Robin Lee Hatcher by Wagered Heart Read Free Book Online Page B

Colorado, and he was building a fine mansion at the time they met. His proposal came as no surprise to anyone, but her refusal astonished them all. No, Harold never made her feel the way she felt now.
    Only Hawk did that. Just his name made her skin prickle with gooseflesh. She scarcely knew him, and yet she could think of little else.
    Am I falling in love?
    She turned from the window and sat on the floor, back against the wall, tucking her feet beneath her nightgown as she hugged herself, hoping to calm the wild sensations inside her.
    She couldn’t be in love. Mother said love needed time to grow. Her parents had known each other a number of years before her father approached her mother as a suitor. Surely that was the way one fell in love. It couldn’t happen so quickly. Not with a stranger. And a non-Chris tian at that — at least as far as she could tell.
    She closed her eyes and pictured him once more, standing beside the corral at the Circle Blue. His face was dusty, his shirt sweaty, his hair tousled. His expression was stony, eyes unreadable. And then she imagined his rare smile, and she went weak inside.
    Could this be love?

    “I’m going to church,” Rand said. “You comin’?”
    Hawk peeled another strip from the wood he whittled. “No. You know how I feel about church.”
    “Yeah, I know. Just thought you might change your mind.”
    “I can worship God easier on horseback.”
    “Miss Silverton will be disappointed.”
    Hawk grunted without looking up and was relieved when he heard Rand leave.
    He wished his friend hadn’t mentioned Bethany. He’d managed to put thoughts of her out of his head for a short while. Now they returned in a rush.
    “I make no apologies for my heritage,” he’d said to her.
    “Why should you, Mr. Chandler?”
    He couldn’t describe how those words made him feel, both the night she’d said them and now as he remembered them.
    She’d invited him to church more than once. Would it be so onerous to oblige her?
    His parents had been faithful members of a Chicago congregation when he was a boy. He’d spent most Sunday mornings of his youth sitting in a pew between them. He’d heard the preacher talk about the love of God — and then he’d seen church members turn their backs on his mother.
    If that was God’s people in action, he could do without them.
    “Why should you, Mr. Chandler?”
    He remembered Bethany’s expression when she’d asked that question. Guileless. Earnest.
    He gave his head a shake. It didn’t matter if she was different and without prejudice. There were a hundred other reasons why he needed to keep his distance.
    Her father was not some itinerant preacher. He was a man of means and culture. Their home, though modest, was beautifully furnished. They had a housekeeper, brought with them from Philadelphia. The women in the family wore tailored gowns, not the sort one could buy ready-made from the mercantile.
    And who was Hawk? Nobody special. He owned his land, and he had a good herd of cattle. But it was only a beginning. His cabin would never do for a girl like Bethany, a young lady of quality used to the finer things. She wouldn’t last one winter on a place like his. And while most folks in these parts accepted him and gave no thought to who his mother or father were, there were some who would disapprove if he had anything to do with Bethany Silverton.
    He threw his pearl-handled knife at the cabin. Its sharp point slid with ease into the wooden door, the handle vibrating from the impact.
    Women .
    He got to his feet, a scowl furrowing his brow as he jerked the knife from the door and slipped it into the sheath on his belt.
    The last thing I need is to get mixed up with her or her kind .

    Taking her eyes from the hymnal, Ingrid cast a furtive glance toward the man at her side and found Rand watching her. He stopped singing and grinned. She dropped her gaze as the heat of embarrassment rose from the neckline of her gown all the way to the