Read Online A Lady in Defiance by Heather Blanton - Free Book Online

Mr. McIntyre has given us.”
    Was this the gift he’d mentioned? Tired of the emotional
rollercoaster he caused her, she trudged up the stairs and turned the corner of
the rail to discover her sisters and an underfed, young Mexican boy assembling
a massive pencil post bed. Lying next to it was a gigantic mattress, factory made
and apparently stuffed with something other than cotton rags or corn shucks.
    He hoped she’d think of him every time she used it? The audacity and lewdness of the
comment shocked Naomi. Had the man no decency whatsoever to say such things to
a widow? She was utterly appalled.
    Eager to forget Mr. McIntyre, she looked around the vast,
open space of the upstairs floor which was intermittently broken up by the
sparse, unfinished skeletons of walls and one stone fireplace. The area was
warm and dry, though, and would sport a real bed in a few minutes. It was
enticing, Naomi admitted grudgingly. Maybe she would actually sleep tonight.
    When Hannah looked up and saw Naomi, she dropped the bed rail
she was holding and ran to her sister. “You must see this,” she sang joyfully,
leading Naomi over to the mattress. “Lie down on it.” She pulled Naomi down to
the mattress and forced her to recline on it. “Isn’t it wonderful?” Hannah
flopped down beside her, giggling.
    Naomi had to agree it was far more comfortable than the
ground underneath a wagon and even beat their cloth tick mattress back home.
She closed her eyes and tried to lose herself in the relatively soft bedding,
the way it supported and comforted her. Then there was the image of Mr.
McIntyre and she sat bolt upright.
    She hadn’t slept well since John’s death and the stress of it
was beginning to show. The nights were hideously long. She dreaded the
darkness, the silence, the loneliness of them. Would this bed be a magic carpet
to Dreamland? Would she sleep through the night without waking and reaching for
John? Tempted, she lay back on the mattress again and gave into the experience.
    “Naomi, this is Emilio.” Rebecca spoke from the other side of
the almost complete bed, tightening a screw in the headboard. “Emilio, this is
my sister Naomi.”
    Naomi and Hannah both sat up. Just a gawky teenager, about
the same age as Hannah, he dipped his chin and grinned sheepishly. “ Hola ,
S enora .”
    “We just couldn’t help ourselves,” Rebecca rushed on. “When
the marshal told us about the bed, we came right up and started putting it
together. I can’t wait to sleep in it.”
    Naomi stood up and pulled a folded piece of paper from her
waistband. “I don’t know if we own the bed, but we own this hotel.” She walked
over and set the deed on the dusty windowsill. She decided not to share the
story of why they didn’t own the land upon which the hotel sat. That could
wait.
    She turned back to Hannah. “Why don’t you and I start
unloading the wagon and let them finish here? But don’t worry, Rebecca, we’ll
save the heavy stuff until y’all come down.” Naomi looked at Emilio. “Thank you
for your help. We appreciate it.”
    The boy bobbed his head like an excited bird. “ De nada .”
    As Hannah and Naomi marched down the stairs, Naomi was
curious about the boy and how he had come to live in Defiance. “Does Emilio
speak any English?”
    “A fair amount from what I could tell.” Hannah answered. “He
seems to get by−”
    A knock at the front door as they reached the landing stopped
their progress. They could see the shadow of a man through the frosted glass of
the French doors.
    Hannah quirked an eyebrow nervously. “Our first guest?”
    Not likely, Naomi thought, headed for the door. Wishing she had her gun
on her hip, she opened it to discover the marshal fanning himself with a book.
He greeted her with a cocky tip of his hat. “Ma’m. Mr. McIntyre asked that I
drop this by to you.” He handed her a Montgomery Ward catalog.
    “Oh,” Naomi gasped. She was as pleased to see it as Hannah,
who squealed with