Ana Seymour Read Online Free Page B

someone who didn’t know the disposition of the town’s only doctor.
    “Dr. Millard,” Carter acknowledged. “You out seeing a patient this time of night?”
    “I came looking for you. I’m concerned about this campaign against Jennie and Kate Sheridan.”
    Yet another champion for the beleaguered sisters. Carter smiled. It was beginning to look as if the twolovely orphans might cause a regular civil war in town.
    “I was just about to head over there,” he told the doctor.
    “To the Sheridan house?”
    Carter nodded.
    Dr. Millard looked up and down the street. Only a few evening stragglers were still out. “Now?”
    Carter gave one of his self-assured nods. “I imagine those poor girls are quaking in their shoes wondering when the sheriff is going to show up to move them out of there.”
    Dr. Millard looked doubtful. “Have you met Jennie?”
    “Yup. This morning. She was…”
    “She’s not exactly the quaking type,” the doctor interrupted.
    “No. Perhaps not. But I imagine she’ll be pleased to learn that I’ve decided to help her and her sister out of this muddle.”
    Dr. Millard looked amused. “I’m relieved to here it, Carter. Ah…just how do you plan to do that?”
    Carter peered into darkening street and blinked to find it empty. “I don’t know. I’ll…file an appeal or something. Get the court order blocked. I can talk to Mrs. Billingsley and get her to forget the whole thing.”
    “That’s about as likely as a blizzard in July.”
    Carter gestured grandly. “Would you like to come with me?”
    The doctor grinned. “My boy, I’d love to see Jennie’sface when you give her the good news that you’ve gallantly decided to ride to her rescue.”
    “Well, come along then.”
    Millard’s smile died. “I can’t. Kate’s been avoiding me since the beginning of her…problem. She refuses to see me, and I can’t go over there without her welcome. She’ll let me know when she’s ready for my help.”
    “Hey, Doc. Haven’t you learned by your age that women don’t always know what they want Sometimes a man just has to step in and take over to keep them from making a mess of things.”
    “Is that what you learned at that fancy Eastern school?”
    “I learned it long before then. Give a woman a chance to argue and you’re sunk. If you want to help out Kate Sheridan, you should just march on over there and tell her so. Don’t let her get a word in edgewise.”
    “And that’s the approach you intend to take with Jennie tonight?” he asked.
    “Actually, it’s what they like,” Carter answered with a firm nod.
    Dr. Millard made a click with his mouth. “Yup, I surely would like to see that.”
    “Do you want to change your mind and come along?”
    The doctor shook his head with a slow grin. “Nope. But you give Jennie my regards, you hear?” He turned to leave, and Carter could hear him chuckling all the way down the street.
    * * *
    “I thought I told you that you would need reinforcements when you came back here, Mr. Jones.”
    Jennie Sheridan’s voice was even frostier than it had been that morning, but Carter was concentrating more on the way the neck of her maroon silk evening dress scooped out a circle of creamy white skin. The sight made the air stick in his throat. He’d tried to hold on to the idea that his interest in the Sheridan case was all in the name of justice and fair play. But standing here in the doorway looking at her, he had to admit that his motives were at a baser level.
    Simply put, the diminutive, curvaceous Miss Sheridan made the blood race through his veins.
    “I didn’t come to put you out of your home,” he said when he could trust himself to speak. “I came to offer my help.”
    Jennie looked skeptical. “Your help?”
    Carter looked up and down the darkened street. The new street lanterns had not yet been placed in this part of town. “Is it too late to invite me in?”
    She bit her lower lip, drawing Carter’s eyes to her full mouth.