Free Ballad Beauty by Lauren Linwood Page B

explaining to you the current state of affairs.”
    “Thank you for that note of progress, ma’am. You can bring me up to date again in say, two weeks.” He swung a leg over and touched the ground. As much as he loved to ride, it always felt good to plant his feet on solid ground. He patted Star’s rump and walked around to Jenny.
    She wore a desperate look.
    “Having a problem, Miss McShanahan?” he drawled.
    Her lips formed a thin line. “I’m having trouble feeling my legs, that’s all. I fear they’ve gone to sleep.”
    “Let me give you a hand.”
    She took his hand and leaned forward, but nothing else happened.
    “I think I may need more help than a hand,” she confessed.
    He grinned. “That’s all you had to say.” He put his hands around her waist and set her on the ground. She promptly crumpled. He caught her and held her up as her legs wobbled unsteadily.
    Tears formed in her eyes. Oh, Lord, he’d be a lost soul if she cried. He’d always been a sucker for tears, his mama’s in particular, but any woman’s would do him in. Sometimes he thought women turned them on and off just to get his goat. But as he looked at her, he could see Jenny’s were real.
    Noah tried to think back on the first time he’d ridden a long distance. He recalled how stiff he was as he dismounted and how tired his bones felt, despite the fact that the horse had done all the work. His bottom had blisters rubbed on it, and he’d been miserable for a week. A pang of sympathy sprouted in him for Jenny’s predicament.
    She gripped his shoulders with fingers that seemed to be made of steel. He could feel her nails slice into him through both her gloves and his wool shirt. Damn, but he wanted to kiss her!
    “Miss McShanahan?”
    Her eyes met his. Fortunately, she held back the floodgate, but the tears swam in her eyes. He took a calming breath.
    “If you’ll let me carry you, I’ll take you over to that rock.” He motioned to it with his head. “I don’t think you’ll be walking there on your own between now and sunset.”
    She bit her lower lip and nodded slightly. He scooped her up and walked the few steps needed, concentrating hard on putting one foot in front of the other, doing his level-best not to think about the womanly package in his arms.
    “Now I’m going to set you on the rock, then I’d like to help rub some feeling back into your legs.”
    Most ladies would be appalled, but Jenny McShanahan looked grateful. He set her down as gently as he could and leaned back on his heels as he knelt before her.
    “May I take off your boots?”
    “Please,” she whispered. She hiked up her skirt a little so he could better maneuver the boot from her leg. He figured about now her bottom and her legs would start stinging as the feeling returned, so he kept up a constant conversation to distract her.
    “These are awfully nice boots, ma’am. Not quite what we have around here, but they’re nice all the same.”
    She grimaced as he began working the first one off. “They’re men’s boots.”
    He stopped and studied her.
    “Oh, go ahead. Don’t stop. My legs are starting to feel like I’ve fallen in a bed of pine needles and decided to dance in them.”
    “That kind of stabbing sensation?”
    “Yes!” she threw out as the first boot came off. “I have rather large feet for a woman. I suppose it’s because I’m so tall. I’ve always had trouble finding shoes. When Papa sent me some money to buy a few new things, I knew from Mr. Mulholland’s guidebook that I would need sturdy boots. The sales clerk told me that they made no sturdier—ouch!”
    “Sorry.” He eased off her woolen stockings and saw what she meant. She had feet longer than most men he knew, but they were perfectly shaped, each toe better than the one beside it.
    He handed her the stockings and began massaging her legs. She moaned a few times, and he began to grow hard. Oh, God Almighty, this would never do. Here he was in the middle of