The Beloved Woman Read Online Free PDF Page A

mount, smile, and stick his face as close to the coach window as possible.
    “Welcome to Gold Ridge, mister,” he said to Justis. “You need land? I got land bought directly from those lucky souls who won it in the lottery. Forty-acre gold lots, hundred-and-sixty-acre farm lots, some with improvements the Injuns made on ’em. Good prices—Well, I’ll be damned!”
    He stared at Katherine, then looked back at Justis. “You taking this squaw to one of the cathouses? Which one?”
    By the time Katherine’s sharp gasp hit the air, Justiswas already leaning out the window, and a second later he’d jabbed the barrel of his pistol into the man’s fleshy throat. With a squeak of alarm the man reined his horse around and galloped back toward the shanties. Justis swore softly as he settled back in his seat and put the gun away. He finally looked at Katherine and saw the horror in her expression.
    “These people really believe that they can have Cherokee land and anything else they want,” she said with soft torment. “They’re convinced of it.”
    Justis sighed. She looked so stricken, he reached over and cupped her face in both hands. Her skin felt fantastically smooth to his callused fingers, and desperation gave her eyes a wide, limpid appeal that sank into him like a knife. She might be tough, but she was scared too.
    “Everything’s gonna be just fine, Katie,” he said soothingly. Then, telling himself that he needed to distract her from further questions, he kissed her lightly on the mouth. She tasted like sweet cologne and dusty sweat, a unique combination that he found wildly provocative.
    “Oh, dear,” she said, trembling.
    His mouth brushed hers again. “You stick with me, Katie, and I’ll fight any man who looks crossways at you.”
    “Why are you like this?” Her breath came in soft, ragged puffs. “Are you as wicked as you act, or as sweet as you sound?”
    “Both.”
    Because she made a murmur of amusement, he ran his tongue over her lips before he sat back. He held her shoulders and nodded solemnly. “Now you got clean lips.”
    Jesse, I promised to take care of her, but I didn’t count on this
.
    She blinked a couple of times and shivered. Her eyes filled with tears of shame as she shoved his hands away.“I’m sorry for letting you do that. I feel very confused right now.”
    “It was just a friendly kiss.”
    “And the Alamo was just a skirmish.”
    “Hullo, down there,” Mr. Bingham yelled. “Where to in town?”
    Justis stuck his head out the window. “The Gallatin-Kirkland Hotel. It’s on the edge of the square.”
    “The
Gallatin-Kirkland Hotel
?” she repeated. With her handkerchief she dabbed quickly at her eyes, then brushed the material over her mouth, shooting him a reproachful look as she did.
    “Me and my business partner own it,” Justis explained. “Sam Kirkland. He and his wife live there.”
    “What
else
do you own in the Cherokee Nation?”
    “Besides the mine I already told you about, a store, a stable, and a saloon.” Plus two hundred acres of the prettiest land in this part of the state. Blue Song land.
    She arched a black brow. “Is there anything left for anyone else to own?”
    “Plenty.” He pointed. “Take a look-see. Yo, Bing-ham! Take us around the courthouse once!”
    The coach rolled into a neatly kept square, at the center of which stood a majestic two-story brick building with a pair of white colonnades framing the entrance. Saddle horses and mules hitched to heavy wagons stood lazily in the shade of a massive oak tree by the courthouse steps.
    “The bricks were made by a local man,” Justis told her proudly. “There’s flecks of gold in ’em. And after it rains hard, you can go out in the street and pan nearly a pennyweight. There are fortunes just waitin’ to be found here.”
    “Too much to resist,” she murmured.
    The buildings around the square were a variety of styles, everything from an old log cabin to clapboard stores with