Free An Unwilling Husband by Tera Shanley Page B

look at him. “I don’t flounce. And anyway, I don’t need your money. I have a bit of my own. It’s not much but it should cover a few dresses.”
    “Suit yourself,” he said. “I’ve got to talk to Burke and try to find Cookie. You ladies go on ahead and I’ll catch up. I’m taking you home.”
    * * * *
    Sitting outside the dress shop astride his restless mount and watching through the large window, Garret fumed. He’d mistaken how long it took women to shop for dresses, and by a long shot. He’d already talked to Burke and Cookie about heading home, which should have given Maggie plenty of time to be in and out of the dressmaker’s shop. They should have been on the road already. Long ago, damn it.
    She saw him waiting, by the furtive looks she darted at the window, and if the way she stuck her prim little chin in the air as she spoke to the dressmaker was any indication, chose to ignore his glares. Thunderous looks, if his reflection in the window had any merit.
    Lenny had escaped to her horse shortly after he’d arrived, which likely had more to do with her withering under the portly dressmaker’s cold stare, and less to do with the tedium of dress shopping. Did Maggie think the same? From the way she snapped peevish, one-word sentences at the woman who was trying to extract gossip from her, she must have.
    When Maggie finally came out of the dressmaker’s shop with three brown paper wrapped dresses, he was minutes from losing his mind and dragging her from the shop. If she’d thought to teach him patience, she hadn’t succeeded.
    “Took you long enough,” he muttered while she untied her horse from the hitching post.
    She ignored him and mounted Buck. While he put the wrapped dresses into their saddle bags, she waited, lips pressed in a line. Now she had nothing to say?
    Without another word, he kicked his horse and turned him down Main Street toward the Lazy S.
    “Your manners really are atrocious,” Maggie sang after him.
    Though he couldn’t resist throwing her a steely glare, he held his tongue. The woman was a burr under his skin, and maybe it would annoy her. No woman had ever been so irritating. “Only fifty years to go,” he groused.
     

 
    Chapter 6
     
    Maggie held back on the ride home to the Lazy S because Garret made it obvious he didn’t feel like talking to her. He focused instead on Lenny and asked her questions in her language, which she answered minimally.
    Unexpected tenderness warmed her for the way he treated the Indian girl. After the stares and rude mutterings from the townspeople, Garret was a stark contrast. She hadn’t seen him treat Cookie or Lenny differently than any of the other people who worked for him on the Lazy S. If anything, he went to Cookie more often than anyone else for tasks he wanted to get done right the first time. How had they become such a pivotal part of daily life at the ranch? For the hundredth time, she wished fervently that she could communicate with her new friend.
    Lenny turned in her saddle, glanced at her and nodded her head up to Garret, who led the way on his chestnut stallion. The girl was right; she was wasting precious time, and Garret would have no excuse not to listen to her out in this wilderness.
    She kicked Buck and pulled him up beside Garret. He must have caught the movement out of the corner of his eye because he turned a surprised look on her.
    “You seem better in the saddle,” he said. “More comfortable. You been riding while we were away?”
    It was as close to a compliment as he had ever given her, and she was pleased as punch. But was he teasing, though?
    No, his expression appeared genuine. The hard glints of anger had left his eyes. “Lenny and I have been riding around the ranch every day. It truly is beautiful out there.”
    Garret nodded, and silence blanketed them again.
    Dear Lord, now how to start up a conversation with a man who could barely tolerate her? Small was best, perhaps. “What is your horse’s