To Tame a Renegade by Connie Mason Read Free Book Online Page A

the house. Abner was waiting for him in the kitchen. He wasn’t alone. Sarah had joined him. Still clad in her nightgown, she was balancing a jar of jam between her bandaged hands.
    Chad realized what was going to happen, but before he could react the jar slipped from Sarah’s hands, hit the floor, and shattered into a hundred pieces, spewing jam and broken glass all over the place.
    “Oh, no!” Sarah cried, staring at the mess. Standing barefoot amidst a field of broken glass, Sarah seemed bewildered by her predicament Before Chad could stop her, she took a step forward. Her face contorted with pain and she cried out when a piece of glass found her tender instep.
    Cursing roundly, Chad’s footsteps crunched across the floor as he scooped Sarah up and carried her back to her room. “Don’t touch anything until I clean up the mess,” he called over his shoulder to Abner.
    “You’re a walking disaster,” Chad said as he sat Sarah on the edge of the bed. “What in the hell do you think you were doing just now?”
    “Trying to feed my son,” Sarah contended. “Do you have a better idea?”
    His hot gaze raked her from head to toe. “Yeah, a lot of them but nothing that will do me any good right now,” he growled. He grasped her ankle and placed it on his knee. “Let me have a look at your foot.”
    Sarah gave a shriek as Chad plucked a sliver of glass from her instep. A gush of blood poured forth and he grabbed a towel from the washstand to stanch it. “Does it hurt?”
    “Not much. It seems I’m in your debt again.”
    Chad merely grunted. “I’ll need a bandage.”
    “In the top drawer of the dresser. Left side.”
    Chad found a strip of cloth and bound it around her foot. Then he stood back to inspect his handiwork. “I’d best get back to the kitchen and clean up that mess.” Suddenly a thought occurred to Chad. “Do you have a neighbor you’re friendly with? Someone who would be willing to help out until you’re on your feet again?”
    “There’s only Carrie Barlow and we’re barely acquainted. The poor woman is burdened with five children and another on the way. Her husband was injured in a mine accident and can’t work. She has her hands full taking care of her family. The residents of Shantytown are too busy making a living to neighbor.”
    Chad could understand that. The rows of shanties beyond the tracks sheltered people who barely scraped out a living.
    Chad strode from the bedroom without revealing his intentions to Sarah. After cleaning up the kitchen with Abner’s help, he fired up the stove, cut up the chunk of beef he’d purchased the day before, and placed all the ingredients for a stew in a pot to cook. He asked Abner to point out the Barlows’ shack men sent the boy to the bedroom to keep his mother company. With a purposeful glint in his eyes, Chad marched up to the Barlows’ and rapped sharply on the door.
    A heavily pregnant woman answered the door. She held a baby in one arm while a toddler with a runny nose clung to her skirts. In the background he could hear the clamor of youthful voices.
    Lank hair the color of mud and drawn features gave Chad the impression of a woman past her middle years. It wasn’t until she raised tired eyes to Chad that he realized she was still a young woman.
    “Are you Carrie Barlow?” he asked.
    “I am. If you’ve come about the rent money, we don’t have it Charlie is still unable to work. He’s…”
    “It’s nothing like that Mrs. Barlow. I’m a friend of Sarah Temple.”
    A glimmer of interest brightened Carrie Barlow’s tired eyes. “Has something happened to Sarah? I saw the doctor’s carriage parked in front of her house.”
    “She’s had an accident. Unfortunately she’ll be laid up for a spell.”
    “What kind of accident?”
    “She suffered severe burns to her hands and arms.”
    “A pity,” Carrie said, shaking her head in commiseration. “She told me once she didn’t have anyone. It ain’t easy to survive