Sarah McCarty - Promises 2 - Promises Keep.pdf - sarah mccarty - halltashi

PROMISES KEEP

An Ellora’s Cave Publication, June 2004

Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

PO Box 787

Hudson, OH 44236-0787

ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-962-2

Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):

Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML

This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales

is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

Edited by Pamela Campbell.

Cover art by Syneca .

PROMISES KEEP

Sarah McCarty

For Pam,

A wonderful woman with an incredible capacity to believe and inspire. May life

reward you with the same positive enthusiasm you show others.

Sarah

Promises Keep

Chapter One

Cattle Crossing, Wyoming Territory

May, 1869

Cougar downed his second scotch of the last twenty minutes. Quality stuff, not the

rotgut he’d noticed the barkeep passing to most of the other customers who were so

falling-down drunk, they couldn’t tell the difference. The luxury had cost him an arm

and a leg, but the way he figured it, a man didn’t skimp when courting demons. He

took a last drag of his cigarette and motioned at the barkeep to fill his glass again.

In an obscure corner, a man pounded the keys on a beat-up piano. Disgusted,

Cougar blew a stream of smoke in the direction of the scrawny man’s back. He wished

the guy would just give it up. It wasn’t as if anyone could tell what tune the fool was

striving for. And about all he was accomplishing with the raucous rendition was a

jarring of Cougar’s already raw nerves. He flicked the cigarette onto the floor and

ground it under his heel.

Running his finger over the flimsy bar, he grimaced. He wasn’t a man overly

concerned with dirt, but next time he came to one of these places, if there ever was a

next time, he was going to select one with a little more emphasis on cleanliness and a lot

less on obscurity. Madame Cecile’s Pleasure Emporium was so damned rickety, he kept

expecting the stairs to collapse if one more saddle bum set foot on them.

He wiped his grimy finger on his pants. One thing was for sure, it was a safe bet

none of his acquaintances were going to walk through the door. For himself, he didn’t

care, but if Doc got wind of this, he’d be disappointed. And Dorothy, hell, Dorothy

wouldn’t say a word, but the old biddies in town would sure rub her face in it. They’d

been waiting since the day the McKinnely’s took “that breed” in for him to bring shame

upon Doc and his wife. Which is why he’d come to Cattle Crossing for this endeavor.

Cattle Crossing was just a couple of miles east of his hometown Cheyenne, but they

were pretty important miles. While Cheyenne was a town striving for respectability,

Cattle Crossing was a cesspool of ill repute. The only people who came here, came with

something to hide. So much so that anyone who recognized him wouldn’t admit it in

polite company, so that was one worry off his plate.

Which meant he still had his original worry to contend with. He swirled the scotch

in his shot glass and sighed. And that worry wasn’t going to go anywhere if all he did

was sit here and count the nicks in the planks set across two crates that formed the bar.

He took a deep breath and viewed the seedy room from beneath the brim of his hat.

What he beheld was shocking. Even after reminding himself that he was in one of the

most disreputable whorehouses in the territory, he had to shake his head. Men and

women were in various stages of mating, out in the open, without a care to privacy.

Sarah McCarty - Promises 2 - Promises Keep.pdf

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