Into the Light by Ellen O'Connell Read Free Book Online Page B

have wondered about something so basic, but he couldn’t have spent as much time thinking about her as she had about him.
    “Will you go back East soon?” Why ask him that? Yes, he was going to leave. Tonight was an unexpected gift.
    “I’m not sure. I’m not even sure where I’ll go when I leave or what I’ll do, drift around and see the parts of the country I’ve missed maybe. What about you? Have you thought of applying for a position that would let you escape your overwhelming family for more than an hour or two at a time?”
    Applying for a position? Traveling? Her stomach flipped. “Oh, no, I’m content with my life. I don’t want anything different.”
    “I see.”
    Did the soft way he said those two words indicate disappointment? Did he imagine her to be a stronger, braver woman than she was? If he questioned her more along those lines, he’d learn the truth. “I’m glad you were here. I enjoyed talking to you again, but I need to go.”
    His shadow rose from the opposite bench. “I enjoyed it too, but at the risk of spoiling our invisible acquaintance, I’m going to walk you home.”
    “Oh, no, you don’t need to do that. It’s only a short way, and I’ll be fine.”
    “I do need to.”
    “No!” Deborah stumbled around the bench and took off running.
    She didn’t want to see him, didn’t want to have proof positive he was no more than Miriam’s age. She didn’t want him to see her, at least half a dozen years older. And she didn’t want the mystery ruined.
     
    T REY ONLY TOOK a few steps after her before returning to the bench, cursing. Even if she was older than he thought and stout, there was no use pretending he could catch a healthy woman running from him, and if he could catch her, what would he do? Behave like the sort of ruffian he wanted to protect her from in order to force her to accept his escort?
    At the thought of throwing a woman over his good shoulder and promptly collapsing to the ground, smothered in petticoats, skirts, ruffles, and bows, his temper changed to amusement.
    He sat for a while, wondering. Not stout. Surely a stout woman couldn’t run like that. Brunette. At what age did a woman say she’d never married as if it were no longer a possibility? How much did it matter?
    Unable to come up with an answer he liked, he groped around for the cane, rose, and headed back to Jamie’s.

Chapter 5
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    T REY HAD BEEN back and forth to town so often he didn’t need to so much as twitch the reins to direct his tired little buggy horse to turn from the ranch road toward the main barn. She stopped with her nose almost touching the big door she knew separated her from hay, grain, and rest.
    Shaking his head in sympathy, Trey rotated stiff shoulders, arched his aching back, and gave each leg a shake before climbing down, refusing to think about the days he would have, could have, jumped. Leaving Hubbell at first light and traveling at a steady clip meant he’d arrived at the V Bar C with time for a bath and nap before dinner.
    Now, with the ranch house in sight, he wished he’d left later and traveled slower. The best way to avoid quarreling with his father and sister was to avoid his father and sister, and their presence at the dinner table was a certainty.
    He slid the heavy door open and led the mare out of the hot summer sun into the cooler gloom of the barn and began unhitching.
    “Here now. Don’t you bother with that. I’ll do it.”
    Trey looked up to see Herman Gruner reaching to unfasten the trace on the other side of the buggy. The old man’s jaw jutted mulishly with his determination to take over even such a small task. Not many stove-up cowhands were kept on to take care of odd jobs and livestock, and those who were that lucky needed to be seen earning their keep.
    “Sure,” Trey said as he pulled the trace on his side off the singletree. “Let’s get her unhitched, and if you hobble around and take care of the horse, I’ll hobble up to the