Cowboy to the Rescue Read Online Free Page A

into the night.
    * * *
    After breakfast the next morning, Nate and Zack hitched up the teams and prepared to head out. As he had several times a day since leaving Pueblo, Nate checked the cargo in his wagon, lifting a silent prayer that they could get it home without any difficulty. So far they’d managed, but they still had the river to cross.
    He’d just replaced the canvas cover when Susanna approached and stared up at him with those pretty blue eyes. Without her coat, she appeared much thinner, the mark of most people who had crossed the prairies. This little gal could use a regular diet of steak and potatoes so she could put some meat on those bones.
    “Would it be rude of me to ask what’s in your wagon?”
    He couldn’t imagine thinking she was rude. Nor could he imagine denying her any request. He loosened the ropes but paused before lifting the canvas covering. “Can you keep a secret?”
    “Pretty much.”
    Her impish grin tickled his insides and made him chuckle. Whoa. He really needed to get a handle on these wayward feelings. “Well...” He drawled out the word. “I guess I’ll trust you, anyway.” He pulled the canvas back a few feet to reveal one of the four crates. “It’s a gift for my mother. My folks will be celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, and the whole community plans to take part in the festivities.” Tucked around and between the crates were supplies that he’d bought to divert Mother’s attention from the real purpose of his trip. “If the Colonel has any say about it, it’ll be the biggest party ever given in the San Luis Valley.”
    Instead of being impressed, Susanna pursed her plump lips into a silly pout. “You’re giving her wooden boxes?” She slid him a sideways glance. “Now, you know I’m going to ask what’s inside them.”
    He laughed out loud. “All right, then, Miss Curious.” For the first time in his life, he understood how Samson must have felt when Delilah kept wheedling him to learn the secret of his strength. “It’s china. The Colonel had it imported from England.” Imagining the joy Mother would feel when she received it come July, Nate felt a kick of anticipation. “Wedgwood,” he added for effect, though why he was trying to impress Susanna, he didn’t know. “Of course, Mother thinks her present is the new addition to the house.”
    The wonderment brightening her pretty face gave him the answer, for he had a hard time tamping down the strong urge to give her whatever she wanted. What was wrong with him? They’d just met yesterday. He didn’t really know all that much about her. All he knew was that no other lady had ever affected him this way. Certainly not Maisie, who was more like a sister than someone he wanted to court. Not that he wanted to court Susanna, either. Until he settled some serious matters within himself, he couldn’t in good conscience court anyone.
    “Wedgwood china all the way from England.” She breathed out the words in an awe-filled tone, and her blue eyes rounded with unabashed curiosity. “How on earth did you get it here?”
    “Let me see, now. Across an ocean.” He held up his hands and ticked off on his fingers the legs of the journey this valuable cargo had taken. “Around through the Gulf, up the Mississippi, then the Missouri River to Westport, Kansas. A freight company hauled it over the Santa Fe Trail to Pueblo. They were accompanied by replacement soldiers headed to New Mexico, courtesy of the Colonel’s old army friends, so they arrived without incident.” He paused to take a breath and to consider whether or not to tell her everything. She probably didn’t need to know that the freight drivers had unloaded the cargo at the fort and had taken off for the gold fields outside Denver. Their desertion had meant the Colonel had to send Nate to bring the china home. It also heightened his father’s already deep hatred of prospectors.
    “And you met them in Pueblo.” Susanna grasped