Defiant Heart Read Free

reaction, but Blake made no apologies.
    â€œPlease,” the voice was deceptively soft, feeding Blake’s repulsion. “Mr. Tanner?”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    â€œYou’re the wagon master?”
    â€œRight again.”
    Her gaze flicked nervously toward the door. “I want to join your wagon train.”
    Blake grunted a short laugh and gave her his back. “No.”
    She grabbed his arm, igniting his anger, and yanked at him until he faced her once more. “Don’t turn away from me, sir. I’ve seen the advertisements for brides out West. I-I want to be one of them.”
    â€œThose ads aren’t meant for women like you.” She disgusted him. “Leave me alone, lady.”
    Her face turned scarlet but she squared her shoulders. “My name is Toni, and, as you’ve already pointed out, I’m no lady.”
    â€œA man’s name?” He gave a snort.
    â€œShort for Antonia, not that it’s any of your business.”
    So, the woman had spunk. A haughty woman of her profession would be easier to say no to than a woman given to tears and tantrums.
    â€œDoesn’t make any difference. My decision stands.”
    To his chagrin, the woman continued to press. He hated brazen women. “N-none of the advertisements say what kind of women they’re looking for.” She pulled a torn, newsprint article from between her breasts and shoved it toward him. “See? There it says wives sought.”
    â€œI’m not taking a woman like you to meet up with some unsuspecting farmer looking for a decent lady to share his life and land with. It wouldn’t be right.”
    Desperation clung to her, crumpling the bravado she’d displayed only seconds before. Her eyes sparked with pleading. “Please. I’m through with this life. I just need a chance to get away from here. I-I can pay.”
    He glanced over her, fighting to keep his disdain in check. “I don’t need your kind of money.”
    A loud smack of flesh on wood arrested his attention. “What’s wrong with you, mister? Don’t you have a heart?” Blake swung around to find the source of the indignant words. The accusation shot across the room from the counter. The first thing he noticed were enormous blue eyes and a mass of unruly red curls springing from a poorly executed chignon. At first glance, she looked like a child in need of braids rather than a grown woman with pinned-up hair.
    The girl traveled the room in no time flat and stood unflinching before him, her face hard as granite, eyes cold as sapphires. She appeared no taller than a ten-year-old boy, but with one sweeping gaze over a well-rounded figure, Blake knew she was past childhood. He swallowed hard and averted his gaze back to the beautiful eyes.
    â€œWell?” She glowered at him. “Why can’t Toni go withyou? If no man wants to marry her, she can go back to work. Don’t they have brothels out West? She’d probably make a killing.”
    Toni placed a calming hand on the other woman’s arm. “It’s all right, Fannie.”
    â€œNo it isn’t all right. Who is he to say you aren’t fit to join his wagon train? He doesn’t even know you.”
    Blake studied the one called Fannie. She was either incredibly kind or incredibly dumb. Still, he had his duty. “No women like her. No unaccompanied women period. No widows with children—unless one of them children is an able-bodied boy of at least fourteen years old. No women who don’t have a man to look after them.”
    The young woman’s eyes grew even wider. “Wh-what do you mean, no women traveling without a man?”
    â€œI think I’ve made myself perfectly clear.” A stubborn smile lined his face. “I make the rules, and my rules stand.”
    â€œBut why? I—I mean she can work hard too—just as hard as any man, I bet.”
    He gave a carefully