Free Audrey and the Maverick by Elaine Levine Page B

away.
    Jenkins followed his example. “I got work to do in the cookhouse. Can’t sit here all day watching you two moon over each other.”
    Audrey shut her eyes in shame. “Men like you don’t help women like me,” she whispered.
    “I’m not most men.” He reached over and lifted her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. His hair was rapidly drying. A heavy lock had fallen free and curved down to his dark brow. “The sewing machine has nothing to do with what’s between us. Take it.” The corners of his jaw flexed as he glared down at her, but his voice was quiet.
    “There’s nothing between us.”
    He arched a brow. “There will be.”

Chapter 10
    The door slammed behind one of Bill Kemp’s men. He was breathless and looked as if he hadn’t slept in the last ten days, but his eyes were alight with excitement. Kemp hoped he brought good news.
    “Get out,” he ordered the rest of his men loitering in the jail lobby. When the room emptied, he faced Ike. “So let’s have it. What did you find out?”
    “It’s no rumor, Sheriff. Dillard and Fiske opened a couple dozen logging camps in the mountains to cut railroad ties. They’re gonna be sending ten thousand dollars in silver up to the main camp to cover payroll and operating expenses.” He looked at the sheriff. “Every month.”
    Kemp eyed his hired gun, trying to see if he was lying or had been duped. This news was a helluva break. “You sure about this? Who did you talk to?”
    “Word’s out all over Cheyenne. They’re hiring every man, Chinkie, and Mick they can. Paying three times what a cowboy makes, more if their camps meet quotas. They’re flush, and it’s coming our way.”
    “When’s the first shipment?”
    “Next week. Just like we heard.”
    “All right. Go get a beer. Tell Sam it’s on me. I got some planning to do.” Kemp mulled this over in the silence of his empty office. He was glad he got rid of McCaid, at least for this first shipment. But it was just plain bad luck the Avenger had Defiance in his sights. Something would have to be done about both men if he was to take full advantage of this windfall.

Chapter 11
    For supper on her first night as camp cook, Audrey made a hash from a couple of the corned beef briskets in the smokehouse and some potatoes stored in the keeping house. The hash, along with large, fluffy sourdough biscuits, was an enormous hit with the men. Any worries she’d entertained about their accepting a woman in camp were rapidly vanishing. It was good McCaid had feed for the pigs; the scrap bucket had been empty after both breakfast and lunch. And given the way the men were silently, rapidly making her hash disappear this evening, she thought there would be little waste after this meal.
    She had just set a plate down for Amy when one of the boys came around the serving table. She looked up, nervously expecting McCaid. He’d told her he would collect her after supper to go to his new house and assess his curtain situation—he wanted her to draft a list of notions and other things she would need to create his window coverings
    The man standing there wasn’t McCaid but a childhood friend she hadn’t seen in years. She broke into a grin. “Hadley Baker!” Laughing, she ran to give him a hug. He picked her up and swung her around. “Just look at you.” She smiled, leaning back to look at him. “How you’ve grown!” And he had too, perhaps a half foot since she last saw him three years before.
    “Look at how I’ve grown—look at you!” Still holding her, he let his eyes take in her curves. She wasn’t insulted by his audaciousness. Hadley was one of the first friends she had made when her family moved to Defiance. For several summers, they, along with Leah, Malcolm, and Logan Taggert—when he came to town—had romped, carefree and ignored by adults, through the long summer weeks. Hadley taught her and Leah how to ride. Logan taught them to swim. Leah taught them all how to hunt. The boys did