Free The Cowboy and the Princess by Myrna Mackenzie

spoil things for her.
    A low, rumbling sound intruded, the clearing of a gravelly throat. “Owen, we’ve been patient. We waited our turn. Now come on and introduce us to the lady,” someone next to Owen’s elbow said. Owen turned around to see a crowd of older men he had known most of his life. Friends of his father’s and now friends of his. They were smiling and preening like a bunch of peacocks. And Owen noticed that Dave Ollington—not an older man but a young and handsome one—was part of their group. Dave wasn’t preening. He was positively salivating.
    Immediately Owen shifted, blocking part of Dave’s view.
    “The lady—” Owen began.
    “I’m Delfyne, a visitor and house help at the ranch,” she said with a smile.
    “House help?” one of the men said. “Does that mean Lydia finally has some time on her hands?”
    Owen did a double take at the interest in Ben Whitcliff’s voice. Lydia was a widow. To Owen, she was practically family, but he had no idea what her social life consisted of. Did she date? Did she want to date?
    “Oh, yes, I’m sure Lydia has time on her hands,” Delfyne was saying to Ben. “Or, at least, I intend to make sure she has some. Owen feels the same, don’t you?”
    He fought to hold back his grin. He wondered if she had anyidea that most maids didn’t call their employers by their first names and treat them like old friends. Maybe she thought people in small towns who weren’t royalty operated under different rules with the hired help. Or maybe the princess beneath the maid was struggling to stay locked away.
    “I’ll make sure Lydia has enough time off to do whatever she wants and needs to do,” he said.
    “I’m going to work extra hard to help her with the house,” Delfyne added. “That’s going to be so much fun.”
    Dave chuckled. “You are absolutely charming, Delfyne.”
    She smiled at the handsome man and Owen had a ridiculous urge to dig his elbow into Dave’s stomach. Hard. “Thank you,” Delfyne said.
    “You never took Lydia out to lunch,” Harlan Bonnet noted.
    Delfyne opened her mouth and Owen just knew that she was going to declare that he would be taking Lydia out from now on. The woman certainly knew how to issue decrees.
    “Delfyne’s new to town,” Owen said, trying to avoid trouble. “Now and then she’ll have to run errands for Lydia, so she needs to know where everything is,” he added. It was sort of the truth.
    At that moment a waitress delivered their food, and the group began to slowly shuffle away. “So…where did you say you were from, sweet thing?” Dave asked.
    Immediately, Delfyne turned. The smile was gone from her face and she looked troubled.
    “Her name’s not sweet thing,” Owen warned. “And she’s under my care. Remember that. I’ll expect you to respect my—”
    My what? Owen thought. What had Delfyne told Molly she was? Both a guest and an employee? It was only a small lie and yet…already this crazy situation had him lying, or at least hiding the truth. Anger sliced through him. Too much of his life had been ruined by lies and expectations that couldn’t be met.
    Dave looked more than a little miffed. “I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful, Owen. I was being interested. Everyone knows that you’re not interested in relationships, so you don’t have anything to offer a woman, but some of us do.”
    Which was a total crock. Dave had never offered a woman more than a few months of fun as far as Owen could tell, but he wasn’t going to trade relationship stories with Dave, now or ever, especially since that would only draw attention to Delfyne and start a buzz that might never die down.
    He ignored Dave until the man went away. Then he and Delfyne ate their meal in silence. When they left the restaurant she asked if she could take a minute to buy shoes.
    His eyes opened wide. “Shoes? You want to go shoe shopping in Bigsby?” For certain there weren’t any stores that sold designer shoes here. And