Once an Outlaw by Jill Gregory

Author:Jill Gregory
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307422415
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2001-11-21T20:00:00+00:00

When Emily returned home, she hugged Joey and Uncle Jake, and allowed herself to be helped into bed, waited on, fussed over. She listened to Uncle Jake explain about the cave where he’d spent the night, and she’d sat Joey down on her bed and looked into his eyes, and explained to him thoroughly about John Armstrong passing through town, then leaving, without any clue that Joey was there.

She nursed her ankle, and later began taking stock of her needles and thread and ribbons and fabric, trying to ascertain what she would need should the women of Lonesome come calling at her door in search of fashionable new gowns with which to win the heart of Lonesome’s sheriff.

And to all appearances, she was calm. Quiet, perhaps, after the turmoil of the previous day and night, but calm—and perfectly herself.

Inwardly, however, she was a raging mass of emotions—the most prominent of which was confusion.

First there was Uncle Jake. He claimed to have been at Beaver Rock when the storm descended in its full fury and to have taken cover in a cave. But she’d been at Beaver Rock when the storm had lashed down full force, and she hadn’t seen any sign of him all the time that she’d been searching for both him and Joey. If he’d really been there, why hadn’t he tried to get to the line shack? She and Clint had made it, despite the rain and the wind.

So why hadn’t he even tried?

Uneasiness filled her as she mulled this question. Because if her uncle were lying, if he really hadn’t been at Beaver Rock in the first place, then where had he been?

And what, she wondered, her stomach beginning to churn, was he doing?

But while her worries about Uncle Jake’s whereabouts were disturbing, they weren’t nearly as tumultuous as her thoughts about Clint Barclay. And her doubts about herself. Why had she allowed all that had gone on between them in the line shack to happen? Why had she kissed him and responded to him the way she had, why had she nearly made love with the lawman she’d sworn to hate?

She didn’t understand anything of what she felt toward Clint Barclay. Yes, he had helped her search for Joey, and he’d rescued her from the storm—but he’d also fought with her brother and cousin—and he would toss them in jail without a second thought if they gave him half a reason, she told herself.

Loyalty to her family, as well as wisdom and plain common sense, should keep her away from him, should stop her from even thinking about him. But sense had nothing to do with how she felt, and sense had nothing to do with the way her heart lifted at the sight of him, at the somersaults it did when he smiled, or the way her body melted when he kissed her.

She’d always been sensible, always been smart—even when she lost her temper, Emily never lost sight of where her loyalties or her values lay.

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