The Outlaw Takes A Bride (The Burnett Brides) by Sylvia McDaniel Read Free Book Online Page A

of his surroundings at all times. He was watchful and seemed more like a man who stood on the fringes and observed. The bankers she’d known had always been powerful men who wanted everyone to be aware of their status and to know they held the keys to their future. Bankers were ostentatious people who didn’t blend well. Tanner didn’t appear greedy, and blending was a word that somehow didn’t fit him.
    Since the accident, she hadn’t seen his black tailored suit; instead, he wore a white shirt, black vest, and black pants with well-worn boots. The hat that she had thought looked ridiculous on him in the coach had disappeared, and in its place was a shabby black Stetson that had a tall crown and wide brim for shading the sun from his deeply tanned skin. He looked more like a hired gun than a banker.
    And it was odd, but she felt comfortable in his presence.
    Watching his powerful hands hold the gun as he stroked the chamber, she remembered the feel of his hands as he helped her. They were not smooth hands that handled cash; but rather, rough and work-hardened. They were textured, like those of a man who used his hands to earn a living.
    Beth watched as he spun the cylinder on the gun, the clicking noise chilling in the silence. Who was this man, really? Was he who he claimed to be, a banker on his way to a business meeting? Or what exactly was his occupation?
    A knock sounded at the door, and he glanced up, sliding several bullets into the chamber of the gun faster than she could think. He sprang to his feet, alert, then glanced at her and noticed she was awake. He frowned.
    “Who is it?” he called.
    “Dr. Benson,” the voice replied. “I came by to check on my patient.”
    A sigh escaped him, and his rigid posture visibly relaxed.
    “Just a minute, Doctor.” Tanner rapidly put away his cleaning supplies and made sure his gun was in good working order. He slid both pistols back into the holsters, which lay against his hips. He looked up, his ice-blue eyes meeting and holding Beth’s.
    Why all the precaution for a visit from the doctor?
    She’d never met a banker so completely at ease with his gun and yet as nervous as a rabbit in a hound hunt. He was a contradiction both frightening and intriguing.
    Tanner walked to the door and pulled it open cautiously.
    The gray-haired man Beth recognized as the doctor stepped inside the small room, and Tanner shut the door behind him.
    “I would have been by sooner, but I had another patient come down with cholera.” He shook his head. “Such a terrible disease. Kills so quickly and spreads so rapidly.”
    He glanced at Beth. “Well, you certainly appear to have a little more color in your cheeks since the last time I saw you. How are you feeling?”
    “Better. But not great,” she acknowledged.
    The doctor stepped over to the chair beside the bed. “Well, let’s have a look at that wound and see how it’s coming along.”
    He reached inside his bag and pulled out a pair of scissors. He pulled the coverlet down past her shoulder and pushed the sleeve of the clean nightgown she’d donned after her bath out of his way. Very carefully he began to cut away the gauze covering the wound.
    Beth had yet to see her shoulder since the accident, and she looked curiously, anxious to see the damage to her flesh. When the doctor cut away the last of the gauze, she was amazed at how small the wound actually was, though her flesh was bruised around the stitched area.
    “I see no complications. You’re healing quite nicely.”
    “When can I travel again?” she asked, anxious to know when she could leave.
    The doctor frowned. “Not right away, but maybe in two weeks, definitely in three. Actually, I’d prefer that you waited the full three weeks. That will give you time to recuperate from this.”
    “Three weeks!” she exclaimed.
    “You lost a lot of blood, my dear.”
    “But I have to be in Fort Worth,” she exclaimed, feeling tears of exasperation fill her