Carol Finch Read Online Free PDF

a rebellion,” Micah interjected. “However, we are short on laundresses at the moment and we could use her offered services. You can always put a guard on her so you can keep track of her constantly.”
    Karissa graced Micah with her best smile. “Ah, a man who shows reason and common sense.” She turned back to the stony-faced commander. “I can understand why Captain Whitfield has been chosen as second in command to serve as your advisor, consultant and mentor.”
    She waited, wondering if Rafe would relent, especially after she had purposely goaded him. He stood there so stiffly for so long that she almost gave up and resorted to taking the rest of his room apart and leaving it in shambles. Finally he blew out his breath and nodded curtly.
    “Very well, Miss Baxter, you can begin your duties as laundress and housekeeper in the officers’ quarters first thing in the morning.” He glared at her again. “And you can start by undoing the damage to my room. I want this place to look exactly the way it did before you performed your whirling dervish act.”
    She flashed him a mocking smile and noticed his jaw clenched in determined restraint. She suspected he would enjoy strangling her for maneuvering him into agreeing to her request. Well, tough. She would like to choke him for detaining her at the post.
    “You are too kind, General,” she cooed pretentiously.
    “For the last time,” he gritted out, “stop calling me General!”
    When the door swung shut behind Rafe and Micah, Karissa half collapsed on the bed. Squaring off against Rafe Hunter was exhausting. She decided to postpone her escape attempt for a day. Besides, she could use the extra money and she would have the opportunity to familiarize herself with the daily routine at the fort. With money jingling in her pocket she could plan the perfect time to make her escape without drawing too much attention to herself. Then she would return to the property she hoped to claim for her brother and sister-in-law.
    But this time, she vowed, she was going to be more watchful and attentive when the army patrol came hunting for illegal squatters. She would dig a hole and pull it in after her, if need be, but she was going to stake aclaim on the land she had selected to be the Baxter homestead.
     
    “You were a lot of help,” Rafe muttered to Micah a few minutes later at headquarters as they prepared the duty roster for the following day.
    Micah took a seat beside Rafe to peruse the schedule. “Oh, come on, Rafe, you really can’t expect a woman with that much restless energy to sit in a room night and day indefinitely. We lost three laundresses whose husbands intend to participate in the Land Run, and we’re shorthanded. Plus, if you put a guard on Karissa she can’t get far.”
    Rafe snorted irritably. “ You haven’t scuffled with her. I have. She could be gone before a negligent guard realized it. That woman is too crafty and clever for her own good.”
    “She gets to you, doesn’t she?” Micah asked candidly.
    Rafe scowled in frustration. Yes, that hellion was definitely getting under his skin—to the extreme. Never in his life had he been forced to match wits with such a quick-minded female. And to his baffled amazement, he found her extremely attractive, even when she looked like a scruffy ragamuffin in those dowdy men’s clothes. In all fairness, she shouldn’t ooze sex appeal with her tomboyish appearance and her fiery temperament and that sassy mouth.
    It was those green eyes that sparked with so much inner spirit that really got to him, he decided. In addition, he had the outrageous urge to grab a handful of that wild mane of curly red hair, pull her to him and kiss the breath out of her when she challenged him. It was an inappropriate and insane reaction—like nothinghe had previously experienced in his association with women.
    Before Karissa blew into his life like a tornado, he had never had difficulty controlling his emotions. Ordinarily he