A Texas Hill Country Christmas by William W. Johnstone

Author:William W. Johnstone [Johnstone, William W.; Johnsto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2015-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Evelyn could only stare in shock and horror at the man she had thought she knew.

“You did a fine job, Tate,” Oliver Hudson told the now unmasked outlaw who had murdered the old man. “When the driver gets to Fredericksburg, he’ll tell everyone how you took us off the stage against our will. It might have been a little better if the old man was still alive to say the same thing, but I can’t blame you for what you did. He pulled iron on you, after all.”

“Yeah, when I saw that gun o’ his come out, my gut told me to shoot him,” the man called Tate agreed. “I didn’t have time to think about anything else.”

“Well, no matter,” Hudson said, his voice breezy and casual as if the old-timer’s death meant less than nothing to him.

And that was the truth, Evelyn realized as sick astonishment hollowed out her insides even more. Oliver didn’t care that the old man had been gunned down. He didn’t care one little bit.

That meant he was just as bad as these other men. No, worse, because he had pretended to be a good man. He had fooled her into believing that he was honest and upright and . . . and really wanted to marry her . . . and....

He turned toward her, smiled, and said, “See, I told you everything would be fine, my dear. You are all right, aren’t you?”

Evelyn gave him the only answer she could.

Her hand flashed up and cracked across his face in as hard a slap as she could muster.

Hudson’s head jerked back and anger flared in his eyes for a second before he controlled it with visible effort. He lifted his reins and brought his horse closer to hers.

“I understand why you’re upset, Evelyn, but I can’t have you doing things like that in front of my men. They’ll lose respect for me if I let my woman get away with such an insult.”

His hand shot out and closed around her left wrist. A cruel twist sent pain shooting up her arm and brought a cry to her lips.

“So let’s not have any hysterics, all right,” Hudson went on in a low, dangerous tone. “The last thing in the world I want is for you to be hurt. I don’t want to see you upset or unhappy, either. I promised you a comfortable life, and that’s what I intend to give you. But I can’t have you interfering in my efforts to do that, either.”

She tried to pull away from him, but she couldn’t escape his grip. She said, “I . . . I’m not going to have any kind of a life with you, Oliver Hudson. Not after what I’ve seen today.”

He let go of her wrist and smiled, but there was no warmth in the expression.

“You’re wrong about that, darlin’,” he drawled. “We’re still going to be married, just as we planned. Soon now, you’ll be my faithful wife, and we’ll be happy together.”

She

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