A Fortune's Children's Christmas Read Free Page A

eyes. “We’ll do what we have to do then.”
    “But—”
    “Look, lady, we don’t have much time, and if you haven’t noticed, we’re in the middle of the worst blizzard in years. I’ve brought more than my share of calves and lambs into this world, believe me, and so let’s get a move on.” There wasn’t any time to argue. He helped her crawl across the passenger seat and saw her wince as she tried to stand.
    She sucked in her breath.
    “Trouble with your leg?”
    “My ankle. I must’ve twisted it. Oh, Lord.”
    “Let me help you onto Ulysses.”
    “I don’t know if I can ride—” As if she understood there was no other way back to the house, she cut off the rest of her words, set her jaw and with Chase’s help climbed into the saddle.
    “We’d better hurry,” she said, and he wonderedhow long she could straddle Ulysses’s broad back while in the middle of labor. Hunching his shoulders against the snow, he grabbed her suitcase, took the reins and walked ahead, plowing through the trail that the big horse had made.
    The woman cried out twice, clinging to the saddle horn in a death grip, her face turning as pale as the surrounding fields. Chase paused each time, waiting as the contraction passed and wondering what in the world he was going to do with her. He didn’t have much time to think, and when the ranch house came into view, he felt a mixture of relief and apprehension.
    “Come on,” he said, helping her off the gelding and carrying her through the back door. He didn’t bother to take off his boots or shake the snow from his jacket, but hauled her, protesting loudly, into his bedroom.
    “I couldn’t possibly—”
    “Looks like you don’t have much choice.”
    “But this is your room.”
    “Now it’s yours.” Without ceremony he placed her on the old four-poster he’d brought with him, the very bed he’d shared with Emily so many years ago, the bed where they’d conceived their own child, the last bed she’d slept in before—“I’ll be right back,” he promised, his voice gruff with emotion as he forced his thoughts of his wife far into the back of his mind where they belonged. “I’ve got to get the horse to the stables. Rambo will keep you company.” He pointed a gloved finger at the shivering, wet dog. “Stay,” he commanded and strode through doorway leaving Lesley alone in a strange bedroom, with an ancient hound, waiting for a man she didn’t know to help deliver her baby.
    “This is unbelievable,” Lesley muttered under her breath. The last thing she wanted, the very last, was to be dependent upon a man. Any man. Especially one she didn’t know, and yet she had no choice.
    Count your blessings, a voice inside her head reminded her. A few days ago no one lived here and if this would have happened then, what would have happened to you? To the baby? She touched her rounded abdomen and sighed. This wasn’t the way a woman was supposed to bring her first child into the world. A contraction began to grip her again and she closed her eyes, her fingers curling in the wool blanket that was the cover for the stranger’s bed. Pain shot through her and she bit down hard, then remembered her breathing exercises and began to focus on a spot on the far wall, a black-and-white portrait of a family of five mounted over a bare dresser. The contraction eased and she went limp.
    Who was the guy who’d found her? A member of the extensive Fortune family, she guessed as it was rumored around the coffee shops, churches and taverns of downtown Larkspur that Kate Fortune, matriarch of a vast, complicated and very wealthy family had ended up with the old Waterman place as payoff for some kind of debt. Speculation was that she would sell it and turn a tidy profit, but Lesley wasn’t so sure. The tall man who had rescued her had all the arrogance and “can-do” attitude that were rumored to beFortune family traits. She couldn’t imagine where the rugged, taciturn cowboy fit into