Tried and True (Wild at Heart Book #1) by Mary Connealy Read Free Book Online

thinking of you in trousers. You’re a fine one to speak of what’s proper.”
    “How did my life go so terribly wrong?”
    “You speakin’ of the trousers or Coulter or the homestead fraud or a woman going to war or being in my lap?”
    Speaking into his shirtfront, she waved one hand in a hopeless gesture. “It’s all of a piece.”
    He didn’t respond to that, and she went on staying right where she was. Finally she gathered enough strength to think. Which led her to ask, “When Coulter said ‘this ain’t over,’ what do you suppose he meant? Of course it’s over if he’s a law-abiding man.”
    “All kinds of ways to bring pressure to bear on a situation, a lot of them mostly legal.”
    “Mostly?” Kylie’s voice was as weak as her knees. “And here you are with the power to tear my homestead away from me.”
    And her sisters’ land too, since they were all homesteading under the service exemption. Masterson could probably even take Pa’s land if he knew Pa had supported his daughters in their lies. Kylie almost snorted at the word supported . It’d been his idea from the start. He’d manipulated and loaded on guilt and, in a roundabout way, promised—if they minded him perfectly—he might even love themsomeday. They’d all fallen in line with this homesteading scheme, just as they had all marched off to war.
    “Yep, and for all the trouble I can bring, still you’re sitting in my lap.”
    Which gave her the gumption to stir. Masterson relaxed his hold and didn’t try and keep her in place, which pinched her feelings for no good reason.
    She stood.
    Aaron moved so she could have the rocker to herself. He flipped the other rocker onto its runners and sat beside her. The dusk had turned to dark, and the moon had risen enough to see the grit that hung in the air and the destruction done by Coulter’s cattle.
    “What a mess.” She sank into the seat, throwing her arms wide, feeling helpless to face the damage. “Those cattle even messed up the pond. Mud’s all stirred up.”
    “It’ll settle. And the railing’s knocked apart, but the boards aren’t broken. I can repair it without much trouble. Then you’ll move your rocks back in place and plant more flowers. Some of them are still there, just uprooted. The cow chips”—and there were a lot of them—“even make good fertilizer.”
    “Ugh. My whole life is turning into fertilizer.”
    “It can all be fixed.”
    Neither of them sprang into action. They sat rocking, looking over the stretch of land surrounding the pond. In the gathering darkness they could no longer see the water, but the sound of it cascading still sent up its soothing music. The dust thinned until it wasn’t a chore to breathe the mountain air. Even all trampled up, it was a pretty spot.
    “So what am I going to do?” Kylie finally felt steady enough to think of the trouble she faced.
    “First I rework your homesteading claim and drop the exemption.”
    “No! I don’t want to spend five years out here. I’ll be too old to find a husband.”
    Aaron laughed, and she wanted to punch him. “If it’s a husband you’re looking for, you can probably round one up without much trouble. And out here, he’ll have his own land, and you can just let this go.”
    “But I don’t want to stay out here!” she nearly shouted. She covered her mouth and fought down her panic. Speaking more quietly, she said, “I don’t want to live where the nearest city is a lifetime away and there’s no such thing as a bonnet shop or ladies who gather for tea parties. I want to go back East. I want civilization.”
    A small, humorless laugh escaped from Aaron as he rocked and took in the view.
    “What’s funny about that?”
    “Just that I had that. I had a nice farm with a city a short train ride away. My ma even had a tea party now and again. I had civilization.”
    “How could you stand to give it up?”
    “When I went home after the war . . .” Aaron shook his head and