Tall, Dark, and Determined by Kelly Eileen Hake

Author:Kelly Eileen Hake [Hake, Kelly Eileen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-60742-552-6
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2011-09-02T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY

Life brings change whether we wish it or not.” Cora joined the conversation from where she hung back with Evie and Naomi. Lacey and Mr. Dunstan managed well so far, but who knew when that tentative truce might fail? “If the growing needs of Hope Falls conflict with your own, Mr. Williams, you have choices.”

“Fewer now that Miss Thompson’s off the market.” His snarl inspired several men to start muttering. “And you were taken before anyone so much as stepped foot in this place. Seems the choices around here are getting pretty thin on the ground.”

“Don’t be sayin’ things to upset the ladies!” Clump trundled forward, bullish expression on his face. “Yeah, Granger got Miss Thompson’s hand—but it’s a fool who talks like Miss Lyman and Miss Higgins are anything less than treasures.”

“Thank you, Mr. Klumpf.” Naomi’s voice held more warmth than Cora had heard in days as she spoke to the short German.

“We came into this eyes open.” Bear Riordan, so huge he didn’t need to move forward to gain attention, joined in. “All o’ us knew there were three ladies to be won, and no more.”

“Williams is just sore that the cook picked Granger,” someone yelled from the back. Chuckles rippled through the room.

“That’s right.” A high climber by the name of Bobsley, memorable for his slighter frame and crooked smile, wasn’t smiling anymore. “Nothin’ round here’s changed ‘cept you didn’t win your woman. You made it awful clear which lady you wanted, Williams. Now you cain’t have her, you plan to make trouble?”

“We don’t allow rabble-rousers.” Shorter than everyone but Clump, Lacey nevertheless managed to look down her nose at the entire room, ending with Williams. “From the moment you came to town, you aired suspicions that our ad was a hoax. We overlooked your poor manners and groundless accusations once, Mr. Williams. Don’t imagine we’ll be so tolerant now that you know better.”

“Ah, and when I expressed those justifiable concerns, what did your men do?” Williams spoke more calmly. “I recall them throwing around words like old, spotted, hideous, and the like. But here I stand, bemoaning the fact one of the three ladies is taken, and I’m taken to task for being insulting?”

“It weren’t so much what you said as the way it sounded.” Clump flushed at the reminder of their unsuccessful attempt to keep Williams from staying in town, but didn’t give up now.

“Combined with the things he’s said before.” Lacey rubbed her forehead with her right hand—the signal they’d agreed meant “wait and listen.” She’d never used it before, which made the possibility of what she might say next slightly unnerving for Cora. Nevertheless, she and the other women dutifully waited.

Williams shifted. “Things said before can be taken different ways now. It’s best to go by my meaning here and now since no one can remember the exact words on a later date.”

And now Cora saw where Lacey had led him. No one she’d ever met, man or woman, had anywhere near the ability to recall conversations the way Lacey did.

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