Chapter 22

Maggie climbed off her horse and handed the reins to Micky before giving the livery man instructions for the horse’s care and assuring him that she’d be less than an hour.  She hated Brownsville with all of its business and bustling of people going nowhere fast. She hadn’t been there in years for that reason.  Whenever something was needed from the shops that carried a variety of worldly goods the ports offered access to, she’d send a ranch hand.  Sometimes Aiden or Angus would fetch it themselves.

Now, Aiden was missing and Angus was too injured to come. It was left up to her to inform the women about the happenings with their men.  From the descriptions Angus gave her of Pauline and Eliza’s temperaments, she anticipated it being a lot easier to tell Eliza about Angus being badly injured than it would be to tell Pauline that Aiden disappeared ten days ago and there was still no sign of him. She almost wished it was Aiden inju