The Rock Creek Six by Lori Handeland

Author:Lori Handeland [Linda Winstead Jones, Lori Handeland]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Western Romance, New York Times Bestselling Authors
Publisher: Pronoun
Published: 2015-10-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 2

Vulgar? Jed suppressed the urge to show Miss Winters what vulgar really was. He kept his mouth shut. There were three ladies present. Three ladies and one aggravating, meddling, loudmouthed, nose-in-the-air, redheaded harridan.

“Miss Winters,” he said through clenched teeth, calling upon every ounce of self-control he had left; there wasn’t much. “All you had to do was stand still and keep your mouth shut, and right now we’d be on our way to Rock Creek in that stage.” He pointed for emphasis. “But no. Instead of riding to Rock Creek, poorer but no wiser, we’re stranded miles from town!”

“I couldn’t stand by and allow Junior to paw Irene and scare her that way,” she said indignantly.

Junior?

“Since there were no gentlemen present to defend her, I took it upon myself to do so,” she said haughtily, “and I would do so again.”

He took another step toward her. “I wouldn’t have let Junior hurt her,” he said in defense of himself. “I don’t think he would have.”

“You don’t know....”

“You jumped the gun,” he said accusingly.

Miss Winters was silent for a moment. Perhaps it was her way of agreeing with him. “Well,” she said, her voice a bit softer, “what’s done is done. I suggest we start walking so we can get to Rock Creek as soon as possible.”

Jed looked over his shoulder, and his heart and spirits sank. What he had here was one slightly injured old man, a fat drunk, an old lady, two helpless young girls—he rotated his head to look at Miss Winters again—and her. There was no way they’d reach Rock Creek before dark. It was warm for December, but by nightfall it would turn plenty cold.

“This is what we’re going to do,” he said, tearing his eyes from the redhead. “We’re going to head for those hills.” He pointed to the southeast. “There’s water there, and shelter from the wind, and that’s where we’ll spend the night. Tomorrow morning...”

“Absolutely not.”

The unbending refusal came from behind him—which was no surprise. He rotated his head slowly to glare at Miss Winters. She leaned slightly forward, putting a little bit of weight on her cane. “We’re going to walk down this road”—with a subtle and easy shifting of her body, she lifted the cane and pointed south—“straight for our destination. If we’re lucky, someone will come along and assist us.”

“No one’s going to come along....”

“Even if that’s true, we’ll be better off staying on the road.”

He ignored the soft murmurs of the other passengers and stalked toward Miss Winters, no longer concerned about keeping his distance.

“It’ll be dark in a couple of hours. Have you ever seen a coyote by moonlight, Miss Winters?” He was rewarded by the sudden paleness of her already fair face. “What about a bobcat?”

“If you’re trying to frighten me...”

“I am,” he said softly when he stood directly before her. She stared up at him, unflinching, with defiance and arrogance in her gray eyes. “I’m trying to scare some sense into you!” he shouted in frustration.

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.