Trail of Secrets Read online

  TRAIL OF SECRETS

  WAGON TRAIN MATCHES

  BOOK 2

  LACY WILLIAMS

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Exclusive invitation

  Acknowledgments

  Find me online

  Also by Lacy Williams

  ONE

  Stella Fairfax wouldn’t call herself an expert at hiding in plain sight, but she’d done it for long enough that it had become second nature.

  Wrap her chest beneath a man’s shirt.

  Keep her hat low on her head.

  Walk with a swagger she never truly felt.

  She was Stephen, as far as anyone on this wagon train to Oregon was concerned.

  “How much longer do we have to do this?” Her sister Lily, younger by almost four years, asked the question like a complaint as she sat on the bench seat of their family wagon.

  Lily was in disguise, too. She was dressed as Louis Fairfax, though she wasn’t as practiced at the disguise as Stella. She sat slouched in the wagon seat with the reins dangling from her hands and her hat pulled low over her face.

  Next to her, Stella rode the massive black stallion beside the wagon.

  Dusk was gathering around them and Stella couldn’t help wondering why the wagon master, Hollis Tremblay, hadn’t yet called a halt for the day.

  Stephen wasn’t a very good horseman. Mostly because Stella hadn’t actually been astride a horse in all of her twenty-three years. Not until they’d reached Independence, Missouri, just before they’d set out on this long journey across the country.

  The horse had known she wasn’t a strong rider from the very beginning. He’d unseated her before they’d rolled out from Independence. And again four days ago, even though she’d become a master at clinging to his saddle.

  Today, he seemed extra ornery, his power barely harnessed by the reins she held in her left hand.

  Her right forearm still ached from how she’d landed on it when she’d been thrown.

  And the terrible horse could smell her weakness.

  She clutched the reins tightly, pressing her left hand into her thigh.

  She wouldn’t lose control of him again, wouldn’t let him run.

  Lily scratched a place on her side. Right where the binding was wrapped that currently hid her womanly figure.

  Stella bit back the urge to correct her. She was well aware of how the binding constricted, how it made one sweat and itch.

  “How long?” Lily said plaintively.

  “Until we’re safe.” Stella pitched her voice in a lower register, completely dedicated to the farce they’d played since they’d reached Missouri.

  “We ain’t never gonna be safe again,” came a muttered voice from inside the wagon.

  Irene.

  Lily sighed. With her hat pulled low like it was, Stella couldn’t see the accompanying roll of her sister’s eyes.

  But she’d had charge of her sisters for almost a decade now, and she knew Lily. Lily had definitely rolled her eyes.

  “We haven’t seen anyone from outside our wagon train in two weeks,” Stella reminded all three of them. She glanced around. There was no one within earshot. The closest wagon was several yards away and no one was on foot nearby.

  If they wanted to keep up their ruse, they needed to be careful.

  “The Byrne brothers ain’t ones to give up so easy.” Irene’s statement held an ominous ring.

  Over the past weeks, Stella had discovered that Irene was one of the most pessimistic people she’d ever known.

  Other than herself, of course.

  They’d traveled hundreds of miles from New York City, first by rail and then these past days by wagon train.

  She hadn’t realized the gravity of what she’d done. Not until it had been too late.

  For nearly five weeks they’d been looking over their shoulders, jumping at every shadow.

  She was tired.

  And now the urgent feeling of danger had faded.

  Irene continued to insist that the Byrne brothers wouldn’t give up. She believed someone had been sent after them—the same man who’d chased them through a bustling Chicago train station.

  But how could that man follow them out here? The prairie was wide open all around them.

  And whoever he was, he would be looking for three sisters and a woman roughly fifteen years Stella’s senior.

  Not two brothers, a sister, and an elderly, sickly aunt.

  If their disguises held—which they should—the Fairfax family, plus Irene, would reach the Willamette Valley in a few short months. They’d claim a homestead.

  And be free.

  Stella had been longing for that freedom since the crowded, dirty streets of New York City.

  Longer. Since Dublin.

  It was almost in her grasp. All she had to do was keep Irene calm, keep Lily from revealing her true identity, and keep them all safe.

  All of which would be so much easier if Collin Spencer would leave her family alone.

  She glanced over her shoulder to where the infuriating man walked alongside her sister Maddie. His horse trailed behind them. He held the reins loosely in his hands.

  Maddie was speaking, though Stella couldn’t read her lips. Not that it didn’t stop her from trying.

  Somewhere, a dog barked.

  She would’ve felt even more secure in their plan if Maddie could’ve been disguised along with her and Lily. But unlike the two of them, Maddie’s figure was too buxom to be bound and hidden.

  Stella wished Maddie would stay in the wagon most of the time, like Irene did.

