The Heart's Pursuit by Robin Lee Hatcher Page B

hadn’t answered that prayer, and as far as he could recall, that had been the last time he’d asked God for anything.
    He stood. “We’d best be on our way again, Miss Matlock. The sooner we reach Laramie, the sooner we might have answers.”

     CHAPTER 13     
    L aramie had appeared on the Wyoming prairie in the 1860s, a tent city near the Overland Stage route. By the time the first Union Pacific train arrived there in 1868—close to a year before the transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory, Utah—more permanent buildings had begun to appear. But even five years later, with a school and churches, homes and stores, Laramie retained its reputation for lawlessness.
    It was late in the afternoon when Silver and Jared guided their horses across the railroad tracks beneath the shadow of the towering windmill and water tank. Silver looked at every building, wondering if Bob might be inside one of them. Could she be lucky enough to find him this soon? Even if she found him, would she recover what he’d taken from herfather? And would recovering what Bob stole be enough to redeem herself in her parents’ eyes? If people in Twin Springs learned she hadn’t been with her sister in Denver but instead had been alone on the trail with a bounty hunter—
    Well, that didn’t bear thinking about. And besides, she didn’t care what they thought. Nothing inappropriate had happened. Nothing inappropriate would happen. How could it? Jared Newman hardly seemed to know she was alive, let alone that she was a woman. Which was fine with her.
    As they rode past a hotel, her thoughts changed abruptly. What she wouldn’t give for a hot bath and a night between real sheets on a soft mattress. It felt like a year rather than days since they’d stayed at the Colorado Hotel in Central City.
    Jared stopped his pinto in front of Mabel’s Restaurant in the center of town. “You go in and order us some dinner. I’ll ride over to the train station and see what I can find out.”
    “I’ll come with you.”
    “No. I prefer to do this alone.”
    Too tired to argue with him, she stepped down from the saddle. “What do you want to eat?”
    “Doesn’t matter. Whatever you decide you want, I’ll have the same.”
    She wrapped the mare’s reins around the hitching rail, then reached for the packhorse’s lead rope and did the same. Jared nudged his gelding toward the depot and rode away without another word.
    Silver was on the boardwalk, about to enter the restaurant, when she heard a woman’s voice exclaim, “Jared Newman! As I live and breathe!”
    She turned in time to see Jared stop his pinto, then quickly dismount. A moment later he embraced the petite woman. Silver couldn’t see her face, but she wore a pale brown dress, and her strawberry blonde hair peeked from beneath a straw hat. Jared’s expression as he released his hold said that he was more than a little glad to see her.
    Something twisted in Silver’s belly.
    The woman took hold of Jared’s hand and led him toward the nearby saloon, pausing only long enough to let him tie up his horse.
    Silver’s mouth dropped open. Hadn’t he been in a hurry to go to the train depot to ask questions? And why so quick to go with that woman into the saloon? Did a pretty face make him forget his hunger and his mission? Obviously so. Well, Silver hadn’t forgotten what needed done. It didn’t take a genius to inquire if someone had seen Bob. She could do it herself.
    She set off in the direction of the train station.
        
    It had been better than four years since Jared had seen Whitney Hanover and her husband, Tom. They’d lived in Kansas at the time. The Hanovers were two of the few people Jared could call real friends and not just acquaintances.
    “What are you doing in Laramie?” he asked Whitney as she drew him through the swinging doors of the saloon.
    “We live here now.” She motioned with her hand. “We own the Red Dog Saloon.”
    Jared swept the