Miss Phipps and the Cattle Baron by Patricia Watters Read Free Book Online Page B

one to aggressively go after it and prevail.
    He walked up to where she stood beside her
basket and said, "Miss Phipps, I believe you will be joining me for
the afternoon."
    Her mouth darted into a smile. "You have put
up quite a bit of money, Lord Whittington," she said. "I hope what
I have put together in my picnic basket will not be a
disappointment."
    He shoved the blanket roll tighter into his
armpit, picked up the picnic basket and offered his other arm for
her to take. "I was not bidding on what is in your basket, " he
said, as she slid her hand into the crook of his arm, "I was
bidding on your company. And I propose we dispense with the
formalities and you call me Adam, and I'd like very much to call
you Priscilla." Her face flushed, and moisture brightened her eyes.
He looked at her, curious. "I hope that intriguing response means
you're in agreement with me," he said, escorting her around the
side of the church, away from the gathering.
    She quickened her pace to keep up with him,
the tapered gown causing her steps to be short and swift.
"Intriguing response?" she asked, clearly befuddled.
    "Your eyes," he said, looking down at her as
she walked beside him. "They are bright with tears, which I hope
are tears of joy, not dread."
    She blinked several times. "They are neither,
Lord... Adam," she said. "They are reacting to the... dust in the
air. It stings my eyes and makes them water."
    Adam glanced around. "The day seems clear.
And I would like to think your tears are tears of enthusiasm." He
stopped at a secluded spot in the shade of a giant cottonwood tree
and set the picnic basket down. "Shall we have our picnic
here?"
    Priscilla continued to hold onto his arm as
she looked around, brows gathered in a worried frown, and said, "We
are out of view of the others."
    Adam smiled. "That was precisely my
intent."
    She looked at him in alarm. "Why?"
    He patted her hand. "Because I'd like to
spend time alone with you and not have curious eyes on us. It
appears you have gotten the notice of Cheyenne's first ladies—the
mayor's wife and the wife of our territorial governor—as well as
the wives of two of the men who will be running against me in the
upcoming election for mayor. If we were to sit in plain view of
them, they'd all be watching us closely, and the women would be
only too eager to cast doubt on my character, and yours, by
starting tongues wagging."
    "Not unless we gave their tongues something
to wag about," Priscilla said. "I don't believe that was your
intention when you bid on my basket here today, was it?" Her face
flushed, and she looked up at him in anticipation.
    "But that is the problem," Adam said. He
reached out and touched her face. "I have an almost irresistible
urge to kiss you soundly, because that thought is also on your mind
at the moment. Am I right?"
    Priscilla's flush deepened, and her eyelids
fluttered like hummingbird's wings. "No, you are not right," she
said. But her voice wavered with uncertainty, and the tip of her
tongue came out to trace her lips, leaving them moist and
inviting.
    "Then I'll hold that thought until I am right," Adam said. He unrolled the blanket and fluttered
it across the ground and set the picnic basket on top of it. "I
should have brought along folding chairs," he said, "but that
escaped me. There's a nice covering of grass beneath the blanket
though, so you should not be too uncomfortable."
    Priscilla looked down at the blanket, a
perplexed frown on her brow, and Adam realized she was trying to
figure out how she was going to sit down gracefully in the
close-fitting dress. Amused, he waited and watched to see how she'd
solve the dilemma.
    For a few moments she stood staring at the
blanket, then she closed her parasol, braced the tip of it on the
ground, gave a little wiggle, and like a snake recoiling into the
snake charmer's basket, lowered herself to the blanket onto one hip
and tucked her small booted feet beneath her. Her nicely rounded
bottom clad in varying