  But Maddie had learned about healing herbs and basic first aid from a kindly neighbor during the hours that Stella had worked at the factory. And Maddie had such a tender heart that she couldn’t leave someone sick or in pain if she could help.

  Stella had to content herself with looking out for her sister.

  Which would be much easier if Spencer left all of them alone.

  The man was nosy as all get out. Stella had made the mistake of riding along with him and his twin brother on a hunt, and they’d peppered her with questions.

  She’d been afraid she’d given herself away when she lost her lunch after skinning the buck they’d shot.

  She was a city girl, born in Dublin. She bought her meat from a butcher. She’d never had to slaughter an animal before.

  But she’d need to get used to it. There would be no grocers in Oregon.

  Collin’s voice drifted to her. She barely resisted the urge to turn in the saddle again. She’d told Maddie to act disinterested.

  The man was certainly handsome enough to catch her sister’s eye, but something about him made Stella’s stomach twist uncomfortably when he was near.

  He saw too much.

  Their family couldn’t afford for him to develop an interest in Maddie.

  There was nothing more to it than that.

  Maddie’s lilting voice reached her ears next, and Stella couldn’t resist looking.

  But the stallion had anticipated her distraction. He reared and whinnied, nearly unseating her.

  “Stella!” Lily cried.

  There was no time to correct her sister for the slip up. Stella had to focus all her energy on staying in the saddle. Her right arm flared with pain as she gripped the horse’s mane. Her thighs squeezed as she fought against the force of gravity.

  And won.

  Until a barking dog ran beneath the wagon wheels and snapped at the stallion’s foreleg. And from somewhere nearby, a sound like a gunshot.

  The horse reared again. She lost control of the reins.

  And the stallion bolted.

  She clenched her teeth against the shriek that wanted to rip from her throat. She clung to the saddle horn with her left hand and the horse’s mane with her right. The stallion’s power unleashed. She could feel each stride lengthening beneath her as he galloped away from the wagon train.

  A shout came from behind her. It sounded like Collin. Drat the man. He’d had his horse at hand—had he jumped into the saddle and followed her?

  She forgot about him as she leaned low, trying to remain on the horse’s back.

  How was she to gain control of the horse without the reins? The horse was so tall she couldn’t exactly reach forward to the bridle—not without chancing a fall that could kill her at this speed.

  Rushing wind blew against her face and made tears stream from the corner of her eyes.

  Fear knotted her stomach. Maddie and Lily needed her. She couldn’t die.

  All she had to do was stay on the horse. Eventually, he’d run himself out.

  A gust of wind knocked her hat from her head. She didn’t dare look back, especially when she felt her hair loose from the pins that usually held it secure. The blonde tresses unfurled behind her.

  She could only pray Collin had been left far behind. The stallion must have some racehorse in his blood. He was fast.

  B
ut another shout came. Her stomach knotted.

  She only saw the shallow trench in the landscape as the stallion’s hooves left the ground.

  She hadn’t been prepared for him to leap, for the way her body would lift.

  And then she was flying out of the saddle, falling, falling…

  She tumbled and hit the ground with a sickening crunch.

  “You been doin’ all right?” Collin Spencer asked Maddie.

  The two of them walked side-by-side. He’d come straight from riding herd on the cattle and his horse walked behind the two of them, the reins in Collin’s left hand keeping them tethered. Somewhere behind them among the snaking line of wagons was Collin’s family. His twin brother, Coop. His older sister, Alice. And his older brother, Leo, who had very recently become engaged to another traveler, Evangeline Murphy. He was driving her wagon today. And probably mooning over her while he was at it.

  “We’re fine,” Maddie said.

  She didn’t look fine. She looked bone-weary, with tiny lines fanning away from her eyes and a stiffness to her gait that spoke to exhaustion.

  Collin hadn’t realized they were going to be going so far today. It was getting on toward dark and the wagon train showed no signs of stopping. The nearest wagons—including the Fairfaxes’—continued to roll along, some of them creaking and groaning. Collin had found Maddie and asked her to go walking with him, like they’d planned days ago.

  The mood in camp had been somber since Philip had been hanged for his crimes. Or maybe it was Collin himself, and not the entire wagon train, that had been changed somehow.

  He’d known what could happen on a journey like this. Natural disasters, sickness, accidents.

  He hadn’t expected death to come so violently.

  He shook the morose thoughts away.

  Why was Hollis pushing them so hard today?

  Maybe the wagonmaster was worried that they’d faced too many delays early in the journey. Collin’d heard talk of what could happen if they faced snow in the mountains ahead.

  It was easier to think about what lay ahead than recent events, but Collin suddenly realized he wasn’t being very good company.

  “Is your aunt any better?” he asked politely.

  Irene had grown ill again, remaining on bed rest in the wagon.

  “I expect she’ll be much recovered in a few days,” Maddie said quietly.

