Gerrity'S Bride Read Free Page A

on the far wall. A game table, surrounded by heavy wooden chairs, filled another corner. Whitewashed walls, dotted with paintings and an assortment of hanging rugs and tapestries, caught her eye. The floor beneath her feet was wooden, scattered with woven rugs across its wide planking.
    A quiet, cool welcome enveloped her as she stood in silence...a welcome she had not thought to discover in this place.
    Behind her, she heard the murmur of voices and then the bustle of men carrying in the contents of the wagon.
    “Take Miss Emmaline’s bags to the guest room,” Maria instructed the men from the doorway.
    “I only have my carpetbag and a small trunk,” Emmaline said quickly. She’d trusted her trunk to fate when the train conductor deposited it on the platform earlier. There it had remained until Matt shouldered it easily and dumped it without ceremony in the back of the wagon.
    “I didn’t bring much with me,” she added. Her smile was distracted as she watched Maria. The woman waved her hands at the men hustling to do her bidding, alternately scolding them and shaking her head at them.
    “Will your other things be coming later?” Matt asked from the doorway.
    “No.” Turning to face him, she slid the bonnet from her head and brushed at the curls that sprang to life, vibrant against the darkness of her mourning dress. “I didn’t plan on staying long enough to need many things.”
    His brow rose, and he braced his feet apart, one hand resting negligently against his hip, the other holding the belt and holster he had just slipped off.
    “Oh?” The questioning syllable hung in the air.
    Her chin lifted a bit as she silently defied him, determined to set the pattern for their short future together. “I only plan on staying long enough to hear the will read and make arrangements to take my sister back to Lexington with me.”
    Only the sharp intake of breath warned her of another presence, and that only for a second. Then a wail of anguish filled the air and set her in motion.
    “Noooo...” cried a child from the far side of one of the sofas, where she peered over the high back. “I’m not going away! I’m not going to Lexing with her, am I, Maffew?” she wailed piteously.
    “‘Course not, Tessie,” he assured her, reaching her in several long strides, his gun belt flung onto a peg on the wall as he moved.
    Emmaline was right behind him as he gathered the child into his arms. The little girl wrapped herself about him, burying her face against his broad chest.
    The look he slanted at Emmaline clearly told her she had made her first blunder in this place.
    “This is your little sister. Too bad you couldn’t have made a better first impression,” he said bluntly.
    Emmaline drew in a deep breath and considered the situation. Taking another step closer to where the child huddled in her brother’s arms, she watched the narrow shoulders shudder, her heart aching in quick sympathy.
    “Theresa, won’t you look at me? I’ve come a long way just to see you,” she said coaxingly. She reached out to touch the fingers that lay against Matt’s collar, and the little girl shivered.
    “No, I don’t want to see you! Make her go away, Maffew!” she demanded loudly.
    “Miss Emmaline, why don’t I show you where your room is,” Maria suggested softly from behind her, and Emmaline turned quickly, thankful for the suggestion.
    “That would be fine,” she whispered with a nod. With only one short look over her shoulder, she left the room, only to hear the words repeated in a firm, carrying voice from the child she had alienated so quickly.
    “Make her go away, Maffew.”
    His answer was delivered in a husky murmur. “She won’t be here long, short stuff. Everything will be all right. She’s just a citified woman come to look us over. She won’t be here long,” he repeated firmly.
    Emmaline’s lips tightened and her eyes narrowed at his words of reassurance to the child, and she spun on her heel toward