Free Sleigh Bells & Mistletoe: A Short Story (The Brides Series 1.5) by Lena Goldfinch Page B

dangerous... Not nearly as dangerous as Annie expected he wanted people to believe, which was curious.
    Annie looked from one to the other: father, daughter. She was hungry too. She didn’t know quite what to expect if there were to be apples, crackers, or cheese. Would he buy some for her too? She didn’t have two cents to rub together. Not even one, truth be told.
    She cleared her throat, and when he glanced at her, she quickly placed a hand over her stomach before he could hide back under his hat again.
    He nodded. After a few seconds, he seemed to get a bit agitated, rubbing his knees, tapping the heel of one boot, which set the spur jangling, making a tinkling metallic sound. He tugged his hat down more securely over his eyes, when it would have been more polite to take the thing off inside the car, Annie would’ve thought.
    When he stood abruptly, she jerked a bit in surprise. The puppy and Mae looked up at him too, every one of them expectant, herself included.
    “Come along, Mae,” he said, reaching down a hand toward her, inviting her to take it and follow him, no doubt. “Let’s go find the porter. Maybe he’ll have something for us.”
    But now that he indicated he was going in search of food, the little girl immediately turned her attention to the puppy again, sliding to the very end of her seat and pointing her toes across the space between them. Her shoes lay on the floor. She must have kicked them off. For her part, the puppy was stretching as far as she could on the end of her chain, using its support to lean out farther than she could have otherwise. Her nose evidently tickled Mae’s toes, for the little girl smiled, delighted, and stretched father—so far Annie feared she was going to topple off the edge of her seat.
    “I stay,” Mae said to her father, shooting an impish grin at him. Adorable. Irresistible.
    Jem hesitated, clearly torn. If he went on his own, Annie figured he could move much faster, going from car to car. But he probably didn’t want to leave her alone with Annie. Not that she blamed him. What did he know about her, a stranger?
    Finally he seemed to come to a decision, for he heaved out a breath and squared his shoulders.
    “All right then, stay,” he said. “I’ll see if I can find the porter.” Before he left, he leaned down and whispered in Annie’s ear, his beard tickling her cheek. His nearness stirred up a strange awareness in her, not entirely unpleasant, not like when Danny tried to sidle up next to her. With Jem it was more like bacon sizzling nicely in a fry pan, even with that furry beard and the hat pulled down low over his eyes. Maybe because she’d decided she could trust him.
    “If he comes by here—finds you—you need to stay put,” he said, an order. He was obviously used to be listened to. “Don’t even look at him. He has no rights over you. Understand?”
    She nodded, surprised. He was worried about her ?
    “If he tries to touch you or Mae or the dog, I want you to scream as loud as you can and don’t stop. Can you do that—can you scream?”
    She nodded, embarrassed that he had to ask. She could make any number of truly awful screeching noises, loud as could be if she needed to.
    “Okay, good. I don’t think he’ll try anything here on the train, not really. Too many people. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.” He stood and took an assessing look around their car. Apparently satisfied, he told Mae, “You wait here.” He glanced down at Annie again to get her commitment to stand watch over his daughter. She sat up straighter and nodded.
    He hesitated, clearly torn.
    Annie tried to fix her most trustworthy face on. Go on . She waved him away. I’ll watch the wee one .
    Maybe it was hard to trust her in all her filth—or maybe he was still worried about the man coming to look for them—because he hesitated one more moment. Then he stalked off, as if intent on getting where he was going and back as quickly as possible. She saw him