Free Betrayal by Robin Lee Hatcher Page B

herself in the hay, and a half dozen newborn kittens were attached to the teats on her belly. Julia, kneeling on the floor of the loft, watched them from several feet away.
    “I don’t know where she came from. She isn’t feral, and she doesn’t seem to have missed too many meals. She let me pet her, and I even held one of the kittens. They must have been born today.”
    He knelt beside her. “They look like vermin.”
    “What a horrid thing to say. They’re beautiful.”
    Beautiful? That was not the term he would use to describe the newborn kittens. Not when they were tiny and hairless and their eyes stuck closed.
    “All new life is beautiful,” Julia said softly.
    He looked at her, saw the sweetness in her expression, seemed to catch a glimpse of her hopes and dreams. You’re the one who’s beautiful .
    As if she’d heard his thought, she looked up, their gazesmeeting. Her smile slowly faded. He wanted to bring it back but didn’t know how.
    She looked away. “Don’t you like cats, Hugh?” Her voice sounded strained.
    “They’re all right.” He’d have liked a cat in his prison cell, if only to keep down the population of rats and mice, but he couldn’t tell her that. “Can’t say as I was ever around them much.”
    “I had a cat when I was young. A stray that I found rummaging in the garbage behind the house where my mother and I lived.”
    You like to take in strays, don’t you, Julia? Alley cats. Thirsty strangers on horseback .
    Once again, she seemed to know what he was thinking. Her gaze returned to rest upon him, and in her eyes he saw the compassion she felt for any of God’s creatures in need. She’d befriended him as she’d befriended this cat and her kittens.
    Except Hugh didn’t have friends. Hadn’t had a friend since he was a boy. Then he’d had friends. Lots of them. Boys his own age who’d gotten into mischief with him, who’d teased their sisters just like he’d teased his own, who’d grown too tall for their pants the same way he had that last year before his mum died.
    At the memory, regret slammed into him. Regret for the innocence lost that could never be recovered. Regret for the life that might have been but could no longer be. If there was one thing he could undo about his past, he would change the day his father came to that farm in Nebraska. If he had it to do over, he would look Sweeney Brennan straight in the eye and refuse to go back to Chicago with him. Because from the moment he’d left that farm with his dad, he’d traveled a road leading straight to perdition. But how could a boy of fourteen know his own father would betray him in so many ways? Even now, in hindsight, it was hard to believe.
    No, a man like Hugh didn’t have friends. Especially not a woman as lovely and gentle as Julia Grace.
    He got to his feet. “I need to wash up.”
    “Hugh? Is something —”
    “Been a long, hot day.” He moved down the ladder and out of her sight.
    Julia sat back on her heels, her gaze returning to the cat and kittens. She’d offended Hugh in some way. She was sure of it. There’d been a moment when he looked at her that she’d thought … that she’d felt …
    She shook her head, not wanting to explore what she’d thought or what she’d felt.
    “What made you change your mind about me?”
    She didn’t know the answer to Hugh’s question anymore now than she had when he’d asked it. Not really. Maybe her change of mind had been the nudging of the Holy Spirit, an act of compassion. Maybe it had been out of desperation; she’d needed a ranch hand and he’d needed work. Or maybe there was something about Hugh —
    Julia stood quickly, more determined than ever to end such thoughts. “You need a bed, kitty. I’ll have to find you something.”
    The cat meowed, as if in agreement, before pulling one of the kittens up to her face and beginning to wash it with her tongue.
    Julia climbed down the ladder. Bandit immediately hopped to his feet and came to