Devils on Horseback: Lee, Book 4 Read Online Free PDF Page A

throat closed up with emotion. Lee prided himself on never giving into the melancholy that plagued many men during and after the war. Yet here he was wallowing in self-pity instead of getting on his feet and changing his circumstances.
    At first, Jake might have had to convince Lee to go to the widow’s ranch. However, now Lee made the decision to step up and become his own man, to grab the reins and choose a path. He had to stop floundering around—it had gone on for two years. He would help Genevieve Blanchard then set up shop in Tanger as the town’s accountant. Not a job many men would take, but dammit a cripple didn’t have many choices. He couldn’t work as a wrangler, cowboy or any other job requiring two arms. Besides he was damn good with numbers and could make his way in life as an accountant.
    Lee stood and picked up his saddlebags, finally ready to begin the rest of his life.
    * * * * *
    Genny didn’t expect anyone at the farm that day. After all, she’d only gone to town that morning and surely Gabby hadn’t found someone willing to help already, so when she heard the sound of a horse whinny, then Ned’s response, she dropped the sewing and rose. The shotgun lay next to the door, loaded and ready. She picked it up, the weight comfortable in her hand, then went to the kitchen.
    She peered out the tiny window in the kitchen and didn’t see anyone. Her heart pounded a steady tattoo as her hand tightened on the barrel of the gun. The early afternoon sun spilled bright light into the front yard. A breeze kicked up a small dust cloud across the otherwise still afternoon.
    Genny strained to hear sounds, and above the short bursts of her breath, she heard the sound of hoofbeats. They grew louder as whoever was on the horse got closer to the house.
    Since Henry’s death, Genny had dreaded the day a stranger would come to the farm and demand more from her than a meal. She knew how to use the shotgun and wasn’t afraid to. Her worry was for Sophie and what would happen to her daughter if Genny were hurt or killed.
    The horse’s neigh startled her enough that she almost dropped the gun. She took a deep breath and leaned to the right to view the front of the porch. All she could see was the side of the horse with a man’s leg and foot in the stirrup. He wore a pair of gray trousers with a faint trim down the side—an ex-Confederate soldier then.
    It could be someone from Tanger, but it could also be a man who was desperate for anything he could get his hands on. Glancing backwards at her daughter’s room, Genny felt a surge of courage, or perhaps stupidity, and went to the door. As she turned the knob, her stomach clenched so hard she tasted bile, but she went outside.
    At first the sun was in her eyes, but she quickly stepped to the right and got a bead on the man on the horse. She wasn’t sure if it was relief or surprise coursing through her when she recognized the stranger was none other than Lee Blackwood.
    The brim of his hat shaded his eyes, but she noticed the tightening of his hand on the reins as she stood there with a weapon aimed at him.
    She slowly lowered the gun, letting him know the situation was in her control, not his. Genny learned long ago that men would take control of any situation if a woman allowed them to. She wouldn’t be that kind of woman.
    “Good afternoon, Mr. Blackwood.”
    “Miz Blanchard.” He inclined his head. “Do you always greet visitors with a shotgun?”
    His voice was hard, even a bit more than she’d expected. This was the man who had been in her thoughts since they’d met at the mill. The fact he’d been the one to appear at the farm made her pulse flutter.
    “I’m a woman alone with a little girl. Would you expect me to not protect me and mine?” Genny stepped off the porch. “You’re more than welcome here, so if you don’t mind, get down off the horse before I get a crick in my neck looking at you.”
    She sounded annoyed, dammit, and she didn’t