Anna: Bride of Alabama (American Mail-Order Bride 22) Read Free Page B

look one he was quite familiar with. She’d been using it since she was old enough to know it would get her everything she wanted. He looked toward James, the old man laughing as he bent down to push the wheel they’d been fixing back into place.
    “Please, papa. It will only take a few moments.”
    She blinked, those demanding green eyes silently pleading to do her bidding just one more time. He cursed under his breath and shook his head. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, James.”
    James laughed. “You’re going to have to learn how to tell that girl no, Gabe, before she tricks you into trading your house for a new pony.”
    Gabriel grinned and readjusted his hat before following Julia toward the house. She was skipping across the yard, her dark curls bouncing along her back. She turned and smiled at him, the sight so foreign his wide stride faltered, his steps slowing until he nearly stopped completely. Whatever she wanted to show him pleased her. He hadn’t seen her smile with such joy in years.
    She was waiting for him by the door when he reached the house. Her smile was still in place but something in her eyes told him she was worried. He chucked her under the chin with a finger and opened the door. “Go on in and show me what you’ve done this time.”
    She grinned and darted into the house, hurrying down the hall past the kitchen. He paused and glanced into the room as he passed it. Ruth was busy as always, fluttering around covered in flour and dough. The scent of the sweet tarts she made for the tenants children filled the air and he hoped he could talk her out of one before he headed back to the field.
    She straightened when she saw him. “Lunch will be ready soon.” She raised an eyebrow and nodded her head toward the hallway Julia ran down. “Best brace yourself for this one. Yell for me if you take a notion to strangle her. You’ll need a witness to what really happened.”
    Ruth wasn’t known for making light of any situation so her warning caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up straight. “That bad, huh?”
    Ruth snorted and shook her head. “You won’t believe it until you see it.” She shooed him away with a flick of a hand towel. “Go on. She’s been waiting for longer than you have.”
    Gabriel headed down the hall as Julia stepped out of the parlor, pulling the door closed behind her. The room was rarely used now unless they had a guest. His spoiled little daughter was smiling as joyous as he’d ever seen her and he knew someone was waiting on the other side of that door. He was too afraid to ask who.
    He wondered if he was presentable enough to receive company. He’d been in the fields since he returned home. Mucking around in the mud with James, dragging old wagons and wheels into piles to burn and fighting with that old mule to get her out of the vegetable garden had left him covered in dirt and sweat.
    He glanced down to take a look at his clothes. He’d presented himself better but judging the look on Julia’s face, she wasn’t going to wait around for him to change. “Okay, make this quick,” he said. “I still have more work to do today.”
    She ran a quick look over him then frowned. “You should probably change.”
    “Why?”
    “Because you’ll make a better impression if you do.”
    “And who am I trying to impress?”
    “I can’t tell you yet. Just trust me. Go change, please.”
    “Julia—“
    “Please, papa.”
    She pouted. Gabriel cursed under his breath and stared at her, trying to come up with any sort of reply that would end this ordeal quickly. When she gave him that pleading look she was getting too good at, he sighed and headed for the stairs. “This better not be another one of your schemes to get a new wardrobe full of dresses.”
    She grinned. “Its not. Now hurry.”
    Gabriel took the stairs two at a time, asking himself again why he let her manipulate him the way she did. He grinned as he neared his room. “She’s spoiled just