Do Not Forsake Me by Rosanne Bittner Read Free Book Online Page A

you’d better get to know them pretty well before you even touch that subject.”
    â€œWhat about what that man in there said—about Jake stopping off at a brothel on his way home? I thought he was supposedly a devoted husband.”
    Brian stopped again, running a hand through his hair. “He probably stopped for a bath and a shave so he wouldn’t come home a filthy mess. His son probably did the same thing. That doesn’t mean they did anything more than that.”
    â€œBut…”
    â€œLook, Trubridge, you are asking the wrong questions of the wrong man. All I can say is you have to really know my father-in-law to understand how he could spend time at a brothel without cheating on his wife. People just like to make more of it than it is.”
    â€œWould he tell his wife?”
    Brian grinned. “Of course he would. One thing the man isn’t is a liar and a cheat. And Randy wouldn’t miss the fact that he was clean-shaven when he got here. He usually comes back with a couple-week-old beard. She knows Jake Harkner better than he knows himself, and there’s no pulling the wool over her eyes when it comes to that man. Now leave me alone and don’t be hounding my wife, either. Evie is staunchly devoted to her father and won’t answer one single question from you unless she knows her father and mother have approved.”
    â€œBut…how did you and Evie Harkner meet?”
    â€œIn Laramie, Wyoming, where she and her mother lived while Jake was in prison there. Randy Harkner helped me with my practice. I actually tended to Jake once, when his jailers beat the hell out of him. He’d landed in the prison hospital with cracked ribs and pneumonia. If it weren’t for my wife and her mother’s relentless hounding of the prison warden to be allowed to see him and let me treat him, Jake would have died.” Brian turned and kept walking again. “I swear, Randy Harkner would have shot the warden herself just to land in prison so she could be with her husband.”
    â€œThose are the kind of things I need to know!” Jeff told him excitedly, keeping up the pace. “I want to write a book about him, Dr. Stewart.”
    â€œI heard you tell Sparky.”
    â€œBut I want it to be the truth . I mean the real truth. Wouldn’t you and your wife and Jake’s wife and his son all want that? I don’t write sensationalism, Dr. Stewart. I want the West’s famous settlers and lawmen and outlaws documented correctly. A hundred years from now, people should know how it all really happened.”
    Brian sighed and faced him again. By then they stood in front of a whitewashed frame house. It wasn’t completely dark yet, and Jeff could see rosebushes lining the front of the porch, just like at Randy Harkner’s house, which was only two doors down.
    â€œMr. Trubridge, I’d like to believe you,” Brian told him.
    â€œYou can! I’ve even brought samples of my writing to prove my credentials to Jake.”
    â€œAnd he’ll tell you it’s Miranda you’ll need to deal with, not him. If he lets you write a book, it will be because Randy says it’s okay. Out there on the trail, he’s in full command. But when it comes to things like this, it’s like I told you—my mother-in-law owns that man. And if you do anything to offend her, you’ll have Jake to answer to. Now it’s been a really awful day, and my wife is holding supper for me. You wait and talk to Jake’s wife, though even if she approves, I can’t guarantee Jake will open up even one iota if he doesn’t want to. If you can figure out how to get through to that man, more power to you.” He started to walk away again, then turned a final time. “And by the way, if you intend to hound Jake like this, you’d better make sure there is always a privy nearby.” He laughed lightly and headed for the front door.
    Jeff