“Bebe!” Hubert leapt forward, even as Julia screamed and covered her face with her hands. She heard but didn’t see her friend fall. After that, she was too afraid to open her eyes.

“What did you do to her?” Sam shouted. He left the bar and Julia’s side.

“I will have the head of whichever one of you fired,” Rex growled.

“Then you’d better look to Frisk there,” Travis said. “He’s the one with the smoking gun.

“It was an accident,” pleaded a voice Julia didn’t recognize. “Honest, boss. I didn’t mean to shoot. I didn’t shoot at anything.”

Julia forced herself to open her eyes, if only to glare at the man who had killed her friend.

Only Bebe wasn’t dead. She wasn’t even bleeding. Julia let out a strangled yelp of amazement as Sam and Hubert helped Bebe to her feet. She was pale as a ghost and shaking, but she hadn’t been shot. The end of the bar had been nicked, though, and was splintered where the bullet had made impact.

“He…he missed?” Julia’s breath came in fast, shallow gulps as relief washed through her. She gripped the side of the bar to keep herself from fainting…as Bebe must have fainted when the shot was fired.

“You better be glad you missed,” Athos Strong, Hubert’s father told the man who had fired. He shifted to glare at Rex. “And you’d better tell the rest of your men to put their guns away.”

“Or better yet, go home,” a tall, distinguished, colored gentleman said. Julia instantly knew he must be Solomon Templesmith, the man who had married Bebe’s sister.

“I won’t be ordered around by the likes of you,” Rex barked at Solomon.

“No? Then hear it from me.” Sam took a step toward Rex. “Go home and let these two young people live the lives they’ve chosen. They’re old enough to make their own decisions.”

“Balderdash.” Rex refused to back down or to order his men to lower their guns. “Bebe is mine, and she will marry who and how I wish.”

“Papa, you can’t.” Bebe wept openly now, color returning to her face in messy splotches. “I love Hubert. I’ve always loved Hubert. I will never love anyone else. He’s the only man I want to marry, and you can’t stop me.”

“I can and I will,” Rex snarled. “You will come home with me now or else.”

“I won’t let you shoot Hubert, I won’t.”

Bebe stumbled to stand in front of Hubert, though Julia could see it took more effort than it should have. She took a step forward to support her friend, but Sam grabbed her arm and held her back, shaking his head. Julia would have given him a piece of her mind, except that he nodded to Hubert. As soon as she glanced to Hubert, she could see why.

Hubert wore an expression so serious that it made the breath catch in Julia’s throat. He’d been staring at the bullet hole in the bar, but at Bebe’s fumbling attempt to shield him, he looked up, blinking.

“No,” he said, so softly that Julia almost didn’t hear. “No,” he repeated, a little louder. He closed his hands around Bebe’s arms, helping her to stand straighter, but also moving her to the side. “This isn’t right.”

“Wh-what are you talking about?” Bebe mumbled.

Behind them, Rex narrowed his eyes. Each one of his men looked on with confused and worried faces, waiting for him to tell them what to do. Some had already lowered their guns, and the others looked inclined to follow suit. Travis and the others shifted uneasily, exchanging looks as though they were asking each other whether it was safe to stand down.

Hubert stood straighter, staring Bebe in the eye as though no one else were there. “Bebe, I love you more than I ever thought it was possible to love someone who isn’t kin, but this isn’t right.”

“Yes, it is,” Julia said, though barely loud enough for her friends to hear her. Panic gripped her insides, the foreboding that things were about to take a bad turn.

Sam stepped back to her side and slid an arm around her waist, but even that didn’t put her heart at ease.

“I can’t steal you away like a thief in the night,” Hubert said. He took Bebe’s hands, still looking at her and no one else. “I thought I would be content to have you under any circumstances, but I was wrong.”

“No, you weren’t,” Bebe insisted, her face going pale again, her chest jerking with shallow breaths. “We’re going to run away together. We’re going to start a new life. Together.”

Hubert shook his head. “Not like this.”

