Their presence should have been a comfort, but they made her nervous instead. Their gazes seemed to bore right through her. There was an air of danger about them as well. She couldn't even begin to imagine the horrors they must have seen that would have turned them into such frightening men. Her mind conjured up one horrible possibility after another, and before long she was fighting the urge to jump up and leave.
She really wished they would stop staring at her. She kept expecting one of them to pounce on her, and she glanced over at them every other minute just to make sure they hadn't moved.
Adam must have sensed her unease because he put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a little squeeze.
After he had finished explaining their circumstances to the sheriff, including details she wished he hadn't mentioned, Marshal Davidson suggested that Genevieve look through the posters of wanted men to see if Ezekiel was one of them.
The sheriff pointed to a knee-high stack of papers on the floor in the corner behind him. "There they are, but I'll wager you it will take you the rest of the day to sort through them."
"Adam, are you certain Jones and his friends are following you?" Morgan asked the question but watched Genevieve all the while.
"Yes, I made sure they could easily follow my tracks to Middleton."
Davidson took a step toward her. She visibly jumped and then became angry.
"Gentlemen, what are you staring at?" she demanded.
The marshals glanced at one another before turning back to her. Davidson raised an eyebrow and looked a little sheepish, but Morgan maintained his glacial expression. She didn't think the man had blinked in the past five minutes.
"I was looking at you, ma'am," Davidson said.
"I wish you wouldn't," she said. "I swear to heaven you make me want to confess to a crime just to get you to stop."
"Did you have a particular crime in mind?" Morgan asked. A hint of a smile crinkled the corners of his eyes.
The marshal became human to her. She began to relax. "No," she answered. "I would have to make one up. Do you know how intimidating you are? Yes, of course you do. That's how you interrogate criminals, isn't it?"
"Genevieve, what are you talking about?" Adam asked.
"You wouldn't understand even if I tried to explain. You do the very same thing."
Davidson burst into laughter. "Ma'am, did you really impersonate Ruby Leigh…?"
"Diamond," Morgan supplied with a grin.
"You sure don't look like the kind of woman who would go by such a name," Davidson remarked.
She frowned at the marshal. "How exactly do I look?"
"Refined," Davidson answered. "You're a lady, and I'm having trouble picturing you up on a stage in a saloon."
"I didn't impersonate anyone, at least not on purpose. Mr. Steeple tricked me. Adam, you really didn't need to tell the marshals I sang in a saloon."
He squeezed her shoulder again. Davidson came to his defense. "He was telling us how he first spotted Ezekiel, so he had to mention the saloon."
"I assure you I'm not in the habit of entertaining drunken men, and I only sang church songs."
"Did you really make all of those men cry?" Morgan asked.
"Not on purpose."
Her answer made them laugh again. Her embarrassment intensified. She waited until the noise died down before suggesting in a righteous stammer that they tell her what they were going to do about Ezekiel and his friends.
Norton reached over to pat her hand. "Don't you be worrying about it, little lady."
His condescending tone of voice didn't sit well with her. "Sheriff, Ezekiel Jones is coming after me. I have to be worried about him, and I also have to be worried about Adam. He's determined to go after all three of those horrible men. Please stop squeezing my shoulder," she added with a quick glance up at Adam. "I don't want you to get hurt"
"My mind's made up," he told her in no uncertain terms.
She turned back to the marshals. "Well?" she demanded.
"Well, what?" Davidson asked.
"I'm waiting for one of you to tell Adam he can't take the law into his own hands."
Morgan shrugged. His response wasn't what she was hoping for. Neither was his reply. "He seems real determined, ma'am, and I don't think anything I say will change his mind. I don't blame him for wanting to go after Jones. If the woman I loved were being threatened, I sure as certain would put a stop to it."
She didn't know if she should correct the marshal's assumption or not. Adam didn't love her; he was simply being compassionate by helping her. That was all.
"If Ezekiel's wanted for murder or any other crime, I'd be real interested in talking to him," Morgan continued.
The marshal's casual attitude drove her to distraction. "I don't want you to talk to him. I want you to lock him up. If the murder he committed wasn't reported, then I shall press charges against him."
"On what grounds?" the sheriff asked.
"The man locked me in my room."
"Begging your pardon, but it's your word against his, and I don't think he's gonna admit locking you up," the sheriff told her.
"The sooner you go through the posters, the better," Davidson suggested.
"Yes, of course, but in the meanwhile, I want you to arrest Ezekiel and his two friends. I'll be happy to give you their descriptions."
"Now we're right back where we started," the sheriff complained. "As I was telling you before, you just got to have grounds to make an arrest."
"Such as?" she asked.
The sheriff pondered the question a long minute before answering. "If one of them happens to take a shot at you, well then, we could nab him for attempted murder."
Davidson grinned. "I know it's frustrating, ma'am, but the law's the law. Maybe we could talk to him and scare him into leaving you alone."
"We ought to ask Ryan to have a word with Ezekiel," Morgan told his friend.
"Adam, what do you think?" Genevieve asked.
She turned to look up at him and only then discovered he was gone. "When did he leave?"
She was on her feet and turning toward the door before the sheriff could answer her.
"He took off a few minutes ago," he said. "Sit back down, ma'am. You got to start looking through the posters. These here are the latest ones, but if you think Jones might have committed a crime a while back, then I got to take you into the storeroom. I keep every poster I receive. Some go back as far as ten years."
"While you're looking through them, Morgan and I will stop by the telegraph office and send a couple of wires asking for information. Adam gave us a good description, and we should hear something back real soon. In the meantime, you're in good hands," Davidson said.
"Are you boys headed back up the mountain?"
Morgan nodded. "Ryan's going to stick close to the doctor's house as long as there's a chance our witness will make it. If you run into any trouble, he'll lend a hand."
Genevieve watched the marshals leave and then turned to the sheriff and asked, "Mr. Steeple told me there were three marshals in Middleton. Ryan's the third one, isn't he?"
"Yes, ma'am. Morgan and Davidson are taking orders from him, and I heard Morgan say Ryan was senior man in charge. He's also the youngest."
"Is Ryan's first name Daniel by any chance?"
"It sure is," he replied. "I don't expect I'll ever be calling him anything but marshal or sir. He ain't the type to get friendly with. Fact is, he scares just about everybody in town, and I imagine that's why Morgan suggested Ryan be the one to talk to Ezekiel Jones or Henry Stevens or whatever in tarnation his name is."
"What did Morgan mean when he said that Marshal Ryan was staying dose to the doctor's house?"