Free Promise Me Texas (A Whispering Mountain Novel) by JODI THOMAS Page B

She sounded as cheery as if they were heading on a picnic.
    Andrew lowered his hat over his face and slid down, using his saddle to rest on. Two or three days on the road with a half-dead cowboy and two kids. Not his idea of an outing. So much for being alone with her. “I think we’re about loaded to capacity.”
    As the wagon picked up speed, he heard a scream and raised his hat. His first thought was that maybe the young cowboy fell out of the back of the wagon, but the pile of blankets hadn’t moved.
    A chubby girl of about fifteen darted out of a café and jumped up on the bench with the two boys. She carried a pillowcase pack and a basket of hot rolls. Near as Andrew could tell she couldn’t talk, but she had no problem laughing and squealing.
    “We have three children?” Andrew asked, wondering if the day could get any stranger.
    “Yes, dear,” Beth answered. “Only, I should tell you that the boys are really little knights on a quest to find their wandering father.”
    “Of course they are.” Andrew had spent his childhood reading fiction, but he’d never met a woman who lived it. Now, apparently, she’d found kinsmen overnight while he slept. If they didn’t get out of town fast, he’d be traveling in a caravan.
    The sheriff showed up to see that they made it out of town and congratulated Andrew for giving the children a ride. He said his guess was that the petty crime in his town would drop with the Hawthorne boys gone.
    By the time the houses faded, Andrew had fallen asleep on his saddlebags. Tucked away inside were his journals, his life in words, the one thing that would keep him company when all the people he met left him.
    Only right now his world seemed a very crowded place.

CHAPTER 7

    B Y NOON B ETH’S BACK ACHED, BUT THERE WAS NO ONE to complain to. She loved riding and could easily stay in the saddle all day, but she’d never liked traveling in a wagon. She’d learned to drive one when she made trips back and forth to town with her older sisters. One of them usually drove, just as one of them usually carried the list of supplies they needed to pick up as well as the rifle for protection. Baby Bethie had been a grown woman before she’d ever driven alone to town, and then half the ranch seemed to worry until she was back safe and sound.
    She was the little one, the pretty one, the one everybody spoiled. Maybe that was why no man was ever good enough for her. Finally, Senator Lamont LaCroix seemed to fit the bill. He was rich, powerful, and able to give her everything.
    Tears blurred Beth’s vision as she stared straight ahead at the road. She hated who she was . . . what she was. A woman so shallow she’d been taken in by a man like Lamont. Her mother was a strong woman. Strong enough to travel with three tiny girls to join Teagan McMurray in Texas. Her sisters were strong. Even both of her aunts stood equal with their husbands. Only Bethie, the baby of the clan, seemed to always need someone else to plan for her, someone to entertain her, someone to save her. Even her three little brothers thought they should take their turn watching over her.
    “You crying, lady?” Levi asked as he stepped around a sleeping Andrew and climbed onto the bench seat. He thought it his duty every hour to make sure Colby wasn’t dead.
    “No,” Beth lied. “How’s our young cowboy in the back?”
    “Breathing.” Levi shrugged. “He’s mumbling in his sleep, so I guess that’s progress.”
    “It is,” Beth guessed. “Madie, would you take him some water?”
    “All right.” She bumped into everyone on the bench turning around and moving back.
    Levi took her place beside Beth. “I brought you a roll if you want it. Madie put butter in them for us. I hope you don’t mind me telling her we were leaving. She says her man is in Fort Worth and she needs to find him.” He passed her the roll and she handed him the reins.
    “How’d you know we’d be heading to Fort Worth?” she said between