“But—”

“Bebe, I love you so much. I want the world for you. I want you to be happy and to have everything you deserve in life.”

“But you’re what I deserve.” Bebe grew more agitated with every word.

Julia did too. She clung to Sam, attempting to will the situation to unfold differently.

“No,” Hubert insisted. “You deserve more than me.”

“No, I—”

“Your father is right about some things.”

“No, he isn’t.”

Hubert shook his head. “What kind of life would we have, running off to San Francisco without a plan and without any money?”

“But you do have a plan,” Bebe pleaded. “You’re going to get a job as a newspaper reporter. You’re going to work hard and buy your own newspaper someday. You’re going to be a publishing magnate.”

A smile as full of regret as it was of love tugged at Hubert’s mouth. “Maybe in ten years or so, but that’s not how things would start out. We’d have to struggle, Bebe. We’d have to live in a single rented room somewhere inexpensive. You’d probably have to get a job too. And what would we do if babies came along?”

Bebe blushed and looked down. “I wouldn’t mind.”

“But you would.” Hubert sighed. “You’d mind it a lot when you had to worry about how to feed them. As hard as I plan to work to make something of myself, it’s not going to happen overnight. And…and after tonight, after the struggle we’re having just to get away, I can see that I would be a fool and a blackguard to put you through something like that.”

“At last,” Rex snorted. “The whelp shows some sense.”

“You stay out of this!” Bebe shouted, turning to glare at her father. Before Rex could do more than balk and open his mouth to berate her, Bebe spun back to Hubert. “I don’t mind,” she insisted, eyes wide with panic. “I don’t mind any of it. We can be together. I don’t mind being poor or working. I’m sure there are any number of things I could do. I’ve helped my sisters with sewing, I could get a job with a seamstress. I wouldn’t mind as long as I could be with you.”

“But you would mind,” Hubert said. “Bebe, I love you, but we both have to admit that you’ve become used to a certain standard.”

“I don’t care about standards.”

“You do, and you would.” Hubert let her hands go. “I’m going to San Francisco. I’m going to get that job with a newspaper, even if I have to knock on the door of every publisher in town to do it. And I’m going to work my way up to a position where I can provide you with all the things that you need and deserve.” He paused, meeting her eyes with a longing that brought Julia to tears. “But you’re not coming with me.”

“No!” Bebe burst into tears as well. “I am coming with you, I am.”

“It won’t work,” Hubert insisted. “You would be miserable, and then you would hate me. And you’d go running home to your father.”

“I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t,” Bebe insisted. Tears spilled down her face, but to Julia’s eyes, they were angry as much as they were sorrowful. “How can you say such hateful things?” she went on. “I love you, but you’re being so cruel and selfish.”

“I’m not selfish.” Hubert pleaded with her. “But I’ll admit that it sounds cruel. For now,” he emphasized. “In time, you’ll come to see that I’m right. And I’ll come back for you. I swear that I’ll come back for you, Bebe. When I’m a rich man who can give you everything you deserve.”

“You’re leaving me?” Bebe squeaked, blinking rapidly through her tears. Her mouth stayed open until she managed to say, “I can’t believe that after all this, you would just walk out on me.”

“I have to,” Hubert insisted. “I have to leave so that I can come back.”

“Well, what if I don’t want you to come back?” Bebe stomped her foot, fists balled at her sides. “What if I hate you? What if I think that you’re just a selfish, wicked, spiteful man who would leave the woman who loves him behind, leave her to the devices of her cruel and heartless father.” She sent a damning glance over her shoulder to Rex. “What would you do then?”

Hubert sighed, his shoulders dropping. “I’d still leave, Bebe. Because I have to. I have to find my way in the world if we’re ever going to be truly happy together.”

“If you leave, then don’t bother coming back.” Bebe straightened, wiping tears away from her eyes, and tilting her chin up. “Because I won’t wait for you.”

Through the misery that lined Hubert’s face, he managed a smile. “You will,” he said so quietly that Julia had to lean in to catch it. “You will because you know that I will always love you.”

