A Lawman's Christmas: A McKettricks of Texas Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

cousins, male and female. He knew how to keep his emotions to himself.
    Mostly.
    â€œAnd you a married man,” scolded one of the other council members, but his tone was indulgent. “For shame.”
    Clay pushed his chair back, slowly, and stood. Stretched before retrieving his hat from its place on the table. “I will leave you gentlemen to your discussion,” he said, with a slight but ironic emphasis on the word gentlemen.
    â€œBut we meant to swear you in,” Ponder protested. “Make it official.”
    â€œMorning will be here soon enough,” Clay said, putting his hat on. “I’ll meet you at the jailhouse at eight o’clock. Bring a badge and a Bible.”
    Ponder did not look pleased; he was used to piping the tune, it was obvious, and most folks probably danced to it.
    Most folks weren’t McKettricks, though.
    Clay smiled an idle smile, tugged at the brim of his hat in a gesture of farewell and turned to leave the saloon. Just beyond the swinging doors, he paused on the sidewalk to draw in some fresh air and look up at the sky.
    It was snow-shrouded and dark, that sky, and Clay wished for a glimpse, however brief, of the stars.
    He’d come to Blue River to start a ranch of his own, marry some good woman and raise a bunch of kids with her, build a legacy comparable to the one his granddad had established on the Triple M. Figuring he’d never love anybody but Annabel Carson, who had made up her mind to wed his cousin Sawyer, come hell or high water, he hadn’t been especially stringent with his requirements for a bride.
    He wanted a wife and a partner, somebody loyal who’d stand shoulder to shoulder with him in good times andbad. She had to be smart and have a sense of humor—ranching was too hard a life for folks lacking in those characteristics, in his opinion—but she didn’t necessarily have to be pretty.
    Annabel was mighty easy on the eyes, after all, and look where that got him. Up shit creek without a paddle, that was where. She’d claimed to love Clay with her whole heart, but at the first disagreement, she’d thrown his promise ring in his face and gone chasing after Sawyer.
    Even now, all these months later, the recollection carried a powerful sting, racing through Clay’s veins like snake venom.
    Crossing the street to the town’s only hotel, its electric lights glowing a dull gold at the downstairs windows, Clay rode out the sensation, the way he’d trained himself to do, but a remarkable thing happened at the point when Annabel’s face usually loomed up in his mind’s eye.
    He saw Dara Rose Nolan there instead.
    Â 
    B Y THE TIME D ARA R OSE got up the next morning, washed and dressed and built up the fires, then headed out to feed and water the chickens and gather the eggs, the snow had stopped, the ground was bare and the sky was a soft blue.
    She hadn’t slept well, but the crisp bite of approaching winter cleared some of the cobwebs from her beleaguered brain, and she smiled as she worked. Her situation was as dire as ever, of course, but daylight invariably raised her hopes and quieted her fears.
    When the sun was up, she could believe things would work out in the long run if she did her best and maintained her faith.
    She would find a way to earn an honest living and keep her family together. She had to believe that to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
    This very day, as soon as the children had had their breakfast and Edrina had gone off to school, Dara Rose decided, flinging out ground corn for the chickens, now clucking and flapping around her skirts and pecking at the ground, she and her youngest daughter would set out to knock on every respectable door in town if they had to.
    Someone in Blue River surely needed a cook, a housekeeper, a nurse or some combination thereof. She’d work for room and board, for herself and the girls, and they wouldn’t take up much space, the