Read Online Lonesome Rider and Wilde Imaginings by Heather Graham - Free Book Online Page B

you?” Mrs. Peabody repeated, astonished.
    Jessica nodded. “What’s wrong with that?”
    â€œNothing, nothing. It’s just that, well, he’s so much his own man, dear. I would have never believed that he would have consented to work for anyone else. And then again … Well, dear, surely, if ever there was someone in need … Oh! Here I go babbling. You just run around to the stables, right around the corner. Your wagon should be loaded, your horses ready. Everyone in this town was just pleased pink at the orders you gave. And,” Mrs. Peabody added, “the gold you had to pay for them all!”
    Jessica grinned. She liked it out here. She liked the honesty. She hadn’t come West intending to stay. Now she began to wonder what it would be like.
    â€œThank you, Mrs. Peabody, I will just run around and check on the wagon.”
    â€œCoffee and breakfast will be on when you come back,” Mrs. Peabody called to her.
    Jessy stepped outside and walked around the corner to the stables. Her wagon was waiting right in front. It was exactly what she had wanted, a big, flat wagon with a high box seat, the kind of conveyance fit for a ranch that was starting out. There were two roan horses harnessed to it already. The horses looked fine and strong, the harness well made and nicely polished. A man came out of the stables when she approached, a crinkled older fellow named Delaney. His eyes were bright Irish blue and his smile was broad. “Morning, Mrs. Dylan. We’ve got it all, every last speck of stuff you wanted! There’s coffee in that bag, flour there, salt right over here. Let’s see, there’s the fabric you wanted, the grain, the jarred jellies and fruits, and Mrs. Shrewesbury even had some canned tomatoes, beans and turnip greens. She threw in a few of her fresh vegetables and fruits for you—she started out here herself from back East, and says she knows getting started is hard. I think you’re just about all set, at least to get started.”
    â€œThat’s fine, Mr. Delaney. Thank you so much. What about the lamps?”
    â€œIn the back of the wagon. You’ve got some oil there, too, and a big box of candles. You should be just as right as rain. You’ve done ordered and paid for just about everything. Except one thing that’s darned important,” Delaney told her.
    â€œOh?” Jessica asked. “What did I forget?”
    â€œYou forgot that you’re going out a day’s ride from town. A woman alone out there might plum be a target for any no-account outlaw in the territory!”
    â€œI’m not going alone,” Jessica assured him quickly. “Mr. McKenna is coming with me.”
    â€œMcKenna!”
    Mr. Delaney seemed as startled as Mrs. Peabody had been. “McKenna has agreed to come with you?”
    She nodded. “From what I’ve seen, he can probably outgun any no-account outlaw.”
    Delaney nodded. “Yes, well, damned right you’ll be safe. Just—” He hesitated.
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œYou watch out for him, too, Mrs, Dylan. There’s some out there that believe he’s a no-account outlaw, but there’s some truths out here in the West, and one of them is that a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do … and Mr. McKenna, he only went after a vengeance that was rightfully his! But you be careful where you bandy his name about, Mrs. Dylan. You don’t want to be the downfall of a damned fine man!”
    Jessica stared at him, stunned by his vehemence. She didn’t know what he was talking about.
    I never said that I wasn’t an outlaw … Jessica suddenly remembered Blade’s words. Wasn’t that what he had told her? Something very much like that?
    â€œI’ll be careful, Mr. Delaney,” she promised. “He won’t be with me that long. Only a month.”
    â€œThen you look hard and find yourself good help, and