Bebe’s bottom lip trembled in spite of her attempt to look strong. A second later, a squeaking sob escaped from her throat. After that, she dissolved into tears. With a loud sob, she covered her face, turned, and ran. She bumped into her father’s shoulder before bolting out the door and into the dark night.

Rex glanced from the door to Sam to Hubert, his expression more startled than gloating. But there was enough smugness in it that Julia’s gut burned with hatred for the man.

“I guess we’re done here,” he said, then nodded to his men.

In a flash, the intensity of the stand-off dissipated. Rex turned to go without another word, Rance scurrying by his side. The rest of the Bonneville men followed, looking as confused and witless as ever.

And then silence filled the saloon.

“I’m sorry,” Hubert said, sounding exhausted and a hundred years old as he turned to Sam and Julia. “I’m sorry to put you through all of that for nothing. But you know this is the way things have to be.”

Julia lifted her head from where she’d shrunk against Sam’s side, but before she could protest and say that no, she didn’t understand what had just happened, Sam said, “Yep, I know.”

Julia frowned up at him, but something about the cool, calm certainty that radiated from Sam stilled the grieving, aching part of her heart that had wanted everything to turn out differently.

“You’re still planning to head out this morning?” Athos asked, a father’s concern in his eyes.

Hubert nodded, stepping over to clap his hand on his father’s shoulder. “Yes, Pops. I have to.”

Athos nodded, giving his son a smile that was both proud and sad. When he let go, Hubert straightened and turned to the others.

“Thanks for your help,” he said. “It means a lot to me. But if you don’t mind—” He looked to Sam and Julia in particular. “—I think I’m going to leave. I need to be alone to think about this for a bit.”

“Understood,” Sam said. Even Julia was beginning to feel like she could see what needed to happen. “You take care, and if you need anything, please ask.”

Hubert nodded to him, then smiled and nodded at Julia. “Take care of Bebe for me. Make sure she’s not too upset. I will be back.”

The earnestness of his request ran so deep that Julia found herself in tears again. She nodded, blinking fast. “I will,” she managed to squeeze out.

Hubert gave them all one final wave, then turned to leave. It felt as though the life and heart of the saloon left with him. For the first time in a long time, perhaps ever in her life, Julia felt as if something momentous had happened to her. She stared at the saloon door, feeling as though part of her innocence had walked out along with her friends. Because true love didn’t necessarily always conquer all. And sometimes difficult decisions had to be made in order to do what was right.

“You okay, sweetheart?” Sam’s comforting voice, coupled with the way he rubbed a hand across her back, caused a whole other rash of sensations to blossom in her.

She nodded, trying to smile, then shook her head and buried her face against his shoulder.

“Aw, honey.” His voice was so sympathetic, so tender, that she burst into tears all over again.

But his arms around her were strong, and his cheek against her forehead as he held her sent warmth through her. She closed her arms around him and held him tight. Bebe and Hubert might still have a difficult road ahead of them, but life had been uncommonly good to her. It had landed her in the arms of a good man, a man who would put aside his own concerns to help her with hers. And even though things hadn’t turned out the way she wanted them to, he was there with her, holding her up and holding her close.

“I love you, Sam,” she said, tilting her head up to him at last. “I might not know much, and I might not be very good at anything, but I love you.”

Sam’s lips twitched into a sympathetic, heated, glorious smile. “Sweetheart, you’re good at a lot of things. More important, you’re a good person and a good friend.”

“I don’t know if I’d say that.”

“I would.” He nodded. “Not many women would go to the lengths you went to for Bebe and Hubert. And I’ve no doubt that you’ll be of great comfort to Bebe in the coming days.”

“If her father lets me near her,” she said, filled with sudden dread.

“If he doesn’t, he’ll have to answer to me,” Sam assured her with a kiss.

“Seems to me like any woman in town would be proud to call you her friend, Mrs. Standish,” Solomon said. “I’ll have a word with Honoria about inviting you to tea sometime soon.”

