Tales of Western Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

for the bed.
    At the end of three weeks, the cabin looked a
hundred percent better, and Bowdry went to work repairing the barn
and the corrals. Macie helped as best she could, but she had never
been proficient at swinging a hammer and after she smashed her
thumb for the third time, Bowdry sent her back to the house to bake
a pie.
    It wasn’t the best looking apple pie she had
ever seen, but Bowdry praised her efforts.
    As their life settled into a routine, Macie
grew more and more depressed. She missed going to the movies and
shopping at the mall, she missed watching TV, hot running water,
and her computer. She didn’t like doing her laundry in a wash tub
over a fire, or hanging clothes on a line stretched between two
saplings, or cooking on a wood stove. She missed her microwave and
junk food.
    They had been living together just over a
month when Bowdry said they needed to talk.
    “ I can’t help noticin’ you’re not happy
here,” he said, not quite meeting her eyes. “I know you’re probably
used to better than this…” He cleared his throat. “And I know I’m
not much…”
    “ It’s not you,” she said quickly. And
it was true. She loved him more every day they spent together. He
was strong as an ox, yet tender with her, considerate of her needs.
She had only to ask for something, and he did his best to get it
for her.
    “ Then I guess you’re missing your old
life. If you’re truly unhappy here, I reckon Relampago will
take you back home, if that’s where you’re meant to be.”
    That night, Macie stayed up long after Bowdry
had gone to bed. Did she want to go back home? There was nothing
for her there. And no reason to take her own life. In spite of what
she had lost, she still had a lot to live for. She was young. She
was healthy. And she had a man who loved her. But did she want to
stay here? Could a woman from the twenty-first century, accustomed
to all the conveniences technology had to offer, ever be happy
living in the Old West?
    She was still mulling the answer to that
question when she woke in the morning.
    Stepping outside, a blanket wrapped around
her shoulders to ward off the chill, she gazed at the land, and at
the tall, dark-haired man who was chopping firewood near the
barn.
    She was about to go back into the house to
start breakfast when Relampago trotted up to the porch.
“Hey, boy,” she murmured. “What should I do?”
    The stallion shook his head, then whinnied
softly.
    “ I’ve been asking the wrong question,
haven’t I? The question isn’t whether I can be happy here, in the
past. The question is, can I be happy in the future without Bowdry.
And you know what? The answer is no.”
    With her decision made, laughter bubbled up
inside Macie. Life wouldn’t be easy here, but suddenly, it didn’t
matter. She was here, with Bowdry, and that was where she belonged.
In a flash of intuition, she saw herself married to Ace Bowdry, saw
them raising half a dozen kids, growing old together, living
happily-ever-after.
    Bowdry looked up just then, a smile curving
his lips when he saw her. He sank the blade of the ax into a block
of wood, then strode toward her, his dark eyes alight.
    Still smiling, Macie patted the stallion on
the neck. “You can go now,” she called over her shoulder as she
hurried into Bowdry’s arms. “I’m home.”
     
    The End
     

 
     

     
    The white stallion, Relampago , travels
through time as he hears the call of someone in danger. With a toss
of his head, the stallion began to run, mane and tail flying in the
wind as he raced swiftly over the rolling hills.
     
    It was not an Apache warrior who needed
saving this time. Or a young woman contemplating suicide. But a
woman looking for love in all the wrong places...
     

 
    Capture the Lightning
     

Prologue
     
    The white stallion grazed peacefully on a
patch of sun-warmed grass beside a slow-moving river. The Lakota
horse herd grazed nearby, never getting too close. In the distance,
smoke rose from