The Outlaws: Rafe Read Free Page A

dispute her word, please step forward and speak your piece."
    Rafe held his breath.   No one moved, though some clearly wanted to.   Who would dare look into an angel's face and call her a liar?   Even Sheriff Tattersal appeared unwilling to challenge Reverend Conrad and Sister Angela.
    "You heard the Reverend, men.   Let Gentry go," Tattersal growled as he removed the rope from Rafe's neck.
    Someone untied his hands and hauled him off the horse.   Rafe dragged in a shaky breath and massaged his neck where the rope had chafed his skin raw.   Though no one appeared willing to debate Rafe's innocence, the crowd was still dissatisfied and restive.   Rafe seriously doubted he'd make it out of town alive if he were to try to leave now.
    But once again Reverend Conrad came to his rescue.   He seemed to sense the ugly mood and immediately sought to diffuse it.   He glanced at Angela, then at Rafe, and smiled, as if he had just arrived at a remarkable decision.
    "My friends, I know you came out tonight expecting to witness a hanging but I have something more appropriate in mind.   We shall have a wedding instead.   Sister Angela and her fiancé intended to marry in Pueblo.   Since he has seen fit to join her in Ordway, it will be my pleasure to perform the ceremony immediately.   You are all invited to the revival tent to celebrate the marriage of Sister Angela and her young man."
    General pandemonium ensued.   A muscle worked in Rafe's jaw.   Tension kept him upright.   But short of admitting he was not Angela's fiancé, there was nothing he could do but agree to the good Reverend's outrageous suggestion.   He cast a sidelong glance at the devious angel and was gratified to note that she appeared as stunned as he.   He braced himself, waiting for her to voice her objection.   But all she did was clamp her lips tightly together and glare at him.   Fortunately Reverend Conrad seemed not to notice.
    Come along, children," the Reverend said, beaming.   He turned to the crowd.   "Someone fetch Sister Grace.   This calls for music.   The piano is still in the revival tent and she knows the wedding march by heart."
    "Do something!" Rafe hissed beneath his breath, "unless you want to be saddled with a husband.   What about that fiancé waiting for you in Pueblo?"
    "I want you for a husband no more than you want me for a wife," Angela shot back.   "Short of admitting the truth and sending you back to the hanging tree, I don't know what to say."
    "Damn!"
    The crowd surged forward, sweeping Rafe and Angela with it toward the revival tent.   The mood had turned abruptly from ugly to jovial.   But Rafe knew it would take very little for the situation to turn again, and he was determined to do whatever it took to save his neck.   But marriage?
    Angela stared at Rafe Gentry.   Though intuition told her he wasn't a killer, a kernel of doubt existed.   How could she marry a man she knew nothing about?   The dilemma she faced seemed insurmountable.   Either she admit Rafe wasn't her fiancé and let him hang, or continue with the farce that was becoming more bizarre by the minute.   Was he completely innocent of the crime of which he'd been accused?   Lord knows he looked rough enough and tough enough to be a killer.   But in the end it was his eyes that convinced her to save him.   Those mesmerizing silver orbs held no killer instincts.
    The crowd swelled, filling the tent beyond its limits.   Rafe and Angela were literally pushed along with the Reverend to the front of the makeshift church.   Sister Grace, having been alerted, was seated at the piano, grinning from ear to ear.
    "And now children," Reverend Conrad intoned, turning to face the crowd, "shall we begin?"
    "We really planned to be married in Pueblo," Angela said in a last ditch effort to escape this travesty.   A husband, even a temporary one, had no place in her future.
    "Nonsense," the Reverend boomed in a voice brooking no argument.   "I'd be