Free His Wicked Dream (Velvet Lies, Book 2) by Adrienne deWolfe

niece," she mumbled, wreathing herself in smoke. "Michael ain't likely to know any more about puppies than you do."
    Eden gaped at this vote of confidence. Only two days ago, Claudia had turned up her nose at Eden's best medical opinion, despite the fact that she'd found her aunt clutching her chest and panting on the stairs. "I'm seventy-five dang years old," Claudia had snapped between breaths. "So's my ticker. I ain't lookin' fer any miracle cures."
    Eden had been too mortified at the time to believe that Claudia's reaction hadn't really been an objection to her niece's questionable reputation as a healer.
    "I don't know a thing about puppies. I never had one of my own," Eden added lamely, unwilling to admit the truth: She feared she'd do more harm than good.
    "Yeah?" Claudia blew out her match and leveled her with a piercing stare. "So what are ye saying? You know more about healing hoppy toads?"
    Eden's ears warmed. In truth, the parsley had been more for Jamie's peace of mind than Georgie's well-being. If she'd been a competent Medicine Woman, she wouldn't have lost Papa. And she wouldn't have been forced to flee Silverton with her tail tucked between her legs.
    Auntie, why are you putting me in this position? You've proven you don't believe in my abilities any more than I do.
    Puppy licked her hand. Amanda sniffled.
    Eden's resolve crumbled. To assuage her conscience, she tried to convince herself that curing a whelp's cold wasn't as daunting as trying to save her father from pneumonia. "Very well, Auntie. I'll mix a tonic for Mr. Puppy."
    Amanda cheered.
    "That's the spirit." Claudia nodded, her gaze canny with approval. "And while you're doin' it"—she rose, her pipe puffing like a chimney as she reached for her scattergun—"I'm gonna march down the street and see what's so jo-fired important that Michael's been holed up in his office like a bear."
    "Um... do you really think the shotgun's necessary?" Eden ventured.
    Claudia snorted. "Obviously, you ain't never hunted bear. C'mon, Jamie. We got critters to track."
    Jamie's eyes bugged out as he jumped off his stool.
    "Bear critters? The black, savagerous kind you taught Mr. Lincoln how to wrastle?"
    Claudia hid a lopsided grin. "Sure as shootin', boy! Why, ol' Abe woulda been coon gone if I hadn't whupped that varmint fer 'im."
    "Golly!"
    Claudia smirked, tossing Eden a wink.
    "Say, you like watermelon, Amanda?"
    "Sure!"
    Claudia waved her and Mr. Puppy to the door. "C'mon then. Me and Jamie'll show you the best patch to steal 'em from."
    The door whacked closed before Eden could protest. A traitorous giggle threatened. Stealing watermelon, indeed. Claudia owned the only patch in town. And what was that nonsense about Abe Lincoln? Last week, Claudia swore she'd taught William Tecumseh Sherman how to tree polecats in the moonlight.
    Eden's smile widened as Stazzie coiled like a spring, ready to pounce on an unsuspecting spool of thread.
    Eden supposed that Claudia's imagination had been a necessary cultivation, helping her through the lonely years of her young womanhood. Claudia had been dubbed the town whore once word leaked of her secret love affair with the widower Harragan. Claudia never did marry Henry Lucas, even though she'd "carried on" with him, as she liked to put it, for forty-five years. To Eden's mystification, Claudia had confided it was she who'd refused to let Harragan "make a decent woman out of her." Now that Eden knew her aunt better, she suspected Claudia had preferred the freedom that her scandalous lifestyle had given her.
    Then again, Harragan certainly hadn't hurt her independence any when he'd died twelve years ago, willing her his mercantile fortune.
    Eden sighed, watching Stazzie scamper under the back room's curtain in pursuit of the spool.
    She liked her independence too. But spinsterhood had definite disadvantages. Eden wanted to share her life with someone. Family was the one thing that Papa had never been able to give her. Although