Sagebrush Bride Read Free Page B

away.
    “Enough about that,” Jo said. “What I’d like to
know, Liz girl, is what you think you need a man for?”
    Elizabeth nodded in Cutter’s direction. It was
just too difficult to remain coherent with the man staring at her so intently.
“He doesn’t need to hear this, does he?”
    Jo regarded Elizabeth impishly. “Well, sugar, I’ll
put it to you this way. He could go... if you could persuade him to leave his
own office. But even if he did, there aren’t any secrets between us. He’d
more’n likely find out anyhow. So you might as well tell us both before I die
of curiosity—why on earth do you need a man?”
    The last two words were emphasized, as though it
were a ridiculous notion. Elizabeth tried not to take exception.
    “And what could be so bloomin’ important,” Jo
continued, “that you would risk life and limb coming into the Oasis at this
time o’ the night? You know better’n that!” she chided.
    Warmth crept higher into Elizabeth’s cheeks as she
glanced again at Cutter. He was still watching her, his expression unreadable
but for the mocking smile upon his lips. She felt suddenly so conspicuous that
she longed for the floor to open up and suck her down into it—anything to
escape his bold scrutiny.
    To Elizabeth’s dismay, that scoundrel’s smile
spread clear to his fathomless eyes. Swallowing, she took a deep breath and
averted her face, feeling his gaze rake her like a hot southern gust over a
thirsting man in the middle of the desert; it was nearly her undoing. God grant
her strength, she just knew that any moment she would burst into tears, and she
refused to weep in front of the cad.
    She decided it was best to ignore him.
    If he wouldn’t go... then she would just make
believe he wasn’t in the room with her—sitting little more than six feet
away... give or take a few inches.
    She forced her attention to remain on Jo.
    “Well, I received a letter today,” Elizabeth
began, her voice catching. She swallowed convulsively. “From my sister’s
father-in-law. Katherine... K-Katherine,” she tried again, but her voice failed
her. The words were just too difficult to speak. “She and her husband were...
well, they were killed. He didn’t say how.” She tried to keep the emotion from
her tone and merely recite the facts, but her lips trembled traitorously. “It
seems they left their four-year-old daughter to my care.”
    Closing her eyes, Elizabeth tried to steady
herself, feeling suddenly as though she would swoon. But she’d never fainted
before, and now wasn’t the time to begin.
    Not in front
of him.
    But then, he wasn’t really there, she reminded
herself sternly.
    Ignore him.
    Jo placed a reassuring arm about Elizabeth’s
waist. “You poor thing! I’m so sorry!” she declared. “Here now, sit yourself
down in my chair.”
    Elizabeth sank numbly into the buttery-soft
leather chair behind the tiny desk, grateful for the barrier it provided
between herself and Jo’s brother. Except that now she was forced to face him.
Her limbs felt weak at the realization.
    “You gonna be all right?” Jo asked.
    Elizabeth nodded, and her gaze was again drawn to
Cutter’s. Like a hapless moth to a killing flame, she thought petulantly.
    His smile was gone now, replaced with what seemed
a disapproving scowl. He probably thought her a blubbering idiot, she thought
grimly—and what was worse, she felt like one, too.
    “So skip to the man part,” Jo prompted, waving her
hand impatiently.

Chapter Two
     
    “I can’t claim Katherine’s child unless I’m
married,” she said bluntly. “Her grandfather loves her, you see, and he won’t
give her up unless he’s certain she’ll go to a decent home.”
    “I don’t understand,” Jo interjected. “Why doesn’t
the kid just stay with him, if he loves her so damned much?”
    “Because he claims he’s too old to raise her,”
Elizabeth disclosed. “And he also wrote that if I can’t take her, he’d be
forced to give her