Bittersweet by Penelope Fletcher

Author:Penelope Fletcher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical western romance, historical romance, western romance, wild west romance, cowboy romance, cowboys, native american romance, indian romance, Westerns
Publisher: Penelope Fletcher
Published: 2013-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

MARRIED AND WELL SUPPLIED, THEY MADE IT TO THE EDGE OF TOWN WITHOUT TROUBLE. Perched on the wagon seat, rather than hide her face or hunch her shoulders, Roslyn sat straight and proud. Her eyes bored into those who dared glare disdainfully in her direction.

Beauregard was used to the treatment, so it bothered him none, but his face grew grim as he spied a gathering at the end of the street.

Homer Roseberry and the Twins blocked the road.

Lightly pulling the reins, Beauregard brought the wagon to a stop.

Roslyn’s inhalation was reedy. She gripped the edge of her seat to brace herself. Crowds would forever make her anxious. “Beau?”

He touched her cheek. “Stay here.” Jumping down, as graceful as the predator cats roaming the mountain ranges, he calmly picked up the rifle. His eyes deadened to flat gold, and his jaw locked. He turned to the three men sat on horses. Growled, “Move.”

“I’m not letting you take my sister anywhere.” Homer drew his gun spitting brown juice at Beauregard’s feet. “Prairie nigger.”

The Twins chortled.

Unease rippled through the crowd.

Beauregard didn’t react.

Roslyn gasped, and struggled to remember the order to stay put. She wanted nothing more than to kick her brother right between his stubby legs. “Don’t talk to my husband that way.”

“Hobble your lip, little sister.” Homer’s sagging gut joggled under his shirt as he struggled to control a storm-coated hot blood too much horse for him to handle. “What is the matter with you? If you had a lick of sense you’d get down off that bastard’s buggy and waddle your fat ass over here. I’ll deliver you home where you can spend your spinsterhood fighting to regain a shred of respectability.”

“Homer Roseberry, I am ashamed of you.”

“Like I care what the cock sucking whore of an Injun thinks.”

The ladies witnessing the confrontation from the shelter of the dressmakers twittered in specious astonishment at the crude insult. A freckled miss in off-white calico swooned into a puddle of lace.

Beyond a rational rejoinder, Roslyn nearly swallowed her tongue.

Contrasting his wife’s disbelief, a lethal stillness fell over Beauregard. The spectators inched away from the feral narrowing of his eyes.

“And you people call my Beauregard criminal. I’ve never heard anything of the like from him as what just came out your mouth. I doubt Kohkahycumest would ever say such a thing in my presence.”

“Kokawhat?” Tim Twin asked, baffled.

“My Cherokee acquaintance. A true gentleman.”

Gloved hands to mouths, the scandalized ladies went wild.

“No more talk. We’re settling this.” Homer extended his arm. “Right here, right now.”

“Agreed,” Beauregard said then fired.

A female scream rivalled the explosive discharge.

Before the Twins could get off a shot, Beauregard blasted the ground between their horses’ hooves. The animals reared, and forced the men to abandon return fire to stop from being thrown.

Folk with the temerity to congregate behind Homer skedaddled. In a heaving mass exodus the sandy thoroughfare was forsaken. Shutters rattled and doors slammed.

Slumped in his saddle, blood ran through Homer’s fingers as he clutched his shoulder. He sneered a warning, and his face broke out with beads of sickly, pinkish sweat.

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.