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What did he say to you?" he demanded, when they were alone in Chloe's study, with the doors closed. Emma rubbed her eyes. "Who?" she replied, stalling. Steven only looked at her, his expression wry, his jawline tight. A headache pounded at the base of her skull and she sighed, wishing she could go to her room and lie down with a cold cloth on her head. They both knew Steven was talking about Macon, but Emma didn't dare admit the man had thr..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Don't you want to know why I'm here?" Emma made herself meet his eyes. "No," she said. "I do not." He chuckled, unmoved, as always, by her discourtesy. "We're going on a picnic Saturday," he announced. Emma had had all she could take of Steven Fairfax's audacity. She glared at him, her cheeks throbbing. "I hardly think that will be possible. You see, I've agreed to attend a party with Fulton on Saturday evening." Steven sighed. "So you're s..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Emma. He smiled in the darkness, thinking what a fool he'd made of himself. Because of Chloe, he'd assumed he was in a whorehouse, and he'd taken Emma for a fresh young flower in the madam's bouquet. Instead she was a librarian, and there was every likelihood that no man had ever laid a hand on her. Steven
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Why do you dislike Fulton so much? I do believe you're pleased that I'm going on a picnic with an outlaw--a man you said yourself was probably just one step ahead of real trouble." "My reasons for not liking Fulton are my own business," Chloe replied. "You'd see what's wrong with him for yourself if you'd just open your eyes. And I've changed my mind about you seeing Mr. Fairfax because Big John says he's solid as bedrock. Fact is, I think ..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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The moment he stepped outside, Macon materialized out of the darkness, as quickly as if he'd been a part of it. "Just making sure you don't decide to take to your heels again," Steven's half-brother remarked as they walked along the wooden sidewalk. "I'm not going to do that and you know it," Steven responded, never looking at Macon. "You just want to make me as miserable as you possibly can." "You don't know the meaning of the word misery,..
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Fasten my buttons, please," she said, turning her back to Daisy. "I'll fasten your buttons, all right," Daisy muttered, but she couldn't hide her amusement at Emma's good mood. "You just see that young cowboy don't unfasten 'em again." Emma stiffened. "Daisy! How could you say such a thing?" "I wasn't always old an' fat," Daisy chortled. "No, siree, I was young once, just like you. Now, you mind your manners and behave like a lady, or I'll ..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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What you gonna do when Mr. Fulton Whitney hears about this debilment?" "It isn't devilment," Emma protested, bending close to the little mirror beside the door and pinching her cheeks to make them pink. "It's a picnic and nothing more--the whole thing is perfectly innocent." Daisy chortled, her great bulk quivering with amusement. "I declare that's what Eve said to Adam. 'The whole thing is perfectly innocent.'" Before"
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Now, now, Emma, darlin'. You will bear it, because you have to. Your husband is depending on you." Emma nodded, but she couldn't stop crying. "I was real proud of you in there," Cyrus comforted. "You did just fine for a Yankee." Emma reared back to look into his face and laughed, despite everything, at the mischief she saw in his wise, gentle eyes. "Does it bother you that your grandson married a northerner?" she asked, when she'd recovered..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Obviously enjoying her dilemma, Macon made a point of reiterating his plan to make Emma his paramour. "We'll begin the evening of his funeral, I think," he said, grinning as furious color rose in Emma's face. "You'll need consoling." Emma was fairly quaking with rage, but she kept her smile in place and replied, "I'd sooner be a swamp rat's mistress than yours!" Macon threw back his head and laughed at that, and it made Emma fume to realize..
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She came into the room, carrying a kerosene lantern this time, and Steven couldn't help cringing when he thought of the damage that could do. But
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Steven couldn't help laughing at the somber dignity of her expression. Her very primness lured him, made him want to bring out the wildcat he expected she was hiding from the world and maybe even herself.
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Steven longed to comfort her, but he didn't dare. After all, he'd practically called her a prostitute earlier, albeit by mistake, and despite the sponge bath he figured he most likely smelled like a mule fart.
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Linda Lael Miller |
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I was hoping--er--thinking--" He went crimson from his neck to his hairline. "Would you dance with me, Miss Emma?" She smiled and offered her hand. "I'd like that very much," she said, hoping her face didn't show the ravages of her earlier crying fit. Nathaniel cleared his throat and marshalled Emma awkwardly into a waltz. It seemed strange that, only three years before, she'd been his age. "If Steven or Macon is mean to you," he ventured b..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Fulton laid a heavy hand on Emma's knee, there in the larger of Chloe's two parlors, and Emma quickly set it away. "God's eyeballs, Emma," Fulton complained in a sort of whiny whisper, "we're practically engaged!" "It's not proper to talk about God's anatomy," Emma said stiffly, squinting at the needlework in the stand in front of her before plunging the needle in. "And if you don't keep your hands to yourself, you'll just have to go home."..
