Lover's Gold Read Online Free PDF Page B

touched the brim of his hat in a tiny salute as she passed through the door.
    She closed it firmly behind her, then collapsed against the heavy planking. She’d finally done it! She’d taken a stand at last. She knew her father would have been proud. Then her mind echoed the last words she’d spoken: “If you have to fight . . . so be it!” and her feelings of accomplishment fled with the icy breeze.
    God, what had she done? She’d only meant to give them a little moral support, tell them how her father would have felt. She certainly hadn’t meant to encourage violence. It went against everything she believed in.
    Pulling her cloak around her, Elaina headed into the wind, thinking again of her words and of the terrible conditions at Blue Mountain. In the anthracite region a man a day lost his life to the mines. Maybe violence was the only way to change things.
    With shoulders not nearly so straight, she walked back to the hotel, allowing herself for the first time to think what Henry Dawson and, more important, Chuck Dawson would do when they found out. The thought sent shivers down her spine.
    Chuck was a domineering bully, even more unreasonable than his father. The older Dawson, she’d learned, acted only out of self-interest, a desire to retain the wealth and power he’d accumulated over the years. Henry had been kind to her, she grudgingly admitted. He said she was like the little girl he’d always wanted and never had.
    The younger Dawson enjoyed hurting others. His cruelty was what disturbed her most about becoming his wife. She’d seen the way he treated the miners, even the young boys who worked at the mine. She remembered the time one of the little nippers, boys who worked the doors that controlled the air flow into the shafts, had fallen asleep at his post. Chuck had taken the seven-year-old deep into the mind, removed the boy’s lamp, then left the child alone in the darkness all day and late into the evening. When the child had finally been brought to the surface, he was so frightened he could barely speak.
    Remembering the incident, Elaina shuddered and hoped she could make Chuck change his ways.
    * * *
    Dan Morgan stayed at the hall only long enough to make his presence known and make clear the threat it implied. He had a meeting scheduled with Dolph Redmond and the two Dawson men. They were going out to the mine. He hated the role he was playing, but he knew it was the only way he could discover what was going on in Keyserville.
    Outside the hall, he untied the black gelding he had hired, mounted, and headed toward the hotel. He smiled as he thought of the woman at the hall. She was Dawson’s fiancée, yet she’d taken a stand against him. Morgan was only a little surprised; even as a child, she’d fought for the underdog. And he’d learned years ago that it was the quiet ones a man had to watch. Their fire was all underneath, where it counted. Elaina had come through for the men today, just as she had for him nine years ago.
    Morgan nudged his horse into a walk, ignoring the curious glances of the people on the street while his thoughts remained on Elaina. What a beautiful woman she’d become—slim straight nose, ruby lips a man could damn near taste, petal-smooth skin. She was just a little taller than most of the women he knew, but not too tall. And you couldn’t miss that figure. High, round breasts, tiny waist—he could easily imagine her long, slim legs and gently curving hips. And that hair. Long and thick, the color of sable. Red-brown highlights glinted every time she moved. Damn good thing he was almost a married man. The last thing he wanted was to seduce the woman who had saved his life!
    “How’d your little show go this morning, Morgan?” Chuck Dawson was waiting on the front porch of the hotel as Morgan rode up.
    “Just the way you planned,” Morgan answered, “but those boys don’t look as if they’ll be easily dissuaded.” Dawson clenched his fist, and Morgan felt a