The Brides Of Tombstone 01 Mail Order Outlaw by Cynthia Woolf Read Free Book Online Page A

don’t think it’ll bring down anything bigger than a rabbit.”
    “It’s a Colt isn’t it?”
    “Yeah. So?”
    “It’ll bring down a deer if you shoot it right but whether the pistol can bring down a deer or not doesn’t matter. Today we are hunting for rabbit. They’re good eating and I’m tired of beef.”
    “You run a cattle ranch.” He crooked an eyebrow. “How can you be tired of beef?”
    “Same way as anybody else. I just get tired of eating the same thing again and again.”
    “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of steak. Spent too many years eating—”
    “I know. Eating the freshest fish you can get. You told me in your letters.”
    “Uh, that’s right.”
    That was another mistake. He hadn’t said any such thing in her letters. She fought to keep her expression clear.
    “What do you like to eat, if not beef?”
    “I like pork best. We only get one pig a year, so we don’t have it very often.” She kicked her boot against the bale. “Mama would just as soon that we didn’t get any, she doesn’t like it. But Jamie and I do and Daddy did.”
    “How long has it been now since you lost your father?”
    She smiled, remembering her father. But she could have sworn she’d written to Mal about her father’s death. Why wouldn’t he remember that? Curious. “Just over a year. I still miss him every day. He and I used to work the cattle together when he was home. We’d go out, ride the fences and stay overnight in one of the line shacks. He’d tell me stories of when he met Mama.”
    “I’d like to hear those stories when you’re ready to share them.”
    A single tear rolled down her cheek.
    Ed reached over and gathered the drop on the end of his fingertip. “I’m sorry you lost him so soon. Of course, it doesn’t matter how old or young they are, we are never ready to lose a parent.”
    She shook her head. “No, we’re not.”
    He remembered his mother. She’d been young, only thirty. He hadn’t been ready to lose her when but he had. Now he didn’t think about her often, but when he did, the pain was almost as intense as it had been the day she died. He’d lost more than his mother that day. He’d lost his innocence and his chance at a good life. Until now. Until Lizzie.
    “Let’s go see how good you are with that pistol. Saddle up. We’re going hunting.”
    They both saddled their horses and rode out.
    “I thought as long as we’re going to be out here looking for strays anyway, we might as well have some fun and see if we can shoot a couple rabbits.”
    “Sounds good to me. I haven’t eaten rabbit either.”
    “I didn’t figure you had. Lots of people say it tastes like chicken but I find it more flavorful. Sometimes it’s a little gamy but that’s usually only if it’s an older rabbit.”
    They cantered the horses until they got to the north pasture, and then slowed them to a walk, searching the area for movement.
    Suddenly Lizzie fired her pistol.
    Ed saw the rabbit hop into the air and then he was still. She’d gotten the animal on the first shot.
    Grinning from ear to ear, she said, “You’re turn.”
    Riding a little farther Ed saw a rabbit, he decided it wouldn’t be good to get the rabbit the first shot like she did. He wasn’t supposed to be that good, so he missed, shot low and behind the animal. He took a second shot and this time was right on target. The rabbit was dead.
    “Not bad. Not bad at all for a city slicker.”
    “I’m not going to be a city slicker for long. I’ve got the best teacher in the world, according to her brother, and I’ll be as good as you,” he looked Lizzie in the eyes, “before long.”
    “You hope.”
    “I have faith.”
    “So you keep saying. Faith that we’ll marry, faith I’ll teach you properly. Lots of faith you never mentioned in your letters.”
    “It’s not the kind of faith that needed to be mention in our letters. We didn’t talk much about what we believed, did we? Am I forgetting