Free High Mountain Drifter by Jillian Hart

the window by the door and peered out into the deepening shadows. A few stray, fallen leaves rattled across the porch, driven by the hard wind. Rain beat against the side of the house with a vengeance. And somewhere in that vast, growing dark was Zane Reed.
    Zane. She couldn't explain the tug on her heart, how she felt for him out there in the cold. She couldn’t explain why she felt something for him at all.

 
    Chapter Six

     
    It felt good to be out of the house again, even if it was only on the way to town. Verbena gripped her cane, breathed in the morning air, a little rainy, but it smelled like late autumn. The mix of cold, snowy mountain air, wood smoke curling from the many chimneys on their way through town, and wet, damp fallen leaves.
    She'd spent half the night sleeping fitfully, her senses fully tuned for any slight sound out of the ordinary, and the rest of it wide awake, staring at the ceiling. So she yawned again, covering her mouth with her gloved hand, and leaned back against the cushioned buckboard seat.
    "That's the third one this morning," Iris commented beside her. "I'm concerned about you. You're not sleeping, are you?"
    "No," she said lightly, not wanting Iris to worry. Honestly, what she'd been through was small compared to what Iris endured. "I couldn't sleep at all and it's Magnolia's fault."
    "Not mine!" Magnolia denied playfully from the front seat where she reined sweet Marlowe down the road toward the church. "I slept like a rock."
    "Which was the problem," Rose pointed out, full of mischief. "You're a snorter, Mags."
    "A big snorter," Verbena confirmed. "No one can get a good night's sleep with you snorting away."
    "Says the mumbler," Magnolia countered brightly. "Besides, I don't snort all that loudly. I hardly ever wake myself up."
    "At least you'll be moving into your own room in a few days," Iris said, the sensible one, as the buckboard rolled to a stop. "As soon as Tyler's crew finishes the last touches on the room at the end of the hall, we can move you in."
    "It won't be a minute too soon," Rose teased as she launched off the seat and stepped around a mud puddle. "Finally, for the first time in my life, I'll be able to sleep without the covers over my head."
    "No snorting," Verbena agreed, scooting to the edge of the seat. "I don't know how I'll get through the night with it so quiet."
    "But I will miss you talking in your sleep," Magnolia said fondly as she climbed down from the front seat. "Just think of a room all to myself. It's exciting, plus it's starting to sink in that we're really home. Home to stay."
    "Until you get married," a woman's voice said from the front lawn. Their aunt Aumaleigh gave a little wave, elegantly gorgeous in a navy wool coat and matching hat. The shade brought out her striking bluebonnet blue eyes and enhanced the shine in her mahogany hair, not yet touched by gray. Although in her early fifties, she stood slim and willowy. "I can't believe we have two weddings to plan."
    "Please, I'm not quite ready for that." Magnolia blushed happily, though. "I'm still getting used to being engaged, it's too new. I can't think about a wedding yet."
    "Then I guess we'll have to start planning Daisy's." Aumaleigh's lovely heart-shaped face blushed with pleasure at the idea. "Speaking of Daisy, I thought she was going to come this morning."
    "That's what we heard too," Iris spoke up, circling around the front of the vehicle and horse to join Aumaleigh on the wet lawn. "She was going to bring little Hailie with her."
    "I hope that they're lateness doesn't mean Beckett took a turn for the worse." Concern dug little lines around the corners of Aumaleigh's mouth. "If they don't come, I may leave you girls and head out there, with Beckett's condition still so serious."
    "One of us will come with you too, to help," Verbena spoke up, already concerned too. "Just in case."
    All around her, the cowboys dismounted. Burton, in charge, scanning the street, churchyard. Kellan,