Page 72 of Taming Lady Temperance

Come on. No time to be a hero.

A loud crack exploded, shaking the building.

“Connor!” Noreen sprinted forward, water sloshing down the front of her dress. Had the roof collapsed? “Connor!”

Before she reached the door, Connor emerged, bent in half and coughing but alive.

Thank you, Lord!

She moved to his side just as a second man burst from the door. Instinct more than conscious thought dictated her reaction. Or maybe a divine hand set her arms in motion before her brain registered the flames. Either way, a wave of water arced out of her bucket onto the back of the man rushing past her. The man whose coat was on fire.

The instant the water hit him, he fell to his knees and clawed the coat from his body. He tossed it to the ground, then stretched a shaking hand down to the muddy earth to steady himself.

Noreen crept forward. “Are you all right?”

“Thanks,” he said at the same time, then craned his neck around. The gratitude softening his gaze hardened to spiked iron the moment his eyes met hers. “You!”

Noreen flinched. She’d just saved Milton Taggert’s life, and he looked ready to end hers.

Chapter

34

“Was burning my building not enough for you?” Taggert rasped. “Did you have to sneak around back here to destroy what little I managed to save?” The soot blackening his face did nothing to mask his rage.

Noreen retreated, wagging her head in denial of his irrational charge. “I didn’t touch any of your belongings. They’re all there. Look.” She pointed, hoping the evidence of her veracity would calm him. “I’m just here to help. Like everyone else.”

“Help me into an early grave.” Taggert grabbed her wrist. “You’re a she-devil who needs to be stopped.”

Her bucket fell to the ground as his grip tightened. Connor shouted a protest and latched on to Taggert’s shoulder from behind. Taggert whirled and slammed his fist into Connor’s face. The young man toppled backward.

“Connor!”

Noreen tried to go to him, but Taggert reclaimed his hold on her arm and jerked her backward. Jaw clenched, he dragged her toward his pile of salvaged goods. Did he have a gun there? A knife? Would he kill her in front of witnesses?

“Please,” she begged as she pulled against him. “I only came to help.”

Taggert grunted, continuing his march undeterred. Until a shadowed figure stepped into his path and slapped him full in the face with a wall of water.

“Shame on you, Milton Taggert. Takin’ your anger out on a woman like that. Let her go.”

Taggert wiped a hand over his eyes, which only served to smear the soot around. “Irma?”

“Yes, it’s me, you dunderhead.” Irma Freeman, wife to the blacksmith whose business stood next door, planted her hands on her hips. “Out here trying to save your stinkin’ swill hole before it burns to the ground. Had I known you’d be this ungrateful, I woulda just doused the smithy instead.”

The manacle of his fingers loosened, and Noreen yanked free of his grasp. Taggert squinted past Mrs. Freeman to another figure emerging out of the night.

“Irma? What’s going on?” Rebecca Hunter, who lived a block behind the hotel, walked onto the scene with the next bucket, her eyes wide.

Taggert looked from woman to woman, his forehead scrunching. “How many women you got out here, Irma?”

“A couple dozen, I reckon. Though they ain’t here because of me. Noreen’s the one who organized us. Got my stubborn husband to agree to lettin’ the womenfolk run a bucket line from the hotel. You should be thankin’ her, not yellin’ at her.”

“Her quick thinking put out the fire that caught on your back when that beam cracked, too,” Connor said as he joined the group, his glare hot enough to cause sparks of its own as he rubbed his jaw. He stepped past Taggert and took the full bucket from Mrs. Hunter. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ve got a fire to put out.” He looked to Noreen. “Miss O’Sullivan? You coming?”

Eager to get away from Taggert, she nodded and hurried to Connor’s side. Taggert circled his gaze from person to person as if trying to piece together a puzzle that didn’t fit.

“Feel free to join the effort after you check the status of your belongings,” Connor called over his shoulder, then marched up to the rear of the saloon and tossed the water along the side wall that faced the smithy.