One Heart to Win Read Online Free PDF Page B

the trip. She had a little traveling money in her purse and a little more pinned to her petticoat, but not much since her mother had transferred all she might need to the Nashart bank long before they’d left home. She simply couldn’t move!
    Thomas took charge, lifting the purse from her lap and dropping it in the sack. Anna was another matter; her purse wasn’t visible and she wasn’t moving either. She was scrunched tightly against the window, as far from the outlaw as she could get. But the robber hadn’t seemed to have even noticed Anna yet; his eyes were still on Tiffany.
    “I’ve a mind to take you with us,” he said to Tiffany. “I’d say you’re the most valuable thing on this train, fancy piece like you.”
    Tiffany was sure her heart stopped beating, she was so scared. Oh, God, he was serious! She could see it in his dark eyes and feared he wasn’t talking about taking her for ransom. . . .
    “Get on with your business,” the marshal growled at the man. “She’s not—”
    “Shut up, old man,” the outlaw said, but that wasn’t enough, he actually raised his hand holding the gun to hit Thomas with it.
    Horrified, Tiffany shot to her feet without thinking. “Stop it!”
    She was desperate to keep the man from hurting the marshal. He was the only one who could keep these robbers from dragging her off the train, and he wouldn’t be able to help her if he was unconscious! But while she got the outlaw’s eyes back on her, she had no idea what to say or do, now that she’d stopped him. But she didn’t have to do anything else.
    The moment she stood up, the gun her skirt had concealed on the seat was left in plain view, so she pretty much forced Thomas into action. He snatched the weapon up with one hand, yanked her down with the other, and shot the robber holding the sack in the belly. Almost in the same breath, he shot the man at the back door, too.
    With no robbers behind him now, he ducked down behind the back of the seat in front of them, taking cover from the bullets that immediately came his way. Anna had already pushed Tiffany to the floor and fallen on top of her to protect her, screaming, “You’re crazy, you’re crazy, you’re absolutely crazy!”
    Yes, she was. If she had thought about it even for a moment, she would never have deliberately drawn the robber’s attention back to herself. She would castigate herself later for doing something so impulsive—if they survived this ordeal.
    There was more gunfire, quite a bit of it. Some of the other passengers had grabbed their guns back from the floor, inspired by Marshal Gibbons to join in the fight. As Tiffany lay with her face pressed against the floor and Anna wailing hystericallyon top of her, she prayed for the deafening gunfire to end. She didn’t want to die! Suddenly, there was silence, although she heard shots in the distance.
    Then she heard a short bark of laughter and a man say, “Good work, men, but this isn’t over yet. The engineer caught sight of one of them robbers racing toward the train, leading eight horses. He got off a lucky shot so the horses scattered, leaving the thieves with just the wagon they brought to cart away their loot. The horse count suggests there’s four more outlaws at the back of the train needing to be dealt with. I’ll welcome volunteers.”
    Tiffany had no doubt that the marshal would be one of those volunteers. In fact, he leaned down and told her, “This won’t take long, I reckon. Just stay where you are and you’ll be safe.”
    With the immediate danger over, Tiffany sighed with relief. And she could move again . . . well, not exactly. After a moment when Anna’s weight didn’t budge from her back, Tiffany said, “I’m sure he didn’t mean that literally. You can get off of me, you know. I’ll be the first to hug the floor again if those criminals come back this way.”
    “I’m not sure what came over me,” Anna said as she got back into her seat and helped Tiffany