Ana Seymour by A Family For Carter Jones Read Free Book Online Page B

sent her withering looks, as though this lapse of discretion in her only son was entirely her fault.
    Carter’s neck had grown sticky with sweat, causing his starched collar to prickle. “Ladies, I don’t think we’re going to solve anything…”
    The women found common ground in ignoring him. All four seemed to be talking at once and mysteriously understanding what each of the other three was saying.
    “And now that the entire town has begun this crusade against us, you all have her so upset that Dr. Millard says her health is in danger,” Jennie continued.
    This statement brought a moment of silence intowhich Carter ventured once again. “Dr. Millard informed me this morning that Miss Kate Sheridan is not well,” he said, supporting Jennie’s assertion.
    “Will she lose the child?” Mrs. Billingsley asked with a touch of eagerness that even she immediately realized was unseemly. “I mean…she’s not terribly sick, is she?”
    Carter could see the rise and fall of Jennie’s breasts as she fought to keep her emotions under control. He himself wouldn’t be averse to giving Henrietta Billingsley a shove right over the edge of the sidewalk.
    “I’m on my way to fetch the doctor now,” she said. The quaver in her voice told Carter that she was a lot more scared than she had let on in her feisty confrontation with the town matrons.
    “I’ll go with you,” he offered.
    Mrs. Billingsley looked stricken. “We were having a discussion, Mr. Jones.”
    “I’m sorry, ma’am. If you’ll stop by my office tomorrow morning, I’ll be happy to consider any matter you’d like to bring up.”
    He took Jennie’s arm and stepped off the sidewalk into the street so the two of them could outflank the three older women before they could make any further protest. She let him pull her along without speaking until they were safely out of earshot, then she slowed her pace. “Thank you for the rescue,” she said in a stilted voice. “I wasn’t in much of a mood to deal with those women today. But you don’t have to come with me.”
    He looked down at her and said simply, “I want to.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “Why?”
    “Let’s say I feel involved. Dr. Millard came to see me this morning and warned me that this situation was becoming unhealthy for your sister.”
    Jennie nodded. “She worries too much. And she cares too much about what everyone else thinks.”
    “But you don’t.”
    “I care what Kate thinks. Or worthwhile people like Dr. Millard. But I certainly don’t care about the views of a bunch of old biddies with time on their hands and nonsense in their heads.”
    “Good for you, Miss Sheridan. I’ve been known to ignore the court of public opinion a time or two myself.”
    Jennie had continued walking along at Carter’s side in the direction of the. doctor’s office, but now she stopped and looked up at him with a curious expression. “I thought you were a politician, Mr. Jones. Your kind lives and dies by public opinion.”
    Carter grinned. “It’s a matter of picking your battles. That and knowing when it might be worth it to fight on the other side awhile.”
    “Well, I don’t know why you’ve decided that this is one of those times, but I’m grateful, Mr. Jones.”
    “Grateful enough to call me Carter, like you did the first day we met?”
    The tense look in her eyes was gradually being replaced by a warmth that was kindling another kind of warmth in Carter’s midsection. “Those guardians of the town’s morality you were just talking to will think it scandalous if they hear me.”
    Carter grimaced. “It will give them something to think about besides your sister, then.”
    Jennie smiled. “Yes. That’s a strategy I haven’t used yet. If I become a greater scandal, they’ll turn their attention away from Kate.” She moved closer to him and linked her arm through his. “I shall call you Carter. And you must call me Jennie. Loudly enough for them to hear it all the way back