Jane Bonander Read Online Free PDF Page A

just be nice, dearest?” she ended, attempting to pacify her sister by sweetening her words.
    Julia felt the tension increase in her neck as she put Marymae on the table and changed her diaper. It did no good to lose her temper. Neither her father nor her sister understood why she was angry. Neither of them realized that she might have weaknesses, too, even though she never allowed them to show.
    “All right, Josette, I’m sorry. But about Wolf McCloud, I’m only thinking of you. I just don’t want a repeat of what you went through with Marymae.”
    Josette pouted but said nothing, convincing Julia that her fears were well-founded.
    “It hasn’t already happened, has it?”
    “That’s none of your business. Papa,” she whined, turning toward their father, “tell her that’s none of her business.”
    He sat at the table, his twisted fingers pressed against his eyes. “Tarnation, Josie, I like Mr. McCloud as much as you, but you gotta be careful around men. You can’t let ’em all have what they want. Men take advantage of sweet, innocent girls like you.”
    “But he’ll marry me, Papa. I just know it.”
    Julia gasped, unable to believe a word of it. Men like Wolf McCloud didn’t marry women, they merely deflowered them. “Has he asked you to marry him?”
    Josette’s pout deepened. “Well, no. But … but he might.”
    Julia felt a rage so deep, she thought she might fly apart. She crossed to the pantry, took a bottle of milk from the cooler and returned to Josette, thrusting both it and Marymae at her. “Here,” she snapped. “Feed your daughter.”
    Josette hesitantly took the baby and the bottle. “What are you going to do?”
    Julia stormed to the door. “I’m going to do what should have been done in the first place. I’m going to get rid of Wolf McCloud.”
    With long, purposeful strides, she reached the barn door and flung it open. “Mr. McCloud?”
    Ready for a fight, itching to send him packing, she was disappointed when she met with silence. She walked past Sally’s stall, rounding the corner to the door that led to the corral. Pushing open the top half of the door, she peered outside.
    “Mr. McCloud?” she called again, her anger turning to disappointment when she saw there were only two horses in the enclosure. She spun around and went to the corner of the barn where she knew McCloud had slept. Her heart thumped anxiously. There wasn’t a trace of him anywhere—except a note with her father’s name on it hanging from the nail where McCloud had hung his hat.
    Julia pulled the note off, carried it to the door and opened it, moving it into the waning afternoon light.
    Amos—I ’ m sorry to leave you without help, but I thought it best if I found other employment. I can be reached by sending word to John Sutter. Regards, W. A. McCloud
    Julia crumpled the paper and stuffed it into her pocket. Damn. She’d wanted the luxury of firing him.

Chapter 2
2
In the woods on the American River, California
January 1873
    H e’d had his first whore when he was thirteen. Her name was Rose, and she’d been old enough to be his mother—if he’d had one. He often wondered if that was why he remembered her name yet couldn’t remember any of the others. And there had been many others. Most younger by years than Rose, and all of them prettier by any man’s standards. But at thirteen he’d been certain that any woman who could give such pleasure was not only beautiful, but talented as hell.
    And he’d never forgotten that Rose hadn’t made fun of him. He’d been too nervous to tell her to simply call him “Wolf,” and when she’d asked him his name, he’d responded, nervous and horny as a goat, “Wolfgang Amadeus Morning Cloud, ma’am.”
    “That’s quite a moniker.” She’d given him a suggestive smile.
    “You aren’t gonna make fun of it, are you?” His voice had cracked, and he’d felt stupid.
    “Make fun?” she’d said. “Honey, how’n the hell can I make fun of a name