Outlaw’s Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

did.”
    Nell’s fingertips worried a loose diamond shape on the quilt. Her voice was bitter when she spoke. “I never had a chance to speak at any length with Ethan after he was finally caught by that detective Trahern hired to hunt him down. And he never wrote to me from prison.”
    “Ethan hasn’t mentioned me at all during the month he’s been home?” Patch asked in a voice that surprised her by its breathlessness.
    Nell looked at Patch curiously. “I’m afraid not, dear. Is there something I should know?”
    “Uh … no … that is … No.” Patch felt the blush at her throat work its way up to stain her cheeks.
    “What, exactly, brought you all the way to Texas to see my scapegrace son?” Nell asked.
    Did she dare reveal to Nell what she was doing here in Oakville? Patch’s stomach clenched. What if Nell forced her to leave the house before she saw Ethan? But she didn’t dare tell Ethan’s mother why she was here before she had told him! There had to be something she could say that would convince Nell to let her stay around until Ethan returned.
    Patch felt the presence of Ethan’s sister behind her, like a cat waiting to pounce. “I … uh …”
    “Don’t trust her, Ma.” Leah slid past Patch andseated herself cross-legged at the foot of her mother’s bed, the rifle braced across her knees. “She has a shifty look to her.”
    Patch watched Nell shake her head at the sight of Leah’s dirty boots on her quilt, but it was a sign of just how ill she was that she didn’t chastise her daughter. “Let’s hear what Patch has to say before we condemn her, Leah.”
    “Ethan wrote to me that you weren’t well, and I volunteered to come and help keep house until you’re on your feet again,” Patch blurted.
    “The heck he did!” Leah retorted as she clambered off the bed. “I do the housekeeping around here.” Leah pointed the Winchester at Patch and gestured toward the door. “You can take yourself back wherever you came from, lady. We don’t want you here!”
    Patch hurried to speak before Leah forced her from the room. “I don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve left your bed, Nell, but I can tell you the rest of the house looks nothing like this room.”
    Nell appeared genuinely surprised. “It doesn’t? But Leah has been taking care of everything.”
    Patch shook her head in denial. “Everything is a shambles. There are dishes and clothes that need to be washed and floors that need to be swept and mopped. Ethan wrote me that he’s been too busy with the work outside to be able to handle things in the house, too.”
    “Leah? Is what Patch says true?” Nell asked.
    Leah shot a mutinous look at Patch. “Dirty stinking tattletale!”
    “Leah! Apologize to Miss Kendrick.”
    “I won’t!” Leah shouted. “It ain’t as bad as she says, Ma.”
    “Leah, perhaps—”
    Leah interrupted her mother. “I ain’t hanging around to listen to more of her tall tales.” Leah shoved her way past Patch and broke into a run. Her boots could be heard on the wooden-planked floors, followed by the slam of the door at the back of the house.
    “I’m sorry, Patch,” Nell said.
    Patch smiled ruefully. “She reminds me a lot of myself at the same age.”
    “I knew I was asking too much of her, but …” Nell shrugged helplessly. “There was no one else.”
    “I’m here now.” Patch crossed to Nell and fluffed the pillow up behind her. “You just rest and don’t worry about a thing. Cleaning up this place will be as easy as throwing a two-day calf.”
    Patch saw the visible relief in Nell’s eyes, the way her body relaxed back into the feather mattress. “Thank you, Patch.”
    “Thank Ethan,” Patch countered with a smile. “He’s the one who contacted me.”
    Patch hadn’t told a whopper like that one in a long time, and she was surprised at how guilty she felt. “Get some rest, Nell.” She closed the door behind her as she left so Nell could sleep.
    The house