Shane's Bride (Mail Order Brides of Texas #3) Read Free

Hardy was dead, but it didn’t come.  “We might as well get started.  It shouldn’t take too long.”
    They walked side by side, leading Jester behind them.  “I’m surprised no one mentioned going this way to me.”
    “It leads to an opening in a canyon.  It’s the way Hardy took to deliver me to Long Nose.  I tried to take note of all landscapes so I could maybe find my way home someday.  I guess most people don’t know it’s there and go around it.”
    Shane nodded.  “Must be the reason.  Trying to remember the way home was good thinking.”
    She racked her brain for something interesting to say but came up blank.  “Been a sheriff long?”
    “I’ve been a sheriff in a few towns.  Most of the time they stopped paying me.  Lack of funds, I suppose.  So far, this job has been good.  The town seems to be growing, so I have a good feeling I might be able to finally put down some roots here.”
    “What about the war?”
    “I’m from South Carolina, but I’d moved out west a few years before the war started.  Had a falling out with my father over a slave, so I left.  As much as I abhorred slavery, though, I couldn’t condone the North telling the South what to do.” He made a vague gesture with his hand.  “I didn’t fit on either side.”
                  Nodding she was silent for a bit.  “I’m from Pennsylvania.  I grew up on a farm.  It was a good life until the war.  I was supposed to get married, but he died.  His name was Kurt, and I’d known him all my life.  His daddy had a farm next to ours and it just seemed so natural for us to fall in love.” She shrugged her shoulders and kept her gaze straight ahead.  “Life goes on.  At least that’s what my ma said.”
    “I’m sorry—”
    “No, please don’t.  If you act all nice I just might cry, and I’m so afraid if I start to cry I’ll never stop.” She didn’t dare glance at him.  The silence lengthened, and she finally turned her head and gazed at him. 
    “I’m not sure what to say.  I certainly don’t want to upset you.” He fiddled with Jester’s reins.  “I was thinking though.  I might have a solution to your living arrangement.  I have a house and land right at the edge of town.  It’s mine, I bought it outright, and I’m hardly ever there.”
    “I’d work for you?”
    He nodded.  “Sure you could cook a few meals, and you’d have a roof over your head.”
    She stopped walking, wrapped her arms around her middle and looked at the horizon.  Her face warmed at the heat of his gaze.  Making such a suggestion would have been highly improper if she’d been untouched.  He wouldn’t have dared to ask her into his house otherwise.  But because she was tainted, moving into his house wouldn’t cause a scandal, and that tore her soul.  It wasn’t his fault, he was only trying to give her a place to live, but still it hurt.  Some things just couldn’t be changed no matter how much you wished it to be with all your being.  She’d never be considered respectable by anyone.
    “Cecily?”
    The concern in his voice was too much.
    “I accept, thank you.  We’d best keep going so Jester can finally rest.” Without glancing at him, she continued to walk at his side wishing things were different, so very different, but she had a new lot in life, and she’d best accept it. 
    “I still don’t see the trail through the canyon wall,” he commented after a while.
    “See that big oak tree? It’s just to the right of it.”
    Shane shook his head and then squinted intently toward the area she’d pointed out.  After a moment, a wide grin spread across his face.  “I see it.  Well I’ll be.  It’s right near my property too.”
    “That’s your house? The one near the canyon? It’s a nice one.  Somehow, I pictured a rundown shack.  It’s practically new.” The trail through the canyon wall grew thinner, forcing them to travel single file, and she walked ahead.  The