Her Honor-Bound Cowboy

скачать книгу бесплатно


“My home is here.” If her gaze grew any fiercer he feared his skin would start to sizzle.

“But you can’t stay here.”

“I can and I will.”

“That’s not possible. I’m here to take over now. I’m expecting a herd of cows to arrive in a few weeks.”

She tipped her chin up. “Perhaps you should see if there’s a place in town where you can live.”

“Can’t run a ranch from town.”

“Half of this place is mine and I’m not leaving.”

Protests filled his brain but she stared at him in a way that said she wasn’t prepared to listen to anything he had to say.

If she wouldn’t leave, then he saw only one solution.

“Guess that means we’ll have to get married.”

Chapter Four (#u878ec360-ac43-56c1-8380-402ff26e166d)

Emily couldn’t have heard him correctly.

He rushed on. “Ma’am, I’ve spent two years in a gold camp. I know how people gossip if there is any hint of impropriety. An unmarried woman doesn’t have a chance.”

“I don’t need marriage.”

“Consider your baby.” He tipped his head toward Cathy. “Will people be fair to her?”

She turned to look at the sleeping baby. Would people gossip about her?

Only if she gave them cause. She’d be sure she didn’t.

She turned back to Josh. “I won’t marry you.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why not? Seems we’re to be partners. Marriage isn’t such a far cry from that.”

“Because.” She spoke through gritted teeth but couldn’t help it. “I will not give my daughter a stepfather.”

If she wasn’t mistaken, his eyes filled with understanding, followed quickly by sympathy. “You had a cruel stepfather.”

A shiver snaked up her spine into the base of her neck. “He was worse than cruel.”

Another flash of understanding.

Her stepfather had tried at every opportunity to get her into corners where he could press against her. She feared what would happen if he ever found her alone.

“Ahh. I see. You married Cody to escape your stepfather. That explains why he married you. Cody would think it right to help you.”

“He was a good man.”

“No argument there. I can’t believe he’s gone.” He bent over with a moan.

What could she say or do to express her sorrow at his loss? One she shared but perhaps not to the same degree.

Josh straightened. “It must have been hard. Losing him and waiting alone for the baby.”

“It had its moments.”

“How did you manage?”

She looked past him as the memory of those days swelled afresh. She’d never felt free to mention them to anyone. “I was in shock the first few days. The Gardiners kept me there awhile but then people started telling me I should go back home to my family. That’s when I knew what I had to do. I came back here, and I intend to stay.”

He sighed. “This arrangement is unacceptable. Marriage is the only solution.” He held up his hands to signal her to hold her words. “It makes perfect sense. I would give you the protection of my name and provide you with a home. It’d simply be a suitable business partnership.”

She narrowed her eyes to study him. Was he trying to get her share of the ranch? “I don’t need to marry to have a partnership. I legally own Cody’s half.”

“I’ve no objection to that.”

“Then I see no reason to marry you.” She’d entered into one marriage of convenience to escape her stepfather. It had given her freedom, home, land and a baby. She needed nothing more except to keep her claim on this land.

“People will talk and they can be very nasty.”

“They’ll have no reason to speculate if you aren’t staying here.”

Would he understand he must be the one to leave?

Chapter Five (#u878ec360-ac43-56c1-8380-402ff26e166d)

Josh had said it before but this stubborn woman wasn’t getting the message. “Ma’am, I am not moving to town.”

“You don’t need to. There’s a cabin out behind the barn. You can live there.”

He looked around the house which glowed with hominess. There was a cozy fireplace in one corner of the room, there were bright windows with crisp white curtains, and pleasant smells from the kitchen filled the air. He brought his gaze closer to Emily and the baby.

He’d never thought of himself as a homebody but after two years in a mining camp, living much of the time in mud and muck, this place drew him like a moth to a light.

He gave his head a shake. Living in a cabin wouldn’t be bad either. There would be no carousing men. No fights. Why it might be even better than this house.

“You’re welcome to take your meals with us, of course,” she offered.

“Very well,” he said. Seems he had little option. He planted his hat on his head and opened the door.

“Supper will be in an hour,” Emily said.

“I’ll be back.” He had few supplies left and no desire to cook his own meal.

He led his horse past the barn and ground to a halt so fast his horse snorted. The cabin looked like a derelict chicken coop. He put his shoulder to the door to push it open and coughed. Inside there was a frame that was meant to be a bed, a table covered with a thick layer of dust and bird droppings, one wooden chair—missing the back—and a stove. The stove pipes hung from the roof. His hopes of better quarters than the mining camp lay shattered on the ground.