Autumn Lover Read Online Free PDF Page B

injured out in the storm, maybe even dying,” Elyssa said tautly. “I couldn’t just turn my back and leave him to the cold rain.”
    “Getting grabbed by the Culpeppers wouldn’t have helped Mac one damned bit. But you didn’t think of that, did you? All you thought of was tearing around in the rain like the heroine of some fool dime novel.”
    Elyssa’s mouth turned down at the corners. She watched as Hunter went to work cleaning another of Bugle Boy’s hooves.
    “You’re going to love Penny,” Elyssa said wryly. “She said the same thing, and more besides.”
    “Who is Penny?” Hunter asked, though he already knew.
    But it was the sort of question that a man new to the area would be expected to ask.
    Hunter wanted Elyssa to go on thinking he was just one more gun-handling drifter looking for work. If she knew he gave a damn only about tracking down Culpeppers, not about the fate of the Ladder S, Elyssa would likely fire him before he even started.
    Then there would be merry hell to pay getting within rifle range of the Culpeppers.
    Hunter had learned in the past two years that the Culpeppers left men watching their back trail. The only way to get close to the gang was to blend into the landscape.
    The ramrod of the Ladder S would be invisible.
    “Penelope Miller is kind of an aunt,” Elyssa explained, “like Mac was kind of an uncle. And Bill, too.”
    “Kind of?”
    “Penny was my mother’s…companion, I guess. She cooked and sewed and cleaned, but she was always more than a hired housekeeper.”
    Hunter looked over his shoulder at Elyssa. She had the silk shawl clutched around her shoulders like a suit of armor.
    Women sure put stock in finery , Hunter thought, remembering Belinda.
    And they sure do sulk when they don’t get fancy clothes .
    Hunter dropped Bugle Boy’s hoof and picked up another. Caked dirt flew as he went to work with the pick.
    “Penny is like family,” Elyssa said. “It was the same for Mac. He was no blood relation, but he was a great friend of Father’s. And Bill’s, too. Without Mac, the Ladder S would have fallen apart long ago.”
    Hunter barely heard. He was still thinking about Belinda. When he realized it, he was angry with himself.
    Living in the past does no good , Hunter thought. It can’t bring back the dead.
    But it just might prevent me from making the same mistake twice. Elyssa is just like Belinda was, a liplicking little flirt.
    I’d better never forget it, no matter how hot Elyssa makes me with her scent and swinging hips .
    “Bill,” Hunter said, dragging his attention back to the matter at hand. “Would that be Bill the Hermit?”
    “That’s what some people call him.”
    “But not you.”
    “No,” Elyssa said. “He’s a good man, despite…”
    Hunter heard the softness in Elyssa’s voice and wondered just how friendly she was with good old Bill.
    Even though Hunter knew it was none of his business, he found himself too curious for his own comfort.
    “Despite what?” Hunter pressed.
    Elyssa hesitated. Then she pulled her shawl more closely around her throat.
    “Every man has his blind spots,” she said finally.
    Especially if big-eyed little girls are involved , Hunter thought sardonically. More men have gone to perdition on the swing of a woman’s hips than any other way .
    “Besides the Culpeppers, is anything else troubling your ranch?” Hunter asked. “Drought or bad water or not enough feed to carry stock through the winter?”
    Again, Elyssa hesitated.
    There had been small things, more annoyances than troubles, really. A wagon axle that broke, spilling hay into the wind. A mower whose blades were so badly dulled they ruined more hay than they cut. A dead cow in the little reservoir on House Creek, which forced them to haul water all the way from Cave Creek until the fouled spring cleared.
    Just bad luck , Elyssa told herself. If you complain of it to Hunter, he’ll think you’re a spoiled, whining little girl .
    “No,”