Judith E French Read Free Page B

stiffly on the pinto. Caitlin couldn’t see the boy’s expression, but she could feel him watching her with blatant animosity.
    Caitlin glanced away and wondered why this reunion was going so terribly wrong. She didn’t want to be the enemy. It might be natural for the boy to be apprehensive about having a stepmother, but his obvious disapproval did little to ease her own fears.
    “How much of this luggage is absolutely necessary for us to take?” Shane asked.
    “All of it.” Caitlin counted her trunks and cases to be certain everything was there. She’d already checked them when the steamboat docked and counted them yet again after the deckhands had loaded them onto the landing. These possessions were precious to her. They contained all she had of home, all she would ever have of her family and Ireland. She’d defended her personaleffects against petty thieves and smooth-talking flimflam men. She wasn’t about to be bullied into giving up any of her property by Shane McKenna.
    “You decide or I will.” He heaved a trunk into the wagon bed.
    “These two.” Caitlin shifted Derry to her hip and lifted a portmanteau. “I must have this. It has—”
    “Two more.”
    His impatience infuriated her. She handed him the leather case and went back to tug at a wooden chest. “I need this.”
    “Too big. Take a smaller one,” Shane replied brusquely.
    “No, I won’t go without the chest. I have seeds and—”
    “Suit yourself.” He removed a leather trunk and put the wooden chest in its place.
    Caitlin tried to lift one end of the trunk, but it was too heavy. She returned to the heaped luggage and chose a smaller box tied with red cord. Shane took the box out of her hands and jammed it into a spot under the seat. She turned back toward the remaining pile, but he stepped in front of her.
    “I’ll fetch the rest of it when I find time to come to Jeff City again,” he promised. “Now, I’d take it kindly if you’d get into the wagon.”
    Caitlin glanced back at the things on the landing, then nodded and offered him her hand. Instead, his big hands closed on her waist. Effortlessly, he swung her and Derry up onto the wagon seat.
    Shane drove back the way he’d come with Justice following on his pony. After a short distance, Shane guided the team onto a side street that led back toward the bank of the Missouri River.
    Lights blazed from a three-story house at the end of the block. Strains of music and loud laughter spilledthrough the open windows. Several horses were tied near the door, and a liveried servant lingered by a phaeton.
    “Where are we going?” Caitlin asked.
    “Fat Rose’s … boardinghouse. I told you, she’s a friend of mine. I’ll ask her to look after your trunks until I can get back this way.” Shane reined the horses into a narrow alley. “You wait here.” He glanced at Justice. “Both of you.”
    Caitlin watched as Shane secured the lines to a hitching post and walked away. “Shouldn’t I come with you?” she suggested. “If this Rose is a friend, shouldn’t I meet her?”
    Justice stifled a sound of amusement.
    “Nope.” Shane kept moving. “Stay put.”
    Caitlin seethed. She was not used to being given orders.
Do this. Do that
. Who did he think he was?
    Shane had never treated her like this in County Clare. He’d been sweet, understanding, patient. Good-humored.
    She shifted restlessly. “How well do you know this Rose?” she asked Justice. “Will she take good care of my things, do you think?”
    “Reckon so.”
    The boy’s accent was so strong that she had to listen carefully to understand him.
    Shouting echoed from the main street. A voice, definitely a female voice, swore a foul oath.
    Caitlin’s cheeks grew warm.
    “I’m going to leave Derry here while I find your father,” she said to Justice. “Can I trust you to watch her for a few minutes?” She carefully laid the sleeping child in front of the wagon seat.
    “He said to stay put.”
    “I know what