Judith E French Read Free Page A

wench? All the stones of County Clare?”
    “And if I did?”
    “I can’t offer you what your father provided. My house is—”
    “I’m not a spoiled child. I don’t expect a manor house. I can do my share.”
    “Can you? Can you skin and gut a deer? Spin flax? Milk a cow? Put up dried fish for the winter?”
    “No, but I’m willing to learn.”
    “Are you? Then why didn’t you come before?” he demanded.
    “Before? How before? I’ve not known where you were since the day after our wedding.”
    Shane bent and swung a trunk up onto his shoulder, atrunk Caitlin noted that it had taken two sweating deckhands to carry off the steamboat. “I wrote for you to join me, Caity. Eighteen months to the day after I arrived in America, I sent you every penny I’d earned for the passage.”
    He turned his head to look at her. It was too dark to see his eyes any longer, but she could feel the resentment flowing out of them. “You betrayed me, Caitlin. You took my money and never answered a single letter.”
    “You’re wrong.” She shook her head. “I never heard a word from you before last fall.”
    “Strange that you never got my money or my letters.” His voice was thick with sarcasm as he steadied the weight of the blue wooden trunk. “But the first time I write to Father Joseph, both letter and tickets to Missouri arrive safely.”
    “I didn’t get any correspondence from you,” she protested. Was he lying to cover his own shortcomings? He sounded so bitter. “Perhaps the mail was lost?”
    “One letter might be lost, even two. I sent five. From you I got silence. I thought you might be dead until I met Hugh O’Connor. Remember Hugh? His father used to keep the pub in Ennis. I ran into Hugh in Fort Independence, where I sell my livestock to the settlers heading west to Oregon Country, Hugh told me he’d seen you on the street in Lisdoonvarna, very much alive.”
    She stepped close and laid her hand on his arm. His muscles were hard and sinewy. “I would have come if I’d gotten your letters. You have to believe me.”
    “You ask a lot of believing of a man who has little left,” he said harshly. “We’ll try, woman, because I think it’s the right thing to do. But I doubt you have the stuff in you to stick.”
    “If you believe that, why did you bother to send for me?”
    “Because you’re my wife, and I thought it was the right thing to do.”
    “And you always do what’s right?”
    “I try.” He motioned to her to stay where she was. “Justice will be back with the wagon in a minute. We’ll take what we can in this trip and store the rest at Fat Rose’s.”
    “I haven’t eaten since noon. Neither has Derry. Perhaps the hotel serves—”
    Shane uttered a sound of derision. “Hotel? We’ll waste no money on a hotel. We’ll eat when we make camp on the trail. I’ve Indian fry bread, cold meat, and some cheese in the saddlebags.”
    “How far is your farm?”
    “Kilronan is a good day’s travel from here. And it’s not a farm. I raise stock, not crops.”
    She ignored the disapproval in his voice. She was bone weary and wanted nothing more than to sink between the sheets of a clean feather bed. “Surely,” she suggested, “it would be better to stay in town tonight and—”
    “Yes or no, Caitlin. I’m giving you a second chance. Come with me now or stay here. What will it be?”
    “We’ll come,” she answered softly. “But you may be sure that we’ll have negotiations on your terms.”

Chapter 2
    “My terms are not so unreasonable,” Shane replied. “No more than any other man would expect. Be honest with me, work hard, and be the woman I thought I married.”
    Caitlin didn’t answer him. Had she told him what tickled the tip of her tongue, she was certain he would leave both her and Derry at the landing.
    Justice returned with a farm wagon. Without speaking, he handed the lines to Shane and untied his pony reins from the rear of the vehicle. He mounted and sat