Loner's Lady. Lynna Banning

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      “Stock?”

      “My milk cow, Florence. And the chickens. And one horse.”

      His eyes flicked to hers and immediately dropped to the biscuit on his plate. “What kind of horse?”

      Ellen sniffed. “He’s not worth stealing, Mr. Flint. He’s a plow horse.”

      “Wasn’t thinking of stealing it, ma’am. I was thinking of riding it.”

      “Where on earth to?”

      “Town. And back.”

      Ellen regarded him with as much calm as she could muster. He had longish black hair and skin so sun-darkened he could be Indian. After a good minute she trusted herself to speak in a civil tone. “For a poker game? For loose women and liquor? For—?”

      “For supplies.” He growled the words without looking at her.

      “Whose supplies?” she snapped. Why were her nerves on edge around this man? She’d fed plenty of wandering cowboys; not one of them had ever riled her like this.

      “Yours. How do you tote things from town?”

      “I walk. And once a week Mr. Svensen drives a wagon out from the mercantile to collect my butter and eggs. He brings the flour and molasses and other heavy items.”

      “You don’t have a wagon?”

      “No, I don’t have a wagon. Dan took it.” Ellen pressed her mouth into an unsmiling line. He’d taken a few other things as well. Her faith in the silky-voiced Irishman with the dancing eyes. Her trust. Her hope for a child.

      Again that puzzling expression came over Mr. Flint’s face. Part disbelief, part…anger? She guessed he didn’t believe her.

      “Surely you don’t think I would lie about such a thing?”

      “No, ma’am.”

      Jess wished she had, though. He didn’t want to think about the fix husband Dan had left her in. He needed to think about how he was going to do what he’d come here for.

      They ate their supper in silence except for the faint burble of coffee on the stove. All at once she seemed to hear it, and flew across the room to shove the blue speckleware pot to one side. “I’ve overboiled it again! It must taste pretty awful.”

      “I’ve had worse. I’ve made worse myself.”

      Ellen sighed. “I guess overboiled coffee isn’t that important. Farm life has a way of paring things down to essentials. Survival is what’s important.”

      “Yes, ma’am. It surely is. Makes a person wonder just how far they’ll go with survival in mind.”

      He gave her a long look. His eyes were a dark, dark blue, almost black, and the way he scrutinized her started uneasy flutters in her stomach. This man didn’t miss much. Did he see how weary she was? How her back ached and her heart was shriveling up? She knew being a good wife meant sticking it out, for better or worse, but oh, how she smarted under the load.

      Still, smart she must. No respectable woman on the western frontier caved in to exhaustion or loneliness.

      He gave her a lopsided smile and dropped his gaze to his coffee cup, still two-thirds full.

      “Miz O’Brian, would you mind if I slept in your barn tonight?” He sent her another crooked smile. A bigger one. The corners of his dark eyes crinkled and a dimple appeared on one sun-bronzed cheek.

      Ellen studied him. She’d let the odd cowboy throw down a bedroll in the hay, but not often. Being alone out here three miles from town made her cautious. Mr. Flint made her more than cautious. He asked too many questions, and more than once she’d caught him looking at her as if trying to guess how much she weighed. She felt off balance. Vulnerable.

      “Miz O’Brian?”

      “I am considering it.” His eyes were hungry. Calculating. They made her unsure of things she’d never questioned before. Like why she kept on struggling to keep up the farm, waiting, always waiting, for Dan to return.

      Still, she had no cause to be afraid. She kept Dan’s loaded shotgun under the sink. “Very well, Mr. Flint. You may sleep in the barn.”

      “Much obliged, ma’am. I’ll feed your stock before I turn in.”

      “There is no need. Florence needs to be milked, and I—”

      “I’ll see to it.” He took a final swallow of coffee and pushed away from the table. “Thanks for the supper.”

      He ambled toward the back door, the hitch in his gait even more obvious. Even with the limp, though, she liked the way he moved, unhurried and oddly graceful for a tall man with a stiff knee.

      The screen whapped shut behind him. She listened to the uneven rhythm of his boots on the porch steps, then gathered up the two dirty plates and the empty corn platter. She’d cooked a dozen ears; only two cobs rested on her plate. The other ten, chewed clean, were piled high on his plate. The man was more than just hungry; he was starving.

      Before she finished drying the dishes, a full metal pail of foamy milk sat inside the back door. Beside it lay a dozen eggs wrapped in a red bandanna. He must have searched under every hen she owned to come up with that many at an evening gather.

      Ellen smiled wryly. No doubt Mr. Flint was hinting at breakfast. She scrubbed the last kettle and hung the sodden towel on the rack near the stove. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to let him sleep in the barn for one night.

      She poured the fresh milk into four shallow milk pans, unloaded the eggs into a bowl and set it all in the cooler off the back porch. By morning there would be more cream, enough to churn and some for scrambled eggs.

      That is, if she let him to stay for breakfast. Something about Mr. Flint made her nervous. Maybe it was his eyes. They were the darkest blue she had ever seen, darker even than the morning glories she’d planted along the front fence.

      She tried not to think about him as she washed out the milk pail and lifted the lantern from the counter. Halfway up the stairs to her bed, she jolted to a stop. She hadn’t even offered him a candle to light his way around the barn.

      Maybe he didn’t need it. With those predatory eyes he could probably see in the dark.

      A shiver crawled up her backbone as she opened the door to her bedroom. Lamplight made the blue patchwork quilt, and the puffy matching pillow covers she’d sewn, glow with inviting warmth. She moved to pull the curtains shut and caught her breath.

      Was he watching her window from the barn? Quickly she blew out the lantern flame.

      The sooner he was gone, the better. She didn’t want to look into eyes that hungry any longer than she had to.

       Chapter Two

       T he rooster woke her. With a groan Ellen planted her bare feet on the floor and forced herself upright. Peach-gold sunlight spread through the cozy room, glinting in the СКАЧАТЬ