Beneath The Texas Sky Read Online Free

here?” he whispered, acutely aware of the slight rise and fall of her breasts against hischest. “If your uncle sent you to rob me, you’re out of luck.”
    “No!” Bethanie whispered, then swallowed hard.
    Mischief twisted a smile from his lips. “Well, if you just came for a visit, why didn’t you use the door?”
    “I couldn’t risk being seen,” Bethanie answered hesitantly, “…by anyone.”
    She looked up at him, silently pleading for his assistance in escaping some terrible plight. How could he refuse her anything? Yet she seemed to want more than help. She wanted his’d trust, his honesty.
    Josh released her waist and leaned over the bed. He removed the pillow and spread the cover flat. “Maybe you’d better sit down and explain. I’ll light a candle.”
    Josh pulled up the only chair as she gingerly sat on the edge of the bed. He tried to make his voice lighten the somber mood he’d seen in her eyes. “Are there any more slats in the wall I need to know about?”
    Bethanie’s face relaxed into a slight smile. “No. Not that I know of, anyway.”
    Josh twirled the chair backward and straddled it, facing her. He twisted his gun to a comfortable position. Tightly strapped to his leg, the Colt had become part of Josh during the years of war. He checked it as often and as absentmindedly as an old maid might check her bodice buttons. “Now, what’s so important?” he asked, rubbing his thumb along his bearded chin.
    Bethanie pulled a tiny bag from her pocket. “I want you to take me with you when you leave San Antonio…and I’m willing to pay.”
    Josh studied her as she opened the bag and poured out a handful of seeds. “These are my only valuables. Seeds from my mother’s herb garden and my grandparents’ wedding bands.”
    Two matching rings appeared among the seeds as shecontinued. “I’ve kept them hidden, lest my aunt take them. I think they must be worth something.”
    She held up the rings to Josh. They were unusual gold bands with dark and light carvings on each one. He made no effort to take them as he looked back up into her eyes. She was doing it again, asking for his total loyalty and honesty as if she could endure nothing less. He found he couldn’t make light of her request when her eyes pleaded, tearing at his heart. “You must want to leave pretty badly. Before I say yes or no…I’d like to know what I’m getting myself into.”
    Bethanie nodded. “I’m Bethanie Lane. Fve lived here with my uncle and aunt for six months. My mother died last year.”
    Josh offered what he hoped was his most charming smile. “Nice to meet you, Bethanie. I’m Josh Weston.” He’d told her his last name as easily as one might at a church social, yet in the months he’d known Wilbur, he’d never used his full name.
    Hearing himself say her name jogged his memory like lightning awakens the air in an evening sky. Yet Josh knew his face bore no hint of his thoughts. Deep in his mind came a hazy image of a young girl just beginning to turn the corner into adulthood. It had been the first year of the war. He was running the Union lines with messages. After a month of success, a bullet from nowhere grazed his skull. He had awakened to find himself a prisoner of bounty hunters who made their living capturing anyone, white or black, whom they found crossing Union lines. He had been forced to march for days behind their horses, when finally they stopped at a train station in Ohio. By then, Josh was weak from hunger and half mad from the constant pain of his untreated head wound. His captors had made it plain that they got the same money for bodies as for prisoners.
    Josh remembered a tall woman and her daughter movingfrom prisoner to prisoner alongside the railroad tracks. The woman ignored the Union soldiers’ warnings and knelt to help Josh. Her daughter gave him water, while the woman cleaned his blood-caked scalp. She rubbed his wound with an awful-smelling salve and wrapped his head as