Printer in Petticoats Read Online Free PDF

what it was.”
    His eyes crinkled at the corners. “Do I make you nervous, Jessamine?”
    â€œWhat? Of course not. What would I have to be nervous about?”
    He took a step closer and she backed up. “Me, maybe?” he said. He sent her a grin that seemed positively wicked.
    â€œN-no,” she blurted. “Not you.”
    â€œMy newspaper?”
    â€œOf course not. I’m not afraid of a little competition.”
    It’s you I am afraid of. She cringed inwardly at the admission. There hadn’t been a male since she was twelve years old who made her heart thrum in irregular beats and her words dry up on her tongue. She squared her shoulders and forced her eyes to meet his.
    â€œI d-don’t scare easily, Mr. Sanders.” She thought he looked just a tad disappointed.
    â€œYou don’t,” he stated. His tone said he didn’t believe her for one minute.
    â€œThe newspaper business out here in the West is fraught with danger. If I were going to go all jelly-legged over something I would have done so when my father died and my brother was shot and left me running the Sentinel . As it is, you don’t scare me one whit.”
    â€œYeah? Then how come you’re edging toward the door, Miss Lassiter?”
    â€œI’m not!”
    But she was. She couldn’t get away from those laughing blue eyes fast enough. She whirled toward the door and ran smack into Ellie Johnson, the federal marshal’s wife.
    Ellie reached out to steady her. “Jessamine?”
    â€œEllie! I was just leaving. Please excuse me.”
    She fled through the open door and didn’t stop until she was all the way across the street.
    Cole watched her disappear through the Sentinel office doorway. “Don’t know what got into her,” he murmured.
    â€œMaybe she’s hungry,” Ellie offered with a laugh.
    â€œNah, she just finished breakfast.”
    Ellie nodded. She was as tall as he was, with a slim figure and a graceful way of moving. He thought he recognized her from her photo in the Sentinel .
    â€œMrs. Johnson, isn’t it?”
    â€œEllie.”
    Cole nodded. “What can I do for you today, Ellie?”
    She smiled. “It’s about what I can do for you , Mr. Sanders.”
    Cole waited while her smile widened. “Uh, what might that be? You aren’t a typesetter, are you?”
    Behind him, Noralee gave a squeak of outrage.
    â€œHeaven’s no. I’m a music teacher. I came about tonight.”
    â€œTonight? What about tonight?”
    â€œWhy, the tryouts for the choir,” she explained. “At the church.”
    â€œSorry, I’m not a churchgoing man.” He hadn’t set foot in a church since that awful day back in Kansas when he buried Maryann.
    â€œOh, it’s not a church choir,” she said quickly. “It’s the new community chorus that I am directing. We’re doing a Christmas benefit for the new music school.”
    â€œOh, yeah?”
    â€œDo you like music? Singing, I mean?”
    â€œI do. But not in church.”
    â€œWhyever not? What have you got against churches?”
    â€œI...” Cole faltered. He could never explain how he felt, that God had abandoned him to black despair when Maryann had died. He shook his head.
    â€œDo come,” she urged. “A little religion would do any newspaper editor good. Seven o’clock.”
    She was gone before he could say yea or nay. Mostly he thought nay. A little religion would never in a thousand years cure what ailed him.
    But then he thought of all the town news he might glean at choir rehearsals, and he changed his mind.

Chapter Five
    C ole hated churches. He’d been married in one and a year later he’d sat through Maryann’s funeral and felt his heart turn to stone. Ever since then he’d steered clear of religious establishments.
    To his surprise, the Smoke River Community Church meeting hall