Wicked Temptations Read Online Free PDF Page A

up her scrub brush and started in again. "But there are hundreds of eligible young men in this city," she said, rasping the brush against the old floorboards, "and lots of them are rich from running cattle and mining gold. We don't have to settle for old men like the ones we were fixing to marry. But if you're set on getting to know young Frank Gundy, then going to church on Sunday would be a start. I'll bet he'll be there."
    Edith smiled. "Yes, church," she said, then she dropped to her hands and knees and continued scrubbing, a cheerful little tune emanating from her throat, a smile fixed on her lips.
    ***
    From his stance across the street, Adam watched a big Negro paint a band of brick red over the words, CHEYENNE SENTINEL, that were scrawled across the face of the old building. The man stood on the porch roof, a bucket of paint in one hand, a brush in the other. On the porch beneath the roof rose a mound of trash and printing equipment and discarded pasteboard boxes. He'd seen several women, along with Miss Priscilla Phipps, step out of the building on occasion to toss rubbish onto the growing pile. He had not gone to the bank to pick up the bank draft, as he had not yet given up hope of collecting his bride. He needed a mother for his children, and he needed her fast. He'd caught Tom Rafferty throwing dirt clods at Trudy's bedroom window at the ranch the night before, and if he could talk Mary Kate Burns into marrying him, he would install her and the children in the house on 17th Street , and Trudy and Tom would be miles apart. It wouldn't be long before the young buck would find other pastures in which to graze.
    As for Mary Kate, he'd stay with her a few nights a week, which should work for both of them, since there was no love between them. Actually, a rather good arrangement. He took a last look at the photograph she'd sent to him and headed across the street, certain she'd been one of the women who'd stepped onto the porch earlier. Seeing the door ajar, he walked into the building unannounced and stood just inside the doorway. Four heads looked his way. "I am Adam Whittington, and I'm looking for Miss Mary Kate Burns," he said. "I believe she's here."
    To his annoyance, Priscilla Phipps emerged from the back room. "I told you yesterday, Lord Whittington, that Miss Burns will not be marrying you. Now, will you please leave. As you can see, we are all very busy."
    "I don't care how busy you are," Adam said, "I've come to hear it directly from Miss Burns." He looked around the room. "Which of you is Miss Burns?"
    "I am Mary Kate Burns," a small, slender woman said, her milky white skin and wide blue eyes the image of youthful innocence. She stood slowly then, the top of her pigtailed blond head about mid-chest to him, making her seem younger yet. She stared at him with those large innocent eyes while waiting for him to respond.
    Bloody hell . He'd be marrying a child. And to bed the woman...   He probably wouldn't even be able to function as a man. He slipped the photograph from his pocket and glanced at it again. It was the same woman alright, but with her gloved hand on the back of a chair, and wearing a hat and fashionable gown, she looked ten years older. But she wasn't ten years older. She was four years older than Trudy. And there was no way Trudy or the other children would look on her as a mother figure.
    He handed her the photograph. "Miss Burns," he said, "if you want to get out of the marriage agreement, I will release you from it."
    The woman turned worried eyes on Priscilla Phipps, as if looking for confirmation, and when Miss Phipps nodded, Miss Burns said, "Yes, Lord Whittington, I think it would be best. You have three nearly-grown children, and I do not feel competent to see to their needs. I am sorry for whatever grief I may have caused you and your family."
    He shrugged. "We will survive." He looked at Priscilla Phipps standing in the doorway to the back room, wondering, for the first time, what