Read Online Trail of Kisses by Merry Farmer - Free Book Online

petty vandalism and
suddenly you’re trying to raise an army?” she said as glibly as she
could.
    “ You need protection.”
    He took hold of her arm as she tried to walk
away and spun her to face him. Their eyes met. Something in the
bright determination of Cade’s blue eyes sent a bolt of lightning
straight through her gut and lower. He cared about her. It may have
come off as bravado, but she could see in his eyes that he truly
cared. Of all things, it made her knees weak.
    She cleared her throat and shifted a step back
to firm up her knees and to break away from him. She couldn’t let
Cade make her weak either.
    “ If I agree not to argue the point
with you for the moment, will you let it go?”
    He crossed his arms and stared at her with
narrowed eyes. “As long as letting it go involves me keeping a
close eye on you, day and night.”
    She took a deep breath. “Suit yourself.” She
brushed her skirts and patted her hair. “I am going down to the
stream to take a bath.”
    For a heartbeat he looked perplexed. Then he
burst into a broad smile. “You. Take a bath in a
stream?”
    Even she had to admit that the idea was as
ridiculous as it sounded.
    “ I haven’t bathed properly in more
than a week,” she explained with a long-suffering sigh. There’s a
stream not a mile from here, a tributary of the Platte. I heard
Mrs. Weingarten say that several people were planning to bathe in
it and wash clothes. She advised taking advantage of the stream
while we could.”
    “ Fine,” Cade agreed.
    At last! He agreed with her over something.
She smiled.
    “ I’m coming with you,” he
added.
    Lynne opened her mouth to protest. No sound
came out. Her pride rebelled, but a deeper part of her was grateful
he had offered to watch out for her. She pressed her lips together
and frowned. “You can come down to the stream with me, I’ll let you
do that much.”
    “ Let me?” His eyes glittered with
mischief.
    “ Yes.”
    “ All right.” He shrugged and they
walked on.
    The thought that she had won the argument,
even if it was a tiny argument, had Lynne smiling all the way back
to their wagon. She chatted about her thoughts on Callie’s wedding
and wondered aloud about how such things were done when there was
no preparation and no minister except for the odd Reverend Joseph
to perform the rights. Ben was lingering around the wagon, looking
like he had had another rough night with the miners in spite of
being told to stay away from them.
    “ You should come down to the
stream with us for a swim,” Lynne said with a smile for him
too.
    “ The stream?” Ben sat a little
straighter, his expression brighter.
    “ Or you could stay here and make
sure no one else tampers with Miss Tremaine’s things,” Cade
suggested, all smiles himself, none of them soft.
    “ Yessir.” Ben fell back into a
scowl, concentrating on the piece he was whittling.
    “ That was rude,” Lynne told Cade
after she had gathered her things for a bath and started across the
dry field to the stream. “Ben is young, and young people need to
play now and then.”
    “ Ben?” he balked. “He should be
doing the job he was hired to do, not getting mixed up with rough
sorts.”
    “ Like you?” she said.
    Cade laughed. The sound was warm as sunlight
and sent an odd trill through Lynne.
    “ I’m not a rough sort at all,
believe me,” he said.
    “ You could have fooled
me.”
    What was wrong with her? She didn’t really
believe Cade was a scoundrel, like the miners, any more than she
believed young Ben was a troublemaker. It must have been the heat
of the prairie and the monotony of the journey. It was starting to
bake her head and break down the bounds of propriety.
    That point was proven further when they
reached the edge of the stream and she started to undress without a
second thought.
    “ You need some help with those
buttons?” Cade asked, still grinning like she was his own personal
joke.
    “ No thank you,” she said and
twisted her