Texas Lucky by Maggie James Read Free Book Online Page B

tell him. “It’s none of your business. Leave me alone.”
    “I’ll do just that,” he snapped. “And you can fend for yourself and try to find your own blanket among the scorpions and snakes. I don’t give a damn.”
    She heard his boots crunching against the rocky floor of the mine shaft, finally fading away, and for one desperate moment she almost called out for him to come back. She was cold, but she was not about to try to find a blanket after what he had just said. She was also terribly hungry and wondered if he might have food stashed away.
    Instead she kept still. After all, if he decided to take revenge, there was no one around to come to her aid. No one cared what happened to her.
    Sinking once more to the floor, she wrapped her arms around her legs and drew her knees to her chin.
    She wished she could fall asleep so the hours would pass quickly and morning would come, and then she could see her way around. Worley Branson had said she’d be fed, and maybe he would have a change of heart and realize she was telling the truth.
    Exhausted, she finally slept, only to awaken with a start and a stiff neck at the sound of a horse approaching.
    At first, she did not remember where she was and stared about wildly. Then it all came flooding back as she got to her feet and clutched the barred gate, watching the rider draw closer in the bright morning sun.
    “Where’s Mr. Branson?” she asked the strange man, cringing at the way he grinned at her. He had beady eyes and a bushy beard and looked and smelled like he’d never bathed in his life.
    “Oh, you probably won’t see him again till you go to trial,” he answered as he dismounted.
    Untying the bucket hanging from the saddle, he brought it over to the gate and said, “Look around for a pan. There’s one in there someplace.
    “And tell your partner to get his, too,” he added with a knowing smirk. “Or is he all tuckered out from last night? I’ll bet the two of you had a real nice reunion.”
    “And I reckon you’ve got a dirty mind,” she fired back, surprising herself with her sudden nerve.
    He snickered. “You don’t have to pretend with me, you haughty little strumpet. The whole town knows you two were in cahoots together. Now, are you gonna find a pan or do you want me to pour yours on the ground?”
    From what Tess could see of the bucket’s contents—a brown-looking mash of some sort that smelled vaguely of beans and bacon—she was tempted to tell him to do just that, only it had been a long time since she had eaten, and she was starting to feel dizzy.
    Glancing about, she spied a rusting pan among the rocks. Scraping the rust out with a stone as best she could, she slid it beneath the gate.
    He had pushed a few of her clothes inside. “Worley thought you might be wantin’ a change in the weeks to come. Better be sparse, though, ’cause we don’t do laundry, and this is all you’re gettin’.”
    “But I had a whole trunkful of clothes,” she protested.
    “And Worley says he’s got a niece in Tucson who’s small enough to wear ’em, so be glad he was generous enough to let you have these.”
    Tess thought of the wedding dress in the trunk. It had been her mother’s, who was a bit larger, so she had carefully taken in the seams and darts to wear it when she married Saul. It meant so much to Tess, and she’d hoped to one day hand it down to her own daughter—should she ever have one—to wear on her wedding day. It saddened her to know it was gone forever.
    He was pouring out her portion when Curt Hammond appeared. Holding a pan, he said, without looking at her, “Give her as much as she wants, Skelly. She’s skin and bones.”
    “That’s enough.” Tess drew back her pan. She wanted no favors from Curt Hammond.
    “Any word on when the judge will be here?” Curt asked.
    Skelly emptied the rest of the bucket in his pan. “You asked me the same question yesterday, and I’ll give you the same answer today—don’t nobody