  She had her arms inside her shawl, the whole thing wrapped around her, hiding her upper body from view. Collin hadn’t thought it was that cool this evening.

  “Was it much warmer back home? You’re from Ireland, right?” He thought someone had said that’s where the family originated from. He could hear it in the lilting accent whenever Maddie spoke.

  Maddie’s lips pinched slightly. “It’s not warm in Ireland.”

  She barely looked at him when she spoke, and he couldn’t help noticing she hadn’t really answered his question. Collin didn’t know whether she was incredibly shy or just didn’t like him much.

  He knew he couldn’t keep up this ruse. He’d only asked her to come walking with him in the first place to give him more opportunity to spy on her family.

  But he was done with that. Leo had found happiness with Evangeline. Collin was glad for his brother, really he was. Leo and Evangeline were going to get hitched the next time the wagon train stopped long enough to have a Sunday service.

  But things had changed for Collin.

  After everything that had happened the past few days, he didn’t care anymore about ferreting out the Fairfax family’s secrets. He’d only come walking tonight to let Maddie down easy.

  He was needed in his own camp. Coop needed him, though he wasn’t sure his brother would admit to it.

  He and Coop always shared a special bond, but what’d happened back in New Jersey had created a rift in it.

  Collin had thought time would make things right. Then Philip’s hanging had scared him good.

  If Coop didn’t get his act together, they might not have time. Too much could go wrong on a journey like this.

  So Coop needed him. Needed his attention. Alice, too, now that Leo was wrapped up in Evangeline.

  Collin was done trying to figure out what was going on with the Fairfax family.

  Maddie was acting kinda standoffish this evening. It’d probably be a relief to her that he wasn’t going to bother her anymore.

  And Stephen would be more than happy about that.

  Maddie’s brother was the conundrum that had piqued Collin’s interest. There was something the young man was hiding. The mystery of it had nettled Collin’s curiosity.

  Right now Stephen was riding his massive stallion, close by their family wagon that the younger brother, Louis, drove. Collin had slowed their steps so they’d fallen a bit behind the wagon and fanned out to one side. He and Maddie were close enough for the overprotective Stephen to keep an eye on them, but far enough for a little privacy.

  In fact, Stephen had twisted in the saddle and was watching them right now.

  It shouldn’t matter that something about Stephen bugged him. Collin was going to let it go. He was.

  But he couldn’t seem to look away.

  A dog barked, and Stephen’s horse danced beneath him. The young man struggled for control, tightening his grip on the reins.

  It didn’t work.

  A bang! rang out from somewhere nearby. Not a gunshot, but nearly as loud.

  Collin jumped.

  Stephen’s stallion reared. The young man dropped the reins and lost control of the horse completely. He clung to the saddle, somehow stayed on the horse.

  But then the horse bolted, heading out into the open prairie, away from the wagon train.

  Collin reacted without a thought, turning to swing into his own saddle.

  That horse was too big, too spirited for Stephen. The young man was going to get himself killed.

  But not today if Collin could help it.

  Maddie called out something behind him, but he didn’t even look back as he urged his horse into a gallop. Collin’s gelding wasn’t as big as Stephen’s stallion, but he was fast and he liked being given his head.

  They raced after Stephen, flying over the uneven ground.

  The stallion shook his head as he ran, trying to dislodge his rider without stopping to buck. He’d gone wild. Maybe he’d realized he was in control, that Stephen didn’t have the reins and couldn’t do anything to stop him.

  “Jump off!” Collin shouted.

  Somehow, Stephen stayed on. Maybe that was for the best.

  If he fell now, with the horse at an outright canter, and didn’t roll right, he’d break his neck.

  Collin needed to get close enough to grab the reins. Or even to grab the man from the back of the horse.

  Collin glanced over his shoulder. They’d already raced far enough away that the wagon train was out of sight. He’d hoped that maybe someone else had seen, that someone might come to help.

  But the plains behind him were an empty stretch of prairie grass.

  When he looked forward again, Stephen’s hat flew off his head.

  Blonde hair unfurled behind the man like a flag. Long blonde hair.

  And then the stallion took a flying leap over what might be a small washout ahead—Collin didn’t have a chance to see.

  Because Stephen tumbled off the horse’s back.

  Heart in his throat, Collin reined in his horse.

  The body was there, and as Collin hopped out of the saddle, he felt a bolt of relief to see Fairfax’s chest rising and falling.

  One step closer and Collin saw everything.

  Blonde waves spilled around her shoulders like some fairytale character from a book. Without the hat usually hiding her face from view, elfin features. A splash of freckles across a nose.

  Blue eyes flashed open, already glaring at Collin. For the first time, he got a good look at the sooty lashes surrounding them.

  Stephen wasn’t a young man at all.

  Stephen was a woman.

  TWO