The Ballad of Emma O'Toole by Elizabeth Lane Read Free Book Online Page B

urgent gropings and thrustings on the hard-packed floor of Billy John’s shanty, with the wind whistling through the whip-sawn boards. They’d never seen each other undressed. The weather had been too cold, the need too urgent on the rare occasionswhen they’d been able to snatch the chance to be alone.
    Emma could count the times it had happened on the fingers of one hand. She’d known it was wrong, but it had been what Billy John wanted, and she would have done anything to please him.
    Logan would want the same thing. As her husband he would expect it, even demand it as his right.
    What would happen if she refused him?
    Her gaze crept to the hand that lay lightly on the knee of his fawn-colored breeches. His long fingers looked powerful enough to crush her in their grip. The bruises had faded from when he’d grabbed her through the jail cell bars, but the memory of them had not. Logan was a big man, his body as lean and sinewy as a cougar’s. He would certainly be able to force her if he chose to. She would have to be prepared for that.
    She could plead her delicate condition. True, she’d heard enough women’s talk to know that unless a wife was unusually frail or prone to miscarriage, there was no reason to abstain except in the last weeks of pregnancy. But being a man, Logan might not know that. The excuse might work.
    But what if it didn’t?
    As the twilight deepened, the spring night grew chilly. Emma shivered beneath her shawl. She was cold, hungry and exhausted. All the same, if she’d had the strength, she might have leaped out of the buggy and fled into the woods rather than face what she’d be facing tonight.
    “Are you all right, girl?” Doc had done most of the talking on the long ride. “You’ve been mighty quiet.”
    “I’m fine. Just tired.”
    “Won’t be much longer now. Look yonder, you can see the lights of Park City between those two hills.”
    “You can let us off at the Park City Hotel,” Logan said. “It might be smarter to pull up by the back door. That way I can get to the desk and pay for a room without attracting a lot of attention.”
    “I can do better than that,” Doc said. “Give me a little of that cash before I let you off. I can drive around front, get you a room and order some food sent up. You can go up the back stairs and nobody will even know you’re there. How does that sound?”
    “Perfect.” Logan fished some bills out of the envelope and stuffed them into the old man’scoat pocket. “That should be plenty. Whatever’s left is yours. Tell them to leave the key in the door and bring dinner up as soon as it’s ready. After ten days in jail, I’m looking forward to a decent meal and a soft bed.”
    Emma twisted the ring on her finger. How easy life became with a little cash, she thought. Just like that, Logan had arranged for a room in the finest hotel in town, with a hot dinner to be brought to their door. She’d never even set foot inside the Park City Hotel. It was a place for people with money, and She’d never had a cent to spare.
    All her life Emma had been poor. She’d been fifteen when her widowed mother fell sick with consumption and sixteen when the good woman died. Since then she’d been on her own, taking whatever work her strong young hands could do. Meeting Billy John had awakened dreams of a better life—a cozy little home with children around the table and a man who’d come home to her every night. It didn’t matter that they’d never be rich. As long as he loved her, she would be the happiest woman in the world.
    Now she found herself wed to a dark stranger, a man with the means to provide every material thing she could imagine wanting.
    But it was a cold bargain she’d made. Any chance of affection between them, let alone love, was as remote as the dark side of the moon.
    Only after they’d found the key in the door did Emma realize that Doc had rented the bridal suite.
    Emma stared at the mauve satin coverlet and ecru lace