Lakota Renegade Read Online Free PDF Page A

rack, held the door open for her.
    “Could we…” She looked up at him shyly. “Could we go for a walk?”
    He hesitated a moment. “Sure, kid.”
    “I’m not a kid!”
    “No?” He bit back a grin as he glanced down at her. She looked like a kid, he thought. Her black mourning dress was too large, the style far too mature for a little bit of a girl like her, making her look like a youngster playing dress up in her mama’s old clothes. “So, where do you want to go?”
    Jassy shrugged. “I don’t know. Anywhere.”
    Creed dragged a hand over his jaw, then grunted softly. “Come on.”
    Happy just to be with him, Jassy followed Creed down the street, aware of the glances that fell their way—some curious, some disapproving, but she didn’t care.
    Soon, they had left the town behind and they were walking alongside the narrow stream that cut across the prairie south of Harrison.
    Jassy had never dared wander too far from town. Her mother had warned her time and again of dire consequences if she strayed too far from home and Jassy had known, without being told, that men would consider her fair game, since her mother and sister both worked in the saloon.
    Her mother had been right, too, Jassy thought bitterly.
    Harry Coulter certainly felt that way. He didn’t dare frequent any of the saloons because his daddy was too well known, but he wanted the same thing from Jassy that men had wanted from her mother, only Jassy wouldn’t give it to him. Ever. She wasn’t going to live the kind of life her mother and sister lived. She wanted to get married and have children, dozens of children that she would love and cherish, children who would never grow up feeling unwanted or unloved. Children who would know who their father was.
    “What?” Jassy looked up, aware that she hadn’t been paying any attention to where they were going.
    “I asked if you wanted to sit down for a while?”
    She nodded, her eyes widening as she looked around. They were in a secluded valley. Tall trees, their branches covered with bright shades of green, grew all around. A small blue lake sparkled in the sunlight. Multicolored flowers bloomed on the hillsides and along the water’s edge. It looked like a fairy place, Jassy thought. She wouldn’t have been surprised to see a knight on a white charger riding out of the trees.
    Charmed by the quiet beauty of the place, she sat down beside Maddigan.
    “Pretty, huh?” he remarked.
    “Oh, yes,” she breathed. “It looks like something out of a story book.”
    “Does it?”
    Jassy nodded, a smile curving her lips as she watched a small gray squirrel scoot along a tree limb. “Do you come here often?”
    “Once in a while.”
    “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to build a house here?” She glanced around, imagining it in her mind. “I’d put the parlor here, with a big window looking out over the lake. And the kitchen over there, and the bedroom there, and maybe a nursery…”
    She whirled around, watching it take shape in her mind, and then she nodded. “It’s a perfect place for a house. Just perfect! Don’t you think so?”
    She was looking up at him, her eyes bright, as she waited for a reply. Young, he thought ruefully. She was so damn young. “It’s as good a place as any, I reckon.”
    She was disappointed in his answer. Her smile faded and the exuberance went out of her voice. “You think I’m silly, don’t you, because I want a home and a family?”
    “No. I hope you get what you want out of life, Jassy.”
    She leaned toward him, her head canted to one side, her dark eyes intent on his face. “What do you want?”
    Creed shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    “Don’t you want a home someday? A wife, children?”
    “Men in my line of work don’t stay in one place long enough to settle down and raise a family.”
    She felt as if the sun had suddenly lost its warmth. “You aren’t leaving town, are you?”
    It was in his mind to tell her that he was planning on leaving in the