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Emma?" His hands came to rest on her shoulders, and she pressed her cheek to the back of one. "What is it?" "She's dead," Emma whispered, as Steven pulled up a chair close to hers and sat down. Gently he took the letter from her hand and read it. "I'm sorry," he said, and the gentleness of his tone made her want to cry. "The attorney didn't mention Lily and Caroline. That means Mama probably didn't know where they were." "It means he didn't..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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You're blaming me?" "Of course not," he said brusquely. "But the whole thing brought me to my senses. We've made a mistake, Emma. I want you to go back to Chloe's and forget you ever knew me." One of Emma's hands rose to her mouth to hold back a cry that never came. "You don't mean that," she said after a moment of struggle. "You're only trying to protect me." He stared at her for a long moment, and she saw a stranger looking out of his eye..
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By God, if I were twenty years younger," he thundered, "I'd drag you outside and horsewhip you!" Steven"
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Do I have your word?" Steven demanded. "You know you do," Cyrus replied. "Macon won't lay a hand on her. What did she say when you told her you didn't want to be her husband anymore?" Steven shoved a hand through his hair, ashamed of the memory. "She said she didn't believe me--called me a liar." Cyrus chuckled ruefully. "Then you started moving your things out of the house. You're a fool if I've ever seen one, Steven Fairfax. Now you go fi..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Steven Fairfax was nothing but a saddle-bum--maybe he was even wanted by the law--and bathing him was not a ladylike thing to do. Still, there was the way he smiled. And that glint of mischief in his eyes, overpowering the pain he must be enduring. And the soft, distinctly Southern way he spoke--it was like listening to warm rain fall on the summerhouse roof. Emma
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He grinned at her, and although he was in dire need of a shave and his hair was rumpled, Emma's heart gave a little lurch.
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I'll interfere with his concentration," Daisy muttered, mostly to herself, as she worked between the stove and the sink. "Thump him up right 'longside the head with my skillet--" Emma nearly choked on her pancake. "Honestly, Daisy," she said, suppressing a smile, "a person would never know you were a good Christian woman by the way you talk. What would Reverend Hess say if he heard you going on like that?" "I reckon he'd say I's an old lady..
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Some of the stitches have come out," she fussed to Sing Cho, who was squinting in the darkness and giving his handiwork a solemn inspection. "Should not ride," Sing Cho scolded. "Should not herd cattle." He trotted away to fetch his satchel from the supply wagon. "Should not make babies," Steven whispered, bending toward a worried Emma and kissing her on the tip of her nose. Emma was blushing, remembering how wanton she'd been--she the sedu..
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Steven looked wan in the light of the lantern, but he smiled when he saw Emma. That distracted him from the fact that Sing Cho was opening a large brown bottle. Just when Sing Cho doused the long cut with alcohol, Emma stuffed the biscuit into Steven's mouth and stifled what she was sure was a string of shouted curses. His eyes narrowed, and his jaw moved angrily as he chewed and swallowed. "Damn it, woman," he rasped, "when something hurts..
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Where am I going to sleep?" "Under the supply wagon, with me," Steven answered. "We'd better turn in right now, because I want that herd moving at sunrise." Emma's sense of propriety was a little belated, but it was strong nonetheless. "What will the men think?" she asked, her voice barely audible. Steven grinned as he pulled blankets from the back of the wagon and tossed them at her. "I'm sorry to disillusion you, Miss Emma, but they've pr..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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At midday the scout rode back from up ahead to tell Steven there were Indians to the east. He immediately got off the horse and then mounted again, behind Emma. She looked back at him in question, and he kissed her lightly on the mouth. "If anybody takes an arrow in the back," he said, "it isn't going to be you." Emma was frightened, but she also felt protected and valued, and there was a certain contentment in that. If she could be close t..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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His thoughts immediately turned to Emma, and the way she'd felt, all soft and warm against him, when he'd kissed her last. He puffed on the cigar for a few moments, speculating. He wondered if she would really be fool enough to marry that dough-faced banker. Emma was stubborn, and she probably thought Whitney could give her what she wanted--money, respectability, comfort. That willfulness of hers just might land her in the wrong bed, and St..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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She was outside in the back yard, seated in the swing Big John Lenahan had made for her when she was eleven, and watching the spring sun shimmer on the lake when she felt masculine hands encircle her waist. "Want a push?" Fulton asked. Emma would never have confessed to the disappointment she felt. She forced a smile to her lips. "No, thanks," she said. "What are you doing here? It's the middle of the day." "I couldn't think of a better tim..
