To Love and to Cherish Read Free Page B

flanked by two equally handsome women was a hard picture to forget. He was a man used to feeding his carnal appetite on a regular basis. Coming to Arizona had changed that. Women were few and far between. They were either respectable women married to respectable men, or they were women of no reputation who followed the mining camps and whose time and bodies were for sale. He’d never had any problem satisfying himself with the latter, but Laurie Spencer had instilled in him a desire for a woman of a different type.
    Specifically, Laurie Spencer.
    Hell, if she was like the women back home, she’d wear mourning for a full year. He could dry up and blow away before then. As he expected from the first moment he saw her, he’d have to settle for someone less likely to start him thinking of marriage.
    ***
    Laurie looked at herself the mirror. She’d been taught that vanity was a sin, but she was pleased with the way she looked. Well, more than pleased. She was delighted. The weather had made an abrupt change, enabling her to dispense with the coat she’d planned to wear. She wore a plain wool skirt that hugged her hips and cinched tightly at her waist. A simple cotton blouse covered her bosom without clouding its outline. Her only concession to the weather and modesty was a jacket that was fitted at the waist.
    She didn’t know if Noah had been right when he insisted that her body was an affront to female modesty and that she should do everything she could to disguise it, but she intended to find out. She tried on three hats before dispensing with all of them and pinning her hair atop her head. She liked the way it accented her neck. If she was going to be thought an immodest female, she wanted to provide plenty of ammunition.
    She had no sooner placed her hand on the doorknob than she suffered a stab of doubt. What would Naomi or Sibyl say? What if Noah was right? Would any of the older women turn their backs on her?
    Laurie’s spine stiffened. She didn’t care if no one liked the way she was dressed. They’d just have to get used to it. They didn’t complain about Cassie anymore, and she did everything she could to make herself more attractive.
    She opened the door and stepped out.
    When Naomi and Colby had laid out the town, they’d insisted that only businesses should be on the main street. They reasoned that the noise and dust caused by steady traffic would make it an unsuitable location for private homes where quiet and cleanliness were important. Norman and Noah had built their homes on the western end of town because it had a higher elevation that allowed them to look down on the town from their upper windows. There were no buildings on the main street in front of their two houses because the brothers had wanted everyone to see that they owned the most imposing houses in Cactus Corner. Thus Laurie was forced to walk nearly the length of the town along the main street. She hadn’t gone far before she got a partial answer to her question.
    Two young men she didn’t know were coming toward her on their way out of town. They caught sight of her at the same time. The sight rattled them so thoroughly that they lost control of their horses and rode into each other. At first Laurie was afraid her appearance was so shockingly bad that the boys had been knocked senseless in horror. But Laurie hadn’t forgotten everything about being young, pretty, and single. It was quickly apparent that the men liked what they saw. Laurie was certain she was a sinful woman, but the reaction delighted her. It was hard to hide her smile of satisfaction, but she hadn’t the nerve to let them know she was aware of her effect on them. Noah was wrong about one thing—her appearance wasn’t an affront to young men. With that bit of encouragement, Laurie held her head a little higher and walked with more confidence.
    That confidence ebbed when Mae Oliver, her mother’s second cousin,