Caroline's Love: Historical Western Romance (Mail Order Brides of Hickory Stick Book 1) by Carroll Patricia PacJac

Author:Carroll, Patricia PacJac [Carroll, Patricia PacJac]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: PacJac Publishing
Published: 2014-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Thomas focused on the wood beams over his head. Still dizzy, he didn’t move. Her touch hadn’t helped his dazed condition. Caroline? When she held his wrist, heat shot from his heart to every limb. Why did she have to be the one to make his heart race?

Bessy peered down at him. “Think you can sit up now?”

“Yeah. Sure.” He would do anything to get his mind off that golden-haired female.

With Bessy’s help, he sat up. He noticed Jackson was sitting at a table not far away. His brother’s angry-brow look greeted him.

“Brought your horse back.” Thomas threw out a peace offering.

“I know.”

That hadn’t worked. “The old grizzly attacked me. If it hadn’t been for Moon, I’d be bear food right now.”

“Good for the dog.”

Thomas wished he could growl like that grizzly. Now what had he done. He winced. The sluice. Jackson had wanted it moved yesterday. He touched his leg. “Sorry, I won’t be much help, but Bill Simmons owes me a favor. Bet I can get him to help you move the sluice.” He smiled weakly.

His brother frowned. “What did you do to that woman? The pretty blonde one.”

“Do to her? I’ve hardly seen her.”

“I want the truth. If you so much—”

“I’ve told you before, I do not hurt women. Sally May was a gold digger. She wanted our poke and nothing more. I told her to get off our claim, but I didn’t have anything to do with her death.”

Jackson rubbed his temples. “If I thought—”

“I never touched her, and I did nothing to hurt Caroline.”

“Caroline is it? Sounds like you know her.”

Thomas wondered if his own brows were meeting now as he concentrated on controlling his anger. Since becoming a Christian, he’d resolved not to let his temper get the best of him. He’d been in too much trouble before when his anger turned loose. “She was one of the brides I ordered. I wrote her some letters. That’s all.”

“Well she sure acts like you done her wrong.”

Thomas hung his head. Might as well tell him the whole truth. He noticed Bessy was listening, too. Being a new man in the Lord, telling the truth was one thing God had spoken to him about. “I ordered two brides. One for you and one for me. I wanted to surprise you. So I wrote to both of them. Told them about my dreams of owning a ranch and raising fine horses. How I wanted a woman who I could love and build a ranch for. Have children. That’s what I wrote.”

“You wrote that to both of them?”

Thomas could see Jackson’s anger was reaching the boiling point. “Yeah, I wrote that to both of them.”

“How can you be so, so stupid! And where did the third one come from?”

The anger Thomas had tamped down, rose. “I don’t know. I only ordered two. They both sounded nice. I thought you’d be pleased. But there’s no pleasing you, is there Jackson? The Lord knows I’ve tried.”

He started to stand and his leg gave out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.