Holt's Gamble Read Online Free PDF

couldn't be sure.
    "No, but it's only a matter of time if Talbot's men are all mounted."
    He pulled on the wooden-handled livery door and found it locked. The soft nickers of the horses within carried on the still night air, and Holt gave a useless tug on the door in frustration. One horse. One damned horse was all they needed and they'd be well out of this.
    His gaze moved down the row of closed shops to a window that spilled soft yellow light onto the street and he heard the faint clanking of a smithy's hammer. It was the farrier's shop.
    Holt motioned the girl to follow him. They made their way past hogsheads and stacked crates piled on the planked walkways in front of the mercantile and cooper shops, but kept within the shadows of the shops' overhangs.
    He stopped beneath the glowing window and peered cautiously inside. Through the paned glass, Holt could see the huge man he'd done business with earlier in the day. Sweat and grime clung to the dark hair that covered his chest and arms. The top half of him was naked but for the heavy leather apron that moved with him as he worked the billows above him up and down with his muscular arm. Though his main business was horses, Holt knew that Brown kept busy late into the night with the heavy demand for smithed iron rims for the emigrant trains. He and Jacob had used the smithy's services not two days ago themselves and he had done a fair job for them, too. Now, with any luck, Taeva would be shod, saddled up, and ready to go.
    Kierin reached the window just seconds after Holt and looked longingly at the fire. She rubbed her arms beneath the shawl, alternately breathing into her stiff hands in the vain search for warmth. She turned away, unable to look any longer, and leaned back against the cool brick wall.
    "Do you know him?" Holt whispered.
    Kierin nodded. "Scudder Brown? I've known him for most of my life."
    "Can he be trusted?"
    Kierin looked back into the grimy smith shop. She shook her head after considering it for a moment. "No. Talbot is part owner in this shop, just as he is for many of the businesses in this part of town. Scudder would be a fool to cross him." She looked up at Holt, wondering if he knew just how foolish he had been to go up against a man like John Talbot. She doubted that the stranger had any idea how dangerous Talbot was.
    "We haven't much farther to go. Can you make it without warming up?"
    "You needn't worry about me, Mr. Holt. I am q-quite capable of a great many things that might surprise you."
    Holt found himself amused by the girl's bravado, transparent as it was. It was refreshing after knowing so many women hardened by the life in brothels. And though at first, he had been taken aback by her obvious youth, he knew that, too, was not all that unusual for the times. Especially in a town like Independence, which sat on the edge of the frontier, peopled by thousands of would-be emigrants on their way to a new life. The trains moved out of this teeming outpost regularly, with as many stories of hardship to be told. Holt wondered briefly what hers was and how she had wound up becoming involved with a snake like Talbot.
    Dismissing the thought, he quickly stripped his buckskin shirt off over his head and handed it to her. She stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief.
    "That you're capable, I have no doubts, Princess," Holt told her, removing the money pouch from around his neck and tucking it into the waistband of his smooth elkskin leggings. "But I know gooseflesh when I see it, and whatever else you're capable of, hiding your discomfort is not one of your best talents."
    "But... wh—what will you wear? Won't you be cold too?"
    "I'm used to the night air. Once we're moving again, I won't notice the cold at all. Put it on."
    Kierin slipped the shirt over her head and felt instant relief from the warmth that still clung to it. It hung ridiculously down to her knees, and her hands were lost in the long sleeves, but it felt deliciously warm.
    "Thank