Heart of a Texan Read Free

enter, but she could tell from the sheriff’s attitude that he wouldn’t hesitate to remove her forcibly. There didn’t seem to be anyone to whom she could appeal for support. This was cow country, and people had little sympathy for her father’s stand.
    “Can’t you take him somewhere else?” Boone Riggins asked the doctor.
    “No.” His answer was flat and unequivocal.
    It looked like she didn’t have much choice, but she didn’t intend to have anything to do with Nate Dolan. Let the doctor see to him. “Who’s going to feed him and look after him?”
    “You are. Did you expect anyone else?”
    Roberta couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I’m not touching him. In fact, I wish he were dead.”
    The sheriff ignored her. “We’ve got to move her father’s body first,” he said to the men carrying Nate.
    Roberta wanted to scream, shout, threaten violence, but no one showed any likelihood of listening. Moments later, several men emerged from her father’s bedroom with his body.
    “We’ll take him to the doctor’s office,” the sheriff told her. “He can stay there until you’ve made the funeral arrangements.”
    Seeing her father carried out almost caused her to break down again. She wanted to wipe the blood from his lips, straighten his clothes, put slippers on his bare feet. Allowing him to be carried into town in such a state felt like the worst kind of disrespect. She ran to his bedroom and returned with his pillow and the spread from his bed. “Cover him. I don’t want people to see him like that.”
    “Take my buckboard,” Boone Riggins offered.
    Roberta followed as they carried her father outside and laid him in Boone’s buckboard. She put the pillow under his head. Not until his body was positioned properly did she allow them to cover him with the spread.
    “Don’t drive too fast,” she directed the driver. “I don’t want him bounced all the way.” She turned to Sheriff Kelly. “I’ll go into town later today. I want the funeral to be tomorrow.”
    “I’ll make the arrangements.”
    There didn’t seem to be anything more to say. As she watched the buckboard leave, she experienced a slight thread of resentment that her father was leaving the farm while she was condemned to stay. She told herself that was a horrible way to feel. She’d have been happy to stay in Texas for the rest of her life if it meant her father could still be alive.
    “You’ve got to move into town. I’ll hire someone to look after Dolan.”
    She had forgotten Boone had followed her outside. She forced herself to think. “I’ve got to stay here.”
    “Why? The place has been destroyed.”
    “Not the house.”
    “You can’t fix the damage to your fields, and there’s not enough left of the barn to keep. Half your pigs have been shot, the cows and mules have escaped, and there isn’t a chicken in sight.”
    “Will you ask if someone in town would take the pigs that were killed? It seems a shame to let that meat go to waste.”
    “Roberta, stop thinking about the pigs and think of yourself. You can’t stay here.”
    “If you think I’m letting Nate Dolan stay in my house without me, you’re out of your mind. The ranchers keep trying to run us out, and I won’t let them win.”
    “You can’t make me believe you want to take care of Dolan. If he dies, people will wonder if you killed him.”
    Nate Dolan’s presence wasn’t the only reason Roberta wouldn’t leave. She couldn’t allow Boone to hire someone to take care of Nate any more than she could allow him to pay for her to stay in town. Doing so would encourage him to think her feelings for him were stronger than they were. She had her father’s aversion to incurring a debt she couldn’t pay and her own aversion to raising hopes she couldn’t fulfill.
    “They’d be right. I think I’m the one who shot him.”
    Boone looked startled. “You didn’t say anything about shooting someone.”
    “I forgot. It was just after my