Alaskan Renegade by Kate Bridges

Author:Kate Bridges [Bridges, Kate]
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Historical, Fiction - Romance, Romance - Historical, American Light Romantic Fiction, General, American Historical Fiction, Romance - Western, Western, Nurses, Bounty hunters
ISBN: 9780373295685
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2009-11-01T08:24:30.906000+00:00

“The children aren’t all mine,” Alberta told Victoria an hour later as they sat around the kitchen table, finishing up a generous meal of rabbit stew. “My sister and her husband headed to the coast last week to pick up supplies. We go in the spring, they go in the fall. Three of the children are theirs. Those boys, there, with the blackest hair.” She pointed to three playing marbles against the wall. “They took their youngest two babies with them.”

“Your children are very bright.” Victoria found an extra hairbrush in her bag and gave it to one of the youngest girls.

Her chubby cheeks dimpled. She grasped it with delight and began brushing her rag doll’s hair. Her sisters squeezed around to help.

Victoria eyed her medical bag on the far counter. “Have you had any illness in the home?”

“Not now, thank the Lord.” Alberta knocked on the wooden table for good luck, then glanced at the last of her coffee and paused. “I lost my first two children to tuberculosis. Along with my first husband. Wasn’t much older than you. Zachary, here, promised me a better life in Idaho. When the gold rush hit, we packed our kids and took off. Been fairly lucky at finding a few nuggets.” Alberta’s cheeks colored and she was suddenly flustered, perhaps at admitting so much to Victoria. “Don’t tell no one.”

Victoria shook her head. She wouldn’t. She was touched that Alberta had confided in her.

They were interrupted by a pelting sound on the roof.

Alberta craned her head upward at the rafters. “Rain’s here.”

Victoria was grateful that their mare was already safe inside Zachary’s roughly hewn barn, along with his mule and two other horses.

Brant and Zachary stopped their conversation at the far end of the table to listen to the deepening sounds on the roof.

The children squealed with delight and ran to the windows to look outside. Alberta rose from her chair, walked over to one of the square panes and squeezed her broad hips next to the youngest. She twisted her body to peer up at the sky. “It’ll be washing down in sheets any minute. We best get you to the other cabin.”

“Are you sure your sister won’t mind?”

“Na,” said Zachary.

Alberta agreed. “She’ll be happy someone’s stoking her fire and keeping the spiders from building cobwebs. Come. I’ll give you fresh sheets. The cabin’s not as big as this one, but it’s got a separate bedroom. Your bodyguard can sleep on the sofa.”

“Thank you,” Brant told them, rising to his full height. Wherever they went, he seemed to fill a room with the breadth of his shoulders.

Two of the girls came forward without being asked, and helped collect towels and supplies for Victoria.

Victoria looked down at the sheets and hoped her embarrassment wasn’t showing. She didn’t look at either Alberta, or Brant, who’d come over to carry the gear. She felt her cheeks flush at the thought that she’d be spending the night alone with him again, and this time there’d be two witnesses.

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