An Outlaw in Wonderland Read Online Free Page A

Mosby.
    “Where is he?” Ethan asked.
    “Not tellin’.”
    “I’m your brother.”
    “Don’t care.”
    “What if someone sees you?”
    Mikey snorted. That wasn’t going to happen.
    “All right,” Ethan agreed. “Just . . .” He set his hand on Mikey’s arm. “Be careful.”
     He started back the way he’d come. “If anything happened to you, I’d . . .” Ethan
     spoke again in their father’s voice. “I’d kick yer ass so hard ye’d never let it happen
     again, me boyo.”
    Sometimes when Ethan spoke like that, Mikey felt as if ghostly fingers had trailed
     across his neck. Other times, like now, it made him laugh.
    “Don’t worry,” he said. “What could happen?”
    •   •   •
    When Annabeth reported for her shift the following morning, Mrs. Dimmity awaited her.
    “You’re no longer a matron.”
    Annabeth blinked at the woman, whose usually placid face had gone frighteningly florid.
     “I . . . uh . . . What?”
    “You helped the pretty doctor, didn’t you?”
    Mrs. Dimmity didn’t have to explain which doctor she meant. There was none so lovely
     as Ethan Walsh.
    “He told me to,” she said simply. She’d do the same again. How could she peer into
     the man’s pleading gray gaze and walk away?
    But what if her behavior was cause for dismissal? At Chimborazo, women were maids
     and cooks, letter writers and hand holders. Nothing more. The idea of spending her
     days as she’d spent them before she’d come here—alone on the farm, waiting for the
     army—blue or gray, what did it matter?—to confiscate her remaining half bag of flour
     and the last scrawny chicken, if deserters didn’t first do worse—terrified her.
    She had a gun; she even had a few bullets, and she’d learned to shoot, ride, and hunt
     along with her brothers. But Annabeth was still a woman alone, and it was only a matter
     of time until something horrible happened.
    She drew a breath. “I’ll leave straightaway.”
    “You will not!”
    “But—”
    “You’ll report to Dr. Walsh. You’ve been reassigned as his
personal
nurse.”
    Annabeth frowned at the woman’s tone, which left no doubt what she thought Annabeth
     would truly be doing. She opened her mouth to deny the unvoiced accusation, then shut
     it again. Perhaps Mrs. Dimmity was right. They’d all seen women in Richmond who had
     once been ladies become something else in order to appease that annoying need to eat.
    “We’ll have more casualties soon.” The older woman shooed her toward the door. “Another
     skirmish. Best be ready.”
    Annabeth backed into the hall and had the door firmly shut in her face. She had the
     feeling there would be many doors shut the same in her future. Unless—
    She threw back her shoulders. She hadn’t worked this hard to let some handsome Irish
     doctor ruin her. She would tell him no; then she would go home and do her best not
     to die.
    Annabeth marched through the surgery ward, the infirmary, and the offices with no
     sight of her quarry. No one had seen the doctor since he’d left the night before.
     She could go to his quarters—if she knew where they were—however, that would serve
     only to prove to those who already cast her suspicious glances that the rumors about
     her and Dr. Walsh were true. Instead, she returned to the room where she’d met him.
     She did not have long to wait.
    When he arrived, Ethan Walsh rushed to the bucket, washed his hands, face, and neck.
     He appeared a lot dirtier than he should be for a night spent resting. His dark trousers
     were damp, his once-white shirt sprinkled with dust.
    His gaze lifted and he saw her. For an instant, she thought he might bolt—or maybe
     that was her—then he smiled and dried his hands on a clean cloth. “I’m glad yer here.
     We have wounded on the way.”
    When she continued to stand where she was, his smile faded. “Is somethin’ amiss?”
    “Everyone thinks I’m your whore.”
    He blinked at her crudity,