One Heart to Win Read Online Free PDF

Tiffany’s words died off at the sight of the man who entered the car with a gun in his hand and a bandanna wrapped over the lower half of his face.

Chapter Four

    “D ON ’ T BE MAKING NO sudden moves now, hear?”
    The marshal started swearing foully under his breath. Tiffany’s mouth had dropped open. Anna was frozen and silent—for the moment.
    Jennifer was dragged into the car by another train robber who came in behind the first. Tiffany thought the second man looked somewhat familiar, though she was too alarmed to figure out why. Jennifer must have been passing between the cars when she ran into him. The housekeeper was in tears as she hurried to an empty seat where she crouched down. She looked terrified, poor woman.
    Tiffany didn’t feel too brave herself. The feelings that overcame her as soon as the surprise wore off were like nothing she’d ever before felt, almost like a wave of heat that left a slight trembling behind. Her palms began to sweat, her heart was racing. She wanted to slide down in her seat as Jennifer had done, but she couldn’t move!
    Anna gripped Tiffany’s hand—to gain courage for herself,or to give some to Tiffany? Were train robbers violent, leaving no witnesses alive? No, the robbers wouldn’t have covered their faces if they intended to kill people—would they? The thought didn’t give Tiffany much comfort, didn’t end her paralysis either. She couldn’t even close her eyes. She just watched in helpless, fearful fascination as the scene unfolded.
    With her eyes riveted on the pair of robbers at the front of the car, it finally dawned on her why the second man looked familiar. She recognized his clothes and that misshapen hat. He was the farmer who had sat at her table in the dining car! But obviously he’d merely been disguised as a farmer so he would blend in with the other men on this train. No wonder he’d kept his head down during the entire meal and hadn’t said a single word that would draw her or Anna’s eyes to him. He didn’t want them to be able to describe him to the authorities. Tiffany clung to that hopeful thought, that they’d survive this terrifying experience and be able to give an account of it.
    “Just hand over all valuables, then we’ll leave, and you’ll get where you’re going in one piece,” the first robber instructed in a gruff tone. “Something from everyone, and don’t try to pretend you don’t have any money or jewels. If we think you’re holding back, we’ll just take your clothes as well. So if you don’t want to arrive buck naked in the next town, fill the sack and do it quickly. But first, place all your weapons on the floor and slide them into the aisle. Now!”
    With a few thuds and the sound of metal skittering across the wood floor, guns started landing in the aisle. Thomas wore two, but he only offered up one. The other he tucked under the edge of Tiffany’s wide skirt on the seat. She was too terrified to think about what he was doing. The passengers in front of her were turning their heads, looking at the back of the car. Tiffanyturned, too, and saw a third robber coming down the aisle holding a sack out to each passenger he passed. He held the sack in one hand and a gun in the other to make sure the passengers complied. Tiffany noticed a fourth man, gun in hand, too, who was guarding the back door. Purses, watches, rings, money clips, all were hastily being dropped into the sack. More women were crying loudly and more passengers were hiding low in their seats, out of the line of fire in case any shooting started. At least one baby had started screaming.
    When the robber with the sack had reached them, the marshal dropped a money clip and a watch in it, but Tiffany could still barely move and her eyes got rounder as the thief looked at her directly, waiting for her to contribute her share to the sack. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to oblige. She didn’t have much of value on her, wasn’t even wearing jewelry for