Free The Trailrider's Fortune by Shannah Biondine

awakened
moments before Ruby Ann's arrival. Rafe was still sleeping, thanks to the heavy
dose of laudanum she persuaded him to drink just before dawn.
    "Don't it
scare you, him goin' up against desperadoes like that?" Ruby set the tray
on the dresser and glanced back at the sleeping form in the bed.
    "Yes, Ruby. It
scares the hell out of me."
    Ruby rubbed her
chin nervously. "Listen, you know enough to use a preventative, right? It
wouldn't be sensible to get knocked up. Little one growin' up without a father
case he got himself killed, ma workin' in a dump for some greedy bastard like
Benton. Give him this if you ain't already wearin' protection."
    Ruby produced an
indescribable bit of something too disgusting to contemplate after just waking.
Sparkle wasn't sure she'd ever be awake enough to want to look at it. Bad
enough having the slimy object in her palm. "Finest sheepgut," Ruby
asserted proudly.
    "Sheepgut."
Sparkle decided it was best to pretend she had full knowledge of what men and
women did with animal parts in the bedroom. "Gee, uh, thanks. I'm still
sort of tired. Maybe we can visit later."
    She pushed Ruby out
and locked the door before burying the indelicate offering in the back of a
drawer. She took up her hairbrush and ran it through her hair, surprised to
find Rafe sitting up, watching her.
    "Sparkle,
would you tell me somethin'?"
    "Not about
what I just tucked away. It's personal." Her cheeks burned, but Rafe didn't
smirk. He seemed troubled or in pain. Before she could ask, he spoke again.
    "Why'd you get
upset over a bullet gougin' a little piece out of my arm, when this doesn't
bother you?" He glanced down at his bare torso.
    "I didn't know
you then. I'm sure I would have been…" Out of her mind with grief and
terror. "Don't try to tell me I'm stupid for being upset," she
snapped. "A few inches over, that bullet could have killed you."
    Rafe snorted.
"Bowlegs Barker couldn't hit a bull's ass with a handful of banjos. He was
aimin' for my heart, hit my arm instead."
    "Damn you,
Rafe, the point is, he did hit you!"
    "Lucky wild
shot."
    "Next time you
might not be alive to say that. Are you really so impressed by your own
reputation that you don't realize sooner or later one of these men you go up
against will be more ruthless or faster than you are?" She sat next to him
on the mattress, legs tented under her nightgown.
    "Naw, I know.
Hope to be standin' in my own saloon by the time I meet up with that
fella."
    "You're
risking your life to buy a saloon?"
    Rafe heard the
sharp disapproval in her tone. "Is that lunch over there?" He eyed
the tray, hoping to shift the topic. Sparkle brought it over and placed it
between them, tucking her legs back under. Rafe was reminded of Miranda. He and
his big sister had shared tea parties until he'd wised up that it wasn't
considered manly to drink from little toy cups.
    "Yeah, I want
to buy a saloon," he admitted, stuffing cold turkey into his mouth.
"Or build one."
    "Your
brother's got a ranch. Why don't you work with him?"
    "Now you sound
like Travis. Cattle ranchin' ain't for me. Dust, cows. No thanks. Even when I
can't see the barbed wire, I know it's there. Don't like bein' fenced in or
starin' at the same plot of land day after day. This room's hard, now I see how
small it is in the daylight."
    "You don't
like being confined," Sparkle nodded, chewing thoughtfully. "Well,
there must be other things you could do. Some profession where you'd still be
able to go outdoors or move around from place to place. Maybe become a sales
agent."
    "I like what I
do now. Like saloons and gamblin', wanderin' from town to town when I feel like
it. If I didn't, we wouldn't be havin' this conversation, Miz Conley."
    "You're
hinting I don't have the right to nag you."
    "Amen."
    "Well, as I'm
not really your wife, maybe I don't have the right to nag—but I'm the closest
thing you've got to anyone who gives a hoot. Other than your brother."
    "Got a big
sister, too. She's never liked my