Arizona Embrace Read Online Free Page A

when they’re earned.”
    Trinity took a bite of the pie. He chewed slowly, savoring the rich taste.
    “This one’s earned,” he said. “If I’d known what you could do with pecans, I’d have lugged me a sack all the way from Texas.”
    “It’s a good thing I can cook. There’s not much else anybody will let me do,” Victoria said.
    The words were out before she could stop them. The stifled anger, bitterness, and frustration were apparent for all three men to hear. She knew Buc and her uncle didn’t understand. They never had. She tried to keep her feelings under control, to show only her gratitude and not her unhappiness, but once in a while it would leap out before she could hold it back. It irritated her it had done so before this stranger.
    “There’s so little a woman can do on a ranch like this,” she explained, hoping Trinity wasn’t as intelligent as his eyes seemed to indicate. There are times when I’d like to do something really useful, something more than bake pies, grow flowers, or do terrible embroidery.”
    Trinity concentrated on his pie, resisting the natural inclination to let his glance stray toward the scorned needlework. He left it to Grant Davidge to respond to his niece.
    “I suppose you do get tired of being cooped up in the house, but I wouldn’t have a moment’s peace knowing you were out there with Indians and goodness knows who else wandering through this valley.”
    T don’t know,” Trinity mused, devils dancing in his eyes. “If I was a cow used to coming nose to nose with bobcats, bears, and the like, I’d be so happy to come upon this little lady I’d probably lie down and hold my feet together so she could tie me up. And being branded wouldn’t be more than a bee sting compared to some cougar making fresh steaks out of me.”
    Victoria laughed, a delighted peal which reverberated about the room.
    “Do give him a job, Uncle,” she said. “He lies shamefully, but he does it with such charm.”
    “I assure you, ma’am—”
    “Don’t. Women delight in flattery. Maybe we should be more fond of the truth, but it’s nice to hear ourselves described in more glowing terms than we deserve. However, flattery loses some of its appeal when you start swearing it’s the truth.”
    “You’re very wise to be so young.”
    A cloud passed over Victoria’s spirits. “I’m older than you think.”
    “I knew you were no longer in your girlhood,” Trinity said, recovering swiftly. “A girl, by definition being a woman still unformed, could never have attained such perfection.”
    Victoria laughed again, even more easily than before.
    “Are you never without an answer? I wouldn’t be surprised to find they ran you out of Texas.”
    “I’d like to run him out of Arizona,” Buc said, making no effort to keep the animosity from his voice.
    “I’m really quite harmless” Trinity said. “My old man used to say, ‘Never worry about a man as long as he’s talking, but look out when he stops.’“
    “Then I guess we got nothing to worry about from you. You haven’t stopped jawing since you rode in. Think you can stop long enough to get some work done?”
    “If you give me the right kind of job.”
    “And what might that be?” Buc asked, sarcasm in his voice.
    “Why a talking job, naturally.”
    Victoria and her uncle grinned. Buc didn’t.
    “We don’t have any jobs like that.”
    “Sure you do. I could fetch and carry for Miss Davidge. She must need lots of wood and water for cooking. Then there’s the slops to be thrown out and the sweeping up to be done. And of course a lady can’t be allowed to go fetching eggs and feeding chickens. And all the while I would be talking steady so she wouldn’t worry about whether those Indians have got you yet.”
    “When we want a housemaid, we’ll hire a female,” Buc said.
    “I bet Miss Davidge would like it better if you hired a house fella. It would make things more interesting.”
    “Things are interesting