Dorothy Garlock Read Online Free PDF Page A

did.
    “I wasn’t going to say that,” he said as if he had read her mind, but he was still smiling. “A friend, Will Murdock, is minding the younguns. Callie is taking care of herself.”
    His smile vanished as quickly as it came and she wanted suddenly to bring it back. He leaned back in the chair, an ankle crossed over a knee, studying her.
    “Would you like a piece of candy?” The words came off her not-quite-steady lips, but the smile returned and it was worth the effort it took her to say them.
    “I can smell it. It brings back memories of maple time when I was a boy.”
    Annie Lash placed the pistol on the table and got to her feet, forgetting about her loose hair. There was exultation in her; it was rising, pulsing in her throat, making her eyes shine. She glanced at him from the high bench counter where she went to break the cooled slab of candy into bite-size pieces. He was watching her, and a light flush came to her face. She turned her flustered attention back to the candy, the beat of her heart faster now. She opened a drawer and took out a thong, caught her hair back with it, and tied it behind her neck before she carried the plate of candy to the table.
    Jefferson had not expected to find a woman such as Annie Lash Jester on the Bank. When he had turned after lighting the lamp, he was almost stunned into believing someone else was in the room, but it was his pistol the woman held in her hand, so he knew she was real. Could this be the same woman who had been talked about at the tavern—the spinster who had to take a man? The talk was that she was sightly, but no one had praised her perfect features: her straight, finely boned nose, her soft brown brows arching away from eyes that were not quite blue, not quite gray. Her hair was the color of rich chocolate and lay, soft and luxuriant, in careless disarray along her shoulders and down her back. Loose tendrils framed delicate cheekbones flushed with uneasiness. He had seen her from a distance, talking with the storekeeper, and his impression of her was merely that she was a tall, slim young woman. He hadn’t been prepared for the face that went with the body.
    He continued to study her. Cleanliness. She was shining clean from the top of that glorious hair to the toes of the soft shoes that peeked from the hem of her skirt. It surprised him that a woman living on the Bank could be so faultlessly clean. She had looked him over with the same degree of interest as he had looked at her. The straightforwardness of her stare was also a surprise. This was no empty-headed beauty, but a strong-willed, determined woman.
    “Mr. Merrick.” His name rolled off her tongue easily, softly slurred in the accent of the middle South.
    He accepted the plate, selected a chunk of the confection, and leaned back to watch her nibble at the sugary lump she held between her thumb and forefinger. The candy was a treat and she didn’t mind his knowing she was enjoying it. They sat in the silence looking at each other. When Jeff reached for another piece, she smiled with her lips together because her mouth was full, and the dimples appeared in her cheeks. She finished eating and drew a square of cloth from her pocket to wipe her fingers.
    “I can’t give you my answer tonight, Mr. Merrick. I’ll have to talk it over with Zan.”
    “Is Zan on the docks? I’ll bring him here so you can speak with him tonight. I want to leave by first light. We have a five-day journey.”
    Annie Lash caught the word
we,
but made no mention of it. There were other matters to be discussed.
    “I won’t leave my mother’s trunk.”
    “We can take it.”
    “I would hate leaving the rocking chair,” she said wistfully and rubbed her hand lovingly over the polished curved arms.
    “You won’t have to leave it.” His voice, though soft, seemed to fill every corner of the room. “We’ll be taking a flatboat upriver until we get out of the bottom land, then we’ll transfer to wagons for the rest