Outlaw’s Bride by Joan Johnston Read Free Book Online Page A

calico cat hanging by the scruff of its neck from her hand. “This lady says she knows you!”
    “What are you doing here, Patch?” Ethan said in a harsh, very unwelcoming voice.
    Patch’s heart was in her throat, so she cleared itbefore she spoke. “Looking for you.” She tucked the mouse back in her apron pocket and struggled to her feet.
    Ethan reached down a hand to help her, and Patch was aware of a stirring warmth where he touched her arm.
    “I’m here now. What do you want?” he demanded.
    Patch was aware of the two interested parties listening with bated breath. “Is there somewhere we can be alone?”
    “Ethan doesn’t keep secrets from us,” Leah piped up.
    Patch shot a pleading glance in Ethan’s direction. He grabbed her by the hand and headed out the bedroom door. When Leah started after them, he turned and said, “Let us be, Leah.”
    “Aw, Ethan—”
    Nell called Leah back to her side. “I need some help getting my quilts straightened up, girl.”
    Leah groaned, but she turned back toward her mother.
    Ethan yanked Patch through the immaculate parlor, through the kitchen, with its enticing smells and table set for supper, and out the back door. He kicked the door twice before it would close in the frame.
    Ethan stopped beneath a tin roof that looked like it might collapse at any moment and swung Patch around in front of him. “Give me the mouse.”
    Patch reached down and pulled Max from her apron pocket. Ethan picked up the mouse by itstail, dropped it in the wooden box that held his mother’s gardening tools, and slapped the lid closed.
    He turned to Patch, crossed his arms, and snapped, “I want to know what the hell is going on! What are you doing in Oakville, Texas? Does your father know why you’re here? How did you find this place?”
    “Looking for you. Not yet. And Mr. Felber gave me directions,” Patch snapped back.
    “What are you doing here, Patch?”
    “I think that should be perfectly obvious.”
    “Not to me, so spit it out.”
    “I’m here to marry you.”
    Ethan glared at her from beneath lowered brows. He didn’t look at all like a happy groom.
    Patch’s heart dropped to her feet. “You don’t have to look so surprised. You promised to marry me, and here I am.”
    “I don’t remember doing any such thing!”
    “When you left Fort Benton—”
    “When I left Montana seven years ago—”
    “It’s been nearly eight, but who’s counting?” Patch replied flippantly.
    Ethan ground his teeth and repeated, “When I left Montana, you were just a kid! I sure as hell didn’t propose marriage to a twelve-year-old with tangles in her hair and holes in her britches and a mouth that could use soaping every time she opened it!”
    Patch was mortified by Ethan’s description of her. The words of protest and explanation were spoken before she could stop them. “I loved you!”
    A red flush crawled up Ethan’s neck all the way to the tips of his ears. “Hell, Patch. You were just a kid.” He shook his head in disbelief. “What you felt must have been hero worship or something.”
    “Hero worship?” This time it was Patch’s face that reddened, but with fury, not embarrassment. Her forefinger seemed to have a life of its own as it poked away at Ethan’s chest, punctuating her verbal rampage. “Why you
vain
glorious,
cock
-strutting,
mule
-eared
jackass
! Of all the hogwash I ever heard spouted, that was the worst!
    “You made me a promise, Ethan Hawk. And durn it all, you’re going to keep it!”
    Ethan grabbed Patch’s wrist and twisted the offending finger behind her. When her other hand came up, he grabbed that too, and suddenly he had both her arms snagged behind her. Only she wouldn’t stay still, so he backed her up against the unpainted wall of the house and held her there with his body. Which hardened like a rock when it met her softness.
    Ethan felt his heart pounding. He had thrown a lasso expecting a kitten and caught a wildcat instead. His whole