Taboo Love in the West Part 1: A Heart Off-Limits (Wild West Adventures in Love Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

through his proud tour of his pulpit and the small altar. “Oh my child, I am so sorry. All of this can wait until tomorrow, or even later. We must get you home to bed and get you rested. I must take care of you after your long journey. I need you strong and healthy and ready to work,“ he said with a warm smile and a gentle squeeze of her arm. He helped her to rise and gently bustled her off to the small manse next door, where a smartly dressed young woman opened the door.
    “Reverend Gillespie, Miss Gillespie I presume? Your bags are already unpacked, young Chett dropped them off earlier, Miss,” she said solemnly, bobbing a half curtsey as she did so.
    “Thank you. You must be Alice. Father has been singing your praises. I am particularly looking forward to your stew. Father adores it!” She had clearly said the right thing, because the young girl flushed with pleasure at her words.
    “Alice, could you please help Eliza upstairs and take her up some lemonade or some iced tea to refresh her. She is quite fatigued from her long journey, and is most definitely in need of your tender, loving care.”
    “Of course, Sir, quite understandable,” she said, then turned to Eliza with a big grin on her face and began to head up the stairs. “Please, come with me, Miss. I will show you to your room. I remember my journey here. I was completely petrified the whole way for fear of Indian attack!” Eliza followed the now effusive girl up the wide staircase and into a room that was bright and a little sparse. What was there created an elegantly furnished room that she was very pleased she would be able to call her own. All of the linens were a bright and very clean white. Clearly Alice took a lot of pride in her laundry. Eliza felt strangely jealous of her. Here she had been taking excellent care of her father, while Eliza had been all alone in Boston. The relationship between the two was obviously close, and she suddenly felt almost superfluous to requirements. But, Alice was a servant, and Eliza was most definitely a beloved daughter. She need not fear how much love her father bestowed on anybody else; there would always be enough for her. She put her thoughts down to her exhaustion and decided it was best not to dwell on them.
    “They do look fearsome when en masse,” Eliza admitted, glad that there was something that she and this woman could find to share in common. “What are the local tribes like?” she asked, her meeting with Amitola still fresh in her mind and her curiosity piqued. She wanted to know more about him, but felt that would be a difficult question to broach with anybody without them misconstruing her interest. She tried to convince herself it was purely academic and then realised that there would be no confusion; her interest was purely personal, and that simply would not be proper. She would need to remember to bite her lip and not give it away just how attractive she had found the clever and intriguing Amitola.
    “Not many of them come into town, Miss, but those that do seem decent enough, though their English is poor and they obviously aren’t dressed right. It is very difficult to know where to look when you come near one in the summer months,” she giggled, clearly she rather enjoyed seeing the bare skin of their neighbours too, even if she found it a little disconcerting. “It’s easier in winter; they cover up a bit more, wear trousers and tunics. But they leave their hair loose all the time. Isn’t it glorious? I wish mine were more like it!” Alice had unwittingly tuned in on some of her own thoughts, but she didn’t want to have Amitola’s hair. She wanted to run her fingers through it, exactly where it already was. Alice seemed to not notice her blush again, busy as she was bustling around her, turning down the bed and laying out a nightgown ready for Eliza to sink into. “The women seem very quiet when they come into town, but that could just be that they don’t know the language