Someone Like You by Elaine Coffman Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t eat, and eat soon, he just might be.

 
    Chapter Four
     
    The drifter was riding on the side closest to Aunt Violette, which did not bother Susannah in the least. It simply made it easier to ignore him, but he did not take much notice, since it was Aunt Violette to whom he directed all his conversation.
    Susannah found that irritating. How dare he ignore the fact that she was ignoring him? When she ignored someone, she wanted them to be aware of it; otherwise, what was the point in going to all that trouble?
    “Thank you for coming to my aid back there,” he said.
    “Thank you for the bald-faced lie, you mean,” Dahlia said.
    Aunt Violette ignored her sister—something she did regularly—telling Reed, “The offer was sincere.”
    Upon hearing those words, Dahlia gasped and fell back against the wagon seat, fanning herself furiously. The sudden movement jolted her straw hat, which slid down over her eyes.
    “Is she all right?” Reed asked.
    Violette nodded. “She’ll outlive all of us.”
    Susannah wasn’t really listening to any of this. She was still stuck a few words back. Sincere? What was Aunt Violette thinking? She really meant to hire this man? A man who looked like him? What would they do with him? Hang him up for an ornament? He probably didn’t know the first thing about farming—or anything else, for that matter. Well, she would take that back. He probably knew a lot about preying on innocent young ladies. She would bet her Sunday-go-to-meeting dress that he was, just as she’d first suspected, one of those traveling men who went around the country taking advantage of unsuspecting women, leaving a string of broken hearts and a few babies behind.
    A traveling man. Not much to recommend him as far as she could see, but the farm was, as Aunt Violette said, hers, and that meant she was free to do as she pleased, although that was a right she rarely exercised. So why did she choose to exercise it now?
    “You’re really offering me a job?” Reed asked, his odd Yankee accent sounding horribly foreign to Susannah.
    “Like I said, the offer was sincere. You’ve got a job if you want it,” Aunt Violette said.
    Susannah groaned.
    His gaze swept past her aunts as he looked her directly in the eye. Susannah felt uncomfortable at his boldness. He continued to stare for a moment, then turned to Violette. “I’m mighty beholden to you for a job, ma’am. I don’t mind telling you I need work.”
    Susannah snorted.
    He looked right at her and said, “I am beholden to all of you for this job. I hope that I can find some way to express my gratitude.”
    Dahlia had her hat perched in its proper spot. “We appreciate your gratitude, Mr. Garrett, but bear in mind one thing. We are giving you a job, and that’s all we’re giving you.”
    He smiled.
    Susannah did not know why he bothered her. He was pleasant enough and not bad looking. His manners were beyond reproach. It occurred to her that that might be what annoyed her. Two and two didn’t add up. He passed himself off as one thing, but everything about him said he was something else. Fact was, not in any shape, form, or fashion was he like any other hired hand she’d ever seen. Naturally that made her suspicious, and if there was anything Susannah wasn’t when she was suspicious, it was friendly.
    “Just how long are you planning on staying?” she asked.
    “For as long as your aunt needs me, which I hope will be until the end of the season. At any rate, I don’t plan on leaving here until I get back everything that belongs to me.”
    Dahlia stopped fanning herself long enough to say, “He’ll cause trouble. I know it. I knew he was a troublemaker the moment I saw him.”
    “Are you a troublemaker, Mr. Garrett?” Violette asked.
    Susannah knew Violette was being facetious, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to clap her hand over her aunt’s overactive mouth.
    “I guess you could say I avoid trouble, but I don’t run from it.