Free A Heart Divided by Kathleen Morgan

as he guided Sarah to the table and pulled out her chair. “And, if you don’t mind, would you take that next pot upstairs and stay with Doc and Danny until we return?”
    Sarah sat down. “No pie for me, please. I’m not hungry.”
    “ Two pieces of pie,” Cord firmly reiterated as he poured out two mugs of coffee. He shoved one under Sarah’s nose. “Cream or sugar?”
    “Wh-what?” Sarah lifted a bewildered gaze to him. “What did you say?”
    Cord’s expression softened. “I said, do you want cream or sugar in your coffee?”
    “B-both please. Two spoonfuls of sugar.”
    He smiled. “Coffee as sweet as your disposition, eh?”
    The teasing lilt in his voice eased a little of Sarah’s tension. She watched him prepare her coffee then return it to her. “Not lately, I’m afraid.”
    She inhaled a long, ragged breath, then paused as Emma laid a huge piece of pie before her and folded her fingers around a fork. A small, grateful smile brightened Sarah’s face as she glanced up at the older woman. “Thank you.”
    “A clean plate when I return is all the thanks I need,” Emma whispered before hurrying from the kitchen with another pot of steaming water.
    Sarah watched the door swing closed in Emma’s wake, then turned back to the man sitting opposite her. “The medicine. Doc’s visit. I’ll find some way to pay you back.”
    His dark, hooded gaze rose from his mug of coffee. “Returning my money would more than repay what you owe.”
    “No.” She firmly shook her head. “It wouldn’t. Some of it’s already been spent. But I’ll do my best to return what’s left, if you give your word to leave my family out of it. And then I’ll pay you back for Danny, even if I have to work it off cleaning your house and washing your clothes for the next year.”
    Cord’s lips twitched as he set down his mug. “I appreciate your offer, but I’d rather just look upon what I’m doing for Danny as something one good neighbor does for another.”
    “Except that the Caldwells and Wainwrights aren’t good neighbors, and probably never will be.” The bone-weary slump to Sarah’s shoulders straightened, and a proud light flared in her eyes. “No, it’ll be as I said. I will pay you back, and I don’t want to hear another word about it.”
    “Suit yourself.” He paused. “You and your family really needed that money, didn’t you?”
    “Yes, we did.” Sarah eyed him cautiously, not certain where he was going with this potentially inflammatory topic. “Danny’s been sick so much these past years. Every time we managed to scrape up some money, it had to go for his medicines and doctor bills. It got to the point we were buying even necessities on credit, and finally the shops began refusing us any more. I tried everything, doing laundry, ironing, mending other people’s clothes, and Papa and my older brothers started taking odd jobs in between their mining, just to bring in extra money. But instead of getting better, things only seemed to get worse.”
    Her hand touched his. “But it was still wrong, no matter how desperate we were when we robbed you. I knew better. Sometimes, though, it’s easier to give in than keep on fighting to do what you know is right. And I’m ashamed to admit this was one time that I—”
    Suddenly realizing she was about to heap the blame on her father, Sarah clamped her mouth shut. Though it seemed she was always waging one battle or another with her sire over what was right and wrong, that was family business and not to be shared with others. As was her admission of finally caving in to her father’s demands that she assist them with the robbery.
    “What, Sarah?” Cord supplied when she hesitated. “That this was one time when your father finally browbeat you into helping him with yet another of his plots to avenge himself on us? Is that what you were going to say?”
    Anger swelled at his harsh if accurate appraisal, and she almost snapped back some cutting reply.