Read Online Marrying Miss Marshal by Lacy Williams - Free Book Online

yesterday to stop that horrid fight in front of the saloon.”
    The fight Danna had stopped? Merritt shook her head and Danna wondered if she was embarrassed for her friend’s overly flirtatious behavior.
    Color crept into Chas O’Grady’s cheeks. “Marshal Carpenter—”
    â€œYou’re coming to the dance next week, aren’t you, Marshal? Papa said I could have a new bonnet and dress. Which do you like better, the pink or the yellow?”
    Danna took a cursory glance into the shop window. Honestly, they both looked the same to her. Fussy frills and ribbons. “The yellow is nice.”
    â€œHmm.” Penny appeared to be lost in thought for a moment, leaning her head on one gloved hand while she gazed into the window. “Perhaps I’ll wait to buy the bonnet.” Penny said, giving her parasol a twirl.
    Merritt, who hadn’t said a word to Danna yet, grasped her friend’s elbow and leaned close to murmur something in Penny’s ear.
    â€œMiss Harding reminds me that we’re committed to tea with my mother this morning. Mr. O’Grady, it was a pleasure to meet you. I hope we’ll meet again. Marshal.”
    The two women walked off arm in arm, Penny shooting a final saucy wink over her shoulder toward O’Grady.
    Danna shook her head as she moved past her new deputy and opened the jail door.
    â€œI knocked earlier but there was no answer. I wasn’t sure if I should go in and wait for you… I wasn’t trying to engage those young ladies in conversation.”
    â€œYou don’t have to make excuses to me.” She moved behind her desk, noting the floor was particularly dusty this morning and could use a good sweeping.
    â€œI wasn’t. I don’t— I’m not interested in female companionship.”
    Danna shot a look at him and noted his face hadflushed so darkly that his freckles were entirely obscured. “What you do when you’re off-duty is none of my concern.”
    â€œI’m not interested,” his words emerged stiffly now. “I have a job to do, and that’s all I care about.”
    â€œFine.” She shrugged and pulled open the top desk drawer. The items inside it clinked together and she drew out one of the tin stars. She flipped it onto the desk. “Yours.”
    He picked it up, looking down at the silvery badge for a long moment. “Why did you become marshal, anyway?”
    â€œBecause I was asked.” She didn’t mean to be short with him, but the events of the morning had worn her nerves thin.
    O’Grady exhaled loudly. “I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot this morning. Shall we start over? Morning, Miss Marshal.”
    She glanced up at him quickly, at his teasing reference to her title, but he didn’t seem disrespectful. He extended one hand for her to shake.
    She took it, and warmth ran all the way up her arm. She couldn’t keep her gaze from meeting Chas’s, and his blue eyes reflected the same awareness that was in hers.
    There was something between them.
    She dropped his hand and hurried to fill the coffeepot Fred had always kept going on the stove. The familiar motions soothed her, and when she finally sat down behind the desk, she was able to appear composed. She hoped. Chas took the chair near the door, clearing his throat.
    She shuffled the stack of Wanted posters on the corner of the desk. The silence now stretchingbetween them was awkward, but she didn’t know how to bridge it.
    â€œWhere’d the two yahoos from yesterday go?” Chas asked, jerking his thumb toward the two empty cells.
    â€œI had to let them go once they sobered up.”
    He nodded, drummed his fingers on his knee. “It seems like a hard job for a woman.”
    She answered him in a softer tone than she’d used earlier. “My husband…used to be the marshal. I was one of his deputies.”
    â€œHow did he die?”
    â€œHe was