Change of Heart by Fran Shaff Read Free Book Online Page B

anyone knew anything about the
meeting, but he couldn’t. He’d lost a number of cattle during the
blizzard that had hit the area. He and his ranch hands had a huge
job disposing of all the carcasses. Work on the ranch was lagging,
and he needed to catch up on chores and duties at home.
    He saw the colonel when he rode into the
fort. They took time to enjoy the unseasonably warm early-December
day with a nice conversation. Once they’d covered the topics of the
melted snow and the warm days over the past week, Jase moved
straight on to the question burning his gut. Had Colonel Harrison
heard from anyone in the consortium?
    He hadn’t.
    If there was no message from his fellow land
speculators, he needed to get to Marietta. He was starved for the
sight of her. Jase refused the colonel’s offer of a cup of coffee
and a piece of Mrs. Harrison’s apple pie and headed straight for
the Carson home.
    No food he’d taken to satisfy his hunger
sated him like the sight of Marietta in the black woolen dress
she’d worn the first night they were together at the Carsons’. It
fit her better this time than it had the last. It had seemed a
little large on her small frame before. She must have taken time to
do some sewing in the past week. Her auburn hair flowed over her
shoulders as she stood in the doorway. The emerald-green eyes she
cast up at him held a happiness within them he’d not seen
before.
    “Hello, Miss Randolf.”
    “Mr. Kent, won’t you come in?” She opened the
door wider so he could step inside.
    “I hope I’m not intruding.”
    “Not at all. We were expecting you today.”
She waved her hand toward the sofa. “Won’t you sit down?”
    He took off his hat and coat and hung them on
a hook near the door. He turned to Marietta and slipped his hand to
the small of her back. As he ushered her to the sofa, he noticed
the heat filling the hand that touched her. Now that he was with
her again, he felt alive and satisfied. When she sat, he made
himself comfortable beside her.
    “Any more fainting spells?”
    She shook her head. “No, indeed. I’m fit and
healthy. Amy has made sure I’ve had plenty of rest.”
    “I’m glad to hear that.” He smiled at her and
looked around the room. An unknown anxiety had crept into his gut.
“Where is everyone?”
    “Amy took Zack with her to pick up some
supplies from the commissary. She bribed him with the promise of a
candy stick.”
    “She had to bribe him to go to the
commissary? But Zack loves to go there. Gus always arm wrestles
with him and lets him win a cookie or a pickle.”
    “Really?” Marietta raised her lovely brows.
“Amy had to practically drag him out of the house, even with the
promise of a candy stick.”
    Jase didn’t like the sound of that.
    A look of concern filled her verdant eyes.
“Zack isn’t doing well at all, Mr. Kent. His reluctance to
accompany Amy to the commissary is only one instance of his
dreadful behavior this week.” She wrung her hands. “The boy is
nothing like he was when we were in the shack. Despite our
difficult circumstances, he was happy there. Now, when his comfort
far exceeds anything we had in our primitive cabin, all the life
has gone out of him. I think it’s because of you, Mr. Kent.”
    He shook his head. “But I’ve done nothing to
harm the boy, Miss Randolf.”
    “No, of course you haven’t. What I meant to
say is that because Zack is so terribly fond of you, he misses you
something awful.”
    Jase looked away and took a deep breath. “You
know how I feel about him.”
    “Yes, I do. This must be difficult for you
too.”
    He tilted his head and held back words a
moment before he spoke. “My house has never been so empty.”
    Marietta left the sofa and went to the window
that looked out on the compound. He followed and stood behind her,
inhaling her flowery scent as he stared at the silky hair that lay
softly around her shoulders.
    “Everything keeps getting worse,” she
whispered. “How bad must it