Free Behind His Blue Eyes by Kaki Warner Page B

seeped into her bones since they had moved into the gloomy cabin finally began to fade.
    She was ready for an outing. Judging by the other smiling faces in the buggy, they were all looking forward to a day away from their cramped quarters.
    Hoping to prepare them—and herself—for the day ahead, Audra related to the Abrahams what Lucinda had told her about the other guests.
    Winnie was aghast. “A Southern white woman with a mixed blood sister? Laws, I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in that house, sure enough.”
    Curtis seemed more concerned about how the man who’d been hanged had escaped, while Audra still puzzled over the orphan from the brothel. Through the process of elimination, she guessed Lucinda. But that didn’t fit with the elegant manners and reserved demeanor. Plus, there wasn’t the faintest trace of Ireland in her cultured voice. Strange, the things that catch people’s notice.
    She found herself anticipating the day with more excitement than she had expected. But it wasn’t until she stopped the buggy at the back stoop of the hotel and Ethan Hardesty came out to assist her that she realized how much she had looked forward to seeing him again, too.
    He was more formally dressed today than he’d been at the cabin when they’d had that heated conversation. Hatless, clad in a dark frock coat, a burgundy brocade vest over a pressed white shirt, and a narrow black tie around his banded collar, he looked quite handsome. He was also freshly shaven. Without the dark stubble, he looked less roguish and more civilized.
    Except for that teasing light in his arresting blue eyes.
    â€œGood morning, Miss Audra,” he said, reaching up to lift her down.
    â€œPearsall.” When she felt his long fingers slide around her waist, she mentally berated herself for not wearing a corset. As soon as her toes touched ground, she tried to step back. But he continued to hold her, the heat of his broad palms radiating through the thin fabric of her Sunday-best green dimity.
    â€œYou look quite fetching today, my dear.”
    My dear?
“Thank you,” she murmured to the top button on his vest.
    â€œYou should wear that dress often. It brings out the green in your eyes.”
    â€œMy eyes are hazel.” Her heart hammered so hard she thought surely he could hear it. Why had he called her “my dear”?
    â€œHazel?” He tipped his head to see under the brim of her bonnet. “So they are. Except when you wear green.” Laughing softly, he took his hands away.
    The man must have been a terrible tease as a child.
    Feeling oddly light-headed, Audra turned to assist Father.
    But Mr. Hardesty was already there, and before she could gather her wits, he had them all moving through the back hallway of the hotel and into the lobby where a small crowd stood talking. Apparently, they were the last to arrive.
    As Lucinda made introductions, Audra put Ethan Hardesty from her mind and concentrated on connecting the names and Lucinda’s descriptions to each face.
    Edwina Brodie was the most obvious because of her Southern accent and the baby in her arms. Her hulking husband, Declan Brodie, was easy to remember, too, because of the badge peeking from beneath the lapel of his dark coat and the children gathered around him, the oldest of whom, R.D., was his spitting image.
    Thomas Redstone she already knew, and the brown-skinned woman beside him must have been Edwina’s half sister, Prudence Lincoln. Even with the discolored skin on her wrist from a long-ago scalding, she was the most beautiful woman Audra had ever seen.
    The final introduction was to Tait Rylander, Lucinda’s husband. An elegant man with intense gray eyes, an engaging smile, and the scar from an old rope burn just above his starched collar.
    â€œIs it time for my lecture, Mary?” Father asked. “Is that why they’re here?”
    The Heartbreak Creek misfits. It promised to