Lucky Charm      

By Diana L. Rowe
100,000 WORD
- 1998 Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer Award for  Lucky Charm, a Historical Western
- 1998 Indiana Romance Writers for LUCKY CHARM, A HISTORICAL WESTERN 
- 1998 New Author Authorlink! for HEART’S FIRE (RENAMED LUCKY CHARM), A HISTORICAL WESTERN
- 1997 Romance Writers of the Texas Panhandle  for HEART’S FORBIDDEN DESIRE (RENAMED LUCKY CHARM), A HISTORICAL WESTERN

Chapter 1

Danville, Iowa--March 1860

Charlie O'Reilly's wedding day loomed only two days away, and she'd rather attend her own funeral than exchange vows with the sheriff.  

Funeral.  Pain seized her heart.  Less than a week now, her beloved father had been buried, and the murderer could not be found.

Her jaw clamped tightly as she crouched inside the schoolhouse, knowing full well that she’d been placed in the shameful position of spying by her father’s untimely demise. Cursing the luck that forced her to settle the debts of the O’Reilly’s Lucky Charm Ranch before seeking revenge.  For it seemed she was the only one looking for justice.  Charlie squinted through the crack to the back of the post office.

“I think there are two of them,” she whispered to her friend Mary Beth. Leaning her forehead against the cool wood, she again peered through a chink in the logs.

"I want to see, too."  Mary Beth pushed against her skirts.

"Just a minute," Charlie admonished her friend.  Lordy, didn't Mary Beth realize how important these men were to her?   Less than an hour ago, the Pony Express agents had finally ridden in with a clattering of hooves and cloud of dust, and not a moment too soon.  Imagine--big city folk sending two men to this little town just to publicize the opening of their mail service.  Their impending arrival had been the talk of Danville for days, conveniently taking their minds, and their gossip, off the murder of her father.

Thank God, for without their timely appearance, she might not have an escort out of this town and away from the note-holding, good-for-nothing sheriff who thought he could blackmail his way into a lady’s boudoir and onto her land. Well, she had news for him.  An angry rattler would be more welcome in her bed than Sheriff William Hutchison and his low-down dirty tricks.  

Grinding her teeth and clenching her fists, she returned her attention to the men working and talking outside, not more than twenty feet from her hiding place.  She needed to focus.  Take care of what she could now, and the rest later.  

If she didn’t she might go crazy.  

Tiny fingers of twilight darkened the sky as she watched two men clomp across the boarded sidewalk onto the roadway.  Loaded pouches were fastened onto their waiting horses.  

One man’s long strides brought him to the railing where his horse was hitched.  The full moon’s glow illuminated him clearly as he lifted a scuffed boot to the edge of the water trough.  Stroking his chin, he held a match to a rolled cigarette and inhaled deeply of the tobacco.  The flame danced across the hollows of his cheeks.

With the general store next door to the schoolhouse, Charlie feared any movement might give her away.  But she couldn't resist; something held her entranced and motionless as a moth to a flame. Even at this distance, the man’s eyes reflected the cigarette’s burning embers.  Their depths looked directly at her, holding her scorched in their heat for several seconds.  

    Charlie fell back on the earthen floor with a thud, her hand rising to cover her mouth.  “Oh, Lordy!”   Charlie's hands shook as she brushed the dirt from her skirt and stood.  "I think he might have seen me."

Mary Beth's soothing voice interrupted her thoughts.  "No, Charlie, you're imagining things.  We can barely see out of these little cracks; no one can possibly see in.  But I know what you mean.  I keep thinking the sheriff will show up and force you to marry him tonight, and then what will we do?

"I know.  I worry about that, too, but here's my chance, right?  The Pony Express arrived just in time."  

Mary Beth pressed in, squinting through the crack.  “Charlie, they’re heading for the barn now.” Moving away from the peek hole, she squeezed her ample form into a student’s desk, she stared with an intensity that Charlie hadn’t seen before.  “Are you really going to leave?"

    Charlie nodded without hesitation.  “I have to, Mary Beth. If—-no, I mean when--I find Uncle Johnny, maybe, just maybe, he’ll make some sense of this mess I'm in.”  

Recent trouble with rustlers only added to the Lucky Charm's streak of bad luck, decreasing her herd one by one, lessening any remaining hope of repaying that damn note.  She longed for the times when she had no responsibility, when she did what she wanted to do.

What a damn long week it had been!  Now, dozens of ranch hands depended on her, and she couldn’t let her father down. She worried every day that his secret would get out and she’d lose the ranch.

    Mary Beth sighed and shook her head.  “I wonder if they’ll ever find your father's murderer?"

    "I wish Da had told me."  Once more, her hands clenched and unclenched.  If he had, Charlie could've hunted the murderer down and taken pleasure in personally killing him.  Then, she could turn her full attention on paying the note.  "I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Hutchison had something to do with killing my father."

Her friend stared at her, mouth agape.  "You think he did it?"

Think?  Charlie was certain, but she was in no position to confront the law of the town—-not that she hadn't tried.  Without proof, it was her word against the sheriff's, and with her ranch being the only one holding out, no one seemed inclined to listen to her.  Besides, if she said anything—anything at all. . .  No, she couldn’t bear to think how her father’s name would be sullied.  

    Charlie sighed.  Once again, she'd spoken without thinking first.  She didn't need to involve Mary Beth.  "All I know is that I can't lose the ranch, and the Longhorn Cattle Company is doing their damnedest.  Maybe Uncle Johnny never received my letter or my telegram.  Since he isn’t coming to me, I have no choice but to go to him.”  Gesturing toward the general store, she continued, “With a little luck, the Pony Express representatives will allow me to ride with them. I'll be on my way to Denver City before my wedding day.”  

    Mary Beth wrung her hands together, a frown marring her forehead.  “Maybe if you tell the townspeople, it’ll force them to help you.  Then you won’t have to leave.”

    “There'll be no sympathy from this town.  The cattle company's offer is a prayer answered in tough times.  My holding out halted all other deals, and many bode me few good wishes.  But I can’t allow anyone to take the land Da worked so hard to keep.  Besides, it's all I know.  As far as Hutchison, well, they don’t like him much, but it balances against them not caring for a woman rancher."  

Charlie shrugged.  “As long as I breathe, Mary Beth, I will not sell.  Hutchison and the rest of them will have to take what is mine, for I will not let it go willingly."  She clenched her fist tighter.  

Hutchison lied.  He had to lie.  Her father would never do that.  But she had no proof, and little time