Free Sarah Sunshine: A Montana Romance Novella by Merry Farmer Page A

learning from me?”
    “Well,” Sarah began, “you said that you wanted to offer me your godly instructions in an effort to make me a respectable woman.  I’ve come to tell you that I would still very much like that instruction.”
    “Sarah,” Roy whispered, taking a step toward her.  A second later he stopped himself.  Delilah’d told him to keep his trap shut.  She’d told him to support Sarah in whatever she wanted to do.  He frowned.  There was no way in hell this is what Delilah’d had in mind.
    “I will not allow an unrepentant prostitute to live under my roof,” Miss Jones said.  Of all things, Roy found himself on her side.
    “I’m not asking to live under your roof, Miss Jones,” Sarah went on, worrying Roy senseless.  “I’m just asking you to let me come here every day, to learn from you about the ways of honest people.”
    Miss Jones stared at her, stock still.  She looked like an owl perched on the top of a barn, staring at a field mouse.  It was clear to Roy that the rusty gears in the old biddy’s mind had ground into action.  “Is that so?” she said.
    “Yes, ma’am.”  Sarah nodded.  She took a daring step onto the first porch stair.  Roy clenched his jaw hard to stop himself from running after her and dragging her back.  “There ain’t no one in town more upright and respectable than you, ma’am,” she went on.  “If anyone can show me the straight and narrow, it’s you.”
    “That is true.”  The thin line on Miss Jones’s ugly mug that might’ve been a mouth tipped up at the corners.
    “Folks look up to you,” Sarah continued.  “If they see that you’ve taken me under your wing, why they might understand that I’m well and truly done with my old life.”
    The line of Miss Jones’s mouth spread wider.  “It’s possible.”
    “And if I learn to be honorable and respectable and godly, like you, maybe some fine gentleman might see me as good enough to become his wife.”
    Roy wasn’t sure if he imagined her raising her voice a hair and scooching her head to the side to peek at him. 
    “Men are nothing but trouble, girl.”  Miss Jones shook her finger like a schoolmarm.  “You’d do best to stay away from them entirely.”
    “Yes, ma’am,” Sarah said, though with less enthusiasm this time.  It was all Roy could do not to march up to the porch and carry her away.  But he couldn’t.  This was clearly what she wanted.  And Delilah had said-
    “What about that one?”  Miss Jones scowled and pointed a finger down the lane right at Roy.  “I won’t have nothing to do with a hussy that has her minion following her around.”
    “Now see here-”
    Roy clamped his mouth shut without defending himself.  What Sarah wanted, he told himself.  What Sarah wanted .
    “I was just passing by, doing errands,” he ground out the excuse.
    For a fraction of a heartbeat he thought he saw a smile touch Sarah’s lips.
    “Roy don’t mean no harm,” she said.  “He’s opening his hotel soon, so he’s much too busy to want anything to do with me.”  She didn’t sound pleased about it.  “And besides,” Sarah went on, “It was Mr. Sutcliffe who made me think about coming back to you.  He speaks so highly of you, ma’am, and I do believe it would please him to see me under your tutelage.”
    Roy’s heart dropped like a hot rock to his gut.  That was why she was doing this?  To please Paul Sutcliffe?  He would show that no good, son-of-a-
    But no, he had to keep calm.  He had to support Sarah.  He had to keep his mouth shut.
    Dammit.
    “I think it’s a right fine idea,” he forced himself to say, the words as bitter as sin in his mouth.
    They were worth it when Sarah turned to smile at him.  Though how she could be so pleased to be doing something so foolhardy was beyond him.
    Miss Jones watched the interaction between them with a grin that Roy didn’t like at all.  She  tapped one long finger against her thin lips.  The