Free The Brides Of Tombstone 01 Mail Order Outlaw by Cynthia Woolf Page B

perfectly capable of running this ranch without me.”
    “Well, if we did that, we could see to anything that needs repair. I understand the house has been vacant for some time.”
    “Only about six months, but Mr. Abernathy didn’t have the heart to keep it up after the missus passed on a year ago. The situation was so sad. They’d been married for nearly fifty years. Married when they were just kids, sixteen and eighteen.”
    “Then I suggest that we plan on spending a couple of weeks over there. As a matter of fact, do you want to ride over and see it today or tomorrow?”
    “Sure,” Lizzie nodded. She liked the idea of spending more time alone with Mal. Maybe he’d teach her more about making love. “We can go this afternoon for a few hours. It’s only a few of miles from here, about a fifteen minute ride.”
    Later that day, Lizzie left Boyd in charge and she took Mal over to the Abernathy place. The house looked to be in good shape.
    Lizzie loved this house. The place was her dream home, if truth be known. It looked like a mansion on a southern plantation. She’d seen pictures of one in a book at the mercantile. She and Sally had drooled over the book’s gorgeous drawings. The house had two-story columns in front, behind which stood eight-foot wide porch. Mrs. Abernathy had called it the veranda. They’d planted a couple of trees when they first came out and the tree provided much-needed shade.
    Mrs. Abernathy, known to Lizzie as Miz Jenny, always kept a table and chairs out here to entertain guests on the late summer afternoons. The balcony overhead provided more shade as well as protection from the weather.
    Lizzie could picture herself and Mal sitting out here after supper, maybe in a swing he’d hang for them to share. They’d discuss the day and watch the sun set. He’d wrap his arm around her and hold her close while she leaned her head on his shoulder.
    She pulled to a halt in front of the picket fence where a hitching rail stood.
    Mal followed her lead and didn’t dismount right away but sat and looked at the house.
    “What do you think? Could you live here?” she asked, without looking away from the house.
    “It’s a fine house and I’d love to live here…” He looked over at her. “If it’s with you.”
    Lizzie smiled, crossed her forearms and leaned down on the saddle horn. “I wouldn’t have told you about the place now if I didn’t plan on living here with you. I wouldn’t even have told you about it being for sale. I planned on buying it myself. I had half the asking price saved up and was going to ask Mr. Abernathy to carry the note for the rest. I think he might have, too.”
    “He would have. Your beautiful face is hard to resist. You wouldn’t happen to have a key, now would you?”
    “Actually, I do. Mr. Abernathy left it with us so we could check on it now and then when we’re over this way.”
    Mal dismounted and tied Satan to the hitching rail. She did the same with Ajax. Mal held open the gate in the picket fence for her. There was a red flagstone path with flowers growing wild on either side of it. She saw where they had been well tended at one time, all in a perfect row lining the walkway. Together they walked up the four steps to the porch.
    The Abernathy’s came to the Arizona Territory in 1860 before the start of the Civil War. Sold everything, packed up, and left Georgia before it had entered the fray. But, he built the house like the one they’d left.
    Miz Jenny said it was just like living back home and made the move much easier for her to take. She hadn’t wanted to leave their home, but the mister insisted.
    Lizzie fit the key in the lock, turned, pushed open the door and went inside. They stood in a great, large foyer. A grand staircase with banisters on both sides was directly in front of them. Long halls with several doors were on each side of the stairs. The halls were covered in Persian-patterned carpet that muffled the sound of their boots as