Summer Breeze Read Online Free PDF Page B

blunt by half, Joseph. She may have a deep affection for that old man. With ladies, especially, you need to sugarcoat things. "
    "How can you sugarcoat such news?" Joseph demanded. "If you're so damned good with words, why don't you do the talking next time?"
    "Thank you, maybe I will. "
    Joseph kicked at the kindling again. "Like you're
    such a charmer? I don't see you with a gal on each arm every Friday night. "
    "Saloon girls, " David countered with a derisive snort. "Like your popularity at the Golden Slipper is a measure of your charm? I haven't seen you with a decent young lady in a good long while. "
    "The same can be said of you. "
    Impasse. Neither of them was in the habit of keeping company with respectable young women.
    Their older half brother, Ace Keegan, the closest thing to a father either of them could clearly remember, had always spoken strongly against it. When a man trifled with a proper young lady, he'd better be prepared to marry her, end of subject. That was the Keegan and Paxton way.
    David sighed and toed the kindling back toward Joseph. "I just hope she's all right, is all. "
    "Anyone who boards herself off from the world like that isn't all right. Alive and halfway rational is the most we can hope for. "
    "With her family getting killed and all, maybe she's just scared half out of her wits. "
    Joseph considered that suggestion. "Could be, I reckon. " Thinking of what had happened to Darby, he felt a chill inch up his spine. "And maybe with good reason. "
    Before stopping at the Hollister house to speak to Rachel, Joseph and David had ridden to the north end of the Hollister ranch to have a look around. They'd found the place where Darby had been ambushed, and in their estimation, the shooting couldn't have been an accident. The direction of the hoofprints left by
    Darby's horse bore out that Darby had been riding toward the creek when the shot was fired. The prominence of rock behind him would have blocked a stray bullet. Someone had been hiding in those rocks and deliberately taken aim at the old man's back.
    "So now what?" David asked.
    Joseph knew his brother was referring to the shooting, but he didn't have all of his thoughts about that in order yet. "The lady will need firewood to get her through the night. I'll start with that, I reckon. "
    As they loaded their arms with split logs, David asked, "Where you planning to spend the night?
    In the bunkhouse?"
    "Too far away, " Joseph replied with a grunt. "On the off chance that Darby's right about her being in danger, I need to be close enough to hear if anyone comes around. "
    Arms filled, Joseph made for the porch, his brother only a step behind him.
    "Where will you sleep, then? It's colder than a well digger's ass out here, and there's no windbreak that I can see. "
    They shoved the wood into the box. On the way back to the pile for kindling, Joseph said, "Darby says Miss Rachel lives in the kitchen, boarded off from the rest of the house. That must mean all the other rooms are unoccupied. " He stacked slender pieces of pitch-veined wood on the crook of his arm. "I'll just slip in through a downstairs window and find a spot somewhere inside to shake out my bedroll—preferably as close to the kitchen as I can manage so I can hear if there's any trouble. "
    As they retraced their steps to the house, a cow lowed plaintively, the sound faint on the evening breeze.
    "You think going inside is a good idea?" David asked as they dispensed with their burdens. "The lady's a mite skittish. "
    Joseph dusted off his hands and straightened his Stetson. "What other choice is there? I'm as happy as a ringtailed possum to play Good Samaritan, David, but I'm not angling to get a bad case of frostbite while I'm at it. "
    David chafed his arms through the thick sleeves of his coat. "I can't say I blame you. It's not fit out here for man nor beast. "
    "I'll knock on the door again and explain that Darby sent me over to look after her. If she knows I plan to sleep