Mail Order Cowboy (Harlequin American Romance) Read Online Free

panted.
    Jeremy did as he was instructed. Gabby took a sip, then splattered a few drops on her wrists. After regaining her composure, she stood and said, “We’d better take a look at him.”
    “It’s a long walk,” Jeremy warned her.
    “I’ll make it.” Normally Gabby wouldn’t even consider walking to the Nelson forty, but she needed to get to Alfred Dumler—if it was Alfred Dumler—before Hannah returned. She followed Jeremy out the back door and down the dirt road.
    Through the tall grass they trekked, Jeremy with the exuberance of a child running ahead of her. By the time Gabby caught up with him in the Nelson forty, he was slowly spinning around.
    Short of breath, Gabby asked, “How much farther is it?”
    “He’s not here!” Jeremy circled the oak in disbelief. “He was right here beneath this big branch.” His foot kicked at the limb that had fallen off the tree.
    Gabby felt an enormous sense of relief. At least Alfred Dumler wasn’t dead. It might not have even been the mail-order groom Jeremy saw. “Maybe it was someone taking a nap...you know, a hitchhiker.”
    “He looked dead.”
    “Thank goodness he wasn’t.” Gabby put her arm around her nephew’s shoulder. “Come. Let’s go get the mail, then we’ll go back to the house, and I’ll make you some lemonade.”
    They walked back down the road until they came to the big gray mailbox resting on a wooden post. Gabby reached inside and pulled out the stack of envelopes. Before she had a chance to look at them, Jeremy shouted, “Look. There he is!”
    Gabby looked up and saw a strange man, who was obviously disoriented. He staggered as he walked, moving first in one direction, then another. Even from a distance Gabby could see that he looked like a transient. Before she could warn Jeremy not to go after him, he and Outlaw were already running in his direction. Gabby had no choice but to follow.
    The man stopped moving when he saw the pair of them coming toward him. Gabby tried to connect the scruffy-looking man with the clean-cut farmer in the photograph in her lock box. She was about to dismiss the possibility that it could be Alfred Dumler when the man called out, “Hannah?”
    “Gabby, he knows my mom’s name!” Jeremy said in a fearful voice.
    Gabby’s heart beat in her throat. Slowly she approached the man. “What are you doing here?”
    “I’m looking for Hannah....” Before he could say another word, the stranger passed out in a heap at their feet.
    “Oh, my!” Gabby declared in horror, dropping the small pile of mail. “It is him!”

Chapter Two
    J eremy automatically stooped to pick up the mail, which the wind was threatening to scatter in several different directions. “You know him?” He looked at his aunt quizzically as he handed her what he thought was all of the mail. Unnoticed by either of them was a thin white envelope that had lodged itself between two stalks of corn.
    “I might.” She wrung her hands together as she stared at his unshaven face. “I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell if he’s the man in the picture.”
    “What picture?”
    Gabby didn’t answer. “He did ask for your mother, didn’t he?”
    “Yeah, but—”
    “Then it must be him.”
    “Who?”
    “Alfred Dumler. Although he’s not at all what I expected.” She studied the unconscious man, pressing a finger to her lips as she contemplated what she should do now that he had actually arrived.
    “How come he’s dressed so weird?” Jeremy wanted to know.
    It was a question Gabby wanted answered, too. Although the photo of Mr. Dumler had been creased, making it difficult to see his face, she could tell that he was a clean-cut young man. It was one of the reasons she had agreed to his visit. He had looked trustworthy. Now that he was here, she could see she may have made a serious error in judgment.
    His clothes were wrinkled, his hair unruly and his jaw unshaven. And he was dirty. Why, he looked like a bum! How dare he mislead her