Scarlet Lady by Sandra Chastain Read Free Book Online Page B

the coals for doing the same thing I’ve done. I’m going to bed,” he said tiredly.
    “No, Carson. Wait.”
    Katie caught her brother by the arm. “I’m sorry. I was just so worried about you. And I—I have some good news.”
    “What? Did you find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?”
    “You could say that. I did get caught in a storm earlier.”
    His interest was piqued. “I know. I was flying in it.”
    “Come into the office, Carson. I have something to show you.”
    She’d taken off Cat’s ruined red dress and pulled on a robe. Then she’d put the money in a pillowcase and dropped it in the clothes dryer. When the bills were dry, she ironed out the wrinkles. By the time Carson returned, she’d counted the money and divided it into stacks of a thousand dollars. Her winnings almost covered the top of the desk.
    Carson took one look at the bills on the desk and his eyes widened. “What—how? You won?” He couldn’t conceal his disbelief.
    “I won.”
    “I don’t like that, Katherine. Those casinos are noplace for a woman like you. Promise me you won’t do it again.”
    “I hope I don’t have to.” Katie counted the stacks. “Eighteen thousand dollars. Is it enough to redeem your IOUs?”
    “No.”
    He’d lied to her. That didn’t surprise her, but the amount did. “How much more do you need?”
    “At least another ten thousand,” Carson said sheepishly. “But with this, I can make a start at clearing up a big chunk of my debts and buy some time for the rest. Thank you, but don’t do it again. I’ll start first thing tomorrow.”
    Katie looked at her brother for a long moment. Did she dare let him return the money to Montana? What other choice did she have? She didn’t think she could face him again.
    “Carson, if I hand over this money to you, will you promise not to gamble with it? Can I trust you to pay off your debts?”
    “I’ll pay them off, Katie,” he said, holding a pile of the money and riffling it through the air. “I promise.”
    “You’ve promised before, Carson,” she reminded him.
    “I know and I’m sorry I’ve been such a failure. I won’t let you down this time, sis. Cross my heart and hope to die.”
    “All right. I’m going to put the money in the safe. Tomorrow morning”—she glanced at the big clock over the mantel and changed her wording—“make that later today, I want you to take this money to Mr. Montanaand settle up. Don’t tell him where you got it. And Carson, bring the IOUs back to me.”
    He watched her gather up the money, studying her with those great dark eyes that always made her want to put her arms around him and promise that everything would be all right. She knew her caretaker attitude to Carson didn’t help. But she’d promised their mother and father that she’d look after her brother and she refused to admit that Carson wasn’t the honorable man a Carithers was supposed to be.
    Maybe this would force him to take hold of his life and be strong enough to find a new direction. Strong, like the man she’d gambled with. The man who held Carson’s future and Carithers’ Chance in his hands. Hands that had held her earlier tonight.
    Long after Carson had gone up to bed, Katie sat in the office, staring out at the night, at the river that rushed by the levee in the darkness beyond the drive. Once there had been fields of cotton, indigo, and sugarcane. When she was troubled she could stand by the window and see those cotton fields in the sunlight. Once the Caritherses’ barges ferried all that cotton down to New Orleans. Once the Caritherses had been a family of planters.
    All that was gone now. There’d never be any more cotton. The lands, the barges, the family. Only she and Carson and the house were left. And if she hadn’t won tonight, Montana would be claiming half of the house.
    Carson had assured her he’d redeem his IOUs, but she wasn’t certain she could trust him. And the eighteen thousand wasn’t enough.