Plum Pudding Bride Read Free Page B

pulled out a parcel tied in brown paper. He stuck the book-shaped package in her hands and turned back to the next crate.
    Teasing the brown paper open behind his turned back, she sneaked a peek inside. Ivanhoe emblazoned the book’s front cover in shiny new letters. A sigh of desire escaped her lips.
    “Give Kitty my best.” Peter turned back with another large crate in his arms.
    She hastily creased the paper back into place. “All right.” She tried to catch his gaze. But he moved back to his shipping boxes without glancing at her as he usually did. And the worst of it was, Kitty wouldn’t even appreciate Sir Walter Scott’s masterpiece.
    ~*~
    Kitty was in the kitchen, humming happily as she stirred a kettle of soup with more than necessary exuberance.
    “Here’s a present for you.” Patience held it out doubtfully. Peter seemed to be moving dreadfully fast. Kitty was only seventeen, after all.
    “A present for me!” Abandoning the soup spoon, Kitty tore open the brown paper with a complete disregard for preserving it for future uses.
    Patience let out a sigh. The copy wasn’t old and yellowed like the only books she’d been able to get her hands on. It was so new the paper wouldn’t lie flat when Kitty opened it. And the cover was exquisite, a colored-ink drawing of a man holding a saber while a beautiful maiden looked down from the tower she was imprisoned in.
    “ Ivanhoe .” Kitty squealed in delight.
    “You don’t like the classics.”
    “It’s exactly what I asked Mr. Foote for just yesterday.” Kitty did another enthusiastic little hop.
    “You’ve been going on outings without me as chaperone?”
    “Yes, I mean, it was just here at the house and Mother was in the kitchen, but you can’t expect two people in love to wait on your schedule.” Kitty giggled.
    Outings every day, presents, mentioning love, it was all much too fast. Suppressing the sick feeling in her stomach, Patience contemplated the cover. It beckoned, calling out like mythical sirens.
    With a flick of her wrist, Kitty flipped pages to somewhere in the middle.
    “I know you don’t like to read. I could take this off your hands and just summarize it for you so Peter thinks you like your present.” Patience’s hands stretched for the book.
    “No, it’s mine.” Kitty snapped the book shut and clutched it to her chest. “Find your own beau. I’m sure Mr. Dimwit will have plenty of reading material for you.”
    “Dehaven,” Patience corrected, but Kitty didn’t seem to be listening. Did Arnie have any books? He’d only mentioned ranching, not reading. They were twenty-five miles from the closest town and snowed in half the year, according to Arnie, so it wasn’t likely she would be able to order ones from the general store at will. Even if Arnie did have money for books.
    ~*~
    Arms crossed, Peter leaned back against the rough pine bark.
    “Thank you for the book.” Kitty skipped forward to the tree in the town square that they had selected as a rendezvous. “Patience fairly drooled when I opened it.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    Kitty acted as if yesterday afternoon had gone according to plan. Heaven help the girl’s poor pa when she found herself a real beau.
    “Sooo dull. I don’t know how Patience endures these things.” Kitty swung her reticule.
    “Reading’s good for the mind.”
    “You really are the perfect husband for Patience.” Kitty patted his hand, in what seemed like a quite patronizing manner.
    Peter grunted.
    “But the book’s given me the most scrumptious ideas. There’s a scene where Rebecca almost jumps off a tower to save her virtue from the villainous knight. Ivanhoe doesn’t save her, but we could add that part in. All we need is a tower. Do you think the church steeple might do, or—”
    “I almost got all three of us killed listening to your fool notions last time. It’s not happening again.” Peter glowered at the ground. Arnie Dehaven probably would have put a bullet in the man the