Taming of Jessi Rose Read Online Free PDF

finish your breakfast. School’s waiting. Please excuse my nephew, Mr. Blake, but he needs to get going.”
    Joth finished the last of his meal and took his plate to the sink. “Hope I’ll see you later, Mr. Blake.”
    Griff looked over at Joth and into young eyes he’d seen before in a dream. He shook off the odd sensation even as he wondered how this boy figured into his life’s path. “Same here, Joth.”
    Joth gathered up his slate and left the kitchen, and his aunt followed. While she was gone, Griff looked around. He saw only the bare essentials: table, chairs, a few lamps. There were no frilly curtains, no throw rugs on the kitchen’s linoleum floor, none of the knickknacks women seemed to collect, but beneath each window stood a well-oiled rifle and a box of cartridges. The two kitchen windows that looked out on the front of the house were framed with heavy shutter doors. The back door had been outfitted the same way. Other windows had been boarded shut. There was a ladder leading to a hole in the roof and a big bucket beside it which he assumed had been positioned to catch the elements. The interior looked as if it had been stripped down and prepared for war. The place resembled more of a hideout than a home. He could almost feel the strength of thebattle the woman and the boy were waging. According to Dix, Darcy’s power and his hired guns had forced many of the people around here to sell him their land; he probably wasn’t pleased about being defied by Joth’s rawhide aunt.
    She returned to the kitchen pulling on a pair of gloves. “I’ve fences to mend, Mr. Blake. I trust you won’t rob me after I’m gone, and can see yourself out when you’re done here?”
    What a woman , he thought to himself. “Yes, ma’am.”
    â€œAgain, good luck wherever you’re headed.”
    â€œThanks.”
    After she rode off, Griff washed up his dishes and the boy’s too, and placed them on the sideboard to dry. He’d been on his own a long time and he always left the trail behind him clean. When he was done, he poured himself another cup of coffee and sat down to wait.
    Jessi came back two hours later, smelling of horses and cattle, and hauling a mess of freshly caught fish. As soon as she saw him sitting in the kitchen, she asked, “Why’re you still here?”
    He shrugged. “Coffee’s good.”
    â€œDid you drink it all?”
    â€œYep, but made more.”
    She dropped the fish in a barrel of water by the sink, then poured herself a cup. She took a wary sip, knowing very few men who could make a brew decent enough to drink. “Not as good as mine, but it’ll do.”
    In response he gave her a smile that seemed to bring sunshine into the dreary light of the kitchen. That he was a handsome man of the race there was no denying. He had dark auburn hair, which he wore long and tied back with a piece of rawhide, reddish gold skin, and light topaz eyes. The red gold beard and mustache added a dangerous edge to his already arresting looks. Helooked younger than Jessi’s own thirty-two years but was a man who could probably pick and choose his women whenever he had a mind to. She also guessed that that magnificent smile probably fluttered female hearts whenever and wherever it appeared, but Jessi considered herself far past the age of fluttering. “You haven’t answered my question.”
    He shrugged his lean shoulders. Griff instinctively knew he was going to have to tell her the truth. She was not your standard female; there’d be no pulling the wool over her eyes. “I was sent here.”
    Jessi stilled. “By whom?”
    â€œHanging Judge Parker and Deputy Marshal Dixon Wildhorse.”
    â€œJudge Parker up at Fort Smith?”
    Griff nodded.
    â€œWhy on earth would Judge Parker send you here?”
    â€œTo help you with Darcy.”
    Jessi didn’t understand.