The Law and Miss Penny Read Online Free PDF Page A

them, Mariah lowered her voice. "If we tell him he's a U.S. marshal and give him his true name, he'd probably attach our wagon and make us take him back to wherever he came from. We'd lose the whole show season for sure."
    "She's right, Zachariah." Oda, never one to waste a lot of words, wiped her hands on a towel and shot a wary glance toward the back door of the medicine wagon. "There's only one thing we got to worry about if we keep him with us, and that's her." She pointed a pudgy finger at her daughter.
    Knowing exactly what his wife was referring to, Zack sighed. "That's something else we got to think about, baby. What if you can't fend the man off, should he take it in his head to have carnival ideas about you the way that crazy Buck Christman did a while back?"
    "That's carnal ideas, Dad."
    "Carnal, carnival—it don't make much difference what you call it if'n he takes it in his head to pin you down and have his way with you, now does it?"
    Mariah thought back to the pawings she'd endured while Buck was in their employ, the constant hassles she and Zack had put up with until they'd decided keeping the banjo player with the troupe simply wasn't worth the trouble. Those memories, coupled with the possible results her potion might bring, almost made Mariah change her impulsive plans for the marshal. Then an extraordinarily simple solution struck her.
    "I have it," she said, louder than was wise under the circumstances. Whispering again, she went on. "As long as he doesn't know who he is or what his past was all about, it's up to us to tell him, isn't it?"
    Zack gave her an uneasy nod. "Ayuh."
    "Then why not make him a blood relative?" She paused, trying to think of the perfect family connection, one that would keep the marshal at arm's length but would also prove the potency of her love potion. A cousin, perhaps. Yes. If a man like Slater were to take a liking to her, if he could accept her as his kin and even show a little more interest in her than he ought to, that would be proof enough that her potion worked.
    "Why don't we make him my good old cousin, Cain, who joined us to learn the business. How do you like it?"
    Zack pursed his thin lips and frowned.
    Oda shook her head, grumbling to herself.
    "It'll work," Mariah insisted, addressing her mother. "We'll just tell him he belongs to your brother Thomas. He's believed everything else. Why not that?"
    Oda stiffened at the mention of her family.
    Sliding his arm across her shoulders, Zack gave his wife a little squeeze as he said to Mariah, "Go on."
    "There's nothing to go on about. If he's my cousin, he'll just naturally have to leave me be."
    Zack glanced at Oda. "That gonna be all right with you?"
    She shrugged. "I expect."
    Zack gave her a short nod, and sighed in surrender. He never denied Mariah anything if he could possibly help it. "I reckon it might just work at that, but you'd best understand that I'm a-leaving the care and feeding of that man up to you, young lady. If he don't fit in or makes more trouble than he's worth, we'll just be getting rid of him any ole way we have to. Agreed?"
    Mariah beamed. "Agreed. Mother?"
    "Agreed. Now that we got that all settled, I'd like to get out of these wet clothes." Oda cocked her thumb, inviting her husband and daughter to give her some privacy.
    Zack headed for the entrance of the tent. "I'll go on outside and secure that sorrel for the night. Guess while I'm at it I'd best check the saddlebags to make sure I found all the marshaling papers that fellah had on him." He reached into his shirt pocket, withdrew the shiny badge, and tossed it to his wife. "Find a good place to hide this, will you, woman?" Then he stepped out through the flap and into the tail end of the latest cloudburst.
    Alerted by the sudden blast of cold air, Daisy got up from her warm bed, yawned loudly, then shook herself off and trotted out the flap behind Zack.
    Mariah started up the back steps of the medicine wagon. "I'm going to check on the