Courageous. Diana Palmer

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ me. Out of step. Can’t fit in. Doesn’t belong anywhere. Well, anywhere except Jacobsville. Or Comanche Wells.”

      He had to admit, he didn’t like the idea of her living in a dorm with male students she didn’t know. On the other hand, he wouldn’t like being forced to live with some woman he didn’t know. How the world had changed in a decade or so!

      He leaned against the wall. “Okay. I guess you’re right. But you could commute to a college, or through the internet.”

      “I’ve thought about that.”

      He studied her pretty bow of a mouth, her rounded chin, her elegant neck. Her eyes were her finest feature, but the pigtails and lack of makeup did nothing for her.

      She saw where he was staring and grinned. “Deterrents.”

      He blinked. “Excuse me?”

      “My pigtails and my lack of makeup. They keep suitors away. If you don’t care about fancy clothes and makeup, you’re smart, right? So men don’t like smart women.”

      He cocked an eyebrow. “If I wanted a relationship, I’d like a smart woman. I have a degree in political science with a double major in that and Arabic language studies.”

      The fork she was testing her potatoes with was suspended in midair. “You speak Arabic?”

      He nodded. “Several dialects.”

      Her eyes fell. “Oh.” She hadn’t realized that he was college educated. She felt suddenly inadequate. He’d said that she needed to go to college herself. Did he find her unattractive because her mind wasn’t developed like his? Or did he want her to leave?

      He frowned. She looked worried. He recalled what Jason had said about that designer gown she’d been loaned. He grimaced. Well, he didn’t really have any plans to take another woman …

      “How about going to the Cattleman’s Ball with me?” he asked bluntly.

      She went from doubt and misery to euphoria in five seconds flat. She gaped at him. “Me?”

      “Well, I don’t think your Dad would look very good in a ball gown,” he replied.

      “The ball,” she said, confused.

      He nodded. “I hate parties,” he said flatly. “But I guess I can stand it for a couple of hours.”

      She nodded. She looked blank.

      “If you want to go?” he asked, because she looked … He wasn’t sure how she looked.

      “Yes!”

      He laughed. The fork had flown out of her hand in her excitement. It landed, oddly, right in the sink. He laughed harder. “Nice toss. You might consider the NBA.”

      “Oh, I don’t play football.”

      He started to tell her it was basketball, but she was beaming, and she looked really pretty. He smiled. His dark eyes sparkled. “Just a joke.”

      “Okay.”

      He shouldered away from the wall. “I’ll get back to work. We’ll leave about six on Saturday. They’re serving canapés and whatnot. I don’t think you’ll need to cook supper, except something for your dad.”

      She nodded. “Okay.”

      He smiled and walked out.

      Peg barely noticed the potatoes until water splashed out onto the stove. She tested them with a clean fork and moved the pan off the burner. She was going to the ball. She felt like Cinderella. She’d fix up her face and hair and make Grange proud. It would be the happiest night of her entire life. She felt as if she were walking on air as she started to mash the potatoes in a big ceramic bowl.

      “I hear you’re going to the ball,” Ed Larson teased after they’d shared supper with Grange.

      She blushed. She’d been doing that all through the meal. It was almost a relief when Grange went out to check the livestock.

      “Yes,” she said. “I was shocked that he asked me. I’ll bet Gracie had her husband goad him into it, though,” she added sadly. “I’m sure he said already that he wasn’t going.”

      “I’m glad he is,” Ed said. His face was solemn as he took a sip of coffee. “Rumor is that his group is leaving with Emilio Machado very soon. Revolution is never pretty.”

      “So soon?” she blurted out. She knew about the mission. There were no secrets in small towns. Besides, Rick Marquez, whose adopted mother Barbara ran the Jacobsville café, had turned out to be General Machado’s son.

      “Yes,” her father replied.

      “He’ll die.”

      “No, he won’t,” he said, and smiled. “Winslow was a major in the army. He served in spec ops in Iraq and he came home. He’ll be fine.”

      “You think so. Really?”

      “Really.”

      She sighed. “Why do people fight?”

      His eyes had a faraway expression. “Sometimes for stupid reasons. Sometimes for really patriotic ones. In this case,” he added, glancing at her, “to stop a dictator from having people shot in their own homes for questioning his policies.”

      “Good heavens!”

      He nodded. “General Machado had a democratic government, with handpicked heads of departments. He toured his country, talked to his people to see what their needs were. He set up committees, had representatives from indigenous groups on his council, even worked with neighboring countries to set up free-trade agreements that would benefit the region.” He shook his head. “So he goes to another country to talk about one of those agreements, and while he’s away, this serpent brings in his political cronies, has them put in charge of the military and overthrows the government.”

      “Nice guy,” she said sarcastically.

      “The general’s right-hand man, too, his political chief, Arturo Sapara,” Ed continued. “Sapara takes over the government then he closes down the television and radio stations and puts a representative in each newspaper office to report directly to him. He controls all the mass media. He puts cameras everywhere and spies on the people. Somebody says, anyone he doesn’t like … they disappear, like two internationally known college professors disappeared a few months ago.”

      “Ouch.”

      “People think things like that can’t happen to them.” He sighed. “They can happen anywhere that the public turns a blind eye to injustice.”

      “I didn’t realize it was that bad.”

      “Machado says he’s not going to stand by and let the work he put into that democracy go down the drain. It’s taken him months to mount a counteroffensive, but he’s got the men and the money now, and he’s going to act.”

      “I hope he СКАЧАТЬ