Cassandra Austin Read Free

about Emily’s age and looked very much alike. One clasped her hand over her mouth to quiet herself while the other craned her neck to look over the back of her seat. Their parents, Lynnette guessed, sat behind them with two younger children. The adults gave the girl reproving frowns.
    Lynnette smiled to herself. How early the spontaneous pleasures of youth were stifled by. convention. She had very few memories of that kind of gaiety from her own youth. She felt a vague sense of loss but dismissed it as grief over her father’s death.
    The girl who had turned to gauge their parents’ reactions settled back into her seat. Her sister leaned toward her and drew a small book from beneath her skirts. They put their heads together and returned to their reading, but not before Lynnette got a glimpse of the cover.
    Lynnette started in surprise. She glanced toward Emily to see if she had seen it too. The girl slept peacefully and Lynnette sighed in relief, then wanted to laugh at herself. There was nothing on that dark red cover that anyone would connect with her.
    She leaned her head against the seat and tried again to rest. Passion’s Secret had been so much fun to write and such delicious revenge on an editor who had ignored all her other stories. She wasn’t ashamed of the story; it was just that no one would understand. She wasn’t prepared for the public censure that would result if her authorship of the story became commonknowledge. And so far no one knew, not even Julian Taggart.
    Thinking of Julian made her skin crawl. He had seemed nice enough when she first met him. When she had caught him reading through some story notes in her parlor, she had told herself she should be glad he took an interest in her writing, but it bothered her that he hadn’t felt he needed permission. When she decided she no longer wanted to see him, she discovered how possessive he could be. Little things that were hard to describe made her wonder if the man was unstable. She was certainly happy to be away from him.
    Lynnette forced herself to relax. She should put Julian out of her mind and rest. She had a long day of travel ahead of her. She closed her eyes, but the train stopped every twenty minutes or so and the conductor’s calls made sleep impossible. After an hour, she found the book she had packed in her valise and lost herself in it.
    Emily alternated between sleep and chatter. At noon she found the lunches her housekeeper had packed for them. Lynnette wasn’t particularly hungry, but Emily managed to eat her meal and talk at the same time.
    “We’re still a couple of hours from Cottonwood Station,” she told Lynnette as she packed away the remains of her lunch. She settled back for another nap.
    Lynnette tried again to rest, but never gave in to more than a light sleep, fearful of missing their stop. She needn’t have worried. Emily roused herself, stretched and began collecting her bags a moment before the conductor called for Cottonwood Station.
    “You’re quite an alarm clock,” Lynnette said, gathering her own things.
    “I’ve done this so often I think I know every curve in the tracks.”
    Lynnette led the way into the aisle with Emily right behind. They were nearly to the end of the car when Emily turned back. “I’m missing my hat!”
    “Shall I help you find it?” Lynnette tried to turn too, but a man had entered the aisle behind her and seemed reluctant to let her pass.
    “No, I’ll just be a minute,” the girl called.
    Lynnette stepped into the sunlight and got her first look at Cottonwood Station. She knew the town of Cottonwood Falls was across the river, but perhaps there would be a chance to explore it later.
    The porter gave her only a second to study her surroundings before he reached to help her with her bags, tossing them unceremoniously on the platform below. Lynnette thanked him as he helped her down the narrow steps.
    Out of the way of other passengers, Lynnette took a better look around. Surely