Read Online Prairie Rose by Catherine Palmer - Free Book Online Page A

a firm kiss on the back of her hand. She jumped back, bumping into Seth.
    “Oh my!” she gasped as Seth caught her shoulders. “Gracious, what are you doing, Mr. Rustemeyer? What’s he doing?”
    “Looks to me like he’s courting.” Seth stepped up to the kneeling German and lifted him by one suspender. “Listen, Rustemeyer, she’s mine. Understand? The fräulein belongs to me.”
    “Für vork , ja?”
    Seth paused. “That’s right. She works for me. I brought her all the way from Kansas City. You leave her be.”
    “Ja, ja.” Rustemeyer nodded as Seth took Rosie’s arm and started back across the field. “Goot-bye, fräulein! Beautiful!”
    Seth helped Rosie onto the wagon beside Chipper. As she arranged her skirts, she took a peek at Rustemeyer from under the brim of her bonnet. The German wasn’t bad to look at, though he did need a haircut and a wash. He was a hard worker. He seemed kind enough. And he thought she was beautiful.
    As Seth started the mules, Rosie brushed a hand across her cheek. Her skin felt hot. Her mouth was dry. She thought she might be sick.
    Beautiful? Nobody had ever said a word about how Rosie Mills looked—one way or the other. When she happened to catch her reflection in a window, she saw nothing but two big brown eyes, a tall gawky body, and the same blue dress she had worn for three years. Beautiful?
    “Rustemeyer ought to learn some English,” Seth said in a clipped voice. “And if you ask me, he needs to take a bath more than once a year.”
    Rosie felt a grin tug at her lips. For some odd reason, the big German’s attentions to her had irked Seth. Of course, if she found someone to marry right away, she wouldn’t be able to look after Chipper. Maybe that was what bothered him.
    “Mr. Hunter,” she said. When he turned his head, his eyes shone as bright blue as the sky. Her heart stumbled over a beat, but she lifted her chin. “I’ll have you remember the war is over, and Mr. Lincoln freed the slaves.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “It means I don’t belong to you, Mr. Hunter. Not my arms for the working. Not my words for the speaking.” She paused. “And not my heart for the courting.”

    Seth searched the trail for the first sign of his house. He had always liked that view—the roof coming into sight, and then the wall, his cows, the chickens, the fence, and finally his barn. For some reason, his pulse was pounding like a marching band. He couldn’t wait to show off his place. And it wasn’t just his son whose eyes would shine.
    He glanced at the woman on the bench beside him. Ever since their encounter with Rustemeyer, Rosie had ridden in silence, her head held high and her eyes scanning the horizon. Pretty , the German had called her. Beautiful .
    Seth gave a snort and studied the woman a little harder. Truth to tell, Rosie Mills wasn’t half-bad to look at. For one thing, she had those big brown eyes. In her eyes, a man could read everything she felt. Happiness, anger, fear, sorrow—her emotions were as obvious as the sun in the sky.
    When Rosie was happy, her joy was about as hard to keep from catching as a case of hiccups. Anger flashed like lightning from those eyes of hers. And sorrow—Seth didn’t know when he’d ever seen such pain as that written on her face when Holloway bad-mouthed her background. No matter that Rosie Mills was stubborn and willful and a lot more jabbery than Seth liked, nobody deserved the kind of abuse she’d taken from the stationmaster.
    But pretty? Her nose was straight enough. Her cheekbones stood out high and sharp. Of course, a month or two of good food might fix that. And her mouth … her mouth … Rosie’s lips—
    “There it is!” she cried, turning those big chocolate eyes on him. “I see a roof! Is it your house?”
    Seth cleared his throat, glad she had diverted his attention. “That’s it. I built it myself.”
    As the mules pulled the wagon the last hundred yards, he couldn’t deny the