Her Montana Man Read Online Free PDF

cut him a wedge of cheese and poured him a cup of milk.
    “Is she as good at numbers as you are, Aunt Eliza?”
    Eliza put on a kettle of water for tea and sat across from him. “Her strengths tend to lie in word studies,
    subjects like spelling and English. As I recall she was very good at geography, as well. We always
    dreamed about the faraway places we would see one day.”
    “Did you ever?”
    She studied his fingers on the pencil. “No. We never traveled farther than Denver.”
    “Maybe we could all go.”
    They sat in silence for a few minutes. He had confirmed his understanding that Jenny Lee would not get
    better, but did he truly comprehend that she was going to die?
    A stab of pity snatched her breath and formed an aching knot in her chest. He was too young to learn
    this particular life lesson. “Tyler,” she said, approaching the subject cautiously. “You understand that
    Mama is very, very sick, don’t you?”
    He nodded, keeping his gaze on his paper.
    “And you know that…” She pursed her lips to keep them from trembling. “You know she won’t be with
    us much longer.”
    He didn’t look up. “She’s gonna die.”
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    “Yes.” She barely managed a whisper.
    “She told me.”
    Eliza studied the curve of his cheek, the delicate sweep of his pale eyelashes and experienced a swell of
    love. Of course her sister had prepared him. Jenny Lee loved him more than life. Again, she blinked back
    the sting of tears.
    At last he raised those bright blue eyes to hers. Eyes as earnest and clear as Jenny Lee’s had once been.
    “She said not to be afraid ’cause you’d take care of me always. Will you?”
    Nothing could stop her. Nothing. And no one. She got up and placed her cheek against his. “Of course I
    will. Always. I promise.”
    Jenny Lee didn’t have much appetite, but that evening Eliza managed to get her to sip a cup of broth and
    take some tea before giving her the medicine and making her comfortable.
    She had tucked Tyler into bed and returned downstairs where she sorted laundry in the washroom
    beyond the kitchen. She sent out bedding and most of the clothing, but she washed her own and Jenny’s
    Lee’s delicate garments herself. She packed the laundry into bags, which would be picked up the
    following morning, and set her wash load aside.
    A sound alerted her to her brother-in-law’s presence, and her senses went on alert. Alarm prickled
    along the skin on her arms and neck. She stepped to the doorway.
    Royce stood on the far side of the kitchen. His shrewd gaze crawled over her. He was dressed as
    impeccably as always in a dark coat and white shirt, his brown hair parted so that it waved away from his
    forehead. “I’ll take my supper now.”
    “I’ll get your plate from the oven.” She walked around the opposite side of the table and grabbed one of
    the flour sacks Nora had layered and sewn for protection from hot pot handles.
    Royce’s boot heels struck the wood floor in a rapid cadence a split second before he reached her.
    She whirled to face him, her body stiff.
    He stopped inches from her. He wore closely trimmed sideburns and a ribbon-thin mustache on the very
    edge of his upper lip.
    Eliza turned her face to the side to avoid his unbearable nearness and drilling gaze. His breath touched
    her chin. Hairs rose on her neck and arm.
    “You’re looking lovely tonight.”
    “You’re married to my sister.”
    “A tenuous bond at the very least.”
    Her heart thundered against her rib cage. “How can you treat her death so callously?”
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    He leaned forward without actually touching her until his heat scorched her cheek and seared her body.
    “It’s business, my dear.”
    The sensation of being trapped sent a shudder of revulsion along her spine. She closed her eyes in the
    futile hope that she’d open them to find