Free The Outlaw Bride by Kelly Boyce Page B

skin, setting it on fire.
    “What about you?”
    His head gave an almost imperceptible shake, his gaze searing hers. “I have no intention of getting cut up.”
    For some reason, Katherine had the sense he was not talking about the glass on the floor, but then he looked away and whatever emotions she thought she’d seen were quickly locked up.
    He strode through the kitchen and into the main room, not stopping until he reached the doorway to her bedroom. His foot kicked the door open, barely breaking his stride. Then he unceremoniously dumped her in a heap atop the soft feather mattress.
    He didn’t stay. “Change your clothes,” he said. The surliness had returned. “I’ll clean up the mess.”
    “I—I can do it,” she called after his retreating back. He didn’t answer, closing the bedroom door and leaving her behind to stare at the four walls and wonder what the hell had just happened.

Chapter Six
    Katherine’s first week passed in a blur of activity. Plenty of work needed to be done from dusting to scrubbing to the laundry. The latter alone took two straight days. Only now did she see an end in sight as she wrung the water from one of Jenny’s dresses, her arms numb from the strain. Connor had offered to take it into town to be done, but Katherine insisted she could do it. She needed to redeem herself. To prove her worth. Already she could see Connor eyeing her as if he’d made a huge mistake that needed rectifying.
    She couldn’t afford to lose this job. She didn’t even want to think what would happen if she couldn’t repay the Hewitts their blasted money. No doubt they would lynch her in the middle of town. Probably even sell tickets to the affair to recoup their losses.
    Her nerves had eased somewhat with seven days passing and no sign or word from Hannah Stockdale. But the possibility of her showing in the future always lurked in the back of Katherine’s mind like a ticking clock, reminding her she walked on a very narrow edge, and that one wrong move could send her toppling over into an abyss.
    This little family was her one link to finding Grant Langston’s girl, whoever and wherever she might be. She had tried each evening to get Connor to talk to her about his family, but it was like conversing with a stone wall.
    Last night proved no different. She had met with the same lack of success as every evening before that.
    “And Jenny is your only family?” she’d asked Connor.
    He’d nodded and then shoved a mouthful of baked beans into his mouth, likely hoping she would stop asking questions and leave him alone to eat in peace.
    The man was harder to crack than a bank vault. “No mother, father, or siblings living elsewhere?”
    His eyes had drifted over to the silent little girl and a niggling voice in Katherine’s head told her to pay attention. There was something in Connor’s expression, something lingering just beneath the surface she couldn’t quite read. But she silenced the voice with a forceful shove to the background. Jenny was Connor’s daughter. Not Grant’s. If she was Grant’s then that would mean—
    No. She wouldn’t allow her mind to go there; to contemplate the notion her husband had left a little girl orphaned. She couldn’t. Her life wasn’t worth the price paid.
    Besides, Jenny and Connor hadn’t even been in Fatal Bluff at the time of Grant’s death. They’d arrived afterward. But every attempt she made to discover something about his life that extended beyond these four walls was met with a change of subject or an answer so vague it meant nothing and led nowhere.
    “You got any more of them biscuits?”
    Katherine forced a smile. She got up from the table and placed several biscuits on a plate before returning to her seat and setting it in front of Connor like an offering, hoping to soften him toward her.
    “Where are your people from originally?”
    “Here and there.”
    His lack of detail was astounding. His ability to answer each one of her questions