Chapter One
SWEETWATER, KANSAS—APRIL1872
The latest convulsions had been the worst so far.
Carolina Groves drew the bedcovers up to her brother Matthew’s chin before laying a hand on his forehead. She didn’t know why she did this—he never had a fever with the convulsions, but it was one of the few things she could remember her mother doing when either she or Matthew fell ill as small children.
His skin was cool to the touch and he breathed normally, and for that, Lina was thankful. Matthew had been sitting down this time when it had happened, and she’d been nearby. When the convulsion began, she had tossed her mixing spoon and ran to catch his arms as he’d shaken and fallen helplessly onto the old armchair in front of the fire. And when it finished, their kindly neighbor Mr. Bauer had carried Matthew to the bed.
And there he’d laid for two days now, still too tired and weak to do more than sit up and sip water or broth.
She feared the convulsions would be the death of him if he didn’t receive help soon. But help beyond locking him away in an asylum—which Lina would sooner die herself than do—required money. And money was the one thing they didn’t have.
Dusk closed in outside, casting dark shadows through the two small windows in the front of the one-room home. Lina lit the lamp at the table across the room, dimming the flame as much as possible to avoid waking Matthew. After gathering a meager supper of bread and cheese, she sat to eat and search the newspaper the Bauers had passed on to her for work opportunities.
She took in laundry for a few large, overwhelmed families in town, but if she were going to get Matthew the help he required, she needed more. Alotmore. Drawing the lamp closer, Lina skimmed the advertisements.
Needed: Seamstress.
Wanted, shopkeeper’s assistant.
Required immediately, a genteel young lady to serve as a companion.
Lina blew out a sigh. She didn’t know what she hoped she would find, but these weren’t it. All of them required her to be away from Matthew from sunrise to sunset. She could persuade Mrs. Bauer to let him stay with her family, but to what end? None of these positions paid what she needed to both survive and save funds for medical treatment—not quickly enough, at least. It would be years before she could put enough coins away to help Matthew.
And by then, it could be too late.
She turned the page, hoping against hope that some perfect opportunity might appear. Instead, she was met with advertisements for marriage.
Lina laughed out loud, quickly smothering the sounds with her hand. She was exactly what some poor, lonesome soul needed—a woman entrusted with the care of a brother, with no money, no family connections, and a late father whose assumed name would send most men fleeing in fear.
And yet, as she skimmed the matrimonial advertisements, she felt an odd kinship with the men who’d submitted them. Yes, she had Matthew, and she had friends in the Bauers, but a part of her heart yearned for love. It was a foolish desire, she knew, and one she didn’t dare indulge lest she forget her duties.
Lina was just about to turn the page when something in the very last advertisement caught her eye. She squinted at the words in the lamplight.
Hardworking, respected lawman in Perseverance, Colorado Territory, aged 28, seeking cheerful and sturdy young woman for marriage. Must be of an honest and Christian nature.
The advertisement went on to describe the gentleman as being of taller stature with brunette hair and brown eyes. But it wasn’t the man’s description of himself that caught Lina’s attention.
Jumping up from her chair, she crossed the few steps to a shelf mounted on the wall. Beside a framed photograph of her mother, Lina snatched a small, simply-designed wooden box and brought it back to the table.
From inside, she retrieved a folded snippet of newsprint and a carefully creased letter. The letter she had memorized months ago, after it had arrived. It was her father’s last missive to both Lina and Matthew. The section cut from newspaper, however, she unfolded now and pressed flat against the table. She skimmed the painful words once again.
The outlaw Joseph Grayson, wanted in two states and this territory for crimes committed against various persons, the Heartfield Overland Stage Company, and the Colorado & New Mexico Railway Company, was killed yesterday evening by a gunshot wound to the chest. County sheriff Henry “Hawk” Rodgers led the ambush against the outlaw and his gang. Holed up in the mountains above Perseverance, the sheriff and his men made quick work of the outlaws after a parlay between Sheriff Rodgers and Mr. Grayson was unsuccessful. The shooting began before the sheriff returned from his rendezvous with the outlaw Grayson, when one of the Sheriff’s deputies saw Grayson raise a gun. The outlaw was killed instantly. His men were also killed, although a few escaped and remain at large.
Lina drew in a sharp breath upon reading about her father‘s demise yet again. It hurt as if it had happened yesterday, despite the fact that nearly six months had passed since she’d read the news in the paper that Mr. Bauer had brought back for her. Only the Bauers knew that Joseph Grayson was Joseph Groves. Her father had thought of everything, including ensuring that his children did not need to bear his sins through their surname.
Lina ran her finger down the article again, pausing underneath the name of the town. Perseverance. Glancing at the more recent newspaper in front of her, she located the advertisement from the lawman in Colorado.
Perseverance.
Lina sat back, biting her lip as she tensed her fingers around the edge of the table. It couldn’t be a coincidence. It was too strange a name for that to be the case.
Was it possible that this man advertising for a bride could be this Henry Rodgers, the sheriff who was the last man to speak with and see Lina’s father?
Her heart picked up speed as she contemplated the possibility. What if she were to...? No, she couldn’t.
Could she?
