ranch. Tell Cade that for me and see how long he sticks around.”

  “Oh. We’ve been through this day after day.”

  Roy stood and shook his head. “You’re worried about old Mossback because of what he’ll do to the heifers, and I’m worried about what Cade will do to my ranch. He stuffs his head in books. He’s better suited to be a teacher than a rancher.”

  Not wanting to hear anymore, Rusty turned from him and left the big room. Fortunately, Father had built more than a few big rooms, and she rushed to the area she called her study. It was on the south side with windows cushions and settees. And books. She loved the smell of books.