Page 74 of Taming Lady Temperance

Taggert had Noreen by the wrist.

James’s jaw clenched, but he forced himself to hold his tongue. Fisting his hand to keep from drawing his gun, James picked up his pace. Taggert had lost nearly everything tonight, he reminded himself. He deserved compassion. Yet no amount of loss gave a man permission to mistreat a woman. Even one who’d pitted herself against him.

Drawing to a halt a few yards away from the group of women actively giving Taggert a piece of their minds, James raised his voice to be heard above their voices. “I suggest you release her, Taggert. No need for a bad night to get any worse.”

Milton Taggert pulled Noreen forward and flung her toward James. “Arrest her, Paxton. She set the fire.”

James steadied Noreen with gentle hands and did his best to portray a calm he didn’t feel.

“Hold on there, Taggert. I know you and Noreen have had your differences, but that doesn’t mean she set the fire. From what I hear, she helped put it out. Organized an entire water line to guard the rear.”

“That’s what we told him,” Martha said, shooting a dark scowl at the bartender. “Mr. Reed told us she even saved Mr. Taggert’s life by extinguishing a fire that caught on his clothing.”

James caught a movement from the back of the group. Connor Reed stepped forward. “That’s right, Deputy. I saw it with my own eyes.”

Taggert waved his arms about in a wild fashion as he turned to address the people clumped around him, focusing on James and Mr. Freeman. “It’s all a ploy, don’t you see? She showed up to help as a pretense. To hide the truth of what she did. But I have proof that it was her.” He started digging in his coat pocket.

James stepped in front of Noreen and drew his pistol from his holster. “Easy, Taggert. Let me see your hands.”

“She’s wanted me gone for ages.” Taggert raised his left hand, but his right remained in his pocket. “And when I wouldn’t give in to her little terror tactics, she took matters into her own hands.”

He pulled his hand free of his pocket, and James raised his gun. The ladies around him gasped, but Taggert held no weapon in his hand. Instead, a white square danced in the night breeze like a flag of surrender. But Taggert was surrendering nothing.

“I got proof!”

James holstered his gun and stepped closer. He pulled the handkerchief from Taggert’s hand. Black letters painted across the cloth proclaimed motive for all to see. FOR TEMPERENCE, it read. Yet that wasn’t the most damning piece of evidence on the cloth. For directly below the lettering was a familiar cluster of blue embroidered flowers and Noreen’s initials.

Chapter

35

How was that possible? Noreen stared at the handkerchief in James’s hand. Her handkerchief. How had it come to be in Mr. Taggert’s possession? And who had painted that blatantly misleading message upon it?

“I . . . I don’t understand. Where did you find this?”

Taggert glared at her. “Tacked to my front doorframe. Right where you left it.”

Noreen shook her head. “I didn’t. I swear.”

She looked to James, who was rubbing the pad of his thumb over the embroidered forget-me-nots, obviously remembering when he’d last seen them. In her possession while she’d been behind bars. A place to which Taggert seemed determined to have her return.

“James, I didn’t do this.”

He had to trust her. He had to. If he looked her in the eyes and believed her guilty of this atrocity—believed her capable of such a disgraceful act—her heart would shrivel like a tomato left to rot on the vine.

Taggert had no difficulty scoffing at her claim of innocence. “Bat your lashes all you want, darlin’. It’s not gonna change the facts. You’re the only one in town with motive. And this hankie proves your involvement. You’re guilty as sin, and I got witnesses. You might have this gaggle of women on your side, but Freeman will hold Paxton’s feet to the fire. Won’t you, Freeman?”

The blacksmith peered at her, eyebrow raised, then crossed his large arms in front of his chest and grunted. Hard to tell if that was an affirmative grunt or a contradictory one, but his opinion wasn’t the one that mattered to her at the moment.

James finally glanced up from the handkerchief, his blue eyes bright against the soot streaks on his face. He peered at her for a long moment, and her pulse fluttered like a trapped bird as she waited for his verdict. However, the longer he held her gaze, the more she became aware of what wasn’t there. No disappointment. No doubt. No condemnation.

He believed her. Noreen’s pulse slowed, and a shaky sigh slipped past her lips.

“There will be a thorough investigation, Taggert. I’ll keep you and Mr. Freeman apprised of my progress. But in this country, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

“There’s no presumption about it.” Taggert jabbed his finger at the handkerchief. “She left her calling card.”

“Or someone else did, wanting her to take the blame.”