LITMIR.BIZ

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      He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll admit that the idea of having a place of my own appeals to me. This is your farm, but if I stay here, it won’t be just as a hired hand. There’s the matter of marriage to be settled, Glory. It won’t work any other way.”

      He lifted his hand to her face, tilting her chin up so that she met his gaze. His voice softened as he spoke. “I will tell you that you’re a woman who’d appeal to any man with eyes in his head. I don’t understand why half a dozen men haven’t asked you to marry them.” And then he hesitated.

      “The town will no doubt look askance at me being here, living with you and the children, without a wedding taking place. I’ll not cause you to fret about that part of it tonight, but we need to be making a decision right quick.”

      “I’ll think about it, Cade. In fact, I probably won’t be thinking of much else.” With but a moment of hesitation, Glory slid from her seat on the edge of the porch, and then climbed the steps and went into the house.

      The man took her breath. He made her tremble deep inside where her heart dwelt.

      She made her way in the dark, through the kitchen and up the stairs, to where her bedroom was tucked beneath the eaves. She’d slept alone there for three years, dependent upon Harvey Clark for a place to live. He’d been good to her, and though he’d probably made mistakes aplenty in his life, he hadn’t caused her any grief. He’d only done as he’d promised. She tossed her dressing gown over a chair and crawled into bed, clad in her long white nightgown. There to sleep fitfully, her dreams filled with visions of the man who slept in the barn. A man who tempted her as had no other.

       Chapter Three

      Cade walked slowly back to the barn, his thoughts filled with the prospects he might find here. Glory was the first woman he’d thought about with an eye to the future. But first, he’d have to find the gold he was certain was hidden somewhere in the house, and which he’d been contracted to find. But then … then he’d concentrate on Glory. The thought of marriage with the woman was more than appealing. Perhaps it was time to settle down, once this job was finished.

      He climbed the ladder to the loft and sank down into the pile of hay where he’d tossed his bedroll. Settling in, he allowed sleep to overcome him, his body weary from a long day’s labor.

      Daybreak was announced by the rooster in the chicken coop and Cade awoke, refreshed and ready to look over his surroundings. The barn showed the hand of a good carpenter in its construction, the joists joined properly, the roof intact, the floor solid beneath him. He folded his bedroll, climbed down the ladder and opened the back door of the barn, looking out to where fields stretched almost to the horizon. Those near at hand were lush with grass, pastureland any farmer would hold dear.

      Beyond the pasture, a field of hay gleamed in the sunshine, ready for cutting, a crop that would more than fill the hayloft where he’d slept. Harvey Clark had owned a farm worth having. The sheriff had said it comprised two hundred acres, and should the rest of his land show the promise that lay before Cade now, it was a dream come true for the roamer who surveyed it this morning.

      Should the woman marry him, he would be the owner of a fine piece of land. The future took on a new look for the man who gazed out upon waving grasses and sunlit fields of hay. It seemed the trail he’d followed for the past few years had finally come to a halt at the end of the rainbow. He’d worked and saved his wages and been a success as a Pinkerton man.

      The promise of a good reward for the gold he sought was worth working for. He’d worked long years as a Pinkerton man and it was time to settle down and seek a future. A future that beckoned him and promised ample reward for the hard work he was willing to put into it. If things worked out as he hoped, his career as a Pinkerton man would be at an end and he would spend his life as a married man should Glory be agreeable. At that thought he grinned, for if Glory went along with his plans, she would be a prize worth having.

      He closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the sight of her, dark hair a cloud about her as she walked in the orchard. The woman appealed to him in a mighty way, and he vowed to himself that he’d be in her bed within a week or so.

      He heard the sound of Buddy’s voice outside the barn, and the big door slid open, revealing him to Cade’s sight. The boy headed for the first stall where the cow awaited his attention, and speaking softly, he soothed the animal, “Don’t be scared, Daisy. It’s just me, comin’ to milk you and give you some hay.”

      “And I’ll probably feed the chickens,” Cade muttered beneath his breath as he walked from the back door of the barn to where the boy had begun his task.

      “Morning, sir,” Buddy said looking up with a quick grin, his dark hair still tousled from his pillow.

      Cade’s index finger rose to touch his hat brim. “Your stepmother fixing breakfast?” he asked.

      “Yeah, Glory cooks real good, mister. My pa always said that her staying with us and taking care of us was the best thing that ever happened in our family. ’Course, the baddest thing was when my mama died.”

      “Was that a long time ago, Buddy?”

      “Yeah, I was pretty little then, and Essie was just walking good. She was a bitty little thing, with her long yellow hair and big blue eyes. And then it seemed like a long time before Glory came to the door and she needed a place to live and my pa said she could stay with us if she married him.”

      Cade felt the hair on his nape quiver. “Your pa wanted to marry Glory?” he asked mildly, even as he felt like balling his fists at the thought.

      “He told Glory when she came to stay that she couldn’t live in the house with us without them being married. He said it wouldn’t look right.”

      “So they got married?” Cade kept his tone mild, silently urging the boy to continue.

      Buddy obliged as if he enjoyed Cade’s company. “Yeah, but it didn’t make a lot of difference to my pa. Just meant that Glory took care of us and did the cooking and stuff and taught me my letters on account of school is so far away in town. But she told me I could go to ‘real’ school after the harvest this year if we could afford a horse for me to ride back and forth. But that was before all the trouble with Pa, and now I don’t know if I’ll still be able to go. There’s gonna be lots of work to do and Glory can’t do all of it by herself.”

      “Can you read pretty good, Buddy? Do you have books?” Cade wondered privately just how accomplished a teacher Glory was, though two years in college would have given her a pretty good education. But Buddy left him in no doubt as to her prowess.

      “Of course I can read,” he said stoutly. “Glory got books from the real teacher in town and I can read all the way through the hardest one she’s got. I know my numbers and I can multiply and everything. That guzinta stuff is hard, but I’m working at it.”

      “Guzinta stuff?” Cade searched his mind for what the boy spoke of but Buddy enlightened him promptly.

      “Yeah, you know. Like four guzinta eight two times.”

      “Oh.” A smile fought to appear on Cade’s face, but he resisted it manfully. There was no way on God’s green earth he would make the boy think he made sport of him. Still, the description of division struck his funny bone and he had to turn away lest he insult the lad.

      Buddy propped the pail between his knees and reached for the cow’s udders. “Reckon I’d better get busy with the milking. Glory was mixing biscuits when I left the house and she said she’d make rice pudding today ‘cause we got lots of extra milk. And then I gotta put the horses out to graze.” He muttered the last words, listing his chores and Glory’s activities in a muddled rush. One Cade surprisingly found no difficulty in following.

      The cow’s tail swished, causing Buddy to duck, and he cautioned the animal with a stern word, causing Cade to laugh aloud as he made an offer of help to the boy.

      “Tell

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