The Outlaws by Jane Toombs Page B

search of her brother. Just the same, she was disappointed in Calvin.
    Mark would have gone.
    No, she wasn’t going to think about Mark Halloran.
    As if Jules had read her mind, he stopped playing and twirled the stool around to face her.
    “Why doesn’t Mr. Halloran come here anymore?” Jules asked. “He plays the piano even better than Aunt Susie.”
    Tessa sighed. How could she explain? Jules loved Alex, calling him uncle, and grouped the townspeople into good men, if they were on Alex’s side, and bad men if they weren’t. Was Mark really bad?
    In her first anger and grief after she’d heard of John’s murder, Tessa had told herself Mark was no different from all the other terrible men who worked for Dolan.
    But he certainly was no outlaw like Jesse Evans and his gang of cutthroats. Mark hadn’t been in the posse who’d gunned down John. She couldn’t imagine him joining such a posse.
    If she asked him, would he find Ezra for her and bring him back to Lincoln?
    Jules tugged at her hand. “Why, Tess? Doesn’t Mr. Halloran like us anymore?”
    “I don’t know,” she told Jules.
    “I wish he’d come back.”
    After the way I behaved when he tried to talk to me back in March, she thought, Mark will never come back, even if the hostility between Dolan and Alex eases. Would it ever? There were more grievances daily. Calvin wouldn’t hear of her venturing away from the house without him.
    The end of April there’d been some shootings in town, but since then things had been fairly quiet. Would it be safe for her to go out alone and look for Mark? He might not be in town, of course, but she’d never find him sitting here.
    Ezra was more important than worrying about possible insults she might encounter on the streets of Lincoln.
    Tessa changed into a calico gown, blue with a tiny yellow flower print. She’d made the dress from material salvaged from John’s store after Dolan’s men had finished looting it the day after they’d killed him. Now the building was back in Alex’s hands and guards were on duty day and night to be certain it remained his. Tessa tied on a Dolly Varden hat decorated with yellow silk roses. The hat had been brought from St. Louis by Susie as a present, and Tessa loved it. She’d never had such an elegant hat.
    Rosalita assured her she’d keep an eye on Jules. “Senorita, you look muy bonita,” she said as Tessa went out the door.
    The sun was decidedly warm, Tessa thought as she walked along the edge of the road, heading west toward Dolan’s store. She passed loungers in front of the saloons, but though the men eyed her, no one said anything, A wagon passed and dust rose in its wake to choke her. She hurried on.
    As she neared Dolan’s store, her step slowed. She’d never been inside. “House of Murphy.” The sign said. Lawrence Murphy was no longer in Lincoln. Because of illness he’d moved to Santa Fe. Jim Dolan had been his partner, and still ran the store.
    And tried to run Lincoln County as well.
    A man stepped off the porch of the store and came toward her. She recognized George Peppin. He was no longer a deputy since Sheriff Copeland had been appointed to replace Brady.
    Peppin stopped in front of her, forcing her either to halt or go around him. She decided to stop. “Good afternoon, Mr. Peppin,” she said. “Have you seen Mark Halloran?”
    “McSween shouldn’t be sending you on his errands,” Peppin said. “My advice to you is to get home. Fast.”
    As he spoke, several other men drifted up to them. One man with dark red hair crowded so close to Tessa that she edged away. She didn’t like the way the man’s eyes lingered on her breasts.
    “Mr. McSween has nothing to do with my asking for Mark Halloran,” Tessa said.
    “But McSween’s got plenty to do with you, I hear,” the redhead told her.
    “Knock it off, Kilgore,” Peppin said. “Miss Nesbitt, go home.”
    Kilgore paid no attention to Peppin. Grinning at Tessa, he said, “McSween was damn