Free Tracie Peterson - [New Mexico Sunset 03] by Angel's Cause Page A

save our own necks?”
    Angeline stomped her foot, unable to unleash enough words at once to tell Gavin Lucas just what she thought of him. “Go home, Gavin,” she finally uttered and turned to walk toward the door.
    Gavin spun her around and pulled her into his arms. “They’re using you, Angel. I’ve heard the way they talk behind your back. I’ve been following them, remember? They just want to use you until you can’t help them anymore.”
    Angeline pushed against Gavin and, to her surprise, he released her. “Mind your own business, Gavin.”
    “You are my business, Angel,” he replied softly. “I intend to marry you or did you forget that?”
    Angeline tried to sound self-confident when she laughed. “It’s immaterial what you intend. The cause needs me, and I intend to fight for women’s suffrage in any way I can. It’s a cause worth fighting for.”
    “Is it a cause worth dying for?”
    Gavin’s words seemed to hit some deeply buried reality in Angeline, but she hated to yield that conquest to him. “I’m not sure any cause is worth dying for,” she replied honestly. “At least, I’m not sure I’ve found a cause worth that to me.”
    Gavin stepped forward and reached out to her. When Angeline didn’t refuse his touch, Gavin pulled her close. “What about God, Angel? Where does God fit into your cause?”
    “Why do you ask that?” Angeline whispered, staring deep into Gavin’s smoky blue eyes.
    “You were sure calling on Him for help a little while ago. I was just wondering how He figures into your plans for the future. Or does He have a place in your plans?”
    The spell was broken, and once again Angeline pushed away and headed for the door. “He has a much more secure position than you do, Mr. Lucas.” The words were delivered with stilted exasperation. Lifting her chin defiantly, Angeline continued, “Now if you don’t mind, I intend to return to my hotel room. I’m quite exhausted.”

Chapter 9
    G avin left Angeline at the door to her hotel room and went downstairs to make plans for going back to Bandelero. He figured he had more than enough money to get them home, but he had no idea of how he was going to convince Angel to go, short of hog-tying her and throwing her over his shoulder. Laughing to himself, Gavin thought even that plan had its merits.
    ❧
    Inside her room, Angeline tiptoed to avoid disturbing Willa, but the woman had incredible hearing and quickly came to investigate.
    “Angeline! Where have you been? I was worried that you’d been hurt in the unrest.”
    “Unrest? Is that what you call that riot of out-of-control rock slingers?” Angeline shook her head. “I’ve never seen people like that, Willa. There was no reasoning with them at all.”
    Willa’s brown hair hung in a loose braid down her back, and when she smiled at Angeline’s statement, she was almost attractive. Angeline couldn’t help but think that with just a little makeup and the right clothes, Willa could actually be beautiful.
    “You’re smiling at me,” Angeline sighed in exasperation. “You were nearly killed and you’re smiling?”
    “I’m smiling because this entire ordeal was mild compared to what we saw in Washington D.C. in years past. Angeline, you are young and innocent. It is hard for you to realize that things worth fighting for often come at a high price.” Willa paused and looked around the room. “Did you read those speeches I gave you? The ones given by Alice Paul and Lucy Burns?” Angeline nodded with a shudder. Willa smiled patiently. “It wasn’t a pretty picture that they painted about the treatment of suffragettes in England, was it?”
    “No, it wasn’t,” Angeline recalled. “I found it deplorable that one human being could treat another in such a fashion.”
    Willa looked thoughtful for a moment. “Those women believed in the cause of suffrage so strongly that they starved themselves in massive hunger strikes. The public was enraged, shocked,