In a Stranger's Arms by Deborah Hale Read Free Book Online Page A

in Mercer’s Corner half an hour ago.”
    “I heard you the first time, Yankee!” Lon ground his heel onto the faintly smoking length of cigar that had fallen from his mouth. “I don’t know what kind of tricks or threats you used to drag that fool gal in front of a parson, but I warn you, you’re going to regret meddling with my family and my property.”
    “My family, now.” Saying those words made Manning almost dizzy. Yet they tasted so sweet on his tongue, he could not resist saying them again. “My family and my wife’s property. Meddle with either and you’ll have cause to regret it.”
    Lon’s pale eyes narrowed. His nostrils flared, as if they couldn’t drag enough air in to stoke the furnace of his fury.
    “You don’t know who you’re messing with, Yankee.” His voice was quiet, but harsh with hate. Manning knew better than to underestimate the danger this man might pose.
    “Neither do you, Marsh. So why don’t we agree to stay clear of each other? I can’t speak for you, but I’ve just about had my fill of fighting.”
    The Virginian’s mouth turned up at the corners, but no one would be fool enough to mistake it for a smile. “I’m just getting warmed up, Yankee.”
    Over Manning’s shoulder, he called to the children in the wagon. “If this carpetbagger here treats you bad, you two just light out to your uncle Lon, you hear? You’ll always have a good home waiting for you with me and Lydene.”
    Not once during the war, when it had been his duty to shoot and kill his fellow Americans, had Manning Forbes wanted so desperately to do another man injury. His hands balled into hard, tight fists at his sides. They trembled with his yearning to batter Lon Marsh’s handsome, contemptuous face. Clinging to his self-control, Manning forced himself to turn his back on the Virginian and stalk off to the buckboard.
    He glanced at Caddie’s ashen face as he vaulted onto the wagon seat, then flicked the reins over the mare’s skinny rump. Had Lon’s words spawned greater doubts about the wisdom of wedding him? Surely she hadn’t paid any heed to that venomous slander about him mistreating the children?
    “What’s a carpetbagger?” asked Varina as the buckboard rattled away from her uncle’s place. She perched on her mother’s lap, while Templeton sat wedged between the adults, with the dog huddled at his feet.
    “It’s a very nasty word,” replied Caddie before Manning could collect himself to reply. “I’ll wash your mouths out with soap if I ever hear you or Templeton repeat it. Is that understood, Varina Marsh?”
    From behind them, Lon hollered, “At least have the sense to keep him out of your bed, Caddie! Then you’ll be able to get out of this fool marriage when you come to your senses. Have you thought what Del would say if he knew you’d brought a Yankee to live under his roof?”
    “Ya!” Manning urged the old horse to greater speed, fleeing Lon’s barrage of poisoned missiles.
    Was it his sensitive imagination, or did he feel Templeton edging away from him? The boy’s hand passed over and over the back of the dog in a rhythm perhaps intended to soothe himself.
    Almost too quietly to be heard, the little fellow murmured, “You won’t treat Varina and me bad, will you, sir?”
    “Templeton Randolph Marsh!” cried his mother. “You apologize this minute for asking such a question.”
    Beneath the scrupulous Southern civility, Manning heard a faint note of doubt in her voice. Nothing Alonzo Marsh could say would have the power to wound him like this mute shadow of uneasiness from Caddie.
    “Don’t scold the boy, ma’am.” Manning wondered if he’d ever bring himself to speak her Christian name. He certainly couldn’t call her Mrs. Marsh anymore. And Mrs. Forbes would sound vaguely blasphemous to him. “It’s an important question and he has a right to know the answer.”
    “So do I,” insisted Varina.
    For the first time since they’d driven onto Lon