Free Beloved Texas Bride by Ginny Sterling

The thought kept churning in Cole’s brain as he set off to inspect the rest of the property. He had awoken early and left the house quickly to keep from waking his guest. He had no problems helping a person in need, but now that he had slept, he had time to think about the repercussions of having a single, lone woman in his house. He was breaking out in a sweat at just the thought. Oh, she was pretty all right, that was never the issue. He had thought she was stunning from the very beginning of the trip. It was the idea that he may be being played by a woman into being forced into making her into an honest woman.
    An honest woman he rescued from a whore house.  
    He slapped his forehead and rubbed his eyes. Was he blind? Could he be so stupid? Was this a game she had been playing and did she play the ingénue so very well that he had been completely fooled? He felt he was saving her, but what if she had counted on him doing just that? How had she known about the whore house and had she really believed that the nannyhouse was for children? Could she be that naïve?
Could he
?
      During their travels, he had watched her repeatedly, catching a glimpse of personality here and there when she let her guard down. Other times, he would watch her movements as she would take a short walk or stretch when they were let out of the coach. Each time she was free of the coach, she was graceful and elegant. Weren’t most courtesans? He had wondered why a lone woman was traveling across the country and he assumed she was running from someone… maybe she was running because she could not be seen in society.
      Cole had already fallen into a trap. If she was looking for a husband, there was no way he could get out of it if she cried wolf stating that he had his way with her. It was too late for him and if not, he would take her to the closest home for women or a convent. He would prefer to have an extra set of hands on the ranch, but that meant making sure there were plenty of people around…and without knowing where everyone had run off to, it would make things difficult. When she awoke, they needed to talk.
     
     
    Elizabeth woke to the sunlight streaming in the window above her bed. Stretching and languishing for a few minutes, she listened for any sounds coming from the house. Taking her time, she stretched once again, feeling the cool sheets caress her sore body. Everything ached and several spots were extremely tender. Who knew travel would be so tough on the body? She felt as if she had walked from Indianapolis all the way to Fort Worth and grinned as she pictured what it would do to her boots. Imagining her toes wiggling in large holes, she giggled aloud at the picture.
    Elizabeth shook her head to dispel the silly imagery and listened for Cole. Silence filled her ears along with a few faint birdcalls. She rose and moved about the room in her chemise as she padded over to her bag that lay at the foot of the bed. Digging deeper in the bag, she searched for any item of clothing that was presentable or somewhat clean. It seemed that the very dust from the road had seeped through the material and everything had a tinge of dirt to it. Looking down, the chemise she donned last night had a tinge of dust to it. Even her clean items had signs of smudging where it had rubbed against the material of her bag. Still cleaner than when compared to the clothes she had worn though! Her stockings were in atrocious condition and she shivered at the thought of putting herself back into them. Shrugging, she opted to go without-promising silently to herself to wash them immediately so they would be wearable once again.
      She nudged the filthy shirt and dress with her toe as if expecting something to crawl out or for a bit of dirt to fall from the folds of the fabric. She left her chemise on and managed to wrangle herself back into the corset she had worn. Lacing it, she winced as the spots rubbed raw were once again subjected to the whalebone that