“And I’ll ask Wendy the same thing,” Travis added. “She’s been wanting to meet you properly for some time.”

“Elspeth too,” Athos added.

“You’re all so kind,” Julia said, prying herself away from Sam’s side to smile at them, even as she wiped away her tears. “I would be delighted to meet all of your wives.”

“Perfect,” Travis said. “Which just leaves me with one question.”

“What’s that?” Sam asked.

Travis looked around, the other men following suit. “What the hell happened in here?”

“Yeah, I was wondering that myself,” Gus—who had been silent up until that point—added.

Sam looked around at the torn-up floorboards and displaced stones from the fireplace. He ran a hand over his face. “That’s a long story.”

“We’re hunting for treasure,” Julia said, her enthusiasm slowly coming back to her. “Train robbers hid their loot in the saloon somewhere.”

“They what?” Solomon blinked and shook his head.

Julia nodded, smiling. “They robbed a train, then moved the loot from payroll sacks to old flour sacks. And then they hid it in the saloon. We don’t know how much it is because we haven’t found it yet, but we have to find it soon, before One-Eyed Betty the whore comes to claim it.”

“Wait, wait. One-Eyed Betty?” Athos asked, waving his hands in front of him as if to clear away a fog. “Train robbers hiding loot in the saloon?”

“Yes,” Julia said, the very thought of it sending a thrill through her all over again.

“In flour sacks?”

“Yes?” Sam’s tone was far more suspicious, and as Athos began to laugh, Sam gave him a narrow-eyed look. “What?”

“That’s a story,” he said, his laughter growing. “One of those dime novels. I read them to my kids at night. One-Eyed Betty and the train robbery loot stashed in a flour sack in the saloon is part of the plot of the latest novel by Ellis Fairchild, The Marshall’s Terror.”

“What?” Sam barked, his tone flat, not at all amused.

“Oh! The Marshall’s Terror. I haven’t read that one yet,” Julia said. “It’s new.”

“Hold on,” Solomon said, shifting his weight to one hip as a broad grin spread across his lips. “Ellis Fairchild. Isn’t that the name of that author fellow who came through town last spring?”

“Yeah,” Gus said, brightening. “I sat right over there and played cards with him. He said he liked to visit towns on the frontier and stay in saloons while he wrote so that he could get a feel for, what’d he call it? Setting.” He nodded and wagged his finger at Sam. “You had a famous author under your roof and you didn’t even know it.”

“A famous author who maybe left some handwritten notes lying around where someone might find them?” Travis added, chuckling.

“You mean, it’s all a story?” Julia blinked, humor and dread mingling in her stomach. She thought of the mess she’d made upstairs, the broken furniture and the torn-up floorboards and clapped a hand over her mouth. At least they hadn’t started punching holes in the walls yet. “Oh dear.”

“You tore this place apart looking for storybook loot?” Travis asked, eyes dancing with mirth.

“Yeah,” Sam answered in a dark grumble.

A moment of silence passed before all of the men launched into uproarious laughter. Even Julia had to giggle at herself and her impetuosity.

“You have to admit, it was fun,” she told Sam in a sheepish voice.

Sam frowned at her as his friends laughed at him. He glanced around his saloon, his precious saloon which was usually so neat, but now looked like a tornado had blown through…and laughed.

“Good Lord.” He snorted, chest shaking with laughter, and pulled Julia into his arms. “How could I ever think that my life would be boring with you in it?”

“I have no idea,” Julia answered.

“I tell you what, though,” he went on. “Forget all that talk about me being a rough and wild frontiersman. After tonight, after all this, I’ll settle for being a domesticated old dog any day. As long as I’ve got you. I love you, Julia Standish.”

Joy blossomed in Julia’s chest. It didn’t make up for the sorrow brought on by her friends’ misfortune, but it was big enough and warm enough to make her life light again. She threw her arms around Sam and held him tight.

“You’re the only treasure I need, Sam,” she said, closing her eyes and resting her head against his shoulder. “You’re the best kind of treasure there is.”