Free Molly Noble Bull by The Winter Pearl

again and patted the animal’s swollen belly. “Don’t you just love babies?”
    “I like colts. They make me money.”
    “Always money.” She turned and smiled at him again. “What about human babies? Wouldn’t you like to have one?”
    “I never gave it much thought,” he said, knowing it was another lie. “Harriet couldn’t have no children.”
    “I can. At least, I hope I can.”
    Lucas tensed. “Are you—are you in the family way, Ruby?”
    “Not yet. But I’d like to be.” She moved toward him and put her arms around his neck. “Will you marry me, Lucas?” She beamed up at him. “You always said you would. Someday. And someday is here. Please, Lucas, say yes.”
    “You know better than to pen me in, Ruby. I’ve been penned up for too long as it is.” He took hold of her arms and removed them from around his neck. “I don’t want to get married.”
    To you, he thought.
    “Don’t say that!” Ruby covered her mouth with the palms of her hands. “Not now!”
    Lucas tensed. “The only thing I want is a good shot of whiskey.”
    “But you promised…”
    “I don’t want you, Ruby. You can’t have no babies. If you could, you would have had a couple by now.”
    Her eyes widened. “How can you say such a cruel thing?”
    “’Cause it’s true.”
    Her mouth turned down at the edges. The softness he’d seen in her face a few minutes earlier vanished. Slowly, her jaw tightened. She looked hard, yet strong…and beautiful.
    Anger boiled inside him, threatening to bubble up. His face and neck heated quicker than a kettle on a hot stove. Didn’t Ruby know enough to back away while she had the chance?
    “What makes you so sure I’m the one who can’t have children?” she taunted. “Did you ever wonder if maybe it’s you, Lucas? Maybe if Harriet and I had been with a real man, we could have had all the babies we wanted.”
    He stiffened. His hands became fists.
    Ruby screamed. “Don’t!” She got down on her knees. “Please, Lucas! Don’t hit me.”
    He wanted to. Oh, how he wanted to. After what she had said, she deserved it. And yet…
    His chest heaving with suppressed rage, Lucas turned toward his mare. The muscles in his face were as stiff as iron. Slowly, he saddled his horse.
    When he’d mounted, he looked down. Ruby rocked back and forth on the ground, crying.
    “Goodbye, Ruby. And thank you kindly for a mighty fine meal.” He pulled out the flask and held it up for her to see. “Thanks for the whiskey, too.”
    Lucas took a swig from the flask. Then he turned his mare toward Hearten and rode away.
    He would sell the items that had belonged to Harriet. Honor didn’t deserve them after what she did. Besides, heneeded money. Otherwise, he might need to find a temporary job before going all the way to Pine Falls.
     
    Jeth didn’t feel like sitting in the parlor on one of his mother’s ornate, store-bought chairs while he waited to hear what Dr. Harris had to say about Honor. Pacing back and forth in the entry hall in front of the double doors, he paused only long enough to check his pocket watch.
    He thought of Honor’s letter—the one he had discovered on the desk near the door. What if he hadn’t noticed it in time? She could have died—frozen to death in the icy rain.
    Miss McCall could still be seriously hurt and might need weeks to recuperate. Yet she’d written him a thank-you letter before wandering off in the cold. She must be one of those modern girls he’d been reading about in the newspaper.
    The reporter had written, “These young ladies will feel more comfortable in the twentieth century when it finally arrives than they ever felt in the nineteenth.”
    Jeth headed for the kitchen. He respected Honor’s independent spirit, but to his way of thinking, her judgment was misguided.
    He poured himself a cup of coffee, sat down at the table and looked around. Where was the doctor? Jeth drummed the fingers of one hand on the table. The man should have