My Darling Melissa Read Online Free Page B

advantage!”
    Melissa stuck out her chin. “Well, it isn’t. Word would get back to my family, and I’d be in Port Hastings before I knew it, tatting doilies and warming my feet by the parlor fire!”
    Quinn let out a long, ragged sigh and pushed back one side of his coat to shove a hand into his trouser pocket. “Listen to me,” he implored. “I’m an innocent bystander here. I was standing out there on that platform, minding my own damned business, when you came running out of the rain.” He paused and drew a deep breath. “Melissa, I’ve tried to be a gentleman about this whole thing. I gave you my bed, I saw that you were taken care of when you fell sick, and I never once took advantage of you as a lot of men would have done. But I draw the line at letting you ruin everything I’ve worked for.”
    Melissa squinted at him, her heart beating fast. “How could I possibly do that?” she wanted to know.
    “I told you a minute ago that I don’t have a wife, and that’s true. But I do have a fiancée, Melissa. Gillian and I plan to be married this summer.”
    The news shattered Melissa, although she couldn’t think why it should. “I see. And what does marrying this Gillian woman have to do with whatever it is that you’ve worked so hard to build up?”
    “We have a—business alliance, Gillian and I. Our combined holdings—”
    Melissa held up one hand. “Please. Don’t go on—I understand quite clearly. You’re marrying this woman for her money.”
    Quinn started to speak and then fell silent, turning away from Melissa and disappearing beyond the partition.
    Even though she knew he was only a few feet away, Melissa felt thoroughly abandoned. She snuggled down into the covers, wondering what she was going to do now.
    She had a thought. “If you want money,” she called out, “you could marry me. I have a lot of it.”
    Quinn’s voice was tight with anger. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
    Oddly, the pain Ajax’s betrayal had caused her seemed slight beside what she was feeling then. “I’m a virgin,” she pointed out in spite of herself.
    She heard him sigh, once more the soul of long-suffering forbearance. “Hog-tying a husband won’t prove a damn thing to your family, Melissa.”
    Melissa’s lower lip trembled. “You’re quite right, of course,” she called back. Then she closed her eyes and, with immeasurable difficulty, went back to sleep.
    When she awakened again she felt much better. She got out of bed and called out, “Quinn?”
    There was no answer, so Melissa dashed to the cubicle in the corner of the car, where the facilities were. When she came out a tub had sprouted in the middle of the floor, filled to the brim with steaming hot water.
    Melissa looked at it with longing.
    “It’s all yours,” Quinn said with an indulgent chuckle.
    Realizing that she was dressed only in her underthings, Melissa gasped and dodged back into the water closet.
    There was a rap at the door. “We’ll be in Seattle in an hour,” Quinn said after a moment. “If you want a bath, I’dsuggest you get on with it. I’ll be in the dining car, having breakfast.”
    Melissa’s stomach rumbled. She could only hope that Quinn would find it in his heart to bring her something to eat when he came back. She waited until she heard the outer door close and then crept out.
    The car was empty, and Melissa quickly stripped and stepped into the bathwater. It felt wonderful, soothing her achy muscles, seeming to warm her very spirit. But she dared not linger.
    She was wearing one of her two calico dresses and toweling her ebony hair when Quinn returned to the car. It was interesting, she thought, that he didn’t knock, and there was an odd, surprised look in his eyes when he saw her.
    “I suppose you’re hungry,” he said accusingly, after a moment of awkward silence.
    Melissa had appropriated Quinn’s hairbrush, and she began grooming her wild, flyaway mane. “If I am, it’s no concern of yours,” she