Macon grinned as a white-haired man with pale, bushy eyebrows approached. He was wearing a light-colored suit, like most of the men around him, and there was a black string tie at his throat. His blue...
Lily, if you don’t stop that washing and look at me, I swear I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you inside like a sack of grain. Because
I’m not a loose woman, she said firmly, without preamble, and I won’t be your mistress, no matter how many boxes of chocolates you give me. Caleb rested one hand on the gnarled trunk of the tree she l...
It’s not smart to hold yourself away from the shocks of life, the good ones or the bad. They’re all part of the mix, and paradoxically, shying away from them only makes things harder.
Insanity, the saying went, was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results.
If you permit such a barbarous thing to happen, Caleb Halliday, I vow that I’ll never speak to you again. He pushed back his chair, and Lily’s hand in the process, to stand. If you have your way, we’l...
Emma must have looked ferocious at that point, for Callie shrank back in surprise, then scurried toward the front stairway like a field mouse with a cat on its tail. After
You’re going like that? In trousers? Lily nodded. They’re much handier for riding than a skirt, she informed him, though she privately thought any idiot would have been able to figure out such an obvi...
You're the one with the badge, I admitted, but I'm the one being haunted by a seven-year-old in a ballerina costume.
Why the devil do you dress like that, he rasped, when you’re easily the most beautiful woman in the territory? Emma’s cheeks pulsed. She started to protest, then stopped herself in confusion. Had Stev...
When she twisted around to face Steven, he was grinning at her. What? she demanded. Never mind. She realized she’d displayed her derriere, after a fashion, and the blood flowed to her face again. Skun...
What did he say to you? he demanded, when they were alone in Chloe’s study, with the doors closed. Emma rubbed her eyes. Who? she replied, stalling. Steven only looked at her, his expression wry, his...
No matter what Sandra says, he told her, I want you to remember this. Lily stared up at him. What? she asked as he pulled her close. She could feel the brass buttons on his paneled shirt pressing agai...
My good man, he said to Charlie in a serious tone of voice, this young woman is a fugitive. Charlie looked horrified. You mean she done broke the law? Rupert favored Lily with a brief, triumphant glan...
Luke stood up, assessed the water tank next to the tub, and shook his head in good-natured amazement. What a contraption. Makes a man wonder what they’ll invent next, doesn’t it?I wouldn’t know, Chari...
Lily pushed up the window and took careful aim at the man who had probably shot Caleb—the fat man with the funny hat. Drop that gun and let him pass, she said clearly, or I’ll blow you into pieces so...
I’m ruined, she confided miserably. Everyone hates me. I don’t, Caleb pointed out. Lily was not consoled. You’re a man, she retorted, and that doesn’t count. Caleb arched his eyebrows at that but said...
It wasn’t so much the large cauldron of hot water steaming over a slow fire that came as a surprise—people did laundry and made soap that way all the time—but the fact that Luke was sitting in it, lik...
It was a gift. The
If you want to play this game, then so be it, he snapped. We’ll play settler until you finally learn what a miserable, hardscrabble life it really is! He’d swept his hat off his head, and when he slap...