Special Delivery Baby

Author:Sherri Shackelford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-05-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Will had seen Tomasina in chaps. He’d even seen her in a dress. He’d seen her in a simple calico shirtwaist during her short-lived employment as a laundress. He’d seen her in the severe black dress and white lace cap of the hotel maids.

However, he’d never seen her like this. Her curls were partially piled atop her head in a delightful halo, with a few pieces artfully arranged around her face. The length in the back had been gathered into a waterfall of corkscrew curls.

The dress featured a modest scooped neck lined with a ruffle in the same material as the overlay of the skirt. A wide satin belt with a gold buckle highlighted her tiny waist.

He’d always thought her lovely. Even that first day he’d been captivated by her luminous eyes. This was different. This was beyond anything he could have imagined. She didn’t even seem real. If he reached out and touched her arm, he feared she’d shatter like a porcelain doll. The man standing beside her said something, and she laughed. A light, lyrical sound.

But this was no porcelain doll. She was flesh and blood.

Her dress floated around her in an ethereal green shimmer. He admired once more how the delicate material draped her shoulders and nipped in at her waist.

She caught sight of him and glided forward. His gaze dropped and his fingers trembled. He longed to caress the auburn curl grazing her collarbone.

“Mr. Canfield,” she said, “you’re looking quite dashing tonight.”

Everything faded into the background. People pushed and jostled around them, and he willed them away.

“You are... You’re beautiful.”

She gently waved herself with an ivory-handled fan he hadn’t noticed before. “Don’t look quite so surprised. It’s rather ungentlemanly of you.”

“That dress. Your hair.” He was babbling. “How? When?”

“My goodness. I never thought to see you so put out by a drape of fabric and a bit of rice powder.” The fan ruffled those delightful curls. “I enjoy seeing you speechless.”

Everything about her was different. Her voice. Her carriage. Normally she leaned slightly forward, as though preparing for a race at every turn. Today she stood straight and proud, her shoulders thrown back, her head held high. The transformation was astonishing. Breathtaking.

The years melted away, and it was as though he was whole again. As though the war had never happened. As though he was still that naive bright-eyed fool who had no idea of the horrors in store for him; a green youth worshipping at the feet of a beautiful woman.

He savored the feeling.

A cowboy who’d started celebrating a little too early tripped into Tomasina. The man’s drink sloshed from his tin cup and splattered onto her pristine skirts. The cowboy groped for her arm and mumbled a slurred apology.

Tomasina’s lips whitened.

Will lunged. The cowboy stumbled again and the remainder of his drink splashed over her satin shoes.

Tomasina fisted her hand and socked the man in the shoulder. “You’ve ruined my best dress, you drunken oaf.”

The man tripped in reverse, caught his heel on an uneven tread and landed hard on his backside.

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