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Good night, Mr. Fairfax," she said in a shaky voice. Steven laughed and tossed his hat onto a settee to pull her against him. Her heart raced and heat climbed from her stomach to her chest at the intimacy of their contact--Emma could feel his rocklike masculinity pressing against the soft flesh of her thigh. "Mr. Fairfax," she protested. "I must insist--" Her words were smothered by the warm, moist conquest of his mouth. His tongue teased t..
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than that as Bex turned her back and started to take
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Mrs. Tibbet, the colonel's wife, was always looking for a housekeeper. Every time she hired one the lady would marry a soldier departing for home and leave the Tibbets' employ. A slow grin spread across Caleb's face. If Lily accepted the position, she would be close at hand, and he'd have an opportunity to win her over to his way of thinking. He'd court her, after a fashion, though he had no intention of marrying her or any other woman, and..
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meeting anyway.
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bathroom, moving like a woman in a trance.
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Emma awakened Steven rudely by arching her back and letting out a howl of startled discomfort. He sat bolt upright in bed, shoved one hand through his hair in agitation, and babbled that he was willing to pay five thousand dollars for the piece of land he wanted, and not a cent more. In spite of her pain, Emma laughed at his incoherency. "I'm in labor, Mr. Fairfax," she told him, as her stomach contorted visibly beneath her nightgown and he..
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Steven grinned as though he could see right through her. He was finely dressed, but she could see the bulge of his .45 beneath his suitcoat. "Hello, Miss Emma," he said, taking off his new beaver hat. "Mr. Fairfax," Emma replied, stepping back to admit him. There in the shadowed light of the entryway, he brought a very small box from the pocket of his vest and held it out. "This is for you." Emma fairly lunged for the package, before rememb..
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Linda Lael Miller |
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Daisy was still lingering in the kitchen when they arrived, and when she saw Steven she shook a wooden spoon at him. "I raised this chile to be a good girl," she warned. "Don't you go messin' with her, hear?" The beginnings of a grin quirked Steven's lips, but he didn't quite give in to it. "Yes, ma'am," he said. Emma"
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Bridget again.
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It's plain that Daisy never learned not to trust a flattering rogue," she remarked. Steven closed his hands around Emma's waist and lifted her none-too-gently onto the leather seat of the rig. "If that's what you think of me," he demanded, pushing his hat to the back of his head to look up at her, "what are you doing going on a picnic with me?" Emma took great delight in prickling his overblown pride. "You know very well what I'm doing," sh..
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Scoundrel!" she accused through her teeth. "You deliberately let everyone see me with you--including Fulton!" Steven arched his eyebrows in a counterfeit expression of surprise. "Don't tell me Mr. Whitney was slaving over his accounts on a fine day like this one!" He took off his hat and slapped it against one thigh, as if in selfadmonishment, but his smile was downright insolent. "I do apologize, Miss Emma. I keep forgetting these Yankee b..
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You're forgetting," her father pointed out reluctantly, "that Steven Fairfax is spoken for. He's got his eye on Miss Emma Chalmers." Joellen was horrified. "That dowdy little snippet who runs the library? He's just toying with her, that's all." Big John shrugged his powerful shoulders. "Miss Emma tries to conduct herself proper-like, and dress the way a lady should, but she's not dowdy, Joellen, not by a far sight." Miss Lenahan was in no m..
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I hear Chloe is keeping a man in the house," he said stiffly. "Now, Emma, you know I don't mind about Big John Lenahan stopping by every now and again, but I draw the line--" "It isn't your house, Fulton," Emma put in reasonably. Fulton was so startled at the interruption that he went red at the ears. "Be that as it may, I don't care for the idea of my fiancee sleeping under the same roof with somebody who'd stoop to drinking in the Yellow ..
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Melissa had never really caught the culinary bug; in fact, she'd all but had herself vaccinated against it.
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Justice, of course, was an elusive thing, very subjective in some ways, too often more of a concept than a reality, but without the pursuit of that ideal, where would humanity be?
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If you weren't so sorely injured," she said evenly, "I would slap you." The laudanum was beginning to take affect, and Mr. Fairfax yawned expansively. "You've already set me on fire and then tried to beat me to death. A simple slap would probably be refreshing." Fury surged through Emma's system to snap in her eyes. "Don't worry, Mr. Fairfax. You'll be quite safe from me in the future." "That's comforting." Emma"
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You'll have to have a sponge bath before we go on, Mr. Fairfax. There's a question of infection here." To her surprise, the recalcitrant visitor was looking at her in a different way--his hazel eyes were twinkling with weary mischief, and his voice was lower. Smoother. "How much does that cost? A sponge bath, I mean?" Emma frowned, puzzled. "Cost?" Fairfax smiled at her, showing that fine set of teeth Emma remembered from their earlier enco..
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Linda Lael Miller |