Rocky Mountain Dreams & Family on the Range Danica Favorite (warren buffett book recommendations .txt) 📖

did she want it to? The memory of his kiss tingled her lips. She rubbed at them and climbed into bed.

No, she had never wanted a husband. Kisses were one thing, but everything after could only stir memories she’d long healed from. Or at least suppressed. The thought nagged at her. She pulled the blankets up and rolled to her side, staring at the wall.

Hadn’t Miss Alma helped her? Years ago she’d told the kind lady everything that had transpired when Trevor’s mother had arranged for her to be kidnapped by a gang of evil men. They’d planned to sell her, and though there’d been rough talk, handling that still gave her chills, and countless leers, no one had assaulted her.

The emotional impact had still been traumatic.

Memories traipsed through her mind, rolling silently like one of those new films they showed in theaters lately. Only her memories were in both color and sound, and she couldn’t turn them off with a flick of the reel.

Restless, she rolled to the other side and plumped her pillow. Things that had happened so long ago shouldn’t keep hurting, but they did. Granted, the fear had subsided and now she felt only an uncomfortable knot of tension.

Why was she thinking of marriage in conjunction with Lou, and what would he do about the attraction between them? And if he did do something, how would she respond?

Marriage might bring it all back, stir up too many issues. Despite Miss Alma’s assurances, the thought of being trapped, powerless, in a permanent contract with a man, closed her throat in a panic.

Even if the contract was with Lou.

His kiss, his many kindnesses throughout the years, shouldn’t drag her thoughts in this direction. Why had being with him these past weeks make her think of marriage? Perhaps Miss Alma’s hint in the store about a young man sparking for her was what had sent her mind down the path. Or it could’ve been the way Lou interacted with Josie. In so many ways he reminded her of her own departed father. When he’d been in the beginning stages of drink, he’d been quite affectionate and loving. Though his mood had often turned to moroseness followed by oblivion, she’d treasured the first hour of attention he gave her. Children needed that. Lou didn’t drink, but he had that same playfulness when dealing with Josie.

And that was why future thoughts of Lou must halt, because any path they took together could only lead to a dead end.

Besides, there was no way she’d leave Josie. Mr. Langdon had made quite clear what he thought might happen to the girl when her mother passed away, and though Mary longed to turn him in for the evil he’d suggested, she doubted any official would take her word against a wealthy businessman like Mr. Langdon. She couldn’t prove his words, and he’d done nothing illegal that she knew of.

One year. She’d give one year or less, just until Mrs. Silver passed away, and then Langdon had promised to give her guardianship of Josie. She would press to adopt the girl, though she had little to bargain with.

She probably should have told Lou what Langdon had threatened.

She squeezed her eyes closed, longing for sleep to take these burdens away. Her eyelids burned with exhaustion, but worry kept her awake.

If she hadn’t accepted Langdon’s employment, Josie would be in harm’s way. There had been no other choice, she tried to reassure herself.

Yet she kept thinking of the way he stared at her. The predatory quality to his look. She couldn’t escape the feeling that she was walking into a trap.

She shifted again in the bed before rolling out and digging through her luggage until she felt the small Bible Miss Alma had given her years ago. After clicking on the lamp, she leafed through it until she found Psalms.

Her finger followed chapter 69, to verse 16.

Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good; turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. And do not hide Your face from Your servant. For I am in trouble...

Prickles scattered across her skin at the words.

Hear me speedily. Draw near to my soul and redeem it; deliver me because of my enemies.

She read to the last verse and into the next chapter. She read until her soul felt settled and her thoughts calm. No matter what occurred in the next year, she could trust God to be near, to be her help in time of need. She closed the book, laid it beside her pillow and crawled back beneath the sheets.

The sound of a door closing nearby made the walls shake.

Was Lou leaving? For a second, the preposterous urge to follow him swept through her, but then logic intervened. Traipsing all over Portland because of curiosity wasn’t something she could afford to do. She must be rested and feeling well for tomorrow.

The last thing she wanted was for Mr. Langdon to change his mind.

With thoughts of Josie and Lou crowding her mind, images of them playing at the picnic, riding on the train, she finally slept.

Chapter Twenty-Two

It wasn’t hard to find his mark, even in a city the size of Portland. The bloke’s eyes and coloring, combined with his accent and odor, brought Lou to the Willamette River’s docks. He’d left the hotel long before sunrise to get a head start on the dockworkers.

He wanted to see who showed up. The man claimed to be leaving town, but experience had taught him that people usually stayed with the familiar, even at their own risk. Unless he was in immediate peril, Lou doubted the man would just give up his job and leave the state.

Water lapped at the dock, dank and noisy. A heavy mist coated the air and made him glad he’d worn his coat. He watched the sun slowly start its trek upward. A hazy orange that brought new hope to some, new despair to others.

He shook the maudlin thoughts away. He was a