Free The Bridal Veil by Alexis Harrington Page B

manual talked about her
circumstances.
    Up ahead, Luke and the plow team came
into view. The April sun was gentle but his work was hot and hard.
He’d rolled up his sleeves above his elbows, and she watched,
fascinated, as the muscles in his arms flexed and stretched when he
pulled on the reins.
    Seeing them approach, Luke halted the
team. After he fished out a dark blue handkerchief to swab his damp
face and neck, he reached for the canteen slung by a strap over his
shoulder. Pulling out the stopper, he tipped back his head and
drank, his throat working with each swallow. For a moment, he
seemed almost as big as the tall, broad-chested horses in front of
him, and just as powerful. His sweat-stained shirt clung to his
torso and was unbuttoned halfway down his chest. He lowered the
canteen and their eyes met for a single, riveting moment. Emily
slowed her pace and dropped her gaze, startled by her own visceral
response.
    This was not the frock-coated man who
had met her at the dock yesterday, or the one who had written the
spare but polite letters to Alyssa. It wasn’t even the man who had
rescued her from the henhouse. This man was earthy and very male,
and looked like the type who would drink to intoxication at the
kitchen table.
    This was worse than she’d originally
believed. Luke Becker would challenge her every day, forcing her to
fight those unseemly thoughts and frightening feelings with which
she struggled.
    Risking another look at him in the
sun, his dark, curly hair ruffled by the spring breeze, Emily drew
a breath and stepped closer, determined to keep that dark corner of
her heart under lock and key.
    After all, a lady could do no less and
still remain a lady.

    CHAPTER FOUR

    “ We didn’t finish our
conversation about Rose, Mr. Becker.”
    Luke sat on the seat of the disc
harrow and gazed at Emily while he spooned Cora’s stew into his
mouth. He was surprised to see Emily out here in the fields,
especially after her run-in with Cora’s hens. After mulling it
over, he’d known there was no getting around having a word with his
mother-in-law after breakfast about the rotten trick she’d played
on Emily. But as always, she’d turned huffy and defensive. Nothing,
it seemed, was ever her fault.
    She only meant to be
helpful . . . 
    No one could take a
joke . . . 
    It was only her
opinion . . . 
    Everyone was so blamed
sensitive . . .  
    Cora always had an answer, but none of
them ever included an apology.
    If he was surprised that Emily had
come out here, he was even more surprised to see her with Rose. But
it pleased him. Obviously, she’d already begun to take his daughter
in hand and get her straightened around. The sensation of a weight
being lifted from his shoulders was almost physical.
    She stood beside him in the mud, with
some funny winter boots peeking out from the hem of her black dress
and her shawl dangling on the crooks of her arms. Damn, she had
green eyes, he noticed again, probably the greenest he had ever
seen. But every time she turned them on him, he felt as if his
shirt was on backwards or his fly was unbuttoned.
    “ No, ma’am, but I was hoping
you’d know what to do about Rose. That’s why I married—that’s what
we talked about yesterday.”
    Emily got a pinched look, the same one
he’d seen earlier today. “It isn’t that I don’t know what to do,
Mr. Becker. I just want to find out if you have anything specific
in mind for Rose’s development.”
    Gripping the jar of stew between his
knees, he tore off a hunk of bread from the loaf in the basket.
“It’s pretty simple. I want her to stop stealing, to have manners
that wouldn’t shame her mother, and to be happy. And I want to be
able to stop worrying about those things because I’ve got this farm
to run.”
    Out of earshot, Rose walked along the
creek that edged the path, searching for ducks and ducklings.
Looking at her, Luke thought his heart would break. God, she was so
much like Belinda, not just